HELLOmynameisHeather

Big Day

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I'm feeling fat on crepes and bacon and about to head out to my parents for an early dinner.  No wonder there's a mass trek to the gym come January.  My stocking was full of Ghirardelli, Cadbury, Nutella and the like.  I'm already overly-sugared and I haven't even opened one bag of these new goodies nor made the two batches of homemade marshmallows I've planned with Elijah. It looks like I have one more week to pack it all in before I start sweating to the oldies with the rest of the world.  That iTunes giftcard will come in handy -- workout music. 

But, enough of that.  It's still Christmas and I'm wearing stretchy pants. 

Here's a fun use for those great Anthropologie giftwrap-snowflake -thingies.  I'm not into hair bows, but this bit of sass works for me somehow.  The snowflake has a slit in it, so I jut tied a ribbon around Charlotte's little ponytail, threaded the ends through the slit and tied a bow.  The ribbon holds the snowflake in place -- no barrette or clip.  In fact, it was such a piece of cake, I'm going to cut out a few felt flowers to keep on hand for this same purpose.

And, no, my kids weren't all gussied up for Christmas this morning. Rumpled jammies and ruffled hair works for us.  These pics are from Saturday. 

My big present from Isaac today was a Blackberry phone.  He was feeling guilty about always sporting the fanciest new technology while I kept with whatever free phone came with our service.  So, it looks like I'll be talkin' fancy, at least for a month or so -- ah, technology.  Word is that if I had a Bluetooth-enabled laptop I could use my phone to connect to the internet wherever I go.  No cords.  How cool is that?  So, if there's some way to get Bluetooth on the old mistress, then it looks like I'll be heading to the park with Charlotte more often.  We could both use more sunshine.

After a month of family sick-tag, I didn't think I'd be pulling off many handmade projects this year.  But, somehow, right there at the end, I was able to throw together a couple of fun things for the kids.  Later this week, I'll get Charlotte dolled up in her new mod coat and pink striped gauchos and snap some photos.  You'll die.  And Elijah got a pair of Freshcut pajamas (jellybean print). He's quite sentimental about such things.  It just melts me to hear my nine-year-old boy say, "Oh, wow!  I can't believe it!  My very own pajamas out of your fabric, Mom.  Wow!  Thank you!" 

Boy, I don't think a handmade Christmas could ever be wholly traded for convenient commercialism around here.  Something would be missing.  At least, at our home and in my heart.  Charlotte, opening gifts in her new coat and a diaper, Elijah's jaunty PJ parade, crimson memories to last a lifetime.  And, with a response like that, Elijah can have all of the pajamas he wants.

Oop, it's time to head to Granny's. I hope your morning was as warm and festive and messy as ours.  Merry Christmas!

The Best of Funky Junky

Here they are, my favorite-ist ornaments ever, Hamburger Angel, The Real Santa, and Cheez-It Santa!  And, I love them.

Hamburger Angel wins the prize, with spoolish ankles, upside-down wings, an over-sized halo, a splotchy-"E" torso, "E-L-I-J-A-H" arms and a generous hamburger offerring.  And the best part is that there's no explanation -- just a random and fabulous creation from an inventive little boy.  (Had to move him to the top of the tree.)

The Real Santa is doing some sort of Broadway dance, I'm sure of it.  A tap dance.  He sports a frilly upside-down snowman beard and bushy white eyebrows.  Poor Santa, he hasn't even fooled baby Charlotte, who spots him on the tree and shouts, "Daddy!"

Cheez-It Santa stands 13" tall.  He has a garlic beard, cracker lips and Cheez-it dimpled buttons.  He's good friends with TV-dinner Scooby-Doo and Oreo Mama, both of which are making guest appearances over at Kiddley today.

Yep, it's true, I have the best collection of Christmas funky junkies -- I'm totally spoiled.  And Charlotte hasn't even gotten started yet. 

 

Funky Junky

I'm all about a Funky Junky Christmas.  Homemade kiddie ornaments are my absolute favorites and Elijah's kept me in good supply, as he's been the only child around here for most of the last decade. Here are a few of my favorites funky junkies.  They bring a smile year after year.

The tree stump was our first family ornament.  Pathetic, but funny... Our first tree was a serious splurge, as we were in college and had no income. (Our weekly grocery budget was $15!)  We set the tree up in our living room and promptly realized that we had nothing to dress it with.  As a joke, I tied a humble bit of yarn around the sawed-off stump and hung it on the tree.  Somehow that ornament has stuck around all this time.  Makes me laugh.

The stuffed angel was inherited from Isaac's mom.  She has the most outrageous collection of funky junkies.  It's from the 60s or 70s and makes me happy.

The other ornaments are all Elijah originals. Painted Blue Face is huge and hilarious. Sparkly Pinecone sports a random green ribbon, placed just-so.  And then there's TP Santa.  TP Santa, what can I say?  An obvious favorite.  Felt Snowman was begged for after Elijah made one for his teacher a couple years back and the others are holiday school crafts from over the years. They still need official names.

And, as fabulous as all of these are, they are nothing compared to my most favorite Elijah ornaments, Hamburger Angel and Cheez-It Santa.  So, stay tuned.  I'll post those two treasure tomorrow.  Till then, happy late-night gift-wrapping and last-minute I'm-going-to-make-that-present-afterall insanity!

Even bigger smiles tomorrow :-)

Yo-Yo-Yo, Merry Christmas!

Yes, another yo-yo post.  I swear this is the last one for a least... a week.  And, no, I'm not obsessed with yo-yos.  I've just found another use for the leftover garland bits - present toppers. 

I'm especially excited about these as these jaunty wrappings have made me feel much better about my giftcard presents.  I've always held myself to a high standard of handmade gifts only and am finding less and less time to meet those standards for everyone on my list.  And, truth is, I love receiving gift cards.  I do.  So, I've made a paradigm shift this year and giftcards are now acceptable to give, as long as I wrap them all cute and handmade-looking ;-) 

Isaac and I were terribly sick all last week and now Charlotte is quite sick with a different bug.  What precious gift-making time I had has been given up to long naps and baby cuddles.  And now that we're on the home-stretch to Christmas, boxes desperately need to go out and baking needs to begin.  So, giftcards are my new-found friends. 

The spiffy metal tins are from the checkout stand at Michael's.  They float my color boat.

Couch Flower

...or Fleur de Divan.  (Everything sounds fancier in French.)

Looking for a quick stocking-stuffer idea?  This flower pin is a fun project to make while watching season five of 24 on dvd☺.  I cut two flower shapes out of felt and stitched a running-stitch around their perimeters.  I drew up the stitches on the top-most felt flower to curl and rumple the edges.  Then I stacked on slubby wool yarn, a vintage fabric yo-yo, a slitted circle of wool felt and a fun little button.  With a pin on the back, it's a perfect bit of pizazz for a winter coat or a holiday sweater.

Ooo, it'd also be fun to dress the top of a present with one - a 'bow' and an accessory in one!  Aw shucks, it looks like I'll have to watch a few more episodes tonight.  Of course, Isaac won't mind.  That show is addicting.

Update: Instructions for this scrappy flower pin are now available as the La Fleur Debris mini pattern at the Heather Bailey store. For more flower pin inspiration, visit this post and this post. xo—Heather

A Spot of Snow

...literally, just a spot.

It was a beautiful day.  Perfect weather.  Snow was brought in from the mountains and dumped smack-dab in the middle of the park, where tank-top-clad kids in mittens could have a go at a holiday classic, the snowball fight.  Elijah was a good sport and managed to avoid any altercations. (I broke up two fist fights between other kids.)  He stuck it out with the ice-balls too, including one nasty thud on the face.  Others had the foresight to bring a cowboy hat, a motorcycle helmet (great idea) or goggles, impressive innovations for a bunch of warm-weather kids.

Charlotte found her niche in chilling the lake.  Back and forth from the snow to the water she'd toddle, with an occassional slide through the mud, bombing the lake with baby-sized snowballs (a smart choice of opponent, as a lake won't peg you back and get ice down your collar).

So, while others of you are shovelling your walks and defrosting your windshields, we're sporting shorts and sunglasses and snowball-fighting nonetheless.  Ha!

But, really... I'd rather have snow and icy weather for the holidays.  Christmas isn't quite the same without the chill.  Nevertheless, I'm grateful my kids had a taste of the holiday-fun-in-the-snow I remember from my childhood...

classic Saturday fun for a family that truly needed to get out of the house!

The Peppermint Experiment

Here's the result of my late-night rush on the fabric store for red & white striped fabric. My church is donating a decorated tree to a family in need (love this idea), so I had some friends and the teenage girls over last night to make this zany garland for contribution.  We sipped hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows (Katie-made) and sat in a circle, sewing.  Now, why can't that happen more often.  My kind of evening.

(The top garland is the ceramic one I mentioned two posts ago.)

The gingerbread house was a whole-family activity.  Thank you Costco.  Have you seen these kits?  All of the hard stuff is already done for you;  the cookies are cooked and the frosting is mixed.  Just assemble and decorate (and snack).  Elijah did most of the work, but tuckered-out before the house was gaudy enough, so Charlotte and I helped him out.  I could glue candy on things all day.  It's a lot like making yo-yos - repetitive and hynotic.

This N That

So far, so good.  Here's the state of my re-fashion at present.  The collar is made from the entire bottom band of one of the sweaters.  It can be flipped up or flipped down.  I'll see what works best once I try the thing on.  I'm thinking of stitching the yoke back to the yoke front with big red stitches and raw edges exposed, but I'm making it up as I go along, so I reserve the right to change my mind. ;-)  On a related note, check out this recent article from TIME magazine on re-fashionistas.

On the garland front, I stopped by the store last night and picked up some striped fabric.  I'll let you know how the peppermint experiment goes & take some pics.  It looks like Amanda has been in yo-yo mode as well.  She's put together a festive garland for her window frame and was sportive enough to use her treasured vintage buttons. (I can be too protective of mine.)  And Anna has made a funky felt one.

So, I'm officially proclaiming it The Year of the Garland (by no authority at all) and I'm starting a Flickr photo group for handmade/homemade garlands (not just Christmas garlands either), called Ga-ga for Garlands.  So, if you've got the garland bug, then, by edict, you must join in and show off your efforts. 

Also, Freshcut is finally up on the Free Spirit site. (Remember, you guys got the early early preview.)  The collection starts shipping out to stores just this week (not till January or February for Australia), so hopefully you'll be able to get your hands on the line soon!  I'm looking forward to seeing what Freshcut projects you come up with. 

The fabrics are also for sale at various online fabric stores, but, be warned, on some of these sites the colors are all muddy and funny - much yummier in person.  Here are some of the sites that have the line available for pre-ordering:

Flapper Girl Fabrics

The Bernina Connection

Cabbage Rose Quilting

FatQuarter Shop

Hancock's of Paducah

Quilt Fabric Delights (Australia)

Finally, I want to take a moment to thank everyone for your kind condolences these past two weeks.  I'm not finding the time to respond to each of your well-wishes individually, so please know that Isaac and I are grateful for your love and support.

Love,
Heather

Yo-Yo Garland

Tonight's the big un-boxing:  up with the shrubbery, up with the lights, up with Christmas!  Here's my most recent addition to the fanfare - the yo-yo garland. 

And, what a quick and relaxing occupation it's been; one movie rental and I was halfway done. 

I'm planning to make a red & white one as well, as I have a red & white Christmas fantasy for my kitchen table.  I just need to hunt down some red & white striped fabric and see what it does in yo-yo form.  I'm hoping for a peppermint effect.

I do have a ceramic peppermint garland, but it's seen better days.