A Jen Too Many

I had big plans for Christmas. I ran across this playhouse while goofing off one day, and decided that I would make something like that for my kids. I was going to set it up so that they'd see it first thing Christmas morning.

I was also going to make several pairs of dress-up ballet slippers using scrap material. Also blanket robes for everyone since blankets tend to get dragged off beds when there is TV watching going on. I knew that both of the girls would be having pajama parties at school, so they needed new nightgowns and Youngest Girl Child had asked me to replicate a nightgown from a Christmas storybook that she like (red with white collar and cuffs) so I wanted to make a couple of those. And the girls really do need an organizer of some sort to hang in their room to put all their hair things, play jewelry, Littlest Pet Shop animals, and other small things into.

Yeah. Good intentions / best-laid plans / blah, blah, blah.

Turns out there's a problem with sewing Christmas presents. I'm never alone. The only time I had to put all these wonderful things together was late at night, after I'd finally gotten the little ones to sleep. That was if I didn't have The Boy Child staying up late watching TV, or my sweetheart home on a day off. In other words, I only had about four hours of actual sewing time in any given week. And even then I had to give up some sleep to get those four hours.

The nightgowns got done, because those weren't a surprise, so I could sew them anytime. The blanket robes were made, because they were fairly simple to make (once I figured out how to do it.) The slippers proved to be much more complicated than I had expected. The one pair I managed to make took hours and looked terrible, so I gave up on them. The play house only got as far as prewashing the fabric (which is still sitting in my laundry room, getting in the way.) And now that Christmas is over, I finally have time for the organizers, which will not be a surprise, but which will make me, at least, much happier.

Next year both the girls will be in school all day. I am going to have so much time to get things done. What do you wannna bet I'll still be too tired to accomplish any of it?