desert willow

After two years of Keith fighting off the leaf cutter ants,

our desert willow is flourishing and flowery!

tiny burt's bees pocket

Okay, so here's something very exciting that I forgot to 

tell you about yesterday. I made this teeny tiny pocket 

in the new reversible bag for my Burt's Bees lip balm, 

which always falls to the bottom. Isn't it cute?!

fully reversible bag

So, at long last, here's the finished product! I'm really liking how it turned out.

Below are little snapshots
of the four fabric combinations I decided on for the different sides of the bag.

Also, you can't tell from this photo, because Chloe (my lovely dress dummy) isn't as tall as me, but I added a few inches to the strap to make it extra long for across-the-shoulder wearability.

I guess I'm ready for summer now! Good thing, because it's the last day of school!!





[For those of you just tuning in, this is sewn from Fig Tree & Co.'s pattern, Satchel For Two.]

ice cream maker

Summer is here!!

Ashton and I made lime ice and grapefruit ice this morning.

It's also time for homemade vanilla ice cream,

homemade chocolate ice cream,

homemade coffee ice cream, 

homemade brownie ice cream, etc., etc., etc.

grandma lefever's pin cushion

I've been working on my reversible bag project, 

and I was just caught by the beauty of this little pin cushion.

I'm pretty sure my grandmother crocheted it herself.

I discovered it in one of the drawers of the sewing machine

table she gave me when I got married. The sewing machine

was hers as well -- it's a 1950s beige Singer. I just love it.

I love that it's almost entirely made of metal. I love that it's 

built into the table and that the table has little retro brass knobs

and feet. I only wish that I had seen my grandma use it.

She lost her eyesight when I was three to macular degeneration

of the retina, and all of her handiwork became a thing of the past.

where are they?

conga

ficus tree

layne's bag

Speaking of bags, here's the one I promised Layne

as a graduation gift last May. It's the same dimensions

as a bag she has that's Absolutely Falling Apart.

I just finished it yesterday, so now it's a graduation/

congratulations-on-finishing-your-first-year-of-teaching/

happy-24th-birthday gift.  Yay, Layne!

The strap came out shorter than expected, unfortunately,
so there's a little creative work left to do. I'll keep you posted.

bag addict

As you may have noticed, I'm an absolute bag addict.

I don't sport a variety of bags on a regular basis, but

that's only because I'm also a bag perfectionist -- I prefer

my daily bag to have enough pockets to house the basics

but not enough to get overfull and egregiously heavy. 

I do, however, often grab a languishing option 

from my bag basket for random tasks 

such as library-book-toting or laptop-roving.

I am also a firm believer in sending bags along when

they are fabulous but for some reason not fitting the bill. 

In fact, the bag from this previous post went from me 

(too overstuffable and square-cornered) to one friend and then 

another once the first had moved on to her next purse.  

So, I am delighted to be enjoying this beautiful hand-me-

down from Lori as she packs up & narrows down her 

belongings for the summer. I remember admiring this one

(made for her by a friend who owns Radbags) several 

years ago, when she first moved to Tucson. I love how

the colors interact but don't necessarily match. Also the

varied textures and finishes, from shiny to ripply to flat.

And notice that it is definitely not overstuffable.

tennis elbow? really?

I've had pain & swelling in my left elbow for several weeks now.

When I went to see my doctor recently, she told me that I have

tennis elbow, of all things. I find this especially ironic since I 

haven't played tennis since my freshman year in high school. 

As you can see, I don't even know what a tennis racquet looks like. 

I have no idea what caused it, but I'm trying to be kind to myself

and recover. Also odd is the fact that my housemate Julie was diagnosed 

with tennis elbow yesterday. So watch out -- it may just be contagious!!

rainy night

I just discovered this picture of the little E from last July

and somehow felt like you all might need to see it --

I certainly did.