Goodnight, Grandma Downs

My mom called me this morning to let me know that my Grandma Downs passed away at 2:00 am this morning. Four of her five children where there with her as she fell asleep for the last time. She had been sick for years, and we all knew she would go soon. Still, I'm sad to see her go at Christmas. Then again, maybe she can watch us all now and finally enjoy Christmas for the first time in years.

I'm putting together a slide show to give to all of the relatives at the viewing hours. Here's the cover I put together.


And here is one of my favorite photos from the show. It's all of Grandma's kids in an old Christmas card that my Grandpa made years ago. My mother is the girl in the right in the back row.

Done Decorating

Phew! The halls are decked, the tree is up. All is well. Since the sewing cabinet has been closed until new year, I've decided to upload a few photos of the decorations to tide my blogging desire over until Jan 1.

Here's some of my favorites:


One of my all-time favorite photos of the kids. I took this one of Xander when he was five weeks old. It was the photo on our Christmas card that year, and now an 18" x 12" version of the photo hangs in our dining room at Christmas.


Cute red elf


Cute white elf


Handprints from Quinn and Xander that Grammy Giblin made for our tree


Xander and Quinn's favorite new ornament this year.


I made about two dozen of these snowflake ornaments a few years ago. My dad taught me how to use a sottering iron when I was five, and I put that knowledge to use to build the frames for these snowflakes.

So I think that's it for now. I'm signing off until after Christmas. Enjoy your holidays, everyone!

Christmas Crafts

Christmas is almost here and I have a couple of projects I wanted to finish up before the big day arrives. Last night, I finally got the last stitches in the final project, and now the sewing cabinet has been closed up until after the new year.



Here's the stockings I've made. We had mismatched stockings up until this year. And not for any good reason either, it's not like any of them were vintage stockings from Kevin or my childhood. We just didn't have nice ones. I'm really happy with the way these turned out. They took a lot longer to finish up than I thought they would. Yes, the names are hand stitched. Yes, the snowflakes are hand stitched. Yes, my fingers are sore.




And, here is a Christmas version of the Munc family in wee form. I've always wanted to try Hillary's pattern, and decided that Christmas decorations were the way to go. From left to right we have Quinn, Kevin, me, and Xander. Cute, eh?


Now to get going on setting out the rest of the decorations.

Patty Fair

What a great weekend! After about a week of sewing during every spare minute I had, I ended up with 16 handbags and 6 scarves to take to Patty Fair. There were about eight of us crafters set up at Patty's house and I would guess that about 40 to 50 people came through to shop.

This was my first craft show, and I wasn't sure how I would do. I mean, I like my stuff, but I didn't really know how other people would feel about my work. I decided up front that I wouldn't get upset if I didn't sell much. I know that my family and friends like my handbags, and I could always use them as Christmas gifts if I didn't sell many.

It turns out, Patty Fair almost entirely cleaned me out! I ended up selling 13 handbags and all of the scarves. The scarves were surprising. I thought for sure I would have some leftovers there.

The whole day was so much fun. It was great seeing old friends, and of course, nice to have so many people interested in my stuff! Patty worked really hard to pull everything together, and I'll have find some way to properly thank her for everything she did.

Here's a few more photos of items I had up for sale.