I got flowers from my boys for Valentine's Day and forgot to snap a picture of them at the beginning of their long lives. Pro Flowers is definitely worth the money! These little guys came on Friday, the 12th, and the picture of them in the larger vase was taken on the 21st, I think.
Then I cut them down and put the best ones in my new IKEA vases two days ago.
They're getting a little wilty at this point, but only if you touch them and see that they're a bit floppy-headed. If you just look at them w/o touching, they still look great! If I'd gotten more than two packets of flower food, I'm convinced they'd have lasted longer. Can you buy that stuff at the store in a larger quantity than the little packets?
Thanks, boys, for my pretty flowers! I love you!

I made this bag for a good friend who's pregnant with her second baby, a girl this time. She needed something decidedly feminine, I thought. I looked at some bag pictures, measured the ones I had and liked, made notes, saw how much yardage I had of which fabric.... and voila! I love it! I will do a couple of things differently the next time around, but all in all, I think it's perfect! NOT what I can usually say for my first attempts at creating something from scratch.

And of course, as is the story for most of us creatives, I sat in our employee meeting the morning before the baby shower, sewing the changing pad's binding instead of knitting. Yeah. Creating always takes longer than you plan for it to. When will I learn?

Congratulations, Dan and Anna! And Aaron! Can't wait to see her! Hope she (and you) likes the bag! :-)

*NO idea why the mosaic maker isn't sticking a photo in that blank spot. I told it to. Computers. Can't live with them...

I finished my first quilt today. (we won't mention the completely huge, time consuming, tedious, handsewn, and handquilted one I started in high school and finished after I got married, of which I then didn't take a single photo before I gave it away... Jamie, are you reading this? Can ya take a pic for me?).... This is my first "modern" quilt. Funky and bold fabrics, random sizes of fabric pieces, piecing on the BACK.... I discovered this blog a few months ago, and it's only pulled me deeper and deeper into the world of quilting and taking my sewing ideas to a new level. Thanks for the creativity and the inspiration, Ashley!

I donated the quilt to Craft Hope for their Etsy shop tonight. Craft Hope sends all the money (ALL of it; no administrative costs, no nuthin') from the shop to Doctors Without Borders for their work right now in Haiti. Craft Hope lists the items, buyers buy the items and pay Craft Hope, and we donors mail the buyers their items. It should be available in the next day or so, I think. Now on to another one.... I have WAAYYY more ideas in my head than I have time in a day!! Sleep? I have to sleep?? And do the dishes? And....?

Spent most of the day today on two wholesale orders for two knitting shops .... Don't the parts look cool all lined up like that?

Okay, so I've finally mastered zippers. A couple of these are still the "old" style, but the rest are the new and improved method, all thanks to a wonderful pattern and tutorial from Elizabeth at Oh Fransson!. Thanks, Elizabeth! She had the best ways of finishing off my pouches that I'd have never thought up if I'd spent the rest of my life dedicated to the process. And no, I'd have given up long before that, leaving the world devoid of these cute little guys! :-)

They'll be going into my Etsy shop this weekend, with more like them in the near future. Now that I'm not throwing half-finished projects across the room in frustration with yet another screwed up zipper, I've become quite addicted obsessed eager to make more. Brad will be happy, I'm sure, as I've amassed quite the fabric collection these last few months. Sorry, honey! I'll sell it, I promise!

Once upon a time, I created my own pattern for a Louisa Harding contest. I made a little dress to go with it (for contest brownie points... they didn't work...), and my love for fabric and sewing was reborn. Because of this newly rediscovered love, my knitting took a backseat many days. So when a couple of friends asked me for the pattern to Sophie's Shrug, I cranked one out -- errors and all -- and never really got back to proofing it. Turns out it's not as easy to "whip up" a pattern as I thought. Eternal thanks goes to all those who've created well-written patterns!
Two tests and two more nicely outfitted nieces later, I still didn't have a clearly written pattern.


So when this yummy yarn from Blue Sky came in to the store, I just had to have it. It was my inspiration kick in the seat of the pants to revise the pattern. A springtime version, to boot. So begins my revision process. I'll keep ya posted on the progress...
Besides, with five nieces, each practice run should fit SOMEone!

What, you haven't spent $34 on one yard of fabric before?? Okay, neither have I... until now...
This is for a very special project which shall remain secret for now, but I just had to show off my new love: Heather Ross fabric. She has some designs available in quilting fabrics, others available only as Munki Munki pajamas. Because the artwork is so creative and adorable, the PJs are in high demand as well, selling on eBay and Etsy as "one XL sleeve" and "one left front pants panel" and so on... Very very cute. AND, for whatever strange reason, these pajamas -- which run close to $100 a pair -- have shown up in Marshall's and TJMaxx this past year for anywhere from $10 to $17!!! (Needless to say, I'd love you forever if you found some, especially the winter scenes, at your local Marshall's... just sayin'...) Used in small amounts to make it go farther, it can make a cute project elevate to a whole new level of cuteness. Or so I tell myself as I search the very same Marshall's yet again.

Does it help that I'm not keeping the whole yard, that I'm trading half of it for two more Heather Ross designs from another Heather Ross and Munki freak? Yeah, I didn't think so. Oh, well. It was worth a try.

What is a binkwaffle???

A binkwaffle is a game made up between father and infant son when our youngest, Aric, was a colicky newborn. It was one of the only things that kept him happy, so the word became a permanent entry in our family's dictionary. When we needed a cute and catchy name for our birth announcement business, it seemed like a great name! Catchy, VERY original, yet memorable.