Christmas Time is Here

Sorry, Charlie Brown, I'm totally stealing your line.

We dug our Christmas decorations out of storage today; I waited until December 1st because Mr. Goodlaff is reluctant to be surrounded by Christmas-y things in November--and October for that matter.  While I think that Thanksgiving Day is still a bit early to be putting up your tree (no offense to all you early birds out there--when I was growing up, we were lucky to get the tree up in the first week of December), I'm not opposed to Christmas decorations coming out a few days before the calendar flips to December. 

One of my favorite things to make are Christmas wreaths, and after inspiration struck at JoAnn's last week (doesn't it always?),  I came home with the supplies to make what I hoped would be a fantastic wreath.  I was not disappointed. 

Here she is, in all her glory:

I am hopelessly, madly in love with my new wreath.  The plaid flannel ribbon started it all, and the bird is the icing on the cake. 

Plus, I just realized it's not overtly Christmas-y, and can therefore be used all Winter long. Genius.

A Crafty Christmas: Bunting for Baby

I have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world.  This is a fact. My newest niece is all of five months old, and since she was born in the chaos of summer, I didn't get a chance to present her with a baby blanket when she first entered the world.  With Christmas coming, I decided to remedy that situation.  Baby H would have her very own blanket. 

Deciding on the style was incredibly easy.  I fell head over heels in love with this blanket from the moment I saw it, thanked my lucky stars that I had a baby (not of my own) to make it for, and filed it under "Hell yes."

I mean, just look at it:

Via A Pretty Cool Life

I loved this design for a few reasons.  First, it's a quilt that's not a quilt.  The bunting flags are sewn on top of one big piece of fabric, therefore, there's no piecing to do.  Second, it is so festive and fun.  And finally, it's what those of us who are fabric hoarders like to call a "stash buster."  I am addicted to fat quarters and have so many lying around that all I had to do was decide which ones to use, cut the flags and go.

First I cut my flags (mine were five inches instead of four since the blanket I made was larger than the tutorial's instructions). That was the easy part.  After that I spent about an hour and a half deciding on the proper order of the flags, and I changed my mind right up until they were sewn on there.

I added batting and the back piece, and quilted everything together by following the top line of the bunting rows.



I thought the blanket needed a little bit more personalization.  With an older brother and sister, Baby H is going to have to share a lot of stuff; I wanted her to know this was made just for her.  I embroidered her first (blurred to protect her Internet reputation for posterity) and middle names and a little flower motif that reminded me of a willow tree, and attached it to the back of the quilt.

I found this great quilt binding tutorial from the Old Red Barn Co., and followed it to make my edges.  Having never done a binding like this before, I needed some great instructions, and these are fantastic!

Finally, after spending about four hours hand sewing the binding on the back of the quilt, it was done!  Here's the end result:

The original tutorial uses white thread to sew everything together, but I chose a vibrant green to add pizazz.  I love how this blanket came out--like a daily party in the nursery--and I hope that Mama and Baby H liked it too!

A Crafty Christmas

Having so much time on my hands prior to Christmas allowed me to put some time and thought into a few handmade gifts for my family. Now that the presents have all been opened, it's time to share my work!

For Daddy Goodlaff (who is notoriously hard to to craft for), I first thought of a hat or a scarf.  Mama Goodlaff suggested that I make him a shirt, but I didn't feel like my sewing skills were quite up to clothing just yet.  Eventually I decided on a manly version of my "Purse-Aid Kit," which is basically just a wallet full of band aids, or, a portable first aid kit. It's perfect for those of us who are a bit of a disaster and need to have supplies readily at hand in case of emergency.

Daddy Goodlaff has a bit of a wild side, so for his quad-riding supplies, I created this vibrant band aid holder:

After I showed off my Ponytail hat, Mama Goodlaff expressed an interest in having one of her own.  I just so happened to have all the supplies on hand, right down to some fun purple buttons (her favorite color), and after a few pattern adjustments, had a knitted hat made just for her:

Sister Goodlaff's homemade gift took me the longest of anything I made this year. She has recently developed a passion for cooking, and last Christmas, when she was hanging out at our house doing some last minute Christmas sewing, we fed her something I was sure she wouldn't like: pork scalloppini in a mustard creme sauce.  Turns out I was wrong--she thought it was awesome.  I decided to make her a cookbook, using the Goodlaffs' favorite recipes.  I combed through hundreds of pages, and eventually decided on about 60 of the best, printed them up, and made it into a book.

I called the book "Sister Says" because on the bottom of every recipe I wrote a comment, story, or tip on how we made the recipe or why the recipe was in there. I was so thrilled with the final product that I almost didn't want to give it away!

I used fancy wrapping paper that I saved from my bridal shower to bind the covers, and pulled the color scheme for my title and divider pages from that.  I bound the book with standard binder rings--that way, you can pull out the recipe that you're working on if you need it close at hand in the kitchen.  I love the way it turned out, and I'm hoping that Sister Goodlaff will also love the recipes that have become our favorites!

I have one more project to show you, but it needs its own post. Much more to come!

Tutorial Twosday: Easy Ornaments

It's only a few days until Christmas, and you may be jonesing for a few last minute projects.  Maybe that's just me? Ah, well...

Here are a few easy DIY ornaments to keep you crafting Christmas straight thorough the weekend.

First up: the Disco Ball Ornament.  Sequins.  Sparkles.  Styrofoam.  Simplicity.  What's not to love?

Via Oopsey Daisy

The awesome thing is, this ornament is super easy to make.  Sequin strands, glue, ribbon and Styrofoam is all you'll need for this sparkly, festive ball.  You could even make them without the ribbon and use a bunch of them in a hurricane vase as a centerpiece.

Our second tutorial proves that going in circles isn't always a bad thing!

Via Julia Crossland

How cute is this tree?  I love the multi-colors, but I think that varied green circles, with a few discs of red to mimic garland, would be adorable.  Then again, cutting the circles may prove to be a little tedious.  Looks like it would be totally worth it, though. 

Happy Crafting!

Decorating with Disney

Last year Mama Goodlaff had about five Christmas trees in the house. While there's always one big tree for family ornaments, the other trees usually have themes: the woodland tree, the Seussical tree, the Americana tree.  This year, Mama Goodlaff decided to do a Disney tree, and given that I have a lot of free time and an overactive imagination, I decided to contribute from afar in the best way I know how: ornament crafts.

I finished these a while ago, but since Mama Goodlaff is an avid (and maybe the only) reader of my blog, I couldn't post this until she had the package in her hands.

First up, the Jingle Mickeys.  We talked about ways to decorate the tree a while back and came up with the idea of using different sized soft pom balls to make little Mickey ornaments. While tooling around in Michael's I came across Jingle bells on sale and decided that if soft poms would work, so would jingle bells.  Thus, jingle Mickey was born, proving once again that with enough hot glue, you can rule the world.

I used the little green bows to cover up the hot mess of hot glue that it took to get the jingle bells to stick together.  Aside from the hot glue burns, it was an easy project!

My second Disney-inspired set of ornaments took a little longer, but I'm madly in love with them. 

I found online Disney clip art for Mickey's shoes, shorts, and glove, printed it out, and traced it onto felt. I couldn't find a picture of Mickey's hat without Mickey's ears getting in the way, so I kinda had to wing it there (I think it worked). After cutting out the felt shapes, I embroidered detail lines on each ornament, cut out a second piece of felt for the backing, sandwiched the hanger loop in between, and glued them together. 

I like all of them, but my favorite one might be the glove...or the shorts.  I'm not sure.  In any case, I think they'll make a lovely addition to Mama Goodlaff's Disney tree!

Do you decorate with themes in mind?

Framed Bauble Wreath

So, I gave one of those projects from Tutorial Twosday a try, and um, it didn't work out so well for me. This turns out that the project was a bit beyond my patience level, and my mock up looked really, really sad. 

It's not a big deal.  I go with the flow.  Instead of sitting there, bashing my head in, trying to shape a tree out of wire, I combined three different projects I'd seen over the last few weeks to create something all my own.

In the end, this wire tree display (a fail on its own):

Better Homes and Gardens

Plus this burlap-wrapped wreath:

Sweet T Studio

Plus this awesome ornament wreath:

Matt and Becky

Became the inspiration for my framed bauble-wreath:

Maybe if you're good, I'll show you how I did it!