Yesterday, the Day Before and Today

They were all lovely.

A few seemingly quiet moments. With two houses full of family and kids, they weren't. But we all had a good time, and I loved watching my children enjoy everything so much. Now for some rest...

Decorate

Remember when I was trying to figure out what to do with my big bag of fabric selvedges and thread waste? Well this weekend, I realized it would be perfect stuffing for Stephanie's soft trees. I've been meaning to make some for 3 years now - ever since I saw the wonderful trees made for the window at Purl Patchwork - but the trees always get pushed aside for gift sewing. The kids and I spent Saturday morning at home in pjs, and while they played, I got to sew. I managed to get 3 little trees done before lunchtime, and I have plans for some larger ones. This pattern is great for using up all sorts of odds and ends - fabric scraps, random buttons, almost done spools of thread, small pieces of ribbon or lace, and I found that my fabric waste made the perfect stuffing since the trees look cutest when they are slightly lumpy. I did stuff the tree tops with regular cotton stuffing in order to get the tips filled out, but used then the fabric and thread waste for the rest, with a layer of lentils at the very bottom. The kids thought they were wonderful, and I love how you can make these trees out of virtually anything.

Now to figure out how to make french knots! I have trees I want to decorate.

Happy Halloween!

Says the Jedi and the Elephant. Hope you had a great evening full of tricks and treats. We sure did.

More on the homemade parts of the costumes later.

Dogs and Frogs

I started this quilt for a special baby in the womb more than a year ago. My plan was to give it to him or her soon after the birth, so I could sew a personalized label on the back with the baby's name and birth date. Well the baby was born - a sweet boy named Jesse! - and the quilt was finished within a few weeks of his birth, except for hand sewing the last couple of inches of the binding. And so it sat for a year. Clearly I have a procrastination problem, especially where hand sewing is involved. I always think I hate hand sewing, but once I start I remember that I actually enjoy it. How could someone who loves to make things a la the Alabama Stitch Book hate hand sewing?

This past Sunday was the annual Tashlich service at my church. Tashlich is the Jewish ritual usually performed on Rosh Hashanah of the casting away (often by throwing breadcrumbs into a moving body of water) and examination of your sins of the past year. It makes a lot of sense to me to do this at this time. Fall always feels like a beginning, because a new year of school has started, and the lush green Summer starts to fade as the trees and plants end their growing cycle and start preparing for the next. While I usually make a bunch of resolutions on New Year's day, I've been participating in Tashlich for a few years now* and it seems a much more meaningful way to reflect and change than writing down exercise 3-5 times a week or cook more vegetables for dinner on a piece of paper. As I thought about Jesse's quilt and hand sewing, I remembered a line from the Tashlich prayer: Let us cast away the sin of stubbornness, so that we will neither persist in foolish habits nor fail to acknowledge our will to change. A foolish habit indeed. I have pinned the prayer to the bulletin board above the computer and near my sewing area, where I keep not only my inspirations but the things I want to remember. But even though baby Jesse did not receive this quilt, I still think one year old Jesse will enjoy it.

Now, a few details about the quilt. Jesse's parents love dogs and the dad also has a bizarre passion for frogs, so I couldn't think of better fabric to use for this quilt than animal prints by Heather Ross. I kept the front simple with 8 inch squares paired with a cream border. I decided to piece the binding which was fun and something I will do again in the future, since I really liked how it created a subtle border with little pops of color. I like to make the back of my quilts reference the front but almost be a new quilt, so I chose brighter colors along with a strip of rejected squares from the front. I knew I wanted the turquoise fabric somewhere in this quilt, because it is from a bolt I bought at one of our auctions and Jesse's dad works with us. For the label, I used the method in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts which I love and first used for this quilt along with a micron pen. The quilting is just a simple grid I've seen a lot of other quilters use, and I like how it creates a frame in each of the squares. I was hoping to get some better photographs but it's been raining here for nearly two weeks, so inside on the bed was the best I could do. In retrospect, I should have put a sheet on first, but I didn't realize how bad the mattress cover looked until after the gift was given at Jesse's first birthday party and I finally had a moment to sit down and upload all the photos I took that day. Another foolish act, but probably not a sin.

*Even though I'm half Jewish, we never celebrated Rosh Hashanah in my home growing up. It wasn't until I started attending a Unitarian Universalist church which uses rituals and sources from many religions, did I learn about Tashlich.

Post Christmas Cookies

This is what happens when you never find the time to bake and decorate the sugar cookie dough you made.

They tasted just as good after the holiday, we had the freedom to use some of our non Christmas and Hannukah cookie cutters, and we had an activity to do this week of winter vacation.

The Day After or How I Missed Seeing Nicole Kidman in Person Because I am Tired

I should be working on some gifts thatdidn'tquiteneedtobefinishedbeforeChristmas, but I don't have the energy. Instead I'm contemplating eating another cookie or cleaning up some of the toys strewn around or working gifts for next year, like Amy's cross stitch. Christmas is exhausting. I think this is because I'm a parent with a child who now understands what the holiday and Santa Claus are all about. Before, I could be a slacker. But this year, illusions for two children had to be kept it. Ely is determined that Santa will come again tomorrow night or the night after, and he is going to be so disappointed again tomorrow when the tree is bare underneath and the stockings are still empty. If he knew his mother wouldn't survive two nights of Santa, he might be a little more understanding.

This morning I went shopping in search of some clothes that are stylish and fit me. At home I have some clothes that fit, many clothes that don't fit, some clothes that are stylish but have stains of unknown origin, and many clothes that are way out of style. Having a baby and nursing impacts the amount of your wardrobe you can wear in a bad way. I need the guts to get rid of all the nice clothes I have from 5-9 years ago, because I think I will never wear them again. Maybe in the New Year. Mom told me the mall opened at 8am. I was there at 9am.

My sister in law is in town with her boyfriend, so they did a big tour of Nashville. We met them at Carnton Plantation in Franklin. Carnton was near the Battle of Franklin in the Civil War and turned into a hospital. Several generals died at the house and thousands of men died in the battle. A confederate cemetery sits next to the house. When I first visited the plantation as a girl, there was nothing but fields all around it. Now, there is a country club butted up to the property, and a subdivision (Hearth at Carnton) you have to drive through to reach the drive for the house. There are still beautiful fields in front of the house, and although it was cloudy and a little windy the warmer weather made it pleasant to walk around the grounds and revisit a place I hadn't been to in a long time.

Ely wouldn't let me take his picture:
Agnes didn't mind:

Afterwards we went to another historic house, The Carter House, in downtown Franklin. I was tired and cold and Agnes was cold, so we stayed in the car and I read a few more pages of 2666. When Will came back to the car, he said "Guess who we saw?" and I said "Nicole Kidman." Apparently I guessed right, and she and Keith Urban were on a tour of the house. My mother-in-law saw them a few days ago as well. In the whole scheme of things Roberto Bolano is probably better everyday than a celeb sighting. When Will and Ely ran into Nicole Kidman, Ely was dancing around doing the potty dance and holding his crotch (he refused to go at the last place). Nicole looked right him! She was either thinking "This is what I have to look forward to" or "Get that boy to a bathroom."

So, tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will try and make the 1.5 batches of cookie dough I have in the fridge into post-Christmas cookies. Tomorrow, I will try to put the new socks away and fold the tissue paper. And tomorrow, I will try to sew the rest of this year's gifts. Though I might still work on a cross stitch for next year.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful day.
Hope you did too!

Our stockings are hung...

and our candles are lit!

Happy Christmas Eve and 4th day of Hanukkah.

Now, I'm going to bed.

I always forget...

how busy the end of the year is!

November has three birthdays and Thanksgiving. December has one birthday, school holidays, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. Add that to the normal work, family, school, church, and meeting stuff just means we are plain busy. I've tried to simplify the holidays over the years to counteract the busy-ness. We stay at home - now easy since we live in the same city as our parents. We no longer send cards or have a party. We have minimal decorations and only inside the house. Hanukkah is about lighting candles and latkes. Gifts are pared down. I have always liked to give handmade gifts, which means time spent sewing, knitting, or cooking but not shopping. I use recycled wrappings. We get a real tree, but only the week before Christmas and keep it up for two weeks. We do bake but only one or two special treats like decorated sugar cookies. I'm trying to make family-centered traditions Ely and Agnes will remember fondly.

Last year, Will and I started a new family tradition - Christmas Eve Eve dinner. My mother grew up in a family with Swedish and German roots, so they did most of their celebrating and gift opening on Christmas Eve (though she remembers how much she hated traditional Swedish dinner). We still follow that tradition and cook a special meal and open presents with my family on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is spent opening presents and eating with Will's family at his parents' house. Will used to have Christmas Eve supper at his great-aunts' house. Aunt Ruth and Aunt Lois would always buy corned beef and rye bread from Schwartz's Deli for sandwiches. He remembers the meals fondly, and we thought it would be nice to have a similar dinner for our families at our house. Christmas Eve and Day are already spoken for, so we decided Christmas Eve Eve would be the night for our Reuben dinner. I've added potato-leek soup to the menu , we now buy our corned beef and rye bread at Goldie's Deli (the successor to Schwartz's), and the evening usually ends in a rowdy game of Mexican train domino's. It's a nice way to spend more time with our families in a fun, but low key way.My parents are gave us new carpet as our holiday gift this year, and it was installed last week. It's hard to believe three years passed while we "renovated" our den, but it is done (well 90% done) and we can use and live in part of our house again. Ely and Agnes spent many hours romping around the new room, and playing peekaboo around and end table. They had so much fun, I had to capture their smiles in a photograph. Looks like I also captured two sweet matching faces. I'm looking forward to lots more fun and memories in the new room.