Here's Miss A. with teacher #1, "The Crazy Cat Lady" and--
with teacher #2, the world's most fabulous octopus. (Those tentacles are sewn partly from bubble wrap--Annabelle's idea!)
And this guy? Head of School.
Oh, my dears--I am so grateful for all the lovely and incredibly helpful comments you left on the last post. We generally want to uplift one another, and that's a beautiful aim, but I think it's also crucial to have folks who will offer constructive criticism--finding kind ways to point out problems or suggest improvements is an awesome skill, and I'm thrilled that so many of you have been able to do this for me with regard to my "reproductive" endeavors. Let me be clear--I think it's best to offer feedback mainly when it's been solicited. It can be kind of crumpling to share a tah-dah moment, a finished piece you're really proud of, let's say, and have already sent to Aunt Fanny, and to have a stranger in Hoboken say, "You should really have..."
And I'm all for a healthy dose of cheerleading. (Please do not stop the cheerleading.) But you--my peeps--really gave me food for thought when I asked for it. In particular, Sweet Limes suggested that I strive for less wasted space by photographing more images at a slant (which I love to do and am glad to hear somebody agrees with me!); clever Elissa chimed in to say I could also achieve this via close ups that don't show the hoop at all. (I thought maybe a combination of hoop shots and detail shots--but should I avoid showing the hoops entirely? I'd love to hear from more of you on this.) I'd say you're split on the flats vs. bifold issue, and I am, too. I think I might try offering some of each in the future, especially for Christmas cards, which I understand some people like to appear more formal/traditional than the postcard style pulls off. Finally, tiff blew me away with her brilliant suggestion to offer buyers of portraits a set of note cards featuring their custom images! I love it and am going to work on that immediately! For reals, you monkeys are smooth.
At the suggestion of my wise artist friend, Jen, I gave note cards a whirl. (They're available in my shop now.) They're nice, sturdy flats with rounded edges, and they come with white envelopes, two each of the four images above, which makes, you know, eight cards, math-wise.
What do you think of this endeavor? And would you be interested in holiday cards of this type? Would you ever send flats as Christmas cards, for example, or do you gotta have the bi-fold? 
I finished Manu's portrait, which I had to photograph in my sister's sky-lit apartment (upstairs from me--handy, right?) because I was losing the light by the time I finished--
--and then, and only then, did I eat potato chips. No greasy finger prints on the felty beach.
In other news, HOLD THE PHONE. My unwillingness to list this turquoise bag in the Hopscotch shop may end in blows. Come on, Jen--it's like it was made for me!
I'm hoping to finish this today--there's sunlight, and Mark will be at work, and Annabelle has a play date, so I'm thinking the universe is on the side of Melissa-type productivity. On the other hand, there's a chance I may be seized by the urge to eat potato chips and watch this again. It's watchable via Netflix streaming, which means I could easily play it while I sew, but those darned subtitles keep my eyes off my stitches, which leads to more finger stabbing and generally poorer comprehension of the film. Potato chips, though, require very little concentration. I'll let you know how it works out.
Well, there was a bit of a delay there, my dears! But here she is--my finished dolly, sewn from Mimi Kirchner's pattern on the Purl Bee.
I think she looks a bit cross--the face is definitely the hardest part, and I skipped the stencil step and just free-handed the features. And now that I'm looking at this picture, I'm realizing how urgently I need to get a shade for that grubby sconce. Sheesh. Anywho--I like my dolly, and I encourage all of you to give this project a whirl. These lovely girls would make great Christmas presents, no?
Annabelle's class went salt-water kayaking, and we decided to keep her home--I'll spare you the details of this decision and just say the girl was none too pleased. In fact, she was pretty mad, but we eventually had a great discussion with her--I shed a few tears, she shed a few tears--and she ended up convinced that though she might not like our decisions, we are trying our very best to do what's right for her. Whew. Do you all struggle with this feeling of wanting your child to be happy in the short term but knowing that, instead, you have to ensure that she's happy in the long term? Why don't they tell you about this in the baby books?
Finally finished this little garden, on 11X14" linen canvas, all its bits and pieces cut by hand from 100% wool felt and hand appliqued.
I feel like it's a joyful image, and that makes me happy because it's for the bedroom wall of a beautiful little Australian girl named Jani.
See that little bird? That's a variegated fairy wren. If I thought it was hard to make a felt tricycle... But boy, I'm proud of him.
No crafting getting done with Annabelle's grandmother visiting, but we did do a little halloweening of the mantle last night. We have bats and eyeballs. Can't have too many. We have a black skeleton.
And we have this little ghostie, which I won in a recent giveaway from Skunkboy Creatures.
Man, that girl can make anything scream cute. (Get it? Scream? Ahem.)
My mother in law is visiting from Texas, which means lots and lots of good restaurant meals--including one that ended in this trio at The Green Elephant last night. Oh, Green Elephant, how I love you. (Jen--they have a new dessert! Fried bananas with coconut ice cream! Veganlicious!)
Mark has a rare day off (until job #2 at 5:30) and has walked with Miss A. to our neighborhood branch of the P-town public library to get the next Harry Potter book. I think they're on 5--here's where I confess they lost me sometime during the second book. Am I the only human being on earth immune to this phenomenon? Anyhow, I thought I'd take a minute to share my secret-garden progress with you.
I'll be adding Jani shortly--the little girl who loves this garden--and bunches and bunches of camellias in shades of pink. Wait for it!
Imagine my glee upon discovering she'd offered a free pattern at The Purl Bee! While I can justify (kind of) shutting myself up in my studio, away from my family, to make stuff to sell, generally when I sew "for fun" (I put that in quotes because it's all fun--just don't tell my husband and daughter!), I do it whilst watching a movie with Mark or listening to an audiobook with Annabelle. That's why my little red haired dolly and all her bits and pieces are spread out next to the purple chair today.
Folks, you should try this pattern--it's so much fun and requires only hand sewing. The instructions and photos are clear as a bell, and you only need the backstitch, the running stitch, and the whipstitch. (You will notice my whipstitch needs serious work. It's definitely my weak link.)
Here's a short list of what else this photo is saying:
--pouring rain for ten minutes and then glaringly bright, then sudden rain again. I went to pick up Annabelle at school, and we were so hot on the blacktop that we started shedding jackets and sweaters and rain boots, stuffing them in her back pack.
We started off, and about ten minutes down the road, this little hurricane-hailstorm deal kicked up, causing me to--get this--lose my grip on my umbrella so that it blew into the road, directly into the path of an oncoming ambulance.
The thing, in all its polka-dot glory, stopped traffic (not the ambulance, thank goodness) for a minute and then blew back to us (by this time soaked to our underpants). We made it to the Cumberland Farms, where we took shelter (and some salt and vinegar chips) until the weather turned a little less wrathful, and then we took off again. By the time we hit our block, yup--sunshine.
I am dying to take pictures of my just-finished custom portrait, in which a cute little girl in pink boots takes a moonlit stroll through the forest with her pal the polar bear, but it's dark and pouring here today, so we'll have to settle for this sunshiny-orange Samsonite overnight bag, which I love but which my Hopscotch better half says I can't keep. Drats.
Here's a little rotten-tooth wallet I whipped up for a rollertastic birthday party Annabelle attended on Sunday. We are fairly fond of the birthday girl (one of the heirs to the Swallowfield empire)--she's got an eye for quirky design and a great sense of humor, so I knew this fabric was just right for her. To be safe, though, I sweetened the deal with a fiver.
The white teeth are smiling, but the photos don't show them. Only the brownies and greenies are sad about their state of decay, see.
(I made this after reading like half a dozen wallet patterns, so it's sort of original, but I borrow heavily from the construction of the bunny wallet from Zakka Sewing. Clearly, mine's bunny-less, but the book pattern helped me figure out how to get card pockets and a bill pocket, which has somehow always sort of baffled me.)
My best friend, Jennifer, and I have recently discovered that we have hobbies in common. We've always enjoyed each other's company--she's the smartest, funniest girl I know, and I can sit on the back porch with her for hours, reading tabloids and eating potato chips, never wishing to be any other place on earth.
But all of the sudden, after 21 years of friendship, we do new stuff together, namely sewing and thrifting. We've had so much fun over the last few months making sofa pillows and zipper pouches, but our best hours have been spent buying lovely tchochkes from secondhand stores, yard sales, estate sales, and flea markets from the Canadian border clear to P-town itself.
We quickly came to the conclusion (given our shared clutter phobia) that we'd have to stop thrifting or open a vintage shop. Checkout the results of the straw vote, my dears, and let me know what you think!
I'm serving up the hacking coughs--along with poor Miss A. who was forced to stay home for a second day this week and, as a result, made a mean-pout face and clenched her fists at the breakfast table. I think we picked the right school.
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