It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

As usual I am looking forward to Christmas, and was really excited to get the Christmas decor up. The Christmas season is so short that I like to put up the tree as early as possible so that I have as much time to enjoy it as possible. So the day after Thanksgiving, we got to work. Last year Anabelle was very content to just gaze at the tree and enjoy.

This year she is more "hands on". Before we got started we needed to put on our holiday gear.

I had to be very thoughtful about where I placed things in terms of safety and breakabilty. Anabelle was very helpful, often letting me know she didn't agree with where I had placed an ornament by yanking it off and throwing it to the ground. Sometimes she decided on a better place and attempted to hang it there.

The tree looks beautiful, and I love watching Anabelle inspect each ornament. I am trying to teach her to just touch each ornament, not pull it off with all her strength making the whole tree shake. Umm yeah.... we'll see how that goes! A big thank you to Becky who stopped by Friday night to visit and got roped into helping hang Christmas lights.

On Saturday I got to spend the day shopping with my Mom, it was a lovely day. I picked up a few things for Anabelle, to help her get ready for Christmas. Here she is modeling her new Christmas pj's and playing with some Santa hats. So cute!

Thanksgiving

It's Turkey Time!

Yum!

Anabelle trying to dump her plate-stinker!

Funny faces with Grandma

Mikey and Steph

Tried to get some family pictures, Anabelle didn't want to cooperate

Mom and Dad

Zac and Abby entertain Anabelle

Anabelle was a little more cooperative in this one

Loving Uncle Mike

Belle and Grandma

Dessert is good!

Hey Grandpa whatcha doing?

Playing in the yard

This week has been a bit of a rough one...

On Wednesday I caught some virus going around that resulted in lots of time spent in the bathroom and on the couch. Thankfully it only lasts about 24-48 hours and I was feeling better soon. Also thankfully my mom was able to take a day off work and come take care of Anabelle and myself because I was in no condition to take care of little Miss. On the not so good side, my mom caught what I had and was out of commission for a few days. Sorry Mom!

As of now Anabelle has not been sick and John may have only had a very mild version-no time spent in the bathroom, just time on the couch. Wait a minute... maybe he wasn't sick at all? Just kidding =)

Anabelle has really been walking up a storm, and basically does laps all over the house now. Since she can climb stairs too, there is no stopping her- until she hits a baby gate or door. She feels that she should be able to roam freely throughout the house and gets quite angry with you when you tell her "no, you cannot go upstairs right now", or you put up a baby gate to keep her out of a desired space. She pouts, whines, and cries. It is not pleasant. But I guess that's what toddlers do right?

So in an effort to burn some energy and give her some unrestricted "running" room, we headed outside this afternoon to play in the back yard.

On a very rare occasion Anabelle will allow you to hold her hand, we are working on this.

Freedom!!

Feeling the tree bark

It's cold, time to go inside!

Flannel PJ's into toddler dress

Here is my latest project for Miss Anabelle:

Some flannel pj's that were headed to Goodwill

I decided to turn it into a little dress. I only used the pj top, so I still have the bottoms for any future projects. First I removed the pocket and sleeve cuffs on the shirt. Then I cut the shape for the dress out. The front of the dress being made from the back of the shirt and the back of the dress being made from the front of the shirt with the buttons. I saved the cuffs to use the red trim for decoration. I read online that ironing the fabric helps make for smoother more precise sewing, so I made sure to iron out all my seams before sewing them-it was very helpful. This flannel fabric was much easier to work with than the sweatshirt material. I really like how this little dress turned out, I feel like it looks a lot more polished than my previous tunic.

Unfortunately I need to get a little better at sizing, it does fit Anabelle now, but i don't think it will fit for long. And it is getting very difficult to get good pictures of Anabelle because she now likes to RUN at you while you try to snap away =) Resulting in a picture where she looks like a happy Frankenstein.

Here is some evidence of Anabelle's new walking skills.

Update: How to turn a hoodie sweatshirt into a toddler tunic

I spent last night thinking about the little tunic I made for Anabelle. At first I felt like just moving on to the next project, but then I kinda felt bad. The reasoning behind re-purposing clothes into something new is so that you don't waste. I had taken something that was useful and could have been donated to Goodwill as a perfectly good sweatshirt and turned it into an ugly dress I wasn't likely to use. Not such a good thing. So any way... I began to think about what I could do to improve my little dress. I decided to first fix the arm holes, making the width of the straps thinner. Then I decided that to make it a little more feminine I could add ruffles. What says "girly" more than ruffles? So after some research online I figured out how to make ruffles and then hand stitched them on. I think it looks much better. Still not fantastic, but I wouldn't be embarrassed for Anabelle to be seen in it. I really like the ruffles and think that they may make an appearance in some other outfits. I am currently trying to decide on my next project, if you have any ideas let me know.

Before

After

Ruffles

Cutest model ever!

How to turn a hoodie sweatshirt into a toddler tunic

After sewing our Halloween costumes, I became inspired to start sewing more often. I like the idea of sewing things for Anabelle, mainly because she is small and therefore it is easier. Also a nice benefit is that she can't talk yet and complain about the things I make her wear. I have been looking online and there are many websites devoted to making baby clothes and all of the different things you can do. I like looking on Etsy; a website that sells all handmade things, they have some really adorable children's clothes that I drool over while trying to figure out if I could replicate them. Right now my sewing skills are pretty basic and not perfect so I decided I needed some practice projects. Online I ran across some crafters that use men's dress shirts to make girls dresses, they are very cute. I began to think about the idea of reusing old clothing to make new clothing. I decided to look through the bag of Goodwill clothes I had sitting around waiting to be dropped off. I pulled out a few things that I thought I could use to design something else. I started with this hoodie sweatshirt.

The material seemed easy to work with, soft, comfy, and warm for the winter. I figured I'd start with something easy- a little pullover tunic that could be paired with a long sleeve onesie and leggings. I thought it would be cute to keep some of the original parts of the hoodie, so I was careful when I cut it up to preserve the pockets. Because it was a zippered hoodie I couldn't get the front to be all one piece and had to have a seam sewn down the middle to connect my two front panels. Overall, it is an ok 1st attempt. I think that it looks kinda like a medieval tunic. It is very plain, not girly at all (which I thought I would originally like, but then once she had it on I didn't), and the top part is a little ill fitting. On the plus side; it fits, and the pockets line up pretty well. So there it is my first project. I don't think Anabelle will be wearing it unless I make some adjustments, because even if she can't complain yet... I do still have standards.

What we've been up to...

Grandpa bought Anabelle her very own chair, she looks so cute sitting in it.

Grandma and Grandpa have a park by their house so we took a visit. Anabelle loved the slide and would laugh so much while going down.

The swings are pretty fun too.

Snack time! Anabelle is learning how to use the "snack trap", a cup with a special lid to reduce spilling. It is pretty handy, and she likes being able to hold her own cup. We like to use it when we are out and Anabelle is in her stroller or shopping cart, it makes outings a little more pleasant for Mommy when Anabelle is occupied =)

We have had some really warm weather here, so we have been taking a lot of walks. One of our favorite places is the fountain. Anabelle loves to walk around the perimeter of the fountain.

Anabelle got some new Thanksgiving pj's, they say "Who are you calling a Turkey?" So cute!

Anabelle loves to explore new places, lately she likes to go through the bathroom cabinets. What could be more fun than toilet paper, towels, and soap?

video test

I have been having some trouble uploading video lately so here is a test run.

A Perfect Fall Saturday

Today our friends Al, Kevin, and Uncle Joe and Aunt Kari came over to watch the Illinois game, and eat some chili. John was nice enough to make me and Belle our very own pot of not-so-spicy chili and it was delicious! Anabelle was not much of a chili eater, but in time I bet she'll come to love her Daddy's chili just as much as everyone else does.

Go Illinois!

Mmm... chili

Can't have chili without cornbread

Gotta have the toppings

What could be better for desert than apple crisp?

Hey Mom, need help setting the table?