Appleton Dance

Cathy and Carla on the beach at Sterling State Park, Monroe MI, May 2024 by Linda Theil Several years ago, Alisa discovered the full-amenity cottages on the beach at Sterling State Park in Monroe, Michigan; and we have enjoyed several family vacations there. Two years ago, I invited my cousins to spend a long spring weekend at Sterling, We enjoyed it so much we went again last year, and plan a trip for this year, too. I wanted to make a commenorative goodie-bag for this years trip so I chose a photo from last year and developed a color scheme for a tiny duffle and matching mini-backpack. The duffle is made from the Spencer-Ogg "Arch Zipper Pouch"   in the medium size -- 9 x 6 x 3-inches; and the mini-backpack is the "Bitty Bug Pack" pattern by Carolina Little Stitches. Both bags are made with Tilda "Chambray Dots" and faux waxed-canvas from Sally Tomato . For the feature panel on the front of the mini-backpack, I resized the  Sterling beach photo with my...

  by Linda Theil Zoe likes penguins; so, I made her a penguin birthday card using a video from Missouri Star titled "Penguin March" . The video describes how to make a garland of penguins, but I just made one penguin with a ribbon. I attached the penguin to Zoe's birthday present using the ribbon tied into a bow around the gift. You can buy a pattern from Missouri Star, but I just followed the directions in the video without a printed pattern, and although I made some mistakes, the penguin turned out cute enough to win me a hug from Zoe.