Skooks' Playground

My McCall's Toy Sewing Machine

2012-03-01T14:33:00.000-05:00

Is it just me, or are you a little taken aback that something from 1992 is considered "vintage"?

Acquired recently for a song, I found this sweet little thing on eBay. I peruse the toy sewing machine offerings every once in awhile in the hopes of snagging a cute deal. Plus I was already on there looking for cheap comic book backer boards to wrangle some more fabric (it's starting to get unruly again and between fabric and ribbons I used my previous stash up completely).

I had to jockey a few things around on top of my shelf to make room for her up there, but I'm liking where this is going.

In a few months, my birthday will be completely overshadowed by Little Miss' birthday and the birth of my 3rd child (yowza with the timing there, Skooks) . . . but if'n someone wanted to remember to get something fun for me at that time, toy sewing machines are always welcome! ;)

Any kids' toys you're still in love with now that you're all grown up? I'm not gonna lie . . . I get a kick out of watching Little Miss play with My Little Ponies. So much so that this little bit of yesteryear also made its way into my eBay shopping cart a few weeks ago:

C'mon . . . you remember!

Pardon me . . . I think my age is showing.

The Impending Switcheroo

2012-02-16T14:08:00.000-05:00

I've got a couple of posts in the hopper that are mostly ready to go, but I just realized my camera is out of juice and as any good blog-writer knows you should never post something without some kind of picture. :P

That's ok though . . . I've got something else on the brain entirely today (actually for the last few weeks), and it's time I let you all know.

I am going to dismantle the sewing room.

I KNOW.

But here's the thing . . . I have a little one on the way, and while I don't mind the kids sharing a room (which is what Little Miss and Kee-ku have always done), I'm thinking 3 will probably be a crowd in one room.

I didn't always feel this way (especially when kiddos are so young), but bed time has become particularly hideous lately because Kee-ku is constantly getting in and out of bed and Little Miss can't just get to sleep already. It makes for a lot of, "MOM . . . DAD . . . HE'S OUT OF BED AGAIN!" and multiple trips by Mr. Skooks and I up and down the steps to try to get Kee-ku to stay in bed. Compound this with Kee-ku's latest love which is climbing in bed WITH Little Miss (who doesn't altogether mind it except that he keeps getting in and out constantly), and I'm just about over them sharing a room.

Lack of space is not an issue . . . we are blessed to have 4 bedrooms in our house, but because 1 of them is on the lower level and 3 are upstairs there's going to need to be some switchup. Call me crazy, but Mr. Skooks and I would prefer to be on the same level at night as the kids. So whatever, NO BIG DEAL . . . we'll just use the 3 upstairs bedrooms for all the people in the family.

Right . . . except that one of the bedrooms upstairs is currently home to my beautiful sewing room. The one I took forever to get *just so*. ~sniff~

BUT it must be done. At some point (hopefully soon), the ole girl's going to have to come on down.

The good news is, by DOWN, I mean I'm going to comandeer the downstairs bedroom (which currently functions as a playroom/office) and I get to make a sewing space ALL. OVER. AGAIN.

I'm both excited and already fatigued at the prospect. Remember, I'm 29 weeks along (though it feels like I'm 39 weeks along - oy) and generally I feel like taking a nap all the time anyway. So there's that. If only I could move things around with SHEER WILLPOWER then it would have been done a week ago.

Anyone want to come over and move a bunch of heavy furniture around for me? I mentioned my plans to Mr. Skooks the other day, and he almost passed out from excitement.

NOT.

Book Review: 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips

2012-01-28T14:30:00.000-05:00

As a last bit of holiday spending, I obtained 2 new books with a Barnes&Noble gift card this past week. A big kiss to Mr. Skooks' grandparents for that one. :) I'm going to tackle my reviews of them in separate posts.

The first one I chose (which I have had my eye on for quite some time now), was 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips by Deepika Prakash (of PatternReview fame). Remember back when I tackled the organization of my interfacings? Well, I gleaned that nugget of organizational awesomeness from an excerpt of the book that I read online . . . the sample chapter I saw put it on the short list of sewing books I wanted to get.

Now that I have it in hand, I'd like to share a few things about it for those who might be interested. This book is LOADED. Just tons and tons of info. I'm going to come straight out and say that I'm glad I own this book. I can see that it will be a nice reference to have in the sewing years ahead.

With that being said, I'd like to point out that it heavily focuses on tips and tricks for garment sewing, which is not something that I am hugely into at the moment. My experience with garment sewing is pretty small . . . probably 4 or 5 dresses for Little Miss over the last 4 years . . . and fairly simple ones at that. This is not to say I have no interest in garment sewing, but it's just not something that tends to get me terribly jazzed up these days. (I blame the CPSIA, without which I would probably have sewn LOTS of kid clothes to date.)

This is not to say that there is nothing in there for us non-garment sewers. Actually, there is quite a lot in there which is worth reading and noting. If you're on the fence, see if you can find it in the library or in-store and breeze through it ahead of time so you can make a more informed decision as to its usefulness in your sewing journey.

Like I said, if you're a garment sewer, I'm pretty sure you'll love it. If you're all over the place like me, I still think you'll find good stuff in it (and it may even give you the confidence to tackle garment projects if you've been scared off from trying) . . . though you may find yourself skimming over several sections.

Four Things Friday - er Twelve

2012-01-27T17:39:00.000-05:00

Sooo . . . when I said, "wouldn't it be fun to do this little funny 4 Things you don't know about me Friday thing" what I really meant was "I'll do a random 4 things post once ever couple months."

Whatevs. It's Friday. Here's the 4 . . . and by 4 I mean 12 . . . things. (Hat tip to my pal, Jane, for the questions.)

1. How long have you been blogging?

I started a personal blog when Little Miss was about 3 months old. That was almost 5 years ago! Crikey . . . I didn't even realize that until just now. The blogging thing . . . not how old my daughter is. This blog is somewhat younger (I started it towards the end of 2009), though when I started it I took all the sewing/creative posts from my personal blog and transferred them over to keep all that stuff together. It was a bit painstaking and those posts were meant for family and friends so they're probably a bit less cohesive than the ones since I started SP, but I'm still glad I did it.

2. What is your favorite restaurant and why?

Hmm . . . I'm inclined towards many different ones, though I tend to choose Red Lobster when the occasion and the budget allows. This is to say that I don't live anywhere near the sea and really love seafood. If I lived somewhere a bit more coastal, I'm sure I would love a more "local" and less "chain"-like place. As it stands, I haven't found better seafood in my town than at RL, so it is what it is. In more you-won't-find-these-everywhere-else locales (and if you're ever in Grand Rapids), I have had great meals at Marie Catribs and Twisted Rooster.

3. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?

Hmm . . . hard to say, not knowing how much is in the pot. But I would love the ability to pay off my mortgage and put aside money for my kids to go to college and for Mr. Skooks and I to retire someday. It would be divine to actually quit my job if I could do so. If'n there was money left over after all that, I hope that I'd resist the urge to buy useless things and instead be abundantly charitable with others.

4. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

You know what, I have no idea. And that's not because I have crazy amounts of shoes. There are probably only 3 pairs that are in the rotation right now (one pair are boots, one are sneakers, and one are just everyday casual kicks.) I've got a few good pairs of flips for warmer weather, a few pairs of sandals, and only one pair of heels that I ever wear for those very infrequent times I actually dress up for something. I try to buy quality footwear over quantity. Cheap shoes just don't hold up, and I don't have the money to waste on stuff I will wear infrequently or won't last.

5. What is your favorite day of the week and why?

Every day brings different stuff. These days I dig Wednesdays just because Tuesdays are usually horribly exhausting for me, and Wednesday is a nice no-obligations day in for the kids and I. With that being said, I do have great love for Fridays because it means that when Mr. Skooks walks in the door in the evening, he is going to be around all day for the next few days and I always prefer it when he is around. :)

6. What’s your favorite color to wear?

I'm not much of a clothes horse these days. I tend to enjoy any color (read: shirt) that fits well and doesn't make me feel like a whale. I'm now in my third trimester . . . thanks to my awesome neighbor I do have a few "colors" that fit into that category.

7. What is your favorite fruit?

Hands down, it's avocado. Yes people, that's a fruit. And I can't get enough avocado in my life. I do love guacamole, but I love it just as much just sliced up with some lime juice and salt on top. Mmm.

8. What TV show do you most enjoy watching?

Depends on my mood. I'll admit, I'm addicted to the Biggest Loser. I'm a sucker for how it changes people's minds about how they see themselves and helps them see that life is worth living WELL. I'm also a big fan of Fringe (really, any show that JJ Abrams has had a hand in . . . I've pretty much seen them all) and Up All Night. For totally worthless laughs, Wipeout gets me going every time.

9. Who is one person, alive or dead, that you would love to have a conversation with?

Jesus. I've got questions, and he's the only one who can answer them for me.

10. What is the worst decorating/crafting/fashion mistake you’ve ever made?

Hard to put my finger on any one thing, but I cringe at a lot of the . . . ahem . . . "design choices" I made in our first apartment. Just about everything we had was hand me down, but we tried to make it look like it wasn't . . . which . . . didn't really work.

11. Coffee or tea?

Um, pop? Coffee only works for me if it is sugared up, flavored in some way, and about 8 million calories (think Starbucks Vanilla Latte). I almost never have it. Tea is ok at times, but I tend not to reach for it very often. I really have to be in the mood. I wish I didn't like pop so much, but it is what it is. So now you know.

12. What’s the temperature in your city today?

Well, most of the snow has melted off so it's probably in the upper 30s. Now that I'm checking the weather though, it looks like it's going to snow all night and through tomorrow. So much for the melt-off. The weather is kind of on an acid trip lately.

Anyway . . . that was fun. If you want to play along, please do so and come link back. I'd love to read more about what's going on with you too. :)

WIPs - Inching Along

2012-01-25T11:57:00.000-05:00

It doesn't feel terribly sexy to use the bulk of my Field's gift card to buy quilt batting, but that's just what I did. I've got 3 quilts at varying degrees of done-ness and the reason they have been left undone (largely) is because I was out of batting pieces large enough to accommodate them.

When I went in for my extra battings, I had a nice conversation with the employee who initially helped me with my choice of sashing for my Vintage Sheet Freedom Bee quilt top. I have no quilting calculator and didn't feel like crunching the numbers, so she graciously helped me figure out how much extra Kona I needed to beef up the sides a bit (I'm not looking forward to the actual quilting of this thing due to its size, but I would like to make this into a picnic/beach quilt so it needed to be a bit bigger than it already was).

I also got a lot of oohs and aahs from the other ladies who were working . . . I would have blushed a bit if I had more to do with it. As it was I was happy to brag on the awesome ladies who made the bulk of the blocks. :)

So, some Warm and Natural, some Warm and White, a cut of some shade of Kona blue that I'll figure out when I compare it to my color card, and some variegated purple thread later I walked out armed and ready to tackle my WIPs. (That's Works In Progress for the less make-something-partway-and-then-sit-on-it-for-half-a-year people.)

The Warm and White is for this beauty:

The actual quilting step is definitely NOT my favorite part of quilting (probably because I don't have a long arm, or any faint clue what I'm doing), but in order to make these endeavors worthwhile they need to be finished already! I've got other goodies on the horizon that I would like to make before Peanut Pants makes an appearance in a few months, and I need to clear some of these things OUT of the sewing room first. NO EXCUSES!

I've got a sewing date with my friend this Saturday so I'm hoping to make loads of progress this weekend to that end. Until then . . .

***Skooks' Playground***

My McCall's Toy Sewing Machine

The Impending Switcheroo

Book Review: 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts & Tips

Four Things Friday - er Twelve

WIPs - Inching Along

Skooks' Playground