Crafting into the Holidays

So the Christmas Countdown is on!  I'm still in the "I can totally finish all my Christmas projects" phase of Holiday crafting.  The crazy part?  I keep adding more projects to my plate because I must be a total project masochist.

Here's the one project I've finished this week.  If I keep going at this rate, my Christmas presents will be done in time for Easter.

So here is my Christmas Knit List (and I think most of the items are crocheted)

Cupcake hat for an 18 month old (in progress)
Cupcake hat for a 3 year old
Quilted Christmas Stocking for Rob
Doily- for a wedding that was in October and I really need to get it done.
Doily- for Rob's parents.  His mom is a lover of doilies.
Quilt- have about 15 hours of hand sewing left on binding.  Tired of looking at raw batting hanging out.  Plus I think I'm getting a quilt rack for Christmas and I'd like to have something to put on it!
Doily- for my Aunt & new Uncle with his last name.  I thought Aunt Neany was making them a doily, Aunt Neany thought I was making them a doily, they never got a doily. There's no real deadline on this, I'd just like to get it off my list.
Doily?  This one is a maybe.  It's for someone who asks for (and gets) stuff I make quite frequently- most of her birthdays, Christmas, random things that she's asked for, baby blanket she didn't use, potholders she's taken out of my potholder drawer....but I have never ever gotten something in return.  I know that Christmas isn't about getting, it's about giving, and family, and Jesus and stuff, but I'm not really sure what to do here.

What do you do for people who are constantly asking for stuff but don't return the favor...ever?

Rant over...list resumes.

Mermaid- for my mom.  I started this back in June or July because I was going to give it to her for her birthday in October, and then there was the whole thing where she had my cat put down when I was on a work trip because my cat was peeing on the floor and then it turns out it was her cat and I was really mad.  And her birthday fell in to one of those days that I was too angry to call her.  Anyhow, I miss  my cat, her cat is now heavily medicated and not peeing on the floor (as much) and I am tired of seeing this Mer-WIP.  Here it is now.  The tail is being beaded so it's not exactly a fast project right now...

And another little dilemma... I seem to have quite a few of those right now.

The day before Thanksgiving I was thinking about what I'm thankful for...and it's a really long list.  Supportive parents that were able to give me the loan that started Good For Ewe, a really awesome boyfriend, friends, having a free place to live while Good For Ewe gets going, and (probably more than is acceptable) I am thankful for Madeline, my shelter kitty that I've had for almost 3 years now, and the 14 years I had with Tubby Custard- and lots of other things, like eBay and sock yarn.

And then I started thinking about all those animals in shelters that don't have homes this Holiday season. And while I can't adopt one right now (I can't get another animal until I move out of my parents' house) and I don't really have much money to donate, I can always make animal beds to drop off at the Humane Society, and so I made one.  I collected a bunch of oddballs of all colors and fibers and started crocheting.   It ended up looking like this... a little wonky but very thick and warm.  It's a little prettier than this- this was bad lighting.

I dropped it off at my vet's office yesterday in the Humane Society donation box.  Within 10 minutes, I got a phone call from the vet's office thanking me for the blanket and telling me that they vet saw it and thought it was too nice to give to the Humane Society where an animal might chew on it or pee on it.  I explained that I know what animals do to these blankets and I really don't mind- I'm just using leftovers and they don't take that long.  Anyhow, the vet tech explained that the vet wanted to use it when they're putting down animals.

I'm having mixed feelings about it.  I made it for the Humane Society.  It's an animal bed.  I should feel honored that it's been "saved" from this fate and is going to be a final comfort to an animal as he or she is put down.  But I'm a little mad that my blanket is now kind of an instrument of death.  I guess I'm not far enough removed from Tubby's death to be entirely okay with it.  At the end I told them that they're welcome to do as they pleased with it- I just don't want to personally think about animals being put down as it's still a pretty fresh pain for me.

But for now, I've started another one (because I totally need more projects before Christmas) to keep up with the stash cleansing and because I'm thankful for my shelter kitty and want to give some other shelter animal a nice warm blanket this winter.  (Mine's the gray one hiding under the tree skirt.  My mom's is the evil one trying to beat her up)