Better Late Than Never

The past few years my neighbor and I have exchanged Christmas presents, not just for ourselves, but also for our kids.  I really like to make (and receive!) hand-made gifts and this year I stumbled across a super cute pattern from Wild Olive.

It's a felt ginger bread house!  How adorable is this thing?  I hand sewed all of the pieces, but the real time sucker was the cutting.  The pictures don't show a big pile of little candies.  Actually, you can see some of them in the little baggy to the right of the house.  My little neighbor girls are little young for the tiny pieces this year, but in another year or two I think they'll have a good time decorating the house to the nines.  And mom will appreciate this gift because this way her girls can get the gingerbread house experience without all the sticky, crumbly mess.

I'd really love to make one of these for Rowan, but he's not really in that type of thing.  If I could somehow add gears and/or wheels, though, he'd be all over it!

Oh, I don't' think I mentioned that I just finished it today.  December 30.  Oops.  I also have a stack of tea towels to embroider for some other friends.  Maybe they will turn in to New Years gifts.  Or Valentines gifts….

What's the latest you've ever given/received a Christmas gift?

My First Real Tree!

Squeeee!  Ever since I've had Rowan, I've gotten extra excited about the holidays.  Having a little one just adds a whole new dimension to the fun.  

One of the traditions that my family always did every year was to go to a little local Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree.  I really wanted to continue that tradition this year.  This is the first year that we're actually staying home for Christmas and now that Rowan is 2 1/2, I figured it would be a good time to start.

Sadly, the really nice trees aren't native to Southern California, so even though we went to a Christmas tree farm where you can cut your own tree, we decided to go with a pre-cut.  Here's what the native trees look like:

Pretty, but not ideal for hanging ornaments on.

Here's the one that we picked out:

It really didn't look that big.  Until we got it inside.  It just barely fit!

More importantly, though, (or at least the point of this blog) was how I decorated it.  I started my making a tree skirt.  Good ol' Pinterest to the rescue!  I found this awesome idea, bought a bunch of felt,  and then packed it all up with me when I went to visit the family in Kansas back in October.  I'm in LOVE with how it turned out!

I think after this year I might add some bling to it.  Maybe some sequins or some gems….

The other thing I made was a garland from hemp twine and matching felt circles.  I cut the circles out with my Cricut to save on time.  Then, since you have to have Heat 'n Bond on the felt in order to cut it with the Cricut, I just ironed two circles together with the twine in-between.  

The garland is a little hard to see here, and of course my camera seemed to have eaten the picture I took of just the garland, but you can still see it peaking through in places.  Same as the skirt, I think I want to bling it out a little bit for next year to make it pop more.  I was originally thinking sequins, but there are sooooo many circles.  It would take me clear until next Christmas to finish it!  I'm making maybe a big sparkly gem in the middle of each one.  

I also have a Barbie tree I put up every year.  Once it's all finished I'll take some pics and make another post!

Thanksgiving Tree

A bit late, but here's the latest installment to my tree of seasons.

Last year all I had was Mr. Turkey.  This year I added the pilgrim squirrel and the Indian bear.  I've learned that the sizes on the Create-a-Critter 2 cartridges run smaller for some reason than they do on the original cartridge.  I would have rather had the bear and squirrel a little bigger, but by the time I realized they were smaller than the turkey, I really didn't want to go back and redo them.  

Now it's time to figure out how I'm going to style the tree for Christmas!

Weekly Pinterest Update

How is it that the weekend is over already?  I had a rough week, even with Thanksgiving and all, so this week's roundup of pins are not craft related, but more in the way of inspiration!




I just adore this. Marilyn is such an iconic symbol of beauty and she was no petite, half starved waif!



How I Met Your Mother is one of my favorite shows and while Barney might not always be the best role model, sometimes this quote can do the trick.

Another great show is the Big Bang Theory. Wouldn't having someone singing Soft Kitty to you make you feel better?

Hopefully these will perk you when you're feeling down! Remember, you can follow me on Pinterest here. I'm always finding new goodies!

Weekend Pinterest Update

Here's a few of my favorite finds on Pinterest this week:




Rowan is not quite old enough for this yet, but seriously. How awesome is this?!



I'm super in love with these little Christmas patterns by Wild Olive.  I might need to add yet another stitching project to my holiday to-do list!



Little known fact: I used to show llamas when I was kid. And yes, llamas are super judge.

What's your favorite pin from this week?

Don't forget, you can follow me while I waste time on Pinterest right here!

Weekly Pinterest Update

Been awhile since I've done one of these, but here's a few recent pins that I thought were fun!




This has nothing to do with anything, but it made me giggle immensely :)



I might need to embroider these someday. Along with the lyrics to Soft Kitty.



When I was teen, my mom gave me her old dressing table that she had as a teen. She helped me recover it, but now I'd like to do it again to match the new bedding I just got. I've been debating what to do with and just fell in love with this pattern. The bedding I have is a pretty dark beige color with some lighter tones in a paisley print and some cornflower blue trim. Stay tuned after Christmas to see what comes of this!

What have you pinned this week?

Bee-noculars

I'm not sure where he picked it up, but Rowan has been running around making "bee-noculars" (binoculars to those who don't speak toddler) with his hands.  Remember the other day I said that I found a cool link with how to make pretend binoculars?




In less then five minutes, I had these:

Can we say, "In Love"?  I recently bought a pack of coordinating washi tape from Wal-Mart so this was a great opportunity to play with it.  

I wrapped the tape around each empty toilet paper roll then hot glued the two rolls together.  At one end, I punched a hole on either side and tied a piece of string through to make a neck strap.  Rowan's not real crazy about wearing them, but they are certainly fun to play with!  

Fluffy Purple Monster and the Tree of Seasons

I've been busy putting up my Halloween decorations around the house lately.  Nothing too over the top.  I'm much more of a Christmas nut.

However, I did take on two crafty projects this season.  One was a wreath for the front door.  Last year I received a purple and black tulle wreath as a gift and it had the letters KSU on the bottom.  A couple months ago, I found this link on Pinterest:

How stinkin' cute is that?!  & I already have the wreath!

So here's what I did:
Flipped it around.  Yep.  I left the letters on, just flipped it over.
Cut some scary teeth out of white felt.  And I even already had the felt!
Bought a pack of ping pong balls for $1.26 and colored eyes on with a Sharpy.
For the teeth, I busted out the trusty hot glue gun and glued them on to the back of the wreath.
For the eyes, I stuck tooth picks into the ping pong balls and the stuck the other end in to the wreath (which had a styrofoam base).

And Ta-da!

Rowan refers to it as the "Fluffy Purple Monster".  In hind sight, I wish I would have used a different color for the teeth.  However, next spring I'd like to pain the front door a peacock blue, so by next Halloween it won't make any difference!

There's something very Muppet-esque about this guy.  I love it!

The other project I whipped up quick was a revamp of my Tree of Seasons.  I've done a few posts in the past on it, but here's what it looked like last year for Halloween:

For Christmas last year I received the Create a Critter 2 cartridge for my Cricut machine and have been putting it to good use for this tree.  For this year, I made two new critters in much better costumes and added a much better looking jack-o-latern.

I'm so much more in love with it this year!  And look at the cute little trick-or-treat bags!  Maybe next year I'll add a spider hanging from the tree.  

Since we're leaving this weekend to visit my parents for two weeks, I think this is all the craftiness that I'll be doing for Halloween this year.  

Next up, Thanksgiving!

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Halloween will be upon us soon! I decided I better get started on Rowan's costume, especially since we'll be in Kansas for two weeks in the middle of the month.

 I really had to rack my brain for a Halloween costume for my little guy this year. He's not quite old enough to really have an idea of what he wants to be, but he's definitely old enough to know what he will (or won't!) wear. Hats are usually a no go, so I'm assuming anything else on face won't fly either. 

He's recently gotten in to the show Dinosaur Train on PBS lately, so I thought perhaps some type of simple dino costume might be fun. Then I ran across this awesome tutorial via Pinterest: http://www.running-w-scissors.com/2011/03/dinosaur-tails.html

 I followed the directions to a 'T' (for once!) and it turned out super cute!

In true toddler form, Rowan was all excited about it for 2 minutes.  He ran around like crazy in the tail, then suddenly it absolutely had to come off.  It hasn't been touched since.  Every time I suggest it, he gets all grumpy.  Now if I wear the tail, it's hilarious!  

Perhaps if I get the rest of the costume done he'll be more excited about it.  I bought a blue hoody and am going to add spikes to it in the same way I added spikes to Rowan's dino towel.  I'd also like to make some dino feet, but I haven't quite figured out how yet.  

I'll give updates as the costume comes along!

Weekly Pinterest Roundup

Here's the best of the best from my Pinterest pinning this week.  Enjoy!




Don't hate me, but yes, I'm thinking about Christmas already. This skirt is super cute! I need to get all the felt and maybe I can work on it while I'm visiting my mom in KS next month...



Rowan's been really into telescopes and binoculars lately. These would be super easy to make and I can just see him running around the zoo or the park with them. & the washi tape is a great touch!



Rowan's not quite old enough for this yet (he's got more of a prance than a hop right now), but how fun would this be to have in yard?

Don't forget that you can follow me on Pinterest here to keep up with all my pinning happiness! I'm a little addicted so there's always new stuff!

This Aint no Rolex...

Why is it that little girls get all the fun accessories?  There just isn't much fun stuff out there for little boys.  Occasionally a cute hat, but we've entered the no-hat phase (unless Daddy is wearing the same hat) so that's out.

Enter Pinterest!  I ran across a pin from a board on felt crafts that pictured a little watch made of felt.  How fun!  Unfortunately, it was a dead pin (it didn't lead to anything) so I have no idea where it came from.  Luckily, I've got mad craft skills.  Didn't take long to whip up this:

I decided to close it with a snap instead of velcro because I thought velcro was too bulky.  It's still a smidge big on Rowan, but he'll grow in to it ;)  

He loves it.  You can ask him what time it is, and he looks at it really thoughtfully and says, "Almost 6 o'clock".  

I'm thinking of selling them in my Etsy shop.  What do you think?

Shed a Little Light

If you've been following, you've seen that I've been slowly reworking Rowan's room.  No more Winnie the Pooh.  Hello tractors!  Here's a few pics of what I've done so far:

So as you can see, I've got a tractor/country thing going with the chambray and the check.  Very little boyish, if you ask me!

The next thing his room needed was a lamp.  All I had was the overhead light.  The problem was that I had to place to put a lamp.  Heaven knows I couldn't put it on his changing table, and we're not quite potty trained enough yet to do away with changing table.  

Well now, what about that blank wall by the door?  Hmmm...how about something for some toy storage/organization?  So while my husband was out of town, look what appeared!

It's a handy little set of cubbies!  I'm thinking about painting it red?  Thoughts?  

So now that I have something to put a lamp on, what next?  There just so happened to be a lamp that was not in use, so I snagged it!  (You can see it above without the lampshade.)

Nothing special.  I think perhaps it came Wal-Mart.  But what a boring shade!  Wait!  There's extra fabric from the curtain and pillowcase project!  I could totally cover the shade.  Should be a piece of cake.

Let me just say that that's a super tricky shape to work with.  Luckily, I had a bunch of big, blank paper work with.  It only took me two tries to get a decent pattern to work with.

I ended up laying the shade down, holding a pencil on the end and rolling it as I traced the shape.   Then I divided it into 2 pieces and added my seam allowances.  I used those pieces to cut out the red check for the tap piece and the chambray for the bottom.  Next, I sewed the pieces together and hemmed the top and side edges.  I wanted to make sure that the bottom was nice and even, so wrapped the fabric around the shade and clothes pinned it at the top.  Then I pinned up the bottom making sure I was even.  After the pinning, one more hem to be sewn, then off to glueing!  

A few squirts of fabric glue and a ton of clothes pins later, I had this:

At which point I realized I forgot to sew the ric-rac down.  *head smacks on desk*  So i cheated and glued the ric-rac down too :)  Maybe it's not technically cheating, but it sure felt like.  I'm curious to see if it will fall off sometime down the road...

A few hours later the glue seemed mostly dry and I had this:

I think it looks super cute and really ties the room together.  However, I can't lie.  The picture looks better than the finished product.  In reality, it's a little bubbly.  Somehow the fabric just wouldn't lay on there exactly right.  Just don't look too close at it.

And yes, that's a piece of Tupperware filled with money.  Rowan broke his piggy bank awhile back and we haven't replaced it yet.  A plastic box seemed like a safe alternative for now.  

Does Rowan like the lamp?  Honestly, I don't think he's even noticed it.  But gosh darn it, it makes me happy!

Here Comes Mickey

I finally finished the patterns for my Mickey quiet book!  I'm really quite excited.  At first, there were only going to be about 10 pages, but there ended up being 18!  Once I started brainstorming, the ideas just kept coming.

For a quick preview, here's a list of the page titles:

1.  Build the Clubhouse
2.  Button Mickey's shorts
3.  Tie Minnie's bow
4.  Help Goofy get dressed
5.  Buckle Pluto's collar
6.  Find Donald's hat
7.  Brush Daisy's ponytail
8.  The gangs's all here!
9.  Match Clarabell's cookies
10-11.  Count Pete's beads
12.  See what tools Toodles has
13.  Solve the picture puzzle
14.  Try on Mickey's glove
15.  Count the Mickey's
16-17.  Drive the toon car
18.  Catch a gooey fish

Yesterday I got all the muslin and interfacing cut out for the pages.

I know using felt for the page bases is all the rage right now, but I chose to go a different route.  I'm just not convinced that felt will hold up over time to the rough use of little hands.  My grandma made most of hers out of muslin and they're still in great shape for my little guy to play with.  Also, muslin (with some light interfacing) is oober cheap compared to using high quality felt!  I added some lightweight interfacing to give the muslin a little more body and to help hide some of the stitching.

Here's a little embroidery trick I've picked up this past year: print your pattern off on the computer, cut it out, pin it down, and just stitch right over it!  When you're done, use some tweezers and pick it out.  This is by far the easiest way of transferring a pattern.  & it works on any type of material.

Now to start cutting out all felt pieces....

Weekly Pinterest Update

Here's a few treasures I found on Pinterest this week!




My inner child and my inner Star Wars geek both love this picture :)



One of the pages I've been designing for my Mickey quiet book is "Catch a gooey fish". This is great inspiration for how to do it! There's a paper clip sticking out of the top of the fish and then there's a magnet in the "hook" on the fishing pole. You can actually fish with this page! How epically cool is that?



I LOVE this bag. To pieces. I've been thinking that Rowan needs a bag other than the diaper bag to haul stuff around in. Something like this would be big enough to fit his quiet books in AND it isn't super girly. Next time my husband wears out a pair of jeans, this bag is happening.

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Labor Day weekend and isn't melting in the humidity :)

Woot!

After about 3 months, Rowan FINALLY let me put his ducky jacket on him!

Seriously, don't you just want to eat him up?  We had a good afternoon splashing at the "big pool" at the Y and he was just a little frozen popsicle when we got out.  I think he was so cold he was willing to do anything to get warm!  

If you want to read about how the jacket got it's cuteness, check out my blog post But It's Too Cut NOT to Wear for the full story!

Weekly Pinterest Update

Here's the best of the best I've found this week on Pinterest!




I fell in love with a pin earlier in the week that suggested "carving" pumpkins with drills. This is one step better! No sharp knives around the toddler (who looooves power tools) and the paint makes them look pretty in the daytime too!



There's two things that caught my attention with this one. First, the color of the walls! Maybe a bit lighter, but it's very happy :) The second thing was the wire with the clippies. Currently there's a bulletin board in my craft room, but I love how simple it would be to change out inspirations.



Amiee Ray is one of my favorite artists. Check out her blog here. I have one of her little Noms (a little tiny gnome!) and several of her books on embroidery. Ever since my college days I've had a bit of a soft spot for gnomes. I'm not sure what I'll use this pattern for yet (maybe a tea towel?), but it definitely deserved to be filed away for later use!

Don't forget you can follow me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/ljz3535/pins/. I'm a bit of an addict, so there's usually new stuff to see!

Arrrrr Mateys!

Rowan has been getting really in to the whole pirate thing lately.  If you ask him what the pirate says, he responds, "Arrr Mateys!".  I think that's where the fascination with maps came from...

We took a family trip to the San Diego Safari Park a few weeks ago.  We've an annual pass, so we actually go pretty often.  It's great to get some walking in, see the animals, and just hang out as a family.

The place, although very beautiful, is really laid out strange.  Every time we visit we need to pick up a map.  Below is a picture that pretty much sums up what Rowan this whole trip.

He was OBSESSED with the map!  He'd very seriously study it and show us just where he wanted to go.  Then he'd look up, scan the area, point and say "This way!".  It was ridiculously adorable.  For about fifteen minutes.

It got me thinking, though.  Maybe he needed a play map a home.  Ooo!  I could make a pirate map out of felt!  Boy, did the wheels did turning.  I churned out a map by the end of the weekend!

I did a bunch of Google image research and came up with me pattern.  I think my favorite thing is the sea monster.  My second favorite is the skull cave :)  The whole thing is made of nice wool felt.  Not the cheap polyester, plastic, whatever the heck it is stuff from the dollar bin at Jo-Ann's.  Then I added some velcro so you can roll the whole thing up.  Just like a real pirate map!

Rowan has taken his to the park and on many walks already.  I love how seriously he looks at it, like he's really deciding just where we need to go.  

Since it's so cute, I thought it would make an awesome addition to my Etsy store!  So here's the first listing for one!  Come and get it!

& keep your eyes open...dino hooded towels will be coming!

Weekend Pinterest Update

Here's a few of my favorite pins that I found on Pinterest this week.  Enjoy!




This was perfect timing for finding this. I recently got a T-shrt from a car dealership that's way too big on me and would be perfect for a workout shirt with a little cutting :)



I seriously laughed out loud at this one! I actually have a wreath like this in black and purple. I could easily take off the current decor and monster-fy it!



How awesome is this!? Might need to incorporate this into the backyard next spring...

Remember, you can follow me and all my grand Pinterest adventures right here!

Revamping the Baby Room Pt 2

So you remember from a previous post that I've been "growing" up my little boy's room.  Out goes Winnie the Pooh and here come the tractors!

My parents came to visit last week and my mom decided to help things along a bit.  She gave me a little nudge to make a new valence for the window and some pillowcases for the little pillow on the bed.

The previous valence was celery green on top with a border of white with green polkadots on the bottom.  I didn't quite measure right (go figure) and the valence just went straight across, it didn't wrap around the the brackets.  Oops.  We originally wanted to use denim and a bandana print, but of course couldn't find it.  The next best thing we could find was a red and white check.  Turns out, it's perfect!

There's a basic white roller shade underneath with a scalloped edge.  I think it gives the window a little extra character.  I also love the ric-rac edging :)

When we converted Rowan's crib to a bed, I pulled out the little pillow I had used when I was his age.  Of course, it had a rather girly cover.  So this seemed to be a good opportunity to make a new one since I had extra fabric.  I even had enough to make two!

I think they're very farm and go with the tractor theme nicely :)  Rowan really couldn't care one way or the other, but I feel better now that his room is a little more matchy.  

My parents also helped do a few things in my craft room.  I've got a few more touches to do, and then I'll do a post on that!

But It's Too Cute NOT To Wear!

My darling little baby boy turned 2 in May and apparently is already having opinions on what to wear. This is exciting, but breaks my heart because I made something darn cute and, of course, he won't wear it!

 Last summer my mom bought Rowan this cute little white jacket from Carters to wear after swimming (naturally, I forgot to take a picture of it before I hacked it up). It was made of terry cloth, had a hood, and a little zipper that only went half way down (so you had to slip it over his head to get it on). It was an 18 month, so it was pretty big. This year it fit perfectly, once you got it on. Apparently his head is a bit big and pulling it on a squirming 2 year old was a nightmare.

 So I had this flash of brilliance! I'll take out the zipper, cut it down the front, and add buttons instead! After copious amounts of ripping out stitching that I could barely see and a quick cut job with the scissors, I had an unfinished, open jacket.

Seriously, the ripping out of the zipper was the toughest part of the whole project.  Carters sewed that sucker in there for good!  The next step was to serge those two raw edges, then turn them under a half inch and sew.  I also top stitched near the edge to make sure it laid nice and flat.

I rummaged through my horde of buttons (every seamstress needs a horde of buttons!) and just happened to find these 3 enormous orange buttons.  But how to close it?  Button holes seemed like a bad idea due to the ravel-ly nature of terry clothe and I really didn't want to lose any girth in the jacket.  My mom jumped in and suggested using bias tape to make loops.  So back to the closet I went and happened to find some bright teal bias tape that looked really striking with the orange buttons.  

Then bippity-boppity-boo, the jacket was done!

Of course, having developed compulsive-embroidery-syndrome, I then decided it needed a little something on the right shoulder.  Enter my favorite website for cheeky patterns, Urban Threads.  There was this awesome little pirate ducky that seemed only too appropriate for a swim cover-up.

Not sound too smug, but seriously, how cute did this thing turn out?  I finished it the night before Rowan had swim lessons and was all excited for him snuggle up in it when he was done.  

WRONG.  This jacket is like the plague or cooties him.  Every time I pull it out, he practically runs in the other direction.  Hence why there is no picture of him wearing it.  Sigh.  Good thing it didn't take 6 months to make!  Maybe I'll get him in it yet this summer....

Craft Room - Take 2

So my craft room drives me nuts.  It's really just a hodge podge of stuff and I've never really done much with it.  Mostly because eventually that room won't be mine forever.  Someday we might have another baby and then we'll have to play room shuffle, and if not, then eventually that will become Rowan's room.  With that in mind, I just haven't had the heart to put much effort into it.

However, the other day I finally had enough.  The closet in particular made me want to pull my hair out.

I decided to roll up my sleeves and tear in to that sucker.  First thing I did was pack up all the bellydance costumes on the bottom shelf.  Since I'm sort of in bellydance remission, they rarely get used and I could really stand the closet space.

Then I took everything out and sorted.  I even *gasp* threw some things away!  I was very proud of myself on that one :)

Next, I went to Wal-Mart and bought a few cheap fabric bins and a large jar.  Here's what I used the jar for:

Isn't it pretty all full of buttons?  The little jars from Ikea have sequins in them.  Seriously, these jars make me pretty happy.  I plan to get more of them :)

My next big project was my fabric stash.  Holy Moly Cow.  The pink and green bins in the top picture were just overflowing with fabric and there was more on the floor.  Big pieces, little scraps, cotton, denim, felt...

While procrastinating on Pinterest one day, I ran across this awesome tutorial on a blog called Smashed Peas and Carrots that shows you how to make mini fabric bolts to store your fabric.  Brilliant!  Now all my big pieces are wrapped on bolts and out where I can see them.  Currently they're horizontal because my shelves are wire and I'm waiting for my husband to cut a sheet of something to cover them.

I know it looks a little sloppy now, but once they're vertical I think it will really clean up nice.  And I adore how I can see at a glance just what I all have!  As for the little piece too small for bolts, I used the fabric bins to stow them.  I also decided not to wrap the felt on bolts.  I just chucked all of that into an empty plastic box with a lid for now.  

My goal was to cut down on all the random, loose, stuff floating around that closet.  Most everything (at least the little stuff) is corralled into either a jar or a basket.

Not perfect by a long shot, but at least I don't cringe or run screaming every time I open the door.  I have several more ideas I'd like to implement.  The next one is also a Pinterest inspiration.  I'd like to find a couple wood spice-rack shelf thingies to store all my little jars of sparkies and doodads.

Give me some time, and we'll see what happens!

It Only Took a Year...

Sooooo....around a year later, I  FINALLY  FINISHED  THE  STAR  WARS  QUIET  BOOK!!!!

Here's the cover in all it's glory!  I made it totally different than the directions said.  Instead of just 2 sheets of felt stuck together with grommets in them, I used black denim.  There's two long sheets of denim (that I did the appliqué on) that I sewed right sides together, then turned right side out and topstitched around the edges.

When I finished the pages, I put in the grommets and held them together with binder rings.  On the cover, I sewed a strip of black gross-grain ribbon down the middle, leaving gaps to insert the binder rings.  Then I just clipped in the rings!

Here's the last page that I never did show a picture of.  The End.  Finally!

On the inside of the back cover, I stitched in my initials and the year I finished it.  My grandmother used to do this on most of the things she finished.  That way some day when my great-grandkids are playing with this they'll know who made it.

Upon finishing this, there's definitely something I would do different next time.  I wouldn't make the pages out of felt.  I would do them out of muslin, like my gramma did in my old books.  I'm really nervous that the felt won't hold up well.  To help stave that off, I added interfacing in between the pages, but that makes them extra bulky.  I think muslin pages would make the whole book more compact (not to mention it would be cheaper!).  

& oh!  The wheels are turning for the next book already!  Stay tuned!  And maybe it won't take a whole year for the next one ;)