A new year with snow.

The holidays have almost passed, and we have our first ( and likely only) snow. Growing up in Vermont has always made snow exciting, the first of the season even more so. There was maybe an inch outside and a few small flurries but we got  dressed and went out. It's been a long time since I've had coffee in the snow. It was perfect.

Actually it was Mia's first experience with snow. She loved it and I loved taking pictures of her.

It's tomorrow from when I started this and the snow has melted. I miss it so much already. 

I am not one for New Years resolutions. But as it happens husband and I made some decisions on the first of this year. It looks like instead of working on children's clothes we are going to focus on bags. Tote bags to be specific. We ended up at Hancock fabrics with a couple of 50% off coupons. After a half hour or so we left with about 25 yards of a few kinds of duck cloth. 

Husband and I have tossed around dozens of ideas for a business together. Sometimes the focus is painting, some times it's baking, cooking, building, or sewing. This time though it felt different and more do-able. It's four days later and I have made probably 12 or 13 different bags. We have settled on two deigns that work well for us, and husband has settled into three paintings (for now) that look wonderful. Now it's just time to make the rest of the bags, figure out how to price and sell them and then hopefully have a good reason to start making more. 

It seems like woog&smoosh is becoming a reality much sooner than I had anticipated and now it's just time to work at getting everything done so we can give it a go! So I suppose that's it for now besides lots of pictures of things lately!

(I love how our little shop is looking these days. I'm lucky it's right off the kitchen it stays nice cozy)

Also Kiki got a tea set for Christmas and once Maria Elena got done throwing it across the room her and Kiki had some lovely tea parties.

Also this one is great because Henry's re end makes it look like Mia is doing a jig.

Here is one of the bags that we didn't chose but I really love. 

Oh quick question, do boys carry tote bags or are they still to girly? 

Flower plates and holiday dresses

I love that at three my daughter knows that she would really prefer to only eat off dishware that features flowers. She likes pink ( and sometimes purple but is also open to patterns and black and gray), things that sparkle, Wearing dresses, not wearing pants, and when I asked her what she wanted for Christmas she told me ' a pink lawn mower'. Last week she informed me that though she liked her bread she was 'not impressed' with her eggs. She builds really great block towers and screams her head off when her younger sister knocks them over. All in all I am pretty impressed with her as a kiddo ( my other daughters as well I just happen to be thinking about Kiki right now)

I was lucky to finish the girls holiday dresses early last week. They had a birthday party to go to and it might be the only chance for dressing up this year. Mia's was done first and Kiki's really only came about because she wanted to wear Mia's (Mia did not want to share). I will say its one of my favorites that I have made. Also I was lucky enough to run into a friend that owns a serger and does not use it much! She has let me borrow it for the time being. I was entirely to unaware of how wonderful a serger is. I made a pair of leggings in maybe 15 minutes, as well as a cute black and white striped dress that Kiki loves ( it only took an hour!) All in all the morning it took me to figure out the threading and only two basic stitches was more than worth it. 

Unfortunately I also realized Christmas  is in only a week! For some reason I was under the impression it was still two weeks from now. That leaves me with a longish list of little things to finish up, Christmas lights to go see with Portland friends, and a cookie and cocoa party with some of the kiddos friends. It is hard to believe all of that ( as well as wrapping all the presents will happen within the next week!

But for now I should go, I need to make gingerbread dough, a spice cake and three little cloth bugs to go inside three little cloth apples.

Christmas cookies and the girls room

Sewing this week has taken some what of a back seat to cooking. Well at least sewing children's clothes.  

We did re-paint the girls room ( never having changed it from the red it was before we switched rooms with the girls) there were to many bright colors. That and it needed some shelving. We still need to redo the flooring but for now we have a decent start. This though is where some of the sewing came into play, though pretty boring. I made the girls a few new pillows for their bed from some black and white care fabric I had been saving and some gray cotton, that and a curtain was all for their room.

Beyond that I mostly made Christmas cookies to mail out to family. I really enjoy choosing which cookies to make each year as well as finding little tons or making little bags to send the cookies out in. This yearns used three different recipes from The Nordic Cookbook. I was lucky enough to receive for my birthday from my wonderful mom. I ended up making chewy ginger snaps, Jewish biscuits ( which were my favorites) and a krumkake recipe. Now that I am thinking about it, the krumkake recipe was an old one a wrote down a while back and am not sure where I foundn it. 

Either or, I wrapped up all the baking yesterday and fotbtonsneakbin a bit more sewing today. Making small bags for the cookies was a nice way to practice French seams, plus they turned out pretty adorable. Kiki was rather excited to be my cookie tester for the week.

One last project that I finished up earlier this evening turned out better than I had hoped. The girls have a birthday party this weekend for their friends little brother who is turning one. After much discussion husband convinced me a fat zebra would make a lovely present and I will admit it was the right call.

But for now I am just happy I managed to sneak as much sewing into my Christmas cookie week as I did. And now that all the cookies are packed ready to be shipped, and the little projects for friends and extended family are finished I can return to making a few more little things for three girls before Christmas gets here.

Christmas trees and linen pants

My sewing machine was made in the 50's. It's a tank. The machine never tires, it is far more resilient then I expect and never seems to let me down. The only problem I ever seem to run into is how to finish my seams.  

Lately I have been working on French seams. A lot of work and takes a bit more fabric but all and all I really do love how the garment looks when finished. Though when using a thicker fabric it can easily get a bit bulky. There is no budget for a new sewing machine right now, and honestly I think I might feel a bit guilty almost like I was cheating on my Ol' kenmore. I did find a button hole maker for three dollars today though! One of my favorite shops when we make it up to Portland is S.C.R.A.P. I always end up filling a bag of bits of fabric for five dollars and today also got a yard and a half of lint blue cotton fabric with tiny white hearts. It's beautiful! The kids and I do both tend to love anything with hearts on it. That's mostly my influence. But now that I am stocked up on odds and ends, and enough yardage to keep me busy for a while I am excited for some holiday sewing. 

Oh! And I did finish a pink dress for Kiki. It's a pretty basic pattern but I am pretty excited about how great the bunny came out. My husband and I debated a bit on the lace around there collar but i figured over the top cutesy only works for so long, and went with it. 

This morning I ended up making a quick pair of gray linen pants for the girls as well. Kiki and I both really love how they came out, now she just needs some sort of little belly shirt to go along with them.

Oh! And we got our Christmas tree very early this year! The kids love it and it's time to get going on some new ornaments. Since Kiki's second Christmas when she broke more ornaments then I thought possible we decided to only have ones that we make. So right now we don't have many on the tree but it's one of my favorite Christmas activities each year. And a nice tradition that the kids can hopefully look back on fondly. 

Things I've made lately

As much as I enjoy black and white or gray or brown my daughters disagree. Particularly the youngest two. Pink. They love it, bright, pale, dark, light, it really does not matter as long as it's pink. I try to find a balance.

A week or two ago at the second hand store in our little town I found bolts of cotton and steel fabric each unopened with at least 15 yards of fabric for 20 dollars a piece. I called my husband to discuss what I could bring home. We agreed on four bolts (though the next day returned and picked up a couple more)

 

These next photos are a few of the projects I have done in the past week or two before I decided to start this blog. Honestly I am just hoping to be able to keep track of everything I make with all of these fabrics. That and convince myself to get going on something with the pink fabric that has the tiny white polka dots. Kiki Has been more then patient waiting. When we originally found the fabric she loudly declared that she liked that one best. So far I have made chair covers, curtains, pants, a dress, and a couple little shirts. Oh and a blanket and booties for a new little winter baby we know!

 

 

I really should make her a simple little dress she can wear constantly. 

So that's about it for now, my goal is at least one sewing project completed a week. Which should hopefully work out to one post a week as well.

To begin

I have three daughters.
One husband.
Two dogs.

I have tried to start a blog once before. I kept up with it for a bit, but found that the longer I was away the less I wanted to return. I have whims, there are many different things I find that I like to do, but lately I have found they all seem to focus around sewing.

I love my daughters, and I love to sew for  them. When I see the girls running around in something I made or with something I made I cannot help but smile. I am not amazing at sewing, in fact most of my project when completed still need a bit more work, but with each new item I improve. My hope is that by documenting all the mistakes I will end up much better.

I have spent the better part of the last year reading so many different sewing blogs (mainly focused on children's clothing) that I can't help but want to try myself. I also happen to have more then  enough  lovely little models who are all to happy to have their picture taken.

If I am lucky (and work hard enough) my hope is that by the time the two youngest reach elementary school I have the start of a small kids clothing line on my hands. Or at least a whole lot of adorable clothing.

So as of now I am stocked up on fabric, full of ideas, and blessed with happy little recipients for all my projects,(as well as a phone that takes decent picture of everything) so I suppose now is as good a time as any to begin.