Christmas Book Bag Memories

Growing up, all our Christmas picture books were stored in a drawstring bag and only brought out during the Christmas season. When I go home, I still enjoy looking through those books...they bring back so many fading and forgotten memories. My favorite story is a Golden book about a family that got a live Christmas tree for their apartment living room. Surprisingly the tree continued to grow until it hit the ceiling. The father cut a hole in the ceiling so the tree could grow into the elderly lady's apartment above them. Eventually the tree grew so much that it took up 3 or 4 stories of the apartment. All of the families in the apartment got to know each other and became friends as they shared the one Christmas tree. Isn't that the sweetest story? Mom says that I always wanted to live in an apartment when I was little, and I'm sure it was because of that Christmas book.

This year I have two Christmas books for Elliot's book bag. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, and The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski. I look forward to collecting many special Christmas books through the years.

My book bag fabric was passed on from a lady in my church, and I decorated it with some of my garage sale rick-rack. Last summer Mom and I found a huge box of rickrack when we were garage saleing. Of course we snapped it up, and since then I have had so much fun covering everything in rick-rack!

Merry Christmas!
Jessica

Christmas Star Craft

My pictures below aren't that great, but these 3-d paper stars are adorable hanging across my living room window! Pattern found here: Lost Button Studio Paper Stars

Mom, I have a small star garland for you...Thanks for lending me your ball of jute!


These don't have to be just Christmas stars. They would make great 4th of July stars, or they are cute decorating a birthday package. Shhh....Katie's having a birthday tomorrow!

Cheers!
Jessica

Chocolate Covered Cherries

A Christmas tradition still going strong
after 14 years.

Rainy Day Paper Ornaments

Right now Oklahoma is going though a major power outage crisis due to a heavy ice storm that hit early yesterday morning. Hundreds of thousands of people are without power... our electricity has been out since 7am yesterday, and we spent last night here at my parents' home. So far they still have power, but even in the event that it goes out, they have a large woodstove that can heat the house comfortably. It pays to be prepared here in Oklahoma, as this seems to happen fairly often.


Last night was the perfect time to try out these festive paper ornaments with the kids. A tutorial can be found HERE at Design*Sponge. These are super fun, and easy enough for even grade schoolers to make. We made bunches and bunches, and had enough to hang them in the entry way and in the computer room.



This last picture is of a bunch of cards Katie and I made this afternoon. Mom has a stash of vintage Christmas wrapping paper samples from the 60's and we used some of it to make notecards and package tags. I love the retro colors and all the glitter. Oh my! I love them almost too much to use!

Have a very merry Christmas!
Jessica

Sewing for an 11-year old

Have you recently tried shopping for an 11-year old girl and actually found any dresses or skirts modest and appropriate for that age? If you have, please let me know where to shop. :-)


One day last week I was shopping for some clothes for Ellen who only has one cold-weather skirt that fits. Of course I couldn't find anything appropriate in the stores, so when I saw some baby corduroy at Wal-Mart I decided to sew a skirt for Ellen. Why didn't I think of that first?


The pattern I used is a Kwik Sew pattern from my stash. The skirt only has one pattern piece--a panel that is used 8 times to make the skirt. Instead of the elastic waist that the pattern calls for, I narrowed the skirt pieces and then inserted an invisible zipper down one side. Ellen doesn't like a lot of gathers and bulk at her waistline, so this was a good alternative. I did put some elastic in the waist casing, but just enough to keep the skirt at her waist without adding bulk.


Sewing this skirt has put me in the mood for more sewing. I think I'm going to search through my fabric and make Ellen another skirt or two....
Ruth

KWIK SEW 3274

As Random As It Gets

Okay, Jess. You (and Ginny and Tami) asked, so here goes. Random things about myself. Very random. Boring. :-)


1. My mom had 7 children and I have 7 children.

2. I am learning to play the oboe....started as an adult never having played any instrument before. I love it! I take oboe lessons for the first time in my life.

3. I like Sudoku puzzles. One a day, at the least. Sudokuoftheday.com is great.

4. My 2GB Ipod Nano is not big enough. I enjoy listening to audio books, podcasts, and of course, music. (I prefer using speakers, not headphones).

5. I am a night owl. Reformation isn't possible--I've tried.

6. My favorite Christmas music is Handel's Messiah. The whole thing.

7. I love to sew. Oh, is that one obvious? Okay, how about, I don't like to cook?

8. Dark chocolate is absolutely the bomb. Love the stuff!


Now for some cuteness-- This is Emily reading Christmas books from the Christmas book bag that only comes out one month a year.

Ruth

We've been tagged!

Ginny from A Crafter's Chronology tagged us with the "8 Things We Didn't Know About You" meme several weeks ago, and Tami from September's Bride tagged us to post 7 random things about ourselves. How about I post 8 random things that you don't know about me. Can I cover both bases at once?

Here we go!

1. I grew up in Colorado, and can still feel the crunch of pine needles under my feet when I imagine walking through a forest.

2. Once, when I was going through my edible flower stage, I served ice cubes with johnny-jump-ups frozen in them at a tea party. I think I was the only one who thought that was cool.

3. I hope you know this about me by now, but I love Jesus Christ, and walking in a right relationship with him is one of the most important things in my life.

4. Can I share one about my hubby? He drinks coffee in the shower. How crazy is that?

5. One of my best friends as a kid was my cat, Winnie Pooh. That poor cat got cried on and hugged on a lot. Winnie Pooh also used to correspond with my cousin's cat Taffy. They loved getting letters from each other!

6. I eat sour cream on everything and anything. Right now I seriously love the stuff. I bought two containers of it this week. Yummy!

7. Sewing my wedding dress was a huge dream of mine, and sometimes I can't believe I actually did it!

8. Right now I weigh 5 lbs less than I did before I got pregnant. That feels nice. =)

Ok, Mom, it's your turn!!

Jessica