Trunk or Treat

Even though this was Katrina's third Halloween, it's the first one that she really cares about at all. She was really envious of everyone with wings at Wednesday's playgroup, so I pulled out her wings from our costume bag, a tutu, and a wand. She insisted on the pumpkin shirt. I told her she's a fairy princess, and she was very excited about being any sort of princess. She hasn't really cared about princesses until recently, but I guess every little girl is going to fall in love with princesses eventually!
The Trunk or Treat at church was fun. She did have a few tantrums because of all of the excitement, but it's getting a lot easier to reason with her, so they were short-lived. She got particularly excited about the face-painting and you might be able to see her black and green marks that she added in addition to the sparkly heart that the young woman gave her. She was awesome at holding my hand as we did the parking lot circuit getting candy. Sadly, Daddy's treat bucket had run out of treats by the time we got there, but there was plenty more!

Daniel was officially a farmer. We added the babylegs because it was really cold outside.

And now both kids are in bed at 9:30 (but still awake), and Adam and I are taking our cut of Katrina's candy. :]

Sew & Tell

I only have a couple of finished projects this week, though I did work on several other things. Both of these bags had issues. The first one is super cute but I decided to do some topstitching that ended up really crooked, and when I took it out, the holes wouldn't iron out. So this bag isn't going into my shop but is instead going as a gift to someone who helped us in a time of need a couple months ago.

I still listed it in my shop, but I'll make a new one if anyone orders it. It's a very cute bag in person.

This one is cuter in person than in pictures but it still is a little off. I think it's a funny size or something. I'm not sure.

I have three framed bags pretty close to being done, but am waiting on my frames to arrive in the mail. I also have a couple more snap clutches to make.

If anyone has some extra time, can you pop over to my shop tell me how you feel about my new pictures that I've taken on my dining room table rather than the lightbox pictures I had up before? I felt like I wasn't getting the true colors in the lightbox and that the natural lighting fits the Etsy aesthetic better. But I'm not sure. Pretty much every day during naptime I take more pictures and try out different angles and stuff.

Shared at Blue Cricket Design

A plethora of photos

A few mid-tantrum photos, complete with Daniel's signature tongue action. He sticks his tongue out to the side whenever he is jabbering.

Some interesting tongue-age here too.

A few progress photos of a baby quilt. I'm in no hurry for this project, so you probably won't see the finished quilt for awhile. Oh, and I bought this beautiful hand-dyed fabric here on Etsy.

Here's a better photo that gives a pretty clear idea of what the quilt will look like. Except there will be fabric in between those blank area, not a rainbow-colored fleece blanket. :] I just have to figure out what fabric to put there.

And today our playgroup had a Halloween Party. I wasn't sure I was going to go, but I ended up driving Adam to work so we could go and putting together some last-minute costumes. First, here are the characters Max and Ruby from the tv show Max and Ruby on Nick, Jr.

And here are my little bunnies.

I'm not sure if we'll do these costumes again for the Trunk or Treat. We'll probably have Katrina be a fairy or something, since she was fascinated with everyone's wings and we have a set we got in a bag of dress-up clothes from Adam's coworker.

No more pictures, mommy!

Morning playtime

Pictures from today during playtime:
Daniel got sad about something.

Happier now that he's sitting.

Wow, feet.

Katrina, captivated by Little Bear or something on tv. The only time I can catch her still long enough for a picture is when she's watching tv! I'll ask her to smile and she says, "cheese!" and then looks away again.

Look how long her pretty hair is getting.

So, funny story

Also known as, "Baby gift, take 2."

I usually prewash my fabric before sewing, but not all of my scraps have been washed, so after I sewed the baby taggie, I threw it on the wash on gentle, and I dried it. I didn't want any leftover sizing (chemical used on most fabrics and clothes) to irritate the baby's skin. To my horror, several of the leaves were unravelling. This is the worse offender:
Unfortunately I could not simple resew them, because I would have to take the minky backing off. And I suspected it would get worse every wash. So, I went back to the store for some fusible stabilizer webbing. You can iron it in between fabric for stabilizing appliques. I always just thought it was to keep the fabric in place, but apparently it also strengthens the fabric to keep the above mistake from occurring. Then I re-did the entire project. I had to rip apart the first one so I could reuse the minky, but everything else I cut out from scratch. No. Fun. After I fused the leaves and sewed them, I washed and dried the top to make sure it worked. It did. No fraying. So then I was able to sew it to the minky again, along with the ribbons.

So for your comparing pleasure, here is the first one:

And here is the second one:

Almost identical. I skipped out on the fabric that frayed the worst, but everything else is in the same spots.

One baby gift done. Again.

Sewing projects

Time for Sew & Tell!

Well, I was so productive this weekend that I just couldn't fit it all into one post. Here's my previous one.

So here is my baby shower gift! It is a soft taggy blanket with a little twist.

I got the idea from this blog. I think the only thing I changed was the kind of applique I did. I forgot to get Wonder Under at Joanns yesterday, so I just pinned and used a satin stitch around each leaf.
And a nice soft minky back. The front is a pretty flannel I found yesterday.

It's for a woman in my ward having her third baby girl. I hope she likes it!

***(To read about how this project crashed and burned but was salvaged, read here.)***

This next soft blanket is for Daniel. It's not very large--17"x21". The point isn't so much to be a blanket as it is to be his "blankie." Katrina developed her attachment to her "badet" at about his age, and we decided to try to get Daniel to get attached to a little lovey so he can have something to soothe him like Katrina has.

I've already begun the attempted attachment process by bringing it in the car everywhere and sticking it in his crib when he sleeps. We'll see if it works!

And I also made Adam some cycling tights and some sleeves to wear with his short-sleeved jerseys.

Sharing at Blue Cricket Design.

Pumpkin Patch

Last night for Family Home Evening we headed to Linvilla Orchards to buy some pumpkins.

Both kids had a great time. Well, Katrina definitely did. Daniel is kind of a somber baby.

I promise he smiles, really. See?

Okay, maybe not.

But really, he was smiling in between each of those pictures.

We went late in the evening and didn't stay long, but it wasn't crowded at all and we picked out some great pumpkins. Then we headed over to Denny's. Can you believe this was only our second time going to a restaurant as a family since Daniel was born? Our first ended quickly and we had to take everything out in a bag and eat it all at home. Last night was great. Katrina was so happy to have her own meal, and Daniel just had fun hitting the table and squawking whenever we didn't get food into his mouth quickly enough.

Today has felt busy because I had a Relief Society meeting at the church and then we went to Joanns (where I spent $10 and picked up fabric for three dresses for Katrina, fabric for a baby shower gift, and some elastic!). It was a rainy night last night and I've already had to change Katrina's pants twice from her puddle-splashing. In a few minutes I need to go pick up Adam and then it's back to the doctor because Daniel popped up in a rash all over his torso today. It looks like the roseola but that was last week. Ugh. I'm betting it's heat rash or something but I called them to talk about it and they wanted to see him. I'm always happier being safe than sorry.

Update: The doctor said his ears look great and that's nice to know, but is not sure about the rash, which is all over his body. She thinks it's an allergic reaction. We're not sure the cause, unless it was the bite he had of chocolate chip pancakes at Denny's. We'll keep an eye on it.