Back from the holidays!

Hello, everyone!

Pardon the long absence, but we are finally back from the adventure-and-a-half that was Christmas 2013. :)
Last I wrote, we are still in Corvallis, busily crafting for all our friends and families. Well, just short of a week later, we were hightailing it down to AZ in the Dolphin!

Did I ever tell you how back in September, Dash left for a week to follow Furthur on one of their tours...and accidentally damaged the camper! ;_; Below are the initial before and after shots:

He miscalculated the distance from a tree's branches...

Gooooo duct tape! :)

As you can see, it was (thankfully) just a topical injury, but still pretty important if we want to keep the Dolphin from dry in the wet, wet weather of Oregon.

Anyway, that was what ate up most of his time before our departure in mid-December, and I want to take the final "after" photo...but Dash insists that he wants to wait until he has painted on the stripes that the Dolphin so dutifully earned on this massive trip. So watch out for upcoming photos of that ;)

Anyway, back to our trip:

The trip down took a "leisurely" three days, during which we read/crafted a lot in the back of the camper, visited my sis, caught up with friends at a Mexican restaurant in L.A. and then joined for delicious buttermilk pancakes in the morning. Yum! We arrived in Tucson in the wee hours of Saturday, and thankfully got to spend the rest of the trip in a relatively constant state of rest and relaxaction. Buya!!

I still had some last minute gifts to complete, which I enjoyed doing late in the evening, as well as a little throughout the day. I was so happy not to find myself "having to run to the store for last-minute gifts" or such nonsense.
So below are some of the gifts I made and gave:

New mittens for William, complete with double-stitching :)

New dresses for Ella's dolls -- a combo of sewing, knitting, and sock-upcycling. Ha!

This was the main gift to most of the family. Homemade soap and knitted washcloths as a set

My proudest creation yet. Ella's hands embroidered on a handy tote for - you guessed it - Nana! :)

I unfortunately don't have any shots of this cat bed I made for my sis-in-law's cat, but all I can say is that it was upcycled from an unused sweater of Dash's. Simple instructions can be found here.

Oh! I also made a hat for my little niece which was the first hat I've ever knitted!!
But as you can see in the photo, it has a nifty little twist to it ;)

I couldn't get a shot of my niece in it, so here's William :D

That's right, her parents are Star Wars fans, so they appreciated the little tribute. :D
My friend B.S. was the one who inspired me and even supplied the pattern + yarn. What a sweetie!! :)

You remember me talking about a $100 Christmas challenge?
Well, I'm happy to say that we stuck to it through all this DIY fun, and with shipping costs included, the grand total for 2013 came out to $91.70! Phew!!
I gotta say that the generosity of my community held a lot with this. The gifted yarn, stuffing for the cat bed, and that rigorous day of soapmaking with M.M. to say the least.

I definitely think that homemade soap will become something of a staple gift from hereon out, seeing as how I am next aiming to make our own lye from our wood ashes, further saving money on the process. Buya.

Anyway, it was a great visit, like I said, with much bonding between children and extended family, great food, beautiful warm weather, and even time for me to go out jogging every other day or so. That felt great.

Now to finish up this pair of mittens for Ella that has duplicate stitching of the Triforce. Hee. :)

On the way back, we stopped by Kathy's again, and by now William was showing signs of having...oh, dear... Hand-Foot-Mouth-Disease! Courtesy of my little niece. But besides having unsightly blisters and scabs on him, he's just like he usually is -- only less social on account of quarantining ourselves for others' behalf.

We "celebrated" New Years with Kathy and Martin, which really just consisted of eating Indian food and drinking cheap champagne (my favorite!) because I hit the hay pretty soon after that. Then, came a very exciting event, as we drove Kathy, Martin, and Ella to the airport so that they could enjoy the second half of their holiday vacation - in Disney World!!

That's right, as I speak, Ella is down there with her Aba, too, just living it up in D-World. My mom is a doll and keeps sending updates of photos via phone, so I can "enjoy" the experience right alongside her. Heh.

Well, I am glad we had a safe and awesome trip -- and just as happy to be back home too.
As I've said before, I love the holidays but I also love when they are over.
Even the act of stripping down all the holiday decorations feels great.
Like I am just so ready for a new year to happen!

As is customary, I'll be writing again soon with my New Years Resolutions report, and hopefully will be better about updating regularly as I did (more or less) in 2013.

Well, until then, take care and I hope you all had a wonderful end of 2013, but are Happy To Be Back From Holidays!!