The smiles make it all worth the work involved . . .

Well, the ribbons are cut . . the paper torn . . and the boxes put away til next year . . it's over . . where did the time go? . . I didn't have time to enjoy the Christmas build up this year . . had way too many projects to finish . . seams to mend . . and edges to serge. Sorry to say that I didn't even put up any decorations! But all in all, it was a wonderful christmas and a good time was had by all! This year we all met at my daughters brand new house in Erie PA. All my kids, their spouses and my grandkids were together this year . . I have alot of pictures of the festivities but not too many of the gifts that I made . . never thought to take pictures. But do have some . .

My grandaughter LOVES to dress up . . so I made her clothes fashioned after Hannah Montana from pics I got from the internet.

These are two of the outfits . . made some from new material and some from "recycled" material . .

You probably can't see it too well . . but on the second pic . . on the arm of the chair is an afghan I made for my daughter. It is crocheted in "boxes" and then I weaved strips of fleece through the boxes . . I am so pleased with the way it came out . . it is sooooo soft . . I think I just might make one for me.

I also had my embroidery machine running in high gear. I embroidered hand towels and washcloths for each of the holidays for my oldest daughter and embroidered a set of towels (bath, hand and wash) with christmas designs for my youngest daughter.

Well that is a bit of what I have been working on . . now on to other projects! . . My mind is already working overtime on new ideas! . . Til then . . If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've ALWAYS gotten! . . time to think out of the box!

Sew much to do . . Sew little time . .

Took the day off yesterday from my full time job to sew sew and sew some more! I went from 7:30am to 7:30pm . . sewing and watching tearjerker Christmas movies all day . . . and enjoyed every minute of it! Seeing as this year is very tight for me - moneywise- . . umm and I guess in the waistband too! - I am making all my christmas presents this year, got alot of really good ideas from the internet (such a wonderful thing this internet) and even started a new hobby . . Locker Hooking . I enjoy it but it gets to my thumbs after a while.

My 5 year old granddaughter is into Hannah Montana this year and LOVES to dress up . . so I recycled some old clothes and made her 3 new outfits to play in . . I purposely didn't finish them (hems and facings) so she couldn't even think to wear them to school! I don't want her giving her mom a hard time . .

I got most everything done . . just have to pick up a few more things . . to stuff with . . to fasten with . . and to fill with . . now on to finding the perfect Christmas tree!

Karol's Very 1st Annual Kids Craft Day!

December 5th . . . was always our traditional St. Nick's Day - in other words, a free gift day from the Mom! Now my children are scattered along the east coast and cannot make it home for St. Nick's day any more so this year I decided to have Karol's Very 1st Annual Kids Craft Day! I had 6 kids over, ages 4 - 12. We made a gift for their mom's for Christmas. Since all the kids gave their moms the gifts that we made, I can now post a pic. These are reindeer ornaments made out of crushed pop cans! They loved it! I got the idea for the crushed popcan animals from a website called FaveCrafts.com. They have sooooooo many really cute ideas! I spray painted the pop cans ahead of time as I knew they wouldn't dry that quickly then I took the kids, one at a time, and let them do everything - even the hot glue gun - I made sure they were very careful and dropped a "glop" of the hot glue on the area they wanted to glue something to, they then put on the item (say the eyes), I had them count to 10 and "WELLA" it stuck! They were so proud of the job they did! The little gift bag was opened and given to mom before she made it into the living room! What a good time we all had. I am now trying to figure out a reason to have the 2nd Kids Craft Day!