Life With The Crew

Our Tree Tradition

Since tomorrow is the big day for the tree, I thought I'd share how we do it in our home.  Some people get their tree the day after Thanksgiving and take it down the day after Christmas.  Some people put it up on Christmas Eve and the kids wake up to a magical surprise.  Some people opt for the plastic or metal fake tree, pulled out of the basment or attic and dusted off.  For the first couple years of our marriage, my husband and I went to a local tree farm and picked out the tree together, normally stopping for peppermint ice cream at the local dairy on the way home.  We are lucky to have three Christmas tree farms within a half hour drive, so we have our pick.

One year we decided, or I decided maybe, that I didn't want a tree.  Either we didn't have the money, or I didn't want to deal with the mess, or our house was under construction, I don't remember.  (I know, all of those reasons just make me sound like a scrooge.)  But when I came home from work one day, there it was - the symbol of secular Christmas, shining in the corner of my living room with one string of lights hastily strung on it.  My husband, great guy that he is, decided we should have one and so he surprised me.  Now, several years later, that has become our tradition.  This year he surprised both me AND the little babe with the tree and it will become more fun as she gets old enough to enjoy the surprise element of it.  

It is my job to decorate the tree.  I normally decorate it with ornaments from my childhood, but since I couldn't find the box of decorations this year, I started with a blank slate.  So this is what we've got.

 

Simple and toddler friendly ornaments.  

(Sorry for the poor quality photos  - our tree is in a very low light area in the house.)

Linking up with Little Green Shed for Nature In The Home.  

 

 

Christmas Day Tunic

This is for all you newbie seamstresses out there.  (I wanted to say "sewers" as in "people who sew", but apparently it becomes "sewers" as in, the yucky places under ground.  Sewers - my made up version - just seems like it should be a word!) 

I bought this soft flannel fabric back in the beginning of December when picking up some festive fabric for bunting.  I thought it looked wintry cheerful and intended to whip up a simple dress for my little babe to wear on Christmas Day.  Well, the dress is finally done, with a little more than 24 hours to spare, and "simple" it was not!  

I wanted it to be long sleeve and kind of boxy and swingy, to allow for all the movement my little babe is doing right now.  I will state now that I am not a pattern kind of girl.  And this caused problems.  I now understand why people use patterns, but I still don't think I will use one.  To many instructions to get hung up on; I would rather just go with the flow and do it my way, even if "the flow" stagnates for almost a month.

It took me forever to pin together, like two hours probably.  The problem was the arms - how do I attach them under the armpit?  And how do I know that she will even be able to MOVE her arms while wearing this?  After sewing 3/4 of the tunic, I tried it on my wriggly babe.  The body was too tight.  No big deal, I thought, I'll just insert the extra red panel in the back.  But then I realized that I would have to remove the stitches that sewed on both arms, which seemed like A LOT of stitches to this beginner "sewer".  So I put it on top of my sewing basket, intending to work on it the next day, and it sat there for 3 more weeks.  I had to move it every time I opened the sewing basket lid, but I could not bring myself to work on it.  It was just too overwhelmingly confusing by this point.  I had stitches everywhere and it still wasn't done yet.  

So last evening, just one day to go, I got down to business.  I removed the bum stitches, sewed some of the arms again, but then had to figure out what to do about the back.  When I tried it on my little babe again, it somehow seemed too big now.  I thought putting a button on the back would do the trick, but I just could not wrap my head around the actual mechanics.  I have done absolutely no reading about sewing and do not come from a family of people who sew, so I am doing this on the fly.  Finally I figured out how it should work, sort of, and ta-da!  The three week, easy Christmas tunic is complete!  It is not a work of beauty and it really isn't even that functional - neck line is too wide and slides off her shoulder - but I made it and gosh darn she is going to wear it on Christmas Day.

It is sort of like an operation gone bad - it has WAY too many visible stitches, but I couldn't figure out how to sew parts of it inside out.  My little babe won't know though, she will struggle when I put it on her, admire it in the mirror, and then just keep on cruising.  Looking totally cute.

(Sorry for the totally out of focus picture.  My husband was making toffee on the stovetop and was yelling at the little babe to stay away, the dogs were going crazy because it was dinner time, and I just wanted one good picture of my work of art that I FINALLY finished!)

Mom Bloggers For Social Good Partner - Maternity Worldwide

This week people around the world will celebrate the birth of a child long ago.  What better way to celebrate that birth in the true spirit of the season, than to save the life of a mother?  Each day, 800 mothers will die during childbirth.  The organization Maternity Worldwide works to prevent these unnecessary deaths through maternal health education, safe birth training, and providing medical equipment to hospitals and health centres.  Instead of shopping the after holiday sales and spending money on something that you probably don't really need, consider sponsoring a safe birth.