It could probably hold an apple and a few candy canes.

The stocking is officially underway.

My sister and I always got an apple or an orange in the bottom of our stockings. A new toothbrush, too. And candy. Little foil-wrapped Santas and gold coins, a candy-cane tube of red and green M&Ms if we were really lucky. And then some kind of small wrapped gift on top - a CD or movie tickets.

In my family we would always open gifts on Christmas Eve, but the stockings were reserved for Christmas morning and it was probably the one day of the year we were allowed to eat candy at/for breakfast. I hope August has the same good memories I do. But not the cavities ...

HandmadeMN Fall Market 2011: the goods.

I have been terribly remiss in keeping my Egret Effects Etsy shop going since the schnooglefritz was born, and there was no way I could have gotten myself together to be a vendor at the latest market - but that's ok. I went, I browsed, and I purchased.

There were many, many things I wanted. But I went with useful items and am very pleased. I only have a picture of one of the items and it borders on too much info, but the cute fabric you see here is what my new nursing pads look like! And they are awesome and that is all I will say.

I also got another wet bag to keep in the diaper bag for dirty clothes and such. It is also awesome. If I may rant about baby products for a moment, not all wet bags are created equal. The ones from certain large retailers are ok, and those are the ones we registered for, but if you *accidentally* put them in the dryer the plastic lining might crack or get a hole in it because it's cheap plastic. The one we got as a gift from a friend's co-op has the same lining as my new one - much nicer and sturdier, yet somehow more pliable.

I really wanted to indulge in something for myself, but I resisted. The Wild Dog Studio booth kept beckoning ... love her silver stuff.

The quilt pieces.

In my last post about the quilt I'm making, I ... was too boozed-up to include a picture. The pieces are all different sizes depending on the article of clothing they came from, so there will be lots of trimming. And then lots of sewing and measuring and possibly swearing. We shall see.

I think this is my first boozy post.

Aaaaand hopefully the last. But I recently realized that since the baby sleeps for like nine hours every night, I could've been having a drink before bed this whole time! For like the last month! Scheisse, my kid is awesome. Sailor Jerry!

I also recently realized that it's been a while since I've attempted to craft something I have no idea how to do and will probably fail at. So I'm making a quilt! I'm pretty sure I've already messed it up. I asked hubs the other day if he wanted to see what I was working on, and he was all "do I have to," and I was like "yes." I showed him how I had laid out the pieces of fabric I cut from old baby clothes that were too stained for my very fashionable infant to wear, and he was all "I think those pieces are way too small." Of course they're small; they're from baby clothes. Thanks for the excitement and encouragement dude.*

I'm going to have to buy batting, but other than that I'm going to try not to spend ANY money on this project. For one thing, Augs does not need another blanket. Also, it might end up being a disaster. Also, using whatever I have around makes me feel like some sort of handy pioneer woman. Like when I needed something really long to reach the cobwebs at the ceiling of our stairwell and I duct-taped the Swiffer to the broom handle. Make do, that's what I always say.



*Hubs is encouraging. And in all fairness, I am totally doing this wrong.