End of the Season

And almost before it began, it seems, the entire season of craft fairs at the farmer's market is over:

Until next year...

Halloween Tree

We haven't, traditionally, been a very festive family--when you're talking about a family who has spent the past two Thanksgiving weekends at a sci-fi convention, of all places, "festive" hardly seems to apply, especially in the face of other, so much more descriptive adjectives, like "geeky" (but hey--Tasha Yarr told Willow she was cute, and Matt and I each found ourselves working out in the same tiny hotel gym all alone with Darth Maul. Is that geeky? Don't answer).

But we can change, I swear it. And in the spirit of such change, I'd like to introduce you to...
...the Halloween tree.

Yes, of course it's dead--it's Halloween! Halloween is a little more of an autumnal celebration in our family, however, with less of the witchy-ghosty-skeletony business and more of the browns and reds and leaves and pumpkins stuff. So yeah, we stuck a big dead branch from our silver maple in a pot, filled the pot with gravel from the driveway, put it on the table, and started decorating.

See? Festive!

I made these ornaments from vintage linen pillowcase fabric that I soaked in Bubble Jet Set, then ironed to freezer paper, then ran through my printer, then stitched and stuffed. They're from autumns past but still remembered:
These are some spiderwebby thingies I made one afternoon in the summer while the girls were stringing beads. They're made from bent wire and beads from the girls' ridiculous bead stash: And here's what we did today, when I wasn't screaming at the girls (combination of my bad reaction to an extra-feisty visit from Aunt Flo along with the girls' completely expected reaction to a candy corn art project gone terribly, terribly awry):
#6 plastic + a full set of Sharpies = Of course, decorating may well be the best part:
Here's to a month full of making fun stuff to hang from the Halloween tree!

Cuter Than Me

I'm ashamed of myself.

Many, many months ago, I bought three yards of brand-new shaggy red-and-white hearted faux fur fabric. I could not resist it, it was so delicious, and on huge sale, and I did have a plan for it, I swear. I'm supposed to be turning it into some nice big fluffy happy comfy pillows for the master bedroom. And so I measured out the amount of fabric I needed for two nice big fluffy happy comfy pillows, and made a little extra into a little dino for my etsy shop--

--and then put the last yard up for sale in the shop just to destash it (I'm not great at figuring out the etsy/Paypal fees, although they are minimal, so I made maybe a buck in profit--nice business practice, right?).

But look what this fabric magically turned into, less than a month after it was purchased--the cutest little teddy bear in the world! So cute, and so quick--I feel guilty that such adorable fabric is just sitting in my study when it has all that potential to be turned into awesome stuff. I have to get off my butt and make those pillows now!

I just wriggle to think of the cuteness that will result after my Strawberry Shortcake crochet patterns book wends its way to its happy new home this week.

TO DO:

23. Shaggy Red and White Hearted Faux Fur Pillows for the Master Bedroom

The Red Cross Gives Me Stuff

Yes, it is my office hours, and so yes, I should be grading stuff, but I just had a ten-minute consultation with a student about her Project #2, and that calls for a half-hour blogging break, right?

In half an hour, I can tell you that today, I baked Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Brownies with my squabbling girlies. I hosted a playdate for one of Will's little girlfriends, during which they dragged out every toy owned by either of my children, all of which had been put back in their appropriate spots by me the night before in preparation for said playdate. I sewed ornaments for our Halloween tree while watching season 4 of Numb3rs. At 4:30 pm, I took a shower. I spent half an hour looking for two tutus and one pair of ballet flats. I read some of , which is so far even better than the Twilight series (we're politely pretending that the final book of that series didn't happen, aren't we? Good). But before all that, way at the crack of 9:00 am, the girls and I took their child-sized real metal shopping cart and a big cardboard box over to FREE DAY AT THE RED CROSS BOOK SALE!!!!!
I wrote in a previous comment that I was torn between taking my girls to the children's section or the crafts book table first, knowing that while visiting one, the other would be thoroughly picked over. You know the solution to this problem? Nice old lady volunteer. She took the girls to the children's section and helped them choose books while I gave the crafts table a quick once-over, then ravaged the nature tables for plant and animal books with good illustrations for collaging. The nice old lady system wasn't perfect, as she limited them to picturebooks and her selection was a little religion-heavy (eek!), but I snuck back later and got all the cool stuff, too.

Look at the awesome morbid Santa illustration--he's all grey and dead-looking, and are those badminton birdies falling all around him? I found some other books with Christmas-y scenes, as well--we have about five ornaments in our house, and I'd like to make a ton for our tree and as gifts, maybe with an image decoupaged to each side of a die-cut or cardboard cut-out and then mod podged.

I also found a ton more records for future record bowls--ten or so old-school Disney movie soundtracks and a dozen or so Christmas albums, some old atlases for the girls to cut up when they're decorating the big maps they like me to print out for them, a couple of cheezy craft books that might have some cool projects in them and also might not, lots of vintage children's books, LOTS of books for the cutting and coloring bin (If you and your kiddos don't have a bin of outdated old books to use in art projects, you are totally missing out on some serious awesomeness), and some random kid's book with this most fabulous illustration:

I don't really knit myself, and so I don't know what to do with this fabulous illustration, but it is totally fabulous, right? I'll think of something.

Back in the Etsy Saddle Again

I had fully intended, along with my vow to make nothing for commercial purposes until I'd hooked my own family and home up with some much-needed handmades, to not update my etsy shop, either, until life was feeling more in order.

Nice for those who can afford it, I suppose, but if I really do want to pull through with my dream of being an at-home, self-employed, unschooling mama with a thriving etsy shop and a book deal for one of those crafting/lifestyle/parenting books that are so popular these days (I've got at least two buyers out there, right?), then I probably should at least keep my etsy shop stocked with the stuff that I've already made.

And so, a small supply update for an awesome, awesome book that I found at the Red Cross book sale on Saturday. A how-to manual for crocheting 14" Strawberry Shortcake dolls? Are you kidding me? I haven't yet really found my way with the knitting arts, yet, but man, do I totally need some little Strawberry Shortcake buddies: I also found Walt Disney characters needlepoint book: Embroideries and needlework instruction, good for begging my mother to cross-stitch me, I mean the girls, that scene of Bambi with his mother. Has anybody ever read the real Bambi: A Life in the Woods? It kills me. And the other day at the public library the girls picked out , basically an illustrated reprint of Bambi's birth scene from the novel. I swear, I get a little teary every time I read it out loud.

In other news, my big Syd is queen of the monkey bars:

She also uses the toilet when at home, the little rock star.

Headbands are a Check!

So the house is still pig-filthy, the girls are watching a movie (a Nova documentary on ants, on account of we're weird), I have not graded my two late Project #1 papers nor found a movie clip to show my students tomorrow NOR scheduled their upcoming(!) library day, and Matt and I have no idea what we're going to have for dinner after the kids are asleep, but never fear, my babies have headbands!I meant to just make Will some, since, you know, she's the only one who needs them, but obviously I ended up making matching everything for Sydney, and even a couple of matching ones for one of Will's best little girlfriends. I sewed a denim one for each girl out of old blue jeans and embroidered it, an alphabet-print one out of the fabric I scored at Strange Folk, and a red wool felt one out of what was formerly a dumpster-dived trenchcoat, but the most awesomest of all?

Kerchiefs!These have 3/4" elastic instead of ties, and if I'd known how well they hold my daughter's floppy hair out of her snotty face so that she doesn't constantly have to run her filthy hands through it, I'd have made the girls five of these and no headbands, because they are brilliant.

All that sewing, and we still had time for Matt's softball game (this is the tail end--the girls and I generally go fabric shopping at the westside Joann's after dropping Matt off at the field. Today's score? Shiny tulle at 40% off)----and a visit to both Menard's and Lowe's so that we could set just a couple of our lasagna beds: Yeah, if it looks like the girls helped, they totally didn't.

Of Hand-me-downs, Carrots, and Experimental Ukulele

It's funny how a day can get away from you, full of stuff, nothing planned.

The last wee carrot harvest, all of which were later consumed by Sydney, dirt and all:A big bag of hand-me-downs from Will's best girlfriend, all requiring extensive patching and repair in the little model's fabric of choice, pink satin stars:
One of the beautiful things about little kiddos, by the way, is the way they look at things. You'd think that Willow wouldn't want to wear her best friend's cast-off clothing--that she'd be ashamed of wearing hand-me-downs, or be afraid she'd be teased at school. Nope--Willow is THRILLED to dress like her best friend in her best friend's VERY OWN CLOTHES!!!!! Too bad said best friend has a habit of walking around on hands and knees to play "doggie."

We were supposed to get the fall yardwork done today--putting in the lasagna garden beds, moving shrubs, sowing grass seed, etc. But instead we biked over to Lotus in the Park.

Lotus Fest is our own nationally-renowned world music and arts festival, with prestigious international acts performing on multiple stages both weekend nights. Willow and I were able to go together last year--my favorite act is perennially the Tuvan throat singing, but Willow perked right up at 11:00 pm for March Fourth, an urban marching band with goth costuming, fire-breathing, and stilt-walkers who'll swing by during every number to high-five a tiny little girl bopping along up on her mother's shoulders--but we just couldn't afford to all go as a family this year, so I played the martyr and refused Matt's offer that I go alone, and then I sulked.

Thank god, then, for Lotus in the Park, a day-long, family-friendly, FREE event during which many of the visiting artists perform at an outdoor park. By the way, experimental ukulele? AWESOME!!!Of course, the monkey spent most of the time here: Oh, and of course there was art! See? Masks!
We seriously do have to get back on task tomorrow. The lasagna gardens have to be set, and Matt has a softball game, and I have to choose a semiotically rich scene from the atrocious 1976 remake of King Kong for my students to analyze in class on Monday, and the house is seriously pig-filthy, and I'm almost done making Willow some headbands and would be done if I didn't have to also make identical ones for little sister and best girlfriend, and we've picked out the "Halloween tree" and just need a pot of gravel to stick it in and some ornaments to put on it...

It's funny how a day can get away from you..