Wonderfully awkward

Would you guys be interested in knitting tutes?

2011-12-01T12:43:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

So I was tooling around on twitter today, chatting with Jenna and Kiki, and was thrilled to hear that Kiki is learning to knit! YOU GO!! She asked some questions about yarn hold and some basics, so I quickly rattled off a couple of videos for English and Continental style. Not like there aren't a million, but it's fun to contribute, and I love converting new knitters. So here's the videos!

I also posted them on my free tutorials page for future convenience. So here's my questions: Are you guys interested in other knitting tutorial videos? I know there's a glut of them out there, but sometimes somebody shows or explains something in a different way that makes more sense to some people. What would you guys want to see?

Since I haven't written in a few days, here's the current rundown:

Right Now:

Listening - I've got the show "Numbers" on right now, streaming through Netflix. I love binging on shows. Especially ones I've never seen before and there's several seasons to catch up on.

Eating - Nothing at the moment, but I might heat up some of my taco soup I made the other day. OH! That's a whole other post, but I've started cooking for the entire week and freezing servings to easily heat up. That way I'm actually eating, getting more nutrition, and don't have to cook. all. week.

Drinking - well, my tea's gone cold, so I'll just stick with my water. On the other hand, I have diet cherry soda in my mini fridge that sounds pretty enticing right now. What?! You thought I'd say wine? It's only 1pm people! Gimme *some* credit ;)

Wearing - pink owl jammy bottoms with a pink tank top. To match my pink nails. I guess I'm in a pink mood lately.

Feeling - kinda guilty that I haven't done much of anything productive today. I need to get my machine embroidering some things so I can get those out to their new owners soon. But overall, pretty relaxed. Hooray!

Weather - It was kinda windy this morning, but very sunny. It's still sunny out, but a teeny bit overcast as well. Funny story - we didn't have LA's crazy violent wind, but we did get some good gusts early this morning. I was in the middle of a dream about being chased by zombies, and it was an INCREDIBLY tense, scary part of the dream when a big gust of wind blew something over in the side yard with a BANG! I must have jumped a mile out of my bed. Adrenaline rushing, heart pounding. I had to laugh at myself (Thank you brain, for choosing JUST that moment to scare the crap out of me when a zombie is reaching for me!).

Wanting - To rewind today so I can be more productive!! And maybe that cherry soda.

Needing - To close my door because my sister just started vacuuming and I can't hear Numbers. It's a tough life. And now I really need that cherry soda. Do you ever just CRAVE a soda? I don't drink them very often, but when I want one, I WANT ONE! I NEED ONE!

Thinking - About a lot. My brain is such a jumble lately that it seems I can't organize any thoughts. Projects, goals, what direction I want to head in with my shop, my blog, etc. I'm kind of enjoying flying by the seat of my pants though. I love writing about life, and not just crafting all the time. Hopefully I don't bore you guys too much!

Enjoying - This slower, more relaxed pace of life lately. With my best friend in town, it's been a little bit busier, but it's been good to get out and do things. It helps put into perspective how very much I've changed over the past couple of years, become more introverted and *quirky* shall we say. Ten kinds of special crazysauce. I have a lot of self work to do, and it's an interesting road. I'm very very slowly starting to feel like my old "I don't need no mans" self again, and I'm looking forward to being totally self-sufficient and independent. Emotionally, financially, and otherwise.

Time to be productive!! Have a wonderfully awesomesauce day everyone! Anything exciting going on?

Test for bloglovin' because google is stupid...

2011-12-01T09:53:00.001-08:00

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Completely ineffective notes to self through time and space....

2011-11-23T22:26:00.001-08:00

The first rule of being a crafter with dogs - if there is fabric, your dog(s)/cat(s) will lie on it. Fact. This is Rowan helping me organize and fold fabric earlier today.

It's a tough life, making sure this fabric stays put....

A few hours ago, I posted this to Facebook off the top of my head:

Why is it that when you feel like "I'm f*ing amazing, strong, and independent" is when you don't need it, then when you need it most, you don't feel that way at all? It'd be nice if you could send yourself notes into the past and the future.

Well, while I haven't yet perfected sending notes back in time to myself, I have attempted to send notes to my future self. There's a cool little chalkboard thingee in my room which reads "Kick ass and make stuff", and before that it read: "You're awesome, and don't you forget it!". It's my version of "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me..." I hope you get that joke. It sounds hokey, but in a small way it's an attempt to send a note to my future self saying "keep your head up". Of course, the times when it's needed most is when it's easiest to dismiss it and roll my eyes at how stupid that sounds. Ah, silly future self. On the tougher days, the thing that helps me the most is to think about all the AMAZING, strong, creative women who have my back and keep reassuring me that we all have each other's backs. Especially my fellow husky owners and fellow crafters....I'll tell ya, these ladies are a force of nature to be reckoned with. My favorite kind of people.

......I kinda forgot where I was going with all that. Sorry! I rented Super 8, and it's playing in the background right now. The train crash just happened, which was super spectacular and incredible, and I have the attention span of.....well....a person with ADD. Which I am.....Anyway! What was I saying?

Woah!! Dude with melted face!! Sorry...movie again. Ever see "Up"? SQUIRREL!! Yeah, that'd be me. WOAH!! Dude with melted face is alive!! Sorry again....Maybe I should pause the movie until I'm finished writing. Can you tell most of my writing is stream-of-consciousness? I rarely go back and read what I've written after it's been published, which is probably a good thing. Also, I totally want that rainbow striped shirt the chubby kid wears in the movie.

On a happier note (life isn't all teenage-angst, I swear!), my very best friend in the whole wide world, my partner in crime and hetero-life-mate Morgan flew in from England today!! I haven't seen her yet, but just knowing she's a few miles away at her parents' house makes me want to do a happy dance. Also, I'll be going to my friend Kathy's house for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Yay!! Kathy's a first-rate cook, and I love her and her family dearly. I've known her since high school, and she's become a fellow crafter. We're planning on knitting/crocheting after chowing down. Perfect Thanksgiving! Her daughter Sophie is the freaking cutest thing you've ever seen (and I am NOT a kid person) and calls me 'Bon-Bon". She gets that from her mother.

Are you still reading? Sucker..... *wink*

Okay, so here's the wrap-up. I swear this new journaling prompt thingee is what's getting me to write. Otherwise I wouldn't even know where to begin!

Right now:

Listening: "Heart of Glass" was just playing in the movie, otherwise it's suspenseful music and dialogue.

AAAHH!!! OMG!!! KILLER ALIEN!! Okay, so I didn't pause the movie. Can you tell? FOCUS PRUITT!!

Eating: *sigh* Promise not to tell? I just finished my McDonald's fries, and I still have a small cheeseburger waiting in the bag. It's cold by now, but who cares? Work wiped me out, and after not eating much at all today, I just wanted something, fast, easy, and indulgent. I'm weak.

Drinking: Water. I threw away the soda that came with the meal. Sleep is a valuable commodity, so caffeine from afternoon til bedtime is a no-no.

Wearing: (Why does this one always strike me as odd? Almost like "what are you wearing right now? *heavy breathing* Creepy stalker-like. Alright, pervs...I'm wearing my flannel owl jammies my Mom gave me for christmas last year. Wanna see? Man, you guys really are pervs. Joking! Joking!

That photo was taken last year when I got them. Still my favorites.

Feeling: Sleeeepy....my tylenol PM has kicked in, so I'm getting a little bleary-eyed and ready for sleep.

Weather: I'm pretty sure it's clear out there. Nice and cool, but clear. Today was sunny. Not that my pasty ass was out in the sun at any point today, but sunny nevertheless.

Wanting: To finish that other cheeseburger so I can focus on the movie and drift off to sleep. Mmmmm....sleep.....

Needing: Hmmmm......more practice writing? Seriously, is anybody still reading at this point? Don't feel bad if you aren't, this must read like some completely ego-centric 16 year old's diary. "Dear Diary...he talked to me today!! Can you believe it?!" Next day.... "My life is over! OVER!!"

Thinking: I'm thinking I'm going to have to go back a few chapters in the movie. I don't know if I've absorbed anything at all because my attention is on writing.

OH NO!!! Hang on, dude with the melted face!! Hang on!!

Sorry....movie again....

Enjoying: Kind of enjoying this weird, rambling, stream of consciousness style of writing. Almost like having a conversation.

That should wrap it up! (I know, I know...try to contain your disappointment.) I'm sure I'll have another extremely uninteresting word vomit upchuck post tomorrow. In the meantime, eat lots of turkey and stuffing, and let me know how your Thanksgivings were! I feel like I'm forgetting something.....Huh. Must not have been that important. G'night all!!

PS - I'll respond to comments from the last couple of posts tomorrow. There's a lot I want to write back to you guys, but I'm really bleary-eyed and tired, so it'll have to wait til tomorrow. Love you guys though! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

When you don't even know who you are anymore...

2011-11-21T20:41:00.001-08:00

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty darn good, with just a touch of melodramatic "poor me" crap. I'm still having a very hard time processing my breakup with my ex-boyfriend, even though it's been about 11 months. Yeah, I know. No lectures, please. Keep in mind that it was my first *real* relationship, and it lasted almost six years. I form strong attachments with people, and I'm not the type to just cut the rope (metaphorically). He was very good to me, and I still love the guy, even if we were headed in different directions. There's no bad guy here. I still have a LOT of bad days where I cry the "ugly" cry (you know, where your face is all squinched up and your nose is red like Bozo the clown), and feel about as lovable as a pile of horse dung that's been sitting in the sun for a couple of weeks. I used to be the kind of person who was perfectly fine being single (honest-to-goodness) and genuinely wasn't looking for any kind of relationship. Not even a one night stand. Ew. So when I opened my heart and formed a long term attachment with someone that didn't work out, I hope it's a little understandable that I'd have a hard time letting that go. Everyone's allowed to have days that are harder than others. I'd give anything to be that independent *I don't need no mans* girl again. There's just a lot I wish I'd known six years ago. Just sayin'.
ANYWAY!! Re-forming your self identity and regaining a sense of self-worth is never an easy process. Sewing and crafting in general has given me an outlet, an identity, and something to be proud of. Working with colors and texture, creating things that are well-made and beautiful has been the biggest self esteem booster I could ever hope for. Walking into my room on any given day and seeing all these bright colors and beautiful things I've made brings me such happiness, it's hard to explain. Which sorta kinda brings me to this weekend. Break it down, sistah!!

On Wednesday, I met my old friend Christy at Islands restaurant for dinner after work. I've known her for about 16 or so years now. Christy is one of my very favorite conversationalists because we can talk forever and never run out of things to talk about. She's also very VERY cerebral and intelligent, so we can talk objectively about things in an abstract sort of way and can always follow each others' train of thought. I imagine Thursday and Friday were run-of-the-mill days. I can't even remember what I did besides a few hours at work. Saturday Christy invited me to an early Thanksgiving dinner at her grandmother's house (she wouldn't be in town, so her family was celebrating early) which was DELICIOUS. Chris, if you'd send me that recipe for the drinks you made, I'll love you forever. Afterwards, we went to see Puss in Boots. I grinned like an idiot through the entire thing and enjoyed it so much, I've been talking about it non-stop. Go see it. It's awesome.

Sunday, I decided to clean and organize. Before I could buckle down and do some serious crafting, I needed to organize my stuff and clean off surfaces so I could find everything I needed. I'll take better pictures in the daytime, but here's a couple of photos I snapped with my phone when sending them to my BFF twitter friends.

It may not look like much, but folding and organizing fat quarters is no joke!

Yeah, that took me pretty much all day. I don't want to go into detail about how much I had to haul, cull, organize, etc..etc..etc. It was a ton of work. My Mom and I also did a bit of xmas decoration shopping (thanks for the goodies, Mom!) and I promise I'll post photos of the adorable xmas goodness soon.

So overall, it was a great weekend. I just have to keep my thoughts away from the dark places and focus on all the amazingly wonderful people in my life and all that I have to be thankful for.

Extra bonus!! My hetero-life-mate (aka my bestest best friend and sister/partner for life Morgan) is going to be in town on Wednesday!! She's visiting for Thanksgiving from England, and I'm so excited I could just pee myself. Can'twaitcan'twaitcan'twait!! *Jumping up and down*

So now for the journaling breakdown:

Right now:

Listening - I had "Numbers" episode one, season one playing on Netflix, but honestly I wasn't paying attention. So instead, I'll share the song stuck in my head.

Song Currently Stuck in my Head - "Rock Your Body" by Black Eyed Peas. It was the last song I was grooving to in my car, and I love the Black Eyed Peas. The more fun and fluffy the music, the better for me lately.

Eating - Del Taco! I still have another macho taco left in the bag, and I'm debating whether or not I want to eat it. But I also know there's peanut butter cookie dough in the freezer. Mmmmm....frozen cookie dough.....

Drinking - Diet coke, also from Del Taco. But I should cut that out since I need to get to sleep sometime before 3 in the morning. I love caffeine, but not when I'm supposed to be winding down. WHEE!!!!

Wearing - Holey-kneed comfy jeans and my red "Bend, Oregon" sweatshirt. I freaking love this sweatshirt, almost as much as I freaking love Oregon. I will live there someday, mark my words.

Feeling - A hell of a lot better after a long, fast walk with the huskies! I almost forgot, here's a pic!!

The fur-kids love walking at the harbor at night. Loki is especially happy.

Weather - Very clear today, after all the rain and wind yesterday. Man, that storm was pretty awesome! Good day for organizing craft goodies.

Wanting - That peanut butter cookie dough in the freezer. And to sleep well tonight. Preferably in that order.

Needing - that cookie dough. Kidding. No, really I need to do just a little bit of knitting before I fall asleep.

Thinking - About that cookie dough. Kidding, kidding. I'm actually thinking about what I need to make tomorrow to earn some money since work is scary-slow.

Enjoying - Well, gimme a minute and it'll be that cookie dough. Seriously.

Edited to add: My Mom threw the cookie dough away. I am very upset. No, really.

Edited AGAIN to add: Crisis averted. A trip to the local liquor store later, I'm enjoying a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar and some white chocolate Reeses peanut butter cups. I don't eat sugar often, but when I'm craving something, WATCH OUT!! Nomnomnomnomnom....

Let's try something new...

2011-11-17T10:30:00.001-08:00

I've only got about 25 minutes to write before I take off for errands/work/etc, so I'm going to try something new that piqued my interest on pinterest. Hee. Interest on pinterest. I'm easily amused. So here goes!

Right now:

Listening - For a radical change, I'm listening to only the ticking of the clocks in my room. Normally I have the tv on, streaming netflix or catching up on DVR'd shows, only half paying attention. Lately I've been in such a bad place that silence is the enemy. If I'm left alone with my thoughts and feelings, it gets ugly. So lately I powered my way through a metric buttload of Dr. Who on netflix (had never seen it before), and now I'm looking for another long-run tv show to binge on. Even when I'm walking my dogs, I like to listen to podcasts (mostly This American Life) to get my head into another world. But I figured since I have such a short amount of time to write, I'd better focus without too much distraction.

Oh! On that note, I'm going to add another prompt that might be unique to me...you guys will have to let me know if you're the same way.

Song currently stuck in my head - I ALWAYS have a song stuck in my head. No exceptions. Maybe it's growing up being a musician, maybe it's my extremely strong music memory, I don't know. But right now? "Spiralling" by Keane. I'm so impressed with their new stuff, especially this song. The last album was totally forgettable (to me), and I don't even remember one song off of the whole album. This one? Energy! Danciness! Fun! Go listen...

Eating - umm...yeah. I kinda haven't eaten anything yet today. I woke up and sort of dove into walking the dogs, coming home, making tea, and writing. Making breakfast takes time I want to spend on other things right now!

Drinking - yummy English Breakfast tea with heavy cream. Don't judge. It's an indulgence that I relish wholeheartedly. Heavy cream is about the closest I can get to the double cream I got addicted to at my best friend's house in England. I had a couple of friends over for a sewing day a couple of months ago, and they tried their tea with heavy cream too. My friend Erin said "Damn you, Bonnie...I can never go back!" Mwahahahahaha!!!

Wearing - Jeans torn at the knees (they're my comfy jeans), a tank top, and a cozy shawl-collared sweatshirt over that. Oh, and boot-slippers from Old Navy I picked up last year. That reminds me, I want to indulge in another pair this year. :) But I need to get changed for the day!! Maybe it'll be another bright pink hat day.

Feeling - Kinda scattered, but basically okay. No immediately bad feelings waiting to chomp on me when I least suspect it, so I'll feel happy about that. Maybe it was the dog walk that mellowed me out a bit.

Weather - Ooooh! Cool and foggy! A real treat for this California girl who needs to live in Alaska. Or Oregon. Wanna see?

Wanting - more time right now!! I want to write more, do some sewing, maybe some knitting, but that's going to have to wait. I also want food, but that can wait a bit.

Needing - I really need to get changed and start heading out. Nooo!! Don't wanna!!!

Thinking - I'm thinking I need to bring my bluetooth keyboard with me to work so I can keep writing on my iPad during my work break. Oh. I also need to bring my knitting with me. Just in case. Never ever be without a project!! Ever!

Enjoying - My tea, and the quiet. Living in a house with 5 people and 5 dogs isn't always the quietest situation. My family isn't a super duper loud one, but it's VERY rare that I'm home alone and there's no noises. No tv, no dogs barking, no people hollering across the house. Aaaahhhh...

Before I go, I'll post just one finished project I've been loving. My pink hat!

Yes, it really is that pink. Flamingo pink! I got the yarn on sale through craftsy. They have sales every so often, and I try to jump on the malabrigo ones as much as possible. The yarn is "Pink Panther" in Malabrigo silky merino, and the pattern is the Mayrose hat from Woolly Wormhead. I just changed the brim to seed stitch because I'm not super fond of garter stitch.

AACK!! I have to go! Later guys, let me know how your day is going too!

Etsy shop reopened!

2011-11-16T13:22:00.001-08:00

I know it's been forever since I posted, and I really am going to make an effort to write more. I won't elaborate too much, because you're all already aware that I'm completely crazy. Well, I've been an extra special sort of crazy lately. It was an incredibly hard decision, but I decided to back out of the two quilting bees I was in. The best thing for me to do when I'm feeling that crazed/depressed/stressed/insane is cut back on commitments and take it easy to regroup. As much as I hated disappointing my friends, I have to admit it did feel as if a small weight had been lifted. The guilt over falling SO FAR behind on the blocks was eating at me something terrible.

Anyway, moving on. Work has also slowed down the past couple of weeks, which has been a mixed blessing. Time to regroup, yes. Paycheck, holy crap. So I got busy and restocked my etsy shop! There will be more coming very soon, and I'm very excited to be back on that horse. Also must write more.

New theme!! Halloween is way over, and it's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but I've been in and out of the holiday mood already. I'll write a huge diatribe about my feelings regarding christmas, but doing a blog makeover is my small way of staying visually inspired and christmas-y. It also serves to remind me that I need to get busy and make some christmas gifts for my friends and family!

So head on over and check it out! If there's anything that catches your eye, jump on it. It'll be shipped immediately!

I'll be posting pictures of what I've been making lately for "fun" (i.e. sanity), and there will be upcoming posts about stuff that's been going on, both good and not-so-great. OoooOO! Did I leave you hanging? Good! Come back and read! ;)

P.S. I've been bowled over lately by the concern and support of friends, both online and real-life. The ladies in the quilting bees were so incredibly nice, it actually made me tear up. Offers of re-joining, adding on an extra month if I want to come back, shoulders of support for chatting, venting, "if you need anything at all, don't hesitate to ask", it was a massive reminder that the crafting community really does have the NICEST PEOPLE EVAR. I really have felt the cozy quilt-blankie of love and support lately, and I wish I could give you all a gigantic hug and tell you how much you've helped me lately. Thank you.

Okay, enough pap & sap (as my Mom says)! I've gotta get ready for work, so head over to my etsy shop and see if there's anything you'd like. Happy wednesday, everybody!

If you parked it then you shoulda put a pin on it!

2011-08-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

I just had the most wonderful, refreshing day ever. I won't bore you all elaborating about the deep funk I was in recently (boy, that was a really bad one), the important thing is that I have surfaced and I feel like my old self again. I'll be posting tutorials, and stories, and writing more regularly again. Do any of you ever get that way? I mean, to call it a "funk" makes it sound like you're just a little blue. But we're talking dangerous, deep dark depression here. My poor family. There was even a day where I closed the dogs out of my room *gasp!* and literally spent the day under the covers watching tv. No crafting, no nothing. Just snarling at anyone who dared poke their head into my room. My sister came in to ask a question and gave me a tentative sideways hug, and I think if I could have sprouted porcupine prickles, I would have. Sorry, family. I love you.

Anyway...... Today!

Ain't we cute? We could totally be sisters.

I got the day off of work (thank you, work!) and drove up to Los Angeles to hang with Laurie Perry (Crazy Aunt Purl). Chatting over twitter a while back, she mentioned something about being in the garment district. I tweeted back that I've never been, which soon lead to future plans to meet up and make a day of it. I was beyond excited, since she's a personal hero of mine. She wants to hang out with ME? ME?! We only briefly met in person at Literary Orange, but it felt kind of like running into an old friend. From the moment she climbed into my car at the train station, it was an easy comfort that we both commented on later in the day. So what did we do?

First, we had lunch at a little mexican place that had excellent street-style carne asada tacos. Their lemonade was light and tasty, and hands-down my favorite I've ever had. Most lemonade is too strong and too sweet, but this was perfect. We meandered past a bunch of fabric stores, and little shops with cute dresses and tops and such. Laurie told me to feel free to stop in anywhere I wanted to, but I hadn't planned to do a TON of shopping (very limited budget) and didn't want to be tempted. But then...... the shopkeeper said "dresses $7!" Wha-WHAT?! Uh, yeah. I wanna go in there. Cute dresses, but nothing I couldn't live without. But the next shop, I got this:

Cute, no? $7. Seriously. I'm in love. I'm still wearing it from photographing it. So comfy! I have to buy a slip for it though, because it's definitely on the...ahem...sheer side. Next came Michael Levine. Laurie said this was her favorite place, and I can definitely see why. Hoooly moly.

Just a tiny portion of the warehouse-sized store!

Aisles and aisles of quilting cottons.... drooooooool...

Laurie!!

This is what I wound up with. I showed INCREDIBLE restraint.

I was amazed at the selection. We're talking "up-to-the-minute" designs. Like "just came out last week" type fabrics. I could have cried with everything I wanted.

After Michael Levine, we wandered a bit. As we all know, I have absolutely no sense of direction, so it was pretty much up to Laurie to figure out where we were at.

Laurie figuring out where exactly we're at. SHE had the foresight to grab a map. Me? Not so much.

While Laurie was figuring out where we were at, she was narrating the street names and directions, mostly thinking out loud. All I can hear when it comes to directions is "wah wah wah, wah wah wah wah" ala Charlie Brown's teacher. I try to listen, I try to pay attention. I really do. But my brain is a funny thing, and directions and geography just don't stick around in there. She said something about hoping she could remember where we parked. A moment later, we saw the parking lot (alley) we were at, and I said "Oh! I'll stick a pin in it." Referring to the iphone map feature where you can drop a pin to mark where you want to get back to. Being a giant dork, I started singing "if you parked it then you shoulda dropped a pin on it!". Laurie thought this was hilarious. We both admitted that we make up silly songs all the time, and especially about our pets. Have I mentioned how very much I love Laurie?

We passed a place that sold cheap hats ($5!!!) and I bought two. I wish Laurie would have bought the black one she tried on, because it looked FABULOUS on her. Don't you think?

She so byoooteeful!

These are the two I bought:

Yes, it makes me look very distinguished and sophistimicated.

A red and white hat? I had to. You understand.

The hoodie I'm wearing in those photos was picked up for $2.99. $2.99!!!! And it has teeny tiny owls on the inside!

Rowan approves

Then I found this for $5. YES PLEASE!!

Rowan assumed I was photographing her. It's all about Rowan.

It's like nice pockets, is a weather-resistant type of fabric, and has a cute matching coinpurse on the inside. $5?! Seriously?! It's my new knitting bag. I already have everything all transferred over.

We were making our way over to the farmacia Laurie's written about (far better than I could). I promised my best friend Morgan I would look for some of those cool Santa Muerte candles she wants for her house for halloween. What do you think, Morg? I couldn't resist the chicken one. She and I have a thing with chickens. I couldn't pass it up.

It's not just a chicken, it's a BLACK CHICKEN. Chicken of DOOOOOM!

There's a series of running jokes. "Morgan's so goth.....*fill in the blank*". Well Morg, I found you a goth chicken. Cluck cluck, motherfucker. ;)

Hmmm...what else? Oh yeah! On the way back to my car, we passed a hot dog stand I insisted we try. I'm so glad Laurie was up for one too. It made me feel less guilty. I mean, come on... Could you pass up:

Bacon wrapped hot dogs give me El Big Happy tummy. YUM. There's Laurie ordering for us.

So we ate our bacon wrapped goodness, then made our way back to my car. Or so we thought.

Me: "I dropped a pin! I can get us back there!"

......two blocks later......

Me: "This isn't right..is it ?"

Laurie: "Nope."

We were going in the wrong direction. I couldn't even follow the freaking pin I dropped to mark where we had parked. Typical me. Sorry, Laurie!

So that was our day, and I had the absolute time of my life. It was such a badly needed breath of fresh air, and I feel totally inspired and recharged. Laurie is the kick in the pants I needed to start blogging in the first place, so I suppose it's appropriate that hanging with her was the kick in the pants I needed to start writing again. I feel like I've known her all my life. Love you, Laurie! Traffic on the way home was horrible, so I pulled off to get a vanilla cone from McDonalds. Traffic is infinitely better with good 70's tunes and a vanilla ice cream cone. Try it sometime.

Well, I hear my embroidery calling me, and I have a glass of wine with my name on it waiting. I'll leave you with one final photo of the embroidery I've been working on:

They're going to be panels in a quilt

By the way, I want to publicly gush with gratitude about the Cath Kidston sewing box my AMAZING friend Jenna of SewHappyGeek sent me. It's my embroidery box now, which gets used and squeed over on a daily basis. It makes me ridiculously happy. More about embroidery tomorrow. Goodnight everybody! I hope you all had a wonderful day too!

Guest blogger! Hexie Mug Rug Tutorial

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

I hope everybody had a safe and happy 4th of July weekend! Mine was.....crazy. I'm tired. Let's leave it at that for now. I'm sure I'll write a rambling post, I have tons to tell you guys.

But for now, I have a very special treat for you. A guest tutorial! My dear friend Jenna over at SewHappyGeek wrote a wonderful hexagon mug rug tutorial for you. I'm participating in a mug rug swap she's organizing, and we're swapping tutorials as well as mug rugs. So exciting! How would you like to make THIS?

Yeah, I know! Me too! So let's get our hexie on. Take it away, Jenna!

Hi! I'm Jenna from SewHappyGeek. Bonnie and I met when our tutorials were ripped off because she very kindly tracked me down and let me know 'Mary' was infringing on my copyright. She has quickly become a good friend. She even joined my Mug Rug Swap v.2! So this mug rug is the perfect guest tutorial, right? If you like this tutorial, please visit my Tutorial page to see my other tutes.

So you want to get in on the hexie fun bandwagon? I don’t blame you. These little babies are sooo addictive – they’re perfect for when you’re waiting at the doctor’s, watching telly, ignoring your screaming kids, that kind of stuff. (My kid doesn’t scream anymore, thank goddess, but she frequently asks to buy apps on her iPod. Ugh.)

Anyhoo, I’ll get you started, ok? First of all, you’ll need to cut out your hexies, both paper and fabric. I use these Clover templates, tracing the ‘inner’ hexagon onto paper, and the ‘outer’ onto fabric. Then I cut them all out.

Now I’ll show you how to baste them:

Take a paper hexagon and a fabric one. Fold over one of the sides of fabric and secure with a paper clip:

Cut a length of thread about 12” long, and make a big knot in one end, leaving a tail of about 2”. I knot mine 3 times in the same place. Thread the other end onto your needle, then fold over the adjacent side of fabric while holding it in place with your thumb:

And make a stitch through the layers to keep it all together. Then go back and do another stitch because we’re paranoid and want the sides to be held firmly:

If you are making large hexies, you can add a tiny stitch in the middle of each side to ensure it all stays together:

When you have them all basted together you simply snip the threads and those tiny stitches will come out just fine.

For this mug rug you’ll need 31 hexies. Once you have them all laid out, you can start stitching them together. I’ll warn you, this stage isn’t quite as fun as basting them, but you will be very proud when you get it done. And then you’ll probably start another. I pressed all mine before joining them so the folds were nice and straight.

Start stitching them together in vertical rows. Simply hold them with RST in your hand and slipstitch the edges together:

Once you have your rows, you’ll need to join them together. We’ll do this in basically the same way. Hold the edges which need to be joined together in your hand while you slipstitch the edges. ‘Lock in’ the edges with a couple of extra stitches. The pictures show how to do it:

Once you get done with the first side of the top hexi, readjust the whole thing so you can stitch the next sides together, and so on all the way down to the bottom. I recommend you join them together in rows of two, then stitch the rows together.

When you are ready to baste your mug rug, take the papers out. If you put the tiny stitches in the middle of each edge, carefully snip the basting threads and gently take them out:

The other basting threads can stay in. Baste and quilt as desired. I quilted 1/4" along the vertical seams.

Then trim the excess off with a rotary cutter. On the top and bottom I trimmed the very top ones in half, but on the sides I just cut off the outside angle:

Now you just need to bind it, and I have a tutorial for that too: SewHappyGeek binding tutorial. And if you make one, I’d be thrilled if you add it to the SHG Flickr page!

Thank you Bonnie for featuring me, and thank you all so much for reading my Hexagons for the Paranoid Mug Rug Tutorial!

All Photos and Tutorial: © Copyright J C Excell, 2011. You are welcome to use any SewHappyGeek tutorial for personal use. You are even welcome to make a couple to sell, but you are not given permission to use my pictures or my words without giving me credit and linking back to the original. Sometimes my pictures have my family in them and they are never intended for public use. Also, I work very hard to provide free tutorials for my lovely readers, and anyone copying or selling my tutorials is guilty of copyright infringement.

The fastest, easiest pillowcase ever

2011-06-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Today turned out to be an incredibly productive day. I finished all 7 of the bridesmaids pouches for my friend Bonz (her name is also Bonnie, she owns huskies, and she's an insatiable crafter. We are soul sisters. Her nickname is Bonz, mine is Boo!), and before continuing onto the groomsmens' bags (which will be fast and easy), I decided to reward myself by indulging in a trend I've been seeing. Pillowcases!

Have you seen the pillowcases popping up lately all over craft blogs? They're so cute! I've always had very simple, basic sheets. Usually I'll decorate more with accessories (blankets, pillow, etc.), and keep things simple for the bed. But when I saw all these adorable pillowcases, I caved. They look so bright and happy, and I have been BADLY in need of some extra happy lately. I won't lie, I've been pretty depressed. It's amazing my crafting inspiration has been as active as it has. It comes and goes, some days are better than others. If it wasn't for my huskies and crafting, it would be a bleak life indeed. When I say it totally makes my day to wake up and read all your comments and crafty love? I really mean it. Some days it's about all that sustains me. OMG! Angst? Feelings? On a crafting blog?! I'm a writer too, so yes. Things other than crafting will appear here. Lately I've been having such a blast communicating over twitter, blogs, and facebook with Jenna of Sewhappygeek, and Shanna of Fiberofallsorts, that I've been super duper inspired, and sewing has pretty much taken over my life. I even joined up with my very first ever quilting bee! It's being organized by Shanna, and I'm so excited. I'm not a quilter, but I'm confident enough in my sewing skills to feel comfortable creating one quilt block a month. I balked a little, because I have a history of letting people down, and because the bee takes place over the course of a year. A year?! Who knows what life will be in a year?! But when I sat and thought about it, one quilt block a month is totally do-able. No matter what turmoil life throws at me, I should be able to complete a single solitary quilt block a month. I'll write more about that in the future. And Jenna, I met her during the whole "Bastard-stole-my-tutorial" fiasco, and she has quickly become a good friend. She wasn't the bastard, she was another victim I contacted about her tutorial being stolen also. Love you guys! So, to fill the void, sew! Knit! Blog! It's all healthy and productive, right? Just smile and nod.

My attention span for following people's tutorials hasn't been so great lately, so I've been figuring them out for myself. The bonus of that is I can create new tutorials for you guys! Yay! I know there's lots of pillowcase tutorials out there, but I figured one more wouldn't hurt. Plus, this one's pretty cool. Why? Because they take 20 minutes each, there's no exposed edges, and you get to use ribbon. Awesomesauce! So grab your fabric, ribbon, and follow along!

I measured a pillowcase I already had, I think it's just a "standard size".

Each pillowcase will take one yard of main fabric (with some leftovers), and a half yard of a contrasting fabric. For the ribbon, I dove back into the stash of vintage ribbon from garage sales. :)

Here we go!

Cut one piece of the main fabric 20"x52"(I didn't want a seam at the end, but if you don't mind feel free to cut two pieces at 20"x 25.5")

Cut two pieces contrasting fabric 20"x10"

Fold the edge pieces in half so that they measure 20"x5", iron and give it a steam

Place the folded piece on the WRONG SIDE of the fabric so that they 20" edge match up, and sew a 1/2" seam. It's easiest if you have a nice generous seam allowance. Do this for both edges.

It should look like this. You haven't opened the seams yet, so the edges are lying on the wrong side. Make sense?

Iron and steam your seams open. WHAT?! SEAMS SHOWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE?! That's so....WRONG! Nope, you're doing it perfectly. Stick with me here.

Now take your ribbon and line it up, pinning it over the seams. Sneaky, eh?

Woo! All done there!

The underneath looks like this. Look Ma! No exposed seams! Heh heh heh...

Almost done. Promise. Now you're going to fold your pillowcase, bringing the contrasting edges together.

Sew up the sides with a 1/4" seam (or if you want to do a 1/8" seam that's okay too. You just want a leeeeetle seam) with the RIGHT SIDE FACING OUT! This seems very counterintuitive, but trust me.

Okay. So now it looks like you've sewed up the sides to expose the raw edge. Turn your pillowcase inside out and iron the seams flat. It should look like this.

Here's the part where your trust in me pays off! Sew about 1/2" seam all the way down the sides, like this. Just make sure that the raw edges are captured inside the new seam.

VOILA! The raw edges are inside the other seam, leaving you with a "hey, I almost did a french seam but not really" thing. From what I understand, it would be a french seam if you sewed the seam flat, right? I have no idea. I've never done a french seam. I thought I was being a clever Boo.

See? It's like a seam inside of a seam. That way, when you wash it, you won't have any fraying or any pinked edges showing! Yay for neat seams!

Now turn inside out, stuff your pillow inside, and whee! Fun pillow cases!

Man, I love that vintage ribbon. What am I going to do when it runs out? *sob*

Happy bed. Good thing a male doesn't live here, he'd be so embarrassed. And Totoro says hi. Hi Totoro!

I sewed up the second pillowcase as a test to see just how long it would take without "technical difficulties" (and because I have symmetry issues when it comes to decor), or taking photographs, and it was about 20 minutes. Seriously. This is a quick, easy project, and I would *LOVE* to see anything you guys make! Send me pictures, please!

Thought I forgot, didncha?

2011-06-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! I know everybody always says that every friday, right? Here's my Friday so far:

English breakfast tea

and company in bed

Upon checking facebook this morning, I saw a post by my friend Karen, with a photo of a Pandora station based on Sergio Mendes. It's a softer brazilian music, perfect for chilling out and relaxing. So relaxing, that it puts one of her huskies, Dave, right to sleep. Her huskies have their own blog too. I had been trying to create a brazilian station on Pandora, but couldn't seem to hit the right spot. This does it. :) I'm so playing this station for my massage clients today. Something about Portuguese with that samba beat that makes me smile. I'm listening right now.

So it's Friday! I was up a little early today so I could write before I head off to breakfast with my friend Tom, who just moved back into town recently. I've known him since I was oh....12? Nothing is better than old friends. After that, hopefully I'll have time to crank out another pouch before work, where I've got a full schedule, then heading to my friend Kathy's house for tacos, margaritas and game night. Just us girls, Kathy, Shilo (of the evil comedian story) and me. Mad fun to be had by all. I've been loving all this friend time lately!

What's that? It's the 24th? I said I'd run the garage sailor pouch contest until the 22nd? You're right, you're right. I could say that I've been crazy busy, which is true, and literally did not have any time at all to write yesterday (also true), but I also wanted to let any stragglers leave a comment and enter if they wanted to. We'll go with that. THE WINNER IS..................*boom chica boom chica boom* (that's a brazilian drumroll)

Is it Cathy or Catie? LOL! who said:

Cathy said...

OH MY I really really want that LOL

Thanks so for the tute and the great opportunituy

Cheers

Catie

Congrats! I can't find your e-mail however, so please contact me!

Thank you to everybody who left me lovely comments, I can't tell you what warm fuzzies that gives me. I'll be running another contest soon, and keep your eyes peeled for more awesome tutorials (hint: I have an amazing guest-blogger in about two weeks)

I must get ready and go, breakfast awaits! The question is....will I be a good girl and have a protein-y omelet? Or will the siren call of waffles or pancakes (oooh.....or even crepes!) win? Sounding like lingonberry crepes are gonna win. Then tacos and margaritas tonight? How much friday goodness can one girl take?! We'll find out. ;)

Happy Friday everybody!

A morning of gratitude

2011-06-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I woke up at about 2:30am last night from restless huskies deciding they did or didn't want to be on the bed (and it was HOT last night!) and couldn't get back to sleep, I'm in a pretty fine mood this morning. I turned the brightness down on my iPad and read some more of my book until I managed to drift back off to sleep. If you're curious, I'm reading Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison. I read to escape, and her writing is a great mixture of "not TOO fantasy that it's off-putting", good writing (I'm a HARD critic, I tell ya), and just plain fun. Go read some Kim Harrison. You won't be disappointed if you're looking for a fun escapist read. I'm also reading Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton, but I've been leaning more toward the former lately because it's juicier and more "accessible". Not that Pirate Latitudes is a drudge to read, it's a great swashbuckler that's tons of fun, just a little more involved.

Wow, that was a tangent. Sorry, guys. Anywho, I guess both huskies decided they wanted up on the bed with me, abandoning their custom bed I slaved over a week or so ago. Waking up with two huskies snuggled up with me always gives me the warm fuzzies in my heart. Not a bad way to wake up. So! For a mid week pick-me-up, here's a few things I'm deeply grateful for today:

Waking up to snuggly huskies who wag their tails when I open my eyes and say "good morning!"
A nice hot cup of good ol' English Breakfast tea with half 'n half to go with my cheesy scrambled eggs and bacon.
Bacon. 'Nuff said.
Thinking somebody turned the radio on to a lovely classical music station and discovering it's my sister practicing a Chopin piece on our baby grand piano. I left my door open so I could listen. I LOVE that my sis and I have been musicians our whole lives. It gave us an identity and a safe haven, and something to be proud of. We both play piano and cello. My sister was always the better pianist (she can sightread anything you put in front of her), but I was always the better cellist. She won't argue. We both played in drumline through high school too. Please schools, PLEASE don't cut the music programs. It saved us.
My neck wasn't quite as sore as usual this morning. I won't lie, it's been pretty bad lately. So those times it doesn't seem as bad, and I actually DON'T have a headache are to be savored.
And finally, when I called the Sew & Vac place to see how my machine was coming (I really was just wanting an update, I wasn't nagging or pushing), they said "it's on the bench as we speak. It should be done in an hour or two".

Let me reiterate that last one. It should be done in an hour or two. This makes me incredibly happy for multiple reasons. I love my machine (a Viking Victoria), I can really start cranking out those pouches again:

and the greatest reason of all: He didn't find anything super-duper wrong with it! This makes me want to do the crazy-person laugh. I completely dismantled my machine, put it back together again (including computerized components), and all he needed to do was give it a clean and tune. I don't know whether to be proud of myself, or feel like I was FRIGGIN LUCKY and dodged a bullet. Gift horse? Mouth? I ain't lookin'.

And finally!

You guys. I'm being serious. Waking up and reading your comments makes me feel like a million bucks. It's one thing when your friends and family say "oh, that's great! Cute!" or "I love your writing!" But it's another completely when someone you've never met tells you. Thank you.

On that note, I want to share some of the beautiful projects people have made with my free tutorials! (The names are Ravelry usernames. Thank you for your permission to use your photos, guys!)

Boogie earbuds by Papersavvy

Boogie earbuds by Ronni-licious

Boogie Earbuds by FiberHound

TWO sets of Boogie Earbuds by WimpWoman!

All Twisted Up Yoga Socks by GoldenHamster. Beautiful! If you're on Ravelry, you can click on her photo to see her Ravelry Designer page. Wish I could crochet!

All Twisted Up Yoga Socks by MadMomma

There were so many beautiful examples, I wish I could include them all here. Thank you, you guys for sharing your finished projects and allowing me to post them here!

Okay, one last feel-good thing of the day. The other morning, I woke up and had an e-mail all the way from India, regarding my Nikon L120 review.

Hi,

I am Febin Kurian from Chennai - India. Recently I was in search for a good digital camera. While searching on internet I could see your blog on Nikon L120 and that made me to zero in to buy one Nikon L 120. I sending this email to thank you for helping me to buy a very good camera. Thanks once again.

I am attaching couple of snaps that I have taken using Nikon L120

Regards

Febin

And these were the photos Febin attached.

Wow! Especially the one of the Tiger Lilly (Is that what it is? Help me out people!). Beautiful photography. When I wrote back to Febin, they said they would be honored if I would share their photography, and gave me a link to see more of it. I must explore that sometime. :) Then they made me promise to share my photography as well, so I may have a new photo-penpal! How exciting!

All of this makes me feel so dang good. I feel like I have friends all over the world. Blogging has opened up all kinds of possibilities, and I've made all kinds of wonderful new friends. Okay, now I'm just gushing. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and I've gotta hurry and get ready for work! *ZOOOOM*

Do not try this at home. Ever. For any reason.

2011-06-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

*Don't forget! You have two more days to leave a comment HERE to win the garage sailor pouch!*

First of all, a huge ginormous WELCOME to the new readers! I love you guys. You're my reason for blogging. How was your weekend everybody? We've been having the typical June Gloom here in sunny Southern California, which is actually pretty welcome. There's even been a tiny bit of rain! Makes me want to snuggle in and spend a whole day knitting. But nope, no time for that for me. Here's how my weekend went:

Saturday, also known as "The Day That Ended in Horror"
Back around mid/late May, I was shooting emails back and forth with a fellow husky owner, musher, and crafter extraordinaire friend, Bonz. She was showing me some beautiful fabric she had designed to make "survival kits" as bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts. I LOVED this fabric. I had to have it. You can click on the pictures below, they're linked to where you can buy it. Cute, no?

So we worked out a deal where I would make the pouches, and get to keep whatever fabric was left over. Whoring myself out for fabric? Yep. Will work for fabric. I be poor. I be so poor, I'm po'. Can't even afford the 'or. All in all, there were going to be 17 pouches with the extras Bonz wanted for herself and her family. She needs them by the beginning of July. Eek! Okay, but can do. I figured if I could churn out 2-3 pouches a day (with my schedule, that's doing pretty good) I could get it done in a timely manner. My panic increased a bit when the fabric didn't arrive until this past wednesday. I can do it! I can do it! I just can't procrastinate, and must buckle down. I consider it a great test for myself to see if I really CAN make sewing a bit more of a business instead of a "if I feel like it" sort of thing. Strength and personal character, right? Right. :)
Thursday and friday evenings I cut out the pieces I would need. Saturday morning was the last of the cutting-out, and I felt pretty darn good. Go Boo, go! You can do it! As I sewed together the decorative bits for the bridesmaids pouches, I marveled at how productive I was. Damn! I could really move if I wanted to! I was so damn proud of myself. Theoretically, I could finish all 7 of the girls' pouches in ONE DAY. I had my Django Reinhardt station on Pandora, sleepy huskies behaving, and some smelly-good oil burning. It was a fantastic day. I was ready to sew in the zippers, when my machine got a bit noisy and "catchy" (you know, it doesn't want to flow and catches along the way?). Nooo! Not my Viking Victoria!
I opened up the bobbin case, took it apart, blew out the lint (it needs a good cleaning) and inspected everything to see if there were any tangles or anything out of place. Nope, not really. Top thread? Nope, everything looked correct. So I adjusted my tension and tried again. Same problem. Bottom part looked loopy in places and easily came apart. This is a sample on a piece of test fabric, dark so I could see the white threads easily:

WTF?!?! I continued to fiddle, and started to get really upset.

So what does Bonnie do when she gets really upset? I'll show you:

Folks, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!

Oh yes, yes I did. I was desperate. I was the kid that always took things apart and put them back together. Not that I'm a mechanical genius, but generally I can figure it out. I was just looking for something jammed, or some lint backed up somewhere, a tangle, ANYTHING. Which I did find, by the way. There was some old thread wrapped around a place I couldn't have gotten to without taking everything apart.

My hands were shaking the whole time, and I was muttering expletives, trying to be VERY GENTLE and not break anything. Which I didn't. Go me. This was about.....oh...5? 6pm? And by 11pm I had this:

I said who's hoooouuse? BOO'S HOOOUSE!!

I managed to get all the computerized parts attached correctly, everything hooked up, and running. The stitching seems fine now. *WHEW* I cannot portray my relief. You know that crazy laugh people do after a giant disaster they've lived through? The one that says "holy shit, I can't believe we just got through that!". Yeah.

I have an appointment to bring my machine into my local sew & vac place for a proper cleaning and tuning, because the machine is running LOUD now. This is not supposed to be a loud machine. I'm sure it needs a good oiling, and hopefully they can check it out and see if everything is in its proper place. Please lord, please let it be a simple fix. But at least it's functioning, and I didn't completely kill it. I am all at once proud of myself, and also want to beat myself over the head. *whack whack* YOU ARE NOT A MACHINE TECHNICIAN THAT WAS A COMPLETELY STUPID THING TO DO! *Whack whack whack*

So I'll be borrowing a machine from a wonderful friend until my machine comes home, hopefully in 3-5 days if the nice lady on the phone was correct. But who knows? They could open it up and say "what in the world did somebody DO to this poor machine?!" and they could quote me some astronomical price and timeline to fix it. Please people, I need all the good things you can spare.

Sunday was spent in a haze of knitting, netflix, and napping. First The Rocketter (I <3 that movie), then disc one of Mad Men, season one. Yes, I know. I'm the last one to jump on the bandwagon of Mad Men. I loved it! Can't wait until the next discs come! Pizza was ordered and consumed, and a stupidly long nap was had. My wonderful sister brought me home a carnitas burrito from Chronic Taco, and I figured a glass of wine was well deserved with dinner.

So how was your weekend? LOL!

Hi there, garage-sailor

2011-06-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

Well, garage SALE-er, actually. But I kinda like that. As you know, I do love garage sale-ing. I love having a little pouch to hold all my quarters (an essential for garage-saleing!), dollar bills, etc. It sure beats lugging a purse around with you as you jump in and out of your car about a million times over the course of the morning.

Because I love you guys, I'm going to share a dirty little secret. There's a certain bargaining technique I may or may not have used over the years. I will not incriminate myself. Sometimes, when a person is reluctant to accept a lower price for something, you can fish around in your pouch and go "oh, shoot! You really won't take fifty cents for that? It's all I've got left today..." when you really do have a few more bills stashed in your pocket. But they don't know that. Rat bastard and dishonest? Negotiation, folks. And here's the way I look at it. Someone later in the day is going to offer them a lower price, and they're going to be at the point where they realize they'd be better off getting SOMETHING for it rather than going straight to Goodwill for free. My Daddy didn't raise no fool who doesn't haggle. Seriously. My Dad would always send my sister or I up (adorable little blonde-haired girls) to the person in charge and tell us to ask if they'll take a quarter, or whatever. The poor sucker couldn't say no to an adorable little girl. That still kind of works to my advantage even now. Not that I'm irresistibly cute or anything, but I turn up the "cute" charm a notch or two and be sweet as pie to them, and they'll usually accept my offer. Not that I'm not normally a nice person. WHAT?! I AM!! Hush, you.

Anyway, enough about my sneaky garage sale bargaining techniques. I have a present for you fellow garage sailors out there. Remember how I told you about the "hide the rest of your money" technique? I have just the thing for you. BEHOLD! THE GARAGE SAILOR POUCH!

With a super sneaky hidden zipper for bluffing your way into bargains. Not that I ever do that.

What's that? You want one? Oh, you sneaky sneaky crafter. Okay, I wrote up a tutorial for you. I hope it's clear enough, I'm brand new to the whole tutorial-writing thing, so bear with me. If anything is super confusing, PLEASE email me any questions at damsel@me.com. Going back over all the photos I took, even *I* was confused. I wouldn't blame you if you tried to follow my instructions, went "is she NUTS?!" and gave up altogether. But really, I tried, so please let me know if anything can be clarified.

First of all, here's the pieces you'll need (click for full size pic):

Plus one more piece, because I didn't figure out the sizing until some of the assembly was already done. Just being honest. The three white pieces are fusible fleece, but next time I think I'd want to use a less thick interfacing. It would just make things a lot easier.

This piece will be 3 1/4 in. (3.25") x 5in. (5")

I always like to get the peripherals out of the way first, so let's go ahead and make the strap and the attachment loop for the pouch. Go ahead and cut a strip of fabric that's 12" x 2". If you have bigger hands or wrists, you might want to make it more like 14".

Cut a piece of interfacing (I used a medium weight craft interfacing) the same length, only 1" wide. Iron/fuse it smack dab in the middle like so:

Fold in half lengthwise, and iron to make a mark in the center like so:

Now fold your outer edges in to meet the center fold like so:

Then sew along each side:

Then take your clip of choice and do this, tucking the raw edge under:

Take the other raw edge and tuck it under the fold:

Then sew it closed. I recommend making a rectangle for strength:

Cut a piece of fabric that's about 3" x 2". I didn't use interfacing for this piece, but feel free to if you like. The length doesn't matter as much for this one.

You get the picture. I would have used a smaller D ring if I had one, but I use what I got.

Hooray! You're done with the little bits!

Onto the meat of the project. *deep breath* Okay, now I'm all nervous that I'm going to completely explain this wrong and confuse the heck out of you guys, and you won't read me anymore, and then I won't want to blog anymore and..and..and... *deep breath* Kidding. I'm in a goofy mood this morning. But really, I hope I write this out okay.

Let's start with the hidden pocket. Take the 2.5"x5" fabric and iron on the interfacing of your choice (mine is the polka dot fabric).

Do the same for the 5"x6" piece you want to be your "outside" fabric for other side of the pouch. Mine is the blue flowered big piece.

The last piece you're going to iron interfacing onto is the 5.5"x5" piece, but you're going to leave a gap so it looks like this:

The 5" part is top to bottom, the 5.5" from left to right.

The reason I wanted a gap is to cut down on the bulk of the flap you'll be making that disguises the hidden zipper. Next take your 2.5" piece and sew it like this:

I was really tired and cut the ends of my zipper way too soon. Don't do that.

Flip it over and flatten the zipper and topstitch it down so it will lie flat:

Now let's do the other half of the front. Take the non-interfaced side of the 5.5"x5" piece and sew it wrong-side-up onto the right-side-up zipper (make sense? Have I lost you yet?):

Now comes the fun part. Fold the wrong sides together so the 5" sides meet, bringing the non-fused fabric over the fused part like this:

Give the folded edge a bit of an iron to mark the crease. You won't be sewing it yet though! We're going to add our ribbon, which is crucial to the whole "hiding the zipper" thing. The ribbon makes it look like it's just a decorative fun way to split up your fabrics. Sneaky, eh? Heh heh heh. I dove into my vintage ribbon collection my parents found.....guess where? GARAGE SALES! Pin in place, bringing it riiiiiight up to the folded edge, maybe even a smidge over. The ric rac on this ribbon worked perfectly for really disguising the edge!

Flipped over, this is what it should look like

Go ahead and sew it down. That also anchors the fold to help it lie flat. If your ribbon is wider than the "flap" and goes all the way over the zipper, you'll have to open up the zipper so you won't sew the whole thing shut. Knowwhaddimean?

It would have been better if the ribbon was wider to come up closer to the zipper, but that's okay. I'm totally happy.

Yay! Next we're going to attach the inside lining of the hidden pocket:

When you flip the piece you just sewed over, the edges should meet up:

Now you can topstitch to keep the zipper flat and hold the two pieces together, making sure you lift up the "flap":

Sew along the edges to hold the front and back together to keep it all even, so the underneath of the bigger half should look like this:

Like it's all one front and back piece

Sew along the edge to hold the "flap" down in place.

See? Sneaky hidden zipper underneath!

Guess what? THE HARD PART IS OVER!!! Whew. Was that too confusing? Did I do okay? I'm so nervous about my first sewing tutorial. The only thing left to do for your entire outside half of the pouch is lay it wrong side down on top of the right-side-up 5"x6" piece like so (don't mind the marks on the fabric-we'll get to that in a sec):

stitch all along the outside edges to make it all one piece.

Okay, make the corner marks 1"x1" with a fabric marker or chalk or whatever you have. Then sew along those marks because we'll be cutting them like so:

Obviously, do the rest of your pieces too! See? You can totally understand how this is going to come together, right? Don't pay attention to what's going on on the right, I did some things out of sequence. I'm just writing it out so it's easier for you guys. This was highly experimental for me. Bring the sides of the notches together, and sew. Do this for all of the pieces.

Alright, let's take care of the main zipper. Cut two pieces of fabric that are 2"x2" and do this to them:

Cut your zipper to exactly 5"

Okey dokey, smooth sailing from here!

Pay absolutely no attention to the fact that the corners aren't pooched at this point. Like I said, I did some things out of order and re-arranged it for the tutorial. The corners should be pooched. Attach the thingeemabobber:

Sew the lining on the zipper like so:

Topstitch by the zipper to keep it nice and neat:

Now all that's left is to sew all around the edges! The zipper ends shouldn't be reaching the outer edge. That's how you get nice neat corners at the zipper.

Sewing where the white marks are where it says "leave open" is a really cool trick for making it easy to tuck your ends in when you finally sew the lining shut.

There you go! Turn it inside out!

Close up the opening

And you're done!

Well? How did I do? Clear as mud? Most awkward tutorial ever? It's okay. You can tell me. I can take it.

Now for the best part. Do you like this one? You can win it! Just leave a comment below and I'll randomly draw a number! You have until June 22nd to enter!

So go forth and sail thee some garages! As my Dad says "Bargains await! Ya never know!"

First impressions?

2011-06-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

So I've been giving a lot of thought to a new header. The above was some GREAT work by my best friend, who's a professional graphic designer. I'm so lucky! She dove into the project of getting a cute "bee-line" border, and SERIOUSLY cleaning up the scan of the 40's woman typing that I took from the pamphlet from the garage sale last weekend. Originally this morning, I sent her a picture of my "B.Clef" logo with a couple of little antennae added, colored a pale yellow with a stripe bordering the words "B.Clef". She did some serious work on this in SUCH a short time! When we hung up, she originally said "I'll play around with it, and have something for you by maybe saturday." I was totally cool with that, and didn't want to hurry her at all. Morgan is to graphic design what I am to crafting. Once inspiration hits her and her brain gets going, LOOK OUT! Wow. I can't believe she did all this in just a few hours!

So the temporary one I threw up on the page was this one:

I took out the crazy typing woman, because we talked about "it doesn't quite all go together, does it?" We both totally agreed. But what to change? What to emphasize? Hmmm........

I'm asking you all, my beloved readers, what do you think? Do you like the one at the top of the page? The one below? Thoughts? She suggested that I do the fabric lettering with the entire "Wonderfully Awkward, and I've started on that project already. :) Then I saw my entire day disappearing before my eyes! ACK! I woke up at 2:45am last night and couldn't get back to sleep, so I tooled around online and started playing with graphics and fabric scans. I forced myself to stop for the day at about noon and actually get something productive done. Well, physically productive, I mean. I can't wait to finish up my re-organization project and post pictures. :) You guys are gonna love it. Anyway, feedback is very much appreciated! How do you like the new header?

Damn I love garage sales

2011-06-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

I grew up on garage sales. My family always went, pretty much every saturday morning. Most of the time I went, because my family motto "Ya never know!" was a powerful one. What if you missed that ONE THING you never knew you needed? That perfect item that would make your life complete? Powerful indeed, so I usually went. I hadn't gone "garage-saleing" in a long time (partly because my Dad's driving scares the crap out of me. Sorry Dad, but yeah...), and when my Mom and my sister invited me along while my Dad is away this weekend, it sounded pretty damn fun.

Oh boy did I score today. My parents have found great sewing and crafting stuff for me in the past. For example, I have never had to buy a zipper retail. Huge boxes of zippers, ric rac, bias tape, etc..etc., all left behind by wonderful crafty old ladies who have gone to that big crafting studio in the sky. My fore-mothers, I salute you. Anyway, among the garage sales today was a rummage sale at our local Elks Lodge. This is usually a goldmine for vintage stuff, since the donators are retirees for the most part. Bless those people who save everything, especially from the 50's through the 70's. I found a cute little owl figurine (I passed on two porcelain owls, because I really have nowhere to put them....yay for me with the willpower!), and wandered around the whole building. My Mom called me over and said "there's fabric here, take a look!" Oh. My. Goodness. Jackpot. Obviously somebody had been a big time quilter or seamstress in general, because there was some great stuff in there. I rifled through a couple of boxes while Mom perused another pile. Even if I never use some of it, it was so spectacularly cheap, I knew I'd kick myself if I didn't grab it. I didn't take ALL of it, thankyouverymuch. I cherry picked the good stuff, squealed and gasped at some of it, and made my pile. My pile turned into a box. Then the box turned into a box and a giant bag. I had to stop before I bought everything!

A very intriguing vintage cross-stitch

Anyway, enough jibber jabber. Here's what my haul was from today, for a grand total of about $20.

Beautiful chinese embroidery on silk, and a pre-made quilt block for future use.

I actually squealed and hugged this blanket when my Mom pulled it out. Very soft chenille, red gingham. Nuff said.

I really did. I hugged this blanket, jealously guarding it from any potential yoinkers. You know, YOINK! And it's gone. It doesn't even smell! Oh, come on. Anyone who's shopped at garage sales knows exactly what I'm talking about. Don't pretend like you don't.

One is a walnut sack, the other I'm not sure.

These two sacks are in perfect condition. One was for walnuts, and I'm not sure about the other one. All I know is they're very thick, but still soft, and I read enough Country Living Magazine to know crafting GOLD when I see it. MINE!

Rowan, MOVE!

Oh, I'm sorry! Did you say something?

I could have sworn it says "dog bed for Rowan"

No? Then I'll just take this fabric instead.

The above must have been a bedsheet. Really really cool woodland trees print in a very pretty green! Don't know what it'll be yet, but I had to snag it.

Okay, so I saw this twin size bed skirt and thought "ooh! Yellow polka dots and ruffles!" But what the heck to do with it? Well, I'll show you what I did with it. It took me about an hour this afternoon:

I chopped off the ruffles and quickly sewed them onto the top and bottom of my curtains! But first I chopped several inches off the bottom of the curtains. What do you think?

Oh come on. It's pretty. Admit it. It's not like I hadn't gone all "crafty granny chic" in my room already anyway!

The fabric....OH THE FABRIC!

Most of these are a quarter yard, or more. I also squealed over the multiple strawberry prints. Just ask my Mom.

More strawberries!!

And birds. How could I pass up the birds?!

This one has to be one of my favorites.

So, am I wrong, or are some of these reproduction 30's prints?

A bit of ribbon I threw in the box because it was cute.

This one is a thick linen type fabric. Also one of my favorites.

Very mysterious. There was a ziploc baggie with these in them.

These are a little bit mysterious to me. They open at the shoulders of the "dress". I figured I could use them as scraps when I finally start learning how to ACTUALLY quilt. I LOVE the red/white bird fabric. I would have killed to have found yardage of that one.

These three are my favorites of the weird dress scraps.

And why are they so mysterious? Because when I opened some of them, they had these put inside:

Dancing favors or something? Which table you'll be sitting at, and which couple number you are? Strange.

An old kimono I'm going to cut apart for its embroidery. It's stained and torn anyway, so it's not really desecration.

Eh, you can always use some lace hanging around.

My Mom loves cowboys and old west stuff, so I'll find something for this cute fabric.

I'm assuming this was a tea towel or something someone had sewn together, with a huge opening along the side.

The above was another one I gasped at when I found it. Wonderful thicker linen-type fabric with a GORGEOUS blue print on it. I thought I was going to have to stuff it with fiberfill myself, but went "hmmmmmm...." when I noticed it was about the same size and shape as a down pillow from Ikea I had lying around. Here's what wound up happening:

Detail of the texture and print. Fabulous, no?

AAAHHH!! It fit perfectly! I even put in my first "hidden" zipper. I'm so in love. I'm lying on it right now.

By the way, the red gingham pillow came with a mate. Two of them! Where's the other one? I'll show you.

I am happy like a crafty pig in a waller.

Some more odds and ends I found at the Elks Club:

I could die over that pillow. Every bit of it was HAND EMBROIDERED AND SEWN. *swoon*

And how cute is the owl figurine? The black blob is giant ric-rac, which I've been searching for recently. The three iron mushroom trivets were too irresistible to leave behind. The buttons are leather, I think. But they're retro-groovy anyway, so into the box they went!

A belt that I picked up for $0.25 that I'm going to convert into a camera strap.

This one was interesting. Obviously from the 40's, since they reference Hitler and Mussolini at one point. It had jokes and puns and such. It was $1, so I figured I could scan it for its graphics and possibly use it for decoupage at some point in the future. Or maybe I'll just keep in intact. Don't know yet.

The embroidered animal pillow, the red gingham blanket, and the cross stitch all happy in their new homes. I'm happy too! Beyond happy, actually. What luck today! I also picked up a couple of tops. One all the way from Marks & Spencer in England!

I'm SO ready to be a supermodel.

So garage sale chic!

What an awesome saturday. Can you believe ALL of this was about $20?! Lucky lucky, even for seasoned garage-salers like my family. Oh jeez! 4:30 already! I need to shower and get ready to meet my friend Kathy for bbq burgers and Midnight in Paris! Gotta jet. Hope you're all having a wonderful saturday!

Loki's home, dancing for his dinner and snuggling again

2011-06-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

All is right with the world. $1200+ poorer, but he's worth every tear and every penny. I may or may not have lost my shit and cried in the vet's office when they told me the remaining balance. There is no proof.

Welcome home, baby boy.

I reupholstered. I have a new sewing chair, and I am happy.

2011-05-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

Let me get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. My best buddy Loki is sick. Very sick. He's going to be okay, but it's been awful. He has the same thing Rowan had a couple of months ago, which is "hemmoragic gastroenteritis". That's fancy vet-speak for vomiting and shooting a jet of blood out of your behind. Profusely. My Mom woke me up at 5:30am to clean up a mess in the backyard. I had opened my door connected to the backyard in the middle of the night last night so Loki could throw up, and left it open so he could come and go if he needed to. Good call, because it was quite a mess. No details, I promise. You can use your imagination if you really want to, but I highly doubt you'll want to. Eeeeeyoooooo. Anywho, his condition quickly deteriorated and I eagerly counted the minutes until the vet's office opened. After weighing him (last August he was 64 lbs, today he was about 53. WTF?), the wonderful vet Dr. Ryan of Estrella Veterinary Hospital (plug plug plug...I can't say enough about this office. Top quality care, and really awesome people) checked Loki over, took him back to do some x-rays and inject some fluids into him. I waited in the front waiting room, talking with some nice dog owners. A few minutes later, Dr. Ryan poked his head around the corner and beckoned me over. "Umm....Loki's had a bit of a....blowout. I'd really like to run a fecal test since we have a sample". Do it, I said. Whatever it takes. He's my best friend in the whole world and I want him well. X-Rays, full blood panel, fecal test.

Dr. Ryan was comfortable with sending Loki home with me, and letting him rest and allow the meds to kick in. He'd been given two injections to settle his GI tract, some fluids to rehydrate him, and some antibiotics for the inflammation. Oh, and some gentle-on-the-tummy dog food. While checking out at the front counter, he had another "blowout", and I felt TERRIBLE about it. The other owners in the waiting room didn't look disgusted though, they looked shocked and sympathetic. I suppose if you had just witnessed a big stream of blood comin' out the ol' chute, you'd be pretty shocked too. At home, he rested for a bit, had another "problem" out back, and rested some more. He was really lethargic and unhappy. I hated to leave for work, but there was no choice in the matter. My Dad watched over him, but it was only about an hour before I got a call. There was more bloody mess in the backyard. Awesome. I called the vet between clients, and they wanted him back in right away. My sister (thank you Julia!) was cool enough to take him in, and they got him hooked up on an IV. I later talked to the vet between clients, and Loki was resting comfortably, and hadn't had any more "accidents". Thank. Goodness. They want to keep him until tomorrow evening, and now I'm sitting here with Rowan curled up on the bed next to me, feeling a bit sad and lonely.

On that note, on to the good stuff to distract me!

Here's my new sewing chair: (As always, click pics for bigger photos)

Right? RIGHT?! I KNOW!!

It didn't start life this adorable. If the above is as cute as Amy Adams, then its previous incarnation is more like Jeff Bridges. *I* think Jeff Bridges is still pretty damn hot, despite a few extra years and a bit of grey around the edges.

See what I mean? Still not a bad lookin' chair!

This was a Craigslist find for $20. Its frame was still solid, the upholstery was even in decent condition. A couple of little holes, but it could have been usable even in this state. But noooooooooo. Because I'm me, I have to mess with it. So I took it all apart!

Lots and lots of nails and tacks. I have a blister on my palm from prying them all up with the tool.

EEK! Naked chair! Does that make it chair porn?

Lemme tell ya, this is one solid piece of furniture. Nice hardwood, seat springs totally intact, stuffed with the old-fashioned birds-nest-stuff that was still in great shape.

Suddenly, I felt kinda bad for taking this chair apart. This was obviously a nice chair. That remorse lasted all of about ten seconds. Then:

TAPE THE SHIT OUT OF IT AND PAINT IT WHITE!

Oh, in the process of stripping the chair naked, I found this:

B.L Marble Chair Co. Bedford, Ohio

There was that tiny twinge of remorse for messing with the chair again... So I did some research. If you're curious, you can read about this company HERE. I found out this chair was made at least before 1965. That's so cool. Gen-u-wine 1960's (or 50's) Naugahyde! Yeehaw! Next step was to let the paint dry and pick out the fabrics and cut the squares. I decided on 6 inches x 6 inches.

There are 4 or 6 of each square. I wound up having leftovers. Can you say pillow?

I took the naugahyde pieces and laid them out, arranging the squares and guestimating the general shape. I could cut more detailed shapes later. Since I was using regular quilting cotton fabric, I decided to iron some fusible fleece onto the back to give it more strength and structure. It was a very, very good call. I LOVE it with the batting on the back. It makes it even more comfy. Once it was all ironed, I cut a more detailed shape around the naugahyde, which wasn't easy. The naugahyde had been in that shape for about 50 years, so getting it to lay flat enough to generalize a shape was a challenge. I used that wonderful, modern contraption known as a staple gun to STAPLE THE CRAP OUT OF IT! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!! *kachink kachink kachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachink* Repeat about a million times. Man, that wood had to be oak. Hard, hard oak. Whew.

Next, I foraged around in my (3) ribbon boxes, and found a collection of vintage ribbon that my parents picked up for a song at a garage sale. I first glued the ribbon around the edges to get it to lie nice and flat, then used a rubber mallet to pound in the shiny silver studs I picked up at JoAnn's. (Thank you, JoAnn's for having a memorial day sale!!).

As always, click for full size photo

Actually, the wood was SO hard that I wound up ruining a bunch of the tacks trying to get them in. Thanks to one of my Dad's power drills and a tiny bit, I was able to drill starter holes and get the tacks in. I just wish I'd thought of that before I ruined about 20 tacks. *sigh* It's my first upholstering job, okay?! Sheesh.

There's my super duper long essay, and I hope I didn't bore you too much. Here's some glamor shots! (The weird coloring is because the lighting in my room sucks, and the sun had gone down.)

Oh yeah, show that backside!

Nice tidy edges, if I do say so myself!

Tucked in nice and tight. I'm so damn proud.

I had rescued the cardboard strip that keeps the bottom back nice and tidy. So glad I did!

I love you chair, I love you so much. I will never leave you.

Not bad for $20, huh?

New wallet inspiration

2011-05-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

I an in love with Hayao Miyazaki's work. His movies are touching, relaxing, exciting, beautiful, and wonderful all at once. The composer that writes the music for his movies is Joe Hisaishi. His music is.....well, everything Miyazaki's movies are. Haunting, beautiful, touching, emotional. I wanted to make a wallet this morning, but was at a loss when I looked at my vast collection of fabric. When my eyes fell on this beautiful fabric from Kona Bay my parents found at a garage sale, I knew exactly what I would make. I was listening to Joe Hisaishi's music this morning, and this combination of fabrics is exactly what that music made me feel.

This wallet is a lot more "serious" than my usual fun and goofy stuff, but I love it. It is for sale though, so if it strikes your fancy, you can own the Hisaishi wallet for $15, free shipping if you contact me through my blog here. Like it?

And then there's this one, also for sale:

This one's much more my usual style.

So what do you guys think? Like 'em?

You're gonna get your just desserts, and I don't mean cupcakes, Cupcake.

2011-05-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

My Mom recently pointed out that I've always had a strong sense of fairness and justice. That hadn't occurred to me before, but I suppose that makes sense. I'm no masked crusader (but wouldn't that be cool?), but my spiky righteous hackles of justice go up when I see or hear about unfairness. Would that make me a hedgehog? Porcupine? I can see it now! The Huffy Hedgehog! Watch out, she gets huffy with evildoers! Or what about The Piqued Porcupine? Watch out, she gets prickly in a fit of pique! I could have spikes that I could shoot out from me. Pew! Pew! (That was my "throwing spikes" sound...like it?) That would be awesomesauce. What do you think?

Huffy Hedgehog, with action spines of justice!

I can't stand it when the bad guy wins, (well, nobody can stand it, honestly) and it eats away at me to "just let it go" sometimes. Today I have a heck of a story to tell you, and I'll be adding more to it when my sister gets home and I can properly interview her for every detail.

First, I'll start with Igor's story. This is Igor:

He's a cutie, huh? He's a good boy. He's about 15 years old, and still spry and happy. Until two weeks ago. On May 13th, my sister's fiance Chris was working at a job site in Garden Grove. He's a contractor/handyman/can do anything guy. Igor usually goes with him on his jobs and wanders around, sticking close and making friends everywhere. He's the kind of dog who can be off-leash anywhere and he's totally fine. The evening of the 13th, a car pulled into the parking lot, hung out for a few minutes, then the people coaxed Igor over to them. He was picked up, put in the car, and stolen. Gone. Poof. No more than two minutes later, Chris came outside looking for Igor, only to discover he was gone. If you're curious, you can see the footage here: It looks a little vague, but follow Chris's cursor on the screen to get an idea of what happened.

Chris had insisted that Igor was stolen, and he was absolutely right. Luckily one of the shops in the plaza had security cameras that caught this footage, and Chris was able to analyze it to find out what happened to Igor. My sister Julia and Chris printed hundreds of fliers and plastered Garden Grove and the neighboring cities with them, recruiting friends to help. Julia went up there after work every day and continued to canvas the neighborhoods and post fliers. They even scrounged up some money for a reward, and a friend of their offered to double it to make a $1000 reward. They just wanted Igor back. They tried to file a police report, but the officer didn't think Igor was stolen, and didn't bother. Chris went back to the police department to follow up, but wasn't able to get any help or support. He even showed them the footage, the officer agreed that Igor was stolen, but didn't do anything. RIGHTEOUS ANGER!! *Pew pew* (spikes of justice flying everywhere)

Anyway, the past couple of weeks have been filled with worry, tears, anger, and lots and lots of fliers. Then yesterday, my sister got a phone call on her cell. In broken english and a heavy hispanic accent, the guy said, "My wife, she pick up dog. She feel terrible, please call back." Julia frantically tried to call back, but the number he left was no good. She waited and worried, then received another phone call a couple of hours later. The story had changed.

"My cousin find dog, please call". When my sister gets home later, I'm going to upload a recording of the voicemail from earlier, but the second all she was actually able to answer.

Julia and Chris looked up the address. There were about ten people listed as living there, and it was in a neighborhood called Crow Village in Stanton. It's a bad, bad, bad neighborhood. Very gang populated, very dangerous. Especially for a little white girl like Julia. They called the Police and let them know they were headed there to get Igor, and the dispatcher urged them to call the Stanton Sheriff's department and get a police escort. They did, and the Sheriff's dept. told them they were familiar with the address from gang activity, and to wait and they would send officers to the address to get Igor. It's so very, very lucky that Julia and Chris didn't go. The officer came back and said "it's a really good thing you didn't come. There were about 7 gang members hanging out there." I think they said Igor was hanging out outside, and the officer was able to safely get him and take him out of there. This is the best ending I can possibly imagine. A friend of Julia's told her to expect threatening phone calls (no reward for them!), but to tell them that she will report them for making terrorist threats and will record any calls she'd receive from them. That should stop it cold. No threats yet, so hopefully the thieves will just chalk it up as a loss and move on.

Julia is fine with me sharing this story, because she and Chris want people to be aware of these rings of dog thieves looking to extort reward money. This isn't just in Orange County, it's everywhere. I remember seeing a video of thugs hoisting husky puppies over somebody's backyard fence, and it made me want to throw up. *Pew! Pew!* More spikes of righteous justice. Be aware, always have your dog on a leash, and make sure they're microchipped and tagged.

When I get home this evening, I'll be writing up another story about how my blog was plagiarized, along with four other talented craft bloggers. We're gathering our armies of Huffy Hedgehogs, otherwise known as fellow crafters, facebook friends, family, and blog followers. I'm tellin' ya, man. Don't piss off crafters. We wield sharp pointy implements. But that story will have to wait for after work tonight! Are you on tenterhooks yet? :D

Thrive, little buddy, thrive!

2011-05-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

After I got home from my sockaholics club meeting at The Yarn Lady, I greeted the dogs and settled in to watch a movie. During a pause in the movie to get some food, I noticed a clump on my carpet, presumably a wad of plant matter Rowan has a tendency to eat and gag up. Yuck. I gingerly picked up a part of it with two fingers, then shrieked when I discovered it wasn't a clump of plant matter, it was a featherless baby bird! EWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEW!!! I squealed like a little girl all the way to the outside garbage can, doing the "icky icky" dance the whole way. You know the one. When I came back inside, Mom said "there's another one! It's still alive!" Sure enough, right in the center of Seamus's doggy bed was a peeping baby bird, complete with pinfeathers and everything. I carefully scooped him up and took him outside, seeing if I could find the nest in our ficus tree. My sister's fiancee even took his flashlight up into the tree (he's a tree doctor, and part monkey...no, seriously!) to see if he could find the nest. What the heck were we going to do with a baby bird? He didn't have any luck, which left me struggling with what to do.
I emptied out a box, bundled up a pillowcase with some tissues, and made him a little nest. Mom mentioned something about keeping him warm, so I grabbed my hot water bottle and filled it up and set that underneath the fabric. Some quick googling told me what to feed the little tyke, but he didn't seem too interested other than nomnomnom'ing his beak a few times with some bread soaked in sugar water. He settled down to go to sleep (presumably), and he's still alive and breathing. I left him nestled in his makeshift home for the night, and I'm praying he makes it through so I can figure out what to do with him tomorrow. Here's a pic I snapped:

Any idea what kind of bird he could be? Finch?

Many years ago I took a couple of years of ROP animal care and was going to go into animal care, but that was back in high school. There was lots of volunteering for shelters and rescues, but I didn't get a heck of a lot of experience with birds. Can anyone tell me anything? Help!

Edited to add: That same night, my sister called me and told me she has a friend who rescues baby birds all the time. I was SO relieved, and thought my little friend would be in better, more experienced hands. She came home, we refilled the hot water bottle for the journey, and she immediately brought him to her friend. I need to ask my sister for an update on how he's doing, but as far as I know he's thriving. Happy ending! Yay!

Super quick post cuteness

2011-05-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've really felt the sewing bug, with that "MUST MAKE" feeling that comes with color and print inspiration. But it's definitely hit me again, and I'm trying to be as productive with it as possible without going overboard crazy. So here's what I've been making lately! As always, click on thumbnails for full size photos.

A new wallet: (If anybody's interested, drop me an e-mail)

A new iPad case design, inspired by the iPad 2's smartcover (but made for the first iPad...I'd be interested to see if it fits the ipad2 though!): Magnetic closures - don't worry, it's totally safe. The iPad has a solid state hard drive, so magnets won't hurt it at all. I did my research. :)

A WWII bomber jacket inspired iPad case (SO in love!):

And just today, two CUUUUTTTEE pouches!:

So what do you guys think? The gnome wallet and the purple pouch are "unofficially" for sale, which basically means I'm not going to post them on my etsy shop, but you're welcome to contact me if you'd like them. The wallet is $15, and the pouch is also $15, and I'll even throw in free shipping. They really were just "I must make this to get it out of my brain!" projects, and though I love them, I can't keep all of my creations. More sewing this weekend! Yay! What do you all have planned for the weekend?

All Twisted Up Yoga Sock Pattern! Just 'cause I love ya.

2011-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

*****I added another place to access the PDF because a few people told me they had trouble printing from the MobileMe hosted site. If there are any issues with the MediaFire site, please let me know!*****

I searched and searched for a yoga sock pattern I wanted to make, but they all called for thicker yarn or a different size needle than what I wanted to use. What can I say? I like using my size 1 Signature dpn's, and wouldn't settle for anything else! Alas, I couldn't find anything that fit the bill. So I studied what features I would like in a yoga sock and came up with a super-duper easy pattern I want to share with you all today. You'll be shocked at how easy it would be to adapt any sock pattern to become a yoga sock. Basically a tube with cast-off stitches in the middle. There's some tweaking I want to do to the pattern eventually, but for now I'm pretty darn happy. Here it is! You can also download the PDF HERE
or HERE

All Twisted Up Yoga Socks

Supplies:

US size 1 dpns

215yd any fingering weight sock yarn (I used Knitpicks Felici in the rainbow colorway)

tapestry needle

Using preferred cast-on method (I used backward loop cast on because it's stretchy, but feel free to use whatever!)

CO 72 sts.

Place marker and join in the round

k2, p2 for about 1"

Every round: *k2, yo, k2, k2tog* repeat to end of round

That's all there is to the groovy diagonal slant!

Continue the diagonal stitch for about 3", or the length between the ball of your foot and the end of your arch before your heel. I wear an 8.5 shoe, so mine was about 3".

Bind off 36 sts in k2, p2 using Jeny's Super Stretchy Bind off method. Trust me, it's really super simple and GENIUS. If you really don't want to, just make sure you bind of LOOSELY. Here's a youtube of Cat Bhordi demonstrating. Easy peasy.

Continue in the diagonal stitch for the rest of the round. Hopefully you'll be able to tell where you're at with the diagonal stitch. If you're a bit lost, just remember that the YO comes just before the previous row's YO, and you should be good to pick it up from there.

When you get to the Bind-off, use long-tailed cast on to CO 36 sts. Continue in diagonal stitch to end of round.

Keep on keeping' on with the diagonal stitch for another 5", or your preferred leg height. For my next pair, I totally want it to come up over my calf. :D

Switch to k2, p2 rib for 1" and bind off using Jeny's Super Stretchy Bind Off Method again, and you're done!

See? Totally easy, and totally cute. Now paint your toes a groovy color and go do some yoga!

I hope this pattern makes sense, and as always feel free to contact me for any questions you might have. Of course I want to see pictures when you're done so I can post them here!

A criminal in our midst!

2011-05-17T14:53:00.001-07:00

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers, in the merry merry month of....well, April.

2011-04-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

I had a fantastic Saturday with my Mom, despite my lungs and throat feeling sandblasted, gunky, and sounding like a wheezing, braying mule when I cough and breathe. Strangely enough, I had plenty of energy earlier today though. But now, my butt is planted firmly in my knitting chair by the window, and I don't intend to move for a while. So what did we do? I'm so glad you asked. It was supposed to be a "crafting" day, but turned into a "gardening" day instead. No objections here.
(As always, click on pics to view larger versions. They're really great.)

We went to Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano, which is probably my favorite nursery. Roger's Gardens in Newport Beach is impressive, but waaaaay overpriced. This is Plant Depot (I always call it "Plant Despot")

Well, a very small part of it, anyway

Here's the coolest part of Plant Depot:

Chubby koi. If you don't get that
reference, go watch "Exit to Eden".
Better yet, don't.

Make sure you get my good side

No paparazzi, please

Turtles (lots of turtles!), koi, waterfalls, it's all very zen and serene. I love this place.

I IMMEDIATELY thought of my best friend, Morgan when I saw these black flowers. If I could send them to England for you, Morg, I totally would. So incredibly beautiful! Mom said "Wouldn't it be cool to do a black and white garden?" I wanted to. Badly.

These are just a few of the flower macros I shot with my beloved Coolpix L120. There are more, but I didn't want to bog you down here. I strongly urge you to go HERE to see the rest. I promise, there's not millions. You won't regret it. You would make me very happy if you went there and said "ooh!! Great shots, Boo!" *Hack hack* ow...you wouldn't want to disappoint a poor sick girl, would you? I love comments. LOVE them. They make me feel like I matter.

Here's our haul from the Plant Depot:

Don't mind my messy Element.

After we reveled in our spoils and talked all about what we were going to do with our succulents, ferns (mine), and coleus (coleii?), we drove down to San Clemente to have some lunch at Baja Fresh and check out Lowe's. Did you know they closed the Charo Chicken on Pico? I WAS SO UPSET!! My mouth was all ready for a big giant Charo burrito with black beans and guacamole, and it was GONE! *sob*. Baja Fresh was a "meh" substitute. Goodbye, Charo Chicken. I'll miss you. At Lowe's, I looked for the proper type of soil to suit my terrarium project. Then I found the COOLEST PLANT EVEEERRRRRRRR! *echo echo echo* No, really. It's the niftiest thing I've ever seen. My Mom was appalled *appalled!* that I hadn't heard of these before. She feels like she failed as a mother who raised her daughters to love plants as much as she does. It's a

and it's supposed to get some pretty fluffy pink blooms in the summer too!

It was $3, I had to have it. Here's a video I took when I got it home to show you what it does. The background music was our soundtrack for the day, a Pandora station based on Django Reinhardt. Very fun and relaxing. Anyway, the video!

Isn't that the craziest plant you've ever seen?! I'm so in love with it. I asked my Mom how long it takes to unfurl, and she said "I guess it depends on how traumatized it is." Then she harrassed it a bit and made it shrink up again. I said "hey! Be nice!" And she said "it'll recover."

It sounds totally stupid, but all of a sudden, I loved that plant with my whole entire heart. I've been on a bit of a self-help kick lately, reading Tiny Buddha (awesome website), searching for non-hokey happiness books, etc. Not that I'm UNhappy, persé, but sometimes we could all use a little boost. I'm all about self improvement lately. Hence, the yoga. Anyway, that was so profound and made me want to cry a little. No matter what trauma that plant goes through, it'll recover. It might shrink up a bit on itself and protect itself for a while, but gradually it'll open back up and be its old self again. I want to name this plant. Seriously. I could use some suggestions! My camera still doesn't have a name either, but it'll come in time, since nobody had any ideas.

First I took some tiny succulents and made this little landscape pot:

So cute and tiny!!

Then I tackled the terrarium project:

Two coleus (coleii?), a tiny african violet, some scotch moss, and two hedgehogs. Just 'cause.

What do you think? I hope I did it right, and that it won't turn into a humid pile of mush in a couple of weeks. Anybody out there ever make plant terrariums?

It was such a relaxing afternoon, Django Reinhardt playing in the background, the sun shining, playing with plants.... even the dogs just chilled out and relaxed.

Loki's very proud of himself for helping

Rowan and Seamus are actually co-existing instead of chomping
on each other! It's a springtime miracle!!

I took the leftovers from the 6-pack of the coleus (coleii?) and the rest of the scotch moss and made a little "throw it all together, it's so pretty" pot, and the fern went into its new home in my indoor window box next to my knitting chair.

All in all, a wonderful day. Even though my skin hurts, my lungs hurt and are trying to escape through my esophagus, I'm very contented and relaxed. I'm even sipping a bit of wine.

Everybody in their new homes:

Extra tiny succulents in some tiny pots I had lying around. What do you think?

Left to right - sensitive plant (yet to be named, help please!), extras pot,
and far right is the succulents landscape

It's all foggy now, but that's what a terrarium should do

As a matter of fact, I'm so serious about wanting help naming this sensitive plant (mimosa pudica...mimosa? Yes please!) that I'm going to have a little contest giveaway in the hopes that it might create a little more interest. SO!! Here it is: If you submit a name, you'll be entered to win two mini skeins of sock yarn from The Yarn Lady in Lake Forest. They're called "Sock Bites". This stuff is gorgeous, people. It's enough to knit your own Boogie Earbuds, or two or three pairs (my sister knit an entire baby hat out of the larger size you see below)

There's no indication of what the fiber content is, but it's extremely soft and squishy.
Really good stuff. You'd get both of these!

or if you're not a knitter (I'm an equal opportunity blogger), you can win a custom B.Clef small wallet much like this one: (only made to your preferences)

Let's see those suggestions! The winner will be randomly chosen from the name suggestion comments at 10pm sunday night (tomorrow), so I can ship your package out on monday. Yes, I really can make a wallet that quickly, and the yarn is ready to ship. ;) If you e-mail me back in time, that is. So don't forget to leave your e-mail address or blog address. I love to read your blogs!

It's just another, it's just another daaaaaay

2011-04-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

(I love throwing a little oingo boingo in the title there...)

It's incredible what a good night's sleep will do. I woke up feeling better than yesterday, and enjoyed browsing the feeds on my Pulse app (it's an app that puts your favorite websites, blogs, news readers, etc in a great format so you can browse all of them) for a good 20 minutes. I especially enjoy the craft and home and garden feeds. They're so wonderfully inspiring and it sets such a creative and happy mood for the day. Even if I don't get to make anything that day, it's great to see beautiful design ideas. Here's a few of my favorites:
Apartment Therapy - inspiration comin' out the wahoo here. I'm sure you've heard of it and are familiar with it. If you're not, get your booty over there, pronto.

Fresh Home - similar to apartment therapy, and I love it when they include cool little shopping finds. For example, they posted this thing this morning that I just about died for and made me want to jump out of bed and immediately try to make one: You can click on it for the link

I have several of these type of books on my beside table, and this would be PERFECT.

Shelterpop - a really fun and funky design site.

Craft Gossip - Craft Gossip is way too much fun. They gather ideas and projects from far and wide of every type of craft you can think of. A lot of them are tutorials, or just beautiful things people have done. If you "like" them on facebook or follow them on twitter however, be warned that they post prolifically. I don't mind, I love seeing things people have made.

Oh my goodness, I need to stop. I could bombard you with all kinds of wonderful inspiring links, but it would be never-ending. Crafty Chica, Oops I Craft My Pants, Sew4Home, etc..etc..etc.. the first two are blogs, but SO much fun, and so very inspiring. I have a girl crush on Oops I Craft My Pants (on craftster her name is Noooooitaremybirthday, which cracks me up).

Anywho, you're probably bored by now. What's that? How did my wii'ing go this morning? Better than expected, actually, except for one little hiccup. I already whined about yesterday being kind of a rough day, so on my way home I picked up a big ol' meal from Taco Bell. AND I had a slice of frozen strawberry cheesecake from our freezer. So nyah. For those who would say "food shouldn't be a reward, or a comfort thing" you've obviously never felt the satisfaction of crawling into bed with some yummy junk food and watched something extremely entertaining on tv. Go run some laps or something, I'll take my taco bell.

So I rolled out my yoga mat, fired up the wii, and braced myself for a thorough chastising from Judgypants wii.

Wait, what?! A compliment? Positive reinforcement?! I'm speechless, wii...thank you!

Then I took the body test, and here's what it said. I'm putting my estimated BMI out there in public now, so don't judge........

Lower than yesterday! With Taco Bell, cheesecake, AND a glass of wine!

That totally made my day. I wanted to jump up and down and yell "HA! Take THAT you judgy bastard!" Not that I'll be having junk food and cheesecake every day, mind you, but I feel like I got away with murder.

Next came the balance and reflex tests, and I goofed on the reflex test. So when it told me my wii age, I didn't feel quite so smug.

Yeah yeah yeah.....we all have those days.

Happy friday, everyone! What are you doing this weekend? I'd love to know!