Christmas Here I Come!

I finished the hat for my sister-in-law last night. I'm all done with Christmas presents and the husband gets home this afternoon for a week of fun and relaxing. May your Christmas be bright and full of cheer. See you in the next year.

Keep Warm

KEEP WARM

Today I've been spending the majority of the day cleaning. It's not what I really want to be doing but it HAD to be done. I'm trying to get the house all ready before all the festivities start to begin. I plan on spending the weekend cooking, relaxing and enjoying family. So today was my work day. So if you have a few spare moments of your own check out a couple of things I've been enjoying this last week.
Fabric Christmas Trees by The Small Object
Some great cookies again from The Small Object
I've made the pinwheel ones and they are amazing!
This great post about letter writing by Edward and Lilly
And a humbling advent through the view of the sky. This sight has been a lot of fun for the girls and seeing some spectacular photos of our universe.

Enjoy the Holiday week, I can't wait to see what the new year brings.

Christmas Photos

Last night I made my husband take pictures of the kids for a nice picture to put in the Christmas cards. Wow was that a lot of work! Getting a five year old, 3 year old and 18 mo. old to all sit nicely all at the same time was next to impossible. It took a lot of photos, some mild threatening, cajoling and general chaos but we did finally get one that will work and a lot of silly ones that are still nice to have.
And yesterday when I should have been doing other things, like cleaning, I decided to make Christmas dresses for the girls dolls. I thought I could get away with just one but when the younger daughter saw the dress she had to have one too. Why I thought they could share I'll never know. But now they and their dolls are ready for Christmas. And while I was at it I made a toy mouse for the cat. I used this pattern from PimpStitch for a mouse ornament and turned it into a toy by filling up the mouse with half batting and half catnip and left off the ribbon to hang it. The cat seemed to enjoy it for the photo shoot and wondered what happened to it when I took it away to wait for Christmas. If your wondering about the pirate fabric it's because the cat's name is Blackbeard, we're big fans of pirates in this house. 18th century ones that is.And now that all the silly things are made I've finally picked up my needles to start the hat for my sister-in-law for Christmas. I got the book "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" for my birthday so I'm using the hat pattern out of there and I bought some amazing wool by Malabrigo that's soft purplish merino wool that I'm in love with. I'm planning on making myself a pair of fingerless mittens from the same book with the rest of it. I better get it all going Christmas will be here in seven days! Whew.

Brrr..

It's finally starting to warm up around here, meaning it's finally above zero. I'm just glad I can go outside now without coughing because the air is so cold! And cold weather usually means lots of cocoa, lots of snuggles and a little bit of knitting.....
On Sunday I went to a cookie exchange, and it was great to get a whole assortment of cookies that I didn't have to make. I just made 6 dozen of one cookie then we gathered, ate, drank, and traded. Of course the cookies are almost already half way gone so I'm sure I'll be making more soon. I found this recipe yesterday for Lemon Cookies by oh, fransson and I think they will have to be made. I love lemon and these look perfect.
I made this knitting needle organizer as a custom order for a lady here in the area. It's for her mother and she let me pick the fabrics, which was kind of nerve wracking and a bit exciting all at the same time. She said her mother likes blue so I hope she likes it! It's already in the mail and off to its new home, whew.

One Christmas present down...

I sewed up this purse for my sister for Christmas last week. The fabric is a vintage napkin I found at the Salvation Army and I couldn't resist getting it and for a quarter who wouldn't buy it! My sister is going to Ecuador to visit her boyfriend for Christmas and I thought this would be the perfect thing for those warm days. I'm really jealous that she'll be nice and hot while I'm here freezing my butt off in negative temperatures! I sent it to her last week and then I had to have her take a picture of it because I'd forgotten to myself.
I'm slowly getting all of my Christmas projects done and will post pictures as soon as Christmas is done. I sold my first item on Etsy over the weekend so it's nice to have things going off to different homes. I sold this cute knitting needle organizer. I desperately need to find some more of this sheep fabric from Japan, it is just too cute! I found this at Cottonblue on etsy.Also, check out "oh, hello friend" and enter to win some fabulous things!

English Trifle

One of the number one reasons I love Christmas is English Trifle. My mom has made this dessert almost every Christmas that I can remember. And now I pass on that tradition to my family. The best thing about trifle is my favorite things are combined, raspberries, custard and whipping cream. I can eat homemade whipped cream on anything! So I was searching for an actual recipe to share since I just make mine off the top of my head and found this perfect one from the BBC. It's basically the exact same recipe as mine. It calls for sherry on the cake but I've also used raspberry liqueur which is just as good. You should really try this treat and maybe it will become your next holiday tradition. And since I don't have any pictures of the trifle, since it's yet to be made, I've included a nice wintery photo taken by my husband to get everyone into the holiday spirit.

Pandas and Gifts

My daughter's birthday is at the end of December, poor girl. Because this week was the last week of preschool we celebrated her birthday early, calling it her "fake birthday". Because she is in love with Pandas she picked panda cookies to bring to school. They turned out really cute and it was pretty funny seeing all the black lips as they ate the cookies. I'm sure all the parents loved me when they came to pick up their kids.I am also "lucky" enough to have my birthday in December and I got some very cool presents, like this stack of vintage linen from parents, as well as a really nice evening spent with the family. Here's a couple pictures of my goodies and most importantly was some money from my sweet hubby to spend on Etsy, my favorite place!
Also on a side note I made my first sale to a local knitting store for some needle organizers I had made! It's kind of cool to walk into a store and see my things displayed! It was pretty exciting and I have a couple of other things in the works for the new year.

Christmas Dwarfs

We're in full Christmas swing around here and I'm loving every minute of it. I mostly love the twinkling lights around our house. But this year I'm also loving the dwarfs on my buffet. I found a box of Christmas dwarfs from the 1950's at an estate sale this spring. It was one of those buy junk for a buck deals and this was buried in it. They are very cute watching over us as we eat. Now I need to start finishing up my Christmas presents before it's too late. I feel like I have all the time in the world now but I know the day for festivities will be here before I know it. Good luck to all of you finishing up those homemade gifts. Tis the season.

Me

*Warning this post is kind of picture happy, I couldn't resist posting all my new creations. So please indulge me....

I've been doing so much sewing in an effort to build up my shop and develop my knitting needle organizers that I really haven't had any time to just sew fun things. So yesterday I devoted a large portion of the day and evening to doing just that. The outcome was a purse for myself, two skirts for the girls and a knitting organizer for my own needles. Now in case you think I locked my kids in the closet while I was doing all this sewing I did do the majority of it after the kids were in bed and I'll guiltily admit I put a movie on this morning to finish them up. But hey a girl's got to have her "me" time. So I'm very happy with the product and I'm off to sew up a quick pair of pants for the boy of the family, I know he doesn't want to be left out of the sewing goodness!
As a side note I got the ribbon on both of these skirts from Rosa Pomar and I love it and I'm always trying to think of ways to use it. This happened to work perfectly with the Japanese linen I'd gotten on Etsy. I love when things work out that way.
He's wondering where his special garment is.Finally a purse for me, made by me. Perfect.The knitting pouch.This is looking kind of empty. I may need more needles!

Girl Backpacks

When my oldest started preschool last year I made her a backpack that looked like her because when I went to kindergarten that's what my mom did for me, and that's what started me on this crazy path to sewing, creating and having my own shop. I finally finished up some backpacks for my shop and some lucky little girls. We'll see if I can get anymore done before the craziness of Christmas.
I've been meaning to post this for awhile but about a month ago I bought this fabulous pouch from tiny happy. I love everything she sews and I'm trying to keep myself in check by not buying up her whole store. Between that and her blog, I'm definitely in love. I love how she uses nature in her things. Very inspiring.Picture by tiny happy

Vintage Finds and Knitting Organizers

Estate sales are my best friend. I could spend all day at one estate sale digging and digging to find those special treasures. What I especially love about estate sales is getting home and digging through the boxes and finding things I didn't even know were there and loving them! My sister-in-law also has a special fondness for estate sales and is always kind enough to look out for things I may like. These two particular items I just received from her I love. One is old felt banners from national parks. Because our sons room is decorated in a old wilderness theme these are perfect. I can't wait to decorate with them. The next one is paper dolls with clothes. They are so cute and although I know the girls would love them I'm saving them for when they get a little older (or secretly for myself).I've been busy trying to develop a couple of products that the local knitting store may carry. So far it's gone pretty well and that means I was able to put a few more things in my shop. I'd have to say I'm really partial to this sheep fabric I got from Japan. I need to find more because it's so darn cute.

Motivation

My hubby has been great with this whole sewing thing. This weekend he put up shelves so that I could finally organize all of my fabric and also took the kids so I could focus on sewing for a couple of hours! It was great and I actually have something to show for it. Slowly but surely I'm getting things listed. Now I guess I bet start cleaning my house too. It's amazing when I get focused how everything outside of that tunnel goes my the wayside. Oh well, I have some pretty stuff to show for it at least. :)

A Hat and A Purse

I finished up my first knitted hat last night. It looks super cute on my son and I only had a bit of trouble at the top. I'm still trying to figure out how to use double pointed needles. But for my first time I'm pretty happy with it and it looks cute on, so that's all that matters!I finished up another purse to put on Etsy yesterday. It seems I'm actually finally getting in gear and getting all the ideas in my head into actual projects. Of course I head to visit my sister with the kids tomorrow so no projects for a few days but we do plan on going to a quilt museum which should be very inspiring. I'm sure I'll come home with a lot more ideas to add to the list. In all honesty I'm just hoping we all survive the long car ride! Here's to bribing with candy and toys!

Etsy and the Purse

After the craziness of Halloween I actually got something put up on Etsy! Yipee, I'm doing a little happy dance. I just feel good about finally being confidant enough to put something up for sale. I have more in the works so hopefully there will be more soon. Here's a snapshot of the purse. Shameless self promotion at its best and a couple cute Halloween pictures.There's just something about cute kids hands in a pumpkin full of seeds.

Tobacco Pouch

I made a tobacco pouch for my husband a couple of weeks ago that he's been asking me to make for ages. I finally got it accomplished. I used the same tweed flannel that I used for the other pouch and made three pockets inside to hold the pipe, tools and tobacco. The buttons are all vintage from the Czech Republic and folds into thirds and closes with another button. It turned out how I wanted it to the first try. I love it when that happens. I'm hoping to make a couple more here shortly for my Etsy shop. I hope to get a few things made to get my Etsy shop up and running. Of course it's been busy with Halloween and life in general but I'm crossing my fingers it will happen. And for inspiration my labels came in the mail this week! So now I have no excuse to not get started.Of course tomorrow I'm hoping for some Halloween crafts and baking to occur,with a nice walk around the neighborhood since for some reason the weather has decided to go back to fall and not winter and it's been nice to actually be able to go outside without a coat.

Pouch

It's my father-in-laws birthday today and since I'm trying to make most gifts homemade I had to come up with something for a guy, which is not easy. I'd have to say girls are much easier to make things for it seems like. So I came up with this little pouch to hold the future tobacco pipe I'm sure he'll be getting soon from his son. Now, he doesn't actually smoke, unless with my husband or my brother-in-law and my mother-in-law does not love the pipe but I know it's a male bonding thing so I'm helping him along. The fabric is flannel that looks like tweed and I'm loving making things with it, especially more "manly" things and the button is one from my sister-in-law, again from the Czech Republic. I'm going to be sad when I've used all those up!

Awesome Quilt!

I found this giveaway for this amazing quilt at Pigtails and Snails and I'm hoping to be the lucky winner, but if I'm not maybe you could be! Go check it out and win a quilt. I'm hoping that I'll be able to win the pattern if I'm not lucky enough to get the quilt! Good Luck.

Dresses

I was able to actually a little bit this weekend. It was a nice weekend to sew with the snow and cold weather. It was a perfect tea and toast weekend. So I finally finished up some dresses I had cut out for the girls last winter. Thankfully I cut the pieces out bigger so they still fit them. I like the colors quite a bit but I'm not in love with the puffy sleeves. I think they look a little like prairie girls. But they're still cute. Now I need to work on the numerous other sewing projects on my list!It was a tad harder to get my second daughter to stand still long enough to take a picture so it turned out a little blurry. That girl will only stand still for about five seconds, she's just a ball of energy!

Ribbon and Yarn

I just received the ribbon I purchased from rosapomar and it is amazing. It's my first overseas purchase and I love the elephants. My second daughter loves elephants so I'm thinking of a cute skirt with ribbon trim. It also came with a cute postcard of the dolls she makes. What a talented lady!While I was in Billings I did a lot of fabric and craft shopping with my sister-in-law. I picked up this great yarn while out and I can't wait to think of something to use it for. It is so soft and cozy, I think it would make a wonderful neckwarmer. Of course I need to keep working on my knitting skills so maybe just a scarf.

Tea Cozy

It's my mom's birthday tomorrow so I knitted up a cozy for her mug to go with her favorite tea. I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to knitting but I enjoy how peaceful it is. For this cozy I used organic cotton and a vintage button my awesome sister-in-law brought me from the Czech Republic. Tomorrow I'm going to Billings to see said sister-in-law with the kids and I'm so excited. I can't wait to hit the fabric stores and hopefully with luck some estate auctions.

Sewing Machine Cover

I saw this tutorial on a sewing machine cover and decided I needed one too. It gets quite dusty in my basement so I definitely needed to cover my machine up. This was a really easy tutorial to follow and it turned out great. The only thing I modified was the box corners because my Bernina machine was larger on one end than the other. I just made a bigger box corner for the larger end and it fit perfectly. I also added a different coordinating fabric around the bottom and I didn't make a liner, because I thought it'd be quicker. It took a short amount of time and blocks those pesky dust bunnies.

Treasures

Everywhere we go the girls collect things. It's amazing how many sticks, rocks, and leaves I have on my front porch at this moment. So when my oldest daughter was going to the mountain for a preschool field trip I decided she needed a bag to put those treasures in. And if one has a bag than the other needs a bag. Thus the treasure bags. My next goal is to think up some things to sew for my 16 month old son. It's much easier to find things to sew for girls than for boys. I may need to learn how to sew a truck.As you can see the older sister has already become quite the expert at posing.

Doll Clothes

The girls were begging for new outfits for there dolls so instead of going and buying some we made some at home. The girls picked out the fabric they wanted and I sewed them up. They even have cute bloomers underneath you can see peaking out in the picture. It was a lot less work than I thought it would be so I'm hoping to make some more outfits maybe for Halloween and Christmas to match the girls.

Backpack

My second daughter started preschool this fall so I made her a doll backpack for her first day of school. She takes it everyday and puts her stuffed animals inside and hauls it to school. I love when she puts it on her back and the feet are dangling on her back, I just think it's so cute! I'm planning on making some more of these for my Etsy shop. I'm hoping to get that going here shortly.

Sewing Room

I had a sewing room in our old house but I love this room much more. The previous owner used it to tie flies and other manly pursuits and I've turned it into my own girly space. It still has a little bit to go. I need to get some more shelves for my fabric and to maybe paint but every time I go in there it makes me happy to see my things displayed and accessible. It makes me much more excited about sewing and spending time in there!The cat likes it too!

Back to Blogging

Well, we have successfully moved! We moved in July and got settled in and now we're enjoying being in the same town as the grandparents. Wow, is that nice! So I've been neglecting this blog but I'm back in the swing of things and I actually have been doing some sewing so I'll be doing a couple of posts today of my projects. But for now I leave you with the vintage doll I got at a garage sale that also came with some lovely, hand sewn, vintage doll clothes.