confessions of a blueberry bandit

Tiny mushroom ornaments!

Three colors are now available in my shop in limited quantities!

I'm doing my very best to add some more pouches before the end of the week, too.

Happy Monday!

Visions of sugar-snails dancing in my head...

Sweet candy-colored snail ornaments are now in my shop!

They're even cuter in person.

Next up: cute 'lil mushroom ornaments!  Maybe some other tiny things.  And pouches.  Soon.  I promise!

 

 

Holiday Sneak Peak

Hello!  It's that time of year again...  The time when I find myself simultaneously enthralled and overwhelmed by festivities and preparations.  I think I have a dozen different lists going right now, and I don't seem to be making much progress on any of them!  Despite my long blog absence, I assure you I have been working on some new goodies.  Dark, gloomy days have prevented me from getting decent photos, but I  wanted to share a little peak at some new things that will hopefully be in the shop in the next day or so..

I have been sewing tiny snails galore (in all sorts of colors) as well as sweet little mushrooms.  Today is finally a bright & sunny, so I am going to do my best to get everything photographed & listed ASAP. 

Also, pouches are suddenly flying out of the shop, so I am going to try to make some more in time for Christmas.  I am planning to participate in a local holiday craft sale later this month, and it's so hard not to hoard things.  I am so excited to have a little flurry of activity in the shop, but I'm also panicking just a little bit.  Deep breath...

I hope everyone in the US had a lovely Thanksgiving!  I spent the day with family... family who love to cook and also cook quite well... so I didn't have to do a single thing.  Except peel some potatoes and fulfill my role as Official Gravy Taster.  ;)

Back soon with new stuffs!

Autumn Acorn Pouch

 

Perfect for squirreling away nuts and other treasures!  (Don't you love that vintage acorn fabric?)

I made this last week for a friend's bridal shower gift.  I am very pleased with how it turned out, but I'm not going to lie... It was a huge pain in the acorn to make.  I almost threw it (and my sewing machine) out the window a few times.  I think I discovered a whole new (ugly, terrifying) side of myself.   I am a self-taught sewer, and I have long suspected that my ways of doing things are not always the easiest or most efficient.  I have always avoided designs that would mean sewing in a zipper on a curved seam out of fear.  Now that I've done it once, maybe it will be easier.  Is there a simple trick to this that I don't know about?  Probably.   I would appreciate any tips from more seasoned stitchers!  Anyway, I hope to make some more of these soon, preferably without the Hulk-rage.

I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely Autumn!  (Or Spring, of course, for any readers in the southern hemisphere.)  I am annoyed & disappointed in myself for missing the big 12-county fair that ended this past weekend... I really should pay better attention, especially during my favorite season!  I'm thinking next weekend will be perfect for corn maze-ing and pumpkin patch-ing, though.

Back soon with more progress!

♥

p.s. 

Fox mary janes I found recently at Urban Outfitters...

 

Warm sand and shimmering seas...

Andy & I took an impromptu trip to the beach with some friends last week.  I hadn't seen the ocean in a very long time, and it was heavenly!  I don't think I realized just how stressed out I had been until I felt it all melt away with the lapping waves.  I instantly felt like a little girl again...

The sweetest beach kitty I ever did meet...

And a friendly beach pup searching for buried treasure... or a dirty diaper?  To each his own, I guess...

The rare chlorinated pool frog...

Homemade veggie sushi... yum.

I never have thought of myself as a beach person, but I could really get used to this...

I can't resist sharing this photograph I came across just before leaving for the beach... I bought it at a flea market years ago and tucked it away for another day.  It's captioned "Bradley Beach, 1941."  I love it.  My fellow beach companions & I were going to attempt to recreate it, but neither of the men wanted to put on those sexy 1940s bathing shorts.  I was all set with a very granny-ish swim-dress.  Maybe next time!

 

The beach left me feeling very restored, though I returned home to a sick dog and a mysterious leak above the water heater.  Sigh... Back to real life.  But I really can't complain when my beloved Autumn is just days away!  I can't wait!!!

xoxo

 

Psst... Psst...

Just added a couple more elephant pouches to the shop!

I am enjoying the first cloudy, gloomy day in many long weeks...  I like an occasional sunny day, but too much sunshine makes me very grumpy.  Weird, I know!

Hope everyone is having a lovely long weekend!

Wee Elephant Pouch

I've just added a new pouch design to my shop!  I am very excited about this little elephant and can't wait to make it in more colors.

In completely unrelated news, I just joined my very first bowling league.  That's something I never thought I would say!  To be honest, I am a pretty terrible bowler.  But I am hoping I will improve and, at the very least, have something fun to look forward to each week.  I'm already dreaming about buying my own snazzy bowling shoes... and eventually a clear lucite bowling ball with a dove suspended in flight in the center.  Or something like that.  (Wink, wink...)

I have a very busy week ahead of me, but I hope to be back soon with some more pouches.  Can't wait to say goodbye to August!  It's my least favorite month...  Hope everyone is surviving it!

♥

 

Summer Haze

Just wanted to pop in with a few snippets of semi-recent life... I have been a bit lost in a fuzzy insomnia-induced twilight, but today I am feeling slightly human again.  Insomnia is so maddening, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!  I will mostly let the photos do the talking for me, as I am still... so... sleepy...

Pink Bunny, one of the first stuffed toys I ever made... Perhaps a bit of a self-portrait in felt.

My little Piddler on the Roof... (He piddles when he gets excited, which is pretty much all the time.)

My sweet baby kitty Junebug, who is never bad...  

Cherries (they always, always make me think of my grandmother)...

I tend to drink tea for two all by myself, but I would share with you!

Mr. Cicada, my new friend...  (Andy is hovering over my shoulder, begging me to call him "John Cicada.")

Sweet little yellow polka-dotted glass(es) I found at Ikea recently...

Amazing customized gift-wrap,from my BFF... (Sometimes very belated birthday gifts are the best!)

Pink polka-dotted straws and a heart-shaped tea infuser... and the most delicious chocolate ever! 

Recently-discovered Car of My Dreams, the Nissan Figaro.  Go ahead, look it up.

My echinacea, just before it started dying...

Lantana...

Portulaca (moss rose)...

Purple coreopsis... ( I also have yellow.  Or did, rather... before the extra-intense summer heat became too much for almost everything in my garden.)

Vintage doll I found at the flea market a while back...

Beautiful spool of ribbon, a birthday gift from my aunt back in May... (Something tells me I am going to hoard this!)

And... a new bear pouch in the shop!

I'm considering crawling into bed early tonight... say around 7 p.m.  Is 6:30 pushing it?  I'm not ashamed to be geriatric.

Hope everyone is having a lovely & sleep-filled week!

♥

Another snail pouch!

This time in pink!

This snail slowly made her way into the shop today!

She is two-sided and lined with lovely green apples!

I seem to be on a roll as far as pouches go... Hopefully there will be more to come!

I'll leave you with a quote from David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, which I am currently reading & loving: "A half-read book is a half-finished love affair."  I think this also applies to creative endeavors, don't you? 

Hope you have a fulfilling Thursday!

 

Bears are excellent keepers-of-things...

I bet you didn't know that!

Newly listed in the shop!

I finally figured out how to make a French knot.  For real.  Just for this.  Just for you!  I did it with the help of this book, which I bought amid the end-of-the-world-esque chaos of my local (closing) Borders store.  While I was shopping, an elderly man burst into the store shouting, "I'm here, I'm here!  What's goin' on?  What y'all got on sale?"  My sentiments exactly.

I have loads of work to do in spite of a nasty summer headache... But I'm planning to catch Midnight in Paris this evening with a friend.  Not a bad way to end a Monday!  Here's wishing a lovely close to your Monday, too!