Handmade Christmas ~ My Brother's Family

 I already wrote about the rag rug I made my brother for Christmas.  We don't actually exchange adult presents in our family (except we all get or do something for my parents, and them for us) so I technically could have given him the rug at anytime.  I was going to give it to him a few weeks ago, when I finished it, but then my mom was all, "No!  Give it to him for Christmas!" and I was all....okay.  Besides, I had found an online sale on good bath towels and got him and my sister-in-law (not through him, through my other brother) a half-dozen towels each.  So there you go.  Together, they made a very practical present.

Anyway, my brother has two of my favorite girls and I like to make them things.

I made Kaziah this totally adorable corduroy skirt that has running horses embroidered on it.  I could die.  I want this so badly in my size!  It could not have been simpler to make, using the Oliver + S Lazy Days skirt tutorial (or, more to the point, what I remember of it from when I made the skirt before) and with no measurements and no pattern at all, I managed to nail it in both length and width.  High fives, all around.  She also loved the skirt, and wore it on Christmas Day after she opened it.  Love!  I also made her this sweet, slouchy, cap which I knitted.  (The pattern is free, if you sign up at their website.) 

 

 She put that one on right away, too, and as I predicted, it looks awesome on her!    It's exhausting being right all the time.

 Her entire prize package also included her own pointy scissors (which may or may not have been immediately confiscated by her mother) and Emily Martin's new paper doll book. 

 

 For my brother's ex-wife, I crocheted this rasta-inspired hat.  I've made this hat for her in several colors, and she loves them and they look adorable on her.  She had asked me for one in these colors, and I'm glad I finally made it.  When I got to my mom's, Monica was already wearing a gray one I had made for her last year!

  

And for sweet-girl Giannah, who is just as sweet and sassy as my brother was when he was growing up, I made this little gnome village.  This was easily my favorite thing to make this holiday season.  It involved a jigsaw and a drill, for one thing.  Plus, I am totally in love with these gnomes and their gnome-y kids from Wee Folk Art.

I also loved making the accessories; sleeping bags and a bushel of apples and a basket of eggs, and I even put in a Christmas tree with presents underneath.  I crocheted a rug for the bottom floor and had little tables and a flower pot with a rose bush.  *swoon*

I can't tell if Giannah actually liked it...I also gave her a Melissa and Doug wooden pizza party play set, and she loved that, but gave no attention at all to the gnome village or anything in it.  It may be something that she re-discovers in the quiet of her home;  I left lots of room for her to be creative, and to find rocks and wood to use as furniture, so she may end up liking it more when she's made it her own.  Or it may have been a (oh-so-fun-to-make) miss.  Either way, it's so cute!