what I'm up to

Working on the Mikey pattern variation. I'm hoping to have it done by the firstish of November, but won't hold my breath. My grand-nephew Tucker, for whom I made the original Mikey, was just born a few days ago and I can't wait to go cuddle him. Might have to sneak off with the girls and go to Huntsville for some newborn baby love.

Hello, world! My name is Tucker!
I'm four hours old. Count my chins!

I had to share this picture of him. It was taken on a phone in a darkened room, hence the image quality. This is about 4 hours after he was born, in the arms of his very happy grandmother and my older sister, Leigh.

So now you can see the impossible cute factor we are dealing with here. And he is a hoss, in the grand tradition of our family. 9 lbs and 10 oz at birth. And just as kissable as he can possibly be. We love you Tucker! Congratulations, sweet Erin and Nathan.

I just realized 'tucker' means 'food' if you are in Australia, right? Well, that fits. Ha!


We went to our local county fair over the weekend, which was 1) cold 2) muddy 3) rinky dink, and yet conversely 4) really expensive. Somehow we missed the fabulous state fair in Perry, due to my poor planning. There's always next year!

(if I close my eyes, I am not here)

Can you tell Thing 2 was not a big fan of this ride? That's big sis behind us flying solo. I'm wearing my favorite crocheted scarf, courtesy of Robyn. Man I need to learn to crochet.

Y'all have a lovely weekend. And happy All Hallows Eve!

mushroom avoidance crafting

I was having a family of six over for dinner Saturday. So at 2pm I made this when I should have been showering/cleaning/cooking.

Everything was done in time, so all's well that ends well. And I had something cute on my mantel.

robyn's messenger bag

I can share this now that Robyn has received her package with this and some other tiny goodies. I knew I wanted to make something fall(ish) for a girl with a September birthday. I was thinking this could be used to hold a few diapers, wipes, wallet, and chewy keys for some hands-free shopping.

I'm happy to say the construction of this one was much less tortured and plagued with mistakes. Came right together with minimal angst over color (it's like Jamie's with a different color combo). The bag is a really dark olive gray and I lined it with a mustardy yellow. I think the flap colors work ok, maybe a bit brighter than I was shooting for, but I was happy with it in the end.

I actually had an overabundance of ideas this time. There were 3 color combos all vying for my attention and I actually pieced the flap design for another one, but decided it was too summery looking for a September birthday. It will just have to wait for another occasion.



I decided to add some interest on the strap with some channel stitching this time. I love the look of contrast stitching, but it really lays the pressure on to be flawless with the sewing, and I can never manage it. Robyn, don't look too closely!


I also decided to make a little zippered pouch for it and I used this excellent tutorial to make one with french seams. I pieced it in the same colors as the bag with an orange interior.

If you'd like to make a messenger bag too, you can use my basic messenger bag tutorial here. Flap design is all you, though! Go crazy.