The only rule was that the gingerbread had to remain edible. Everything else was down to each team’s creativity, and we had since last week to think about the theme. Have a look at the houses below then vote for your favourite to help us pick a winner! (votes closed – find out the winners at the bottom!)

Scrooge Home Makeover

The Candy Farm (with working train)

Dawn of the Gingerdead

Beware of the Dog

Competition results

We’ve counted your votes and… we have a tie!

• Dawn of the Gingerdead and The Candy Farm: tied with 22 each
• Scrooge Home Makeover: 13
• Beware of the Dog: 8

Earlier this year, my new little nice Florence was born. Now, I don’t know an awful lot about babies, but I do know that when they’re little, they drool and dribble all over the place. With that knowledge in hand, these adorable bibs seemed to be the perfect gift.

The pattern is from Chickpea Studio who generously shares patterns for free. The focus fabric was bought a long time ago, and thick jersey is used for the backing, so that it can absorb food and drool quite happily!

Making these three bibs only took a couple of hours and was a fun and straightforward project. If you’ve got a baby in the family, or even a messy toddler, a few of these rolled up and tied with a ribbon makes a lovely handmade gift.

Back in September 2010, in a flight of fancy, I drove out to a village half an hour away to visit a local yarn shop called Yarnsmith. Its owner, a nice lady called Becky, invited me in, past her kids’  weekend soapbox car racing game, and into her garden studio, which was like Aladdin’s cave for knitters tucked away in the Suffolk countryside.

Patiently, she talked me through yarn weights, needle types and all of the things that had never crossed my mind before. Wanting a break from the complicated craft that was sewing, I thought “hey, how complicated can knitting be? It’s two sticks, a piece of string and a bunch of knots, right?” Of course, I couldn’t have been more wrong. As with any craft, the rabbit hole goes deep. Very, very deep. I left with a bag of colourful yarn, some circular needles and a couple of patterns Becky kindly gave me to start off.

It was handy that I chose to visit Yarnsmith that Saturday. Two days later, I had a car accident which, while not life threatening in the least, caused me to have to stay at home, mostly laying on my back, for nearly three weeks while recovering from a painful whiplash which still taunts me to this day every morning. It was incredibly frustrating but I found some solace in the Stitch n Bitch book and some extra chunky wool, making my first few scarves; boring garter stitch and basic ribbed stitch patterns. They’re like training wheels for knitters, it’s where you start, but you’re not Evil Knievel just yet.

Since then, thankfully, projects have gotten more exciting.

I’ve made a winter headband for my mom out of llama & silk yarn (yes, llama!), held together with a button from my grandmother’s stash.

I’ve nearly finished a small but very time-consuming Citron shawl, reminiscent of the citrus fruit segments, probably my proudest achievement to date.

I’ve taken part in a mad, mad project called the Beekeeper’s quilt, which involves knitting tons and tons of little hexagons, then attaching them together to form a quilt. I’ve got around 40 of these little hexipuffs, and hundreds more to go. Andrew thinks I’m a complete nutter – and when I start counting the puffs it’ll take to make a blanket, I question my own sanity too – but I’m having such fun in the process, that’s what matters.

(As an aside, over the next few days, I’ll post a mini interview I did with the Beekeeper’s quilt designer, Stephanie Dosen. Wooh!)

The biggest upside to knitting, as opposed to sewing, which I also love very much, is that I can knit while in a social setting. I can watch TV, chat with Andrew, even stand in the queue for my latest Apple purchase and knit at the same time. I’ve even been to pub meetups with fellow knitters, which was great fun and I should do more often!

Sewing was all about shackling myself to the sewing machine, but as it resides in my home office, when evenings and weekend roll around, I’m not that keen to be up in that room by myself more often that necessary. So I knit.

It’s a great stress-buster and something where I feel that, with every project, I can improve at. It can either be an automatic no-brainer project, or an incredibly involving complex pattern where I can’t talk at the same time.

As a result, expect to see a lot of pictures of knitted things in the coming months. And hopefully some more blogging too.

That was recycling tackled, but clearing out some cupboards and boxes made me realise just how many birthday, Christmas, house move, anniversary and other cards we accumulate.

So this is my call to friends and family to reuse, or let me reuse, old cards this Christmas. If you live nearby, I’ll happily take them off your hands. If you’re further away, drop me a line. I want to try to give magazines, cards, photos and material a new life, however it ends up being used. It also hopefully means I can avoid buying tacky cards, pre-filled with a meaningless Hallmark holiday greetings and write the cards myself. (Oh boy, I’m going to be annoyed I said this when I run out of time and ideas for the cards three days before Xmas…)

There are so many feel-good reasons to reuse stuff wherever possible. It’s less stuff to throw away, and occasionally, there’s the sentimental value of reusing something that otherwise would have had a short-lived lifespan. So that’s the “Reuse” element (sort of) ticked off.

And then there’s the “Reduce” factor. Well, I’ve curbed my buying-of-random-stuff to an extent, but developing an addiction to crafts means that while I’m buying less expensive gadgets, I’m spending on new crafts material like a Cuttlebug and a bunch of embossing goodies. (As an aside, there’s a definite trend in arts & crafts websites being utterly horrible and unusable. I would love to help them make their sites fun to use, and as good looking as the products they sell!)

So I’m not doing well at reducing the amount of stuff I own, but soon, I’ll write about someone who was more successful at not buying stuff (for a whole year!) than I was.

[Card on the right not by me, but by Paperminiskirt on Etsy.com, one of the best sites for cute handmade stuff. Like eBay for hippies and artists.]

Now, however, I think I’m going to have to go a different route since prices are getting jacked up for the second or third year in a row. I know if I were to complain, the answer I get would be filled with words like “artist recognition” and “inflation” but it’s still getting out of my realm of comfort. I’ll be sad to go, especially seeing as it’s run by a bunch of (apparently) lovely Canucks, but it might be time to break up now.

So what are the alternatives? Flickr images which are licensed under Creative Commons, sites like stock.xchng and photos I’ve taken myself. Any other suggestions?

Posh frock, nice shoes, and geek earrings. Fun, a bit odd and unusual. How good would that be?

925works also does other stuff, like bracelets and necklaces, made out of coins, spoons, and other types of metal.

Otherwise, I’d happily settle for this Tetris scarf or these HTML earrings, which are unfortunately out of stock. :S

More awesome Flickr pics here
[Via BoingBoing]

It took a few weeks (due to international shipping), but once the bag, skinny wallet and wrist lanyard for my work dongle arrived, I felt like a kid on Christmas day. Once I got over the initial excitement, I started wondering why Dave was making bags and accessories and why he’d picked Etsy as his online selling market. So I thought I’d ask him a few questions.

First, what inspired you to start making bags and other sewn funky things?

Many many years ago. i was in college taking architectural drafting while my brother was at a prestigious school for fashion design. As much as I loved my career choice I couldnt help but see my brother using very similar skills in building patterns and creating products he loved. Thats when I decided that not only did I want to draft and design, I wanted to build. Knowing that I wasnt about to build a house, I started to dabble in my brothers homework projects.

So to make a long story short; I chose a different direction. with drafting skills in hand, Forced my brother to teach me everything he knew and here I am today.

Where do you find such funky materials?

All my material choices are very random, I try to find fresh, modern, vintage and odd materials. Finding materials is an addiction. I scout the material stores, Internet, Second hand stores, clothing stores, ect.

If I’m in a mall or a clothing store I generally come out with 2 or 3 garments with the intention to cut them up and design wallets or bags out of them. I’ve used bedding, curtains hand painted fabrics, even an ironing board cover.

Everything can be used for something. Open your creative mind and your grandmas ugliest moo moo could become the coolest hat wallet or bag everyone will want.

Did you used to sell your creations locally before you decided to start selling online?

I did sell locally within my city (Vancouver B.C.) I would take my finished products with business cards to stores and work. I have done some craft fairs and was lucky enough to sell a few in some stores. Since I was spending 40-50 hours a week at my office job, I was never able to concentrate fully on my products.

Now that I have reached the ripe age of 30+ I’ve decided to spend more time doing the things that I want to do. Hence Etsy.

What made you choose Etsy as a suitable selling place? Do you also sell elsewhere online?

Etsy: I took in some fabric to a coworker at my office job and she asked me if I’ve ever been to Etsy, “Never” I said. That afternoon when I checked it out for the first time; I was hooked.

Etsy is a great community. The sellers and buyers are always friendly and always willing to lend a hand. I have never had so much exposure from strangers just willing to lend a hand. I have learned to never be greedy as a seller, Always take pride in your work and a little extra sweat and blood goes a long long way.

Since Etsy, my brother of many talents has designed me a website called Oddities

Right now it is very fresh but quickly becoming Hot. Not only will there be items for sale from Stilleto but we have also added a few other cool shops, chat room, cool links and fun things to do as well as cool buys.

Does selling to someone halfway across the world (like to me) feel any different for you than selling to the local passers-by who pop by your shop?

The great thing about the internet is that not only am I selling in B.C. but I am also selling everywhere around the globe. I have sold to England, Denmark, Europe, Philippines, Japan and of course The United States and Canada. Just knowing that I have one of my products on the other side of the globe is truly exciting.

I received an email a couple of months ago from a girl in Oregon, U.S.A. She tells me she was at a club and met someone sporting a Stilleto bag, She then contacted me the next day to place an order, This to me is probably better than sex ??

I can only thank people like yourself for my success. The way I see it; This is only the beginning.

This ad is completely different. It’s Audi’s latest A5 advert, and the music and animation are both completely mesmerising.

Have a look and let me know what you think…

[Edit: I just found another version of it, higher quality and slightly different ending on Beam TV via Phatlee]