thimbly things

(a day late) you’ll find the latest Living magazine, grapes, an Anthropologie catalog for inspiration, and a collaborative piece of crayon art.  I think I effectively taught Emily to layer colors.  It’s kinda pretty, don’t you think?

And on the floor this week are my favorite buttons.

Some are old, some new, some borrowed (or handed-down, rather), and some blue.

I really love the blue ones.  They were thrifted almost 2 years ago in the cute little antique-filled town of Dewey, OK.

And I’m also loving this golden-yellow and grey color scheme.

Speaking of color schemes, I found yet another addiction.  And this one has many practical purposes.  So go ahead.  Click.  You know you want to…

Today I signed up for it.  We’re talking 6 months of making new stuff from old stuff.  I’m game!  I got a head start this month as I tried my hand at sewing my own clothes for the first time.  Here’s one shirt I made from an old skirt I bought at the Gap several years ago.  I wore the skirt on my graduation weekend.  It was a size ZERO!!!

I can’t believe I ever fit into it…although, I’m remembering, it smooshed my internal organs quite a bit.  I must have found it on sale.  Anyway, I used Simplicity 4589 for the yoke and kept a lot of the fullness of the skirt.  I suppose it can double as a maternity shirt at some point (but not yet, for goodness’ sake!).

So I may be dressing like a dork for the rest of the year, but I will be a handmade dork!  Somewhere along the way, I hope to acquire a sense of style.  I can tell what’s fashionable when the clothing stores put it on the racks, but I’m not sure that I can make it from scratch.  We’ll see.  Everything I’ve made so far smacks of the country side of “Town & Country.”  I’ll attempt to make more “town” looks in the future, since I don’t actually live on a prairie.

Oh, and expect to see more pictures of me gazing awkwardly out of this window.

The Pledge

I, Kristena Derrick, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 6 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings! Signed Kristena Derrick.

Here is something I’m pretty sure you’ll love if you’re female and have babies.  And if neither of those things are true of you, you still might enjoy it.  But no guarantee.

We got a package in the mail today.  Yes.  Another.  Because we have so many kind and generous people in our lives.  Evan’s parents are packing up their home and moving, so a few neat items were passed on to us in the process.  Mom D also made Emily a dress, but I have to do a little something to it before it’s finished.  Then I’ll share.

Aren’t these plaques adorable though?  The first one reminds me of Emily and Jacob.  The second reminds me of my niece, D’Lorah.  I never see her, but I imagine she looks something like this.

I found a similar plaque at the QTS a while back.  These two were made by Mom D.  And the potholder was made by her grandmother.  It’s destined to go on the wall too.  But I might frame it first.  Hmm.

Welcome to our home, sweet little sentimental things.

(The “Sugar” and “Coffee” needlepoints were thrifted from the Salvation Army a few months ago.  I just never got around to sharing.)

B, a friend of ours who we haven’t seen in nearly a year, stopped in Tulsa over the weekend to liquidate her belongings. It had all been in storage for at least 9 months while she traveled throughout Europe. B decided to take a one month French immersion course this summer, and then I suppose she will go wherever the wind takes her.

Meanwhile, she more or less gave away everything she owned on Saturday. As a result, we got our very first dresser (yes, we are pushing 30 and have never had real bedroom furniture).  It’s beat-up, but I like it that way.

And we scored several small kitchen items, including lots of cookie cutters.

Not only is B a free spirit of sorts, but she is incredibly generous. I’m at a place in my life where I cannot be a free spirit per se. I have a family to take care of. But her generosity is convicting. She didn’t care at all about making a profit off her stuff. I actually felt uncomfortable–as though I was robbing her. Have I ever made anyone uncomfortable because of my generosity? I mean, that takes some skill.

B, we’ll miss you!  Hope your free spirit wanders back to Tulsa soon.

Like I said before, we had a fantastic week with the fam. Here’s a meager list of stuff that rocked:

• Taking the ladies to the Quality Thrift Store (I’ll show you my new treasures later this week… And I haven’t forgotten that I promised to share some other thrifting finds a while ago. I will! I have my trusty blog to remind me.)
• Seeing Speed Racer with the siblings (I love this movie and don’t care what old fogey critics think! It’s pure fun. I especially love monkeys who wear little boys on their pajamas. Watch the music video and try to pretend you’re bored. I dare you. And here is Evan’s very very very positive review.)

• Getting some of Evan’s old things from when he was a kid, including an old birth announcement and a super-cute quilted wall hanging (I’ll share that later too.)
• Emily in the pool

• Emily calling her Uncle Collin “Tony.” There’s a story we’ll be telling when we’re 80… It started out sounding like “Collin” and quickly devolved (video footage to come)
• Praise reports such as Dad getting tenure and the family’s house selling
• Playing Mad Gab for the gazillionth time and Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture Edition for the fourth time
• Losing both games
• Beauty salon time with the ladies (new styles all around!)
• Jacob looking like an old man

• Enjoying The Office and Lost together while eating 3 kinds of ice cream and chocolate chip cookies
• Bibi making a dress for Em
• Just being together, if only for 4 days

And I can’t not mention this: Today, Jacob is one month old. I really can’t believe it! Has he already been with us that long??? What a sweetie. He seems to be moving to a 3-4 hour schedule too, which is a nice change. I’m pretty sure he slept for about 5 hours last night, so we’re getting closer to a full night’s sleep! Woo-hoo!!!

And what a wonderful month to get back on the blogging bandwagon! I decided that 2 weeks was a long enough break. Indeed, today is Jacob’s 2 week birthday, and I can’t believe it. I’ve hardly done anything creative over the last two weeks. That’s really OK, but I think I need creativity in my daily life. I believe this is a God-given urge, and I suffer when I ignore it. (But I am so thankful to have a husband who reminds me often that feeding our children and taking care of them is far more important than any crafty thing I could do.)

So yesterday, during a brief “alone time” outing to Barnes & Noble and Michael’s, I picked up some cheap watercolors. Painting is like instant gratification when compared to needlework. I still haven’t used my set, but I’ll share when I do.

On other similar outings, I’ve acquired more neat stuff from Quality Thrift Store:

And some cute shoes (because shoes don’t have to fit around my waist…):

I’m generally not in praise of “retail therapy,” but I recently found that hanging out alone at a coffee shop is too quiet for me. I used to do it all the time, but now I need company. I need these wonderful people:

Even if 2 of the 3 cry often in public.

In other news, my Flickr is bullying me into getting a Pro account, or so it appears. Free accounts can only have up to 200 photos. And I have 201. And I plan to keep uploading. Admittedly, I didn’t pay any attention to these fine details when I signed up for an account. It would be worthwhile to be able to upload larger files…

Thank you for the reading suggestions!  If you have anything else you’d like to share, please do!

Yesterday was another “thrifting Saturday,” and I just want to share this little bit of awesomeness with you.

Since it’s not the clearest photo, here are a couple close-ups.

I paid $3.98 for these pink carnations at the Quality Thrift Store.  And I almost didn’t go yesterday.  I went to the Salvation Army first, where I found a few things I’ll share later.  Then I ran a few errands, and on my way home–at the last moment–I decided to stop in at the good old tried and true QTS.   Whew!  I’m glad I didn’t miss this one.  (By the way, if I seem addicted to the thrift store, just remember that I won’t be getting out much after Brother arrives.  So I’m tankin’ up while I can!)

Late yesterday evening, Evan screened his short film, The Box, here at our house.  He invited all the cast and crew, and it was really neat for everyone to see themselves all polished up and edited together.  I’m so proud of him.  If you saw the raw footage of the film, you’d never suspect that it could transform into a professional-looking production.  Filmmaking astounds me.

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.

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.

The latest addition to the yarn basket:

Rag Balls.  These are scraps of old clothes that have seen better days.  I was up until 1 am making these.  And there are many more to come.

I hope to make a rug out of these, but I’m sure I’ll need to shred many more old T-shirts and such before I have enough for anything substantial.  I checked Mason-Dixon Knitting out of the library, and there’s a neat pattern for a log cabin-style rug.  It actually calls for yarn and scraps of woven material, but it’s one of those patterns where it doesn’t really matter.  The ultimate goal is a rectangle big enough to stand on.  (Note: I just did a quick search on mason-dixon knitting, and I quickly came across the authors’ blog.  The latest entry talks about making rag balls and, a few entries later, the log cabin rug (which is actually called “The Tailgate Rag Rug”)!  Pretty neat.  Guess I can return that library book without making photocopies first…)

This Friday’s WIP: Cleaning the house for tomorrow.  And that’s a major WIP.  And I need to write an article for the church’s women’s newsletter.  Yet here I am telling you about fabric balls that have nothing to do with anything I should be doing.

Must step away from the Mac… unless I’m writing that article…