Patterns from Books, Starbucks, and Unstoppable Children.

I usually don't sew from patterns all that often,

but it seems like lately I've been doing a lot of that.

And I kind of like it.

I feel like a learn a whole lot when I use a pattern.

Well, maybe not patterns so much as books.

I've been making things from patterns out of books.

Make sense?

Like these Quick Change Trousers for Baby Cash from AMH's book, Handmade Beginnings.

And this:

It's the Clutch Handbag with Fabric Flower from Amy Butler's In Stitches.

I am a fan.

I've had her book for over 2 years and it's the first thing I've made.

It was fun.

And it was a birthday gift for my friend Chelsea.

There was a surprise birthday party.

I wasn't even the one who planned it and I was stressed out all week.

I had to avoid her for fear of blowing it.

But, she was completely surprised and had no idea, which was awesome.

It's got a nifty little divider and everything:

...and I added some hand-stitching around the edges.

You know, because I'm addicted to hand-stitching lately.

Sorry about no Lazy Sunday Giveaway this week.

My bad.

BUT- there will be one next week.

Promise.

I was not a fan of last week.

It was one of those that wasn't good, but I honestly couldn't tell you what went bad.

Nothing went my way.

Just blah.

I'm SO glad it's over.

That's a lie.

Here's at least one thing that went wrong:

I treated myself to a box of TAZO chai tea when grocery shopping so I could make fantastic Starbucks-esque frappuccinos whenever I wanted.

And then Willow dumped it all down the sink the next day.

So that sucked.

*I don't like ordering my fave drink from Starbucks because it goes a little something like this, "Could I please have a venti chai creme frappuccino with extra chai, add coffee, no whip cream and no cinnamon?"<----------BARF. Could I be any more needy and annoying?

Hence the box so I can make them at home.

Well, could have made them at home if Willow hadn't dumped out the box.

I'm sure many of you people are thinking

"Why doesn't she just put a child lock on the fridge? She sure could avoid a lot of mishaps."

Yeah, well, we have.

And Willow has broken all 4 of them.

FOUR.

We've tried to keep her out of the kitchen completely with baby gates.

She climbed over the gate in .0000082 seconds.

So then we stacked one gate on top of the other so she couldn't climb over and get in.

That kind of sucked because nobody could get in the kitchen, really, without undoing the gate extravaganza.

Until, that is, Willow slammed the top gate over and over until it popped out of the doorway, thus giving her clearance to climb the bottom gate, enter the kitchen, and raid the refrigerator.

There's no stopping her.

She's a monster.

So, for all you curious minds out there, there you go.

We try.

Oh, do we try...