I know advent starts today and the calendar should really be done, but oh well. My kids don’t understand time yet, so one day late isn’t that big of a deal. I dreamed it up one very late night and honestly I don’t even know if it’ll work, but hopefully I’ll be back tomorrow to show you the finished version.  Any guesses to what it’ll be? Any fancy advent calendars that you are still working on feverishly?

I have zero thanksgiving decorations, so I came up with this little project. It doesn’t really need any explanation, just push some cloves into some clementines and spell a word.  You could get all fancy with fonts and it might be good to sketch the letters on first. I just did it freehand (and I’m sure you can tell). Clementines have a thinner skin than oranges so it makes pushing the cloves in much easier. This is a great project for kids and a good spelling lesson to boot. My daughter is really into letters right now and  it went over big. I didn’t dry them so they won’t keep, but they still smell pretty. Now we just have to make some hand turkeys and we’re set!

It’s Handmade Holidays all month long at Sew Mama Sew (if you didn’t know already).  They, so kindly, asked me to be on their board and come up with a few ideas for their amazing blog.  After crossing out many bad ideas, I came up with these little plush ornaments. They are simple to make and you can find all the tutorials here: woodland ornament tutorials.  If you make one, be sure to show it off on the Handmade Holidays flickr pool! Only 33 days until Christmas.

I started this digger almost a year ago (it’s nice to have a record of the things you make, but it’s not so nice to see just how long you can procrastinate) and it should be in the shop later today.  It’s funny how my tastes have changed in a year. I wanted to rip up all the patchwork and start again, but then it would have sat around another year I’m sure.  A lot of the scraps came from my first big sewing project (and my first big post). I think it’s time I cleaned out my scrap box and made a quilt. Or an army of patchwork diggers.

*My site was a little messed up this past week–if you couldn’t leave a comment or find a post I’m sorry. My genius of a husband fixed it all, so comment away.

My Nana is 105 years old.  There is no way to sum up someone who is 105 years old, even if you have only been in their life for 30.  Nana was already really old when I was growing up, but still took care of me often.  She wasn’t one to complain about being old–it probably wasn’t until last year she even thought of herself as old and because of that attitude she takes no medications, isn’t wheelchair bound, has no arthritis, and just last month moved into assisted living.  But that is only the medical side of things.  She also writes a poem everyday, likes to stay up late, plays a mean hand of gin (she always beat me, but I was 9), believes you can heal yourself by the force of your will power and six vegetable on your dinner plate every night, gave her grandkids iceberg lettuce sprinkled with sugar for dessert, never learned how to drive (from the front seat), climbed trees when she was 80, calls a cell phone a “little phone,” and many other strange and wonderful things.  In the 1920’s she worked for the Real Silk hosiery company selling stockings (and other unmentionables I’m sure).  She worked her way up in the company until she was the secretary to the bossman, then, I think because of an ultimatum from my grandfather, came back to the midwest and got married.  This hosiery mending kit was a little treasure I found in her sewing tin my mom gave me.  You keep it in your purse and those little match-like things magically stop the run in your delicate silk stockings until you can get back home and mend them.  I think it is absolutely fantastic. I’m so excited to get to use this pretty tin and pass it on when I turn 100.