Thompson Family-Life

Deer Girl x3

Did'ya see that? My play on words? "Deer girl... Dear girl..." get it? 

Goodness, are you guys feeling the post-holiday exhaustion like me? It's pretty obvious with my sad attempt at humor there. We were so productive and busy leading up to the big day, that afterwards... we've done a whole lot of nothin'. And it's been awesome. I'm sure you are all doing a lot of the same, maybe?

The house is a mess and there are still opened presents lying around the house. Now I'm at Monkey Joes (indoor bouncy house place) letting the boys work off some energy because we've had so much RAIN here in Atlanta! No pretty snow like I know some of you are getting. 

The boys still have a week and a half off and Ethan's taking most of that off as well, so we are soaking it up. A lot of R&R going on around here. How about you?

I was able to stitch up two more of these cuties to give as gifts (you can make your own with this pattern!): one for my niece, Cecilia, and one for sweet little Lenore. Lenore's will probably be going on a shelf for a few years because everything's going in her mouth at this age, and I don't think a mouth full of fuzzy felt would taste too good. ;) That's Lenore's on the left.

Here's Cecilia opening hers. Her doll was the same as the first one I made, but with ginger hair instead. She opened it on Christmas Eve and everyone watched while she opened it. It was quite the event. ; ) She's much more stand-offish-than all of her rowdy big brothers and boy cousins (she's the only girl in the bunch!) so I think she was a little shy about being the center of attention (I can sympathize with that, I was that girl when I was little!)... but a bit later she agreed to let me take her picture with her doll...

She set her up like that on the chair. It was too cute! That's all the boys playing an indoor soccer game in the background (all this rain had these boys climbing the walls this holiday!). She was actually quite taken with the yellow yarn and big pompoms I made for the packages. She walked around with that yarn all night, and the pompoms were a hit on Christmas day (ha). The boys were even walking around with big yarn pompoms attached to their heads.

I got these pics before I wrapped her up...

I have to say, making these dolls over the holidays has been so good for my crafty soul! I'd missed making things with my hands. I think I'm done making Deer Girl for a while, but she is such an adorable pattern. I've actually been scheming up my own doll patterns in my head and sourcing cute materials to make them with. So, look for some doll patterns in January sometime! To say I'm excited is an understatement. (!!)

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and have a Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to your's!

Madeline's Handstitched Ornaments, circa 1970's

Ethan's Mom Madeline, little Ethan & his Dad, Robert

I've been wanting to photograph these for years. They were stitched by my Mother-in-Law, Madeline, in the late 70's. Aren't they so amazing? To be over 30 years old, I think they look pretty good! We always laugh every year when we decorate her tree at all of the super old ornaments she has - half of them literally falling apart. By the time we're done, their tree looks like quite the eccentric sight. But that's what I love about my in-laws' tree every year. It has total personality.

And even though half the ornaments are falling apart, it's because most were handmade! Either by Madeline herself, Ethan and his sister when they were little (yes, she still has PAPER ornaments they made, these things are still holding together!), or ornaments friends made for her. 

Apparently bugs even made their way through many of these ornaments. I'm so glad she salvaged them. I think they are beautiful in all of their raggedness. You can tell a lot of love was put into these! 

She did three sets featuring, The Nutcracker characters, the 12 Days of Christmas Song & The Wizard of Oz. Some of the characters are missing and I honestly had a hard time identifying some of them. I'm not super familiar with the Nutcracker characters, so I had to do some Googling. So I'm thinking, in the photos above from the top row and left to right there's 9 Ladies Dancing, maybe the Sugar Plum Fairy?, a Partridge in a Pear Tree and the Nutcracker's Spanish Dancer?

And below, we have (from left to right) top row: 8 Maids a Milking, the girl in pink - I'm not sure?!, The Nutcracker's Arab Dancer, bottom row: the Nutcracker, Chinese Dancer...

And then we of course have the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. I wonder what happened to Dorothy and the Scarecrow?

I tried to find the original patterns for these on Etsy Vintage and Ebay but didn't come up with anything. I think Madeline has the original pattern still, I need to see if she can find it.

I have to say that when I was first dating Ethan, I was thrilled to find a crafty kindred spirit in my one-day-Mother-in-Law. She's pretty awesome and I'm lucky to have her. Gosh, how many movies have they made centered around mean, crazy Mother-in-Laws!? I got such a sweet deal. She's not only super crafty, but super sweet to me and our boys. We're all pretty lucky to have this lady in our lives.

Christmastime at Night

I think my favorite part of the weeks leading up to Christmas day, are the nights we have at home. We always turn all of the Christmas lights on inside, and turn off most of the other lights in the house. Everywhere you go there are little twinkle lights somewhere. The whole house has a bit of a pink glow. We usually cozy up on the couch and watch holiday movies, and I'm usually making something.

We moved our Christmas village to the top of the new china cabinet that I painted recently, in the kitchen, and I love it here. They used to sit in our Expedit IKEA shelf over the past 4 or 5 years, in our living room, but it never really looked like a village separated in the separate cubbies (the Expedit shelf has since moved away thanks to Craigslist).

That's Maria and Captain Von Trapp up there in front of the church in Salzburg, Austria where they got married. We've visited that church in person and it's *gorgeous*. We also did the Sound of Music tour which was oh-so-awesome if you're a fan of the movie.

These are part of the "Alpine Village" from Department 56. My Mom bought Ethan and I these every Christmas for a few years right after we got married (a long time ago). I've always loved them and they always remind us of our trips to Germany and Austria, and I love that they represent the places where so many Christmas traditions began.

I made different levels setting boxes underneath the sheet of fake snow I bought at Target. I love the one little German cottage sitting high up on the "mountain".

My favorite room of course is the room with the big white tree. The room has this sweet pink glow because of the two trees (one white, one small pink one). There's definitely a pink and yellow theme going on this year.

On the opposite wall is our big screen TV (notice it is cropped out, haha) and this huge Santa plastic mold/light is hanging above it. I just bought the little Santa & Angel with sleigh decoration this year and knew exactly where it needed to go. I love how it looks like Santa is flying past a big Santa Moon.

I love walking down the hallway and seeing that tree.

These angels sit in a cabinet we purchased while in St. Petersburg, Florida in January of this year on my birthday. I still have yet to get some good photos of it! I'm going to take some more with all of the holiday decorations inside this week. I'm debating on whether to paint it a coral color, but after painting that other cabinet, I'm not sure I'm up for that quite yet! I love the way the light bounces off the vintage tinsel. Most of these angels I've found at thrift stores over the past couple years, and two I paid way too much for in Palm Springs, California. ; ) 

This little vintage pompom tinsel tree sits in our playroom/den. I'm going to get better pics of it as well. It's sitting next to our new very fat vintage chair/Craigslist find.

I think this is what I miss the most after all the decorations come down in the new year. I miss that glow and those sparkly lights. 

Sandy Hook & NAMI Fundraiser at Kitschy Digitals

Purchase the "Look for the Helpers" cross-stitch pattern here.

I was trying to think of a way Kitschy Digitals could help the Sandy Hook Elementary Community this week, in our own very small way. While money donations will of course not ease the pain of the victims' loved ones, hopefully they can help in the cause to get them any resources and support they may need.

While on Facebook this week, I saw a picture of Mr. Rogers (who I know is a childhood favorite of many of us) with this quote next to it:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me. 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world."

Not knowing if it was a legitimate quote (this is the internet after all), I looked it up and it seems to have been taken from his book. It was comforting to me in that moment that I read it. 

I immediately thought of Wee Little Stitches designers, Jacqueline and her husband Christopher, and their awesome Pixel People cross-stitch patterns. I thought Mr. Rogers would translate so well in that style. So I emailed her yesterday and asked her what she thought about creating a pattern around this quote, and after a night of designing, she emailed me this beautiful design this morning.

All proceeds from the sales of this pattern will be split and donated to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund and NAMI (The National Alliance on Mental Illness). Since mental illness is at the forefront of so many mass-shootings (as well as other obvious issues), and as a person that has mental illness in our family history, I knew I wanted to give to mental illness awareness somehow. I contacted our good friend who is a doctor to patients with mental illness, and he said that NAMI is a great organization.

No matter how you feel about the politics surrounding these unfathomable events, know that you are giving to people that need it. This is how we personally would like to honor those who were lost.

I am also donating all proceeds from my personal shop, now through Friday, to these funds as well. I've asked our designers if they'd like to as well. While I'm still hearing back from everyone, here's a current list of who is participating in donating proceeds from their shops through Friday:

Wild Olive, JuneCraft, WeeLittleStitches, Bee's Knees Industries (Cate Anevski), Chelsea Ann, Kate Gabrielle, Lucky Jackson

This pattern was inspired by a need to find hope in a world full of tragedy. That no matter how much bad exists in the world, that it's important to remember there is still so much good around us.

photo source