No Whiplash

I've never entered a whiplash competition, have you? Finally this month I thought I'd give it a try, but then the "alternative materials with traditional techniques thing" threw me off a little. Then I thought of something I'd made that would actually fit the theme. This cute little old lady bag I knit using lace I found in my church basement last year. It knit up really quickly and I also knit in a strand of fake pearls. It's so cute and dainty (and so not-me). I've only used it once. I'm really a jeans and sweatshirt type of girl. And when I dress up, I wear a dressy shirt, but somehow still wind up wearing jeans on the bottom.

Unfortunately, I can't enter this in the whiplash competition. I didn't make it in the last 2 weeks. I made it over a year ago. I was thinking maybe I could pretend that I'd just made it, but I already blogged about it. I cannot tell a lie. Oh well. Maybe next month? Maybe not....

I'll be inundated with houseguests for the next week or so, so I'll be lucky if I can sneak off to craft or catch up with my blog peeps. I'm feeling the withdrawals already. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

p.s. Dana of Deep Run Days and Cindi of Cindi's Sewing have both made cloth shoes using the tut. Hee hee. I'm so tickled. If you've made any, please let me know so I can go have a look. :)

The Apple Squeeze Story

A few weeks ago we went on a road trip to Anderson Island, WA to this down-homey apple squeeze being held at historic Johnson Farm. We woke up early, did the drive-thru breakfast thing, drove for an hour, took the ferry for 20 minutes. The boys were super excited to be there. We pulled up and parked when I realized I wouldn't be able to actually go with them because it had been a long car ride and Mikey needed to nurse. So I sent them off with Dave to enjoy the festivities while I stayed behind in the van. Whatever. Par for the course. So I'm sitting there with Mikey when a red sports car pulls up and parks in front of me, but no one gets out. Next thing I know the young couple in the car is making out passionately and is totally unaware that I can see everything. Gah--some people! Get shaded windows already! So I tried to avert my eyes and think pure thoughts (ha ha). When they were done with their business, they stepped out and, lo and behold, the girl was wearing the most beautiful coat I'd ever seen: Long, dark brown tweed with large felt flowers in fall-harvesty colors hand-appliqued along the bottom. Not the most discreet girl ever, but at least she had some fashion sense.

These little shoes were inspired by that coat. If I had a girl I like to think that I wouldn't just stick to pinks and purples. I really like the "peasant" look of these shoes. One of my friends is having a baby girl and these shoes will be going to her. But I figured they wouldn't get much use if she didn't have something to wear them with. So I had to make her a top. Do you know how hard it is to find plain onesies in earthy colors? Next to impossible. So I took my first foray into fabric dyeing, and am pleased to say it was actually pretty easy. The hardest part was to keep the kids from touching the dye bath because they were so intrigued.

FYI, in case you're interested:
The shoes were made from a placemat from Crate and Barrel.
Rit dye: cocoa brown

Oh, and one more thing. Look what I had today. MMMMMM. Peanut butter pumpkin cookies. Recipe courtesy of AfricanKelli found here.

The 2 Avas

I'm so amazed at all the bloggers who are doing a post a day this month. I feel lucky if I'm able to post once a week. And this week's post is going to be a shorty. My baby's sick with bronchiolitis and we've been back and forth to see the doctor twice already. When he's awake he's sad, and when he's asleep he hasn't been sleeping well. So we're all bleary-eyed here. The weather has been so wet and rainy, too. Davey's last day of soccer was today, but we didn't go. I couldn't handle the thought of making my sickie hang out in the rain for 45 min. I didn't even mention soccer to Davey. I'm hoping he doesn't remember that today was supposed to be soccer day. Was that bad of me?

Here are a couple of little things that have been done for awhile, I just didn't want to post them until the recipients got them. I've been wanting to make a little something for Joyce's baby Ava and Beki's baby Ava. The two Avas. Joyce, Beki and I were all preggo at the same time, so I've sort of felt a kinship with them. Anyway, it was pretty cool that they both ended up naming their daughters the same name, and it was fun making these little get-ups for them--dressing the two Avas alike. By the way, see, I'm not totally one-dimensional. I don't just make shoes; I still know how to embellish a onesie!

OK. I'm all tired and everything, but I still do have the energy to watch Grey's tonight. By the way, one of Dave's co-workers moved here to Seattle partially because his wife was so crazy about that show. Things that make you go "hmmmmm."

I love getting packages! Especially the kind that contain fabric. Lookie what I received from Carol of Celadon Cupcake. Some fun fabric and a couple of goodies. The green strip on the top is a headband she made that I wore around all day yesterday, but unfortunately at the time of the photoshoot today my hair wasn't photo-worthy! Sorry. Maybe I'll have to model it some other time. And look at this cute apron cozy for my dish soap.

I'd never really paid attention before, but, yes, my dish soap container is actually shaped like a human body--sans arms and legs. I love it, Carol! Thanks so much! :) I already know what I'm going to make with that orange floral fabric: an apron! I've never made an apron before, but now I know I have to. Can't have my dish soap outshining me in the kitchen.

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for a little friend who turned seven. I made her this tote bag and we filled it up with goodies.

One of the goodies was a Junie B. Jones book that we read before we wrapped it up. What a riot. It was one where Junie B.'s school has a carnival with a coin toss, a cake walk, a putting tee, etc. Of course after we finished the book we had to reenact all the carnival activities. It was a perfect way to spend a rainy Friday afternoon.