Christmas

Here is the status of the sewing area just after finishing 5 days of sewing...



I did some tidying up... but there were thread and snips of fabric everywhere... and tons and tons of down! I remade another old down pillow into a small pillow for Mister e and no matter how careful I am with my sewing there is still loose down when I cut off the excess.

My main project was four sets of pyjamas and matching night caps for the kids. For now they all think it's cool to get pyjamas from mom/auntie... I'm sure there will be a day that it won't be so cool. For now, I'm taking advantage of it.



I always wondered what exactly a night cap was when we would read "A Night Before Christmas" as a child, so I thought I would make my kids and my niece and nephew night caps (with tassels) to match their new pyjamas. They opened these on Christmas Eve and all changed into their pyjamas for a reading of "A Night Before Christmas" by Papa... and they all put on the night caps! In fact, my niece insisted on sleeping in hers and became greatly distressed if it came off. She still had it on Christmas morning!

There was a lot of sledding. Even little Mister e had a go.



Then the night before we left to drive back to Portland, we had a blizzard...



About 10 inches of snow fell. We had to do some digging to get to the van in the morning, but we made it home safely. I will post more pictures of the Christmas goodies and project materials later... as well as a picture of my finished glass ball wreath with looks magnificent on it's perch above the mantel.

I love my daughter but....

... my serger dials are not to be used to contact Space Command or guide a boat into dock..... it took me a half and hour to sort them out.....

Glass Ball Wreath

I have loved glass ball wreaths ever since I say my friend, Mo's. I have collecting glass balls for a year to make this bad boy. Look at how they sparkle and shine in a pile. This picture is my computer desktop for the holiday season... sparkly....


So I worked away for an hour or so in my studio, wiring these balls onto a styrofoam wreath. The floor in the studio is concrete. You get one good bounce, surprisingly, and on the second hit it makes that pop and breaks. So if you are fast enough, you can catch it on the first bounce. I was not so fast, so there were a couple of casualties tonight...



This is as many as I can wire on. Tomorrow we are on to the hot glue phase.



I'm going to glue the balls together at key locations to give the wreath a little more structure and to keep some of the balls from popping off. Then I will fill in with some smaller balls. I think I need to scrounge up some little guys.. about 1" in diameter would be perfect in gold or green.... hmmm... time for a Goodwill run.

Mister Judy Sale!

My sister and I have a childrenswear business named Mister Judy, and we are having a sale! 25% off all clothing through the end of the year!




Come and check everything out!

Pillow Project

I have a few old feather/down pillows that don't stay fluffy anymore. I run them through the dryer with a trio of tennis balls, but after one night of sleeping on them they deflate. So I have recycled them into throw pillows for the couch.
First I shift all the down to one side and pin it in place:



Then I sew along the pins and eventually serge the edge too, so the down doesn't escape:



Then I make a lovely pillow cover for my "new" down form:



In this case, some lovely Amy Butler fabric. The pillow is a little smaller than I planned... I had an accident with the serger, and it caught a bit too much fabric.

Goodies from my father-in-law

Look at what my father-in-law scored at a yard sale!



I have a pretty good sized collection of vintage ric rac and seam binding, so this is a welcome addition. He got the whole bag for $2.00!!


The vintage colors and so much nicer than what is available currently... and they are 100% cotton too.

Last Color of Summer

I'm going to miss my flowers when the cold weather really starts.



It is a beautiful, clear day here, but very cold. I walked around my garden this morning and cut whatever I could find that was still blooming. I have one purple dahlia that is still struggling to put out blossoms... although the shape and color and a little unusual.



They add a burst of color to the kitchen which is starting to get that lovely winter light.

Halloween Update

This is Mister e's first piece of Halloween candy....



He received it at the second house we went to and would not let go of it. I held one hand and one wrist (that hand was holding the candy) and helped him walk for 2 blocks... which is a long way when you are not really walking yet. He held that peanut butter cup the whole time. When we came back to the house, he still held onto it while I took his costume off; and then continued to clutch it for the next hour. He loved Halloween and all the people that came to the house, and he become very attached to his first piece of candy. About 4 days later he discovered that you could actually open the wrapper and eat the contents. He wasn't too impressed with the candy... I think he liked the experience better.

Cinderella and Gus-Gus

The inspiration....



... the finished product...






They are a squirrely duo so it's hard to get a picture with both of them in focus. Mister e likes the mouse suit just fine and would have preferred to spend the rest of the day in it... but he was turning red.

Happy Halloween!

It is very cold here, so I had to create a last minute layering system for Cinderella that gives the appearance of bare skin. I think we have a good solution... I'll post pictures of the kids later.
We had some excellent pumpkin carving yesterday....



The zig zag mouths are Miss E's trademark. We just let her draw whatever she wanted on the pumpkins, and then I did my best to cut it out...



They are a motley crew...



The spouse's is the one with the bulging eye gourd and the square mouth.... sort of like a Borg.

Halloween is a comin'

Cinderella is in the DVD player and there is blue satin everywhere.... Halloween costumes are in progress.

Cider Making

We traveled to the farm last week for some cider making.





These are just some of the apples.



And the cider press... which I had the unfortunate experience of running my finger through when I was 4.



The apples are washed before being thrown in the grinding mechanism.





The cranking is the hard part. Usually the newest people "get" to do most of the cranking because they don't know what they are getting into and haven't "enjoyed" all the aches and pains the day after cider making.




And then the cider comes out...



bugs, debris, and other mystery items are filtered out as it is poured into jugs...



We made a total of 30 gallons.

Mister e's Birthday

The birthdays of the E's are three weeks apart. So things get a bit busy around here. After the fairy cake, I needed something a bit easier to execute. So Mister e had a caterpillar for his First Birthday.

I made a big batch of Seven Minute Frosting because it is so light and fluffy and has a beautiful sheen. It also takes color well.


The caterpillar sections were baked in my glass mixing bowls and then carved to fit one another.


Then I started to tint the frosting a little bit green and frosted the head and tail.


Adding some more green, I then frosted the next sections...


Finally I added more green and frosted the middle and added chocolate stick legs and miniature oreo spots.

After all the spun sugar challenges, I wasn't up to creating legs or anything else.



Mister e thought it was very good and ate the entire head.

Estate Sale Goodies

I love a good estate sale, and there was a packed one about 6 blocks from our house. AND it had reasonable prices on EVERYTHING! Here are some of the highlights!

This lovely wastebasket for Miss E's room...


These refrigerator dishes with lids. I love to use these in my studio for holding things.


A couple of mid-50's issues of Redbook...


A pink chenille bedspread with silver "yarns" woven through it.

All the stains came out, so it was installed immediately on Miss E's bed... who is thrilled to have more pink in her room.

This is a double sided baby blanket...

It looked like they had dusted the house with it, but after a few trips through the washing machine, everything came out and it is soft and beautiful. So Mister e gets a little something too.

We went back two more times for other goodies. There was so much stuff! It was hard not to just back the car up and start loading!

Goodies and Projects

I love to knit in the fall. I don't know why... but it must be more pleasant to hold wool yarns in the cooler weather. I've been working on a luscious wrap for myself out of mohair/angora from the girls at Camano Made.



Of course, I was running out of yarn, so I desperately emailed them hoping they had more and... they did!!! When my package arrived, these goodies also came:



... three balls of beautiful novelty yarns and some samples of other yarns they spin. The front one is incredible! It is a robins egg blue wool twisted with a rust colored chenille. The combination looks so modern... I'm going to have to think about that one.

And then Fabric Depot was having it's monthly 40% off fabric sale. I couldn't miss that! So Miss E and I went and picked out some new fabrics.



The dark yellow one is from Heather Ross's new collection. It will be a button down shirt for Mister e. The others will eventually be skirts and dresses for Miss E.... hopefully in a timely manner.