Saturday... Boom or Bust? and Toy Bags

It's Saturday afternoon, and I have a sick 2 1/2 year old. Poor guy. He's running a fever and is grumpy, but the most obvious symptom that he's not feeling well is that he's lying on the couch while watching a movie. Usually the only time he's really sedentary is when he's strapped into a car seat or contained in his crib. So, he's really not feeling great.

I had scheduled my mother's helper to come over this afternoon to play with him so I could spend some uninterrupted time sewing, etc., but I called and canceled little while ago. I don't know if I'll get much done creatively today, even though Rhys is at his quietest- I'm a mommy-nurse instead!

Toy Bag
Last Christmas, Rhys got a toy bag from his great aunt Jan, and we have really loved it. It's so great to have something he can easily carry around and that holds cars, blocks, train tracks, or whatever. I decided to copy the pattern and give away these bags as presents for birthdays this year- so far with great success. Below is one for Rhys's friend Malachai, and I've given two away to our neighbors across the street. I've already got 5 or 6 bags cut out, in both girl and boy fabrics, so I'm ready to add a personalized applique and sew them up. The best thing is, they're only a little work for a big return.

Back in the saddle- 5 months later

Well, I'm back. And 6 months pregnant. Which explains a lot, actually.

I don't do early pregnancy well.

I managed to complete some projects, though most of them after December when I was (finally!) feeling better. I had big plans for making lots of Christmas presents, but ended up buying or skipping or owing presents instead. My hubby did get a crocheted wool hat, which he seems to like a lot- if I took a random picture of him, he'd probably be wearing it.

A list of things I've finished:

• 1 pillow for the couch (with doilies)
• 1 pink crocheted scarf for my cousin
• 1 absolutely adorable crocheted wool hat for Rhys (that's now lost somewhere)
• 3 lentil bags (I was out of dried beans)
• 1 crocheted hat for my hubby
• 1 crocheted hat for me
  
• 1 very soft pillow case for me
• 1 "heaty"- a rice filled bag to warm in the microwave and put on sore body parts or cold feet
  
• 2 green and black fancy pillow cases for the bed
• 3 toy bags (more on this later)
• 3 shirts for me (more on this later)
• 1 skirt for me (more on this later)
• 1 crocheted hat for my mom (picture below)
  

I guess that's not too bad considering my son and I watched more t.v. in September and October than I thought possible. I spent most of those two months nauseous on the couch.

Mom's hat (with her modeling it):

I liked it so well- and it was so quick to do- that I made one for myself out of warmer colors. It's pretty comfy, if not really warm, too. I made a flower for Mom's hat and wasn't thrilled with the result, but she added it to the hat, and I think it was a good addition. I may do the same for mine someday.

Autumn Apron

I forgot to add that this was supposed to be a fall sassy apron. My partner said her favorite color was robin's egg blue, and when I found this wonderful fabric that was blue, I was terribly excited. I decided to accent the orange in order to make it "autumny", but without knowing these two bits of info, it would be easy to see this apron as a tad summery. Perhaps it can be interpreted as a celebration of the end of summer... which leads into fall....

Very Sassy Apron

Well, here is my apron for the Sassy Apron Swap. I love it... so much so that I don't want to send it away! I had almost enough material to do two of them, so I quickly made myself another one this afternoon, with just a few pieces that were pieced together. However, because I was in sort of a hurry (Rhys could have woken up at any time, but luckily he took a little longer nap today), I fudged up in a couple of places, so my apron is more of a second; in other words, it would be rejected by quality control. Also, as I was wearing it this afternoon, I have to admit I felt a little overdressed to make dinner and clean the house. I'm not really a flouncy girlie girl unless I'm getting dressed up for some reason, but maybe this sort of apron makes housework more glamorous!!

My New AK Bag and a Baby Blanket

Here's my new AK (Amy Karol) bag. It's brown in part because I'm thinking of it as my "autumn bag", but also because I wear a lot of browns and don't have a bag to match. It only has one outside pocket, and already I want to modify it some. On my original bag (with two outside pockets) I added velcro to close both outside pockets. I have found it kind of annoying that I can't just drop my car keys in one of the outside pockets without undoing the Velcro, so on every bag I've made since I've not put any Velcro on the outside pockets. Now, I'm finding it annoying that the un-Velcroed pocket means that it flops open, especially when there are keys in it. Hmmm. Also, I think I want to (on future bags) add another inside pocket with a zipper or Velcro closure; I need to have more small compartments for the little things (like band-aids) I carry with me all the time. On a positive note, I really like how the colors turned out. The majority of the bag is made from what I think is a wool suiting that I got virtually for free at a garage sale. I have a ton of it, too, and it would be great for more bags.

I'm finally spending time playing with my serger. This is a quick baby blanket I serged together and I really like how the serging acts as a design element by making all the edges wavy and also makes it a finished piece. I'm still trying to reduce my stash of fabrics.... so I have room to get more! These two fleece pieces I bought back in my crazy pregnant days when I thought I'd make some cute little outfit for my own infant. Ha! They had sat neatly folded on a shelf until I made this over the weekend, and my baby turned 2 not long ago. Now, I just need a little baby to give it to.

Green Chile Pesto and a Snake

We are harvesting like mad from our garden, which means at least some of my creative time is spent watering and weeding, harvesting, and cooking. It is so wonderful to have an abundance of fresh, organic veggies! We've been eating Japanese eggplants (grilled or in sautees), green beans (steamed until tender-crisp and topped with butter, or just munched on fresh and crunchy), swiss chard. I harvested our first sweet corn a couple of days ago, and our 2-year old is learning the fine art of eating corn off the cob. The peppers are coming in now, and I need to figure out what to do with lots of serranos. We've been roasting and eating the anaheims, and tossing them in with whatever else we're cooking. A couple of days ago, I finally made the pesto I've been threatening to make for a while (the basil is overflowing from the pots it's planted in) and added roasted anaheims. The result: delicious!!


And, perhaps it's the drought, or perhaps it's our charming personalities.... I had a Day of the Critters earlier this week. First, I finally found the big, nasty tomato horn worm that has been terrorizing one of the tomato plants. I had to pull it off the plant since it was obviously not ready to give up its tasty buffet, and its suckers were dang powerful. The bugger was over 3 inches long, and about and inch in diameter. It was also very squishy (shudder). Later, as Rhys and I were coming in the back door, a 2 foot snake slithered inside in front of us and went straight under the china cabinet. I intellectually love and understand snakes, and I knew this one was harmless, but I still squealed a little and shied away from the china cabinet at first. Aaron came home less than 10 minutes after the little snake came in the house, and by chance, he (the snake) decided he maybe didn't want to live inside after all and made a break for the door again. Unfortunately, he couldn't figure out the sliding glass door... Aaron caught him, and we got a good look at him.



Finally, I found a mouse in the drawer underneath the oven. And I squealed . I caught it in a big yogurt container, out of which he promptly jumped (no mean feat for a mouse the size of a small avacado seed inside a container with walls at least 5 times his size), landed on the floor and ran out the door (thank goodness it was cracked open wide enough). I squealed again.

Potato Print Cards

It's funny what can inspire someone (me). Rhys's second birthday party was last week (see the painted magnetic party favors in the previous post), and, as expected, he received gifts. Therefore, I needed to make thank you cards. I was immediately inspired by the tissue paper in one of the gift bags. I've never been inspired by by tissue paper before! Half of the paper was a bold blue, and the other have was wonderfully green and blue striped.Anyway, the cards above are what resulted.

I've been wanting (desperately!) to make a potato stamp and play with it, so I cut a simple fish out of half of a potato. I used acrylics to stamp the fish. Finally, I added the ol' grade school favorite: tissue paper "painted" on with water-thinned white school glue. I had so much fun! And, I managed to get a dozen of them done in the hour when I had a mother's helper here to play with Rhys, so I even have extra.


Not only can inspiration be unexpected; the materials with which to fulfill inspiration can also be surprising. While garage saleing (I'm verbing a noun...) this weekend, we stumbled upon a huge fishing tackle/art storage box with about $150 worth of new acrylic paint tubes in it. The seller just wanted to get rid of it, so I got it for $15. Now, I have to paint just to use up some of the stuff!!