The Organized Elf

Hello

Hello all, I am Tabitha, and I hail from Colorado Springs, CO.  I knit, quilt, bike, hike, mommy of 2, work, and try to stay out of trouble. You can find me at www.mommyofalltrades.blogspot.com, and at our family website, www.myspace.com/thestacyfamily.  So far, I have stuck to my new years resolution of buying 2 gifts per birthday.  One for the persons birthday, and the other for Christmas.  I hope that by the end of the year, I will not have to buy anything for any one.  My other resolution is to try and knit one of the gifts, so the person has 2 gifts at christmas.  But I am the slowest knitter on earth, and so far have only been able to knit what we need, hats.  If you do not live in this area, we have had bad weather every weekend since before Christmas!! We all needed hats.

Just another Elvish siting...

hi everyone! another new member here. i'm very excited to join this great group. this is exactly what i need.

i've been very good in the past. usually my holiday gift making started around july. i was usually mostly done by november and could enjoy the holidays in peace and tranquility. (i know, some of you probably want to track me down and throw rocks through my windows!) because of this, my family and many friends have come to very much expect handmade gifts from me.

over the years though, i've started slipping... things get started later. delays put me behind. this last year i didn't even get started untill mid november... and then i fell ill for 2 and a half weeks! (i even had to cancel thanksgiving because i was hosting...)  oh my, this was the worst stressed race to get christmas out i've ever known. i'm still finishing up the last few presents...

so, i really don't want to do that again... and i know this year is going to be worse. how do i know? well, i can tell you all this because none of you actually know me and can leak it to our family (who don't know yet), but we've just started down the "fertility treatment" path... and the fast track. so, we're really hoping that come the 2007 holiday season, i'll be more than a little distracted and overwhelmed! lol.

so, getting things rolling now and keeping it moving and organized is a BIG priority if i want to have a stress free holidy this year. i'm really glad to have a group to help each other keep on track and to exchange ideas with! thank you for letting me play along!

Jen

p.s. my  art blog is over at  http://www.jenminnis.com/artblog ... and you can see tons of my art in my gallery at http://www.jenminnis.com/

Hi! :)

Hi, everyone. :) I'm Jaime, and I'm a brand spankin' new Organized Elf. I also found this place through the 2007 Knitalongs List, and this will be my first-ever knitalong. I blog over at wingedorange.net, which splits its time between being a knitting/craft blog, and a whatever-I-want blog.

As for me, I'm a grad student living in northern New Jersey with my boyfriend and my cockatiel, and commuting into Manhattan for grad school - at least until the end of the summer, at which point I'll finish my master's and get a Real Job for a year or two before going back. I mostly knit - it's very portable on the trains - but I also cross-stitch and am trying to teach myself how to crochet, but that's really not going so well. (I don't understand how I can knit a glove with four needles, but I can't crochet with one hook. Boggles my mind.) I also like to cruise craftster for ideas, because I'll try anything crafty once.

I can't wait to be an Organized Elf. For the past three years, my mom's requested a handknit Christmas gift, and each year they got progressively later: my junior year of college, she got her scarf the day after Christmas. My senior year, she got her new scarf by New Year's. This year, she got one glove for Christmas and the other glove is...well, it's got three rows on the cuff. :P I blame school, I really do.

-- Jaime :)

Hello!

I am new to "The Organized Elf" today -- I found the site through the 2007 Knitalongs list, and although Mommy Cooks isn't a knitting blog, I know that I for one can always use a little more organization around the holidays!

I do lots of crafts here and there, although I'm not particularly talented at any except perhaps knitting, but I look forward to finding lots of good ideas through this group, especially crafts that I can do with my two daughters, ages seven and almost-five.  I like the idea of lots of handmade holiday gifts and decorations, and of bringing more handcrafts into our lives.

We made these ornaments just before Christmas last month, as gifts for the girls' teachers -- they are large craft sticks that the girls decorated with glitter glue on one side.  They wrote their names and the year on the back, and we drilled a hole at the top of each one for a ribbon.  Simple, but effective!

-- Jeanne, in Southern California

Intro

Hi - I'm Amy aka Knitnmom (Knit + Mom = Knitnmom).  I've never done Christmas gifts for others because I never think about it before December...so I'm really looking forward to this.  I decided this month I'll make a plan and the fill out the spreadsheet (such a great tool - thank you!).  And, then I need to get busy.
Right now I know I need to knit 4 personalized Christmas stockings for Christmas - and I need to get started on them.
Going to keep this short - come visit me anytime at "Journaling Back to Joy" :)

My name is Geo, and I'm an elf . . .

Hello, fellow organizeds. I'm pretty happy to be on board the Christmas Express. I love to make gifts for the holidays and birthdays, though my typically grandiose plans rarely match up with my time and energy when all is said and done. Maybe this year, working away at my creations over twelve months instead of (maybe) one will find me ready with a few more handmade presents to distribute come Christmas.

I love all things yarn and paper and food. I like to sew, but don't seem to do much of it lately. I love to knit, like to crochet, dink round with other needle work. I make paper and books and print letterpress professionally. I also love to write and do photography. I would love to be able to say I'm an artist, but I don't think I can quite be convincing in any particular area . . . yet.

Don't know how personal these introductions are meant to be, so here's a bit in that direction. I'm happily married (16+ years), self-employed, childless (not my preference), LDS, a Southern transplant to the West. I do bi-weekly volunteer work with the teenage girls in my church congregation, and I am my 88-year-old grandmother's caretaker (she lives with us). My favorite places are: anywhere with my husband, in the canyons near where I live, on a quiet beach after a storm, and Eliane's French Bakery! I'm a reader and a devoted watcher of foreign and "art" films. I also love to go to galleries and the theater.

Anyhow, it's nice to be part of this. Thanks, Beverly, for the great idea and the invitation to participate. I look forward to getting acquainted with y'all this year! I blog, so if anyone wants to stop in and look around or say hello, please do. You will find me On Bright Street.

Welcome to the Organized Elf

The goal of this project is to inspire each other to craft for the 2007 holidays throughout the year.  Every year I say that I want to make this the year that all of my Christmas gifts are hand made, and this time I mean it!  I imagine TOE (The Organized Elf) as a respository for crafty ideas for swank gifts, as well as a place to cheer each other on.  If there are elves who are having a blast making multiples of a particular craft, why not swap and get a variety of cool handmade gifts for your lucky list?

If you want to join in the fun, e-mail me at b13armyATyahooDOTcom.  Be sure to include your name and blog URL (if you have one) so that I can add you to the Elves List.  As soon as I can, I'll send you an invite to post on the blog.

Ready to go?  Download the Organized Elf Worksheet from the sidebar, and start brainstorming ideas for gifts you'd like to make.