I promised the family that this year we could all have a nice beach vacation. No driving, minimal shopping, plenty of fried seafood. We chose Tybee Island, Georgia, because we’d driven through once on a road trip (August 2004) and were charmed by the warm water, gentle waves, and complete lack of golfers.

We rented an old ’20s beach cottage about a block away from the beach. Bill and the kids had a great time. My time -- not quite so great, since I was attacked by mosquitoes on a daily basis and the heat made my feet swell to the approximate size, shape, and heft of canned hams.

And yet … I did enjoy going into Savannah, which is about twenty minutes away. When I go to heaven, if I go to heaven, I imagine that it will be a lot like Savannah, without the bugs or the humidity. Beautifully maintained 19th century brick townhouses arranged around leafy green squares, oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, delicious Southern food at Mrs. Wilkes’ Boarding House, and boutiques like @home (7 West York Street, no web site as far as I can tell), an amazing store filled with new and vintage paper items, linens, ribbon, books, and all kinds of random, shiny, lovely things.

Okay, so maybe there was some shopping involved, but everyone else did get to go the beach.

When last we spoke ...

I had just discovered that we were going to have another baby. The baby's fine, she's a girl, she's due in five weeks. More about her later. Look at this cool thing I made!



I was thrilled when we returned from vacation and I found Hillary Lang's beautiful Put-Together Book in the mail. Actually, at first I was disappointed because she'd sold out of the first printing and I wasn't able to get one. But then I was glad because she ordered a second printing. Then, when I finally got the book in my hot little hands, I was concerned because I didn't think I had a large enough piece of wool felt to cut out the pattern, until I discovered a big piece of cream colored wool felt hidden away in a closet (glad). And then I was distraught because I thought that I'd lost the cord connecting my sewing machine to the foot pedal when I sent the machine out to be repaired, and I would have to order a new cord from Bernina, which could take forever. But then Bill pointed out that the cord was not lost at all, it was simply wrapped up inside the foot pedal. And then I felt like an idiot. And then I was happy again, and got to work.

The cream colored felt screamed out "bunny," so here she is. I'm very pleased that everything that went into making the bunny was stuff I actually had, especially since it's too hot to drag the family and my enormously pregnant behind to the fabric store. I even had the little daisy buttons that went on the shoes.


I got the dress fabric in a vintage fabric lot I won on eBay about a year ago -- I didn't love it, but I stashed it away thinking that I might find a use for it at some point. Isn't it weird how something overlooked can turn out to be the perfect thing?

If anyone still doesn't have this fabulous book, I strongly urge you to buy it. It's not only adorable, it's clearly written and easy to follow. You can buy it here.