Little Miss Matryoshka

Working on tea towels for family members that were so gracious as to accept my late Christmas gift via IOU. That's right, my family is so generously supportive that they actually got excited about an almost finished Christmas present.

I bought the tea towels at the most wonderful and entertaining website, thank you Jenny Hart, at Sublime Stitching. http://www.sublimestitching.com/ She has so many genres of designs that you are surely going to find something up your alley.

Just buy the amazing package of designs that are completely economical and super cute! You can iron the designs up to 10 times for the price of one. How can you go wrong?

This is so much like coloring for adults. I love to color with my daughter but this is just as fun! Well, after I discovered how much I like to embroider, I threw in the crayons anyway. The center of the Matryoshka's dress is colored in with crayon. I colored it in after I put the iron-on transfer on the fabric but before the embroidery so my thread would give it the "finished" look. Pick a complimenting color (Crayola is the best because it has most color to wax ratio) and color in the lines. Then take a hot iron (heat appropriate for type of fabric) with scrap fabric below and above your colored piece so it protects your iron and your ironing board. The heat fuses the color to the fiber and the extra fabric absorbs any excess. It will wash just fine because the water won't get hot enough to bleed out the color. I should mention that I don't usually wash these in hot water but very warm water. It gives such a nice addition to the work and looks very tailored.

Have fun embroidering!!!

I'm Back with Mystery Trip Fun!

Wow, I took a very long break....so sorry about that! I guess I needed a small break that turned into a big break. Refreshing? ...yes, but I sure miss the sharing!





During this break, our family went on an adventure! I called it the "Mystery Trip." The kids had no idea where we were going until we went to the airport. One week before Christmas we went to the most magical Christmas place in the world, New York City! They were thrilled!






We did the whole thing! Skating in Central Park, American Museum of Natural History, Statue of Liberty, FAO Schwartz, Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, American Girl datenight, Sony, Broadway Show, Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, hot dogs on the street corner, the subway and all it's funk, italian food, and amazing chocolate....yweh! So much fun every minute we were there.
Skating before falling. Salute to NY!


The tree!!!
Little girl taking a picture of Lady Liberty.




Lesson here? We saved, saved, and saved. All the little jobs the kids did, the extra work my husband and I found, craft shows and orders; all that money went into the Mystery Trip Fund. Boy, those little dollars add up quick. Through this process another amazing thing happened, the kids matured a little. Didn't see that coming. They started to see the progress and when we went to the bank to make our weekly deposit, they watched the numbers grow. The lovely ladies at the bank were in on the surprise so they really helped ham it up and give lots of praise (and kept the secret) through this 5 month commitment. Now the kids are a little less fussy about being asked to do chores (and sometimes even do them without being asked) and they realize that work equals money. I love it!





Here's how we did it! We made a plan (without the kids knowing details) and knew where we were with every deposit. We played it off pretty well for a long time. The kids thought we were going to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the whole trip. Once we reached a certain amount, we told them we had enough for hot dogs....and so the fun continued.

First the airfare, then the lodging....everything else unfolded and as the list grew so did the jobs and deposits. This was such a fun experience for our whole family and I highly recommend doing this with yours!