Here there and everywhere

One thing I like to do (well, most of the time) is to let my kids pick out fabric for projects that I'm making. Usually it's stuff for them--pillows, blankets, etc. It's funny how at the fabric store they are so decisive and even if I think their choices are hideous by my standards, no matter how I try to talk them out of it, they always know what they want and pretty much stick to their guns. The upside of this activity is that there is a fabric manifestation of their personalities. I learn a lot about what they like and dislike, and sometimes I'm very surprised. The downside of this is that every time I make a quick trip to the fabric store with them they think it's their right to choose fabric. Yup.

So Davey had a birthday party to go to this past weekend for a little cutie pie in his class named Ginger. I let him pick out the fabric for her tote bag. Right away he chose the flowers and then when I asked him to find something that matched, he went right up to the stripes and that was it. Pretty much a 30 second decision. Is that a male thing? I'm always so indecisive. Anyway, I praised him up and down for doing a good job matching.

I had a little fabric leftover, so I made her a little covered notebook. Piece o'cake. This is how you do it:

*****OK. I'm changing the subject here. I need help from my sock knitting friends...Caitlyn, Keri, Angelika--help me!!!!

This is knitpicks simple stripe sock yarn. I bought it last year and can't find it anywhere on their site. Probably discontinued. Anyway I'm using size 2 needles and it feels pretty loose to me. I'm thinking to frog it and go with size ones. Thought I'd ask for your opinion before I do. If you tell me I should rip, I will (even though that would be a bummer, because I already frogged 5 inches worth of sock when I started these almost a year ago using size 3's). Oh well, at this rate, I will be guaranteed to own every size dpn that exists out there. I obviously don't know what I'm doing. I can't tell how loose/tight handknit socks are supposed to be. I don't wear slouchy store bought ones. I suppose I wouldn't wear slouchy handknit ones. All kinds of people are whipping out socks like it's no big deal. I want to be one of them, is that so wrong?

Lucky me

Melissa, from Wishes Dreams Love held a drawing to mark her one year blog anniversary, and I got lucky! Look at these beautiful vintage buttons from the 30's that used to belong to her grandmother. Some of them even have little pieces of fabric still connected to them from where they were attached to clothes. My boys have been organizing and reorganizing them into various bowls according to size, color and number of holes. So fun! Thank you Melissa for the gorgeous buttons! I'll take good care of them!

She also surprised me with some extras--handknit caps for the boys and a tissue holder made out of vintage tractor fabric. Me likey.

And here's another fun package...geesh, I'm so super lucky. Fart quarters. (Sorry, never could say that right.) Six of them. From Sew, Mama, Sew. I won the Free Fabric Friday last week. Woo hoo! Thanks Kristin!!!!

Princess and the Pea

The book-themed baby shower on Saturday was fun! But I'm glad it's over. There was almost too much time to get ready for it, and the more time I had, the more projects I kept thinking of to do. Thank goodness there were only three tables to decorate, though, because this is what I made for table number three to go along with the book The Princess and the Pea:

This linen doll is from Laura Normandin's doll pattern found here. I wandered over there by way of Two Straight Lines. If you go to Laura's website, you'll see that she charges $80 for her handmade dolls. You might not believe me when I say this, but it's a steal. There's quite a bit of hand sewing involved, so it took quite a bit of time. But it was totally worth it to me to make this gal a gift that screamed hand made. Not to mention that the handsewing was rather cathartic/relaxing for me.

I love her long dark hair. I didn't want her to be too gorgeous and stuck-up, so I gave her a beauty spot to keep her humble...although not having a nose will do that to you too, I guess. :)

Check out the pea--it's needle felted:
I asked my crafty friend Karen to make me one pea. Look what she gave me!!
I was sort of sad to have to give the pea pod away, but I did it. (sniff, sniff).

Notice the Amy Butler eye mask. I made one for myself for the February In Stitches sew along, and thought the princess could use one too.

If the princess and pea doll set looks familiar to you, it's probably because you've seen it here on Tree Fall Design. I was introduced to Manda's work when I first spotted a set she made for Blair, here. Her stuff is so amazing and inspiring. It was one of those things I just tucked in my head for future reference. I'm the mom of 3 boys...couldn't think of a reason why I'd ever need to make something like this, didn't have the first notion of how to make a doll. But then along came the doll pattern, the book theme, the girl baby...and it all just came together. I love when that happens.

One more thing. Wednesday night I spent madly making these little flaggies out of the Dick and Jane fabric to go on the food table. Thursday morning I checked bloglines and lo and behold Kirsten had posted something eerily similar. Here we are, two blog friends, states away from each other crafting practically the same thing on the same day. I love when that happens too!

Ballsy

Still working on stuff for the baby shower which is coming up this weekend. These balls are going to be the centerpiece for table number 2. The balls were made from this pattern. Here's Mikey holding one of my practice balls. I had to make quite a few practice ones--do you have any idea how hard it is to get all those little points to match up on the ends? If you've made these and didn't have any trouble, don't tell me because I don't want to know about it.

I've been loving the fabric boxes seen here at All Buttoned Up. They are super cute. But Timtex (or should I say fake-Timtex) and I don't get along, so I knew if I attempted that pattern I'd end up with another disaster.

I found these boxes (2 for 6 bucks) at my local Fred Meyer. They had little handles attached to the front, which I removed. Those patches look like pockets, but they're really just patches that I just fabric-glued to the front.

These little boxes are the perfect size for storing fabric folded using the Happy Zombie magical method of folding found here.

And by the way, the ruler fabric? I still love it and still have quite a bit of it, but am getting a little tired of seeing it all over my blog. So that is the last you'll see of it here.

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! I'm trying to respond to everyone, but for some reason ever since I switched to the new blogger things aren't showing up right for me. I'll click on the name of a commenter and then it will say that the profile isn't enabled. Grrrr. Here's another thing--ever since the switch, bloglines says I only have one subscriber. I'm assuming that's me. How sad. Oh well, best not to care about such things anyway. It's not a popularity contest, right?

OK--I'm heading over to YOUR blog right now... :)