I got my fabrics and I started cutting for the Sophia Carry-All bag from Amy Butler yesterday. I considered scaling everything down since this is a bag for a child, but that would have complicated my life way more than necessary so I just followed the pattern. It took me ... I don't know, forever. It's specially time consuming when you have to break every five minutes or so to teach your 3-year-old how to jump rope. But I think I got everything cut, I think. The "Animal News" and polka dot fabrics are very lightweight and the Heather Ross , "Racing Cars" fabric is a decor-weight fabric with more of a linen feel. I didn't quite realize it was going to be different than the others. I would have liked it to be just regular smooth cotton but it's not a big deal because I'm only using that for the inside pockets to give it a little contrast and a bit more fun inside. I started off making a full size template from some scrap lightweight cardboard ...

Back to sewing - I joined this sew-along for the Emmeline apron and managed to finish it this weeked. I used some of Amy Butler's fabrics from the Midwest Modern line . They are so refreshing and happy. I liked the pink prints so much, I may make some window treatments for my little studio room with these. This apron will be for a friend that just finished remodelling her kitchen.

I found this great online Japanese store, Rakuten , with lots of stuff I like but I need to figure out how to order this stuff. How frustrating to be able to see it and not be able to find the "buy" button. (Actually, they may not even ship to the US but I would like to think that they do). I was able to find some cute kid's bento boxes and egg molds very reasonably priced from Ichiban Kan . I picked this box because it has a little compartment for the matching fork and spoon. Unfortunately, I can't find the fork and spoon for a reasonable price. But I'm very excited about this purchase. I don't know when I'll have the opportunity to try it but it will serve as good practice for when my little monkey pants does need to have a packed lunch for school. In sewing, kids, and more Japanese cute related items, I may give the Sophia Carry-All bag a try in some fabrics from Superbuzzy for monkey pants . She has an overnight stay at the hospital scheduled ...

A little while ago I made an attempt to make my picky eater daughter's lunch a little more exciting in hopes that it would encourage her to eat better. I used a simple gingerbread cookie cutter to shape her sandwiches and tried to add some color to her plate. And what do you know, my small effort actually paid off and she ended up eating a turkey sandwich without dissecting it and throwing the offensive meat at my plate. She called the sandwiches, "the boys". I was feeling fairly good about my little lunch design until I stumbled upon the "Bentos" Japanese boxed lunch concept today from a link on shim + sons . I grabbed some of these photos from flickr. Wow, are these the cutest box lunches ever! If only I had more time in the day. Seriously, who has this much time. My little "monkey pants" gets lunch at preschool so I don't even need to pack her lunch, but I'm going to try to file these ideas for later when she starts school. Oh, and the lunc...

More pot holders and a simple apron except I didn't realize I didn't take any pictures of the apron before I gave it to my mom. Woops. I selected some more Amy Butler fabrics for this set from the Nigella line. I don't think I even liked this print (olive primrose) when I first saw it, but now I absolutely love it and want to make all kinds of stuff with it. I used the stripe fabric (from an earlier line) for the back of the apron and some bright aqua linen for the straps. It's reversible and super simple to make. I'll have to try to get a picture of it this weekend. * * * I got this lovely little book as one of my Mother's Day presies. I guess putting my list on Wishpot worked! Much better than getting a sleeping bag. So now I need to relearn how to crochet. Last time I crocheted I think I was six. I can't wait to make some of these --I guess I should say at least one of these-- for my little monkeys. I especially like the idea of making dolls for ...

I meant to make this bag to use as a lunch bag. I didn't want it to be too girly so my husband could use it too but it turned out to be too narrow to put plastic containers in so I may modify this pattern later on to use as a lunch bag. However, I really like the way it turned out for general use and even as a purse it actually looks really nice. It's really easy to toss stuff in and it doesn't require as much digging as my purse does to find things again. I used Amy Butler's Chelsea Bag pattern (I have a lot of Amy Butler's patterns I can't wait to make) and Heather Bailey's Freshcut paisley fabric for the exterior and some dark denim for the interior. I used the "low carb" Timtex I bought on Ebay a while back to make it nice and stiff. This was my first time using it and it was surprisingly easy to use. I guess it is no longer in production and is pretty difficult to find so I'm glad I invested in a whole roll. This was also kind of a...