Some while back, someone asked in the comments section what I've been working on lately.
Here are some pictures of recent projects for my youngest daughter's room. The comforter on the bed is my eldest daughter's design. It is two layers of polar fleece sandwiched over high loft batting. It isn't quilted; instead, my eldest daughter and I sewed buttons onto the center of each of the flowers (which took several weeks), then I bound it off with blanket binding. It weighs about 15 pounds, and is way, way warmer than it looks. I just finished it today.
Also on the bed is a sock monkey I did last week. My husband and I were chatting some time ago about how you never see kids with old fashioned toys like sock monkeys anymore. My eldest daughter asked "what's a sock monkey?". So I told her I could show her how to make one sometime. She pestered me for a couple of months and finally last week she and I each made a sock monkey. She kept hers, and I gave the one I made to our youngest daughter, who loves it.
The afghan at the bottom of the bed was made this summer out of yarn my youngest daughter picked out for her "big girl blankie" (she is three so she transitioned from a crib to this newly renovated room (her "big girl" room) this summer once she was finally toilet trained). The afghan has already gone all pilly with too many washings, but she likes it. I also made the curtains for her canopy bed out of old sheets...not exactly a time consuming or mentally challenging project, but she likes to have them because she closes them at night and turns on her little white Xmas lights (that you perhaps might just be able to make out wound around the wrought iron on the head board in the first picture) and it makes her feel cozy.
The second picture shows the little side table I made for her last fall out of a folding garden table. I painted it white, then bought a bunch of those half-round glass beads in various colors, and glued them on to form flowers. It looks pretty cool, she really likes it (especially when the sun hits it), and it is surprisingly very durable. It was also next to free (with me not working right now, money is tight).
The third picture is a gratuitous shot of my dog, Beatrice. My great-grandmother was named Beatrice, and oral family history has it that several of her grandchildren were named Beatrice after her, at her insistence (luckily, none of the boys ended up with the name). I was luckily born after she died, or else I too might be called Beatrice instead of Absinthe. Anyway, when this dog came into our lives in 2005 as a starving, flea-infested, and very sick stray puppy (she had parvo, and nearly died), I named her Beatrice after my great-grandmother. I am sure the old woman is now spinning in her grave ;-) I've owned quite a few dogs, and Beatrice is the smartest and most loyal one I've ever had. She follows me everywhere, and is extremely easy to train to obey "off leash" commands (usually the hardest thing to get a dog to do, because they know you don't have physical control over them). And even though she is a mutt, she is one of the prettiest mutts I've ever seen. I have no idea what kind of mix she is, but obviously german shepard figures heavily into the breed mixture. She also has the bushiest most perfect dog tail I've ever seen (the picture doesn't do it justice)....my husband says she must be part coyote because of her tail ;-)
I've also spent several months working on the Mother of All Knitting Projects that I will post a picture of sometime in the relatively near future.
Also, just in case you are thinking my kids are incredibly anal retentive or something because of the lack of mess in the pictures; my daughter's room only looks this neat after I do its once-a-week cleaning and change her bedding...it almost immediately turns back into its natural state, which is a happy mess with the floor and every available surface littered with toys, craft supplies, and books.
