Gingerbread Cookie Dresses

I picked up the cutest Christmas fabric! It is a busy glitter infused gingerbread cookie print, and I got a trim fabric that also has tiny gingerbread cookies on it. I think I got it in October at Joann Fabrics, but I'm not entirely sure any more. October was a long time ago.

For Halloween, actually for a school project right before Halloween, I made a pretty black and white dress for Gracie. I thought at the time that I would just make one like it for Libby and that could be their Christmas dresses. But, then December came along and I remembered that I purchased some adorable gingerbread print and I wanted to be sure to use it. The black and white dress could easily be used as a special occasion dress on any occasion, but gingerbread cookies are Christmassy.

I used a pattern I have never used before: Simplicity 4647.  As soon as I cut it out, I decided I didn't like it. But, now that the dresses are finished, I've changed my mind again. It's a cute dress, but the part of it that I liked until I actually cut it out was the bodice. I was having trouble loving the length of the bodice for an older child. On a toddler, a short bodice is adorable, but on a child who is over 4 ft tall, the short bodice might look too childish. Well, once it's cut, it's cut! No turning back, so I went ahead and scolded myself for not thinking about that earlier and sewed it up.

I made a few little mistakes. I didn't measure my 4 yr old correctly and her dress is too long. The bodice fits her well though. And I have the size 6 sleeves on the size 4 dress and vice versa. Whoops.

The sleeves are a flounce cap sleeve. In the picture on the pattern they are flouncier than in real life. On the dresses, the sleeves tend to stick straight out giving the girls wings rather than sleeves, but the girls didn't seem to even notice. This may be due to the type of fabric I chose, or the fact that I lined the sleeve flounce with trim fabric (since I figured you would often see the underside if it were bouncy and flouncy), I don't know, but the flounce sleeves turned out to be pointy wings. Guess what, these are the most  adorable sewing mistakes I've ever made! Every time I see the sleeves pointing straight out, I can't help but laugh!

The girls are leaving a trail of glitter in their wake. Glitter infused fabric is fun to wear the first time, but it falls like pixie dust. The term "infused" is very misleading. The fabric is more or less "sprinkled" with glitter rather than infused. That's ok, there is glitter all over my sewing area, in my car, in the stroller, and everywhere in between.

The girls wore their Christmas dresses twice, both times to Disneyland. I wanted Gracie to wear it to her school winter program, but the kids were instructed to wear red or white tops and dark bottoms, so much for gingerbread cookie print. I also wanted to have the girls wear their dresses on Christmas day, but when that day came, I completely forgot and they were happy to wear their new things that Santa brought for them.

When I took the girls to Disneyland  in these dresses, we heard lots of comments about the dresses! Even from men! They were a hit and people complimented us all day long. It's amazing to walk through a crowd of strangers and hear wonderful words. The girls really feel special when they hear people exclaim that their dresses are so very wonderful! I feel pretty special too when I hear compliments all day long. Amazing experience! The best was Mrs. Claus, she was so animated with her expression and her compliments were genuine. Of course, she loved the gingerbread cookie  print! She is a cookie loving woman after all.

The dresses must have been comfortable, there sure wasn't any complaining about seams being itchy, armpits too tight, zipper touching their backs, neckline too high, or any of the other usual commentary. It's funny how they'll complain to me about their things I make for them, but they complain even worse about store-bought clothing! They always want me to fix something or another.  Neither one of them complained one bit about these dresses, so I guess the pattern was a good choice after all. The skirts were long enough to keep their legs warm and they had enough volume for a good twirl.

Behind on Blogging

I'm behind with blogging! Actually, I am behind on everything right now. Christmas is coming whether I am ready or not, and this year, I am not.

We've been very very busy in December! I'll just give you a quick recap.

We went to Disneyland twice this month. It was tons of fun both times! We also went to see a play, Sea World and the Safari Park. We didn't go to Universal Studios like I wanted to, but that's ok. We have passes to Universal Studios and I wanted to go one more time to  make the tickets more worthwhile, but we didn't get there and they expire at the end of the month. Oh well, we had a ton of fun the day we went!

Gracie's schoolwork was hard to get done but we mucked through it and finished in the nick of time. She had a community service project due and this month's math topic was subraction. Ugh, that was hard. We'll have to keep working on it as we go to make it easier.

We've been out shopping a number of times, but it's hard to do when I have the kids along. So it takes me several trips to get a few things. I need one good shopping day without a crowd at the checkout, maybe tomorrow?

Keith and I planned a roadtrip. We are going to South Dakota to visit, go sledding, meet up with friends and family, and introduce the girls to the concept of winter. They'll love it! I hope the roads are good, we'll probably be gone for a week or so, we don't have a specific plan. School doesn't start up again until the 14th so we have plenty of time.

The girls saw Santa. Libby asked for a Nutcracker, a train and chocolate. Gracie asked for batteries. We're sure hoping Santa can accomodate both of them and their Chrismas wishes.

I baked a bunch of cookies and went to a Christmas party and cookie exchange. I think I gained ten pounds.

I've been sewing too. I made the girls some holiday dresses and they wore them to Disneyland. I also am in the process of making a dress for a friend's little girl, and I made one to mail to another friend's daughter. I have a big quilt for Gracie in the sewing machine right now and one waiting in the wings for Libby. There are two whole days until Christmas, I can do this, right?

I've been babysitting a lot lately too. Not getting paid, even better, doing the babysitting swap! I babysat Adam, Emily, Sabrina and Mallory last week and I had Henry for a couple of days the week before. Then, Lexie asked me to babysit Charlie for a bit and I was so worn out, I told her no! Poor girl waited her turn for some relief and then I turned her down. I topped that trick off with asking her to watch the girls while Keith and I went out to dinner one night. Good thing she loves me.

Lexie and I were asked to be on a reality show. We said, sure, why not. Keith's cousin was chosen to be a reality show contestant, maybe, and she asked us to be part of her family support team. If she gets on the show and has to call in her team to compete, then we'll be there for her. Hope they don't want us to eat bugs, bungee jump or sing in key, she'll lose the competition for sure!

Katie and Henry came up for  Gracie's Winter concert performance at school. The kids sang four winter songs: Let is snow, Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman and Jingle Bells. It was a lot of fun and Gracie sang beautifully.

Gracie lost two teeth this month. Her top front teeth. She looks so cute with her new toothless grin!

Have a great Christmas everyone!  Glad we all survived the end of the world. 2013 is sure to be a good one!

Kiss the Mini-van Goodbye!

This post was written by Mary's husband, Keith, aka: Daddy.

In 1996 (or was it 1995?), we got a cheap minivan, used, from a State of South Dakota auction.  Light blue, with essentially no features beyond a radio and some AC.  You could remove the seats, and those damn things weighed a ton, but we had room!  We ran the hell out of it.

In 2000, we bought another used van, but this one was wrecked. 

'97 Dodge Grand Caravan...

  My brother Ward did most of the work while I stood around looking pretty much useless.  All in all, the red Dodge Grand Caravan was really an excellent vehicle for us.   We put about 190,000 miles on that thing... and it just chugged along.  Here it is on a trip to Wyoming, camping south of Jackson Hole...

A wonderful family camping trip to Wyoming. This was in 2005-- Mary was pregnant and didn't know it. :)

Heh... that picture almost looks like it could be from a Dodge advertising campaign.  The Grand finale for that van came in 2007.  We sold it to a television producer, and it got used in a lame "reality" tv show.  Couples had to drive it through an obstacle course-- with the driver blindfolded.  The last time we saw it was on TV... :)

So that brings us to 2007.  That was the year, in July, that we bought a Brand New Van.  That Dodge had run so well for us, and had held up so beautifully, that we bought a Chrysler Town & Country.  Wow... stepping up in the world! Right after we bought that, of course, we road-tripped to Grandma's house in Wyoming...

Little Gracie after a long trip. Meeteetse Wyoming in July of 2007

Where the Dodge was great, the Chrysler was not.  But it was NEW and we would not realize how poorly engineered this vehicle was for a few years.  There were minor "annoyances", like map lights that stopped working even though they had good bulbs and fuses.  There were larger annoyances, like the power sliding door mechanism that died 3 times because the design of the wiring cable that feeds power to the door was just horribly done.  There were Major "annoyances", like transmission work and oil leaks from nearly every gasket in that engine.  What the hell?  Chrysler probably should have just gone bankrupt and shut their doors.  That van has to go.... but what do we buy now?  We've had minivans for 16 or 17 years.

Well, 2 years prior to buying that brand new van, I bought a truck.  My awesome little Nissan Frontier.  We bought that truck in August of 2005.

My '05 Frontier. Shot taken in June of 2012.

Here it is in June of 2012, still lookin' great.  In fact, it IS a really great truck-- best vehicle I have EVER owned.  Over 101,000 miles on it now, and I have not had to do ONE single thing.  The only "annoyance" thing was my own fault-- I froze the windshield washer tank when I took it hunting-- so it leaks now.  But consider this.  That truck went 92,000 miles on TWO of the original tires.  I STILL have not changed brake pads on it!  When I had tires put on-- I asked them to evaluate the pads, and they said I probably have another 10 to 15 thousand miles of wear on them.  They couldn't believe I had NEVER serviced the brakes....and I still haven't

So... the search for a van replacement began, and it was heavily influenced by my experience with my truck, as well as the fact that my daughter Katie bought a Prius and gets incredible gas mileage.  Mary was tired of filling the 20 gallon tank after only driving 320~350 miles.  Yeah... 17 mpg running around town.  Booooo.  Perhaps it was time for a CAR instead of a van...

and that's what we did.  We looked at Hyundai Sonata, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, VW Passat (TDi), and the new Nissan Altima.  The Altima has the same 2.5 liter - 4 cylinder engine as my truck.  It is paired to a newly-engineered CVT transmission, and the whole package is rated at 38mpg highway and 27 city.

Just before driving off the lot, December 1, 2012.

So... we bought a 2013 Nissan Altima. :)  If it is only half as good as the Frontier, we will have made an excellent purchase!