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Remember these cookies? These cookies that I made and posted about last January? These cookies that I had never seen anywhere and was feeling pretty good about my clever little self for making up?  Because no one in the entire world could have possibly come up with the exact same idea (humor me) right? While thumbing through this month's issue of Martha Stewart Living, I came across these:

You could have at least chosen a different color of polka-dots, Martha.

So to you, Martha Steal-art, I just wanted to say:……. your welcome.

Remember those piles? I am in full swing craft-mode and loving it. I've been working on some stockings for a very small shop update on Monday. I think there may be a handful of other items listed too, but aside from the stockings, I really just want to focus my time on Christmas gifts for my peeps. I've got pajamas and dresses and fun toys for Henry planned, so I need to get cracking on that.
These are made from a natural linen with patchwork and a little red ball fringe. Because ball fringe is the best. It makes everything good. Anyway, I'll have a handful of these available on Monday. I'll post a link then.

I finally finished up my ornament for Sheye in honor of her darling Ava. Did you know I pretty much have the worlds biggest crush on Sheye (this is not new news to her.) I do. She is brilliant and she loves polkies, too. Sheye- I'm also sending a little polka-dot somethin' for you. I'm just sayin'.

This week has been busy and so fun. My brother, Matt, flew into town on Thanksiving and gets to stay with us for 10 whole days! We are so lucky. We went to Ollie's 2nd birthday party this week,'the boys' did a tour of Dodger stadium today and we even squeezed in a bit of Disneyland. Henry's loving having "Matty Claus" in town. He calls him that "because he brings me toys" he says. Plus, now he's not the only boy around, having his Papa home too has been nice. Alot of "No Girls Allowed" coming from that litte one. "Boys Only!" he says. I'm hoping to get started on all my Christmas projects this weekend. It's gonna be here before you know it! Plus, I've gotta find something to do with all this girl time I have on my hands (yeah, right!!)

Just Finished this movie tonight. It was so lovely. Slow-paced, brilliant acting by the Gosling. Put it in your netflix queue. Right Now.

Our hearts
and bellies are full. We had such a great Thanksgiving spent with
family that we love. Here's the annual video from my  now, big turkey. Remember last year?

https://morganmoore.typepad.com/files/thanksgiving.movDownload Thanksgiving

It's 12:43 a.m. as I start this post. I have my right foot propped up on top of 3 pillows with a bag of  frozen "Early Harvest Petite Peas (no salt added)" on my ankle. 8 or 9 months ago I did something to my ankle and it has been giving me grief ever since.  It's so swollen and hurts so much to walk. Tonight was the DWTS Wrap Party. I am in no position to be going to a DWTS  Wrap Party. The post-baby clothes situation is…sad, very sad. It's borderline pathetic and the thing is, I don't want to buy clothes because I'm in a (very, very slow) "transitional mode" back to pre-baby weight land.  Plus, it's DWTS, have you seen the people on that show? I had to compensate for the poor selection of clothing with make-up, namely the smokey eye. It was my only vice. Maybe people would be sucked in by my smokey eyes and completely overlook the sad clothing situation. I went. I wore heels. Heels. Some part of my brain thought that would be a good idea. It was in fact, a very bad idea. I walked around like a 12 year old who was wearing heels for the first time, my arm constantly clutched onto Chris' (don't you dare let go of me or I am going down!) And now I am paying for it. No smokey eye is going to get me out of this one. But we are all so happy. SO happy that the show has wrapped and Papa is home. We missed him these last 3 months. But don't be getting big idea's Chris, jobs and paychecks are good. Very good.

Let's eat turkey in a big, brown shoe. Thanksgivvvvvvviiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggg…is a special night. Henry's shirt is done. Kate's…well we've still got 3 days. Thought I might share a little turkey-tute in case you wanted one of your own. The process is a little thing called 'reverse applique' and if you've never done it, we'll it's a cinch. You can have one done in 15-30 minutes. There are  a million ways to do this, but here's how I do mine.

You'll need a t-shirt or onesie, pins, button, felt, hand-needle and sewing machine. Actually it works to hand-sew it as well, so no worries if you don't have a machine.

1) Trace hand on paper and cut-out. Make sure you have a piece of fabric cut just bigger than the size of the cut-out. With the right side of the fabric up, place inside of shirt and pin to the front (where you want your applique to be. Right side of fabric is pinned to back side of front of the t-shirt). Make sure you place your cut-out on TOP of the underneath fabric.

2) Pin the cut-out down (not pictured) and then sew around the edge of the cutout (not pictured.) I have 2 kids you know. I can't photograph everything. Remove pins and hand template. You'll see the outline of a hand.
3) Next, gently pull apart the inside of the hand shape that you've just sewn, seperating the t-shirt and fabric. Cut only the top t-shirt, along the inside of the sewn line (making sure you don't cut the contrasting fabric underneath). Cut around entire inside of sewn line:
4) Stitch some legs. Sew on a button for the eye. Cut out some red felt for the gobble-gobble (that is the technical term, right?) and hand sew that on.
Gobble, gobble.

***edited to say, if you use a short stitch length (i.e., 2.5) your stitch lines won't be so wobbly gobbly. I was trying to make long stitches (bad idea on knit) so if you do a shorter stich, your lines will be straighter. Also, the only place I could find solid color tee's was Old Navy (trust me I went to 5 stores) I have a chocolate brown shirt I found at Babies-r-us for Kate's shirt.

xoxo

Kate was born 7 days before Henry's 3rd birthday.  Naturally it was low key. Today was his 1/2 birthday and we decided to make up for the lack of celebration 6 months ago. The day was shaping up to be a good one, until this morning. We were walking out of a store to our car (which was parked 10 feet from the door) when an oncoming bicyclist whizzing by plowed right into Henry, which landed us here:

All is well, he is okay. Such a little trooper. We told him we'd take him to his favorite restaurant (El Cholo) which seemed to instantly help and raise his spirits. We stopped at a local bakery for some late night delights to top off our day:


for (2) mini-bundts. Did you know that November is National Bundt Month? I speak the truth. You've got 10 days to get your bundt on.

Whenever we go to the market, Henry 'ooh's an ahhh's' everytime we pass the #3 candle on the baking aisle. He just wanted that candle so bad.  I made a special trip tonight for that candle and we all enjoyed a little birthday singing and bundt cake before bed:

Happy 1/2 birthday. I'm sorry you got creamed by an oncoming bicyclist.

On the agenda for the weekend: Turkey shirts for the kids, just in time for the holidays.

xo

Add a little bit of that:

And you get this:

Because when that last bite of turkey is eaten on Thanksgiving, it's go time. And we are ready. Almost.

QUICK! Need some ideas for a Christmas craft. Must be: 1) cool and/or nifty  2) beginner-level  3) inexpensive 4) able to be made in a group/class environment. I'm thinking advent calendars or stockings…what do ya got? Send me some links.

xo

  I finished my newborn caps for "The Caps to Cap Haitien Project" over the weekend. There were 3 casualties. 3 caps sewn inside out. Balls. Amanda is collecting caps and you have until December 10th to get them to her. A pdf of the pattern can be downloaded from the above link and caps are made from your tee's! Easy, easy. Just sew along the sides and badda-boom, badda-bing. Caps for newborns in Haiti. Project (including casualties) was completed within an hour. You can do it!