That explains A LOT

 Poor poor Gram just wants to explain but can't figure out how to do it. She knows no one will ever understand...Cheesy, I know.

But aren't they cute? I love these kinds of dolls. I made this back in November and then sent it off to little Mimi for Christmas. The pattern is from mmmcrafts and she now has the Little Red pattern which she didn't have back when I got his one.

Grammy is made from linen, cotton and wool felt.

Wolfie is made from cotton and wool felt.

I had to order the eyes on ebay as I didn't have those sizes.

I always line my doll pieces that call for linen or cotton so the seams are nice and sturdy.

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I just finished reading Incendiary and LOVED it. Really cool and unique book. I had read Little Bee by the same person and loved it. Loved it Love it. I had no idea what either was about. I don't like to read too much of the backs of books; I want to be surprised.

Couch Sewing Kit

I didn't really need to make this but I kept seeing it all over blogs and loved the little patchwork. I didn't need a needle book which is what I was seeing here and there so I made a Couch Sewing Kit. That's where I mostly hand sew anything. I had all my supplies in an empty Tweezerman box but it was a mess.

The original needle book tutorial is from nanacompany.

The mushroom template is from the book From Felt to Fabulous. The grass holds my leather thimble. The bobbins are in the holes of buttonhole elastic (you know, the kind in kids pants to make them adjustable).

The felt pages are for needles and stuff. One side has a pocket for...I have no idea. Maybe embroidery floss if that's what I'm sewing at the time. I tried to think of anything I might need. Right now the pocket is holding the excess thread from the needles.

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The scallop edges were made with these scissors. I had them make me a special listing for all 3 sizes (which made it a lot cheaper). I LOVE them. They cut through felt like butta.

My favorite part is the owl scissor holder.

The template is from the pattern Whimsical Woodland Sewing Set by Betz White.

The outside..

Outside is made with quilting cottons,

inside is one layer of cotton batting and one layer of Peltex (to keep it stiff because the weight of the scissors). All the felt is Holland wool felt from achildsdream.com

Lucky Star

A little doll quilt made from the book Pretty in Patchwork Doll Quilts. When people started talking about this book on some of the blogs I read, I fell in love with this quilt which is on the cover of the book. I loved it so much that I made mine to look just like the one on the cover! Why change a good thing, right? I LOVE these colors together. Sooooo sweet (that was for you Mary A.)!

I made mine to be 17" square which is smaller than the one in the book. I also washed it afterwards.

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Emily is about to lose a bottom tooth and one big chomper on the top.

Ava is still peeing herself all over my house. She IS potty trained. She just can't seem to make it to the potty a lot of the time. too busy you know. I keep thinking I can replace the living room rug and then she pees.

Jon is enjoying his last week of "time off after deployment" otherwise known as Block Leave.

I am reading the 2nd book in the Stephanie Plum Series titled Two for the Dough (I think).

I'm watching the Game of Thrones series and loving it.

I have stuff I made before I left for the States (so that means back in November/December) but just haven't gotten around to posting it. I think December sucked the life out of me.

We had our 1st snow (1st for me. the actual 1st snow was while I wasn't here so it doesn't count).

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My 4 year blogiversary is just around the corner and so is my 500th post! Oh wait, I just looked and I already passed 500, 2 posts ago.

Happy 2

I did it! I finished the 2nd chair-and-a-half slip cover! I'm sooo happy I made myself do it. You know why it sat in a box, partially done for over a year possibly two years? Fear! I couldn't remember how I had assembled the 1st one I did (why this post is called Happy 2. And you have to read Kelly's comment on that other post because it really was the nicest comment ever. oh oh oh, notice Ava in the other post? Holy cow she was ...thick). It's not like I had instructions:) I took apart the old slipcover and made pattern pieces out of it: easy. But getting it back together: not as easy as it looks. Not hard but I just didn't want to have to figure it out. That's why I like to buy other peoples patterns! Or have tutorials. I don't want to waste my time figuring stuff out. I got stuff to do people!

Showing you how it looks without the cushion and with the cushion. Just like the other chair cover, this one has a zipper in the back

And then with pillows! Now on to the couch...I brought up from the basement, the bolt of remaining fabric (all 30 yds of it) so I can wash it then put it away for another 2-3 years:) Just some useless info: I bought all this yardage for this project in the summer of 2005. I made the other chair slip cover January 2009. Kind of weird I did this one in January too. So expect the couch done In the month of January but not sure what year...

 

The girls with Papa J and Grammy Dar.

Everything is better when it's clean

So where would you put this fabulous vinyl decal if you had one?? On your nieces* bathroom door of course! Kids these days are too busy texting and practising being indifferent to everyone and everything and hiding behind their hair trying to look cute so I had to help her out; she might forget! I made this on my FABULOUS Silhouette machine! I LOVE it and it's super easy to figure out. I have not tried to do my own design yet so that might be hard but so far I have made a banner and I made sparkly letter tags for everyone's presents. I then had to pack it back up and send it home. I did have some trouble with the vinyl and how it cut. I think I had the blade set to high because it tried to eat it in places. I lost the part of the N that connects to the A because of that. I took these two photos with my point and shoot since I broke my lenses and they are terrible! Not even focused!

*Bird, my niece, is really Jon's niece but we're married so I feel she is my niece. Can I say that? Or do I have to say she's Jon's niece?

Below is a little collage from our visit home this Christmas.

1. Uncle Steve and the girls tracking Santa Christmas eve (how cool is that website??)

2. Uncle Steve again (sorry Jules) with Emily at Disneyland on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. She was TERRIFIED.

3. Bird our niece with Ava sleeping on her.

4. Christmas morning at my parents house. Santa brought them the stuff in front of the fireplace. Our Santa puts some things out unwrapped for the kids to see 1st thing when they come in the room. Does anyone else do this? My dad did this for us and us kids loved it. One year (correct me if I'm wrong Jules) "Santa" put a tent up in the living room for my brother.

5. My sister, me and the girls at Disneyland. It was CROWDED. Never ever go the week after Christmas.  NEVER. That is their busiest time of the year. I've been to Disneyland so many times I've lost count and have never seen it like it was December 27-28th. I still had the best time with my sister and her husband.

I have to point out the length of my bangs in the photo above. They were so long I could put them behind my ear. But since I got them caught in a round brush and spent an hour with my niece Bird trying to get the brush out with baby oil and conditioner and then just cutting the brush out then just cutting my hair out, I now have shorty bangs. Shorter than Emily's as in when dry they come down to mid forehead. It was awful! I would show a picture but I'm not sure I want to see myself in a photo with those bangs. I've been trying to ignore them.

*It was this kind of round brush. Not that brand just that kind of round brush (not this kind which I would have been able to get out). Not even my brush. Why oh why did I even pick it up?? 

Happy Birthday Ava Larue

Ava turns 4 today! We already had her birthday party December 29th in San Diego so some of our family could celebrate it with her. The cake is this recipe. I changed it up so the bottom layer is not chocolate chip but peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips in it and I used boxed cookie mix and boxed brownie mix.

Cookie cutters

I know this post is not very interesting but I wanted to show the dinosaur cookie cutters Mary A. gave the girls for Christmas. They LOVE them. We've used them on pancakes and pizza dough.

 Thanks Mary:)

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Also, these angel wings on the back of this chair. This was from the restaurant we ate at for Thanksgiving. How cute and easy is this?? I think I would do them to fit the whole back of the chair as opposed to one side.

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We fly back home.

Sad to go.*

But SO happy to see Jon.

*I will miss you Target:(

oh, and my family too:)

Sketch

My new e-reader cover! Why yes it is just like my other one but then I got a new case that comes with a light and it's bigger so I had to make a new one.. I've been meaning to make this new one for months and months. I finally did it. Yahoo! **I made this right before we flew to America and then my reader is now kaput. So I just got the Sony PRS-T1 (for $99 at Best Buy). I will now need to make a cover for that one. I love this new one though. LOVE it!

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Happy New Year! I thought I would blog more since my Internet is faster here but that didn't happen. One thing that did happen is...Jon is home (as in Germany home) from  Afghanistan!! For good! But I'm here in San Diego. Boo! Not boo to my family here but boo to us being apart for the holidays. I knew he was coming home early for about a month or two before but couldn't say anything for obvious security reasons and we already had tickets to San Diego months and months ago so no matter what we were going to be apart for Christmas. We did have a nice Christmas. The girls had a barbie Christmas. Wait till you see the ginormous vintage barbie house i scored at a garage sale just days before Christmas. I have already dismantled it and it's ready to ship out Tomorrow. "Santa" brought the house to my in-laws for Christmas morning and he also brought some new furniture (from Target) to  my parents house for them on Christmas morning. Emily asked someone why Santa would bring a house missing some windows and doors. I told her Santa sometimes brings things other kids don't need anymore. That he switches out new things for old things and this is vintage (which went over her head)! Oh my god, I just found a picture of it by typing in "huge plastic vintage barbie house" into google! So here it is:

photo from thepinkpiggylux.blogspot.com.

I forgot to take a photo of it before taking it apart.

Ours is missing the flower beds and some other minor things. Is this not the coolest? I had the best barbie house ever. My dad made it and it was huge. It had so many rooms and carpeted it from discarded carpet samples and we used wood grain printed contact paper for at least one of the rooms walls. I loved it and wished we had kept it.

When it arrives home and I can get it back together, I'll take a photo of it with all the furniture. I might try and make curtains and put some carpet down.