Our lovely neighbours are hosting a winter solstice party again this year. It was cancelled last year due to a blizzard, but it is raining this year, so we are all set and very excited. Pip is particularly excited, as she gets to play the part if St Lucy, the bringer of light. She will be wearing the white dress I posted about here. Many people dress up for the event, though this will be the first year for us.
Ready for the winter solstice party
Our elder daughter has always had very definite ideas about clothing. She starting dressing herself very early on and knew what she liked. She is not generally open to persuasion on the matter – once she makes up her mind about something, no amount of cajoling will get her to wear it. To cut a long story short, I wanted to make her a dress for a solstice party we are attending this weekend, but had no idea whether she would ever agree to wear it. I carried on anyway, because I had a ruffle dress in mind and wanted to see whether I could figure it out. It took me a couple of evenings and only one use of the seam ripper and here is the result:
Ruffle dress, front view
Ruffle dress, side view
Pip, trying out her new dress
The fact that she tried it on at all shows she likes it! I can hardly wait to try it out in a variety of cotton prints, both for her and her little sister.
The edges of all the ruffles and the armholes are all finished with a rolled hem using the serger. I also serged the seams on the inside and topstitched each panel for a polished finish. The flower was Pip’s idea and I knew she wouldn’t be satisfied without it, so a used a strip of the dress fabric, did a rolled hem all around it and rolled and shaped it into a flower, then secured the base and sewed it to the dress.
I recently discovered, much to my surprise, that my husband actually didn’t hate the idea of a Christmas village – especially if it incorporated a train! In general we are not inclined to have ornamental things around the house – we are very “functional” people and there isn’t that much in our house that does not have a practical purpose, but this is Christmas and the general rules do not apply in December!
Once the idea had struck, DH started doing his research on the various styles, scales, materials, layouts etc, even looking into construction methods for making our own buildings. It was a huge stroke of luck when we found an ad on Kijiji for a village set with a train – for $45. We went to have a look at it this morning and this is what we came home with:
Christmas village
There is even another cathedral out of shot, as well as the train set. Needless to say, we are pretty excited about our good fortune. Now we just need to figure out where we can put it….
You may know that my husband has a collection of antique radios, ranging from the early 1930’s to the early 70’s. Until today we had no space dedicated to displaying these beautiful pieces. Kijiji to the rescue again! We found a pair of mahogany bookcases that turned out to be absolutely perfect for this.
Radio collection on new shelves
There is enough restoration work on these shelves to keep Brian going for some time! If you are inclined to know more about any of the radios, I am sure he would be delighted to answer any questions.
Last Saturday we joined some friends down at the harbour to watch Santa and his entourage arrive by float plane to say hello to the children and participate in a parade. It was a cold day, but gloriously sunny, so we all bundled up warm and headed out. We found a spot in the sun to wait and the plane soon flew over, waggled its wings, then landed to huge cheers and taxied to the dock. Members of the Nanaimo Clippers disembarked first, followed by the elves, Mrs Claus and the man himself, the star of the show!
Well, to be honest, just food for the sake of it!
mince pies
Raspberry jam
Roast chicken
Sausage and vegetable quiche
Quiche and salad
Caught red-handed
Beetroot, from our garden
Just a quickie before bed. I made marzipan for the first time tonight! I made two Christmas cakes this year – one for us and one for our neighbours – and wanted to try my hand at marzipan, rather than buying it from the shop. It turned out rather well, so I am very pleased!
I have made several dozen mince pies so far and have several dozen more to go. I swear, we do not eat them all ourselves! I am also planning to make gingerbread biscotti, white chocolate and cranberry cookies, gingerbread, chocolate brownies. I think need to plan some savoury goodies, too. Hmm …. cookbooks here I come!
mince pies
The lovely Mary, over at Confessions of a Craft Addict, is doing “Thankful for 30″ this year and I am joining in! For each day of November everyone who participates will post about at least one thing for which they are grateful. As my daughter would say, I am going to count my blessings! This is especially important on a day when excruciating back pain is making me miserable.
Thankful for 30
Of course, I am several days late, so I have some catching up to do! I think I will edit this post each day to add my note of gratitude.
1. Thankful that Halloween is over, as fun as it was!
2. Wall-mounted thread racks.
3. A supportive and loving family.
4. A sense of humour.
5. Analgesics.
6. Unbroken umbrellas.
7. Good teachers.
8. A kind and generous mother who is looking after the children so I can get ready for my first market. Love you, Ma!
9. Sales at the fabric store.
10. Friends.
11. A big garden.
12. Electric blanket to thaw my feet.
13. Knee-high boots that fit.
14. My Dad’s wonderful pastry recipe.
15. Healthy, happy children.
16. Living near my mum.
17. A break in the rain to give the water a chance to soak away.
I do have lots of other things I am thankful for, but a very, very painful flare up of my herniated disk injury from the spring has made me grumpy and morose for the last couple of weeks. The new medication is dulling the pain a bit, but making me nauseous and fuzzy-headed, as well as terribly sleepy. I am scheduled for some treatment on Thursday, so hopefully that will make things a little easier. On a happy note, it is now December 1st, so I can dust off “Miracle on 35th Street” and start getting in the Christmas spirit! Woohoo!!
As promised, I will be posting some ideas on Christmas gift giving. Part 1 is a bit of a cheat, actually, as I came across a really good post on the subject yesterday:
http://sewgreen.blogspot.com/2009/10/gift-for-good.html
I’ll be back with more (of my own) ideas soon. As you know, I am a big believer in handmade and I am working on a number of items for other people to give as gifts. It is so gratifying to find that other people are thinking beyond the big box stores and that some of them are coming to me!
Another day, another Halloween party! What a fun season this is turning out to be! Today is the party for P’s kindergarten class and I am attending to help with crafts (surprise!). The adults can dress up if they want to, so I thought I would get into the spirit of things.
Medieval maiden
Medieval maiden
I blogged about this dress last year, but have not had an opportunity to wear it up until now. The party it was intended for had to be cancelled due to a blizzard.
These are the snacks I made to take to the party:
Witches' fingers
The recipe came from “The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book”, and can also be found online here.
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