Salvaged

Goodness! What a ridiculous couple of weeks it has been.

Long story short: The pre-Easter virus stretched halfway through the week, seemingly went away, and then returned in time to make Easter a little bit of a chaotic bust for half of the household.

The night before Easter, I realized that I hadn’t — how you say? — arranged for the Easter Bunny to stop by our place. Oh, oops.

Pinterest to the rescue! Whipped these up on the sly and added a couple of treats. The kids were happier than I thought they’d be, so that was a plus.

And lather, rinse, repeat. It just seems like the month of April has been swallowed by little upheavals and I’ve been more easily beset than usual (which is to say: completely off-track.) But we just keep moving forward, right? Yes!

My girl had a Fashion Show/Tea Party Day at her preschool this morning, and I just couldn’t bear to send her in the blasted red satin-y dress that she insists on wearing any time it appears in the closet. Sunday to church? Yes. Monday to Grandma’s? Sure. Thursday to school? By all means. I’ve given up on trying to convince her that it’s a little ridiculous, and I don’t care as much as I used to about people thinking I’m an idiot to let her out of the house that way. I’m all about choosing my battles. I’m also getting pretty good at choosing my weapons; in this case, a sundress. Apparently, sleeveless totally trumps satin.

I picked this skirt up at Old Navy about a year ago, on clearance, because it was long and pretty and my size. Turns out that it looks horrible on me, but I held onto it in case I had a change of heart. (You know how that goes.) No such luck, but I was pretty sure that I could turn it into a dress for the girl, since it came mid-calf on me.

Voila! I cut off the top of the skirt — right about the lettuce ruffle edge — and finished the inner edge, which also secured the lining to the outer shell again. Then, I added about twelve rows of shirring. The rows should’ve been spaced further apart, but I only realized that after the first two were done, and well, that was two rows too late for me. Charge on! Lastly, I made straps out of the discarded skirt top, and there you go. Getting the straps placed correctly took about as much time as the whole rest of the process, but it still only took me a couple of hours. Truth be told, it’s a little on the short side, but it’s floaty and fancy and she was thrilled and it was free. Happiness all around!

 

So Late, It’s Early

True confession: The embroidered Elf Stichette in the center took a while to make. Embroidery always takes longer than I think it will, but it probably would have come together faster had I not left it sit in the bag for one full year. When I took it out, it turned out that only the smile and the cheeks needed to be stitched. Er….

Also: I didn’t even take Joey’s Christmas quilt out of the box this year for fear it would start the “where’s mine?” chorus from the girl. He didn’t notice it’s absence, but I felt badly about it. I knew what I’d done.

Goodness. The pains I’ll go through not to finish something! I’ll tell you, I remember starting this quilt long ago, but I can’t put my finger on exactly how long. It’s been at least two years, but I have a bad feeling that it may have been three. Oh, who cares? It’s done now! I finally pieced it after Thanksgiving, and decided to put the pedal to the metal to get. it. done. a couple of weeks ago.

And — voila! — just like that, I’m officially months and months ahead of the game. The first gift of the Christmas ’13 season is in the bag!

Better Luck Next Time

There are times when everything comes together, and I really get things done. Then, there are times when it just doesn’t work out; not much gets done.

Well, except these here bags. They got done, but don’t be fooled: they are absolutely not filled with delicious raspberry scones for the kids’ teachers. They should have been, but I didn’t have enough baking powder, and that was that. To quote The Gambler, know when to fold ‘em. Happy Valentine’s Day! I figure they’ll be just as tasty on some random Tuesday down the road, no?

I also arbitrarily decided that Valentine’s Day gifts are the responsibility of the man of the house. (Actually, this was my mom’s assertion, and I grabbed hold of it.) Still, I like the little people of this place to feel special, so this morning I went the heart-shaped-breakfast route. PB and J for the boy, and apples spread with PB for the girl. They did everything but carry me on their shoulders around the living room.

Lesson: Don’t be so hard on yourself! Sometimes a little is enough.

Now I’m off to finish cleaning the kitchen before I mess it up again with some chicken and biscuits for my favoritest guy in the world. Lucky for me, that’s gift enough for him. We really do make a good team.

Getting Ready

Ah, Valentine’s Day. This year, with both kids in school (sort of), it’s double the fun.

After last year’s oh-so-clever stab at using what I had — which failed miserably — I was determined to do better this time around. After some thinking, I remembered that the whole friendship bracelet debacle only went terribly wrong (from a cost standpoint) when I had the bright idea to make them in the school colors…and then had to buy all new floss, thus defeating the whole purpose of coming up with a project that might make a dent in my overflowing supply of odd-colored floss. Doh! Therefore, the plan really could work this year with the girl’s class. Woo hoo!

Here she is, putting the finishing touches on her gifts:

Hey, she wrote her own name on the backs, too; definitely a team effort. [Idea and template can be found here, by the way.]

And, through the magic of Pinterest, I managed to find another cute idea that doesn’t involve candy. My son’s school doesn’t allow them to bring candy, which is a huge pain, but whatever.

Although I didn’t have the bouncy balls on hand, I did have everything else (except for a paper folder, hence the flathead screwdriver. I will have a tight crease on that fold!) I think this project is super cute, and am always so grateful to the talented artists who share the darn pdf files for the tags. SUCH a time saver!! Of course, the treat bags that I had were the wrong size, but it was nothing a little creative [off-center] cutting couldn’t fix.

All in all, both projects cost me $4.00, and — better yet! — they’re both done and it’s not 10:00 at night.

Happy Valentine’s Day, indeed.

 

Ooh, Shiny!

It’s been a very strange, wonderful December. This was the most go-with-the-flow Christmas I can remember (which seems to be the case for many of us, I’ve noticed), with nothing going quite according to plan. For me, I just decided that I wouldn’t force myself to do anything. Unfortunately for my family members, this meant eighty-sixing the Christmas Eve soup dinner that I’ve hosted for the past couple of years. Fortunately for me, they didn’t seem to mind that much. It just wasn’t happening, and the back and forth will I or won’t I argument in my head was giving me anxiety attacks. I know! Over something so minor! But that’s the way it was, so I just let it go, and the stress rolled off with it. Amazing. Know what? My household reaped the benefit, because it was the most relaxed Christmas Eve we’ve ever had. Who knew?

That’s not to say that you should breeze through life only doing exactly as you please, but I think I’m going to be doing a lot more of this brand of gut-checking in 2013.

There was a lot that didn’t get done. I’m not going to regale you with all of that nonsense, because what’s the point? Well, here’s the point: I’m easily distracted. It’s kind of a curse, because distraction is the enemy of discipline, BUT it can also be a creative boon. In moderation/as part of your healthy diet/and all that. This was also the Year of the Pop-up, wherein I found that I didn’t have time (or energy or motivation) to finish some of the projects on my to-do list, but magically did find the time to finish ones that just popped into my head.

For example, the crayon wallet for a certain niece that totally needed one, right?

And why use fabric that you’ve already cut when you have the perfect excuse to use fun Seuss fabric?

Then there was the scarf for a woman I thought could use a little extra cheer, and — would you look at that! — wouldn’t that fleece make a great wrap?

And wouldn’t you know that making these gifts was about the most fun I’d had (it’s amazing how much fun making ONE of something can be after months of multiples) in a long time. The lesson? Make room for pop-ups! They’re fun!

If I have my way, this is going to be a big year for making. I’m already setting the stage, and can’t wait to get started on some new stuff. Happy 2013, friends!

 

All Candy Cane, All the Time

Can there really be such a thing as too much of a good thing? I think I’m testing that thoroughly with the liberal use of peppermint in my gifts this year.

The first time I came across Peppermint Popcorn Bark, I wasn’t so sure. And then it kept popping up on Pinterest. And then it started to sound good — REALLY good. Lo and behold, it is a tasty treat, and super easy to boot.

And who doesn’t like a sweet chunk o’ marshmallow in their cocoa?

Vanilla or peppermint? ‘Cause I got both! Here is the recipe for my favorite tried and true vanilla marshmallows. (I make the half-batch.) For the peppermint, I made another half-batch of marshmallows, but instead of using 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, I substituted 1/4 tsp. vanilla plus 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract (inspired by this recipe.) I think the tiny bit of vanilla keeps it from getting toothpaste-y.

Now the festive food making is almost done. There are a few more gifts to be wrapped, a little soup to cook, worship by candlelight, and a wild day of fun and family– hopefully followed by a few relaxing days of just about nothing. Sounds good to me!

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas, and joy in the coming year.

 

 

 

 

 

Loving the Village

I really love making and giving gifts; you would think that this would be the total best time of year for a person like me, and yet….

Sometimes things get out of hand. Say, for instance, when you’re trying to assemble teacher gift. This is definitely an area where I find myself really wanting to do more, and yet wishing I could do less. I find the whole exchange very awkward, mostly because I’ve sat at table with too many teachers who complain about the crummy gifts they receive from their students. And hey, who hasn’t complained about a sub-par gift at some point in their life? But it does make me a little self-conscious. Still, there are practical aspects, such as a limited budget and a legion of teachers. So many teachers! But they are wonderful and have really been a blessing to my kids this year, so no one gets left behind.

The homeroom teachers (and the directors of my girl’s preschool) received Happy, Healthy New Year jars, filled with a tissue pack; lip balm; hand cream; Burt’s Bees throat drops; and tea. I made the purse packs for the tissues and found the rest at ye olde Target.

For the art and music teachers, I made ornaments:

(for the art teacher)

(Well, you probably figured this one out.)

Just as I was putting the finishing touches on the wrapping of said gifts — all wrapping/packaging materials which I dug out of my abundant supplies, thankyouverymuch — I realized that the P.E. teachers had been totally left out in the cold. Aw, man! Then I thought about baking a couple of kinds of scones and making little breakfast bags for them. And then I remembered that I had the supplies for these tasty treats in the pantry:

We have a winner! They are festive, delicious, and don’t require me to make a much larger mess out of my kitchen tonight. Joy to the world!

Now if I could just get my act together and finish up the stuff I wanted to make for the neighbors and a few other beloved local citizens, I’ll be golden. Then again, I might end up settling for preserving my sanity and taking the bronze in this event. Time will tell.

Moving Right Along

 

Oh, November — where have you gone? Thanksgiving already kind of seems like it was a long time ago (although the fact that we’ll be eating leftovers tonight should be enough to clue me in to the fact that it was only day before yesterday), and we’re heading straight into Christmas. Ho ho ho!

This morning, as promised, I dragged our family room tree down the stairs and set it up. It still sounds strange to me, this “setting up” of the Christmas tree. Not chopping it down? Or picking it out? Nope. Since we’re all allergic to pine, it just makes sense to go artificial, but…yeah. Sounds strange. And I do love my white tree. I say if you’re going to go fake, GO FAKE. Anyway, it took all of fifteen minutes to get it in place, and then I let the kids do the decorating. It only took me fifteen more minutes to sneak back in and move some of the ornaments around for a more balanced look. What is it about kids, that they beg and beg to help and then race through at top speed to get the job done? About 90% of the ball ornaments were hung in one section of the tree (of course), perched on the very tip of the branches. (So thankful for non-breakable ornaments!) But we had a good time, so it was a success.

In other news, the annual craft sale is behind us;  most of my Christmas sewing is complete, except for maybe two or three projects; and the majority of the shopping is DONE. Instead of going out shopping yesterday morning (or Thursday night), I shopped online. So much more fun! And a little bit dangerous, because every time I got a new sale email, I wanted to buy a little more…and a little more…ooh, and maybe one more thing. Whoa! Back away from the keyboard! After a break, I was feeling much less frenzied and so relieved to have made some serious progress.

Know what else? I didn’t even buy a bunch of stuff for myself, nor did I go to Joann’s for the flannel blowout bonanza sale. Every year, I say how much I hate it (because I do), and then every  year, I wake up at five and go anyway (because I love it! The flannel — not the wild-eyed, crazy shoppers or that horrible never-ending line.) Not this year. Nope. You see, this year, by the end of my 31 Day project, I didn’t have the house transformed and my life in order. I did, however, come away with a revelation: There’s just too much. The idea of a place for everything and everything in its place isn’t really enough. For me, everything has to be in its place, and that place can’t be in the third shoebox from the top in one of those cupboards. One of the reasons I can’t find things is that there are too many places for it to be stashed. Neater stacks are still stacks, and we are kind of drowning in them. So, one of my goals for the new year  — big surprise — is to create more space instead of a finding a better system. Therefore, it wouldn’t really be prudent to haul in a sweet load of $2.00 flannel when I currently have three shelves devoted to just that. Even if the prints were really cute. I wouldn’t know if they were cute, actually; haven’t even been by to check them out.

Things are happening, friends. Here’s hoping that we can all slow down just a little to really enjoy the spirit of the season. It’s going to speed by so quickly!

31 Days: Little Gobbler

 

A couple of months ago, I got all super ambitious and made up a bunch of Thanksgiving patchwork bib fronts with plans of finishing them before the sale season. Unfortunately, once they were done, I decided to go with another design, and found that all of the fronts were now too small. Meh. It happens.

Fast forward to a few days ago, when our neighborhood crossing guard shared the good news that she had welcomed her first grandchild into the world this month. Sounds like a certain someone should have a special bib to commemorate her first Thanksgiving, right? And, since she’ll still be a newborn, I was able to let one of the patchwork pieces fulfill its cottony destiny. Rather than wait until November, yesterday seemed like as good a time as any to whip it up. Now all it needs is a snap, which may run the project right on into November after all.

31 Days: It’s Not All Bad

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to take those 15 minutes I was talking about yesterday to think things through and get it together before jumping into a project.

For instance: A couple of weeks ago, I was going through a basket of sewing projects that were in various stages of production. At the very bottom was some patchwork that I’d pieced together earlier in the summer with the intention of making some Christmas chargers for our table. Now, if you think it sounds ridiculous to start Christmas projects in the summer, I’ll go ahead and ramp up the ridiculous by telling you that I’d bundled up the fabric for this project at least a year ago, maybe two.

(For those of you of the non-sewing persuasion, let me just tell you that this kind of patchwork? Not the kind of project worthy of a delay measured in years.)

So, right that minute, I decide to stop what I was doing and just make the darn chargers already. I pressed the patchwork, selected and cut the backing, and got down to business. As I was pinning them together to sew them, I kept thinking about how I was going to quilt them. Also, I couldn’t help but notice that they were kind of flimsy — much flimsier than the ones I’d made a couple of years ago. Ah, well. That was pretty heavy-duty backing. Must be it.

Keep pinning. Think some more about the quilting.

I figured, They’ll probably have a little more body after they’ve been quilted.

After they’ve been quilted…

…quilted!

OH! I totally forgot to add batting. Without it, they were most certainly not going to magically have enough body to be anything other than a big round napkin. Idiot!

Fortunately, I hadn’t gotten a single stitch into them yet at that point, so I just re-pinned–with a layer of batting this time–and carried on.

See?  A few minutes of preparation probably would have come in handy, here.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have this project checked off and out of its basket prison!