We did the puzzle!

We put together this puzzle yesterday, since Courtney hadn't done hers at home yet. Having 500 pieces, it was a bit challenging for her, but she did really well... till she got tired of it and wanted to do something else. But we enlisted Grandpa's help when he got home.

When Mommy and Daddy came to pick her up, we got them to help, too, so we could finish it before Courtney had to leave. It was fun, and Jess had done a great job of making it just challenging enough. Here's the finished puzzle:

I do have to say that the puzzle was nice quality, except for the colors being off.  (I don't know what that yellow spot is on the kitten... just a reflection or something. There's nothing there on the real thing.)

And here's the mug shot of the day:

Silly girl! :) Nice teeth, huh? They're lined up so perfectly - I hope they stay that way!

Winter views

All of these photos were taken within inches of each other.

Outside the window:

Did you notice how it's sitting right at the very tip of that little branch?

Yeah, they're just crows.

I like this inside-the-window view much better:

My hibiscus is blooming nicely, even if it's a bit straggly. It does brighten a winter day!

American Girl doll outfit #1

Santa brought Courtney an American Girl doll for Christmas! I happened to find out he was going to do this (don't ask... I have a hotline to Santa) just a few days before, so I figured I'd have (or rather, take) enough time to get one outfit made for her before we had our Christmas on New Year's Eve day. I immediately started searching for free tutorials/patterns. There are tons of them out there, and I have downloaded a lot of them for future sewing projects. I thought this one would be cute for winter, and not too complicated to make. Here's how it turned out:

I had to come up with something quick to embellish it with so it wouldn't be too plain, so after considering numerous possibilities, I decided on stars, because Courtney has learned how to draw stars, and she has fun making lots of them. They were pretty easy to draw (yeah, I know how, too!), and I just appliqued them on with the straight lines.

(When I was making the cap, before tacking down the pointed top, it started reminding me of an elf outfit. Ha!)

Here's a not-very-good picture of the outfit on Courtney's new "Marie Grace":

No, Courtney wasn't sick, although she looks like she might be. She has very tired eyes, yes, from a lot of holiday late nights. But actually, that's her look that says "I'm not doing this willingly". She was having too much fun crafting with Auntie Jess, and she didn't appreciate being pried away from that to change clothes on her doll and let Grandma at her with the camera before the lighting got away. ;) So I just did a quick shot. At least you get to see the size of Marie Grace and her new outfit.

It's hard to see in the photo, but the pants are too short. The person who made that pattern must've had a shorter doll, because hers fit. I think, if Courtney's willing, I'll get the pants back and add a dark green cuff at the bottom to lengthen them. (Mommy, if you're reading this and I forget to mention it, maybe you can send/bring the pants along sometime!)

I'm sure I'll be making many more AG doll clothes. It'll be fun - this is a nice size to sew for, as in not so tiny as the other ones I've made. Of course I'll show you what I make. :)

He (she?) is back

Another sighting of the cottontail, from a couple days before Christmas. Is it the same one? Who knows... kinda hard to tell them apart. ;)

He/she may make more appearances here from time to time. If there are more sightings/photos, that is.

I'm dying to get back to my sewing machine! It's still tucked away in its cabinet, though. Hopefully this afternoon I'll be able to finish catching up and get my "guest room" reverted back to my "sewing room"! And do some much-needed organizing in the process. Then I have some Christmas gift sewing potential I received... can't wait to get started! Oh, and Grandpa's mother gave me 3 boxes of her fabric stash to add to mine! Talk about potential! Woohoo!!!

It must be time, huh?

Time to get back into the blogging groove? I must admit, the "vacation" from it has been nice. ;) But all our celebrating is done (and a great time was had!), so I have no more excuse. I even got all the decorations taken down and put away yesterday after J&A left, sheets washed and returned to the guest bed so I could have my sewing room back, and the house nearly back to normal, so I guess the blogging should get back to normal, too.

I'll start by showing you a little project I had made for Courtney for Christmas. Awhile back I'd bought a Groupon deal for a personalized puzzle from PuzzMuzz, a division of Red Tag Prints. The only reason I'm giving you their name is to recommend you do NOT buy from them! I'll show you why.

When I went to upload a photo to have made into a puzzle, I discovered the resolution of my photo was not high enough. Checking things out, I also discovered my camera could not even take photos with the high enough resolution recommended for a good puzzle turnout. Okay, that problem was mine... my camera is old.

I contacted my personal graphic designer to see if she could help with the problem. She suggested using several photos and making them into an image with high enough resolution to be satisfactory. I asked if she'd be interested in the job, and she took it on (kinda the way I take on certain sewing projects for her). Here's what she came up with:

Pretty cool, huh? She added a lot of little embellishments as "clues" for helping put the puzzle together. So I uploaded her image which was the exact resolution required, and all went well there (even though in the process I was warned that it was not high enough resolution to print well - what???). It even got shipped very fast... the next day, if I remember right!

BUT, when I received it, I was very disappointed. First of all, the packaging was lousy! It came in a flattened cardboard box, with only a little brown paper wadded against it. In shipping, the box had bent a bit along the folds of the box (well, duh!), so the puzzle was bent along one column of pieces. I was able to straighten them out, so that wasn't too bad.

BUT, look at the color of the puzzle:

It was hard to get a good photo because of the cellophane wrapping, which of course I couldn't take off, but the color is not affected. Look how dull and drab it is compared to the original. Sad. :(

The deal also included a print of the same photo, which was meant for framing/hanging. It did not look any better:

Here's a close-up of the most noticeable color difference. Yuck.

I didn't complain to the company, who does offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I figured if they reprinted it, it would just turn out the same, anyway. I did decide I'd never use their services again!

I printed a copy of the photo myself and glued it to a little box to store the puzzle pieces in. Even my printer does a better job than they did! See?

Well, awhile after receiving my order, I got an email from the company asking me to fill out a survey about my satisfaction with my order. I very willingly decided to do that to let them know how unsatisfied I was! Ha - the survey had 3 brief multiple choice questions, and not even an option to explain why I was not satisfied.

Then a couple days later, I got an email from Groupon asking how satisfied I was with my order. Hmm... I've never had that happen before, and I've ordered numerous things via Groupon. I suspected they had possibly had complaints about the print company. So I told them what I thought, about both the packaging and the color.

Next I got an email from a representative from the print company asking how I liked my order! So I told him, too! We emailed back and forth a few times, and he asked for files of the photos I'd used, etc., and said they'd work on making it better.

Some time later totally unexpectedly, I got a replacement order. This was packaged VERY nicely! It was in a perfectly fitting box, with the little airbag packing things around it, and it even had one of those plastic straps around the outside of the box to make sure it didn't come open. Great!

BUT, the puzzle and print looked just like the first one. Boo! :(

I told the rep I'd been emailing with that I'd received the order, and he didn't even know anything had been shipped. So he checked things out, and much later informed me that this was the re-done puzzle, the best they could do. Phooey! I am certainly glad I hadn't paid full price for it!

So that's the puzzle Courtney got for Christmas. And I have the extra one that she and I can put together here. At least we can have some fun with it, even if they don't look the best.

And now you have the long story that I didn't make short. I guess I could've just said don't buy from that company because they do a lousy job. But that's not me. Ha!