So, I was face-timing with my cousin Lee last week and he was seeing an image of my computer on his iPhone. He saw a screenshot of my Blogger analytics (the back-end statistical data of my blog) and he said, “Wow—you’ve got a hockey stick there!” I had no idea what he meant but have since learned that hockey stick growth refers to the visual of a rapid rate of increase on a graph. It looks like a hockey stick laying on its side.
…the best part about returning from Market is that my kiddos get their stuff back! This particular cobbler’s kids totally have no shoes. Much of my company is founded on designing things for my children and their interests, yet they aren’t allowed to actually have the things I make because they end up being my samples! Ha! So happy to let them have their things…
I have been sitting on my hands and my hat for months, but I can finally show you what I have been working on—the Giggle & Squeak™ quilt and pillow pattern! This adorable quilt for boys or girls whips up so easily using simple fusible appliqué techniques. You are sure to giggle and squeak as you are creating these friendly animals for the kiddos you love. Also included in the pattern are instructions for creating a piped pillow in two sizes and guidelines for making the pattern as a twin quilt.
“Who do you want to be, mom?” I get that question a lot around here from the big boy, “Will Turner or Jack Sparrow?”…”Hermione or Hagrid?”…”Do you want to be the parrot?” I particularly like being Jack Sparrow because of the kookiness of his character and the pirate accent.
| Pillows from the first day |
Have Bernina…will travel! That’s my motto. This week, my son’s kindergarten teachers were kind enough to let me bring my sewing machine to school as a choice time activity. He often comes home from school with hand sewn felt stuffies and I just love that they teach the kids to sew by hand at his school. What an important life skill to learn at a young age. I thought it would extend the curriculum if they used a power tool! In two days the kids made 28 pillows. They each picked their own fabrics from my scrap bin, traced the templates, cut, and then brought their creation to me at the machine where I let them push the pedal! We had a lot to sew so I encouraged them to go a bit faster than I normally would. I think they had lots of fun. And I just love that they all went home with a creation they had designed and made. One mom told me her son brought his to the dinner table last night because he was so excited about it.
Today my two aspiring sewist pupils finished their A-line, elastic waist skirts at our tiny sewing school (earlier post here). We used the My Very Own Skirt pattern in the awesome Sewing School book. The work took two sessions—about four hours total—but it was worth the wait. Seriously? Homemade clothing? Major coolness and inner-pride. Dude.
When my little ladybird told me she fell down at school today and hurt her knee, I told her we’d go home and put ice-rice on it. To my great alarm and surprise, I realized that we didn’t actually have any ice-rice in our freezer (just frozen peas). Ice-rice is the normal stuff of preschool: cold rice in a little ziploc baggie used to soothe booboos. It does wonders for owies of all sorts.
| The Stand. |
Spring seems to have come a bit early this year, which would be nice if we lived in Minnesota. In the desert, warm and sunny days are so relentless that you hate to see one in early March. But when global warming gives you lemons…well, you know. Anyway, it feels like yesterday that I posted about our last lemonade stand—click here—but I fear it was probably a year ago. It always happens quite unexpectedly and fully without warning. Thankfully, we had six lemons on hand and some sugar. The signage is usually the first order of business. Check out the totally kick-ass spelling of quarter in the illustration below. Big difference this year: big boy can write…and the ladybird joined us in every bit of the fun. She even colored her own KRODR. 🙂
I think I just wee-weed in my pants with sheer excitement and delight about the little LEGO minifigure I just managed to create FROM SCRATCH in Adobe Illustrator. I never even cried. I drew all of his tiny parts with the Shape tool and the Pen in Illustrator. (I know it isn’t perfect.) But I think I might possibly be kicking some serious mommy ass and win some best-mom-ever awards (only from my son, of course). A custom LEGO minifigure of his own? I think I just p e e d again! This might be the holy grail. Think of the possibilities…think of what this could mean! Where do we go from here?
