Purple Kappa

What's in the Mail Today?

Fabric to make some summer shorts and pants for Ivy, from Banberry Place--Japanese fabric is 40% off, I think I showed admirable restraint.

The lion and giraffe print is a linen/cotton blend and the Little Red Riding Hood fabric is a nice medium weight cotton--these are the ones Ivy picked out. I added the Petite Ecole fabric--the print runs along the selvages, one side is animals in a schoolhouse, the other side has them playing on the playground. The Winter 2009 edition of Cotton Friend has a cute pattern for a smock:

But I'm leaning towards cutting the fabric in half lengthwise and making two skirts, adding fabric for the waistband to lengthen them.

I also received this lovely organic cotton tote from a giveway at Sheree's Alchemy. Perfect now that the farmer's markets are starting, along with the CSA we finally joined this year

Sheree is continuing to giveaway more totes, so check out her blog as well as her online fabric shop.

Story Quilt

I've seen the book Story Quilt showing the work of Yukari Takahara on several blogs and while it's truly a lovely book, it seemed a little indulgent for something I'd be buying primarily for the pictures. But I was finally won over and my copy arrived today

ISBN 9784391133318

The book is organized by seasons. Yukari Takahara creates wonderfully detailed quilts that depict scenes such as a village, a busy post office and a school picnic.

I think this sort of applique would look lovely on the front of a simple linen jumper, or along the hemline of a skirt.

The back of the book includes templates and instructions on technique.

There are also pictures of her house and garden (I'm guessing, still trying to translate the Japanese text)

I think this is her picture book library, which is open to the public at certain times according to her website.

She has a website and a blog where you can see more examples of her amazing work. It's in Japanese, but it's pretty easy to navigate, just click around and enjoy.

Shop 66

Shop 66 is a charming shop on Etsy that features all sorts of wonderful vintage toys--many from Japan, I believe--as well as hand-cut stickers, magnets and other fun things. You can keep updated on upcoming additions to the store, along with photos of her own extensive collection of toys and dolls by reading her blog

I'd been sort of wanting a set of vintage Japanese paper dolls after someone posted a picture of their set on Flickr a few years ago, so when she put a few reproduction copies up for sale, I bought both Akemi and Keiko. They arrived today and they are so cute:

She has a few more sets for sale, and I see that this weekend she'll have the little brother, mother and father--wondering if I should indulge in having the complete family?

Sometimes I say I'm really busy but what that actually means is I can't sit and waste as much time online as I'd like to--but lately, I'm really and truly busy. Between my job and Brian's rehearsals, it seems as though I don't have time for anything. At least the days are going by quickly, things should get better by mid-June when the play opens. And some of the things that keep me busy are fun

Helping Ivy learn to skate (this is an old picture, taken the first day she got the skates, we have leaves on the trees now)

Making a birthday gift book bag for a friend's ninth birthday

Trying to get things to grow in the few sunny spots in the yard. I'm hoping to get the honeysuckle to grow around the porch pillar, I think it might take a few more summers

Listening to Ivy read from my favorite book when I was about her age. It's fun to listen to her--she's really taken a big leap in her reading abilities, and uses different voices for the characters.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my wonderful Mother's Day gift:

Brian found it at a garage sale. For 10.00. I actually have to figure out how to work it, to make sure it does what it is supposed to. But it's still threaded, and there is a piece of fabric with the threads uncut that has a serged edge, so I'm pretty hopeful. It looks almost new, and has a manual as well. I checked some reviews online and they go up and down, some people like it, some people hate it so I guess I'll how this is. I will probably continue using french and felled seams on the clothing I sell, since it's such a nice finish but I'm sure this will come in handy for other projects.

It was actually a pretty low key Mother's Day. Ivy was hit with some same stomach bug Miranda had last week, it even followed the same pattern. Stomach ache starting around midnight, then vomiting for a few hours (including a change of sheets), when she finally fell asleep she slept through until morning and woke up feeling fine. I had to go into work from 1:30 until about 5, and then we went out to dinner for tacos. A little gardening in the evening and now I'm going to drink some tea and watch the Japanese cast of West Side Story--should be interesting. There are no subtitles, but I know the show well enough to be able to figure out what's going on.

New Pinafore

I made Ivy a pinafore out of the animal land fabric Josie sent me. It ties in the back with a blue gingham ribbon. It's open in the back and needs to be worn with pants or shorts.

So that Every Day in May thing? Not off to such a good start. Friday Miranda woke up very early in the morning to throw up, so we didn't get much sleep. I had to work Friday and Saturday night, and Sunday during the day.

I had thought maybe I'd make an effort to start studying kanji again, doing a little bit every day. I did pretty well over the weekend, squeezing in a few pages each day. But I'm not sure there really is anything I want to do every single day. Except maybe drink wine and waste time online, but that wouldn't really be practical. Well, I could do it, but it would make for rather dull blog entries. Or maybe not. But I do enjoy having a lot of different activities, moving from one to the next when I get a little bored, or in a creative slump.

And then today I found out that Brian's rehearsals for The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival (the lead! In Antony and Cleopatra! Well, one of the leads. He's Antony, if there was any confusion. Although Miranda thought it would have been interesting if he'd been cast as Cleopatra) are Sunday through Thursday night, and Saturday afternoon. For some reason I only heard Monday through Thursdays the first time we discussed it. Combined with my work schedule, I think Every Day in May will be spent trying to make it until June.