New Friends
I’ve had some serious luck in the thrifting department lately. Like, seriously amazing luck. Even though I went a thrifting on Tuesday, yesterday I had the nagging feeling that I was going to miss out on something good. So after lunch Creamie and I went again. I scored a whole collection of vintage sewing patterns. It was an amazing (for me) find. I’m still not sure exactly what I’m going to do with them… but I couldn’t just leave them there for someone else to find. Just thinking about it gives me anxiety. (When have I said that before.)
Other recent thrifty purchases include the two baby dolls on the right. (Both of whom I welcomed home with a vicious attack with the magic eraser, the Clorox wipes and a trip through the washing machine.) Creamie can hardly stand how important she feels to have three children to take care of. She feeds them, and changes them and wipes their boogers*, and puts them to bed, and checks on them to make sure they are OK. She’ll push them around in her stroller, and sits them down on her lap to read them a story. She kisses their owies and helps them dance to her favorite music. Her bed all of a sudden got very small with the addition of two more nightly residents. The other day she snuggled up with all three babies to tell them stories and sing them to sleep. I did the exact same thing when I was her age. It is these little things that melt my heart, and I hope to never forget them.
*The other day I was helping Creamie blow her nose, and I told her that we were done, because her boogers were all gone. She looked at me and said “Boogers all gone. Go shopping get some more boogers. Go Target, get some more boogers, at shopping.” File that under “The Little Things that Melt Your Heart.”
New Shoes
I’m not really a shoe person. I mean, I love cute shoes as much as the next person. I just don’t love to wear shoes where the only thing going for them is cute. I’ve done that far too long and I’m on strike. From now on, all shoes must fit the following criteria before they will be allowed to live in my closet.
[An army of Blythe doll shoes by Dr. Blythstein on flickr ]
- Comfortable, even when you are walking/standing for 12 hours at a time*
- By comfortable I mean excellent arch support. Even my flipflops have arch support. No OldNavy flipflops over here. And no Crocs. Shudder.
- Preferably a Mary Jane, with the crossstrap closer to the toe as opposed to closer to the ankle.
- Cute. Or at least cute enough to pass for cute most of the time.
That’s pretty much it. What this all means is that I rarely buy new shoes. Being cute/cheap is just not enough, no matter how cute/cheap they are. I have been wearing the same pair of perfect Steve Madden MaryJanes for 8 winter’s in a row. The sole has been reattached three times, and I’ve had the elastic on the strap fixed probably five times. The tread is worn absolutely smooth (that’s much better for winter traction you know.) But sometime in the middle of last winter the footbed cracked right in half on the inside. On both shoes, within days of each other. I patched them up as best I could, and covered the gap with a really cushy insole so I didn’t pinch my skin in the crack. And I’ve worn them like that for the past 8 months. It’s time for them to retire.
Yesterday their replacements arrived. Dansko Savanna MaryJane. And they fit my criteria. Comfy, (by comfy I mean they have great arch support) Probably the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever owned, MaryJane, Cute enough to pass for cute most of the time. I’m a Dansko Convert. I want three more pairs. But it will probably take me six more years to do it. Also, being a Dansko Convert makes me feel old.
*I realize that there are a lot of heels, even high heels, if designed correctly can be comfortable, even for 12 hours at a time. My sister has oodles of them. But high heels and baking cookies/playing hide and seek/chasing my one year old in circles around the dining room table don’t always go together. Of course I believe cookies go with everything.
New Life for Old Stuff
Before we moved to our current home, we were renting a beautiful old house full of original woodwork and orange shag carpet. It had little closets in every little corner, and all the beautiful old doors had their original doorknobs. Tucked up on top of a shelf in the kitchen was a beautiful old skeleton key that opened all those old doors. I love that we own our home, but I really miss that house. We moved four years ago and ever since I’ve been on the lookout for great old skeleton keys.
While I was in Texas a few weeks ago I found them. Skads of them. I spent the better part of an hour happily digging through the pile looking for “the one’s.” I finished this project a few days ago and I love it. It’s currently hanging up next to my front door. (I should point out that this frame has been hanging up next to my front door for months. I found it at the thrift store and it’s been hanging there, unpainted and empty, for a long time.) I covered a piece of heavy chipboard with batting and stretched a scrap of fabric around it, then hot glued it together in the back. Then I stitched the keys on with a little bit of invisible quilting thread. That way if I change my mind about them I can just snip the threads and use the keys somewhere else. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon. It took long enough for this project to get done. And I certainly don’t need any new projects at the moment. I’m going to try and finish up a few more Christmas presents this week. Four more to be precise.
Mini Heater Tutorial
Today I am posting a tutorial for Andrea over at The Train To Crazy. She is celebrating November with a Make it For Winter series of recipes and tutorials. I am thrilled to be a contributor.
If you’ve been hanging out over here for a while you’ll know that I love pretty much everything about winter. I love snow and cold and big coats and warm sweaters and hot chocolate and warm soup and snuggling up with a blanket and a project on the couch. So I decided to share a little secret for staying warm when it’s freezing cold outside.
What’s better than your own mini heater! It is basically a flannel bag full or rice, but throw it in the microwave for a few minutes and it will give off heat for a few hours. And the best part about it? You can make one in less than 30 minutes, and for under $3. A perfect gift idea, right!
First gather up your supplies. You’ll need:
- a little bit of flannel, chenille, upcycled cotton sweater, or any other soft cotton fabric. (I used one of Creamie’s little flannel receiving blankets that she grew out of in 3 days) Steer away from polyester fleece. Though it is super soft it hangs on to a lot of moisture from the rice. Which means that you’ll be warm, and damp. And in the long run that means you’ll be cold.
- scissors
- ric rac or ribbon (optional)
- matching thread
- plain uncooked white rice
Start off by cutting your fabric into a rectangle. You can make your bag any shape you’d like. I have them in several different sizes. Little 4″ squares for my pockets, one for my lap, a long skinny rectangle to drape around my neck, and one big huge one to lay out under me while I sleep. To make this one a lap size I cut a rectangle about 20″ by 16″ from my blanket, which I folded in half to 10″x16″. (You could cut two pieces 10″x16″ depending on what size your fabric is.)
If you want to add some trim, pin it to one edge (I used my 20″ side, along what will be the bottom of the bag) and stitch them on about two inches from the edge of your fabric. Another idea is to add a monogram, like the one in my monogrammed baby blanket tutorial.
Match the trim up on the sides and stitch your fabric together, leaving one short end of the rectangle open to fill with rice.
Then it’s as easy as dumping in a few cups of rice. I used about four or five cups for this size. You can really use any grain you’d like, but I prefer plain white rice because it doesn’t have a strong odor when it’s hot. Growing up I had some of these bags filled with dry corn, and some with wheat, but I much prefer rice. (Don’t use brown rice though, the oils in brown rice will go rancid relatively quickly and then it smells really bad.)
Turn your top edge towards the inside about half an inch, pin and then sew the two sides together, closing your bag. I like to use a double seam because I don’t want little bits of rice to spill out. For mine I used the serged edge of the receiving blanket along the top, but you don’t need to finish the inside of the seam, beacause it’s all going to be tucked to the inside. (If you’d rather, you can make a plain rice bag, and then make a little pillowcase with a strip of velcro to keep it closed. Then you can take off the cover and wash it. But don’t wash the actual rice bag, you’ll end up with a big HUGE mess in your washer…)
Just throw your little heater in the microwave for a few minutes and you’ve got the perfect way to stay warm. Depending on what size of bag you made and your microwave, heat times will vary. This one needs about 2 minutes in my microwave. Start with 30 second intervals to figure out what will work out best for yours. And then plop your cuddly bag of warmness in your lap as you sit at the computer reading blogs and emails till all hours of the night, or on your toes while you sew. Make some small one’s for your coat pockets. If you are getting into a cold car, warm one up before you leave and let it heat up your seat for you. When it’s super freezing I’ll even warm up Creamie’s car seat before I put her in it. (Remove it before you strap your baby in.) But my very favorite way to use these heaters is in my bed. I’ll lay one flat out under my spine each night and let the heat relax my muscles and ease my near constant back and neck pain. Sandwiched between me and my mattress it will stay warm for about 6 hours. (If it’s in your lap, or in a cold car it will lose it’s heat much more quickly.) I hope this helps you enjoy winter a little bit more! Now, bring on the snow!
Thinking about Thanksgiving
Some parts of me are shocked that November is half over. Other parts of me are shocked that I’ve been thinking about Christmas since July and it still isn’t here yet.
[ source ]
I’ve got loads of things to do before Christmas, but this week I am going to try really hard to focus on Thanksgiving and the opportunity I have to reflect on the many things I have to be thankful for. And i might just have to make a few of these little cutie dolls (the pattern is from Hillary Wang’s new book.). Don’t they kind of look like a much cuter version of a Pilgrim? I totally would have been the Pilgrim with the pink dress.
Let the Games Begin
I’m not really a huge sports fan, I mean, I’ll watch a few games a year with Scott and enjoy it, but overall I’m kind of meh about the whole thing. I’d never be sad if I missed one. But on Friday we took Creamie to her first college basketball game.
She was in HEAVEN. She couldn’t get enough of the band, and the cheering, and the noise, and the dancers and Cosmo the mascot. Not to mention the pretzels and ice cream. You’ve never seen a happier one year old. When we got home she pulled out Scott’s basketball, sat on it and said “take a picture.” I think she figured out she was cute.
Texas Treasures
While I was in Houston last week I got to do some fun shopping. Even though there was a full 26.2 miles of booths full of little bits of amazingness, I hardly bought a thing at the Quilt Festival. I did get sucked in by one booth that had candy dishes full of beautiful amazing things. Things you rarely find online and I think that was my compelling reason to buy something there. I could have stayed there looking at the heaps of treasures for an hour. But I didn’t.
After a little browsing I snatched up this teensy little toy camera and I was on my way. I’m not sure if it is in working order anymore, but it was once upon a time. The back opens up and if you by chance had film that was all of three quarters of an inch tall you could probably take a few pictures. And it was just so cute I couldn’t help myself. I had to have it.
The only other thing I bought at the Festival was two yards of twill tape from this little shop. Well, I guess it was four yards, two in each color. And do you want to know something freaky? My online twin Krista (not to be confused with my real life twin Heidikins) was in Las Vegas last weekend. And do you want to know what she brought home? Two yards of the very same twill tape (her post and pics here). Amazing.
On Thursday morning last week my cousin Alisa and I had some time to kill before the Quilt Show started and we hit up an antique mall. And we totally lost track of time and missed out on the nearby thrift stores. Bummer. But we were busy searching through boxes of skeleton keys and vintage buttons. It was awesome. I think the letter E is an old printing press block, I think. It’s about 7 inches high and still has ink smeared on it. I’ve been looking for pretty skeleton keys for a long time and finally I hit the jackpot. Already I’ve used most of them in a project that has been in the stacks for ages.
[ Aren’t these buttons great? I had so much fun sorting through the boxes & boxes of buttons! ]
On Saturday I stopped at another antique mall with my cousin Liz (we stayed at her house in Houston) and I saw so many things that I would have loved to sneak home in my suitcase. The most beautiful Pyrex, and a gorgeous Enid Collins purse, and a fantastic toy Noah’s ark, and old spools and sewing machines and kitchen gear and beautiful beautiful furniture… But I had already made a few large purchases (red plaid rainboots and three purses) and the very little bit of empty space in my suitcase was filled up. For the record, Texas has some really cool stuff. In case you were wondering.
Tonight we are going to watch my college basketball team play their opening game. Creamie loves watching sports with her daddy and I really think she is going to love it! For at least one quarter. Then I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend making stuff and doing nothing. Sounds perfect.
Pom Poms
Yesterday I had a lot of things I should have been doing during naptime. And instead of doing any of them I turned an entire skein of yarn into this.
And it was kind of addicting. I see more pom poms in my near future. Like today. Right now.
Houston Quilt Festival
I took hundreds of pictures of quilts at the Quilt Festival last week. And one day I’ll get through them all and post them in my flickr album, but right now I’m just going to show you a few of my favorites. Click on any picture to see it larger (in flickr) and for the name of the creator and any notes I have. As I sorted through all my pictures I realized a theme emerging of what I liked the most- blues and photograph like quilts. I’d never have guessed that going in. Before I went to Houston I felt like I was able to accomplish a lot during naptime. I felt productive, and I was proud of the projects that I’ve finished. But these quilts on display opened my eyes to a world of possibilities that I never knew existed. (And now I feel that I should abandon facebook completely and use my naptimes more wisely. Just sayin’.)
I’ll still be adding some more pictures to my flickr album, but I don’t know if I’ll post them on my blog. But when I do I’ll let you know. Tomorrow I’ll post some pictures of the goodies I brought home, you know, if I get to that. Happy Wednesday!
All the Pretty Colors and how I met Kaffe Fassett
Last week while I was in Houston I went to the International Quilt Festival. It is huge. No, huge doesn’t really describe it. I’m sure I walked a full marathon the first day, and then another the next day. And I don’t think I saw everything. My feet are still recovering.
The first day we (me and some fellow crafty cousins) walked through the booths and stalls drinking in all the wonderful things that people were selling. Skads of things. More things than you could think of. Beautiful things. Useful things. More things than were possible to take in in one day.
I didn’t take many pictures of the booths. I made a lot of notes in my little book, and i drew a lot of pictures of ideas I wanted to try, but I didn’t pull my camera out too often. I was on sensory overload I guess.
I don’t know how I made it out of the Convention Center without spending all of my cash. But I didn’t. I think it partly had to do with the amazing antiquing adventure from Thursday morning. I’ll share that in another post. But I guess I was saving up.
I did buy a few yards of twill tape from this shop, and a few other little bits. Mostly I just opened my eyes as wide as they could go and looked around and soaked up all the colors and textures and prettiness. And I wished that I had more room in my suitcase to take home one of everything. And a money tree in my pocket that was growing twenty dollar bills. Or fifties.
And after I saw all the dozens of shops that were selling wool in every single color and pattern I kind of wished I had a sheep farm. You know, so I could spend every single waking moment taking care of hundreds of animals and shearing them and spinning the wool into yarn and weaving it into fabric and then painstakingly hand dying each piece. And after I thought all that through I just wished I had the money tree in my pocket and a bigger suitcase. And then I’d go back to a goat farm. I’m so indecisive in my daydreams sometimes.
But the most exciting part of the day was when I met Kaffe Fassett. Yeah, THAT one. My cousin Liz stopped at a book booth, and noticed one of his books just sitting there. She mentioned to the woman at the table how wonderful Kaffe Fassett was, and how amazing he was with color and fabric and etc. etc. etc… and the woman asked if she’d like him to sign her book. Because he was sitting right there. Two feet from her. And a few minutes later when she told me I freaked out and went back to meet him. (I had been sidetracked by something shiny I’m sure.) I didn’t buy his book (why? I don’t know.) but I did get a picture with him. And I was kind of dying inside I was just so excited. The real Kaffe Fassett. It was pretty amazing.
Alright, I’ll have more to post tomorrow, but I should have gone to bed 4 hours ago. And I need to eat a banana split before I hit the pillow. I’ve got my priorities in line. Clearly.
[Sources: Fantastic ribbons and trims in the Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods booth. Gorgeous hand dyed wool from Mary Flanagan Woolens booth. I was drooling. ]
pinksuedeshoe 