Let's Fall, Y'all!

 

It may still be summery outside, but y'all know that inside Wonderful HQ we aggressively pretend it's fall! The house is decorated, the sewing room is in progress, and there has even been some finishing and framing (gasp)! Brew up your favorite cozy beverage, snuggle down in front of the fan, and pretend with us! 

Adorable Crazy Candy Corn freebie from Kitty and Me Designs

Tiny Halloween Village from the 2024 Just Cross Stitch special Halloween issue

Low-ish Carb Snack Cake Recipe (the one in the picture is made with Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips... we cut back on carbs where we can so we can eat real chocolate!)

Bonus sneak peek of my Autumn Tiny House (remember my Spring Tiny House?)

Happy Fall, y'all!

My Favorite Ongoing Bird Series

 

More favorites to share! This is an ongoing series of bird designs from Ukrainian designer Stitchy Princess. I have a number of her designs and have stitched her swampy sampler, but these birds are my favorite! Look how pretty!

These Chickadees have just been released and I have to tell you I gasped! I absolutely love Chickadees and am thrilled with this design!

There's one more design in the series, English Robins, but I skipped that one since we don't have those here. It's very pretty, though. 

Hope you find something in her shop you like! 

Happy Stitching!

A Few of My Favorite Things

 

I love to enable (and be enabled by!) fellow stitchers by sharing designs and stash and goodies I find, but today is something new. I'm not sure why it has never occurred to me to share other things, but I recently had to do a re-stock of a few of my favorite things and it dawned on me I should share! 

So today, skincare! We all have our tried and true favorites, and these are mine. I've been using them for years on my sensitive, very dry skin. Mind you, these are not fancy formulas with the latest trendy ingredients taking the interwebs by storm. They're simple, old fashioned products made by small American businesses. One of the recipes is over 250 years old! I know we're in the age of 25-step skincare routines, and if that's what you enjoy and you love the results, more power to you! Me? I would have to take a nap halfway through! Basic products for a basic girl!

Soap from Connecticut 

Several years ago I went through a long season of extreme stress and my skin went absolutely haywire. It was so red and inflamed it looked like I had been burned. It was awful and nothing I tried soothed it. I had been buying lotion from this Connecticut goat farm for a while but hadn't tried any of their soap. I added one of these Sensitive Skin face bars to an order to give it a try. I don't know whether it's the goats' milk or the clay or both, but my skin loves this soap. It didn't happen overnight, but it saved my skin. 

Créme from Montana

This Wool Wax Creme is a super thick formula made in Montana from the lanolin in sheep's wool (obviously you'll want to skip this if you're allergic to wool). This stuff is amazing. When you put it on, it can feel slightly tacky at first, but if you keep rubbing it in, it melts into your skin and creates a moisture barrier. Sheep are waterproof and so are you! Seriously, it stands up to showers and handwashing better than anything I've ever used. My skin has begun changing over the last year or so (you ladies of a certain age know!) and it's even drier than ever. This heavy duty creme is keeping it soft and protected. It's too heavy for the face, but it's great elsewhere. The shop I linked has a little 2 oz. tub if you just want to try it. It's available from several shops that sell Montana-made goods.

Eye cream from Wisconsin 

This. THIS is my holy grail. A 250-year-old moisturizer. It's from a historical apothecary shop on Etsy. I have tried and enjoyed a number of goodies from this shop, but this "pomatum for wrinkles" is my absolute favorite. I use it as an eye cream. I have to be careful about the moisturizer I use on my face as it seems to prefer something light, even though it's quite dry, so I don't use this all over my face, but it's the best eye cream I've ever used. This shop also offers tiny sample sizes of a lot of their products, so you can try out lots of things and see what works for you.

Those are three of my favorite products that suit my skin wonderfully well. I've been reordering them for years. Everyone has different skincare needs and preferences, and the nice thing about all of these is that they're not expensive like so much of the skincare products these days. If you try one of them and it doesn't suit you, you haven't wasted a lot of money. If you try something and love it, you can help me keep these small family businesses going!

If you have a favorite product from a small business, share it in the comments! I would love to check it out!

Saturday Sampler: Last of Summer Edition

 

Summer has ended on a sad note. Mr. Wonderful had a birthday and we had some lovely celebrations but a few days later he lost his mother. He's just gotten home from Texas and we are tired and drained but also feeling very blessed by all the love and care from our church family. It's a quiet, rainy Saturday. The house is clean, the laundry done, the fridge stocked. I wanted to make sure when he got home, everything could stop and be quiet, so he could rest. 

June and July had been taken up mostly with my big sewing room clean out project, but that skidded to a halt in early August. We lost a member of our church family and there was busyness with that, and then we had our own loss. So, I'm behind with some things I had wanted to have finished by the end of summer. But that's life. Someone once said, "Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans."

I'm looking forward to fall, though cooler weather is a while off yet. Looking forward to getting back into my sewing room and finishing that up. Looking forward to settling back into my stitching. Just looking forward to normal after a month of loss and everything that goes with it.

I hope the last few days of summer are finding you well, and that you're feeling that little spark of anticipation of all the lovely things fall brings, even if you have to fake fall like I do!

Happy Birthday, Babies!

 

The werewolves are four years old today! I look back at their baby pictures and can't believe they were ever that tiny and fragile. Happy Birthday to our beautiful girls!

Easy Fix for Floppy Bags

 

I love bags. Not expensive designer bags, but high utility, go anywhere, do anything bags. I especially like small ones that hold a lot and have lots of pockets and zippers and nooks and crannies. I'm a bit of a connoisseur. 

I keep a "go bag" (under an airline seat size) packed and ready at all times. To accompany that bag, I like to have a small crossbody bag to wear that holds the usual purse stuff. Between those two bags, I can skip checking luggage, quickly get through security, hop on a flight, and have all my things with me at all times, without worrying about whether my luggage will make it to my destination. (Why I do this might be a subject for another post.)

I have prowled Amazon for many hours in search of wonderful (inexpensive!) bags, and I've found that many of the ones with the features I like are also made of nylon, which is cool because they're water resistant, but uncool because they often don't have rigid bottoms and they're floppy, which I don't like.

Bottomless and floppy (boooo!)

Fortunately, this is easy to fix. All you need is some cardboard or other stiff-ish material, fabric, and glue.

Measure the bottom of the bag, between the seams. Stretch the fabric slightly to get an accurate measurement. You'll want the bottom to fit snugly.

Cut your bottom material a tiny bit smaller than your measurement, and remember a thicker bottom like cardboard will be less forgiving size-wise. You want to use something that is stiff but not so rigid it can't be manipulated, as you'll have to work it in under those seams. Trim the corners to make it easier to fit under the end seams.

Cover cardboard with fabric (I used hot glue to secure it). Work the bottom in under the seams and that's all there is to it.

Not floppy (yaaaay!)

Having a rigid bottom in a bag makes it a little easier to dig around in (think digging around in a box as opposed to a plastic bag), and it's kinda fun to customize with pretty fabric. It's also a good way to brighten up the inside to make it easier to see what's in there.

The straps are also from Amazon and are sold as "camera straps." They come in tons of colors and designs and are another fun way to customize a bag. A wider strap is also more comfortable than a skinny one, at least for me.

Hope this is helpful, and may you find the perfect bag!