Blessed Christmas all!

Blessed Christmas to friends, family and all my readers!

Here is a Christmas prayer for you all:

May this year be one that you will have just the right amounts of love, tears and laughter to ensure that your days are interesting and never boring. May the things you create always result better than you imagined and may you continue to bless others with your creations, whatever they may be.

May tolerance reign and patience triumph.
May love conquer and grace abound.

God bless you!

See you in the new year!

A dress or two in a jiffy

The holiday season is truly at our front door. Most of us are scrambling to sew the last few stitches on our handmade gifts. I've got a neat and quick tutorial for a dress that will take you from cloth to completed dress in about half an hour.

I am talking about that tutorial I promised in this previous post for the pretty little dresses Amelia and Emily were wearing.

How to make a dress during this silly season.

1. Rush to cloth shop to buy pre-smocked material. Beware there are so many choices. Be steadfast and pick one that jumps out at you and escape the shop before you get distracted by other potential craft projects that you really don't have time for.


2. Instead of struggling with a wriggly toddler, measure off one of her dresses.

3. Remember to add 1/2" seam allowance. Because I don't have a serger or a overlocker, I often sew french seams to ensure a neat finish. This is how you do it.

Sew the wrong sides together.

Snip off excess fabric at the raw edge. Press seam open and then press seam again with right side of the fabric together.

Sew another seam encasing the previous seam within this one.

4. For bottom hem, turn under 1/4". Press and then turn another 1/4", press and top stitch. I added a decorative stitch at the bottom hem for some interest.


5. Cut lengths of material to sew ties for the dress. As I was making a halter sundress, I cut two lengths of material and made two strips as ties and attached them to the top of the dress.


4. Add some buttons, if time permits.


AND voila, done! To save time, create two dresses at once for efficiency and double the cuteness.

all you need is some openness and creativity

This post is for all those who work in the conservation of built heritage and the often feeling of frustration and loss.

Check this one out! The Urban Outfitters Corporate Campus in Philadelphia's Navy Yard designed by Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle. The completed work saw four dilapidated buildings turned into these really light filled spaces full of creative energy. Notice the bright industrial yellow!

This is another to add to that list that you show people with little imagination for large open warehouse/powerhouse type spaces.

All images below from Arch Daily.

WARNING: blog post not suitable for vegetarians

We had this really yummy dinner the other night with fresh fish. When I mean fresh, I mean fresh. Like alive-just-before-going-into-the-frying-pan fresh.

So after finishing our dinner, the kids went to look at the restaurant's aquarium where they kept the fish meant for the table. We pointed out and explained which fish we just had for dinner and the kids were fine and in fact, said "yummy!"

While Zach was still watching the tank with catfish, a man from behind the aquarium wall caught one out of the tank and swiftly killed it. Zach exclaimed, "Oh shit! I thought they were pets!" He explained that he had thought the fish in the other tanks were for eating and the tank with the catfish were pets.

Poor thing!