Repurposing A Blanket

One cable knit blanket on clearance=5 stockings.  Total cost $4.  Guess what?  I like them quirky too.  All it took was a paper pattern and a sewing machine that can do a zig-zag stitch.  Took me less than an hour folks.

It's Official...Christmas Has Begun

Cabbage and Beef Stew is simmering on the stove.  Cornbread is going in the oven after I finish this post.  I spent the morning in bed watching movies with my man.  The kids are busy creating things and playing rock band.  Such a lazy day (well in between I am preparing my lesson for church tomorrow).  We did get something accomplished though...we cut down our Christmas tree.  After having a fake tree for 7 years, we decided on a real one last year.  Someone gave us a real tree for free last year and we scoured our Christmas boxes and found lights.  This year, we had to search close to our home.  I didn't want to drive all the way out to Newberg/Sherwood to find a tree and I definitely wasn't going to pay 6.95 a foot at Lee's Farms (What a rip off!!) 

 So we drove through the little town of Willamette and conjured up a beautiful noble for $25.  It's a gorgeous color with a tad bit of blue to it, and it was a mere 15 minutes from our home.  My husband and Christian cut the beauty down with the help of the reciprocating saw.  Now, our family room smells like Christmas.
   



Tomorrow, while we snack on ham and left-over stuffing, we will be decorating our tree.

Christmas Gifts Under $5: Pillowcase Apron

My dear friend was asking everyone last week for a simple sewing project to tackle with her 6 year old girl.  She really wanted to get that sewing machine back into holiday gear.  Well here is an easy, fun project for any level of sewer to undertake.

Take a pillowcase procured from the local Value Village or Goodwill (the more interesting the design, the better...I mean take that Star Wars pillowcase and go nuts!!) and decide how long you want your finished apron to be.

Cut it to desired length (this pillowcase just happens to be a king pillowcase so it's extra long).

Divide remaining section into at least two parts (in this case, 3 because it was such a large pillowcase).

Take the actual Apron half and tear out the seam (note, it is better to purchase or use a pillowcase that only has one seam down the side instead of down both sides...it just looks better in the finish product).  Embellish with fabric or ribbon.  I also took part of the extra strips from the previous step and made a little pocket...I know, cute right?!  Hem all the sides.  The bottom is already done...sweet!

Now take those strips you cut and tear out the seams.  Cut one strip in half and sew them to the ends of the long strip.  Now you have your ties.  

Here comes the fun part...what do you want your apron to look like?  You could gather it and then sew on the tie, or you could pleat it, or you could just leave it be and make it more of a wrap around apron with almost full butt coverage! LOL!  But whatever you do, make it your own unique design.  If you don't know how to sew the tie to the body, just center the tie on the apron, put right sides together, and sew the tie to the body.  Then if you still don't know what to do after that...get yourself a hot iron and fold in 1/2 inch and iron yourself some seams and sew those babies up.  I am not a McCall pattern maker, so if you need more detailed instruction, just call me, or better yet, go look at an apron and you'll figure the last part out.

With this pillowcase apron, I did half large pleats and the other half I left unadulterated so I could have a cute pocket.

This creation took me all of an hour to make.  It cost me $2.50, $1 for the pillowcase, and $1.50 worth of ribbon.  I'm sure someone will like it!

This little guy was fun!  I finished all the hems, added some cute tiny pleats, and stitched down about 2 inches.  Then I attached my tie down two inches and added some orange ribbon with the zigzag stitch.  It's whimsical and I love the fabric from this pillowcase.

I also added a little grosgrain ribbon at the bottom.  You like?

This is my gathered waist calico apron.  I like to call it my Laura Ingalls Wilder apron.  It is very easy to gather the waist and sew on the tie.    Sew are you hungry to dust off the old machine yet?

This pillowcase had a ruffle at the end already so I spiffed it up with a little decorative stitching and ribbon.  All of these aprons could easily be made into skirts for a little girl if you got a tad more creative with the waistband area.  Let yourself go!

The best part about this project is taking someone else's castaways and making something completely unique and lovely out of it.  I can't tell you the amount of satisfaction I get from taking junk and making it into greatness.  It literally feeds my soul.  Any old person can go to the fabric store, buy the matching fabric and accessories and make something fabulous.  So I dare you to step outside of your comfort zone and be creative.  Just go for it!  See what you come up with!  

ToysRus Is Not A Fun Date!

Evidently taking your husband to do the Christmas shopping is not his idea of a fun date....he's all tuckered out.  Too bad I was all out of quarters so he could take a ride.  :)

December 23rd

Christmas is not my favorite holiday.  Let me rephrase that, the Consumer Christmas is not my favorite holiday.  Granted, there are things I like about Christmas like gift giving and making treats.  But it really stops there.  Christmas to me is just a major pain in the butt!  Decorating the tree and hanging lights seem like chores.  It's not that I am not in the Christmas spirit, because I really am...just a different type of spirit.  Yes, the tree is decorated and I have a nativity displayed, but nothing can top December 23rd 1995 for showing me what Christmas is really all about.  Everything else is a pale shadow...only a let down and a glitter covered mockery.  


I was a witness to a Christmas miracle of my own on that day.  November 1995, I was living in an old pioneer home in Santa Clara Utah as a missionary.  My companion was a french nazi...not really, but almost.  We were having amazing success in the area due to the fact that Sisters hadn't been in that area for years.  Sometimes, girls can touch different people in different ways.  Let me tell you, they loved us.  We had 10 baptisms one month.  One lady we tried to contact, said she wasn't interested, but then called me back a few days later.  We hit it off from the start.  Her name was Jennifer Roberts.  She was 22 and had just had twin girls 20 months previous.  I began teaching her, after we realized that my companion and her were just not clicking at all.  She had the empathy of a paint can that girl, but was a really hard worker...so she watched the little girls.  And eventually, she accepted an invitation to be baptized.  Thing was, her husband was a returned missionary but had become inactive...not less active...inactive.  She was golden.  A california girl that had a zeal for life that was contagious.  And so she asked her husband to baptize her.  He began working with his bishop to get reactivated and ready to baptize his wife.  His whole family was excited.  We were thinking maybe in the spring, but his bishop had other plans....a baptism before Christmas.  


As she walked to into the font, he wept.  Not a dry eye in the whole room.  After he immersed her in the water, they stood there in each others arms and cried for what seemed like minutes.  The spirit was so strong it was like the room was on fire.  I was privy to redemption in all its phases that day.  Standing there, dripping wet, was the real Christmas spirit.  Nothing can top it ever.  For a man repented and forsook his sin and a woman covenanted with her God.  And in that very minute, they began a journey that would lead them back to their Father.  All because a babe was born in Bethlehem and grew to be the Saviour of Mankind and took upon himself the sins of all of us so that we can return to live with Him again.  Nothing is more important than that act.  Nothing.  It doesn't matter how big our sins, it only matters that we are trying to make it back.  And Christmas is the time that we celebrate the fact that He did indeed come to this earth.  It is a time that we can remember the sacrifice that Mary and Joseph made to become the parents of Jesus.  


So decorating the Christmas tree and hanging lights and standing in line to see Santa...I do that for my kids.  But Christmas to me, is in a font in Ivins Utah....

Oh Christmas Tree...

How lovely are your branches...

Even in the dark of night...

The Next Challenge

I will not be blogging again until Sunday...I need a break.  The next thing I am going to try (which happened to be a goal of mine from last year) is to do an act of kindness everyday.  I have been a little wrapped up in me lately, and it will be nice for a change to think about others and what they need.  So I challenge all of you, for the next month, give of yourself once a day.  Blessings will abound and you will truly feel the Spirit of Christmas.

The Christmas Spirit

I want to go home.  That is all I want.  But it's complicated.  Evidently, you have to be completely sinless to live with Father.  Try as I might, I cannot live a sinless life.  All is lost....  I can never measure up.  None of us can.
My big brother wants us home too.  He loves me more than I can imagine.  He loves all of his brothers and sisters the same.  He wants us all back.  So he came down and lived a sinless life and then paid for all of our sins, sicknesses, heartaches, and deprivations.  He paid that price....  So when I think of that beautiful tree sparkling in the corner or when my children tear open a gift, I think of the stars that I will look upon with my Father someday and the many gifts that He has given me throughout my life.   Because all I want....really...is to go back home.  Sometimes, for a split second, I can remember...what it felt like and that is what carries me through and makes me cry when I hear a Christmas song.  I love my Brother dearly.  He deserves to be praised everyday.  I cannot wait to go home again and see Him and all my loved ones....

Day 28....and still going....

I am going to finish this goal if it kills me.  My house exploded all around me today as gluttony has set in.  Did I leave my bed before 2 in the afternoon?  No.  Did I eat mega amounts of chocolate?  Yes.  No weight watching today.  I'm tired and still sick.  Personally, I'll take 2 to 4 good days of being feverish and nausea over 1 to 2 weeks of a cold.  It is draining and I hate it.  Especially during the last week of November.  No fair!

This year, I have totally gotten into the Christmas spirit.  Last year, I forced myself to put up decorations.  We had a barn party so technically had a real tree outside, but I didn't cut it or decorate it, so...this year for the first time in our married life, we have a real Christmas tree.  It is a gorgeous Noble and hasn't been trimmed, so it looks a little wild.  The smell is devine, what I can smell of it with this nasty cold, and is an amazing silvery green color.  So how to decorate my real Oregon tree?  With big retro clear bulbs (that my husband fears will induce flames) and finger knitted yarn garland and white crocheted snow flakes.  I am going blue and green and silver this year with a little champagne gold thrown in for good measure.  It's a direct departure from my muted burgandy, green and gold.  I have a thing for matchy matchy trees.  In our house in Utah, I had the decked out tree and the kids tree.  This year, we are just doing the decorator in me tree.  We are making salt dough sugar cookies shaped like snowflakes and iced with crystal colored sugar.  I made pipe cleaner snowflakes with glass beads.  Madeline decoupaged some clear bulbs with glass mini beads in blue and green.   Our skirt is unbleached muslin.  It is very unconventional color scheme, but it screams me and I had to do it. When it's all done, (hopefully in the next 2 or 3 days) I will post a photo.  I made it all with a budget of $25 and some already acquired craft supplies and fabric.    Who wants all my red decorations?  Anyone?

When The Kids Are Home...

I'm going to Goodwill (thrift store) to scout for treasures to make things with, finish my Christmas shopping and hopefully find a few bike seats ( our puppy chewed all of them up last year.)  After looking at the budget, and paying for an unexpected $850 expense, things are tight.  Instead of new bikes, we are refurbishing the old ones.   They are still getting a good Christmas, but instead of new bikes, we are giving them cheaper things...Actually, I am giving a patch kit and some new seats to Christian and he can fix them all and it will be his gift to his brothers and sisters.  I know ingenius right?  My children will stay home and clean their rooms, and play on the wii for untold hours of pleasure.  Tonight,  after I have finished making my aprons, I will prepare a ham the old fashioned way and figure out what we are doing for Thanksgiving.  It's a small affair this year, just our family.  So I am not going all out.  Friday, we are having friends over for Pie Night and games.  Happy Holidays everyone!  (This is the apron that I made out of pillowcases I found at Value Village.  My husband is modeling it!)

Little Treasures

Sometimes all we have to hang onto are the little things. Today, I am grateful for my creativity. I found some really great scrapbook paper to make a Christmas gift with. When it's done, it will be a Day in the Life book for Grandma and Grandpa ?. It's from October Afternoon . I can cut, sew and glue this together to create a masterpiece. Things like this make getting out of bed worth it. Is that shallow?