baby needs a ball

I decided to 'wing it'.  I knew that to make a ball I would need some tapered rectangles. 

Six panels seemed like a good number, so I cut them out.  

I then basted them together to see what happened.  Not so round!  It looked like if I added a couple more wedges that it would work, so I cut two more and basted them on.  Now it looked reasonably round.   I raided my trimmings box for bits to make tabs and handles and bumpy edges for baby to grab.  Then I set about sewing pairs together with tabs and handles in the seams.  Once I had the four pairs together, I sewed them to each other with piping and rick-rack in between.  The resulting hole at the top and bottom was big enough for me to turn it right side out.  

 I packed it full of fiberfill and threw some bells in for good measure.  (all things I had lying around, you know)  Using some blue jersey circles for end-caps, I hand-sewed them over the holes on each end.

 All done!

new painting

I was patrolling our unruly yard for weeds, when I spied these little guys...

I'd finally found something that made me feel like painting. This big white prepped board had been sitting on my mantel for weeks, waiting for the 'perfect' thing to tie together the living room color scheme. And so I began....
We'll have to see where it goes...

peas at last

Hahaha- I couldn't resist! oh well-
   I have been obsessing over road-side produce stand signs for some time now.  Every strawberry season brings on fresh produce lust.  Big white signs with one simple berry- I thought about just stealing one, but someone made those signs and I would feel bad.  Naturally you would think I could just make my own, but there is something about the earnest naivete of those signs that I, being overly analytical, didn't think I could replicate.  So the project ended up in the 'one-day' pile.
   Yesterday as I passed replica produce signs in hobby lobby, the 'I can make that bug' bit again, and I began to analyze the project.
   Today I felt victorious after putting up some chalkboard contact paper on my fridge,

and decided to try to make a sign before the baby woke up.  I quickly found the most suitable surface I had and picked a vegetable that fit.  As I was hurriedly painting 'peas' on a strip of masonite that I had lying around, it occurred to me that perhaps I was, after all, painting in the spirit of those roadside stand owners, just making a quick sign not thinking too much about what i was doing.
     Well I managed to make about 4 signs before she woke up.  My thought was to plaster the wall full of different signs, but upon testing it out I realized that this made for quite a busy room.  Originally I had only wanted one sign, no words. AAAAAAAHHHHHH how did I get here again!!!   Struggling between making something simple and profound or crazy and vibrating with color. *sigh*   In search of some middle ground, I decided to put up two signs and live with that for a while.
  

 We will see if it stays this way.

I still want my big strawberry sign.  This was a success in that I actually took action instead of just dreaming about it and a failure in that I still want my damn strawberry sign!


to be continued...

bonnets!

Her Grannie brought her back a bonnet from Niagra Falls; it was comically small!Still cute, of course. I set out to make her one that actually fits:
my busy little model
I almost have the pattern perfect, these will be great for the beach this summer!

P.S. you will also notice my little girl is sitting up BY HERSELF. AAhh! Where did my baby go?