I’ve been making some more monsters. Meet Nell and Norm. They are available here. Proceeds will of course be going into the tree removal fund. I’m not sure what it is about these little guys, but every little kid I’ve given one too has just loved them. I got a bunch of wool sweaters during my time off a couple months ago, and I’ve felted them and started making monsters out of them. I like how the sweater felt is a little softer and squishier than the wool-blend felt I’ve used here. Nell is actually just back from a trip to Australia, where she was photographed to be included in a book about making softies. How exotic! I’ve never been there, myself. I might be a little jealous of my world-traveling monster. I like how Norm has a bit of a smirk. If you want to take him home, be sure you’re prepared to handle his little attitude problem.



Coming soon, I’m also binding a few books to add to the shop this weekend. Of course, I’ll use the opportunity to write another bookbinding tutorial, so be sure to check back in a day or so.

In between scrubbing the toilet and bathtub, I made something yesterday. A chicken, of course! Although I confess it is not actually my pattern, it’s from the very talented Lyn of Molly Chicken. It was a fun little thing to make, and I made it pretty small, she’s about 6  inches, not including the comb and legs. I think she will make a good gift for a little chicken loving visitor arriving next week. I can’t wait to give it to her!

Later today I’ll be making a batch of oatmeal cranberry butterscotch cookies. I didn’t mention that I took the last batch to work, and they were polished off very quickly. I heard that someone tried to steal the entire jar, and someone else offered to pay my $5 for 5 cookies. He was dead serious too. So I guess the recipe is a keeper. I thought I’d share it here, so you can be popular with your friends and co-workers too.

Oatmeal Cranberry Butterscotch Chip Cookies   
1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. unsalted butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. oatmeal (not instant)
2 c. butterscotch chips
1 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and
cinnamon. Combine butter and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs and
vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Stir in oatmeal, butterscotch chips and
cranberries. Drop by the spoonful onto an un-greased cookie sheet and
bake 13-15 minutes.

I worked on some monsters yesterday. It was a good activity for the cold, blustery, rainy weather.


This one is on it’s way to Pengiun Publishing in Australia, where her pattern is going to be included in a book about softies. How cool is that? I’m pretty excited. I also recently got an e-mail asking me to apply to be in a new book from Lark Publishing about beads and quilts. I better get working on that this week! You know what is the best part about participating in these sorts of projects? Free books, of course! I’m really looking forward to seeing the Softies book.

I also have a blue monster and a green monster nearly complete, and I’ll be putting them in the shop, hopefully by the weekend.

Here you can see that the chickens are hoping the fuzzy pink thing is some new kind of food for them:


Poor chucks spent the day under the porch yesterday, it was raining so hard. I think we have a second layer now, though. I got two eggs yesterday, one was sort of pointy and blotchy, which makes me think someone laid their first egg! I just ordered 100 egg cartons, so they better all get to work soon.

I am having the darndest time taking a good picture of this sock monkey. Out of about 8 shots, this was the best I could do:

I’m not sure if I’m completely done yet. I have some lavender felt, and I might attempt a pair of shoes. What she needs, more than anything, however, is a name. I can’t think of anything, I need some suggestions. Please share your ideas in the comments!

As I’ve been sewing lately, I’ve been trying to get my clubhouse (aka guesthouse, aka former tack shed) cleaned up a bit. Here’s a tiny corner that is all cleaned up and pretty (except for the hideous paint on the walls, I’ll get to that someday):

I like those little Chinese pincushions. They come in such great colors.

I got an e-mail yesterday from someone at Penguin Australia regarding a craft book to be published, and they are interested in including my monster pattern. Did anyone else out there in creative blog-land get a similar e-mail? It looks authentic, I’ll definitely be checking into it further.

Having recovered from the catfish attack, my dad marched in a parade this week.

I went and picked up a chicken coop this weekend. And then I ordered 25 day old baby chicks. I’m not quite sure what I’m getting myself into, but I think it should be fun! They won’t be arriving until sometime the week of September 25, which is good, because I still have a lot to do. I cleaned off the coop, so I’ll be able to paint it next weekend. I also need to build some nesting boxes and put in a pole for them to roost. I’m not showing any before pictures until I can show some after pictures too. It’s just too ugly right now.

I packed up Lou, and she’s on her way to Washington:

Her new owner’s name starts with an ‘M’, so I added a glittery letter.

I wanted to make more monsters this weekend, but I started working on an outfit for my sock monkey, and didn’t have time for anything else:

Since she’s still a work in progress I’m not going to worry about the blurry picture, when she’s all done I’ll try a little harder to take some clear pictures. I think I will be adding her to the shop. Aren’t her puffed sleeves cute? And her little handkerchief apron? I didn’t get her little purple-ruffled petticoat in the picture, but it’s cute too.

My dad was attacked by a Chinese catfish. Yikes! He’s okay though.