A small gift

During a day at the National Gallery of Art I was enjoying 

seeing many  trees like this surrounding 

the center fountain in the rotunda.

 Seeing all the decorations there and then 

at our daughter and son-in-law's (Vicky and Alan Fogg) home,

I found an acrylic painting I had created,

 probably 50 years ago.

 That made me think of the many gifts I used to make

when our children and their cousins were small.

Thinking of the three tiny great-grandchildren we now have 

there is one great granddaughter, now two years old.

 So, I thought she might be the one I could make something simple for.

Found this small soft knit dress that was cotton 

but it needed a bit of decorating. 

 These fictional butterflies have been machine embroidered 

and are pinned on styrofoam and drying. 

(I always boil away the stabilizer I use 

when embroidering on the sewing machine)

 Sewing them on to a knit fabric is not an easy trick. 

I did not want to put a stiff non-woven fabric on the inside 

of the dress so used lots of paper, inside, during the sewing of the butterflies. 

This then took tweezers to pull out all the bits of paper. 

No child wants bits of paper inside their clothing 

and their Mother does not want bits of paper in the laundry.

So I hope it works, fits, and wears well.

This tree with gifts was at the Fogg's home 

where we spent the day having lots of fun, much gift opening,

 and wonderful holiday meals. 

Their home has festive (not Festivus) decorations in every room.

To end the year in humor or humour since this

Aphorism came from a grand daughter (Hayley Adams) 

who had found a box of these aphorisms in London.

From Anton Chekov (1860 - 1904)

"Any idiot can face a crisis.

It is this day-to-day living that wears you out."

Have a creative 2019

Cheers