simple up

fix it fast! reconstructed tee

2012-02-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

A very thoughtful and wonderful friend gifted me with a lovely t-shirt, and while I can appreciate Yertle the Turtle as much as the next gal, the boxy shape left something to be desired:

"before" photo from 80sTees.

To be fair, I probably looked a little cuter in the original tee than the model does in the above pic (Sorry, guy--I just think you can do better!), but not by much. Having words and/or cartoons emblazoned across my chest also bothers me (I feel I should aim for at least a minimal amount of professionalism), so I quickly drew up plans to move the design to the back, reshape the sides and sleeves, and add a contrasting yoke using scraps left over from this project--perhaps with some fabric gathers, a la Sugar City Journal's village frock? After many ~~mistakes~~ revisions and several refittings, I worked out this simple cut with a fit that was decently flattering. If I'd used a more elastic binding (such as FOE, or maybe elastic encased in a jersey binding) around the collar and armholes, those parts would lie flatter, but the leftover scraps of jersey fabric that I used instead actually worked out OK, only sticking out a wee bit around the arms.

back on track?

2012-02-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

My sewing machine has been acting up lately (repeated tangles even after I've put in a fresh, unbent needle and cleaned out all the dusty bits inside), but before I packed it off for the repairist I thought I'd give it one last go--maybe a little "time alone" was all it needed. And what do you know? It seems to be working again.

So with any luck (keep your fingers crossed for me!) I'll be stitching and posting again soon. The projects have been piling up and I'm been super anxious to knock 'em out.

a small update

2012-01-18T10:36:00.000-08:00

I've cleaned up the lemon tree for easier picking (see a "before" pic at the end of this post and a "WAY before" pic in this post) and H. has been spending his weekends building a retaining wall (our yard is a good foot and a half higher than our neighbor's); soon we'll have an extended drain pipe as well to keep the roof runoff from flooding over to the neighbor's yard and/or washing away all of H's hard work. I must remember to bake that man a cake to thank him for his troubles.

Upstairs in the master bedroom I've made a bit more progress. Here's the before (from December 2008, I really hadn't made too much of a dent until recently) :

And here's the after:

Ok, so it's still a mess, and tough to compare the two pictures, but there is definite progress. I dropped off another full trunkload at Goodwill last week (which included most of the large picture frames, 3 heavy antique stand mixers that I was unable to fix, some fabric scraps that I decided I'll never use, and several boxes of other miscellaneous stuff). I had not intended to put a boxspring/mattress back in yet (there goes that floor space I just cleared!), but I did intend to make this a functional bedroom again eventually, and perhaps more importantly, my sister needed to get some things out of her house. I figured she could use a bit of encouragement to keep cleaning (it's a Process, I keep telling her) and I hoped that having one bigger item whisked away would help.

brave new year

2012-01-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

I went thrifting one day looking for a stripey jersey from which to make a stripey scarf and came across this lovely boatneck. I did cut off the bottom to make the scarf, but I thought I might save the top and combine it with a skirt to make something like shabby apple's "Oh La La" or a reverse "Gondola" dress.

I had been searching for a solid green or navy fabric to make the skirt (perhaps a thrifted tablecloth would work nicely) but eventually settled on re-using the fabric from this costume, which had been worn only once and was languishing in the back of the closet. It has a very fine plush pile to it, something like a needlecord without the cord, but isn't overly velvety, just the thing to brighten up a crisp winter (or spring or autumn) morning.

Despite some sewing machine troubles, I finally finished the half-circle skirt in time for New Year's, but didn't find the time to take any pictures, and then had to wait for a sunny day, and now I can't find my regular camera so we'll have to settle for these grainy pics.

So far...

2011-11-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

...I've made persimmon cookies, persimmon cake, persimmon pancakes (twice! - these are fantastic; just replace some of the milk with the pulp), and persimmon jello. With the last of my harvest now cut up and drying in the oven, I no longer need suggestions, but I am curious what other people do with all of theirs, because it's so rarely 2 or 3 fruits but usually a huge treeful.

We've made a bit of progress in the side yard with getting the area a bit more tamed--unwanted plant bulbs and stumps removed (crossing fingers they don't come back) . We found a large mouse-rat nesting in one of the abandoned drainpipes (also really hoping that he doesn't come back). That's enough excitement for one weekend, really.

On the sewing front, I haven't done a thing since I broke the needle on my machine during the last blouse. I think it was already warping and ready for replacement (I never change the needles as often as I should), but it was still a blow from which I've been slow to recover.

* * * * *

Hope you are all enjoying these glorious (and not too chilly?) November days.

oops! a correction and some options

2011-11-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

TOP: Taro Gomi leaves his doodles unfinished, so there is plenty of room to add '2012' or whatever else you might fancy.
BOTTOM: an unembellished doodle: "what kind of pet does he have?"

Phew! I hope that my corrected printable calendar came in time to help you with whatever you were using them for. I apologize once again for the inconvenience--I'm only human after all.

I found these medium-sized postcards--part of a drawing contest from last year that promoted the wonderfully creative doodle books of Taro Gomi--and discovered that the graphics made for perfect covers. If you, like me, find yourself with lovely pieces of cardstock not large enough to make a complete cover front and back, here is what you can do: Simply overlap two cards together at the spine of the booklet, fastening with a stapler as usual, then add a bit of tacky glue and tape to smooth down the outside flap. If you don't have any colorful washi tape around, regular masking tape works nicely, and can be decorated (or not) to suit your tastes. Alternatively, you could probably just stitch the flap down with your sewing machine (or by hand, with thread or dental floss), rather than using glue/tape.

view of the inside overlap -- I trimmed it down just a bit but decided it didn't need any further tampering.

REPOST: printable calendar (corrected edition!)

2011-11-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

For those of you who've already downloaded and printed my pocket calendar, I'm sorry that I TOTALLY MESSED UP THE MONTH OF MARCH. Here is a re-post, with the error fixed up--you should be able to print them now and actually have an end product that makes sense! Sorry for the inconvenience!

Download the corrected pdf HERE.

Time just keeps slipping by. Adding to the list of things that seem to be taking FOREVER is the printable pocket calendar for 2012 that I have been planning to put together and share with you all. I managed to make it a bit bigger this year (5-1/4 inches tall, 3-3/4 inches wide when closed; each date box on the calendar measures just shy of a square inch), though the larger size means some of you may need to seek out a long-armed stapler or find other means to fasten it together.

I have not had the time (and most likely will never get the time) to get all the edges perfectly lined up on all the pages' fronts and backs, so this will have to do. If your printer gives you the option of printing "2-sided long edge," you can put one of these together in a jiffy (*see NOTE below for more printer help).

It was either the kitty or a horse's rear end.

Last year I made a cover for my calendar out of a dried mango bag and the year before I cut up a discarded paperback book, but the only suitably stiff material I could scrounge up this year came from a stack of someone's discarded wall calendars--so if you are not a Cat Person, I apologize for any seemingly gratuitous 'cattage.' I usually prefer dogs myself, but I can at least appreciate the retro sunglasses, and it was literally a choice between the kitty or a horse's rear end (or an upside-down horse's front end, if I flipped the cover the other way). I added the '2012' using some handy typographic stickers I found lying around.

A NOTE ABOUT PRINTING

If you're using windows, open the "Print..." menu (it should look something like this)and click on the "Properties" button to the right of the name of your printer. If the dialogue box that pops up gives you the option of selecting doubled-sided or 2-sided or duplex printing, great! Select the option that says long side or flip on the long side and continue with your print job.

If you aren't given that option, you'll have to print the odd pages first, reinsert the paper, and print the even pages on the back. This can be super tricky, since you have to know exactly which way to load the paper (frontways or backways, upside-down or rightside-up?) and make sure that everything is put in the right order, but here is a good how-to page I found--I recommend following the steps exactly.

* * * * *

I've also been (very slowly!) working on various sewing projects. This is what's been draped over my mannequin for the past several weeks:

If I go through with it, it'll involve a red hoodie sweatshirt, a bit of shiny fabric, and a rainbow assortment of zippers.

But before I start that, I want to make sure I have enough zippers to make the portable cushions I've been planning since I salvaged a bunch more pieces of mid-density packing foam last summer. The first one I made is still in great shape for all the use it gets; it seems like H. and I are always asking: "Where is the Paddington Bear seat cushion?" or, "Honey, do you want me to get you the Paddington Bear seat cushion?" Really, everyone should have one--they're excellent for easing the discomfort of an under-the-sink plumbing task (for your neck, shoulders and back), a morning spent weeding in the garden (for your poor knees), or a few hours of sitting on a cold stadium bench (for your tush!). If I get these done in time, I may end up giving them away as Christmas presents, because the way my shopping's been going, I might not have anything better to give.

in which EVERYTHING takes a really very extremely long time

2011-10-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

I've been working on lots of things, and I can't say that I've completed any of them. Here is my second Jenny skirt, for which I had originally planned to use this salvaged vintage stretch poly, but the pattern did seem a bit too much, even for my tastes. The reverse side of the fabric, however, was this rather lovely multicolored weave with subtle diamond patterning. From far away it looks like a mauve-y neutral (which corresponds much better with the pieces in my closet, methinks) but close up you can see the brights woven in, which can either be toned up or toned down, depending on what you wear it with:

I had to resew the invisible zipper THREE times (by hand) and I had to take it in quite a bit at the sides because of the extra stretch; I also had to redo the lining at one point because I had incorrectly calculated the respective stretchiness of the different fabrics (resulting in unsightly puckering).

I'll try to post a better picture later when I get my camera issues resolved.

Finally, I had a skirt that fits perfectly with a beautiful, invisible zipper that lays flat, BUT I can't get the zipper to go up all the way in the back--it gets stuck at the bulky seam of the waistband.

Drat, drat, and double drat again!

Roobeedoo's fabulous solution for her own skirt was to use hook and eye corset tape to finish the closure; her readers also had a number of excellent suggestions after she first posted about the problem. Unfortunately, I had already ripped up my zipper before I read those posts, so my options are somewhat limited, but I'm thinking about taking off the hook-and-eye closures I sloppily stitched on (which currently look awful and need to be covered with a belt) and replacing them with some buttons and loops. It really is a perfect skirt for fall/winter, so I'm hoping to finish it soon.

* * * * *

The second project that I've been working on for a while is that untamed side yard. I mentioned back at the end of August (MONTHS ago!) that I was slowly hacking a trail back to the lemon tree; over the weekend I managed to clear the rest--well actually, I just had H. cut the rest down with the weed-eater, but I'm still counting it as a victory.

Lemon Tree, oh how I've missed you!

The rainy season is coming fast and we won't have time to fix it up this year, so we're planning to just throw some weed-blocking fabric down and some rocks on top to prevent the weeds from taking over again before we can get back to it in the spring. I'm pretty sure I've already cleared this area once before; I really don't want to have to do it a third time.

one more new tee

2011-09-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

This was another XL t-shirt that I resized along front and back center seams, effectively removing all of the printed design on the back, and most of what was on the front. The collar (which stays a lot flatter when I'm not lifting my arm to take a picture) is just the excess material at the top, flopped outwards, with finished edges. I figured I'd make a giant loopy bow to cover what was left of the logo decoration in front, but in the end decided it would be too bulky--plus, I'm not really that much of a bow person. Instead, I covered the front seam and remaining logo with a vertical strip of the fabric (wrongside-out), and embellished it with 3/4" ruffled strips cut from the remaining fabric.

The finishing touch was these two buttons from the stash. I think they used to match exactly but for some reason one retains most of its original black leatherette finish while the other has been stripped and polished down to its orange-brown plastic base.

cowl neck tee: quick and dirty refashion

2011-09-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

I decided to tackle more of the stash this weekend, converting one of H's old XL t-shirts into a cute cowl-neck tunic for me. It was pretty simple to do, and will be even easier the next time around.

First, snip off the sleeves at the seams. Stitch them together to make the the loop that will become the collar--it should look something like this:

I've seen some collar patterns with more of a funnel shape, wider at the top, but you can do whatever floats your boat. You can also alter the shape of the bottom if you wish, but I chose to leave mine as is--having the seams intact means one less seam for me to finish later, and the slight asymmetry shouldn't be noticeable (provided that when you stitch the collar to the garment, you make your seam symmetrical*).

Next, take in the sides of your shirt--Kathleen has posted a great tute for how to do this is on grosgrain. If you have enough fabric you can make little sleeves at the same time, or make it sleeveless.
Then you pin the collar on however you want it and just stitch it together. Trim off the old collar, and you're good to go, easy peasy.

front view - maybe a wee bit sloppy, but it'll do.

* back view - in hindsight, I probably could've been more careful to keep this back seam more even.

inside out: construction details

You can see where I've left certain seams unfinished--gotta love jersey fabrics for its non-fraying properties! You might also notice that I've used the fabric wrong-side out (with the original, design on the inside). I am partial to the exposed, nubbly texture of jersey's "wrong side" and was glad to have the option of not having the giant shark logo emblazoned across my back.

trying to make lemonade

2011-08-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Progress after just one day's work! Somewhere back there lies a Meyer lemon tree, and a struggling blood orange tree. The PVC pipe on the left is all that's left of a drainage system that directed rainwater to the street (to prevent the neighbor's yard from flooding).

We've gotten used to the luxury of home-squeezed lemonade (much less sugar! All natural and organic!) but lately just getting to the lemon tree has been like trying to enter Sleeping Beauty's castle. Prickly weeds grow up to your knees, and angry blackberry brambles run rampant all over this side yard--at least, I assume they're blackberries, since they're known to be notoriously invasive, but I've never seen any actual fruit to know for sure. Anyway, I turn my back on this part of the yard for a few weeks (or a couple years, whichever case this may be) and this is what I get.

I started to tackle the area several weekends ago (it's taking me a while because no one wants to spend all weekend, every weekend pulling weeds) and so far I've managed to get maybe 1/2 of the weeds cleared out, but I still have to figure out what to do with the trench along the left side (our neighbor's yard is 2 feet lower than ours, hence the dirt being pulled away from the side to preserve the wood of the fence). I still hope to squeeze a small vegetable garden in here but at this point would settle for just having it under control--weed-block fabric and more rocks/groundcover to keep unwanted plants at bay.

I'll keep you posted...

easier said than done

2011-08-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

After seeing these homemade shrinky buttons on craft, I became obsessed with making myself a set of rainbow-striped buttons. I've been hoarding #6 plastic food containers (the pauper's version of shrinky dinks) for years, but when it got down to it, I didn't possess as many colored sharpies as I thought I did, so I decided to do a test run using colored pencils instead. This involves first roughing up the plastic with some fine-grit sandpaper to make the surface more pencil-friendly, but once that's done you have a virtually unlimited palette of colors to work with.

Circles were cut freehand, and (somewhat unevenly-spaced) holes were made with a hole-puncher. The second and fourth buttons from the left actually have a few bends in the plastic from being cut from the edges of the container (hence their somewhat warped appearance in the picture), but these will flatten out during the shrinking process. If your shrinky dink cut-outs include the tiny triangle recycling symbol or other writing embossed in the plastic, these patterns will be similarly reduced, though you would still be able to make out the tiny letters on the final product if you look very closely--I think it's kind of neat, and not something that will seriously detract from the appearance in this case.

The last step is place them on a foil-lined tray and pop them into the oven (around 350 degrees works well) for a minute or two--make sure you have all the windows open to ventilate any potential chemical fumes away--and watch as they buckle then flatten then shrink down to roughly 1/3 of their original size. The bits of plastic actually get quite lively during the buckling phase, so make sure you give each one a good 2-3 inches of room all around to ensure they don't touch and get stuck together.

Here's a macro shot of the buttons shiny-side up, sanded/colored side facing down. It shows a little more of the detail, though I couldn't get a really good shot--probably should've used the tripod. If buttons were candy, and someone took a bag of rejects, sucked on them for a while and then spit them out, I think this is what they'd look like.

I imagine the real shrinky dink plastic would provide more uniform results (no weird oblong shapes), and probably being a little more precise with the hole puncher would've helped as well. I think I'd best quit here, though, and save my plastic for a different project.

* * * * *

The second project that's been stewing in my brain for a while is this homemade disco ball, using pieces of discarded CDs or CD-ROMs (such as those that come in unsolicited mailers), a styrofoam ball (also from the stash), and hot glue. I've seen this project idea posted around the web and wanted to know how easy it is (and whether or not it would make a good craft program for teens at the library). The answer: SOO not easy, and definitely not worth the trouble.

I gathered my materials and got to work; three or four hours later, I had a finished product that was not an abject failure, but it was only mildly satisfactory, at best. I would not recommend this project to anyone, for several reasons:

1. Cutting those CDs up into itty bitty pieces is hard work:

It took 2-1/2 or maybe 3 CDs to cover one 3" diameter sphere, probably 1.5 to 2 hours' worth of work.
Heating the CDs up in hot water helped to prevent the material from splintering when I cut into it, but I still got poked and had to be very careful about making sure the tiny shards were cleaned from my work surface afterwards.
I got a blister on my pinky from all the tough cutting! Heavy duty kitchen shears would make the job easier, but your scissors is guaranteed to be ruined afterwards--I didn't think it was worth the sacrifice, so I used the pair that I use for clipping coupons and crossword puzzles from the newspaper instead.

2. And after all that time and hard work, the finished product isn't even something you can look closely at:

Even if you're able to cut the pieces into somewhat uniform squares/trapezoids/triangles, bits of the styrofoam will still show through, unless you think ahead to cover the surface first with paint or glitter or foil or something. It would take an extraordinary amount of forethought and planning (think: geometric mapping) to create just the right sized and shaped pieces that you need; if you're like me and don't want to think about it quite that much, you'll end up with a bunch of pieces that don't fit all that well together.
The shiny backing of the CD tends to peel off of the plastic pieces you cut off, effectively destroying the perfect little mirror squares you worked so hard to cut out. It's impossible to move a piece once it's touched the hot glue without tearing off the backing, so you've got to be extremely precise when you stick them on, or settle for marred mirror surfaces. Again, the flaws are not really that noticeable if you don't look closely, but who wants to spend all that time on something that doesn't look great up close?

I'm sure there are many, many ways to make this project easier and less time consuming, but in the end it's too difficult to justify going through all that trouble when there are similar products on the market for under 5 bucks--much less than it would cost to replace the kitchen shears that got ruined in the process.

...for the fans

2011-08-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know why sports jerseys, even those made for women, have to be so boxy all the time--is it so that we are not restricted from running and catching and tackling when the occasion arises? Is it that we can't be true sports fans unless we look like men? I don't get it. At the most, there will be sitting, standing up, cheering--and the possible upset of beer and nachos. I don't think that a flattering cut should be out of the question here.

Obviously, I was not meant to wear a men's XL--but I won't let that stop me!

I took H's promotional giveaway shirt (they didn't have any left in his size, so he gave it to me) and repositioned the logo on the front to a more appropriate place, added bust darts, took in the sides and converted the sleeves to skinny ones. Flip down the collar, and ta-da! Now if only there were a cure for 100% polyester.

taking a picture of your own back is actually... really awkward.

I'd never done any kind of sloper before, so this was actually my first time making bust darts. For some reason I was under the (sooo mistaken!) impression that they originated at the armpit, rather than at the side-seams a few inches below the armpit, which totally explains my previous troubles with fitting bust areas and armhole areas. After taking a look at a couple of store-bought blouses hanging in my closet, I figured out the problem and did the best I could, taking care not to mar the screen-printed logo that sprawls over the left side.

I almost did the lazy thing and left the sleeves off, but in the end I'm glad I kept them--the skinny mid-length sleeves turned out really cute, and it looks much more finished this way. Plus, putting the sleeves back on meant that I didn't have to be quite so exact with fitting the armholes--double bonus.

not so hard to believe...

2011-08-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

My third bloggiversary has come and gone, and I find myself in quite a different place than I was three years ago. Can that be right? Has it only been three years? It feels like ages have passed since the mess of a house I started with--since the initial clutter-busting flurry, the house hasn't changed all that much for so very, very long.

It's still far from being totally cleaned up, but the focus of this blog quickly shifted from decluttering (there's only so much story to be told there, after all) to all the things that I hoped to do in the newly (relatively) cleaned-up house.

I've covered my struggles with the garden, various attempts at cookery, and my beginner's ventures into sewing. I thought I would be doing more redecorating before/afters, but I haven't made any progress to speak in over a year. Then I started just blogging about whatever I've been up to, but it's so easy to lose steam. Maybe it's just a temporary lull; maybe it's a bit crazy at work and I just don't have much energy leftover for much else.

These last two headers haven't been used yet--I made them when I was going through my art deco phase, but I haven't sewn anything even modestly retro (as I had planned to do--I am so enjoying Lauren's and Gertie's and Debi's blogs right now!) to merit changing the look of the whole blog. Maybe some time, eventually.

FO: just hanging around

2011-08-02T11:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time for sewing lately, but I did manage to finish this mini-project last week, a mopey, slouchy stuffed toy made from a single baby sock.

I had just donated my polyester stuffing stash to the library's craft supply box, and was too lazy to dig out more stuffing from depths of the closet, so I just grabbed some leftover t-shirt scraps and used that. I made sure they were white scraps, so that the color wouldn't show through and just cut them up into smallish pieces and stuffed them in--note that this results in a lumpier, less squishy stuffing, but if you're not intending to actually play with it, as in this case, it will serve its purpose well enough. It also makes it tougher to push the needle through (when shaping the arms, for example) but that's what I get for my laziness.

I modeled it pretty closely to the "tween" doll sample given in Stray Sock Sewing (tips and techniques are given in the book, but not full-out instructions), but I did make some modifications because I was using a tiny baby sock and therefore had less material to work with. Using a stretchier synthetic-type sock would've also helped even out the lumps in his cheeks, I think.

Not bad for my first try. I've always had an affinity for sock animals but for some reason have never made one before... maybe because I prefer to sew things that I actually need and can use. This one kinda makes me laugh, though, so I guess it serves that purpose.

lately

2011-07-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

I've been spending more time in the backyard, whenever the weather is cool enough. So lovely to have a bit of greenery to one's self that doesn't look like unkempt garbage (which the front yard still very much does).

It does take a bit of maintenance--the dichondra (groundcover between the stepping stones) grows a bit higher than we thought it would, and it will grow right over your stepping stones and pathway edgings if you let it. The orange and white gazaneas that we planted in the middle part of the garden have been thriving for the most part (without much watering), and they seem to bloom almost year-round--but then you also end up with a lot of dead brown blooms, as seen in the second picture, next to the hanging solar lantern--I've been clipping some of them off, but there's no way I can get even a fraction of them cleaned up (if that sort of thing drives you nuts, you'd better not plant a whole lot of them).

* * * * * * *

I managed to drag 9 more boxes of stuff off to goodwill, and recycled another box-full of old papers. 1 whole box of craft supplies was donated to the library--our programming budget has been cut practically to zero this year, so it seemed a good reason/opportunity to de-stash. I can see a little more of the floor of the upstairs master bedroom now (so it looks just slightly better than it did last year), and I hope to clear more of the boxes soon.

* * * * *

I spent a week looking for more of my new favorite face cream at the store, but on closer inspection of the sample bottle I was trying to match, realized that the product expired in 2004 and most likely was no longer made.

* * * *

I was, on the other hand, able to purchase three pairs of these shoes, one in red and two in black (I know I'll probably want the spare when the first black pair eventually wears out). Alas, none of the stores had the eggplant color in my size, but I was able to talk myself out of the cream pair--with my tendency to spill things, they probably wouldn't have lasted long. These shoes are comfortable from the moment I slip them on and continue that way throughout the rest of the day; I can't remember the last time I wore a dressy shoe that didn't hurt at all--and I gave up high heels years ago. I've resolved now to get rid of all my blister-causing shoes (31 is too old to put up with foot pain!), which means I'll need to keep shopping for more replacements, and probably a bunch more of those foot petal inserts.

couture-inspired undergarment

2011-07-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

I can't find a picture of it now, but this was inspired by a (YSL?) dress that I spotted in a book. The original had a white top and a full skirt with a similar (though larger) black and white lattice print. I used a remnant of nylon from the stash to create the skirt, then attached a camisole top to make an under-slip version. The crinoline underneath is just something I salvaged from an old prom gown.

When I was pinning this together on the mannequin I thought a sunny yellow top would make a nice contrast, but I had neither yellow nor white camisoles on hand. Only maroon, nude, cream, navy, sea blue-green, and black--so black it was. I also contemplated making the skirt as a separate half slip, but I decided I really wanted this to be a full slip--something I could throw on and not have to fuss with the tucking and retucking in. I don't actually have any suitable dresses that I could wear with this, so this will probably become another "lounging about the house" outfit.

temporarily stalled... or, the dress that almost was

2011-06-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I could have done without it before, but I recently discovered (and instantly became hooked on) Sew Weekly. Last week's sewing circle challenge was to refashion a neglected garment from your closet, so I poked around in the depths of my wardrobe and unearthed this maroon matte jersey dress (it still fits and the medium/heavy-weight fabric drapes nicely, but overall very plain with a very high neckline) and a sheer paisley blouse in complementary colors.

The original pieces: one super sheer blouse, 3 sizes too big + one blah matte jersey dress with neckline too high.

I only got so far as to lower the neckline on the dress when I hit a bump. I had intended to use the blouse material to add cap sleeves and some kind of embellishment to the neckline of the dress, but though it seemed an improvement (cute, even), I still wasn't crazy about the overall outfit. It was maybe something I would wear once or twice when my supply of clean clothes got low, but probably not something I would take delight in wearing--and if I'm going to spend the time to fix it up, it ought to be something I'll love.

There isn't enough material to make any major changes to the dress, but I could possibly change up the yoke with a different material, or use the stretchy, non-wrinkling fabric to make myself another high-waisted pencil skirt. Then again, maybe this just needs a great belt and pair of boots.

I'll think on it some more, but I also welcome any of your ideas.

new appointment book cover!

2011-06-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

In library school they teach us to always say the author's name when presenting a book.
As in, "How to Scare a Lion by Dorothy Stephenson."

I found this well-loved book in a pile of donations to the library, missing all but 2 of its pages (!) and looking quite forlorn. I brought it home, finished gutting the inside, gave it a couple coats of modge podge (right over the crayon marks, worn corners and spine tape) and made myself a new cover for my monthly planner. Instructions for this clever project can be found on Cathe's blog.

Here's what my August looks like so far--baby, toddler, and preschool storytimes every week plus crafts and Wii gaming for the teens and tweens--we'll see if I don't go nuts (I haven't yet, but it's been close). I had to flip ahead to get a page that didn't have too many cross-outs--for some reason all my meetings have to be rescheduled at least once. If you didn't guess already, I am one of those people without a smart phone, so I scrawl everything down in here and sometimes it gets messy.

The spiral binding on my planner was just a wee bit too thick to fit comfortably in the spine of the children's book, so I mashed it smaller using my trusty pliers. Now it just barely fits (though the pages no longer lie completely flat). And now I don't have to look at that ugly, generic black cover that office supply companies seem so fond of--nothing says "business" like cheap plastic with a fake leather texture, right? But nothing says "party" like pink and orange checkers, either.

yard sale wrap skirt #2

2011-06-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

I had a yard and a half of this old fashioned-looking floral print and decided it was just enough to make a knee-length wrap skirt (with the pattern from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing book, from which I made another skirt last September). I love the contrasting lining of the ties as well as the fact that I don't have to worry about fitting or zippers or even elastic. I probably should have took the time to find a thread that matches rather than just using plain white, so as not to draw unnecessary attention to my imperfect seams, but oh well. It may look like I made it, but I still like it.

I had considered adding a seventh panel (recommended in the errata/2nd edition if you're anything larger than a size small--I can do without it but I always feel that extra coverage is good!) but in the end didn't have enough yardage.

orange bikini top (keeps my strapless bra from slipping!): Zara
sundress: vintage (mom's closet)
skirt: made by me!

It took me three evenings (1-3 hours each night) to finish, not counting the fabric prewash, and immediately after stitching the last stitch I put it on over my dress and serendipitously discovered my newest favorite outfit. Maybe the real reason why I like it so much is that it reminds me of an apron.

new spring tee

2011-06-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished my "sweetheart" tee top, and it's not perfect but close enough, and more interesting than a lot of other things in my closet, anyway. I would probably do a better job the second time around--for one thing, I wouldn't try to use too small a scrap of fabric for the top yoke, so I wouldn't have to fudge so much around the armholes.

I was using a camera that I wasn't used to, so I have to apologize for the blurry photos. It's amazing how much I think I know about taking photos, that I actually, apparently, have no clue about.

Rather than sewing sleeves (which I'm horrible at) I thought I'd just scrunch up the excess fabric and stitch down the folds at the shoulders, which created a nice split-sleeve effect. Super easy.

Voila! New top.

Next on my list: more skirts! I love the various tutes compiled by Jessica as well as Chie's scallop waist skirt recently featured on Grosgrain (Alli's skirt also looks super cute and easy, though I'd have to go out and buy some elastic for it).

on the mannie

2011-05-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

I don't yet have the skills to tackle Colette's Macaron, but I've been admiring all the versions of it and other variations of this sweetheart neckline that I'm seeing on the web. Then one morning while I was sorting through my fabric stash, it came to me: I could totally make this into a tee shirt. It seemed like a good way to use up some of my jersey knit stash, as well as a simple project to practice my draping techniques--plus my wardrobe is in need of some fresh new tops. It's a win-win-win.

I never did settle on a name for the mannequin (the dressy dustcover was the last thing I made with her, which gives you an idea how often I actually see her), but lately I've been looking at old fashioned names from the 20s - 30s - 40s. I considered Dottie, Glenda, Beatrice, and others, but at the moment my favorite is Juanita (65th on the SSA's list of most popular girl names in the 1930s). As in, "Only Juanita can pull off an outfit like that," or, "Juanita inspires me to add more spice to my wardrobe." Maybe--we'll see if it sticks.

I'll try to post an update in a timely manner, but you know how things are these days. I don't often get a spare afternoon to myself, and an hour or half-hour here and there aren't adding up as quickly as one would like.

take 2

2011-05-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

It's been awfully hectic around here, but in my (disappearing) spare time I've been working on updating this old dress:

I originally picked it up because I needed non spaghetti-strap dresses for the office--I was working as a temp at the time--and because it was priced under $10 (which also suited my budget at the time). But as so often happens, the cotton fabric eventually shrunk too short for me to wear it anywhere but the beach. And more recently, I couldn't help thinking "blah" whenever I looked at it. Perhaps a different fabric would suit the cut better, or a different cut would suit the pattern better? Maybe I was just tired of it, or it of me.

I would always get two or three compliments whenever I wore it (apparently there are a lot of butterfly fanatics out there, even past the age of 7), but I don't think I've ever been all that enamored with it and haven't worn it in 3 or 4 years. I would've given it to Goodwill long ago but for the fact that it happens to be one of H's favorites; I'd worn it on one of our first dates.

I thought this was ripe for a refashioning. Even if it didn't turn out exactly as I hoped, I figured the experience would help me hone my sewing skills. So, taking notes from Gertie's peter pan collar tutorial and Kathleen's tute for adding length to a too-short skirt, I managed to transform it into this:

The collar isn't perfect but when pressed correctly it looks ok--definitely not bad for my first attempt. The length was oh-so-much better, and I'm kind of digging the matching faux pockets. I wore it out today and got compliments, though again more for the butterflies than any added style on my part. Oh well--sometimes we just have to do these things for ourselves, right?

home sweet home

2011-04-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

"dead fly decor" - product details on polyvore

Nothing beats coming home from a long trip to find a house full of dead flies. I vacuumed up a dozen or so dead crunchy tidbits (sprinkled like confetti all over the kitchen floor and living room carpets) only to find a bunch of fresh corpses an hour later. "They're dropping like flies!" exclaims H.--and unfortunately, it is all too true. My home is perhaps not so very macabre as this first illustration, but at times it has felt that way.

My eyes aren't super great, so I'm finding myself having to bend down to inspect every dark spot I see in order to determine whether or not it is a fly (dead or alive). If it is, I dispose of it immediately, whereas if it's merely a crumb of burnt toast or a spot on the floor or carpet, I leave it alone until I come across it again in an hour, whereupon I have to inspect it all over again. Is it a sad thing to have memorized the color splotches in one's berber carpet? Or is it sadder that, even after so many days of squinting at the same spots over and over again, I still can't remember which is which?

Anyway, after months of methodically sealing up cracks and potential points of entry, we've figured out that they're not coming in through the air conditioning vents, but they are for some reason working their way in through small gaps in the frames of our double-hung windows. I have no clue why they might be all of a sudden so intent on entering the house. It's not like we're leaving food scraps out all over the place or anything like that, and this would be the first time in the 20-plus years that we've had that problem in this house.

Our temporary fix has been to seal such gaps off with painter's tape until we can get the windows replaced (which has been on my list for a year now anyway, due to the fact that they no longer physically open). The tape here is mostly concealed behind the blinds and furniture, but the bigger problem area (and eyesore) is the fireplace:

Imagine our horror when, one chilly night last November, we lit what we hoped would be a nice cozy blaze and a black swarming horde of flying insects burst out of the hearth, circling our heads before landing on the ceiling. Perhaps, I thought, some poor thing has perished in the chimney and its little body has become a mini maggot hatchery. We couldn't smell any decay, but that would certainly explain the influx of young flies we'd been getting every couple weeks or so (it should be said that it's not unusual for our neighborhood to experience this sort of population boom, but having so many actually inside the house was certainly new to me).

Our "short-term" solution was to seal the entire opening off with plastic wrap and painter's tape. The long term solution (also added to my growing list of home maintenance tasks) would be either to get the fireplace professionally cleaned and perhaps replace the chimney cap if necessary. Thinking that the situation would probably get better over time as the mystery source decomposed, and not being all that eager to see another hundred flies tumble out when we unsealed the opening, we've put this off for far too long. In hindsight, taking care of it sooner might have prevented the more recent influx of flies through the windows, but at this point it doesn't make much of a difference.

[Sigh.] Wishing you all a fly-free season...

and now for a little snack cake break

2011-03-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

I don't bake that often these days, but once in a while I'll come across a cookbook that will inspire me to do so. Here is the Blueberry Crumb Cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. It was pretty easy to throw together, and required no special ingredients other than the blueberries (we had some in the freezer, but you can also use fresh peaches or other backyard bounties) and buttermilk (of which I had just enough leftover from last weekend's pancakes). There's also a stick and a half of butter crammed into this little 8" square pan, which is maybe why H. enjoyed it so much. That, and he never turns down anything with streusel topping.

I suspect this would make awesome, though not-so-hearty, cakey muffins, but I think I'm going to try to do some gluten-free baking next. I don't think I'm allergic, but I think I might be sensitive, so giving the wheat products a rest for a while (or at least reducing my intake) seems like a worthwhile task. If you know of any products or books I should check out, let me know!

jenny skirt - finished!

2011-03-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

blouse: reconstructed t-shirt (own design), skirt: burda pattern (jenny #6058)

Say hello to my new little friend! I envisioned wearing this skirt with navy stockings (to cover up pasty legs) and a warmer, sleeved top, but as you may have noticed, I am a lazy photo-shooter. That, and I was under a time crunch to take advantage of a fading patch of sunlight--it still wasn't bright enough to capture much detail, but it's better than nothing.

The yawning (roaring?) hippo fabric I used is some kind of synthetic from my mom's stash; I cut up an old slip to make the lining. (One of these days I will fix the armholes on this t-shirt blouse, blogged here, but I do like the way the embellished bodice looks with the high waist of the skirt.)

Since the material had quite a bit of stretch and a directional pattern, I opted not to cut the waistband on the bias as instructed. My efforts to match up the pattern along the seams didn't go so well, but the overall fit is pretty good, and the invisible zipper (hand basted, then machine stitched, then hand stitched closer to the zipper) looks fantastic--much better than the regular old warped zipper that I had initially tried to use.

working on

2011-03-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

(links to sources on polyvore)

I've had pencil skirts on the brain lately. Actually, I think they've been churning around in the back of my head since I saw this impossibly cute 5th Avenue dress over at Shabby Apple. I thought I might be able to recreate the look if I just got myself a great high-waisted pencil skirt in a different color/print, and finally I just decided to make my own using the Jenny skirt pattern from BurdaStyle. I figured if I ran into trouble I could always look at the Cupcake Goddess' sew along instructions from last August (especially when it comes to installing the zipper), and the web is chock-a-block full of inspiration for adapting this basic pattern.

I dug up a length of sturdy, stretchy polyester blend from the stash to use as my muslin, but the more I look at it, the more I really like the pattern. So I've been taking my time on this one--hope to have something to show in the next week or two.

daffies

2011-02-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

Too stinkin' busy to post right now. But here are some lovely daffies, barely captured in between bouts of rain.

Hope you all are staying warm and dry.

more stashbusting

2011-02-15T14:39:00.000-08:00

So I've been working my way through my pile of over-sized tees. I need more shirts in longer, non-skin-baring lengths so I've gotten in the habit of asking for XL t-shirts while planning to re-size and re-style them later. "Later" inevitably turns into "next year" until I absolutely MUST HAVE some new items in my closet.

This one was actually just a give-away tee, something my mom picked up at a street fair, but I cut away most of the advertising and reassembled it. I wasn't very precise with my scissors when I cut the strips for the ruffles, so they're kind of uneven, but I figured if I arranged them slightly asymmetrically I could say I was going for an "organic" effect, anyway. It reminds me of the daffodils that are now in bloom.

The fit turned out slightly funny (because for some reason I thought it'd be fun to make the armhole into a neckline and make the other armhole into a keyhole for the back) but I can throw a cardi over it and still look fairly put-together.

mouse count !

2011-01-31T10:24:00.000-08:00

Mouse Count has always been my favorite of Ellen Stoll Walsh's books--and the story is one that is perfectly suited to being told with props (my preschool story-timers just LOVE prop stories, and letting them tell the story in their own words is a good opportunity for them to practice expressing themselves).

It starts out innocently enough: ten mice play in the fields while keeping a watchful eye out for predators. After some time they all fall asleep, and are soon captured by a hungry snake.

He collects them in a found jar, dropping the mice in one by one.

One, two, three...

...Four! Eventually he gets all ten of them trapped in the jar, "little, warm and tasty."

The snake (which I realize doesn't really look that much like a snake, apart from his forked tongue--maybe his eyes aren't beady enough? skin not green enough?) was made from the no-sew "puppet in a hurry" method I described here, and the mice were a modified version of Pimp Stitch's Jingle Bell Mouse Ornament. I managed to use up quite a bit of my fabric scraps; felted wool bitties (from leftover sweater projects) make for excellent stuffing. The one thing I would probably do differently would be to add some kind of weight to the mouse bottoms so they wouldn't tip over so easily.

In the story, the mice convince the greedy snake to go after one last big, fat mouse--which turns out to be (doh!) just a large rock--albeit a glittery, blue one. I purchased it from a neighborhood kid for 50 cents last summer, which makes it the single most expensive thing in this prop set (I also have one that's painted with a doggie face, if you're interested).

While the snake is off on his wild mouse chase, the ten REAL mice work together to tip over the jar and make their escape (phew!). The End.

second sweater

2011-01-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

One of my goals this year is to sew more (and, consequently, de-stash more). Here is my second sweater re-make: cropped, re-sized, and trimmed with lace and ribbon around a new, scoopier neckline.

It's a faux cardigan, because once again I re-sized it a bit tight and I didn't want any unsightly gaping between button holes. So I cut straight down the front, touched up the seams and then sewed them back together again (tucking in the lace trim at the same time). The buttons were added last, sewn on through both of the overlapping layers of the sweater front.

To trim the new neckline, I stitched the black lace on first (finishing the cut edge at the same time, then stitched on the white lace to cover it (reshaping the neckline that got stretched out when I stitched the first step), then threaded the ribbon through last.

Here is the original sweater, slightly stained and in desperate need of revitalization:

The final product:

And the inspiration, torn from the February 2011 issue of Lucky Mag:

a bountiful harvest... of hand-me-downs

2011-01-11T09:06:00.000-08:00

My sisters recently gifted me with a huge pile of old sweaters and pants (just as good as anything new, if not better, in my book). The pants, fortunately, only required hemming and perhaps the addition of a belt. The sweaters, on the other hand, will require some creative restoration on my part. Some have holes, some have stains, and some are just plain ugly. But Kathleen's ridiculously cute transformations during her "30 days of embellished knits" have inspired me to give it a try. Here is my first "remake":

and here is the (unintentionally washed out, but it'll do) "before" shot:

This was my first attempt at resizing a sweater (see Kathleen's tutorial on how to do that here)--I will try to make my next sweater a little bigger to accommodate the seam allowances of the would-be cardigan opening. Next I just snipped up the front to turn it into a cardigan, refinished the seams by hand with invisible stitching (Alli uses bias tape on hers; Erica cleverly uses contrasting fabric), and finally I added the two oversized buttons at the top (wish I'd thought to take a detail photo of them, because they are so much cuter up close).

Stay tuned for more sweater recons! Also check out Refugee Crafter's dressed-up cardigan from Disney's (of Ruffles and Stuff) tutorial, as well as D's other sweet, granny-style cardigan, Mismatcherie's gorgeous ruffled cardigan how-to, these lovely floral and bird appliques, and this lace embellishment tute from Threads magazine.

raspberry cream cheese buns

2011-01-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

...from the Buttercup Bake Shop cookbook. Unfortunately I was using a chunkier raspberry preserve, which just doesn't swirl as nicely, so mine didn't look anywhere near as good as Jennifer's, and quite possibly didn't taste as good either. Don't get me wrong; they were pretty tasty, and I may make these again if I happen to have the ingredients on hand, but I didn't have the urge to immediately bake another batch or anything like that. I wouldn't care to eat one every morning like the Buttercup staff supposedly do, even if I could get someone to make them for me.

pocket calendar (make it yourself)

2010-12-22T21:33:00.000-08:00

I've posted before about replacing the covers on those little calendars that you sometimes get from stationery stores or your local pharmacy, so that you don't have to look at an ugly advertisement all year--but what if the ads are also on the inside? Or what if you can't find a free calendar anywhere and you're too cheap to shell out the couple bucks to buy one with nauseating puppies or teddy bears on it? Well now you can print your own ads-free calendar AND have a cover of your choosing. Consider this my New Year's present to you.

Here's what you do:

1. Download the free printable 2011 pocket calendar/planner (pdf file).

2. Set your printer settings to "double-sided long edge" or the equivalent, then print it out. Cut out the pages and stack them in order (*note the numbers I've provided in the outer margins--you may want to leave the numbered sides uncut and trim them only after you've got everything in order). Then fold them in half--for the best results, crease only a few pages at a time.

3. Find a piece of cardstock (such as an old greeting card or an empty macaroni box--preferably something with a little gloss to it, but it's up to you) or similarly stiff material and cut a cover to fit. Your cover should be about 6-7/8 inches wide x 4-7/8 inches tall. If you want to use a salvaged/washed food wrapper like I've done, consider cutting a slightly larger piece, folding over the edges, and stitching them in place--this adds a decorative effect and keeps the plastic from curling too much.

4. Fold your new cover in half to crease it, then put the cover and insert together. Flip through your booklet one last time to make sure everything's in order and not upside down or backwards. With the booklet lying flat open (cover side up), staple on the fold line.

5. Done! Once you get the hang of the assembly, these make terrific stocking stuffers.

wishing you the merriest

2010-12-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

I love this vintage Christmas pic--this was actually my great aunt and her family in 1961. At some point I hope to reproduce this scene (sans freaky reindeer toy), though I'm not sure whose kids I'd have to borrow, and I'll need to keep an eye out for a pair of sweet cat eye-style glasses.

December is flying by and I feel like January will be here before I have a chance to blog again, so I thought I'd add post a little update. My mom was dropping hints about needing a new tote bag, so I stitched up this reversible pattern from the lovely very purple person using a bit of the stash. Actually, I think she was thinking more of a bigger carry-all bag, and this is more of a large purse-sized bag, but but I think she'll like it anyway.

I have also been going through our stash of extra blankets and flannel sheet sets (many of them still new in package) to donate to the local homeless shelter, so that's another couple boxes of things that I don't need to store anymore.

I guess that's all for now. Here's hoping you all stay warm and snuggly this month.

such gorgeous crumb!

2010-11-19T08:12:00.000-08:00

I love that I can get away with such effusive hyperbole in the blogging world. It would be strange to actually gush about cake crumbs in real life, wouldn't it? True, I can get away with more positive comments than the average person--one of the benefits of being a children's librarian as opposed to, say, a Justice of the Supreme Court--but it's still one of those areas where I occasionally have to reign myself in.

Ok, this cake is actually tastier than it looks (even more so after one has sampled some of it), but everything I bake suffers from the uneven, unpredictable temperatures of my mini-convection toaster oven. That, combined with my less-than-watchful eye leads to burnt or nearly-burnt baked treats more often than not. Anyway, it's a yogurt-based pound cake with a ribbon of stewed fruit filling and streusel topping from All Cakes Considered (written by NPR's resident "cake lady," Melissa Gray). Only, my version used the leftover tub of plain yogurt in my fridge rather than the vanilla yogurt Gray calls for, and instead of stewing up a fruit concoction (Gray recommends a sugary mix of apples and berries) I just used a bit of leftover raw persimmon pulp. Then, too, my version did not cause the "collective cake-gasm" that Gray got when she presented her cake to her office, but it is was still pretty good.

Have a super fantastic weekend, everyone.

warm and snuggly

2010-11-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

Since my first set of pj pants turned out pretty well, I thought I would make myself a flannel pair for the chilly months ahead. I used up some cheery flannel from the stash, and for the waistband, I just cut off the elastic from an old pair of panties (saved me a trip to the store! yeah!). The pattern, as I may have mentioned before, came from here.

I'd been happily lounging around in my new PJ pants when I heard a RIIIPP! and all of a sudden, London and France were peeking out through the back of my pants.* After pondering my options, I restitched the seam, and reinforced that particular length with an extra strip of fabric (folded over lengthwise to about a 1/2 inch width, then stitched to the inside of the pants along the seam lines). The result is not terribly neat, but at least it's not a giant patch over my butt. If I make these pants again (which I very well might--provided I find some suitable yardage in the stash) I will just use a different type of seam.

*I have to blame the weak thread that I used, of course.

reader advice: decluttering tips

2010-11-09T08:40:00.000-08:00

Chris G. from South Portland, Maine left this wonderfully helpful (and inspiring!) comment on one of my decluttering posts that I wanted to share with you all:

WORK SLOWLY FOR BEST RESULTS

I have found it so helpful to make a cup of coffee and just go sit quietly in the space you want to clean up. Clutter does not always stand out at first, and while you are sipping your coffee, I guarantee your eyes will slowly move over your surroundings. This is what happened while I was resting in our attic.

At first,I just kept looking and looking but not doing anything. This was time to examine what I wanted or expected from this room and new space for future times.

Our attic... storage? A music and mediation room? A royal palace for our two indoor house cats? It was actually "all of the above" in my case, so I looked with that idea running in the back of my mind. About an hour later I rounded up about four cardboard boxes, tucked their flaps back and put them side by side down at one end of the attic.

Then I began slowly walking around finding things I wanted to let go of and to move them back out into the community again, it was time to let someone ELSE have fun with them kind of thing. In about two hours, I had four medium-sized boxes filled and taped going out of our home and back into our community. It felt wonderful being so successful in the clutter clearing process. Moving this stuff along is also gratitude in action for all the blessings in my life... giving back is so healing and helps to end (healing) the subliminal caretaking of all these things we never use anymore.

My message to you is to slow everything down. There is absolutely no need to rush this. All that stuff has sat and sat. It can sit another two hours. You will feel so good about yourself when you finish your project to make that cluttered living space YOURS again. Also, be sure you reward yourself for a job well done, afterward!
... BY ENDURING WE CONQUER

Um, that is at least three kinds of awesome. Thank you, Chris, for sharing that with me--with all of us.

just add squash

2010-11-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

Zucchini wasn't part of my garden bounty this year but I made a special trip to the grocery store so that I could try the recipe for Chocolate Zucchini cake that I spotted in 250 Treasured Country Desserts (check it out from your local library). According to the book, the squash is credited with preserving the cake's moistness without contributing a noticeable flavor. When H. saw me mixing it, he was dubious, but in the end he gave it his full approval and I agreed--moist and chocolatey and yummy good.

I also tried the book's recipe for old-fashioned chocolate pudding, the kind where you mix the cocoa powder with milk and cornstarch in a pot, which was also very good, though recipes for that sort of thing are pretty commonplace. And you've already heard about my experience with the grasshopper pie recipe, but I think it was supposed to taste that way.

changes.

2010-11-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

The 80s-vintage TV in the kitchen has been replaced by a newer, slimmer version, but since we don't subscribe to cable or satellite, the rabbit ears antenna needs a bit of a boost and presents a real challenge. I jokingly covered the cardboard box with wrapping paper just to see what H. would say, but he actually likes it, thinks it looks nice sitting on the table like that--Go figure. Don't know what I'll do yet when company comes over.

October was super busy. Or maybe I was just super lazy, but either way, I obviously didn't find a whole lot of time for blogging. Nevertheless, life has been swiftly carrying on, with a bit of sick time, a bit of work, and a bit of puttering about the house.

I've been rearranging the furniture in the living room again, to try and make better use of the oversized space--the couch wasn't comfortable for TV-viewing or book-reading, so I relegated it to fireplace nestling duty, then brought in my dad's dusty recliner from the other room so that the two of us would both have a place to sit. The result seems more livable, more comfortable, but still far from ideal (there's no place for guests to sit, for starters). Everything is a process, and if you've been paying attention at all these past 2+ years, you know that in my life, everything takes time.

It really is an awkward space. I'll have to work on it some more.

* * * * *

We finally did get the side yard (one of them) finished, and now have a non-muddy place to rest our trash and recycling, as well as a place to park the truck/camper when not in use. It's still not the most welcoming spot, but at least it's not a pile of dirt anymore, and the neighborhood cats are no longer using it as a litterbox--always a plus.

More adventures (or non-adventures) to follow shortly, as time allows.

new skirt !

2010-09-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

I finally found the time to tackle another sewing project, one that I've been wanting to make for a long time: Heather Ross' "yard sale wrap skirt" from her Weekend Sewing book. I've already had success with the "pajama(pant)s for everyone" and "jane's head scarf" patterns in there, and I am equally pleased with the way this turned out. I did have some trouble figuring out what length to cut it, but in the end I decided I liked the way it looked as a high-waisted skirt, so that made up for my extra material.

Super comfy and easy to throw on, light enough to wear when the days get hot, and yet still polished enough to look like you put some effort into getting dressed that morning.

greener and more marshmallow-y than I remember

2010-09-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Last week I made this old-fashioned grasshopper pie, using up some of the creme de menthe that I dug out of the liquor cabinet as well as the half-bag of marshmallows leftover from our last camping trip. I figured it would be a nice treat for my mom, who used to make it for us when we were kids, and who was in town for the weekend. The result was, as I might have guessed from reading the recipe, very marshmallow-y. It definitely would not make my top 10 dessert list today, though I could see how the overall sweetness and vibrant hue would appeal to my 8-year-old self (or to any non-colorblind kid with a sweet tooth, really).

I used the recipe from this book that I borrowed from the public library, but you can find plenty of recipes online.

* * * * *

I had also planned to try the recipe for molasses cookies, but the molasses that I found in the cupboard (and eventually got H. to open for me) had long past fermented and even possibly further declined into some kind of rum vinegar, if that exists. I tossed it, in case you're wondering.

whoa, nelly!

2010-09-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Baking the 65 degree egg, a la The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper.
The result is supposed to be something like a soft-boiled egg,
and I'm not at all sure that I did it correctly--It's a good thing I like eggs!

whew! I am so slammed. I don't know if this whirlwind of visitors, vacations, work, and catching up will cease anytime soon, but I hope to have some time to return to blogging eventually. I'm hoping that my readers will still be here when that happens.

In keeping with my resolution to continue clearing out stuff, I've gotten rid of 7 boxes of random whatsits... and that's about all that I've got to report.

Hope you're all having a great Labor Day weekend/September/end of summer.

it's the weekend!

2010-08-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

Looking forward to enjoying another backyard barbecue with my sweetie pie. This picture was taken a couple weeks ago (when there were still peaches on the trees), but whenever the weather cools ever so slightly we've been taking the opportunity to "eat out" more and more.

The plants are growing in, we've added some new cast-aluminum patio furniture, and that stone lantern is looking pretty mossy.

Okay, so it's actually dead lichen, plucked from the ground (from campsites that allow such gathering) and hot-glued onto the cement. This is possibly a very, very terrible idea (the lichen used by model railroaders is chemically processed to preserve its color and keep it from disintegrating), but for now it looks pretty good, right?

return of the juicer

2010-08-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

Along with the cleaning and the fixing and everything else, I've been trying to also eat more veggies. I bought a juicer last Christmas, thinking it went along great with my plans to subscribe to a CSA--we've been buying more and more organic produce lately anyway, and any veggies we don't know how to cook could just be thrown into the juicer. My plan was brilliant, but then I got sidetracked, as tends to happen whenever I'm involved in a project that takes longer than a couple minutes. I never did sign up for a CSA box, and I can count the number of times I've used the juicer on one hand.

Until now--enter the fruit harvest. Remember all those tiny peaches that kept dropping from my backyard trees? Well, they got bigger, and they kept on dropping. But big, soft peaches are a lot messier to clean up than little peach pit nuggets when they splatter onto a bed of rocks (yes, I am speaking from experience). So we picked all we could of the white variety last weekend--easily hundreds in number from just the one tree--and this weekend we're tackling the yellow peaches, before they get a chance to fall to the same fate.

When I arrived at my grandmother's doorstep with a box of mush--soft, ripe peaches not being very ideal cargo for bicycle transport--she informed me that you're supposed to pick them while they're still firm and let them ripen on the counter. Now she tells me.

Anyway, after a week of handing boxes of peaches out to co-workers, neighbors, relatives and passersby, and after 2 failed attempts at a peach cobbler, I have finally gotten rid of last remaining peaches by throwing them in the juicer. You have to remove the pits but not the peels first, and I also found myself taking a tiny nibble out of each one to see if it was good or not. A quarter of the yield were visibly rotting (automatically trash), another quarter were turning bad (picture me spitting into a trash bag), others had some peach flavor but lacked sweetness (also thrown into the trash) but the last 1/3 were turned into sweet, fragrant juice that will likely only keep for a day or so. But I am happy, because 4 boxes of peaches that were festering in my living room yesterday have been disposed of, and not wasted. And I have more boxes that can be refilled with the gorgeous, new, still firm, yellow peaches.

Long live the juicer.

junk drawer findings

2010-07-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

Once again I started out tackling an area of clutter and wound up playing with my camera instead. If I have no idea what any of these keys go to, am I supposed to keep or toss?

I am guessing I probably don't need that tiny little light bulb. Or the allen wrench.

framed!

2010-07-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

I am too brain dead to come up with a more clever title right now, so that will have to do. Here's the knitting piece I was working on--it took me a whole weekend, but turned out pretty nicely. The pattern is from the book Yarn Bombing, which is full of ingenius ideas for creative knitting and knit-tagging. The book suggests attaching it a poster-covered wall with a staple gun, which would be an excellent reason to own a staple gun if ever I heard one, but since this was just going on my bulletin board I figured some decorative straight pins would do nicely. I had to use a lot of pins, though, because my frame was in need of a little blocking and shaping, and I just didn't want to bother with the blocking and shaping.

This was the first knitting project I've done in at least a year (3 years?), so it took me a while to get it started, but once I got my cabling needles together it was just like falling off a bike--I mean, riding a bike.

While I was at it, I figured I'd tackle the pile of picture frames in the master bedroom. There are lots of glaring piles of junk in that room, but this seemed like it would be an easy thing to get through quickly, and would create a nice bare space on the floor/against the wall when I finished. At least I thought it would be easy and fast, but actually I haven't gotten very far yet.

The uglier frames were easy to toss into the goodwill box, but I kept trying to think of uses for the rest. Never mind that many of the frames have no glass or pictures to go in them; an empty frame still makes for a great photo-booth prop, an easy way to dress up a bare wall or mantle, or maybe even just an interesting photo background. Then I thought I'd experiment with that idea:

As you can see, it's really not that interesting with just the one simple frame and nothing in the foreground, but it was enough to derail me from my task, and I haven't returned to it since.

Until next time.

(2nd blogiversary)

2010-07-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

clarity wins out: I liked these hazy zumi shots better than
the drippy chocolate "cover shot", top,
but it turns out they look best as thumbnails.

Hey, today this blog turns 2! I should probably celebrate somehow, but I'm too lazy. The nerd in me wants to put together some kind of bar graph or line graph demonstrating how much junk I've gotten rid of, but sadly my data keeping on this matter is nonexistent. And besides, I haven't been doing all that much decluttering lately, more like refashioning and fixing stuff. I did, however, find a new home for two whole boxes of extra dishes and silverware when I switched jobs earlier this month. Brand new building? Bare kitchen cupboards? Let me fix that! Which of these flatware patterns do you prefer?

I do feel like I've gotten off track, though, with this whole "taking a break" from the cleanup. Yes, the backyard renovation has been more than enough to occupy my time during weekends at home, but this house is nowhere near I wanted it to be 2 years ago. Much, much MUCH closer, yes, but I still haven't reached that goal. It doesn't help, either, that H. is always coming up with new things to work on: when are we going to fix ___? We should really get new ___. Not that I blame him, because these other things do matter, and are much more visible than the unseen junk that lies hidden in drawers, in cupboards, behind closed doors. But I still would like to get this place really cleaned out.

So after ignoring the junk for months and months, I've started to clear stuff out again, and I mean SERIOUSLY clear stuff out. My family have visited enough times to know that anything they see here may not be here anymore on their next visit, and I've given enough warnings, etc. I'm dropping off one trunkload at Goodwill tomorrow, and then onward and upward from there.

on track, more or less

2010-07-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

I've been using Sarah's "Daily Triumphs" calendar to keep track of when I manage to exercise and so far I've had, like, an 800% increase over last year--I didn't make much of an effort before, so that really isn't saying much, but it is something.

I do love to make the little stamp marks, even if my "stamp" is just a messed up pencil eraser, so I think having a visual like this really works for me. Maybe I should apply it to decluttering, too, since I've been much more slack on that lately.

catch up

2010-07-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

I know I've been busy, but I'm not sure there's much worth posting about. A little sewing here, some gardening, even a little knitting.

Some other things that I'm excited about/happy for:

* My job has relocated and I can now bike to work(!!!). I haven't built up enough endurance/stamina yet to make the 1.4 miles without my legs getting tired, but it's a great way for me to fit 30 minutes of exercise into my routine.

* The pocket/sliding door to the downstairs bathroom has been fixed and we no longer have to struggle to open and close it.

* We've installed a new ceiling fan in the bedroom, which will help H. keep cool when we have guests staying over. For other days we just rely on the whole house fan, which works great except when you have people trying to sleep within 15 feet of the noisy motor.

* Huge family reunion today, for which I am supposed to bring a side dish but when I noticed the dearth of fruits and veggies (everybody's bringing meat and macaroni salads), decided to just cut up a watermelon instead. My sister will bring baked beans and possibly corn bread, which will even out the menu a little more. I also made some almond jello just for my immediate family, which we'll devour this evening when we get back from the event.

* House is relatively clean due to expected company (mom, sis, brother). It doesn't happen that often, so I feel this is worth acknowledging.

That's it for now; have a great weekend everyone.

A little bit surreal

2010-07-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is a giant bear. Taking a nap right in the middle of the trail I was hiking on.

I recently returned from another camping trip--boy, did I need that vacation! If you've noticed my blogging has been spotty lately (wait, when is it not spotty?)--it's because it's been a little hectic around here. But I hope to catch up on my posting soon; I've lots to share.

the British are coming!

2010-07-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

I have discovered a weakness for costumery. I don't have any kids, I don't go to fancy dress parties, yet there it is. I have this incredible longing to sew costumes and if I don't have the space to fill my closets with wacky outfits, perhaps I can fill my shelves with books on historical fashion. So when I came across this discarded book at a library book sale, of course I snatched it up. I don't know if it will ever have any purpose apart from sitting on my bookshelf, but for now, that's enough.

Look: even the date due stamps look vaguely patriotic. Happy 4th!

just in time for the weekend...

2010-07-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

So far: lovely. I know it'll be even more splendid when the gazaneas grow in. We're also planning on filling in the rock area with more plants and maybe more mossy boulders.

90% of the dichondra has filled in to the pathways and back patio area, which gives everything a cooler, lusher feel. We spend a lot of time out there already (mostly to make sure all the seedlings get watered) but I anticipate many enchanted mornings and evenings in future.

We've also installed the new light fixture--number 4 from the choices I posted about earlier. I think it looks pretty good--especially considering the "before"--of which I neglected to take a picture, again. Some patio plants would probably also help. I also still need two more smaller fixtures for the side yard...

* * * * *

I've also experimented a little more with the bleach tees. I found that a higher concentration (60-70% bleach / 30-40% water) yields much crisper lines when used with the stencils (the splotchy spots at the bottom were a stamping experiment using some recycled plastic packaging).

In case you're wondering, this year's summer reading theme has to do with water. And in case you haven't signed up for summer reading yet this year, RUN--DO NOT WALK to your nearest library. Participation numbers help libraries show politicians and potential sponsors how much their library services are valued by the community.

* * * * *

Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone.

sneak peek

2010-06-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

We're still working away in the backyard, and it's really starting to take shape. There's even a sweet little bench to sit on, now, though we can't seem to agree on where to put it. We really wanted to get everything together before my family comes in for a visit next month, but we are running short on time. As you can see I'm struggling a bit to capture the scene properly with my camera (the pictures always look much better when viewed on the tiny LCD screen), but you get the idea. That last picture is just snail slime on the concrete--couldn't resist snapping a shot at the glitteriness.

Stay tuned for more details. I'll be taking some more pictures with my other camera, just as soon as I get the garden hose put away.

in miniature

2010-06-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

I thought these tiny fruit specimens (shown here: persimmon and peach, but I'm also finding lots of little lime buds) that dropped from my fruit trees were terribly cute until they kept on dropping and dropping, and I realized that I'd end up with no fruit unless I could fix whatever was wrong. At first I blamed all those pecky little birds and nut-picky squirrels, but the most likely cause is lack of water, since I've neglected to water any of the trees for basically 2 years, leaving them to subsist on seasonal rainfall and whatever they could tap from the groundwater reserves. It's no wonder we haven't had a very big summer fruit crop lately. I've been giving the trees a thorough watering all this week and last; we'll have to see if it helps any.

Pictures of the much improved--but still in progress--yard are coming. We picked up some mossy boulders from the rock yard and they look pretty nice, though we'll probably be returning a couple more times to pick up some more. For a while we had a little garden lizard living under our patio table (lizards love mossy rocks!), but he seems to have moved on--probably got tired of me peeking in on him every hour.

hooray for little things

2010-06-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

I found this little Winnie the Pooh pouch among my mom's fabric stash. She must've made it during her crafty years when we were little. She barely sews anymore, except to hem pants or maybe make curtains, but I remember her making little dresses and things like this back in those days.

I've been a bit overwhelmed lately with all of the things that I want to get started and finished already. Decluttering the house has been on the backburner for a while now, though I manage to pack a few boxes away to Goodwill here and there (usually right before company comes over). The kitchen wallpaper still needs to be removed, though I've settled on a pale green, maybe, for the paint color. And any number of household tasks keep getting pushed aside, to be taken care of some other time.

Thus I've decided to just take things one at a time, and celebrate whatever I do manage to accomplish. For example:

* The backyard has plants! 100+ gazaneas and a dozen society garlic plants were put in over the weekend. Maybe we'll add some day lilies next.

* Apple cake. Yum.

* Successful unmolding of bundt pan (see my previous post on lemon yogurt cake). Yeah!

* Fixed the busted zipper on my favorite pair of lightweight khakis (essential for summer workdays). The solution? Not pliers and a lot of frustration, but scissors and a bit of salvaged Velcro.

* And more. I'm sure there's more, but I've just forgotten them all. Have a great weekend everyone!

bleach + technique (3 ways)

2010-06-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with bleach T-shirt design techniques (as seen on instructables and elsewhere on the net). The above was created with a wave stencil (cut from cereal-box cardboard), plus printing with letter magnets (turned upside down and dipped in bleach/water solution before application--the 's' was made by stamping just the round top part of the '2' magnet, then flipping it upside down and stamping the round part again). When I saw how much my watered-down bleach was bleeding, I abandoned my original plan to use the stencil for the lettering, and used masking tape to tape over that part of my pattern. I'd also attempted to write with a bleach pen a la Martha Stewart and Amy Karol, but alas my bleach pen had expired and just did not have any whitening power left in it.

Multiple applications of bleach (and subsequent washings and dryings in between) created the color differentiations here. I discovered that it is important to (a.) have a relatively strong bleach solution (50/50 water-bleach worked better than the over-diluted cleaning solution) so that the amount of water is limited and thus there is less bleeding, and (b.) it's really best if you're not picky about crisp, clean lines. For instance, I am ok with the 'm' and 's' being sort of smudgy, but someone else might be happier with a less intricate design.

Here on the sleeve I attempted a gel glue batik (a la that artist woman and Jennifer of Swallowfield), but it sort of faded into the rest of my stencil (perhaps because I got my spray bottles confused again and accidentally squirted it with the diluted bleach cleaner first). The subtle effect was unexpected, but also sort of neat, considering that it's supposed to be a cloud.

decisions, decisions

2010-06-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

Outdoor lighting choices (photos courtesy of csn stores): 1. Thomas "Mission" Lantern in Matte Black 2. Arroyo-Craftsman "Huntington" (shown in Mission Brown with gold white iridescent glass) 3. Arroyo-Craftsman "Evergreen" (shown in Bronze with white opalescent glass) 4. Elk "Kanso" in Hazelnut Bronze 5. Arroyo-Craftsman "Glasgow" (shown in verdigris patina) 6. Dolan "Barton" in Olde World Iron

Now that the backyard (last seen here and here and here) is underway, we'd like to upgrade our lighting from the big brass carriage/torch-type lanterns that have become decrepit and scarred with age rather than just tarnished. I keep looking at the outdoor lighting selections at our local hardware superstore but it seems I'll have to go online to find what I want. There are tons of Mission-style sconces that I think would complement the Japanese zen-ness of our garden, but in this case I suffer from having too many choices.

I favor lamps that only require a single, standard-sized bulb and that have frosted white (rather than yellow) glass that will obscure the funny silhouette of the compact fluorescent. I think I like #3 (look how nice it looks next to the foliage!) but it's a bit out of my price range, so right now I'm leaning towards #1. What's your pick? Or do you have another suggestion?

without even trying

2010-06-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

I took these one sunny/rainy/cloudy day. Man, I need to get new batteries--I miss that camera.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

collar envy

2010-06-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

TOP: Parador Dress with boatneck collar
BOTTOM: Afternoon Company Dress (both from modcloth)

I think "Mad Men" has spoiled me for regular collars. I can no longer just throw on a tee without thinking about how bland the crew-neck looks on me. Since then it seems I am forever drooling over frocks like these, copiously saving the images to my flashdrive, planning to sew something similar, and then making no such attempts. Well, maybe I am in a bit over my head with these fancy dresses (especially without so much as a pattern), but perhaps I could pull off something like Dana's fabulously simple boat neck shirt? I also love how Antoinette's summer dress turned out. And I have never gotten over the Servant Dress or the Village Frock from the talented Lynne and Melissa at Sugar City Journal, though, sadly, the patterns are not available in my size.

I know there are many more lovely projects to link to, but I've forgotten where they were. Help me out here, ladies. What inspires you?

as promised: apron blueprints

2010-05-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

I shipped the aprons off on Saturday, but took some measurements before I packaged them up. Clicking on these pictures will take you to the photos in my flickr stream, where I've tacked on little notes to help you decode my blurred writing. If you would like to sew your own versions, the measurements will serve well as guidelines--but feel free to alter them to suit your own needs or designs. Like I said, I pretty much just winged it the whole way through, so a little more or less in any direction will probably work just as well.

I thought about creating a printer-friendly pdf instead, but I just felt like being artsy. So what these lack in legibility, they make up for in aesthetic composition. Sort of.

and the winner is...

2010-05-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

The winner of the three wee aprons plus chef's hats is Lorena, who said:
Mmm... a nice cranberry 'slaw does sound really good right about now. Thanks again to the folks at Sew Mama Sew for organizing this giveaway day, and thanks to everyone who participated--I now have plenty of ideas for the 4 or so potlucks I've got coming up in the next couple months (1 vegan, 1 Italian, 1 International, and 1 anything).

Lorena, I'll be posting your package sometime this weekend, and for the rest of you: I'll try to write up the dimensions of the 2 aprons I didn't use a pattern for, in case anyone wants to make one for themselves.

wee three giveaway - NOW CLOSED

2010-05-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

For SewMamaSew's May Giveaway Day this year I thought I'd find a new home for these three sweet aprons I made a little while ago for a project that is now finished. They are sized to fit a 3-5 year old, and come with three pint-sized chef's hats to match. They are all made from retired bedsheets and tablecloths, and in some places there may be small holes and/or tiny stains--barely noticeable, and shouldn't be an issue if you intend to use these as play-clothes anyway, but I thought I would mention it.

RULES: This giveaway will close at the end of Thursday, May 20 (midnight, PST). Sorry, US and Canada residents only. To enter, leave a comment with your answer to the following question:

What's your favorite summer potluck dish?

I will use the random number generator to pick a winner (duplicate entries will not be counted) and will notify the winner by email (either include it in your comment or have it accessible via your profile).

Thanks, and good luck!

the stuff dreams are made of

2010-05-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

I think I may take all my photos on macro mode from now on. Seriously--who wants to look at details when there is all of this gorgeous light and color?

Hope everyone is having a sweet weekend. And don't forget to tune in here again early next week for SewMamaSew's Giveaway Day.

green is in the air

2010-05-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

1. Chelsea 2007 - The Japanese Moss Garden, 2. My Garden From Above, 3. Courtyard, 4. Courtyard San Cristobal, 5. courtyard, 6. Backyard Retreat

The spring weather has me giddy--all this greenness, everywhere. I know it won't be long before the heat sets in, and the patches of brown start coming back, but for now it's beautiful.

I've always wanted one of those mossy, cool, courtyard gardens, but I suppose I live in the wrong part of the world for that. I've settled instead for patches of lushness. This dichondra is supposed to only need occasional watering during the hot months; we shall see how that goes.

We started them from seed purchased here. After a couple months it's looking pretty sweet between those stepping stones, though accompanied by some weeds that will need to be taken care of, if you catch my drift. Lousy weeds.

This little soul-patch of weeds is on my hit list as well. I guess that second story gutter must be pretty clogged to allow that kind of growth, and I probably need to hire some guys to clear it out and install some gutter guards or something. I don't think we've ever cleaned out that part of the gutter, in all these 23 years living here.

lemon yogurt cake

2010-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is the lemon yogurt cake from Sonia Uvezian's The Book of Yogurt. I've made it twice so far, and it is super duper moist and delicious. Especially the citrus syrup/glaze on top--absolutely fantasmic. In the interest of preserving copyright I will not reproduce the recipe here, and unfortunately all of the recipes I could find already on the Internet are markedly different, but if you cannot find this book at your local library and simply must have some form of lemony yogurty cakey goodness, Ina Garten's recipe is a consistent favorite among bloggers, as well as Molly Wizenberg's (of Orangette).

This would look fabulous in a bundt, don't you think? I must put that on my list of skills to master--unbundting the bundt--so that I can expand my cake shape repertoire (which is currently limited to rectangular, square, and mangled circles--that whole "waiting for things to cool completely" gets me every time).

This particular recipe calls for a syrup topping rather than a glaze--plain white sugar mixed with lemon juice and reduced over heat (I tend to use a microwave instead of the stove-top--I figure it's more energy efficient). When you pour it on top, the syrup soaks into the cake and infuses it with flavor--so good. The last time I actually skipped the sugar and just melted a couple big scoops of marmalade jam into my lemon juice instead--that was super good too.

to 'poo or not to 'poo?

2010-04-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

So, I've been shampoo-free for over a year and a half now, and I thought I would write a little post about how that's been going. I may end up switching back to shampoo again soon, though I will probably go with one of the sulfate-free kinds. A few observations:

1. The "no-poo" mixture of 1 Tbs. baking soda per 1 cup warm water really does clean (it also makes a great exfoliant for your face!). But it can be tricky to get it scrubbed into your hair properly--ideally, you'd want to dunk your whole head into a basin full of it; the runniness of the mixture makes it somewhat difficult to apply in the shower. I've left the house with greasy-ish hair because of this on more than a few occasions, though it hasn't been so bad that I've had to feel embarrassed over it. Then again, I am much less likely to care, and apart from combing it through once in the morning, may not even notice what my hair looks like for the rest of the day. So if super clean-looking hair is important to you, then baking soda shampoo-substitute may not be right for you.

2. Apple cider vinegar solution (2-3 Tbs per cup of water), on the other hand, is easy to apply--I just squirt it on with a repurposed honey bear-bottle. If you can stand the smell, it's a good way to naturally condition and add gloss to your hair, even if you don't care to give up your regular shampoo. It occurs to me as I write this that mine hasn't been working as well lately, probably because I'd forgotten the proper vinegar-water ratio and have been making mine considerably weaker.

3. Overall, I've been pleased with the way the baking soda no-poo formula gives texture and body to my hair, though it also tangles more easily. I've never had this much volume before in my life, not without first applying a ton of mousse and styling time. I've increased my ACV conditioner use to 2-4 times a week (depending on how long my hair is) to remedy the tangling; this actually works pretty well.

4. Though some people report that their conversion to baking soda has allowed them to go for several days between washings, my own hair does not appear to stay cleaner that much longer than usual (maybe half a day longer, if even that much). It could be that my hair type (fine-ish and thin-ish) just needs to be washed more often in general. Also, if you get sweaty, you'll want to (and probably should, anyway) wash it again.

5. I do rely on a sulfate-free shampoo when I travel, because it's just easier that way. I don't know whether the sulfites they add in place of the sulfates are any better or possibly worse for you but until affordable sulfite- and sulfate-free shampoos are readily available in my area it will have to do.

6. I can't say whether the change has been better for the health of my hair follicles or not. It seems as though I might be losing fewer hairs in the shower, in my hairbrush, etc. now, but I wouldn't be able to say for sure. If my hair seems fuller now, that's probably more due to the increased body (see #3). If I'm still blogging in 50 years (ha!) I'll let you know who has more hair then: me or my shampoo-using sisters.

The Great Peanut Butter Experiment (Part 2)

2010-04-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd try this recipe for marbled peanut butter & chocolate cake from the Betty Crocker cookbook, which not only allowed me to use up a 1/2 cup of Better'N, but it allowed me to use it instead of shortening. So the only fat in here comes from the 3 eggs, and thus I have come to think of it as a "sweet snack bread" rather than a dessert.

I did pour an awful lot of chocolate icing on it, though--I had half a tub of ready-made frosting in the fridge, so I just nuked it on low power (after transferring it to a microwave-safe container), and then poured it right on. I have come to the conclusion that melted icing is the only way to go, since my frosting application jobs always end disastrously--I'm just not patient enough to let things cool completely. You know how that is: you've finally got the thing out of the oven and any minute now someone will come into the kitchen and seize upon the cake before you've had a chance to properly frost it.

So: Melted Icing is my solution.

These last two pictures are admittedly kind of dark; I guess I got a little carried away with picnik's gritty effects. I was, however, able to do the entire photo shoot with my new digital zumi, which I heavily prefer now due to the ease of uploading.

three little maids

2010-04-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

These are all made from recycled bed sheets and tablecloths, part of my continuing efforts to use up my stash pile.

The pink one you might recognize as the "Lolita" pattern from Sew Liberated (it comes with a matching "Lola" pattern for mom as well). I made a very similar apron from the same pattern a couple years ago.

The white one I designed for Amy Karol's latest tie one on project. The theme was Alice in Wonderland, and the challenge was to create a white apron in a full/bib/pinafore style. Check, and check.

The Great Peanut Butter Experiment (Part 1)

2010-04-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

At a recent trip to the supermarket I bought a jar of Better'N Peanut Butter but quickly came to realize (as I'm sure many of you already know) that it actually doesn't make a very good sandwich spread, at all. It does, however, produce wonderful baked goods (or so I heard), so my next project was to find some tasty peanut butter recipes.

Cookies seemed to be the logical first choice, so I scoured all my cookie cookbooks to find a suitable recipe. We're not a huge fan of the traditional peanut butter cookie in this household, so I was hoping for something a little bit different. What I found was a lemon sandwich cookie that used a peanut butter filling, but somehow I misinterpreted the name of the recipe, thinking it was a peanut butter sandwich cookie filled with a lemon creme. Thus when I got to the end of the recipe, having mixed all the ingredients in EXCEPT for the peanut butter, I discovered my mistake, and rather than bother with the whole sandwich-making chore, I decided to just dump in those two tablespoons of PB into the dough, mix it up, and just see what happens. The result was a lovely crisp cookie, a delicate melding of unexpected flavors:

LEMON PEANUT BUTTER CHIPPEROOS

Ingredients:
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup softened butter
1 tsp grated lemon zest
3/4 cup flour
2 Tbs smooth peanut butter
confectioners sugar for dusting (optional)

Cream the sugar, butter, peanut butter and lemon zest together. Work in flour and knead until smooth.

Turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and form into a log (2" in diameter or so). Wrap tightly in the plastic and place in freezer for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Unwrap plastic wrap and slice cookie dough into thin pieces (aim for about 1/8" thick). Place on a non-stick cookie sheet about 1/2" or so apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes (cookies will still be soft but will set as they cool), then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired, or enjoy them 'au naturel.'

Makes about 5 dozen (small) cookies.

ease back.

2010-04-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

My father used to complain that my mom planted her trees "Too close to the house!" which is sort of true, but in this case it's also very beautiful. These dogwood blossoms fill up my kitchen window, making me want to spend all day outside. Then the weekend finally comes and it rains and rains. Maybe this weekend will be different?

Things are feeling a little bit more normal around here so I hope to return to blogging really soon. Thanks for being patient with me.

a break.

2010-02-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

Things are way crazy at the moment. Don't worry, it's a "good" kind of crazy, but still fairly hectic nonetheless. I may not have much time to blog for a while, but I'll try to keep up with my crafting and decluttering so that I'll have something nice to show you when I return.

winter harvest

2010-02-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

I made an attempt to transplant some moss this weekend. The weather has been great for moss lately, so I can only hope that it stays that way for a little while longer. The first step was to carefully pry some up from the pavement, leaving on as much of the substrate as possible and keeping those tiny moss-roots (or whatever moss uses for roots) intact.

I then dipped the mossy bits in a mixture of 1 part water, 1 part buttermilk (because mosses love a bit of acidity, plus it's sticky) and applied it to the surface of the stone (cement) lantern in our back yard. They say you can also run the mixture, moss and all, through the blender and paint it on, so that the bits of moss grow in over time, but I had trouble getting the buttermilk slurry to stay on as it was, plus I prefer to see instant results.

I was having so much fun applying the moss that I went back to my driveway for a second harvest, and was severely tempted to knock on my neighbors' doors to see if they'd let me plunder their driveways as well. Maybe next year.

I have my doubts about whether it will work. There isn't very much time left for the moss to get itself rooted again, and there really isn't anything for it to grip so really the lightest touch can knock it right off. If it manages to stay put for a month, there may be hope for it to come back next winter after the dormant, dry summer period. I'm thinking most of it will just dry up and flake off, or fall prey to birds or other animals, but with any luck at least some of it will survive--if I've learned anything in the past two years, it's that any progress is better than nothing.

p.s. I had originally intended to apply the moss in a little heart-shape with our initials inside (how sweet would that be?!), but I was already a day late for Valentine's day, and moss turned out to be an extremely tricky medium to work with anyway (it's sort of like trying to apply false eyelashes without the special applicator, except much, much tinier).

a visitor.

2010-02-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

While sipping my tea, I noticed a small brown spot on one of the daffodils I'd brought inside from the garden. It turned out that it wasn't a spot, but a wee, tiny, little baby snail.

a new hat for the spring

2010-02-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

It turns out that taking flattering pictures of a hat is not something that I do well, particularly when I don't want to bother with a tripod, self-timer, and all that lot, so you'll have to bear with me. You can get a pretty good idea from this shot though, and a clearer view of the pattern (the sun hat from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing) from pandora pocket's version of the same.

The book labels it as a level three for experienced sewists, but it wasn't so difficult that I couldn't figure it out, though I will say that reading the full instructions is key. I'd missed the part in the beginning about the seams being 1/2" and ended up having to redo a couple of the seams because of it, but I'm so glad that I did because it fits perfectly now, and I even managed to do a neat enough job with the lining that I can call it reversible. And now that I've done it once, I think I want to make another, and perhaps another. Such a simple, sweet pattern, and it was a lot of fun for me to see the whole thing come together before my eyes: first a brim, then the crown, now a hat.

The fabric is a barkcloth-type material from the dress partially shown at the bottom of this post--which had originally been a maxi with a high collar, in the style typical of vintage tropical souvenir dresses. I had converted it into a knee-length with a v-strap neckline, and saved the scraps for a project such as this. For the hat's lining I dug some more fabric out of the stash, a print with small white polka dots on dark brown, turned wrong side out because I loved the faded rawness of the underside so much better than the intended print.

a bunting we will go

2010-02-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

Grab a button from the sidebar and join us!

It's been almost a week since I invited you all to create (and share!) some lovely, glorious bunting (or some other happy variety of garland). If you've been on-the-spot enough to finish already and have it posted to your blog (uh, Emily?), you can now add your blog post to the MckLinky at the bottom of this post--or if you're on flickr, simply add your photos to the group pool.

*If you need a little bit of inspiration, you can check out last week's roundup of links and tutes. In addition, here are a few more tutorials that have since come to my attention:

Sweet cherry blossom garlands from plastic tablecloths by Creative Jewish Mom (via Craft)

& browsing through One Pretty Thing yields this super cute mini fabric bunting by Twirling Betty, this threaded fabric bunting by Cicada Daydream, and this spring fling garland with fabric flowers by Our Lovely Nest.

I've also been thinking about stringing up a whole lot of these t-shirt fabric flowers a la Alabama Chanin (complete instructions available here), or maybe some lovely tissue-paper poms (Casa Sugar has a nice tute) but that, I think, would take some time, and also supplies that I don't currently have.

So. Here's what I made:

I'm still looking for a place to string these up, but for now, this bulletin board will do. It's looking a little bare, as you can see, and it could use the help--a little Domo with shorts on will only go so far. I thought about stringing some bunting up inside my crafting closet (as in: surprise! super craft-happiness inside!) but I think it would have to be brighter--sunshiny yellows or maybe some zingy zangy reds.

* * * * * * *

Ok kids, it's time to post your links! If you haven't finished yet, don't worry--I'll leave it open for the rest of the month. And if you miss that deadline or don't have a blog, you can always add your photos to the bunt-along flickr pool.

*Remember to link to the specific post,
rather than your general blog address.
That way we'll all be able to see your
lovely bunting/garlands right away. Thanks!*

play, and a little bit of work.

2010-01-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

I'm still playing around with my new harine zumi camera. It takes some getting used to, with its simplistic controls (macro or regular? 100 or 800 ISO?) and rudimentary viewfinder, but it's fun, and because I can never tell which shot will turn out the best, I end up taking a lot more pictures, which is also a good thing for me.

I'm also still working on getting my craft space (1/2 of one of the guest bedrooms) organized. The examples shown daily on Craftzine this month are keeping me motivated. So far, I've got the thread drawer sorted out:

The master bedroom, on the other hand, has been repopulated with the stuff I pulled out of the guestroom closet (to make room for my fabric stash). I went through some of it and dropped off another 4 boxes at Goodwill this morning, though the "progress" doesn't seem to be that noticeable. But it has to be helping, this packing up and carting off of excess, boxload by boxload--256 boxes is a lot of stuff, no? I am thinking I am ready to take more drastic measures in here, may start to toss things out indiscriminately (regardless of my mother's and sister's instructions not to throw anything else away). It's just ridiculous that this place has looked this bad for so long.

Bunt-along with me

2010-01-26T11:43:00.000-08:00

Sophie Cuvelier's work deserves a second, third,

four-hundred-and-eighty-ninth look. She's always
up to something new and awesome.

It seems like everywhere you look, gorgeous garlands & bunting are everywhere! Maybe it's due to the dreary weather we've been having, but I am craving colors and cheer, and I'm not alone:

How About Orange posted a great tute for making these cute little bunting cards, which, frankly, is friggin' GENIUS.

Hula Seventy recently commented on how she was very, very tempted to "drop everything and shift into 24-hour garland-making mode."

Katie Did posted about her jaw-dropping Christmas garlands (you must see these)

Party planner extraordinaire Jordan Ferney shared this gorgeous installation with us.

Petunia's cupcake liner garland was featured on Apartment Therapy.

Cakies shared her love for bunting just the other day.

Maya*Made is always making the loveliest things out of newspaper and paint.

The Purl Bee posted a very lovely tutorial for making a New Year's garland out of colorful felt circles.

... and on and ON. You get the idea.

Anyway, it's been on my list of things to do since forever, so I've decided to do a garland-along, or bunting-along, so we can all spread the cheer together! Once you've completed yours and strung it up, take some pictures and post them to your blog. I'll put up a MckLinky in the next week or so, and then we can all marvel at our collective genius. If you don't have a blog, on the other hand, feel free to e-mail your pics to me at simpleup [at] gmail {dot} com, and I'll either post them here, or maybe in a flickr pool. I'd love to see how you've used your new garland to cheer up a corner of your life.

Who's with me?

There are many styles of bunting/garlands, and not all of them require sewing, so please feel free to use whatever method you want! However, if you are a little lost as to the how, here are some handy tutorials to get you started:

Festive bunting by My Longest Year
A more detailed tutorial of a similar bunting by Joyful Abode
Lovely embroidered felt garland by Anna Maria Horner
A different style of felt garland by Ali Edwards
Holly-leaf-and-berry felt garland with LittleLoveBlue on Etsy's Storque
Newspaper heart bunting by Maya*Made
Pretty tissue paper bunting and no-sew fabric bunting by Apartment Therapy / Ohdeedoh
Snowstorm garland with dental floss and stickers by Jeffrey Ruddel at CraftStylish
wee bunting by Heart Handmade--this one's my favorite because it uses scraps!

If you know of any more good tutorials, please post them in the comments! Thanks, and let's get bunting!

IT CAME FROM THE DEEP

2010-01-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

Something wretchedly odiferous is lurking somewhere in our fridge, and I for the life of me cannot figure out WHAT. IT. IS.

This'll be the 11th time that I've been through here, searching through each container and drawer, every corner of every cubby.

Still, I find nothing. The rotting vegetable or meat product or dairy product--whatever it is--eludes me.

I've placed containers of baking soda (with a pinch of glitter--just in case, you know) in there for now, but this is far from over.

a present for myself.

2010-01-16T09:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been scouring the online shops this past week looking for a nice birthday treat to buy for myself (it's true that I do this almost every week, but it's not very often that I actually purchase anything), and finally I gave in and splurged on this zumi camera from photojojo, who had slyly spurred me on by offering me a 10% coupon when I signed up for their newsletter. (Fun photography tips delivered semi-weekly to my mailbox! Why have I not signed up before?) I've been wanting a second camera for a long time, and this will give me something to play with while H. hogs the other one. The vintage-y effects are my favorite tools on picnik, so I'm eager to try this out, plus I look forward to being able to stash the little thing in my purse, as my current camera only barely fits. I'm thinking this is just the sort of thing I needed to help me take more pictures.

(photos from photojojo shop)

wishing you...

2010-01-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

original photo by janieh / CC license

... a great weekend. Today I turn 30, which seems like an occasion to party if ever I had one, but I'm not in the mood to plan anything at the moment. So, I'm going to put that off for a bit (I was thinking of throwing a nice dinner party once I felt the house was presentable enough), and just settle in for another relaxing weekend at home instead, with the addition of cake and sweet birthday kisses.

H. always offers to take me out, to go anywhere I want, but here's the thing: I don't particularly enjoy eating out. It's nice to be wined and dined and all, but I would sooner not have to deal with the menus, the choices, the food that never tastes quite like I wanted it to taste, the potential contamination by staff who are unable to take sick days when they're sick--I'm not paranoid, I'm just not sure the benefits outweigh the risks, particularly during cold & flu season. But maybe I will risk it tonight. We shall see.

off to a start

2010-01-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

I don't know what kind of start, exactly, but it's a start. I haven't gotten around to putting away the Christmas stuff, as you can see, but it's still early. The holidays came and went with a flurry of activity, followed of course by another round of tidying up. My mother behind for me, among other things, a new assortment of paint colors to ponder over, and I am no closer to making that decision any time soon, especially since I would like to see the colors in the bright summer light, rather than make the decision in these dim-lit months.

Curse you, dim winter lighting!

Also, I took the time to completely clear out the closet under the stairs, gave it a thorough vacuuming, and re-established it as storage for gift wrap supplies (formerly buried somewhere in the unused master bedroom), and H's skis (which were too tall to fit in a regular closet, and which had therefore become something of an eyesore in a corner of our bedroom).

Ah, but where did all the craft supplies go, the ones that had once looked so neat in there but which had since started threatening to spill out of the closet at any given moment? Well, I finally decided to move my sister's things out of her closet in the 4th bedroom (storing them in the master bedroom) and install my stash there instead. Here is the result so far:

Since this is the room where my mother prefers to sleep when she stays over, I've also got a TV/VCR tucked away on the other side of the closet that she can watch from the bed. There's still a lot of stuff in the closet that still doesn't absolutely need to be there, and I have more fabric/supplies still stashed elsewhere that I didn't try to fit in, but I'm working on it. It will take a lot of time and effort for me to reorganize and (gulp!) destash.

in case I don't get around to telling you later...

2009-12-22T10:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas cards went out last week! Check one more thing off my list.

I'm wishing all of you a super holiday. Really and truly.

new window shades, before and after

2009-12-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

My new window shades are here, and they look great! Finally, something nice to frame the view that is taking shape outside.

But first, the befores:

These were the windows that we stared at every day at mealtimes. I liked the chickens (patched onto some muslin by my mother and fashioned into curtains), but I wanted something that, I don't know... matched? And didn't look like it came out of a scrap bin at the Goodwill? I mean, I love Goodwill, would almost rather shop there than anywhere else, but not like this. The third window on the right (not shown) never had any curtains at all, poor thing, and had merely been fitted with a spare and rather plain-looking curtain rod.

And now, the afters:

Unfortunately I don't have great lighting at this time of year, but the second shot gives you a better idea of the texture of the bamboo shades. I'm still not 100% sure about my decision to buy them a couple shades darker than the color of the (fading) wood frame but the idea was to mingle the wood tones, embracing the character of the house rather than fighting it, and hopefully playing down the color of the frame at the same time. Plus, I wanted to have an edge tape that blended in, and the original nutmeg color I'd selected didn't coordinate well with any of the edge tape selections, AT ALL. (If you ever order any woven wood shades, I HIGHLY recommend you request some samples before you make your decision. Most vendors will send you a number of swatches for free.) Anyway, I figure I can always paint or refinish the frames after I get the walls done.

The window above the kitchen sink [top photo] was bare for a long time, but I'd rigged up some lace curtains (actually, my grandmother's stained tablecloth) to give us some privacy--you got a glimpse of them here and here, but not much more than a glimpse because they were pretty sorry.

I just wanted a simple honeycomb shade for this window, but opted for the top-down, bottom-up feature. (If you order from Blinds Chalet, I would advise against the Express Cordless, as the mounting brackets are flimsy and difficult to install. The brackets for these though, were of a way superior quality and also a cinch to put in.) H points out that these'll probably stain easily, so I have to make sure it's raised up a decent height before I do anything remotely messy in this sink.

Now if I could just get the walls and cabinets cleaned up, I'll be set.

there they are.

2009-12-09T12:42:00.000-08:00

Cinnamon-raisin persimmon cookies. I meant to include a picture of them with my last post, but had forgotten where I'd stored the file.

what's for pudding?

2009-12-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

My favorite way to warm up the house: turn on the oven and bake up some goodies. I decided to use up the remaining persimmons with this recipe for persimmon pudding (it's more like a British dessert pudding than the chocolate Jell-O stuff we're used to here in the states), sans the pumpkin pie seasonings. I always put less sugar in than is called for, so this was just sweet enough--light and not all that persimmon-y, if you happen to be getting tired of that taste. I also made a third batch of these persimmon cookies (little cakey bits of persimmony goodness), because they seem to be H's favorite treat this season--though he does show a strong preference for cookies of any kind. Again, I used less sugar, omitted the nutmeg and pumpkin pie spices, and added raisins and some assorted dried fruit bitties.

I also attempted to make a pear tarte tatin, from a combination of recipes culled from the Internet and my collection of cookbooks, but I couldn't quite get it to caramelize like I wanted it too (I also had no idea what I was doing when I arranged the pear slices, hence the pell-mell presentation). The crust I made from scratch, and it looked absolutely beautiful when I took it out of the oven, before I turned it over, but now of course it's just soggy from the excessive pear juices--probably something that does much better when made with crisp granny smith apples. Maybe I'll try it again with a different fruit, or maybe I'll just to with country-style galettes from now on--this one looks especially good right now (scroll down for drool-inducing photos).

I've still got some avocados in the fridge that need to be eaten up, along with enough apples to make a large pie with, and scores of lemons and limes that need picking. And I still need to bake my holiday cookies. To be continued...

shoulda, woulda, coulda

2009-12-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

So this was my last attempt to make a little cable hat out of this thrifted sea-misty green yarn. (All of my yarn stash, in fact, has come from the thrift store--it works out well for me because my knitting projects tend to be small, one-skein wonders, and I never know how well any of it will turn out.) I'd started this hat 3 years ago, without bothering to use a pattern, but when that didn't work out like I planned I'd had to frog it all out, 3 or 4 times. Recently I decided to try it again, this time using a pattern I found in Interweave's Knitted Gifts, but when it became clear that I didn't have enough yarn for it, I tried to make a sort of knitted headband from the pattern instead. But I didn't even have enough left to finish binding that off, either, which is probably just as well, as it looked sort of silly anyway. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have tossed all of that old yarn when I got tired of frogging. But on the bright side, I'm now fairly proficient at yarn overs, something which had always intimidated me before. I'm thinking I'll have just enough, after I've frogged this out again, to make a single mitten, maybe a pair of tiny booties.

Of course, just as I give up on knitting or sewing any gifts this year, We Wilsons comes out with this fabulous softie crocodile with a zipper for a mouth. I mean, how stinking cute can you get? Anyway, Laura is offering the pattern for free to people that submit photos of stuff they've made with one of her patterns to the we wilsons flickr pool (I'm thinking the reusable snack bags would make a great gift, as well as the knitted market bag). Or, if the December 14th deadline is too soon, you can just buy the pattern from her shop.

What gifts have you made/will be making this year?

a new list

2009-11-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Spoken Word Jacket on Modcloth. One of these days,
I'd like to sew something that looks something like this.

I love lists. Have I mentioned that already? Specifically, I love that sense of accomplishment when you get to cross something off of one, though lately this has been more of a mental exercise than a pen-and-paper one. I've made an anti-clutter list before, but now that the clutter has all been taken care of (more or less), I feel like I need to broaden the goals a bit, regroup, and refocus. Rather than merely trying to make the house a livable, junk-free space, I've turned my attention more towards redecorating, and turning it into what feels more like a home. So here goes:

1. Finish cleaning up 4th bedroom (Namely, the closet. Namely, get my sister to get the rest of her stuff out of there); refurnish as a crafting room. Then, actually start using the room to craft / stash-bust.
2. Reorganize closet under the stairs; vacuum thoroughly (beware carpet beetles)
3. Kitchen: new window treatments. Strip rest of wallpaper from kitchen; paint. Replace remaining incandescent bulbs and burnt-out bulbs with compact fluorescents.
4. Paint entryway hall.
5. Finish redecorating downstairs bedroom; glow-in-the-dark dinosaur poster must go, no matter what H. says.
6. Get a sofa, chairs for the sitting room/parlor?
7. Make this wee bunting and use it to cheer up a stretch of wall/ceiling somewhere. That's been on my to-do list forever, don't ask me why. Or, I could just buy something equally fabulous from this wonderful little etsy shop--I'm also loving the little paper boat garland at this super adorable shop from across the pond).
8. Maybe get some round rugs/chairs to break up this long expanse of Pergo in the 2nd bedroom. Maybe get some color on the walls, put up some pictures, curtains.
9. The door to the master bedroom has been closed, but maybe I can convince my mom to let me get rid of more stuff in it. If I can finish clearing out the closets, I can reorganize and get it livable, maybe.
9. Oh yeah, also get that backyard and side yard finished (before moving on to the front and other side yard). How could I forget that already?

So that's my list (for now). What's on yours?

more rocks than you can shake a stick at

2009-11-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

So, the backyard is coming along, bit by bit. We added the little loggy trim (to help with soil retention) and shuffled the flagstone around until we were satisfied. It wasn't clear at first that we would ever agree on an arrangement, since H. seemed to be describing footpath plans that were entirely different from what I had in mind, but it worked out in the end. Now we just have to fill in the dirt and get them all leveled---famous last words--before figuring out the rest of the plantings. Does anyone have any suggestions for drought-resistant, low-maintenance plants? We are thinking about creeping thyme for in between the flagstones, society garlics and maybe some deergrass scattered under the trees among the rocks, and for the middle area, gazanias, allysums, maybe a manzanita bush? I dunno. I have trouble visualizing how all the plants will look together, and would definitely welcome some more ideas.

and the winner is....

2009-11-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

Jessca, who said:

"love the Nordicware Platinum Castles Cakelet Pan" Congratulations, Jessca! Please reply to the email I sent you and we'll get your prize shipped off straight away.

Thanks again to all of the wonderful readers who entered (I only wish I had more prizes to give to you all), and a super big thanks to Jason of Cookware.com and CSN Stores for this terrific opportunity.

The Astrobunnies Go Fishing

2009-11-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

I struggle to make sense of it, but I love love LOVE the creative embroidery on this piece I found at the thrift store several years ago. I recently unearthed it again while moving things from the closet under the stairs (a space that I discovered was completely inadequate for my needs) to my new crafting space / guest room (bedroom #4, which, when last seen on this blog, was crammed with pillows and junk but which now has been restored to a livable space, except for the closet). Anyway, when I saw these bunnies again I had to pause for a bit to reexamine the design, especially after seeing this great tute on thread sketching on Clutterpunk. I mean, WOW.

Sorry about the wavy-ness of the fabric; I don't have a working scanner so these photos will have to do. Here is the sum of the parts, see if you can make any more sense out of it than I can. It looks like 2 bunnies have crashed back to Earth in a lunar module and, having totally run out of astronaut-carrots not to mention astronaut-lettuce, are now fishing for food in the ocean.

Ok, I STILL don't get the joke, but it's beautiful, and maybe that's the only thing that matters. Now I just have to figure out what to do with this... I think I would like to see it as a pillow, except that I would hate for it to get dirty.

Today is also the last day you can enter my cookware/bakeware giveaway, which is proving to be the perfect small-blog giveaway--not so large that you have zero chance of actually winning, yet with a sweet choice of prizes that provides something (I hope) for every taste. It looks like every option has been chosen at least once, for which I'm truly glad, because I spent a really LONG time on Cookware.com picking them all out, a person could easily spend hours on that site. So thanks, everyone for playing, and in case you haven't done it yet, make sure you get your comment in by the end of the day, and I will choose the winner tomorrow.

this is what 2 tons of rocks looks like

2009-10-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

The back yard is also coming along, but slowly. We're hoping to get the flagstone path put in this weekend if possible--it should be a fairly "easy" job in terms of getting the stones arranged--we plan to plant creeping thyme in between so we won't have to worry about closing the gaps so much, but we are nervous about doing the job right and for sure it will take a lot of hard work.

I still haven't decided what plants I want to put in, though at the rate we're going I'll have plenty of time to figure it out. I've also been working on getting new window treatments, so when I look out into the new, improved yard I won't have to gaze past the ugly makeshift curtains we've got now.

You may have noticed my new header; I needed something pretty to get me through the chilly winter months. Speaking of which, don't forget to enter my bakeware giveaway (ends Nov. 9) and give yourself a chance to win something pretty for yourself.

For your kitchen: you-choose-it giveaway

2009-10-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

1. Alessi Bavero Milk Jug: this one would make a lovely vase, reminds me of something you'd find on Holly's blog.
2. Rachael Ray 'Bubble and Brown' 3-Qt. Stoneware Baker in Green: from the new Rachael Ray Cookware line, of particular interest to those of you who love orange.
3. Emile Henry Square Baker in Sky: imagine this filled with your favorite berry crumble.
4. Emile Henry 'Bake for the Cause' 9-in. Pie Dish: you already know how much I love to bake.
5. Nordicware Platinum Castles Cakelet Pan: because National Bundt Day is just around the corner.
6. Le Creuset Large Mortar & Pestle Set in White: great for making homemade pesto--also, an excellent way to keep your young ones occupied in the kitchen.

Rules (VERY Important!!!):
1. Open to U.S. and Canada residents only.
2. To win, leave a comment that states which ONE of the above items you would like to win. You must also include your email address in the comment or have it on in your publicly viewable profile. If I'm not able to contact you, you won't win.
3. Comments must be posted before the end of the day (midnight PST) on Monday, November 9, 2009, so get your comments in before the clock strikes 12 and it becomes Tuesday, and I'll pick a random lucky winner on Tuesday morning.
4. Only one entry per person will be counted, regardless of how many comments you leave, or how much I may like you.
5. This giveaway is sponsored by Cookware.com and CSN Stores; shipping times vary among the different items and are reflected on the right side of each product page. If the product you select goes out of stock you may be asked to choose a different item.

Thanks everybody and good luck!

autumn diptych

2009-10-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

Top: new outfit, sewn from a stretchy tank dress that would never have gotten worn otherwise, and an old button-down shirt rescued from the depths of my mom's closet. Inspired by one of the items in Thimble and Acorn's super lovely etsy store (closed for now, but check back later this month for a reopening/moving sale).

Bottom: Tasty persimmon brunch cake, adapted from this recipe. It was a hit at my bookclub gathering--so good that I've been asked to make it again. I didn't bother to flip it out of the pan (I always ruin my cakes this way anyway--too impatient to wait until they cool completely) and it still turned out wonderfully--would be even better, though, if thought to top it with some candied pecans and maybe some butter/sugar crumbs. Ooh, and a dollop of creme fraiche.

Easy No-Sew Sock Puppets Tutorial

2009-10-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

This kid-friendly project has already been presented by Danielle's Place over here, but I thought I'd add my own pointers, and some step-by-step photos, because everybody loves a good photo tute. So, if you've got tons of socks/yarn remnants/felt remnants lying around, or if you need a mess of puppets in a hurry for some reason, here's what you do:

Step 1: Get your materials together. You will need: socks, some lightweight cardboard, yarn, felt, and any other crafting remnants you might have lying around--googly eyes are good if you've got them, but not necessary. You will also need your trusty glue gun.

Step 2: Do a little cutting. Place your sock heel side up, and smooth it down flat. You should have a crease straight through the middle and a flattened heel flap on top. Then, cut a semi-circle around where your hand will go. Make a longer head as shown here for a flat-fingered "duck" hand, or make a shorter head, cutting closer to the heel end for a hand with curled fingers.

Cut out a cardboard mouthpiece to fit your mouth opening. Next, you'll want to trim a 1/2 inch or so from the lower half of the sock's mouth (see below); this will correct the natural 'under-bite' that otherwise occurs in your puppet. I only realized this after I'd made the first few puppets, however, so you'll notice that all of my pictures have evenly-matched mouthparts.

Step 3: Glue in place. Lay the cardboard on top of the open mouth, then glue the sock fabric edge down all around. Tip: it helps if you glue opposite ends down first (i.e., 12:00 and 6:00, then 3:00 and 9:00, then seal the rest of the edges).

This is what you should have when you're done:

Notice that I overestimated the space needed to accommodate my hand in the sock on the right, so I fixed this by just flattening the extra material in the heel and glueing it down (NOTE: if you're using HOT glue, take your hand out first!). In step 5 we'll cover up that ugly flap with a pile of hair.

Step 4: Cover the inside of the mouth. Just trim a piece of felt to fit, and glue it on.

Step 5: Add the finishing touches. You can use googly eyes, pieces of felt, yarn remnants, fabric remnants, buttons, whatever. Have fun; go to town.

For more ideas on what to do with your spare socks, see also my post on What to do with orphan socks (socktopus tutorial) and check out Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphy, Stray Sock Sewing by Daniel, and Sock and Glove by Miyako Kanamori.

Ooh, and also Martha Stewart's printable instructions for making super adorable sock dogs.

Irish oaty-cakes!

2009-10-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

I spied this recipe over on Nicole's blog and just had to try it. Had to; she left me no choice. They are oaty and almondy and oh-so-hearty... I think I'll try adding more brown sugar next time (increasing to 1/4 cup instead of just 1/8), and maybe use a smaller (2" instead of 3") biscuit cutter since I always end up breaking these in half before eating.

I'd thought that H. wouldn't like them, as he's got a huge sweet tooth, and the cookie-like appearance is deceptive. But he's been steadily munching away on them, and the double-batch I made last weekend is just about finished now.

I'm working on a craft tutorial now, so check back in later this week to see what I've been up to!

it was either this or a plastic bag.

2009-10-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here is my first sewing project using the new dress form. The instruction manual, which I read from cover to cover, suggested keeping the plastic bag it came in to protect it from dust. Um, no thanks! Instead, I decided to make myself a simple slip cover that could be tossed in the wash at will, and then thrown back on again and secured with ties in back.

I originally intended to embroider "Singer 150" over the heart to replace the sticker that had been plastered on Dolly's (I still haven't settled on a name for her) chest when I pulled her out of the box, but when I'd finished cutting it out, it ended up being a much smaller heart that didn't really need further embellishment.

Here's a view from the back (I love the contrast of the red paired with the ruffley-ness!):

If you're thinking, "Hey! What a great idea! How can I make one of those for myself?" I'll tell you that it's basically just a large oval-ish shape cut out of an old bedsheet (I wasn't too exact about it--it is just a dustcover, after all). I finished the seams with some extra-wide bias tape I had lying around (leftovers from when I made my little red riding hood cape last year) and then sewed on the ties, fastening them to the front under the bust and adding gathers for a closer fit. The pocket is my favorite part; I needed a place to store my measuring tape, which no longer winds up neatly as I've broken the spring-loaded winding part (overzealous measuring, it seems, was to blame). It looks cute tucked up in the pocket though.

The whole thing took just an afternoon or so--I'm hoping that I'll be motivated to sew more now (I'm tempted to make more dressform dust covers, but I am aware that these things aren't really intended to be used as dress-up dolls) or perhaps I will finally get my crafting room in order, using this as a starting point.

And now, on to the next project!

kitchen experiments

2009-09-18T13:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, a Spanish tortilla isn't really an experiment, but the last time I attempted to make one was a complete and utter failure. This time: delicious! I ran into some trouble when I realized I didn't have a plate large enough to flip my oversized pan over onto, but luckily I was able to use my big cookie sheet instead. I kept wanting to add stuff like cheese and bacon, but I guess that would make it more of a quiche, like this potato-crusted one (also very yummy).

I also recently turned a mushy overripe watermelon into refreshing watermelon jello (just puree, and add agar gelatin!). It worked out so well that I may have to try it with other fruit juice/slushee mixes (mango jello sounds really good right now).

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

slowly but surely

2009-09-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

The backyard is taking shape, and looks a lot better since we got half of the dirt covered up... we'll be adding the flagstone path and patio shortly, and eventually will bring in some more drought-tolerant plants to cover the dirt hill in the middle (and interspersed among the rocks as well). There is definitely still plenty of work to be done here.

I wish I'd thought to get a 'before' picture of when we first moved in, but the best I could do is direct you to the 'during' shots that I took in May. If you imagine waist-high weeds covering the area, divided by large, unmarked trenches and other hazards, you get an idea of what it was like. While you're at it, you may as well imagine me relaxing in the finished patio area, or strolling around the yard looking at the beautiful flowers when it's done, which will be... let's see... maybe in late February. Or sooner, I hope it's sooner.

this little piggy has work to do

2009-09-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm still in the middle of a few projects (and, at least in my mind, "about to start" several more). I just haven't gotten far enough along in any of them to warrant a post. But in the meantime, please enjoy this little plastic piglet that I found buried in the back yard. I don't think it ever belonged to anyone in my family, which makes me wonder whom it did belong to.