Goodbye, Beautiful Summer

Because of my school schedule,

this summer I ended up with a full

THREE MONTHS

of no work, no school, no being a taxi mom.

It was the longest I've been off since I was ELEVEN.

To put this in perspective,

the last time I had this long of a vacation,

I was cooling off in the family above-ground pool and

and quenching my thirst by getting a drink from the garden hose.

As usual with the summers I started off ambitious...

... but by the end felt I had accomplished something

if I changed the Britta water filter.

(Hey, there's three whole steps in replacing that thing!)

However, student teaching starts next week,

so it's time to say goodbye to all the good times I had this summer.

Goodbye to long, sweaty, satisfying days in my garden,

where I pulled out the dead plants that didn't make it through

the shockingly dry winter,

and replaced them with sturdier natives and succulents. 

(The above section is in honor of a local landmark,

Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village.)

Goodbye to long mornings at the city library's used bookstore,

where I stocked up on books for my Little Free Library,

my bookshelf, and my future classroom.

(Also, shout-out to the lovely Linda,

 who always gave me the best deals on my books.)

And speaking of bookshelves,

goodbye to hours of luxurious reading,

which I know will be in short supply once school starts.

(These are just a few of my bookshelves.)

Goodbye to sewing for my Etsy shop!

I haven't put my shop on vacation,

but I won't be adding new items any time soon.

Goodbye to looong cuddle-pets with my kitties...

... who will probably be thinking,

I thought we'd never get the house back to ourselves!

Oh, bed.

How I will miss getting up every morning sans alarm clock.

And while I hope I'll still have time to practice my ukulele...

...I know I probably won't progress much past

the half-dozen folk songs I've sorta mastered.

Sigh...

I would stay in my funk for a bit longer,

except...

except...

... look what I just saw at Joann Fabrics!

Yaaaay!!!!

Beautiful Halloween is just around the corner.

Get Yer Abbey On!

Did you watch this show?

Despite its PBS pedigree,

Downton Abbey is the soapiest of soaps, 

a category of TV I gave up more than thirty years ago

when I realized that no one would ever be allowed to be happy

for more than a season or two.

How soapy is it?

Well in season one, this elegant, (seemingly) reserved British lady...

... killed this pillow-lipped character...

IN HER BED.

It's true!

Lady Mary, she of the demure little hats,

slept with the naughty Ambassador Pamuk and somehow 

killed 

him 

dead.

Like I said, 

SOAP CITY.

BUT!

While I may roll my eyes at the often-unbelievable shenanigans

of these Brits and their servants,

I will always come back for the FASHIONS!

Just look at these ladies!

I swoon!

And what about these wedding dresses?

I love those veils!

(And btw, I think the much-maligned Lady Edith on the right

actually looks better than her Mean Girl sister Lady Mary on the left.)

But it wasn't only the wedding finery that caught my eye;

there were also a few shots of how the village had prepared for Lady Mary's wedding:

So simple, but so pretty, right?

Bunting is evidently an English thing 

that has happily become more and more popular across the pond.

I dig it, so I decided to make some for my Etsy shop!

I did an earlier tutorial  for how to do these yourself,

but if you're interested in skipping the sewing machine

 I have both a listing for a single string and a listing for three strings in my shop.

What do you think Lady Mary?

She's excited.  I can tell.

My Postal Worker Doubles As A Snowy White Owl

I finished up some more Harry Potter Gryffindor quilts!

This one is 34" x 44"...

.... this one is 28" x 35"... 

... and this one is also 34" x 44".

A lovely customer already bought one that is not pictured;

now, how did I get that wrapped up and sent?

Well, when I was first joined Etsy, I bought this funky little pin

from the seller foundthings.

When the pin came in the mail, the lovely Emmy T. had wrapped it in cool tissue paper,

and used a handmade envelope from a recycled map.

It wasn't just like getting an impersonal item in the mail,

it was like getting a present!

So when I started selling through Etsy, I also decided to make getting an item

from BadBabyQuilts feel like a special gift.

The bulk of the items I sell from my shop are fabric tissue holders...

... which are small enough to send in an envelope with a first class stamp.

Scott over at BucketOBolts tipped me off that Hallmark

has scads of colorful leftover envelopes that they sell dirt cheap.

Every few months I swing by and refill my stash.

For the envelopes, I commissioned a special sticker

from the delightful Russ at WaddlinOnion...

 ... because I wanted the recipients to open their mailboxes and be all, 

"Cool! My Etsy goody is here!"

Over the years, I've also received little nifty gifties with my Etsy items.

So I decided to slip a few stickers in with the tissue holders;

I also got these from WaddlinOnion 's shop.

When I first was selling my tissue holders, I would either wrap them in tissue paper

or put them in a little Ziploc bag.

I soon realized that Target, Joann Fabrics, and Michaels

often had inexpensive cello treat bags

that are just the right size for the tissue holders.

I stock up on them; sometimes they're even cheaper post-holidays.

But what about larger items, like my quilts and banners?

Well, I found something handy at Home Depot: masking paper!

This stuff is dirt cheap; at Lowe's, it's only $4.00 for 60 yards!

I just tie it with some pretty sale yarn or some vintage bias tape I bought off of Etsy.

But back to my Harry Potter quilts.

I wanted to wrap them especially nice,

so when my customer bought a baby quilt, I downloaded an "owl post" image...

... and made a cool sticker to put on the package.

I used the masking paper, some brown bias tape, and...

Accio, mail carrier!

As an extra little gift, I included a Gryffindor tissue holder,

which I placed in a super-cute owl cello bag I found on sale at Cost Plus.

How perfect is this?

I think even Dudley would approve.

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION TIME!

As is ever my wont,

when a customer on Etsy asked for a custom item, 

I made five more for my shop.

Cool, eh?

They come in both gilded and non-gilded,

short and long.

Check out out the Sugar Skull Pennant section of my shop for more!