Merry Chirstmas!

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Snowflakes

The absence of snow has always been pretty standard for my Christmases. With just a few exceptions, it's a pretty green holiday season in the Pacific Northwest. And these days it's a pretty beige holiday season in the Middle East.

So why did I get so obsessed with making snowflakes this year? I even woke up early on a Saturday eager to get out of bed to pick up my scissors. I probably shouldn't have told you that.

I even hosted a snowflake making contest.

I blame this tutorial.

Christmas Stitching

Have I mentioned my Hump Day dinner group before? Every Tuesday a few friends and I gather for delicious food at one of our homes. This past week we had our Hump Day: Christmas Edition, and I was so excited to pass out the little secret project I had been working on (and staying up way too late to finish).

Like I hinted before, my amazingly talented friend Julia designed me 6 unique embroidery patterns. It had been awhile since my last stitching, but I fell back into the habit fairly quickly.

I didn't have much of a choice for the tea towels, but I like how each color turned out. The plaid cloths were especially difficult to stitch. I traced the design onto thin paper, stitched right through, and carefully ripped the paper off. A few of the stitches went wonky as a result... but it was my best solution with my resources on hand.

Happily, each design matched perfectly to a recipient:
... Shera made us delicious hot chocolate so the mug went to her
... the loaf of bread to Molly for her creative vegetarian "beef" wellington
... Hannah bakes pies frequently so the pie goes to her

... Sarah baked chocolate cupcakes last year (that Molly sat on in the back seat of my car, which I still find hilarious)
... Jen's strawberry dump cake made her the obvious choice for the strawberry
... and the veggie for me, the veggie of the bunch!

Oh, and in case you're slightly confused... our work week falls Sunday to Thursday, that's why we call Tuesday "Hump Day" and not Wednesday!

Merry Christmas, Hump Day Ladies!

Christmas Sewing

Sadly, my sewing machine has been living in its box under my coffee table for far too long. I was worried it was getting a little too comfortable in there, so I pulled it out last week.

I needed a gift for a Secret Santa exchange and I had a feeling the recipient, Sarah, would appreciate something handmade. And if not, she'd probably like the tiny fondue set that I paired with it. And if not, she's certainly like the milk chocolate that was also included!

The fabric is from Ikea. I love the little houses but I'm so over the textile selection in Abu Dhabi.

Unfortunately for Sarah, her and her husband share initials... which surely means Skylar will be fighting for his chance to wear it too.

Merry Christmas, Sarah!

Applets and Pouchlets

I have a secret project in the works that called upon the talents of my go-to design friend. I knew she'd conjure up a wonderful design for me... so I wanted my item to exchange to be something great. Unfortunately, I was not feeling inspired. I was resolved to do something easy that didn't require fancy supplies but looked extra special.

Finally, I found it. At first I was bored with the idea of making another zipper pouch... but this one is different.

There's a ruffle!

I used some fabric I bought on a whim from Daiso (love that place too much, much much). Happily for me, the edges were already surged... making it easy for me to make my own ruffle (instead of reusing as the tutorial suggests). The exterior fabric is from Ikea, leftover from previous projects.

I felt like the pouch needed something extra... a scrap of red felt did the trick.

A few days later I made a cousin pouch in a different color way for a friend's birthday.

It felt good to get the sewing machine out.