Let's catch up, shall we?

Sheesh, I haven't blogged much lately. I'd apologize, but I blog without obligation, so...

Thanksgiving was so late this year, right? It makes Christmas seem like it's coming faster. I feel as prepared as I always do (ha). I have most of my gifts bought and most of my sewing done. Our house is decorated and White Christmas has been watched. Christmas with the Kranks is up next. Love that movie so much!!

This last week was so busy, in the greatest kind of way.

Casey's birthday was last Sunday.

The kids decorated. Parties are their love language ;)

We have some close friends from Colorado who also live in Virginia, a few hours away and they came down for Thanksgiving. We have always spent Thanksgiving with Casey's family so I was really missing them! Having friends here really helped the homesickness a lot. I'm thankful to have some loved ones on this coast.

We also celebrated their oldest, Andrew's birthday while they were here! These boys can really get into the Legos.

 Look at these cuties! Aw. Andrew got the Legos and then Ethan and Kelby built them, it was kinda funny.

Then! While they were here, we went down the street and took some pictures at this pretty little spot here on Fort Lee. It was the coldest photo shoot I have ever done, but it was totally worth it. Here are a few of my favorites.

 I think these two shots are soooo beautiful. The light was workin' for me!

I think that pretty much catches us up! We decorated for Christmas yesterday, and I did take a few pics but those are on Instagram. I'm on Instagram as nikkischreiner if you're interested in following me there. If you're on Instagram, do you have the A Beautiful Mess app?? Cause it was awesome before, but they just updated it and now it is SUPER awesome!

Right now my laundry room is piled high with Amazon boxes. I ordered gifts early this year and they are ready to be wrapped! And the gifts from both sets of grandparents have also arrived and waiting to be wrapped. So, if you need me, I'll be in a flurry of cute wrapping paper and vintage ribbons someone passed along to me for added cuteness!

Cheers :)

A calm life

I read a quote on Pinterest recently that said, "It's okay to be happy with a calm life". It stood out to me. Why do we sometimes feel guilty when we are not busy? Or our kids aren't busy? Or we are not doing more than one thing at any given moment? Since moving here, my life has slowed down dramatically and I struggled with it at first until I really began praying for the spirit of guilt to just be lifted. Our enemy is the Accuser and these feelings of guilt and restlessness are not of the Lord. So I devoted myself to prayer about this and over the past few weeks, I have felt joy and freedom overtake the guilty feelings. Praise the Lord! I know He is using this season of my life to reveal and deal with a handful of things that I have struggled with for a long time and I am so thankful. 

My complete lack of a social life here has made Christmas the least stressful that it's ever been since we've had kids! I have time to sew, to plan, to order early and act on the little things that I always want to do, but never get to. (It's okay not to get to those things too, ya know. If you're feeling overwhelmed, start slashing nonessentials from that holiday to-do/to-buy list and don't give guilt over it any place in your Christmas celebration!)

A couple weeks ago, we headed up to Colonial Williamsburg! I had really wanted to go, but was horrified when I looked up the price. It's ridiculous, really. But, over Veteran's Day weekend, all military and their families could get in free!!! I was so happy. So we headed up there for the day and despite my back going out on the car ride up, I was determined to make the most of it. It was one of those family occasions that will be remembered so fondly--everyone was in a good mood, no one was whiny, the weather was good and it was just fun to be together. Even though I was walking slowly and sideways, haha. 

I am hoping to share another tutorial with you this week. I have made my ornaments for this year and thought I'd share the little pattern I made. If I can figure out how to get that pattern on here so that you can print it (it's probably totally easy, but I've never done it before), then that will be up soon!

Cheers :)

Pot Holder Mitt tutorial

The Christmas sewing has been in full swing for quite a while here now. I always waver before sharing anything I'm making for Christmas here on the blog because I don't like ruining surprises, but this one is too good not to share before Christmas because it's something that is so easy and fast to make for friends and family and I think if I can be useful to you in your own Christmas sewing endeavors, then I should :)

This little pot holder mitt idea stemmed from this tutorial. That version is beautiful! But, I needed something designed for mass production so I tweaked it a bit, eliminated the finicky binding (I never get machine sewn bindings to look good!) and changed the dimensions just a bit. Here's the finished product:

 And here is how to make your own :)

What you need:

• Two 11x7 pieces for your main fabric (a quarter yard will work, a fat quarter will not)
• Two 10x7 pieces for your pockets
• An 11x7 piece of Insul-Brite. This is a heat resistant fabric made for projects like this and you can find it at your fabric store in the utility fabrics section. It's $7.99 a yard, but I had a half off coupon so it was really inexpensive. Plus, I've made ten of these and probably have enough for ten more. 
• An 11x7 piece of cotton batting. I have plenty of scraps and if you don't, I bet someone you know who sews does! 
• A walking foot if possible. 
• A strong needle, a 90 probably. I used an 80, but my machine is semi-industrial. 

Let's get started! You should have cut your fabric to look like this:

 Go ahead and press your pocket pieces in half hamburger-style:

 Now for sandwiching your fabrics together. Put your piece of Insul-brite on top of your piece of cotton batting. Then put one of your main fabric pieces right side up on top of those.

 If you're not using a walking foot or if you're a beginner, I'd suggest basting those layers together and also basting your pockets on after that. I skipped any basting and mine stayed together fine. Next on your sandwich goes your pockets, with the folds toward the center:

 Lastly, place your remaining main fabric piece right side down on top of all that:

 Pin your layers together around the edges, planning for an opening for turning. I put mine on a long side--you can see I placed two pins together up there to remind me to stop. I left about three inches. Maybe a bit more.

 Go ahead and sew that sandwich together in a half inch seam. Then, trim your seams and corners, but not where your opening is; leaving that part untrimmed will ensure you catch those edges in when you top stitch.

 Turn right side out between your main fabric and your main fabric with pockets piece. Those layers can be confusing if you didn't baste, but you'll figure it out :)

 Poke those corners out good with a chopstick (or whatever) and press it good, pressing your opening closed. I then place a pin in my opening, ready for top stitching. I don't bother hand sewing that opening.

 Top stitch about an eighth of an inch away all the way around and you're done!!

 This is what the pocket side should look like:

 And the other side hopefully looks like this...

 These are really fast! I made this one in about 10 minutes and that was with taking pictures!

 I love looking at this pretty stack with all my favorite fabrics :)

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial!! If you make some, I'd love to see them, so link me in the comments!! And if you make many, I hope your sewing table has as pretty of a mess on it as mine does ;)