Christmas Stockings

It's been on my list for 3 years, but I finally made Christmas stockings! 

And, because I'm pregnant and crazy right now, I made a few extras. You know, just in case!

I couldn't find a pattern that I loved completely, so I drew a template on cardstock and used that. Growing up, my mom made us really big, chunky stockings and I loved it that way. I followed the instructions for putting in a lining and cuff on the Cluck Cluck Sew blog (lots of good stuff there). I used fabric from my stash and had fun choosing different scrappy combos. In my mind there are very distinct "boy" and "girl" stockings here, though both my husband and mother say they're all girly. I'm not sorry at all. I mean, if you can't use ric rac at Christmas, when can you!?

It feels great to have these done and to know that maybe, just maybe, 

I won't have to make any more ever again!

"Hello Darling" Pillow

I found a happy surprise this morning as I was looking for printables for our new house. Let me see if I can explain all the connections here. I was on The Small Seed's blog (a wonderful website if you haven't seen it yet, and you can follow them on IG) when I saw that Katie Sabin did a guest post there. A while back, Katie bought a pillow that I made for a fundraiser to make a memory quilt for a young family in our old church ward who lost their Dad. I was so pleased to see my pillow in her adorable room, on one of my favorite sites! It's also a special pillow because the fabric was not out yet ("Hello Darling" by Bonnie and Camille) when I made it, but a special friend on IG sent me a charm pack that she somehow magically got early. I love that pillow, but it does look a lot cuter at Katie's house than it would at mine:)

Here is the photo from Small Seed. (It's the patchwork pillow on the left.)

And by the way, I found that The Small Seed has really great printables, including one from Katie. I printed this one for our new house. I think it's technically a Christmas print, but I like it.

Flag Jars

I can check this off my project to-do list. You just have to imagine flowers in the jars though. (Those cost money so they are coming later.)  All in all these were pretty cheap to make. Now I can use this decoration for Happy Memorial Day/Flag Day/Independence Day/Patirots Day/Any Day...I guess that means all summer long.

Glittery Texas

I guess I am a girl at heart. I love glitter! When I saw this crafty décor I thought I better try it. Plus I was hosting a craft night and wanted to try it out before I offered to be the purchaser of supplies and answerer of all questions about it. I had an inward debate on what state to do- my home state? my birth state? the state my husband and I were married? lived longest in?.... well, decided on Texas. After 5 years I admit that famous Texas pride is infiltrating me and the rest of the family. Heehaw!

The blog tutorials I used as guides for this project were from Effortless Chic and Two Twenty One.  The site I found for the perfect sized states (these fit into an 8x10 opening, frame from IKEA)  was http://www.theus50.com/outlinemaps-state.php .  I printed out 7 different states and all fit just right!