Snow and Song, a Video

Here is my snow video of Lylah in the big snow.

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I tried a bit of silly and more techie than I am used to. Lylah wanted a dance for our family after seeing Baby Celie dance so well. She loves Henry's moves.

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Finnished!!

It only took 3 years and 4 Pride and Prejudice viewings to get Lylah's Christmas stocking done. Poor baby has been promised ( in my mind ) a Christmas stocking since before she was born. This will be her third Christmas and she, at last, has a stocking! I got my niece's stocking done a week or two ago and then started work on Lylah's. I totally intended to have stockings on my ETSY shop this Christmas, but it did not happen. I will get myself together to get them done for next year. I was in a funk all of last year. I had a stressful new job ( in good and bad ways) and I was dealing with the loss of our precious baby, Anna. I was just barely hanging in there. But right now, praise Jesus, I am feeling pretty good. I am feeling well, I one year of job under my belt and a fantastic assistant to help me this year. I have been given hope even through the loss of our long anticipated third baby. I have been given peace, and faith, and been loved by my sweet husband and friends. All of this, plus the inspiration given to me by my bundle of crazy two-year-old bliss and a plethora of bloggy goodness, has given me the push I needed to get my chapped hands in motion.

So, without further adieu.... Lylah's long awaited "boot"
The stocking base is my favorite old kakki pants.  I have made all my stockings this way.  Who knew it was "upcycling".  It just looks more cozy.  I used a lot of my favorite ribbons and tried out the stripes pattern with varied widths of wool felt and ric rac and ribbon. I embroidered the snowflakes on top after I machine sewed all the stripes down. I hand sewed the pocket design and toe and heel patches. I used all my favorite designs from other family stockings and made Lylah's into my favorite yet. Glen's was the first I made in remotely this style ( made a whole set for my fam when I was in high school not in the same way as these). I made mine second and next a set for Chris and Susan and their kids my mom and dad, and Matthew and Sarah and Lilly ( and now Celie too). They have gotten progressively better. Now mine and Glen's will look very shabby next to Lylah's. Maybe I will do new ones for us next. Glen does not want a new one for sentimental reasons...so maybe I can chop his up and up-cycle it. We will see I guess.

Used Grammy Logan's sequins and beads, my favorite ribbons and felt, and Grandmother Blazer's seed beads for Mouse eyes and fun ric rac for embellishments. I am so thankful to have so many people give me their crafting things. It adds history and family to my projects. Makes me love the finished product more and more.
I made a little plush mouse to go inside the pocket of the stocking. i was inspired to do this by the overalls my mom sent her from Gymboree. They had a little Panda that was attached to the pocket and she loved it. Took care of it and kissed it a lot. I made up the pattern myself and even made him have movable and bendable legs and arms. I will have to make more mini plushies. It was quite fun and I loved the result.
Here she is trying on her "Boot". She knows she will find a present inside it on Christmas morning, but she has not quite got the idea that it is not really a boot. She said she now needs "anovee one for the other foot, please" Love the tongue out. She is both working hard and being silly.

Here is a link to the stockings I made for my sister and her family. I love to see them all together. Makes me need to get new ones done for me and Glen!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We went on Thanksgiving morning to get our tree. Lylah was so excited about the idea. She ran around the tree place and told us how beautiful and lovely all the trees were. We got it home and put it up---and there it has been until today. Today, December 6th, we decorate the blessed tree. We decorated her little one, but the rest of the house is due for a decorating extravaganza!! I will post the after shot later on when the tree is in full Christmas mode. For now I thought it might be fun to see a few shots of Lylah at the tree place and a shot of the Thanksgiving table later on that day.

She smiles so sweetly here not because I asked her to ( that now produces a frown or closed eyes ). She smiles because of the candy cane in her hand. Can't wait to lick it!! She pretended to lick it several times before it was opened.
We had a really fun and yummy Thanksgiving meal at Glen's parents' house on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So on Thanksgiving day I made chicken and noodles and mashed potatoes. I got to use the beautiful soup terrine that my mom just passed down to me in the spring. On out table is fun vintage paper turkey decoration and also a new and cherished Lylah-made paper turkey. I don't keep all the things she makes. But I love the turkey. It's too cute!! I am a thankful girl indeed. I cannot begin to count the ways my life has been blessed. A Happy Thanksgiving to be sure!!!

Acorn Tops and Felt Glittered Ornaments

Lylah and I have been taking walks and collecting all kinds of fall goodies. My favorites are the acorns and acorn tops. Hers are crab apples, but they don't last very long after they are picked. On our last visit to the park we gathered about 25 acorn tops. She was overjoyed to find them. So was I. We stuffed our pockets full and I made up my mind to make something from them.
Lylah is doing every tradition for the first time this year ( as she does not remember doing it in years past because she was too young to know). So all things Christmas are VERY exciting. I bought her a little tensile tree and we needed decorations that would not break or be dangerous in her room. Enter the acorn tops. I made felt bottoms for the acorn tops and she shook them in clear plastic and silver glitter. Here is my attempt at a tutorial for making the sweet acorns.


1. Gather the acorn tops ( and pine cones too).

2. Have someone who knows how to use power tools drill a small hole in the top of the cap. Yeah, that's my 2 year old pushing the trigger. It's safe...Dad is there. He worked on following directions and red light green light. She was a pro. See the look of determination on her face?!

3. Thread a length of string through the hole and tie a knot. I used some cording because it was sturdy and white and would go with the silver tree.


4. Trace a circle in the circumference you think works best onto the felt pieces.

5. Sew a running stitch around the edge of the felt circle.
6. Stuff the circle and draw up the thread tightly to make a small closed pouch.
7. Hot glue the acorn cap and string to the felt pouch.


8. It should look like this.


9. Use school glue and brush to apply glue to all the surface of the acorn.


10. Drop the acorn into a zip top bag with glitter in it and SHAKE like the dickens. I used clear plastic glitter and silver glitter mixed.

11. When you are done it should look like this.

My willing assistant looked like this.

The tree looked like this. Lylah drew in a breath and exclaimed, " Beautiful and Lovely. Oh Merry Christmas, right?! It's my best ever, EVER, ever, ever, ever!"

Um, No thank you , Mommy...

I figured it out! I wrote last about the doll I am making for Christmas and how Lylah saw the head and was not impressed. She asked if it was an octopus. I thought when she said it that "octopus" was a strange thing to say since there were no legs ( the really octopus-ish thing about octopuses ). But then it hit me. She has recently seen Toy Story for the first 50 times. She loves it. But there is the part where Buzz and Woody are trapped in Sid's room, the bad kid next door. His room is full of toys that he has put together in a Frankenstein's Monster kind of way. One of the toys is a doll's head with spider-like erector set legs. She calls it an Octopus.

Here is my doll head...




Here is the "Octopus"...


I guess you can see why she is not too exited about the doll yet. Poor thing. When she saw it I even had a needle sticking out of the top of the head. CREEPY!! No wonder she told me not to ever leave it out ever, ever, ever.

Just Hear those Sleigh Bells Jingling...

I have no pictures to post because my camera is MIA again. I know where it is, but it is not accessible today. Oh well.
I am in full craft mode. I am working on Lylah's stocking and her various Christas gifts. I am currently making her a Waldorf inspired doll. I love it. Right now it i just a head without a body. Lalah saw it to day and said "uh, no thank you Mommy...." and "is that and Octopus" and later when she saw the disembodied head sitting on the coffee table, " Here yo go Mommy. don't EVER ever , ever leave this out again. Not ever." I admit the "doll" is a smidgen on the creepy side now, but I believe it will be so sweet when it is done. I am planning on giving it hair in Lylah's color. There are lots of pretty yarns to choose from now a days. So I am excited about completion. If I like this doll, then I will make more and use more to shelf materials like the REAL Waldorf dolls are made with. For this one I am using knit fabric and polyfill to stuff it rather than the all wool and no synthetic materials that the philosophy would suggest. You will have to look them up to see what I am talking about with the dolls. I love them and think they are cute. ( Depends on the doll-maker though . ) They are deliberately made without a whole lot of expression in the face so hat the child can pretend more completely. I cannot wait to finish the doll and make her a few clothes. When I get the camera back I will take a picture of the work in progress for you to see.

I never knew...

I never knew pumpkin pie had a bone until I made one and gave it to my two year old. The other day Lylah asked me to make pie. She has been listening to me sing "three little kittens" who get to have pie. She has recently seen a new Beatrix Potter movie of animated books where a dog and cat eat pie together. And it is Thanksgiving time. Pie talk is in the air. So anywho... She helped me make a pie on Friday and surprised Daddy with it. Glen never eats the crust and the crust he got had a little dark spot where the pumpkin sloshed a bit going in the oven. So he set his plate down on the table in front of Lylah who looked at it an said, " Daddy, is that the bone?" we laughed and laughed. The things she comes up with!

Scout's Honor?!!!!!

Well... I have been duped I tell you! Several weeks back I was caught off guard by a very savvy salesman named Kyle. He, this curly, fire engine red-haired boy with a slight weight problem and freckles, came to me and used a genius sales pitch. He said to me, " aren't you the lady who wanted to buy some popcorn from me?" I said "No, but I might just take a look." Of course I did not want to buy popcorn. I mean, i know it's for a good cause, but I am into being thrifty. I am not above a straight donation to a worthy cause, but when I make a PURCHASE I like to get a value for the product. I knew that I would over pay...but I ordered from the kid. He got me with his freckles and curles and his big puppy dog eyes. I looked through the order form and chose the cheapest thing I could. It was a $10 tub of carmel corn.


I envisioned a giant tub of popcorn that a person could munch on for quite while, perhaps with several movies or chapters of a good book.



What I got was this:




a "Country Crock" sized TUB of of popcorn. It is shown here with Lylah's sippy to put things in perspective. I seriously had to laugh at the amazing job that was done on the brochure that enticed me and fooled me into believing that I was going to receive a normal sized container of popcorn. But I opened it and ate it. It was OK and Lylah liked it a lot. She has no frame of reference to base her judgement upon---toddler!!


Dear Boy Scouts of America,
You got me. Kudos on your keen advertising and well placed "all American" sales force! I will eat my popcorn, enjoying all 50 kernels in my itty bitty "tub." You won't fool ME again. No red-haired agent of pop corn robbery will pull one over on me again. I will have my turn down speech ready. I will be strong. Your trick was not honorable, Boy Scouts. You now join the rank of the "charge more for a smaller box of cookies", Girl Scouts. I don't care f the Thin Mints are awesome right out of the freezer or if the toasted coconut and caramel and chocolate cookies (whose name I never remember) are the best cookies ever in the world. I will not partake in the scam any longer.
Sincerely,
Mrs Jones ( fooled for the last time)
PS I am going to stand up to the 3rd grade candle pusher too. I'm not as sweet as I look, boys!