CHRISTEPHI

A new year is nearly upon us!  And with the new year there will be some changes at our house in the way that we are homeschooling.  Up to now, Miss M has been steadily working through Calvert's First Grade.  She started in August 2011 when she was only four and will be finishing up the math in January and the rest in February 2013.  We took some long breaks in there, but now that she's a smart-as-a-whip 6-year-old, much of the material is too easy for her.  The child is a naturally excellent reader and speller.  I love, love, love Calvert and have fond memories of it from when I myself was a homeschool student, but I'm not convinced that it is the right curriculum for our family or for Miss M's learning style.  So the first change for us will be to drop Calvert and take up My Father's World for 2nd grade.  Or...a 2nd/3rd grade combo to be exact so we'll be working at an appropriate level for Miss M. I really like the idea of a curriculum that incorporates

Miss M adorned our nativity play set with a "palm tree." Merry Christmas everybody! December Photo Project

One final gift, made entirely by hand. This adorable polar bear will get lots of cuddles and kisses on Christmas Morn! December Photo Project

Olives on fingers is a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition! Is it at your house too? December Photo Project

Hubby and Little Guy after ditching their Santa hats at our annual Christmastime breakfast at IHOP. Miss M and I followed protocol and kept our hats on! December Photo Project

Our lovely tree, haphazardly decorated by Hubby and the kids. December Photo Project

Snow day! And by a happy coincidence, Hubby has the day off! So he got to play in the snow with the rest of us. December Photo Project

When you have a young daughter, My Little Ponies are just a part of life. She arranged these today according to family after "having an orphanage" and making them "all get adopted into families." This family is actually made up of ponies from my own childhood. December Photo Project

Today's high, 58. Tomorrow's forecast: 3 to 5 inches of snow! We decided to take advantage of the nice weather with a little jaunt in the park. Of course, I forgot to grab my camera, so this one was taken with my phone. December Photo Project

A few indispensable tools of the sewing trade! The scissors are ones my grandma gave me for my 10th birthday. December Photo Project

I've been sewing like a fiend!  I made two patchwork peasant dresses with another one cut out and waiting. I made an underdress and overdress outfit for Miss M to wear in my dad's wedding.  I made Little Guy a vest and tie to wear in the wedding.  And I made this  massive   queen-sized t-shirt quilt! Mind you, I'm no quilter, so I probably did 101 things you're not supposed to do, but all in all I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!  I was given 30 shirts and used all of them (most had images on both the front and the back, a total of over 50 squares each measuring 15.5 inches).  I stabilized all the knits with ultra lightweight interfacing (a Black Friday doorbuster item at JoAnn) and backed the entire thing with a pretty purple geometric-print flannel (also from JoAnn on Black Friday).  I didn't get a photo of the back (lucky to even get this shot!), but there's also one row of t-shirts on the back.  The couple I made it for is giving it to their d

This cheery Christmas chickadee is joyfully gracing my living room. It makes me happy every time I see it! December Photo Project

No photo from yesterday. Today I'm keeping these sweethearts a little closer than usual and praying with a broken heart for the families and community in Connecticut that lost too many of their beautiful children. December Photo Project

My very tired boy was pouting in his sleep. I wonder what he was dreaming about! December Photo Project

It's 12.12.12 and my dad got married today! This is my daughter carrying the bride's bouquet. December Photo Project

Hubby has been practicing his soprano sax in preparation for my dad's wedding tomorrow, 12/12/12. December Photo Project

This cheery fellow and his 7 pals will be much happier were there a dusting or so of snow this Christmas!  Until then, they're content to grace our lawn and warm our hearts! December Photo Project

Dried tendrils of some sort of creeper vine. It has small white flowers in midsummer with a very strong fragrance. Some day I'll positively identify it! December Photo Project

This sycamore seed pod hangs on a towering 100-foot high American Sycamore tree atop a large hill overlooking a county courthouse in a small Missouri town. December Photo Project

This is a queen-sized t-shirt quilt I'm working on for a client to give her daughter for Christmas. Machine quilting a queen-sized quilt on a regular sewing machine takes some wrestling! December Photo Project

My grandma, June, made this wooden nativity set years ago when I was still a kid. It's a favorite part of our yearly celebration of Christmas! Grandma June is still very much alive and crafting! December Photo Project

My little scholar dressed in her finest and doing her schoolwork smack dab in the middle of Mama & Daddy's bed. December Photo Project

My six-year-old has a very clearly self-defined sense of fashion. She requested a photo shoot. December Photo Project

This wildgrass seed pod measures about 3/4 of an inch across. December Photo Project

Playing the board game Sorry. December Photo Project

Lolo is the Filipino word for grandfather. December Photo Project

1. I'm thankful that when I say, "There's nothing to eat," what I really mean is that nothing we have sounds appealing. My children have never known hunger. 2. I'm thankful I *get* to stay home with my children, to care for them and raise them. I don't have to work outside the home. Neither am I forced to stay home because I have no other options. 3. I'm thankful for good health; access to modern medical, dental, and vision care; and excellent medical insurance. 4. I'm thankful that I have limitless access to clean running water. 5. I'm thankful that power outages are not common occurrences where I live and that when they do occur, they are rarely more than a mild inconvenience. 6. I'm thankful I've been able to know all my grandparents. 7. I'm thankful for the massive amount of human knowledge available at our fingertips today. We can find out tomorrow's weather, why our child has a rash, what foreign words mean, who our an

My first choice for a costume for Miss M would have been Merida, the new Disney princess from Brave. I want to make her gorgeous dark green dress!  Alas, Miss M wanted to be Rapunzel, so pink and purple it had to be.  And once she had decided on Rapunzel, it was only natural her little brother wanted to be Flynn Rider (a.k.a. Eugene Fitzherbert). I picked up the Rapunzel pattern ( Simplicity 2065 ) when it was on sale for 99 cents.  I've had enough experience with Simplicity patterns to expect them to run insanely wide, so although my daughter wears size 6 in ready-to-wear clothes, I made her a size 4 in width (and a 6 in bodice length, but 4 in skirt length).  I lengthened the bodice for two reasons: 1) the dress in the movie is longer waisted and 2) it means she'll be able to wear it longer!  Even so, it's a wee big big around on her.  Room to grow! I found the directions to be sparse and sometimes just plain strange.  A fully lined bodice  and a neckline faci

KCWC Day 6 found me deviating from the "rules" a little.  Instead of sewing kids clothing , I finished up a kids toy .  I started the mattresses for this Princess and the Pea a while back, but hadn't gotten around to finishing them, or sewing the princess herself.  With a little friend's fourth birthday right around the corner, I figured I'd better hurry up! Little Guy came along just as I was about to stuff the princess and wanted to help.  I put a small pouch of zinc coated BBs in the bottom of her to counterbalance her heavy head!  Then we filled her with fluff. "Winnie the Pooh has fluff!" said the little mister.  "But not me. I'm full of bones!" Her hair is wool suiting (washed and dried so as to be thick and wooly), her face is tea-dyed kitchen toweling, and her dress is a piece of cherry blossom quilting cotton I bought back when Miss M was a newborn!  I embroidered her eyes and mouth and used a stiff paint brush to brush

Day 4 of elsie marley 's Kids Clothing Week Challenge found me coming down with a cough and cold.  But here's the embarrassing thing: I started this flannel hoodie dress for the Spring KCWC!  Yeah, it's been shifted back and forth in an increasingly shabby pile for months!  It was time to put it out of its misery. It's timely, because this hoodie dress has a special purpose.  It's meant to be a swimsuit cover-up and in just over a month, we are taking the kids to a hotel with an indoor water park.  The prices are *much* cheaper in November, which is convenient because both the kids birthdays are in November too!  The best part is, the kids don't know we are going! I'm loath to put any of my KCWC garments in the flickr group this time because we've been having such gloomy weather, which means my photos are coming out awfully!  I keep hoping we'll get some sun so I can get some good shots! I wasn't as productive in my time Thursday a

Day three of KCWC !  Today I worked on a little outfit for a wee friend who is celebrating his third birthday this Saturday.  He's the fourth of five brothers, so I wanted to make him something extra special just for him, to celebrate his uniqueness! I used two Ottobre patterns: the "Morris" necktie (3/2009, #22) and the "Ashley" slipover vest (6/2007, #22).  They both went together like a dream!  The tie is made of a slightly heavier quilting cotton and lined with light weight bleached muslin.  The vest is soft velour and rib knit.  Happy birthday, little James!

Belle is my favorite of all the Disney princesses.  (I love this analysis of Belle's character!)  So when a lady from church asked me to make her daughter a Belle dress for her 4th birthday and Halloween, I was happy to oblige! I used Simplicity 4764 , view G (with modifications) in size 5 length and size 4 width. The bodice was constructed of 2 layers: outer of sparkly satin and lined with 100% cotton muslin.  I used some corded trim as piping around the neckline. The skirt was constructed of 4 layers: Lining of bleached cotton muslin Two tiers of mesh netting sewn to the cotton lining and then overlayed by mesh cut using the skirt pattern pieces. Underskirt of yellow taffeta. Overskirt of yellow sparkly satin.  I cut the overskirt 6 inches longer than the underskirt and used 16 inch pieces of quarter inch elastic to shir the full length of the overskirt "Belle style." I really enjoyed making it and it turned out even better than I expected!  At o

Day two of KCWC !  Yesterday I finished both pairs of penguin pajamas before going to bed (at midnight!), but I didn't get pictures of them until this morning. I used penguin printed thermal knit and ribbing (dark red for Miss M, and black for Little Guy including the sleeves).  I only had two yards of the thermal knit, so I was pleased to squeeze both pairs from it! I made sizes 104 and 116, a little too big on purpose!!  And I fully intend on passing down the larger pair to Little Guy when Miss M outgrows them! Today I made two pairs of fleece pajama pants -- making absolutely no effort to match the plaid! -- from 2 yards of polar fleece I got at JoAnn a couple years ago.  They are the Simo sweat pants pattern from Ottobre (4/2008, #27), but with no cuff. I also made another pair of thermal knit pajamas (same pattern as the penguin ones) for Little Guy.  I only had one yard of the star print thermal, so no matchy-matchy this time.  Unfortunately, before I had a chan

I wasn't going to participate in the Kids Clothing Week Challenge this time. Partially because last time it was a bit of a disaster, and partially because I have so many other projects that need finishing that I really don't need to be starting new projects. But it just so happened that I (finally) got my sewing area cleaned up and re-organized so that it's now available for immediate use. AND, we just had our first freeze of the season, which means it is time to pack away the rest of the kids summer clothes and bring out all their cool weather clothes. They've got enough hand-me-downs to suffice, except for pajamas. So I decided to make them some pj's this week and whaddya know, it's KCWC this week! I got a tiny bit of a head start Saturday night by cutting out a pair of fleece pj pants for each of them. Last night I traced the proper sizes of the Night Owl shirt and Stripy Legs pants from Ottobre 6/2009. Today I cut out three pairs of pajama