alfredo's turtle

Ever since I finished those stitched pieces from Mary Engelbreit's new stitching book, I've been working on this sweet turtle stitching from Charlotte. I doubled the pattern and am making it into a pillow for Alfredo. I added some flowers all around and I'm so happy with how it's looking...I'm hoping to finish it up soon and I'll show you.

It's so much fun to make things for Alfredo...he admires what I'm working on often saying lovely things like "This is the most beautiful thing in the whole wide world!" Just what I want to hear when I'm making something. He's the perfect little patron.

I got a couple questions about my living room...The beautiful house pillows are by my friend Catherine of Red Shoes. I don't think she does special orders but if you beg and plead, I bet she'll make some to put in her shop.

And the rug? You're not going to believe this but it's from the MaryKate and Ashley collection at Target. See here. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available any longer.

We're enjoying lazy summer days, spending it mostly inside working on projects. And this week we started "School"...every morning we work on a new letter of the alphabet and other exercises. I decided not to enroll him in preschool this fall. I kept debating about it...it seemed like everyone I talked to said it was a must. But after we left VBS in hysterics last week, him, not me, I decided to listen to my intuition. We're going to do the academic parts at home, at our own pace, and we'll do other things to help him socially, like perhaps a playgroup. And he's thriving at The Little Gym so in the fall I'll put him in two classes a week. And we'll look at it all again come January.