Delayed Crafted Gift Reveal

Engagement Picture vs. Portrait

For the past month and a half, all I wanted to do was blog about the following topic.  However, I had to keep my keys quiet because it needed to be a surprise.  More specifically, it was to be joint birthday surprise for my brother and future (less than three months!) sister-in-law.  Because both birthday’s are in early March, I had to wait to blog until later in the month.

As a side note, I have decided to refer to my future sister-in-law as my ToreSIL.  I haven’t run this past her quite yet, but it distinguishes her from my other sister-in-law when the time comes when I can no longer call her “future sister in law”.  Toresil it is.

A couple of weeks ago, I finally mailed the surprise to my brother and Toresil and they were thrilled.  Hurray.  Commence blogging!  However, it is hard to blog about something when one goes out of town for a week and forgets to save the necessary blog pictures for the post to the laptop that was packed.  Whoops.  Hopefully my weekly post wasn’t missed too much.  Actually, it probably is worse if the missed post went unnoticed because that means no one is reading this but Toresil, my Mom and Kerry at work… and all three of them knew I was out of town.  Sigh.

I think I like Charlie best.

Moving on – the delayed and heavily “built up” surprise reveal:  cross-stitched family portraits!  Cross-stitching is the new knitting – you’ve heard it here first!  Great entrepreneurs sell modern and quirky (!) patterns on Etsy and through various websites.  My favorite has to be Wee Little Stitches on Etsy.  Check the store out.  There also was a “how to” in a Martha Stewart Magazine about a year ago.  I decided to take on the challenge and designed a little pixel brother, Toresil and Charlie the dog.  Since the lovely couple’s nuptuals are right around the corner, I designed them wearing the outfits from their save the date picture.

On its way to Chicago!

The designing of the pattern is what took the longest.  The easiest way is to block out your stitches on graph paper.  I found out that perfecting the hair color and layout is the most important aspect of making the pixel people recognizable.  After the design was solidified, I ran out to JoAnn Fabric’s for embroidery floss (at 10 cents a color, it is such an economical project), an embroidery hoop, and aida cloth.  The design stitched up quickly, which was a requirement for a project tackled during busy season.  I would assess it as a 10-hour project.

Toresil also loves personalized and unique stationary, so I put a picture of the cross-stitch portrait on the front of some postcards.  I like to think they will have this for years to come.  Who says cross-stitch has to be frumpy and old fashioned.  I think I am hooked and plan on making more!

Phew - I'm glad I got that post off my chest.  On a related note, I'm home for the weekend before going back out of town next week.  Stella was pretty peeved at my absence and was wary regarding my return (see below).  Who wants to tell her I'll only be home for two days?

That's it!  I'm raising the drawbridge!

What are some good gifts you have given recently?