Since I am feeling somewhat festive and evergreen, here is a brief, philosophical post on some of my holiday crafts and woulda coulda shoulda projects now at the end of this turbulent 2023. Ho, ho, ho. 🤶🏻
First, bling! Part of the fun in jewelry making is having something customizable for every outfit or occasion. Although I have fine jewelry I often save for the holiday season, December is also the month when I wear green accessories. Sometimes I will wear a red sweater with a festive brooch, but that is pushing just a bit too much color on my black if merry heart. Upon realizing that my nicer jewelry was maybe also a bit too much for my usual errands to the thrift store and grocery shopping – and yes there was a part of me that also whispered So What if they are! – I decided to make some more simple green sets. I haven't done much jewelry making this year, focusing on making a dent in my sewing stash instead, but as mentioned in my old Jewelry Making Video, having the beads, hooks, elastic, pliers, and supplies on hand is invaluable in being able to make the earrings, necklaces, or bracelets you need to fill out or compliment what's in your jewelry box.
These were cheap beads, plastic green baubles and second hand fireballs with my personally required cross charms as needed. I do however, have to keep a list on my cork board of what sets I've already made, what colors or metal combinations I do need, and whether I have already made a particular earring, necklace, or bracelet with a cross because yes, I have mistakenly made a few jewelry sets that are kind of, well, almost exactly the same! This December I knew I wanted a few smaller cross earrings, a green and gold set, and some light green accessories. Sometimes, the amount of beads themselves indicates whether I will have an entire coordinating set with earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, but sometimes I have to tell myself it is okay to not be so matchy matchy.
Did I still end up with something kind of fancy because I used some shiny fireball beads? Sure.
Were the gold beads probably cheap looking and gaudy? You betcha!
Did I drop the chain and have to do the double light green necklace three times before I got the layered look right? Yes.
Am I already thinking about January's purple accessories and making more bling? Absolutely.
Of course, the pièce de résistance this month was my second wear of the Mother Christmas Costume! This year the three year old niece was interested for maybe ten minutes (instead of last year's five) thanks to the wooden nativity puzzle Mother Christmas brought her. Thanks to this year's health issues, I've actually lost enough weight that these custom clothes are now too big, so this time I wore the leather belt cincher with the lacing in front so I could drawn it almost entirely closed. I did lose a bead on the cuff in doing so and still needed help getting into the whole thing, which now seems cumbersome in its too big-ness. Next year I may need to add some snaps or hooks connecting the hooded bodice to the skirt so there is no loose gap between them, or more ambitiously, I may sew them together as one if I need to do further taking in fittings. My niece asked why I was in a costume to look like Santa, and when I asked her if she wanted a costume next year, she said yes – choosing princess over elf and wanting to be dressed in red like Santa with yellow her favorite color. Another large project I don't need to tack on to my hitherto unknown 2024, yet I already have ideas for the perfect holiday meets forest meets child Tudor ensemble! She was also very impressed with the staff originally made for my Halloween Mystery Costume and tried to take it home with her.
Isn't that the real reason we costume? It's often frustrating when you work on creative projects for timely reasons, either seasons, deadlines, or algorithms. With the perfect storm that was 2023 for us, most of my projects were put on hold yet got me through the difficult times. I have 6 months worth of vlog videos on several complicated sewing and patterning projects – which as I wrote in upcoming piece in the Winter Issue of Search Magazine, kept me going one stitch at a time.
When will the internet see these videos? Who knows?
Was rushing to put my creativity on the internet in order to watch it sink like a stone with precious little views or notice my main goal in these projects? No.
Is that bad? Maybe not.
So here's to 2024 being more manageable with the right outlook in artistically braving any upheaval. 🎉
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