Apron Winner ~

The handy random number generator picked #4, making Racheal the winner of the apron! Thank you so much to everyone who entered. I only wish I had one of these aprons to send to each of you! I need to do giveaways more often! Racheal, please email me at david_sarahmeister at mchsi dot com to let me know where to send the apron!

Today I passed from twenty-two to twenty-three, and am now the delighted owner of my very first teacup and saucer. Or, at least, a real teacup and saucer. I had tiny teasets as a little girl. But this is a grown up one. :) I cannot wait to use it! It will make tea-drinking so much more elegant than the blue mugs I am accusomted to.
In some ways it is sobering to be twenty-three already. It seems so terribly old. Yet, it is exciting to look towards the future and to wonder how God will work out the threads of my life. It will be bittersweet to watch my babies grow bigger and become more independent. It will be wonderful if God blesses our family with any new sweet bundles as the coming years go by. It is fun to ponder on the possibilities. Yet, for now, I am content to live in the moment and to reflect on the past twenty-three years of my life. I have been so incredibly blessed by wonderful parents, wonderful siblings, a wonderful husband and wonderful babies - and wonderful friends!


God bless you all!

Love,

Sarah

Toddler Hoods, Pattern, and Giveaway

With it falling into the very low 50's at night around here and staying pretty chilly throughout the day I have been getting back into my make-hood mode so my babies are warm enough at our fall events. So, that is what I've been doing the past few days!

I loved the opera hood from the marquise.de website but thought that it wouldn't work the best for the boys since it was so roomy and there was too much area for wind passage around their little heads. I decided to make a jumble of all my favorite practical features from a few different original hoods (including the shape of the curtain from the marquise.de hood) and came up with a pattern that I am very happy with for the little ones!

Both boys hoods are made of an outer layer of wool, and inner layer of cotton (I didn't really feel like using silk for the inside of theirs - I know it will get filthy!) and an in-between layer of heavy wool. I didn't use wool batting because it was too puffy for me and I had a bunch of heavy sky-blue wool someone gave us that I had no use for. It worked perfectly as an insulating layer. I know these hoods are warm, because after having them on the boys for a few minutes I took them off and inside the hood was very warm from their trapped body heat. Yay!

I made Judah's of brown and blue and white plaid wool with brown lining, and Davids of the same red wool I used for trimming his dress, with yellow lining. I quilted the front half of the brim on the machine to give the edge a little stability and for decorative interest.

So - a few scraps of material, a few hours, and there ya go. A practical, useful accessory for chilly autumnal temperatures for the little ones! For anyone who wants to make their own, I scanned the pattern I drew out. These pattern pieces fit on a sheet of computer paper, so just print full size.

Brim

Crown

Curtain

Then today I wanted to see what this hood would look like made in an adult sized version so I sized up the pattern a bit and made a ladies hood in the same style. And, I am offering the finished hood as my first bloggy giveaway! Below are the links to the pattern peices (just tape together along squiggly lines for the brim and curtain pieces, they are labeled A and B).

Brim:

Piece A

Piece B

Crown

Curtain:

Piece A

Piece B

I have wanted to do a giveaway for so long, but had a difficult time thinking of something to make that anyone would like. Sure, I knew what *I* liked but it seems most other giveaways have to do with something cute and crafty or vintagey like aprons. I just have no talent in those areas. But, at last, I am taking the plunge. To enter the drawing leave a comment in the comment box (for those of you who do not have google accounts to sign into blogger with, email me at david_sarahmeister @ mchsi . com (omit spaces) to let me know you would like to be entered) and a random winner will be selected on Sep. 30th in honor of David and my 3rd wedding anniversary! :)

The hood is made from a cranberry-plum wool, lined with the silk I made my silk dress from earlier this year, and has an inner layer of wool flannel which is quilted to the silk in the brim. The ties are of the same silk.

All for today! Must go think about what to make for supper time. Spaghetti and the yummy eggplant dish from Tilly's blog sounds pretty good. . .

Love,

Sarah