Middle of November already?  Wow.  Cliché of clichés, where did the time go?  But I’ve been a good girl, hard at work, and sent off two new articles that will be gracing the newsstands in April and June respectively.  Of course, that’s between the kidlets and Hallowe’en costumes (Tiger and Luke Skywalker made out handsomely, BTW), getting ready for Christmas (two gifts down, seventeen thousand to go), and working on some new article queries, as well as a top-secret project whose details (fingers crossed!) I should be able to talk about some time in the New Year.

But Stanley has played his part to perfection and the two patterns I was working on are finished and ready to be mailed off to the editor for her consideration.  I honestly don’t know how I survived without a dummy before this.  He is so useful.  I always start with a basic flat draft but he makes getting the details right so easy.  I can play with appliqué placement, collar depth or the cut of a pair of pants until they’re perfect and he never complains or needs to pee or decides he’d rather play with his trucks in the living room.   His personality, I will admit, is a little stiff, (bah-dum, dum-dah!) but with all the upsides, I’m thinking I’ll overlook that flaw, since he’s decreased the time it takes me to get a design from sketch to pattern by at least half, which means I can get to the fun creative sewing part that much faster.