Hello Ladies and Tom! Been away for a few days (well, just lurking here and there.) I'll have to play catch-up tonight.
Here is what I've been up to - I'll narrate as I post pics. . . Go ahead and get something to drink - this may be a wee bit long. .
First up is the Mickey head Christmas Vacation countdown. We had this little grouping of trees that didn't have any ornaments on it and I was racking my brain trying to think of something to do with those trees. So it hit me! We needed a vacation countdown. Went to the Home Depot to get those adorable little mickey head paint chips, one for every day until we leave. I cut the mickey heads out, punched a hole (sorry Mickey!) and strung the ribbon. So, every day we hang a Mickey on the trees and when the bag is empty, it's time to go to Disney!
Next is the crayon roll-ups. These were posted a long time ago and have been on my to-do list since then. They are just too cute! And they come together very quickly, which is always a bonus. I normally wouldn't have put rick rack on the one for DS, but he said he wanted it "because it looks like dinosaur spikes." Who can argue with that?
Ok, next are the I spy bags. Now after all the posts about these recently, I just HAD to make some. So, can y'all stop posting all these ridiculously cute things that I MUST make?

Now, I must also tell you the best thing about these bags - I was remembering all these small toys I used to have as a kid that would have been perfect for these, and then I remembered that my mom used to have this huge jug of all these "junky" toys of mine - all the little toys and pieces of playsets that I had. So I called her up to see if maybe she still had it around. Sure enough - she did! So we went over and brought it home and dumped it out on the living room floor and the kids had an absolute blast going through all of my old toys! There was a TON of stuff perfect for I spy bags! I also went through my scrapbooking stash and found some fun stuff for them! These were WAY fun to make!
Still with me?
Here's an experimental shirt I made for DD with some thermal and some rib knit fabric. I had never worked with knits before, and I was dying to try one of those spiral hoodies I've seen on ebay. I searched and searched for the pattern for those hoodies (it's Farbenmix Jule but I could only find it in stock in a couple of stores - european, of course, and I'm too impatient to try and order from out of the country.) So, I played around with a couple of different patterns - Burda 9627 for the shirt and Burda 9676 for the hood, although it is just a plain hood - I added my own spiralie thingie. Anyhoo, I was thinking about doing something along these lines for that black and white Tinkerbell fabric. Thoughts?
Just one more to go!
I bought some Aristocat Marie fabric from you know where a long time ago and finally used it. DD's middle name is Marie, so a Marie outfit was a must, but fabric is sooooo hard to find! I was also making a twirl top to go with this as well, kind of like aimeeg's cinderella, only with Marie's face on the bodice. It looks good on paper and I've got the pieces cut out and mostly fused, but I just can't bring myself to actually applique it right now. I've got a few more things to sew for the trip, so if I get those finished and still have time, I may go ahead, but it's on the back burner for now.
Ok, I think that's it for now! Thanks if you stayed with me till the end of this monster post! Now I've got some catching up to do. . .