Hello again!

How was every one's Thanksgiving and weekend? I hope all was good with everyone!

As promised, I am back, and I brought pictures! Thanksgiving was very nice here, and my daughter's birthday was a big success. I really think she had a good time. I think my son enjoyed it too, because though he didn't get to open the presents, he did get to hand them to my daughter to open, and that seemed to make him happy. So, a good time was had all around. She had asked for two things for her birthday: roller skates and My Little Pony. She has loved My Little Pony for 3 years now. I think she has 80 some-odd of them, though I haven't counted. All I know is that they are all in a BIG plastic tubby, which is pretty much full. Plus, of course, she has all the accessories. (Well, maybe not ALL the accessories, but quite a lot.) Unfortunately, though, Ponies have pretty much run their course in the US and are pretty hard to find anymore. So I think that it will be a fairly pony-less Christmas and definitely this was the last Pony birthday. I am surprised it lasted as long as it did, though. She started to love them when she was 3 and still loves them at 6. It's not often a little kid will stick with something that long. I know my kids are quick to grow in and out of "phases". This one stuck. Ah, Ponies, you are too good. Thank you for the three Pony birthdays in a row and all the pony "stuff" I trip over in her room. Thank you for all the mind-numbing Pony movies with shrieky pony singers and the nearly mind-numbing Pony books I've read over and over and over. We love you, Ponies. You are good clean fun for a child with a fabulous imagination.

As for the roller skates, I don't know why she wanted them, except that Curious George had them on one of the shows (yes, we are PBS kids here) and she thought they looked cool. I guess they must have made more of an impression than I thought. So she got roller skates and a helmet and knee and elbow pads (thanks Mema and Papa) and spent quite a while outside with Daddy and me skating and falling down. She loved it. It was great. And today was nice and mild, so it was a great day for skating. Maybe she'll get another couple days that are just as nice before Winter settles in completely. I've got my fingers crossed!

On the other front, I finished a present for the daughter of a friend of mine. She is 11, and I was worried what I made would not be "cool enough". Kids can be so hard to impress, especially at that age. However, I learned from my friend that her daughter is very into sewing right now, so I thought maybe I'd be safe. Turns out she loves it. It's --yeah--another kitty. This one is a patchwork kitty made of Amy Butler fabrics. It was a charm pack I had bought last year to see if any of it would work in my family room--none of it did. So I made it into a table runner top and left it at that. I pulled it back out and decided I really didn't want another table runner, and thought that this might be the best way to use the fabrics. I think she's adorable. She was plenty "busy" with all the fabrics alone, but I "blinged" her up a bit, because with kids that age, more is more and less is not enough. And actually, I think she's just right. And it was kind of hard to give her away. But I did. Brave woman, I am. :)

I also finished a present for my daughter, which I gave to her yesterday. She was less than impressed. The Ponies were really the thing she was looking for. I am not upset, though. She's only 6, and I know one day she will appreciate it. Plus, I really like the way it turned out. You might remember it from when I finished it, back in October. Man, that's been sitting around a while. Oops. Well, now it is done and in her hands. It's another thing I can cross off my list.

And one more picture for you--the apron. I am VERY happy with it. I have to see if I can reproduce it, so that's going to be a bit tricky ('cause I didn't write anything down), but I think it came out great.

It takes not too much fabric, and is fairly easy to sew. The double ruffle is cute, I think. I used the leftover ruffle to make the flower. In the back, I left a long tail because I like a big bow made out of a lot of fabric. It really looks like a dress bottom to me, which is what I like about it. I had made a pocket for it, but it kind of interrupted the "flow" of the front, so I took it off. It's always a learning process. The other thing I learned about this is that I need a dressmaker dummy. I ran back and forth from my studio to my bedroom mirror 10,000 times playing with those pleats up top. I had to change the number of them I don't even know how many times, and the direction of them nearly as many times again. What a pain. If I had a dummy, I could have just worked on it then and there. Of course, how to justify that purchase when I don't really make clothing is tricky...... hmmm...... I dunno. Maybe I could just say I want to make aprons, and this will make it easier? I DO really like aprons. Yeah, we'll see if that goes over with my husband. Maybe. :)

Oh, and you may have noticed I've removed the little "doll" from the side of my blog. I'm trying to add a picture of ME there. Not that I can't figure it out, but I'm trying to find a picture that makes me look nice and not either A) annoyed or B) insane and still has my hair looking pretty good (difficult to do with curls) and me having makeup on. Seems silly, right? But being a stay at home mom, I'm all about the "putting my hair in a pony tail and no makeup because who cares it's me and two kids in a house" kind of thing. And then when I get dressed up, it's for a party, and generally, I'm manning the camera. It's just not working out right now. I will get it, though.

Until next time, everyone take care. Have a great night!