Merry Christmas

The angel said to her...

"The angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.'"
Luke 1:30-33

Go here for another look at what Christmas means.
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36 hours before the due date, I have 15 angel costumes sewn up and ready to go for the church Christmas pageant. It started with a list of measurements and a bolt of fabric. (No, the bleach was not used)

Then I had to figure out the perfect neck size for 3 and 4 year olds. This is tough without kids, because every cut I made seemed WAY too small.

I ironed a 1" fold at the bottom and the sleeves. Then I folded that over and sewed a hem, so there were no raw edges at the bottom or end of the sleeves.

For the neckline, I made my own bias tape (which was super easy and fast) and sewed it on to contain the raw edge.

Finally, to keep them separate I sewed a tag in with each name in. I just used a small stitch line so the nametag can be easily removed and the costume reused to for next year on different kids.

The result.....

Linking up to:

Polly Want A Crafter

The Girl Creative: Just Something I Whipped Up

Love,

KristyLou

A Christmas Tour....

Since my immediate family can't come and see my Christmas decorations, I have to do a tour. Last year, while we were snowed in for Christmas, I was able to make this VIDEO. (btw.... the running an sliding in the snow happens only when you are stuck inside for so long, and your husband is answering one emergency call after another... you are driven to do crazy, crazy things).

So this year (and please excuse the cruddy night photos)...

Christmas Tree

You can tell we don't have kids.... It's all pretty coordinated ornaments :)
And yes, our ceiling does have glitter on it







 Stockings (no fireplace = entryway stockings)

Entryway/ stairs

Dinner Table (with Christmas baking stuff on it)

Christmas baking & Christmas Eating

The Nativity



The first Christmas decoration I received. I can't remember if my mom gave it to me for my dorm room, or my first apartment. (The Swirly Tree)

-love-

KristyLou

Christmas Cookies

Let's see... I have presents to finish buying.... presents for wrapping.... presents to make.... cards to write....

cards to mail.... 15 angel costumes to make.....

7 of 15 DONE!

and what am I doing instead? BAKING! EATING!

I found this recipe and tried it almost right away. It's easy, and I can not stop eating them (that's bad!) I don't usually end up with too many chocolate recipes for Christmas. So I made these to get us through. Because going by the list above, and the fact that we will be heading to Illinois for a week, "Christmas" baking, maybe be New Year baking.....

Chocolate Glaciers

Recipe from Redbook magazine

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup butter,softened

3/4 cup grnulated suger

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

3 large eggs

2tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1.  Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl until blended.

2.  In another bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with mixer until just blended, about 1 minute. Beat in eggs one at a time, then vanilla. With mixer on low, beat in flour mixture until just incorporated (dough should be very sticky). Chill dough 30 minutes.

3.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick liners. Sift confectioners' sugar onto a large plate. Put about 8 heaping teaspoons of dough onto the plate. Roll each clump in sugar to lightly coat, then shape into a ball; re-roll balls in sugar until heavily coated. Repeat with remaining dough. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets.

4.  Bake one sheet at a time for 11 minutes or until tops are cracked and cookies are just set around edges but still soft in the middle.

EAT!!!!!!!!

(we sure did)

on another note.... i am starting to think my beach body for the Bahamas plan is out the window.

  

-love-

KristyLou

OWLS!

A few weeks ago, when my friend and I went Christmas shopping at the Mall of America, she was starting to look at netbook cases. Then we went to one of those trinket stores that you look at for an hour and come away with nothing, she started to tell me about how she has been really into OWL everything lately. Of course I had to tell her about all the cool Owl fabric out there.

So I signed myself up to make her an Owl netbook case/ cover. I got home Sunday evening and I wanted to start it right away. But I did not have Owl fabric, and I DID NOT want to wait to order some. So I made my own Owl applique pattern. 

There are two reasons that make this so interesting.... #1 I have never appliquéd, well, not successfully. And #2, whenever I try to create my own anything, it only causes a lot of frustration!

But guess what? It worked. Well, I think it did anyway. I wanted to make it a perfect fit, so until my friend and I meet again, it will just be applique, and not a netbook cover.

Linking up to:

-love-

KristyLou

What a week...

I started out last Friday, the 19th, by getting sick. A miserable weekend led me to go to the doctor Monday, in an ice storm. A short work week was just what I needed. I started feeling better on Wednesday so we decided to throw a waffle party. My in-laws came over and we feasted on bacon, sausage, eggs, and waffles! It was great, except that by the time everyone left I was feeling miserable again.

Thursday I was planning on doing a mini-Thanksgiving with just my husband and I. Our Thanksgiving plans for Friday fell through, and our mini Thanksgiving turned in the official Thanksgiving. We invited my father-in-law over. Well, I wasn't working too hard at making it perfect... and good thing too. By the end of the night we were eating sides and french silk pie! Perfect :)

Right before my father-in-law came over, I walked into our office. I thought I saw his headlights out the window. Without turning on the lights in the room, I craned my neck to the side, and walked toward the window. Next thing I knew, my head was bouncing off of something and husband was asking if I was alright. NO! I had walked right into the corner of a bookshelf and split my forehead. Good news.... I am married to an EMT.

Anyway, the weekend was fairly calm. By Sunday, the headache was gone, the sinus infection was cleared up. So I started Christmas decorating.

We also watched the Vikings win 

& heard about the Bears victory (darn basic cable plan in MN won't let us watch the Bears!).

So, this week I decided to start the quilting of this.  

It is my first time quilting something big on my little machine. It's pretty much going well, except for when things get all tangled up like this (am I the only one???).

I discovered my safety pins are pretty crappy (Wal-Mart). They almost tear through the fabric. So I basted like I (barely) remember my Grandma doing it. Needle & thread. Back in the day I remember thinking, "Why would you sew it like that if you are just going to sew it again...?" It seems to be working pretty well so far.

I was supposed to have a friend visit this weekend. 

But a storm is coming. The funny thing is, this weekend we have a parade and fireworks in our town. Yes, in MN, in a blizzard we have a parade and fireworks. I LOVE it. Something about the crisp cold air makes  those fireworks pop! Anyway, since she may not be coming, I guess I will have to have a back up plan.

Which is good since I have this  & 2 of these to finish and I just got tasked with making 14 preschoolers Angel costumes by the 18th.

Thankful

What a great idea! Natalia from Piece N Quilt, one of my favorite blogs, wants to know, what are you thankful for this year....?

It's sad to me that some of the only times we remember to reflect on what we are thankful for is around Thanksgiving. This year quite a few opportunities have presented themselves for me to remember to be thankful. Here is a mini review.

I am thankful for my husband
We celebrated out 1st anniversary this past summer.

for my parents
Who are so very generous to us.
The day after this picture was taken my dad was sent to the ER, and transferred to a bigger hospital where he was for 5 days. Then my parents had to travel 8 hours home. Not sure when they will visit me again :)

for my sisters
Who I wish I lived closer too, and miss all the time.

for my Grandma
Who we lost this year.
(She is the one who inspired my quilting habit. I only wish I could show her what I have been up to.)

for my friends
Who I also wish lived closer. But I am so thankful they see visiting me as an adventure.

for my in-laws
(mom, dad, sister, brother, niece, nephew, grandma, and grandpa)
Who take such good care of my husband and I.

for my job
Which I still have, and I LOVE (most days)

for my home
And all the spruce ups we have done to it.

for snow
Not for the times when it gets people hurt and my husband, an EMT, has to leave to help
But more for its beauty and for the times it doesn't allow me to get into work :)

Christmas before Thanksgiving...

I have to admit that until this year I have never even thought about Christmas before Thanksgiving. But usually as soon as black Friday arrived I was either shopping or decorating for Christmas. This year however, a friend of mine decided to plan our annual shopping weekend two weeks before Thanksgiving. I was a bit hesitant at first, but now that it is done and over with.... I am soooooo happy we did it.

The last thing left this year on my Christmas shopping to do list is Christmas cards (one of my favorite things to do). The thing I love about Christmas cards is catching up with people. I am not a fan of sending the card with a signature, and having that be it. No way! I definitely make sure each person/ family gets a personal message from us.

Since my husband and I got married last year I was sooooo excited to do picture Christmas cards. I even had the perfect wedding photo in mind. Off I went to my favorite picture place, Shutterfly. Here is what we sent last year:

My sister's and I also put together a great photo calendar for our mom, that she loved. It worked out great since we had so many family photos from the wedding. Here are a few pages from it.

In my kitchen right now, I have this calendar with pictures of my husband's parents and grandparents, and my parents and grandparents from the wedding.



Can you tell I love pictures? And now almost 1 1/2 years later, I am almost not "obsessed" with wedding pictures. I am starting to move on to all of the other ones. So what will it be this year...... honeymoon pictures?

Imagine my surprise when this year as I was browsing blog land, and working on Christmas card ideas, and i found this amazing deal. But even if you do not have a blog, they are having amazing deals right now. Just hop on over to http://www.shutterfly.com/ and see what you can make.

Love,

KristyLou