another cross stitch pillow

Life continues to be busy around here, with lots of canning and the occasional outing with friends.  We are trying to squeeze in the last few play dates, etc before school starts next week and all of the craziness has kept me from posting here regularly.  I have been able to squeeze a bit of crafting in here and there.  Over the last week, while Paulie and Philip were at their mom's for the week, I managed to complete another cross stitch pillow for Paulie's birthday. (You can see the one I made for Philip here.)

Paulie has been into all things Totoro since he first watched the movie about 3 years ago.  He owns a few versions of the theme song on his iPod.  He received a little handmade rubber Totoro stamp in his stocking last Christmas.  We don't get into much in the way of commercialized toys, etc, but I don't mind indulging a bit of movie fantasy with a bit of handmade goodness. I found this Totoro cross stitch pattern on etsy. I added a bit of a border to make the picture slightly larger. The brown flannel mushroom print from the Northwoods Forest Friends line seemed like a perfect match for his Totoro print, especially at half off!

Slowly but surely I seem to be getting started on my birthday/Christmas crafting. Since all 4 of our kids birthdays fall between Oct and Jan, starting early is a must!