Magic Kingdom Christmas!

Sleeping Beauty's castle says Merry Christmas!

This is Just for Sizing!

I can’t stress enough that this dress is just for sizing purposes! This is Bethie’s trial run of her sister gift. The theme I drew for her was 1950s, so I purchased a Vogue 1954 pattern in her size (more or less).

I naturally procrastinated quite a bit...I ended up sewing the following muslin-ish thingin' today. 

Chris said that he's never seen me sew a dress so fast, as this only took me about four hours to cobble together. However, it isn't hemmed at all (why hem the muslin before you have the recipient try it on?) and there are some sketchy parts of it, like the front yoke...don't look too closely at that. 

I look forward to making the legitimate version of this! It should be beyond awesome, all brown tweed and 50s.

Timber says, "merry Christmas!"

A Special Message from the Christmas Dragon

The best Christmas gift in the world is a saucer of whipped cream.

Or the whole aerosol container.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Ah, gift exchanges...you're bringing me down, man!

Today was our holiday party at the COG, replete with gift exchange. Below is an excerpt from the event appointment.

Please join us to celebrate the holidays SACOG-style with a potluck and "white elephant" gift exchange.  A sign-up sheet for the potluck will be placed at the reception desk the first of December. ...We've modified the gift exchange from previous years with the hope that people will bring a gift that others might actually want and enjoy.  For years, we had a white elephant gag gift, but we discontinued that tradition after people got tired of receiving the same old bad stuff every year.  A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn't enjoy receiving it, then it's likely no one else would, either.

 Well, that is fair. Except...if we're not supposed to bring white elephant gift, why is it still called a white elephant gift party? I know I'm arguing semantics here, but it makes me snort each time I think of it. This prompted me to augment my original gift selection.

Behold, the White Elephant power pack!

I guess it is misleading. If you look at this for a split second, you are most likely to notice the Hello Dolly album and little else. However, when you remind yourself that we don't live in a flip book, you notice the Ginger Elizabeth bittersweet candied almonds and the (damn nice, if I do say so myself) tote bag. And the burned ELO CD is just icing on the freakin' cake. 

You might have guessed this by now, but the person who did receive this gift disregarded everything but the Hello Dolly, so the legitimate gift of candy and a tote was lost...forever. He pawned all of the items off (minus the album, which he wanted to see if he could sell--ill-advised plan of action) on another co-worker.

I'm too sensitive for gift exchanges when there are handmade items on the line, as well as chocolate that I swear by. That was a damn nice tote--I finished all the edges (for once) and I think the color pairing is wonderful, if not a touch springy.

And Hello Dolly is WONDERFUL!

Correlation or Causality?

While working on this purse,

I broke two needles.

I feel rather confident in my assertion that the purse broke the needles. I will defend this stance in court. But I guess the real question is how did some upcycled suiting and quilting cotton break not one, but TWO sewing machine needles? Anyone?

Christmas crafting continues, though I have been procrastinating like nobody's business on a particularly difficult pattern that has me in over my head. Wish me luck!

Beagle!

Look at the cutest beagle in the world!

This is Murphy, who I found walking the streets of midtown, sans owner. Poor little pup was without human, so she hung out with Chris and me for a couple of hours until we were able to get a hold of her mom. Timber was "okay" with the whole situation, but I think he was pretty relieved to see her part. Oh gosh, I have an only child/dog.

Aside from that, I made a sunglasses case from found objects and wrapped a number of gifts. Exciting stuff!