I'm Sew Excited!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had a lovely time and got to spend some quality time with family.

My very generous father-in-law gave me this beauty for Christmas.

He purchased it at a local quilting store. I'm going tomorrow to learn the important stuff - like how to turn it on and thread the needle.

I can't wait to get started. I've been looking through my del.icio.us page for sewing ideas I've been saving for awhile.

I'm going to start with something relatively easy. Hopefully I won't be able to screw up these cloth napkins from Design*Sponge.

Don't you think the kids would love these super hero capes.

TipNut also has a great resource of tutorials for making aprons. (Honey, please don't laugh - you don't have to cook to need an apron. It would be nice to wear one while I decoupage something).

I've always thought these crayon roll-up pouches would be great gifts.

This should be enough ideas to get me started. As soon as I teach the baby how to change his own diaper and show the big kids how to make their own pjbs, I'll be able to get some sewing done!

Happy Holidays!

I didn't get our Christmas cards out this year.

I was waiting for that perfect picture. You know the one. All 3 kids are cooperative.

Smiling beautifully at the camera. Not upset because their little candy cane is broken.

That picture doesn't exist.

And I'm alright with that.

There's beauty in our imperfection.

Happy Holidays!

Snowman Ornaments

Davis' class party is on Wednesday. I thought it would be nice to make each of his classmates a snowman ornament.

I was inspired by a pattern in the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens Crafts issue. I stitched each child's initial on the untraditional hats.

Added a few buttons, wiggly eyes and scarf.

Add a little ric-rac to use for hanging on the tree.

Just so you don't think I have my act together. Below is a picture of the garland that should be beautifully wrapped and tied around my banister. Just keeping it real, folks!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

My baby boy is CRANKY! He got tubes put in both ears at the crack of dawn this morning. They also discovered his adenoids were enlarged and blocking the back of his nose. So the fact that he snores like an old man and breathes like Darth Vader is starting to make sense now.

It'll take about a week for him to fully recover, but the ENT said he should feel like a new kid. While he was sedated, they conducted a hearing test and he passed both ears successfully.

I'll be laying low for the next couple of days. I got to work on some cute snowmen ornaments while I was waiting today, so hopefully I can show them to yoy soon.

Beaded Christmas Tree Topiaries

I was flipping through an old copy of Better Homes and Gardens and found a photo of these great beaded Christmas trees.

I used two different sized beads (4 mm & 6 mm) to create a striped effect. I used hot glue to attach the beads to the cone form. If I were to do this again, I would use a super strong adhesive instead of the hot glue to avoid all the "gluey stringiness". The string was difficult to get off and caused the paint not to go on as smoothly as I would've liked.


I sprayed the beaded cone with a pearl glaze. After the glaze dried, I used a moss green acrylic paint and a foam brush to apply the paint. You have to work the paint in a little to get the color on the string. I repeated this step twice, and if I find the time and the energy, I'll probably do a third coat of each.

I got into a rhythm by the third one (which is the middle sized one). The beads look so much better if you're able to keep them in an alternating pattern and not lined up on top of each other, witch I didn't figure out until the last one.


WARNING: This project will take more glue and beads than you buy on the first trip to the craft store. If you are interested in making these and you live in the Annapolis area, you may not be able to find any beads. I'm sorry.

Our Girls

Words aren't coming easily this morning.

Five years.

Unbelievable.

I'll leave you with one of the last photos taken of Ellie and Kate together.

Our girls are just as much a part of me today, as they were the day they were born. For that, I am grateful.

Stocking Advent Calendar

The Countdown's On . . .

We've never used an Advent calendar before, but I think the kids are old enough this year to appreciate the countdown to Christmas.

I was inspired by all these wonderful calendars and decided to give it a try.

I drew a stocking on a piece of cardboard to use as my "pattern". After a little time on Google, I learned I needed to use a blanket stitch to sew the two stocking pieces together.

If you're anything like me and have no idea what a blanket stitch is, here's a helpful YouTube video showing how it's done.

I had so much fun doing these stockings. It's opened up a whole new world of felt crafting.

To satisfy my green side, I found felt that's made from recycled plastic bottles to use on my next project.

All 24 stockings aren't filled yet. What do you put in your Advent Calendars?