Christmas stockings

I didn't want to buy stockings.
So I made them.
And it was easy.


Here's how:

I cut out iron-on interfacing the shape, size (including the seam allowance), and orientation I wanted them to be (toes facing left as I look at it).
I cut three more stocking shapes out of some left over golden satin, taking into account orientation again for backing and lining.
I cut out scraps of Christmas colored fabrics.
I ironed them onto the interfacing.
I trimmed off whatever extra was hanging off the edge of the interfacing.
I used embroidery thread and tightly zig-zag stitched between the patches.
I sewed two of the satin pieces together for the inside lining.
I sewed the patchwork piece and the last satin piece together for the outside.
I put the lining inside the patchwork and satin outside piece.
I sewed the lining to the outside around the top.
I sewed a loop for hanging the stocking in place at the top.
I sewed a strip of satin around the top.
I pressed then hand sewed the satin strip in place on the inside.

And voila!! 

Stockings!
Original and there is not a single one exactly like either of these in the world.
(Except maybe my mom's, who I got the idea from--but she used different fabric than I had and made hers years ago.)




And in case anyone is wondering about those tags on our stockings...

It became a tradition in my family when I was growing up for each person who served a full-time mission for church to clip their missionary name tag to their stocking (thanks to my oldest brother Russ for starting it). I want to keep that tradition going, so Bob and I put our name tags on our stockings this year. Besides, missionaries teach about Christ every day--His birth, His life, His atonement, and His resurrection. I think that in today's world, missionaries are full of the Christmas spirit year-round, so what a great time of year to keep in mind the importance of missionary work and sharing the Gospel with others as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

newly recovered throw pillows

When Bob and I got married, we moved into an unfurnished apartment. That meant we were taking any furniture anyone wanted to give to us, no matter how stylishly hideous it was. In fact, the other day I realized that we've only bought three pieces of furniture that we use on a regular basis, and we we got some wicked-good deals on them--our entertainment center, one of our dressers, and our bed. Otherwise, it's all been free.

So before we got married someone told me their apartment complex was getting new couches and just throwing out the old ones. I was all over that. I couldn't afford to care what it looked like--we just needed a place to sit when people come over and to snuggle while watching movies.

Since we've been married I'd been looking at couch covers on a regular basis. For a while I used two huge blankets--two because it's such a massive beast of furniture that one wouldn't cover it. Then some friends of ours gave us a bright red cover that they weren't using anymore (Thank you, Zach & Teresa!!). I have to say, almost any solid color is better than that navy, green, red, and tan plaid. (Although, with our green carpet it looks like Christmas year round in our living room with that red couch cover. Good thing I like that holiday!)

So for a while we've had this pretty red couch, and the plaid pillows matched it okay, but let's be honest, the pillows really were hideous regardless of what color they were paired with.

The other day while at the fabric store, I found a rockin' deal on some upholstery fabric. There I was, standing in line to get some fabric cut. Of course, the cutting counter is right next to the discount aisle. I find this nice fuzzy cross-hatched looking brown fabric and liked it. Then I looked at the price. It was originally $9 a yard, marked down to $6, and that day it was half off of that. $3 a yard later, I was all stocked up and ready to go.

Using that, I finally decided it was time to give those plaid pillows a face lift.

The process:

The outcome:

A tip: My original throw pillows were super flat and pretty worthless. I made these pillows an inch smaller so the stuffing would puff them out more and not get so flat.

Bob likes them because they're firm and fluffy. I like them because of that too, and because they're pretty.

(I also really like the holes in Bob's socks in this picture.)

home made gifts from me

I decided to try and make several Christmas presents this year, since Bob and I have thinner wallets than normal. I wanted to try and make everyone's gifts, but I think someone stole all my time sometime this month. Seriously, whoever broke in and robbed my time, I'll find you and get it back one day. So I only made a few gifts.


Lucky for me, after posting about my roll-up pencil case a while back, my sister-in-law, Lauren, mentioned wanting something like it for all of her crochet hooks and things. I know it wasn't a huge surprise what she was getting from me for Christmas, but I hope she liked getting it anyway. I love cute little ribbons and I tend to get my overall theme for a project from whatever is printed or designed on the ribbon I use for it. Just FYI, those appliqués took a ridiculously long amount of time, but they were so worth it. Merry Christmas!

Lauren also mentioned an idea for something similar that I could make for one of her sons who has a lot of little toy cars. I can't take credit for the idea. It came from here. But I made my own adjustments to the pattern and idea, and I like how it turned out. I hope Grant does too. And I hope some of his cars fit in it. Sorry if they don't.

I wanted to make a few other things for Lauren's other kids, but I just ran out of time. So Lauren, I'm sorry I took the easy way out and bought some toys and dress-up stuff for the other two kids, and I had no idea what I could possibly make for Cam, so I was planning on buying him something anyway.  I hope Christmas was great for y'all regardless of how well our presents were or weren't received!


The last gift I made was for Bob. I still think it's lame, but I couldn't afford to go out and buy anything, and Bob has expensive taste so everything he'd like to get as a gift costs about two or more of his paychecks combined. So I sucked it up and made him a nice flannel robe. He only mentioned a few times this year how I have one (that I made in high school) and he wished he had one.

So I found some fabric I already had and dug out the pattern I used 6 years ago. Then I had to figure out ways to get him out of the house so I could work on it. When he had work, it was easy. But when he didn't have work it got tricky. I got him to run some errands for me one day, and what normally would take him at least an hour and a half took him 45 minutes! I saw him drive back  up to the house as I was in the middle of hemming the bottom. Really, Bob? The ONE time I NEED you to take a longtime, you take finish of everything in a ridiculously fast amount of time?! So I stopped where I was, quickly wadded up the nearly-done robe, hid it in the closet among the massive amounts of fabrics that I have, and jumped in the shower to avoid suspicion because I'm a terrible liar.

Somehow I got it all done. He claims to like it a lot, but I still think it was kind of a lame gift since it was the only thing I got him, while he got me a new Calle street soccer ball and new snow pants. Although, I did take care of all the stocking stuffers (not that I mind because I got EXACTLY what I wanted in my stocking this year), so I suppose I'm allowed to slack off a little bit on him, right?

November Holidays 2010

Life just doesn't slow down, does it?


Here I am trying to simplify and get things off my plate without taking on more, and it just doesn't seem to work! Well, I'm finally at a point where I have time to post blogs again. So before this year ends, let me catch up. 

Here's what happened in November:

Bob applied to be a snowboarding instructor at Sundance, and after multiple interviews, they invited him to take part in a skills test, after which they would let him know if he got the job or not. We were both really pumped for it. I want him to finally get a job he loves. So the skills test was coming up and we were informed that it would take place at Brighton on the Saturday before our anniversary. We decided to make a big holiday out of everything, so here's what we did.

Friday, November 19th. We cleaned the house and packed the car. We went to dinner at Tucanos, then headed up to Brighton to celebrate our anniversary early by staying the night in a cozy little cabin at the resort.

Saturday, November 20th. Bob made breakfast (and if you don't know, my husband makes the absolute BEST breakfasts), then he took off for his skills test. I tidied up and got our stuff ready to leave, then went out and hit the slopes for some sweet, sweet snowboarding.

It was snowing the whole time, making every one of my rides down incredible from all the fresh powder. Then it started to turn into a blizzard with tons of wind while the temperature dropped. By noon I was pretty shot! I finally met up with Bob, exhausted and frozen. But we wanted to get at least one run in together, so we squeezed it in before I we had to be out of our cabin.

Then we left, hastily loaded up the car, changed, and drove over to Elko, Nevada where we had dinner with my wonderful friend Monica. We stopped and bought tire chains before driving further, thinking we'd need them while in the Sierras. It started snowing on us the closer we got to the California border, and right at the state line the interstate was closed, CDOT claiming there was zero visibility. So we turned around and drove about 20 miles back to Reno  and stayed in a Motel 6 for the night. It was a fun adventure. (Really, it was something like 3am by this point and I had a terrible cold, felt drained and miserable, and was beyond ready to sleep in a bed, and there are no hotels anywhere around there but all the way back in Reno. So I got a little frustrated and whiny.)

Sunday, November 21st. We've been married for one year!! It really doesn't feel like it at all. It's weird to me how completely normal being married to Bob feels. It feels like our wedding was only a couple of weeks ago, and at the same time I can't remember what it was like not to be married to him, making it feel like it's been years and years.


Anyway, the roads had finally opened again, so we drove on to North Lake Tahoe, California. What a breath-taking drive it was! The snow was just stunning. I could definitely get used to living somewhere like that, even if that means shoveling our driveway every day. We visited Bob's Uncle Jim, who lives in a cabin in the woods (really, the whole neighborhood is in the woods, so it feels like your're more alone there than you actually are). It was small and rustic, and Bob and I got to stay in the tiny loft upstairs. When we arrived, Uncle Jim was supposed to be at work, but had gotten snowed in, so he was shoveling his driveway instead.

After taking our things inside, Bob helped shovel snow and I laid down upstairs to take what I thought would be a quick nap. I woke up almost three hours later, feeling very much rested and quite a bit better than I had for the past couple of days. We went to lunch, and while driving through town I completely fell in love with that place. The town consists of little specialty stores and shops--no big corporate giants, and everything was old cabin-style. It's the kind of place where I dream of living. Bob's cousin Tani came home that night and we got to visit with her briefly. She's quiet and really funny, and beyond artistically talented. She's far more gifted than I could ever be.

Monday, November 22nd. We woke up and shoveled the driveway again, because it had snowed during the entire day before and all through the night.

Then we took off and drove around Tahoe to visit Bob's Uncle Joe in South Lake Tahoe. Afterward we took a very long and very beautiful drive through the snowy Sierras. We passed the Kirkwood resort, where a gas station had unleaded for $4.36 a gallon. Ridiculous. But the drive was incredible!

We made it to Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sue's for the night in Clovis, CA, right outside of  Fresno. We had fun there--we ate dinner and then sat around telling stories and joking around, mostly laughing. My cousins Eric and Kimmy were constantly making references to funny books and movies, and Bob joined right in because he knew everything they were talking about. He fit right in, and I think everyone was pleasantly surprised by it, except me--I expected it. We got to take a look at Uncle Jeff's shops, look at his airplane he's been building for years now, and even a newer project he's taken on--restoring a late 40s Indian motorcycle. We had a great time, and wished we could have stayed longer.

Tuesday, November 23rd. We drove to San Luis Obispo, CA to visit Bob's Grandma Mary Alice. We made it around lunch time while she was working at the Family History Center. So Bob's Aunt Leslie (Uncle Jim's wife, who's in SLO for now taking care of her aging mother) took us out to lunch at a great little Mexican place in downtown SLO. We timed it just right and ended up having Bob's cousins Cody and Eric (who are brothers) and Eric's girlfriend Karen come to lunch with us.

That night we went to dinner in Morro Bay, to another little Mexican place, with Grandma Mary Alice, Bob's Uncle Tom and Aunt Linda, and Bob's cousin Carrie and her daughter Sierra. It was a fun time. Tom and Linda made Bob a mini-birthday cake since his birthday was the following day, and we all got to sing and celebrate together. Then we went back to Grandma's house and relaxed before going to bed.

Wednesday, November 24th. Bob turned 26!!!! We left SLO and finally made it to San Diego. We got new tires for our car (thanks to Bob's parents!), and while waiting for those we went thrift store shopping and landed some awesome buys! Bob found some nice Volcom khakis for $4and I got a pretty green dress for $3. Sweet!

Then that evening we had a birthday dinner and one of Bob's best friends Eric and his wife Lora came over for dinner. There was birthday pie and presents and everything. Bob's friend Christina also stopped by that night to visit and to wish him happy birthday.

We spent the rest of the week there in San Diego. Every day brought gorgeous weather and relaxing afternoons.

Thursday we had a fantastic Thanksgiving feast.

Friday we went to a birthday party for Bob with lots of food and even more friends.

 The rest of our time there was great. We saw a matinée showing of a movie one day, another day we went to a drive in movie, and we made sure to sleep-in every day.

Bob's other best friend, Stanly, was in Hawaii for the holiday. He has lots of pets though, so Bob's mom got to take care of his parrot, Farley while he was gone, so we got to take Farley on adventures in the back yard while we were there. It was fun!

Monday, November 29th. We finally left to drive back up to Utah. We stopped and visited Grandma Tweedie in the evening and stayed the night with her. We had a nice visit and wished we could have stayed longer. Hopefully next time we'll have more time and be able to afford a longer stay!

Tuesday, November 30th. We left and began the very last part of our trip. We stopped in Cedar City to have lunch with Aunt Judith, and she took us to Cafe Rio. We visited for a few hours and just talked, then had to be on our way. We finally made it back home in the early evening.


There were a few things that I learned from this trip. 
1. Bob and I are happy and have a fantastic relationship. All of Bob's relatives said something about it. Every aunt and uncle and even some of his cousins brought it up at some point, and commented on how lucky we are. It sure feels great to know that other people notice it, even if we don't.

2. I'm really glad we cleaned the house really well before we left. I enjoyed coming home to clean house. It made me want to keep it clean, so I put away everything I brought home from the trip right away (except my clothes... I'm still working on that...).

3. A well planned vacation, no matter how far you drive, when spent with as much family as possible can make it seem twice as long while also being way more fun and relaxing. We needed a break, and this road trip was the perfect therapy for feeling overworked, overstressed, and under-rested.

I can't wait to take another road trip with my best friend and husband!

There's something special about road trips to us. 

After all, that is how and why we met in the first place.