One Hook Wonder

Longshot

For some totally insane reason I decided to make new Christmas stockings for everyone this year.  *cough even though I still haven't even starting cutting the blanket I claimed I was sewing  for myself a few months ago cough* 

Ok, I can actually blame my friends for this one.  One of my friends has fabulous stockings she made for her family over the years, and another friend and I have talked for the last two years about how WE need to make fabulous stockings too.  Only this year my other friend actually followed through on all that talking.  Damn.  So now I find myself on December 2nd with a bunch of felt layers cut out for stockings:

 
And a sewing table that currently looks like this:

 
Left over plates from Short Pants' birthday party?     Check

Random Christmas decoration missing a topper?     Check

Nutcracker still in package?     Check

12-year-old plastic cookie magnet?     Check

Something seems to be missing....

Yeah, that would be my sewing machine.  In its case.  Down on the floor.  Shameful, I know. 

I'm supposed to be getting together with aforementioned friends for a night of sewing.  I missed it the last time due to my sinus infection.  Right now I'm the proud owner of a feverish four-year-old. 

Is this whole new stocking project beginning to sound like a longshot to anyone else, or is it just me?

The Mailbox From Hell And Other Scary Tales

Ok, it's really just the one tale about the mailbox, but I couldn't resist a good title. 

Short Pants' 4th birthday is Wednesday, and since he loves dressing up so much, I thought I'd make him a felt mail carrier set.  Total honesty moment - I hated every single second I spent sewing that damn mailbox.  Ugh!!!  There were some minor issues with the tutorial I used, plus I just couldn't seem to do anything right.  It's *very* lopsided and ugly in the back - I had to resist the urge to stay up all night sewing another one.  The only thing that stopped me was the thought of doing it all again only to possibly come out with ANOTHER lopsided mailbox. 

However...I took it out again tonight, and once I saw it with the entire set I decided that I didn't hate it quite as much and could, indeed, move on.  Here's the mailbox from hell:

The flag can stay up or go down, and the front closes with a wee magnet.  And look, little felt mail!

 
I used this super-easy tutorial to make the letters and envelopes.  I decided against little tiny velcro'd address labels, etc. because I could very picture either a) them getting lost 15 minutes after Short Pants opens it  *or*  b)  Pita Pocket eating them.   

Because this is the One Hook household, I had to include the obligatory red envelopes:

You have Netflix too, right?

 
I think my favorite part of the set is the mail bag I made:

Very simple, using felt so I could do as little sewing as possible.  I used a piece of copy paper for my pattern and just added a triangle to one side for the flap, which velcroes shut.  The strap is extra long so that it can be worn messenger bag style, and the letters were attached with Steam a Seam.  I can't wait to see Short Pants delivering the "mail"!

 

Work In Progress Wednesday

I don't know - is it fair to call it a work in progress when it's been sitting in exactly the same state for over a month?  I started the felt circles project from my Totally Selfish Crafting list, but I am just not feeling it at all now:

 Sorry for the dim pictures - I had to take them in the evening:

Oh, the rest of that piece of felt looks sooo big.  It just sits there in my craft room, taunting me with its stagnancy.  It's not that I don't like it, I just have no desire to finish it.  But then when I admit that, my guilt kicks in, because after all I did buy the felt yadda yadda blah blah.  Have you ever had this happen?

The Princess And The Pea

Ok.  So what happens when you see a fab Princess and the Pea cloth set sewn by Jonah Lisa over at The Toby Show just a couple of days before your niece's 5th birthday party?

Why, you make your own set, of course!  I was up pretty late the night before the party, but it was well worth it.  All of the fabrics are from my stash, and I had a fun time making the bag in particular because I'd never sewn one like that before.  The Mister made the ladder for me, and I needlefelted the wee pea.  Take a gander:

Here are the very simple-only-have-to-sew-a-straight-line mattresses (I wasn't making 40 like in the original tale!):

Some shots of the muslin-embroidered princess:

Pretty cute freckles, if I do say so myself:

 And finally here's the whole set together:

Beginnings Of A Birthday Surprise

My wonderful neice turned 5 on Tuesday.  Her birthday party is Saturday, and of course she needs something fabulously adorable.  Let's just hope I get it done in time - wish me luck!

It's not the best picture, but I'll do a "big reveal" next week.

Happy Harvest

So this morning was one of those mornings that I generally read about on other people's blogs.  You know, those blogs where all the craft projects turn out perfectly and they have really cool super huge gardens with no weeds.  The birds sing, the sun shines, and no mommies find themselves wondering if it's ok to drink a margarita at 10am. 

But look!  Look at what I brought in from my garden this morning:

 

A whole basket full of beans, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini!!  (bonus points for spotting the Transformer that Boba stuck in there)  Booyah, I say.  It was pretty much a magical experience.  Right after I loaded it all into the basket an animated deer came out of the woods and we had this, like, mystical conversation about all that was wrong in the world and

Oh. 

Suffice it to say I'm pretty happy with the harvest this morning.

This last week has been a busy one filled with homemade popsicle eating:

 

And a bit of curtain sewing.  I did not want to sew curtains At All.  But I couldn't find them in the right color, so sew I did.  Here's a bad shot of them:

 

These went into Short Pants's and Pita Pocket's room.  (did you notice what I just typed?)  We moved Pita Pocket out of our bedroom and into Short Pants's over the weekend.  Oh happy day.  No more being unable to use my own room after 8pm!  I've rediscovered the luxury of reading in bed and am loving it.  As an added bonus, since I lined the curtains with blackout material both boys are sleeping a bit later in the morning.  Woo hoo!

While I was already on the curtain bandwagon, I finally broke down and hemmed a pair of twin sheets for our closet curtains.  I'm not sure why it took me almost a year to get around to this, but it did:

 

We are decidedly not clean, organized closet people so it's a definate improvement to the bedroom.  Next up will be curtains for the littles' closet (again, a project that should have been done a year ago) and new curtains for Boba's room.  He's been seduced by blackout material.

Despite all the curtain sewing, I did find time to cut out my circles for the felt picture:

 

Hopefully sewing on that will begin in the next day or two.  Boba has roped me into taking him and Bean to see "Transformers 2" tonight.  They're back for the summer and full of ideas and places to go.

Totally Selfish Crafting

It's high time we had some of it around here.  I'm having to deal with a few very stressful issues right now, so I'm planning to apply some Totally Selfish Crafting balm and hope that it makes me feel at least a tiny bit better. 

First up, this yummy fabric.  Look at, love it:

 

When I saw this post over at Soule Mama I was smitten.  I am making that blanket FOR ME and ME only. (ok, doubtless The Mister and the kids will take turns swiping it - but it's still mine)  I am going to look at it daily folded up on the arm of our loveseat and give a happy sigh.  Just looking at this makes me give a happy sigh:

  

Normally (ok, never) I don't spend that kind of money on fabric, but after weeks of lusting over the blanket I gave into temptation.  So glad now that I did.

And once the blanket is done, I'm going to cuddle up on the couch with it and make one of these felt circles pictures.  It looks like just the kind of mindless soothing crafting that I need.  I'll be sewing one for the almost-done-dining-room:

  

And did you notice the floor?  The gorgeous, beautiful, new floor of the almost-done-dining room?!  The Mister put it down in our kitchen as well - so exciting!

Now I'm off to do some Totally Selfish Eating involving crackers and gruyere cheese.  Mmm!!

I Really Do Still Craft Sometimes

Remember, I warned you.  Gardening, hiking, and generally enjoying gorgeous spring weather leaves little time for sitting at a sewing machine or manning a hook!  But I did finally finish embroidering Bean's picture.  This was done mostly on Wednesday evenings curled up and watching LOST.  What wasn't done by the season finale was finished while watching the first disc of Firefly, loaned to me by a friend.  Since Bean's original drawing was in pencil, I chose to replicate that by only using grey thread:

 

Don't you love it?  She drew this a few years ago, obviously pre-Pita Pocket.  My favorite part is how she labeled each of us with our initials and hid her own name.  Can you find it?

 

While Bean was home this weekend for a visit she and I did another little bit of creating together.  She decided that our garden needed a fairy house:

 

I'm pretty sure that's the first of many!

Be Still My Heart

My middle boy is sewing.  I originally came across this idea in The Creative Family and decided last week that it would make an excellant Montessori lesson as well.  Simply grab some burlap, an embroidery hoop, thread, and an eager student.  I adore the look on concentration on his little face:

  

 

 

He sewed me a monster, "For your birthday, Mommy"

 

I assured him that it was one of my favorite birthday gifts ever.  And it is, albeit 7 months early:

 

Hippity Hoppity

I'll make this rather short as I'm currently in a sulk over my carrot cake falling apart as I took it out of the pan.  Still plenty edible, just not nearly as attractive.  I got the bunnies for Pita Pocket and Short Pants done just in time.  Short Pants's bunny only got his tail last night!  Sorry for the badly lit pics; they were done last night.

Here's Pita's bunny.  I dubbed him "Chubbs" because for some reason he came out err...fluffier...than the other bunnies:

 

Short Pants named his bunny "Rascal."  Notice the super-special fire truck ears:

 

And here's the whole bunny family posing for a shot.  I'm really happy with how these came out, but fascinated that though I made each one of them, their faces look completely different.  I honestly don't know which one is my favorite:

  

We've had the usual lovely Easter hoopla 'round here yesterday and this morning.  The kiddos are all hopped up on sugar and enjoying the day:

 

Yes, his eggs say, "I Rock":

 

 

Happy Easter, everyone!