Ahh - it's been a wee bit crazy here lately. Our shop has been quite busy so we have been working away trying to get everything shipped out as quickly as possible! (The knit hats are running about two weeks out but most everything else we have been able to get shipped within two to three days and hope to be able to continue that through the holiday season). While Lillie naps and sleeps I work, but when she is awake I don't do any Dear Lillie work except for a handful of e-mails and convos when she is busy playing. One thing that is so nice about this age is that she is starting to get really into "projects" so therefore while she is awake she and I have been busy working on making more pillows and decorating for Christmas. Last year I didn't get anything done because she wasn't much of a "helper" yet. Her favorite phrase now is, "Hep please Mommy?" She hasn't quite mastered the L in help yet. However, as much fun as it is being able to do all of these Christmas projects with her, I have discovered it doesn't just take twice as long - it takes like ten times as long! I showed restraint for a few days and then gave in and started doing some Christmas decorating several days ago. Well, with Lillie as my helper it is taking forever! We are only probably about a quarter of the way done. I am so glad now that we did start early - I think we will be lucky to have everything up and ready by mid December at this rate! It took us two afternoons to get the greenery up on the mantle and put the pine cones in the buckets and bowls - I think those projects normally take me about twenty minutes.
Anyway, here are a few of the projects we have been working on. First, with the leftover burlap from the stockings I decided to recover three old pillows. (I bought three yards of burlap at $3.99 a yard, so I am pretty excited that for just under twelve dollars we were able to make five stockings and three new pillows and I still have a little left over for a few other projects I have in mind!) First, we made two matching burlap pillows for our family room to recover the furry ones I had on my wingback chairs that I have been wanting to replace since we moved here! I am so excited to finally have them gone. We just sewed a basic square with one of those backs that lets you slide the pillow forms in and out. Then we made ruffles out of the same muslin that we used for the stockings. After we made the ruffles I just glued them onto the pillows instead of sewing them. (I figured with Lillie as my helper there was no way that we were going to get them sewed on straight so I distracted her and just quickly glue gunned them on there - glue guns are seriously the best invention ever!) I placed the ruffles towards the right side of the pillows for an asymmetrical look. You can't really tell in the pictures because they are so close up, but when I take more pictures later of the whole room once we are finished decorating it you will be able to see that better. Then, I went through my stash of ribbons and found this green color that I thought would look nice in our family room and pinned the bows on (I want to be able to remove the bows after Christmas).
These are in our family room:
For our more formal living room I recovered a small rectangular pillow that had seen a much better day! This one has a more symmetrical look and I placed one ruffle on each side of the pillow and then temporarily placed a chocolate ribbon on the right ruffle. I plan on removing it and placing some buttons down the middle but when I went to my button stash I discovered I had finally used up all of my good buttons so until I have time to make a trip to the store to pick up some more the ribbon will have to do.
And then I added some vintage looking trim to the two burlap stockings that had the quilted fabric on top. I felt like they needed a little something more. Now I like how they look next to the ruffled/ribbon ones. Before I felt like these ones looked too plain.
Okay, and now onto our Thanksgiving Giveaway!
The winner will receive their choice of either our women's or children's version of our
Black Thermal Holiday Edition Fairyland Shirt!
The women's shirt is available in sizes S - XXL and the kid's version is available in sizes 2 through 12.
*Please note: I cannot guarantee we will have all sizes in stock at the time the winner is announced, although I think we do have most all of the sizes in stock now but are getting low on a few of them.
So, how can you win one of these shirts?
All you have to do is leave a comment on this post!
You don't have to have a blog to enter, either. If you aren't a blogger, just enter a comment and then where it says "comment as" scroll down near the bottom and click on anonymous. However, if you do that, make sure to leave your e-mail address in the comment so that we can contact you if you win! If you have a blog or a profile where we can get your e-mail address then you don't need to worry about that part. If we draw the name of someone who we have no way of contacting we will simply draw a new name.
You can comment each day if you would like to up your chances!
For an extra entry become a follower of our blog!
Just write "follower" as your comment so it counts as an entry.
We will choose a winner on Thanksgiving that way the winner will have plenty of time to wear their new thermal in December!
I plan on posting the winner Thanksgiving evening but if it's too crazy here then I will do it Friday!
I hop you all have a fabulous weekend!