I'm moving!!!!!!

I've been blogging for over two years now...my blogversary was actually March 13th! Hard to believe, but I've got over 500 posts here.


In the past few months I've gotten more and more frustrated with Blogger & the lack of the ability to customize by blog. Basically since I switched to Blogger Beta, it's been one thing after another. A really big PITA is my inability to reply to people's comments. As any blogger knows, comments are wonderful and I love replying to them. But Blogger Beta doesn't allow me to reply through email and when I tried using Haloscan to track comments, I lost all my Blogger comments.

So I've been looking around at other blog sites and finally settled on Typepad. The switchover has been mostly painless (still figuring out some things) and so far it looks good to me.

Come on over and take a look at my new place. Let me know how it looks for you! Update your bookmarks/feed readers!!! (My new blog has a built in feed subscriber at the bottom- yay!).

This blog will stay open indefinitely but I won't be posting here any longer. I'm debating whether to transfer it over- tho it'd be a hecka lot of work.

Oh, and fittingly, Love Thursday will be the first official post over there. See ya there!

because you never know when you might need a sunshade

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become one with the frosting

love thursday

(a condensed version) this week I am loving....

knitting with good friends....stuffing tummies with corned beef & cabbage + boiled potatoes....hot corned beef sanniches with the leftovers....little boys playing trains together....honey in my tea and on my face. ...playdates at the park....finding my P&S camera after 'losing' it for three days....a clean, shiny sink (even if it only happens once a week)....a neatened pantry....the way Monkey Boy looks like he's dancing when he runs....finding $20 in the dryer screen when doing laundry (finders' keepers!)....Little Man holding hands with his friends as they all go 'hiking' in the bushes next to the park....laying on the lawn with LM and looking up at the blue of the sky....hearing "conjunction junction, what you funkshun" from Monkey Boy....reading books with small men before bedtime....


what are you loving this week?

convenience crafting

Little Man attended a birthday party for one of his preschool friends tonight. The honoree was a girl turning five. Since I have absolutely no clue what the cool gift for girls at this age is, I asked my mother-of-three-girls-neighbor for some suggestions. A few days ago Little Man & I headed to the local Le Tar-jay and picked up some Polly Pockets based on my friend's comments and LM's ideas (he wanted something with animals in it so we got a set with dogs & cats...I think the doll is supposed to be a vet?).

I wanted to use one of my already purchased little totes for a gift bag, but it looked soooo boring as is. It needed some gussying up!

I sewed up a couple of "yo-yos" from scrap fabric pieces and added vintage buttons. Originally I was planning on embroider the little girl's initial on the bag, but after about six tries I gave up. I was attempting to put Monkey Boy down for his nap and did all the sewing in the rocking chair in his room (getting up every 10 minutes to tell him to close his eyes and go to sleep). You can probably tell how distracted I was by the somewhat wonky embroidered stems:

Whew, that's some mighty messy stitching! Oh well, I still think the bag came out pretty cute. And the project lasted long enough for Monkey Boy to finally fall asleep- how convenient!

first words

Little Man's first written words
"cat"
"hat"

love thursday & a crafty FO

this week I'm loving-

-the silence that befalls our house after 8pm when the small men are in bed and snoozing (can you tell that the Dearest is still out of town?)

-ice cream 'staches:

day 74 of 365

-linear thinking:

-my new foundation from Meow Cosmetics (try it, you'll like it! And samples are only $1!)

-being blessed with a funny, sweet and supportive extended family

-the local library's online catalog...I can put all my books on hold and pick them up at our local branch. No more searching thru the stacks for me!

-banana chocolate chip muffins....with the banana and some whole wheat flour, these might actually be a little healthy....right?

-my new traveling bag, made in a frantic haste the night before leaving for San Francisco (because you HAVE to have a new bag when traveling! And what possesses me to start crafting the night before I'm supposed to leave???):

the front


the back

I've been eyeing the tape measure fabric for weeks and finally purchased some not too long ago. Love the pattern, but I wasn't sure what to use it for...it turned out perfect for straps and a pocket on this little bag.

The beige twill material is some clearance linen-like stuff I had in my stash forever. It's quite thick and I think it's cotton. I tried to get a good shot of the interior of the bag, which is lined in a contrasting fabric, but the light wasn't cooperating with me. :( There are two large pockets inside- big enough for keys and a cellphone (or BART tickets and some extra change). The lining is lightly interfaced, but I probably could have done without that since the beige twill is quite heavy.

I didn't follow a pattern for the bag, just kinda threw it together. I wanted something quite deep and not too wide so things wouldn't fall out while I was walking around SF. The bag turned out perfect- my camera, wallet and phone fit perfectly with room to spare for a map and bottle of water. We even threw some sticky buns in there while walking through Chinatown.

The big button is vintage from the stash G'Ma O gave me last year. There was a funny pucker at the top when I finished topstitching the bag and I covered it up with the button...which also happens to close up the top perfectly.

I like this bag so much that I've been using is in lieu of my normal diaperbag/purse since getting back from San Francisco even tho it's a bit too small for that. I might just have to make another, bigger one for everyday use.