My first bags

There are so many patterns for bags out there that I want to try but haven't got around to yet... until the Christmas squeeze came and I needed gifts for my mother-in-law fast! I got the pattern here. I normally hate to buy a pattern, but this one looked really easy and did not involve any zippers, which I am still kind of afraid of.

Mom-in-law's came out so cute I was tempted to keep it for myself!

It's reversible:

And this one is for Nick's Grandma. I love the pretty batik fabric:

His mom's definitely came out a little better because it was the second one I made and I made the adjustments I wanted to the pattern. Now I want to make about a bazillion of them. Or maybe work on my own designs now, who knows.

We are still in FL on holiday. Every time we come here at Christmas I forget how warm it really is and don't pack any shorts or tshirts. You would think I would learn. We are even going to the beach tomorrow :)

Vacation wears out HG...

Mister Rider Creates stuff too.

My husband is a very talented musician, but also very visually creative.

I wanted to show you some some some of it....

This was the Christmas stage set at our church this year. As the worship leader, the set is also his responsibility. He's done many very cool ones in the past to go with different series, but this is one of my favorites. Usually the Christmas set involves about 9 huge lit trees across the stage, which looks beautiful, but this year he wanted a different feel. So with some friends' help, he created this fun cartoonish winter wonderland. I looooove it. It look even better in person :)

He was inspired by these amazing videos this UK band One Eskimo did to go along with their album. I think you can buy the album and videos on itunes for 6 bucks or so. Anyway, it's fantastical and watching it makes you feel like an 11-year old dreaming on Christmas Eve...

He also had these pretty red and green snowflake banners hanging throughout the auditorium. It was slightly reminiscent of the Opryland Hotel at Christmas time:

Another secret talent of Nick's: Gift-wrapping. He's seriously the best I've seen. He should probably work in a huge department store someday and be the king master of gift-wrapping... you know, just something we dream about.

More Kid Gifts

Got to check a couple more handmade gifts off my list today! (Just 3 more to go. Maybe?)

For my nephew Evan, I made this fun "I spy" bag. I've seen these all over the internet and have wanted to make one, but didn't want to take the time to collect 20 tiny items to put inside. Then I was putzing around Etsy and found this shop which sells little kits to make them that include the vinyl window, the beads, the key, and all the treasures. All you have to buy is the fleece. It was really easy to put together.

Then for my niece Madison, who is 4, I bought personalized paper dolls from this seller. (She has lots of other cute cartoonized ideas, like CDs and potty charts!) You just send a picture, and she turns the kid into a doll and sends you the PDF, which includes 5 outfits. I was a little worried how it would come out, but it really does look just like Madison. (Except the doll only has 4 fingers, weird.)

I printed them out and then put them on a roll of adhesive magnet sheet I got at Michael's. Then I covered that with contact paper and cut everything out. Here she is, wanting to go tubing down the river in her princess dress and slippers- typical.

I had an unused cookie sheet lying around, (?) so I cut a little scenery out of scrapbook paper and covered it all in  clear contact paper:

I also made a pink felt pouch to hold all the clothes and accessories, which attaches to the back with velcro:

I hope they enjoy their new playthings!

I wonder if it would be weird to make paper dolls that look like myself...yeah, my head on that little girl body is pretty weird.

Last minute holiday printables

If you are like me, you never remember to buy the extra holiday things you need, like gift tags and all that shtuff. But why buy them when you can just spend just $40 on new printer cartridges like I did and print them out for free?!?! (Saving money is the best!)

Here's what I'm using this year:

Cute cameo style gift tags here

Colorful tags, to do list and holiday paper here

Beautiful deer printables you can use for many things here

and a winter bunting download here

Merry Christmasprinting!!!

Get pattern for birdie ornament here

Shoulda said "happy holidays"

I'm really not sure if our Christmas cards will get out before Christmas. It's not surprising at all if you know us :) What is surprising is that we are sending one at all. We really aren't Christmas card people, but I was determined it would happen this year- mainly because we have this cute baby people want to see. (And we didn't even do a birth announcement for him!)

Anyway, we have ordered them, but they haven't arrived yet. Also we have no addresses we need. Oh well. If they are late, they are late.

But I decided to go ahead and show you, my 3 readers :)

"Where did you get that adorable design??" you ask? My very talented husband did it all himself. My only input was to make the background black.

"Who took that AMAZING picture???" you ask? That was my very talented friend Nathan of Fyrefly Photography. He is awesome and you should check him out.

In fact, he just won an award and was published in this great coffee table book they put out here every year called Capture Cincinnati. Check out his prize winner here.

Here are some more pictures he took of our family when HG was 7 months. (We were supposed to do a 6 month shoot, but we were a little late. Surprised?)

*Feel free to contact Nathan at Fyrefly Photography if you are looking for a Cincinnati Wedding Photographer or a Cincinnati Kids Photographer.

Dolls and Dolls

I've been wanting to make some Black Apple dolls for the longest time. I finally got to yesterday thanks to HG's VERY good napping. (4 hours and 2 hours-what?!?)

I'm so happy with how they turned out!!! It's really a good thing I have so many little girls in my life to make this stuff for. Otherwise, my son just might be playing with dolls and wearing tutus.

Speaking of the Black Apple, I may have a bit of a girl crush on Emily Martin. I mean, have you seen her fashion blog? If I could trade closets with anyone, it would be her.

So apparently a lot of people I know look at this blog and I have no idea they are here. Then they later say something to me about it in person and it makes me feel weird. I don't know why. Obviously, anyone is free to read this, it's the internet for crying out loud. That's why I put here.

But it's time for you people to come forward, thus begins the shameless comment soliciting...

1. a self-indulgent question: Which doll is your favorite?
B. a superficial question: Who would you trade closets with?

Handmade Holiday

This being HG's first Christmas, he needs a stocking. I've been wanting to make one for him ever since I saw this most lovely sweater stocking at the Long Thread (who also has many other great Christmas projects.)

So I scavenged our closet and found 3 sweaters we no longer use:

I cut them all up and sewed them together and made this:

I'm really liking the colors. Tip: If you are ever sewing thick knits like sweaters and you don't have a serger, use the stitch on your machine that looks like a straight stitch with a zig-zag stitch growing out of it. Can't remember what it is really called, which would be helpful. But you wanna make it strong, especially in this case, this little ditty needs to be stuffed full of goodies year after year by Santa. (And it will be VERY full, because of course my child will ALWAYS be on the best-behaved list. Of course. Obviously. Duh.)

I might add some embellishments like my lovely friend Olivia did for her son's. But I don't know, I am liking the simple stripes for now.

HG gets acquainted:

I hope he loves it on Christmas morning for years and years. This is really the first thing I've made for him that he won't outgrow anytime soon. For some reason dumping the stockings was always my favorite part of Christmas morning, even though they were filled with things much less exciting than those under the tree. Maybe I just liked the fact that my three brothers had plain stockings and mine had Rudolph on it with a big red pom-pom for a nose.

By the way, this is what he does when I get on my laptop:

"C is for computer, that's good enough for me..."

Super Kid

I've been wanting to make a kid's cape for a while now and finally got the chance for my little friend Will's 3rd birthday. I very much like the way it turned out. I might even have a couple special orders on my hands from other parents at the birthday party.

Super Will

It's reversible- Captain Freedom Flashy Pants??

You can't really tell on these iPhone pictures, but the colors are really bright. I think he likes it. He said now he can be a superhero like Max is a superhero. (of Max and Ruby?)

This is how we do it.

Late to Christmas

Anyone else feel like Christmas just sneaks up on you every single year? I always think I'm going to be more prepared and I have plenty of time.... but then I don't.

We don't have a tree yet or any other decorations up, besides my lovely Willow Tree nativity, which my mom has gifted us over the past few years. (Did you know they are also called cleches? I just learned that.) I made myself get it out a couple of days ago so we could at least start feeling a little Christmasy at home.

So I decided to take the opportunity to use the Macro setting on our camera, which I love.

HG is obviously excited about Christmas :)

Now I have to go drink hot chocolate and watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with Nick, even though we really should be grocery shopping tonight...

Don't forget to bring an owl!

I made this last week for a precious three year old boy I sit sometimes:

I had altered some window treatments for his room and there was a little of this polka dot fabric leftover. So I decided to do something with it. It's really thick like upholstery fabric, so it's not the cuddliest softie, but owls are nearly always cute. It was inspired by this one.

There are so many other great scarf and sweater re-purposes around right now. Make it and Love it has another one for girly little leggings that I love:

This scarflette  looks really simple to do:

And I plan on using this method  to make a couple winter hats for HG. His hats all have ears on top to make him look like some kind of animal. Which is cute, but sometimes he just wants to be a cute baby person:

And speaking of sweaters, I'm feeling like maybe having a good old-fashioned-ugly-Christmas-sweater party. Besides the awesome seasonal tackiness, I think it will involve graham cracker "gingerbread" houses, old Christmas music records, and hot beverages with an array of flavored Baileys. Just some ideas I'm formulating... you'd want to come that party right?

Coming out of the turkey coma...

...three days later.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family in Tennessee. So so good in many ways.

Here is part of what I did for the table decorations. Not a great shot, but you can see the glittery fruits:

The picture really does not do the sparkliness justice. I just took apples and pears and sponged some mod podge on, then dusted with Martha Stewart craft glitter. If you ever do something like this, it is totally worth it to spring for the Martha glitter. It's a little pricier, but it's very fine glitter, so it looks beautiful and not like a kid's school craft project.

My Nanny saw me preparing these on Wednesday night, and in classic Nanny fashion, was very put off that the fruit would be "wasted" instead of eaten. But when she saw it on the tables, she said it looked like a "festive restaurant" in there, so I was satisfied. The jars in the center are just twigs from a store-bought swag and then leaves made from metallic origami paper sandwiching them. I like to call it a "glam-natural" Thanksgiving :)

Anyway, the fruit would look very festive for easy Christmas decs too. They are going to stick around all season.

HG loved my parents dog Harley, who spent the whole week running away from him. 

FREE STUFF!

Mibo has put out a FREE advent calendar download! I think advent calendars rank in the most essential of holiday supplies, probably right under the tree. And this one is pretty stylish.

Go here to download yours. I think there is also a free 2010 planner download on their site. Enjoy!

Cincicrafti

So I did not get to go to the big indie craft market in Columbus, but turns out we have one here in Cincinnati! I had no idea about it, it's only in it's first year, but the Crafty Supermarket was really fun. Nick just spotted the poster in Starbucks last Monday and said he would go into work a little later on Saturday so we could go. Yeah, he's pretty good.

It was held in the Northside Tavern which was just the perfect location. It was our favorite place to go hear local music and enjoy an adult beverage, pre-HG days of course. There were over 20 vendors there, all so fun and inspiring.

Some of my faves:

Off the Beaten Path , who made this hilarious mustache tote I bought:

Hand Embroidered lovelies from Says You. I did not buy this, but I might have to get it from their shop later:

Kitsch Cafe which has always been on my Etsy faves list. Who wouldn't love to add this to their christmas decor this year?

And lastly, check out this lovely girl's creations. Cutest strange little softies and sculptures ever.

Discovering local art you enjoy is fun. Look up indie craft fairs in your area. It's also fun to go to the "shop local" section of Etsy and see all the great locally made stuff in your city.

Now I'm thinking about going to the Indieana Handicraft Exchange  in a couple weeks to finish up holiday shopping. We'll see if the boys will be up for it...

"recessionista" lessons

I have been trying more refashioning of old clothing into new lately. I'm gonna go ahead and say that I'm not the best at it yet. But it is really fun and if I keep trying I will be able to save a lot of money on clothing.   I have already learned a lot about working with jersey and knit materials.

Let's start with the one I actually like:

I got this black and gray shirt for a couple bucks at the thrift store and it was already in good condition. Then I added the white parts from this forever 21 shirt I found in my closet that I haven't worn in a long time. Easy! And I actually wear it often. Helpful, since last year I was wearing maternity shirts and for some stupid reason I threw away everything else in my closet. (I didn't really throw it away, it's at goodwill...that would just be plain wasteful!)

a detail of the pretty bottom:

This dress was the first refashion I tried, about 2 months ago. It was inspired by those "hey, it's a shirt with a skirt attached" kind of dresses that are everywhere right now. It was an oversized Target t shirt I had and a dress that fit really weirdly on top. But I loved the pockets on the skirt part, so that's what I used. Then I slapped on a white linen belt to tie in the back. I love the unexpected color combination. Nick pointed out that I should have sewed the belt on a little lower to cover up that little bit of navy stripe. I hate it when he's right. Who knows if I'll feel like wearing it in the spring...

I had this black thrift store sweater I didn't really know what to do with, so Sunday I made this capelet scarf wrap thingie. It was very quick and easy, but then I realized there is absolutely no situation I could see myself wearing this in. I'm just not that fashionable. I might wear it in the scarf style she suggests though.

Ok, last one. I have to show you because it's so awful. People are doing a lot of ruffles these days, they are all over J. Crew shirts, so they are cute right? Not in this case.

The colors are wrong, the placement is wrong, the ruffles look sad. I had never made ruffles before and they are actually really easy and fun, but I think I will stick to putting them on little girls' clothing. I just need a little girl.

So, in summary: Experimenting is fun. Mistakes are good. Jessica is only mildly fashionable.