These cute little backpacks were my big accomplishment for the weekend. I made them from a pattern I've been coveting for a while. When my sister mentioned that my niece wanted a backpack for her birthday, I finally committed and bought the pattern from Made by Rae. I'm really glad I did. It's a pretty easy, quick pattern, and I'm really happy with how the backpacks came out. They look like something you might buy in a cute little boutique - professional - not homemade.
This is my two year-old, Addie modeling one of the backpacks. I made both backpacks at the same time because I didn't think Addie would let me get away with giving one away if she didn't have one of her own. It turns out that she loves it even more than I thought. She's hardly taken it off, since I completed it (which makes getting her in her car seat more of a chore than usual).
So the only problem with the backpack for my niece was that I didn't finish it on time. I guess (okay I know) I'm a procrastinator, so it seems to often happen that I'm finishing something up at the last minute then I end up being late for the party (or wherever it is I'm going) and yelling at the kids. I decided I wasn't going to do that to us this time. As it was, my 11 year old daughter was wonderful about helping knowing that I was trying my best to get the backpack done. She washed Addie's face, cut her fingernails, got her dressed, and brushed her hair - all without even being asked. Is she a saint or what? (Note to self - go back and read this when said 11 year old is throwing an emotional, hormonal tantrum.) I was really close, but I just didn't make it, so I threw the three to-be-sewn-together pieces in a gift bag and presented those as her gift. She's a pretty savvy four-year-old, but she definitely thinks I'm crazy. Oh well, I did finish it the next day and will get it in the mail for her this week. I think she'll enjoy getting her very own mail.
In my defense, I had some pretty good excuses for being behind on things such as this family movie night sanctioned by my 8-year old son. We ate lots of junk food and drank Shirley Temples up in my bed and miraculously didn't even spill anything.
Then my favorite somewhat local fabric store, Alewives, was having a 20% off everything sale. I didn't really need any fabric (what halfway serious seamstress can say that with a straight face?!), didn't really have any money to spend, and I really didn't need to spend two hours that I didn't really have in the car driving there and back, but after a lot of soul-searching, I decided I just couldn't resist. Among a few other things, I finally bought the fabric for a Birdie Sling Bag. I've had the pattern for a while, and just hadn't found the right fabric.
My final, probably most frivolous distraction was stumbling across a reference to this Pioneer Woman web site. At first, I glanced at it quickly, checked out her "About Me" page then moved onto other things (more accurately other blogs), but something made me want to read more. Luck would have it that she has the entire story of meeting, falling in love with, and marrying her husband on her web site. I was immediately hooked and frittered away the whole evening reading her story instead of working on my backpacks. There's something about it that's really appealing. She has a great down-to-earth, self-deprecating style, and her story of marrying a rancher is just so interesting to me. I highly recommend it.
And speaking of distractions and stories, a friend of mine just sent me this link to this writing contest where you try to write 50,000 words by the end of this month. The idea is that you'll be in such a hurry you won't get caught up in all the things that might normally prevent you from writing a novel like plot, character development, wording, etc. What you write might be terrible, but it might prompt you to get past whatever excuse you've been giving yourself to note write your great American (or insert your country name here) novel. Speaking of excuses, I think I'm going to wait until next year to try this one when I can actually start on November 1st, but I love the idea.
Finally, although they really have nothing to do with anything, I just had to include these photos of Addie's first leaf-pile jumps. She loved it. Remember when it took so little to make you this happy?
