Winter-ish

It's downright cold around here. Not Montana cold, mind you. But it is California cold. As in, your knees get a little cold through your jeans when you go outside. And you can see the sheep's breath. Time to reinstate weekly soup night!

Photogenic

Some things are just easier to photograph. I'm always struggling to find the right light, fold things the right way, decide whether to edit out the background or use a natural background... Some day I will take a photography class. In the mean time, my favorite thing to take pictures of in the shop are the play mats. They always look good for some reason.

Tonight I have big plans - piece and make four sets of coasters as well as the binding for a quilt which also needs to be attached to the quilt. This craft show is making me crazy - I don't know how people ever do more than one per year!

Make it: quick and easy smock

1.) Cut a 1-2 inch wide strip off the bottom (short end) of an old towel. I've found that a thread-bare towel works best - those plush towels are hard to cut through and a bit cumbersome once you put it on your kid.

2.) Fold your towel so the short ends are touching. On the folded side cut a half-circle so that when you unfold the towel, there is a circular hole right in the middle. (Start off with a small circle - if the hole is too big the smock will just slip off your kid's shoulders. You can always make the hole bigger if you need to.)


3.) Pop it right over your little one's head and tie the "sash" around his waist. His clothes will stay paint-free, you can use it to wipe up after he is done, and then just throw it in the wash to be used again and again. Moses loves his, as you can see. :)

Apotheosis the Vug

No, I have no idea what that means, but it has long-since been the e-mail address of my brother, and it is now the name of both his etsy shop and his blog. Friends, I am telling you, you MUST check them both out! I seriously don't know if I am more excited that people can now buy his awesome art work or that they can read his hilarious blog postings. Go check it out and let me know what you think!

I love these little dudes.

Now that we are all healthy, things are back to the usual silly routine. There has been a lot of refrigerator magnet action lately, as well as a very long stint with the marble track this morning. The little guy spent an hour clutching one potentially deadly marble in each hand, all the while looking sideways at me while he tried to surreptitiously jam them into his mouth. He eventually realized he couldn't out-sneak me or charm me into allowing him to gulp down even one (and boy did he try, with that cute little grin. Man.), and he settled for the occasional quick lick of the orange marble, which seems to be his favorite. Just to appease me, he would make a very unconvincing face of disgust and say "eeeugh" after each lick, which didn't fool me at all. Very entertaining and totally worth the non-showered look I rocked all day.

Happenings

A lot has been happening around here, including our first real bout of sickness for the season. (No, don't worry, we didn't get THAT.) We're also entering birthday season - Titus and I get to celebrate next week. I can't believe it's already been a year since I celebrated my 28th birthday by coming home from the hospital with a tiny baby boy. Pretty crazy.

As for the shop, I've signed up to do another craft show (and if you remember my last experience with craft shows, you probably think I'm crazy. I know my husband does.) so I'm sewing whenever I get a free moment and buying lots of new fabrics. Here's the stack that is currently cheering me up - a new play mat and a bunch of darling fabrics from this excellent fabric store. I'm off to work on another play mat - just wanted to do a quick update. Lately blogging is like working out - if I go longer than a week without doing it I might just throw in the towel. :)