crafty joyful gleeful mojo...

every year the gleeful season comes around and i am gripped... 

gripped by my love of this season and gripped by the fear of having lost my crafty joyful gleeful mojo.

i like to think i am not alone in this gripping state i find myself in. once the mixed feeling of love and fear has got me in its grip i spend several days in a blur, a blur of blankness, where my crafty cogs won't turn and my crafty senses all but abandon me. upon which i climb the ladder to our attic space, bring down my box of gleeful goodness and usually within the piles of joy, i find my crafty joyful gleeful mojo waiting patiently for me.

however this year, upon opening up my little gleeful box, and doing a bit of a frantic dig around, i could not find my little mojo. alas and alack, i had misplaced him, for he was nowhere to be found. i wandered aimlessly from shed room to shed room, mourning my lost gleeful mojo. 

"oh where for art thou little mojo of gleefulness?" i weeped.

i shared my woefulness with my lads of three, who stared back blankly at me. 

i shared my fretfulness with Used Dog (in her cone of shame) and Little Olive, 

who did not stare back blankly but offered some very practical and sound advice as only critters can do. they told me to not fret at the missing mojo, to do what one can only do at such times as these. to pull up my joyful gleeful crafty knee socks, to rustle around in the kitchen drawer of ever growing piles of crappity crap for my little elf cap and to embrace my inner glee!

oh such wise wise critters, indeed such is their wisdom, i am thinking of offering up Used Dog (in her cone of shame) and Little Olive to our local 'living nativity' which must be starting some time soon. i am quite sure they would qualify for the three wise men roles. although obviously there is only two of them, so maybe they could take a friend along. i am now racking my brains for another wise critter within our shed. i think i would pick Linus the cat. for he is wise and has nice whiskers. however Used Dog would have to stand between Linus and Little Olive to avoid any 'argie bargie' which might go on between them. i am also thinking they may have trouble carrying their incense, myrrh and gold, so i would have to rustle up a little something to carry their gifts around their necks. 

gosh, do you know, having just asked Linus the cat who is sitting on my lap as i tippity type this ramble about whether he felt this was a role he would like to play. he has stumped me with his wiseness. he tells me that although we say there were three wise men, apparently it does not say that in the bible. it just says 'wise men' who bought three gifts. therefore we assume there were three wise men, one for each gift. in fact according to wise Linus the cat. there could have been more wise men or less, and therefore he is going with less and says because of that, there is no need for him to go along and stand near Little Olive. well that seems fair enough, so now i am back to just two wise critters to offer up to our local city 'living nativity' upon the wisdom, our cat Linus has to offer.

i fear i have gotten off the crafty joyful gleeful track, but do not fear, i am back on it! and with knee socks pulled up good and proper, elf cap securely pinned on with nice looking bobby pins in turquoise no less, found in old blighty this past summer and with it, my crafty cogs have turned...

yes indeedy! starting tomorrow, i have '12 days of joyfulness' here on my shiny place, you can call me crazy, you can call me nutso, you can call me Al, but that's what one has to do when a mojo is lost, fly by the seat of one's crafty pants.

here's a list of ingredients required for the coming 12 days:

fabric (vintage or new) * embroidery thread * lace * wooden clothes hanger * strips of old fabric scraps * gleeful ornaments, whatever is in your own box of glee will be fine, perhaps some with a bit of sparkle too * old jam jars * sticks, twigs and a branch from the yard * an old stool with a flat wooden top * sticky back plastic (oh yes indeedy!) * mod podge * vintage decals or stickers * household paint in white * paper coasters or paper doilies (itty bitty ones) * old book pages * linen napkin (creamy white sort) * cream cotton embroidery thread * a trusty sewing machine (not necessary but would greatly speed things up if one were used) * and last but not least, a doily or two

each day i will be sure to least the ingredients necessary to complete the project. do not fret, most things can be made from what you may have already lying around your sheds or indeed within your box of glee. you can change out things to your own liking, own colour choices and indeed improvise if you do not have the exact ingredient i list. yes, after my fretting of late (breaking my new years resolution of 'fret less' for about the 50th time so far this year) i am now banning all fretting for the next 12 days. yes, no fretting allowed.

most things will be easy peasy, a few i would put at medium peasy. some things i think small beings and little critters could easily do themselves (although where knots are required it might be tricky for little fingers and paws). where i have been inspired by someone or something i will be sure to point out and that is that!

hurrah hooray, 12 days of joyfulness starts tomorrow

she is delighted to say, Used Dog is feeling most perky and we have high hopes for the results next week ~ Tif