Airplanes and a Bit O' Rambling

I broke down and rearranged my mom's sewing room about a week ago. There was no room to walk in there, let alone work. Since we are going to be hanging around here for a while, I thought it would be good to have a workable space to set up shop. Oh, how I have missed my sewing machine! And OH! how I have LOVED having it out this week! I found a pattern for airplanes HERE and thought that they would be a cute gift for the little baby boy that is coming next month.

I have been feeling a bit of the mama guilt that seems to be going around-- I seem to never make anything for Zack. He was excited when he saw the picture, so I let him choose his fabric and made the first airplane for him. He was adamant that he have polka dots and I was relieved that he found a piece that wasn't my pink with black polka dots, even though I thought he could have chosen something a bit more boyish. Oh well.

He sat by my side through most of the process, periodically leaving to make lego creations, returning with an excited "Are you finished?!" I wanted to applique his name across the wings, but he was so excited that I decided to skip it and just finish the basic design so he could play. The darn little artist in him came out and wasn't happy with the finished product because I put the wheels in the "wrong" place. I don't know where he thought they should be, but he was not happy with my placement. This artistic eye is starting to drive me crazy because he has it, I don't, and he can't do it by himself and I can't see his vision to make him happy. I am glad he has it-- or at least I will be once he can do his art for himself (the one Valentine card we managed to make involved me being so frustrated and I tried to turn it over to Rich to figure out what was wrong with my rocket-- it ended up being an outer space card-- and have him finish up the card with Zack. Fair is fair, right? After all, Zack gets this artistic eye from Rich. . . Rich tried to just convince Zack it was fine, and I stepped back in, finally figuring out what Zack didn't like about my rocket).After finishing Zack's, I gave it a break for a day (or two?) and then decided I would make some girly planes for Lena and Phoebe for Valentine's Day. Zack wasn't interested in making cards and I thought it would be nice to make something that Phoebe could actually play with. I appliqued hearts on the ends of the wings (thought about appliqueing hearts all across the wings, but time prevented me from doing it). Here they are (please, ignore the crummy picture place & pics-- I was in a hurry to get Zack over to their house so that Rich and I could have our stay-in movie date. I was 40 minutes late!)

Zack LOVED being sneaky and leaving the valentines on the porch, ringing the doorbell, and running away to hide. I'm pretty sure you could hear his giggles a few houses down while he waited for them to answer the door. And, now that I'm looking at this picture, I'm having visions of painting this chest to make it look a bit more respectable. . . I wonder if Rich will allow it? It's his "weapons" chest. Any guesses what's inside? Actually, weapons. Of the martial arts variety. Along with a few Halloween costumes that he thinks are too good to be thrown in with the rest of our costume box.

And, the airplane for the baby to come that started this all? Still sitting in its pattern pieces, waiting to be put together. I started a new project today, but we have a sisters' craft day planned for Monday, so I should be able to get the new project and the airplane finished before the shower next Saturday.

Finished

I feel like I've been working on this sweater/hat combo forever. I haven't. In all reality, it's only been a few months. Do you ever reach that point in a project where you are just so tired of it you want to push through and finish? That's where I was with this yesterday. I finished up all of the knitting and then I hit my least favorite part: tucking in all those yarn tails. I finished up today and the sweater and hat are in the package, ready to go to mommy-to-be this weekend. I still have a long way to go with my knitting and I hope that my mistakes aren't as obvious to her as they are to me. But, let's face it: it doesn't really matter what a baby wears, people are paying more attention to the cute baby than the clothes. Right??

Now that I've finished, I was at a loss for what to do with my snippets of time today. I think I've come to a conclusion about my Pottery Barn mirror paint/stain problem. More to come on that as I have time to finish it up. I am also going to make a block of the month quilt, which the ladies over at Among the Gum Trees are kindly offering up for free this year. I tend to not do much embroidery, so I bail part way through the project. For now, I figured it would be something to keep my hands busy and a good way to use up some stash fabric.

Look Familiar?

I followed through and made Zack his very own pair of knit slippers. My sister saw mine and started laughing. "I haven't seen slippers like that since we were little kids!" She may just find herself with a pair of "kid" slippers for Christmas.

Crocheted Spider Pattern

As I was browsing online yesterday, I found a pattern for this hat by Girl In Air. It was too cute not to make. Instead of putting a flower, I designed a spider to put on mine. My husband was surprised and a bit impressed (which is a good thing if he doesn't know everything about me after 7 years, right?). I also learned the magic circle technique, which I LOVE! How did I not know this before? I have linked it in to the spider pattern and it can also be found as a link from the hat pattern. I thought about putting googly eyes on my spider, but decided against it for this particular project. Here is my finished hat, followed by directions to make your own spider.

Crocheted Spider

Using size F hook, create a magic circle using 6 sc, or ch 4, join to form ring, ch 1 and sc 6 in ring. Join with slip stitch to first ch. ch 1. sc in each back loop around. Join to first ch with slip stitch. ch 1. 2 sc in each sc around. Join to first ch with slip stitch. Finish off.

Legs: (Make 8) Ch 6. On what would be the 7th ch, fasten off.

Attach legs to body. Stitch down to hat, or whatever you would like.

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Mummy Dearest

Here is my latest project. Or, rather, this is the 3rd version of this project. These mummies are so simple and quick to make. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with
this one. Some lucky person will get it. I have a few people in mind but haven't decided on anyone yet.