'me' or the 'leaves' - i feel fallen either way these days. maybe it's the weather. it's COLD here today. 39 degrees - snowing ever so gently. forecast to low 25. i'm wearing a sweater, knit hat, scarf, monkey slippers WITH socks - yes, i'm indoors. NO, i'm not complaining, just setting the mood. i'm about to eat a yummy soup prepared by my awesome hubby made with the yummy veggies that friends recently dropped off for us - thank you rick and anisa!
i like this time of year. yet i'm sure i will soon lament over these kind of days when the ground is soon to be covered in that 'other' stuff - WHITE in color. i still like to have my pumpkins/fall decor out through end of november but our weird weather pattern has made that hard for me to enjoy too.
even some of the birds have retreated to warmer climates. see you next year feathered friends.
inspired by kelly's fall leaf garland, i had to make my own. and YES, i hand-stitched each of those leaves. thanks for the share kelly!
OH. i keep forgetting, we DID go to the pumpkin patch last weekend with our peeps. it's an annual tradition. took a LOT of photos but i'll only share a few OR it would be a share overload and i know you don't want to see ALL of them!
there were 15 of us total. our biggest group so far. anisa came later with the boys so we waited behind to see them. don't mind the rounded edges above, just trying that on for size.
my sweet friend michelle looking back for me. i seem to take this perspective of a photo every year.
the pumpkin mound that the boy built. he likes to build rock cairns so pumpkins should be no different. it was great. it was a perfect backdrop for folks to take photos in front of because they started showing up and then a line started forming - HA. no, REALLY.
so off he went to build somewhere else.
then we had our turn in front of the pumpkin cairn.
and how CUTE are these boys and girls:
um YEAH, thanks to the boy for taking a shot of my backside - EEEEK.
here's my boy helping anisa's boy find a pumpkin.
and he found one. the perfect one!
and that's all from the patch!
we then headed to our house, a smaller group of us for the carving after party. made some chili again, enjoyed disa's cornbread - thank you disa! and cupcakes from my (said like 'me' - yes, that is his name), a friend of the hubster's and my new bff because he brought cupcakes from HAPPY CAKES - *sigh* - thank you SO much mr. my!
it was a great day thanks to awesome temps!
i've been busy with other things too. especially sewing! i am prepping for the holidays after all. which as always will be homemade/handmade. that is all we can do and that is fine with me. i probably will not post a lot of the projects i'm working on because some of my blog readers are also recipients of said projects. i WILL show you the bag i did recently which i'm VERY proud of, i know you're tired of hearing about it - ha.
i gave myself a lot of grief over this one. first i wanted a messenger bag. then i wanted the magnetic snap closure from the 'stag bag' i recently did - i've decided i don't like magnetic closures after all. then i wanted a zipper. zippers are over-rated.
i pushed that all aside and fussed with TWO online tutorials but changed a lot of the dimensions. did one handle instead of two. oh heck, i just made it up as i went - OY. AND i learned how to do a boxy bottom aka 'gussets' FINALLY - the idea was to carry my camera in it too so it had to have a boxy bottom. sewing stabilizer to the box bottom was fun - NOT. sewing with burlap WAS a challenge - always sew on top of 1st stitch for double reinforcement. seam ripping 'burlap' NOT advised. i added one pocket (with 3 compartments) on inside (with fabric lining to protect contents) to tuck a phone, ipod or small notebook. you can see in some photos that the bag can accommodate at least 6 books, makes for a great book bag and/or market bag.
i have been intrigued by burlap for some time. i had bookmarked a burlap 'clutch' of sorts back in 2006 that i wanted to emulate, still sketching out that design but here was the idea:
so stay tuned for peeks of something like these at some point. that's IF i can find more SOFT burlap soon. thanks to kelly for dropping some in my lap a few months back.
i have managed to sew a total of 3 burlap bags, two just this weekend, just peeks of course:
WOW. if you read this far, THANKS. it's tough to blog daily when you are under the weather. good thing i'm feeling on the up and up these days because i have to keep going. it has taken me half the day just to get this posted. i even took a break so the hubster and i could go to the library.
I ♥ THE LIBRARY.
i'm off to DEVOUR these books (in no specific order) now:
going to the library is AWESOME and i didn't even spend a dime!
cheers to a great week ahead everyone.
♥ rachel
