Fall inspiration: apple picking!

Yesterday I spent a fantastic afternoon picking apples at Larriland Farm in MD. What a great autumn activity!

Stayman and Braeburn apples were available to pick yourself...and yes, I did get on a ladder. Other types of apples (Golden Delicious, Jonagold, etc.) from local MD orchards were available in bins as well.
 

 

 

I was inspired to create something apple-related so I started work on an applique purse.

I'm keeping the stitching minimal on this one to emphasize the apple's shape and color. So cute!

My next creation? Some delicious apple crisp or pie to use up the bag of fruit I bought! 

Fall is here...and projects in progress

Yay fall! The leaves are just starting to change and it's getting cooler finally (man I hate the heat). Other things to love about fall:

• Boots weather! I can finally wear all the awesome boots I bought this year.
• Halloween. Jenny and I purchased some crazy costumes online so we can at last go as ABBA...although I'm not sure if we'll get any guys to agree to dressing up as Bjorn or Benny...
• Candy corn season! I always forget how much I love candy corn until it hits the stores again in the fall. Along with some coworkers, I ate a whole bag of candy corn this week and it was delicious!

This inspired me to finally start on a project I'd had in mind for at least a year--a candy corn purse.. Here's the purse in progress...I decided to go with a variety of candy sizes.

Picking out the fabric for the lining should also be interesting. I'm thinking either a black/white print or something with both yellow and orange. I want to finish it this week to have it in my shop for Halloween.

I finished my second felt cockatiel softie in time for Bill and Allison's wedding a few weeks ago...

This one presented a little more of a challenge as I was trying to make it look like a pearl cockatiel. I used sticky felt to make the white spots on the back.

I also managed to stitch a bunch of new pins this week (while watching lots of bad tv, of course--current favorites are Say Yes to the Dress, What Not to Wear, and Millionaire Matchmaker).

I should have the new pins available in my etsy shop shortly!