So I joined a swap where you’re supposed to send seasonal-themed items to someone you don’t know.  My swappy partner has a little girl.  “Great!” I thought.  “I can send something cute for the daughter!”

So I got to work.

I had this brilliant idea to make a little zipper pouch shaped like a pumpkin.  Then I decided to make the zipper be the mouth of a jack-o-lantern!  CUUUUTE, right?  It started out quite adorable (if I do say so myself).

Then I decided to quilt it.  And bind it.  And add a loop.

Uh-oh.  Sounding like a familiar, common household item?

Yep.  Looks just like a hot pad, other than that zipper.

I lined it with this really cute pumpkin fabric, too.

So now he looks like a jolly cannibal jack-o-lantern hot pad.

But wait — Now I’m really thinking.  What if it was a hiding place for valuables, like jewelry?  I could market it to college students who want to hide things from their roommates!  Who would think to look in the hot pad?  HA! 

 Maybe I’m not a failure after all — maybe I’m just a GENIUS in disguise!!

**Don’t worry, I won’t be sending this to my swappy partner’s little girl.  I’m sure there is not a 4-year-old girl in the world who would be thrilled to receive a hot pad as a gift– no matter how cute it is!  I’ll make something else…………

After about three hours of VERY extensive cosmetic surgery, here he is — the One And Only….

Freak Show Froggy!!

As you can see, he is still bitter about how I wrote him off.  He thinks I didn’t try hard enough in the first place.  And he’s right; I really didn’t.  Because I had — and don’t tell him this — Better Things To Do.  And I still do.  Yet I just spent three hours trying to make him cute.  And he’s still kind of… well… NOT.  Oh well.

Anyone want to adopt a slightly cantankerous, definitely bitter, not-quite-cute froggy?

by Care

I am making some sock monkeys for a craft charity organization.  Before I even started making the monkeys, I got thinking about how to make them super cute.  I remembered seeing some flannel at JoAnn’s with cute little sock FROGS all over them.  “Easy!” I thought.  “I’ll make some sock frogs, too, and then make cute little pajama pants for them!”  Great idea, right?

Wrong.

Aside from the fact that his feet don’t match, and his hands don’t match, and he’s made from a gross kind of shiny polyestery-feel sock (TOUCH them before you buy them, people!!), and so on, he — well, he still sucks.

Keep in mind that my husband is very supportive of all my sewing endeavors.  But when he saw this one, his first question was,

“It kind of looks like something from Star Wars.  How did you let it get THIS far?”

Agreed.  From the first few stitches something was telling me to stop.  But I kept thinking, “Maybe these ugly socks can still make a cute frog.”  Then, “Maybe after he’s stuffed he’ll be cute.”  Then, “Maybe after he has eyes he’ll be cute.”  Then, “Maybe after he has arms he’ll be cute.”  Then, “WHY DID I WASTE AN HOUR AND A HALF ON THIS THING??!”

Lesson learned.  Listen to your inner crafter.