Bella Dia

Stocking Stuffers

Things are getting kind of busy! I've been wrapping presents, making ornaments, and sewing some gifts and stocking stuffers. I think these little travel tissue holders are so cute and they're perfect for stockings. I've written a tutorial on them and will post that as soon as I can.

Stockings and Third Child Syndrome

I finally got my shopping done for all the kids, now I just have the adults to do. For my father, I'm thinking of a gift certificate to Audible.com. He can download books to his iPod and listen when he's traveling. My mom will get a set of Christmas napkins that have been designed and embroidered by the grandkids. They'll both also get a stocking full of little goodies.

Speaking of stockings (gotta love that segue), here's a picture of mine that was made by mother and aunt when I was just a wee one. (Yes, the "60" is the year I was born, so now you know how old I am :P )

This stocking embodied everything I ever felt about Christmas: sparkle and magic, made with love, and full of surprises! Of course, when I had my three kids I wanted to make them a stocking just like mine. I designed my daughters while my stocking was still packed away, but I remembered it as being covered with Christmas icons and beads and sequins, lots of sequins, so I designed hers accordingly. Well, you know how things always seem bigger and so much more in your childhood than they actually were? That's kind of what happened with the stocking. Even so, I'm happy with the way it came out.

My son didn't get his until he was about four years old. I stayed up very late Christmas Eve to finish it, so late I actually ran into Santa on his rounds. I was struggling a little bit to make his different from his sister's but there's only so many Christmas designs to work with. But again, I am pleased with the way it came out.

So now, you'd probably like to see a picture of my third born. Yeah, well, I have all the beads and sequins, I have the felt, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it these last six... years.

Not very Christmasy...

I have no idea why I am working on this bag and not doing what I should be doing, but here's the Amy Butler Chelsea bag made from the fabric I got the other day. The fabric worked beautifully for this bag. I think Amy Butler's patterns are unnecessarily complicated, well, not really complicated, just too many instructions for a fairly simple process. I'm going to make some notes to myself to make the process easier, and faster, next time.

Here's a picture of the exterior:

and here it is reversed:

The Easiest Gift of All

"Some years ago, a department store in
New York City, in recognition of the pressures its sales clerks were under during the Christmas rush, presented the readers of its advertisements with the following homely philosophy:

The Value of a Smile at Christmas

It costs nothing, but creates much.
It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give.
It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.
None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer
for its benefits.
It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business, and is the countersign of friends.
It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and Nature's best
antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is given away.
And if in the last-minute rush of Christmas buying some of our salespeople should be too tired to give you a smile, may we ask you
to leave one of yours?
For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give!"

from How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Warm and Fuzzy Bag

You'd think with about two dozen purses that I would have a bag to go with every outift, but not so. I was really wanting a small bag that would go with basically everything and that would hold just my basics: wallet, cell phone, lip stick, Motrin, notepad, and pencil. I decided to go with this fuzzy fabric that I got awhile ago and I lined it with a brown ticking stripe. It's about 10" wide, 7" tall, and 3 1/2" deep with an inside zipper pocket. I scuffed up the nap with the iron and put wrinkles in the straps; now that I think of it, it kind of looks like a Shar-Pei puppy :) Anyway, my fuzzy little bag had it's first outing today and it worked beautifully. It feels so nice and cuddly to hold next to you when it's cold outside.

You bought more fabric?

I definitely don't need any more fabric, but as most addictions go, it's more of a *want* rather than a *need*. The only fabric store I have locally is a very expensive little boutique type fabric store and I just refuse to pay their inflated prices. The next closest town, seventy miles away, has Joann's and Hancock's so when we're there I always like to take a peek inside to satisfy my craving and see what's new and on sale.

I had seen this group several times at Joann's and finally broke down and got some. I love the colors and design. It's fairly heavy, like canvas, so it will be great for handbags. I also got this cheerful floral out of the same type of fabric. Right now, I'm imagining these made into a Chelsea bag from Amy Butler.

I also bought the fabric for the Christmas tablecloth I'm planning to make so the trip was somewhat productive but that will be another post.

Vicious Crafting Snowball

I cut out all these mini stockings pre-shoveling. I was inspired by this mini stocking garland at MSL online and used their template. After I started cutting, I thought that instead of just a garland that each one could have the name of one of our pets. We have sixteen pets, yes, you read that right, sixteen (2 dogs, 5 cats, 6 birds, 2 guinea pigs, 1 mouse). My only problem is that I'm not sure how to put their names on. I'm thinking of embroidering them but now I'm getting intimidated by the time that it would consume. That's pretty typical of a lot of my projects, they start out so simple then quickly snowball to something more time consuming, so time consuming that I don't do it because I don't have the time! Such a vicious cycle!

Snow Days

We have gotten a ton of snow in the last couple of days so I've been busy shoveling the driveway and walkways and now I'm beat. My hands are sore from gripping the snow shovel so it's hard for me to sew but I did finish the Christmas pillowcases.

One of our kitties, Toulouse, loves to go outside, even though he's an indoor cat, and the snow makes no difference to him. He's standing on the bench of our picnic table so you can see how much snow we got.

I really need to get more shopping done. If I don't do it soon then the only thing everyone is going to get is a list of the things I was planning on getting them! Looks like I'll be doing more online shopping than I had planned this year.