Sun Spots comments: 132

Spring sunshine. It's so nice. We had such a nice weekend! Short but very sweet. Amelia adores her grandparents who held and played with her non-stop for three days straight. So sweet. Andy made corned beef and cabbage for us. He's the most non-Irish Irish person I know. We listen to Irish music the entire month of March. There is a lot of Pogues and Flogging Molly playing. He makes corned beef and cabbage in my dad's old cast-iron pot every year. He buys us all shamrock swag. I love how much he loves things.

Remember the quilt I started for Amelia a few weeks back? I had it finished by BumbleBee Quilting and picked it up on Saturday morning. I absolutely love it! The way I did this was ridiculously easy. I bought many (I'd have to count how many, but maybe thirty or more?) 1/8 yard pieces of random fabrics from several different local fabric stores. I just picked stuff that I liked. I had no particular color scheme in mind, but I wanted it to feel sweet and subtle and mellow and pretty. My colors wound up being peaches, pinks, inky blues like her eyes, pale grays, vanilla creams, aquas, a few saffron yellows, a few nutmeg browns, an orchid. Most of the prints are tiny calicos, small polka dots, tiny ginghams, and a few baby animals mixed in. To make it, I trimmed the 1/8-yard strips to 4" wide, trimmed off the selvedges, and then cut the strips randomly into rectangles. The rectangle lengths weren't measured. Then I started sewing the short ends of the rectangles together until I had a pieced strip that was vaguely 54" long (I put two pieces of tape on my sewing table, which is just a bit longer than 54", and just laid the strip out between the tape pieces to measure it). I sewed the strips together until the quilt top was about 54" across, and then I trimmed the pieced edges until they were all even. It was so fast. Only half the measuring. I am definitely going to make another one for her bed with the leftoever fabric (this one is more of a throw). Rectangles go so much faster than squares. I don't have much time to do stuff like this anymore, so fast is key! And I also think the rectangles let the fabric print show better, which I've always wanted in my quilts. There are so many beautiful fabrics out there. If the pieces are too small you just can't see the fabric prints, you know? I love looking at the individual patches in quilts, picking out favorites. I love how dated the patches get, timestamping the quilt even without a label.

My darling peachy-pink girl! I love how she loves everything, too. She just loves everything. She inspires me. Every moment. She's teaching me.

Miss Maggie Rabbit comments: 163

***UPDATE, 3/1/13 at 6:53 p.m.: I am so sorry but the kits have just sold out. I know people are going to be really disappointed and I sincerely apologize. They went faster than I ever anticipated and I just really apologize if you didn't get to order one. We will be making more but not in time for you to make them for Easter. Thank you so much to everyone who ordered these kits. I'm truly overwhelmed. Please stay tuned and I will update you as to when we will have more kits (later this spring, hopefully in March)! This is a kit I want to keep permanently in my shop, so although we will need some time to make more, we will make more!!!

If you would like a digital PDF pattern to download, they are available HERE.

Aw, here she is! Miss Maggie Rabbit. Well, her parts and pieces, at least. If you'd like to buy a kit to make her, her dress, her capelet, and her boots that can be arranged. First, though, you must decide which dress fabric (and coordinating yarn) you'd like. There are twelve to choose from:

Pretty, no? I think so.

Now, to make Miss Maggie Rabbit, her dress, her boots, and her capelet, this kit includes:

For Maggie:

• Two 6" x 7" (15cm x 18cm) pieces of National Nonwovens wool-blend felt in color #WCF2612 Sandstone 
• Two 6" x 9" (15cm x 23cm) pieces of National Nonwovens wool-blend felt in color #WCF2612 Sandstone
• One 4" x 5" (10cm x 13cm) piece of Liberty Tana Lawn cotton in Eloise (Pink)

For her dress:

• Two 9" x 14" (23cm x 36cm) pieces of Liberty Tana Lawn cotton
• One yard (91cm) elastic thread

For her boots:

• One 5" x 8" (13cm x 20cm) piece of National Nonwovens wool-blend felt in color #TOY2616 Havana Gold

For her capelet:

• 40 yards (10g) of Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport-weight yarn
• Three colors of 6-ply DMC cotton embroidery floss: #647 (Tan), #3021 (Dark Brown), and #823 (Navy)

 As well as:

• Stitching instructions with photos
• Embroidery tutorial
• Knitting pattern
  
• Pattern templates
  

You will need to have your own:

• Size US5 (3.75mm) knitting needles
• Size #5 embroidery needle for stitching rabbit
• Size #18 darning needle for elastic thread
• Water-erase fabric marker
• Paper scissors, sharp fabric scissors, and sharp-tipped embroidery scissors
• Sewing machine and thread to match dress fabric
• Iron and ironing board
• Wool batting and hemostats for stuffing Maggie
• Pink stamp pad and small, short-bristled paintbrush
• Spray starch, and spray bottle with water

Now that you know all that (I just wanted to make sure you knew all that), here is the link!

MISS MAGGIE RABBIT SOFTIE KIT, $34

And if you have your own supplies and you'd like only a downloadable digital PDF pattern (a link to which will be made immediately available to you upon completion of payment), it is available HERE.

Here are some other things I wanted to tell you:

• Miss Maggie is a special bunny, and not meant to be played with by unsupervised babies or small children who might swallow her boots or her capelet, or chew off an ear or a leg. Please use your judgement and watch your baby or child carefully when they are playing with handmade softies, or any toys with smaller parts.

• As I mentioned last week, there is not nor will there be a separate pattern or a kit for a boy bunny. But you can easily make a boy bunny from this pattern (or the kit) by leaving off the blushy cheeks and lining the ears with a more boyish fabric (stripes, plaid, gingham, polka-dots) of your own. I am developing new patterns for pants, sweaters, shirts, and other garments for both Maggie and her brother bunnies that will be available separately as downloadable PDFs. I'm not promising that they will be available before Easter, though. I'll try, but I can't promise.

• Unfortunately, I cannot make any substitutions for yarn or fabrics included in the kits. They are all completely assembled down to the last piece of fabric, and we are ready to ship immediately. As I develop new knitting patterns, I will be offering skeins of the yarn I've used for the garments in my shop. I'll be carrying over a dozen colors so there will be plenty of choices there. I won't be carrying fabric separately. Only kits, patterns, and yarn.

• The bunny and boots are completely hand-sewn with 2-plies of embroidery floss and blanket stitch (this is a great tutorial). The dress is machine-sewn, with a row of running stitches at the neckline and cuffs to gather. The capelet is knitted in garter stitch with short rows (and for these short rows, I just turn the work and start knitting back — no wrapping or anything else). Very easy. It's hard for me to say whether this is a good project for every beginner, but, you know — it's a softie, not national defense, so my best advice these days is just give it a try and have fun with it! Just relax and practice and enjoy it.

Okay, I think that's it. If there are more questions about bunny kits, please leave them in the comments and I will come back and answer them here. If you have general questions about ordering, shipping, shipping overseas, etc., please check my FAQ page.

Thank you again for all of your sweetness and enthusiasm for this little darling. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Thank you. Xoxoxo

***Please take a few moments to make sure you are putting everything you want to order in your cart, and that you have your correct address listed. The only way I can change your order once it's been placed is to cancel/refund it and have you place a new one with the correct items. My system does not allow me to modify or add to orders once they've been placed. Thank you!!!

 

Catching Up comments: 216

Ahhhh. Feeling much better, thank you! Much better. I finally feel like doing something other than whining and drinking Sprite for dinner. Actually, what sounded good was just a Big-Gulp sized cup of Airborne with ice. Bah.

And — glory! — the cabinets are done. Yesterday. Today I'm playing catch-up. Paying bills. Changing sheets. Finishing painting the stairwell? Vacuuming. Getting some drawer-divider things so I can start putting stuff in the new drawers and cabinets. I'm looking forward to all of it. Spring cleaning's coming early this year.

Alas, not in the back yard. It's kind of a wreck. Stuff is sprouting through the gunk — we planted stuff — bulbs — I don't remember what. Allium, I hope!

Amelia turned sixteen-weeks-old over the weekend. It seems utterly impossible that that much time has passed already. She is so big and luscious and beautiful and funny and sweet and wonderful. She is so easy-going and laid-back; I still just cannot believe anyone on earth is just like this. My mellow yellow. She is such a cool person. Her infancy has been nothing short of complete delight. And it's going, as everyone said, so fast. But every new day is so much better than the one before. Our three days a week alone together are long — when Andy's at work (yes, he's an R.N.), morning starts at about 5 a.m. and the day doesn't end for me until her bedtime, around 8 p.m. Andy gets home around 8:30. She naps a little during the day, but she sleeps through the entire night, no problem. I think I'm finding a good rhythm during the days, though. Starting to get the hang. We've been managing really well lately, especially now that the weather is getting a bit nicer and we can easily walk up to the grocery store and stuff like that (and now that construction is over and we can actually leave the house). Not that I'm not exhausted at the end of the day. I am! But it's a good, honest, awesome kind of exhaustion. The days just feel so good to me now. Her happiness (and ours) is so straightforward, and filled with joy and sweetness and ease that I am encouraged, and so grateful, and nothing seems too hard then.

Now, wallpaper. People! Do you see how pretty it is? How can it possibly be chosen. Someone said that vintage wallpaper has nasty stuff in it. That stands to reason, but I'd never heard it before, so thank you. I'll probably pass on it. The swatches on the table are vintage. The swatches hanging on the wall are actually new, they just look old. From Fabrics and Papers. The one I like is the last one I thought I'd like. Can you guess? I still have a few more samples coming from other places. I want to wallpaper about fifty things now.

Finished Bernadette! I liked it (though I have to admit, I liked the first half better than the second half)! Next up is Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods. Of course I had to get that one! Thank you again for all of these. I'm really looking forward to them!

Do you see Greta up there with all of that Liberty? I am drooling!!! We have ten different ten-yard lengths here right now. I want to roll around in it. But none of it is for me!!! Liberty torture.

***Forgot to say: Here is my Pinterest board with some more wallpapers (and some of these).

Sick Days comments: 126

Blug. I got sick. Coughing, sneezing, headache, eyeball-ache. Been laying low. How Amelia has not gotten this when both Andy and I had it (one after the other) I know not. I've been washing my hands fifty times a day, but still. Poor dear! I think she thinks that coughing is just how people normally talk to each other, so she's imitating it. Typical conversation:

Me: "Hun [sneezing fit], can you bring me the [coughing, hacking coughing, disgusting sounds, throat            clearing, sneeze, sneeze, nose blowing] blanket?"

Amelia: "Goo goo, gah, fake cough, fake cough, goooooo [bright smile]."

Andy: "Sure [sneeze]."

Me: "Wonderful."

Dear lovies.

I seem to be rounding third on the sick. I feel a lot better today. I made the soup that my mom always used to make us when we were sick — the Lipton's chicken-noodle. Always makes you feel better. Maybe we'll make some real stuff this weekend? That sounds really good!

The construction has been delayed by a week [fake crying]. The doors and drawers were all scratched and dinged because they were wrapped for delivery before the paint was fully cured (note use of passive voice in attempt to not assign blame). But, agh. All had to be returned to paint shop for re-sanding/re-painting. We were only a half-day away from being completely finished when this was discovered, too [real crying]. Oh well. Better to do it right.

I'll be happy when it's finished so that I can put everything away. Right now boxes of things that belong in the guest room are still all over the house. We have bunny kit stuff coming in, as well. Naturally, then, I started a new quilt for Amelia!

I decided, with the books, to only read one at a time. First one, recommended by tons of you, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? It's absolutely exactly what I wanted. I'm flying through it! Thank you!

Bright Frost comments: 490

It's been cold again this week. Between that and remodeling people here it hasn't been easy to get outside but I'm so anxious for a walk in the woods I can't even tell you. I can't wait! Though I am loving the sun we've been having. I showed it to Amelia the other day from the back door and she flinched and scowled at it, thoroughly appalled! Like, "Ack, what is that??!" True Oregonian!!!

I think I mentioned that I was reading The Palace of the Snow Queen. I like it a lot but it is not light reading, really. Do you have any recommendations for easy, fun, fast reading? I think my choices last summer (spy and pretty heavy mystery novels) were a little too dark. I didn't really make it through anything. I'm looking for something — novels, I think, or maybe even travel non-fiction — that is lighter and funnier and just . . . relaxing and fun to read?

***Forgot — here is the Summer Reading Booklist for kids we (you and I) made a few years ago. The link was broken in the original post — sorry about that!

Ah, remodeling. comments: 187

Oh, it's loud. And messy. It will be worth it, I know. But right now the house is a total mess. Because everything that was in the guest room is now in the other rooms. And the other rooms were full (at least, they were as full as I like them to be). Now they're fuller. One more week and it will be done. It's looking good. I know we'll be happy. But I won't deny that I will be THRILLED when it's finished, in part just because it's finished!

I baked muffins and then froze a bunch of them for my breakfasts. It's amazing that the thawed muffins taste pretty much every bit as good as they did the first day. These are blueberry streusel muffins. They are delicious. Yum. Saved me this week, seriously. They and my little milk frother thing, for tea lattes. I've been quite happily fed.

So many bunnerses! I love them. Possibly more than anything I've ever made. Yes, we will be doing kits! Almost everything is ordered and on its way. I'm hoping the kits will be finished a couple of weeks before Easter, but Easter falls on March 31 this year. That's early. So I can't promise, but we'll definitely try. The bunners above is not wearing Liberty, but the kits will have Liberty. We're thinking you'll have ten different dress fabrics to choose from! Because I couldn't possibly have picked just one. You know how bunnerses multiply. (And yes, there will be yarn included for the capelet, and the felt and pattern for boots, etc.) I'll keep you posted, and thank you so much for your enthusiasm! That made me very, very happy. Thank you.

I love all my little girls, furry and non-furry, so.

Cold. Snap! comments: 203

Cold! I like it! It feels like winter! There was black bean soup, lasagnas, hot tea and cinnamon rolls, Andy-made risotto, and cupcakes. There was a crackling fire in the fireplace most days, and glowing sunsets, and scarves and gloves, and I took one of my favorite pictures ever of Mt. Hood from the side of Mt. Tabor late Friday afternoon. Our amazing baby girl is three months old. She is such an incredible joy. Her personality is coming through more every day. She is very laid back (almost never cries), very cuddly, "talking" up a storm, smiling all the time, trying to figure out how to laugh (it comes out like a fake cough — so adorable), chewing on her hand, making us laugh with her funny faces and noises throughout the day, still sleeping throughout the night. Oh, girl. I love you so.

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies. I have been sewing bunnies and bunny dresses and bunny boots. I have been tweaking my bunny pattern — changing things by millimeters, trying to get the bunny I want (you'd be surprised at how much very small changes in the pattern entirely change the personality of the bunny). I'm about to start Bunners #4 and I think I've almost got her to my liking. I have been having lots of conversations with Andy and Greta about making bunny kits (and a pattern). To that end, I've been sourcing materials and planning assembly and wondering how much time it will take us to wind a thousand tiny skeins of sport-weight wool yarn for bunny capelets. I've decided that the bunnies should be wearing Liberty peasant dresses. Obviously bunnies would wear Liberty peasant dresses! That only makes sense. More on the bunnies later. Slightly obsessed with the bunnies.

Tomorrow the construction starts on the upstairs cabinets. That will be loud and messy for a week. I'm excited about it but I can't wait until it's finished. I have looked at about five hundred rolls of vintage wallpaper (here and here and here) trying to pick out wallpaper for one wall of the bedroom. I like about a hundred of them. How do you choose, seriously. I don't know. They're quite amazing.

I saw Silver Linings Playbook over the weekend and I LOVED it so much. New favorite movie.

Winterlikes comments: 207

I like winter. I like wool socks and toasted oatmeal and the rocking chair in front of the fireplace and a warm little baby cheek on my chest. I like beeswax candles that smell like golden honey and glow through the evening. I like gray afternoon skies swollen with rain, and black birds that hop from fence to tree. I like nightlights that go on at dinnertime, and curry dinners that start early and end early, with Mexican hot chocolates at the end of them. I like travel shows about how Christmas is celebrated in other countries. I like piles of tiny wool undershirts and booties that don't fall off and baby blankets stacked in every room. I like tiny white lights that brighten every corner, and electric Swedish candles in every window. I like my pale gray flannel sheets. I like Medieval Christmas carols and a new stack of books about snow (I have this one and this one so far) on my night stand. I really like hours and hours of sitting with the baby in my arms, watching her tummy move up and down as she breathes, watching her rose-colored eyelids flutter as she dreams, feeling her fingers thread themselves through my fingers while she half-sleeps. I like tiny warm baby feet in my hand. I like little handmade stuffed-animals and dolls and little mice that wear sweaters and calico aprons. I like bunnies. I like plain white nightgowns with long sleeves. I like things with peppermint chips in them. I like Pillsbury sugar cookies decorated with buttercream frosting by kids. I like corgis that lean on you when they sleep, and stare longingly at you when they're awake. I like husbands that are great fathers. I like knitting with a baby asleep on my legs. And for the record, I like miracle snow, and if Brother North-wind wanted to send some this way this December, I'd do fifty pirouettes and faint with glee. Not that I want for anything at all, but . . . just saying.

*Her pink sweater and her Christmas dress, halfway done! I finished the stocking yesterday :) Yay!

Fall Food comments: 47

Lots of cooking, lots of eating: Pumpkin pancakes, patitsio (we split it into two dishes and froze one), the apple pie (from the freezer, which I thawed for about 20 minutes and then baked as normal and it came out great), chicken with morels (for a Sunday night dinner-party; there wasn't any left to freeze), mashed potatoes from the potatoes from our garden, and roasted vegetables. Thank you so much for all of the freezer-food recommendations! I'm going to go through the list this week and make a few! I also made brownies yesterday. I'll show you those tomorrow.

The weather will be turning here in a few days. They say rain, rain, rain. We have half a cord of wood left from last year. It's stacked and ready to go. I'm going to try to knit exclusively from my stash for a while. The freezer is filling up. We have apples and carmel wraps. I say bring it on.

*Oh, and here is where I made the table runner, from a pattern by the Purl Bee :-)

Early Autumn comments: 92

Before the rains come, there is warm, early-autumn light. It's the best light. Oh, I love love love it.

On Sunday afternoon we wandered around up near the park near the woods. When we were tired we climbed a long hill and put the quilt under that big green canopy of leaves you see up there and were drowsy. So nice. Warm. Dappled light. The sound of leaves rustling. No talking. Just resting. Quiet. Then some dude came along and started playing the BAGPIPES. For an hour. It had to have been an hour. And when I say playing I mean practicing. Not even complete songs. Just parts. It was seriously deafening and sort of hilarious. He cleared out the park. We were too lazy to move. Portland.