Ever since our move in mid-November, I've been working on the most random projects! The lined drawstring bag sew along started right after we got here, so I haven't really shared what I'm working on since November! So this is going to be a bit of a catch-up post of things I've sewn and crafted since then, starting with some holiday projects.

It should come as no surprise that I love table linens. I have a couple drawers full of thrifted tablecloths, napkins and placemats. My stash is the most lacking in placemats, most of the ones we use are handmade. This year I decided to sacrifice a vintage Christmas tablecloth that was too small and turn it into placemats! I made six placemats and still have plenty leftover!


My daughter has discovered the joys of perler beads. She's a bit young to do them on her own, but she loves telling us what to make her! We started by making a bunch of colorful ornaments but have also made cats, bows, hello kitty and friends, etc. It's been fun to revisit this craft.


I didn't hang up my collection of paper snowflakes this season, but I did make some new tiny ones! These are made with 2.5" squares of paper.


I usually make a few new holiday lined drawstring bags outside of the ones I make for the sew along tutorials. This one used a scrap of postage stamp fabric that my friend Jacey gave me many years ago. I love how it turned out!! I was able to use thrifted fabrics for the accent and lining too, which is nice! This is the everything size from my pattern.


I made my daughter another Christmas quilt! Looking back I don't think I ever shared the one I made her the year before, oops! I'll be sure to share them both in full soon. This one is bigger and just simple patchwork. I even managed to finish it before Christmas!


Speaking of quilts, I bound three that I had quilted by Katie this past fall!


We were long overdue for a new potholder, as our old one was looking a bit rough. I actually ended up repairing the old one too, I'll share more about both of these soon!


Another peek at a project that will show up in full here in the coming weeks, a zipper pouch made with old fabric samples!


The last little tease of an upcoming post. I remade the "SEW" pincushion I made for a publication long ago. I'm writing a tutorial for it!



This month I finally made myself one of these stuffed geese with the Silly Goose pattern by Woolly Petals*. What a hilarious and fun project this was. I love how it turned out, I think it's adorable! I used about half of a vintage pillowcase and the orange print was pulled from my scrap bin. Thankfully I had some safety eyes on hand to finish it off. I will definitely be making more of these!!



I have plans to change out some of the light fixtures in our new house, but I've only just started the process of sourcing new fixtures so I know it will be a while before we actually make the changes. So for now I decided to dress up the light in the dining room a little. I painted it green (it really needs another coat!) and made these little shades for it out of vellum. It had no shades previously, so the light was pretty harsh. These simple pleated shades help diffuse the light and make it a lot more pleasant to have the light on! It took some experimenting to get the shades right, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I think it kind of looks like flowers now! To head off any concerns: the bulbs are LED so they don't get hot and the shades don't touch the bulbs.


Lastly, I started a new junk journal. This one is really simple, it's a "stamp" collection!! I saw someone doing this on instagram (here) and the idea really spoke to me. I already had the punch in my stash, so it was an easy choice! I love real stamps, so it feels like it was meant to be. And it's very low effort, which is what I need right now. It's been fun!

Okay, that's a pretty good recap for now! I hope to be back soon to share a little tour of my sewing space.

Happy Making!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

Recent Knitting Projects

I haven't had a ton of time lately for sewing, but I have been doing a lot of knitting so far this year. It's something I can take around the house with me and work on while my daughter plays. I have also been using it to unwind at the end of the night while listening to an audiobook. Last month I was really feeling the stress of the last few months. Michael started his new job (which was been quite stressful) and we're still navigating our new home/life/town. It's been a few years since I've knitted seriously and it felt like the right time to pick it back up. There is something about counting the stitches and the repitition that is very relaxing.

My favorite thing to knit is hats, so that's what I've been making! I'm working on my fourth hat of the year already!! I wanted to document the ones that I've finished so far.



First up, a new Astra hat! This is the Astra Hat by Ambah O'Brien, my very favorite hat pattern to knit. It's really enjoyable and I love how it looks too, win-win! I knit this one for myself.



This is the Scrappy Marl Pattern by Beata Jezek (Hedgehog Fibres), which is free. It was my first time marling, you hold two strands of sock yarn. Loved knitting this one and it was nice to be able to use up some sock yarn! Despite the fact that I am not a sock knitter, I have a lot of sock weight yarn. I am looking forward to more marling in the future! Michael claimed this one.


I used the same yarns in this woven scarf a few years ago!



Finally I made a hat for my daughter. This is the Bells Beanie by Ambah O'Brien. It was my first time knitting with handspun yarn! This one is from Spun Right Round, years ago! A really fun knit, another one I'll knit again!


And now I'm making another Astra hat, this time for my Mom! You can find more of my knitting projects on my Ravelry. Hopefully I'll be back soon to share some sewing projects!

Happy Knitting!

2026 Crafty Goals

Today I wanted to share my 2026 crafty goals! Similar to the last few years, my goal list for this year is short and simple. I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to crafting or my work right now, so I'm trying to keep my goals manageable. I am trying to focus more on consistency this year. Consistently carving out time to do something craft or art related. Staying focused on the types of projects that are making me happy which are projects made with secondhand materials and/or projects made with scraps. Here are my crafty goals for this year:

2026 Crafty Goals

- Continue to prioritize using secondhand or repurposed materials.

- Use up more yardage than I bring in for both fabric and yarn.

- Finish up 1 or 2 long-term projects in progress.

- Release 1 new pattern.

- Make a mini Making Backpack.

- Complete one small scrap project per month.

- Try a new craft! I have supplies to try out marbling, natural dyeing, weaving (with a simple flat loom), bleach dyeing, etc.

- Put my loom back together and weave a new scarf.

- Try to do something crafty (sewing, knitting, painting, drawing, crocheting, etc) most days.

- Have an indigo dyeing day this summer!

If you're looking for some advice for making crafty goals, I wrote a post about my general approach to crafty goals a few years ago, you can find it here: Tips for Making and Keeping Crafty Goals.

Happy Making!

My 2025 Garden and 2026 Garden Plans

Happy Tuesday! Today I wanted to spend some time looking back on my 2025 garden and looking forward to my 2026 garden plans! See past gardening posts here.


Before the season really started (end of March) we found out we'd be moving at the end of 2025, so I knew going into this season that it would be our last in CT. I'm grateful we had one more full season in our garden. I took it as an opportunity to try out some new-to-me things and use up old seeds. One thing I finally had success with this year was sugar snap peas! I had tried growing them before, but always in containers that would go on to have tomatoes in them, so I would have to pull them out to make room for those before they really had a chance. I only had a few plants in a small pot, but they did great! And I loved how cute the flowers were, they took me be surprise. Will definitely grow some again!


A last hurrah for our container driveway garden. It served us well for many years! We skipped the peppers this year and did less tomatoes than usual since we wouldn't be freezing any. We grew sungold, chocolate pear, and patio choice yellow bush cherry. We tried to grow golden jubilee tomatoes, but ended up with a red roma tomato, must have been an error when they were packing the seeds! This year I'd really like to branch out from the cherry varieties and grow a slicer. We were able to enjoy some of our neighbors heirloom slicers when they were on vacation and they were delicious. I haven't decided on a variety yet, but I'm excited!


I grew green beans for the first time! I planted them on a whim in amongst our tomatoes that were growing in galvanized tubs. I really didn't expect much, but we got a couple of great harvests! I'm really excited to grow green beans again.


Last in the veg category was pumpkins! I grew a few different small pumpkin varieties this year. Some in ground and some in containers. They did okay. I got maybe six pumpkins? Not sure how I feel about doing them again to be honest. They just take up so much room!


Something I will definitely be growing again are nasturtiums. I've had pretty mixed luck with them in the past, but always tried growing them in containers. This year I grew this trailing variety in ground as a border. They were SO vigorous! I still can't believe how well they did. I was able to collect a ton of seeds from them to stash away and share.


On the note of sharing, that was one of the great joys of our garden in 2025. At the beginning of the season and towards the end, I collected and shared tons of seeds through our little free library. It was so fun and even our 2 year old got excited to help collect seeds. At least one person in our neighborhood said they grew something from seed for the first time from our library, which made me so happy. I look forward to our library going up here in our new home so that I can keep filling it with fun stuff like seeds.


Onto perennials! I finally got a lupine to bloom and thrive! I had tried in the past, but didn't give it enough sun. I think I got 4 or 5 spikes off of this small plant this year? I was thrilled. And the color, so pretty! I saved seeds from this and brought them with me, I hope I can have success again!


Our front yard perennial patch has really established over the years. The echinacea kind of took over, but that's okay. I slowly moved other things out of this space and just let it run wild. I'm happy to say it has become a goldfinch haven!! It was also a great year for the hydrangeas. So blue! I am curious to see what color the hydrangeas will be here. In seven years I never amended ours in CT, they were that blue with the native soil, which is so cool.


I really love how this little shade garden came together in the backyard. Over the course of the season it changed as I dug plants out to take with us and moved plants from other parts of the yard to fill it back in. It won't look like this again, but I hope it will still look good for the new owners of our house.


On that note, early in the season I dug up all the mini hostas I knew I'd want to take and arranged them into three big pots. I love collecting the minis and they can be difficult to find (beyond the classic mouse ear). I did it for practical reasons, but they really were so adorable all together like this.


Of course I grew lots of dahlias this year! I only purchased three new tubers this year and all from a local farm (Two Meadow Farm in North Haven, CT). I also grew some other new-to-me varieties from my friend and neighbor Halina! We made a day out of our dividing this year on her driveway, which made what can be a tedious task so much fun. Highly recommend making gardening friends, they're the absolute best.


I really pushed the limits of the tubers I planted this year, because why not! This teeny tiny tuber grew into a full size plant with blooms!


One of the varieties I bought this year, Zaaling. I wish I had more photos of it that really showed off the color variations. Every flower is different on this plant!


Looking toward the 2026 gardening season I know this year (and probably the next few) there will be a lot of trial and error. There is a lot of space in this yard and we should get a lot more sun. But until we live through a season here, I can't be sure what all is already here, and where the best spots will be for things like the dahlias and a vegetable garden. There are a lot of beautiful mature bushes and trees here, but generally the gardens are overdue for maintenance so that will be an ongoing project. We are not starting from scratch like we did in CT, but there will still be lots and lots to do. First order of business will be removing as much landscape fabric as I can and just generally cleaning things up and evaluating. Definitely a lot of opportunity for planting here in the future, just need to do some groundwork first (literally, haha). Looking forward to getting started, that's for sure!!

Happy Gardening!