love and stuff

There are so many things to say all fluffy and lovey at Christmas Time isnt there?
I have just had my fill on some of my favorite blogs with beautiful pictures of food and crafts and thought boy, I havent had a Christmas post yet.
What a ham!
So to all of you who read my blog-

Merry Christmas


We have a beautiful tree all trimmed with childrens things, red and gold ornament balls and lights glistening.
The underneath of the tree is filled with some pristine wrapped gifts and lots of rumpled ones that little hands have wrapped in love.
We did our yearly trip to the Dollar Tree for each child to buy gifts for everyone else.
There are homemade gifts and gifts from relatives far away.

We made Sugar cookies for the first time in several years and the night before last we stayed up waaaaay too late for little people doing our huge amound of chocolate painted pretzel logs.....Sophie did some serious sprinkles on them this year. Wow!
The make a wonderfully quick breakfast for Mamas too. ~snicker~

All of that to say, I am hoping you have family around you this time of year or have some that you can have as family.
Relax and realize it isnt about presents and hurrying but instead about time....time well spent with a child and a book or a loved one over a cup of cocoa (better yet flavored coffee with whip cream and all) just spending time.

See you in the next few days!
lori

since the storm

Since the storm-
got my laundry and a good friends laundry all caught up.
:then the washer broke

got a loaner washer while mine is being looked at and almost got all the laundry caught up again (washer had been broke for a week)
:then the dryer broke

two children have cut their heads, one had the flu.
dog decided that the arthritis could have its way ( looked up natural treatments) who would have known that fish oil supplements could work so quickly for him?

went to the college and took placement tests for admissions.
:was at college level for reading comprehension, one level lower for sentence structuring and a level lower than that for math. Not too bad for not being in a classroom for almost 20 years.
Although I am in an unstructured classroom with my babies every day here at our house.

Got some really neat gifts for my children for Christmas because of my church being so wonderful and giving me a gift certificate. I hadnt said anything about the hardships we have been through recently. ..the whole area we live in has been through financial difficulties from this storm.

We are expecting another storm tonight and through the rest of this week at around 65 mph winds.
They say we could have more power outages because of the soaked ground from the last storm and trees being susceptible from it for falling.
soooo we could be without power again...good thing we know what to do from the last one.
I feel so badly for the folks in Kansas who had freezing weather in the middle of their extended power outage.

speechless..

my children and myself just made it through a very scary event.
we in the pacific northwest thought we were facing 50mph winds ...we have had those before.
we ended up with a nightmare.

i am still digesting it.
the power came on about 20 minutes ago.
i fear i am a bit traumatized.
to be a woman alone watching your carport roof flapping in the breeze like a piece of paper in front of a fan and know your children are upstairs sleeping.
very scary...very scary.

we made it and found out we are stronger than we thought.
in the next few days my daughter will upload some of the photos she took and i will share them with you.

at this moment i am overwhelmed at the time lost for our finances from my sewing.
i dont know about our bills coming and how that will play into how much of a Christmas my children will experience this year.
time will tell...

photos to come...
lori

thankful for electricity...
thankful for woodstoves that work...
thankful for neighbors and friendly conversation...
thankful for no trees crashing through my house or floods forcing me to evacuate....

so very thankful.

wonky camera

boy, have i been trying to get a new post out to you.
the camera has been acting wonky...we tried to take pictures of these Christmas Stockings out of upholstery fabrics and pillow trims to show you that we were trying to put in the shop but the camera distorted the fabrics...weird.
anyway, we will try again today as the pacific northwest has given us a surprise of sunshine for a bit. ~grin~

we did manage to get two semi decent pictures of little girls strawberry shortcake aprons that are so cute. the fabric really is white and not cream colored. ~snicker~
i found the sheets from the original strawberry shortcake and all of her gang and made some vintage aprons out of them.
my girls already have one for each of them except Tes-she's 16.

i have been making all different colors of giddy-up horses on skirts though. that has been so much fun...i had forgotten how much i love designing things for little girls.
they are so colorful and cute!

anyway, there are still a few custom order spots for giddy-up skirts still in the shop and also two vintage Strawberry Shortcake aprons that would be great unique Christmas gifts for a little girl in your life.
lori

old to new...

Tessa thought she would give it a whirl with patchworking a pair of her jeans.

turned out pretty cute...two of these fabrics are in my favorite stash...the black with tiny white flowers I only use as an accent on things because I love it so and the flower I still have a couple yards of but see it disappearing too quickly for my likings in the spring on pinafores and bags and such.

child's turkey craft....

this weekend was a very full one.
the kids went to a magic show with their dad. the guy is world renowned.....we were all surprised he made a stop in our tiny town but the kids said the place was packed out.
Andre' Kole is the name and he is the one that made the disappearing Statue of Liberty famous.
the kids had a blast and are still talking about it!

The two younger girls and I also went to Hannah's soccer coaches house for an end of the season party....we were the only ones to show so we had a great visit. coffee, conversation (the mom is an acquaintance of mine I hardly get to see), home baked pizza and a craft for the girls.

They made the cutest turkeys that they actually designed as they went along.
all you need is:
a Styrofoam ball
brown paint
chenille stems of your choice (traditional colors are red, orange, yellow, and brown)
sharp knife
art smock LOL!
glitter optional

cut the ball in half and paint it. (if you want sparkly stuff sprinkle it on the wet paint at this time.)
take a full piece of chenille stem and make a circle with the ends twisted together.,
stick the twisted stem 3/4 back on the half-ball
cut *turkey feathers*-
snip turkey feathers chenille stems into three pieces twist into small tear drop shapes with the ends sticking out.
attach feathers by clamping the feathers on the tail piece
make another teardrop piece for the head and insert it in the front...attach another small tear drop piece for the beak.
take two small pieces and twist the middle part so the two prongs are sticking out and insert them for the feet.
voila! a turkey fit to grace the Thanksgiving table.

it is really easier than the amount of instructions took to tell about it.

my second oldest daughter and I spent a chunk of time up at the emergency room last night.
she had an earache that just wouldnt stop.
i tried-
accupressure
lavender oil
massage
hot washcloth
cold washcloth
tylenol-couldnt find the childrens liquid tylenol so i used a prescription childrens tylenol with codeine for her. just our luck it made her legs to fidgety. poor, poor girl.

we ended up with this great doctor who believes the same as i in ear infections usually heal themselves and was actually thinking of becoming a naturopath.
great conversation....then they gave Aliss some numbing ear drops. finally pain relief for my girl.

she is enjoying chicken broth as we speak.

Trunk Show

blurry picture warning...

my 13 year old daughter Aliss made the mother load of brownies and my 16 year old Tessa packed the cloth and decorations and decorated the table.
martenilli's chillin', chips & dip and brownies.....mmmmmmmmmmmm

my girls also helped lay things out on the tables....what a team.
those big things on the table really arent pillows, they are purses with the handles down..giddy up skirt in the front...I love purple and red together..this skirt is wide wale corduroy. boy, i wish the pictures turned out better...sorry.


two purses i made this past week...


table full of some fabric samples to *build your own* purse...the girls said it was like *build a bear*. ~grina surprise that came in the mail today from the local City Government for a thank you for contributing to the *shows its best* auction benefiting the city. what a treat to have a bona fide certificate hanging on my wall.

can bearly sit still...

the time is drawing nearer and nearer for the Trunk Show tonight.
My 13 year old daughter Aliss just finished the big dish of brownies cooking. After the brownies cooked she tossed on heath toffee bits to melt onto the top.
We are going to cut those up into 1 inch pieces and arrange them prettily on a platter.
I found a sale on martinellis' sparking cider in the flavor of apple-grape and apple-cranberry.
I am going to fill my fluted punch bowl halfway with ice and use it as an ice bucket for the martenillis.
for a savory i am mixing three packages of cream cheese with a thing of salsa, putting it into a pretty bowl and arranging chips around it.

so exciting, so exciting.
this is the first trunk show *I* have hostessed....I have had two other parties and one was in an office lunch room at an orthopedic surgeons office and another in home of a friend.

we will share pictures tomorrow...Tessa promised to take a few before people start showing up.
Lori