Knitted Christmas Dress

Last year I made this dress...

I loved how quick and easy it was to make. I also loved the randomness of the colors. It was a yarn that a friend bought for me and I new instantly it had to be in a dress. Well, this year for Christmas I thought I'd make L a new knitted dress. This time it wasn't so easy, I realized I was doing something wrong when I was almost finished. So, I had to rip the whole thing out 2 days before she had to wear it. I ended up working on it until the moment we left the house. But, at least I finished and got a picture in with her wearing it.

The dress ended up being a little big, but it worked. Maybe I will add a little flower to it and she can wear it again for Christmas next year. It was only a couple bucks. 1 skein of Red Heart yarn.

DIY Farmhouse Table

I LOVE the Pottery Barn style tables.

Actually, I love the Pottery Barn style everything. But, I especially love the tables. They are just so darn expensive and I really can't spend that kind of money on a table with 2 small children. I want to actually be able to use the table. Anyway, I knew a table wouldn't be that hard to make so I was trying to get my father-in-law to make me one, when my husband offered! I couldn't believe it, I've asked him so many times to make me furniture and he never wants to. Now he is so into it.

He showed me this table he was going to make. I loved it, so he got right to work.

We picked Douglas Fur for the wood because I really liked the grain in it and thought it would look really nice stained. I wanted the table to be very basic.

Here is how the stain turned out. C really loves helping daddy!

The table looks really nice all stained, but it's not quite finished, Mr. C wanted to put those metal straps in it to give it a little extra character. I thought it looked fine the way it was.

Mr. C was right, I love it the way he did it.

Final cost was a little over $100.

Now, he is working on my bench, hopefully it will be done by this weekend. I don't have any chairs either. I'm looking for mismatched, matching chairs from thrift stores.

Gingerbread Houses

We love doing gingerbread houses around here. I love the candy and frosting the most. The only thing is those darn store bought ones are not very good and you have to put them together in a specific way. This year we decided to do graham cracker houses instead. Now everybody gets their own to build.

Getting Ready...

 L and Daddy got to work together.

Daddy didn't mind doing the hard part of shaping the roof.

This is serious work in our house.

Some ends up on the face instead of the house, but that's ok if its the good stuff.

Here are our 3 houses, Mommy's, C's and L and Daddy's. What is your vote?

Of course we have to display them till Christmas. L already snuck and ate some of her's a couple days after they were displayed, so now many the little gum drop lights at the bottom are missing.

Our Favorite House at Christmas

This is our favorite house to visit every Christmas!

You can see the tree streets away.

The Nativity is right out in front beautifully lit up.

The kids favorite part is the snow that you can turn on and dance in the street under it.

Rag Rug Tutorial

Since I had so many questions on the last rag rug, I decided to do a tutorial. Also, my sister has wanted one really bad, so this is her Christmas present.

You will need:
Fabric - Lots of fabric in colors you would like to see together. You can buy new or use old scraps.
Scissors
sewing machine or thread and needle

First, I cut my fabric in strips about 1/5-2 inches.

Then I take strips and start braiding. It's helpful to have 2 long strips and 1 short strip. The short strip you can pull through so the bottom doesn't braid on itself.

When you run out of fabric, sew another piece on.

When you think your braid is long enough, start sewing it together. Don't finish off the braid yet, just incase it's not long enough. I thought mine was long enough, but it wasn't so I just added on.

I first take the beginning and fold it on itself about 10-12 inches. Here is where you can hand sew, but I just stick it in my machine and zig zag. You have to be careful not to pull the braid tight or it will start to turn into a bowl. But, you also can't bunch the braid together too much or it will get ruffly. You just have to find that balance of even braid.

The zig zag stitches show, but they don't stand out when the rug is on the ground.

See, just bump the braid up next to itself as you sew.

Have fun putting your scraps to good use and not waisting!

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Wow, we are loosing so many teeth around here. I have been meaning to make C a tooth fairy pillow for a while now and then he lost his 4th tooth Tuesday night. 2 more are about to fall out. So, when he went to bed that night I made a quick little pillow.

C got to wake up with a dollar stuffed into his new little tooth fairy pillow. He was very excited.

Can you tell he just rolled out of bed?

Here it is again next to all the rag rug stuff that I'm working on for a tutorial.

I'm so glad he loves it!

Kristen

Princess Hair

L loves putting towels or shirts on her head. She pretends it's long hair. Every time she sees one of those band things with the fabric down the back she asks for one. I keep telling her, "That's a lot of money when I can just make you one." Yep, I always tell my kids that. I just can't see spending $25 on something so simple.

Well, I FINALLY got around to making it. I don't know why I didn't do it long ago, it took me about 15 minutes.

Obviously I didn't take to time to see how long the "hair" was. But L likes it that long. So, I guess it's perfect.

Here is my non-professional or correct way I made it. The right way would be to make a tube of fabric, fill it with batting and sew it together. I don't have any batting so I used fleece and rolled my fabric.

First, I lined the fleece with my purple, sparkly tule.

Then I rolled it into a tube and zig zagged the edges together. If I wanted to hand stitch it probably would have looked a little better.

Then I sewed the ends together with a zig zag and added my "hair" piece of fabric. I call it hair because that's what L calls it.

Here it is from the front, a little big so she can grow with it. I guess since it only took me 15 minutes I could have made it fit better and then made another one when she grows. I might take it in a little.

Here it is again from the back.

Kristen

Renewed Table

A friend found this old table and thought I might like to restore it.

Here is a close up of the top, all pealy and yucky.

Here are the drawers.

The whole table was really weathered. We decided to spray paint the black parts black and stain the top.

Here is it half sanded, already looking better.

Now, ready for the stain. It already looks so much better!

I kept some of the old paint on the edges to give it more of an older antiqued look. It didn't quite turn out the way I wanted, but not bad for a free table.

We also got new knobs for the drawers.

I love the color of the stain on the top!

Much better then before. Now I have a table to work on my sewing projects. I can cut standing up instead of criss cross apple sauce. 

Kristen