The title of this post is not something I would ever have thought I would utter in my lifetime but, today I did. I finished Petunia’s stuffed duckie’s matching Christmas pajamas today and here they are:

Our pajama tops are just gray thermal tops but I used gray jersey knit for the duck’s instead because that’s what I had in my stash. When cutting out the pajama pants from the remnants left over from my and Petunia’s pj’s, I realized that there was this long triangle shape at one end. It looked like it might fit as a night cap for the duck so I cut another one and voila! Night cap a la ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas! She is so excited that he has pajamas that match ours and I’m so grateful that I can create memories like this for her.

Petunia comes home from preschool today after participating in a “ginger bread man hunt” in her class and says “I wish I had a gingerbread man doll”. This mama thinks “Hmm…the Christmas Bunny pattern without the ears and a little bit more pudgy would look just like a gingerbread man…”. I have a problem knowing when to stop.

Leave it to me during the busiest time of the year to come up with more and more (and more) ideas of things to sew in time for Christmas. My latest (after matching pj’s for Petunia and me and before matching pj’s for her stuffed duck) is a friend for Pink Bunny, which I made for her for Easter this year. His/Her/It’s name shall be Christmas Bunny and here he/she/it is:

That’s all. All I have time for. All I have to say. As Ludwig Bemelmens says at the end of “Madeline”: “That’s all there is. There isn’t any more.”

This year I decided to make Petunia and I matching Christmas pj bottoms to wear on Christmas Eve and, as time permits, I’ve been sewing a seam here and there. As they are still in progress, I’ll just show you the cute flannel I picked but, rest assured that I’ll take a pic of the matching pair when they’re finished!

The Daddy politely declined my offer to make him a pair.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers! Our little family is going to enjoy a couple of electronically disconnected days to celebrate the holiday and I’ll be back on the grid late Friday. I have to say I’m really looking forward to spending some down time with my little family. I hope that you have an opportunity to do the same.

Before I go, a little “What I’m Thankful For” list (you didn’t think you’d be able to read a Thanksgiving post without one, did you?):
My miraculous daughter
My marriage
That we have “enough” and that I can adjust my expectations of what is enough not based on what others have but based on what I need.

My extended family–my sisters and brother, Mom and Dad. They are my foundation.

The ability to adapt and choose to be happy. My hobbies and my family help me tremendously with that but I know people who are miserable and who don’t know how to not be. I am grateful that I can always find a way to be happy.

Pretty basic stuff, I know and kind of off the top of my head (I’m being told it’s time to disconnect and get on with it! LOL) but there you have it. I am very grateful this year. Life is good.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that all I have been doing/talking about lately is the Holiday Open House that happened last Friday night. One of the moms in our play group graciously opened her home to those of us work-at-home mommies with businesses/franchises to show our stuff and we had such a good time! It was a great time of socializing, checking out the creative inspiration of others, and getting exposure (and sales!) for our businesses.

There were vendors like Party Lite, Stella Dot jewelry, and Tupperware but there were two Mommy Businesses besides my own that were of a decidedly more crafty nature. Let me tell you a little bit more about them.

Amy at Sweet Baby Chic brought the most adorable hair clips and burp cloths to sell. She uses the most fantastic fabric!  And I couldn’t resist buying a couple of flower clips for Petunia.  She loves them and wants to wear them every day. Amy started by sewing baby blankets and burp cloths for friends and family, branching out to other baby items after having her own little one. Now that she’s a Momma herself, she enjoys coming up with new designs and ideas for her hair clips and loves coordinating fabrics for her sewing creations, all during nap time, of course. She just can’t stop coming up with fun things to create for our little ones!  Here are a few pictures of her products:

These are the ones I picked for Petunia:

She also has some great chenille burp cloths available.

Be sure to check out the rest of her creations at www.SweetBabyChic.etsy.com

Leora at Mylyte Creations brought her darling hand-stitched baby rattles and hair clips to the Holiday Open House. Leora learned to knit and crochet from her grandmother when she was young. She decided to offer her charming stitched creations to the rest of us at www.MylyteCreations.etsy.com while she stays home with her little ones doing what she loves.  She offers rattles, hat/bootie sets, and crocheted hair clips made from 100% cotton yarn so that the Little Ones don’t get that nasty fuzz in their mouths if (when!) they decide to put them there. The filling in her toys is non-allergenic polyfill and they can be machine washed and dried. Talk about convenient!

Here are a few pictures of her products:

I love these sunny colors!

These rattles also come in other adorable pastel colors.

How cute is this little guy?

It was great to hang out and get inspiration from these two crafty Mommas the other night! I really had a good time at the Open House and, of course, forgot to take pictures. Bad blogger! Next time, I promise. I made some sales, talked to a few people about custom orders and got the word out about Snugglebug Designs. All in all, a very good night!

It never fails. I get super-focused for a deadline, meet the deadline and feel really, really good about it. And then I crash. Does this happen to anyone else? After the Holiday Open House last week, which I will blog about as soon as I get back on my feet, I just hit The Wall. Motivation escapes me and snack foods call my name during times that used to be used to create. It doesn’t help that I’m still feeling the effects of severe sleep deprivation, both from meeting the deadline and caring for my diabetic daughter in the middle of the night (blood sugar checks, hypoglycemia treatment…oh what fun!). It’s not that I don’t WANT to create. It’s that I feel drained and unable to focus. I want to think that’s normal. That taking a break from the creativity-productivity treadmill is appropriate, normal and even helpful after a very productive period. And, if I look at history: college exams, deadlines for other jobs, and the infancy period in motherhood, I see that this is normal. But it still doesn’t keep me from feeling at loose ends and a teeny bit unhappy.

Although I could barely see straight the two weeks before the Open House, I really enjoyed being that focused and getting so much done. And, not only was it good for business/creative productivity, it leaked over into domestic productivity as well. Nobody went without clean underwear, the “floor food” under Petunia’s booster seat was cleared on a regular basis and the house was generally in a good state. Is it that I feel a kind of masochistic joy in pushing myself that hard? Or my flaming perfectionism manifesting itself? Not sure. But what I do know is that I can’t keep it up for long so, for now, I’ll be enjoying some snack foods and contemplating my next move.

I am apparently not a very good blogger. Not only do I not blog often enough, but I also forget to take pictures of the things I KNOW that I’m going to blog about. Case in point: I knew I wanted to blog about the crafty night I was going to do with the Mommies from our Mommy groups. Forgot the camera. Forgot to ask the hostess if she would take pictures with her camera. Huh. Well, I guess you’ll have to rely on my beautiful descriptive writing. *sarcasm*

One day, while sitting around watching our kids play at a play date, another Mommy and I came up with the idea of a Crafty Mommy’s Night In where we would make something for our kiddos.  My mind immediately jumped to tutus because I have a little ballerina girl. Tied tutus are super-easy and I thought “Great!”.   My plan was to teach some Mommies how to make tutus for their little Princesses so we had sign ups and limited it to 8 Mommies. It filled up quick and the waiting list grew and grew and grew in case someone backed out. Nobody backed out. We offered two different color choices and several Mommies wanted to make more than one tutu. Fantastic so far!

As I started to calculate exactly how many yards of fabric I would need, I started to panic a little. Twelve tutus times 4 yards per tutu equals 48 yards of tulle. Wow. Forty eight yards of tulle. It really sunk in when I asked for 26 yards of pink tulle at the fabric store. I have never bought 26 yards of anything in my life. Except maybe carpet, I guess. But still. Then there was the cutting into one yard sections so as to make it easier to handle, rolling it and cutting it into 3 inch sections, cutting those sections in half, and packaging 4 yards per bag in the appropriate colors. That was the hard part.

Once everyone arrived, chatted, and gave me their money (48 yards of tulle, People…I’m nice but not made of money), the fun began! I showed them examples, showed them the entire cutting process so they could do it at home, and started measuring, cutting, and sewing their elastic waistbands. I asked everyone to measure the waist of the Princess and bring that number but we were able to guesstimate for those who didn’t. Everyone got the tying process in no time flat and the tutus started to take shape. There were several Mommies who proclaimed that they were useless at crafty stuff yet they made a beautiful tutu by the end of the night.

If you are planning your own MNI Tutu-making, I would recommend having the participants buy their own tulle and then having them do the whole process themselves after demonstrating. MUCH easier for the hostess (that would be you!). And that way they can leave with the confidence that they can do it themselves at home later.

This is the tutu-making process that I used:

You will need 4 yards of tulle. Whatever colors you would like. Mix and match or all the same, it’s up to you!

Cut your tulle into one yard sections.

Take the first yard and roll it up in to one long roll.

Snip off the ends that are uneven.

Cut it into 3 inch sections.

Unroll each 3 inch section and cut it in half.

Repeat for all yards of tulle.

Measure child’s waist and cut elastic to that measurement.

Sew ends of elastic together.

Stretch elastic over back of child’s chair, your knees, whatever gives it a little stretch but not too much.

Tie strips of tulle onto elastic. Do not make knots very tight at first…you will stretch out the elastic and have a very large-waisted tutu in proportion to your small-waisted Princess. Once you remove the elastic from the chair and it is not stretched out any more, you can tighten the knots more. One of the best parts is that you can use whatever colors you’d like! Brown and turquoise, hot pink and black, orange and black for Halloween…you’re only limited by whatever colors of tulle your local fabric shop has!

That’s it. Not hard. Go. Go Tutu! Have fun!

Okay, I know that I have not been sewing, blogging, tweeting, or facebooking lately. I love summer but, Good Lord the days are long with The Daddy commuting to his summer job a county away and being gone 13 hours a day.  The Tot and I are constant companions, and I DO mean constant. She does not stay with anyone but me.  I know that there are many, many women who have much less alone time than I by virtue of having more children and husbands whose regular schedules are like my husband’s summer schedule all the time. That being said, let me now say that I feel very fortunate that in 12 days my world will return to normal when The Daddy goes back to his teaching job and gets home at 4:30 every day.  It will be good to not be so utterly exhausted at the end of the day.

Add to the above that in 13 days my baby will start preschool and I have hope that I might feel human again soon! Last year’s summer schedule was much the same as this one with The Daddy gone just as much but somehow this year it is much harder. Maybe it’s that she’s 3 now and has behaviors that are more challenging. Maybe it’s that diabetes is now a constant part of our lives, messing with any plans that we might make and adding work to things that could be so fun. Maybe it’s the 3 year itch that I always seem to get at any phase of my life. I suspect that it’s a little bit of all of these. But in just a short two weeks, I will have more time to sort it all out because The Daddy who is a wonderful Daddy who loves to spend time with his daughter and give his wife a break after work will be returning to his regularly scheduled programming.  And my sweet baby will become a preschooler.

Can I get a “Hallelujah”?

This is what my 3 1/2 year old daughter said to me a while ago. I have no appropriate pattern for said “dress down to the toes”. If I did, it would probably have long sleeves. It is the dead of summer and hotter than all get-out. So, I set about finding something I could finagle into a dress down to the toes and ended up with a wonderful toddler-sized maxi-dress. I was so happy with it that I made two!

I took a basic, empire waisted and spaghetti-strap-style toddler top pattern, lengthened and narrowed the bottom, and added a large ruffle at the bottom. Voila! Dress to the toes.

And the blue version:

She wants to wear them all of the time and says “Mommy, I really like the dresses you made for me.” You can’t get any better than that!