thimbly things

to sew/craft/make.  D decorated this sock, and I sewed on the buttons.  It’s too bad she’s the only kiddo genuinely interested in making stuff (and mature enough to understand the task at hand).  Her daddy makes puppets for real.  For real.  Like, gets paid to do it.  Cool, huh?

By the way, this was all accomplished before 9 in the AM. *jittery sigh*

EDIT: Just realized that statement about D being “the only kiddo genuinely interested in making stuff” was kinda unfair.  All the kids love painting.  And Emily loves to draw and color.  She just can’t handle anything too complicated yet.   Sorry.  Felt the need to revise.

Over the weekend, I made it a priority to do a little bit of crafting. When I saw this beautiful wreath and tutorial, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. (And might I mention that JC handmade has become an instant favorite of mine?)

On a food-related note, I’m dying to try this Chocolate Cake in 5 Minutes.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday. I may be back later today with a MixTape to liven things up a bit.

Once upon a time, Kristena won a yard of fabric from Sew, Mama, Sew. With this yard of fabric, Kristena promised to spiffy up her very 1950s (but not in a cool way) bathroom. So Kristena chose a fabric that coordinated with said pink & burgundy bathroom. One day, the magical (and also very free) yard of fabric arrived at Kristena’s doorstep. She tore her package open as quickly as her swollen, pregnant fingers would allow her and photographed her new fabric in various locations throughout her house.

Months passed and nothing happened. Kristena wondered if she had chosen the wrong fabric for her taste.

Then one day at the start of Fall, Kristena grew weary of seeing her yard of free fabric collecting dust. She cut, cut, and cut. And then she arranged several flowery octagons and diamonds on her plain white bathroom curtains.

No matter how she arranged them, they just didn’t look right.

So finally, Kristena sewed one octagon right in the middle. And she liked it.

But it needed something.

So she added two diamonds on either side of the octagon.

Then Kristena hung the curtain (only one panel this time), stood back, and admired her bathroom’s super-quick face-lift. She thought to herself, all decorating should be this easy!

And Kristena, her freshly decorated curtain, and her weird retro-contemporary bathroom lived happily ever after. Or something like that. :)

P.S. I have a lot of this fabric leftover, as you can imagine. Would anyone like what’s left? Leave a comment, and we’ll have a random drawing!

and flashcards.

And fish, flowers, and fire. :)

First off, I just want to say I was overwhelmed by your response to the hat I made.  Really.  I rarely get any traffic here on the weekends.  So y’all made my day. :)  (Yes.  Eight comments in one day overwhelms me!  Particularly since I wasn’t giving anything away.)

So I made this little dealio (a brooch), and I thought you might like to see how.  It’s not anything huge, but I thought it would be a good way to flex my tutorial-making muscle.  Straight from my beloved notebook, here’s my First Official Tutorial.  Hope you can read my handwriting. ;)

Yep, silliness all around.  But I can’t help myself.

Two things to know: 1- I used 1 1/2 inch wide satin ribbon.  2- I hot-glued a brooch pin to the back when I was done.  This could be sewn directly onto a garment, but washing said garment would then be problematic.

Oh, and the Fray Check step could actually come after step 1.  You decide. ;)

Next up, I’m planning to repurpose some lace from an old shirt to make a pretty bag for this brooch.  I also like it on a simple black top.

Let the crocheting and knitting begin! I couldn’t resist this pattern by Jaybird Designs (via Craft). It’s another one of those projects that makes you jump-up-and-get-to-it. And hats are great like that. You can almost finish one while watching Singin’ in the Rain. Almost. I find myself a bit obsessed when it gets to the halfway point. I must have a final product before I can rest easy.

Just so you know: I had to decrease more frequently when I got to the fitted part. It was probably the yarn I chose (super-cheap Red Heart, I believe). But I had to repeat *sc in 2 sts, sc2tog* on the dec row. Again, I didn’t bother with checking my gauge, so I have no doubt this was an operator-error type of situation. ;) However, it worked out just fine, and I love love love my new hat! Thanks again, Jaybird!

UPDATE: Thanks for the encouragement, everyone.  Nora, I really like the idea of putting some embroidery and perhaps appliqué on it.  Great suggestion!  Maybe as I get closer to finishing, I’ll start getting creative. ;)  Oh, and a local crafting friend told me that she uses a straight stitch for this kind of work.  So I might stop using the zigzag, since it uses a ton of thread.

The cooler weather we’re experiencing may only be related to Gustav, but it sure makes me want to knit, make yummy soup, and cuddle up under a favorite old quilt. Unfortunately, that favorite quilt needs some extra love. So much that I’ve decided to forgo the handstitching and mend this baby with my trusty machine! I’m using the zigzag stitch, but if you have any advice, do tell.

We’ve missed this dear quilt for two winters now because it’s in such bad shape.

A brief history: It was a wedding present to Evan’s parents (about 30 years ago?), and it went into storage in the ’90s (while the family was in China). Then, when Evan was in college (in SC), he found it in his grandparents’ shed and acquired it for his own. He loved it so much that Grandmother Derrick had to mend it multiple times for him. The last time was just before our wedding.

So the burden, ahem, baton has been passed on to me.

I’m setting an arbitrary deadline to finish the mending by October. Oh, Quilt. You are a Lucky Beast. If I didn’t love you so much, I would cut you up and throw you on the scrap pile. Alas.

And completely off topic: I found this awesome and economical black bean soup recipe. It was a hit for us, so I’m passing it on. We didn’t have any celery or onion, but it still tasted great (we never eat onion ’round these here parts). I also cooked it on the stovetop, but it would be nice to smell cooking all day in a Crockpot. Especially on a crisp, autumn day!

So this morning I make my cup of coffee (Whew!  I’m already in better shape than yesterday.), turn on Sesame Street, and start scrolling through my Google Reader.  And what should I happen upon that would make my day brighter but this.  I know I’ve already sung Amy Karol praises for the week, but I’m just going to reiterate for any who may have missed it: I love Amy.

Anyway, go check out the gingham gallery!

Now I’m really gonna attempt to lay off the pictures of red gingham.  Love you guys. ;)

Here’s a little bit of something on my desk today.  I found the pattern here.

I vaguely remember doing chicken scratch when I was in 6th grade.  We actually still had a home-ec class back in 1992.  I hated it.  If only my teacher could see me now…

So I’ve been dying to knit this sweater.  It’s a classic design for babies that has been all grown up by Flint Knits.  And I love her for it.  Anyway, I’m torn a bit about choosing a yarn.  I used to buy cheap yarn all the time but have since realized that if  I’m going to pour hours and hours into a project, I want to love it and be able to use it!

So these are my top choices (Cascade 220 at Purl).  Cooler shades are apparently catching my eye.  I’m leaning towards that vibrant green, but I wonder if it’s just because I’ve seen the sweater in that color.  Or because I’m a redhead.

What color do you think would make a nice addition to a fall/winter wardrobe?

As much as I’d like for my children to cherish and enjoy old books, past experience has taught me that it’s better to save the nice ones for later or find creative things to do with them.  So, I now present another project for your old books.

I spray painted some inexpensive standard frames and simply searched through some of Evan’s old (as in falling apart) books for pictures that went nicely together and fit inside the mat.

This is an old project, but yesterday’s blocks made me think that you might like this idea.  I find classic Little Golden Books to be an unending source of inspiration.  And they’re also very cheap!

Also, if you have a book that has already been decimated by your child, you could try to salvage any nice illustrations for decorative purposes.  I’ve been trying my darnedest to do this since Emily now shamelessly rips into her books right in front of me.  Yep.  It has come to that.