A few finishes, a snowblob, and a crawler...

Oh my word.

I thought I was getting a good start on Christmas gifts this year...

I was proud of myself.

By the 1st of the month

I had all necessary supplies purchased, everything cut and prepped,

tutorials tagged, pages of sewing books marked, and pins on Pinterest up the yin-yang.

Everything got stacked neatly in a laundry basket, just waiting to be picked up and

sewn together with love.

But, I think I got a little cocky.

Because now...

I am in complete panic mode.

The good news is that the first Christmas party is 9 days away.

The bad news is that the first Christmas party is 9 days away.

Am I excited?

Heck yeah.

Am I totally stressed?

You know it.

Should I even be blogging right now?

Not a chance.

I just love giving the perfect handmade presents

- maybe a little too much-

because I've actually overflowed into a second basket.

Oh goodness.

I would love to show

all the Christmas presents

I'm working on, but I can't, because that would ruin the surprise for those getting the presents.

DUH!

So instead, I will show other things I made that aren't Christmas presents, like this:

It's my latest finished quilt.

It felt good to finish up a quilt.

I haven't done a quilt in a while, and this one was, well, it was just nice.

I made it for a woman my hubby works with.

I love it.

I think it's perfectly girly and sweet.

I was sick of patchwork, but I had already cut all the squares,

so I turned them all on point.

It was my first time trying that out,

even though I've wanted to for quite some time,

and I dig it.

And I love the stripy binding.

But, I mean, who doesn't love a stripy binding?

I hand-stitched the sweet little name in one of the

less-busy squares

to add an extra little touch of 'special' to the quilt.

***

Here's my November contribution to do.Good stitches' Grace circle.

I took this picture at night,

so the colors are WAY off-

but that's a coral square and a navy square.

We all used this tutorial for the 'hole in the barn door' squares from Mary Catharine's blog. She's really sweet. And talented.

And I'm also using another one of her tutorials for a Christmas present.

But I'm not going to spoil it, so that's all for now.

***

And Willow got invited to her first birthday party

(that wasn't a family member).

So, of course, I decided her friend needed to have a handmade, hand-stitched dolly.

And I made this decision the night before.

At about midnight.

Hence the bad picture taken at said party...

***

We also made a 'snowman' who is actually more like a snowblob.

You need a certain kind of snow for the making of snowpeople, and we just didn't have it.

Note to self: check snow before promising snowman to small child.

So, with that preface, I introduce to you, Carl:

He's basically a pile of snow with a hat, scarf, celery nose, tomato eyes and stick arms.

He's actually quite adorable.

Or, was quite adorable. Carl has since vanished.

Note to self: Warn small child what happens to beloved snowblob when temperature rises.

We had fun in the snow while it lasted...

***

And this little one is getting SO big.

Look who's crawling!

That's all for now because the doctor's office just called to remind me of Ellie's well-visit today, which I completely forgot about,

and now I must go bathe, dress, and get 3 people ready for the public eye in a very short amount of time.

Wish me luck.