one gift down

and many more to go, too bad it wasn't an actual Christmas gift.  Instead it was the birthday gift I mentioned here.  Her birthday is today so it is completed just in time.



I made the lining out of pillowcase I found on one of my thrifting adventures and added a pocket :)



A little embroidery goes along way in personalizing this gift.  I found a great little puppy design in my much beloved book "Sublime Stitching"  by Jenny Hart.



The gift is for my niece who has a cute little black and white Shih Tzu dog named "Steffie".



While I was busy in my studio over the weekend my wee girlies wanted to try their hand at sewing.  With laces, paper and a big comfy chair they kept them selves very busy and now each day they ask to "sew".  And so it has begun.

using what you have

My front door wreath has seen better days, but I really don't like to throw things out that can quite easily be fixed with some ingenuity & fresh paint.  The red berries are fake and with all the opening and closing of the door they've been chipped one too many times revealing their white styrofoam interior.  My acrylics are a life savor in times like these, I keep telling myself that one day I'll get back to painting, in the meantime I'm just happy to use them for quickie repairs.  After a few touch ups and some satin finish, the berries looked as good as new, but something was missing.



Inspired by the Thuja Occidentalis that we planted last spring I clipped some branches and brought a load of them into the house.  After a bit of wiring into the metal wreath frame that I already had, I ended up with a simple yet festive wreath for my front door and one less shopping trip for supplies *yay*



So speaking of using what you have, my niece will be celebrating her birthday pretty soon and I thought it would be nice to make her something from my existing stash.  I'll leave you with a sneak peek for the weekend and show the rest next week.



Happy Weekend everyone :o)

snowman love

Look who moseyed across my sewing table.



I had the itch to make a snowman and he popped into my head. I'm smitten and I think I may have to make a few more of these little guys. I've never been so warm making a snowman!

oh christmas tree

On Friday it was just me and the girls at home as the boys were off at a friends house.  With decorating our home right around the corner, I thought it would be helpful for the girls if they got to make a few Christmas decorations for themselves.  I wanted to up our usual crafting medium beyond the standard painting and coloring, with glue.  So with foam sheets, shapes, and pompoms we set out to make some Christmas trees. 

I cut the foam sheet in half to make two pieces and then trimmed it to a half circular shape. 

Next they monkeyed around with foam shapes gluing them on in various places.  This was a really fun step for the girls and considering how messy glue can get, they did great! 

   

With a look on their face of "hey, I made this..." we set off to the counter work station where mumma's low temp. glue gun was heating up for another set of trees.   I'm not sure how it is in your home but my kids all love pompoms.  They love rummaging through the bin that stores them, they dig them out, squish them, hold them, put them in their pockets and love making things with them.   Thus making trees with (pompom) bulbs was an obvious choice for us.   

This is the same initial shape as the other tree which is just rolled into a cone shape with a strip of warm glue added to help the tree keep it's shape.   Next I put beads of glue on the tree and the girls went to work adding pompoms.  I really love my low temp. glue gun for crafts that involve the kids and it is really so much safer then the hot glue guns. 

Just looking at their faces made it all worth it!

And what Christmas craft would be complete without a set of big furry caterpillars?? 

The final result is a glorious display of Christmas trees made by my two 3 year olds girlies.   

You might have to excuse all the bits and bobbles of glue on the trees but for this mumma I think they are delightful!