Happy Fall, Y'all

Fall is here!  The weather and sunshine are so beautiful in lower Alabama, I wish I could hit the pause button.  Temperatures are in the upper 70s/low 80s during the day, the humidity has tapered off, and the angle of the sun just makes my heart ache with gorgeousness.  My house just had to reflect my heart during this season, so I did some fall decorating.

 Here's my felt leaf garland.  I love its cozy, crafty feel.  It was fun and extremely easy to make.  You can even cut while you watch recorded sessions of The Voice.  I might know something about that. 

And my new fall-inspired dish display, featuring cake plates and gravy boats, because aren't cake and gravy two foods worth celebrating?

I tacked some fabric from my stash to the back of my cupboard, an idea I've had for a long time.  It was a pain to do, but worth the irritation of ironing, folding, and sweating it out with thumbtacks.  However, remind me to kick myself; I love it so much, I think I've set a new standard.

Hope you're enjoying your fall season, no matter where your corner of the world!

Sleepyheads

Yawn.........

Excuse me.

I've been having a lot of mornings like this.

Because of this!

Henry was five weeks old yesterday.  Each day this week,* I've thought how nice it would be to take him to the doctor for another weight check.  And then reality smacks me over the head, and I fall asleep in the recliner to the sound of another recorded PBS Kids show.  I can tell by the way he's pudging out of his skin that he is growing.  His neck is slowly disappearing into a double chin, and his legs are transforming from spindly to creas-ed chubbiness.  I poured him into his "Little Brother" onesie yesterday, determined to get one more wear out of it.  He fussed at my tugs to snap it closed.

A profile picture to keep everyone guessing who Henry looks like.

On Monday, Henry was irritable.  He's usually peaceful and easy to soothe.  I chalked it up to Monday-Monday, but when his fussing refused to level off in the evening, I took a good look at every inch of his little body and found a--gulp--hair in his eye.  It had fallen out of his head and gotten stuck.  How irritating for him! 

And with Valentine's Day coming up, my house needed a little decorating cheer.  I've had this heart garland bookmarked for a long time.  I made it last night while Jason was watching some horrible, nightmare-inducing show about noodling.

I used leftover felt scraps and followed the color scheme of a Valentine's napkin I bought on discount after the holiday two years ago.  (What?  Me?  Save crazy things for long periods of time?  Nah.)

See!  Easy! I sewed it together with fun orange thread and had myself a new garland.

Helen said that Valentines are always red.  If that's the worst critique it gets, I can handle it!

*Except for Tuesday, when I broke out of the house to see my friends at MOPS!

Late Christmas Projects

This Christmas, we filled stockings for the kids. As usual, I wanted to make my own version.

I found the perfect fabric at JoAnn, so perfect in fact that I bought more to make myself a blanket. I drafted a pattern for the stockings, and cut out and sewed one late at night while watching the latest Bond movie. Neither turned out well. I gave up for several days, then finished the other two later. Of course, each stocking needed to be marked with its owner's initial. And once again, no crafting supplies have my heart as much as felt and embroidery floss. Since I've learned to move when inspiration strikes, I scissored up the initials in between adding product to and blow-drying my hair one morning. I used a diamond-shaped cookie cutter as a pattern for the ornament, and frantically sewed them the day the kids opened their stockings.
The cookie cutter pattern gave me an idea:


A gingerbread man in the hand is worth two in the....cookie jar? This poor guy will have to wait a whole year to join the ornaments on my tree, since I made him in January during our Life Group's getaway to Pine Mountain, Georgia.

On our way home from Pine Mountain, we stopped in Auburn for lunch and some shopping. Do you think the kids love their new shirts?

Patches

Thank goodness for my large supply of felt and embroidery floss, two of my current favorite sewing supplies. They come in handy when my children get snippy with scissors.

Jack cut a hole in the sleeve of his dump truck shirt. It took me a little bit to think up the solution, but I thought the road sign was an appropriate warning for his sometimes difficult-to-maneuver self.
Helen, age four and fabulous, must have wanted designer gauchos instead of the off-the-rack pair that Aunt Jan found for her. The first time she wore them, much to my shame, she gouged a hole in them on purpose. She confessed, but only after I questioned her. Grrrrr...

And the kitty tore a hole in her beloved snowman jammies. Felt and floss to the rescue!

Felt Hair Clips

These clips went to a sweet little friend who has the cutest, most seemingly alive hair. Helen was plastered to my side while I made them, scattering her opinions and questions. It was sweet, until I needed elbow room. (The kids are still learning about personal space.)

One more felt ornament

This one I made for my nephew, who loves that curious monkey. Blake also got a freezer paper stencil shirt of the yellow hat, but somehow I forgot to take a picture of it. (Or maybe that picture is on my NEW!!!! camera that Jason gave me for my birthday?!)

I made a test Curious George ornament first, because I knew Owen would like it. This morning he informed me with very grown-up words, "Blake and I like Curious George stuff. When Helen gets a little bigger, she can like it too."

More Felt Christmas Ornaments

Mom helped me with these while she was here. Thanks, Mom!

Felt Christmas Ornaments

Every year, I buy each of the kids a new ornament for the tree. I try to find one that fits them for the year. For example, I found a rooster for Owen one year since he was fascinated by their crowing. They love this tradition and so do I. They hang their own ornaments, usually in one big clump to be spaced out later by Mommy, and proceed to admire them the rest of the Christmas season. This year I once again began the search for the right ornaments. And then I stopped in my tracks. Why was I wanting to spend (too much) money for a little trinket that had no previous meaning? Especially when I had all my inexpensive crafty resources laying around?

Here's what I came up with for this year, and I just might stick with making their ornaments from here on out!
I made my own pattern and cut two felt pieces for each crayon's color. I stitched the kids' names with embroidery floss onto black felt, cut them out in an oval shape, cut out some black squiggly lines for the crayon paper, and handstitched everything onto one crayon shape. I embellished it with a few more simple stab stitches, then put it all together with a wee bit of stuffing in the middle, adding an embroidery floss hanger. Easy, peasy! And a whole lotta fun too.