A Christmas sneak peak...

(Thanks for the early Christmas presents Grandma Z. And yes, the Christmas tree is sitting inside of a bucket. Just a little Christmas randomness to entertain us this year!)

Much like last year, I've decided at least while I live in Korea that making gifts is the way to go for most of my friends and family (hope you guys don't mind!). It does mean starting towards the end of November I'm immersed in gift making. It's a lovely ritual for the most part because I apparently love to sew. And given the fact that we have a mailing deadline, I always can see the light at the end of the sewing tunnel, so to speak. But this year, as soon as the packages got mailed off, I remembered two other gifts that I wanted to make, these ones for the ladies.

Months ago while craft blog surfing, I came upon a tutorial on how to make a mermaid tail. Ruby happened to be standing right by me, and saw the pictures of little girls running around with mermaid tails on, and instantly decided she needed one. She later found some sparkly purple fabric at the Happy Quilt and has asked me repeatedly when am I going to make one for her?!

Shhh, please don't tell her, but she'll have 2 wrapped up under the Christmas tree. Just in case it isn't fun to be a mermaid all alone, I made her a second one to decide if she wants a certain sister to be a mermaid with her. But the choice will be hers to make. Had I known how easy these mermaid tails were going to be, I might have made them months ago!! In case you are in need of a mermaid tail, here's the tutorial.

One day Jane came into my sewing room and asked me to open up my fabric cupboards. She stood on a chair staring up at the selection and I could see she was thinking of something. Suddenly she turned to me and said, "I need all of the polka dotted fabric sewn into a blanket!"

And you know what, I totally agreed with her. She doesn't know it yet, but under the tree she'll have her dreamed of polka dotted blanket, complete with the letter "J" appliqued in the fabric that she specified. And just for added love, it's backed completely in a fuzzy white minky fabric. The polka dot grid came together surprisingly (and thankfully) fast.

And to top it all off, all of these gifts were made completely with things that I already had on hand. I didn't have to make a single trip to any store to complete these Christmas gifts. That my friends, is the part about it where the gift is also a gift for me!!

I couldn't be more pleased to make these kinds of Christmas dreams come true! I know people say things like, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree", so I'm sure many of you aren't surprised that my girls wanted some homemade gifts for Christmas, but I remain enormously pleased that they have already learned to love my handmade offerings. What sweet ladies indeed!

Now it's time to start wrapping!