I’ve been in the baking mood. It started with the vanilla sugar cookies which I made three times. Then some mochaccino bread pudding twice. And then on Mother’s Day mocha chocolate chip cookies. Alan says I am in the mood to bake at the weirdest times, which is true. I think I made these around 2 A.M. in the morning. These cookies were a little crunchier than I like but that didn’t stop me from eating them!

And sorry Olinda. I was totally about to mail you some. I was like this close. THIS CLOSE. I pulled out a bag and was about to write your address and everything. But then Alan woke up and said shouldn’t you put that in a box instead. And yeah…so I put some in the freezer for you!

And on Mother’s Day I was also in the mood to sew. I wanted to use this light blue fabric and make one of the cute skirts from Favorite Things. I bought this pattern quite a while ago, probably last August. When I first got it I took out the directions and read them and just never sewed one up. Well so on Sunday I was so excited to get sewing. I washed the fabric, ironed it, and when I went to the directions…what directions?!? I don’t know what I did with them. I searched high and low and cleaned up my craft area a bit (much to Alan’s delight) but could not find it. So change of gears. Instead of using this fabric for a skirt for me I’ve been working on a dress for Isabelle. But damn I really wanted to make myself a skirt. What to do? What to do? How to make it without directions?

Oh and almost forgot. Wanted to share this picture.

And lately Isabelle has been in the mood to sit in Waldo’s crate, yes the smaller crate. You can see the bigger one next to it. She crawls in and tries to close the door behind herself. And where’s Waldo? Poor guy is stuck in there with her.

Isabelle turned twenty months old on the weekend. I don’t have much to say this month but I’ll share some pictures.

So cute in sunglasses.

Trying to carry some park home with her.

Love that belly.

With her cousin Ebow.

Family picture.

Last night she was sitting in my lap. I was tickling her and we were laughing and giggling and having so much fun. When she gets older is that a memory she will have, happy in her mama’s lap? I hope so.

Go read month nineteen.

Lately Isabelle has been a little acrobat. If we are in a position where she can climb us, she will. She gets up there and stands on us. I have bruises on the side of my knees to prove it (from her standing on me while I’m sitting cross-legged). And even scarier is when she stands on our backs. OUR BACKS! She tries this on the dogs too, poor dogs.

And I swear she is trying to do somersaults. She will stick her little butt in the air and balance on her head and feet with no hands. She’ll just stand there like that smiling at us between her legs. One time in bed she actually flipped over! She’s my little circus baby.

Oh and notice my drawing is back to the old way. I think my last drawing was too scary, it scared even me! I think I may save my experimenting for Illustration Friday.

Go read cute baby #9, talking on the “phone”.

The sewing mood the other day has led to this: a finished dress for Isabelle! It’s dress K from this book, isbn 4277722407. Ahead is a whole bunch of sewing talk. So if that doesn’t interest you (Olinda) you can skip ahead to the pictures of Isabelle below.

So the sewing talk. I can’t believe it, I made this, FIRE! (ok just had to throw that in) It even has facings! None of the stuff I made before had facings, just bias binding.

Sorry but I find that so exciting! Weird to be so happy over sewing. Well anyhoo back to the sewing talk which I’m sure you find oh so fascinating. I was a little bit confused with the directions. Or I should say the pictures since I cannot read Japanese. The pictures look like I’m supposed to sew the edge of the box pleat. But I don’t know how I’m supposed to do that at the top of the pleat.

Because I can’t just sew it right on top through all the fabric, like top stitching, because that closes it up and no more pleat. And if I finagle it, sewing just the folded bits, how do I manage it at the top where the pleats meet without sewing the fabric under it? Am I making any sense at all?

I think I need to show a sewer seamstress (thanks Sarabeth!) in person. Sewer?? There must be another word for one who sews instead of sewer! Sorry just went off on that tangent. I ended up just leaving the pleat alone, no sewing.

And ooh another thing I found so exciting, a zipper! My first zipper on clothes!!!! I have uglified several unimportant sewing items by trying to add a zipper. But this was the first item where I actually wanted the zipper to look nice.

So I just sat there without a clue as to how to put it in. It was pretty much the last thing I needed to add to finish the dress. So first things first. Go get a zipper (yeah I didn’t already have one) So off to the store me and Isabelle went. And oh my gawd there are so many zippers at the fabric store! Metal, plastic, aluminum, separating, invisible, all purpose…so overwhelming I could have curled up into a little ball right then and there. But instead I chose one that didn’t look too big, got home, winged it and ta da! Finished dress. But I’m thinking the zipper isn’t high enough. Shouldn’t it go more to the top? That’s as far as it’ll go up.

Ok. Done with the sewing talk. And no pictures of Isabelle wearing it. I’ll get some on Sunday at the party we’re going to. And now here are the Isabelle pictures!

I think Waldo was trying to take a nap when she crawled into the crate. His little head was just a teensy bit sticking out. And she was sitting there pulling it closed on his face. And then at one point she sits on him and pats him right on the face. And then you can see him trying to escape only to have her close the door on his face again. No nap for Waldo!

We had a lovely weekend. On Saturday we went to Maker Faire. I enjoyed it very much, just like last year, unlike poor Alan. There was so much to look at I didn’t even get to see it all. Last year I went for the knitting but this year I was more interested in the sewing. I wanted to arrive by noon for the Bias Tape Tote demo by Belle Epoque but of course we didn’t arrive until after 12:30 P.M. Bummer.

But that was right in time for the Coke and Mentos demo by Eepybird. I didn’t bring my camera but this photo was found on Flickr taken by kwc. And if you look you can actually see Alan and Isabelle in it! We sat right up front and they warned us that we might get hit by Diet Coke. But we didn’t care. It was great!

Another thing I really enjoyed, Lotta Jansdotter’s talk.

Another picture found on Flickr taken by Ape Do Good Printing. Even though there wasn’t a demo I really enjoyed her talk. She was charming and funny. I especially liked her answers in regards to if she found sewing meditative like how some people find knitting. She very honestly replied no because she’s just trying to get it done. Ha ha ha! And then to the answer of how she balances being a new mother with work her answer was she doesn’t. That’s why she hired a nanny. So funny!

And the coolest thing! While I was sitting there a family came up and I saw the little boy first and thought hmmm…he looks familiar. And then the little boy’s mom turned to me and asked if I was Kuky. Imagine my confusion, someone who I did not recognize at all knew me. It turns out it was Joyce from Slate Blu! I’ve never seen a picture of her only her children Jason and Ava. No wonder the little boy looked familiar, I read Joyce’s blog regularly. Hee hee hee! How very cool that they jut happened to sit down right next to me.

And this is what I bought:

Clips from NifNaks. Actually the purple octopus was a desk companion. I asked if they had one as a clip but they didn’t so they kindly offered to sew it on for me!!

I just had to have them. I knew it was something I wouldn’t make and they make me sooooo happy. Just the thought of these big things in Isabelle’s hair….bwa ha ha ha!!

The clips are sitting on top of a shelf right now and I smile every time I see them.

Then on Sunday we went to a family party. Here is Isabelle playing with her uncle.

I really enjoy going to family parties because of Isabelle, all those kids around. And no new dress for Isabelle to wear. We put it on and it’s too big. So I’m working on a new one with the gocco fabric I made.