Earlier this year, I decided that all of my friends who had babies would be receiving stuffed dragons (like the one Patrick got), as part of my plan to act more like a responsible adult. So far I know of at least four more dragons I need to make before the end of September. However, my friends have existing children as well. They don’t deserve to be left out just because I wasn’t a responsible at the time they were born. Something has to be done! So what I decided was to make stuff for them too. Some will get a large family present, depending on the ages and quantity of kids.

My friends J&C have two girls, one about 12 or 13, one about 3, and one due in July. The eldest is an awesome nerdy book reading Nintendo type. She will be receiving two Super Mario themed cross-stitched bookmarks and probably a Chapters gift card. Each of the bookmarks I completed took about a week worth of work. I worked on three, but the first one didn’t end up having properties consistent with being a bookmark. I haven’t done much cross-stitch, but I really enjoyed doing the projects. My grandma was a cross stitching machine. She created seriously epic stuff that I can’t possibly compete with. However, she never made a Yoshi, and I did. So there. Here’s a few photos of the work as it stands:

Completing the bookmark phase will have to wait until the move is done as I’m not really certain where my iron or glue gun went. I will definitely be doing another cross stitch before the year is out for another family with existing kids. The next project, however, will probably be the gift for the 3 year old, and will involve felt and castles, because castles are awesome.

(Pattern sources: 1, 2, 3)