Three....

My baby is three today.
It's still Christmas Eve for about 45 more minutes in my timezone, so it's still her birthday. My little unicorn (see... oh, about four posts back) is three today.

Sitting here, alone in the living room with the Christmas tree lit and stockings to be stuffed I feel so eternally grateful that sweet Lucy Margaret is here to celebrate Christmas with us this year. It's still quite raw when I allow myself to go back to when she was sick and it's like a fire hydrant of fear, sorrow and tears is opened if I really allow myself to feel the emotions that I went through during that time. One week that still brings me to my knees.

I don't look back on it so that I can constantly live in the past. I keep it all in my heart so that my view of life is altered. If chocolate milk is spilled down the front of a dress -- even a dress I made and put *hours* into making -- those hours mean nothing if the little girl wearing that dress isn't around ever. A stain is a stain and it's simply a mark of living.

Happy birthday, Lucy. I love you more than you'll ever know.

Just a rest stop..

I'm still dashing (in theory, at least) to get Christmas gifts done. But I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. Or stopped at a rest stop for far too long and got distracted.
I've picked up a new hobby. One I obviously need (because I don't have *nearly* enough already... and oh-so-much time to complete them all.. ha!).
I'm now absolutely loving embroidering by hand. I just LOVE it! I can carry it anywhere with me and have relatively little to carry around. I like keeping my hands busy. I really dislike being somewhere and doing nothing. Any sort of tv time is the worst. While we don't have cable, relatives do... and if there's tv-watching, I'd rather be doing something crafty.
I've only done three corners of napkins thus far (and have another in the works), but I'm having such a lovely time doing it already and I can see myself continuing on.
I ordered the Ultimate Kit from http://www.sublimestitching.com/ which included the scissors, embroidery thread (a color pack of your choice), a textile to embroider upon, an embroidery needle, an embroidery hoop... and maybe something else? Oh yes, a transfer pattern pack (I picked "Flower Power" for my beginning ventures). And, um, I *might* just have another order with them in the works right now. One that includes more color choices of embroidery thread, more needles, more patterns... and there *is* a gift for somebody else in there too! My oldest has an embroidery kit from last year that she got but it's a tad on the cheap side of things... yet she's had an AMAZING time with it. So I went and got her a prpoer kit from here so we can sit and embroider together!
So now for photos... here are two napkins (the one on the right was my very, very first project ever!) that are quite Christmasy. Not sure where they'll make their home (the back of the one on the left isn't quite as pretty to look at... which is kind of a dilemma since they're napkins and the back *does* show).

And my favorite thus far (out of only the three projects I've completed):

Laying on my desperately-needing-a-new-cover ironing board.

But I really can't take any more breaks along the way. Not only is Christmas just around the bend, but my youngest's birthday is on Christmas Eve! I have a divine dress planned, but I'm being held up in the process by not tracing out the pattern in her size. I HAVE to do that today. My sweet little just-about-three-year-old deserves a big, ol' happy party this year. Because we're blessed to still have her here.

Hanging my heart(s) out there...

And I started on some blues....
I ran out of the heart ribbon, so I need to go and look for some more. I have more hearts cut out... they just need that extra punch with the ribbon I think.

Simple whimsy

They're not incredibly fancy, ornate or amazing... but I think they're just so cute.
These are going to a silent auction at church that's tomorrow. I'm making up some more for gifts in just a few minutes.
I just love, love, LOVE this batch because I think they play off of each other *so* well!

Still dashing...

I churned this dress out today after blogging about the Zoe shirt I finished earlier.. I just didn't have time to blog it because I had to go to work.

This is an Olivia dress from Farbenmix, I just omitted the hood. While I really do like the look of the hoods, my girls seem to think they're merely means of pulling each other around and I don't like how they stretch them out.

I wasn't sure how the fabric for the main body would work because it's a quite lightweight jersey, but I think it will drape okay. I'm thinking of making some leggings to go with it because I have quite a bit of that turquoise and leggings are pretty much necessary in our winter climate.

The bottom edge is simply serged and I might just leave it that way. I probably should have just done a rolled hem, but when I do that I like to do a lettuce-edge finish and this isn't a super stretchy jersey and I wasn't sure if it would 'lettuce' well and produce a nice, ruffley edge.

Two gifts down! I need to make something for the youngest next so I at least have a balance of gifts. Then I'll start all over

The less-than-four-week dash...

And I'm off... off to my sewing room and sewing like a mad woman, that is.I think I might have found some of that mysterious and elusive (to me) sewing mojo. I told myself today that I HAD to go and sew SOMETHING for at least one of the girls for Christmas. Less than four weeks to go and I had *eek* NOTHING for them.
I had purchased this material with the exact intention of sewing something up for my oldest. She completely adores anything to do with animals. I'm not much of an animal-print kind of a person (in fact, usually animal prints make me crinkle up my nose), but this was somehow perfectly acceptable.
I sewed up this raglan shirt from the Farbenmix Zoe pattern and it went together so quickly and easily and I just love it.

It's nothing super duper fancy, but I'm fairly certain that it's sure to be loved by the recipient -- and that's enough for me.
Oh, I must note also that the tag on the side of the body of the shirt has a giraffe on it! I always forget little stuff like that, but while rummaging through the sewing room trying to figure out what to sew, I found these tags and knew I had to use one on something for the oldest!
I must get back down to the sewing room after finishing up my lunch and hopefully I'll churn out one more item before I have to (ha! before I *get* to!) go to work.

What? Too late for Halloween photos?

My sewing has taken such a sidenote, it's not even funny. I love it. I just love the process of creating and then having a finished product to show -- and since I mostly make clothes, they're highly practical also!
But I really think that after getting back from the hospital, I've had a hard time getting into it. I feel like I've been catching up on everything else... and then with working part-time, my time is even more limited.
But of course the girls couldn't suffer simply because *I* was having a hard time with things... so Halloween costumes were whipped up mostly the night before the church Halloween party.
I wish I would have gotten better photos of my pirate, kitty cat and pink unicorn, but somehow in the rush I got just two decent ones.

I do love the way the mane turned out on the unicorn... but the yarn has NOT washed well at all and I think I'm going to have the rip the seam and take it all out. At least she'll have a cute, pink hoodie still out of it!

And the ears on the kitty! I wasn't sure at all how I was going to attach them, but I just cut slits where I thought the ears should go, inserted them and sewed them in... and they stood up just perfectly.

...

ETA: Goodness, I almost forgot some of the specifics for the sewing of these costumes! The hoodies for the younger two are both modified from the Hannel pattern, published by Farbenmix. Their velour leggings are both from an Autumn (I think?) issue of Ottobre.. 2007 I believe. They're the "Lily" leggings.

For the oldest, I needed a quick shirt pattern (no time to trace one out, I had to grab from something I'd already traced out) and ended up using the Olivia pattern by Farbenmix, but obviously I didn't make it into a dress, so I just used the top half to create the shirt. I didn't make the pirate pants... she already had some great black pants so we used those. And the red and white polka dot material around her waist? Just a piece of material from my sewing room. I just rolled it up a bit to hide raw edges and we tied it around her waist. No-sew costuming at its best!