Crafty...Cute...Christmas

I must've been bitten by a crafty bug in the middle of the night because I woke up this morning and just about the first thing I thought was, "Hm...I think I'll redo Sofie's stroller!" The stroller, being pretty much Sofie's favorite thing in the whole world, has taken a beating. The frame is still in great shape, but the fabric along the seat bottom got torn, separating it from the frame so that the stroller wasn't really accommodating passengers anymore. Sofie pretty much hadn't noticed, or was ignoring it quite effectively and pushing the stroller around everywhere as if nothing was wrong, but I had a pretty big piece of fabric that I used as a tablecloth for Sofia's birthday party and it was just itching to be sewn into something. So I went to work...and about an hour later, voila!

I used the trim and the buckle from the original version and, although you'll notice that there aren't any close-ups, I'm pretty darn impressed with my skills considering that there was no pattern. I have plans to make a dress for Sofie and an outfit for Baby Nona with the rest of the fabric and then we'll have to take a nice color-coordinated stroll around the block! I made Sofie's Halloween costume this year too. You'll have to stay tuned for that one! That is, if she isn't covered in a winter coat and three blankets on Halloween! It's getting really chilly around here these days. I had to put Sofie's winter coat (which, incidentally, I bought brand-new for $12...what a bargain!) on her the other day before going outside to spend some time in the sunshine. I really can't stand lugging around a coat everywhere I go, let alone one for me and one for her, but I think she makes a darn cute Eskimo, don't you?

...and while we're waxing on the topics of craftiness and cold weather I might as well announce that I've declared a homemade Christmas this year. We're not getting out our Christmas ornaments, since they'll likely turn into toys, so we decided to string popcorn and cranberries and make gingerbread cut-out ornaments for the tree instead. Ben is going to make Sofie a really neat toy box for Christmas and I'm going to paint it and make a cushion for the top. I've been brainstorming crafty gift ideas for the rest of the fam for the last few weeks as well and I'm really really excited about what I've come up with so far. I'll be busy crafting over the next couple of months, and hopefully there will be a post-Christmas blog to showcase the fruits of my labor.

Christmas, for me, has been sort of awful for the past few years. We've never really had enough money or time (why oh why do fall semester finals need to be the week before Christmas?!) to "do it up right" and as a result it always turns into a stress-fest. Last year the holidays were maybe the worst I've ever had. I was so ridiculously over-stretched (was it really going to kill someone to give us the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve off for crying out loud?) and I had such a strong desire to make Sofie's first Christmas a special one. It went by in such a whirlwind and I just remember being so hurt that I hadn't been able to slow down enough to enjoy it...that it couldn't be the way that I had hoped and expected it to be. So I'm ready to reclaim Christmas. I'm ready to let go of all the expectations and find joy in the season without succumbing to all the pressure. I can't wait for the snow, frosted windows, hot cocoa and Christmas music. I can't wait to bake cookies, wrap gifts and go to Christmas parties. I'm looking forward to making Christmas cards and taking Sofie to pick out a Christmas tree. Dahoo doray and all that jazz!

So, in these crazy times...this crazy economy...if you find yourself too burdened by the everyday to even think about the holidays please please join me in reclaiming Christmas. There's a mug of cocoa and a sugar cookie with your name on it at our table this year...just come on over!