Well, hello there! Long time no see. I absolutely love this time of year. The weeks leading up to Christmas, including Thanksgiving, are always a Big Deal in elementary school. The excitement is palpable. And also contagious. So even though I've been crazy busy, it's an enjoyable busy. But yes, I'm also looking forward to having two weeks off here soon to snuggle with my busy girl (if she'll stop for a minute) and relax. Soon enough!
I haven't been sewing very much in the past month. I have a huge art show at my school the last week of school before break. I've mainly been spending all my free moments working on that. One piece of art to hang for all 900+ students. Phew. I don't normally talk about the art lessons we do at school because honestly, I don't want to blog about work when I get home. But I am going to sneak in a pic of my first grader's paper mache penguins. They are fantastic. The armature is a paper lunch bag stuffed with newspaper and then twisted closed to make the beak. That and a whole lot of masking tape.
We also had our Crafty Christmas Party 3.0 the other weekend. This year a friend hosted it but I got the supplies together for the craft. We made hand-stitched felt ornaments- old school style. My parents have a whole set of felt ornaments that I believe they made with friends back when they were first married. They were always my favorite ornaments to hang. In fact, we didn't put them on the Christmas tree. Instead we always decorated our big grapefruit tree with them. Nostalgia! It was a fun party. Look at all those crafty supplies. Nothing original. I googled 'felt ornaments' and then drew out a few sketches from picture results ahead of time. The owl was a favorite.
I made a few examples before the party and got hooked. Now I'm actually working on a few more to attach to presents when I wrap them. You really can't go wrong with combining crafting, cookies and wine, I say. You can read about the last two crafty Christmas parties here and here.
I've sewn a bit in small little chunks of time. I have an almost finished shirt dress sitting on my dress form waiting for buttonholes and buttons. It was meant to wear to a wedding at the beginning of November. I also made another Jacqueline crop top in a pretty blue-green linen. It has been worn often- as soon as it comes out of the wash. So that's a winner in my book. But I think I am done with that pattern now. There are only so many big gathered tops you can wear, right? Before people start to wonder.
And last but not least, my sweet pea's Christmas card pictures. Look at the difference from last year! Gah. Slow down, time. We snapped these pictures as a last minute effort. We just threw everything together so I am really pleased that they came out so well. The red chair was perfect. No, I didn't make the dress. It's her party dress (Carter's) and her awesome cowgirl boots. I actually woke her up from a nap so we didn't miss the last bit of daylight (bad mom!).
She is almost 20 months old now. Almost two. Holy cow. And she is a trip. Girl has some dance moves that neither her mom or dad have. It was a team effort to get the photos. If you could only see what J is doing behind me to make here smile. Ha!
Oh, and also, I'm on Instagram now. I'm lizajanesews. I'm enjoying it as a quick little blog fix when I don't have time for blogging or full on blog reading.
Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!
