We've actually been home since Saturday night but somehow I haven't been able to get complete sentences to come out of my head onto my screen. It might have something to do with the very excited critters that want so much of our attention - how could I deny them -I missed them too.

We had a nice vacation and there are some pictures from it below. The weather was wonderful; hot and sunny on days we were out and about and cool and smelling of rain* on days we weren't. We met up with some good friends but didn't plan quite well enough to see everyone. We gave ourselves plenty of lazy time because it was a short vacation and the only one we'll be taking this summer. We ate lots of good food; I bought three new pairs of shoes; we sat in coffee shops knitting and reading; and I discovered far too many fun things in the art store near our hotel (more on those later).
























It was good to get home. To see our house and our critters and sleep in our bed.

*Rain is one of my favourite smells after the winter. It is so fresh and a part of summer for me. It looks as though we will be having some rain here today. It will be good for our grass.

There has been some more vacation sewing going on here. Never quite enough but I try to stop before I get too stressed. Right now I should be finishing up my packing and deciding when to set the alarm for and trying to sleep ... but I can never sleep well the night before we travel - I'm too worried I'll sleep late.


We're not going far but we are going to 'the big city' which means plenty of shopping and knitting in coffee shops and browsing bookstores (and way more people than I am comfortable with). Oh, and shoes. I need some new shoes. We'll be gone for a week and I hope to return with some fun things to share (including some action shots of finished objects).


See you next weekend  :)

We are going travelling next week and this was a required sewing project for the trip. My old wallet was starting to really fall to bits and I wanted to replace it. I had been looking for a new wallet to meet my needs: I wanted something handmade with pockets for sorting receipts and slots for cards. Nothing I found really fit the bill though and I ended up deciding to make my own. It turned out to be a remarkably quick project (once I had all the math done).


The print was a fat quarter of linen I won in the Crafty Slacker Give-a-way. I really wanted the pattern to be centred and for the pattern on the closure to line up; I miss-cut my first piece and ended up with just barely enough to make the wallet. I'm glad I took the trouble to centre the design though - I think it gives my wallet a more polished look. The plain linen was cut from a dress I found at the flea market a few weeks ago (one of my best finds yet). There are two layers of interlining: one canvas for structure and one muslin for stability while piecing.


I did all my cutting on Saturday night and sewed my wallet (except for hand finishing the binding) before we went out for lunch on Sunday. I spent a whole evening earlier in the week working out exactly how big everything should be and how to put it together (many diagrams were involved).

I've been giving my new wallet a thorough testing since Sunday and have found it very satisfactory. Now I just need to make a little coin purse to match.