Homemade Christmas Gift #3

OMGosh! I know I'm so behind on getting this one typed up, but you know how things can get! Life can just suck all the hours out of a day.

One of our Christmas traditions is for everyone to get new, snuggly, warm pajamas.  This was the first year that it made sense to include Charley so I set about making her some pajama pants.


We only open our jammies on Christmas Eve





Christmas Morning






 And made myself some to match. I can get away with matching jammies now because she's young and I'm going to take advantage of it while I can.  My mom and I had saved the fabric from a relative's house when she passed away so these pajamas were essentially free. Just had to buy some extra elastic!

I loved Christmas morning when we woke up in our warm flannel jammies to open the rest of our presents. 

Laugh until you Cry

Being a mom brings joy to my life everyday.  Yes, there are the hardships and sacrifices, but there are 2x as many enjoyable moments. 

Enjoyable and... FUNNY!!!!

Charley has a bedtime around 9:30pm (later than most, but it works for us!) and I'm usually tired after running around with her all day.  Well...one day last week during our bedtime ritual, Charley decided that she wanted to read to us instead of hearing us read.  Which was just fine with me because I was exhausted. So with Jeff lying on her left side and I lying on her right, she pulled out the book, opened it up, and started "reading".  At 2 1/4, she doesn't know how to read, but she can describe what's happening in the pictures.  The problem is that she has a limited vocabulary. So she starts throwing in sound effects and gibberish. 

This story of gibberish and "moo" and other oddities didn't mix well with my overworked, exhausted brain. I just lost it! I laughed out loud, tried to cover a giggle, accidentally let out a snort and was shaking the entire bed with my hysterics.  And she just kept reading!  Tears were pouring down my face and my gut hurt. 

But a family who laughs together, stays together... I love when we laugh and play as a family. It makes for a whole lot of enjoyable moments.


Linking up with Mama Kat and her Writing Prompts

Homemade Christmas Gift #2 - Frou Frou Tutu

For a little girl who loves to wear dresses, I thought some dress-up outfits would be the thing for Christmas this year. Someone else was buying her a trunk of dress-up clothes, so I went with a tutu. Black and white with some silver glitter tulle mixed in, plus some longer ribbons in matching colors. It was actually quite easy. Just have to loop the tulle over some elastic and through itself.



If only she wore it as often as she dances. I should teach her to wear it when she wants to dance.

My sweater was featured!

I can't believe it! This week was the first week I decided to link up to any linky parties and I got featured on both! What an incredible feeling!

The first was over at simply step back. Sarah has an awesome blog with great ideas for repurposing/tailoring items in your closet. And I have to give a shout-out because she's a fellow Wisconsinite.





The second feature blows my mind! I love Mandy's blog Sugar Bee: Craft Edition and she is fabulous. She does so many projects that I have added to my to-do list, has great giveaways, and was a competitor in the last season of SoYouThinkYou'reCrafty. It is sign of her genius that she made it all the way to the final two. Her link parties are huge and I can't believe that out of 300+ link-ups, she was impressed by mine. I feel honored!





This makes my week! I need to craft and knit more. I'm going to start a new project right now.

Homemade Christmas Gift #1 - Rolled Roses Necklace

I was blog-hopping and spotted this rolled fabric rose necklace that Emily made at LaForce Be With You. I had seen quite a few flower bib necklaces, but I liked the simplicity of this one.

I thought of my future SIL immediately. She loves bright fun jewelry and I thought she would like this as part of her Christmas present. Pink is one of her favorite colors. :)

This was my first attempt at fabric roses and I thought they turned out pretty cool. I just ripped my fabric into 1.5 inch strips. Folded them in half and tied a knot in the end. Then started twisting toward the back (away from the flower) and hot glued each "petal" into place. When it was approximately the size I wanted, I folded the fabric under and hot glued it down. Cut felt circles and glued those on the back too. I made 7 and was going for a symmetrical look so I glued them to a backing piece of felt opposite each other. Don't forget to glue in your chain or ribbon and add a clasp.




This was me trying it on to send my brother a picture because he wanted to see it. Crappy phone camera.

The chain and clasp I used made it so the length was adjustable. The clasp can link anywhere for her own desired length.

That's my SIL wearing it. She loves it! It totally compliments her style. Cute Bella snuck into the picture too :)

Our canine is cold?

Meet our dog Lucy! She's a 4 year old beagle/terrier mix.

We've had Lucy for a year and she couldn't fit into our family more easily. Charley loves her and begs us to let Lucy sleep with her every night. She will be Charley's dog forever.

She is a great pet! She's never had any accidents in the house (even during transition), she lets you know when she wants to eat or is out of water, and she greets every person with a howl that would scare any potential thief.

However...

She has 2 quirks that drive me absolutely crazy. Especially when you combine the 2. I would do anything to change these drive-me-to-drinking quirks.

• The first is her need to always lay on a soft surface. I've known many dogs and most are content to lay on the floor, but not her. It has to be the couch or chairs. Take into account our small house and this becomes a problem when we have company over. She has a large pillow for a bed right in our living room, but insists on stealing someone's spot as soon as they get up.
• The second is her constant shaking. It's not seizure caliber, but more like small tremors. I compare it to shivering. And it is all day. I swear I'm not making this up, but like 18 hours out of 24, she is shivering.

Now combine the 2 and you have me sitting on one end of the futon and her on the other, shaking the entire frame until I feel like my bones are vibrating. Maybe I won't need to buy a massage chair after all.

Topic from Mama Kat's Weekly Writing Prompts

First Knitted Sweater

I've been enjoying a bit of a crafting kick lately. It started before Christmas and I'm absolutely loving the whole "create things that actually get used" feeling of accomplishment. I made a few Christmas presents (that I would love to show you), but of course I didn't think to take pictures. I'll update as I get pictures.

So today, I am so excited to show you the project that took almost 18 months to complete. I taught myself to knit a few years ago, but only tackled the very-easy scarf. I thought it was time to work on something a little more complex. So when my baby was about 10 months, I found an easy sweater pattern and took a 2nd level knitting class for some help.

I got bored with it many times... lost it in the apartment before we moved... got stuck on the wording in the pattern and didn't want to ask for help...

Needless to say, it was a long-term project.

I finally gave myself a deadline of Christmas this year. If it took me any longer to finish, it wouldn't fit Charley. It didn't get done for Christmas (only because she got the flu and I couldn't leave the house to get help finishing it off), but it is finally... DONE!!

It has a ribbed v-neck.

As you can see, it's already getting a little small. Oops!

And the back is a little cape-type collar.

I absolutely LOVE this color on her.

And I'm just glad it turned out to be wearable!