New Baby Dolly

Baby season has begun again in our church. I asked my friend what she would like for her daughter and she wasn't picky, but she had seen the dolly I made for another friend and thought that might be nice. So, I made this little cutie. Tutorial and pattern here... though this time I enlarged the pattern by 175% instead of the required 150% (my previous dollies are made at 200%, but I didn't have enough felt). I thought an apron would be appropriate, since my friend is a killer cook and I'm sure baby will learn her skills in time.

 (a little heart on the outside, because it wouldn't all fit inside)

Handmade Holidays

It's almost here... Handmade Holidays on Sew Mama Sew! I love November! Beginning November 1st and every day for the month, Sew Mama Sew blog posts great tutorials, handmade shops and holiday recipes. This is year number four and they say it's going to be the best one yet - hooray! Check it out!

My Creative Process

I've joked before that I have crafting ADD. Well, I thought I'd explain a little bit about what that looks like. I had a couple hours to myself in an evening and without having much motivation to do anything, I sat down and surfed some creative blogs for inspiration. I have files of inspiration, I have piles of things that are waiting to be created, but I still fuel my creativity as often as I can. So I came across a blog (and this is where I am sorry to say that I didn't bookmark any of my finds and therefore can't give you the links) and the author of the blog wrote about how she was excited to stumble across a tutorial for making a camera wrist strap for her point and shoot camera. Like myself, she had been drooling over all the lovely camera straps for the SLR cameras out in blog world and felt a little left out of the pretty camera accessory love. I clicked over to the link and thought... "that would take me like 10 minutes, I'll just whip one up real quick." I started to dig through my scrap bin and realized that if I made the strap in the fabric that I wanted to, then the bag that I was currently using as a camera bag wouldn't match. Why did this matter? Well, I always leave the strap outside the zipper so that the camera bag then also has a strap. Okay, so all I needed to do was to whip up a new zipper pouch for a matching camera bag. No problem. I found some coordinating fabric and started cutting. Then I decided to embellish it with ribbon and before I knew it, my David was arriving home and I had not only not made the strap, but now I was in the middle of a new camera bag. Laughing it off, I put it away for the next day.

Picking up where I left off, I finished the bag (with a few flaws, due to my impatience in putting it together). Then I decided that the strap I cut out wasn't as coordinating as I liked. Back to my scrap pile. Cut out and iron strap number two. I was almost finished with it, when I thought to check and see if it would fit over David's wrist. NOPE. Cut out and iron strap number three. The original tutorial used thin elastic cord, I didn't have any, but reasoned that I could use a hair elastic (I use these in lots of things for closures and they work great). I just about had strap number three finished when I realized that the hair elastic would probably too thick to feed through the tiny little slot on the camera where it goes. Sure enough, it was too big. Grrr! Now what? Well, this is when I took it to David for his advice. He's so logical and is often the fixer of my dilemmas. His solution, just use the new strap like a slip cover instead of a replacement. It worked so great. I just slipped the original wrist strap into the cover and sewed it in nice and tight. So without further ado, my new camera strap:

As the original blogger noted, it's very difficult to take a picture of your own camera, so I too, grabbed a mirror. Nothing spectacular, but it makes me smile and I think everything needs a little embellishment. For those of you who had to wait for a long time to receive a promised crafted item, now you can see why. And for those of you who are wondering if I get anything useful finished, Yes, I do. I just happen to enjoy the craziness of my crafting process and do not push myself to stick to an original plan. This often results in something off plan and fabulous!

Fall Decorating

I don't think I've shown you my living room wall. I thought that I was going to do something like this, but I like how it's become simple and has seasonal possibilities.

This was David's idea and I love how it turned out! We picked up a sale garland at Michael's and the leaves are clipped to my branch with mini clothes pins. My wheels are turning now for future holidays and seasons. We had gone to a pumpkin seller on the 1st of the month and picked up a pumpkin and a few gourds. David then carved us a Jimmy-o-lantern. Why Jimmy? Why not? Abigail loves her pumpkin and is often asking for the candle to be lit.

Now, you'll just have to imagine the smell of my pumpkin spice candle burning and the sound of Christmas music in the background. Yes, I said Christmas music... that's how I roll, Baby!

A Veggie Tale

I won another amazing giveaway! Jill at The Diaper Diaries hosted a Veggie giveaway and I must say that I was really hoping to win this one. My Abby loves Veggie Tales, though we only have a couple of videos. I was thinking ahead to Christmas and saw Jill's review of Sweatpea Beauty, I had decided that it would be a good one to maybe get for Abby. Much to my delight and surprise, I got an email saying that I WON! As an added bonus in the package is a little devotional book, and I've been hoping to find a little devotional book to read with Abby. I think this might be perfect... I'll let you know. Thanks, Jill!

(L to R: God Made You Special DVD, Sweatpea Beauty DVD, 365 Bedtime Devos for Girls, Sweatpea Puzzle)