Pumpkin Picking

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins last weekend. I had planned on getting 4 pumpkins (one for each of us) but on a whim I asked Carter how many pumpkins he wanted to get. His answer? 99! Thankfully we could only carry 4 and that is how many we brought home. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the pumpkin patch.









This is Carter's monster face!





Carrying our pumpkins back to the tractor.



Happy Halloween Eve!

Sponge Puppets

Wow...another few weeks have gone by and no blog post. Poor blog. So sorry.

On a bright note, my lack of writing does NOT mean that there are no new pictures. There are currently 532 pictures in my October 2011 photo album on my computer. And 107 of those made it to my October 2011 Picasa web album (which will be added to the blog by the end of the weekend, promise!)

But before I catch you up on our fun fall/Halloween activities, I thought I would share a quick craft project that Carter and I did one rainy afternoon: Sponge Puppets!

We got the idea from High Five (the 2-6 year old version of the popular Highlights magazine). Carter is always super excited when a new High Five shows up in the mail.

This month's craft project was sponge puppets. We went to Target and picked up a cheap pack of sponges and then came home to make our puppets only to discover they were really moist and the glue wouldn't stick! So we set them on a windowsil to harden for a couple of days then started the project again!

I first used a craft knife to cut holes in the bottom of the sponges for Carter's fingers. Then we cut out eyes and mouths from construction paper. He had a blast gluing them down.



Netx up? Coloring the eyes and mouths. Not sure why I gave Carter a sharpie marker for this project! Thankfully we both stayed neat and marker free.



Once our glue was dry we gave our puppets names (Hoen, Poh, Dat, and ???) and then carried on conversations with each other. Love seeing Carter's imagination at work...although our typical conversation goes something like this:

C: Hi! What's your name?
M: My name is Hoen (per Carter's instruction). What's your name?
C: I'm Poh. What you doing today?
M: I'm going to school. What about you?
...and so on.

Aren't they cute?

Hello?

Anybody still there?

I don't blame you if you're not. I just disappeared for over a month and didn't even say goodbye. It wasn't intentional, I promise. Life has just been busy. Ben is now 1 and walking everywhere he wants to go, which means mama is chasing after him everywhere he goes! Carter is back in school 3 mornings a week snd has started soccer camp too! Adam's work has been busier than normal and I have started a new business too!

Most of you know that I have been running a small embroidery business called Little Bittle Designs for the past couple of years. While I am still enjoying the embroidery industry...it was getting more and more difficult to find the time to actually stitch out products. So I decided to change things up a bit and start selling embroidery designs that other embroiderers could purchase.

It has been a fantastic process. I have learned how to digitize...how to buy a domain name...how to launch a website...and have my products available for instant download...how to use photoshop (very very basic level!)...and so much more!

Here are some of the designs I have created...would love to hear which one is your favorite!


And if you want to see more...

Please check out my website here.

Follow All Things Applique on Facebook here.

Follow All Things Applique on Twitter here.

Check out the All Things Applique blog here.

Oh, and I am selling designs on Etsy here.

See? I promise I really have been busy!

If you know anyone with an embroidery machine - please tell them about All Things Applique!