Author Archives: Jess

Monster buddies

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I was sitting back and letting yet another month go by without submitting something to Loobylu’s Month of Softies, but last night I decided to just do it. I broke out some pants full of holes and made some bean-bag monsters. Their hair is made of scraps of handspun yarn and their teeth are handmade wool felt, then I got an old bag of lentils out of the pantry and stuffed away.

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This is Abenya from the land of Abanar (ask Brenna for details). She especially loves the sweet smell of cherry blossoms, and the view from up here.

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This is Jonah’s monster Mo. He’s a little scared of heights, so he’s soaking in the spring air here among the lilly of the valley.

The kids have been playing with them all day– and they should be good for a game of bean bag toss too.

Little Felt Book Gallery

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I’ve still got this one. I realy like the shiny shell button.

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This was the first one I finished. I still have it.

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This was my favorite. I made the flower with angora/ lambswool blend felt that April and I made together. It sold, so I’ll have to make another one.

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Even though I didn’t put a button closure on it the felt lies open when you want it too, but the book stays shut too.

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More little angora/ lambswool felt flowers.

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This one will be a birthday gift for April (tomorrow!).
(She has dial-up, so I know she won’t be reading this.)

A good day

We got a new YMCA a few months ago. The best thing about it is that there is a pool. A pool in which I can swim laps. I didn’t know I loved to swim until after Brenna was born. I decided for the rest of my life I would need to be in the best shape of my life before I had a baby. Just after I got pregnant with Brenna (unbeknownst to me) Barry and I rode 150 mile on our bikes from Stanley, ID to Boise. So, after Brenna was born I needed to out do myself, so I decided it would be worth a try to train for a triathalon. Problem was that I couldn’t really swim and I hate to run. I never got over the hate to run part, but I signed up for a swimming class (I was still in college then). The first day I thought I was going to DIE. I couldn’t even swim a full there-and-back lap. But, the wonderful patient husband that he is, Barry would go to the pool every now and then and give me some pointers.

Anyway, this is getting really long. I learned how to swim and could swim laps all day if I could. I did a sprint length triathalon for my “I’ve been un-pregnant for one year” celebration and accomplished a goal.

So, what I started out saying was that we have a new YMCA. it has free childcare and a pool. I packed up the kids and dropped them off to play and I swam 1100 yards while little grandmas did water aerobics in the other half of the pool.

I liked it.