I know you have all been waiting with bated breath, wondering how the nest project turned out. Well, the joke’s on you, because I still haven’t finished it yet. I blame my mother-in-law, keeper of the sewing machine, who inconveniently got the flu in the days and hours leading up to Christmas (prime crafting time) and was unable to teach me how to use her machine.

I have decided the nests will be New Year’s presents – a way to start the new year off with a bang, and also a way to make an occasion for the gifting of presents from my sister, who is, like me, a great procrastinator, and didn’t get the kids’ presents in the mail on time for Christmas delivery. There’s nothing like a family of laggards to start a new holiday tradition, I say.

But yesterday evening as I was doing my best to get a handle on the post-Christmas chaos of toys and boxes and wrapping paper and trash and etc etc etc, Alden came into the studio and heaved a big sigh and said, “I can’t really dance the night away without fairy wings.” I immediately went into crisis mode.

“What? No fairy wings?” Well, that couldn’t possibly be that hard to fix.

Luckily for Alden, post-Christmas chaos means there are a lot of random things lying around. I cut out some cardboard in the shape of wings, punched some holes in it, and put a big fat ribbon through it.

Alden set to work decorating.

Unfortunately, because the ribbon was just a scrap off of someone’s present, it wasn’t quite long enough for Alden to be able to tie it around her chest. A furious search for elastic (did I use it all up on makeshift party hats?) uncovered a couple of chunks of velcro, which I sewed onto the ribbon.

That actually worked out well, because Alden can put it on and take it off herself, without risking some sort of crazy knot (long ribbon) or some accidental slingshot action (elastic).

Alden found a great silver bow in the trash (“so sparkly!“) but discovered that trying to glue it down with a glue stick didn’t work very well on the cardboard. She did note, however, that “it sticks okay to my hand, and to my face, too.”

We decided I should sew it on to the wings, even though we both thought it looked pretty good on her forehead.

I strapped her in.

Alden maintained that it was a pretty good fit.

Then she demonstrated that she did, indeed, feel like she could dance the night away.

My mom work was done. It sure is nice when a pile of Christmas trash can result in two happy customers.