It’s Snowing!
In other news. The snowshoes worked perfectly. Without them the snow was waist deep. But after strapping them on they could walk right on top of all that snowy goodness, just like you are supposed to. Now, if only some of that snowy goodness would stick to the ground at my house!
Snowshoes
Scott is going camping tonight with the Scouts. For weeks they have been working on making their own snowshoes, and last night I helped him finish them. So far they had bent the frames out of electrical conduit, done the welding and the drilling and the bolting and everything else. This is a far from complete step by step process, but this is what we did last night! I let him (and the Scouts) borrow my sewing scissors. Gasp! Scott gave them very strict instructions on what you do and do not cut with sewing scissors. That is an important lesson that any man/boy needs to learn. My part was to sew the toe ends. They are folded under about an inch, so I had to clip the edges and sew them down. Easy peasy. The fabric he used is like an industrial weight nylon pack cloth. I was a little worried about not having a stronger needle, but it all worked out OK. After we sewed the edges, Scott used my Crop-A-Dile (greatest tool ever) to punch holes for the grommets.
Then it was just a matter of setting the grommets and lacing them up. It was a really fun project to work on. And, might I just add, my hubby is totally crafty…. in a very camping/scouting/manly way. When he was in high school he took a Sports Sewing class and made himself a Ski Coat. And it is pretty dang awesome. I’ll post a picture of it sometime. It has zippers and waterproofness and warmabillity (I think I just made that word up) and everything. He found the snowshoe instructions on the internet and did a great job helping the boys make their own shoes. He’s going to try them out tonight up in the mountains, I’ll let you know how it goes!
I am adding this post to Sew&Tell at Amylouwho‘s. I can guarantee nobody else made snowshoes this week!
Dreaming in Colors
You know when you read something, and your breath catches in your throat, and your heart skips a few beats? And then you tell yourself that it does happen to real people. And one day soon (maybe) it could happen to you too?
Yesterday was one of those days. The thrill of the fabric hunt is starting to fade, though I am still super happy about it, don’t get me wrong. But I was reading through my Google Reader (seriously like the greatest invention EVER) and I came across this post at The Sew Weekly. She totally scored at an estate sale. Like, knock your socks off scored. More stuff than was in my wildest estate sale dreams, and all for $20. Oh, and it was all fabric/buttons/zippers/pure heaven. One day, that will happen to me.
And then I saw Rachel’s post about this beautiful yellow typewriter. And it was $10. And it works. And I love it. But, as long as we are dreaming, MY dream would be this one.
She calls it the Mercedes Benz of Typewriters. Born in the 1950’s of Royal parents, and housed in it’s very own tweed carrying case. I am in love (and have been for quite some time). It is just so pretty. Who wants a laptop when you could have one of these! OK, if we are being honest, I want both. A pink laptop AND a pink typewriter. But if I had the money ready to purchase a new laptop and one of these became available I would totally choose the typewriter. Hands Down. Laptops will always be here. And one day the world will run out of 1950’s Royal Typewriters in pink… with tweed carrying case’s. And I want to have one on my desk before that happens. Of course, there are a lot of other perfectly lovely typewriters too.
1. 1940s Smith-Corona Sterling Portable Typewriter 2. 1950s Fern Green Underwood Finger-Flight Champion 3.Vintage Robin’s Egg Blue Remington Speedliner 4.1930s Green Royal Portable Typewriter 5.1961 Red IBM Selectric Electric Typewriter 6.Rare 1950s Red Royal Portal Typewriter 7.1970s Olivetti Orange Manuel Portable Typewriter 8.1970s Olivetti Yellow Montgomery Ward Escort 55
9. 1970s Penncrest Two-Tone Blue Caravelle 12 10.Vintage Royal Safari Chocolate & Ivory Manual
[mosaic image and credits pilfered from Miss Scholastic]
I could see myself taking one of each. You know, were it not for that pesky money business. And space. Space in our small house ran out ages ago. And yet….
Burning the Midnight Oil
It’s 2 in the morning. I have been sitting at my computer for WAYYY to long, and even though I am still wearing my shoes, my feet are freeeeezing. What have I been doing? I made a new header for my blog. I am going to be working on changing a few things in the next week or so. But my last header was driving me crazy, and my new scanner made this one look so much better. Actually, it’s awesome. It’s a mix of digital, colored pencil, marker and a whole lot of photoshop and illustrator. If you are reading in a reader, come see. I kind of love it!
Happy Mail A Good Story and A New Project
Let me tell you a story. Are you ready? It’s a good one. Early last week I was flipping through my Reader catching up on the weekends of my favorite bloggers. I came across this post by Amylouwho. (Amy hosts a Sew&Tell every Friday which I have loved. It gives me a lot of motivation to keep working on new projects each week.) I have no idea how I found Amy. She lives in Virginia, and that post I mentioned mostly talks about the wonderful snow that has been pounding the east coast. So jealous. Anyway, besides the snow she mentioned the grossness that is the glucose test (she’s preggers) and then she said this, kind of in passing (but with no photo). And it has changed my life.
” On the brighter side, I ordered a kit to make this quilt from Amy! It’s so cute! “
[image shamelessly stolen from Amy’s blog]
Unfortunately those kits are sold out, but fortunately for me the internet is still a beautiful thing. If you give a quick glance to that quilt, you will probably see a really cute quilt pattern/kit with a great back story (if you went to read it, which you should). But, if you are ME and take one quick glance at that quilt you see a goldmine. One glance and my breath caught in my throat and my heart started to pound and in three clicks of the mouse I was in Amy’s etsy shop and sending her a convo. Nearly faster than the speed of light I had sent my pleading out through cyberspace to AmySmart. And why? Why was I not breathing and willing my fingers and the internet to fly faster and faster? (And then keeping a small flame of hope alive in my heart that maybe, just maybe this might work out?) Well. I’ll tell you.
The very first thing I noticed when I looked at that quilt was that she used some of Sandi Henderson’s Farmers Market by Michael Miller and not only that… she had Orange Henna.
[orange henna image from Twins’ Garden]
And what exactly is so great about Orange Henna? Well, if you click that link you will notice that the website is all in German. As of last week there was exactly zero of this fabric available on etsy or on ebay. (As of 5 seconds ago there was one yard on ebay.. but last week there was nothing.) And not only does she have Orange Henna, she also had the green apples! And the yellow henna! And why am I freaking out about this? Well, I’ll tell you. These are the same fabrics I bought for Creamie’s nursery something like a year and a half ago. And when I was finished I was so proud of myself for using up nearly all of what I had purchased. And now I want to make curtains and a valance for the window. And I didn’t have enough scraps. So for several days I’ve had 18 tabs open on my interwebs browser looking for fabric that I could substitute for the pieces that were no longer available. And then Amylouwho changed my life…. and AmySmart changed my life.
I emailed AmySmart and asked her if she had any scraps leftover from cutting her kits that I could buy from her. Anything in a 6″x12″ block. I told her my whole dilemma, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice and probably failing. I sent her the link to the pics of Creamie’s nursery, so she could see I was not a psycho, but a real live person with a real live child and a real live window that needed a little something extra. And then I waited. Oh, and I checked my email about every 13 minutes for the next 24 hours. And then she wrote me back. And the stars aligned and the world was made an infinitely better place. She had one scrap of Orange Henna in the size I needed. One. Plus, she had scraps of a few more. And she mailed them to me. And I got them today. And I am in love. And I love her.
So, let me break this down. I have been stalking a blogger in Virginia (Amylouwho) who made a passing comment about a quilt made by AmySmart and I thankfully checked out her link. And AmySmart is super nice. And AmySmart has a goldmine in her scrapbox. And she sent me some gold. In four different colors. And when the package came I discovered that she lives all of two miles from my house. Yeah. And the internet makes all of this possible. And next time Amylouwho comes to Utah (her mother conveniently lives here… which I found out about a very long time after I started stalking her) I want to take both Amy’s to lunch for making my next project possible. (Seriously girls).
This is my rough draft for the valance on Creamie’s window. And then she’ll have white curtains trimmed with the stripe and some pink the same as her bedskirt. So, what does this very long story have to tell us? It just goes to show that you should always provide links to the happy and beautiful things in your life. And when you see those links, you should check them out. You never know when your life is going to change.
And if you are like me and get this worked up about fabric and curtains for a baby you should probably not tell too many people. They may think that you have absolutely lost it and are completely crazy. But, if you think I am crazy (and I have just given you pretty good reason to think so) then just say something nice about how wonderful Amylouwho and AmySmart are, and how the internet is such an amazing thing. Don’t tell me I am crazy. I know. I am aware. And I kind of like it.
Charlotte’s New Adventure
I know I am a little slow posting this…Valentines Day/President’s Day ended up being WAAAAAYY busier than I expected. Charlotte got to watch all my adventures from on top of the computer… and she was kind of laughing at me. But in a nice way. She loved hearing about all your adventures, and couldn’t pick someone to go live with. She wanted to go live with all of you. So my dear friends at random.org picked instead.
So the big news… she is going to live with Danielle who said “I love Charlotte. I am not sure what adventures Charlotte would experience with me– mostly just hanging out in my studio and helping me select fabrics for quilts or cheering me on as I seam rip, which I tend to do quite often. Either way, I’d love to have her join me in Texas. We don’t have man elephants here.”
Charlotte is so excited to go! She thinks she might love Texas! I’ve decided that I really like doing giveaways… and I think I am going to do them more often! Maybe one for St. Patricks Day? I’ll have to think of something good to make!
I’m off to enjoy naptime with a good book. The house is clean, the dishes are done and I am going to sit down and finish my book. And maybe do some sewing!
PS- I am helping my hubby make snowshoes tonight…. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Four Weddings and a Funeral
OK… no weddings. But I am pretty sure that a funeral is going to be involved.
Let me just give you a rundown. Since Christmas we have towed this sucker 4 times. Maybe 5. I lose track. It has been to the mechanic twice. It has been to the dealer three times (three separate dealers). All for different problems. New pinions in the manifold, new battery, new heater/ac blower and motor, new smart keys, rewire the security system and put in a new module. Blah. Blah. Blah. Damages? Three. Thousand. Dollars. Bleh.
Back at Christmas the Jeep was demoted. We used to call it “The Jet.” Now we just call it “Steve.” He’s just your average boring guy. Nothing too exciting and prone to forget what he is doing if he sees a Burger King. And he will probably never have a girlfriend. And now Steve is dead.
Saturday morning I woke up at my aunt’s house (very late crafting night and I didn’t want to drive the 60ish miles home at 2:00 in the morning. So I slept over. Saturday morning I went to go home to my hubby and babycakes and Steve freaked out. His alarm system went off, and it wouldn’t shut up. We pulled off the battery. I spent an hour on the phone with the dealership mechanic. My aunt’s neighbor Mark, who works on cars for fun, came over to tinker. He tinkered. Nothing. The car kept shutting off. (Steve thought I was stealing him. Stupid Car.) We had him towed to a dealership. My uncle drove me home. I was still mad.
Yesterday afternoon Scott at the dealership called. Good news: They got the car to start, with the alarm off. Yay. Bad news: Nothing else was working. Power locks, windows, dashboard dials, interior lights, radio/CD/whatever. NOthing. But the wipers work. Awesome. They couldn’t even hook up their diagnostic machine to Steve to figure out his problem. Steve was virtually unresponsive. So besides the three grand we just dropped into this junkpile, what really stings is that he also has a full tank of gas. Grrrr……….
On the bright side. If I started Steve on fire, that full tank of gas would probably help make a very nice explosion. Who’s with me? I’m with me.
PS- on the other bright side, don’t forget to enter my birthday giveaway! Charlotte has loved reading about all your adventures. And as soon as I get off the phone with the dealership I will start replying to your comments!
Introducing Charlotte + Giveaway
UPDATE: GIVEAWAY CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS DANIELLE!
In a lot of ways Charlotte is just like me. She doesn’t like scrambled eggs, or tuna fish. She really likes a good book, but prefers magazines because of all the glossy pictures. Pink is her favorite color, and she loves peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Loves them. Oh, and she loves a good giveaway.
Charlotte is made from a thrifted felted cardigan. She is all wool, stuffed with polyfill and has cute little button eyes and moveable button joints. She has a big heart (made from a small button). She is always up for a new adventure. And since she asked so nice, and is so dang cute, I told her she could have one. I am going to give her away and she is going to come and live with one of you. Leave a comment before Sunday (Happy Heart Day) telling her about your favorite adventure. It can be something you have already done, or a new one you would love to have. Charlotte likes to hear about all kinds.
Next Monday I will post the winner. Charlotte is excited to start her new adventure with you. I know she would love to hear all about your adventures and your secrets. She’s really good at keeping secrets. Happy Adventuring!
Charlotte stands 15 inches tall toes to tips of ears. She is held together with button joints and has button features, so please don’t put her in the hands of small tiny persons. But she’ll happily watch them play from a high shelf. You can find the pattern to make Charlotte here.
It’s Friday… already
I have no idea where this week went. First thing you know it is Sunday evening and you are enjoying a turkey dinner with your family, and the next thing you know it is midnight on Thursday and you are trying to finish up a project before Friday morning (didn’t finish). Sigh. How time does fly. For my Sew&Tell this week I am posting some pillows/covers I made. My sister is making her first ever quilt. A resolution for last year (her resolution “deadline” has always been Chinese New Year, so she has one more week) was to make a quilt. So last week we went and picked out some fabric and got it all cut and the top done in one day. She sewed, I ironed. She left the scraps with me, and this is what I made yesterday. (Scraps are dangerous at my house…. I can’t ever throw them away. Ever., not even the tiniest piece.)
She already has pillows to go inside the two large one’s, but I stuffed the small one with polyfill. I mean, when you have a 10-ish inch scrap of EVERYTHING you just can’t stop at two.
My biggest accomplishment in his whole adventure was that the backs look prettier than anything I’ve ever made. All my/her seams are pressed tight and all go in the correct direction. Scott keeps telling me that it doesn’t matter, because no one is going to see it. But I don’t care. I know it’s there. And it gives me warm fuzzies. Go check out the other Sew&Tell’s. It’s one of my favorite things about Friday!
PS… My birthday is next week, and I am going to have a giveaway to celebrate. I almost finished it last night, but decided at 12:30 I just wasn’t going to finish. Hopefully today during naptime. Keep checking!
The Perfect Chair
I always look at the chairs at my local thrift store. Always. And some days are luckier than others. (Remember this day? I do. I still cry a little inside thinking about it*.) But yesterday I found a total gem (as far as thrift stores go). I was going to wait until I had before and after pictures of it, but I just can’t. Here it is!
I know, it’s a little bright, and it’s legs are a little…. ugly. But it is REALLY comfortable, the perfect size for our room (and maybe my craft room when I get to that). It’s in very good condition and the upholstery looks brand new. There is a small slash on one side, but lets face it, I was going to make a slipcover for it anyway. I know it’s not a rocking chair*. But I have pretty much given up on ever finding something that perfect. “Better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.*” Well I still think that’s a bunch of crap. I miss that chair ALL the time. But I really believe that this one will help heal the hole in my heart. (Seriously, does this sound as ridiculous to anyone else as it does to me? That was in August*… and I am still REALLY upset about it! Do they have loss therapists who specialize in furniture?)
See look, in black and white it is much prettier. Though I am a little nervous that the blue is going to grow on me…. No. Stop. Don’t even think it. It has bad legs, it needs a skirt to hide them. I don’t like nailheads, they have to go. It has a tear, it needs a new slipcover. Otherwise Creamie will call that tear a pocket and put Cheerios inside. But, it’s comfortable, and clean. I really like the arms, and the curved back. And it’s mine. No one can take it from me.*
*Yes, all of these links go back to the same post. It’s background information, and it’s important. That’s all.
pinksuedeshoe 