Merry Christmas

Merry Late Christmas!  We've had a wonderfully lazy and indulgent holiday season.....sleeping late.....nibbling on prime rib and bacon and blue macaroni and cheese and rum cake and peanut butter truffles......sipping champagne.....watching movies....sitting in the hot tub....and just hanging out.  Perfection.

The kitties also had a wonderful Christmas and Daisy (who is doing amazing well!) fully dedicated herself to guarding all of the new toys and kitty treats.....

While Emma was dedicated to shredding every last piece of tissue paper that dared to cross her path....

And I attempted to learn how to use my new Christmas present from Col. Sew Fab.  Watch out Katniss 'cause here I come!

And of course I "surprised" John with our yearly matching Christmas pajama pants!  This year I had my heart set on using a pink fabric from the Alpine Wonderland collection but I was kind enough to make Col. Sew Fab's pants using a blue fabric from the same collection.  Even though I think he'd look fabulous in pink!  But I still don't think I'll be able to get a picture of him in the actual pants so this will have to do.....

And now I'm kind of looking forward to getting back to some post-holiday "normalcy"......even though I'll miss eating truffles with wild abandon at all hours of the day because for some reason chocolate seems to become an inappropriate breakfast food after December 31!

Hugs,
Jenny

P.S.  I used the Sew Easy Pajama Pants pattern for my pants and the Sleep Well pattern for Col. Sew Fab's pants.

The Most Patient Man In The World

Shhhh.....don't tell him I said this but Col. Sew Fab just might be the most patient man in the world.  Here's why I say that.....

Last weekend we did a bunch of work on the dollhouse bakery.  We actually took an old dollhouse room box that I never finished and decided to remodel it into the dream bakery.  So we spent the weekend refinishing wood dollhouse floors and sanding off a very bad and very old stucco job and priming and painting the walls.  Three times.  Yes we painted the walls of a dollhouse three times.

Dollhouse Before

I originally wanted them to be green.  Then I wasn't sure I liked the green with the wood floors.  So we painted them buttery yellow.  Then, I definitely didn't like that color and decided that my heart was set on green.  So we repainted the walls the exact same shade of green that we used the first time.  And then I was happy.  And let's face it.....even if I weren't happy with the third repainting, re-priming and re-sanding I'm smart enough to just keep my mouth shut!

Dollhouse After

But I truly love the color and I really love how it looks with the white furniture.

Next up.....PINK clapboard siding!  Yay!  And I have to finish the one, simple sewn Christmas gift that I'm making this year.  If you've been following the blog since last December I bet you can guess what it is!

Hugs,
Jenny

Just A Man and A Dollhouse

Just a picture of a man.....

Refinishing wood floors.....

In a dollhouse bakery Patisserie.....

Hugs,
Jenny 

The Living Room Quilt is DONE!

I never thought I'd say these words but the Living Room Quilt is finally DONE!!! It's a very simple quilt....just a bunch of squares and strips and simple rows.....

But due to my inability to disrupt happy pets sleeping on my quilt in progress it took me over a year to finish the thing.  Can you blame me?  Could you disrupt this snuggly, warm, fuzzy love fest???!!!

I couldn't have finished it without my loyal assistants.  Bailey helped me pin it.....

And Daisy helped me do the ties......

And Sammy guarded it while it was FULL of pins.....

And now we all have a nice, warm, fluffy, new quilt to snuggle with this winter....

Happy Sewing,
Jenny

I Need A Pintervention

While I spent the last six days on Staycation I realized something.....I am a Pinaholic. 

Here's what happened......Staycation started out innocently enough.  I did some sewing and watched some tv and did a lot of work on the dollhouse.  I painted and sanded and cut and glued teeny tiny little pieces until I was blissfully bleary eyed.  And I even mentally redecorated the dollhouse for the third time.  But I won't even go into detail about that yet because I'll probably mentally redecorate ten more times before the dollhouse is done!

And then I ordered tons of supplies for the new dollhouse bakery patisserie because of Col Sew Fab's offer that I couldn't refuse.  I even finished the giant living room quilt after sloooowwwly working on it for 1.5 years!  Yay!  More on the quilt tomorrow.  

Anyway.....I also spent some time browsing Pinterest to find more ideas for the bakery....and then things spiraled out of control.  I saw one pretty little picture of one pretty little French Provincial dollhouse shop and I fell head over heels in love.  I became obsessed with this darn dollhouse and spent TWO DAYS searching Pinterest and etsy and google images and blogs and online shops for all of the perfect little items for MY very own little French Provincial dollhouse shop/winery because I REALLY need a third dollhouse project!  I've drawn floor plans and picked colors and I have a huge etsy wish list full of all of the perfect furniture for the shop (I even found mini wine barrels!) and of course I have a Pinterest board dedicated to this (Miniatures - French Provincial Ideas).  

I've even named the little shop/winery!  I'm going to call it le Petit Lapin (the little rabbit).  I had originally planned on calling it The Black Rooster because I found some really cute French black rooster dollhouse accessories but then I realized that when you translated that into French it becomes le Coq Noir......and well......that just doesn't sound good if you know what I mean.  I almost spit out the wine I was drinking when that came up on Google Translate.  And if you don't know what I mean just think about it for a moment....it will come to you....

Where was I?  Oh yeah.....I need a Pintervention.  I CAN'T STOP planning new projects that are inspired by Pinterest.  I never seem to finish these projects.....but I'm great at planning them.  Maybe I should use this skill obsession for good and become a "Craft Project Consultant."  Wouldn't that be an awesome career?  I could meet with clients and help them plan their craft and sewing projects and pick their colors and find all of the supplies and build Pinterest boards for them while sipping some wine and then set them free to do all of the work.  I'd be great at it!

Cheers to my new career!

Hugs,
Jenny

Staycation vs Mancation

Well.....just a few more hours and then I'm officially on Staycation!  I haven't done one in soooo long and I can't wait.  It'll be 6 days of sleeping late, sitting around in my pajamas, sewing, crafting, baking, eating (the calories you eat on Staycation don't count!), watching tv, sipping wine and champagne and soaking in the hot tub.  Absolutely heavenly.

And while I'm on Staycation Col. Sew Fab is on a Mancation in Chile.  He'll have a week full of mountain biking, white water rafting and volcano climbing.  So he'll be enjoying his version of heaven too!

But you won't believe what happened before he left!  I had been talking babbling about how I want to make a dollhouse size bakery while he was packing for his trip and he said "let's build your dream dollhouse bakery together over Christmas break.  Just buy all the supplies while I'm gone."  Seriously!  I'm not kidding!  Yes - I realize that he's a keeper!!!  And I also realize that I already have a million craft and sewing projects going on.....more projects than I could finish in a decade.....but that was an offer I CAN'T REFUSE.  Soooo.....add online shopping to the list of things I'll be doing while on Staycation!  Yippee!

Hugs,
Jenny

P.S.  Take a peek at my Pinterest board called "Cupcake Shop Ideas" if you want to see what I'm planning for my dreamy, pink, heavenly little cupcake shop!

P.P.S.S.  If you're not on Pinterest just send me an e-mail or leave your e-mail in a comment and I'll send you an invitation to join.  They keep the spammers out by making it "invitation only."