Hooray for my advent calendar!

So about a week before Thanksgiving I decided to bite the bullet and make an advent calendar. I finally finished it this week. Not by December 1st like I had hoped, but I'm really happy with how it turned out! I got the idea from this one in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog, but it was $69. I decided that with a few dollars of felt and some blood, sweat, and tears, I could make my own. I'm relieved to see that the PBK advent calendar is simply "No Longer Available"--my big worry was that by the time I finished making my own, the real mccoy would be marked down to $9.99 or something. So anyway, here is the finished product!

I would like to embroider our last name on the bottom of the tree, but I'll probably wait until after Christmas to do that. Realistically, I'll probably do it on November 30th 2009 ;)
Now I just need to figure out what to put in the pockets. I popped a piece of candy in each pocket, but I had envisioned putting in something Christmas-y too. Any ideas?

Jeans quilt--finished!

Hooray! My bluejean quilt is done. We've used it a few times and I love it! I made it really big so we can use it for picnics and have lots of space. I'm glad I didn't make it any bigger than it is, because it weighs a ton! I've included a photo of the quilt in progress--the squares are sewn into strips. (I'm on the blanket to show its size and to show how nicely my pants blend into the blanket!) The other one is the finished product.

Natalie's new dress

I made Natalie a dress out of a man's button-down shirt! The front of the shirt becomes the back of the dress, and the back yoke of the shirt becomes the front of the dress. I found the idea on craftster.org, and modified the sleeves a bit. I think she looks pretty darn cute.