Sunday, April 29, 2007

A full blown rose

My husband transplanted the rose bushes a few weeks ago andwe have one large and lovely bloom. Something or someone has been pruning the other bushes in the dead of the night so they have yet to produce, but they are trying!
I have had a sale in my shop!!! My dreams of fame and fortune are coming to fruition!!!!
Ah well, not likely, but I have some items for an update and I am desperately trying to find time to get some more sewing done. One more week of school for me and then some real chunks of time to work.


A blanket for that baby with a flair for the dramatic--check the shop tomorrow for more shots.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Heads up

Rete is giving away a skein of yarn to a commenter this week. "One random winner will receive a skein of Louet Gems in their favorite color." I don't knit but, my husband does and I am plotting how he will make me some lovely socks if I win. Skip on over and sign up.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Etsy shop is open!!

So there it is --------------------------------------------------------------------->

The shop is open and I am waiting to see who gets the first item......

Well, where is everybody?

I kid, I kid.

It seemed to take forever to get it all up and, because I had hit my deadline, I posted unimproved pictures. If you read the descriptions of each item you will see that I got better with each posting. All in all not a bad experience.

I have been dithering about doing something like this for a long time (joined Etsy in 2005(!)). But the counselor at the school my daughter will attend next year talked to us parents about how procrastination is just a way to avoid failing, so I decided to just bite the bullet and jump in.
(Just to mix a few metaphors--ack!!)
Please, everyone who reads this, tell your friends (whom you think might have an interest) to check it out--self promotion is my achilles heel.

I am also interested to know what kinds of things you all buy on Etsy and what you might like to see--looking for more ideas of what to make. I want to stick to the realm of sewing, and thrifted, one of a kind fabrics and trims. Ideas?

Friday, April 20, 2007

Anybody wanna trade?

Ok, so, I have these two lovely batches of wool yarn that I thrifted ages ago. I do not knit or crochet. I think I bought them because I have a loom but since I don't weave either.....

This yellowish, yucky color looks pretty accurate on my computer screen, it is indeed that awful 70's color that is never gonna come back. However, it is wool and could be dyed--a brown could work quite nicely over this. Or, perhaps you just love this color and know just the thing.

Now, since there are only about 4 or 5 of you who read my blog I am hoping you will pass this on to somebody who might be interested in a trade. I would take anything except more yarn: scrap of fabric, a few buttons, a nice bit of paper, spool of thread, beads, pretty much anything. The yellow is 4 skeins, 4 ply, 3 1/2 oz each.



Now this Britania wool is a better color--the small picture is more accurate on my screen. There are 6 skeins, 2 ply, 1 6/10 oz each.
Same deal, trade me anything in the realm of craft of art supplies, nothing highly valuable--just roughly equivalent to a few skeins of a dicey color and probably not enough, yarn.
I was thinking that they would felt nicely.








Thursday, April 19, 2007

Jello and greeting cards

Ha! Regina sent me a photo of my cards I sent in the swap. Thank you Regina! Quivering , dietetic jellos are my fave.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Greeting card swap

Here, finally, is the note card swap I did with Regina . I sent in 5 cards, which I failed to document. And I got these 6 lovelies back. Now I need to send them to people. Anybody want some mail?

Several of them have been made with handmade stamps, and that pink one has magnetic pants on it. That would make a good band name -- Magnetic Pants -- No?





This one with yellow flower was done by Regina. They are all so pretty, mine had pictures cut from 60's cookbooks on them. A totally different feel.

Today I get to go to my Paperworks meeting. Such a great group. I think this month we are hearing about the In Over My Head groups. They are people who get together and expand their knowledge in different areas. I am going to join one in the fall. We have heard great lectures from several fabulous artists from all over. Very inspiring. They are mostly women, mostly over 50 and many, many proffesional artists. I feel very young and inexperienced among them but I don't care.
There is also a very large percentage of people who wear that virulent chartreusy, yellow green. I have decided that that color is in the domain of artists, older women, intelligencia, and occasionally thin rich blonde women who wear lots of jewelry. I have a shirt in that color and really like it.



Monday, April 16, 2007

Button Swap Bonanza

Hooray for Sonya!! Wow, what a lovely selection of buttons--I think she must have a much nicer collection than I do because these are the ones she is willing to give away! Here is the line up--I took this shot outside in some crazy rainy weather, so they don't shine quite as much as in person.Here is a subset on some nice polka dotted rayon she included.


More goodies plus a whole 'nother dozen buttons!!


Trims, bracelet, tin.......it is all too much.

Another vingette, there is that cohesiveness that I struggle to attain in my groupings of things.
Thankyou Sonya! Such a fun swap.




Sunday, April 15, 2007

Lemon cake











So the cakes fell a little.

But the seven-minute frosting came out great.



Here are the boys bellying up to the bar, ready for cake.


Here is a slice on my new plate--pretty awesome.



This is the Cook's Illustrated version of lemon cake. My husband, who loves boxed lemon cake, pronounced the filling to be too lemony (wha?). My kids also did not care for the filling.

More for meeeeee!!!!!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Thrift store bonanza and a Power Ranger

Grab bag of fabrics and the next couple of patterns I will try for more Etsy clothes.


Wool sweaters that I now buy obsessively even though I can't think of much to make besides Betz White's pincushions, which, of course, I cannot sell.
Postcard that some of my grab bag of trim was wrapped around. It is from Panama City 1960 and has a 3 cent stamp. Sent to people in Gallatin, TN (I have been there!)
More trim (I cannot stop!!!). Four Mikasa plates.


My almost four year old in the "Power Ranger" costume I made for him. (With his Superman cape) He is pretty much unstoppable. :-)








Aprons and how I love them






So Sonya got her buttons and posted pictures, yay--I totally forgot to take any, even though I remembered, like, 25 times. That was a fun package to put together.






I took the rest of the pictures of my items for my Etsy shop--gonna work on that tonight. My official deadline is the 21st of this month, but maybe sooner!






So, tra la, on to aprons. Like many people I have a thing for aprons. I even did my senior thesis for my BFA with aprons. I have a small collection of thrifted aprons and my mother-in-law gave me this booklet which I just rediscovered.
Inside are these lovelies:
I want to make the one in the lower right corner. The two pockets are actually one big pocket which the instructions say can be used for carrying your knitting. I don't knit and actually don't really want to, but the idea sounds so lovely.
Well, now I have to go clean house.....perhaps I will put on an apron.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

testing photo settings



Ok, I will put up another couple of cutie outfits that I took with different camera settings and background. Let's see what they look like.
Well the resolution is better but I don't know about my picture taking skillz.
Here is the back. This is my favorite one of all I have made so far. The trim is so perfect--it was really hard to use it on the dress, but I am training myself to use the lovely things I have instead of just accumulating raw materials.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

This blog has now been read by "the public"






I have now put my address out to strangers and Sonya my partner in the Shim and Sons button swap said she loved my blog. Now I am pretty sure that there is a bit of hyperbole in that statement but nevertheless, I feel highly encouraged to continue.
So here I am showing you the bag from the horrible sweater. It is really big and I cannot envision a situation where I would use it, so I guess I will put it up on etsy when I get my shop up and running.




I do think it is much better as a bag than a sweater though.







I also went thrifting today and totally scored in the notions and trims dept. I had a coupon and got all this and more for less than $15. Actually there is a lot more but this is some of the best.
I keep checking to see what this post looks like and I am completely flummoxed by this setup. The pictures come up in weird places and the text just randomly breaks. Clearly I need to research this a little more. Also I think I need to change the settings on my camera so the pictures are a little clearer.