the best part about knitting for other people (especially other people's children) is when they send you a photo of said knitted item being used. for example: i knit a baby blanket for dear anna over at anna's creative corner. it was the seedling blanket (rav link) and my photos of the finished project looked like this:
yup, that's a picture of a blanket... sometimes peapod sticks her nose in my business and tries to help liven up the photoshoots:
but nothing, i repeat, *nothing* beats getting a photo like this in your inbox:
i mean look at those cheeks! that sweet baby face... i can barely stand it! want to see more of sweet max wrapped up in his new blanket? check out anna's beautiful photos in this post from her blog.
one more example, if you'll indulge me (and trust me, it'll be worth it): for mateo's 2nd birthday lillian wanted to write him a book about cows (his favorite animal, at least it was when we were visiting last fall) and commissioned me to crochet a little cow toy (rav link) to go along with the book:
again, no photo i could have taken can beat the photo claire sent us as a thank you:
now that right there is enough to melt my heart and make a crafty gift giver as happy as can be! but claire didn't stop there, a few days later some videos arrived in my inbox which pair up perfectly with the photos i had taken and are without a doubt *the* most adorable thing you will watch today:
dedication from melissa martensen on Vimeo.
cow in a tree from melissa martensen on Vimeo.
can you stand his little voice?!? it's just the sweetest thing ever!
so thank you to both anna and claire for being such gracious gift recipients and making the giving of gifs *that* much more special!
-melissa
Your post shows why we make things for others perfectly. Beautiful gifts and so obviously appreciated.
Posted by: josiekitten | April 21, 2015 at 02:44 PM
Aw and we LOVE the blanket. Thank you so much! That cow and that video of the cow and Mateo...just amazing!
Posted by: Anna Prasad | April 22, 2015 at 12:22 PM
Oh. My. Stars!!! There are some people you knit/crochet gifts for, and you swear you will never do it again...and then there are those that make you want to do it over and over again. Those are two recipients that fall into the latter category for sure!
Those videos are just priceless!!!
Posted by: KnitNurd (Debbie) | April 23, 2015 at 07:47 PM
No- thank YOU for the absolute best, most thoughtful and amazing gifts! You and Lily are the perfect team, the most wonderfully thoughtful gifters and now not only I know it but the next generation does too! Mateo adores his book and his cow, he's got the whole thing memorized and is even making up his own next chapters. :)
WE LOVE YOU TWO!!!!
Posted by: claire | April 24, 2015 at 06:53 AM
Brilliant!!!! She has a big future ahead of her! :-) Lovely blanket too!!!! Ross
Posted by: snoopydog | April 26, 2015 at 03:48 PM
Absolutely adorable!!
What amazing gifts and awesome recipients!!
You two are the cutest!!
Posted by: Lindsey | April 27, 2015 at 04:27 PM
So many wonderful things about this post...it makes it all worth it doesn't it? and wow...what an awesome set of gifts for mateo...curious where you got that book made up?
Posted by: Rachel | May 04, 2015 at 10:51 PM