It's the Season….

For cooler temperatures…YAY! I thought they'd NEVER get here!!!!!  It's the season for Thanksgiving…we've got Eldy's son and his wife and children coming for the holiday…wish my girls could be here, but for various reasons they can't fly in….

It's the season for snowbirds to return…The traffic is heavy now, wherever you go around town….That's ok, that means people are returning to our neighborhood after avoiding the summer's heat. It's nice to see some people coming back on our street. It's been kinda lonely since June when we first moved in.

It's the season…for Christmas music already…geesh! Earlier and earlier every year…They used to wait till AFTER Thanksgiving before starting all the Christmas/holiday hoopla…Now it's on you before HALLOWEEN is over…geesh!

That's a good thing for me, in a way…it makes me work harder to get gifts made and mailed for my family…Working on a number of things as always….Made another cowl..it's for sale in my Etsy shop, JeanBeanGifts….

My little Christmas sweater ornaments are selling on Etsy…well, two, anyway.   :-)  I love making them!  Sally, if you are reading this, I have one set aside for you! They are knitted from sock yarn and I made little wire coat hangers (free formed) so they are ready to hang on the tree.

I'm busy making little mini stocking ornaments, some from the same yarn as the sweaters.

As a matter of fact, making BUNCHES of little stockings, sweaters, and tiny hats….not only to sell in my shop, http://etsy.com/shop/JeanBeanGifts but to decorate our first tree, our first regular sized tree since our little one in the motorhome, which was three feet high. We've relegated that one to the guest bedroom. Time to decide REAL or ARTIFICIAL?

Down here in Florida, the trees seem to be coming from farther distances and have been sitting on the trucks for awhile. We were told today that the ones that they are currently stocking at one store were cut about two weeks ago. I want to get a tree and set it up the day after Thanksgiving but we are wondering if they've been cut that long if they'll last until Christmas?  So we keep looking at the real ones, and the artificial ones, back and forth, back and forth….We both love real ones, but just aren't sure at this point which way we'll go. There are definitely some great deals, those "50% off" ones at Hobby Lobby and Michaels. Yuck…says Eldy. He really wants a real one. I think I do, too. But we're gonna need LOTS of ornaments, and I have this thing that many of the ornaments need to be handmade that go on a tree. It's just something I've done year after year, to add lots and lots of homemade ornaments of all different kinds---felt, sewn, knitted, etc. to my tree each year. Eldy says, "You better get going, you're going to need a lot of ornaments!" I'm going, I'm going! I'm on a roll, actually...  He wants a nine foot high tree…I might be getting fewer nights of sleep to get enough done, but it will be fun! And extra pretty, and possibly some heirlooms for my girls down the road…….

Bye for now…Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday wherever you are….Hope you get to have some wonderful family time and that you can be together with loved ones….

Pretty Boy Floyd

Got an order for three owls this week….I had two done, so for my third one, I decided to go with a yarn called "Amazing" by Lion Brand in the color of Mauna Loa…He/she is a Hawaiian owl! But then the name "Pretty Boy Floyd" just popped out at me, so that's the name I'm going to give him when I put another one just like him in my Etsy store…..

Here's another one I just finished…He's called "Woodsie"….I just think "forest" when I see him…He's made from another color way in that same "Amazing" yarn. It's a wool/acrylic yarn that is very soft. I probably should think about making some without buttons so they could be for little kids. These are more for older children and adults who might collect all things "owlie"….I'm trying to figure out how to add wire feet to a knit sculpture but haven't quite figured that one out yet.

Picasso red Tila beads

That's one thing I am not very good at is giving names to my projects..I think it helps to have catchy names for things you make….I like kitschy names anyway…Like "steampunk". Where did that name come? It came from references to things industrial looking, with lots of metal, and other cool stuff. Think brass, copper, etchings, glass, leather, gears, polished wood, and other types of metal and think of it as a cross between the vintage industrial steam engine age and a grungy look….So here's a headband I made this week that falls sort of in the category of the steampunk style because of the leather, metal, and tile beads. These beads are gorgeous! They are Japanese Tila beads and in the Picasso style, which means mottled color throughout the tiny bead, which is a dual hole bead. They aren't cheap! And they are tiny little suckers, 5 mm X 5 mm. The headband is made with leather, a purchased elastic headband, the beads and special beading thread. Hope to sell some in my little Etsy store. http://etsy.com/shop/JeanBeanGifts

It looks much better on, but I had to wait for my daughter to come for a visit to model it. She's got much more hair than I do!

Crocheted a wire beaded bracelet to sell at a craft show….

Making cowls…ended up giving this one to my daughter…It's chilly here in Bradenton right now…But I'm LOVIN' it!

And that's the latest from Jeannie's (a.k.a. "Sparky") crafty genes…..Happy fall, y'all!