Our new kayak arrived in the mail, a giant blue inflatable banana! It's a 15 foot long, tandem seat kayak that the three of us can all use together - but I don't plan on paddling much. It's called the Trinity II and it's made by the AIRE kayak company, but only available online through TheBoatPeople.com

Well, it's happened. Cece asked me to make her a spring dress to wear to school and she wore it. I'm shocked. My mom will be comlpetely and utterly amazed.

I actually had this secret sense of pride to see her wearing something I made. I make things all the time. I make books, sew blankets, and even bake my own bread, but I made a dress. A dress is so useful and practical and this one even has a little cranberry pom pom trim around the bottom. Of course Cece had total design control. She chose the design, the fabric and the trim. I don't think she would have had it any other way.

My daughter wants me to make more dresses, she even has the fabric picked out. I made this dress from a pattern I purchased from an Esty shop called LittleDresses.

Have you ever looked at a simple fanned piece of computer paper? This is the basic accordian binding. You can make your folds wider to accomodate photos, or fold it long ways and then accordian the sheet to create pockets, even trim the pockets to create different shapes. But what else can a fan folded sheet become?

I have been thinking about the angle at which you fold the paper - really neat things happen when you do this. The folded sheet winds around, or if you reverse half the mountain folds to valley folds you get interesting structures.

Two ships passing in the night.

I've been thinking about a Valentine's Day that's not red and full of hearts, but maybe a day that's full of romance. Two ships passing in the night is romance to me. The thought that two people could meet in the mist of all the goings on in the world is amazing to me. This book is a combination of an accordian and a Japanese flutter binding. It is covered with recycled nautical charts. If you'd like to make one like it, go to my website for a tutorial on the book structure. Enjoy!