First (and last) Christmas dresses

I misguidedly decided to sew the girls Christmas dresses this year with little matchy shrugs. My parents were coming up to visit and the girls are already so adored, no matter what wretched trouble they are making, that I thought I would throw the family into saccharine overdrive with some sweet holiday sewing.

Somewhere, some little devils were laughing their wee horned heads off.

I found beautiful fabric with little cardinals and chickadees on it in two different colourways, and (pat on the back) some co-ordinating shiny red and red wine coloured shiny fabrics in the bargain bin. Oh yes, I am thrifty too. Did I mention the shiny fabric that was large enough for Eden's dress matched the bird fabric in the green colourway?
Eden here hates green. And Arlo of course hates dresses (I could not even find one photo of her not trying to tear her dress off). Yet through this I soldiered on, determined to get two lovely dresses ready for Christmas day. I cut out Eden's entire dress in the green birds fabric with assurances from Boss Hog that she would warm to it regardless of it's greenness. Silly silly mom. Not a chance. So back to the dress once again and cut it out of the shiny wine coloured fabric. She does love it, but she looks a bit as though she's wearing a negligee. We did manage to get one picture of her wearing both the dress and the abominable green birds shrug. Click. The birds will lay in a heap until Halloween and maybe then Arlo will be some kind of pants wearing forest sprite.

Tea Totes

I bought a bunch of great old time tea towels from the thrift shop before Christmas. I intended to make aprons from them and in fact did make a few before I realized that they were not cool. Sweet yes, but cool, not so much. So I made a few into totes and I like them way more. Maybe I like them more because I don't have to wear them and feel a whimsical tote is more flattering than a whimsical apron? I'm not sure.

The uptown, hair friendly, non-toque, thingy

The hoodzie, the hat wrap, the scourge of hat-hair nationwide even. Canada is of course cold in the winter. Our ability to thrive in frosty temperatures is one of our defining features as Canadians. We are a hearty lot of rosy cheeked wood-cutters and snow-sport enthusiasts. We are unfortunately also all afflicted with hat head from October to March. We are forced out of doors into the nasty weather wearing our toques to stay alive (melodramatic music playing ominously in the background). Until now, that is. Now we have the fantastic, hard to name but highly functional hat wrap thingy. It's many features include being both a hat and a scarf simultaneously. INDEED!!

It is a hat that warms your neck and chest! It is a scarf that handily keeps the top of your head warm and dry! When the weather is bad keep the hood up, but when the sun comes out just let it hang down like the hood on your favourite hoodie. You'll never lose another toque. You'll never have to keep your hat on in warm weather again for the shame of revealing your dreaded hat-hair!
Boss Hog is modeling the one we sent to his dad for Christmas. It's wool lined with flannel and I have one just like it. In fact I inflicted these on numerous family members this year in order to discover their actual appeal. So far it is hard to tell if my family members like them or have just been over generous in their support of my craftiness.

Freezer Paper Strikes Again

My dad is crazy for sailing so he is doomed to receive sailing themed gifts forevermore. I was of course pretty out of control making gifts up to the very last minute this Christmas. Then suddenly I realized that my parents were coming up to stay with us two days BEFORE Christmas. For well organized people this may not have resulted in chaos, but for me it was pure panic. I not only had to have his gift ready for Christmas morning but I had to have it ready by the 23rd!! So the lining fabric for this hair-friendly, non-touque, uptown hat wrap was not my first choice. It was way too plain even for a serious minded gentleman of sophisticated tastes (my dad) so I quickly cut out a freezer paper stencil in the rough approximation of a sail boat. Voila. Customized in ten minutes. I love you freezer paper.

Hallelujah!! cheese bread

It's official. This bread will henceforth appear at every Christmas dinner that I ever make until we all become lactose intolerant. It is stuffed with a mixture of feta, mozza and ricotta (to approximate the original regional cheese totally unavailable in Canada).I have to thank the ever over-the-top Nigella Lawson for adapting this Hachapuri, a traditional Georgian bread, for her readers in Feast. It is divine in many ways. The absolute simplicity of the recipe, the fabulous reheating, the totally easy to deal with dough and, of course, the fact that when Ms. Lawson suggests that this quantity will do nicely for eight people, what she really means is eighteen people. I have kids though and I love a left over probably more than most, especially when it is this good.

But wait, there is more divinity here!! The dough is not yeasted, and while I am not averse to yeasted bread I also know that making it while wrestling a turkey and several side dishes would simply not work in my house due to lack of space alone. And it can be made 2-3 days ahead. And though basic and essential in it's construction, it is pure, glorious indulgence to eat.

* photo credits to my mom who, along with Boss Hog, suddenly got really excited for this to be blogged about and staged virtually every dish I made.

Happy New Shoes... I mean Year!

Christmas craziness is over and I am vowing not to make anything for the entire month of January. Actually I vowed that last night but now 'Boss Hog' is x-country skiing and the girls are asleep and I am cutting pattern pieces for a new shirt and dress for me. Don't tell.

But in order to lessen my output of hand-mades and give my wrists a break I was looking for inspiration online and found it here in a multitude of shoes. Inspiring indeed and nearly heartbreaking in their loveliness so here's a pic of my favourite and highly impractical boot/sandal cross. Mmmm...