WIP Wednesday

Works in progress Wednesday.
Heres what I started to whip up last night-


Some little pee pee teepees for my friend who just gave birth to her first son. I would have finished them if my needle wouldnt have broke trying to sew those striped ones. I wanted to bring her a little care package with some soup, and mother's milk tea, and I thought these would be funny. Tute can be found here. They were really easy, and fun to make up and only require a 7 inch circle of flannel. These would also be a great baby shower gift.

A little game I am making up for a girl who turned two in my playgroup, and I am going to make up a little boy version for my nephew's second birthday as well. ( Sorry Amanda for the sneak peek!) I feel like I have been sewing and cutting 4 inch squares for days.

Let me know what you are working on, or if you've got any plans for tonight!

Christmas Wrap up

Ah, Christmas went too fast this year. I was anticipating Christmas Day for weeks before, all giddy to give gifts and spend time with my family. When Christmas Eve came, it seemed so rushed, and I didn't have nearly enough time to spend with each family member. 3 hours or so with my SIL,nephew and Aunt, then about 3 hours at our Compadre's house for their annual Christmas Eve-stay up til midnight party. We made it until about 12:30 and went home...

I did get to learn to make tamales with my Comadre, we made up 5 different varieties, green pork, red pork, red chicken, spicy chili and cheese, and sweet strawberry. We spent about 2 hours just wrapping the tamales, about 70 or so. The next day we only took home a plate of maybe 10, the rest were all eaten the night before. (hence no photo)

My and the kiddos received some very lovely thoughtful gifts. The kiddos got clothes, good books, an awesome doctors kit, and some softie toys for Chiquitin. My SIL Amanda knit an amazing 6 foot or so long snake,

I received a cute pink knit washcloth and some lovely handmade soaps from her as well. Coffee, lavender, vanilla, lemon and some unscented that the boys dry skin is doing amazingly well with. Amanda- you need to get going on opening up that Etsy shop!My Aunt made this lovely tree skirt, and gave it to me. Can you believe it? It has very cute wonky Christmas log cabins on the sides. I just love it. She also gave me some sewing stuff, and some very cute napkins and quilted trivets for my kitchen. Other random lovely gifts I got- Some soft fuzzy socks that Papi snatched up a pair of, The Softie Kit , some very warm gloves, holiday chocolates, and some organic shampoo and condition that I can start spoiling myself with.

I will put up some pictures soon any of the handmade gifts I've made that I havent already blogged about.

Etsy sale

Just a quickie post, I have more Christmas sewing to get done!

I am offering 25% off ALL items in my etsy, I plan to be restocking with lots of new exciting stuff after the new year. Please check it out!

http://www.weepereas.etsy.com

Christmas Gifts

Here are some of the gifts I have made for friends who have already received and opened their gifts.

I made these burp clothes, a little softie to go with, and the blankets with the pretty stitching as well as some nursing pads for my pregnant friends. (Thanks Susan for the help/idea for the softie!)

I made this apron using the Emmeline pattern, and used the gorgeous

'apples+pears' fabric by Alexander Henry.

And here are the little matching aprons for her 6 year old and 2 year old daughters.

Some crayon rolls. They were so fun to make, and I know so many toddlers, I had to make up a bunch!
I made colored pencil rolls for my 2 friends who have older daughters as well.

Here is a better picture of the Apron I made for my Sister. It is using the Emmeline pattern also, but the fabric is 'ready for action' by Alexander Henry. Yes, those are half naked firemen

on the apron.

Holiday Cookies

Here is a few of the delicious cookies we made up this past weekend.

Chocolate Ravioli cookies

4 squares semi sweet chocolate,
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened,
1/4 cup vegetable shortening, ( I used butter instead)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
3 tbsp chopped hazelnuts

Melt 2 squares of chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave, and let cool. In a large bowl, mix together butter, shortening, sugar and eggs. Stir in meted chocolate. Add flour, baking powder, salt and and baking soda. mix well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is firm.
To make filling, melt remaining chocolate, Add ricotta cheese and hazelnuts. mix well and set filling aside.
preheat oven to 350 degrees. on a floured surface or on wax paper, roll half of the dough into a 9x13 inch rectangle. cut into 1 /2 squares. spoon 1 tbsp of filling onto half of the squares and cover with remaining squares. press edges together with a fork to seal. repeat with remaining dough. Arrange cookies on ungreased cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool.
From the Ultimate Cookie Book,Tormont Publications.

Easy Cream Cheese Truffles

8 ounce package cream cheese,
4 1/4 cups powdered sugar, divided
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled,
1/4 each of different coatings, chopped walnuts, chopped almonds, coconut flakes, cocoa, crushed candy canes,powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese until fluffy. slowly add 4 cups powdered sugar. beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate and beat until blended. Chill for approximately one hour. Shape chilled mixture into one inch balls. roll in various coatings. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. makes 6 1/2 dozen truffles.

Recipe from Gooseberry Patch Christmas Book 2, my aunt has been making these truffles for Christmas since 2002.

Christmas Traditions

Saying I had a wonderful weekend with my family wouldn't be nearly enough to sum it up. I only really have my SIL in town with me, the rest of my family lives in other cities. It makes me appreciate them so much more though, and I just feel giddy and excited when I do see them.


(Not that I don't love my SIL Amanda, she is such a sweet,crafty mama.)


My Sister, Aunt and SIL all got together to do a bit of a Christmas exchange, hang out, and bake up some Christmas cookies. I hope we will be able to do this every year, it was so much fun to do something together for the holidays. Of course, wonderful gifts were given to me, but that wasn't nearly as nice as seeing my wonderful Aunt holding my chiquitin while Cristian tore through the baby's gifts. Or seeing my nephew and son running crazy around the house having such a blast. Or all the lovely cookies we made up while chatting, and having my son help. (with auntie Rachels patient help!) Or the face on my sister when she opened her apron I made her,


sorry for the red eyed, fuzzy, very blurry picture. Papa took this picture, and well he sucks at photography. Rachel, if you get a picture of the apron could you send it to me?


and here are the very hot oven mitts to go with the apron. Mmm,hmm.

I made a little 'letters to Santa' bag for my nephew.
Partially inspired from here. but didn't cost me $80+ even with the time it took to hand embroidery all the lettering.

A little tea wallet I made for my SIL to tote along in her purse so she doesn't have crumpled tea bags.

A knitting needle case for my SIL, so she doesn't jab herself with a sharp hook while searching for her needles in the bottom of her purse. I am obsessed with wraps lately, I just love the idea of wrapping something up to tote it around. That and thank you cards or any note cards. I am starting to have a nice stack of those, which is fine by me.

I will post more pictures of our cookie baking, and a few recipes (truffles! chocolate raviolis!) later on when I have more time. For now I need to get sewing. I only have 4 more Christmas gifts to sew! (out of my list of 26 handmade gifts! whoo-hoo!)
you can check out some more pictures on my flickr.

Mail goodness

Well my mailbox has been full this week!
Nine Fireflies sent me these goodies after entering her FFF giveaway. It was suppose to be for the Michael Miller fq on the bottom right, but she sent a few extra because she couldn't post it right away. What a sweetie!

This was for the One Good Book swap, hosted by Life with Nature girl. This swap was held back in October, but my package was coming from Australia, It ended up being sent to France, back to Australia, then sent to me. So I just received it after 2 months or so of mail confusion! The package was so nice, I didn't mind the wait!

The stuffed animal in the back is a Tasmanian devil, I had no idea they didn't look like that looney toones character. She also included some yummy Australian made chocolates, a t-shirt and some socks for the baby (both of which are in the wash...).This is my package sent for the Merry Christmas Children's Book swap, I had a 7 year old boy, so I included lots of little crafts for him to do, like a wooden helicopter you paint and build yourself.This is what I received, a cute little Nativity Story book, with little softies on the top of each page, a reading blanket, a stuffed dog, a chocolate Santa that papa ate right away, a magnetic Wiggles book with little magnets to place on the pages and this...What a cute countdown calendar! There is a little lolly pop on a string to place in each stocking to count down the days, and the pockets in the stocking are just the right size to fill with a tiny candy cane or other special treat.

I also started receiving Christmas cards in the mail this week (no pictures to protect their privacy,though) and it just makes me more excited that Christmas is coming! Now i just need to mail out my Christmas cards!...

Christmas Spirit

With only 14 days until Christmas, I am starting to get really excited. I wrapped up a bunch more presents, and made some handmade gift tags, inspired by this blog.


We also got around a foot of snow earlier this week, and I took this picture of our backyard.

My sister flies in this weekend and we will be starting a new tradition. My Aunt, cousin, and sister in law all picked out a cookie recipe we wanted to try out, so will spend the day baking, chatting and having my sister open her gifts. It has been almost 2 years since she was able to come visit and excited doesn't really sum it up! It will be the first time she will meet my nephew, as well as Baby Chiquitin. I will post after the weekend some lovely pictures of all the cookies we made!

I have been thinknig about having a much simpler Christmas, one that is not focused on the gifts, and full stocking, but instead on traditions, and time spent with the family. To just do the fun stuff, and not be so worn out from trying to do everything, and get it all done perfectly. So far I have made 15 handmade gifts for my family and friends, and I have only 8 more to make. I am hoping that the time crunch will help me be focused, and I still have a few really fun projects to make. I can post pictures midweek after my Secret Santa gift exchange.

2 month visit

We went to the doctor's today for Chiquitin's well visit. Chiquitin is what I have been calling our little one, it means 'little one' in Spanish, and that is just what he is, this little rolly polly bundle of happy baby-ness.

He had to get immunizations today, which he did not do well with. He was giving an oral immunization first, which was suppose to be the easiest. He started barfing all over the table after the nurse gave him about half of the dose. I simply said that's enough, he doesn't need it then. I don't think she wanted to argue me on that. Maybe it was the cold stare I gave her wondering if she was going to question my parenting...

The other immunizations were shots given in his chubby thighs, but he bled through both band aids and onto his little onesie. I just breastfed him right away, and he was calm, and fell asleep with me cuddling him on my chest.

2 month stats: weight 15 lbs -higher than 95th percentile

length: 24 3/4 inches -95th percentile

head size -16 inches 50-75th percentile

Chiquitin also gave me two great big smiles last night while we were playing before putting him down for the night. I was just talking to him, and he smiled,and waved his hands around a bit, as if he was excited. I stated to smile and laugh because it was so cute, and he gave me another big grin. So cute. This was the first time he has actually smiled while playing or being awake.

A few sweet things...

Getting out with the gals. I sucked it up and made it happen to go to my sons playgroup today. And it was oh so worth it. Found out my lovely friend is 10 weeks pregnant, and I am so very excited for her. I will be praying for the heath of this baby.

A snow advisory is out, and my backyard is covered with a beautiful blanket of snow, and I have no need to get out of the house. I would post a picture, but I left my camera at my lovely Aunts house on what was suppose to be a crafting day together. Instead we shopped for fabric and had dinner together. (still wonderful)

Being half way through the day and not yelling some form of "Stop hitting the baby!". Also he has been playing quietly for 1 hour in his room (instead of napping *sigh*) and letting me get some down time.

The amazing generosity of people. Sew Mama Sew is doing a giveaway today, and tons of bloggers are participating. It is great to see others who are following the' Tis better to give than receive' mantra. check out the fabulous list and read their blogs, and check out their Etsy if they have one. A great way to find some great Christmas present for those hard to buy for people on your list.

Having 6 present underneath my Christmas tree wrapped. Having only 9 more items to sew on my list of 23 handmade gifts for friends and family.

Let me know what brightens your day!

*Edited to add, litterally seconds after posting, Cristian ran out of his room and started squeezing the baby's face. Ah, well. today started nicely*