My First Blizzard in at Least 17 Years

The Hubby and I are in Utah for the holiday, and it is shaping up into a frigid experience.

A freezing cold Alaska apparently sent this front our way, and we will hopefully be able to see our 3 Utah children for Thanksgiving if they can brave the roads for 70-110 miles in the next 16-36 hours.
Such beauty is all around us as the white sparkley stuff continues to fall and blanket the entire outside world in a soft cloud.  It started about 4 hours ago in a blizzard of furry. The wind was coming from the north, no the south, no the north as it twirled around us when we came out of the big Walmart in town (which is a whole 'nother post for this blog.)
It has now settled down to light falling snow with hardly a breeze.
So pretty, as we snuggle comfortably in my MIL's home and enjoy our electricity and lights and warmth, and each other.
Quite a memory for this Colorado girl from California. I used to be used to this kind of thing.

Ruffled Skirt Option

I made this little skirt for Ells. I had seen a cute little nearly 2 year old at church in a darling, ruffled, drop waisted skirt with a cute bow that I wanted to duplicate.  This was to match a sage(ish) green sweater that I made for her last spring to go with a little summer outfit. The new skirt would extend the wearing of that sweater through the cooler months, but the skirt was to tiny for her so I had to make it a little shorter and give it to her baby sister.

It barely goes around li'l Coco, but it works and the lightweight chiffon strips that make up the underskirt, are perfect for making it pop out as she moves.

The flower that I appliqued to the little onesie had previously been cut out with my Big Shot (Sizzix) and others like it were used for a hair accessory,

so I hardly even had to plan for the easy iron on.

I then set off to make one just a little larger for the original intended target.

It turned out just as cute, and I added a different color ribbon (Katz chose the blue) for accent.

I'll quickly give some general directions for this easy skirt. Sized for a 2 y/o. Skip to next picture to avoid boredom.
Materials: 1/4 yard contrasting fabric
                 1/2 yard main fabric
                 1" elastic tape to fit around waist +2 inches.
                 1 1/2 yards ribbon for underwaist embelishment
                 approx. 10 yards 4" wide chiffon fabric

     *  Cut 7" x 27" rectangle of contrasting fabric
     * Sew right sides together on 7 inch sides leaving 1 inch open at 3 1/2 inch till 4 1/2 inch. (this is for elastic waistband insertion)
    *  Fold and press waistband circle in half with wrong sides together. Sew 1 inch down from fold for elastic casing.
    * On inside of skirt (where the waistband hole is)  gather the first row of chiffon and sew to bottom of inside waistband right sides together. A ruffling foot on your sewing machine is ideal for this step, but basting, gathering the thread, pinning and sewing works well too. I gathered about 3 times the length to the waistband.
     * Sew a second 4 inch row to the top one again gathering 3x the bottom ruffle to the straight bottom of the first. (if your waistband is 27", you should use about 81" for the first tier and 243" for the second)
     * Make 5 - 2"narrow contrasting belt loops of fabric or ribbon and sew right sides to front of waistband 1.5 " from bottom. Space 4" apart across the back of skirt, and leave open in the center front.Fold down to bottom of waistband and baste in place
     * Cut 2 - 7 inch strips of your 45" main fabric. Sew them together and gather them to the front of the waistband right sides together. (Using the ruffling/gathering foot I sewed my final seam after the gathering was finished, but if you don't have a the foot just gather 2.5 - 3 x the amount (80") sew the seams then gather and sew the one large ruffle onto the front of the skirt.
     * Finish hem seam with rolled hem foot, or turn up twice in .25 inch increments and sew for hem.
     * Draw elastic through waistband casing using safety pin to lead the way. Sew elastic to fit child's waist, then finish off original seam of waistband.
     * Draw ribbon through belt loops and tie a bow to side front.
EASY PEASY !!

When I came home yesterday, the little cuties were at my house starting a little laundry. Their mommy had them all decked out in the new little outfits.

I found this little hedgehog applique on a fun blog the other day and thought it was perfect for this outfit.

Ells likes it too.

She also likes singing "Itsey, Bitsey Spider".

At all times.

Bishops Collar For 2 Y/O

Last spring I knitted a little lavender sweater and hat for LK.  She looked so cute in it that I thought I'd quickly make her a little dress to wear with it.  Well, ...... it is about 8 months later and I finished the dress. It has just a small amount of lavender and purple to be brought out by the purple sweater and I learned how to make a different type of hand-stitched flower to adorn the neckline.  They are made by using the same type of loop that I make when "casting on" a needle for a knitting project.
Fun, Fun!

This type of neckline is called "Bishop" and is gathered around the back, to the sleeve head, front, other sleeve, then last half of back. I smocked this in various stitches then made 4 colors of flowers in the center of the neckline.  The final touch is tiny little buttons for the center of the flowers and elsewhere.

I put larger buttons all the way down the back to match the smaller ones.

Applique & Ruffle Buns

My new favorite fabric is super thin and easy to ruffle chiffon. I have ordered it in different strip widths and various colors for ruffled pettiskirts to make for the grand daughters for Christmas.
I'll show those skirts at a later date, but for now I'll show how I added the 4" chiffon to a onesie for an especially nice outcome.

I folded the mint colored chiffon in half and just added it to the cotton ruffle seamline. It gives enough extra bulk to the cotton, that the ruffle sticks out from the pink onesie at about a 30 degree angle and doesn't flatten down.

 I put a little appliqued cupcake on the front, so it was perfect for the birthday party yesterday.

Although I didn't get a good shot of the outfit, the babe and her mom are cute anyway.

Birthday Tutu's

My DIL had the most adorable party for her oldest little 5 year old yesterday.  The previous few weeks were filled with plans and crafts that I also became a part of. We put these cute little tutu's together for the party favors.

Lots of different pinks that the birthday girl picked out. (I would probably avoid the very sparkly, glittery ones for this project in the future, as they don't tend to hang as nicely in the finished skirt, or gather as well in the making of the project.)

Then Kara also made these cute pom poms for a festive touch and we also made a banner for general birthday celebrations.

I still have a menagerie of different scrap booking papers at my house, even though I haven't scrap booked the old fashioned way for a couple years.

A fun time had by all.

Good job!

Applique Turkey

I have a new sewing machine and an inclination to copy all the cute little girl dresses and skirts that I see on other peoples blogs.
I saw this cute 3 tiered skirt right before halloween, and I thought I'd change it up for the Thanksgiving theme.

I think I'm trying to make a bigger deal of the cute fabrics that are sold this time of year and often overlooked because they aren't for the bigger following holiday. Maybe I'm trying to not let Thanksgiving get all lost in the shuffle.
I also made up a cute turkey applique for the matching top.

Using ribbons, iron on wonder under, and matching fabric.

I came up with this.

Lexy was appreciative and cute about her pre-birthday gift.

Still Ute Fans?

Still crazy after all these years, is about what we are thinking right now.
The Hubby and I are being forced into really enjoying Utah sports.

First Stephanie walked on to the U's women's volleyball team 5 years ago and we wholeheartedly supported her efforts.
Now, Michael walks on to the men's basketball team, and is so excited we are totally behind him too.

When he first made the team a couple weeks ago, he called us and told us the whole story.
He had not even mentioned to us that he was going to try out for the team, or divulged that he even knew when tryouts were happening. We thought he was merrily studying along and playing a lot of ping-pong.
Realizing that he was missing the game, I was feeling a little low for him, but praying he would soon have more things in his everyday life to fill the void that was left from practicing and thinking continuously about the game and improvements he could be working on.
Well, he apparently wanted none of that, so set himself to work against about a dozen other hopeful young men.  After the first look from the coaches, Michael and a couple other boys were asked to come back for another tryout, which M felt like he didn't do as well as the first tryout.
But I guess it was good enough.  He will be sitting bench side, and being a supporter most of the time, and probably won't travel with them when they go out of town.  (Stephanie was told that too, and traveled to every away game, after the first month on the vball team)
Time will tell.
Go Michael!!!!

Didn't Stop Believing

Woo Hoo. Finally after being in San Francisco since the day I was born, they have won the World Series.

Fireworks going off last night in our neighborhood and around the entire Bay Area were proof that nearly the whole 15 million people living in this amazing climate were behind the club.


"They did it without ribbons. 
 They did it without tags.
 They did it without packages, boxes or bags."


Just a simple team without a superstar or any of the other supposed trimmings.

Actual Kids in My Costumes

As promised, I thought I'd make a quick post about the cute grand babies in their costumes.

These are the three costumes (pix above) I made for the holiday.

Our baby peapod (the costume, not the baby) was found last year on our hike/walk.

Cossette was obviously comfy in it and was her usual easy 3 month old self.

The lamb, Luke, who was Bo Peep's accessory, was also a happy camper. He liked picking out some candy at the 2 or 3 homes he tricked. Didn't care at all that he wasn't eating any of it.

We improvised a new hat for the Ellery the Celery in the last days before Halloween , this little headband took care of the headdress just fine.

The original contraption was a little much for a 21 month old child.

A picture of the farmers and the vegies that they grow.

Onto the Toy Story group.

Our little cowgirl "Jessie" is made even cuter by Lexy.

Lena makes the most darling Bo Peep.

And with the handsome parentals.
Finally, last but not least.

The Hubby, dressed up as his son.
Very attractive, wouldn't you say?