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Here’s wishing you a wonderful New Year and a wonderful New Decade!

May You Have:

Lots of lovely craftiness;
The joy that creating brings; and
Grateful smiles from those who receive your works of artful love.

As for Me:

I don’t often make New Year’s resolutions. Usually, I try to deal with issues as they come up - excess weight, a house that isn’t company-ready all the time, projects piling up in my craft room, not enough time spent with loved ones ... I could go on; but I suspect you get my drift.

If you have a similar list of things that could be done better or would make your life more fulfilling, more serene, more purposeful, you can probably relate when I tell you that I didn’t do so well on any of the above last year.

I’ve put on a few pounds, let the house go a bit, still haven’t completed the reorganization of my craft room which began in 2008 (yikes!), and work far too many hours - to the chagrin of my dear husband of 42 years.

So I’m resolving to try to get my priorities straight this year - though I know it may take me the better part of the decade. LOL.

Yes, I am a work in process. And I will keep striving to be better than I am today - a better artist; a better wife, mother, sister and friend; a better housekeeper; kinder under stress ... etc., etc., etc.

How about you? Have you made any resolutions for the New Decade?

And now for all that’s new on The Artful Crafter this month …

Eileen

More Fabric Basket Ideas - And other uses for upholstery sample pages, inspired by reader Sandy.

Borderless Printing - Some things to know about borderless printing. Plus do you know what you can do with your photos at Rollip.com?

Precious Metal Clay - PMC is just a blast! Look at what I made in my first PMC class.

Acrylic Bead Ornaments

File this kid-friendly craft idea away for next year. These are all made with chenille stems and large-hole acrylic beads suitable for kids aged five and up (who are past the stage of putting everything in their mouths!).

Bird in a Cage
Twisted Cone
Spiral

New Year’s Musings: Words of Wisdom from My Mother

With the New Year which brings a sense of renewal and hope, I’ve been in a contemplative mood and thinking about some of the things I learned from my mother but am still trying to put into practice. Like I said, "I’m a work in process!"

Mother had a wacky sense of humor. Our rec room was decorated with paintings of poker-playing dogs and plaques with pithy sayings. One which comes to mind as I sort out my priorities for the New Year is, "The Hurried-er I Go, the Behind-er I Get." Yup, that’s me.

The basement room was also decorated with the first oil painting I ever did. Mother had it framed and prominently displayed above the sofa. It was a bleak painting of an albatross circling a becalmed ship (inspired by Coleridge’s "Rime of the Ancient Mariner").

Mother also had a passion for opera and poetry. Perhaps that’s why she was so fond of my albatross painting.

She would frequently burst into an aria from Carmen or stanzas from "The Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayam, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson or these words from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

Mother died young, at age 54. I’m ten years older than that, but still trying to live some of things she taught. That brings to mind another one of her tacky plaque sayings, "Ve get too soon oldt; und too late smart."

Fond Memory of Christmas 2009: I Was Elf-ed!

My crafting and blogging friend, June Crawford at A Creative Dream elf-ed me a week before Christmas. I thought "What a clever way to spread some Christmas cheer" and went right to work on my own elfin gift.

I printed out the darling "You’ve been Elf-ed!" card which June so kindly has posted on her blog for people to copy. Since I’m wintering in a poor area of Mexico, I decided to give my elf-ing a little twist to suit the circumstances.

Not wanting to obligate some poor local to buy a gift for a perfect stranger, I wrote on the back of the card in my best Spanish.

"Congratulations! This Christmas elf hid this little gift for you. The only thing you need to do is give a piece of the candy to someone you love and tell them so. Happy Christmas!"

My Spanish is not the best so I hope the recipient can figure out what I’m trying to say. I didn’t have time to handcraft a gift, so I thought I’d pick something up in the supermarket.

I hoped for a child to find the gift, or perhaps parents who would then have an extra Christmas present for one of their niños. So I selected this cute little plushy guy in the shape of a boot, wearing a Santa hat and filled with chocolates.

After the candy is gone, the child will have a little zipper pouch that can be played with, used as a purse or pencil case or - whatever.

It was by sheer coincidence (and I didn’t even realize it until I looked at these photos!) that my little gift is pretty much the spitting image of the elf on the card. Just look: elfin figure wearing Santa hat stuffed into a boot/stocking with candy. How cool is that?!

I left for church a little early the Sunday before Christmas so I would have time to hide the gift somewhere in plain sight.

Do you realize how hard that is to do? After some thought, I decided to set it outside this little neighborhood "mini-super" grocery store.

I put it on the ground beside a telephone pole sporting an overflowing garbage can on the opposite side. If the garbage men came before someone found it, they might try to pick it up but surely would recognize that it wasn’t garbage.

Casual passers-by would walk past without a second glance, thinking it was some garbage that had fallen out of the can or been left by someone who had pretty bad aim.

It kind of blends in with the paper scraps, rocks and weeds in the gutter. Until you look closer ...

When I came back from church an hour later, my little elf-ing was already gone, but the garbage hadn’t been picked up. Yes! I hope it brought smiles to some faces and now has a good home.