Baby blocks

A few of the gals at church are throwing a baby shower. This is my first time being involved in any kind of baby shower planning, and so far it's been loads of fun. We met a couple weeks ago to brainstorm food, decorations, invitations, etc. and I must say that it's so great to be doing this with a group of creative people. Creativity with a purpose--the best kind! We decided fairly early on that the theme would be books. When I was going through the Hancock's of Paducah catalog to get some ideas, Michael Miller's Dick and Jane fabric jumped right out at me. That pretty much determined the color scheme for decorations--primary colors. And the best part is that I get to do some sewing to make table centerpieces. I'm going to make little fabric toys that the mama can take home after the party. So far I've made these fabric blocks. They're 4"x 4"x 4". The fabric is interfaced with wool felt and they are filled with fiberfill.

Also, someone let me know that the link I made the other day to the crochet baby blanket didn't work. I guess you have to be registered at the Lion Brand website to see the pattern. Here's the picture of the blanket from the catalog. The cool thing is that it only requires the single crochet stitch and it supposedly comes together really quickly because you work 3 strands of yarn at the same time on this honkin' huge crochet needle. A good project for a beginner like me. Anyway, I think I'm going to do the one in the green colorway. Yeah, I know. The picture I took is so terrible it looks more grey than green.

Happy Chinese New Year

I'm trying to connect with my Chinese heritage in honor of Chinese New Year this weekend, so I made a linen fortune cookie. (And yes, I know they're really an American invention.) Unfortunately I couldn't come up with a pithy saying, so this is what you get.

It's what I find myself saying to the boys all day as they race around the house...both wanting to be the winner of the whatever race is going on at the moment (car, running, crawling, you name it...).

I will also be eating lots of soy pudding topped with ginger-infused syrup--thank you Uwajimaya--and I'll be eating it all alone, since no one else in my family seems to be a fan. Not sure why, because it really is quite yummy.

Happy Chinese New Year! Go get yourself some dim sum.

By the way, have you seen Colorfool's yummy fabric food lately? Pure genius.

Getting Organized

I organized my laundry room. It's a little closet just big enough for the washer and dryer, but since storage space is a bit of an issue in our house (man, I miss our old basement!), a lot of things just kind of end up in here. I'm in love with these collapsible boxes, and how they really brighten up the space. Got 'em at Target.

I also got a small one for the van to tote around whatever it is I need to work on when we go on road trips. This Saturday--when we took a little road trip to the island to hike around on the land--it happened to be crochet. My mom taught me some basics a long time ago, but I needed a refresher, since I will soon be crocheting this. I'm going to do a crochet-along with a friend of mine. Wanna join us? :) By the way, the weather was in the fifties and we had a fabulous view of Mt. Rainier.

Spring is just around the corner! I can't wait.

A Fresh Start

So I'm posting a picture of some pretty fabric--Heather Bailey's Freshcut--I just received from Z and S Fabrics. Man, are they fast!!! And nicely priced too! And they wrapped everything up so nicely. I don't normally make plugs for businesses, but this one is too good to keep to myself. And though I am DYING to dive into the two projects I have in mind for this fabric, I have to hold off for a little bit, since I have some other stuff going on. One of which is to stop feeling so disgusted with myself for the disgusting state of my house. I've been feeling so disorganized lately, and I can't ever seem to find what I'm looking for. It's time to get my act together. Gah! I used to be a librarian, but you'd never know it if you looked in my closets. And I won't be posting any pictures--before ones, anyway.

So February is organize-my-stuff month. Good thing it's a short month, 'cuz I'd rather be doing a ton of other things. But if I don't do it....well, you know the rest of the sentence.

Here's a picture of Special K--I just saw it again on my flickr page and realized I never blogged it.