Pillowcases for Smiling Faces

I went on a pillowcase-making rampage this week to get some late Christmas presents in the mail for the friends and family that I love.  I finished them on Tuesday night and they came out pretty amazingly, if I do say so myself!  Here's the silly story of how it happened!

I cut everything on Sunday and I just love how everything looks all together!  New fabric always makes me giggle with anticipation!

 To make these pillow cases, you roll the body of the pillowcase in the pillowcase's stripe and pin it.  Here they are:  all rolled up and nowhere to go!

  Here they are, unrolled after being sewed, but not done yet!  Now they are starting to look like pillowcases, though!  Goodnight Sunday!

 Monday and Tuesday I sewed the rest of the pillow cases.  Here they are all folded... I loved them so much I was tempted to just put them in my own linen closet!

  Then I thought... maybe they would look even better on my bed!  But alas, they are meant for people I love, so time to send them off into the world.  Be loved, little pillowcases.

Life is good.  God is good.  Little lingonberries are everywhere!

I've Been Off Looking for Lingonberries...

Sorry I haven't written in a bit, but Christmas has been craziness.  Because I work in the gift industry, Christmas starts in late October and then it is Christmas everyday all throughout November and December. It's also kind of like the Superbowl everyday, because the entire year has led to this and the company either makes money or it doesn't... and for a while there, it was touch and go.

My husband and I traveled home for the holidays to see my parents and entire extended family, which is always wonderful and stressful at the same time.  This year, I chose to see the wonderful.  We took a family picture and had a fun night out at the mall the night before Christmas Eve.  On Christmas Eve, we gathered with my mom's family, and I marveled at the 4 generations gathered in one house.  My mother's side of the family is the Swedish side, so also, there were actual lingonberries on the table, which reminded me of my little abandoned blog.  On Christmas Day, its little cousins and lasagna, truly the best, most relaxed way to spend the holiday.

On New Year's Eve, we started a new tradition by going to my husband's friend's house.  I am getting to know his wife and she is such a sweetheart!  They have three little ones, a little girl who is still in a crib, and a little girl and a little boy who are officially both in big-kid beds.

I thought these pillowcases would be snuggly for such grown-up kinds.  When Gus Lizard and Coconut Monkey heard they could snuggle up with new pillowcases, they said that they should be presents, too!

These pillowcases come out great every time I make them!  So easy and fun!  Find the pattern here! In fact, I have some more pillows to make for friends and family, so I think I am off for a night of self-care and pillowcase sewing.  Sounds just fabulous. ;)

Despite having a rough week, I have to remember:  Life is good, God is good, and little lingonberries are everywhere!

Unfortunately, it would appear that I cannot sew on this blog...

... so my living room continues to be full of fabric.  Also, Joann's had a really good sale this weekend, so a little more fabric came into my life.  This weekend, I cut fabric to make pillowcases, so I will post a picture when they are done.  I am doing a craft fair next weekend in hopes of selling said pillowcases, but if I don't I will donate them to Conkerr Cancer, a non-profit here in Philly that donates pillowcases to children fighting cancer.  The pillowcases dress up their hospital beds during their stay.  It sounds simple, but some of the best things are!

Other than that, not much happened this weekend.  I watched some wonderfully sappy Hallmark movies (Christmas has started on the Hallmark channel), and got in touch with some people who I have been neglecting.  It's amazing to me that I constantly put off calling, e-mailing, or good-old-fashioned writing the people I don't see everyday, and yet it makes me so happy to hear about their lives.  I also made plans to see the upcoming Twilight movie with some friends.  I love those ridiculous movies and I cannot wait to see them with the two friends that will appreciate the silliness with me.

My husband surprised me yesterday morning by wanting to come out to do some errands with me.  I was shocked, because the errands were boring and really didn't involve him.  We had a blast together, though.  We went out to lunch and even got some Christmas shopping done.  It felt good to be with him.  It was like a date, even though we were only going to do some silly errands.

As stressed as I might get sometimes, life is good.  God is good.  Little lingonberries are everywhere.

A Creative Spot (That doesn't take over my living room...)

Hello world!  This is my very first entry on "Life's Little Lingonberries," a space I designed to be fun and creative place for me to write about my life, both the fun-and-creative part of it and not.  I promise (and for all I know, no one is reading this, so this is a promise to myself) to use this space as creative space only (and not as an angst-y, complain-y space).

What should I write about in my first entry?  Well, maybe I should say why I am calling this blog "Life's Little Lingonberries."  First of all, I was raised in a household that celebrates our Swedish heritage and one of the fabulous things about being Swedish is lingonberries.  For all of you non-Swedes, lingonberries are little red berries that taste a little like cranberries and, among other great uses, are candied to make lingonberry jam.  Lingonberry jam tastes fantastic with things like Swedish pancakes, Swedish meatballs, Luda... you know... yummy things.

Before Ikea (where you can buy lingonberry jam at the food market), lingonberries were hard to come by.  Even though I can now have lingonberry jam whenever I want (we live within 15 minutes of an Ikea), I still save it for special occasions.  It tastes like special Christmas Eves, and sleepy Saturday mornings when my cousins had slept over the night before, and the occasional Swedish meatball slow cooker dinner on a cold winter night.  In short, lingonberries are special.

I have decided to make an earnest attempt in my life to start looking for the simple, special things in my life, both the ones that I stumble upon and those that I create for myself and I am going to be thankful for them.  Wish me luck as I find Life's Little Lingonberries... I encourage you to find your own.