Holiday Crafting

In my post on crafting in the fall, I mentioned I was working on an extra special craft for the kids' teachers. As it has been a tough year for teachers, we wanted to make them feel extra appreciated. We ordered some tea from the only place in North America that produces tea (it also happens to be in the Charleston, SC area). I discovered Charleston Tea Garden when I chaperoned a field trip there many years ago, but I always grab a few boxes between posts. Their raspberry, peach, mint and cinnamon spice flavors are always popular when hosting EFM tea mornings (sigh...I miss those). So I order a big box of tea boxes, then Richard and I went to Ikea and picked up some good cozy tea mugs, mug coasters, and spoons. Then I got with each kid. We went through the list of each teacher/specialist and talked about what they liked or something special about them. Then I got to work with my Cricut.

On one side I put their name and the other the meaningful image. A PE teacher! A teacher with a cat with only one eye! An art teacher! An IT teacher (that was the toughest one!!).

So once all done, each teacher got a nice little gift pack....

Once they were all made....the kids had delivery duty! Parents are not allowed on campus and the kids are on campus on school every other day. They are getting to school via bus, so I didn't want to send too many at once and have them bang together and break. So they gradually began taking two in a day and finished just in time. Only one hiccup when one teacher had to begin a quarantine due to potential exposure. I encouraged the teen to take it to the school office and see if they could help (as most teachers live on the same compound). The teen got a big thank you the next day.... 

My little painter and I teamed up for a Thanksgiving and made a sign for the door outside....we actually made two because she took one to school and shared it with her teacher.

And she made this one for her BFF who's birthday was in December....(she went a little crazy with the glitter).

Here's some of the festive masks, I made for the holidays (half were in the wash before I remembered to get a photo...isn't that always the case).

We also had a bedsheet rip, so I upcycled it into some gift bags along with some scrap to make them look festive.

Just after the holidays, Richard and I went to fabric shop and found some holiday patterns and I made a few more gift bags for next year (trying to get more and more waste free).

I was running late on getting the grandma/Nana gift made....so I had to wait until they were delivered to publish the blog post....hence the extra delay.

Of course the other grandkids names were legible on the pillows....but it's not my place to yell their names out into the internet.....

While I was mailing those packages, I threw together a little care package for the bestie....(do I really need a reason?). Made her this mug!

Summer & Fall Sewing/Crafting and the start of school....

So school started and it's been crazy. First, the start of school was delayed a week and half (from August 23 to September 1). When it first started the kids were 100% virtual school for the first three weeks or so. A number of teachers and students hadn't made it into the country/cleared quarantine yet so there was no way to actually start in person school yet. Qatar's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education are mandating for the most part what is and is not allowed. They were allowing up to a certain percent capacity at the start but the kids school didn't have the teachers in, so they were forced to due virtual at the start. Three weeks in, we started the hybrid schedule - meaning 1/2 the kids go to school on 'A' day and half go on 'B' day. They divided the school alphabetically so that families are on the same day, with no promises for high school as they have very different schedules. We lucked out and both kids are on the same day and I don't go crazy. Unfortunately, due to road construction at the gate buses use supposedly making it unusable and the need to contract a new bus company, there has been no bus service available for these first two months of hybrid school. Making for fun days of drop off and pick up (in construction zones) at two different gates due to separation of the grade levels (drop off takes about an hour, pick up takes an hour and a half...so I lose five to seven hours a week in the car depending on how many days they are on campus). That doesn't count the nail in the tire I got and had to get repaired nor the the car that hit my passenger mirror as they flung their door open into traffic. Thanks 2020! Things are turning around a bit, the universe's gift to me for my birthday is bus service is resuming next week!! I accept and am gladly sharing with all the parents. Clarissa was a little hesitant to ride the bus, but after the car getting hit last week she is ready for it.   

Anywho....back to fun...between chilling raging in the car, working, girl scouts (starting up but all virtual this term...following the school's after school activity guidelines), I've had a bit of time from the summer and less since school started to do some sewing and crafting while staying at home...so here's what I've been doing...

I made Clarissa a new swimbag. The zipper had busted on her old and she wanted something that would be easy to carry outside her backpack. So it has real long straps. Most days she'll save time and wear her swimsuit under her clothes so I made this little attached matching pouch to put her clean unmentionables in. So when she pulls her towel out her undies don't go flying across the locker room....lol. The main part of the bag is some waterproof fabric and it has two snaps to keep it shut. Plus who doesn't love purple and Bula fabric?!?

When I was ordering the waterproof fabric I also got some food-safe fabric. We had bought an ice maker off someone leaving last year, but it can be really moody. If a drop of water is on the laser line, it just stops making ice and everything melts. But when we would make ice, we would make it batches and fill up big plastic bags of ice. We would reuse the bags 2 or 3 times before they would start to get holes, cue the tree hugger guilt. So I sewed up some reusable bags (oddly enough no patterns out there for that). So I just took the measurements I could find online for the size of your standard ice bag added a bit at the top for some velcro and viola! Done. I didn't want to add too much since it was the waterproof fabric and every needle hole would make it less waterproof. I used my serger on the sides, then covered those seams with bias tape, and then sewed the velcro at the top. I did nerd out and put some cute 'icy' iron-on's....because I could. For ease, Richard has been filling them up at an ice maker up at the Embassy. Easy peasy!

Apparently, Richard and I have dainty heads....lol. We both like extra pillows at night. Most sheet sets come with two pillowcases, so I used some more Bula fabric to make a second set of pillowcases to match our blue sheets.

Clarissa used some birthday money and some clean out her room/sell on the neighborhood facebook page money to buy herself a Nintendo Switch and the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. At some point, she figured out how to add me as a resident on her island....at the height of the peak pandemic here in Qatar when only grocery stores and pharmacies were open. We had a lot of time and no where to go....so it was fun to play and take trips to mystery islands....Richard and the teen made fun of me (I feel the judging in this photo taken of Clarissa and I playing)....anywho the whole family now plays and we had to buy another switch as it got to the point where Clarissa wasn't getting screen time on her own game....but I made a fun tshirt for the game's airline (I also made one for another FS friend who plays).

I have lots of scrap fabric leftover from assorted projects and saw this DIY somewhere. So I made some fun hairpins...I've given most away (and I also made some barrette versions which I sent to my niece...but of course I forgot to take photos of those).

USAGSO (Girl Scouts Overseas) put on a worldwide virtual camp-in. They opted to not produce patches, but did upload a digital file of the logo. So I made Clarissa a tank top to wear of the logo (you may seen her wearing it in my instagram photos over to the side).

After getting one for Father's Day, Richard really like the insulated wine tumblers (good at keeping gin and tonics cold in 120 degree temps). So I order some more and made them pretty also. To make the symbols big enough to see, Richard's is two sided - it is Star Wars/Mandalorian related - I think.....

So as we moved closer to the reopening of school. I began to prep for that. I made more masks for each kid. Elementary schools requires kids change masks at lunch time and they would a spare mask in their backpack. I also repurposed a trash bin as a 'dirty mask' hamper. I line it with a delicates bag so when I have a load of wash going in I just zip it shut and throw all the dirty masks in and I don't have to touch them. It sits right between the door into the house and the bathroom....pretty ingenious system if I don't say so myself. 

As I showed at the start of the post. Since the school year started all virtual, I made each kid a welcome to # grade sign. Just to set the study area tone. Since we hadn't left the house much and we weren't leaving for school just to make a mental switch to school mode. Neither said anything...so don't know if it helped or not. Also, since the teen is in chemistry this year, to help with periodic table knowledge, I made a new body pillowcase. I did get a 'cool' with this one!

The twins across the street (younger brothers to Clarissa's bestie) had a birthday go by. So we made them a present. She said they liked Guardians of the Galaxy...and who doesn't like baby/teen Groot. So we downloaded a Groot file set. Then she picked the Groot that best fit each twin's personality...she said they like them.

Our troop had some left over fabric last year and so as the inventory person on the committee again, I knocked out some troop funds money pouches (that is apparently the official name for them). I still have some fabric leftover, so I may try to make our troop some masks for when we can start in person meetings.

As Halloween started to approach. I went to my fabric scraps and was able to make a few spooky masks for the kids. I tried a different pattern that was touted for glasses wearers to not fog them up. Clarissa does not like them, the teen loves them, Richard prefers my other style. So if I make some holiday masks (because why not!) I now know what patterns is preferred by who.

As I showed here, we also made some Halloween specific decorations. After Halloween, I kept the pumpkins out and made them look more fall like with some leaves I had in our Thanksgiving decoration bin (which is quite sparse as it's mostly things the kids have made).

Clarissa found a Step by Step painting website and has done a number of paintings (I'll make that its own post) and I'm working on a holiday present for all the kids teachers at the moment (because teachers really deserve a little extra thanks this year!!). But that's one of the ways I've been keeping myself entertained  during this pandemic....doing crafty things makes my heart happy and if I can share some it with others than even better. 

Monday's Moment: Halloween Crafting....

 

Springtime Corona Sewing and other crafting....

In an effort to entertain myself (since we couldn't go on trips), as a crafter....I always have supplies...so here's some things I've worked on this spring while we've been staying at home in Doha (The kids school started Virtual Learning on March 11th and just this week on June 15th stores are starting to reopen, but very limited and still with lots of restrictions...ie no kids under 12). Doha did pass restrictions where if two people were in a car, they had to be wearing masks. Richard and Clarissa went on a take-away necessary ice cream run. So we've gotten lots of use out of ours. I've even made a few more with Richard going into the office more and my work load picking up and me needing some for work also.

After I made our masks, I found out my bestie (who works in a doctors office) was not considered high risk and wouldn't be issued any masks. That was unacceptable! So....I made her some....(she has shared them with her girls when they need to go to the store).

Then the next day, I made some for my parents and Richard's parents to go to the store in also. My bestie's shipped Tuesday, I made the parent masks Wednesday, shipped the parent masks Thursday. The bestie's masks arrived in 11 days, while the parents masks arrived in 27 days. Go figure....I seriously need to get better at remembering to take photos. My in-laws did send me a photo of theirs! 

I took a break from sewing and played with my Cricut some...made some fun stuff. Clarissa had gotten that new scooter for her birthday, so we figured a fun way to put her name on it.

I made a monogram for my Girl Scout leader bag (all the second year leaders get them as a Thank You....so now I know which one is mine....).

I made this just because it makes my heart happy when I'm folding laundry...(and it may be true).

Richard and I have a new set of glassware...appropriate for the current conditions. 

I had a few extra empty Nutella glasses, so we gave some extra ones to some friends, also. There was a call for some face masks for the service men and woman up on the base...so I went back to making masks. Knocked out a whole pile of them...I was out of shoelaces and elastic but I had found some parachute cord. It's not as stretchy as shoelaces but does tie pretty good (and if you have a disposable mask you could replace the the cord with the disposable mask's elastic before tossing it). 

After that I knocked out some masks for some friends...some that are PCSing this summer (more comfortable to wear a fabric mask for the long haul) and for some to exercise with when Doha released a you must wear a mask when exercising directive (and a few more for ourselves). Found the perfect use for the Stanley Cup Champions fabric I had gotten!! Our friends PCSing were Blues fans too!

Knocked out a few other projects I had had on my to-do list. Some reusable "sponges". They are machine washable.....we shall see how the last. I have a good bit so we can rotate through them. If they last the rest of our tour, then we saved a lot of sponges from the landfill!

I made Clarissa and I some matching mermaid Pjs. Whenever I think to take a photo, hers are in the laundry....maybe one day I will get a photo....lol. I also made a cover for my serger machine. I modified the pattern a bit to allow me to keep the thread tree up instead of having to lower it every time. Once covered it looks huge...lol.

I also made Miss Isa Lei a little placemat for her food. We wish we had filmed her reaction. She was all, wait, stop, sniff, what's this, why is there a soft mat in front of my food? Okay, I will proceed and eat.

I copied the pattern I used last year making the Girl Scouts S.W.A.P.s holder and made the kids a pin display banner. Clarissa has a few from ice skating (we can't find one at the moment) and the teen is into Disney pin collecting. I've had this felt for a while (bought it when I bought the girl scout swaps fabric).

I spend a lot of time at the computer with my embassy job and photography work. I ended up propping my feet up for comfort. I felt bad using the UPS (and paranoid I'd start it beeping by hitting a button with my foot), so I made a scrap buster ottoman/foot stool. It's not quite full to capacity yet....so apparently I need to sew more and get more scraps. 

I love the fabrics I used for the patterns. It makes me heart happy!

I've also made some fun t-shirts with my Cricut. 

As we approach the two year anniversary of the eviction of my thyroid, this one seemed appropriate. You can barely even see my scar anymore (but for some reason during zoom calls I find it very noticeable).

 

The teen is binge-watching Community on Netflix at the moment. So we had to have a fandom shirt.

Of course we can't forget Father's Day swag (and a what about me shirt...lol). 

So that's what I've been making this spring, while staying at home.....guilt free crafting at its best!