Merry Little Christmas

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Ours was simple and quiet. The budget was small this year, but I have to tell you, this Christmas was the best one yet I think. We enjoyed each others company, had wonderful food, and enjoyed all of our gifts.

I made new stockings for the kids this year and they loved them. I used this tutorial from the Imagine Gnats blog. Her tutorial is for a quilt as you go stocking, but I opted to just use a fat quarter for mine rather than scraps (I made these at the last minute and didn't have much time to find the perfect scraps in my overflowing bins). They are quilted with meandering patterns and each child's name.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Birthdays and Winter Fun

Winter is a busy for me. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this. As if Christmas weren't enough reason to be buried in things to do, our family also has 3 birthdays within a 2 week time period at the same time.

The first birthday we celebrate is for our sweet puppy Bijou. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't celebrate the birthday of their dog on Christmas Eve, but she is an important member of our family. She turned 4 this year.

The next day was Christmas and it snowed ALL DAY! It was great. Behind our house is the Junior High and they have a huge hill. What better thing to do after opening all the presents than to load everyone up in the truck and go sledding?!

Here is Alice flying over a jump on the hill. She got a bit airborne on that one!

 

And my little man taking a break from making snow angels.

 

 

Irene isn't really the dare devil of the family. In fact, she's quite a chicken. She was a bit scared of such a big hill, but once she went down the first time, we couldn't stop her.

 

And this is Sara after a crash... letting me know she's okay.

 

 

The next birthday is my husband's. He turned 34 on New Years Eve. He thought he was turning 35 so he was excited to be 34 for another year =) We went out to dinner with some friends at a fancy restaurant and then went to a kid-friendly New Years Eve party afterward. I love anything sparkly, so to ring in the New Year I got a new sparkly shirt!

 

Irene had the next birthday on January 5th. She's the big 1-0!!! Or as she would say "DOUBLE DIGITS, BABY!!!" We went to her favorite place (a local indie book store) and she got a new book. Then she chose Olive Garden for dinner. By the way... did you know they no longer sing Happy Birthday and give you a dessert at Olive Garden if you go there on your birthday?! Maybe it's just our Olive Garden. Or maybe our server was grumpy and didn't want to. After dinner we played outside in the snow and it seemed like the perfect picture opportunity:

And for something crafty!!!! I've been in a huge crafting slump lately. Working is really putting a damper on my sewing time. I opted for a project that is more transportable. As many of you know, The Frosted Pumpkin has a new cross-stitch sampler. I never did finish my Dessert of the Month sampler, but the latest one is a Woodland Sampler! How could I say no to woodland creatures?

I have all my embroidery floss, but am having trouble finding the tea-dyed linen. I started my sampler but the white floss doesn't show up very well on the ivory linen I bought. I'm going to tea dye it myself and start over!

What have you been up to all winter? Hibernating, being super crafty, or out enjoying snowy weather activities?





 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and had a chance to spend the day with friends and family.

Our Thanksgiving was small this year. Just us, my mother and father-in-law, and two dear family friends who didn't have family to spend the holiday with. As usual, I spent the day being ill. It seems that every holiday, I spend most of my time laying in bed being sick. I missed out on Thanksgiving dinner (I had a small bit of mashed potatoes and a roll) but didn't have any of my favorite foods that I spend a year waiting for. The sweet potatoes were consumed within minutes, so I don't even have leftovers to enjoy. I suppose that is a great excuse to have a little Thanksgiving meal prepared later. Nonetheless, I am still very thankful for everything in my life. I may not have gotten the opportunity to sit down to a meal with my family yesterday, but I am lucky enough to have meals with my family every day. We are very blessed, indeed.

I haven't been very busy in the sewing room lately, although I really should be since Christmas is coming up! I have been making lists and deciding what to make for everyone, but that's about as far as I've gotten. I did get caught up on my bee blocks which I was stressing about, so that's good.

This is one of my two blocks for September. These were horribly late and in my rush to finish them, I forgot to get a photo of the second block.

And these are my two blocks for November. Both ladies from September and November wanted improv pieced blocks. They are not my favorite to make and I really struggle with them. But I think they turned out okay anyway.

I also purchased the 241 Tote pattern from noodle-head.com about a week ago and I made myself a pretty cute bag. The pattern was super easy, and she does a great job of explaining how everything goes together. She has several really awesome free tutorials on her blog too. You know, in case you're wanting to put together your own list of things to make for Christmas =)

This is the (almost) finished 241 tote that I made. I did finish it, but I accidentally deleted the pics I had on my computer of the finished product and I'm not quite up to taking more pictures right now.
I really love how it turned out and I have been using it everyday.

A Christmas Quilt

That's right, a Christmas quilt. I know Christmas has passed but I'm still working on this one. I wasn't completely slacking or being lazy about finishing on time (as is usually the case). There's a story behind it!

My kids love handmade things and they love giving gifts. My oldest daughter came up with the idea that we - myself, my husband, and all 4 kids - draw names and have a handmade secret Santa exchange. Now my husband is one of those very picky types. I never give him anything because the response is always "That's great, dear. Thanks." (please note the lack of exclamation points!) If one of the kids got his name though, they could draw him a picture and he'd be completely happy with it. So guess who ends up drawing old grumpy pants name? Yep. Me. So then I'm stressing over what the heck to make him. He isn't really the kind of person who appreciates handmade stuff. Or if he is, he's not good at showing it (this is a hint to him in case he's reading).

I was making a lot of other gifts this year so I didn't think too much about his gift until, BAM! 2 days before Christmas I had a panic attack because I hadn't made a thing! I loaded up the kids and we rushed to the fabric store. I was in that store poring over little fat quarter bundles and charm packs, trying to think of something quick and easy. I literally wanted to cry right there in the middle of the store. And then I saw a few jelly rolls tucked away in a corner. They had one of the new Reunion fabric by Sweetwater. As soon as I saw it I knew I needed to make him a jelly roll race quilt. I recently made one for my grandma and it came together really quickly. Two days before Christmas? I could do it!

Turns out I couldn't. I got the top done (minus the borders) in time so he could have something to unwrap. He wasn't really impressed with it. BUT!!! It is now completely quilted and I think he will love it *fingers crossed*. I think it was just hard for him to picture it finished.

I used a grey Kona solid for the borders, and the backing and binding are from the Hometown fabric line, also by Sweetwater. The two lines go together pretty well, I think. I haven't stitched the binding to the back completely yet, but I'm working on that now.

He'd better love it. I want to see him jump up and down and do a happy dance. Hey, a girl can dream!

Handmade Holidays

So... it's officially November. Less than two months until Christmas which is making me freak out a little. I have decided to make myself a list of all the handmade gifts I hope to give this year and set a schedule of when I will make them. I am sticking with simple gifts. No one will be getting a quilt from me, I just don't have that kind of time. But I can make a wall hanging or two, and a few market bags!

In my family we only give gifts to the children. We decided awhile ago that if buying or making something for a grown-up will be a hindrance to buying or making something for one of the kids then we just shouldn't do it. Many folks are in the same boat that we are, and are struggling financially. Christmas can be more stress than fun, and it shouldn't be that way.

If you can sew, there are all kinds of things you can make that will be wonderful gifts that take very little time or money. Today, November 1st, is the first day of the 5th annual Handmade Holidays over on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog. All month long they will have new projects and tutorials of things that you can make as gifts for everyone in your family! Of course, not everyone appreciates a handmade gift, and to them I say "NO GIFT!!!" because I'm just mean like that.

I urge you to check out Handmade Holidays and challenge yourself to make a handmade gift for everyone on your list. Even something as simple as a coffee cozy to go along with that Starbucks gift card you give your co-worker every year, or whatever! It will be wonderful and you'll be amazed at how many people gasp and say "you made that?!?! How awesome!"

And because a blog post isn't complete without a photo, here is a totally unrelated picture of my kiddos all dressed up in their Halloween costumes last night: