Phoebe is very reluctant to talk to us. She seems to find it much more effective to communicate through funny faces and tumbling off furniture. She has however mastered 4 very important words: mama, dedede, ah-er (oscar) and dah-eeee (dolly).
seasonally appropriate decorating
I know I seem like a holiday jumper with my already-on-to-christmas crafts but be assured things are fall festive/halloweeny around here. We’ve got our bats up and our plastic pumpkins out and even our ironed between waxed paper leaves up in the window.
Here’s my favorite new Halloween decor item, my new witch doll by Mimi Kirchner that is taking a break from her spot on my cherished items shelf to come out here and help me hand out candy.
And speaking of seasonally appropriate, I even baked us an apple pie! I finally figured out the apple peeler/corer/slicer that my mom got me for Christmas *and* finally remembered to pick up pre-made pie crusts and voila, a pie!! It wasn’t all that good but I’m encouraged. Maybe I’ll try a crumble next. I love a crumble.
sweets
drafting monkeys
I had a sudden burst of energy and thought maybe I’d try to get one more toy pattern out in time for Christmas gift giving. I’m thinking boy gift and also thinking quick and easy. With these two criteria in mind I’m using fleece to draft this little guy and I have to say it’s turning out pretty cute. I know fleece isn’t everyone’s favorite and it’s definitely not scoring points on the natural materials scale but it’s super easy to work with, cheap and really easy to find. And it’s soft and the kids love it. Sometimes there can be so many hurdles to actually completing a project, ordering supplies from different online sources or scouting all over town for the perfect fabric. I was thinking, especially during Christmas stress-crunch time, wouldn’t it be nice to walk into a Joanns, Hancock Fabrics or Hobby Lobby with $20 and be able to get all your supplies to make something cute!
I’ve been wanting to make a monkey forever and thought it’d be perfect for this project. Using some of my favorite storybook monkeys as inspiration, I came up with these guys. They’re a little different from each other but I think the final design is there between the two of them. The sitting monkey has a shorter tail because dang, stuffing a long skinny tail is not exactly what I’d call relaxing crafting.
my knitty kate kitty
I made this very round, super-cute kitty as a new baby present for a friend and I just can’t part with her. I’m so stressy and anxious lately (b/c of current affairs, nothing personal) and every time I look at my knitty kitty I smile so I’m keeping her around for hugging and comfort. She’s made from jess hutch’s brilliant kate kitty pattern on knitty. I highly recommend you make yourself one if you need a huggy buddy.
ok, so now… where do I find a cute replacement new baby gift?! (to buy)
you could eat dinner off her
This little Phoebe jumper was made from a vintage pattern and 2 tablecloths (thanks Carol!). It’s too big but hopefully wearing tablecloths will still be in vogue next Fall.
Oh, and look what I found when I googled Karin Larsson.. a post from Claire about her!
where do I get inspiration – library books!
From some of my latest stack. These are on Swedish artist Carl Larsson.
