Living room picnics and pajama pants

In an effort to avoid the Thanksgiving grocery store rush, Monday afternoon I swung by the store to grab the few items I needed for my contribution to Thursday evening's work potluck.  As I bent over to crawl into the bottom shelf to reach the last few cans of yams in the back, my phone rang.  Having possibly pulled a muscle in my shoulder, but successfully grabbing two un-dented cans, I tossed them into my cart and rooted through my purse for the phone.  Seeing the picture of my older brother on the screen, I promptly answered.  Imagine my surprise when, instead of the grown man voice of my brother, I instead hear the sweet voice of my 3 year old niece Eva asking  "Auntie, can you babysit us?"

That was all it took! How could I ever say no to that?! From the moment these little girls were born, they have had me by the heartstrings! I adore these little ones. My older brother and his wife are in the beginning stages of starting their own business and needed a bit of kid free time to make some good progress.  When the idea of going to Auntie Janelle's house came up, apparently my eldest niece was more than happy to place the call, and of course I was more than happy to oblige.  Immediately after my niece got the answer she wanted, she practically threw the phone back to Dad.  We hashed out the details, I grabbed a box of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and headed for the checkout line.

Once they arrived, we started off with the favorite Auntie's house past time....scare the living daylights out of the cat, otherwise known as laying on the floor saying "here kitty kitty kitty" in their sweetest voices possible in an attempt to coax, Tinker Bell the cat, out from under Auntie's bed for playtime. 

 

 

Now, you should know that Tinker Bell is a bit of a jerk and is also super anti-social.  She has never, in the three years my eldest niece has been alive, heeded their sweet pleas and come out to play.  But never fail, begging her to come out is the very first thing that must be done when we get to Auntie's house.  Sometimes there are multiple attempts throughout the visit.  After that, we had a play-doh tea party, made cookies, painted with water colors and one of the other most looked forward to events, the "living room picnic"

 

The living room picnic was born out of necessity.  I don't own a dinner table any more as I live alone and the table I used to have took up too much space.  So, when my nieces started coming over, I invented the living room picnic as a means of both protecting my carpet as well as making for super easy clean up.  Best of all, my nieces love it! So, we settled down to watch Disney's Tangled and feasted on dinosaur chicken nuggets. (Which I had to assure Eva were merely shaped like dinosaurs and not made of them. I think she thought she was getting a much more exotic dinner than she had anticipated)

 

 

Audrey, my brother's youngest, enjoyed the movie from my lap for a bit.

 

 

This was her first time staying at Auntie's without Mommy and Daddy.  Eva has always been little miss people person, but Audrey has taken her own time getting comfortable without Mom and Dad. She is a bit like her Auntie Janelle in this regard and likes to do things on her own terms, when she is ready. :) She did so well! She had a minor breakdown when they first left, but quickly recovered and joined in on the fun.  They are both adorable and polite girls and I love when they come over to visit!

 

I know, I know...you're wondering about the pajama pants.  Its really a totally unrelated matter. (other than that the adventures with my nieces left me worn out and slightly unmotivated to come up with a cool new project) Ever since I started my etsy shop, and word got out that I could sew, several people have approached me with things that they would like me to sew for them.  I try to say yes when I can, but it generally depends on how quickly people need the project and how much work I have for etsy stuff and making sure to schedule in some me time as well.

 

When a close family friend approached me with a Christmas project I couldn't help but add her request to my list.  My friend Jill has known me since I was born and though her kids are a hand full of years younger than me, we have all grown up around each other.  When she asked me if I would make her four children each a pair of pajama pants in a print that each of them would like, I of course said yes.  A few weeks ago, the two of us went shopping and picked out fabric prints for each kid.

 

 

The following week, I got them all cut out and was just waiting on measurements for each kid so i could get started on the actual sewing part.  I was cracking up when Jill text me saying that she hadn't forgotten to get me the measurements, but was still desperately trying to locate her missing tape measure.  I had to laugh and tell her that that exact problem was the reason I have so many tape measures in my own house.  When I would purchase another and then loose one, I would purchase a replacement and then of course, would find the one I had lost.  It is both frustrating and awesome to now have at least 5 of them in my house, HaHa. It will be some time (hopefully) before I have that problem again.

 

Tuesday became pajama pant assembly day.

 

 

 

We chose this McCall's pattern.  Pajama pants are, I would say, one of the more simple clothing items to sew and most patterns for them are pretty much the same.  We chose this pattern mostly because it was on sale.  But seriously, the hardest part of these pants was turning the drawstring tube to the right side out.  Tuesday I got 3 of the 4 pair done, with the help of "Everybody loves Raymond".  I like to have some background noise while I sew.  My usual go-to is FRIENDS.  I know each episode backwards and forward so it cuts down on my distraction level when I am trying to actually accomplish something. Anyways, "Everybody loves Raymond" (along with my new blue-ray player that plays back to back episodes of TV shows automatically on Netflix) is my new jam!

 

 

After running some errands on Wednesday morning, I came home and set out to finish the last pair.  I finished all but the hem and threading the drawstring before my boyfriend called me to meet him in half an hour for a showing of Catching Fire, which I have been DYING to see.  So I decided that was a good stopping point and headed to the movie theatre.  So, once again, I leave you with an only mostly finished project. :(  But such is life....at least in my world. I am really happy though that this project will be done well before Christmas so I won't be in a huge last minute rush to get them done as it gets closer.  I have a couple custom orders from my shop to do this week as well, so one more project out of the way is definitely a good thing! And, despite the craziness of it all sometimes, I am so thankful for living room picnics and pajama pants and I wouldn't trade them for anything.