Just One More Sleep ’til Christmas!

It’s Christmas Eve… so how about one more post for 2013!

What kind of costumer would I be if I didn’t dress my dog up for Christmas?

Wensley makes a cute Christmas card. It’s the Jack Russell in him. =)

You may remember last year’s card, which was his first. We didn’t try any dress up then because we didn’t know how he would take it.

This year we pulled out the Santa hat we had for our last dog and I shortened the elastic a bit to fit Wensley.

My good little Santa dog sits well on command this year. =)

We only pulled out the front window tree with its plastic ornaments this year (I’ll do battle to protect the special glass ornaments on the bigger den tree from the dog next year).

The front window tree is an iridescent white tree with colored lights.

I love how it glows like a beacon at night!

Coming up in future posts (in no particular order): the details of the Wonder Woman cape build, some handmade Christmas gifts I stitched up, pattern testing results, and a giveaway.

Merry Christmas, everyone! May you all have wonderful holidays with good friends & family!

See you next year!

A Liebster Award (with Pics!)

I’ve recently been bestowed a blogging award… twice!

While I was busy sewing cheer uniforms, I was awarded a Liebster Award by Julie of ParyMoppins.net (you may remember her vintage hat that I restored).

And before I had a chance to “accept” it, my new blogging friend (via Twitter) Stephanie of Love-Teach-Sew also awarded me the Liebster!

I am doubly honored. =)

I do have to say that a lot of these blogging awards confuse me. I think I’m just too logical to completely understand them, and the rules always seem to change as they get passed around from blog to blog.

Case in point, the rules from both my nominators were completely different when it came to passing it on. I’m so bad about passing awards on (sorry!) because a) it seems that half of the blogs I would nominate already have the award and b) the rules usually disqualify the other half.

Anyway, to show my appreciation to my sweet nominators, I will combine their questions into a list of 11 and share 11 random facts about myself. (The number 11 is inexplicably the one consistent thing about all the versions of the Liebster Award rules.)

I hope everyone enjoys the randomness… with pics! =)

11 Questions:

1. Cats or Dogs? Little dogs. Especially Jack Russell Terriers.

May I sit on your lap? Pleeeeze?

2. What is your favorite form of social networking?/ What do you do in your spare time?  I have considered blogging my hobby for a while now, but I would say that Twitter is more addictive. More instant gratification I suppose.
3. Coffee or Tea?  Tea. With milk and sugar – the British way. I can’t stand coffee because I’m a Supertaster and it’s disgustingly bitter to me.

5. How many siblings do you have? One younger sister.
6. What’s the first thing you’ve sewn?/What’s the first wearable thing you’ve sewn?/Why did you start sewing? I don’t really remember what the first wearable item I made was, but these questions are all answered to some degree in this blog post.
7. Who’s your biggest inspiration?/Where do you find new sewing inspiration? Lots of creative people inspire me and many of them are my blogging friends and commenters when it comes to sewing. The online sewing community is amazingly cool. Sewists, #sewcialists and Sewasaurus Rexes all!
8. What’s your favorite craft besides sewing? I really like millinery but I don’t have all the tools I really need/want. And I miss my college days of stained glass making. Once again, lack of tools. I do occasional origami – sometimes in miniature.

Each little “flower” started as a one-inch square piece of paper.

8. What’s your dream project? To work in a costume shop for a big budget period or sci-fi/fantasy movie with amazing costume designs to build. And then NOT to work full-time on set once they are built. =)
9. What’s your favorite sewing snack? I often forget to eat when I’m involved in a project, but I try to keep nuts (especially almonds or cashews) nearby. Often, they are candied or chocolate covered.

Currently, I have Cocoa Almonds and Chocolate Butter Toffee Peanuts.

10. What’s your craft space like? See for yourself – it’s the most popular post on my blog (and here’s the sequel). It’s even in a book!
11. Which projects were you most excited about that turned out a complete fail? I had a lot of fails as a kid trying to learn to sew without much guidance. But the most epic fail I remember was one when I was probably in 8^th grade. I wanted to make a jumper (dress worn with a shirt underneath) that I could wear to school. I chose a nice simple princess seamed pattern but I used denim that was WAY too thick. Once it was made, I hated how stiff & belled the hem was – it stood out from my legs in the most unflattering way. It was a complete disappointment. Most sewing fails are the result of bad fabric choice.

11 Random Facts (in Random Order):

1. I was Salutatorian of my graduating class in high school. (But there were only 29 of us in the class.)

A page in my senior scrapbook from high school. One of my good friends was the Valedictorian (on right) – that’s why we both have medals.

2. Randomness/improv is amusing and makes me laugh, but I completely stink at being random. I’m too cerebral. Just ask my husband. (You have no idea how hard it is to come up with random facts about myself!)

3. I play piano. I got my very own upright grand vintage piano (1927 I think) from a neighbor two doors down. It’s so heavy took 3 men to wheel it down the sidewalk and then lift it over the threshold.

My vintage upright grand piano.

4. If I were rich, I’d pay my sister to do all my cooking. She’s better at it than I am and she actually enjoys it!

5. My husband and I met online BEFORE it was cool. (I’m talking in the days of dial-up!)

6. Star TREK is my first sci-fi love, but I enjoy lots of other things like Star Wars, Firefly, Back to the Future, Doctor Who – yeah, I just plain like sci-fi.  But not horror.

7. I don’t have a personal Facebook account – just my “business page”.

8. I originally wanted to be a Disney animator.

9. I have an Uncle Donald who was a safety engineer at Disney World until he retired a few years ago.

10. I’ve moved 18 times. Some of those moves were in the same town and others were across the country. I don’t ever want to move again.

11. I have really good color memory. I do really well at matching shade & tint in the store without having the object I am matching with me.

___________________________

Okay, your turn! Share something random/funny/interesting in the comments. =)

A Custom Style Christmas

Every year, my husband and I design our Christmas cards using a simple photo that always involves our dog.  I usually come up with the concept and he helps me execute it.

This year was the first year we’ve had Wensley for the Christmas card, and we weren’t sure he would be as easy to photograph as our last Jack Russell, who was an old pro at our crazy photo shoots.

Well, Wensley was amazing, and I managed to get the exact photo I wanted by take 7 or 8!  Lots of treats were given (so he was well paid) and he had so much fun playing the new “game” that he wanted to keep going long after we called it quits.  (I think 100 photos is more than enough, dog.  But thanks!)

UPDATE 10/17/13: This card is now available for sale in my Zazzle store. Can be customized.

So to my online friends whose physical addresses I do not have for sending cards, here’s a virtual version of this year’s card:

Card Front
I tied some red ribbon around our green storage ottoman to use as the “gift” prop.

Photo Inside Card
Wensley stands & sits on our ottoman all the time because he’s not allowed on any of the other furniture, so this was an easy shot to get.

Inside message:

Merry Christmas!  from the Wilkersons

“Oh, that birth forever blessed,
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bore the Savior of our race,
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.”

                        Of the Father’s Love Begotten – hymn stanza 2

Card Back
We usually use a funny photo or outtake on the back, but we decided on something normal this year because it was the first time some of our friends & family would be seeing our new pup.

And here are two of my favorite outtakes that were not included in the original card:

“You want me to do what? You’re crazy.”

Most people know JRTs are fast, but here’s some proof.

Have a wonderful Christmas holiday, everyone!

My Blog Turns 2 – with a Post Count Milestone!

November is a month of birthdays for my household.  Our puppy Wensley started the month when he turned one on the First.

Don’t let the cute face fool you – he’s no saint, despite his birth date!

Then I got old…er.

Then my husband had his birthday.

And now my blog ends the month with a birthday.  So with the 60^th post, happy second birthday, little blog!

In some ways, I can’t believe it’s been two years since I started this blog.  In other ways, I can because it seems like I’ve been actively a part of the blogosphere forever.

Thank you so much to all my regular readers and commenters – you all make me smile every time you take a minute to share your thoughts!  I really enjoy the interaction, and I enjoy reading so many of your blogs as well!

I have a list of ideas for upcoming posts.  There will be some stories about childhood sewing and excitingly successful research about my vintage Wizard brand sewing machine to share.  I’m currently in the middle of making Gandalf the Green his own table (so there will be another sewing room IKEA hack coming up) and I have a bunch of mock-ups ready to fit after I clean up my sewing room a little.

I hope you have enjoyed how my blog has evolved over the past two years and will continue to come back.

And if there’s anything specific you would be interesting in reading about, please let me know in the comments!

Take Your D(ogg)er to Work Day

I had a job today (Nike commercial reshoots) and my husband sent me this photo from his office:

I guess Wensley just wanted to stare at him eye-to-eye while he worked, hehe.