I am on the home stretch with this year's Christmas gifts. As previously mentioned, I haven't made every gift this time around, but my sewing machine's still had quite a workout. When Jess was here, she asked me to design and make a car seat organizer to her specifications. She wanted it to be able to fold up when not in use, and not be too bulky. Here's what I came up with.
May your hands always be busy
Cleaning out the fridge in preparation for grocery shopping, I decided to cook up this recipe. The only change I made was to cook them for longer, more like 13-15 minutes. I didn't time it, but just kept testing until they were a bit tender. 
After a week when everything seemed to go wrong, the universe smiled on me today. Someone lent me a sewing machine. The repair shop called and said mine would be ready in a day or two. My car repair cost less than quoted. I won the flower lottery* at work. And I found these perfect bottles for my new project: home made vanilla essence.
*On Friday afternoons, they draw names to give away the four or five large office flower arrangements. It was nice to win one today.
My girl's going back to Australia (next Monday!) with an old laptop of mine; she needed a padded messenger bag for it, of course! Sadly, my lovely machine broke down in the middle of sewing this baby. I lowered the feed dogs to quilt the flap, and they would not rise again. This is a pretty major disaster in Hashiworld, especially as it's going to take many days (or weeks?) to repair at a cost of several hundred dollars. Ack! I do still have my decrepit old model that requires force feeding the fabric, and used it to complete the project, but it was a real struggle. 
The laptop in question doesn't close all the way (victim of a past dive from somebody's ::cough::Ian's:: bed) so I made it a matching elastic band to keep it closed, visible here. I had some doubt about which way to orient the pocket, and decided it should be right way up when the flap is completely open. Thus it looks upside down in this shot, and now I'm questioning my decision.
These cuties are becoming my 'go to' baby gift. I bought a quarter yard of the fleecy suede (I forget what it's called) some time ago to use for the soles, and I have enough left to make another dozen pairs, I'm sure. Bring on the babies!
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