Decrease in funds = Increase in creativity

This past year has been a real budget cruncher for us and I know it has been for a lot of people we know as well. I am thankful everyday that God supplies our needs. One of my favorite quotes is (and I don't know who said it ) "Happiness is wanting what you have....not having what you want."  In the past I have been known to go a bit overboard at Christmas time, especially with our children and grandchildren. But limited cash means that I have had to really be more creative this year. And you know what? It's totally been fun! I love the way I've had to figure out how to get something done in a different way. My intention with these pillowcases was to take them out and have them professionally embroidered with the boys' names. But that is not in the budget right now. So then I thought I'd just give them the pillowcases without names.....but where is the fun in that? I remembered that I had tracing paper from waaaaaaaay back in my high school Home Ec class. I dug up my old sewing chest and at the bottom was this old package of tracing paper. It says $1.00 JC Penney on it. (Does anyone besides me remember when JC Penny still had a fabric department?) I wasn't sure it would still be any good, but it worked OK for this project! I found a font I liked on the computer and printed out the boys' names and then taped the name tags on the pillowcases where I wanted them, slipped some tracing paper between the printed names and the fabric and transferred it over. Then I used some DMC floss in co-ordinating colors and chain-stitched their names. (here's a tutorial on the chain stitch)  I love the way it looks! I even like it better than what the embroidery shop would have done! What has this economy caused you to do differently this Christmas to really stretch your creativity? I'd love to hear what you've come up with!

Sew much still to do!

With Christmas just around the corner, I've been doing my best to get my sewing projects completed. I started quite a while ago, hoping to be finished the week before Christmas so that I could really enjoy the holiday and not be so stressed out. Although I am happy with what I've accomplished so far, I still have quite a bit to finish if I'm going to hit my goal by the end of this week. I didn't get to do much sewing this weekend because my Fibro flared up and left me pretty much useless for a couple of days. I did manage to finish these 3 little shirts for David, Caleb and Elijah :) A few months ago I found the coolest retro bowling shirt pattern at the thrift store. The pattern was uncut and has all sizes from 3T up to adult XL. Good luck trying to find that many sizes in one patterns these days!  So I went online to find some fun fabrics to make the shirts for the boys. I found the fun Michael Miller "Dino Dudes" fabric for David (my little dino lover) on etsy and I found the Alexander Henry "Ready Set Robot" fabric in red for Elijah (his favorite color) and  blue for Caleb (his favorite color) on ebay. I love the way they look hanging all together :) I can't wait to see the boys wearing them! I'm guessing that by next year Gabriel will be big enough to get a fun bowling shirt too! (and who knows, maybe Nana will have some little girls to sew for as well :) 

The difference between boys and girls.....

 After I made the Ninja-bread man ornament for my friend Amy, my husband and my son said that the Ninja was pretty cool, but why wasn't he 1/2 eaten like the other Gingerbread ornaments that I made? The way men's minds work is obviously very different from mine :) So I decided to get to work on a Ninja for my son's tree that he sets up in his office that would be more "Guy Friendly". So here is my Ninja-bread Assassin! He has clearly had a bad day! He was a big hit with my son and my husband! Who would have guessed that?

My daughter, on the other hand, wanted an ornament for her tree that wasn't dismembered or bleeding so because she loves owls, I decided to make her one from this free tutorial I found online. This little guy went to his new home today and I think he's going to be very happy there. No danger of being eaten or attacked by Ninjas! (he does look a bit nervous though doesn't he?)

The Great Stocking Swap of 2010

Stocking Swap.....say that fast 5 times :) I mentioned before that I was doing a Stocking Swap with 4 friends and today I received the final stocking package in the mail so I can share with you all the goodies I received as well as the fun stuff I had an opportunity to make. The rules were fairly simple.

1. Make a stocking for each person.

2. Make 5 Christmas gift tags.

3. Make a handmade ornament.

4. Enclose a favorite recipe.

5. Mail them out by Dec. 5th.



the tags I made for the swap :)

It's been a lot of fun waiting for the mail, both ways, because I was so excited to see if my friends were happy with what I came up with for them. For Regena (who was the Swap-Mama for this swap and she is also a major Star Trek fan) I made a Star Trek inspired stocking and a Spock gingerbread cookie ornament. For Amy (who mentioned that she likes the homespun kind of Christmas as well as the fact that she loves shoes) I made a boot shaped stocking out of homespun fabric with her name embroidered in cross stitch and a Ninja-bread cookie ornament. For Mark (who said he loves Levi's 501 jeans) I made his stocking out of a pair of Levi's 501's and made him one of the 1/2 eaten gingerbread men ornaments. For Carolyn (who has many interests including scrapbooking and gardening) I made a more traditional stocking with a felt heart and one of the 1/2 eaten gingerbread men ornaments. As you can see by the photos I received the most amazing stockings and fun ornaments from all of my friends. I"ll admit that swaps can be addicting. Waiting for the mailman just won't be the same :)

Regena made this adorable snowman stocking & fun sock monkey ornament :)




Amy made this beautiful stocking with an adorable owl ornament:)





Carolyn made this cute quilted stocking & quilted snowman ornament :)




Mark made this beautiful quilted stocking & lovely photo ornament :)



I always wanted to be one of the Waltons...

Thanksgiving 2010

Oh my gosh! I can hardly believe that 2010 is almost over! A lot has happened this year in our little family. We have 2 new grand babies on the way and I can't tell you how excited I am about that. If I had my way, I would have been like the little Old Lady that lived in a shoe. All I ever wanted to be was a mom. Jose asked me to marry him on Christmas Eve when I was 16 and he was 18. (yeah...you can imagine how "thrilled" my parents were when I proudly showed off my new diamond solitaire!) We waited until I was 19 and he was 21 to actually get married. He was smart enough to know that he needed a stable job before we could start our lives together as husband and wife. I would have married him at 16 without hesitation. I played with dolls until I was 13. Not because I was immature, just because I wanted to be a wife and a mother.


February 1980

Our plan was to wait 3 years and work hard, save money and buy a house before we started a family. But God had another plan :) I got pregnant with our son on our honeymoon. I was over the moon happy :) 2 years later we welcomed our daughter into the mix. The week after I turned 22 we had our boy and our girl. Growing up in the United States for me meant that all my family (other than my parents and my brother) lived in Europe. I'd watch the Waltons on TV and dream of a large family. For me, it didn't turn out that way, but through my children now, I am enjoying the amazing gift of being a "Nana" to 4 amazing little guys and 2 more little ones in the new year. Our children are married to the most wonderful spouses and with those marriages, I now have another daughter and another son! Every Sunday after church we have 11 people around the table for lunch and I love every minute of it! Christmas Eve will be shared in our home again this year with our children and their families and my mom and my brother and his family. It's starting to look like the Waltons after all :)

September 2008

And the Winner is...... and other random craftiness!

First off, the winner of the pincushion is April from AZ! Congrats April! You need to email me with your address so that I can mail it out to you right away :)

I know I didn't blog much last week but I was busy crafting. I wanted to share pictures of the Christmas apron that I made for an early Christmas gift for my daughter and since she has it in her possession now, I can show you the pictures. This apron is the reason I bought the adorable Holiday Happy fabric designed by the Happy Zombie. (you should check out her blog for some really fun totorials and some neat ideas of ways to use this fabric as well! )

 I found this fabulous apron pattern as a free download at Sew4Home.com. I used deep red cotton sateen for the neck ties, lining and waist ties just as they did in the Sew4Home apron. I love the way it adds a bit of "fancy" to the apron and still makes it machine washable. My daughter is petite at 5' tall so I had to take 4 inches off the apron length and the neck ties and also shortened the ruffle layers by 1 inch each to make it more to her scale. I added the polka dot fabric and the white pom poms for a bit more fun. She loved it and I can already picture her entertaining friends during the holidays wearing her cute ruffled apron!

My friend Amy told me about a fabric store in Redondo Beach called the Cotton Shop that is going out of business after 51 years and everything in the store is 50% off. So I called my Mom and we headed on over there the next day and I came home with some awesome fabrics! The colors and patterns I bought just make me happy and I can't wait to start some new projects with these beauties!

I also finished another cross stitch door bow. The original kit came with floss colors in mauve and grey blue (very 80's) but I loved the hearts and decided to switch out the colors for deep reds and darker blues. I love the way it came out :)

 

I've spent my evenings stitching more tiny felt dinosaurs for my grandsons while the hubby watches TV. I only have one more Brontosaurus to make and then 4 more palm trees, 2 volcanos and 3 folding play mats and I can cross another project off the list. Lastly (this has been a busy week ) I completed the 4 stockings, 4 ornaments, and 20 gift tags for the swap I am in with my friends Amy, Regena, Mark & Carolyn. I'll post pictures in a few days, after they have all received them. I'm pretty happy with the way they came out and it was alot of fun designing stockings to fit their personalities :)

It's December 1st! Time for another Give-Away!

 It's hard to believe that it's December already! This year has gone by so quickly for me. I spent 6 hours yesterday sewing an early Christmas present for my daughter. I won't post a picture of it until I get a chance to give it to her. In the meantime, I  made this cute little pin cushion from some of the adorable Holiday Happy fabric that I used in the ruffled apron I posted about last week. I just love love love this fabric. I love the little Santa Gnomes :) The pincushion pattern is a free download that I found on allpeoplequilt.com. Since Christmas is a time for giving and I had so much fun reading all the posts from my last give-away I decided to do another one. So this pincushion is up for grabs! It has the poinsettias on one side and the Santa Gnomes on the other side. All you have to do is leave

a post and tell me your name, where you are from and what you plan to do with the pincushion. Will you keep it for yourself or will you gift it to someone? I'd like to know where this little cushion will find it's new home :) You only need to post once and I'll be using the random number picker to choose a winner. You can post until Sunday night Dec. 5th. The winner will be announced on Monday Dec. 6th.