Christmas Nightgown

Today I was able to finish a Christmas nightgown for my oldest daughter using some more of the fabric I bought last year. I have enough fabric left over that I think I will attempt to make a matching nightgown for her favorite baby doll. I don't want to tell her about that plan, though, in case it doesn't turn out. Hopefully it will be a nice surprise for her.

The nightgown is too big. I used Simplicity 9296 for this nightgown. I used the same pattern for a project last Fall, and that's how I knew it was going to be too big. Thankfully my daughter has grown enough in a year that it is wearable. I do not have talent in the area of pattern alteration, so I went with what I had. It is wearable, and she loves it, and hopefully it will fit her next year too.



While I was taking her picture, she dropped down and said a quick prayer. Maybe because my son and I told her that she would look like an angel when she wore her new nightgown she was feeling especially angelic. She prayed "Da dou for Nanny and Pa and MaMa and P-Paw. Amen", and then she was up again ready for me to take more pictures.

Christmas Pajama Top

Yesterday the kids and I were in the basement looking through some Christmas fabric that I bought last year. My son found some fabric he really liked, and asked me to make pajamas out of it for him. I only had enough of the fabric to make a pajama top, but that was o.k. with him. I almost didn't have enough fabric to make the top which is why the yoke is made out of a solid red fabric.

Today I was able to get the top cut out and finished, and he loves it!


He loves it so much, in fact, that he was inspired to grab his guitar and sing a song about it:

A Few Projects

I just logged into Photobucket to upload a picture, and saw pictures of my son's birthday cakes that I forgot to post. My son turned five at the beginning of the month, and he wanted a pirate cake and a treasure chest cake. I did a google search, found some examples to follow, and my husband and I managed to create these two cakes for him:





On a different topic, yesterday, the kids made a tree as a way to reinforce what God made on day 3 of creation. We went outside to gather fallen leaves, and then I let them paint a tree trunk and glue their leaves onto the top. I think it came out really cute, and we chose to hang it in the kitchen so everyone can enjoy it:



Have you visited Sew Mama Sew lately? I hadn't until the other day, and boy oh boy do I have a list of projects that I want to work on! They are having a scrap buster contest, and there are so many fun projects that have been posted. I have a lot of fabric scraps, so some of these projects will be just perfect! Two, in particular, I want to work on soon are the coiled basket and the alphabet magnets. I think both of these will make great Christmas gifts for some people on my list, and the best part is I already have all the materials I need so I won't need to spend any money. We are going to have to be very creative with Christmas gifts this year as 6 months of unemployment have left us with no budget for gifts right now. I am so excited about the possibility of making some cute gifts with materials I have on hand!

Projects, Projects Everywhere

I seem to have several small projects in process that are scattered about the house. Join me on a tour, won't you?

Here we are in the kitchen. See the lovely accumulation of Capri Sun packages?


These are waiting to be made into a pocketbook for my daughter. Caprisun and Kool-Aid Jammers were on sale recently at Kroger, and I did a little searching on the internet for instructions on how to make bags out of the pouches. I made a pencil holder for my son, and he loves it. My daughter, of course, wanted something too, and since she loves pocketbooks it seemed like the best option. Here is the pencil holder:


Very simple, with a little zipper top.

Also in the kitchen picture above you will notice some milk jugs. These are waiting to be made into bird feeders - I found some instructions for milk jug bird feeders in a publication the EPA sent us, and thought it would be a good Fall project for the kids.

The poster is from last year - I made it for my Sunday School room door. We are studying creation again, so I pulled it out to hang in the room again this year.

Oh, and meet Frank - the Beta. He has yet to find a permanent spot in the house, but he seems to enjoy sitting where he is - staring at the ocean picture on the creation poster.

The newspaper? It's from Sunday - has coupons in it that are waiting to be filed.

Continuing with the tour, we stop here at the filing cabinet in the office. That is where I have a roll of fabric I cut last week. I plan to make two quilts for Christmas gifts - one for my Mom, and one for my Mother-in-Law. The blue fabric is for my Mom's quilt - I was able to find eight different blue fabrics in my fabric stash that I think will be pretty together.


The helicopter you see was a project that my son worked on - he loves to paint things.

The last stop on our tour is the side table beside my recliner. Here we have an embroidery project I am working on for my daughter.

Nevermind that I don't really know anything about embroidery - embroidery I am working on. I am not sure what I will do with this little doggie when he is finished. My daughter says she wants to "carry him around". I am trying to convince her that he would rather be put in a frame and hung on the wall. My son saw the embroidery patterns and has decided he wants a doggie holding cherries and another holding corn. I'll add that to my list of projects that need to be done, and soon there will be two more in process projects adorning my side table!

Peach Pound Cake

My kids and I just got back from spending a week at my parents' house. It was a great trip; we went to a peach orchard while we were there, and today we used some of the peaches to make this recipe for peach pound cake.

Our peaches went from being picked:




to being peeled and cut up and ready for the cake batter:



to coming out of the oven as yummy goodness!



The recipe is suppose to be made in a bundt pan, but my bundt pan is currently serving as a flower pot for hen and chicks out on the deck. Happily, the loaf pan worked very well. The cake is delicious!!

I haven't had much time for doing any crafts or sewing lately, but yesterday I did get an area in the office set up to use to start teaching my son basic kindergarten-level skills. I gave him an old school desk that I bought years ago at a flea market. He loves it because the top lifts and there is a lot of room inside for his paper and pencils (and anything he decides he needs to hide from his sister).



The square that is glowing orange to the left of his desk is his weather station. These were on sale for $50 at Wal-Mart with a $50 rebate, so we got three of them for free. It shows the weather for the day, the date and time and the weather predictions for the next four days. He really enjoys monitoring it throughout the day. It starts out as green every morning, then gradually works its way up to orange or red depending on how high the temperature rises. Once middle sister gets big enough to have a desk set up in the office, she will get her own weather station too, since we were able to get three of them, baby sister can have one of her own one day too.

Today, my son worked on learning how to write the letter "A". He knows how to spell his name, but those are really the only letters he knows how to write. The letter "A" is proving tricky for him; we will work on it again tomorrow!

Baby Doll Sling

This week I took my first trip outside the house with all three children. On Monday my husband went with us, but on Wednesday I took the kids to story time at the library on my own. I am happy to report that I did very well handling all three of them. I don't know what I would do without my baby wrap, though. It makes everything so much easier.

My older daughter was smitten with the idea of wearing a baby, and all week she has been sticking her baby dolls down in her shirt and tying them in her robe to try to wear them the way I was wearing the baby.

Last night I found a video tutorial for a baby sling, and I made one for my daughter. She is so happy to be able to wear her babies like Mommy does!

First Post-Natal Sewing Project

Yesterday I was in the mood to sew. It was the first time since having the baby (4 weeks) that I actually had a desire to pull out my sewing machine. I must say it felt good to have some "me" time at the sewing machine.

I made a little dress to give as a gift to the daughter of some friends from church who have been very helpful to us since the baby was born. I just didn't think a thank you card was enough, and since my husband is still trying to find a job there is no money for gifts. I did have fabric, though, and thought a little dress for the daughter would be a good idea. I hope that it fits. She is the same age as my son, so I made it in the size he could wear.

Here is the finished dress: