Look What I Made!: Sock Snowmen

I want to share a craft with you today! Sock Snowmen! Aren't they adorable with their little sweaters and hats? They are easy to make too! You'll want to make a large snowman army.

Last year I decided to be crafty. I guess that comes with not having a job and wanting to feel useful. The women in my family participate in a stocking stuffer exchange and I figured making a little craft to put in my stockings to them would be perfect. Well, this year I wanted to do the same, but I found this sock snowmen craft and figured I would make them early so they could decorate with them. I will just have to come up with something else for their stockings.

I found the instruction for how to make these here: ThenSheMade.com. I don't want to redo the directions since the site does a perfect job, pictures included with each step. So, I figured I would share the few parts that I changed.

First off, the supplies:

The initial instruction suggested using old pairs of socks, which is perfect for people who take good care of their socks. I unfortunately treat my socks horribly. I detest shoes and only wear them when necessary, so I often traipse to the mailbox, dump the garbage, chase cats around the yard in only my socks. They are dingy and by the time I want to get rid of them, they are not suitable for crafting. Unless you want you snowmen to look like they were created from a patch of dirty snow, like the piles in parking lots. Yuck! So, a bag of the cheapest socks at Target ran me a little over a dollar a pair. I picked up some footie socks that were on clearance for $.85 at Target too.

I also decided to use different color twine/thread for tying the sweaters on instead of plain twine. It added variety to the snowmen. Black round beads worked best when it came to the eyes. I was able to get about a pound of rice per snowman, so a five pound bag will fill five (I can do math!). I also found multi-colored BBQ picks at Target that already came in orange, no painting necessary.

So, this quick easy craft is a lot of fun and leaves tons of options to personalize them. Christmas themed socks, argyle socks, fuzzy socks, whatever you want for the sweaters. Different buttons for the hats. Anything goes!

Just be careful. If you're like me you'll want to keep them all. I managed to part with a couple and delivered one to my Grandma and Aunt already and they really liked them. My aunt even requested I make five more for her co-workers. Even though I had put up my crafting supplies, I was excited at a chance to create more snowman friends. They're so easy and cute.

So make room for the snowmen - when you get going it will be hard to stop! Happy crafting!

First Draft Completed!

I'm really excited (and actually proud of myself) - last night I finished the first draft of my first novel. It clocks in at ~ 65,000 words. A little short, but that's where the editing process comes in.  I've read in several advice blogs that you should let your first draft rest for a while, even up to months, to let it breathe and then come back and re-access it with fresh eyes. I can't imagine doing that. I'm ready to edit it. I know that I will have several pass-throughs. I already know some of what I want to change, tweak and edit so that urges me to start editing now.

I was so motivated I wrote 1000+ words a day for the last 22 days! There were days where I tried to convince myself I didn't need to write, but as the end drew near, I realized that I could finish it and I did.

So, I will start editing. I like organizing things - I'm a heavy outliner - so I added a little widget over on the sidebar to track my editing progress, by word count. One scene at a time I'm planning on going through. Try to do everything in piecemeal chunks so you're not overwhelmed. That's how I've taken on everything so far, and it's working.

I'm excited to finally have this story on paper. I have it saved on my computer and on an external hard drive. If there is one piece of advise you should always listen to, it's to keep your writing safe. Imagine being almost done and your hard drive crashes - everything lost. That would be devastating. If you don't have an external hard drive, you can save your writing through the internet, like Google Docs, to help in case your computer tries to become the antagonist of your story.

So, don't give up! Just keep writing! It's an amazing feeling to say you've finished your first draft, no matter how rough it is.