Christmas in July!

Now that we're in the second half of July...I'm reminded of the Christmas in July sales. This fun idea to encourage summer spending is a great reminder to get the holiday crafting moving. By holiday crafting I mean holiday decorations and birthday/Christmas gifts for the second half of the year.

This is an awesome time highlight some fun holiday patterns that I want to make before Halloween and Christmas.

I'm hoping to make these lovely doilies for my mother-in-law in time for her birthday in October. I don't have any orange crochet thread...hmm...

First is Boo! by Marsha Glassner

Second is Jack-in-the-Web also by Marsha Glassner

For Christmas...there are so many fun decorations. I'm hoping to have the wall hanging granny tree and a Santa doily completed. There are tons of candy cane covers and neat wine holders too.

Here is Dawn's Vintage Granny Square Christmas Tree

Another cool event is that the pattern that I tested for one of my favorite designers is live this week. It's a great mindless knit that can have a great impact. The luxurious pattern yarn with mink in it so lovely and light. Check out Sophrosyne by Francois Danoy. The image below is my test knit. The images above are the lovely pictures from the designers.

Aside from this crafting fun. My older son turned 9 years old this week while at Cub Scout camp. My babies are getting so big. We kicked back into gear with ice skating this weekend and my little kiddo actually skated on his own. Soon they will be all grown up and I won't know where the time went.

It's going to be a hot week in Portland. I hope you stay cool this week. Happy crafting.