Author: Sarah

I’m Ready For December!

Sarah Crafts

Gifts finished: 22
Gifts in progress: a couple of really small things
Gifts unstarted: maybe one other small thing?

I finished all of my original gifts. Every last one! I have a couple of little things I’ve added to the list because, well, because I can. We’ve purchased or ordered almost all the things that aren’t going to be handmade as well, so for all intents and purposes I’m ready for Christmas.

We also hung the outside wreaths and put the electric candles in the windows. All that’s left is wrapping the gifts, putting up the tree, and baking cookies with Carrie. I can’t remember ever being this far ahead of things, but it was worth all the self-imposed stress I put myself through for the past few weeks to know that I don’t have to do that in December!

However, if one more person that I’ve already made or purchased a gift for tells me that they don’t want a gift, next year I’m totally going to figure out how to make felted coal…

The Christmas Dress

Sarah Crafts

We just had the best photo shoot ever with Carrie. She adores her Christmas dress, so much so that she wanted to wear it to bed tonight. I think she’s also pretty happy that her “baby” has a coordinating dress:


I am very pleased with how this dress came out, even with all of the issues with fit. This is the same pattern company as last year’s dress, and we really had the same problems last year, but the dress didn’t look quite so huge because it was in a fabric with more drape to it. So next year maybe I’ll try to find something from a different company!

Twenty-Five Months Old

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

I couldn’t decide whether to continue writing these monthly letters – it seems like an odd thing to count months once you’re two years old. But on the other hand, I really enjoy looking back at all the things you’ve done on a monthly basis over the past two years. So, I’ll keep writing as long as you keep doing fun and interesting stuff, OK?

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If we had any doubt that you turned two last month…well, there’s no doubt at all – you tell everyone you see “I be two!” if they even glance in your direction for half a second. You’ve also started suffering from the “if it wasn’t my idea I refuse to do it” syndrome, the “if it’s on my plate and isn’t at least 97% carbohydrates I won’t eat it” virus, and the “I want to do it myself and if I can’t I will go completely limp/stiffen all my limbs/have a complete and utter meltdown” disease. In other words, you’re two years old!

Right now your most very favorite show to watch is Sesame Street. Practically before we even finish breakfast you start pleading to watch it. Obviously you know I’m at my weakest in the morning before my coffee kicks in, and as long as we don’t have to be anywhere at a particular time that morning I usually let you watch it. Hey, it’s more time for me to drink coffee and clean up breakfast! (Although I do have to admit…I really love Sesame Street too and I watch it with you more often than not.) You love to try the things they show, so when the Count introduced the number of they day by showing a little girl hopping on one foot 11 times you decided you would hop on one foot. You stand in a doorway, hold on to the frame, pick up one foot and swing it back and forth while you count. It’s really quite charming.

Speaking of counting, it’s really funny how you count now: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20! It’s actually pretty impressive that you know there are numbers past 20, even if you don’t know what they are. You also love to use my retractable tape measure to measure things, and everything is “two-four-nine” long, whether it’s my nose or the dogs’ tails.

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You desperately want to be all grown up. You beg me for coffee in the morning (no, I don’t give it to you – the last thing you need is caffeine!) and tote a purse around when we shop. If I ask you if you’re my baby, you say “No, Mommy! I a little girl!” I know how badly you want to be grown up, but baby, stay little as long as you can. There’s so much time to be a grown up and so little time to be a baby!

Love, Mommy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sarah General

I’m relaxing my no unprotected photos of Carrie rule for the day to illustrate what I’m truly thankful for today: my family!

Myself, Carrie, our cousin Benny and my mom making pumpkin pie last night:

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(And those were the best pumpkin pies ever, cheater crusts and all! I guess that many hands stirring the filling makes it taste better.)

My great-great-aunt Amy reading Carrie her Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks book:

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(And for anyone looking for a nice way to introduce a toddler to the concept of Thanksgiving – not the history – it’s a really cute read despite the somewhat inane title.)

There are lots of other people in my family (and here I’m counting all of my very good friends as well) that I’m thankful for, of course!

What are you thankful for today?

Rip or Wrap?

Sarah Knitting

This could be a new game show! I have the following for your consideration:
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The face cloth on the left has been knitted 1.5 times. I was able to get the suggested gauge on the suggested needles. The reason I ripped it out halfway through was because (believe it or not) it was even more monstrously ugly, huge and crooked than it is now, so I went down a needle size. The face cloth on the right is more what I was going for (and is a different pattern). I am willing to give that one as a gift and actually sign my name to the card.

But unless someone comes up with a really compelling reason to not rip out the other one – such as “I have an incredibly frightening purple face cloth that looks exactly like that and I couldn’t possibly live without it!” – I’m going to enlist my mom’s help to rip out all 4 hours (that includes the ripping and re-knitting I’ve already done) of ugly knitting and re-knit that yarn with the other pattern.

I think it’s the (slight but important) difference between giving a “handmade” gift and a “homemade” gift.

And while we’re at it, does anyone have any suggestions for really fancy soaps or lotions that aren’t highly scented, as I don’t know the recipient’s preferences for fragrances?

Precocious is a Kind of Circle

Sarah Carolyn

At breakfast this morning Murphy was begging for Carrie’s bagel, so I told him to lay down. Carrie followed that up with a stern “Stay!” – which is a command we don’t use, we use “Wait!” instead, so she got that somewhere else (a book maybe?)

I laughed and said, “You’re pretty precocious, aren’t you? Do you know what ‘precocious’ means?”

Carrie’s reply? “It’s a kind of circle!” Then, after laughing hysterically for a bit she said, “I funny, Mommy!”

I think she was making a joke…

Pass The Bandaids

Sarah Crafts

You know it’s time to put down the sewing and go to bed when:

1. You poke your needle into the fabric for safe-keeping so you have both hands to adjust the button you’re trying to sew.
2. You grab the fabric, causing the needle to poke into your finger.
3. You let go in surprise (what is that needle doing there?) and move the needle over a bit.
4. Repeat step 2.
5. You decide that having the needle in the fabric is too dangerous, and that moving it to your mouth might be safer.
6. In the process of moving the needle to your mouth, you poke yourself in the chin hard enough to draw blood.

Um. Yeah. I think it’s time to put everything away and go to bed before I poke any more odd holes in my face!

Very Observant Child

Sarah Carolyn

Carrie has made a few observations today:

To our friend Lexi, as she patted Carrie’s hair, “I have a lot of hair!”
After taking off her rain boots in the car, she told me, “Mommy, I have tiny little feet!”

And in the car (after getting her flu shot, which Carrie watched and didn’t cry at all about) she must have been playing hide and seek with her sippy cup. I hear, “Where’s my water? Where’s my water?” from the back seat, and then “Oh, there it is! I found you!”

(edited to add:)
The other day I was wearing a light-weight fuzzy sweater instead of my usual long-sleeve t-shirt. Carrie looked at me and said “You wear towel shirt?” So I asked her if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and she touched my sleeve and said “oh, so soft!” So I guess “towel shirt” is a compliment!

Presenting: Devan II

Sarah Knitting

I finished sewing the buttons on Devan the second this afternoon. Sorry for the really horrid indoor lighting picture. As far as I can tell the rain is going to continue until…well, probably until it snows. No more sunshine until next summer!

The baby this sweater is intended for is almost two months old. Luckily I didn’t plan for it to be newborn-sized!

This is the second time I’ve knit this pattern, and I still love it. However, I have learned three very important lessons:
1. Baby gifts should generally be knit out of something heavier than sock yarn. Otherwise they do not qualify as “quick knits”.
2. Navy blue (which is what the entire back of the sweater is) is a really boring color to knit.
3. The only thing more tedious than knitting navy blue yarn is sewing it up. Seriously, I thought I was going to become permanently cross-eyed trying to weave the seams.

But it turned out so cute I can’t be really all that frustrated with it!

Approaching The Finish Line

Sarah Crafts

Gifts finished: 17
Gifts in progress: 4
Gifts unstarted: 1*
* This number doesn’t count food gifts or teeny-tiny projects.

It looks like there’s a very good possibility I’ll make my self-imposed deadline of Thanksgiving to finish everything I’m making for Christmas gifts. My goal is to have everything finished or purchased & wrapped by December 1st, along with having the house clean(ish) and decorated(ish). This way I can spend the weeks leading up to Christmas writing Christmas cards, baking cookies and enjoying my birthday!

Carrie’s dress is -> <- this close to being done. I have to figure out how I want to hem the pinafore (I'm not in love with the ruffle the pattern calls for) and I still haven't hemmed the sleeves of the dress. And apparently satin ribbon wide enough to be a sash doesn't exist...? But I'm so glad I started it so early! Thanks for all the compliments on it.

A very rare non-Christmas finished object has been sighted. It’s still lurking in the tote bag awaiting buttons, but I may be able to steal a few moments to finish that small task and take some pictures tomorrow. My blog has become very boring with all of this Christmas crafting going on.