a simple christmas morning, presents and of course...a quilt

We have been pretty deliberate over the past couple of years to do Christmas in a simplified fashion since we have had Charlotte and especially now with Charlotte and Oliver. We know that nothing can damper the spirit of Christmas like shopping with a toddler in tow (realistically O is a such an easy baby, let's be honest, C is the tough one...sorry Charlotte when you read this in a couple of years.)

I always love to make Christmas gifts and would deem every Christmas gift a homemade one if Jay would allow me.  This year my homemade creation was a quilt.  Back in July we threw Jay's dad a birthday party and when I throw a party that means that some fabric purchases are required.  I had to buy some fabrics for table runners and a good deal of one fabric for the photo booth.  While we were standing in line at the fabric store and Jay was questioning the amount of fabric I needed I came up with the genius realization that I would use all the fabric I purchased to make the birthday boy a quilt for Christmas.

Well, our move in date came and went to get into the house and soon the whole month of October had disappeared and I still had not started a Birthday-Christmas quilt, can we call it a Birthmas Quilt?

I know that I wanted to use my simple go-to pattern of a nine patch and do some variations to the pattern.  So as the kids played one Saturday in the playroom I created and sketched and sewed.  The kids had a great time together (the playroom was trashed!) and I had such a lovely day sewing and still being with the kids.  I started with a simple nine patch block and then went with two borders, followed with some more nine patch blocks and some corner pieces and then a topper of nine patch blocks and some trim bordering pieces on the sides and bottom.  It all went together so smoothly and it was almost relaxing just designing as I went and watching the quilt grow.  This is what I ended up with!

Of course, I had to add his initials...

and some simple embroidery...

The back of the quilt was made almost entirely of the fabric from the photo booth with a penny strip down the middle.

Grandpa received his quilt on Christmas Eve and quickly put it to good use cuddling with his granddaughters!

Both kids have been sleeping in to around 6:30 to 7:00 each morning lately so we thankfully did not have a Christmas morning that started too early.  Both kids woke up around the same time and enjoyed a good look at their bounty before they started!

For three straight Christmases in a row C has had no interest in unwrapping her presents and has to be coaxed to unwrap just about anything...where did this kid come from?

Oliver was a little easier to get to open his presents, he will do anything to cuddle with his da da da!  Jay made this present for Oliver, it is much like the puzzle we made for C for her first Christmas.  He has already chewed up corners and decided it is a great drum!

We hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas. We really enjoyed our first Christmas holiday with no traveling, packing up presents and waking up in our own house!  A simple type of Christmas is the right type of holiday for us!

decking the halls

We as a family have been getting into the Christmas spirit by decorating, creating and sewing!  Early last week we had my parents come over for dinner and some decorating of our tree.  Charlotte had a blast decorating, Oliver loved playing with the ornaments and all the adults loved watching the kids be kids at Christmas! See if you can find the mittens that were required for decorating the very spiky Christmas tree!

Between the constant snow and the giant tree in our house the kids have been having a great time!  They have really used the Christmas tree as the biggest toy.  We have let them take select ornaments off and put them on about three times a day, needless to say the tree looks like a toddler and a baby have decorated it!

This is the perfect time of the year to get crafty!  One of my bestest of friends came in this past weekend and besides going to a craft show we also did a good bit of chatting and eating, we had a chicken pot pie with her name written all over it!

Charlotte and I have also been busy sewing!  She has taken a pretty big interest by sitting on my lap and helps lock my stitches and directs the fabric through the machine.  This is what we have been working on the past couple of days... burlap monogrammed stockings for all four of us and two pillows with the left over fabric!

We hope that you are able to get into the holiday spirit by decorating and redecorating, creating and sewing like we have!

-melissa

turkeys for our turkeys

I am lucky enough to have this whole week off from school and Jay has been home all week as well!  Needless to say, we have been pretty busy getting the house ready for our first Ohio Thanksgiving Dinner.  Between painting and decorating I have made enough time to do some Thanksgiving crafting of course! For Charlotte's first Thanksgiving I made her a shirt for the big occasion and I thought Oliver was due for one as well.  I scanned the web for some ideas and thought a charming tie idea for O would be excellent and C would look darling in one of those ribbon clad turkeys.

Both of these shirts were simple and cheap to make!  I used the same base fabric for both shirts, scraps for the detailed fabrics and bought 8 inches of ribbon from the off the spool stuff at JoAnn's.

I used the same appliqué technique as I do on all my quilt letters, I buy heat n bond in huge quantities… you will see how I used it on another project next week!

First I ironed heat n bond to all of my fabrics, drew the the turkey shapes on all the pieces, pulled of the back paper lining and laid out the shapes on the turkey body.

Next, I used my machine to attach all the pieces and hand sewed the turkey's pretty little green eyes on using needle and thread. I also attached all the ribbons on a scarp piece of fabric that was the same size as the head on C's turkey.

I then sandwiched the front of C's turkey to the pretty ribbon feather piece and sewed all the way around the turkey.

Finally, (really, the whole process is pretty short.  This is totally a nap craft) I placed the finished pieces on the shirts the kids would be wearing that day.

To see the super cute end product you will have to come back to see how our first Thanksgiving went.  We are expecting thirty people and tons of great food and memories made!

-melissa

oliver...go to your room.

By the time is Oliver is born, we'll only have about 4 months left in Virginia. With that in mind we made a conscious choice as we hunted for a short term rental house back in the fall. It's a three bedroom house that is already packed to the gills. We took the upstairs larger room and made it storage, Charlotte has a room and we have a room. So do the math with me...1+1+1=3. Yep, no room for Oliver, but we planned it that way. For those of you that have ever had a newborn, they tend to sleep a lot during the day and night time can be hit or miss between feedings and adjusting to their life on the "outside". Consequently, we decided that Oliver could just share our room. I mean, even if it goes horribly bad, it's only four months, right? So here you go. We took our modest bedroom closet and made it Oliver's room. I like it. So does Charlotte. She even asks to go into Oliver's room already. Charlotte and I put the crib together and the rest is Melissa's handiwork. Oliver's quilt, an old string of lights, some aviation themed objects and a little bunting and bam, one room for  a newborn boy. Check it our for yourself.

We found some fabric baskets that will act as storage. If you look close you can see a cute little plaid shirt on the right poking out that's waiting for Oliver's arrival.

These planes and clouds are my favorite. In a boring white closet they add a soft touch and something fun for Oliver to stare at as he dozes off to sleep...fingers crossed.

A closer look at one plane. I love the simplicity and the detail. Living by an airport her whole life, Charlotte knows planes. She knows what they sound like and what they do. Before we hung these up Charlotte was buzzing them around our room making her best jet sounds.

Well I would show you more of Oliver's room, but that's all she wrote. We also have the string of lights on a dimmer switch so we can have just the right amount of light for late night diaper changes and feedings.

Charlotte and I were shopping at Sam's Club the other day. We needed some size 4 diapers for her and while we were in the baby aisle my eye caught a box of diapers marked not with a number, but with a letter N. N for newborn. It seems like yesterday that we were buying our first box of newborn diapers for Charlotte. In a few months we will celebrate her 2nd birthday. With a little more experience and confidence under my belt I'm so excited to see Oliver for the first time. There is nothing better than being a husband and father...

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.

Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.

How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!

proverbs 127:3-5

-jay