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!

I needed these...

...like I needed a hole in my head.

But etsy seller Sandritocat sweetened the deal with free shipping. How could I refuse? And look at the perfect pattern that Ulla scored from her too.

These soon-to-be-in-my-clutches patterns have just about filled my head with visions of darling winter clothes for my girls, all made in muted colors, worn with tights and boots. I was banking on the size 6 being on the big side, like this one is.

If not, I can adjust a bit, right? (ominous music playing here, foreshadowing future sewing-disaster post)

welcome, kerilyn

Good friends and all-around wonderful people, Mitch and Julie Davis, just welcomed their sixth, yea verily, sixth beautiful child into the world. Tiny Kerilyn has raven hair and big, big blue eyes. So she must wear bright blue and red, yes.


I used Habitual's kimono wrap tutorial, size 6-12 mos. I omitted the tie closures. Instead, I used snaps with a bow sewn over the top of one snap. I also angled the sides of the kimono out some to give it ease around the belly.

The pants were a huge guessing game. I had no pants pattern for 6-12 mos so I ended up using this one from JCarolineCreative. I had previously traced a pair of 12 mos shorts from a Simplicity pattern I had, but they just looked so huge. This one from JCaroline is supposed to be for 12-18 mos, but it looked on the small side of that to me.

Then I stared just way too long at the completed pants trying to envision a 12 mos old baby in them and whether or not the same baby would fit in the kimono. I went and got a baby doll from the girls playroom and tried the outfit on it. The kimono fit the doll, but the pants were really long. Then I sat and had more mental angst about whether the pants were too big. Also whether using a baby doll to gauge correct human proportions was really stupid. Then I spent about 20 minutes on the internet trying to find a list of average 12 mos old measurements. In the end, I made another, smaller pair of pants Just In Case from the blue floral fabric.


So, whether future one year old Kerilyn is slender and tall or short and roly poly, it's covered.



I decided that she also needed a look-alike doll for her very own to watch over her and tell her all about big bad wolves and kind Grandmas.

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.

make some faux fall foliage

I've had these cut branches from our back yard in my home for over a year. I've always enjoyed the stark shapes of the bare branches but often wondered what it would look like to embellish them somehow. I'm just getting around to it, so naturally I chose some fall foliage.

Ignore the ugly air conditioning vent. Porquoi, house builders?

I cut a bunch of simple leaf shapes from ochre, buff and yellow paper scraps I had on hand. I scored down the middle of each leaf and bent them slightly along the score to give them some dimension, light and shadow. Then I attempted to attach them to the branches. This did not go so well. The branches are brittle, dry, (and yes, dusty) from being indoors for a year. After some trial and error, I found that clear tape seemed to work the best.

At first I tried Fabritac and also thin foam pop dots. Both failures.

The Fabritac took a while to dry, so I had to hold each leaf in place until it got tacky enough to stay. With the number of leaves I needed, this was a time nightmare. Yes, I thought of my hot glue gun, but having been a multiple hot glue burn victim before and also envisioning the branches festooned with hardened threads of glue, I passed.

The pop dots worked like a charm at first. After about eight hours all the leaves fell off. Which is very appropriate for autumn, but not the look I was going for. So, on to clear tape.

I could be sure the leaf was on securely with the tape around the branch, but I don't like any visible shiny tape, so I made sure to angle all the leaves so that the backsides would not be seen from normal viewing height.

I really like the effect. It didn't take that long to do, once I figured out how to stick them on, and we can enjoy them until after Thanksgiving. I don't decorate for Christmas until December. It's a thing I have.

total. apathy.

Just home from cavorting on the beach for a week and I'm having a really hard time finding my blog mojo. What? Oh...What are we doing taking another vacation when we just went to Disneyworld last month? Well, the condo was for free. For a week. Right on the beach. I ask you! What are you gonna do? Pack that's what.

I do have some WIP projects that I'm dithering over. I even took a bag of felt with me to the beach. But nothing to post about yet. So.

If you haven't seen them, here are some really clever Halloween craft ideas from someone else's fully functional mojo.

have a lovely (fashion) week.

image from The Hidden Seed by Elsa Mora

I'm on blog break this week. I thought I'd share a fashion blog that caught my eye. The Hidden Seed is from Elsa Mora, tortured genius of all things papercutty, and maybe I'm the last one to discover it. Her clothes and photos are so artfully staged and lit! They look like portrait paintings instead of photos. Not surprising. Plenty of inspiration to scroll through and get lost in. Oh, the shoes.

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.