Um, so that was me with regards to my handmade Christmas gifts. It just didn't work out this year, but I was in serious denial until the 20th or so of December, madly knitting while a tiny voice in the back of my head whispered that there wasn't enough time. Oh, sorry. That was actually my husband in his loud voice telling me to give up and get some sleep already!
And so, I did. I gave up. It was hard. I'm not ashamed to say that there were tears. You know how it is, with visions of perfect knitted gifts in just the right color, yarn, pattern all amazingly wrapped in your handmade, hand painted/stamped whatever paper with exquisite handmade card attached. While I never wrote about it here (because that would, you know, require me to actually write) I had in my head taken a "semi-handmade" Christmas pledge... not to be confused with anything related to Sandra Lee- how does she have a show on Food Network? I'm sorry but those tablescapes? Sometimes less is more. And have you ever noticed how the decor in her kitchen changes almost every show to match the theme? I once caught about five minutes of a lemon themed show, I swear the whole kitchen looked like a lemon meringue had exploded. She scares me and the food? yikes. I don't ever intend to watch her show but sometimes I'll be flipping through the channels and I get sucked in - I think it is the train wreck factor - what is she going to do next?
Um. Where was I? (but I do feel better, getting that off my chest)
I wanted to make as many presents as possible this year. I really had a bee up my butt about it. It is really tough for me to not be perfect when it comes to things like this. But, in the end, my sanity, what little I have left, was more important (thank you amazon! while you may be the total opposite of the handmade Christmas pledge you do come through for those of us with a last minute present crisis... ).
At least now I am, for the moment, ahead of the game for next year's Christmas gift knitting. I'd say I was ahead for birthday knitting but my family (with the exception of my daughter and my father) has inconveniently decided to be born in the warmer months when a wool whatever just wouldn't go over too well.
And in some totally unrelated, technology-makes-no-sense news, my card reader has decided to function again, just out of the blue. I didn't change anything, it just worked when my husband gave it a go. Unfortunately I don't have any current knitting pics in the photos I'm uploading to flickr but I'll try to get some in the next couple days and give you a year-end wrap up of my works in progress (too many). In the meantime, here is a little cuteness from "backstage" at my brother-in-law's wedding back in October (man, I have a lot of catching up to do), Gwen was the flower girl:
