Housiness, Size XL

There's a very good reason why I can't really cook anything.
It's not just that I'm a little lazy since the daylight savings fiasco.
It's also because this is my dining table:
So where would I put the food? Come on, folks.

Bridesmaid-Type Distraction Project #2

Right. So, I'll have you know that before I made a wool-felt-flower-bedazzled headband, I took orders to the P.O. and took the plastic off the canvas I'm supposed to be working on.
This is cute, though, right? I was going to add a bunch more flowers, but my hipper sister cautioned restraint. (Actually she said if I added more it might look "crazy." Whatevs.)
I got these wide, black, fabric-covered headbands in a pack of three at Target, I think. Cheap-cheap. The flower is very easy to make. I started with a strip of wool felt about 1" by 12", I'd say. I cut a sort of wavy, wide scallop edge on one long side and did a running stitch with two strands of embroidery floss along the other edge. I pulled the string to sort of bunch up the felt a bit, and then I rolled the felt strip up to create the flower shape, basting it in place as I went. When that was done, I used a couple of stitches from the same length of floss to secure a little shank button in the center. Again with the same strand of floss, I quick stitched the flower to the band. Voila! If anybody is dying to make this (in other words, if you have dishes to wash, laundry all over the place, etc., and are looking for an excuse not to do that stuff) and needs more details, just let me know.

Working...feverishly?

Having just finished this sweet little bedroom full of happy creatures, I've turned my attention to a project of giant proportions, the pattern for which must be drawn upon a huge swath of butcher paper. (Can you tell A. and I have been watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice from the sickbed? I'm afraid I shall be talking like this for weeks.)
It's also given me cause to order wool felt by the yard for the first time. Such big pieces make me feel full of ideas, but I'm sticking to the task at hand, keeping my nose to the grindstone, baby. Miles to go before I sleep. Whatever industrious cliches you can think of, all of them apply to me!

Except that I feel like I might be getting a fever. Blargh.

A Little Loopy

Yes, me--after four days in this apartment with a flu-ridden Miss A., burning up with fever, alternately docile and demanding, wanting endless stories, and complaining of sore throat and headache but whinging about the medicine. (I think it smells like grape drink--yum!--but she says it's disgusting.)
But also loopy, and far more pleasantly so, is this little wool felt corsage I whipped up during her nap yesterday, based on this pattern from Betz White. Betz uses her own felted sweaters and such in all her crafts, of course, but I'm finding lots of them can be done similarly with felt.
My cousin Amanda is getting married in May and asked me if I could make something for her bridesmaids, so I'm clearly letting that distract me from a load of other tasks, but when the results are this cute, who can complain (aside from, you know, my customers)?!

Puppies and Paris--and Piglets?

Here's a little dog I added to a finished house hoop this afternoon while poor Annabelle napped. She has the flu. We won't give this flu any special name because we don't have any flu-diagnosing powers around here and try like the dickens to stay out of the emergency room, but, you know, pigs do have a tendency to fly into one's mind these days when one's family members are stricken with fever, sore throat, body aches. Currently the fever is down a bit, and she's watching An American in Paris. There are some perks to sick days--Gene Kelly among them.

Shameless Self Promotion (a.k.a. "Look Mom, I'm on Martha-Stewart-dot-com!")

Here it is, peeps!

Hej, Again

Here's today's project--one more version of "hello fall" for the Bear and Bird show.

In other news, I found out today that I'm a finalist in the Martha Stewart/etsy DIY Weddings contest--I have no idea, really, what this means except that my wool-felt wedding portrait and my etsy shop will be featured on the Martha Stewart Weddings home page starting Thursday. I'll be sure to provide a link when I have one!

(A holiday-theme hoop tutorial is in the works, folks! And I'm also thinking about taking the tree-skirt challenge put down by my friend Corinne--thinking, thinking...)