Squared Up

 Remember (back in October) when I was working on learning how to crazy quilt using all of my decorative fabric?  Well, I finished the quilting part and squared it up.  I used the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to quilt it.  I would have loved trying to hand embroider those same stitches, but I don't have time for that nonsense.  I switched up the thread colors a bunch of times just for fun.

 And here's my square...it's 15" x 15".  

Nursery Evolution: Mobile

I've had this mobile put together for many, many, many months, but I dragged my feet installing a hook in the ceiling. We finally got around to doing that and it took me many, many, many days to remember to take pictures during the daytime.

I used these birds from Land of Nod (but I don't see them for sale anymore), one part of a quilting hoop, and lots of ribbon.  In hindsight, I would not have used so many different colors around the quilting hoop.  Live and learn.

Plastered

Ack!  Where did the month go?  It's already Valenyine's Day and I haven't done any crafting in weeks.  We did some nursery updating a few days ago, but my work schedule has been hectic and I haven't had any time to take good daylight photos.  Maybe this weekend I'll share some pictures.

Anyway, Happy Valenyine's Day!  This time last year I was 11 days from my due date and to celebrate, I made my husband make one of those plaster castings of my pregnancy belly.  We used the Proud Body kit.

He tells me I am not allowed to post any of the in progress/aftermath photos, because they are too pornographic.  I guess he's right about some of them, because you can see my thighs!!  And in some of the castings you can see my nipples (not my fault -- that plaster was COLD!). 

So, what did I think of this project?  Meh.  It's a neat thing to see, but we didn't use enough of the bandages, so it feels a bit flimsy -- it definitely won't withstand the test of time.   It's fairly delicate to begin with, so it's also a hassle to store the thing.  It's traveled around the house this last year.  For a while, it spent time in front of a window facing the neighbor's dining room window.  Hello!  The whole project was also super messy.  I think we're still finding plaster splatter on the cabinets even after one year.

I haven't decorated it yet.  I thought about painting it or bejeweling it, but it's not very smooth.  I'm sure there was a way to fix that mid-plastering, but we didn't.  Oh well.  

Sushi Box

 Here it is!

Felt sushi!  In a real sushi box!

In addition to the shrimp, I also made the salmon, the octopus, the tuna, and the egg from the pattern.

And I added two avocado rolls to the carrot and California rolls that I made up on my own.

And my favorite piece is the salmon roe sushi:

I used orange mini pom-pom trim for the roe and just tacked it down row by row on the sushi rice body.  It then got wrapped in some green felt for the seaweed layer.  Awesomeness!  So much fun.  Of course, I would never eat it in real life, but it was fun to create play sushi.

And here it is with the lid...