The evil temptress arrived

And she brought me


Every time I got an email from Williams-Sonoma advertising their peppermint bark, I kept thinking I should ask V to buy me some, but I'm trying to be good about what I'm eating, so I resisted the urge.  But a good friend knows what you really like!

See!  She brought us this for New Years Eve!



V also brought me a couple of books that I ordered from Amazon.
All Dolled Up - because now that we have two American Girl dolls, I thought we needed patterns, patterns and more patterns.  I have a few ModKid AG doll patterns, but I like having options.


And Metric Pattern Cutting for Women in case I want to get adventurous with sewing for moi.



I hope you had a fabulous Christmas.  We are really looking forward to NYE this year, and no, it's not because of the bottle of champagne!  It's because our little group will be together again.  Our friends are here from Chicago, and the other missing piece will be up from Melbourne.  Nothing like good food, good laughs and great friends.

Winner of the PimpiCuff is

Margo P!!!

Congratulations!

Snap! (and a giveaway!)

I'd been thinking about getting a snap press for a while.  The PimpiCuffs just pushed me over the edge of buying one.



Wow, I can understand why they are well liked.  The other night when I hammered snaps onto the first cuff, I sat on the laundry floor for 15 minutes.  You know fiddling to get things in the right place and applying the snaps.   With the press it took about a minute to snap the cuff.  Possibly slightly longer because I had change dies.










And while I was sewing the cuffs together (I messed up and didn't do them "in the hoop" as I stitched out both cuffs in one hoop and it was too squishy), I sewed through a flower head pin!



My machine really does sew through almost anything!

The owl cuff is for a Crafty Mamas friend.

The nesting doll cuff was going to be for a gift, but the invitation did say no presents.  They are asking for donations to the birthday girl's favourite charity.  I was going to do both!  But Col has said, "don't be that person."  So I'm following instructions, and now I am going to give away this cuff.

To enter the giveaway leave a comment.  It's that simple.  Giveaway closes midnight December 21 because that is the day my dear friend arrives from the US, and it's huge cause for celebration in the house of willow & moo.

Playing around with PimpiCUFFS

I couldn't resist buying Luzia Pimpinella's new embroidery design, pimpiCUFFS.

I knew Moo would love them, and I thought they'd make fairly quick and cute birthday presents.  I like to have a few options like this up my sleeve when I am pressed for time.

Mollie chose the Love Chirp cuff.


I stitched it out in the afternoon and then sewed it up that night.  In the morning Mollie found it and put it on. 

She's worn it two days in a row, so it definitely gets the stamp of approval from Miss Moo.

Untying is always a surprise

Even though I've tied plenty of starry mandalas, it's still a thrill to untie them to see what my dyeing has created.

This dress is a custom order for a friend.  Her daughter had a dyed Quiara top which has long been outgrown.  Now her little sister is wearing it.  Her mum wanted a dress that was dyed in similar colours as the top.  And I suggested the Farbenmix Olivia dress with a mandala on the side.  Her daughter is getting to an age where she is becoming more self conscious, so I thought a design front and centre wouldn't be the best option.  I personally love have the design dyed on the side.  It looks the same back and front.

Don't judge the box

Mollie got this for her Hanukkah present last night.  She looked at the box and declared it uninteresting.  I told her that I bought it because I had one as a kid, and I loved making potholders.  I thought Moo would like it because she's done weaving at school.

So I put the first side of loops on and started weaving.  It didn't take long for Moo to take interest and then take it from me.  She ended up bringing it into bed and weaving while I was reading them a chapter from The Faraway Tree.   She finished weaving before I finished reading.  I did the edges for her when she was asleep.



Then today she started this one all on her own.  I finished the edges tonight for her.  Next time I am going to show her how to finish off the edges.



Now I know they don't look as stylish as ones made up in some cute designer quilting fabric, but they work extremely well.  They are flexible and are heat resistant even if they get damp.  My aunt who has the most excellent taste prefers these potholders over all others.  Wonder if I can convince Moo to whip up a couple for our Auntie C?  Then again I am in desperate need of a couple myself.

Quick as a Fox

Last night was our last Craft Room for 2010.  We had a Secret Santa, and I needed to make something.   I already had some covered journals made up which I could have grabbed, but I wanted one with Luzia Pimpinella's Florafox.  I was going to embroider a fox onto felt, but something wacky has happened with my Florafox embroidery files.  It has broken up different parts into different thread colours like one side of the whiskers is orange and the other side is turquoise and they really should be dark grey.  The star bits in the pupil of the fox also have gone weird where each side of the star is a different colour.   Based on the picture of the design they should all be one colour. 

So I was starting to run out of time, and I couldn't sort out the thread colours to make sure that the embroidery stitched out correctly.   Then I remembered this blog post.   If you are ever lamenting the fact that you don't have an embroidery machine, look at what you can do with decorative stitches, some fun printed fabric and felt.   Total awesomeness!

Happy Hannukah

I grew up in a Jewish household.  We didn't do Santa.  No Advent. No Christmas.  And like many other American Jewish families we did Hanukkah with presents, potato latkes and house decorations. 

Truthfully neither me or the other half are into the religious aspect of any holidays, but I'd like to pass on my cultural heritage to the kids.  We asked the kids if they wanted to do Hanukkah or Christmas this year and they said, "Hanukkah."  I think this is partially due to Moo's very close relationship with Grandma.

So here we have our menorah on the first night of Hanukkah.

Great menorah, eh?  It's a circus tent with circus characters around it.  I'll try to get a better photo of it in the next 8 days.  I was trying to take a photo to highlight the burning candles.  The menorah was a gift to Mollie from her Great Aunt Roz.

The kids say, "Thank  you Grandma!"
Mollie received as expected her "looks like me" American Girl doll.  She was over the top thrilled even though she doesn't look it in the photo.  She was very excited by the earrings.  I wonder if she'll have kittens when she sees the kittens for her AG dolls that a Christmas Elf is bringing from America later this month.


Will got a roadway set that goes with the parking garage that he already has, and can connect it in with the train set. 

I think potato latkes will be on the menu on Friday night.  At least with potato + fried, I am fairly sure that Will will eat it!