Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!!

It's on!

Christmas is SO on in our house! I already put up the tree last weekend and have been decorating all week here and there. I usually wait till this weekend but for some reason this year I'm so excited about Christmas! Much more so than usual. I'm thinking it's because Emily "gets" Christmas a little more now and it will be Ava's 1st Christmas:)

So here's my white tree (does this look familiar Dara?) with my favorite decorations on it. We have to go small with the tree this year because Ava is crawling and cruising the furniture but hopefully next year we can go back to a large one. When Corinnea and I were at the mail room yesterday, some guy was picking up a pink Christmas tree!! I think I want one! But I'm sure Jon would cringe.
I got this tree skirt from Anthropologie about 4 years ago. It's reverse is this weird minty/baby blue with whitish polka dots on it. It's so cute!

Here are two presents we got Emily for Christmas. Felt Schnitzel from HABA and a hamburger meal from PBK. I also found this person on eBay that makes and sells felt food patterns! I found this store that has a good selection of the HABA stuff and they have a DONER KEBAB play food set!!

I just got the white clock for Emily and Ava's room. I got several PBK gift certificates for my birthday so I was able to get one of these for now (the white and pink one) and will have to wait till after Christmas for the other one so each girl can have one. It is SO adorable in person and the bird comes out and cuckoos!

NOM

Here's what I've been working on. He's not sewn together yet, only clipped together to show what he will look like. I'm still embroidering on his hat and then I'll be done. He has taken forever! Only because I will embroider something then rip it out then try again and rip it out, etc. I've never done the type of embroidery where you fill it in (the animals and mushroom on the bottom). So I don't really know what I'm doing and keep making mistakes. I'm happy with the mushroom and hedgehog but the bird and turtle are not so good. I got the animals from this book. If you've never bought a Japanese embroidery book but love embroidery then you have to get one! They are full of the cutest stuff. The NOM pattern is from here. I now have to make his wife. I also got this and can't wait to make it!
I was thinking he'd make a cute tree topper but I'm not sure I'm ready to take Jack down. He's been our topper for many years.

Ava sandwich.

You'd think I watch many children during the day with all those toys in the background! But no, it's just my two girls making huge messes during the day. That's Frank behind me trying to get in on the love.

I pity the fool...

My newest felt ornament. I made him after looking at another one I found online. When I was taking his picture I looked over and saw this bag Kelly gave me and thought it was a perfect background for him! And thank you Kara for the gold chains!

Gingy

Isn't he cute? Emily was so stressed out that someone took a bite out of him. She wanted me to "put it back". I had to distract her because she was getting hysterical. I got the free pattern from here about a year ago. I'm on a mission to make a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to make but haven't. Next Friday (the 21st) I'll be at QTYW and I'll be making a swing set top for Keara. And in between making these little projects, I'll be finishing the girls Sophia bags (see picture below Emily).
"She's a maniac, maniac on the floor. And she's dancing like she's never danced before..." (from the movie Flash Dance for those too young to know that song!). Emily loves her legwarmers! I had to show them because they make me think of 6Th grade camp..did anyone else wear them way back when they were 1st popular?

Here's a glimpse at the two Sophia bags I'm working on. The zipper pulls are from J. Crew (crewcuts). They were necklaces/lanyards but I cut them down.

I have to show Ava's sock fetish. If you look at the promotion pictures she's got a sock in her hand there too. She carried it all the way from home to the field. This too stresses out Emily. Especially if it's her sock!

Wee house

This little house ornament was supposed to look more like the one below (in shape) but the pattern I downloaded from Pimp Stitch was weird. The pattern piece for the roof does not match the photo in the tutorial so mine (and from looking at comments I see other people had the same problem) turned out short and squat. I do like it though. I wanted to embroider Parrish Platz on it but I can't embroider letters on objects already stuffed. It looks like a 5 year old wrote Parrish. I just can't seem to do that well..
oh, I took the photo of the wee house in my new macro studio thingy.

We went to the pool today with Corinnea, Kelly and her two kids, Haven and Ethan. It was SO much fun! This was Ava's first time in a pool and she LOVED it! We went downtown afterward and shopped and ate and had coffee. Corinnea showed me the new Petit Bateau store! I got Emily some pj's and Ava some adorable tights with stars. I'll post pictures later. That store is soooo beautiful!

1 Promotion and 1 Sophia bag

I finally finished another Sophia bag. This one is for Kelly. The brown piping and handles are from Moda. A really nice solid. The lining is Wee Play by Moda. This fabric is 4 different prints in one.
I used timtex again to give the bag a better shape. I'm still having trouble with the bag puckering when I attach the top zipper part to the main bag panels.

I got the zipper pull in Prague.

Jon's been promoted to E6 (that's Staff Sergeant to you!)!! This happened on Oct. 31st but we didn't get the pictures till now.

Look who's standing!

And all on her own. She pulls herself up and then lets go. She'll be walking soon but she still doesn't really crawl. Mostly scoots and rolls.
Want to know what "giving the stink-eye" looks like?
I've been training Ava to give the perfect mean look and this is the results.

I won I won I won I won!

I won 1st place at the costume party we went to! My victory dance.

Sam Adams?

Oh yeah, I'm vogueing!

The Multi-Craft Girls... except we're missing some. And the lady next to me in the sassy shoes works at the Kelly Theatre. I hope it's OK I posted every ones pictures..

Corinnea, Kelly, Moi, Katelyn and Lizzy

My little Ava (as a skeleton) and Emily (as Princess Leia).