Snuggle Monkey

Butterfly woke up in the middle of the night with a bad dream. I came and talked to her for a while and she settled down with her sock monkey cuddled up with her. I just had to take a picture of her, she was so cute and forlorn! Then I noticed that Sunshine was perfectly cuddled with her monkey too. Daisy was disappointed that I didn't take a picture of her sleeping too... but that will have to wait for another night.

Far, Far Away in the Cousin Nativity

Christmas Eve the kids all took part in a Nativity play with a batch of their cousins. Sunshine and Butterfly were both assigned parts as angels. I realized at the last minute that I needed to have costumes for them! I had my husband pick up some white pillowcases while he was out and about and I whipped up these cute little white pillowcase dresses. They took me maybe 10 minutes each (though taking a little longer would look better, lol)

Little Sunshine talking with Grandma before the Nativity play.


Standing by the Christmas tree. The girls chose their own clothes to wear with the dress, and I didn't have time to re-vamp anything. Otherwise there might have been some pretty white shirts instead of bright tees.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful!

Waiting at the bus stop on a wintry morning is... less than comfy. So I started working on a scarf for Daisy while I was walking on the treadmill. Just last night I finished off the hat. For working without a pattern, mostly while I was on the treadmill, I think it worked out pretty well! She wore it all day -- even with her pretty dress at church! She tried it out in the backyard this afternoon and it worked great. Her favorite features are the hat brim and ear flaps (she has been jealous of my ear muffs) and, of course, the tassels.

(This picture was taken just after she came in from playing outside. She wore her sister's sweatshirt so it's a little small. And she got snow down the front of her jacket so it got all wet.)

Some real Monkey Business

This afternoon I got to have three of my nieces come over for a crafting party. (In case someone hadn't noticed: I have LOTS of nieces. And nephews.) They brought some socks and two of them made sock monkeys for their two younger brothers and the third one made three hair bows for some friends of hers. They did such a good job! I ran the sewing machine and the hot glue gun, but they pretty much did everything else. I even tweaked the "North Pole Boutique" cards to make them custom from my niece as a finishing touch. We ran out of time a bit, but we were really close to finishing. The monkeys still need eyes and one went home with an arm or two pinned on, LOL, but the girls know what they're doing now and they won't have any trouble finishing them I'm sure.

SJ with her three hair bows. I walked through the first one but she put the other two together pretty much by herself!


RJ with her nearly-completed sock monkey. All he needs now is eyes! They're hoping to make up some clothes too.


JJ curled up on the couch stitching away on the other sock monkey.

Finishing Details

After making a bunch of clips and things for my nieces, I decided they definitely need somewhere to keep them. So I made these two bow holders and sent them along in the package.
As a final touch, since these things are all from Santa and I'm just helping him out, I made special cards to mount the bows on instead of my usual Tilly's Bowtique cards. These Christmas items come specially mounted on North Pole Boutique cards, complete with a gmail account. :)
Oopsie! I forgot to include the pic of my North Pole Boutique cards. Now It's on here :)

In a whole different area of crafting

Before I started with ribbons and bows I was making lots of jewelry. Mostly I made wire wrapped jewelry with sterling silver or gold rolled wire. It is beautiful, unique, and more expensive to make than bows, LOL. I still love jewelry, but I just can't do it as often as I wish.
I made this jewelry set for a mother of 4. What mother couldn't use something fun for herself? Unfortunately I am out of wire right now, so I wasn't able to do wire wrapped jewelry for her. I make this jewelry set out of wood, tigereye, mother of pearl, and freshwater pearls.

Tool Time -- but a litte more fun.

I made these tool-belt style aprons for two boys for Christmas. The 8yo loves Hot Wheels so his belt has 6 pockets made to fit Hot Wheels cars. The 5yo loves art, so his belt has 12 pockets to fit crayons. Each belt rolls up easily to tuck into a bag for a trip to the doctor's office or a long drive in the car. I made these out of navy blue duck cloth -- a heavy weight fabric with velcro closure so they'll fit for a long time.