Christmas Craft: Quilted Stockings

So I made these (I think) really adorable stockings. I was most pleased with how they turned out! We went to our favorite fabric store, Purl Soho, a few weeks ago and picked out fabric for our stockings and for the Balsers' (for their Christmas present). Then I drew a pattern (using some fancy Anthro tights as a guide) and got to work. Below are the results.

Look, quilted!
And, at P's request, monogrammed. I think the letters turned out quite lovely (although cursive sewing is not easy).

We made them for the Balsers as well, and left them on the sofa filled with goodies on Christmas morning.
Their fabric is of a different palette, and the girls' stockings feature some lovely adornment, but the pattern is the same.This picture of the stockings is a little like an "I Spy" page. Find the picture of the Seminarios. Find a button. Find a goose. Go on, try it!

Merry Christmas, all! Okay, okay, it's a few days after Christmas, I know. But did you know that the twelve days of Christmas actually begin on the 25th and go from there? So, really, I'm just preserving the traditional way of celebrating.

~L

Not Much to Say...

Just a little note to wish you a happy and wonder filled Christmas Day!

We are so blessed.

Christmas is in the Air!

Sorry our blogging has been a little spotty this month -- December is not really a calm, relaxing time for us, what with P and his job in retail and me enjoying the full-tilt sprint to the end of the semester. What we do have time for, though, is decoration (or, as I Freudian Slippily told my mom, "displays"). I don't know if you know us, but we're kind of big on the way our home looks, especially during the holidays. This is actually somewhat comical and quixotic, because hardly anyone (other than P & I, of course) ever sees the inside of our apartment. Nevertheless, we toil year after year to put together perfect holiday displays. And, hey! Now we have a blog, so everyone can see the inside of our apartment and its charming Christmas makeover.


The anchor of our Christmas display? A $4.99 silver tinsel tree, bought at a fire sale two days after Christmas.

Since you can't just put red and green on a tinsel tree, we opted for shades of hot pink ornaments:

This year, we expanded our color palette slightly to include some teal as well:

These new ornaments (from Anthropologie) are my favorite:

I think it worked out really nicely, don't you?


And, of course, the presents under the tree had to match (okay, so we're a little OCD about our decor).










For our hearth (also known as the repurposed headboard that supports our tiny TV), we went with a "feathers n' candy" theme. What? You didn't know sweets and tweets (he he) went together? Well, consider yourself informed.
P.S. Those stockings? I made them. Sewed 'em. More on that to come.

A lovely dove, reclining on a cherrywood branch. Yes, Virginia, those are pink feathers in the background.


Sweets. I got this idea from Real Simple and, fittingly, it was pretty easy. Just some pretty little glasses filled with sugar and topped with miniature marshmallows and candy canes. Voilà!






So, that's it. Our little corner of Christmas happiness. Okay, so that's not really it. We also have a window display (twine, big lights, and satin balls), a nativity (in the "curio cabinet" (reconfigured children's desk) above the piano), and a small grove of tinsel trees (blue, purple, and pink). But if I give all of those away now, what will I blog about the rest of the week?

~L

I was called Ma'am by a Nun.

I was sitting in Taco Bell, too full from over ordering, reading a book.

I looked up
and a Nun was standing at my table
with a little wooden bowl
with money in it.

I thought she would sit down.

"St. Joseph's Orphanage?" She held out the bowl.

"I'm Sorry?"

"St. Joseph's Orphanage...Yes or No."

"Oh.

No."

She looked somewhat surprised for less than a second. Then she said,

"God Bless you, Ma'am."

And she moved to the next table.

I felt it was calculated.

~P

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