First of all, I must say that we had a great Christmas! Santa was very generous (although he did leave a lot of work for me to do!)! We enjoyed visiting with our families and playing a new game that Lindsey got. It was a good holiday.
But, the bad news is that I am experiencing morning sickness. :-/ Now, don't go getting all excited...it's not real morning sickness—I have absolute proof positive that it isn't (if ya know what I mean, ladies). No. It just feels like morning sickness. Waking up starved but thinking that any food is 100% unappealing, feeling slightly nauseous all day long, feeling exhausted all day long... No fun.
I can't help thinking that all the Christmas food—tasty as it is, and fun as it is to make—has had a negative effect on me. Right now raw veggies—no dressing or dip—and water sound the best.
My kids disagree. When I ask them what we should have for dinner, the unhesitating answer is, "Pizza!"
Eeeeewww!
The question is, what should I make for dinner tonight?
Monday, December 26, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Fall 2011 Grades
Here they are:
I'm not prepared to go back in two weeks. I guess I'll have to take that time just relaxing, playing, and entirely enjoying myself.
Yay me! :-)
I'm not prepared to go back in two weeks. I guess I'll have to take that time just relaxing, playing, and entirely enjoying myself.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Home, Sweet Home
Well it took about a week, but the gingerbread house is finished!
I mixed the dough last Thursday while the kids were in school, thinking that we'd build it and decorate it that night. Funny me! The weekend turned out to be super-packed-full, but I finally started cutting out the pieces and baking them on Sunday. Mixed and cut out more on Monday, then ran around like a crazy woman (shopping) on Tuesday. Tuesday night I started making the candy for the windows, and yesterday we were finally ready to build.
The rest of the story is in pictures. :-)
I mixed the dough last Thursday while the kids were in school, thinking that we'd build it and decorate it that night. Funny me! The weekend turned out to be super-packed-full, but I finally started cutting out the pieces and baking them on Sunday. Mixed and cut out more on Monday, then ran around like a crazy woman (shopping) on Tuesday. Tuesday night I started making the candy for the windows, and yesterday we were finally ready to build.
The rest of the story is in pictures. :-)
All the building equipment, ready to go.
The kids arrange crushed, hard candy in the windows to create stained glass.
crushed candy
One of the panels fell down and broke during construction. Now it's glued back together and being held up with canning jars until the frosting dries up. I wonder if this is how my house was built?
Still under construction.
The decorating begins!
The candy-cane rail was Rachel's idea.
Almost finished—and tasty, too!
turret
front door—with our traditional holly wreath (although this year's holly is much prettier than last year's holly!)
house front
This year we built a string of white Christmas lights into the house so you can really see the windows.
This year we built a string of white Christmas lights into the house so you can really see the windows.
house back
Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Final-ly!
At last! I am free to write a little something, and I have pictures of my way-cool final projects to show you.
But first a word from my sponsor: the laundry.
Yes, laundry weaves in and out of my blog like the warp and weft in the fabric of my life (poetic, huh?). In fact, my very first blog post was about the laundry. This is because laundry is, unfortunately, a huge part of my life. For some reason my family, although they are lovely in almost all other respects, is ... hmmm, how do I put this? ... laundering-deficient. They can wash and dry, but not fold and put away. So last Friday, after my Bridal Wear class (and hence my last big school sewing project) was done, I thought I'd tackle the laundry. Well, after I had a little nap. I was determined to wash and put away all the dirty laundry Friday night, so I grabbed the hamper from my room and went to tell the kids to grab all their laundry, too. And then I peeked into my girls' bedroom. All four of my girls share one room, which is a recipe for disaster; the entire floor was piled at least a foot high. I knew I'd never get all of their laundry unless their room got completely clean, and that meant they needed Mom's help. First I sorted the ten loads of laundry that were actually in the laundry room, and then I bravely entered into the girls' room.
My goodness! :-/
Five hours, one-and-a-half hampers of clothes, and two trash bags later we had maybe half of the room done. Back at it on Saturday from 11 a.m. to about 3 p.m, and it was almost done—by kid standards it's finished; by my standards there's still a little more to do, but by then I'd had enough fun in that room. All in all, we took out three kitchen trash bags, two bags to go to the D.I., and three very full hampers of laundry. We did get all the laundry out of there. Hooray! And as of Monday night, I'm happy to say, all of the current laundry is washed and folded, heaped on my couches and waiting to be put into dressers. Now I can move on to fun, Christmas stuff with my family (which, naturally, I'll tell you all about as we do them). :-) Yaaaaayyyyy!!!!
Whew! Glad to get that laundry out of the way.
Now, to post my final projects!
Stress Management and Meditation classes only get a token mention, and this is it.
In Knitwear our final project was to design, illustrate, and draw the pattern for an outfit—a top and bottom, or a dress (we also had to include samples of the fabrics we would use).
This is my lovely design which, I think, is quite cute and might actually look good on me. Unfortunately I only made a children's size two pattern, so if I want one I'll have to re-pattern it in my size. (And no, I don't think this is a fabulous design for a two year old, but that size uses less paper—unless you decide to remake it in your own size after all.)
In Embellishment we learned all kinds of things you can do to fabrics to make them more exciting, from dyeing to beading to cutwork. It was a fun class, but worky. Our final project was to make something using at least four of the techniques we'd learned throughout the semester. I struggled to come up with a fabulous idea. At first I wanted to make an heirloom baby dress, but twenty-five yards of lace was out of my price range. Finally I decided to make Christmas stockings!
I have to tell you that our old Christmas stockings are very cute—at least I like them. They are all made of knit fabrics that I'd used to make clothes for my kids when they were little.
But Embellishment and Christmas just go together, don't they? So I built some new stockings to hang by the chimney with care. My very cute kids really liked each one that I turned out, and they are sure that my teacher is keeping them all. They asked (more than once), "Mom, after you give these to your teacher, will you make some for us?" :-) I got seven completed for my class, made one more yesterday morning, and will probably round off our ten some time this afternoon. Here are the stockings (which designs may, someday, appear in my Shoppe at the North Pole—a boutique of old-fashioned, hand-made toys that exists solely in my imagination...for now.)
Ahem. The stockings:
But Bridal Wear was my favorite class this semester. It was at a great time of day (nine to noon), and it was a small class of people who know how to sew, so we could just go in and work while our teacher, Eugene, was there to give a few tips, answer questions, and bounce ideas with. Very nice. In this class we had to illustrate and make a dress for a real, live person.
At first I wasn't sure where to find a model. Who needed a bridal or prom dress? I certainly didn't want to make one for myself! I decided to make a prom dress for Lindsey, even though she won't be old enough to date until the end of June; the dress can sit in my closet until next year. We decided on a full-length gown, covered in tulle, with lots of ruching, and a corseted back. I worked on it almost exclusively during class time (hardly any homework), and got it done just in time to earn my A—excellent class! Eugene told me that I have really good craftsmanship (which is an extremely high compliment, coming from him!), and I have to say that I think it is a pretty darn amazing dress.
So school is finished, at least for a while. I'm going back in the spring, but I am definitely taking the summer off this year.
And, until tonight, my laundry is done, my house is fairly clean...Let the Christmas festivities begin!
But first a word from my sponsor: the laundry.
 |
| Ten or so loads of laundry. This is after five loads got washed and put away. There's still about five left to wash, too. :-/ |
Yes, laundry weaves in and out of my blog like the warp and weft in the fabric of my life (poetic, huh?). In fact, my very first blog post was about the laundry. This is because laundry is, unfortunately, a huge part of my life. For some reason my family, although they are lovely in almost all other respects, is ... hmmm, how do I put this? ... laundering-deficient. They can wash and dry, but not fold and put away. So last Friday, after my Bridal Wear class (and hence my last big school sewing project) was done, I thought I'd tackle the laundry. Well, after I had a little nap. I was determined to wash and put away all the dirty laundry Friday night, so I grabbed the hamper from my room and went to tell the kids to grab all their laundry, too. And then I peeked into my girls' bedroom. All four of my girls share one room, which is a recipe for disaster; the entire floor was piled at least a foot high. I knew I'd never get all of their laundry unless their room got completely clean, and that meant they needed Mom's help. First I sorted the ten loads of laundry that were actually in the laundry room, and then I bravely entered into the girls' room.
My goodness! :-/
Five hours, one-and-a-half hampers of clothes, and two trash bags later we had maybe half of the room done. Back at it on Saturday from 11 a.m. to about 3 p.m, and it was almost done—by kid standards it's finished; by my standards there's still a little more to do, but by then I'd had enough fun in that room. All in all, we took out three kitchen trash bags, two bags to go to the D.I., and three very full hampers of laundry. We did get all the laundry out of there. Hooray! And as of Monday night, I'm happy to say, all of the current laundry is washed and folded, heaped on my couches and waiting to be put into dressers. Now I can move on to fun, Christmas stuff with my family (which, naturally, I'll tell you all about as we do them). :-) Yaaaaayyyyy!!!!
Whew! Glad to get that laundry out of the way.
Now, to post my final projects!
Stress Management and Meditation classes only get a token mention, and this is it.
In Knitwear our final project was to design, illustrate, and draw the pattern for an outfit—a top and bottom, or a dress (we also had to include samples of the fabrics we would use).
In Embellishment we learned all kinds of things you can do to fabrics to make them more exciting, from dyeing to beading to cutwork. It was a fun class, but worky. Our final project was to make something using at least four of the techniques we'd learned throughout the semester. I struggled to come up with a fabulous idea. At first I wanted to make an heirloom baby dress, but twenty-five yards of lace was out of my price range. Finally I decided to make Christmas stockings!
I have to tell you that our old Christmas stockings are very cute—at least I like them. They are all made of knit fabrics that I'd used to make clothes for my kids when they were little.
 |
| our old Christmas stockings |
But Embellishment and Christmas just go together, don't they? So I built some new stockings to hang by the chimney with care. My very cute kids really liked each one that I turned out, and they are sure that my teacher is keeping them all. They asked (more than once), "Mom, after you give these to your teacher, will you make some for us?" :-) I got seven completed for my class, made one more yesterday morning, and will probably round off our ten some time this afternoon. Here are the stockings (which designs may, someday, appear in my Shoppe at the North Pole—a boutique of old-fashioned, hand-made toys that exists solely in my imagination...for now.)
Ahem. The stockings:
 |
| ombre-dyed fabric with hand-beaded snowflakes |
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| faux chenille and jingle-bells |
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| color-blocked and crinkled |
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| embossed velvet and beaded fringe (the embossing didn't work, so I'll probably try again) |
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| the grandma stocking (paper-piecing) |
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| the candy-cane stocking (heirloom sewing with beaded fagoting) |
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| the ornament stocking (applique and trapunto) |
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| pin-woven plaid |
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| needle lace |
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| ribbon application I have to say, I think they are all awesome! |
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| my original illustration for Lindsey's dress, with the fabric swatches attached |
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| A pretty girl in a pretty dress! It's all finished but the hem —it's kind of too bad I have to hem it, because I love the way the fabric just puddles all over the floor |
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| dress back |
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| back dress detail |
Monday, December 12, 2011
It's Coming, I Promise!
Finals and Christmas Shopping all at the same time! I am Super-Woman!
Well maybe not, since I can't seem to find the time to create a new post. But today's the last final, so I'll post something new in the next couple of days—I promise! Just waiting for the time to take a few fabulous pictures. :-)
Well maybe not, since I can't seem to find the time to create a new post. But today's the last final, so I'll post something new in the next couple of days—I promise! Just waiting for the time to take a few fabulous pictures. :-)
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