Give them felt shapes!
It’s getting more and more difficult to keep my three-year-old away from the ornaments on the tree. Being cooped up inside with no preschool or swimming lesson this week has not helped. This morning I decided she needed her own trees. I grabbed a big pile of felt and cut lots of circles and triangles.
Check out that strong snowman. He’s carrying all four trees with his stick arms!
past project: Here’s my original felt board post.
The weather outside is seriously frightful and tonight we’ll be under a blizzard warning. What do you do when your child wants to go outside and play, but it’s windy and below freezing? Play with indoor snow!
I grabbed a bag of cotton balls, a bucket and shovel and we made a snow angel, snowman, snow dog, snow cat and snow tree. We also had a snowball battle!
indoor snow tip: Lay a “picnic blanket” down on the floor first, especially if you are close to a holiday tree or you’ll get needles stuck in your “snow”!
I’ve also been kicking it into high gear for the holidays. Unfortunately, that means it’s hard to show you work-in-progress pictures. I’ve knitted quite a few gifts over the past year and spent yesterday weaving in ends, soaking them in wool wash and blocking.
I’m also trying to play catch-up for Advent. Two summers ago I found this wooden L.L. Bean Advent calendar at Goodwill. I couldn’t help noticing how cute it was—especially for $4.99. Then the Goodwill lady told me everything in housewares was 50% off, so I bought it.
It’s pretty much in mint condition except for a bit of double-sticky foam tape in a few boxes that needs to be removed. Here’s what it looks like when you open the little door.
It came with a little bag of holiday trinkets. Most of them are ornaments with the strings removed. I guess they stuck them in the boxes with the sticky tape.
I’m going to re-glue the thread loops and turn them back into ornaments. My daughter has a little tree in the kitchen and each day we’ll take an ornament out to decorate her tree. We even have a Joseph, Mary and little baby Jesus for December 25th!
I know I am late getting started, so I’d really like to get it finished this weekend. It will be my second project using hot glue. Wish me luck!
thrifting: Sometimes I can’t believe the little gems I find at the thrift store. I think I even like it better than the one they sell now.
After much deliberation, and not much sewing over the weekend because of a sick little girl, I’m giving away one of my remote control pillow covers for Sew, Mama, Sew’s Giveaway Day.
You get to pick whichever one you want. You can even pick the decorative pillow cover, even though it doesn’t have a pocket. That’s cool with me!
Just know that whichever one you choose, I’m only giving away the cover, not the inside cushion. It will keep down shipping costs and allow me to ship internationally.
Here’s how you enter: Leave a comment on this post.
Bonus entry: Become a fan on my Facebook page. If you do, leave a second comment on this post.
You have until midnight, December 6th to enter. I will choose a winner with a random number generator. After you leave a comment, check out Sew, Mama, Sew for more fabulous giveaways!
Anything else? Oh, did you know I wrote a tutorial on how to make one of these pillows? Check it out!
Making this super cute wallet was lots of fun. I tucked in a gift card to Starbucks and sent it off to a friend for her birthday. If you’re thinking this fabric looks familiar, you’re right! I had some bits left over from this bag. It’s the perfect project for those who can’t part with their scraps!
reuse and recycle: Purple fabric from my scrap box. Black fabric from a pair of cotton twill pants. Ring from keyring I never used. Zipper was thrifted.
pattern review: I used Anna’s Zippy Wallet Tutorial and found it very easy to follow. My only modification was to add a keyring. These would make great holiday gifts, don’t you think?
Today my creative space is filled with food. It’s Thanksgiving in the United States and we’re spending it at home — just the three of us. I made stuffing and sweet potatoes earlier in the week. All that’s left to do is the turkey and the pumpkin pie.
Ever since we moved to Nebraska, I’ve made homemade pumpkin pie for the holiday. I’ve always wanted to make pie from an actual pumpkin, but could never find one at the grocery store. I figured if canned was good enough for Martha, it was good enough for me.
This year I saw a pie pumpkin in the produce department and knew I had to try it! It was easy to bake and puree, just like any other squash. I’m using the recipe that came with the pumpkin. I hope it turns out as good as Martha’s!
My daughter is super excited to have some pumpkin pie because she made one this week, too. Don’t you just love preschool crafts? It even has whipped cream!
For more yummy creative spaces, visit Kirsty’s blog. (I can’t guarantee that they’ll be as yummy as pie, but they are always beautiful!)
It’s interesting to view the Fall and Winter holidays through the eyes of a three-year old. There’s all this build up to Halloween and then after one night, it’s all over. After weeks of talking about pumpkins, witches and ghosts, we immediately move into Thanksgiving mode. There are still colored leaves and pumpkins, but now we’re all about Pilgrims and turkeys.
Then, to make things really confusing, people start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving. There is a house on our street with pumpkins all along the entryway and snowflakes hanging from the roof.
Even more proof that all of this is confusing to a three-year old: today my daughter asked me if we missed Thanksgiving. I told her no, Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Why on earth would she ask if we missed it? Look at all of the Christmas lights, Mom. Are you sure?
I’m really trying to keep our house Christmas-free until after tomorrow, but my daughter is already asking for her little tree. In the meantime, though, she’s serving tea and candy to her Halloween friends.
Maybe I need to crochet a little turkey for her?
pattern: undead gang from Needle Noodles
My daughter is growing like a weed, except she’s only growing up, not out. She’s got 4-5T legs and a 3T waist. That means that most of the pants we find that are long enough won’t stay up.
I try to only buy pants with an adjustable waist, but sometimes I come across a great deal or something super cute that I just can’t pass up. I decided to try adding elastic myself, and you know what? It’s super easy!
You can even do this without a sewing machine as long as you don’t mind a little hand stitching.
Materials
button hole elastic
small, sharp pair of scissors
two buttons that fit through your elastic
Fray Check
needle and thread
Step 1
Starting on the right inside of the waist, snip two holes to create a casing for the elastic. Make sure your scissors don’t go through to the other side! Apply Fray Check to the raw edges.
Step 2
Cut a piece of elastic that’s about one inch longer than between your holes. Fold one edge over and sew. This is the edge you’ll be using to adjust the pants.
Step 3
Sew a button in front of the casing you’ve created.
Step 4
Thread the elastic through the waist casing with the finished edge going through the front. You can tuck the unfinished edge into the back.
Step 5
Sew a line of stitches to secure the elastic. See arrow.
Here’s what you’ll see on the outside of the pants.
Repeat on left inside of the waist.
refashion: The only thing worse than sizing for women’s pants is sizing for kids’ clothes. At least with this little trick, I can just make sure pants look long enough when I buy them. It’s nice knowing how easy it is to adjust the waist. Maybe I should try this on my jeans!
After many attempts, we finally have a set of hat and mittens for the winter season. My daughter loves them, which makes all of the work worth it. I just need to sew name labels in everything for preschool tomorrow and they’ll be ready for action!
project notes: Yarn is Cascade 220, which holds up well after a lot of ripping and re-knitting. Mitten pattern from p2designs.com. No pattern for the hat—I just kind of winged it.
Once I decided to crochet some stars for a garland, I started seeing stars everywhere. Isn’t it funny how that happens? My favorites are these totally adorable granny stars.
I’ve ditched my Chromium Blanket stars for these. They work up a lot faster and are so much fun! If you crochet, you should really give one a try.
inspiration: tutorial from The Royal Sisters, multi-colored stars by Lucy over at Attic24, Sarah London’s garland, and Emma Lamb’s wee flowers and stars.