Gathered Clutches

Before Christmas, I had come across a tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! on how to make gathered clutches. I really thought they were cute and I thought that I would have time to make some for Christmas gifts. Well, I took on waaaayyyyy too many projects and was not able to attempt another craft. Today, I decided to give it a go since I had enough scraps and didn't have to buy anything. The tutorial promised that it was a quick, easy, project. I would definitely agree, although, I omitted the zipper tabs because I couldn't quite figure them out according to the instructions. Anyway, I am really happy with these clutches. It took me 2 hours to make 2 clutches.

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A blankie and a new shirt

Now that all my Christmas crafts have been completed and distributed, I started again on my own projects. Doug and Vanessa had given me some fabric for my birthday and I had been thinking about what to make with it. I decided to make Simplicity pattern 2599. It was straight forward and easy. I'm happy with the end result.

I also have a friend who is expecting a baby boy. She is doing her nursery in giraffes and when I heard that I knew that I had to buy the Michael Miller giraffe fabric that I had been eyeing. This week, I finished making this blanket for her and her little one. I love how it turned out. Now on to the next project...

3 years...

January 1st, 2008 I made the commitment to read my Bible daily and to finish reading it. I started in Matthew and read to Revelation, then read Genesis through Malachi. While I can't say that I read every day, I have, as of 2:30 P.M. this afternoon, finished reading the entire Bible. I am so proud of this accomplishment and I have seen myself grow so much these past 3 years. Reading was certainly challenging, but I'm glad I did it and I will continue to read. My new goal is to follow the reading guide from our church that will get me through the Bible in 1 year. I hope I can stick to it. I have been reading with this reading guide, while finishing my previous goal. Tomorrow, I will be able just to read with the church reading plan.

And, just for fun, some cute pictures of the boys after they woke up this morning.

Christmas Crafting

I have been creating a lot for this Christmas season. I haven't been able to post pictures because that would have spoiled the surprise. There are also some things that I didn't take pictures of because I forgot and I was on a time crunch to get them wrapped and delivered. Anyway, here are the highlights of the things I made for Christmas.

Now I didn't make this particular scarf, but I used it for inspiration to crochet several infinity scarves for friends this Christmas. I had forgotten how much I like to crochet and how relaxing it is in the evening. It is the perfect winter craft.

This jacket was for my sister in law, Vanessa. She and Doug had visited in October and I took her measurements so that I could make her this jacket. I found it to be nerve wracking to sew an entire jacket with no fittings. I did make a muslin before she left so that helped. I also had to match the plaids, which was a first. That was hard. The last hurdle was finding the right color purple for the lining. When I finally did find it, there wasn't enough so I had to order it. I also had to make my own lining pattern since the jacket pattern didn't call for a lining. This was doubly frustrating because I only had one chance to get it right since I had ordered the fabric online and it would have arrived too late if I had to do it again. Luckily, it all came out the way it should have. Most importantly, Vanessa is happy.

Lastly, a friend of mine approached me about making an order of custom booties. Here is what I came up with. I was very pleased with them and so was she.

There were a few more miscellaneous crafts as well as baking projects. At one point, Phil cut off the notion of anymore craft projects for fear that he may never see me come out of my sewing room ever again. I obliged for the sake of our marriage, and happily we made it through the Christmas crafting season.

Now that it's over and I haven't crafted in a while, I'm contemplating two new sewing projects... I'm getting excited!