Indie Christmas Celebrated by a Literary Glass Fish!

I think I told you this already, but we're doing a "no-gift" Christmas. No one is allowed to purchase gifts for anyone else. If you have something in your house you'd like to give someone - fine. If you want to handmake something (out of things you already have) that's okay too. But not one shopping trip, not one storebought thing will darken the door on Christmas Day.

I gotta tell you - it's the most stress-free December I've ever had. It actually feels like a holiday! No lists, no pressure, no wrapping. You should try it. We are just going to play games and have a nice meal at our two Christmas festivities. I can't wait.

So one of the things I'm making for a few people on my list is a gift I saw on WhiMSy Love - Nikki's blog. It's so quick and easy and practical, I couldn't resist making it. Her instructions were fabby and dead on.

It's an adorable little charmed bookmark. Here's what you do.

Take a 15" length of 1.5"mm beading elastic - the round kind. You can get 8 of these from a $1.99 package at Hobby Lobby - mine was purchased on a day when all beading supplies were half off.

Thread a charm of some sort on it. Nikki did an adorable shrink plastic cupcake that I love. I found some fun charms I had bought for some other project that already had jump rings on them, so I used those. One is a hilarious winged pig, and the other is the cutest little glass fish that looks all round like a puffer fish.

Keeping the ends even, tie a knot right above the charm. This will keep it from sliding.

Do the same with the open ends at the top. Trim them close to the knot, and you have the world's best bookmark!! It will not come out of your book no matter how hard you try! and it won't bend your pages, and it's adorable.


I attached mine to this absolutely riveting Nancy Drew book to show you - it's the Mystery of the Ivory Charm. An absolute page turner, and DEFINITELY not one you want to lose your place in. (PS - is it just me, or is that President Bush behind Nancy - I swear it is!!)

I used the MFT Reading Flopsey image for the card it's attached to, which I love so very much! I colored him with copics, and punched a hole with my Crop-a-Dile to thread the bookmark through.

SUCH a quick and easy gift - try it for a stocking stuffer! This is a project that takes WAY less than 5 minutes, and each one probably costs a dollar.

Meanwhile, during dinner preparations, we had to set up a mini kit-mo for the beasts. Splotchy, despite being squirted with a water bottle 4011 times a day, does not understand why he cannot observe food prep from the bar. He's just shouting out - "I mean - the bar chairs are right there - they're like a kitty elevator!!!"

So tonight, we had to move the bar chairs (with the beasts refusing to budge while we moved them) several feet back from the bar, and here the pathetic prisoners sit, doing a silent protest, plotting some sort of 2 AM revenge, I'm certain.

Hope you enjoyed the bookmarks -

Happy reading!