More food

I decided to make a pancake breakfast with sausage this time around, just to change things up a little. I'm realizing that making the exact same things over and over again isn't nearly as much fun as making up something new each time. I think I'm going to have to get over that little mental hurdle though if I plan on selling more stuff for the holidays.

I'm way behind on all my crafty stuff since I've been out of town. I'm going to try to catch up this weekend, so stay tuned. ;)

Even on vacation

I can manage to find time to shop for fabric. Haha!

I'm currently visiting my mom in Chicago (which, combined with T being out-of-town for work last week, is also my excuse for the lack of output lately). I was hoping to get some knitting done while here, but it's looking like it may not happen since E has been quite the handful. But of course, I still managed to find a little time to check out a fabric shop today.

I actually noticed the shop last time I was here, but didn't get a chance to stop in, especially since like most mom-and-pop type places, they have odd/short hours. Anyways, this afternoon I was out with my mom and E had fallen asleep in the car, so I ran in for a quick lookaround. It's actually a quilting shop more than anything, but they did have a lot of really beautiful fabric. Not the cheapest either, but I decided to splurge and buy a few things anyway. I realized I never did try to make a pillowcase dress for E, and even though the season is kind of off, she could probably wear one with a long-sleeve shirt underneath for fall pictures.

I'll post pictures of my finds when I can, although I have to note that I'm having a lot of problems posting to blogger from my mom's computer.

Warming up the babylegs machine...

Now that it's October and Fall is finally upon us here in Texas (that is, if you think of 85 degrees as fall weather), I thought it was time to crank out a new batch of baby leg warmers! Actually, a request from a friend is what got me started thinking about it, so I'll kick it off with a pic of the adorable Halloween legs that I made for baby M.


The only real struggle I'm going to have with this is forcing myself to sell them instead of keeping them all for E. Never mind that she still has the dozen or so pairs that I made her last year, all of which are still perfectly fine. In fact, I can't help but show off the cute outfit she wore some with just yesterday.

The boring stuff

One thing that many people don't realize is that, as simple as some of these things look, a lot of work goes into the finishing of each individual piece. For you non-crafty types, finishing basically refers to weaving in all the loose ends after you're done knitting/crocheting something, sewing/seaming pieces together, adjusting the shaping, and just generally making it look nice and presentable. It's pretty much the least fun part of making anything, especially to me. In fact, for some items, like the sushi set or the bacon pictured below, it takes me longer to do the finishing than it does to make the piece itself. Bleh.

In any case, I thought it might be interesting to show what some of the stuff I make looks like before it's 100% done. Here's the before - a lovely mess of loose ends and whatnot.


And the after, a delicious yarn bacon! Who could resist?


These still need to be blocked a little, but I'll save that boring explanation for another boring post.

How can you resist this face?

Yesterday my friend Chrystyna came over with her adorable daughter Mackenzie, and I couldn't resist putting this pumpkin hat that I had just finished on her. I decided later that afternoon that it needed a little leaf on top, so here are some more shots of the hat with the leaf (but minus the cute baby), now on sale in my Etsy shop. :)

More food

One bad thing about making things in sets is that I have to wait until I finish every piece before I can list them in my store. But I finally have a bunch of stuff that's ready to go up, or pretty darn close. First up, is another set of veggies. I replaced the turnip with corn on the cob this time. I'm actually really really proud of the corn because I worked really hard to come up with a pattern that would have the texture of the niblets. I debated whether or not to do the stalks this time, but it didn't seem worth the extra work.


In the future, I may just include both the corn and the turnip, but I really wanted to be able to list some new items today. Also, I don't want to have to raise the price. I made a slight change to the carrot top from last time to make it more leafy.


I'm also very close to being done with a set of fruits. I've been a bit stumped for fruits to make besides the pear and strawberries I already had. I finally settled on an apple and I'm working on a lemon right now. This set should be up in the shop in the next day or two, along with a set of sweets.


I'm thinking that the apple might make a cute teacher's gift come Christmas-time, so I may make some more of those to sell individually. Also, I know there are people out there who like/collect apple stuff. I'm also in the midst of working on some pumpkin hats, since fall is finally upon us. And I'm getting ready to do a big batch of baby leg warmers too.

The finished product

I think she turned out pretty cute!

I spent the better part of yesterday evening trying to figure out how to embroider the face on E's doll. I think I did an ok job, considering I've never embroidered anything in my life before. It's definitely way harder than it looks. But I really want to make a few more of these dolls, so I'm sure they'll get better.

ETA: Just wanted to add a shoutout to the Etsy store where I bought the pattern, Bit of Whimsy Dolls!