Christmas Wordles

I spent months practicing with my ward choir's christmas programs, then came down with the flu yesterday.  I missed the program, I was quite disappointed.  But to make up for it, I made a wordle, because they are so fun to make.

Most of the song were not from Handel's Messiah, but I just love the Messiah, and have been rocking out to it all season long. High School is extremely lame in my opinion, but one of the highlights of High school was singing the Messiah in Choir.  (Yeah, that might make me lame.) Then I was having so much fun, that I made another wordle. 

You can print a copy out if you like. 

Now I have to find frames for them, even if its only six days until Christmas.

My little Elves

While daddy was at class, we painted ornaments.
 I thought my children looked like little elves in a workshop sharing their paints.

The finished projects: (this penguin got his eyes eventually.)

preschool apron

About last week at this time I realized every year of elementary school my mother would send me to school with a potted plant or two depending on how many teachers I had.  Every year I gave my teachers a potted plant.  Which mean my son needed a christmas present for his teachers!  Ahh, what was I going to do?  My mom would have told me to go buy a potted plant, live flowers are pretty much her advice on everything.  But kill all live plants, so I couldn't in good conscious give J's teachers one.  Instead I made a hostess apron for them, because thats what I do.  My mom takes care of live plants, and I make aprons. I also didn't have time to go to the store so I had to figure out what I had on hand that would work.  This is all I could come up with. I like it.

Time was growing short, and I didn't have any other material that matched in a big enough piece, so instead of making a second for the assistant teacher I gave her this one. I'm super lame, I know.  But she is young and thin, so I figured she could work it.  I had two aprons with the same  material and I never ever wore this one except for the picture, so I did give her a new apron.  J also picked out hand soap for the teachers because he wanted to give them soap with the apron.  I don't know what is acceptable present, I didn't know if just hand soap worked?!

Sadness Strikes

First off, last night I was sewing a Christmas present for J's preschool teacher when my needle broke.  A normal occurrence on its on, but when I went to replace it I only had one left.  Four years ago, I got my sewing machine from my grandma, she hadn't used it in years. It came with two packages of replacement needles, I used the last replacement needle last night.  This is terrible, because now I have to go buy needles, I don't know how to, I have never in my life bought needles for a sewing machine.  I'm a little nervous. Wish me luck.

Secondly, you see this beautiful stocking I made my niece? It was lost in the mail, we don't think it will ever be found again.  I'm so sad, I'm in morning.... 

I really don't mind making one more stocking, but I'm sad this one is gone.... 

Its like misplacing your best friend. But not really.

I hope you didn't think this post was more serious than it turned out to be, because this is my craft blog, so you know.

Still I'm sad about both accounts.

Birthday Present

I had this plain jane bear that no one ever played with, so I dressed it up all girly and pink for my daughter's birthday. I decided I wasn't going to spend much money on toys because I needed to start her a savings account.  My son has one and although we pay my husband's tuition instead of adding to it, my daughter needed one too. So I made her a girly bear and put the toy money in a brand new savings account! Hooray she can collect a half a cent in interest!

This picture is terrible, but I even monogrammed the foot.

Christmas Hostess Apron

I know I already have all the seasonal aprons I need. But I never much liked full aprons, I just kept making them because I enjoy sewing. But then this summer when I made a half apron, I loved it, I wear it at least weekly. Who knows which one I wear more often.  So I wanted a fun christmas one, but I didn't want to buy new material so I had improvise. I love how it turned out. I want to wear it every day from here until christmas.

I want to use the main material because it almost looked cookie like but I didn't have a full fat quarter so I did a red strip of ruching to make it look better than a seam, I love the ruffle in the middle instead of the bottom. This opens up all new possiblities. I found out I NEED a pocket, the other day I was wearing my birthday apron and didn't have a place to store the camera.

Now I'm sure someone out there is wondering how useful is a hostess apron for actual cooking? I'm tall enough that I find it very useful, I only ever get my waist messy. Occasionally my pants when I grab a messy kid to wash up. So I just wear my apron up at my true waist (high waist things are fashionable right now, right?!) and I never get messy anymore. Plus I don't get hot. Not to mention I never remember to put the apron on first, so things are usually starting to spill and its much easier for me to just tie something around my waist then get an apron over my head with all my long hair.

Baking Buds

I now have two helpers in the kitchen, and luckily they usually don't both help at the same time. Three's a crowd.

My first helper is looking old these days.  He was has lost interest in stirring but was quite helpful in decorating the gingerbread boys after I iced them up.

Remember in the song with the littlest one in the bed that makes everyone roll over and fall off? That would be my littlest one in the kitchen- boy is she bossy! Don't take away what ever she is stiring with or you'll pay.

Quick antidote, she is bossy enough that I often shied away from baking while she was awake.  Then my mom was baking something with both kids and it was utter chaos, to the Nth degree. I could barely handle watching. My mom said, Grandma Gibbs (her grandma) would have loved this!  She loved enthusiastic children baking, she just put them on the stool and stood behind them.  Since then I've been more apted to letting my daughter help, but I learned a good lesson.  My son always was next to me and a relaxed helper, my daughter takes baking as a full contact sport, and I have to stand right behind her or fights break out.

Birthday Treats

My daughter turned 2, so I spent a whole day baking.
First these:

Then these:

To get this:

(she is my christmas baby that is why she has the name she does, so I wanted do a christmas theme cake before she is old enough to talk and request something.)

I left over cake batter so I made a small cake to eat the day of her actual birthday.  Her party was the day before.  Sure its lopsided, part of it didn't come out of the pan... but it tasted good.

I don't know what anyone else thought, but I thought it was all super yummy, homemade gingerbread cookies, with spice cake and cream cheese frosting. The frosting was some of the best I've made, in my opinion, just the right about of cream cheesy, I don't know if all 6 cousin that attended are just polite or if the tartness of the cream cheese didn't bother them. None of them complained!

Another Wreath, but Christmasized

I liked my last wreath so much, I made another, but this time for Christmas.  I needed an evergreen wreath, even if its fake.  The best part is the wreath was only two dollars, unfortunately my H wasn't as cheap.  

Christmas Pillows

Even though I love the pillows I made a few months ago, I needed Christmas pillows to match my Christmas Wall Quilt.  I thought about all the different cute things I could do, but then ended doing quick and easy. Which makes sense since, I'll only have them out for 20 days. I used material I already had that was plenty busy by itself. 

I love that they match the season, and my decorations.

Stockings for the Nieces

This year I had three neices, and I made them all stockings.

The first stocking I used tulle for trim, because I liked how that turned out last year, plus it goes with that family.

But then I completely dreaded making more stockings, eventhough I love tulle, I couldn't handle anymore gathering. I still two more nieces that need some stockings, plus two more on top of that for my parent's collection of grandchild stockings (they only had two granddaughters, the third niece belongs to a different grandma.) So Instead I went to the store and bought rick rack.

I decided for my parents collection, it would be fun if they had completely opposite stockings with the same material. Bonus, is I used up absolutely all of this material, no left overs to store. Also I'm fairly lazy, so I don't embroiderer the whole name if it has a shortened name on grandchildren stockings. I rarely call my son his shortened name, but yet his stocking at grandma's is shortened. Bonus, is I used up absolutely all of this material, no left overs to store.

They all get scotty dog stockings, because I was at the store with my mom when I picked out the material, and she likes scotty dogs.

Teeny Stocking

With some scraps my mom and I made this teeny stocking.

When I hung it up, I asked my son if it was cute, he said yeahh... cuter than Nan. I laughed so hard. Normally he thinks his sister is the cutest thing, especially when she is in dresses and wearing things like flower clips. He likes 'em girly.

Another Apron Craze

About a month ago I went on another apron craze.  I sewed this for my daughter.  She didn't have an apron, and always fought over her brother's with him.

Then I made this one, which is unisex (I think) for a child.

And come on, how could I not resist making another polka dot, cupcake apron. 

 I love these two materials, I guess there is actually three, oh wait four.

Back by Popular Demand

Yes, one request of pictures a baby blanket is popular demand. Here it is, a little more colorful than the previous one I made for this mom, but not as loud as the first one I made her. (That was before I photographed my art work, it was purple with cartoon ballerinas everywhere.)  Since I made it before the baby was born, my sister in law was not able to change the name after she was born. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This picture is awful, and makes the materials clash, but I wanted the entire blanket in one picture.

Here is the question, obviously I have the blog so I can show off my crafts no matter how good or bad they may be. I think I'm a fairly good hand embroidery, but I'm always nervous about posting it because I don't want people to be annoyed that I posted their child's name on the internet, even though I never post a picture of said child to go with the name.

My gratitude Calendar

All the cool kids are making a list of everything they are thankful for this month, so I wanted to jump on the wagon. Here is mine, a calendar, each box is a different day.

Although the squares don't say who said it, the list is a mix of everyone's thoughts. I assume the responses don't need names.  Clearly we know who is thankful for toy bunnies, who loves baby dolls, and who likes conversations with other grown-ups.

Birthday Baking/ Birthday Apron

I found this cute material, and wanted to make an apron for birthdays.  My daughter turns 2 in a month, and it be so great to wear my fun new apron.

Dragon Hide Dolly Blanket

When my son was a baby, his Aunt Teresa made him a green silky blanket with the soft raised polka dots on the other side.  I have no idea what that material is called, and my husband told my son years ago that it was from a dragon, it is call the dragon hide blanket.  My daughter loves silky soft things, so she always wants the blanket, and yet my son refuses.  We had a brown scrap from my mom, and then we had a pink scrap of some sort of silky stuff, and tah tad, we have another dragon hide blanket, a little more girly this time. (Three pieces pieced together.)  After watching How to Train a Dragon we know that dragons are more colors than just green.  

This blanket is only big enough for a doll.

She is a very conscientious mother.

Little Cupcake Apron

I love cupcakes, I love material, I especially love material with cupcakes on it, and since I'm also enjoy sewing aprons, I made my daughter an apron. We only have one child apron, and the kids fight over it now when we bake, so I whipped up another one.

My Monogram Wreath

I found this tutorial, and really love the Monogram, I love all monograms. I finally got around to buying my supplies.  It was cheaper than I expected, the H was the same price as the wreath, only $3 and something. The great thing is I can change it for the seasons, by pulling off the flowers and gluing different seasonal embellishments. This might be a reoccurring post. I love the wreath.

Not my creation

Remember Nannie Doll? Well my mom made one for my niece with dark hair. Isn't it darling? I want one, (not really). I didn't make this doll, but I did draw her face. I thought the dark hair version was so cute I had to post it.

The Last of the Halloween

I think this is the end of my Halloween crafts.  As mentioned my daughter is little red riding hood for Halloween, and so I'm dressing up as grandma.  I needed an old fashion sleeping bonnet, so of course I googled it.  I found the directions on how to dress up like Mrs. Claus.
You start out with a 18 inch circle, and then I changed the directions, I folded the edge of the material over two inches, so it gave me a inch wide hem.
Then I sewed bias tape on top of the hem in a circle so I could thread skinny elastic around inside.  My hat was not such perfect circle, but my bias tape was a beautiful circle, so I had to photograph.

I thought 18 inches in diameter would be too much material, but it actually turned out a tad small, but it will work for a few hours.  My daughter loves the sleeping bonnet, it could become a favorite toy after Halloween.  It fits much better on her head then mine.

Everything Ghost

Its everything ghost in our house this October.  The year of the ghost.  So when were asked to bring 15 small things to share with all of J's classmates for Halloween, I remembered kleenex ghosts. Sure its hardly an original craft, but he is young so its new to him.  He had fun making them for his friends.

He drew spooky faces all of them. He also drew blood all over his kleenex ghost but not his friends, because it is so spooky and he didn't want to scare them.  His dad and I thought that was very respectful of him. 

In our small bag of of tootsie roll halloween candy we only had 10 lollipops, so we just tied kleenex to the large tootsie rolls, it worked fine.

He also drew fifteen pictures of spiderwebs and other spooky things to give to his classmates, drawing the pictures was his idea.

Halloween Cookies

Halloween Cookies with grammy. Hmm, this sounds famillar. Oh yeah, I make the dough by myself, and a day or two later, grammy takes care of the rest with the kids. We have more pictures of J and Grammy making sugar cookies than anything else.

Of course we had ghosts!  He is looking so big these days, and so dang cute!

Nan just scooped the frosting off the cookies with her knife and ate it.