Happy Halloween

Happy halloween! It sure was fun, but man, am I glad it's over. Enough already with the "Is it halloween yet, mommy? How many days until halloween????" Although I guess it won't really be over until all the candy is all eaten up--sometime in mid-February?

The boys wanted to dress up as cars this year. More specifically, Davey wanted to go as his most recent hotwheels acquisition: Shapeshifter. And Keith wanted to be Sally from the movie Cars. Here they are. They don't look like they're there, but really they're hiding inside those boxes. For some reason, they didn't want their pictures taken that day, and everytime I aimed the camera at them, they ducked down inside.

I took this picture before their costumes were complete. I attached fabric shoulder straps (Barney style), so that they didn't have to carry the boxes with their hands. The boys' verdict: Yay, these costumes are the coolest things ever. Mom and Dad's verdict: Way too boxy! Caused too many traffic jams in the hallway at dad's work. Dad got tired of carrying Keith's. Nix.

Oh, by the way, did you think you were finally going to read a shoe-free post? Guess again! Ha ha! I've been making knock-off's for my baby. You've already seen the uggs:

Here are the crocs:

Here are the Keens:

I've pretty much hit shoe overload and am starting to feel a wee bit one-dimensional. I promise to branch out to other things soon. Really!

What to do?

What to do with all the leftover bonded fleece? Why make a bomber hat, of course. And little shoes to match. Fun fun! Have a great weekend, all!

Cloth Shoe Pattern

Picture posted with permission of Michael Miller Fabrics, LLC.

It doesn't take much to make these shoes...just scraps of fabric, some interfacing, elastic. The only thing that might be hard to find is the bonded fleece for the sole. It's suede on one side and fleece on the other. If you can't find that, try doubling up two layers of fleece.

Download the shoe pattern and tutorial here.

I can't wait to see what you come up with! Post pictures of your completed shoes at the cloth shoes flickr group.

Are you interested in selling shoes made from this pattern in your online shop?
Contact me (joanna@greatturtle.com) for info on purchasing a license to sell and the option to advertise your shop on this page.

Don't hold your breath (I know you're not)

I hope no one is holding their breath for the shoe pattern/tutorial. I'm gonna get it up there, I promise. It's just that I've been a little preoccupied making shoes, heh heh. I'm also a little nervous about posting a pattern that has so many possibilities. I've tried it out in many different fabrics, and the shoe's fit/stability/whatever is affected by the different fabric weights. So yeah, I claimed that the shoe really stays on, and some of them really, really do. But then I'll use a different fabric, and make a real cute shoe that is floppy and gets flipped off in two seconds. Before I give you any instructions, I want to make sure I get everything just right. I would hate for you to try it and then be all mad at me for wasting your time on a bad shoe.

Okie dokes....that's enough shoe talk for now. I have some that I want to show you but need to wait until the morning when there's enough sunlight to take good pictures.

In the meantime feast your eyes on this lovely pouch made for me by my bloggy friend Joyce. As if the Amy Butler book she sent me wasn't enough, she gifted me with this, too. And it even has a zipper (I'm in awe!). Thank you Joyce!

And thanks for the fun gift tags Kirsten!!!

Obsessed!!!

I guess I shouldn't have made such a big a deal out of my newest crafting obsession. Afterall, just because I'm consumed by it, doesn't mean that you'll be as excited. Having said that, here it is:

SHOES!! Baby shoes. The kind that actually STAY ON...imagine that.

The first shoe pattern I ran across was Heather Bailey's felt Bitty Booties. Then I recently saw Ohelene's tutorial for leather shoes (similar to Robeez). After running all over town with my kids unsuccessfully trying to locate leather in fun colors, I finally gave up and decided that I would just come up with a similar pattern that I could use with fabric (which I have plenty of). It took a long time getting the dimensions right, 19 tries, to be precise. Here's the proof--the reject pile:

But now that I know how to do it, I can't be stopped. Little guy is going to have shoes to go with every outfit, and every baby I know is going to be gifted with these. Picture the possibilities: A quilt with matching shoes; a monogrammed towel with coordinating terry cloth booties; a homemade fleece hat with fleecy shoes to match; a baby sling with...well, you get the picture.

Here's the little man himself. "Awwww, Ma. Why can't I have store-bought shoes like everybody else?"

**edited to add: Why yes, Alicia A. , you do smell a tutorial coming. Hopefully I'll be able to get it posted in the next week or so. And Kirsten--I have the knock-offs from Target. It was all I could do to not rip them apart to figure out how those shoes were put together! I told you I'm a woman obsessed!

Goodies

Not sure where last week went, but I was a little bit obsessed by crafting something--so much so that I didn't keep up with my blogging buddies, and I couldn't fall asleep for 2 nights in a row I was so excited about it. Do you ever get like that? That doesn't happen to me very often. I'm not quite ready to post pictures yet, because I'm still working on it, but maybe later in the week. In the meantime, I'm going to try to catch up with everybody tonight sometime between putting the boys to bed and watching my show.

I was surprised by a wonderful swap package from Joyce of Slateblu a few days ago. I made Joyce a baby sling (for her cutie pie, Ava), and she generously sent me the Amy Butler book, In Stitches, that I've been eyeing for a while now. Thank you so much, Joyce--it has so many neat projects in it that I can't wait to try!

I had to show you her gorgeous handwriting. I love to see people's handwriting. Not that I'm a penmanshipologist, or anything, but I can tell you just from looking at it that aside from being generous, she is also very creative and artistic. Oh, I guess I knew that from her blog anyway (smirk).


And thanks to Randi, here's a new ironing board cover I made for myself using leftover sling fabric. I didn't realize I needed one until I saw her tutorial, and then suddenly I couldn't live another minute without one. Thanks Randi! And by the way, no, I don't usually do my ironing outside. It's one of those overcast, drizzly Seattle days where there is hardly any natural light in the house.

Corners of My Home

This is where I sit, read, knit, enjoy the sunshine and nap. And when I look up, this is what I see:

Isn't that a pretty light? Handmade by a local artisan.

Oh, did I say this is MY home? I lied. It's a model home we toured last weekend. A cottage-y subdivision. Their attention to detail was so yummy and so inspiring that I want to move there, even though they have no backyards and shared front yards and detached garages, and are a much longer commute than we want to deal with. Oh yeah, and they cost money. Lots of money.

I felt kind of bad taking pictures. But oh well--how else am I going to recreate this house when I win the lottery?

Wouldn't you love a landing like this? If you have one already don't tell me about it.

Check out the Denyse Schmidt Quilt on the bed. All the furnishings in this place are from Maine Cottage. Don't click on the link, because if you're like me you'll be drooling all over your keyboard.

Thanks for coming. Let me show you to the door.

How pathetic am I, blogging about a model home.

Baptism

Thanks for your well wishes on Mikey's baptism. It was special for us...a little bit bittersweet, since this is the last time we'll be experiencing this with a baby of ours. Funny how I always figured things with the last baby would be a little more ho-hum, been there, done that. But it's absolutely not true. If anything, I'm savoring it all even more.

Anyway, about the event:

Most of our extended family is spread all over the country. The relatives that are the closest to us are Dave's bro and sis-in-law in Portland. They were able to spend the weekend with us, which was wonderful! We had a great time visiting with them and were so glad they were able to share Mikey's special day with us.

After the baptism we sang a song for Mikey. It's was Davey's first time to hold a microphone, so that was a big big deal. We sang "Beautiful." It's the song we sing every night before the boys go to bed.

Beautiful Beautiful
Jesus is beautiful
And he's making beautiful things of my life
Carefully touching me
Making my eyes to see
That he's making beautiful things of my life.

Such a simple song, but so full of hope. Makes me tear up when I hear my little guys sing it--off key, off-tempo...I love 'em. Anyhoo...

Since we don't have much family around, we are trying to create a "family" here made up of friends. So we invited a bunch of people over for dinner after church. It was mostly food from Costco. I love to cook, but at this point in my life I can't do gourmet when I entertain. I can either have a clean house or make a nice meal, but I can't do both at once. Well, maybe I could if I had a maid. I always sort of dread having people over, get grumpy, etc. But when everyone's gone home, this huge wave of accomplishment takes over me and it's like, "yeah, we did it."

So, yeah, we did it.