simplesparrow

Amy was right

She said this might happen, and she was right. Noah prefers a dishtowel.  After my friend read the dishtowel post, she was so kind to bring over a scrap of furry black fabric for me to make a tail out of. I thought it was perfect. It could be used for so many different animals--mouse, cat, cougar, lion, etc.. No matter that the color was not just right for each of these animals--he was using a kitchen towel for crying out loud!

When I proudly presented him with the tail, he checked it over, tried it on and climbed up the post in the kitchen (I guess he was giving it a test-run) "Sooooo...how do you like it?" I said with a giant smile. He, with a not so giant smile, shrugged his shoulders and handed it back to me. "It's too long" was the reply. "What?!! It's perfect. Look, it makes an awesome black panther tail, no?" (trying to appeal to the 'boy' in him) He simply insisted that I hang on to it and said he preferred the dishtowel.

He has since found out that it makes a perfect whip to whack his sister with. Great.

The spirit of crafting past

Hannah had this out on the kitchen table this morning--fiddling with the drawers as a young girl will do.

This was a gift I painted for her 8th birthday. I found the little chest at the thrift store and it was already white-washed. I was so excited about this find because she had just been telling me how fun it would be to have a miniture size chest of drawers. It was the perfect canvas to paint. I stayed up late the night before her party getting it ready, because I'm always so organized and plan ahead...ahem.

She loved it. That was 4 and a half years ago and the drawers have held all manner of small trinkets. She changes the contents often. Today I noticed that each drawer is holding coins--one for pennies, one for dimes, one for nickles and one for quarters. Good thinking.

A little memory I wanted to share. And what do the apples have to do with all of this? Nothing. I just thought they were pretty.

Edited: It has been brought to my attention (thank you!) that the drawers are in the wrong order and do not spell Hannah correctly. That is so funny, I seriously didn't even notice that detail! Please rest assured that when in the right order, they really do spell Hannah. :)

Today

Ahhh...another Thanksgiving spent with people I adore and love, simple and tasty food, long talks and lots of laughter. I'm so very blessed, and feel so very thankful.

Last night when I had some time to catch up with a few blogs, I saw that Stephanie had posted her pattern for the soft trees she has been making. I was so stoked and stayed up longer then my weary eyes should have to make some. I love, love, love the simplicity and the infinite variety these can have. My trio is sporting a Christmas theme--Christmas on the beach. Since we live on the coast and a white Christmas is just not part of the deal, my trees are sitting in the sand. Sand is a big part of our lives you know. It's tracked into the house, in the car, in Noah's pockets. It's always all over the laundry room floor from the beach towels, it's in the library book bag and sometimes it gets in our beds---and that my dears, is the pits! Unless you are up for a full body exfoliation. Anyways---I added some garland using the string that came with Alicia's postcard set (handy for many little jobs! Thanks A.!) and then made my own for the white tree with embroidery floss and seed beads. I like it. Stephanie has also started a soft trees flickr group here.

I have plans to put a few more gifts in my Etsy shop plus a small handful of quiet time totes for those of you who were interested in one but missed out. I'll post here of course when all that is ready.

Making me happy today:

The hum of the washer and dryer-

Chicken soup on the stove-

Clean kitchen rugs-

Laughing children-

Green tea with lemon, honey and ginseng-

A shower with hot water--actually, I'm happy everyday about that.

The totes are finished!

And nothing short of a small miracle, let me tell ya. Between all the activity of a busy household it is a challenge to finish a project of this size--for me anyway! I made seven totes total, but I've already pre-sold 4. The others are in my shop now. Wow! That was fast. All sold, thank you!

We are heading down south later this evening to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with friends. Should be fun. I plan to visit a favorite fabric shop while I'm there too. And to come home with some new fabric from said favorite fabric shop.

Oh no! I just realized (again) that this is the first Thanksgiving I will have without all my children with me, sniff-sniff. Seth and Vanessa moved up to Vancouver, WA right after they were married. They will be with my parents for the holiday, BUT they WILL be coming down for Christmas, yay! Better get that quilt done...ahem.

A very happy Thanksgiving to all my dear readers who celebrate! See ya next week.

Sometimes the best laid plans....

...are muddled. It's just part of life I guess. The second half of my shop update was supposed to be Friday afternoon, for sure Saturday. Now it won't happen until tomorrow at the soonest, likely not until Tuesday. I really hope by Tuesday though, because we're going out of town for Thanksgiving and I would really like to check this off my list and move on to other things!

Here is a peek at what I've been working on--they are quiet-time totes, little bags made with uber cute SuperBuzzy fabric (all different) and each one will be filled with a vintage children's book, a set of lacing beads, alphabet stickers and a felt pouch holding 16 spanking new crayons. Notice the hand stamped "Shhh" in the corner?  Just a little reminder to play quietly. There are those times in a mama's life when a quiet distraction for the little ones comes in mighty handy. I carried (and still do for Noah) something of this sort around with each of my children when I knew there would be moments during our outing that they could use it so I could concentrate on something else. Anyway, thought these sets would make cute gifts (or just a basic survival tool for moms!) for the little people in your world. Plenty of room left to add some of your own quiet play things too.

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I have 6 little nest ornaments to offer you in my shop now. I'm still working away on the other half of my shop update which will probably be tomorrow. They are turning out so cute! ( if i do say so myself) Okay, back to my work table--which is also the dining room table, and the school table. I hope a table of my own is in my future.

The boy needs a decent tail

This is a rabbit tail--a la washcloth.

Noah has been pretending so much these days. SO MUCH. Like, all day long. As in, I need to tell him it's time to just be Noah and eat his dinner with a fork, instead of cat-style with his face in the bowl. I did let him eat his lunch that way, so I wasn't a total party-pooper.

Anyway...back to tails. His choice of make-believe these days is animals. He pretends to be all kinds of animals--cats, rabbits, eagles, chickens, owls, turtles, sloths, lizards, cougars...ect. He is really interested in what kind of tails all these animals have. So, we get on the internet and look up images of whatever it is that is capturing his interest at the moment. And I do mean moment. It can change from minute to minute. Do you know how many times I have been on the Internet already this morning? um, yeah. I will say this, major learning is going on as he asks all kinds of questions about the animals. What do they eat? Where do they live? Do they lay eggs? And of course...what kind of tail do they have?

Here he is pretending to be a cat. That's a distowel hanging out the back of shorts. He loves using the dishtowels. He actually has never complained, or asked for anything more realistic. In his mind that dishtowel is whatever tail he wants it to be. I love that. But I thought it would be fun to surprise him with some "tails". Nothing fancy. I have some ideas brewing, I'll show you when they materialize. (ha! funny pun)

I have been staying up past my bedtime trying to get my shop update ready for tomorrow. I think I can reach that goal. Mark is out of town for a few days, so there goes my extra help. But I'm going to try, in between researching animal tails with Noah.

Corners + Mail

I haven't done a corners of my home  post in quite a while. For sure I needed to add this one to my set , the light was so pretty. Early morning sun through my kitchen window.

My new *book love*, or should I say *loves*? No doubt you know all about these. I'm thrilled to add them to my own little bookcase. They are all fabulous.

I'm hoping to update my Etsy shop  by the end of the week with what I hope will be some nice Christmas gifts for the little people in your life. Stay tuned.

Is it a hat? Is it a basket? It's versatile!

This is only the second hat I have ever crocheted, and dear Noah has been the recipient of both. One reason being because he doesn't mind, shall we say, what he looks like so much. Someone needs to wear my efforts until I get it right. My older kids concur wholeheartedly with me on this one..ahem. This one is an improvement from the first one, but it's kind of "mushroomy". I didn't plan that, but there you go. I'm still learning. And I've found that it could work very well as a soft basket for yarn~

or as a mask when your desire to have your picture taken is o.v.e.r.~

I already showed you these, but I just love this photo of my new favorite pincushion. Isn't that glass button a vintage beauty?

Finished

(sorry for the blur, no time to try again today!)

Here is a modified version of Curtis and Phoebe , my cacti couple I made well over a year ago as soft toys for Noah. They're my new pincushion design--a cactus and pins just go together don't ya think? Being sent off with them are a fresh pile of rectangle cushions, like the ones I made here , only this set is twice as large. I find that I really like a large pincushion. Probably because I have a lot of pins and they can all live happily together in one spot without being overcrowded. The one front and center is featuring some SuperBuzzy fabric that I am in *love* with. In LOVE I say!

Just where this little group is going is still a secret...but I promise not to drag this out any longer then I feel I need to. This mystery stuff is starting to get a bit old, but I couldn't wait to share Curtis and Phoebe with you. I'm so happy with them. Maybe I just might feel energetic enough to make some for my shop? Yeah, right. I've got a queen size quilt to finish before Christmas. Never mind.