Sarah (Mini-me) and I are having too much fun planning this party for Friday. We have some really cool crafts planned and have been trying to get samples made today. (Keeping my fingers double crossed that the jewelry blanks I ordered Wednesday to be sent Priority arrive on Monday!)

Today she painted this wooden toy truck to look like the main character, Bella’s, old truck. We also made some polymer clay beads for our ribbon book marks. Sarah put it all together for this cool display.
 
  

   
   
Getting new books is like my birthday, Christmas and Halloween all wrapped up in one for me. Why Halloween? Because is is my favorite holiday and it involves candy. Duh. Anyway, I love ordering and getting new crafty books. There are so many great ones being published right now. If I had nothing else to do all day I’d just grab a random stack of them and sit out on the front porch and get inspired.

Once I have a chance to really dive into these a little more I’ll type up some reviews. I’ve flipped through Alternacrafts and Subversive Seamstress and there are some really cool projects in both of them. Doodlestitching looks to have some really cute embroidery ideas. There is a lot of creative eye candy in all three of the Artist Trading Card (ATC) books too.

 
Softies/Plushies are all the rage in the craft/sewing world right now. The sillier and uglier the better too. I’ve wanted to use up some of my stash and make some for quite a while. Then we got

 
Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff

and  Softies : simple instructions for 25 plush pals by Therese Laskey into the store and I had to have a go at it.

Emma and I cut, stitched and sewed Saturday afternoon until I had this funny little alien/octopus guy. She is working on a purple and silver toaster but hers isn’t quite ready for unveiling yet.
 
  
Watch for a Monster Plushie Making class coming soon.