Why We Don't Get More Done Around Here

As we go into another holiday weekend I thought that I would share some fun pictures and the reason that we are not more productive around here! The first picture says it all. It IS hard to type once baby toes have found the keyboard.

The second reason we are not more productive is that babies are just so darn funny! I was able to stand in the background and snap a few pictures at a recent photo shoot for Sew Beautiful Magazine. Jennifer and Co. does the photography for the magazine and she is sooo good with the little ones. She truly loves what she does and it shows! I love standing in the background and watching what they do with lighting and staging the pictures.

Christian is modeling an outfit that will appear in the 2012 holiday issue.

He was mesmerized by the fake snow......

And proceeded to dive right in. We had a awful time getting him to look up and the stuff stuck all over the black corduroy outfit.

The next "bright idea" was to lay him on his back and get a picture of the front of the outfit. He thought rolling in the snow was a better idea, and living in Alabama this might be as close as he gets. My photos are fuzzy because we were laughing so hard! He settled down while modeling the other two outfits. Anna and I had a wonderful time as always and left out of breath and ready for lunch.

I hope that everyone has a Happy New Year! I'll get back to sharing fun sewing projects and tutorials next week once my company leaves so just hang on. :)

Michie'

Were Your Holidays Quite?

Mooresville, Alabama

When our children were little I often wished that the holidays were less hectic. As they have grown up I would just like a few of them around. And as always I hope that everyone is well. No such luck this year...... all three of the boys were out of town and those remaining were sick. Except me, which left me in the wonderful position of taking care of everyone else! And so, another day of trying to entertain myself when fun things should be going on. I'm not complaining, it is just how it happens some years and then the good years are really really good!

Fortunately, Santa brought me some really cool crafting and photography books this year and I plan on spending the whole day going through them.

Happy holidays and I hope that they are not too quite! :)

Michie'

Just A Thought....

I was flipping through some old pictures last week and ran across this picture of me Christmas morning 1962. I still remember how exciting it was to get the little pink kitchen set for Christmas. I wasn't nearly as excited last week when I had to buy a new garbage disposal. Have I lost the magic of Christmas?

Michie'

New Sew Beautiful Magazine

It felt like Christmas came early when Rex brought in the mail and my preview copy of the new Sew Beautiful magazine. And what were the chances that Christian, Anna, and Jason would be here for a visit when it arrived? There were 5 copies in the package, so we had a race to see who could find Christian's picture first!

The process started in August while I was in Arizona visiting and the magazine e-mailed me asking about a certain baby outfit that they had spotted on the blog. Why do these things always happen when you are out of town? After I figured out which outfit they were talking about, and tried to remember where is was, in Christian's closet, things moved quickly from there. Christian was photographed at the end of August and I then had to really scramble to get the article and embroidery design completed. One of the dangers of having a garment requested that I have had on hand for awhile is that I then have to retrieve or remember all the details and techniques. But all of those are good problems! :)

Of course we were thrilled with the photograph and it was so much fun to see the finished product from the photo shoot. It is truly amazing how well that they can photo shop out spit up! This was also the day that Christian started arching his back and trying to roll over. What you don't see in the picture is Mommy and Nana Shay ready to catch him if he topples over.

And the best news of all is that this is the beginning of the new "For the boys" article that will be in each issue this year! I was given the opportunity to come up with 6 garments and accompanying articles which will feature designs, tips, and techniques for our little guys. Since my first 3 children were boys and I now have a grandson, this is a project that is very close to my heart and that I am looking forward to sharing with you during the next year.

Michie'

Christian's Christmas Outfit

Thank goodness that Jon-Jons go together rather quickly. Christian's Christmas outfit is completed and best of all, he is really cute in it! The Jon-Jon is made out of the same micro checked gingham as Emma's dress with a white Imperial Broadcloth smocked insert. The shirt is also made from Imperial Broadcloth and is an old pattern that I had on hand.

You might be wondering why the boy doesn't have on his cute white dress shoes that Nana Shay bought him. Well, it was almost nap time and I saw no need in making him mad trying to get him to uncurl those sweet baby toes so that we could put shoes on for a picture. He appreciates it when I let him do what he wants! :)

What is more Christmasy than a station wagon with a Christmas tree strapped to the top? While designing the plate there were several hard choices that had to be made such as how much smocking or in other words, how busy did I want the design to look? So, the decision was made to leave it at one lone station wagon. What do you think the reason was?

A. I didn't want to overpower a 6 month outfit and distract from the cute guy who would be wearing it.

B. Time was and issue, so I stop smocking while there was still time to finish the garment.

C. It is a station wagon driving in white out conditions!

Actually, Anna and I both agreed on "A", but I think that the others are valid reasons. More is not always better especially with sewing! I still like the simple classic designs and plan on sticking to them!

You can click here for the free smocking design!

* Please disregard any suspicious looking e-mails from me! My account has been hacked and we are in the process of taking care of it.

Michie'

The Snowman Jon-Jon

While I was frantically trying to finish smocking the boy's Christmas outfit, I decided that I would take a little break and stitch up a quick project, so that I would feel like I was accomplishing something! I happened to have a piece of fabric that matched the onesie that we found for $4.99 at K-Mart.

Anna stitched up the snowman which we found on "Planet Applique", while I took a break to prop up my giant cast which I have to wear for 2 MORE WEEKS!

The Jon-Jon is made by pattern #137 and is out of olive green pique'. We were so pleased with this project and how handsome the boy looked that we have plans to go through my remnants and see what else we can come up with!

Michie'

The Christmas Dress

Emma is a petite little thing, wearing a size 12 month for her first birthday, so I decided that she needed a simple dress. And I also wanted a dress that would last past the holidays. Considering that this is the dress that I was working on when I had my little accident, and it got mailed a week later than I intended, that ended up being a good plan!

The dress is made out of red micro check gingham using pattern #135 and is smocked with a simple design that reminded me of snowflakes. I smocked the dress while in Arizona and did a few test stitches to make sure that Emma's mommy liked the design. The girls in the family are not picky, but I do try to make sure that I am making things that they like! :)

I made up the smocking design as I went along and about half way through I realized that it is almost identical to a dress that I made last year. How is that for originality? You can click here for the Free Design. But this was a good way to show how the design looks on a different fabric.

Christian's Christmas outfit is made out of the same red fabric and will hopefully be finished this weekend! Being in a cast is really slowing down the sewing process

*Answering a couple of questions..... A reader asked about the number of rows that I Back Smocked for Emma's fall dress. It is not necessary to Back Smock behind the purple geometric smocking.

Michie'