Quatre germanes? Four sisters in Catalan (the language spoken in the northeastern province of Spain). I have four sisters! Yes, excluding me. There are 6 of us; 5 girls then a boy. My poor baby bro; 5 older sisters.

 From left to right: Sam (4), Dee (2), me (1), Jeri (3), and Andi (5).

 And this is Vince; the lone shot of testosterone among all that estrogen. He is a saint and I am always ridiculously proud of him!

So, the pros to having so many sisters is that there is always someone to hang out with, always clothes to borrow, and an endless supply of inside jokes. However, there are times when having 4 sisters can be quite challenging, particularly when Christmas is near approaching and handmade gifts still need to be made!

This is a flashback from several Christmases ago only weeks after I first learned to quilt. Just sharing this photo is enough to make me shiver with embarrassment! Don’t judge me, I had literally just began tackling the art of quilting and I was doing the very best that I could. I still can’t believe that I knocked these bad boys out in such a short amount of time. That being said, there is no way that I would ever gift these to my sisters now!

This year I have decided that I wanted to embroider something unique for each of them, but time is a precious commodity right now, so their something stitched is going to be very small. And although I can’t share full photos just yet (in the event that they are reading this post), I can share an underbelly photo and two color doctored photos (because I know for sure that Dee & Jeri are not reading this).

Only six days until Christmas…aaahhh!

Challenge of the week (and I mean challenge) was to find desirable party dresses on Etsy in each lovely color of the rainbow. Seems easy enough, right? Wrong! Etsy dressmakers need to pick up the slack, several of these colors were severely underrepresented. And the ratio of true handmade artists vs. Asian factories posing under the guise of “handmade” was also quite appalling. I digress, here is the list…

Red: I love this little red number! I think this is a great choice for tall, lean girls will little up top (cough). It’s simple, yet playful; definitely one of my faves on this list.

Orange: I’m gonna be honest here, the pickings for orange dresses were not stellar (hence the reason I selected a photo of the dress’ back). I think what I actually liked most about this dress was the background of the photo. Gasp, I know! This seller lives in France and the background of this photo is very similar to a photo that I have of myself in France, which I’m sure is why I like it… memories. The dress? It’s an orange dress, it fit the job. I suppose I like the waistline.

Yellow: now, this yellow vintage number is true love for me! I adore everything about this dress, the neckline, the color, the ruching. It is also somewhat reminiscent of Belle’s ballgown from Beauty and the Beast, meaning it’s perfect.

Green: plain and simple. I’m digging the model’s natural look and the photo scenery here. She’s not pretentious, not overly model; just a girl in a green dress. I like the neckline here as well (this is yet another good dress choice for non-busty gals).

Blue: this is another dress that I enjoyed more from the back than front. The vintage fabric and color are awesome. I feel that this dress would best be suited for a swanky cocktail party with live a live jazz band and fabulous martinis!

Indigo: umm, the dress is indigo. There are tires in the background. That is all.

Violet: this dress is almost bridesmaid-esque. It’s short and playful; simple, but not plain. It’s cute and I like it.

Whew, that was challenging; easier topic next week!

My large family has grown by just one more! My beautiful cousin, Nico,  who is about a month and a half older than me, became a mommy once more on 12/12/12. We are about the exact same height and very similar body types and have been asked on more than one occasion if we are twins. And honestly, although we are only third cousins, I look much more like Nico than any of my sisters. Go figure!

She’s the one on the right (in case you were confused!).  Isn’t she lovely? Anyway,  Nico was due December 3rd, but was positive that her baby girl would come on 12/12/12. I thought it highly unlikely that the hospital would let her go so far past her due date, but… mother knows best and 12/12/12 she came (naturally, of course)! This baby girl is absolutely perfect; Nico truly does have the cutest kids.

I literally want to hop in this photo and squeeze those cheeks! Since our lovely baby was born on such a special day, I figured that she must have a little stitched something to commemorate such a timely arrival; and since we are so close to Christmas, I thought a tree ornament might do the trick.

You like? This is how I did it.

There were, of course, several fly stitches between photos 3 and 4. For a simple fly stitch tutorial, click here: http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org/stitch/fly-stitch/fly-stitch/

This, of course, is not the only present that baby girl will be receiving, but I don’t want to give too much away too soon. I can’t wait to meet her!

Item on the brain this week… necklaces! Henceforth, necklaces will be the featured item for this week’s Rainbow Wish List. Aren’t these just to die for?! I’ve been doing a little embroidered necklacing (yup, just created a word) of my own this week; more to share on that later. Enjoy these Etsy eye candy finds!

Red: although I am not entirely sure that I could personally pull this necklace off, I am a life-long lover of Snow White and this obviously screams SW.

Orange: I absolutely adore what this artists has done with the ombre look here. I’ve done a bit of ombre stitching lately, so this is near and dear to my heart right now.

Yellow: love the classic, simple look. Yellow can do no wrong in my book!

Green: how cute are these little clusters? They look like tiny green flower pomanders. I’m not a big necklace wearer, but I would rock this!

Blue: cameos are timeless and kitty-cats are precious. Put the two together and voilà; perfection!

Indigo: this almost looks like someone plucked a “blue” Christmas light off the string. Gotta love that shade.

Violet: I have a major thing for infinity necklaces, so this little gem is pure love for me. In fact, I’ve made a few of these using jersey before and I adore them.

So, which is your favorite?

Today I took a lovely little field trip to the courthouse to play jury duty. Woohoo! Well, not woohoo, but I am not one of those people who cringes when I receive my summons. The first time I served on a trial I brought travel books and was attempting to plan a European vacation. The second time I was summoned (no jurors were selected that day), I was in grad school and spent my waiting time working on homework. This time, I wanted to embroider, but my summons listed needles and scissors as contraband items. Noooo!

While I am usually a 100% rule follower kind of girl, I cheated a bit at this. Sshh, don’t tell! So here are my tips/tricks to sneaking in mini embroidery sessions during all of that lag time experienced during the jury duty process. These tips would probably work well for flying as well; although TSA is fairly lenient when it comes to things like that. I have knitted several items while in flight. Okay, here are my tips:

1.) Cut (and re-wrap) your floss ahead of time. Seeing as you can’t bring scissors into the courthouse, use those scissors as much as possible before you leave home. 2.) Bring a seam ripper (put in coin section of wallet along with needle so that it doesn’t set the metal detector off). The seam ripper will act as your “scissors” once a piece of floss has been exhausted. Be careful not to puncture your fabric though! 3.) Bring a blank canvas or something with the sketched design only; it’ll keep you occupied for the entire day. 4.) Pack extra business cards. I passed out quite a few today when people asked to see what I was doing!

And more…

 5.) Bring a crafting related book to read for those super quick breaks where you don’t have a seat or when taking your project out would be too time consuming. 6.) Bring a sketch book in the event that inspiration strikes you (i.e., peoples’ tattoos). 8.) Wear your ware; if possible. Promote yourself, everyone will be oh so impressed!

This is the underbelly of my jury duty project. Don’t judge me, although a seam ripper works to cut your threads, it doesn’t cut them close enough. I’ll share proper photos once the design is complete and all  excess threads have been trimmed. Any guesses as to what it is?

I find it utterly delightful to scour Etsy for fun little treasures that I would love to fill my tiny house with. So, I decided that you might like to see the colorful creations that I found most attractive today. I’m calling it the Rainbow Wish List (RWL), so Roy G. Biv will be represented accordingly.

Here we go:

Red: Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animal… how can you not immediately think of Home Alone? You can’t, point blank. Thus, it’s on the list.

Orange: how adorable are these tiny little egg cozies? So stinking cute! And festive without being obnoxiously orange, as I tend to (as I think most do) associate orange with autumn.

Yellow: mustard yellow, no secret, my favorite color. These little socks look super soft and warm, and the stitched hearts on the sides are just the cherries on top.

Green: I internally belted out “and a partridge in a pear tree” when I saw this. I’m positive that this is not a partridge nor a pear tree, but it works for me.

Blue: I will admit that I am not a fan of Elvis. Gasp! I know. Something about him sort of bugs me; just not sure what. I do however love the simple creativity behind this card. Adorable.

Indigo: in my head these violins are playing What Child is This?. Do you hear it too? Good, then it’s not just me. The violin is my all time favorite instrument; I melt whenever I hear it.

Violet: those who know me well know that I hate velvet, not quite as much as my does husband, but for the same reason. The texture of velvet is horrific! I want to cringe every time I pass velvet at a fabric store. These leggings did, however, make the list because they remind me of this festive, matching skirt and top that I wore one Christmas as a child. Should I one day have a daughter, she will never, ever wear velvet!

All items can be found on Etsy by clicking here: red , orange , yellow , green , blue, indigo, violet

This is not meant to be a preachy blog. However, it is the Christmas season, I am a Christian, and I do celebrate advent. As this is the first week of advent, I was inspired to create this little gem.

Yes, I realize that the last three flames aren’t yet stitched on, but they will each have their turn as we draw closer to Christmas. This is part of the fun anticipation!

Simple little stitches and lovely floss. Don’t you just love these colors? So anticipatory…

Jeremiah 33:14-16 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those says and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute just and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’.”