These guys are bridging the gap between halloween and christmas.  Well, there used to be a gap.  Now there is hardly enough time to take down the halloween decorations before the christmas ones come out.  Thanksgiving’s really getting the shaft these days.  Anyway, these mutant gingerbread men are on their way to becoming ornaments for my sister and her family.  When we were kids, we made gingerbread men every year and there were always a couple with two heads or four legs.  But my oldest sister’s three boys took this to another level–they made half bird/half man gingermutants, men with 20 legs and 7 heads,  men covered in eyeballs, poor sweet gingerbread men with all their parts rearranged, anything their strange, little boy imaginations could think up.  My nephews are not little anymore, but I thought they might like a little reminder of their cookie torturing days.  I have one more to make (an octopus gingerbread lady for my sister) and then I’ll sew them and stuff them and maybe even wrap them suckers.  Maybe this will be the year I get my christmas presents done early!

Yesterday we turned on the oven, mixed up some pumpkin bread, and made sure the bowl was very clean. The bread was nothing much, but she got to crack eggs! and sift flour! and mix! and taste! and mix! And make a royal mess, but the house was warm and smelled like nutmeg and cinnamon.

1.little jack horner sat in a corner 2.eating his christmas pie 3.he stuck in his thumb 4.and pulled out 5.a plum 6.and said what a good boy am I!

I was short listed in the Softies Central Holiday Awards! What lovely news to wake up to. Little Jack Horner is a finalist in the Smorgasborg catagory. And he is in good company. There are a bunch of amazing soft toys in every category. The voting starts today and goes until Nov. 16th. So click over to Softies Central and vote!

I made this a few months back for a dear friend with a new baby. The pattern is from Amy Karol’s lovely book, Bend the Rules Sewing. But I made it quite a bit bigger so it could accommodate a couple diapers and a travel pack of wipes. The patchwork stripe continues around the back and the bag is lined with the same ruler print. The rest is linen. It turned out a little classy and I think that’s what you need when most of your day is spit up and mooshed carrots and dirty diapers. I got such wonderful feedback when I put the picture up on flickr, that I thought I’d share it here as well. And it would make a nice (and quick) christmas gift.

I’m trying to post everyday this month (in the spirit of NaBloPoMo) but it’s 9pm on the 4th day and I’m already sweatin’ it, so we’ll see what happens.  Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Michelle of greetingarts.com organized an embroidered button swap and I got my package a couple weeks ago. I really like how each button shows off a different stitch. I know it wasn’t intentional, but it’s a nice sampling. I never thought of cross stitch as being so classy, or using french knots to create a shag rug look. They are all fantastic and I can’t wait to put them on coats and sweaters and pillows and whatever else I can find.

1. flower by regina

2. boat by calicodaisy

3. crown by junie moon

4. strawberry by jessi

5. heart by anina

6. and a robot from the woman who made it all happen, michelle

Here are the how to use chopsticks buttons I embroidered for the swap!