brown and orange bird tote

It's been a little while since I've made a blog post - things have been really busy, starting the second to last weekend in March we've left San Diego every single weekend. First to Phoenix, then to Seattle, then to L.A., then to Denver. We'd planned on staying home last weekend, but we ended up driving up to Anaheim yesterday to watch the Mariners beat the Angels. So four trips of two or three days, followed by a day-long outing, on top of work and pregnancy, means no posts. But I have been working.



This tote bag is for Susan. She was looking for something to carry her laptop around in and decided on this fabric with birds and I think cherry blossoms (even though they're orange). The brown vinyl is the same I used in Flann's tote bag (though these terrible pictures make it look darker).



Susan's only request for the innards was that I use a fabric that was "not too orange." Seeing as how I have made multiple mentions of my love of using orange fabric and yarn on this blog, it was probably wise of her to mention. I avoided orange entirely, and went with a rosey pink/gold/brown/cream striped fabric. There's one big pocket and one smaller one; the big one probably isn't big enough for her laptop (unless she has one of those tiny little Macbook Air thingies), but she bought a cute laptop sleeve to put it in, so it will be nice and protected in the main bag area.



Aside from Susan's tote, I've got a bunch of things cut out that I just need to sew up. I think I got kind of excited about the beginning of baseball season, so I spent a lot of my work time cutting things out and getting them ready while watching the Mariners, Dodgers, and Twins. Now I just have to sew them all up, which takes a lot less time than cutting. I need to get over my fear of using my rotary cutter. It would probably save me a lot of time. I've also been having some lovely hand cramps when cutting and sewing, and that's slowed me up some. My right hand likes to curl into a cramped up claw sometimes. Apparently pregnancy can give you temporary carpal tunnel syndrome! Vomiting and heartburn and gall stones...oh pregnancy, is there anything you can't do?!



Susan is also the winner of the giveaway tote bag. She was kind and told me to just ship them together, so that's what I shall do.