Sewing day

Today was my favorite kind of day, a free day to spend sewing!  I'm almost done with all of the Christmas gifts that I wanted to make,  so today I let myself on a few projects that I wanted to do for myself - kind of.

We just got a Hancock fabrics dangerously close to my house, and they had a great sale yesterday, so I splurged on some fun fabric for a new tree skirt. This isn't a traditional tree skirt by any means, it's for the tree that I put up in my studio. I love this tree because I get to decorate exactly how I want! which means the entire thing is purple. Last year I didn't get to put the tree up because the base was broken, but my husband fixed it for me last night, so it is up and ready to go, with a purple ruffly tree skirt. 

I promise that I'm not the kind of person who decorates for Christmas before thanksgiving, in fact I love decorating on the day after thanksgiving, so I'll add all of the ornaments then.

I made a tree skirt for our tree in the house last year, and I definitely learned a couple of things in the process. That one was quilted, and while it turned out beautifully, I don't have that kind of time, so I went with a more simple pattern for my studio tree.. The other thing that I remembered from last year was how hard it was to make the skirt a perfect circle. I spent some time thinking about it, and let me tell you, the solution that I came up with. Is genius, if I may say so myself.

For this tree skirt I placed the fabric on top of the round table in my studio and cut using the table as a stencil. It was so easy! That worked so well that I actually had the patience to measure all of the ruffles for the border. I love how it all turned out - although I may do a little research on how to biase bind the inside circle, because that was a total disaster! Oh well, you win some, you lose some :)

Getting in the spirit

Though it may not even be thanksgiving yet, it is the Christmas season according to Starbucks. The red cups are back, and when I went to Starbucks for coffee last week, I found myself with a conundrum that could really only happen to someone like me.

You see, I have an adorable re-usable coffee sleeve that my best friend bought for me, it is bright and springy, and I have used it as a pattern for similar sleeves for fiends and family, but I always use the same one.  I like things to match - it's part of my aesthetic OCD - and when I went to put my cute pink and teal coffee sleeve on the red Christmas cup, I nearly had a mismatched meltdown. I know, only me.

Of course this meant that it was time to break down and make myself a new Christmas coffee sleeve. It turned out really cute, and I was super excited to use it, until I realized that my sleeve had bright cherry red, and the Starbucks red cups are a darker, deep red this year. I can't seem to win, but at least I got in the same seasonal theme and color family, and it is still really cute!

How I spent Halloween

The weather at my house was perfect for Halloween (maybe not perfect for trick or treating...) it was stormy and really windy. I probably should've watched a scary movie - although Scream is about the worst I can stomach - but I didn't. Instead I spent halloween doing two very un-halloween-ish activities. First I worked out (who works out on halloween?!), and then, I made some Christmas decorations. Yes Christmas decorations. What can I say, I had nothing else to do. 

Here's a photo of the painting that I made to hang in my kitchen this Christmas season. I think it turned out pretty good considering I NEVER paint , at least not since high school art class. Enjoy your candy-induced-day-after-halloween coma, and don't forget about Thanksgiving, which according to the calendar is the next major holiday, even though most department stores beg to differ!

      

                           

Feeling festive

We were having trouble keeping our glasses straight before lunch when I remember that my mom had these cute glass markers - we've never used them before, but the were perfect for today!

Merry Christmas to me

I hope you all enjoyed your pre-Christmas weekend, but now it's time for the fun to really start. For me, Christmas officially begins when I wake up on Christmas Eve day. The morning is traditionally filled with running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and loving every minute of it. Then towards dinner time, things slow down a bit and I get to just enjoy.

Today has been no different. I put ribs in the crock pot for dinner and made some homemade ice cream, stood in line for an hour at the bank and the post office, and finally got to pick up my Christmas gift from my husband, and may I say he was very lucky that it got here before Christmas, but somehow it always seems to work like that for him.

Now I am eating what may be the best Christmas Eve lunch that I could think of - Taco Bell, and running to Target to join the crowds and spend my gift card before Christmas :). Then I'm going home to put in one of my all time favorite Christmas movies - the Muppet Christmas carol (if I can find our VCR) and make some chocolate chip cookies, which was the only thing that my husband requested for dinner... I wonder about him sometimes...

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful couple of days!

Check, check, and check

And so the Christmas-prep checklist continues. Here is what I've managed to accomplish this weekend:
Paid Black Friday credit card bill
Attended company Christmas party
Baked sugar cookies to be frosted next weekend
Addressed Christmas cards and ordered stamps
Battled the crowds at Kohl's - note to self, next year buy new pillows BEFORE thanksgiving, it's not worth fighting the holiday shoppers
Made my Christmas baking list and started the grocery list
Wrapped a few more gifts

There may have been some sleeping in and complete relaxation, along wit dinner out and checking out Christmas lights thrown in there too. I learned my lesson last week, if you don't chill on the weekend, the week is that much longer!

Christmas Party Time

I'm hosting part of our annual teacher and staff Christmas party tonight! You read that right, I'm only hosting part of it. We are going to attempt a progressive dinner, so we are meeting at school for appetizers, then going to one house for soup and salad, and another home for the main course. We are going to end at my place for dessert and drinks.

I love hosting because it give me the perfect reason to scrub my house from top to bottom. Right now my house is spotless, it looks like something out of a magazine, and I love it.

The girls clearly know me well because they assigned me dessert, and I may have gone just a little overboard. I made red velvet brownies, cranberry chocolate cookie bars, molasses cookies, and pumpkin hand-pies. And of course I had to try everything, so who knows if I'll have room for all of the other courses!

Here are some photos of my cute table!

Easy gifts for kids

I know a lot of people who have kids on their shopping lists this year, and all those toys and ridiculously adorable clothes can add up fast, so here are a couple of quick, inexpensive gifts that I made for the kiddos on my list.

Fleece headbands - these are supremely easy; one quick stitch. The only thing that you have to remember is to cut the fleece with the scratch so that they can get it on. After stitching one edge glue on a cute flower and you have the perfect gift for a girl.

Fun fleece scarves - these are so simple that we made them with the 4 year olds in my class. Just cut strips of fleece that are 1 yard by 7 inches, stack three strips on top of each other and see straight down the middle. On each edge make cuts 3 inches apart, from the outside edge to the center stitching, just be careful not to snip your stitches. Shake it out a little and you have a cute scarf.

Now's the time to buy fleece, so while you may have to wait in line at the cutting table, at least you'll get a great deal!

Christmas... Bring it on!

This girl is totally, completely ready for Christmas! House decorated - check. Tree up - check. Gifts bought and wrapped - check. I was massively productive this weekend, which is not something that I always get to say, and I am so excited to spend the month of December relaxing and enjoying, as opposed to the usual stressing and freaking out.

Don't get me wrong, I do still have plenty left to do, and I could give you my to-do list, but given the fact that you probably have a list of your very own, I'm sure you don't need to be stressed out by mine as well. I'd love to hear what you've done this weekend to get ready for Christmas - even if all you did was put away the thanksgiving leftovers, baby steps people!

Let's get back to business

Since my life has been just a bit stressful and out of control lately, my recent break from work was exactly what I needed. A week and a half gave me just enough time to indulge myself, while still allowing me to appreciate how wonderful a little break can be. I must say that I am very proud of myself, even though I had a great deal of time to relax and spend with friends and family, I also managed to find time to volunteer and create some adorable new items for my Etsy shop.

As tonight is my last evening before I have to get back to the real world I definitely find myself wishing it could last just a little longer, so I thought that this would be the perfect time to share one of my holiday ideas with you.

One of my favorite activities this holiday season was gift wrapping. I know that some do not look forward to this particular activity, but because I do love any kind of paper craft, gift wrapping puts me totally in my element.

Call me crazy, but I love to mix and match paper styles and ribbon, and each year I challenge myself to create a gift tag that doubles as a special keepsake. This year I cut each recipient's first initial from stiffened felt. I used a fine-tip permanent marker to write their whole first name on the letter, and then I punched a hole in the initial and added an eyelet. When it was time to wrap I simply slipped the ribbon right through the eyelet. It was a great time saver!

Another great gift wrap tip: I loved my wrapping paper so much that I decided to use it as the background for my holiday related scrapbook pages. In order to make the paper stiff enough to hold photos and embellishments I simply wrapped a piece of card stock just like I would wrap a gift. Now I get to showcase my favorite holiday photos and have pieces of my beautiful gift wrap to remember forever!

I have a great deal of holiday photos to share with you, keep checking in, as I plan on sharing photos of gifts that I made for others as well as new items that I have recently added to my Etsy shop!