Sweaters Make Everything Better

The other day Patrick's aunt gave us five huge bags full of little boy clothes to sort through. "Take what you want and do whatever you want with the rest," she said. The bags had been given to her and she'd already selected what she wanted for her baby boy. Now it was our turn. Sounds simple and straight forward, right?

It sounds that way. But we never just sort through clothes at our house.

Going through these bags was a blast from the past--the little outfits were harboring some pretty strong nineties vibes. But there were some nice basics in good condition, and a few little gems. See the bright green overalls Cambrie slipped on over her pants? At first they were a no-go, but after she was romping around in them for a while, they grew on me. Maybe we'll save them for a 3T James, but for now? They're just a little too crazy-neon-green-fun to pass up.

Cambrie's favorite part was building people. She was mostly concerned that they had shoes and that they were holding hands.

Here is what James thought of his sister's clothing combinations:

"Ha! A Christmas sweater! Those baggy plaid shorts never saw it coming!"

While combing through the piles, ghosts of Pinterest Pins Past were speaking to me. Here's what they were saying:

Source

Sweater Stockings! It was meant to be. I'd already picked up an old sweater (once a nominee for an "Ugly Sweater" Christmas party) at Goodwill with crafty intentions. Soon I was plucking out all the sweaters I could find, hoping for an improvement on last year's batch.

The small green one would have made an adorable stocking, simple, and more my style. But Patrick has taken it out of the running. He's grown attached to it, since he has a similarly-colored one, and he's also insisting it's not ugly enough to "destroy." (He obviously can't see the visions of stockings dancing through my head.)

The blue one wouldn't really match my preferred Christmas decor, but it's obnoxious brightness and cheeky little snowman won me over.

Here's another one that I thought would make a cute Christmas pillow, shaped as a star, maybe?

(Of course, these are all projects that involve sewing--the very thing I'm constantly rediscovering I don't like. Ummmmm, I may be forced to rediscover this again... I really can't help it... that Pin was so cute...)

So out of the five bags of clothes I found maybe a grocery bag full of clothes for the boy and some sweaters to get all crafty with. It was a fun, Cambrie-friendly project, and I need more things like that.

Because when something is Cambrie-friendly, it's always more fun. Case in point: Cambrie thought my sweater layout was okay, but it needed improvement.

"Mommy! I'm the red one, and you are the big one, and James is that one, and you are PROTECTING us! Put James on his sweater! Yeah! There! TAKE A PICTURE MOMMY!"

You've got to admit--she's right. It's way better that way.