a number of things

a little dress

I managed to squeak in a bit of sewing time this past weekend and tried something I had never done before. I made a child's dress from a lady's shirt! I happened upon the shirt a week or so back at my favorite thrift store and I fell in love with the sweet print. It was not my size (or style), but I thought how cute it would be on Lilly. Now I realize this is nothing new, and I really have no idea why I have not tried this sooner because it was so easy and so much fun!

I used the same Japanese pattern that I used for this dress (goodness, that was a while back). I just cut along all of the seams to open things up a bit and left the existing buttons right on the front as they were on the shirt. Now I have ideas for tops for Rose and more dresses for Lilly and I can't wait to make another thrifting trip.

 

what we found there

When we went for our little walk the other day, we found an owl pellet. Luckily, I had some tissue in my pocket or getting this little gem home would have been a bit tricky. These things are slightly gross, but so fascinating! Judging by all of the gray fur and the teeth on the skull, we are guessing dinner was a rat. But that is just a guess.

 

a weekend walk

We have a small 3 acre area at the very back of our property that, once upon a time, was part of a tree farm. The result is a bizarre type of little forest with all of the trees in rows according to type. The first three rows are giant river birch, then pine, oaks etc. The very last 6 or so rows are ligustrum, a large evergreen shrub. Over time, these have grown up to create an amazing little world of their own and a space beneath them that is quite enchanting.

Hoping your weekend was a lovely one!

 

wordless Wednesday :: late afternoon shadows

 

January morning table

She likes to get up early, no matter how late she goes to sleep... so I get up with her. :)

(...And I am just noticing that she has on a pink onesie in nearly every post lately. She has several and they are her favorite, but good grief, that is ridiculous!)

 

a gift for me

 

Lilly is modeling part of a slightly early (a few days before) Christmas gift for little ole me. I am beyond excited about keeping bees in the coming year, and I am very grateful that my family shares my enthusiasm. Rose insists that she is going to be my number one helper. :)

 

merry making

So much making going on! Most of it, unfortunately, I cannot divulge (Like the sweet dresses I made up with this pattern! Oh, my.). Last night we had our second truffle making session of the season and we packaged them up today. I also bundled up some copies of a perpetual gardening calendar I made (for our deep south zone 8b) for a few of our friends and we had such fun making a little pile of these little stick Santa's (as we are calling them) to attach to gifts. The super simple tutorial can be found here at Garden Mama. Aren't they the sweetest? The 10 and up crowd carved them and then we added a bit of paint.

Tomorrow is going to be another full day of friends and festivities, but I just wanted to pop in for a minute and wish everyone a very merry Christmas!

(Chip snapped the shot below on his phone of some of the non-stop making that was happening in the kitchen today. Yes, Lilly had snagged yet another truffle and was nibbling away.:) )