A New Year!!

It's kind of hard to believe that the last post on MOM was in September of last year, but at the same time, it's not too hard to believe.  

I closed up MOM's West Coast HQ at the end of November.  My husband and I sold our little, teeny tiny house in Northern California and we've since moved to the South.  Not Southern California, but the actually South.  Georgia to be exact.  It was sad and a bit hard to say good-bye to our friends and life in CA, but the upside is that the basement at my parents is bigger than my house in CA, and we don't just have to stay in the basement.  Who knew space could bring such peace!?

I've decided that even though we are temporarily here, I need to love where I'm living, so I'm decorating.  My mom has given me the okay to hang stuff up, so I've been nesting.  One of my only local friends, Summer, tipped me off to the Caravan Shoppe.  Have you heard of them? It's pretty great.  I've bought Olliblocks, chalkboard prints, and the nativity sets.

I added some yarn garland to my chalkboard prints.  I used Anna Maria Horner's tassel tutorial to make my garland.

I had an O' Christmas Tree for Christmas.

Then I got a geometrical heart for Valentine's Day.

I then, with the help of Summer, made a Silent Night Nativity.  This was one of my favorite things I've made in a while.  It was a bit of a labor of love, but totally worth it.

I also helped my kids to make these simple nativities.  They were so cute.

My yarn obsession turned in to making tons and tons of pom poms.  I've turned the pom poms into garland,

adornments for wrapped gifts,

and fake flowers.  I'm sure I'll come up with other ways to use these little fluffy things, so just wait and see what I come up with next!

Please note how totally messy things are in the picture below.  Totally keeping it real here.

Hank's room also got some needed decorations.  I made an "adventures await" banner and stapled an extra large world map to two stained dowels.  Now if only I could come up with a fun interactive way to actually use the map to teach my kids geography.  I'll google that when I'm done with this post.

This little skirt has been with us for 4 years in a row now.  I'd call that a sewing miracle!

Cookies were baked in the month of December.  Have you tried Dana's Gingerbread Softies?!  They will change your life.  I kind of want to make another batch and dip them in chocolate like she did.  So tasty!

Using Made By Rae's Parsley Pant pattern, I wiped out Christmas PJs for my crew in record timing.  This pattern is incredibly quick and super easy to sew.  I will say that it's a tad narrow on the hips and bum, so I would size up for Grace if I make them again.  George seemed to fit just perfectly in his size, but I have since made him a couple more PJs with the pattern and have lengthened them a bit.  All in all it's a great pattern.

On Christmas night I decided that I needed to cover the window of the door to the backyard from our basement flat.  I've loved this Anna Maria Horner fabric since it was first released as Garden Party.  However, I never bought any and it went away and I had come to grips with the fact that I would never own any.  Then she re-released the collection as Hand Drawn Garden, and I knew I needed to add it to my stash.  I think this simple curtain was a great way to use it, so that I get to enjoy the large beautiful print every single day.

At night we just untie the sashes and we have pretty privacy.  

I don't have the best pictures of my last creation, but it's been a favorite of Grace's.  Have you seen Frozen?  It's her new favorite, and she has the soundtrack and sings the songs all the time.  It's totally hilarious and sweet all at the same time.  Anyway, another hot tip from sewing friend Summer was this cape.

We were at her house for a playdate and Grace came down from Summer's daughter's room wearing a cape and said, "Mom, you need to ask Summer how to make this.  I really want my own."  How could I say no to that?!  The pattern is from Growing Up Sew Liberated and is super simple and produces the greatest little cape.  Love projects like this!  Nothing technically difficult about this pattern, but finding silky fabric 60 inches wide in the colors Grace wanted proved to be a little trickier than I expected, but I think I came close.

Grace wore this cape for an entire day, so I'd say that was a win.

I know Annee has some creations to share that will blow your mind, and I have a dress in the works, and a quilt all cut out, so you just might see an update again soon!  Tootles for now!