More Baby Shoes

I'm working on some more baby shoes for Amelia's. These are all made with upcycled material and lined with felt. The cream colored ones are from a linen curtain and the darker tan ones are from some lightweight wool that I got from a craft circle. I really like the pair with the little owl on them. I did the owl with a freezer paper stencil. I think they came out really cute. I still need to add snaps to the mary janes, but I can't seem to find the snaps that I bought. SO, it's off to Walmart to get another package of snaps....blah.

New Ventures and Nutcrackers

The last few weeks have been a challenge around here. But they say it's always darkest just before the dawn, right? So we're staying optimistic! The small shop on the square that sells baby accessories and baked goods (mentioned in a previous post) wants to carry my hats and shoes! SO, I've been sewing up a storm this past week. I am still sewing mostly by hand because 2 layers of felted wool and 2 layers of fleece is just too thick for the machine. We are starting out with just a couple of each item to see how well they do, but that's a step in a good direction. Hopefully I will complete everything over the next few days once the madness of the Nutcracker is over!

Today is the final performance of the Nutcracker. Opening night was yesterday and it was a LONG day. I had to get the girls to the theater by 10:15am. From 10:30 until 12:30 they had spacing rehearsal then 30 minutes for lunch. Bijou wants so badly to be in ballet now, but she was forced to hang out back stage and watch.

(But, check out her fabulous use of colors and patterns in yesterday's outfit. I think she was very cute.) From 1 until 4ish there was dress rehearsal. I did come home during that and we all got a nap before the girls' dinner break. We took the girls for pizza before their big debut on the Ford Center stage. By 7pm the theater was a buzz of guests, parents and grandparents with bouquets of roses for little ballerinas.

The girls did beautifully! We are very proud. It was almost 10pm before we made it back home. It's always jarring to see my kids all made up for performances. They on the other hand love it. They will someday rebel and be VERY girly girls, I'm sure.

Despite my ungirliness, there's nothing I love more than freshly washes, oiled and twisted locks. Check out Ashni's freshed up ballet bun. She looks like a whole new person with her hair done.

This morning I made them their favorite breakfast - cinnamon biscuits! We head to theater around 1:30 to get them all made up and dressed for the 3 o'clock performance today. Technically we are not supposed to take photos during the performance and yesterday I followed the rules and only got a few pictures during dress rehearsal, but today I'm feeling rebellious. So there WILL be pictures from today's show!

Sweater slippers, shortbreads and small business plans

The weather has taken a nose dive around here. Thanksgiving weekend was beautiful. We could not have asked for better weather. This week, they are predicting snow. SNOW! It's cold out there. It's also a little chilly in our house too. I promised the girls that I would make them all slippers to warm their icy toes (which they love to put on unsuspecting parts of my body throughout the day). The thought of hand sewing slippers for everyone was rather daunting. So instead, I figured I would take this opportunity to teach the girls some basic stitches and let them make their own pair of slippers. Jena is working diligently on her first pair. Ashni has MUCH less patience for things that take longer than 5 minutes, so she may be wearing socks this winter. I guess 2 is too young to let loose with a needle, so I did make a pair for Bijou. I love recycling secondhand sweaters into slippers, baby shoes, hats and toys. We found a great grey lambswool sweater at Goodwill. So far it has been used to make a pair of legwarmers for Ashni for ballet, Jena is using part for her slippers and the rest has been used for Bijou's slippers. There's still enough material left to make.....something, but I don't know what yet. I finished Bijou's slippers last night and she's had warm toes all morning.

A couple of days ago, I got a hankering for lemon. Lemon something...I wasn't sure what yet. Then I remembered how much I love shortbread cookies and lemonade in the summer and thought, what if I could combine the two of those (I also enjoy lemon cookies). So I whipped out my shortbread cookie recipe and rummaged around the fridge until I found a lemon and a lime. I grated some lemon and some lime zest and added it to the shortbread dough. The I made a lemon - lime icing to put on top. GREATEST THING EVER! We've made about three dozen over the last couple of days.

Now, my mother (who is always trying to come up with business ideas for me), has decided that I need to start a business that sells baby accessories, lemon shortbread and buttermilk biscuits. HA! That's like those place where you can get a haircut, your car washed and a slab of ribs all at the same time. As I was relaying that idea to my cousin (who was partaking in one of the lemon shortbread cookies) she reminded me of a little shop here on the square that does indeed sell baby accessories and baked goods! Go figure. So today, I will be packaging up some cookies, pulling out some of my stock of baby accessories and trucking down to the square to see if she's interested. I will also be going to get a sewing machine! YAY! Happy early birthday to me! Thanks mom.