Eily's quite fond of the banner I finished, although he prefers to use it as a train. We'll hopefully hang it up for the party this weekend and use it for decorating future birthday parties.

Friends of ours are getting hitched this weekend, while we celebrate Mom and Dad's 60ths. Here's one of the last handmade books I had around which turns out to be a good guest book for them. It has eternal stitching and an extended spine to allow room for photos and such.

I'm midway through these slippers, which I partly started just to see if they were possible (side note: i love my new machine!). I promise that this is the last new project I will start. It begins the necesary shift to wool clothing that I must make for the fall sale. I also think that it would be a good habit to get into, given the sentiments of my last post, to break up projects between days or weeks. I might learn a little more patience. Instead of madly finishing, I will now shuck peas in preparation for dinner guests and politely ask the little white worms to leave the free run cherries Rachel and I picked from a downtown tree the other day.

Some days only one attempt to accomplish an item on the "to do" list is successful. Today was a good reminder that that can happen even when I have more time to work with. It was overcast and I spent too long determined to finish this wallet, yet I kept telling myself to stop because it wasn't turning out as planned. I'm being stubborn even against myself.

I drove to Wellesley this morning to pick up shelling peas we ordered. The best part of the day was driving back with the possibilities of the afternoon ahead of me. I'l try to be satisfied with the letters I was finally able to write instead of the drawn-out frustrations of this sewing project.

Today, I'm knee-deep once again in sweater scraps. Here are the vegetables I've been stuffing and have yet to hand sew closed.

Yesterday's project was to increase the softness of the landing beside Eily's bed...he's been known to end up there fairly frequently. I found the fabric at Salvation Army and stuffed the pillows with bits and pieces of sweaters leftover from other projects. The stuffing's inconsistent of course but the resulting pillows are actually quite soft.
I didn't get a chance to post last night because we picked raspberries until dusk at a farm near Rockwood. The berries were divine and the farm, the gardens, the house, so peaceful.

I've had this dress in my mind for awhile, and a few weeks ago, I searched for some material to correspond with the front piece which I could use to make a cowl neckline for the back. Rebecca showed me how to make the pattern from a shirt I already had.
I'm delighted with it. A good way to celebrate the beginning of a week as my alter ego (without offspring). Brett and I are a bit lost to tell the truth, but I have to admit dinner was so enjoyably civil....with well chosen words and deliberate conversation.

A project that has been in the works since Brett's birthday, probably three years ago, when i made him a calendar of the birds he saw every month. afterwards, he suggested we frame them all since i have this "handy" mat cutter (handy, not so much; i'm having a terrible time making straight cuts with it). i'd love to have the project finished and after shooting glass across the front room and backyard picnic table, i was glad to find a glass cutter who would do the work for me without costing a crazy bunch of money. i only had four glass pieces to replace but some fool suggested i buy a big frame and cut them myself since the pieces were small. it seems that a framer can charge lots if it's for a "framing job" so i just went to a stained glass artist instead (Stained Glass Artisans in Breslau).

These are my favourite birds in the series.

Bag-making version three. This one holds more than the other but lacks the extra pockets and fancy hardware. I'll have to see which one is gonna get more love.

three soft pantyliners...copied in form and style from lunapads. i added snaps after the picture using gripper snaps because i couldn't find any snap tape.

Yay! I've had this bag on my mind for awhile, as a project for the new sewing machine, and it actually turned out pretty close to what I imagined. It's already full of necessary and frivolous, portable items.

Eily and I painted a sailboat and I glued a sail on it while we were at the cottage. We had a couple days there in the middle of the week, a treat. Unfortunately, the same day it was finished it was tossed from a high chair and the mast split in two. Eily is now using it as a "sailboat backhoe"...nearly everything has a second life as a construction truck around here. I think I'll hold off on more craft kits until he's a little older.