Mission accomplished!

Dave and I spent the weekend shopping for bookcases, putting them together, and sorting through craft supplies. There's still a lot of sorting and storing to be done, but we accomplished what we set out to do. There's nothing picture worthy yet, but I'll share once more of the clutter is out of the way.

Test tatting is going slowly. My hands just don't seem to want to hold on to the shuttle for very long.

The big news is that despite all the activity around here this weekend, I finished my Valentine gnomes!

Valentine gnomes

Last weekend I cranked out seven Valentine gnomes to work on throughout the week. Assembly line production goes so much faster, and I have quite a few I'd like to make and give away for Valentine's Day.

The downside to making gnomes this way is it's harder to make them each different.

This set of gnomes does have a slight variation with each one.

The same yarn was used for the body and hats on all of them.

I used up my ball of white fluffy yarn, and had just enough left to make a mixed colored beard on this one. I like the look! 

With seven gnomes, I did manage to have three different beard colors.

I didn't look when pulling the beads for the noses out of my bead bag.

All but one ended up with a read nose. The hearts for the hats were also just pulled out of a bag. So, there are hearts in three colors and two sizes.

When they're all together, I guess they do look different from each other. 

I haven't decided what I'll work on today. I think I need my second cup of coffee first!

Icy day

I stayed home from school yesterday. It was too icy for me. This was my laundry room window at about 10 in the morning. I was very content to stay at home!

Sunday and Monday were gnome finishing days.

My fingertips were sore from pushing in so many pins while Janet was here.

Besides, I've been cranking out Valentine gnomes, and it's time to finish them up.

I now have enough finished for my daughters and grandchildren.

I still have supplies left, so I think I'll make some gnomes to pass out at school.

I'm thinking of putting them around the school for kids to discover.

I know I won't have time or enough supplies to make gnomes for everyone.

Maybe I'll just pass them out to teachers again.

I may have to make some up for St. Patrick's Day.

I am having fun creating these little guys.

Luckily, there are plenty of people who want them. Otherwise, my house would be overrun with gnomes!

Trees and gnomes

I finished the last of the four trees that I had planned for the school secretaries for next year. 

They look so pretty, I don't want to put them away! I will, though. My sister is coming down today, and once I let her look them over I will carefully store them in anticipation of next Christmas.

After putting together a pot of chili for dinner, I decided it was time to finish up some of my Valentine gnomes.

I really do need to finish these this week so that I can get them off in the mail to my daughters and grandchildren.

I now have five finished, with only ten more to go!