Purple Kappa

New projects

Embroidered squares for Ivy's quilt. I had already assembled it and didn't really like it, so decided to make these squares to add in. Now I have to pick apart some of the stitching in order to swap these in

Working on some ideas for more clothes for Ivy. There used to be this website called Odd Is Good with the most wonderful dresses made from different fabrics and many of them had little aprons from vintage handkerchiefs. I've been playing around with some different fabrics:

I have a bunch of half-price coupons for Joanns and they expire tomorrow. It's also only a few days until payday so finances are a bit tight but half-price. I could get some more linen--I wish I could find a better source, it's 14.99 a yard at Joann's so I wait until I have 50% coupons and then treat myself. I suppose I could cash in my change jar, but I was sort of saving that to get enough money to drive down to the Japanese store in Columbus... but with the price of gas these days I'd spend more getting there than ordering something online. Hm, what do to.

Bollywood Baby Shoes

I really did have every intention of going for a walk after dinner. I had been doing so good with getting exercise and then gradually slacked off. I was going to walk up to Joann Fabric's and back, a good nearly 3 mile walk. And then I had to make a trip to the basement to find some mason jars--which I never did find, but I located the bin of fabric I was sure I had, the one I finally concluded well maybe I just got rid of more stuff than I thought when I moved, or maybe it just was a moving casualty. Among other things, I found my scraps of sari fabric:

Which I used to make these rather impractical Bollywood baby shoes. They should be in my Etsy shop tomorrow.

This weekend was just--unsatisfying. I've been rather unenthusiastic about the new Harry Potter book--I didn't enjoy the sixth one very much and had decided rather than spend money on a new book, I would just wait and get it from the library. Which will probably take a little while, but I figured I could wait. I was going to go to Potter festivities with Miranda anyway, but then Brian wanted to go to the Ingenuity Festival and because he is on call this weekend, the only night he could go was Friday. I said I didn't mind missing the Potter happenings and he and Miranda had a great time--Ivy didn't want to go, so we stayed home. But the next day after reading blogs and seeing pictures of the fun, I felt a twinge that I had missed the final Potter party. And I do that a lot--say I don't mind something, but I really do and then I feel regretful and and somewhat resentful.

Saturday we drove out to a flea market that was disappointing--overpriced Beanie Babies and piles of t-shirts and tube socks. Well, at least I don't have to wonder if it would be worth the drive anymore--it's not.

What a load of whining! I think a little more than one paragraph of complaining is more than enough. I did get some more work done on Ivy's quilt, she's been asking when it will be finished --I've been telling her when there is snow on the ground because that seems a safe enough bet!

This is what it looks like so far

I'm not sure about it. I do like the colors, but I wish I had more special fabrics for her, it's mostly florals. I was going to embroider the solid squares, but they seem so dark I don't know how it would show up. I think I am going to take some of it apart and add in embroidered musling squares. I've started some with images from Aranzi Aronzo

I do really like how Miranda's quilt is going to look, I've got plenty of cat fabric for her, and some of it will be from her old dresses.

apparently a few things have been left behind by a small visitor...

Pretend camp-out in the front yard

Bow Wow Shorts

Miranda picked some fabric from my stash and asked me to make her some new shorts last night. She rarely asks me to make her clothes anymore, so I wanted to get them made (instead of saying I will get to it and then putting it off, something I've been too much of lately with requests).

They took far longer than they should have to sew up--it's not a good idea for me to sew when I am in a bad mood. A bad mood for no reason, which made it more annoying. First, I cut the pattern wrong--when I make shorts or pants for the girls, I like to make them really loose with no seam up the sides, just in the inseam and front and back. But I cut them so they would have to have a seam up the side, because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. Despite having made dozens of shorts and pants this way. Still, easy to work around, just going to take a little more time--and then I decided to add set-in side pockets. Which I screwed up twice until I did what I should have done in the first place--looked at another pair of pants to see how they were done. Finally, they are finished, but I think they still look a little short in the rise. If she's comfortable which them, then fine, otherwise I will add a band to the top for the casing.

Here is a close-up of the fabric. It's called Bow Wow Chow Mein--although the text in the fabric is Japanese, not Chinese. It doesn't appear to actually say anything, although in one spot it says "nanimo!" which means "nothing!" I don't know if that is intentional.

I did manage to finally finish these two linen smocks.

Yesterday my order from Sew Mama Sew! arrived. Such quick shipping and the fabric is beautiful! I really love the paperweight glass one--the orange and blue on the far right.

Linen Smocks

I've been upstairs for a good twenty minutes now, let's see how far I can get in this entry before someone desperately needs me downstairs...

Apparently about three minutes, as the duo just showed up, Ivy's been decorated with blue marker all over, included her face. She's a gecko. She's now in the bathtub.

Finished up several smocks this weekend--I would have thought I could get more done, I need to manage my time better. What I really need to do is turn the computer off when I am working, or at least the screen so I don't do things like pin up a hem, glance at the computer, realize several people updated their blogs and check them out. This chocolate brown smock is one of my favorite things I've made so far, I love how the colors look together and the green buttons around the neckline. I really want to start keeping a sketch book, but so often the things are make are an ongoing process as the design slowly emerges. I have a hard time thinking of the finished project at the beginning, it's something that just seems to happen as I go along. This is from ISBN 4579111362

A few little Amigurumi bears from ISBN 4415102859. I started these while visiting my mother-in-law last week. I used a bulkier yarn and the ears came out kind of big, but the rest seems fine. Amigurumi is something I always think I am going to crank out in an evening and then it takes far longer to sew it together and put on the features than I figured.

Anti-Social Crafting Curmudgeon

We live about 20 houses away from a train track, trains come through 4 or 5 times each day. It's a residential neighborhood, so you can hear them sounding the whistle when it's still a ways off. And every time Ivy hears the whistle she yells "the train, we gotta go see the train" and I have to put down whatever I am doing and run outside with her. No matter what. A few days ago we had this conversation:

Ivy--the train! The train is coomminnng, hurry!
Me--Ivy, you're naked!
Ivy--but I can't miss it!
I managed to throw a towel around her as she headed out the door... There've been a few times when I had to throw on some pants. Fortunately everyone was dressed today

We made it down the street in time to wave to the driver, which really thrilled her.

My backyard is still a disaster, no lawn, no plants except for weeds. But the front looks good. We put in all of this, it was just grass when we moved in. The lawn looks pretty awful, though. We need a few days of rain, not these brief spatters we've been getting.

There are nasturtiums, sunflowers, zinnias, pansies and over to the side are herbs--sage, rosemary, lavender, yarrow and a few others. For someone who wears a lot of black, I enjoy plenty of color in my garden.

This is our neighbor a few houses down. Aren't those hollyhocks wonderful? I am going to see if he will let me have a few plants, he said they spread like crazy.

Recently some other neighbors, who have a daughter Ivy's age, invited both girls over to play on the slip-n-slide. I came over as well and sat and chatted, but nearly the whole time I was thinking "oh, I could be home sewing, I have so much I am working on" and I enjoyed visiting, but was secretly a bit glad when it was time for them to eat so I could get back home and finish up some projects. I'm finding I am getting more and more anti-social. I used to go out once a week to a local Stitch-n-Bitch, but as I stopped knitting so much and working on more sewing projects I stopped going because I wasn't doing much handwork. I used to go out once a week to just sit and read for a few hours and I've stopped doing that as well. I am enjoying what I do, but am turning into quite the hermit.

Sew Mama Sew

I've got a bit of fame--I was the winner in the Sew Mama Sew June Flickr Pool Contest. I have a 25.00 gift certificate to the Sew Mama Sew Shop--and it's already been used, can't wait to get my beautiful fabric. I will post pictures when it arrives. It took me forever to decide what to get, there was so much to choose from, and such a great variety.

And if that wasn't enough, this was just published:

It's not quite the same as having my own book, but I do get to see my name in print:

I had intended this to be a set for a baby, by my measurements it would fit a baby newborn to six months, but I guess maybe it was smaller than I thought and the publishers decided it would work better as a teddy bear clothes. Whatever, it's still thrilling!

Big Eared Bunny

Ivy came downstairs to the kitchen last night and asked "is that mouse for me" I told her it was for the shop and trembling lower lip, tear-filled eyes....I can be pretty firm with outright crying, but bravely trying not to cry gets me everytime. So, guess who has a new mouse

And then of course I couldn't leave Miranda toyless, she needed the cat. Leaving this big eared bunny to go into the shop

Available for sale in my Etsy shop

Zoo Day

Petting Sting Rays at the Touch! exhibit

Ivy loved this so much, we spent more than 30 minutes with our hands in the water letting the rays skim by. It's the sort of thing that both thrills me and troubles me, as I know I was repeatedly reminding Ivy to touch the rays underneath rather on top--they are very delicate and you could harm them if you touch them on top. It just seems there is potential for the Rays to easily be harmed by someone being careless. Ivy was also disappointed that she didn't get to pet a shark, but they are nocturnal and like to hide under the waterfall in the corner of the exhibit (maybe not such a good idea to get a nocturnal animal for this particular exhibit...?)

Yikes!

Riding Parasorolophus

Butterfly exhibit

I think spotting this little gecko thrilled her more than all the butterflies

Lunch

There is an Australia exhibit which is sort of fun and sort of amusing because it's so stereotypical outback Australia, it makes me wonder what the North American exhibit looks like at other zoos around the world. This is a water tower, the little sign to the side claims they are found all over Australia. I don't know if they spurt mist in Australia, but it really feels good on a hot day.

This is honestly my dream kitchen (this is another part of the Australia exhibit, I think it's meant to be an authentic outback house). One of the selling points of our new house was its completely remodeled kitchen. Someday I want to rip it out and make it look like this one:

Brian's driving Miranda to camp tomorrow so I am indulging in my favorite pastime of staying up far too late. I am sure I will regret it in the morning but for now I am enjoying the quiet. And the glass of wine.

Molly Chicken

This has been a somewhat unusual week. Miranda is at zoo camp  Monday through Friday. Since we homeschool, this is the first time she's been gone all day for an entire week (it's just day camp, she's done by 4PM). What a difference it makes just having one child around the house. Not that my elder daughter is particularly demanding, and she often keeps Ivy occupied for me, but it's just--different. We're up much earlier than usual so we can drive her to the zoo--and it's made quite a difference in my productivity. Well, maybe not so much productivity, but I do feel I have a lot of extra time.

I spent much of the morning (productively) reading the archives on my favorite blog, Molly Chicken. I love reading about her family, her daily life and the wonderful things she creates. Every time she gets a new Japanese craft book she generously posts numerous scans of the pages. And look at these adorable softies!

Now to finish these guys: