It was a sunny christmas, and a snowy new year's.

Christmas was great for my family and me. We piled up in Anna's downtown salt lake abode with puzzles and movies. The past two days we have been shopping fervently with our Christmas money. The kids in my family only get money as gifts, because all we like to do is shop. It is a great time of year for us. 

No sewing lately. Taking it easy. After new year's I'll be back at the grind recovering my living room chair and sewing myself a birthday dress. Excited yet, my loyal ninety followers?

Look what can be done in 4.5 hours!

A Christmas present is made, and a teenager is made content-- a true holiday miracle.

I promised my little sister, Olivia, that I would make her a PD for her present this year. She is in town for the holidays, so Saturday night was as good as any to make it for her. She watched Eclipse with commentary as I serged along. Pretty nice outcome, ifidosaysomyself. Olivia proceeded to try on every pair of my shoes with it once I was done, even though she is a big foot and hardly fits in my size. The roses on the waist are my home-made roses. don't they look good? Merry Christmas to all.

I hate craft blogs.

I do. Tis true. I hate them because most of the stuff that is posted is either ugly or too hard to make for an average person.

However, so I don't look like a Scrooge, I eat my own words with this post. The other day Anna and I made Christmas crafts. We were eating lunch at Pei Wei when we decided that the stockings we were going to make that afternoon weren't very inspiring. We wanted to make really long "nightmare before Christmas" style knitted stockings without actually knowing how to knit-- an impossible task. You have to understand something about Anna and me: we aspire to be in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, so decorations have to be perfect and match our decor seamlessly. We take a lot of pride in our homes and put a lot of work into them, so Christmas decorations like stockings become an all-day ordeal.



Long story short, Christmas stockings turned into Christmas bird houses to hang on the fire place-- an ingenious idea that came from Moi. We bought our wood birdhouses from Joanne's, spray paint, glitter, and birds from Michael's, and fake snow from Target (why one store couldn't have all of this is beyond me and the power of this blog). I painted mine silver with blue birds to match my tree and decor, and Anna did her houses in gold with red birds. What I love about this project is that I have never seen anything like it before, and I might put mine, Steve's, and Bridgette's name on each one with puffy paint eventually.



So we painted them, put the glitter on the little holes, glued the birds, put snow on top, and then to make it extra Chrissy we trimmed them with red bows. Without the multiple trips to craft stores, we made these houses from paint to bow in about 2 hours. Plus it was fun.



They look way better in Anna's house because her fireplace is 100 years old. Mine is... just ugly. I rent my apartment so I can't really do anything about it. I do what I can, people.

I was feeling extra crafty when Anna left. I proceeded to make this wreath that I found on Have A Cute Day. I love love love this wreath even though it took me about six hours to make. You need A LOT of pom-poms, about 50, to make it look good. It was worth the work!

Over exposed? Not at all.

Anna's coat is done. Hallelujah, peace on earth, good will toward men. Isn't it precious? Especially the ruffle sleeves. I love giving good Christmas gifts, especially ones that I have made myself. Anna gets to wear her coat before Christmas morning, though. SO it's not only a great present, but a sneaky deaky present. 

I must say that I am pretty proud of myself for how well this collar turned out. I love making outerwear because of the rewarding feeling you get once it's done. I think I just might make myself this same coat, but in leopard print, of course.

I feel reluctant signing anything that has to do with my music.

I was up until 4:30 this morning sewing Anna's coat. I couldn't fall asleep, so instead of lying in bed with stupid commercial jingles rolling though my head, I decided to be productive. But what really bites my balls is that I couldn't sleep in! I hate staying up so late and not being able to at least go till noon. But I am exhausted now, so I will be able to fall asleep tonight, which is a happy thought. 

All I have left to do is sew on the buttons and a few snap closures. Pictures tomorrow with Anna modeling.

Sorry my blog is so boring lately (what? my insomnia is boring?). With such a large to -do list before the holidays, there isn't much "fun" sewing going on here. I do have a dress in mind after the holidays for my birthday, so things will get better.

Mmm, braised lamb shank. I love a lamb shank when it is braised.

I'm working on Anna's coat today. My goal is to have done by tomorrow night, or rather Friday night. Hopefully tomorrow. I think I might be done by then. I've cut out the lining, altered the shoulder a little, and I started on one of the bound buttonholes. I like buttonholes, especially bound ones. They are fun to do and look really nice. I think I made them too small for the giant buttons though. So, sorry Anna, but I may have to get you different buttons to fit the holes. I am not going to re-do the one I just did that took an hour and a half. Tough.

This picture is very blurry. Iphone doesn't take the best close-up photos.

What I know for sure

LESS IS MORE. and that's the truth. 

I am soclose to being done with Kjrsten's dress. All I need is to sew on two more snap closures on the center front opening. 

I was originally going to sew roses all around the neck and down center front, but when Anna told me it looked like a clown dress, I decided to make a major edit, and it has resulted in only three roses on the neckline and a ruffle down the opening. I might put one more rose on the dress's right side that will sit on the shoulder... we shall see. 

The ruffle down center front, or next to center front, really, is just bias strips sewn to the flap. Simple. 

 

 

 

I just sew on, sewing on.

Yes, I forced myself to start working yesterday in hopes to get my To-Do list done in two weeks, which is when my parents and Olivia are coming up for Christmas festivities. I finished the alterations on Whitney's dresses, finished alterations for my husband's work friend, and started on a Poor Man's Wife veil. I still need to finish the veil, finish Whitney's shirt, finish Anna's coat, and finish Kjrsten's dress. Yes, that's all.

PLUS I forgot work stuff that I have to sew. Oh great.  Yay.

Totally off-topic, but does anyone know where I can get a big snowy owl tree-topper for my blue and silver tree??

Is it Friday?.....already?

Holy moly. ICBIF (I can't believe it's Friday).

I have done, well, nothing really all week. I did have an appointment yesterday with Whitney from Rookie Cookie. Remember when I did her alterations? well, she ordered a shirt from me, so that's exciting, but still not inspiring enough to start working on a Friday. I promise I will start Monday. My to-do list is getting pretty long. 

Anna's coat

Kjrsten's dress

Whitney's shirt

...etc

I did take Bridgette to the park yesterday, so that's productive. And I also wrote down my to do list this morning, which was on my mental to-do list. SO check that off.