August 31

I just finished Amy Butler's Nappy Bag, which includes a changing pad in its own drawstring bag. It'll go in the mail this week to a soon-to-be-mama who's about ready to pop.

I screwed up when cutting it out; I put the wrong edge of the pattern on the fold of the fabric, happily repeating the mistake for two outside pieces, two lining pieces, two canvas reinforcement pieces and four internal pocket pieces. Ack!! So now all those myriad bits have a seam up the middle, which I camouflaged on the outside with a strip of dotty ribbon.

It was my first Amy Butler pattern, and I found it very easy to follow (the mistake with the fold was completely my fault, not Amy's). The finished bag is pretty heavy (thanks to the canvas reinforcement) which I'm not sure is a good thing for a nappy bag; but at least it's super sturdy.

August 30

My beautiful niece Emma made a flying visit on her way to a wedding. I love, love, love it when my Australian family comes to stay, even if it's only for a day and a night.

August 25

Another birthday dressing gown. It feels weird (and hot!) to be making a cozy robe in the middle of a heat wave, but of course the seasons will turn sooner or later. This one's a request from my brother-in-law, who has two white cats that shed a lot.

August 24

Garden bounty :-)

August 23

Josh and I spent the day in the pretty seaside town of La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya), just north of San Diego. We'd gone with the plan of snorkeling among the leopard sharks, but for various reasons that didn't pan out. After lunch we drove around a bit and came upon this place for rent, that happened to be having an open house, and also happened to have a parking spot nearby, so we went in for a stickybeak.

All very lovely, except for the price tag. This house rents for $10,000 a week in the summer. Um, I don't think so.

August 22

Here's a fun meme. Create a self-portrait using Flickr, by answering the following questions.

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.
Using only the first page of the results, choose an image. Copy and paste its URL into the mosaic maker over at Big Huge Labs.

The questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name
(Plus I added one more secret one to balance out how my mosaic was set-up).

Here's what I got. I love it!

1. Hashi rest, 2. A Sunflower of Mangoes..., 3. just a hunk, a hunk of burnin' rock, 4. Beautiful old lady from Darap(Sikkim) village, 5. Redwood Bridge (from raw); A Wedding Day post in honor of my Lovely Bride!, 6. No 2, 7. Moonlit Airlie Beach, 8. Fruit/Star, 9. Prairie Wind, 10. golden days, 11. llibreria - bookstore - Amsterdam - HDR, 12. juego de niñas, 13. tent fabric

August 21

My company picnic was held this week; they closed off Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier for three hours for us, and laid on a buffet lunch. Immediate family was invited, so of course I took Lauren. Sadly for her, I'm not one for stomach lurching rides, so she had to ride some of them alone or with my workmates. But I do love the ferris wheel, so was happy to go on that several times.
Rhea, remember the day we rode the ferris wheel with David on our very first visit to America? They replaced it a few months ago. I drive by there every morning, and within a week the old one was gone and the new one was up. Rhea on the Pacific Park ferris wheel, October 1996

August 20

I made a few of these for Christmas presents last year, and loved how quick and easy they are to make, and how ... well ... fun the finished product is! So today it was just the ticket for a quick birthday gift for a young man turning six.

August 19

I'm thinking this would look adorable on a wee girl celebrating her first Christmas. I need to make a little red or yellow headband to match, with a sunflower on it. What do you think?

August 18

Burp cloths! They're all different sizes, because I used what I had in the way of baby-girlish flannel. A new mother can never have too many burp cloths, right?

August 17

At the fabric store yesterday, fat quarters were on sale for 99c each, so I snapped up enough to make napkins, a project that's been on my list for quite a while.

I made one set to match the dining room placemats ...

and other for the breakfast table.

August 16

Another dress for my niece. You can't really see them, but it has big patch pockets on the front. The fabric is one of the $1 a yard bargains I picked up back in March.

August 10

One of my friends is getting married in a few weeks, and I was at a loss for what to make her as a gift. While I know the bride pretty well, I have never really got a handle on her taste, which always seemed pretty random to me. And I've only met the groom once, so that was no help. I looked at their registries for inspiration, thinking I might do what I've done before, and make placemats to go with their chosen dinnerware. Hmmm. Plain white dinnerware. Great. So I looked at their bed linen, and saw they had chosen greys with a very simple floral motif. That was the hook I needed, and the above placemats were born.

I hope they like them!

August 9

Back at the sewing machine again. This child's dress was just too easy!

August 3

I drove to San Francisco this weekend, to see this:and to go here:The weather was gorgeous, the company convivial, and the whole weekend worthwhile. Gotta do this more often.