This is how I do lazy

I started out Thursday wanting to have a lazy day. My youngest slept until 10 -- totally unheard of -- so I followed his lackadaisical mood. Planned not to do any housework or any crafts and just veg.

While he still slept, I made a batch of pumpkin-raisin muffins. Grocery shopping was included in my resolve to do no housework. We had barely any food left and veggies were definitely in low supply. None frozen. None canned. And only onions and celery in the fridge. At least with pumpkin muffins, I'd get a bit of produce into my kids.


Timing was perfect. Little guy woke up just as the first batch was done. He sat in his highchair eating one for breakfast as I finished up. And tried not to eat more than my share of the muffins.

Then we moved to the living room where I got caught up on 4 days worth of newspapers and watched repeats of season 2 of Project Runway. WARNING: Gratuitous cute kid photo coming up:


Yes, he is wearing a leopard costume and we aren't quite to Halloween. I haven't unpacked his warm clothes yet and these little one-piece outfits are the only thing that was handy. He slept as a bee one night. And will probably be a dinosaur/dragon tonight. He's pointing at a leopard in the newspaper, lol.

Anyway, my laziness didn't last much longer than that. I took a look at a mini pumpkin and realized it closely resembled the shape of the pin cushions I've been making lately. If only I had some orange fabric, I could make some cute fall decorations.


No such luck finding any orange in my stash, so off we went to Salvation Army. Bonus! Green and blue tags were 50% off and I was lucky enough to find two shirts (and some other things I couldn't live without) at half price.


The botanical print on the left is an authentic Hawaiian shirt made in Hawaii. I debated cutting it up but knew no one here would ever wear it. It was just perfect for this project and I have plans for it in the future. The orange plaid is a modern boy's shirt. The floral is an extra-long pillowcase and there's enough left over to make a pillowcase dress. The green was in my stash. Years ago, I washed and shrunk many of my old wool sweaters. Some for mitten ornaments and others for handbags. This bottom hem piece was leftover.


I cut out circles in a variety of sizes, sewed them up like yo-yos and stuffed them with poylfill. I then added thread "lines" around the body of the pumpkin (or mumkins as my little helper calls them) segmenting the round shape. I cut circles and rectangles from the wool to create stem toppers. I used hidden stitches to double up the stem making it thicker. Pulling the thread tight naturally caused the shape to curve. Just the effect I wanted. I then sewed the topper to the pumpkin body.


And I worked them for the next 24 hours straight. LOL So much for a taking a holiday from crafts. I admittedly did relax while doing them. Sitting here at the computer. Sitting in the van outside of school. While cooking dinner, watching tv and sitting in bed nursing my baby. I even worked on them today with a houseful of kids here (no school today). It was a rather portable project, I must say.


Nine cute little punkins modeled after the real thing in three different colorways. Taken outside to be photographed just as it started to rain.


So they posed for me inside too. I really think I want to make a giant one out of this plaid.


Probably won't make any more out of the tropical shirt. When I asked one of the kids what it was, I was told "a tomato." Poor misunderstood multi-colored pumpkin.

So, now I'm done with them and had time to get back to housework this evening. Trying to find the unfinished projects under the clutter in my studio. Things have a tendency of piling up like that when I become hyperfocused on a new project.