I love a new wardrobe for Christmas!

First outfit back to work after Christmas.

I'm trying to use the delay on my camera and it's not working great.

Sorry for the blurry pictures. The leopard top and black pants were Christmas gifts from mom. I wore it with black flats. Cute and easy today.

Joined a new gym today. I'm going to go to my first class in the morning: Circuit training. Wish me luck!

O Christmas Tree

Here's our Christmas tree!

 We used colored twinkling lights. That's what Kellen likes. I guess he still has a little kid in him.

 Not great with the decorations. Definitely need to put garland or ribbon on it next year. I saw a tree the other day with a feather boa around it, that could be fun.

Here are some of my favorite ornaments:

Wedding cake! My mom got this for us in 2008 after we got married.

My mom got this for us in 2009 when we got our first house.

Big santa. I think I bought this at Macys at a Black Friday sale a long time ago.

Wedding bells. Another gift from Mom 2008.

Fishing Snowman, a tribute to Kellen's hobby.

Mercury ball. I love Mercury decorations all year round.

Here's our crazy Navity. Big party at Jesus' birth at our house.

One of my favorite decorations: the creepy snowman.

Here he is with the flash. Not so scary in the light. His eyes and the bird on his hat are creepy with the lights out.

Can you spot the two new decorations on the new bookshelves?

My mom made the candy cane in the top left. Maybe she'll post a tutorial (hint, hint). She also made the Santa in the top right. Even if she posted a tutorial I don't think I could make the Santa. He has a super cute clay face she shaped by hand!!!

Kellen's parents got us the tap that's currently on the kegerator for Christmas. It's a chalkboard. My parents got us a Yeungling tap. So when we have Yeungling (which it sounds like we are going to most of the time, Kellen is getting mad at the different beers: Blue Moon was too heavy, New Castle is a European keg so you get 2.2 gallons less than a USA keg, and on and on) we will use that tap. For now we have New Castle and it's written on the chalkboard.

I think we'll wait to take Christmas down until at least the first week in January. We'll see how long I can get Kellen to let me keep them up. This week we are making Christmas cookies! I'll try and remember and take pictures and post recipes. What's your favorite Christmas decorations? Ornaments? Cookies?

New Serger!!!!

 For my birthday and Christmas combined my parents got me a Serger! Be expecting lots more sewing to be going on in this house. My first project was a plaid skirt for Christmas. I got this fun wool at an Estate sale this summer and knew I would be making a skirt to wear on Christmas day. Our whole family wears plaid on Christmas day every year. The skirt was a simple pleated skirt.

First  I cut the waist band: 3" x 32" (waist measurement + 1" for seam allowance + 1" for comfort).

Then I cut the skirt: 27" (knee length) x 46" (waist measurement x 1.5 + 1" for seam allowance).

I gathered the skirt and created pleats to make it the same length as the waist band and SERGED them together.

The Serger is sooooo easy! I LOVE it! All the clothes I make will not fray and be so Finished! I'm so excited to sew even more!

Next I put in the zipper. I have finally found an easy and reliable way to put a zipper in. FINALLY. First I serge down both edges individually. Since the zipper is put on with the regular machine you can't go back and serge the edges later. 

First I put the left side in using an invisible zipper foot. That's normally the easy side. Then I switch to the regular zipper foot and put the right side in. Then I sew from the bottom of the zipper to the bottom of the skirt/dress using the regular zipper foot. Easy peezy lemon squeezy.

 Next I finished the skirt hem. First I serged the edge, then I used the blind hem stitch on the regular machine (supposedly the Serger can do this but I haven't had much time to try yet).

Easy pleated skirt!

After I wore the plaid skirt to work (shown in the picture above), I shortened it a little more. It ended up being a little too long to look modern. But overall an easy skirt that looks cute and is comfortable to eat Christmas cookies and drink wine!

Hooded cape

For Rach's birthday, I wanted to make her a cape. I bought wool, lining and fake fur and went to work. 

I found a free cape pattern at Burda Style:

http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/be-mine-capelet

I cut out the cape portion on the fold.

I really wanted to add a hood but couldn't find any free patterns online. I looked in the remake/Goodwill garbage bag and had a velour jacket and pants I was getting rid of anyway. The jacket had a hood! I cut the hood off the jacket and used it as a pattern. I cut out both the fabric (for the outside) and the fur (for the lining) out of the hood pattern.

Just FYI, fake fur is a mess to cut. When I was at the fabric store the worker looked like she had gorilla arms when she was finished cutting just one cut! The floor was a mess. I saved the cape as the final Birthday present I made so I only had to clean the sewing/media room floor once!

I used burberry plaid for the cape lining:

 Next I put right sides together and sewed the cape portion, leaving an opening where the hood would go. I sewed the hood pieces together at the center, then placed right sides together to form the hood with the lining attached. I folded the hood and the cape together and sewed along the inside so there were no raw edges to be seen! Here's the finished project:

How cute is that?

She will look great in Orlando this winter!

Stockings!

This year I decided to make Christmas stockings to match our decorations in our house. I bought red and green velvet fabric and fake dark brown fur. I had left over fabric to line them: burberry plaid from capes I made for my sister and I (tutorial to come!).

First I cut out the stocking shapes. I just estimated shapes I have seen in Pottery Barn.

I cut out one red and one green bigger stocking for Kellen and I and sewed the foot with right sides together. I flipped them right side out:

Then I cut 2 red and 2 green elf stockings for the little ones.

 Currently the 'little ones' are Duke and Daisy our puppies. But someday we'll have additions to our family. 6 stockings should keep us decorated for awhile, unless we have quints on the first go, then we're screwed.

I did the same with the lining fabric and placed the right side towards the inside, so when you reach for candy and presents, it's nice and silky. Then I cut cuffs out of the faux fur. I sewed the outside on first and then folded the cuff inside to sew the visible seam on the inside.

I added green and red hooks to the edges so we could hang them on the fireplace.

I didn't want extra "stuff" on the mantle so Kellen just hammered some nails into the mantle. Guess I'll have to get out the trim paint once we take the Christmas decorations down!

Do you have stockings at your house? Do they all match?

Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving for me this year was pretty lonely. I was on call for work and had to stay in Orlando and didn't even end up working at all! I was pretty bummed when I woke up in the morning but I turned the parade on and had a nice cup of coffee and the day started to look a little better. During the parade I started taking all my fall decorations down and putting up my Christmas stuff. At this point, I was not really feeling any of the holiday cheer that is such a big part of the season. I think it had something to do with the fact that it is still soooo warm outside here, I rarely even put the roof on my jeep! When you can go outside in shorts and a tank top and not be cold, generally, my opinion is there is still a lot of time before the Christmas season but not here! Here are some pictures of my decorations:

Overall the decorations started to get my in the holiday spirit but not as much as they usually do. (Holiday spirit has never been hard for me to find before, normally after Halloween I'm ready to start singing carols...or at least looking forward to the time when that would be appropriate) For the rest of the day I made some snacks and watched holiday movies on TV. I also started working on some Christmas crafts throughout the day and made a plan of attack for my later black friday trip to the outlets of Orlando. I watched both versions of Miracle on 34th Street and decided that the newer one is much more sinister than the earlier one and says alot about the changes in the ideas of entertainment. I also watched some classics like Beauty and the Beast and Aaladin which always cheer me up! Around 930 I decided it was time to go to the outlets to start my Christmas shopping. I had a plan but still was not feeling as excited as I have in past years. I put the windows down and turned the Christmas music on and then it happened....
While listening to "The Christmas Song" and driving by an apartment complex with lights everywhere I found my Christmas spirit!!
All of a sudden I knew that Christmas was coming and I could not wait to buy presents for everyone on my list. It was a perfect moment.
After that, the outlet shopping was hugely successful! I am almost completely done with my shopping already! I still have a few people to buy for and some things to finish up but I have plenty of time for that! I had so many bags by the time I left the outlets at 2 AM on Friday that I'm sure people thought I was crazy. One person ever asked me if anything was left! I can't wait till everyone opens their presents. Here are all the bags I was carrying around:

I spent the majority of the rest of the weekend relaxing and making crafts. I am very glad that I found my Christmas spirit at last and am looking forward to a wonderful birthday weekend with the whole family!

Hippy Turkey

Last week I thought I ran out of tinted moisturizer and was about to open a new bottle when I thought, there must be more that won't come out of the pump. So I opened the container:

 There's a ton! I have gone a week already on the remnants! How crazy that most of the time people just throw this all away!

Today I thought I would wear orange pants in honor of Thanksgiving. They are orange chinos.

 Pants - Gap
Sweater - Macys (I think)

 I found this headband in my drawer this morning, very hippy. It was one of the first gifts I got from my mother in law. It's like a silk scarf over a headband. It ties in the back.

The necklace is also from my mother in law. Hard to pair with earrings but cute.

I just made these cookies:
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-chewy-molasses-cookies-with-crunchy-lemon-glaze-130827
Chewy Molasses Cookies with Crunchy Lemon Glaze

Instead of making balls, I rolled the dough out and cut them into leaves. They are actually pretty good! I'm bringing them to Thanksgiving tomorrow. Kellen and I have to get up early and drive to St. Louis. I'm hoping to do some hand sewing gifts and Christmas stockings on the way. We'll see if I fall asleep. I think we are going to stop at Subway for breakfast. Has anyone eaten breakfast there yet? It looks pretty good on the tv, but we'll see tomorrow.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and fun Black Friday shopping!

Friday last week!

I'm getting a little behind on the posting. It's getting holiday crazy around here. We are trying to get organized for Thanksgiving and then come home to quickly put our Christmas lights up before we have a bunch of guests for the St. Jude Marathon!

Friday here's what I wore:

Pretty boring.

Grey pants - Express

Black tank - ? a really cheap store I can't remember, I love it though

Black rose sweater - Ann Taylor

 Headband - feathers! from Etsy

I wore black flats. Boring Friday look. I'm really going to try and jazz it up next week after Thanksgiving!

Red, yellow, green, red, blue, blue, blue...

Do you know this song?

The title is about all the words I know. Except "PLAID."

Another dress I made. I bought this fabric at an Estate Sale this summer. I added the purple edging so it wasn't so plaid. I wore it with tall brown boots, a purple three quarter length coat that ties at the waist and a gold and white scarf. Pretty cute look for fall in Memphis.

Already Wednesday?

This week feels like it's flying by! Except when I'm at work. I forgot to take a picture of my outfit Monday. It wasn't very exciting: striped collared shirt, turquoise sweater, black pants. I came home with my first migraine and went to bed at 8, crazy. Woke up Tuesday feeling refreshed. Yesterday I wore a grey cashmere sweater dress Rach got me for Christmas last year from Ralph Lauren. It is the comfiest dress I have. I wore my black Uggs and a big black belt to dress it up a little. Today I had to be prepared for getting my allergy shot, so I had to wear short sleeves.

 White dress from a boutique in Atlanta.

 Headband Rach gave me.

 Velvet jacket to make the dress work appropriate.

And Uggs to keep warm. Do you think the dress is too short for work? I guess the under layer is pretty short, but the top sheer layer isn't bad. Oh well, no one said anything, not like they would anyway.