Christmas table runners

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We celebrated small here at our house.  It was good...it was our first Thanksgiving without Baba (my grandma) and so it was nice to stay intimate and low key.  I did miss the craziness of lots of people, but it all worked out.  After the holiday our good friends made a stop over for the weekend...it was so awesome to see them....my soul needed it!

Before Thanksgiving I worked on some Christmas table runners.  I gifted one and so now I can share!  These are so fun to make.  Choosing all the different fabrics is so much fun.  I used holiday fabrics but I think they would be fun in winter fabrics too....guess I'll have to find time to try one of those for after Christmas.

I cut out 15 strips each 2 1/2 by 11 inches.  I sewed them together in a pleasing pattern without being too repetitive or symmetrical and after pressing all the seams, I ironed some fusible batting to the back of the strips.  After that, I created a frame with four strips of fabric that I wanted to look like binding.  From that point on, it's merely sewing it together like you'd do to make a pillow.

Once everything is turned right side out, I press really well and then stitch in the ditch on the inside of the frame.  Stitching in the ditch is when you stitch right in the crevice that the seam leaves.  This doesn't really show up, but it does do a nice job of anchoring the front to the back.

As soon as the table was cleared from Thanksgiving I had mine out!  It looks really pretty with an old black tray, some greenery and a jar candle.  Tis the Season!!!  Stay Jolly and enjoy all of your days!

sew lovely

I recently entered a Valentine Swap over at my friend,  Tracy's blog.  Everyone who signed up was paired with a partner and I was paired with Jodi from Jolly Bee!  I cracked up when I got the email with her name because Jodi and I are already swapping buddies.  She blessed me over the holidays with a beautiful table runner and she's always so encouraging and friendly.

She's been a gift to me as a blog friend and I was thrilled to get another excuse to bless her.  But, she beat me to the punch.  She sent me this wonderful heart pincushion.  I've already put it to good use and loaded it up with pins.

After sorting through the ideas I'd collected I settled on making her a mug mat for some of her Valentine snacking....I saw a similar idea over on Andrea's blog and worked from that for my own version.

I used Rae's cheater binding to do the edging and I'm sure that I won't ever go back to binding small quilt projects the old way with cutting and binding and pinning and pressing.  This cheater binding was so fun that after I finished Jodi's, I made a couple more.  

I think it's an illness....I can never make just one of something.  I used my sewing machine to do all the stitching.  I had to go pretty slowly to do the hearts. I think these would also be pretty with hand embroidered stitches in place of the machine stitching.

Thanks to Tracy for hosting the Valentine swap and to Jodi, my partner, for my beautiful heart pincushion! Spreading love is so much fun....I hope you find some ways to spread love in your corner of the world!

closing in on Christmas

As we get closer to Christmas, I find myself trying to snatch away moments for savoring the season.  I'm certain that the hours fly by faster in December than in any other month.  In between school, basketball games, and practices we've been:

***learning how to play chess....John and John Samuel have been challenging each other as often as time allows (this is a teaching set and it shows you the moves and directions you can make for each piece...very helpful for me!)

***putting finishing touches on my decorations....this little tree was blank and boring so I hot glued wooden hearts, gingerbread men, candles and pine cones to it.  I tied some homespun fabric to the branches and now it's perfect! 

 ***cracking up at our dog....the kids found her laying on the remote, looking at the TV and they said she was watching Animal Planet! (I think this whole scene interrupted our math one day! )

***adding Christmas lights to more and more corners of our house....it's just so magical with all the beautiful lights.  It's so special to check on my boy and finding him sleeping in the glow of his Christmas lights.  (I always unplug them before I head to bed :))

***reading mysteries and taking notes as we go...after listening to Andrew Clements' Room One, my boy decided to solve the mystery of his chapter book in a similar fashion....works for me, I just like to see him reading and having fun at the same time

 ***for book club we read the light-hearted book: A Redbird Christmas...perfect for holiday time!  One of the ladies at book club gave us each a box loaded with an assortment of cookies that she prepackaged and labeled for us in little cello bags!  What a work of love...a delicious work!

And I've been knitting some little last minute gifts....dishcloths and toasty fingerless mitts....nothing like watching TV by the glow of the Christmas tree and knitting.  Some of our DVR'd favorites include:  NCIS, Person of Interest and Blue Bloods. 

So how have you been savoring these days before Christmas?  I hope you're finding time to enjoy the moments before they fly by!  It's closing in on Christmas...stay merry!

celebrate everywhere

I love this time of year, when the house is all decorated for Christmas and the lights bring such warmth and coziness to everything.  We decorated right after Thanksgiving and have been enjoying the magical feeling that the house takes on during this time of year.

 I took a ton of pictures as I decorated so that next year I might be able to 'recreate' my decor more easily next year.  I tend to be a fusser.  I put something somewhere, walk away and then return to move it around until I get it right where I want it. 

I figure if I can look at pictures I might save myself some fussing next year....right!?  I'll let you know how that works out. 

We are an artificial tree family....Maggie and I get awful allergies and sinus infections from having a real tree in the house, so I've learned to find the positive in our 'boxed tree'.  One things I hate though, is the stem that shows down at the bottom.

 It's long and skinny and looks really ugly.  So, I hide it with our wrapped presents.  It looks so much better with all the gifts piled around the bottom.  (this also helps motivate me to wrap my gifts early)

I also love to decorate our outside.   I put pine and boxwood in baskets and watering cans and create little vignettes of beauty along the way.

 Whether I'm bringing in the mail, welcoming guests or looking out the kitchen window while washing dishes I get glimpses of beauty that make me smile.  (and when it snows...they even look prettier!)

How about you?  What do you do to transform your home during this magnificently wonderful time of year?  The Savior has been born....celebrate everywhere you can! 

****Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts on my last post....you guys are hilarious!  And just so you know....I've decided to keep the sausages for myself. 

ready and thankful

The cranberry sauce is cooked and is getting happy in the fridge

The turkey is awaiting its moment of glory

The platters are ready to be filled

The apples are sliced and the sauce is perfect

The table is all set

We've been getting the house cleaned and the food ready....it's been a busy day....

Well, for most of us....(you just can't get good work out of some folks)

We're ready for our Thanksgiving celebration...it's one of my favorite holidays.
It's been a week full of mixed blessings...some testing and much grace. I'm ever thankful for His grace - for my Heavenly Father's unconditional love.  I'm thankful that my Hope is in Him.  I pray that your Thanksgiving day is full of blessings and wonderful times with family and friends.  That each day is a celebration of thanks!  I'll be back after the feasting with some fun, festive ideas....Happy Thanksgiving friends!

lola x 3

Only two weeks late ...but, I finished the kids' Easter owls this week.  For Easter morning, I laid the cut out fabric pieces under their baskets, so they knew there were owls waiting in the 'wings' for them.  They were thrilled when they saw the fabrics I had chosen for each of them.  I have to say they stayed vigilant in asking me about the progress I was making on their stuffed friends.   I made each of them to suit their personalities and bedrooms....

for Maggie ~ my dramatic, fun loving, vibrant first born

for Mckenzie ~ my pink loving, friendly, happy go lucky girl

for John Samuel ~ my steady, hard playing, still loves to cuddle boy

Each of the owls has a pocket on the back for secret love notes and hidden treasures. 

These were so fun to make and give....Virginia did an exceptional job writing up the pattern and it's a fun way to try out some great fabric combos.  All the owls have found new nests on each of the kids' beds and as I went in to kiss John Samuel last night, I found him fast asleep, holding his owl under his arm....perfect! 

I've got a plan...

....well, actually Kristyn has a plan and I'm latching onto hers.  If you followed Kristyn at all last year, you probably saw her ADVENTure posts.  Throughout the year she would update us on her preparations for Christmas.  She was purposeful in thinking through what she wanted to create, gift and enjoy throughout the year so that when December came she wasn't harried, frazzled and cranky.  I watched and cheered her on...but I didn't join in due to a road block in my mind. 

You see, I had this notion that Christmas inspiration wasn't really Christmas inspiration unless it struck me from October on.  I felt like I had to wait closer to the day for the real inspiration to hit me.  What if I made a gift in February and then in November - THE PERFECT GIFT IDEA came along?  What would I do then? 

 So, I've been thinking through my ideas and what I think really makes up the perfect gift and I've come to realize a couple of things:

1. the thought that goes into the gift is more valuable than when that thought occurs (it doesn't matter if I think it through in February or November)

2. I will enjoy gifting much more if I don't have deadline pressures on myself (anyone ever finishing a project in the wee hours of the morning know what I'm talking about?)

3.  I can wait for inspiration on those gifts that need inspiration, but for those that I can, I'm going to knock them out ahead of time and leave myself some room for when the inspiration happens (I can make my teacher gifts in the summer and my book club gifts don't have to wait until November)

4. If I keep doing what I've always done, I'll keep getting the results I've always gotten (I'm always wanting more creative time and more time to relax closer to the holidays - perhaps with some pre-planning I can achieve that this year)

I may be a bit slow to catch on, but once I'm on fire watch out!  I went through and made a recipient list and jotted down any gift ideas that I already had.  I'm keeping this list where I can update it and add to it when I get a gift idea. (and yes, I'm giving my mom something in addition to the gift tags that I listed by her name, but she liked mine so much this year, I thought I'd give her a set early in December that she can use on her gifts)

Then I went through and put a stickie note on each page in my calendar.  On these stickies I wrote some projects that I want to work on for gifts (and for myself) this year.  I have three people who I want to give dishcloths to, so I wrote dishcloth on the stickie for three different months.  I left myself plenty of room for last minute inspiration and personal crafting. 

There are plenty of weeks for me to enjoy the seasonal ideas that come along and plenty of time for me to stockpile some of the gifts that I really do want to give at Christmas (or for any holiday/special occasion).   I've already got some tags ready for giving next year...check, check...smile, smile! 

So, that's my plan...I'm stockpiling blessings for next Christmas....how fun!  If you want to join, jump over to Kristyn's and check out her post, it's full of great inspiration and it'll get you started on your own ADVENTure! 

odds and ends....and a Christmas wish (at the very end..)

We're on our break from school and most of the big list items are checked off so I've been able to enjoy some of those little things that make the house and the holidays special.  We made this snack mix for Mckenzie's basketball teammates.  Lip gloss tied to each bag was the perfect teen gift. 

John Samuel and I finished his art project together.  We simply tied strips of fabric around a coat hanger circle and added a bow at the top.  His art teacher had the kids make these in class and that was the day that my guy was sick, so she saved him a set to work on at home.  He found the perfect hanging spot for his Christmas wreath. (my bedroom!)

I wasn't liking the veggies prints in my family room for Christmas.  The carrots sort of clashed with the pine and the angels, so I made a quick cover up! 

I printed out the letters to spell NOEL on some craft paper and cut them to the size that I needed.  I simply taped them to the glass right over the offending veggies....wa~la....Christmas art!  (After Christmas I'm planning to print the letters for SNOW- the veggies can re-appear in the spring)

I always like to take something homemade to our neighbors for Christmas. Some families are getting this snack mix.  It is always a hit with everyone and it mixes up very quickly.  I packaged it up in quart mason jars and added a tag and a bow.

and some of our neighbors are getting these cookies....

The nice thing about these cookies are that you make up the dough and roll it into logs.  I store the dough in my fridge and when I'm ready to bake cookies, I simply roll a log in some colored sugar, slice and bake.  I love that we can have freshly baked, homemade cookies at a moment's notice!  (note: I only baked mine for 10 minutes instead of the 12-16 that the recipe calls for....otherwise, they were way too crispy!)

I've found that these pretzel bags make great treat bags for cookies...the size holds just the right amount of cookies to bless singles and older couples!  The tags came from eighteen25...feel free to link up and print your own. 

Anyways....thanks for sticking around through such a long and rambly post....I'm going to take a break and finish up some secret Christmas knitting and enjoy the days leading up to Christmas. I'll be back after Christmas. 

I'm so thankful for each one of you who visit and take the time to comment and share.  I'm so very blessed by your friendship.   I want to wish each of you a blessed and peaceful Christmas.  I hope that your homes are places of joy and wonder as Christmas approaches.  May you find time to abide as the shepherds did many years ago and may the Christ Child change your life as He has changed mine.  Merry Christmas friends.