Maybe I finally found a direction?

So an unexpected request was brought to me last November, my lit teacher - she has two granddaughters - asked me if I'd be willing to sew doll dresses for their American Girl dolls for Christmas presents. I had already been sewing doll dresses, but never to sell. I agreed to make the doll dresses and off I went. The only request was that one dress be purple (because it's the girl's favorite color) and that both dresses be pioneer-esque. The rest was all up to the creative juices. So as I'm making these dresses, my aunt asks if I could make her daughter a dress for Christmas as well! So I sold 3 doll dresses, and now I'm beginning to wonder if I should go a sewing direction.

The dress that is pictured above is the one that I made for my cousin. =)

This is the small drawstring bag that I made to go with it

The hat.

This dress is one that I made for my lit teacher. It took me about 3 tries to get the ruffle on the hem right... but I say that the stress of it was worth it! =D

Close-up of the neckline. I had to venture into a section of the craft store that I never go in - the beading aisles. And I successfully found something that would work for the cameo! Sorry that it's so blurry...

Detailing of the cross-stitch that I added to the hem of the pinnafore

This dress is the purple one that was requested - I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. The fabric is all from my scrap collection!

Close-up of the apron and shawl. I cut out the flowers from the solid lavender and sewed them to the center of the apron tie. The way I had to lay the fabric out left an ugly seam right down the middle of the tie. So I covered it up with the flowers!

And this is the back of the shawl - the little girl's name started with an "L" and her doll's name was Lily Anna. So I did this for them. ;)

Wow...

Ahh!!! I am so :terribly: sorry that I haven't blogged for a LONG time!!! So to catch y'all up because I'm noticing the last post was from the Hoe Down in October...

Right now, I'm taking 3 classes from an absolutely AMAZING teacher: British Lit, Shakespeare, and Old Testament Survey. As well as a Spanish class from another teacher who is quite skilled in the art of the language, but it really isn't my favorite class in the world... the four years of Latin behind me hinders and helps, if you know what I mean. ;)

A couple of years ago, I got through about half of the British lit program by myself (the teacher gave me her curriculum and schedule), but due to some health issues, I wasn't able to get very far... So this first half of the year has been review for me, but I feel like I'm getting more out of it by sitting in the classes and listening to the lectures. Let's just say that I've been a note-taking monster. ;) I'll have to post some of the stuff that I've gotten from the teacher later! =D

The Shakespeare class has got to be one of my most favorite classes EVER!!! We're going through seven (at least, I think that it's seven...) of the plays in depth and casually acting out the entire play with Mrs. English stopping to unpack all of the hard metaphors and language. I never really thought that I would enjoy Shakespeare except for the little kid books that have illustrations and simplified story lines... but, oh my goodness, the people in the class are great, the goofy things that we do to make the stories more enjoyable, ect, just make the class all the more wonderful!

In Old Testament, the same teacher as the above two classes, I know isn't she amazing!!!, is essentially taking all of the stuff that she learned in seminary and turning it into a class - complete with learning ancient Hebrew, some of the words (the language is so much more beautiful, deep and descriptive than English! English is such a shallow language when it comes to expressing things). I'll have to post some of the stuff that I've gotten from that class as well... Take the Hebrew word hesod for example. When translated into your simple english bible it is "loving-kindness" but in actuality, it means so much more! It shows God's love, a love so deep that he would make a covenant with mankind, for us. Truly, most of this stuff is over my head, but what I have gotten makes the Bible so much richer and fuller and so much more meaningful.

The Spanish class... well... I did learn how to say "Live long and prosper." - Spock.
(whatever you hit to make and upside down exclamation point) Que' Viva used y prospere!
yeah, it's beneficial. ;) No seriously, I'm getting more than that.

So that's my school life... homework. Lots of it.

And now back up to November 2009. We had company; lots of family all over the place! =D and some family that I haven't seen since forever ago (think little kid and I hardly remember). Actually, when I walked into the door, my great-aunt thought that I was my mom. Apparently I have my mom's mouth - that's what she said! ;) Day after thanksgiving - Black Friday - our Christmas tree farm opened for the season. Oy vey, talk about busy. It was the kind of busy that if you added one more thing, you would just break down and go absolutely insane. On second thought - it was insane...

So Christmas break wasn't neccessarily a break per say. It was more of a take on the world and fall over exhausted.

While all this chaos was going on, December saw some of the most frigid December I've seen. (now for a political note: almost ironic since Obama and the world leaders were meeting in Coppenhagen to discuss global warming. shows them what they know. God will make foolishness of man's wisdom). Our well pump decided to die. Well, it was a little more complicated than that. Some pipes in the barn froze and essentially burned the pump at the bottom of the well. That was an exciting weekend in the midst of all the Christmas business. And my grandma was coming the next week. Imagine - a family of 7 without water for several days and more company on the way. The disaster zone that was created in a mere day was hazardous enough...

So... continuing on with the story. The day after Christmas (remember my dad's mom was still visiting us) my dad's brother and his daughter snuck in and gave Grandma probably the best Christmas present that she got. =D Grandma's facial expression when my cousin snuck behind her while she was doing the dishes and gave her a huge hug. ^_^

So that's a quick catch up with as many details as I could remember for now.

Thank you for reading!