Peanut & Purls: Last Minute Christmas Presents

Christmas is way too close now. I thought I was ready. I was even getting smug about it. That is, I was getting all smug about it until I decided to throw in another hand knit present. Now what the hell am I going to do?

DIY: House Silhouette Wrapping Paper

Last month Buzzfeed approached us and asked if we'd like to participate in their holiday wrapping edition of Craft Wars. We were all like: OF COURSE! And we got straight to work on an idea for seasonal, easy, cheap, and fetching wrapping paper. Sisters, activate!

Peanut & Purl: Secret knits revealed!

You might remember a little secret knitting project I was working on for the last month or so. Well, it's finally finished!

Peanut & Purl: Completed baby sophisticate sweaters

I finished both of the baby sophisticate sweaters. Just in time too...

Peanut & Purl: A sophisticated baby sweater

 

My best childhood friend recently gave birth to twin boys! You know what that means, I needed to get knitting like you wouldn't believe...

dream come true

Here's Mt. Pillow in it's place of honor on my bed. I've always dreamed of hugging a mountain. Thanks, Catherine!

Baby sweater!

You've heard about Maya (one of Christine's BFFs) before and how wonderful she is. Maya doesn't just teach, write poetry, win poetry contests, get books published etc, she also is going to have a baby boy any day now. To celebrate this exciting new addition in her life, I decided to go ahead and knit a little baby sweater with a hood. The pattern is called Jasper Diamond Hoodie and it's published in Vintage Baby Knits...

delivering the goods

As I'm mulling over the wrapping options for Monika's birthday presents--late, yes, but better late than never--I've been scouring all the lovely packaging pins from pinterest. Oh, pinterest! How do I love thee? Let me count the pins!
I mean: packages...

candy pouches via ISLY

carrot treat boxes, via Craft

circus tent gift boxes via Folksy

origami house boxes via How About Orange?

geometric favor boxes, via Ruffled

favor boxes via Oh! Crafts

fringed pyramid box via Martha Stewart Weddings

Wouldn't you go mad for a gift stowed inside one of these packages? I would. Now, if only the gifts themselves were tinier. And if only I were ready to part with them. In all actuality, Monika will not receive any birthday presents until I visit her in May. That's the way it goes with us Nicolai girls and gifts. You rolls the dice; you takes your chances.

But onto more pressing matters. Which package is your favorite? I'm partial to the fringed pyramid boxes myself, but then I can't tear my eyes away from anything shiny. And they're all soooo make-able (except for the circus tent, which is purchasable, or would be except for the fact that it's sold out). Follow the links for instructions, my dears!

urchin necklace

I made Monika and Catherine necklaces from some of the sea urchin spines I collected in Malibu. This is Catherine's necklace. Yes, I did have to twist the spines from the urchin's shell and scrape a little tissue from the ends, but it's not like I didn't clean them. The last time I was home, I plucked another bagful of spines from my urchins because I'm formulating some plans for earrings and more necklaces. And when Catherine and I head out to California in April...oh, you know we'll be collecting more gifts from the sea and turning them into wearable treasures. Guaranteed. 

MONSTRO!

Youngest sister Catherine does quite the oil paintings, as you probably already know if you follow the blog. Note the recent post Amateur oils. Luckily, I am her sister and get to benefit from these lovely oily gems.

This most recent Christmas she painted me a picture of one of my favorite scenes from Disneyland. Monstro, the monstrous sperm whale from Pinocchio! He opens his mouth up wide to swallow the charming little boats from the storybook ride. The trick is not to be scared because when you emerge from the darkness of his belly, you are in a magical world of miniatures, which I love!

"Pinocchioooooo..."

The Christmas prior to that she gave me this sweet little portrait of Miss Olive B!

"Oh Olive."

If you love pet paintings as much as we do you should definitely check out these other painting posts by Catherine!

You should probably paint your pets

Cats and corgis!

Whiskers on kittens!



DIY: A Little Gift

I made this little gift for Audra, a lovely lady who just celebrated her 30th birthday. It's easy on the eyes, and a fun gift to give and hopefully get. can really have a lot of fun with it, use any small ceramic (or glass) bowl, cup or what have you. I just used a white ceramic cup, but you could really step it up with some crazy colors or make it sweet with some pretty pastels...

Burgers, burgers, burgers.

I'm going to start this post off by letting everyone know that I am a vegetarian.  I don't enjoy burgers or beef or bacon. Nicholas loves burgers and anything burger related. He may or may not sometimes refer to himself as the Burger Baron. There might even be a "my life in burgers: the first quarter" post on his blog. It's not uncommon to find little meat photo surprises when I load the memory card--evidence below.

While I don't partake in the burger business, I did want to give Nick something near and dear to his heart for our 3 year anniversary. I decided to knit Nicholas a bacon burger. I still need to knit up some cheese.

A piece of yellow American cheese has been ordered.

You can knit this burger using scrap yarn.  Here are the yarns that I used for my burger creation.

If you're asking if I keep some of my knitting
needles in a Queen Elizabeth ceramic cup,
the answer is most certainly yes!

This is the finished product. 

I included 2 pieces of lettuce, a tomato, a slice of bacon, a dollop of mustard and one beef patty.

The great thing about this project is that you can customize it however you want. Nick has already requested additions for upcoming occasions. Maybe some grilled onions for Christmas! 

The pattern I used is available on etsy.