It has only been in recent years that the Boy Scout has gotten really good at gift-giving. Now, he never buys gifts himself for anyone except Elizabeth and me, but it took him a while to get the hang of presents for me. But this Christmas, he out-did himself.

Here is a sneak peek of what I've been up to with his present. And I have so. Many. Ideas.

 Guess who didn't take a single picture of all those wonderful things she made for Christmas gifts?

If you guessed me, you are so right! Good job you!

Sorry about that. I nearly forgot to make my uncle's rice pudding. Then I nearly forgot to give it to him! So see, it was a forgetful kind of day.

But, on December 23, one of my new friends here had a baby! They did not know if they were having a boy or a girl, so I manfully waited to start sewing for tiny people until she arrived. That's right! A girl! Yahoo!

I decided last night that I would make two outfits for this new baby. Initially, I thought that I would do two Itty Bitty Baby Dresses, but I thought better of it when I couldn't decide what fabrics to use. Also, it is cold here. Thirty-three degrees is cold in Tennessee. I had a nice long think about what to make and decided with another couple of Rae's patterns - The Pierrot Tunic and her Basic Baby Pants.

First up, I lengthened the tunic into a dress. I've done this before for Elizabeth (I'll photo dump later on, I promise.) but I've never done the ruffle at the neck before. I gotta tell ya. It's stinkin' ADORABLE. I think it is a little much on one this small, only because the neck is a little stiff. But that may fix in the wash.*


I have to confess that I don't remember Elizabeth ever fitting in to things this small. But I think I have a box of tiny baby things in the basement that would prove I just have a faulty memory. I cut this one to the 3t length and hemmed nothing. That's right, nothing. I just serged the edges on everything. I think it keeps it pretty casual and ties in the serged edges of the ruffle.

Next, I did the tunic at tunic length and a pair of matching pants. These are flannel and so cosy! One thing that my friend and I agree on is not wasting stuff. So the fabric for both of these is from receiving blankets - the good kind that aren't stiff.


Maybe it's just us, but Elizabeth's blankets were always so rough to the touch. We couldn't use fabric softener at all with her (still can't. Boo!) so that could have had something to do with it. I shirred the neck and waist on these and toyed with the idea of doing the legs and sleeves. I actually didn't make the decision not to do that - the elastic thread ran out. I see a trip to Joann's in my future.

 I hope I can deliver these things today. I'll call my friend and see if she's up for a quick stop-by to leave them.

*I never wash things for newborns. And I tell the parents this. We learned the hard and terribly painful way that Elizabeth can't be near fabric softeners at all. Ever since, I just don't even try! Most folks wash new-baby stuff first anyway.

So we decided this year that we would forego the practice of not giving gifts at Christmas time and instead operate on small budgets and themes. This year's theme was "make or give something to make."

Y'all! I've made so much wicked cool stuff the past couple of weeks! And I can't show you a bit of it because I have NO idea if my mom, sister, or brother-in-law read this blog. So all the *HONK!*, *BEEP!*, and rice puddings will have to wait to have their picture taken.

Well, the rice pudding will be made closer to the day of giving it and it probably won't survive 20 minutes once opened. So, no pics of that. And I know that my uncle doesn't read this blog so I'm safe there.

First off, I did get the pleasure of testing the Go To Cape for Women from Go To Patterns. And I have ZERO pictures to show for it. There was an incident with a sharpie that I am not proud of (don't trace out patterns with a sharpie. Ever.) HOWEVER! You NEED this pattern. Trust me, you just do. I am both tall (5'10") and large (off-the-rack size 26) and the XL size in long fits me just fine with room to spare. So even though she may not advertise it, this cape will fit you. Yeah, you! You who has to (like me) add seven inches to a pattern to get it to fit you. Guess what? You don't have to do that with this one. GO AND GET IT!

ANYWAY. Here's what I can show you!

This was Elizabeth's opinion of my saying, "No." to opening the playdough she got at the playschool gift exchange. We were still at school, so I wasn't going to get in to that there. So, she stuck her tongue out at me. I laughed because it was both funny and TOTALLY my fault! I do that when the Boy Scout tells me no, so she comes by it naturally. But my laughter diffused what could have been a complete fit and we moved on. Love this kid!

And this is that same kid's Christmas present from her parents. I have to tell you, these kits have come a LONG way from about 15 years ago! This one is pretty stinkin' solid and I'm about 95% sure that the only things that are going to come off will be the fiddly gingerbread pieces that have about a quarter of a millimeter of gluing surface. But I could be wrong and they will stay on great. Right now, it is sitting in the sewing room waiting for the roof paint to dry before I put on the last gingerbread parts. Then there will be a hair of touch-up painting and it'll be done!

Then there's this dress. It has been cut out for about 3 months now, I just never stitched it up. Now that I have, I'm not as wild about it as I feel like I should be. I think I'm going to take the sleeves apart and put in a little gather about the point where the sleeves would be shortened to short sleeves. Maybe that will give it some shape. Oh, and me and the facings for this one? NOT bff's. It is actually not even faced at all because I just couldn't make the facing work with the collar somehow, nothing lined up right! So there was a moment of freedom when I tossed the facings over my shoulder and cackled. Elizabeth came to ask me what was so funny. I told her that I was just happy to be liberated. She went and told her daddy, "Mommy is wibble-tated!" And she proceeded to cackle. I was so proud!


I saw this pin a while back about cutting the mesh off the pack and play to make a little low-to-the-ground toddler bed. Well, Elizabeth is having none of that (and frankly, I'm not either!) but I did like the idea of her having a contaned space to play in my sewing room. This is PERFECT. She is up off the floor away from stray pins, has her things (bigbigbig bear, lacing beads, and my old fisher price farm with the door that moos at present) and I've covered it over the top so that the cats can't dive-bomb her. She is so good in the sewing room, too. She knows not to touch the machines and that if she can reach out her little hand and touch the ironing board, she's too close. I don't bar her from playing in the fabric, but she favors the scrap heap most days.

Ahh, the Holidays. I could sit here and go on and on about how wonderful it is to be surrounded by my crazy family eating things that are bad for us, but I won't. Not today. No, today is where I issue a warning to all of you who have gotten sucked in to the hype that is pre-lit Christmas trees.

Then I'm going to tell you what to do with them after half of the lights go out due to the non-replacable fuses in the strings blowing. But first, some backstory.

The Christmas that I found out I was pregnant, I decided to get us a new tree at the post-holiday letdown markdown sales. So I went and came home with the best white tree ever! I LOVE white trees! The ornaments show up so much better and the colored lights look amazing on them. So a white one it was. Fast forward a year and Elizabeth has arrived and is celebrating her first Christmas with lots of drool and teething. We put up our tree and it looks fantastic! Fast forward another year and we are in a TINY apartment with barely enough room for all of us to be in the living room together and my white tree in a storage unit about a mile away. So no tree.

When we moved to a bigger apartment, I figured I'd find a way to fit that tree in. Then we moved in to this house and I KNEW we'd have one. So as we are moving, I give the tree the once over. It isn't white anymore. It is yellow and smells weird. (TIP: Don't store the tree in a rubbermaid box. That's no good!) So it gets tossed and the hunt for a new one begins.

Even during the sales, new ones were going for $45 or $50, and we really waffled. I'd told my mom about needed a new one and she actually found one at a Women Are Safe thrift store in my hometown. SCORE! And it was just like hers - pre-lit, 7.5 feet tall, and green. I'd long accepted that a green one would be our fate (Boy Scout wasn't crazy about my white one) and this one had his favorite - colored lights! WAHOO! So my mom bought this one and we were so excited! I helped her put hers up so that I knew whwat I was doing with ours, came home, and began. I got that whole thing together and fluffed up and plugged it in.

More than half the lights were dead. The bottom rows on the bottom and middle sections and the top of the top were dark. I unplugged, replugged, and wiggled every light.

Then the internet told me that these trees have fuse bulbs! Great! Find and replace! Easy as p....

This brand's fuse bulbs are not replaceable. If I want my pre-lit tree to work, I'll have to buy a replacement strand (actually 4 strands) from the manufacturer for $15 a strand. And put them on myself.

I'll paraphrase what I actually said about this to, "Great scott, sir! Whatever could you possibly be thinking in charging such an inflated price for something I will then have to install? I think NOT! Thank you and good day! Be sure to not let the door strike you in the hinder-end as you exit!"

Then I realized that the strings are just *wires* and if someone put them on, then I can get them off. So I did!

Now before you get all excited about ripping the lights off a pre-lit tree let me tell you something. The Chinese or Pakistani individual who put them on in the first place is an EXPERT at their job. They did their job with a complete and total dedication that I just don't think many people in this world appreciate. And I'm NOT being sarcastic, either. I don't know who they are, never met them but I admire their ability to do what they do 'cause let me tell ya - after having undone it I've concluded that there are only two people in this world who I would do that for again and both of them have put up with me since I was soiling my diapers. I've done this ONCE, the people who put these lights on do it for a living!

I *wish* I had pictures. I *wish* that I'd had the sense to take some. But I didn't. So I'm going to tell you how to do this the easiest way. I got lucky and hit on this early in the process. It still took me about 4 hours to de-light a 7.5 foot slim tree.

Step one: Stop thinking about the number of lights and tips that are on the box. If you don't stop thinking about that you will have defeated yourself from the start. Also, wear old clothes and long sleeves.

Step two: Take the tree apart in to its sections. Disconnect everything from a power source.

Step three: Starting where ever pleases you, flip your first section upside down. The bulk of the wires will cross on the underside of the branches to keep them out of plain view. As you look at the underside of the branches, there will be lines of wire crossing over the bottoms. Cut *every one* of those wires with wire cutters. Every one! These lights don't work once you've lost that non-replaceable fuse light, so there is no point in saving any part of them. CUT!

Step four: Repeat the cutting for every individual branch there is. Also, the wires that circle the trunk need to be cut too. Cut between every branch.

Step five: Now, grab one of the bulbs by it's base and PULL. If everything is cut, it will corkscrew off without much trouble. It will be kinda tough to get some going and there might be some that you missed a loop on. Just keep the cutters handy and cut whatever needs cutting. Toss the little bits of wire and lights promptly. If a light is attached with a little clip, just pull harder. Most times, the clip will come right off.

Step six: Don't forget the middle wires that circle the trunk. Just pull those things out of there. You don't have to be very gentle at all. Any of the fake needles you knock off or cut with the cutters will be just that many fewer that you have to sweep up in three weeks.

Step seven: The top is trickier - there are no hinged individual branches. Put a movie on and go one at a time.

Step eight: Walk away. Once all the lights are off, just put it down and walk away for a while. This is a hard, tedious, time consuming thing to do. Just walk away until you can come back and do the putting-up routine. For me, that was two days.

So now you ask, "Why do this at all?" Well, there's plenty of reasons. For us, it is a combination of 1) not wanting to waste my mom's money, 2) we like the shape of this one, and 3) it is still a good looking tree and we don't want to go buy a new one when an old one will still do with an investment of time on our part. That third one is a real kicker. With lights that weren't working, we did not feel right re-donating it somewhere (like taking broken toys to Goodwill.) And it was still a good looking, full, attractive tree with many more years of use in it. I can't toss something that is still useful! So, lots of hours of work and the investment is protected and there's not another tree in the landfill.

That being said, I did not realize how dangerous the job was. I advise long sleeves from experience. I didn't discover until I was in the shower that I actually had forearms covered in paper-cut like scratches. I discovered this with the help of the water. And yeah, I yelled. So cover those arms! You will be thankful you did.

My sister is having a birthday today! She lives nearly half a USA away from me, so I can't be with her on her birthday, but our mom is there and I hear there is a party and cupcakes (probably swanky ones. ooo!)

Sister-mine is a pretty swanky gal. She's *very* fashionable, knows how to accessorize, and has shoes for every occasion. I'm also sure that she holds the patent for the 'ponytail out the back of a baseball cap' hairstyle.

So I made her a bag! I asked her what colors she was wearing and the only thing outside of black, brown, and grey were teal and cranberry red. Blissfully, I could work those two colors together!

I have it on good authority that she likes her present! Hurrah! Success! Mom tells me that she's impressed with my skill. That just tickles me - I'm sure the faces I make when putting in a zipper are comedy GOLD.

So we have gotten moved. THANK GOD.

This move wasn't as bad at the last. I didn't get hurt until the last day and that was minor and over after a day of staying off my feet. We also didn't really expect help and are EXTREMELY grateful for the help we got! My mom bought moving help for us (load and unload in 3 hours? YES PLEASE!) and my friend Rachel helped out by giving opinions and cleaning the kitchen at the old place.

Elizabeth came home and we all managed to settle in fairly well. The dust has settled and the curtains are almost all up!

Sadly, our male cat Oliver isn't adjusting so well. He is a shy, skittish sort and spent the first 24 hours hiding in the litterbox. Now, he's licked himself bald and raw down his back and on his missing boy-parts. I'm going to get some of what we call relax-a-cat for him. We had some from the last move, but he didn't need it. I have no idea where it is now. I'm sure that he will be fine once he has had a few relaxed days here. He just doesn't have his Spots picked out yet and can't find a place where we are not moving around all the time. It will work out just fine once everything is in its final home.

And speaking of home, my sewing machine came home on Monday! The serger is still at the shop, but I'm sure it will be done soon. The daughter of the shop's owner runs the *business* while the owner does all the repairs and tune-ups. The daughter is also the one who does sergers. I'm next on the list, but she's got business things to do, too. I can be patient. I have the sewing machine and it sounds AMAZING. Humming silently and better than brand new! I can't wait to have them both back, but I'm patient for now.

And what's the first thing that I sew when it got home? Blackout lining for the windows in Elizabeth's room. I hope that I NEVER have to mess with anything like that again! I don't think I've used such foul language at fabric before. But the blackouts work great - her room seems to be south-facing and is blistering hot during the day as well as nicely lit by the neighbors at night. All of those problems have been solved now.

I'm off just now to lint-roller the couch again and remove a little more of Oliver from it.