I'm slowly making progress on my gifts for the girls. I think I've spent more time brainstorming gifts for Bee than actually making anything. Belle was the ONLY grandchild on either side of our family before Bee was born. Calling her spoiled is possibly a bit of an understatement. Now that little Bee is here, there just doesn't seem to be anything that we don't already have. But, I finally had an epiphany...
Bee is fascinated with filling and spilling right now. Blocks, crackers, small stuffed birds...anything! So for Christmas this year everything will have a container, be in a container, and be spillable from that container. First...a Three Bears Play Set! Three soft, fuzzy bear balls in a box bearing the images of porridge, chairs, beds, and Goldilocks. Fill, spill, toss, cuddle....
Baby Bear is the first of the set. He's made with lovely, camel-colored alpaca fleece from
Alpacas of Niagara. Belle and I were fortunate enough to visit with Diane at the Niagara Alpaca Shop while we were vacationing last week. Belle had a blast watching the animals in the field, and I had just as much fun (and maybe more) chatting about felting and fingering all the lovely gloves, hats, yarns, and toys available in the shop. But more on that visit later...
And I'm still working on the river fairy play set for Belle.
And to kill some time while we were waiting for the sunshine to arrive, Belle designed her first tee. Look how proud she is! 
I had her draw a picture on white paper with a dark marker. Then we traced the outline of the shapes on Lite-Bond fusing paper. She picked the colors of fabric she wanted and we got busy with the applique. I had to do all of the ironing and most of the stitching, but she sat with me and picked the thread colors and helped when she could.
