Renewed creativity

Our vacation was a week on Amelia Island, FL, and it was absolutely lovely. We really liked the island - nice beaches, lots of things to do in addition to the beach, and it was a friendly little town. Plus there were lots of yummy restaurants. Even though we ended up eating at the same Mexican restaurants twice and the same pizza place twice... :) (I highly recommend Moon River Pizza and Pablo's Mexican restaurant - the chicken fingers at Pablo's were highly rated, which is useful when you love Mexican food and your children won't eat it. Plus the churros were delicious!) And the condo on the beach was really nice, despite the renewing right in front of our condo. (Our view was blocked by bulldozers the first few days. But they moved surprisingly quickly.) It was a great vacation, and I feel all inspired since we got back.

First of all, I've drawn out lots more little round animals, so look for those in coming weeks. (And Ies and I both wonder why my craftiness inevitably returns to round animals - this is at least the third medium that I've made them in!)

Secondly, I got a lot of inspiration from some sewing books I read while I was gone. I read Sew What Skirts, which is a quick and easy read. For some reason I have trouble directly following patterns for myself - I'm always making minor changes. But sometimes they don't work out so well ;), so the information in this book was great. I have a bunch of skirts planned now. So far I've completed one - a straight skirt in some Amy Butler Nigella fabric I had in my stash. I'm more or less happy with it, although clearly I need to work some more on the curving on the sides. But it's cute, and certainly wearable. I'll have to post a picture later.

I also read Sew U Home Stretch, all about sewing with knits, and that was really inspiring as well. It renewed my love for my serger, especially since I think I've figured out my issues with ribbing. So I bought a bunch of knits at Joann's big sale last weekend, and I have shirts for me and jammies for the kids planned out. Now I just need to get to work on them. My to-do stack is huge, as always! But I have been productive the last few days - a skirt for me, first day of school dress for A (kindergarten! sob!), and a baby gift for a friend. So if I keep this rate up, I might actually get through some of my list before the weather's too cold to wear any of them!