'Tis the season to be busy...

I will not pretend to be the busiest, most stressed mom or woman on the planet.  I know that there are many women who are under much more pressure than me.  Now that's out of the way, here is what has me stressed this week.
This past weekend I had a booth with my sister-in-law at a local school.  It went very well and I made my sales goal!  In exchange, I was so busy last week getting ready that my housework fell by the wayside.  I am now well behind on cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. and it keeps growing day by day.
This is what my week looks like.

Monday:  Trying desperately to catch up on housework, a few errands to run and making korker ribbon
Tuesday:  MOPS steering team meeting in the morning, of course more housework, put together korker bows and make more korker ribbon
Wednesday:  Finish packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and assist in delivering them to drop off location, Madelynne has gymnastics class, make tuxedo bows (at least 15) and put together korker bows
Thursday:  Of course...catch up on the housework, make medium size bows and finish any korkers
Friday:  Hopefully no housework, work at Little Elephant Company, do banking, pack up and load car so that we can drive an hour to craft fair location and set up, get home late and go straight to bed!
Saturday:  Early start to get to craft fair in time, be there all day, go to bed early
Sunday:  Another early start, be at craft fair all day again, tear down and bring everything home...then guess what...the house is a wreck again after I carry in all of the stuff!

It may not sound like much to some, but it is a lot for me!  I am trying so hard not to crack under the pressure, but I know that I have been being crabby.  I just feel so overwhelmed by this week!  It's like...I look at all of the housework that needs to be done and I start to tear up because I feel like I can never conquer it.  I am trying to encourage myself that I can do it.  I am breaking off little pieces at a time.  Get one small task done and then move on to the next.  It seems easier to manage than looking at the whole picture of everything that needs to be done.  Wish me luck!

christmas 2010

Charming Holly Wreath Christmas

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Lil' Pumpkin Tutu

Kaitlyn has an orange Halloween shirt that says "trick or treat" in black.  It is a unisex shirt that I found last fall at Baby's R Us on clearance for like $1!  I decided that I want to girl it up by pairing it with a tutu and black leggings.  Tutus can be quiet pricey to buy and since I have tulle sitting on my shelf, I decided to make one myself!  So here are my instructions for this almost no-sew tutu.

Start with a section of thin elastic and stitch the ends together to form the waist.

You can also use ribbon to make the waist, in this case you would tie a knot at each end leaving approx. 12 inches on each end for tying.  The next step is to cut your sections of tulle.  The length depends on how long you want your tutu to be.  I cut mine 20 inches long.  Loosely stretch the elastic over something such as a chair or in my case the lid to a storage bin.

Fold a section of tulle in half, forming a loop at the center point.

Slide the loop under the elastic and tuck the ends through the loop.  Pull tight to form a knot.

Repeat this step until the elastic if filled to your liking.  The next thing that I did, to add a little dimension and appeal, was to add strips of ribbon.  I used 10 inch strips of 3/8 inch ribbon, and placed them the same way as the tulle.

Finally, I did a little alteration to the elastic.  I found that it stretched slightly when I tied on the tulle.  I simply stitched the elastic together and trimmed the excess.  All Done!