12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

Did you know I have another blog? Yup! I started a site for my pen name - Jessica Grey. It's all pretty and shiny AND right now I' am participating in a 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway and Blog Hop. I'm giving away two books and a Starbucks card. Free coffee, people, you can't beat it. You should totally head on over and enter my giveaway (and the others that are going on too, they are all great!) The giveaway will be open through December 12th.

Handmade for the Holidays

Hello everyone! We are still recovering from all of the Christmas activity! I thought you might enjoy a quick recap of some of the handmade gifts I did this year. I didn't get to do quite as many as I'd hoped!

Kindle cover for my Dad. This was probably the most difficult project . . . and it seemed so easy at first! It probably was pretty easy, but I manage to complicate everything. I used this tutorial from Chic and Jo.

The tutorial is for an older model Kindle, so I faithfully did all the math to fit it to the newer model. Literally a page of math. I haven't done this much math since college. At the very last minute I forgot to increase the fabric measurement and so the first "tube" of fabric I sewed was therefore too skinny for the cardboard to fit into. So I decided to go with a heavier weight more "guy" fabric, and got some khaki, but that presented problems too because it was so stiff it didn't give much when trying to push the cardboard in and so I bent the first piece of cardboard. Extreme frustration. In the end I finished it right before it needed to get wrapped and go into the mail package. I wasn't entirely thrilled with my pocket (it seems bigger on one side to me), or my slipshod slipstitching job, but it is functional. Yay.

Laptop sleeve for my Mom (yes, that is some of my hoarded Nicey Jane stash, I must really love my Mom). I used this tutorial from Crap I've Made for the basic measurements. I tried out a new kind of ruffle, it was pretty fun and easy, and I think it works.

I told my brother that he might have to clue my Mom into what it was when she opened it, but she figured it out right away.

Next up, new bathroom curtains for my Grammy. Grammy's previous bathroom curtains were washed a little overzealously in the washing machine, and so have been hanging in the bathroom complete with tears and rips for a few months. Grammy would just fluff them to hide the tears . . . new curtains were on her to-do list, so I went ahead and got some pretty blue eyelet and made curtains.

I may have been sewing them Christmas Eve while Ed assembled the play kitchen . . . and we may have watched A Christmas Story on TBS 3.5 times through and finally gone to bed at 6 am . . . maybe. The kitchen got assembled and the curtains got made, that is all that really matters. And Grammy loved them, that matters too.

This is Maddie's third Christmas, so I figured it was about time I stopped procrastinating and made her a stocking. I used a charm pack of Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas and made a red and green stocking for Maddie and a green and blue stocking for James.

I absolutely love this fabric line, it is so fun, but still has a classic Christmas feel to it.

I enlarged the stocking pattern I drew for the Nicey Jane stocking (in other words, I stuck it on a bigger piece of paper and drew about three inches around it. . . and made it longer, I love long stockings. I use some white fabric with a flowery pattern on it that I inherited from my Grandmother's fabric stash for the cuff and the lining. Then I made a pieced the cuff with some remaining 12 Days of Christmas pieces.

There are a few details I want to redo on the cuffs, but all in all I am really pleased with them.

I am thinking about doing a stocking tutorial - for the simple ones like the Nicey Jane stocking, and for ones with the piecing - thoughts?

I do still owe a few handmade Christmas gifts that haven't been completed yet, so there may yet be a secondary handmade holidays post in my future.

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas - Winner

Thank you all for "liking" Maddie and James on Facebook. We unfortunately did not make the top ten, but that's ok, we gave it the good ol' college try!

The lucky winner of the 12 Days of Christmas Charm Pack is:

Regina of Sew Love Today!

Congratulations Regina!

Shameless Bribe: Vote for My Kids & a Giveaway

Modern Bird Studios is this amazing studio (actually an artist) that turns your photos into amazing one of a kind artwork . . . and by amazing I mean out of my budget ;) Ok, I also mean amazing, but definitely out of my budget. Which is why I entered a picture of James in their holiday contest . . . and Ed entered a picture of Maddie. The 10 photos with the most "likes" on Facebook will get entered in the final round of judging and one will win a Modern Bird art piece.

We are already tragically behind on the voting . . . but it would be nice to have our photos at least in the running!

I have read the rules on the Modern Bird site and there is nothing that says I can't bribe you for votes . . . in fact it says to get votes "in any manner you can think of." And the manner I can currently think of is to giveaway this gorgeous charm pack in exchange for votes:

A Charm Pack of Kate Spain's Twelve Days of Christmas! Whoo hoo! I actually won this charm pack, the same week I had bought two from the Fat Quarter Shop for myself . . . so no money is exchaning hands here, I am passing a winning onto you to help me win . . . see, if I explain it this way to myself I feel better, muhahahahha.

So here is what you have to do to enter:

First like Modern Bird on Facebook.

Then like kiddos pictures.

You can get one entry for "liking" James:

And one entry for "liking" Maddie:

Also, if you tell your friends (email, blog, twitter) to vote for either or both of my kid's pictures you can get another entry, or just sending them over here to this post, just tell me in a comment that you did.

And because I feel guilty about the bribe, you can have a fourth (or only) entry for just following my blog and telling me you do so. So that is a grand total of four possible entries.

Leave me a comment for each entry.

Does this make me a bad person? Do you care? Hopefully, you are willing to be a part of my nefarious scheme in order to get your hands on this loverly charm pack!

You have until Monday, November 15th at 1 p.m EST so get "liking!" And, yes, the giveaway is open internationally!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks!