Saw this book:
On this blog:
http://whileshenaps.typepad.com/whileshenaps/
on this page:
http://whileshenaps.typepad.com/whileshenaps/2006/12/easytosew_toys_.html

And I WANT IT! Isn't that the BEST book? Love vintage crochet books, but haven't seen anything like this for sewing. Me wanty.

STILL Waiting

No baby. Nope. Nada. Brandy was due on Halloween and it's more than a week later. As anxious as we are about the wait, I can only IMAGINE what Brandy's going through.

We had Juniper for a couple of days. She's full of energy, that one! She's learning so many new words! Please and Thank You are routine for her. And NO!!! Not just "no". NO!! Tells that to Ozzie when he gets too close to her or if he tries to pick up her dropped Cheerios. (such a tidy dog, hah). Or when you liberate the TV remote from her button-pressin' fingers. Cheeky beak!

She spotted the drawing of Jon, Jake and Natalie that they had made for me the Christmas when Jake enlisted into the Navy - she got a big grin and squeeled "Daddy!"

Precious kids!



Then, we decided it was time to bust out the crayons. Here she is, busily drawing: (is she a lefty like her cousin June, and my mom whose nickname was June? Or is she ambidextrous like her Aunty Natalie? She held the crayons in either hand)



I "helped" Juniper with her drawing and such by writing the ABCs. And she said "A. B. C." Then I wrote "Daddy" and pointed it out, saying "Daddy". She took one look at it and said "NO!! Not Daddy!" and shaking her head so vigorously she almost wiggled out of her chair. I told you she had "NO!!" figured out. Smarty.


Here you see her saying "Really, Meme? A Coffee Cup to hold my crayons? What's up with that?" So, while she was taking her nap, I made the crayon roll that you see in the last post. She loved it! That's why the crayons are all upside down in that picture.

Let The Bikers Make Toys

Here are a couple of samples I made - I'm planning to take the patterns along so we can make them during our biker sewing get-together this Sunday. Let me know what you think.

First, a crayon roll for the little ones to keep track of their pretty colors:

Next - my new favorite - "rag dolls":


(For these, I used the pattern demo'd on Martha Stewart by the top Etsy seller, "BlackApple". The pattern and video are still online if you want to make your own dollies. I love 'em!!)

Just found out that CARDV has groups that sew blankets and hats/mittens for them, so that means that us bikers can have fun and just sew toys and whimsies for them. Wheee! Hope to get some action shots of the sewing activities on Sunday.

How Bikers Do Christmas

Bubba and I are members of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association, a biker club. I like to call them the "Gold Wing Restaurant Reviewers Association" cause most of our meetings involve food in some format. The Albany Oregon chapter is designated Oregon Chapter J. Anyway, here's a letter I sent to them today. I'm sharing it here 'cause I thought you might like to see what "other" activities bikers are involved with:

Hello, Holly Jolly J-sters!

At our last chapter meeting, we talked about Christmas. Two ideas have been proposed. Underwear for Christmas and Sewing for Christmas

First, underwear. You know how we always have a gift exchange at the holiday party? We greatly anticipate seeing how The Green Dress will make its appearance, and who will be its caretaker for the coming year. I think this might be the best part of the gift exchange, maybe the best part of the whole party. But there are all of the other gifts that get exchanged - silly gifts, tasty gifts, smelly gifts (I mean scented candles, of course). Well, most of those gifts, while appreciated and well thought out, usually end up in the bottom of the closet or stuffed under our beds or "re-gifted" to neighbors or at other holiday parties.

By now you're saying to yourself "when the heck will she get to the UNDERWEAR?" At our meeting I proposed to have an UNDERWEAR exchange for the gift exchange. "What," you say, "we take off our underwear and..." Stop it! I'm thinking that we buy underwear (ladies buy lady underwear, men buy NEW men underwear, and/or we all buy children's underwear), figure out creative ways to wrap it for the gift exchange, maybe include a small token gift for the party recipient, and then once we've all unwrapped our underwear, we donate it to the local homeless shelter. When I mentioned this to people at the chapter meeting, they said it sounded like a pretty good idea. Please LET ME KNOW what you think so we can decide whether we want to give this a try.

Second, I mentioned at the chapter meeting that it'd be fun to get together to sew things for Christmas to give to CARDV (Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence) along with the items purchased by the chapter during our annual shopping spree. We could make simple, quick things like scarves, hats, baby blankets, etc. So we decided to get together and stitch up a few things. Marilyn volunteered her house, and we decided to get together on Sunday, November 9th. We didn't decide on a time yet, but we did decide that we'd have a potluck lunch. There are several ways that you can participate.

A. you can come and sew. (bring your sewing machine, scissors, pins, thread, rotary cutting setup, all that sewing stuff that you usually use).

B. you can donate fabric, thread, etc - so even if you don't have time to join us, you can help. People who sew often have a stash of fabric that they'd like to get sewn up and shared with others (mostly so we can make room to store new fabric, but we won't mention that here, OK?).

C. invite members from other chapters that you know LOVE to sew. The more the merrier!

D. you can cook for us. Just kidding. But you can drop by and visit us, and cheer us on. And see what we're sewing. Or drop off things that you've already sewn. Or, you fellas can join our hubbies out in the barn. But keep away from those power tools out there - they're bloodthirsty - just ask Dave. And Jim. And Bob. And Del. And (your name here).

Please let me know if you're planning to join us for this holiday "sew-in" so we can make sure we have enough room to set up all of our sewing machines, and enough goodies to feed all of us busy bees.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to let me know two things: Underwear, yes or no? Sewing, how can you help?

Looking forward to hearing from you,
~~Novena

Food and a Funny

Two posts in one day? Incredible! But just wanted to share that I've found a new foodie blog that is great! Recipes are clear, easily done, and yummy!
Check it out: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/ I've made the Broccoli Beef and the Chicken Cream Cheese Soup in the last two days. They were delish, even Mr. agrees.

Mr. and I like documentaries, and motorcycles, so tonight, in our happy-tummy delirium following the Chicken Soup dinner, we were watching a show about Harley Davidsons. Mr. said he was told that they had made an early Harley using cylinders from an airplane. Well, they started making Harleys in, like, 1901 so I was trying to remember when airplanes were invented. I mused out loud "when DID the Wright Brothers make their first flight?" and Mr. said "Oh, probably sometime in the morning, I imagine" which reduced me to helpless giggles. Funny guy!