In my mind’s eye I see myself, before Nathan, posting regularly in an ordered pattern sort of this way: family posts, drawings, crafty posts. It was never the same category one after the other. I don’t know if that was actually reality. That’s just how I wanted to post. I think I managed it after Isabelle turned one. And now that Nathan’s a year and a half old and not needing me so very much, I think I’ve found that groove back.

My most recent posts have followed a similar pattern. Family, craftiness, drawings. And eeeep, that makes me so happy! I don’t know if I can keep it up but I can hope.

Here’s one of the recent things I finished, another umbilical cord hat (from Stitch N’ Bitch). I seriously love these things for new babies.

Though I love this pattern, I may have found a replacement hat. I say may because the new hat fits Nathan now, so it’s not for tiny babies. And though I like it, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I’ll share in a few days when the next cycle of my “pattern” of posting comes along.

I was looking through some old pictures this weekend and came upon this.

I realized I never shared it. It was taken back in August last year, right after we went to the Renegade Craft Faire. Isabelle saw a cute little robot there but we didn’t buy it for her. So, I tried to recreate one like it when we got home.

I let her choose the fabric and the buttons. It’s not as cute but it’s made with love.

And he’s special because I made a little heart to stick inside him.

I miss crafting. I cannot seem to find the time lately. I didn’t even finish the umbilical hat I started on Friday. It should have only taken me a day. Sigh.

It’s a shirred dress with some modifications.

You probably can’t tell from this picture though.

I made it so the back can open so it’s easier to pull on and off.

I used buttons as closures.

Isabelle chose the buttons.

It has three buttons.

One red.

One yellow.

And one green.

But not orange.

Because?

Because Isabelle did not choose orange.

I made matching button loops for each button.

I’ve never made button loops before.

It was easy.

I googled and found this great embroidery floss button loop tutorial by Ysolda.

So, that’s one red button loop.

It was a little wonky being my first.

One yellow button loop.

It was improved being my second.

And one green button loop.

The best since it was my third.

But no orange button loop.

Why?

Because Isabelle didn’t choose an orange button.

And I’m totally stalling.

Can you tell?

And why am I stalling?

Because if I show this next picture you’ll see right away the dress was not for me.

It was for Isabelle.

Isabelle’s Isabelle doll that is.

And of course we had to make dolly Isabelle a necklace to go with her new dress.

A jingle bell necklace.

Yay! No more naked Isabelle doll. So, that totally took me over two years to make her a dress.

And Isabelle wanted to cut her doll’s hair since Isabelle’s hair is no longer long. But it doesn’t grow back, I told her. Should I?

We were super busy today and I do not feel like editing any photos. So, instead I’m sharing some older photos that I never got around to.

Baby hats!!

For baby heads! Well, actually for one cute little baby head in particular, little Elliora.

The top one is a Stella pixie hat. You can find the pattern on Ravelry. The bottom one is an umbilical cord hat, my favorite baby hat pattern, from Stitch ‘N Bitch. In fact, I think I’m going to make another umbilical cord hat this weekend for Alan’s cousin’s new baby.

The focus on the bottom photo is off. Boo. That’s what happens when I rush to take pictures before sending them out. That is also the reason I only have these two photos of these two hats. I would have liked to take a photo of Nathan wearing the little pink hat. But rushing. I also forgot to write Bethany a note along with the package saying that both of the hats are machine washable. Did I ever email that to her?

Life of a distracted mom.

Update: Bethany said I could use her picture. Thank you!

I should have been posting last week instead of hiding from my computer. Because, now, I have loads of photos that I’m jamming into one big post. Well, actually I’m not going to jam them all in because there are too many. But I am stuffing a whole bunch in here.

This year, with the homeschool group, we went to a new pumpkin patch. At a farm! Smith family farm. There was a corn maze,

big pumpkins as big as Nathan,

old farm equipment, animals, a Miwok Indian village, a show the kids participated in, and a hay ride.



I thought it was pretty awesome. And everyone who paid entrance got to take a pumpkin home!

In that same week, we went to my friend Veronica’s pumpkin carving party. We’ve gone for three years now. It’s becoming a tradition. I didn’t want to go empty handed so I attempted to decorate cupcakes with a Halloween theme: skulls.

Sort of looks like a blob. With three holes.

Isabelle was running around playing. Like last year, she had no interest it pumpkin carving.

She did draw a face onto a pumpkin which I then gutted and carved.

Hers is the one next to my bat pumpkin.

Then on Halloween, we started our morning by lighting up our pumpkins during breakfast. I made Halloween themed pancakes like this bat.

And after breakfast, I finished sewing up Isabelle’s costume, McCall’s 6141. Originally she wanted to be a robot. That’s why my banner looks like that. She wanted me as a dinosaur and Nathan as a red ball. I arbitrarily chose Alan’s costume, Kick Ass. But then Isabelle changed her mind and wanted to be a princess. She chose the pattern and the pretty gold fabric. And I’ve rambled a bit. Back to what I was saying. Yes, you read that right. I finished sewing it up ON Halloween.

The night before, I thought I wasn’t going to finish it. The back ties call for eyelets.

When I tried putting the eyelets on, I screwed up about 80% of them. I don’t know what I was doing wrong but they were all bent out of shape and not staying. And, stupidly, I had only bought one pack so I couldn’t try again. I didn’t have a zipper so couldn’t go that route. None of my buttons would have looked right so that was a no.

I was stumped. I dreaded the thought of having to go back to the store to buy more eyelets. Doing that just to have a strong possibility of screwing the eyelets up again and again and needing to cut out more and more pieces of fabric.

I lay down for bed and then it dawned on me. Buttonholes! I got right up out of bed, though I was tired, and made 14 buttonholes. FOURTEEN! And that did the trick. Don’t need no stinkin’ eyelets. So, the next day all I needed to finish was the hem.

After I was done with Isabelle’s dress, I was feeling ambitious. I decided to make her a treat bag too, a little frog prince treat bag.

I went with a frog prince bag because I really wanted to sew Nathan a costume to match Isabelle. But since it took me freaking all week to make Isabelle’s costume, I did not have the time to make one for Nathan. We ended up using a frog prince towel for this picture.

He didn’t care for it.

That night he wore Isabelle’s old bee costume.

So the frog bag was a good route to go. Nathan didn’t go up to any doors so it was silly to even think of making him a matching prince costume.

And that was our Halloween festivities. How was your Halloween?