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.