A Winter Geranium

  

Christmas dresses have become a yearly tradition in our house. 

Oddly enough it didn't start that way- Cordelia's first couple of Christmas' she wore store bought , typically velvet, dresses. Now when I ask if I can buy her a dress instead of making one she says "absolutely not, you always make me one and it is special!"

   

In 2013 I started with the batman dress, 2014 she got matching cat dresses with her doll, 2015 was a dramatic corduroy dress, and 2016 was a spunky my little pony dress with wings. This year she requested snow flakes, sparkle, and fuzzy pockets!   

I used Made by Rae's Geranium pattern - but with some of the extension pack options, and some of my own modifications. I stuck with the original cap sleeves but used the longer bodice and the peter pan collar used in the update. I drafted a circle skirt- but with added side seams for the pockets- for the dress instead of using the original straighter skirt so it was a "twirly" dress.

You can't tell from these photos, but the bodice is a sparkle cotton, the skirt is shiny silver- and the collar is fuzzy!  

  

I thought fuzzy pockets was a strange request- but apparenty it made the dress. 

I hope you all had happy holidays- does anyone else have a tradition of sewing special Christmas dresses?!

It Was The Night Before Christmas

I can't always make Cordelia happy, and mostly I have accepted this. This was a really hard semester of school for me and unfortunately for her as well. I had to spend a lot of time studying to keep up, which meant that I spent less time focusing on Cordelia and she spent much more time clinging to me with all her might. Because it was such a crazy semester I did my best to cut down my Christmas crafting, I still did a little bit, but compared to years before it was really minimal.  

One afternoon while I was working on one of the few projects I had,  Cordelia came up to my desk and said "Mommy, are you making my Christmas dress?" surprised I said "no sweetie, I actually wasn't going to make you a Christmas dress this year because there aren't many more days until Christmas" and Cordelia said "but mommy, I love love my Christmas dress, you always make me one, you have to make me one please"....so on Christmas Eve I turned to my trusty Bella Sunshine Designs Coffee Shop Lace Dress and made a Christmas dress, well and a matching doll dress- but I have no pictures of it! 

I know there is nothing "christmasy" about this dress, no winter scenes, no red and green- but if it's made to be worn on Christmas it totally counts in my book! 

My sister picked up this cat fabric (part of the Hello Petal collection, designed by Aneela Hoey for Moda) in two color waves because we can't resist a good cat print and she suggested this would be a good opportunity to use it for a dress for Cordelia. 

The dark pink cat fabric has a fun bright teal accent color that I picked up in the piping and the buttons- I love a good button back dress. 

The only change I made to the Coffee Shop Dress pattern was that I more than doubled the amount of fabric in the skirt to make it extra full and extra twirly! The dress went over really well with Cordelia, and it was sure worth the time it took to make it! 

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Guys, I cannot believe that today is Christmas, This year has gone by soo quickly! I am happy to report that while 2015 was a stressful year that it was also full have happiness, laughter, and Love. This year for our Holiday photos Brendon suited up in my fathers very first Santa Costume. My dad dressed up as Santa for over 25 years and it was wonderful to still get a picture with a family Santa this year even though my dad isn't up to dressing up anymore.  

I hope you all are having a very Merry Christmas, and that you are all happy and safe- we are off to the Grandparents now! 

Is It Christmas Yet?

I cannot believe it's December already? It seems like a cliche to say so- but where has the year gone? Despite the title of the post, I am really not ready for Christmas. I have two exams, and two finals to survive before I can relax. However, with a very excited four year old in the house, up went the Christmas tree and up went the small amount of decorations that we have.

She is incredibly excited for Christmas day, she keeps telling me she wants it to be tomorrow. I have a feeling this month will flash before our eyes! 

Cordelia and Brendon picked out a nice tiny four foot tree on Monday that is very proportional to our living room (last year we picked a beautiful giant one that was kind of in the way) and Cordelia and I set it up last night. 

As we decorated the tree she pulled out each ornament, she told me about the ones she remembered, she matched like ornaments together, she told stories about ones she didn't remember, and she introduced the ones that didn't have pairs to "friends". It took forever to get the tree up and I was totally overwhelmed, but it was worth it. 

This morning She woke me up super early and super energetic, and fully dressed in dress she wore last year for our Christmas cards. She told me we had to take pictures in front of the tree, with the cat, just like last year- because that's part of Christmas!The cat was more cooperative last year, so I have a feeling we will try this again later. It is hard to get a picture with both of them still! 

I am really impressed that Cordelia remembers last year- I am always startled by what she remembers, especially as her memory gets sharper and longer. 

Merry Christmas!

December often feels like a giant check list, and with having the first week and a half occupied by school I feel like the month was way too short! There were Christmas cards to be made, gifts to be sewn, lights and decorations to be put up, cookies to be baked- I even have one more thing left on my holiday to do list (well actually a couple of things if you count the unfinished gifts I wrapped and gave out and now actually have to finish). Everything that has gone on this month has left me feeling more than a little exhausted and lifeless. But despite the total fatigue, I feel like we had a pretty happy Christmas. 

I think this is the first year Cordelia really "got" Christmas. She always comes into our bedroom and wakes us up- we almost don't even need an alarm clock she is that reliable. However, yesterday morning she got out of bed very quietly and went to the living room. We expected her to come running back to our room to tell us that Santa had come. After waiting and waiting we realized something was up and called for her- she came running in to tell us that she had gotten a whole bunch of surprise eggs. She was soo excited her eyes were sparkling. Sure enough we went out to the living room and she had torn through half of the surprise eggs that me and two of my friends painstakingly made her the night before. She was too happy for me to be exasperated at her- even though I did really want to watch her open ALL of the eggs. 

Cordelia has been extremely obsessed with watching unboxing videos on youtube. While I don't quite get the appeal she would watch them all day every day if we let her. So in addition to the surprise eggs we also picked up a punch of blind bags to go in her stocking- which made her one happy little girl. 

Christmas is a pretty busy affair for us. Every year we try to make it simpler and this year I think we got it about as simple as we will ever be able to get it. We opened gifts at our house and ate breakfast with my hubby's grandmother. Then we went to my mom and dad's house for more gifts and lunch, and then we did dinner (and even more gifts) at Brendon's Mom's house. This picture is of Cordelia at my mom's house- she was very eager to try on her shoes as soon as she unwrapped them. There were a couple of unfamiliar faces there this year so Cordelia was a little shy, and it wore her (and me) out- thankfully the day wasn't packed as tightly as normal so we were able to take a nap before heading off to dinner! 

Cordelia always has soo much fun at my mother in law's house. Brendon has a little sister and brother who are a good deal younger then him and Cordelia sees them more like kids. Kids who are a lot of fun to play with. Last year they all had a mine craft sword fight after Christmas dinner- this year they had a nerf gun war which ended in me getting pegged right under my eye!  

  

I hope you all had a great Christmas, and I hope if you are just as tired as I am that you had a very relaxing boxing day!