It's TIME!!!

Christmas Time, that is!! I so love the Holiday Season! The twinkling lights, the smell of cinnamon and Christmas trees in the air, the warm feeling of buying the most amazing gift for someone, that special air of love that floats around, even strangers are a bit more polite. I just love it.

To welcome the season, we have these... my first pair of crochet toe-up socks. These were surprisingly easier than I expected. My crochet abilities stop at squares and rectangles, so this was something new for me. It was a quick project and my daughter loves them... although she slips and slides around a lot lol. See the little snippet of our new floors? Wow that was a project. We'll get to that in a minute. Isn't she cute in her little tutu? The child loves dressup.

To something a bit more exciting..... below, you are viewing the very first Kaytiebugs pattern!! Well, the result of it anyway. This is the prototype. It's wrinkled and the pic was taken in poor lighting... but I'm using a camera phone so it can't get much better (do forgive the photo quality, my camera is dead and I'm not getting a new one for a couple of weeks). I drafted the pattern on gift tissue paper (that was the easy part). Then I started sewing. I can whip some clothes up in no time... but a lined handbag? I have made all of two different handbags... one was ugly and horrible, the other is this one... but it was easier because the pattern didn't require all of the seams be hidden, the base seams are bias taped around instead of flipped inside and concealed. It took a lot of head scratching, patience (which I have very little of), seam ripping, pinning, repinning, and ALAS I have my first completely custom designed handbag! Amy has something somewhat similar, but I didn't like the straps or the overall shape (or the thought of paying $15 for a pattern lol). It's hard to see in this picture, but there are two inward pleats on the front. It's fully lined and has a pocket inside (not a zippered pocket, you know how much I hate zippers).

Back to the floors. Wow. I had no idea laying new floors would be such a huge challenge!! We ripped up the old parquet floors that had a thick layer of glue holding them down. We had tile in the kitchen, but that came up very easily. It took my DH and step dad every bit of two full days to do the downstairs (not including the time it took to pull up the old floors and finish the baseboards). I know what you're thinking- "What kind of person in there right mind rips up real wood floors and replaces it with laminate?!?" 1) The previous homeowners installed the tile and parquet, and did a pretty poor job at it; 2) The parquet was not very pretty and the moment I saw the house I told my hubby "If we buy this house, I want new floors in less than a year." It was that bad.... one of the very few flaws in the house, but fixable; 3) Parquet is sooo 1995 lol kidding... it's just not my style (or the right color); 4 (and most important) our upstairs toilet flooded while we were away overnight.... the floor was destroyed beyond repair in a big section. We covered it with a rug until we were able to replace the floors. Ignore the random rug in the pics... it's been moved. And ignore the lack of finished baseboards... we've finished them.

Here's the old floor (before flooding)....

Here's the new floor (bad pic... poor lighting, camera phone)....

During the project...

We used Ikea Tundra flooring and Floor Muffler underlayment and I swear I can walk on the floor with heels on and it sounds thisclose to the same as walking on a regular non-floating floor. If you are going to get laminate, Floor Muffler is a MUST. Don't settle. Yes, it's twice as much as the regular stuff, but it's WELL worth it in the long run. Next redo- the kitchen cabinets... but that'll be a while.

In the meantime, we're currently building a luxury dog house for our 120lb half rottie half shepherd. Not really luxury lol, but it'll have a bit of lighting to provide heat, and we do plan to put Christmas lights on it and plant shrubs around it in the spring to make the area look nice. We're putting wide beadboard type stuff on the outside and painting it the same color as the house. It's about 5'x5' and the peak of the roof is about as tall as I am.... 5'4". I'll post pics when it's finished. K decided to crawl in there and decorate with her old bedroom decor... it's too cute. Rugs, wall hangings stuck in the framework, even a little table.

PS-

Only a child could spot an empty flooring box and see a robot! It took me a second, but then I saw it. She didn't do anything to the box, this is the way it looked laying out empty. She later colored it and put glitter on it. More amazing... she's wearing matching jammies! lol

In the next episode.... finished Handmade Holidays goodies (with pics from the camera phone *pouts*)! 5 things down.... 1945577 more to go!!