I did it! I sewed something, and it’s only 13 days in to the new year. I didn’t make much last year, it seemed, but I went back to work full time in July. I was a lot busier. This year, though, is my year of doing and making and reading and having some head space.

This was for my niece, who will be 11 in a couple of months. I just love that kid so much, she is so special. She got a room makeover around Christmas, and she sort of casually asked my mom if we still had the Amy Butler Gumdrop pillow (I have made many, and we call them “poufs” in my family) that I made her when she was 3. It had somehow ended up at my mom’s over the years, but she didn’t have it any more. My niece’s new room has lots of blues and greens in it, so I decided to make her a new, more grown-up pouf for Christmas.

Except I didn’t get to it in time.

And then I got the flu.

So it’s taken me a while to get this project going, but I finally got it made, and I delivered it to her today.

I think she loved it. She squeezed it the way every kid in my family who encounters a pouf does. Even the dog has adopted one of them from my house as his dog bed. Only the best for him, apparently.  It made me happy to make it for her, and happy to see her get it.

Also, I just realized that I have amazing photos of pouf squeezes. I forgot about this photo until just now when I linked to the old post, but here is my niece receiving her original pouf at age 3:

And I took this one of H squeezing my niece’s pouf this afternoon, when I’d finished it. As soon as H realized there was a new pouf in the house she did this:

And now my week is made and my heart is full.