Fourth of July Crafting

Although this is not my first place on my own, in fact it's place #5 of my own, this is the first house I've lived in where I felt like decorating for the holidays.

It all started with the ribbon I found in the dollar bins at Target, and I somehow decided they needed to be used in making some streamer/mobile type things. A trip to the dollar store a few days later and some red, white, and blue ribbons completed the idea. I could not for the life of me find any sort of circular things on which to tie the ribbons, so I ended up using the two small pieces of an embroidery hoop. I have a lot of this size, and figure I can always take it apart if I need the hoop again. Although, who am I really kidding, I've used an embroidery hoop all of about 1 time in the last two years...

The two I made are currently blowing in the wind outside the sliding glass door and the kitchen window. If I weren't so frazzled today running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything ready for Sailor Boy and guests coming this afternoon I'd consider making more because they're fun.

Last week I had the idea to decorate one of a number of plain waffle-knit dish towels I bought a few months ago. I'd originally planned on decorating them to match whatever kitchen decor I ended up doing for this house, but so far I haven't chosen a decor, so they're still waiting, possibly indefinitely. I used some of the left-over squares from the quilt I made a year and a half ago. It took a lot longer than it looks like it would have, but I like the end result, even though it looks a little kitchy to me. It didn't look very festive though. I found the other two towels also in the dollar bins on my last Target pilgrimage, and although they couldn't absorb water to save their lives, they add a little punch to the homemade one, and make it more clear it's supposed to be festive.

Yesterday I was at the worst store ever, WalMart (hey, it's close by, I'm technically helping out the local economy that NEEDS help, and they had the best prices on s'mores stuff...) and as I was buying two more zippers to finish the outside cushions, I wandered past a display of big patriotic bows. I thought about buying one, but at $3 seemed a little pricey for what they were. Directly below was the ribbon the bows were made of, and at $1.50 a roll I figured I could make a better bow than the one they had for sale. Way too late last night (read: after midnight, I was seriously freaking out about getting everything ready. I'm kind of a control freak. And weird for staying up that late and then deciding it's time to make a bow.) I made this one up, I just figured it out as I went along. PS, the secret is floral wire.

I think that's enough patriotism for me for now. I think half the point of holiday decorations is increasing them a little more every year, so this is a good start for the moment.

Get Excited

I've been seeing the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters around for probably two years here in blog world, and thought they were kind of cool, but never really felt the need to own one for myself.

Then, one day, Small Bird, who's home decorating style I apparently adore, what with the faux animal head I blogged about before, and who can resist those chairs, I certainly can't, posted this on her blog. "Get Excited and Make Things" now that's something I can do. Keeping Calm and Carrying On? Not so much, sometimes a little freaking out is necessary for life, but making things is part of my everyday in one way or another, even if it's just knitting a few rows.

I bookmarked the flickr page with the file (the more blue-green one I printed is Jenna's (SB's) version here), and kept meaning to print it out once I'd moved and had access to my printer and some heavier printing paper. I finally got around to it last week, and found a cool silver frame on clearance at Target for $1.48 (who can pass up that kind of a deal!?) in order to frame it. I had to cut down the paper from 8.5 x 11 to 8 x 10 for the frame, but that was easy-peasy.

I hung it up over my sewing table, next to a bulletin board I re-covered and am still not quite sure I like the end result. I think the actual problem is I really hate the wall color there. It's such an ugly odd blue, and the rest of the room is yellow as you can see here. The two colors just do NOT mesh well, and as an accent wall the blue is far too dark for a room with only one window. Part of me wonders if it was a little boy's room or something, but the fact that it's the only bedroom/extra room in the house without a ceiling fan out of the 4, makes me feel like it wasn't used for much, so why did they paint the wall such an ugly color? As you can tell this keeps me up at night. The moral of that small rant was that I can't tell if hate the fabrics I covered the board with, or I hate the combination of the fabrics against the ugly wall. Phew.

The phrase is kind of inspiring though, which I find I need these days, so go on, "get excited and make things!"

More Vintage Apron Goodness

Two years ago I blogged about a few vintage aprons in the beginning of my small collection. Since then I've continued to find them here and there, but the collection hasn't grown too substantially.

This weekend I went to a few garage sales looking for a few more larger frames to finish putting things up on the walls, and came across these two cute aprons.

This was by far the best garage sale I went to, not because of the stuff they had, but just because they had a cool house (very rare for this area. In fact I'd been to two sales earlier in the morning that were in the.scariest.housing.development.ever. It was all creepy pink/beige UGLY homes with rock gardens. Fabulous. There was no green anywhere.) and they were funny old people, and they had all this interesting stuff spread out everywhere. I found these two aprons on the 25 cent table, for reals.

I told her she wasn't charging enough for them, and she said she knew, but that she wanted me to have them for 50 cents regardless. The gingham one had a minor stain on it, but with some spray and wash and a round in the washer it's faded considerably.

The other one is fabulous. It has great sparkly rick-rack, and is perfectly poofy and it's fun to wear. Although I think if someone else saw me in it they might make fun of me. You guys won't though, right?

In fact after putting it on to take pictures I decided to wear it while I whipped up a batch of cookie dough. It definitely added a little something to the experience!

Too-Short?

This is going to come off as seriously random, but it's apparently a pressing issue for me right now.

Why are dresses so short right now? I'm talking about the dresses "in season" or "in style" right now. Do they seem insanely short to anyone else?

A few months ago I was at Anthropologie with my mom, and I tried on a few dresses to possibly wear to my sister's wedding, yet all of them hit my legs at this odd point. The point is actually a line, a very delicate in between "appropriate" for wearing to an event or even just everday wear, and "skanky" or "not looking right because it hits at weird point." What's odd is the length wasn't fully in either category, which made it even harder to tell where one was supposed to be wearing said dresses. If it had been of "appropriate" length one should clearly wear it out to dinner, to run errands, to a wedding, etc. If it had been of "skanky" length, you wear it out on the town. To further complicate matters, the styles of the dresses leaned much closer to appropriate, and were really nice, but they just weren't long enough to fall fully into that category.

Needless to say I didn't end up purchasing any dresses that day. They were cute though, and other than the length issue looked great on. Oh, and were fabulously on sale. I just felt really uncomfortable due to the length.

I realize that a big personal factor affecting this issue is my height, and inevitably the long length of my legs. At 5'10" and always needing pants with at least a 34" inseam I realize that things may tend to look shorter on me than on the general public, but I haven't had this issue to this degree ever before, I really blame it on the latest fashions.

Today, somehow by goofing off on Facebook I found this site, LuLu, that has some really cute clothes at affordable prices. Well more affordable than Anthropologie, let's just say that. Anyways, I started looking at the dresses, because I'm a little dress obsessed lately due to the heat and dress = best heat combatant besides a swim suit, which isn't always appropriate. They have a lot of dresses I would have been interested in, but even on the models I could tell they reside in the "awkward length" category. Then when I read the descriptions and checked the lengths, more than ever I realized there was no way I'd feel comfortable wearing one of them around... The funny thing is I'm not really a clothing prude. I'm fine with wearing short shorts and do own some short skirts, but just something about such a short dress skeeves me out.

Take this dress for instance. I think it's really cute. Had I not already purchased a dress, I would seriously have considered it for my sister's wedding. BUT... and this is a big but (not to be confused with a big butt, which I don't think that very skinny model could ever have...) it's that awkward too short length. It's really not a good thing on this dress either, because the awkward length makes it veer dangerously close to the "looks like a nightgown" category, and that's never a good thing.

I also really liked this one, but once again, it just would be way too short, you know?

I guess the big question is, am I just hyper paranoid, or has anyone else noticed this trend? And if so, what do you think?

Baby Gifts

Alrighty, I'm trying to get back into the blogging thing, but it's a slow re-uptake I guess. That or I'm just losing my mind and blogging is going along with it.

I feel like I'm doing everything sort of halfway. I haven't wanted to blog about any of the things I've been making, because some how I feel like it'll take away from the grand reveal if I've already shown half of the project?

I decided I need to get over that for the sake of posting, and proving that I'm still alive to my mother, and that I'm not just staying in bed hiding under the covers all day.

One of my projects this week was working on part of the present Sailor Boy and I have dreamt up for the unborn baby girl of his good friend in Virginia. We're in the process of dreaming up hilarious and witty things to freezer paper stencil on some onesies, but I also wanted to sew a baby blanket for them.

I still had fabric left over from the present for Freyja's, and I made a similar blanket as the one I made for her. This one turned out better, I think I wrangled the minkee fabric this time, but I still hate sewing with it, slippery-stretchy little fella.

On this one I appliqued a few stars, and did a different stitch around the edge. It came together MUCH nicer than the last one.

I had some left-over fabric and a little bit of sewing mojo so I made a few burp cloths to match.

They came out pretty well, I'm fairly pleased! Now I just hope they like them...

Giving Kudos

A few random commentary, but I promise there's a common link!

Have any of you seen the movie Taking Chance? It's based on the true story of a Marine escorting home a fallen fellow Marine after he's killed in action. I made the mistake of starting it with Sailor Boy the other day, and it was a little too much for him to handle so I ended up finishing it on my own yesterday. I think it hit too close for him since he's essentially in the most 'war training' training he's had so far, and the reality of him going into combat and losing friends is becoming more real. I don't exactly recommend watching it if your spouse is going to deploy soon, or is currently deployed, but if you can tolerate that aspect then I highly, highly recommend this movie. I cried through most of it, not so much because over the sadness of this young man's death, but because of the respect and honor he was shown post-mortem. I had no idea what occurred when someone is killed in action, the entire process, the protocols that are followed, and this was eye opening to me. All of the random encounters the Marine had throughout his journey were touching, and tearful, and it made me feel even more proud of being involved in the military life.

Second, I got my first blog award from Young Mom and Wife for being a 'Lovely Blogger' and I just wanted to acknowledge her kindness! She and I are becoming fast email friends, I think we're both lonely lately with me having Sailor Boy gone and her husband's new crazy work schedule or something! I'd pass it on, but it seems all my favorite 'Lovely Blogs' already have won this award, so I'm not sure who I'd give it to!

Third, in the spirit of sharing good things, I want to give props to Fabric.com for having good customer service. I purchased some fabric from them 2 weeks ago to finish the outdoor cushion situation last week, yet when the first part of the order arrived yesterday, it was totally wrong fabric. Cute very wrong fabric, but very wrong fabric none the less. I called right away to ask what to do, and the woman who I spoke with was not only very kind, but said they'd get the right fabric out to me right away, AND that I get to keep the wrong piece they sent. Now that's good customer service for you. I appreciate people doing a good job, seeing as customer service can be so lacking these days.

Those are my three good things for the day, hope you had some good today as well!

Favorite Things

One of my favorite places in the new house is this cabinet.

I know that seems a little weird, because it's a cabinet, and cabinets (usually) have doors, so it's not like some cute seating area I have set up where I like to curl up with a good book... That being said it does give me an immense amount of joy the multiple times a day I open it to get out or put back something that lives in here.

I think I just love the colors. And I love the bowls. And I love the Pyrex.

I don't know why I got hooked on collecting Pyrex, but I'm hooked. A few weeks ago after purchasing yet another bowl (who can really use all those bowls!?) I decided I needed to stick to themes, so my new rule is if it doesn't somehow match the ones I have, that it can't come home with me. That and I refuse to pay more than $4 for any one item, and if it's more than $4, it better be one of the big ones like the green one on the bottom left. Except that one came from the magical Thrift Town in El Sobrante, and I doubt I paid more than $2 for it. I've actually seen a fair amount of Pyrex in the thrift stores here, but I think they've caught on that people like me collect it, because it's generally very overpriced.

Here are my favorite favorites:

I found the first of these two at the above mentioned magical Thrift Town, and it is such a useful bowl. It's a great size, I love the spout, and it looks really nice. When I randomly found a second matching one during my first, completely unsuccessful thrifting trip here, I scooped it up and cuddled it. Seriously, ask Sailor Boy, I was very, very excited. He kindly purchased it for me (it hit the $4 limit, but I love it's twin so much that I allowed it), and it's been oogled daily ever since.

This is my new favorite collection. I love that aqua color, and the roosters make me smile. I bought the little one while flea market-ing with my sister, and the bowl I bought at the same flea market the last weekend I was home. It too hit my $4 limit, but when it's love, you can't say no. That, and I think the $1 ones I find (like the one I found at a very odd Swap Meet with Sailor Boy last weekend, not pictured, it's currently holding blueberries in the fridge) even it out a bit. I'm seriously coveting the big one of this same pattern that Eren has and often has in cooking pictures. Yes, the same bowl (or whole set!) is easily found on Ebay or Etsy, but the hunt is half the fun, right?

At some point someone's going to have to cut me off. It's very possible to have too many bowls, but for now, ignorance is bliss, right?

Sort It Out

I seem to have lost my blogging mojo. It just up and walked away Tuesday night and I have no idea where it went.

Do you ever have one of those weeks, or a series of days where it seems like every little thing in your life that you may be struggling with blows up in your face and makes it hard to even do things like eat real, full meals? I had that happen last week. This weekend had a lot of meaning to it, with today being father's day, and yesterday being what would have been my parent's 28th wedding anniversary. I also had troubling conversations with my mother about what's going on with Gran and how her illness is progressing, and it just brought up a lot of painful gunk for me that still hurts. I also thought I was being rejected by a new friend, was ridiculously lonely, and missed Sailor Boy.

Thankfully he was able to come home Friday night for what was supposed to be the whole weekend. The military-life always has other plans, and he went back very early this morning instead, but it still really helped to have him around for the day he got to be here. He also washed my car and helped me make decisions about putting things on the walls, both of which are greatly appreciated. We also went up to base for the first time, and I have to say I'm so thankful for where we live rather than living on base. Both because it's so much hotter on base, and if I were to work where I'm hoping to work, would make for an exceedingly long commute. Going to the Exchange is always an adventure, and this trip was no exception. My favorite conversation I overheard between two young Marine's: "Dude, why are you still talking to her? She's such a HO!"

Today I feel like I have a better grip on myself, and am trying to set more realistic goals for what I'm going to achieve in the next 6 weeks I have to get through on my own, and hopefully until I have a job. The second interview, this one with the ER nurse manager and the trauma coordinator, last week went far better than I ever could have hoped. Now I sit on my hands for 3

weeks until I find out if they'll offer me a position or not.

Until then I'll try to bite of exactly what I can chew, be happy about my new basil plant that I'm going to keep safe from the heat just inside my kitchen window, and be thankful for all that I have.

Travel Bag Instructions

Lindsay asked me yesterday about how I'd put together the travel bags I made on Friday, and so I tried to give her a bit of details via email. This led to a very badly put together Paint document in which I tried to draw different angles of the bag. Let's just say it didn't go over too well, and I made her very confused.

Thus, here's a quick tutorial, not even leaving out the easy steps, of how to put together one of those bags.

First, cut two pieces of fabric. Cut them the same size. Mine were approxamitely 18" x 11" I think.

Put them right sides together, and pin around three sides.

Sew around the three sides. You can, if you want, go back and forth at the ends, I figure that you're turning over the top anyways, why bother?

If you don't want to do the bottom squaring, the bottom of your bag will now look like this.

Nothing is wrong with this. If I was making another one of these bags for shoes, I would just leave it like this. If you want to square it, continue on, if not skip to where I'm turning the edge over to make the casing.

After you've sewn, leaving it wrong side out, turn the bag 90 degrees, so one of the side seams is facing up, and the other down (as opposed to side-to-side).

While pushing the middle of the bottom seam up, pull the corners down, and press the sides with your finger so they make points. I know that sentence made no sense, but hopefully the pictures explain what my words obviously can't?

See what I mean that the bottom is pushed up? If you've ever made a paper crane before, this is a little like that!

Next, take a measuring implement (tape measure was what I found first...), and measure 2 inches up from the point. You could do less, like one inch, but I like a nice solid base for the bag to stand on. Hence, the two inches. Make a mark with a pencil or a washable fabric pen.

Turn your ruler or measuring device horizontal, and using your 2" marker, make a line (or dot a line) across the triangle, to designate where you'll sew.

Pin the triangle at the bottom so you're sure you get both sides when you sew.

Repeat on the the other side's point.

Sew along the dotted line. Yes, you can go back and forth at the end. It never hurt anyone, did it?

Cut off the extra fabric of the point.

See? Now we've got a boxed bottom.

The bag can stand up on it's own if it wants! It's magic! And I wasn't down with pressing seams today. Seemed like a waste of time.

Keeping the bag wrong side out, scoot it over the small end of your ironing board, so it's like you've tried to put the big ironing board into your tiny bag and failed. Miserably. You don't need it all the way into the bag, just enough to where the edge of the bag is taut, but not so taut you can't stick two or so fingers under. And let's not talk about my heinously ugly ironing board cover. Ahem.

Fold over the top about 1/4", and press. Do this all around the bag.

After you've got it folded over 1/4" all around the bag, make another fold, this one approxamitely 1" (a real inch, not a Margot inch which is like 2", I just used my finger, measuring from the tip to the first knuckle. Then I eyeball the rest) again, going all around the bag. Press with the iron.

Take it off the ironing board, put in a few pins if you like, or not if you're lazy like me, and go back to the machine.

Sew around the edge of the casing, far enough down so that you're both catching the 1/4" you first turned over so the edge is beautiful on the inside, and also so that you have enough room in the casing to thread the tie.

Sewn outside.

Sewn inside.

Next, take your seam ripper (I love mine, I have to, because I use it a lot...) and rip open the seam on the side of the bag, between the casing seam and the top.

(ignoring how badly I need to clean/dust my machine) Set your machine to zig-zag, a kind of wide one, and zigzag back and forth (go forward a few stitches, go back a few, repeat as needed) at the top to keep the top from ripping apart further.

Repeat on the bottom.

Now you're done with the machine!

Last step is get your ribbon or tie or whatever you're using for a drawstring and a safety pin. Put the safety pin through the tie, and put it into the casing.

Work it around until the pin comes out the other end, pull the ribbon until the ends are even.

Tie a bow.

Take weird pictures of the bag standing up on it's own.

You're done!

See, it's not that hard! Now go sew one!

Travel Bags

I finally cracked open the cover of Heather Ross' / Weekend Sewing that my sister gave me for my birthday back in April. I of course immediately determined, as I had when I first starting reading about the book on various blogs, that I need to make at least half of the projects.

I added them to my list of "things I want to sew" (currently topping the list: finishing up the outside cushions, making more shirts for myself, working on a baby quilt for a friend of Sailor Boys) and am seriously chomping at the bit to bump them to the top.

Reasoning that they were fast, and could be used immediately, I decided to jump right into making two of the drawstring bags. I have to admit I didn't really follow the directions. I did glance at her measurements before making my own, and I used the trick of cutting open one side of the seam on the edge of the fold-over and reinforcing with a bit of zigzag stitch at the end to prevent ripping. I realize that sentence made no sense unless you're looking at the book, but maybe you are, and now you know what I'm talking about?

I decided to make two, based on using them for traveling. I went to visit Sailor Boy out by the ocean this last weekend (ahhh... I miss the beach. Luckily despite living in the desert now, I've yet to go more than 2 weeks without seeing the ocean so far) and thought having a bag for my running shoes, and one for laundry would be useful. I don't like my shoes (which tend to get dirty or very sandy) interfering with my clean, often nice, clothes in my bag, so sewing up a little bag in which to keep them separate was something I probably should have thought of earlier. I used a leftover bit of a vintage sheet I had from making a pair of PJ pants, a bit of pink ribbon I had in my collection, and a few minutes later, a little bag. It was easier than snapping your fingers, I promise.

The second bag I made bigger, out of fabric I found at an estate sale with SB's mom. I squared off the bottom corners per the book's suggestion to make it stand up on it's own a little, which is helpful with a bigger bag. I usually travel with a plastic bag that I put my dirty laundry in, but this is much more pretty, and better for the environment to boot. I'm also really pleased with how this came out!

There are a number of other things I want to make: the trapeze dress, the summer blouse, and I didn't even finish looking at everything yet! I think I'm giving my sewing machine a run for it's money...