comfy cozy are we

When I was a little girl, I hated Christmas night. It was such a letdown knowing that all the anticipation was over and I would have to wait a whole year. Now I think it's lovely. The house is quiet. I can reflect on the true meaning of the holiday. I can relax without feeling guilty that I'm not sewing. I can look at my pretty new books, like this one here, and wear my snuggly new bathrobe, and post on my poor neglected little blog. Our Christmas table was bedecked with this mushroom centerpiece from the December 2006 issue of Martha Stewart. The green tissue paper ones are candy favors. I had so much fun making this...I had forgotten how good life can be with glitter and a hot glue gun at Christmastime.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. God bless and keep you.

olive you sophie

A little Christmas present for Schnickelfritz... The pattern is from Wee Wonderfuls. Olive will be lonely for a while, as I have zero time to sew Archie right now, but I'm sure once Christmas day arrives she will be loved so much she won't even miss him.

I've been making some gift tags, too...
Sorry the pictures are so homely. They are lucky to even be posted, because I'm still crafting like a maniacal Christmas elf and rarely come up for air at all.

our christmas tree is on steroids

Remember when you were a little kid, and the tree always seemed gargantuan in proportion to yourself? That's how this tree makes me feel. I can just imagine how it seems to Sophie. It's been up for a week and she is still in awe of it. Frankly, so am I. In a good way. Hot chocolate by the tree. Life is so good.
After a day of blowup castle-jumping and Santa-visiting
I just realized this is turning into Sophie's blog. But what's a girl to do? It's not like I can go parading my Christmas crafts on here; the recipients might be lurking around. So humor me, please.

retail therapy

What a lame blogger I've been. Part of it is that this has been the house of crud for the past week...and then some. Sophie is beyond grumpy from being sick and cooped up and is now a zombie. The other part is that I've been working in Santa's sweatshop. He doesn't pay me or give me any breaks to post. Somebody get Michael Moore on the phone.
I got to do some shopping over the weekend, here are some of my goodies:
The fabric is all for Christmas projects. The cute little owl napkin holder is for me. I have such a huge crush on owls right now. I love this jacket. And these shakers. Ooh, and I got a Dean Martin Christmas cd I'm gonna bust out tomorrow when we kick off our SUPER DUPER HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA weekend. Please forgive the caps lock abuse. I really can't help being a geeky little Christmas elf. Dave is definitely not as into it as I am. Sometimes I worry that Sophie will inherit her daddy's cool as a cucumber-ness and they will both stare at me with bored expressions on their gorgeous faces as I bop around every year in my reindeer antlers singing along to Bing Crosby at the top of my lungs. But that's silly. All kids love Christmas. We've been reading Twas the Night Before Christmas and she loves it. "A-din, Mama" she says every time we finish.
Well, back to the sweatshop before Santa busts me.

sunshine in my house

I've been noticing a lot of yellow lately. Particularly golden tones like marigold. I used to think yellow was a horrendous color that reeked of shag carpet and velour jumpsuits. But it has been creeping slowly onto my good side the past few years. And it warmed me up today: ...on this quilt block
in my gnome book
and on my table.

inspired

Wow. What an awesome weekend.Stitch Austin started out not quite as fabulous as I imagined. There was some cute stuff, and I bought a couple things, but nothing took my breath away. Then the runway show started. It was amazing. These designers have got it going on in a big way. A lot of the fashions seemed to be from thrifted and reconstructed clothing and materials, and I absolutely love that. I wish I were more fearless about cutting into thrifted things. I really need to get on the reconstruction train instead of paying 9 bucks a yard for every piece of fabric I own. My favorites were the retro outfits from House of Dang and the Alice in Wonderland inspired goodies from Coco Couture. But seriously, all of it was fantastic beyond words. I had dreams of fabric and scissors and thread that night. In case you can't tell, those are refrigerator magnets and a Christmas ornament...then we did a little shopping and lunching the next day. I feel refreshed and happy to be back to my daily routine. Maybe it's just me, but Sophie seems to have mellowed out a bit too since we got back from Mamere's. (Thanks, Mom.)Oh and I got another built by Wendy pattern. MUST BUY MORE FABRIC NOW.

big girls do cry

Last weekend I made monkey bread. Dave has always talked about how his mom used to make it. And Amy's post about it made my mouth water. If I'm going to have dessert these days, it had better have some chocolate. So I got wacky and put chocolate glaze on it. And now my pants are tight. Oh well, it was worth it. Here is the recipe: 3 12 oz. packages biscuit dough




1 cup finely chopped nuts




3/4 cup sugar




3 Tablespoons cinnamon









Mix together sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Put nuts into another medium bowl. Pour 1/2 cup milk into a third bowl. Cut biscuits into quarters and dredge in milk, then nuts, then cinnamon sugar mixture. Place biscuit quarters into greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto plate. Let cool completely and drizzle chocolate glaze over monkey bread.

Chocolate glaze

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips




1 1/2 cups powdered sugar




1 tablespoon butter




2 1/2 tablespoons milk




1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients in saucepan over medium low heat and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.




This weekend we turned Sophie's nursery into a big girl room. We got her a bed and bookshelf at Ikea.Now the whole family has room for new books. wheeee!

I have to gush about her quilt for a while. When I was sixteen, my Nana finished a quilt her sister had made the top of and gave it to me for Christmas. I had no idea what I had at the time. I am so not proud of this, but after it was on my bed for about a year, I ditched it for some cheesy purchased bedspread, probably from Wal-Mart. Ugh. Clueless. I finally got Dave to get it out of storage and it took my breath away. My dad has talked about how poor his aunt was, and I know these are all floursack and scrap fabrics from clothing. This is what a quilt is supposed to be about. This is what I shell out hundreds of dollars trying to duplicate. The picture doesn't even begin to do it justice. Can you tell I am in awe of this quilt? The rug, lamp, and hanging cubby-thing are also from Ikea. Sophie, by the way, adores it all. She enjoys throwing herself on the bed and laughing wildly. One thing I did not anticipate is that ever since she got her toddler bed, she is in full toddler mode. At the word "no" she cries these manipulative crocodile tears. She has also been spending more time clinging to my leg and pounding her fists on the floor. So I am going to mom's today for a little breather. I think I'll bring my knitting and maybe rent a chick flick. And this weekend is Stitch Austin with Val. I need some good old-fashioned best friend company right now like I need oxygen.

I had all these great intentions of posting about our Halloween, complete with lots of pictures. But alas, the blond in me(meaning some of that bleach has probably seeped into my scalp and got to my brain) won over and I forgot to put the &*%$#@^ memory card in my camera. so here is a link to mom's blog...SHE remembered her memory card, apparently.

http://forest4thetreez.blogspot.com/2007/10/all-hallows-eve-2.html

I will say that our church's fall festival was a smashing success. Although the craft table wasn't as big a hit as I had envisioned, the kids all seemed to have big fun. We had apple bobbing, pin-the-face-on-the-pumpkin, a cupcake walk, and even a firepit outside where you could make your own s'mores. I sewed Sophie's costume way back in August, and as for my faerie outfit, I made record time...I ran into the Fun Shop, told the owner I was in frantic I-need-costume-now mode, and was back out, full costume in hand, in less than 5 minutes. Once I got rid of the guilt for spending 50 bucks and not making my own costume, I was pretty happy with my Cyndi Lauperesque faerie getup.

Sophie is now sleeping in her big-girl bed. We are still transforming her room;the bookshelf isn't up yet, so I will post pics when it's finished. She has been so thrilled about the whole thing, and so have , in some ways. But it's like any milestone, which I'm sure every mother understands. Half of me is excited for her, and the other half is going, "Wait! Bring my teeny tiny baby back!" I miss my little peanut, who seems to have been replaced by this independent, sometimes stubborn little ball of energy. but she is growing into such a lovely little person, and I get to see her unique personality develop, and that really is a gift.

things that make me say, "yay!"

I made this dress, mostly to wear to Stitch Austin, but also because I've been wanting to wear something that screams, "It's Fall!" It might be an oxymoron to have a fall dress with cap sleeves. But again, this is Texas. It's good to be prepared for heat waves at shockingly inappropriate times, like mid-November. I was so happy to have an excuse to sew something with Denise Schmidt's new line of fabrics. The pattern is Simplicity 3964. Some other things that make me smile:



Sophie and her friend Tatum's sparkly shoes

My new milk frother ($2!!) from Ikea

I'm having some girls over tonight for craft night. Sophie's having a girlfriend over too.
On the menu: Tomato basil galettes, spiced pecans, chips and crab dip, and an assortment of cookies. I get such a thrill from making girly party food.

In other news, I have been spending some time on etsy lately. I especially love these and this.There are so many strange and beautiful things out there, sometimes it's so hard to resist.

baby it's cool outside

Here is Sophie's winter coat. I finished it 3 weeks ago, and Val has been harassing me about posting it. Thanks for caring, Val. She definitely could model it this morning; it's 48 degrees outside. (Wheeeeeee!) But I am too cozy here with my hands around my hot mug of coffee to even think of bringing her outside right now. The pattern is from the 60s.I found the cotton fabric with vintage-looking children on it at this great little fabric store I just discovered in town, (it's been there for years, I don't know how I missed it) and I couldn't resist making some buttons and a pocket dolly with it. The plaid fabric was a NIGHTMARE to work with. Fray city. But it turned out pretty cute. And it cost about twenty bucks to make.

I am giddy this morning. It is finally cool outside. Fall lasts about 5 minutes in this part of the country. But oh, it is good while it's here. And this present from my sweet husband has me dancing in the kitchen. And wanting to cook. We have stuff for Reuben sandwiches tonight...I'm thinking, maybe acorn squash soup to go with them?

Last night I was reading Coraline and I got so deliciously creeped out. I don't want this book to end. I am so psyched to see the movie, although movies based on books this good are almost always doomed to be disappointing. Anyone have any suggestions for other good scary books to read this month?

soft as schnickelfritz's butt

I knit this hat for Sophie. I screwed it up the first time and ripped the whole thing out, so this was a do-over. I stopped short of what the pattern called for because I didn't want it to be tall and floppy. So it is too short to cover her ears, but it looks cute. Hey, who gets cold ears in central Texas, anyway? Her expression is due to the fact that she woke up about 5 minutes before this picture was snapped.
I went to the yarn store today and bought some more hat yarn:Rowan Cashsoft dk in this knockout teal color. Pretty, no? Now that I've discovered this brand, I don't think I can ever go back to the scratchy acrylic yarn(Dave would call it "Bo-Bo" yarn). Sophie's hat was knit with the All-Season's cotton and it felt so good to knit with. And this stuff is even softer...my hands are going to be very happy.

some terrific radiant humble pig

My craft books got here from amazon. It was like Christmas over here. Bend the Rules Sewing is amazing. I love everything about this book and have such good intentions to make a whole heap of projects out of it. I should mention that I have a somewhat severe craft book problem. I buy them with the best laid plans and they sit there on my shelf for years doing nothing but looking pretty(not to mention my nasty cookbook habit). I admit that the book on sock knitting may have a similar fate. But I will do my very best. I love the idea of cozy hand-knitted socks adorning my feet. I always think of the Pablo Neruda poem about socks where he calls his feet two colorful fish. I also got a Dean Martin CD and...squeal! Dean Martin is SUCH a dreamboat. Love those dead crooners. Here is one of the pillowcases I embroidered to honor the new quilt. I used the Kurt Halsey pattern from Sublime Stitching. I want to put the spiky yellow flowers on everything I own. Sophie went to her first big screen movie today! She did so good...she sat through the whole thing. It was Charlotte's Web, and I was so excited because I thought it was the old one, the one we love, but I couldn't be too disappointed that it was the newer one, because Sophie's excitement was so infectious. She kept saying, "pig!" (She has an inexplicable fascination with pigs right now.) Then we went to the playground and took a nature walk in the flower gardens downtown. It was one of those picture-perfect mother daughter days, the kind that makes it all worth it, makes you forget the times you feel like toddler shrieks are your life's soundtrack and the never ending mess in the house and mountains of laundry are going to swallow you whole. Tomorrow should be swell, too. We are going pumpkin picking! All three of us, followed by pumpkin carving, apple cider sipping, and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown watching. I will try and get some good pics to post.

finished at last

I put it on the bed at 9 last night. I nearly wept...it is as pretty as I imagined it would be, which is not a common occurence with my projects. All fabrics from Amy Butler's fabulous Belle collection. It started as a lap quilt kit, and I added to it to make it fit my queen sized bed. Hubby loves it...he promptly zonked out on it as soon as I got it on. I resisted the urge to bark, "No drooling on the quilt!" I'm thinking, matching pillow shams maybe? Shams have always been a little frou-frou for my taste, but this quilt deserves something more than our stained pillowcases, I think. I have been slaving over this quilt since February, so if I am a bit too pleased with myself here, forgive me.

In other news, Sophie and I have been reading this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Olivia-Saves-Circus-Ian-Falconer/dp/068982954X/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-1200701-6222525?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191516798&sr=8-2

and we are now obsessed with Olivia. I'm thinking of making her an Olivia pillow for her room. Seriously, I enjoy these books at least as much as she does...and that's saying a lot because she brings this one to me 3 times a day. The stories are so cute and the pictures make me laugh until I cry.

long tall sophie

My dad brought over this little stepstool he built for Sophie last night, opening up endless ways for her to make the kitchen look like a war zone. She loves to wash her hands in the sink. Dave wants to put a guardrail on it. I think he was half kidding.

When I was a kid, washing dishes was one of my regular chores. I hated it with a passion then, but now I actually don't mind it so much, which is surprising, since I pretty much wash dishes all day long. Still, I felt a bit deceitful and Tom Sawyer-ish telling Sophie, "see, wahing dishes is big fun!" Our next stepstool project will be cookie baking with our giant new fall leaf cookie cutter.