thimbly things

Jacob made a new friend today.

Or, I guess, I made a new friend for Jacob today.

I love how the bunny kinda looks like a sleeping baby.

Pattern found here via Meet Me at Mike’s.

Through Pink Paper Peppermints, I found the cutest tutorial today at joybucket.  These little hairpins took about 30 minutes to make (if that long).  I decided to do French knots instead of seed beads in the center of the flowers, but the possibilities for these are endless.

I’ve also been surprised again by the bounty at our library.  I found Uncommon Crochet there, and I love it.  This little clutch really appeals to me, and I think it’s the diagonal lines with lace and fabric added.  I certainly don’t need a clutch.  It seems these days that any bag with less than 2 cubic feet of space is pretty much useless to me.  But I like it anyway.

This is making me feel sad today.

On that note, I’ll see you tomorrow.  I’m going to play with Emily now.

I’m finally making something for Jacob.  Despite my many plans while he was in the womb, I only ever managed to purchase some flannel and start one of these dolls.  I made one for someone else’s baby, but I never finished the second one.  It’s still on my desk.

Anyway, this cute little teddy pattern is from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts!: Amigurumi.  And kyuuto, of course, means cute.  I haven’t decided on the stripes yet.  Evan wants me to make it a pirate teddy.  I’m just not sure how to crochet a hook for its hand…

So Amy Karol lost a shoe.  It may have gone out with the recycling.  When I saw the missing shoe, I sorta went nuts for it.  I really like these shoes.  And I’m really sorry for her that she lost one.  And my husband thinks I’m crazy for talking about fellow bloggers as though we know one another.  And for coveting aforementioned blogger’s shoe.  Well, preferably a matching pair.

I have ever so bravely decided to join in with Jenny at allsorts in A Post a Day in May.

So on this second day of May, I plan to casually peruse my latest finds from the Tulsa Library system:

I saved these books for a quiet moment. Aren’t those little bears so cute?

And I may begin to paint and decoupage this charging station that Evan’s brother made us for Christmas:

This decoupage stool on Craft gave me a bit of inspiration.

Yesterday, I broke open my new watercolors and tried this simple project to get me going. I plan to do a few more little paintings before I share. It only took about 20 minutes from start to finish. So if you have a watercolor set, I highly recommend moving your creative muscles with this project.

I seem to have all the inspiration I need right now. Just need some extra time and energy!

Update on my Flickr dilemma: Evan has agreed to let me sign up for a pro account on Flickr, which I think will improve the quality of pictures I post on my blog. So it’s a win-win. Or maybe even a win-win-win.

The weekend makes me tired.  I think for most people, the weekend is a time to recharge.  For me, it’s my chance to get out and get things done.  So sometimes I overdo it.  And then I crash.  I napped on Saturday and on Sunday, just as I did last weekend, and then I suffered from slight insomnia last night.  Just couldn’t get it quite right.

It was a lovely weekend though.  I went to the tried and true Quality Thrift Store a quarter-mile away and picked up some neat finds.  Instead of crocheting my own, I found a random-stripe ripple afghan for $5.  And it’s already broken in.

I also found this tediously embroidered tree.  No lie–about 7 people stopped me at the thrift store to comment on it.   Lots of Oh, that’s interesting!s.  I agree.  Though it is also a bit strange.  I’m thinking of embellishing it somehow.  Perhaps with birds or flowers.  Any ideas?

And here is my Mystery WIP.  I began it while watching Barton Fink with Evan, and it evolved into I don’t know what.  A scarf?  A purse?  A pillow?  I really don’t know.  At first, I was working from a pattern in Pretty Knits.  I knew my gauge was off, but I didn’t realize how off.  I decided to make a ruffle to slim things down, and now I don’t know what this is anymore.  But it started as a bag.  Hmmm…

Speaking of Barton Fink, Evan is doing a Coen Brothers Month over at Movie Zeal.  He talked me into watching all 12 of their films sequentially with him.  I’ve never studied a director (or two) in this way before, and it’s very interesting to see their work evolve.  I find that I feel strongly about every film–I either love it or hate it.  But then I also think Perhaps this will be better upon a second viewing…  I don’t know.  I’ve always loved Raising Arizona.  Since I was about 8 years old.  Knowing the quirkiness of this film helped me appreciate Blood Simple.  I couldn’t help but notice similar themes, camera angles, and even a splash of their Coen humor.  But when we got to Miller’s Crossing and Barton Fink, I was pretty disappointed.  But like I said, maybe if I watch them again?

Last night was The Hudsucker Proxy night.

And The Brothers redeemed themselves.  At least, for now.

Here it is in all its bright glory.  The handles are pretty huge because it’s just silly for me to make a bag that doesn’t fit over my shoulder.  Maybe an evening bag like so would be alright, but this bag is going places.  Like the grocery store and Target.

So far today, I have packed my suitcase for the hospital, with the exception of a few things we’ll have to grab on our way out the door.  I also began the search for someone to watch Emily during labor & delivery.  This is difficult because we have no family nearby, and most of our friends have small children of their own to care for or full-time jobs (That’s pretty much everyone we know who hasn’t retired yet.).  If you’re a friend in Tulsa reading this, please call us if you have any ideas.  Thanks!

Yesterday, I sat down to blog and looked down at my hand only to find a tiny diamond missing from my wedding band.  What an awesome April Fool’s Day joke that would have been–were it a joke.  But it was not, and I just couldn’t muster the joy I needed to do anything but complain (and decided to spare you).  I have since decided that it isn’t a big deal.  It won’t be much to replace, and it forces me to think about getting real insurance for my ring.  The rest of the day was lovely.  I just never made it back to the computer.

The skies were clear in Tulsa on the first day of April, and I snapped a few random pictures of our home and did a photo shoot with Emily on the front lawn.

Here are some baby clothes that are destined to be repurposed.  I really love that linen floral on top.  Too bad the original dress is heavily stained.  And that purple knit cardigan would make such a pretty sachet… and maybe mittens too.  As it now exists, it has a funny, purple faux-fur collar on it.  Yikes!

I finally washed all of our neutral baby clothes (We didn’t know if Emily was a boy or a girl), and I was surprised by just how much we have.  It’s so sad and sweet remembering Emily in each piece.  And it’s a little funny since the clothes really do look like they’re for a boy and not so much “gender neutral!”

I crocheted a bag from The Happy Hooker, probably because of this little bit of inspiration.

I bought handles for the purse today at Joann Fabrics (with my 40% off coupon, of course!  Never buy anything there without a coupon unless it’s on sale!).  When the lighting permits, I’ll snap a picture of the finished project to share.

During March, I challenged myself to make a little something every day (with the exception of Sundays).  I sort of succeeded although I sometimes counted cooking as making.  Like on Easter.  Julia and I cooked a lot, and it seemed very much like a full day of crafting.

So what of April?  April is Baby Brother’s expected birth month, so I’m dedicating my days to preparing for and, ultimately, caring for him (and Emily too!!!).   There is much that I haven’t done, so every day I hope to knock out some task that’s burdening me, no matter how small.  Yesterday I got his clothes ready.  Today I bought flannel for him and plan to call the hospital to set up a registration appointment.

There’s so much to do, but it’s a good kind of busy.  And I haven’t forgotten the point of it all.

Lately that’s what I’ve been doing: making piles of stuff.  Piles of laundry, piles of hand-me-downs, piles for Goodwill, piles of toys to clean, piles of baby supplies, and piles of these:

And more of these:

Of course, the cookies and brooches are for Saturday, but I’ve also spent time making stuff for No Particular Reason.  Thus this:

And this:

Honestly.  How kitsch is that?  And not even in a truly hip way.  It’s kitsch in a late-1980s-blue-and-mauve-country way.  But I still might hang it in the kitchen window.  At least for a spell.

Really though, what’s the harm?  I found this little guy in my $4 Quality Thrift goody bag.  The paint was nearly dried up (one color was), and the plastic paint wells were so brittle that–you might notice–the latches on most of them broke when I tried to open them.

This is such a funny “hobby” to me.  There’s not much to it.  It’s easier than paint-by-number since you can’t accidentally bleed into the wrong area with the paint.  There are walls separating each section, and the “paint” is really supposed to be a thin stain that more or less spreads itself out.  And then, when you’re all done, that satisfied feeling of accomplishment is rather diminished by the pitiful look of the project.  No matter how hard you try, it will never look like real stained glass.

I say all this, and yet I spent at least an hour filling in those little spaces with the cruddy old paint and cheap, limp paintbrush.  It’s a compulsion, I tell ya.

We’re having quite the overcast (and now rainy) St. Paddy’s Day here in Tulsa, and I’m hard-pressed to find any green worth photographing. Except the neighbor’s yard. Just across the street, our very nice neighbor has a green lawn while everyone else’s is still blah blah brown. There is a flowering tree across the street as well, and I keep wondering if the neighbors (who all appear to be home for Spring Break) will think me insane if I hobble over there with my camera and toddler.

Yellow has been more of an inspiration as of late. I realized this when I read SouleMama’s post on bringing the sun into her house (via painting a room yellow). This may be surprising to friends who know that when we moved into our house, I painted over our yellow walls immediately. Green, in fact. Our living room was the color of a Granny Smith apple for almost a year. Until I convinced Evan that I would indeed lose my mind if I didn’t repaint it. He said, “Fine. But it’s your project.” He was gone for 2 weeks in January and came home to an almost-half-painted-living-room. Thankfully, he helped me finish. Thankfully.

Here’s a picture that shows just how vivid and overwhelming the walls could be (in certain light):

Insanely bright. Neon. And very little looked good on the walls. So there’s some green for the holiday!

I tried to do a round-up of green craftiness to share, but it was quickly disassembled by Em.

Thank you Brobee for being the awesome Little Green One today. As for my hang-up on yellow, it’s mostly centered around this hand-me-down dress someone gave us:

It’s very pretty–on a hanger. But the collar is too much pretty, I think. Too much frill. I cut it off this weekend and sewed on some fresh binding. What to do next? Hmm…