WREN handmade

ready to go...

We're off to deliver our packages Merry Christmas!

a very merry christmas.

Spoiler alert! If you are someone who might receive a present from me, don't read until after Christmas!

Here it is the eve of Christmas eve and I'm still not finished shopping or making gifts! Here are some peeks at what I've been up to. It's been a hectic week or so finishing up and shipping all the holiday orders. I can't wait to relax and finally enjoy the festivities.

There is still time to order for Christmas gifts!

Holiday craft sale recap

We had our Holiday craft sale yesterday at Divine Studios. The weather didn't really cooperate but there was so much beautiful stuff we still had a great time. Here is a small selection of the sellers.

Wren Handmade.

Earrings by Handle & Spout.

Silke Stoddard.

Marcie McGoldrick Design.

Fabric panels by Leigh Douglass Renshaw.

JodiL.

Jones Fife.

Ali Douglass.

Fritz Karch.

A few dolls in the shop!

I just put a few more dolls in the shop. These have been sold and I won't have any more listed before Christmas. Thanks to everyone who bought a doll this year!

Special holiday tags!

For orders in my shop during December I am including a free holiday tag for every item purchased. Here are some samples.

And a little friend who I found while going through some old boxes of stuff, just in time to go on the tree. I think I made it as a stocking stuffer for a shoot once.

Trimming the tree

For the first time ever I've bought and decorated a Christmas tree. It was all quite fun even though I probably didn't actually have time to work on it. Oh well, we have been enjoying the scent and the festive decorations. Even though for 11 years at Martha Stewart Living I decorated countless trees, hand crafting hundreds of ornaments (double sided by the way, in case they spun around at shoot time) I never felt like expending the energy to do my own. It felt like work. Since I know longer am crafting Christmas for a living, I thought this should be the year to start. And that we finally have a proper living room! So here it is, I didn't want to do anything breakable because of the cat so I just went with paper and straw. Maggie is finding all the dangly sparkly stringy things VERY hard to resist. I picked up some ornaments at Ikea and then made a few, and used my sewn paper garland.

A few handmade paper ornaments. The 3D balls I did in MSL ages ago, based on an idea my grandma always did.

I had always wanted to try these German stars but had heard they were very tricky. I used a YouTube video and it worked great for a topper. Or Ikea sells them for $2.99 for a 6 pack, which is so cheap!

And finally a few holiday decorations. I made 4 candles into a advent wreath, although I guess it's actually four little wreaths. Each Sunday we light a candle until Christmas.

I hope everyone is taking time to enjoy the holidays and getting some decorating done!

Getting in the spirit...

I'm off to the craft sale at Martha Stewart Living. Tomorrow Saturday it's open to the public. Here are some sneak peeks at what I'll be selling. I didn't realize it but there seems to be a color palette going on. It's a little bit of a trek to the very west side of Manhattan but it would be great to see you.

Switzerland

We have returned from a pretty quick trip to Switzerland. We had a great time. Our friend's wedding was in a little town called Waltalingen but we also spent time in Basel and Zurich. We even spent the night in a castle and Ben got to play the alp horn. We also bought a lot of good chocolate, all in all, a good trip!

This is the chapel and town where the wedding took place.

We had one free day at the end to sight see but it was Sunday and just about everything was closed. This museum was open though and I loved all the bird and insect specimens on display. I love how graphic they look against the plain backgrounds. For the insects they had microscopes that you could use yourself.