Happy Holiday Sewing

Can you tell I love the "Portrait" lens on my camera?  Drews, you make an excellent subject.

I thought that Andrew would be a little overwhelmed by the large amount of estrogen floating in the air last night, but I was wrong.  In fact, he said I should do this once a month.  This being--sewing/crafty night. Oh really? I replied.  Hum.  Then I realized that Andrew enjoyed a relaxing night involving sugar cookies and the lack of his wife pestering him with things that need to be done.

Making a bag.  That is about all I can make.  

How was it that Andrew was able to have a nice relaxing night, you ask?
1. Ellie goes to bed ridiculously early.  Think ~5:30pm.  Yes, we are at that weird sleeping stage. Therefore, babycakes was all snuggly in her crib and Andrew got to cuddle with our spoiled furbabies while watching Top Gear or some other manly show.
2. Us women folk were sequestered in the "dining" room that is closed off by a set of French doors.  It is essentially sound-proof.
3. My friends and sewing make me happy.  A happy wife = happy household.

"Dining" Room aka Craft Room

I should probably mention that our dining room is not exactly equipped for dining.  Or well, for anything aside from sewing and storage.  Our table is a conference table.  It is excellent for crafts, but not so much for eating.  We do not even have chairs!  Fortunately, we own enough office chairs from the IBM surplus store to sit 3 people.  Since the room is located directly off of the totally awesome man-cave media room, I (Andrew) was able to tap into the Apple TV and access my Christmas playlist.

 Ellie's Christmas bow--ribbon, hot-glue, floral wire, and barrettes.

Okay, I did not make this in one night.  I actually made two of these as gifts for Christmas.
Disappearing 9-Block Table Runner

My dear friends Jessica and Kate lugged their machines to my house for a night of girly-ness, Christmas music, hummus, sugar cookies, and of course sewing!

Jess, the craft-master aka Martha Stewart of craftiness, sewing a sock monkey for her little girl.

Kate, the design queen and awesome fabric selector, creating an apron for her kiddos.

I love my camera.

Sewing can be a great deal of fun and a form of therapy. . .  Provided you do not own a Singer machine made in the last 15 years.  Older Singers or Jessica's Brother machine are the exceptions.  Oh and Kenmores.  If your grandmother owns a sewing machine, snatch it up, get it serviced and never ever let it go as it is probably the best machine ever.  My beautiful Singer is a pain in the . . . well, there was a previous blog post on that. . .anyway, Kate's Singer misbehaved and in my attempt to "fix it" I sort of took it apart by accident.  It required Jessica's expertise to get it back together.  Does it work?  Well, we didn't dare try.

More Christmas crafts to be seen after they are given to their recipients.  Until then, you must satisfy your curiosity with more Ellie pics.

Sophie, wouldn't your like your bone?  I am giving you a peace offering.  I even tasted it for you.  Wouldn't you like to have this bone?  It is very yummy.

This looks like trouble. . . 

Now, did we complete any of our sewing projects last night?   Yeah right!  Between gabbing and troubleshooting. . .