11 Spring Street

Fancy-Pants Advent Calendar

2011-12-03T19:19:00.001-06:00

Merry (almost) Christmas! Since almost all my craftiness has given way to knitting, I thought I'd take this chance to post something non-knitting related (well, mostly anyway) since it doesn't happen to often that I make something that doesn't involve yarn and needles. This year, instead of the open-up-the-doors-to-reveal-a-small-piece-of-waxy-chocolate-like-substance advent calendars, I thought we'd try something new. A homemade, and much more exciting version!

Bought small treats of all sorts, put them in little Christmas-themed bags and strung them on a red ribbon in our hallway. I thought I was going to put them across the fireplace mantel until I attempted it and the weight of some of the bags made it too heavy to get it to stay attached. I thought I was being very fancy until I looked on Facebook an hour later and saw that my cousin (who moved away when she was 12 and I was 9, but somehow we grew up still able to send each other psychic-craft vibes) in Florida had the exact same idea this year. Only difference was that hers is way cuter, and I may have to steal this idea if we do it again next year (which at this point seems pretty definite.) She said she bought her little Christmas-y socks out of the dollar bin, but her friend had put one up using a boat load of socks crocheted by her grandma. I could knit 24 socks for an advent calendar, but that would probably take me an entire year if I got started right this minute.

My cousin's advent calendar has little number tags so the kids know exactly which sock to get into each day, while I let mine be a random string of bags and we let the kids ~~fight over~~ figure out together which one they want to open each day.

Anyway, inside the bags/socks there have to be treats! I went with both edible and non-edible things. Anything from a couple pieces of candy to granola bars and dried fruit (I know this seems overly health-foodie of me, but my kids actually go crazy when I buy dried fruit). I have a few non-edible things like some mini invisible-ink books and little cards that give them extra computer time that day. I still have about 10 bags I need to fill before the middle of the month, so I'm going to hit the dollar bins and look for some small things while I'm out shopping. They both love Legos, so I'm going to put a couple mini figures in there, maybe have a bag with a card for each of them to pick out a couple new songs for their mp3 players from Amazon.com, and maybe a bag with a card saying that tonight will be pizza & board game night with the whole family. I still need to think of a few ideas, so if you've got one, leave it in the comments section!

Name that hat!

2011-10-28T21:17:00.008-06:00

I sure am happy that I asked for help on this one! I was totally stuck trying to figure out a name for my latest knitting pattern, but after I asked for help on my Facebook page yesterday, sixteen people chimed in with plenty of fun names to choose from! Now the hard part: we need to narrow it down to one. Please vote for your favorite and feel free to share a link to this post on your own Facebook wall so your friends and family can get in on the vote!

More Sock Monkeys

2011-10-12T10:14:00.004-06:00

So I've learned something over the past year: some people LOVE sock monkeys. When my photographer friend, Kara asked me to make her a sock monkey hat she could use with babies that she photographs, I didn't quite "get it". I asked her, "So you want a hat that looks like a sock monkey head on top of the baby's actual head?" She insisted that she has seen pictures on the web and that it was cute, so I trusted her. I wasn't able to find a knitting pattern to make one (all the patterns available at the time were crocheted) so I thought I'd see what I could come up with on my own. I've had the pattern up for sale for a little over a year now and of the 756 sales I have so far in my Etsy shop, I bet the sock monkey hat pattern is at least 400 of those sales. So I'm glad I listened to Kara on this one because I'm 100% sure it never would have occurred to me to design such a thing without her suggestion!

I've been hard at work for the past 6 weeks trying to catch lightening in a bottle again. My sock monkey hat customers are by far my friendliest customers and I have received more e-mails than I can count over the past year from them. Many times, they're just complimenting the hat & saying it's the best one they've seen. Lots of people have told me they like my pattern because it's "not creepy like lots of sock monkeys are". And I've had a hand-full of people ask me to design other patterns to go with the hat, most often a matching sweater.

I thought about the design for a long time because I couldn't quite see it in a way where it wasn't over-the-top gaudy. In the end, I decided to write a pattern that would give the knitter 3 options: first, they could just knit the roll-neck raglan in "sock monkey colors" and be done with it. Option 2 is to do the duplicate-stitch design (shown on the baby) to make a small monkey face on the chest. And option 3 is to make an intarsia square that you then crochet (or sew) onto the sweater front. So, 3 options for varying levels of how much you want your sweater to scream "SOCK MONKEY!" and 3 options for level of difficulty (for the record, this is as easy a sweater pattern as you'll ever find and the only thing I consider remotely difficult is the intarsia square option.) I hope people like it!

Now I'm working on re-writing the hat pattern using the same yarn that I used for the sweater so people can truly make a matching set. I'm also adding 2 adult sizes to the hat pattern because it was previously written for newborn - preteen (I had no idea I'd get so many requests from people to help them modify the pattern for a teen or adult!) I have to have it done by the end of the month because I have a yarn shop owner near Madison, WI waiting for my sock monkey hat & sweater patterns. She is going to package them with yarn and sell the kits at a special event day the shops in her town have planned.

If you're a blog reader who plans to purchase the new sock monkey sweater pattern in October, use the code "11spring" at check-out to get $1 off!

Frame Collage

2011-08-29T11:09:00.001-06:00

Second-hand frames, spray-painted chocolate brown and arranged as one gigundic "artwork": sounds simple, but this project took a looong time. First, I had to accumulate several frames. I got most of these at a second-hand store, and many of them didn't have hangers, glass, etc. and had to be cobbled a bit. When they didn't have glass, I used an exacto knife on some thick plastic that I had on an old hanging. Then I had to select the photos for each frame and develop them. I arranged them on the floor in a way that I liked, and they ended up in this "football" shape.

Hanging took a bit of time, using a leveller to get the frames as straight as I could. The frames were all different colors and remained that way for some time... Recently, I finally finished the project by taking everything out of the frames, and taking the frames to the backyard for two coats of spray primer, and two coats of paint. This will take all day, and as you have to do short spurts with spray-paint in order not to drip, it will cripple three fingers on each of your hands for approximately three days.

The whole project, with photos, frames, hardware and paint, cost me less than fifty bucks. Still, I recommend that you be not only thrifty, but clinically insane to attempt this many frames. Still, with 23 framed photos, this project could have easily cost me a few hundred bucks. Glad it's done!

Tulle Flower Headbands

2011-07-03T12:51:00.002-06:00

I've been seeing these tulle flower accessories everywhere and figured it couldn't be too hard or expensive to make your own. I picked up this one at Kohls on clearance for $2 for inspiration and studied it carefully. The back of this one has a bar pin back as well as a serrated hair clip glued to a metal disc so that you could pin it on your sweater OR clip it to your head.

For my first attempt, I wanted to make something for my five year old daughter, so I thought I would try a hot pink flower and attach it to a headband. Here are the supplies I used:

10 discs of tulle cut into large circles (4 inches across)

10 discs of tulle cut into smaller circles (3 inches across)

2 round pieces of white felt (1.5-2 inches across) **Note** It is probably best to use a color of felt that closely matches your tulle color so that it isn't as noticeable under the tulle flower when finished.

Decorative beads or a button to glue into the middle

Headband (we already had one wrapped in white ribbon)

Hot glue gun

It's important to note that these tulle pieces need not be exactly circular. In fact, to save cutting time, I folded my tulle over and over and just cut out a big stack of 10 circles free hand all at once.

Starting with the larger tulle circles, I placed two one on top of the other and folded the disc in half like so.

Then I folded that in half again until I got a wedge shaped thingy-ma-jobbie like this:

Then I put a dab of glue in the inside corner where it comes to a point and pressed the point into the middle of one of the discs of white felt.

I repeated the same process for the remaining 8 large tulle circles, creating each "petal" using two layers of tulle and slightly over lapping them when gluing them down. The end result is a base layer of five petals that completely cover the white felt circle.

For the top layer, I did the exact same thing with the 10 smaller tulle circles. I wasn't too tidy with the glue considering that tulle fabric has holes all over it, so I was constantly getting gluey fingers when I'd try and press the petals down. The clump of glue left in the middle after I finished gluing all of the petals down was a little too substantial for the dainty pearl beads I had a mind to stick into the center, so instead I covered it up with a turquoise button to make it look a little more polished.

So now I had a tulle flower glued to a white felt circle. All that was left to be done was to sandwich a head band between that piece of felt and the other piece of felt, glue liberally....

...and VOILA!

The only real difference I can see between my flower and the one that I bought from Kohls in the first picture is that it looks like the tulle circles in that flower were cut with a scalloped edge.

Total time, about 15 minutes!

Edited to add: After viewing a few more tutorials online, most people are sewing down the folded points of the tulle onto the felt circle to secure it. This would take a little more time, but prevent the gluey mess. I'm going to try that next time!

Smock Dat

2011-06-20T11:49:00.003-06:00

So I really wanted to knit something that used a "smocking" technique. My mom made me a "colonial girl" dress when I was 8 which I LOVED, and the best part of the dress was the smocked apron. It was white and had ruffles and was just adorable. So smocking makes me think of adorable little girl clothes.

Here's the hitch: I couldn't find any patterns I liked, and I didn't really know how to smock anyway. Well, let me tell you, there is just nothing in existence that you can't learn how to do from the internet. After an afternoon surfing the web, I knew enough to come up with my latest knitting pattern.

I'm so proud of this one that I assume you can hear the buttons popping off my shirt from miles around :)

My Crafty Soul Mate

2011-05-04T14:04:00.006-06:00

You knew the quilting thing was just a short distraction, didn't you? An affair, as it were. Now I'm back with my "steady", my soul mate: knitting.

I've been working on the Ellie Dress pattern for more than a month now. It took forever because 1) I wanted to offer it in 8 different sizes. That means lots of test-knitting so I know my math is correct in all the different sizes.
2) The front of the bodice was written as a chart instead of as written instructions. This means I had 8 different charts to write to show the argyle pattern in each size. If I never see another Excel spreadsheet full of charting icons, it will be too soon.

Today my friend Melodee came over with her little girl and after some initial suspiciousness on the part of my little model, she warmed up and we got some great shots. By the way, that tattoo is totally real and not at all photo shopped onto her little arm. Can you believe that?! Anyway, I may not have eaten lunch until 2 this afternoon, but I managed to get in a photo shoot, a visit to the gym, an hour's worth of photo editing and finishing up the pattern, then writing the listings for my Etsy shop and for Ravelry. It's kind of like that army thing: "We do more before breakfast than you do all day..." or something like that.

Baby Clothes Name Blanket

2011-04-21T11:32:00.004-06:00

Let me start here by saying this project is a surprise birthday gift for my daughter next week. So if anyone that reads this spills the beans before I have a chance to give it to her the day after Easter, just go ahead and expect me to show up at your door to administer a beat-down for leaking this out of our little Craft Cone of Silence. What is posted on the blog, stays on the blog. Until Monday, anyway.

But I digress...this story starts 8 1/2 years ago. I am pregnant with my daughter and since second babies don't usually get showers to celebrate their forthcoming arrival, I wanted to do something else special so this baby would know we were happily anticipating her appearance in the world. I stole an idea that my mom had at her baby shower for me: name squares. I passed out and mailed 8x8" squares of fabric to my (female, because we all know how most men are when you ask them to do something crafty...) friends & family and asked them to write a name on the square. I said it could be the name they think we should use for this baby or just their favorite baby name. This works best if you do it before you start blabbling the sex of the baby, because if you do that first, you're going to get a very one-sided blanket out of it. As a person who owns a name blanket, I always thought it was fun to see what names people liked, which people thought I was going to be a boy or a girl, and what names were popular at the time I was born.

After I got the name squares back, I embroidered them right away (I was still pregnant and still had free-time while my 2-year-old napped!) Then, I put them in a drawer....for 8 years.

In my defense, what started out as a name blanket, morphed into a "name and baby clothes" blanket somewhere in Maya's toddlerhood. I thought it would be cute to incorporate clothes she wore as a little girl into the quilt instead of just buying random fabric to patch the name squares together. So, I had to wait a while for her to outgrow her clothes and amass a large enough collection of things that were memorable and not too stained to use!

I went with a twin size because 1) that's the size her bed is right now, and because she has the small bedroom, it's not going to get any bigger, and 2) it's possible to machine-quilt a twin size (and probably even a fill size, but I wouldn't try it with a queen or larger.)

Since my name squares were 8x8", I cut out a matching square from heavy card stock to use as a pattern on the clothes. Many things (shirts, dresses) were easy to find a square to use, but other things (pants, diaper covers, shirts with logos too close to the neckline) took some creativity. On a few shirts, I ended up cutting out two squares, one from the back that I flipped around so the right side faces up, then one from the front that incorporated the neckline, then I sewed the two together so it was still a square, but I got all of the fancy neckline stuff in. If you enlarge the quilt picture, you can see a blue square that was a shirt with lots of necklaces sewn on it and a green jumper with a butterfly on it - both of these squares were done this way. There were also a few items that had cute logos (strawberry shortcake comes to mind) that were in a really inconvenient spot. So, I cut the logos out, cut my square of fabric from wherever worked best, then used my sewing machine as a serger and sewed that sucker back into place on the new square of fabric.

I picked two other challenging garments to picture here: the first is a floral top that had some stains on the front. I thought about using the back (it had cute pearl buttons all the way up the back) but I settled on the side because there's a bow, and my little girl loves her some bows. The side was slitted, so first I sewed up the slit, then cut out the square.

The second challenge was two diaper covers I saved from dresses Maya loved (I think I sold the dresses at a garage sale). They weren't big enough to give me an 8x8" square, so I cut the biggest triangles I could out of them, then sewed them together. After ironing the seam, I was able to cut out my 8x8" square.

For a twin size comforter, I needed 9 squares across and 12 squares going down each row. So, we're talking 108 different squares. As I was cutting squares, I realized I didn't have quite enough different clothes, so I also used a plain pink velour baby blanket, and I cut more than one square from a few of the larger-sized garments.

2011-04-21T11:19:00.002-06:00

After you have all your squares ready, lay them out on the floor. You'd think that you could just randomly sew squares together for a "crazy quilt" like this, but I spent quite a few minutes moving squares around, breaking up the pink with other colors, trying to alternate the "logo & large picture" squares with the "plain or small pattern" squares, and I had a definite spot for each of the name squares (I put the ones from close relatives and friends in the middle, bottom & side that will show once it's on the bed. Squares from people Maya doesn't know as well went all the way at the top (often this part of the quilt is folded over, so these squares don't always show) and the side of the quilt that is tucked in against the wall when it's on the bed. Anyway, spend some time laying it out...you'll be glad you did.

I'm not going to go into a detailed description of how to sew together a quilt (if you're reading a craft blog, I'm going to assume a basic level of sewing competence here...if not, there are plenty of websites that will walk you through the process.)
I did machine quilt this twin-sized comforter. It's a challenge, but not impossible. It involves folding or rolling up the side that's smushed between the machine and the needle, and making sure you never have more than half the comforter on that side of the machine. It's a pain, yes, but it's more of a pain to quilt it by hand. Amen to that.

Slap a blanket binding around the border and you're good to go.

Can't wait for next week!

DIY Princess Leia hair!

2011-03-25T19:56:00.001-06:00

Boy, time for crafting has really gone by the wayside for me! (And the rest of the contributors, I assume, based on the recent blog activity!)

I realize that this blog post won't have relevance for many of you out there, unless you have a Star Wars obsessed daughter like I do. My darling 5 year old girl got ahold of my husbands old Star Wars toys circa 1979 about six months ago and hasn't looked back. She talks at great length about power droids, the differences between a Cloud Car and a Sand Speeder, and asks why Padme Amidala's last name isn't Skywaker since she got married to Anakin. She also frequently request that we all act out the characters as a family. She usually asks me to be Darth Vader....I'm still not sure if that is a compliment or an insult. Anyway, it sure beats playing Barbies every day!

She was recently invited to a neighborhood boy's Star Wars themed birthday party, and was told she could dress in character, if she wanted. Um......YEAH! She decided on Princess Leia (over Padme Amidala and Ahsoka Tano of the Clone Wars animated series) and I thought it would be fun if I could figure out a way to give her Leia's hairdo. Her hair is pretty short these days, so I started to envision using brown earmuffs and making some buns out of yarn to attach to them. Here's the end result.......

What's that you say? You'd ALSO like to have some Princess Leia hair? Well you are in luck because I created a tutorial so that you can make your own!

Supplies needed for PLH (Princess Leia Hair)

A pair of earmuffs
165 yards of brown yarn
Hot glue gun
A spool of brown grosgrain ribbon, either 5/8 in. or 7/8 in. width. (optional)
The force

First, locate yourself some earmuffs. I was trying to find the old school brown furry kind that you used to be able to buy for about a dollar. The earmuff selection was sparse in my local stores in March, so I ended up with these bad boys. The white part that is up against the ear is really too fluffy for optimal results, but it's all I had to work with.

Since Leia does not have orange, purple and green stripes on the top of her head, I decided to wrap the headband part of the earmuffs in brown grosgrain ribbon, overlapping the ribbon and hot gluing it on the inside every time I looped it around. I had about 100 spools of ribbon laying around my house (I'm a member of Girls Hairbow Makers Anonymous), but none plain brown. I took a polka dot print and turned it so that the "wrong side" faced out, making it the right side. What the what? Refer to Exhibit A below.

Exhibit A

Next I took a strand of the brown yard and cut a length of 55 inches. Then I did that 8 more times so that I had 9 pieces of yarn 55 inches long each. Next I knotted one end very tightly to prepare the strands for braiding. I realize that Leia's buns aren't really braided, but I couldn't think of another way to secure all of the strands of hair to the earmuffs with a glue gun without creating a huge, gluey gummed up mess. If any of you in cyberland can improve upon this step, please share your ideas in the comments section at the end of this post!

It helps to have some tension on the yarn when you are braiding, so you can either find a willing participant to hold the knot while you braid, or you can stick a safety pin through the knot and pin it to your couch "friendship bracelet style"!

Braid all of the yarn until you get to the last two inches or so, then put a loose knot in that end in case you need to make adjustments later.

Fire up your glue gun and have extra glue sticks handy - I used about two and a half for the entire project. Take the braid end with the tight knot, squirt some hot glue in the center of the outside of one earmuff, and glue the knot down so that the braided yarn is flat, not on its' edge. Then, start gluing the braid down flat in a spiral pattern taking care to ensure there are no gaps.

Keep going until you've nearly covered the whole earmuff with the braided yarn. When you get near the end, you can take out the loose knot in the remaining end and adjust the yarn/braid longer or shorter, then knot it back together tightly. Trim the ends of the yarn close to the knot, then tuck the knotted end partly under the rest of the braided area (or don't) and hot glue that sucker down. The end result should look something like this.

Repeat this process on the other side. Give them to your giddy daughter, or keep them for yourself to wear to Pick N Save/Kroger/Jewel on double coupon day!

May the force be with you!

Paper Bag Scrapbook

2011-02-09T13:17:00.004-06:00

Greetings loyal blog readers! I'm Natalie, a new contributor to 11 Spring Street, and am thrilled to share my craft/cooking/DIY successes (and many failures!) with all of you!

I do not consider myself a scrapbooker. The process of sorting, printing and arranging photos seems daunting to me, and with a 5 and 2 year old, I just don't feel like I can put that kind of time into one project at this point in my life. I'm more of an "insert-photos-into-prearranged-layouts-and-purchase-a-book-through-Shutterfly" kind of gal. The expense of all of the decorative do-dads, cutting/punching tools and paper has also been a deterrent for me to embrace this hobby. However, for Christmas 2009, my Mom, Sister and I decided to do a handmade gift exchange. I was racking my brain for an idea when I remembered some cute scrapbooks I had seen at a friends' house. This friend, (let's call her Amy since that's her real name), told me that the book was constructed out of brown paper bags! Yeah, that's right - the kind you can buy 100 of at Walmart for about $2. I could hardly believe it and immediately knew this would be my gift idea for my Sister's Christmas present.

I went home and Googled the term "paper bag scrapbook" and lots of links came up. I've included a link to one tutorial that shows how to assemble the book, and one way of binding the edge. To keep it simple, I decided to limit the photos for the book I made to those from the most recent calendar year. Lucky for me, my sister had recently had some very nice family photos taken, and I had enough of my own photos of their family from the past year to supplement. Basically, you cover the paperbag pages with scrapbook paper (card stock weight works best), design your layout, add photos & embellishments and voila!

I was super happy with the result, and although it did take me about 6-8 hours worth of work to finish up this bad boy, I have to think that it was a lot less time than a traditional "from scratch" 12x12 (or whatever the traditional size is) scrapbook.

All in all, I spent about $40 on materials. That included a large pack of fancy scrapbook paper, Mod Podge adhesive (more on this later....), embellishments, paper bags and photo printing. Use those 40% of JoAnn Fabric coupons, of course! Now, $40 might seem like a lot, but I have enough of the materials left over to probably make 2 additional books of the same size. So, let's say the cost was closer to $15 for the one book.

A few things I liked about this style of scrapbook vs. a traditional book:

1) The novelty of it being made out of paper bags!
2) The little pockets where you can tuck additional photos or momentos
3) The size - easier to leave out on a desk or table for people to actually see and enjoy

Here's a tip that I will share with you if you decide to make one of these books. Use double sided tape to stick down things that need sticking. I used an adhesive called Mod Podge to glue everything down that needed gluing. Only later did someone suggest to me that you can also use double sided tape - DUH, why didn't I think of that?? I would definitely try that next time, as once in awhile the Mod Podge would seep out from under the edge of the item being glued and get on my fingers or worse, one of the photos, and kind of smear up the finish a little. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, using tape would eliminate all of the drying time required in between pages.

Here are some photos of the finished album I made. Names have been removed to protect the innocent!

Front cover - I used an accordian-fold binding method, but you can punch holes along one edge and tie with ribbon, among other things

Here's an example of the pockets created by some of the pages and how you can tuck additional photos or momentos inside.

Other hiding spots for additional photos can be created when you only glue/tape down three sides of the main photo on the page, as in the page on the left. The photo behind it is on its own individal card that can be pulled out.

Vellum and transfer letters came in super handy to create the look I wanted.

Some of the additional photo cards I made for inserting into pockets within the book.

I love the idea of making one of these for a kiddo for their birthday, or for a spouse to have on their desk at work.

I'm greatly looking forward to seeing the projects of other contributors and hearing what our readers have to say!

Happy crafting!

Blizzard Socks

2011-02-06T12:09:00.004-06:00

I am a total delinquent with this craft blog. If it makes you feel any better, I've been a total delinquent about most things for the last 6 months or so. It's to the point that a couple nights ago at dinner, my husband jokingly told me to write a letter of resignation from the chores I am abandoning, so he'll know what he needs to do to pick up the slack. (I say"jokingly" just because he wasn't mad about it, not jokingly as if he thought it wasn't true that I had decided to pawn off household chores on anyone who will do them.)

Anyway, I digress. I am finally back today to show you all what I've been up to.... You see, I caught this disease..."Knobsession", "Knitsession", er....I'm obsessed with knitting, ok? I can trace it back to the day last July that my photographer friend Kara (ps, check her out because she rocks) asked me if I could knit her a sock monkey with a matching hat to use ith babies in her photo sessions. I had never heard of such a thing and honestly, the idea of it didn't say "cute" to me. It said, "creepy baby picture that these babies will grow up to roll their eyes at and make fun of". But because Kara takes great pictures, I figured that she probably knew something I didn't, so I told her I'd give it a try.

I figured it would be easy enough to find a knitting pattern for a sock monkey hat on Ravelry.com (it's like facebook for knitters & crocheters). Kara had said that she had seen these hats "all over the internet", so there had to be patterns available, right? Well, that could be correct if I knew how to crochet, which I don't. I felt super-lucky when I finally found a site that listed a "Knitted Sock Monkey Hat" pattern. So happy, in fact, that I downloaded it immediately without allowing myself to believe that the site looked a little shady. What I actually ended up downloading was the virus that put the final nail in the coffin for our 6-year-old pc. What kind of monster attaches a computer virus to a KNITTING PATTERN, I say?!

Anyway, after that whole fiasco, and now in need of a new computer, I decided to write my own freaking pattern. Not that I had ever done that before, but I'm not one to shy away from a challenge. I found a sock monkey toy pattern here and made that sucker first while deciding how I was going to pull a matching hat out of thin air. In the end, I just figured out how to knit a basic earflap hat (which turned out to be not-so-hard, except for the part where I had to find children of friends in various sizes to fine-tune the sizing of the thing). Then I modified the face features from the sock monkey toy pattern so they would work with the size of face I was trying to create on the hat. Voila! Knitted Sock Monkey Earflap Hat Pattern was born and put up for sale at the end of July, and it's still the only one I can find on the internet (well, except for a few ugly "stocking cap" styles, but I'm not afraid of that competition!)

Since then, I think I've sold about 70 or 80 monkey hats to friends and in my etsy shop, and written 4 more patterns. Total sales at my etsy shop just topped 300 this week, and in honor of that (and being trapped in the house for 3 days because of the blizzard) I decided to write a pattern to offer up for free!

I've been wanting to do hand-knit socks, but my first few attempts were disappointing. Nothing more annoying than socks that don't stay up, or are baggy around the gussets (those are the little triangular sections on the left and right sides of your heel...the patterns I've encountered so far have not had nice, tight gussets!) So I decided I was going to write a pattern for The Best Fitting Socks Ever. And, here they are (drumroll, please......)

Nice, right? Look at those tops staying where they're supposed to be! Check out my nice, tight gussets! (Is it hot in here or is it just my socks?)
Anyway, I'm offering this pattern for FREE for the entire month of February, so if you want a copy, all you have to do is go to my etsy shop, click on the left sidebar where it says "Contact" and send me a message (including your e-mail address, so I know where to send the pattern!) saying that you saw the free sock pattern on the Sprint Street Blog. I'll be sending patterns out at least once a day, so you should get yours within 24 hours of contacting me!

Robot Diaper Cake

2010-10-20T11:27:00.002-06:00

another cute baby, and a robot-themed diaper cake

2010-10-18T15:13:00.001-06:00

(And fully lined).

2010-10-18T15:11:00.002-06:00

After!

2010-10-18T15:10:00.001-06:00

During...

Kitchen Re-Do

2010-10-18T15:03:00.002-06:00

When I was seven, my dad (a teacher) worked with the shop teacher at his school to make me a kitchen playset out of plywood. When I got older, we gave it to my cousin. It was kept in her country carport/basement for many years, getting exposed to many winds and weathers. I forgot about it.

A few years ago, it was dropped off at my mom's house when they cleaned up the basement. I'm really glad they did this, instead of just throwing it away. I dragged it out to mom's front yard, and scrubbed it down with soap, water, and a hose. Then I let it dry in the sun, and drove it 5.5 hours back up to my house.

Now I have two little girls, and I decided to make it over. My dad had painted it with yellow house painted, rather sloppily I might add. The plywood was a bit soft, and the hardware was all rusted. I sanded it down all over, and changed out the hardware. After a lot of cussing and swearing (and nearly dragging it to the curb several times), it has been primed and repainted. I added some details, like a steel panel for magnets, a stencil, some vintage-looking knobs, and a faux oven door viewing window. I also lined the shelves with polka-dot shelf lining, which I tacked down with a little glue. My older daughter loves it and plays with it every day. (The four-month-old is, as you might imagine, largely indifferent.) For Christmas, I've bought a pink refrigerator to go with the set.

I was going to replace the dishpan, too, but I noticed that the date is on the Rubbermaid label: "1981." I kept it to show that she looks pretty good after 29 years!

before...

Back From the Dead!

2010-06-14T11:41:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you, but life keeps getting in the way of my crafting! (Or maybe it's my knitting addiction that's getting in the way.) Either way, I haven't had much to post here about lately.

Lucky for you, my daughter is unsatisfied with almost every item of clothing I've bought for her in the last three years or so. She much prefers coming up with her own fashion ideas, then instructing me on how to create them. Today's post comes from a copy-cat tank top she begged me to make based on one I got from Ann Taylor Loft a number of years ago.

I liked the idea of my top - fairly plain at first glance, but just enough beaded detail on the shoulders to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, I wasn't willing to admit in the dressing room how ill-fitting this top way, and I now have to wear a second top underneath it to keep from flashing people on the street.

Anyhoo....back to Maya. She loves to emulate anything "big girl" and so demanded I sew beaded detail to the shoulders of her plain pink tank top. It was a very easy project, cost about $4 in supplies (that's the shirt + the beads, people!) and, as you can see from the pic, Maya is super pleased with the result. I guess this will be our "twins" outfit for summer 2010.

Kitchen Curtains

2009-08-10T20:21:00.004-06:00

I made kitchen curtains!

The first one is a valance, exactly like the nursery valances that I made for Ruby's room, only I didn't use the button decorations on the tab tops, and I used the apple and pear material instead of the hot air balloon material. (Same material as Nicole's pillowcase dress! I had bought it already; I'm totally NOT A COPYCAT-ER.)

Then I made one for the back door at my husband's request, because he is convinced that any number of peeping Toms are randomly jumping our back fence, getting onto our deck, and peering into the back door to take a good look at the blank wall that faces it. They MUST be deterred.

I attempted to drill a hole into the door before realizing that it's a steel door. Enter the Magna Rod: a fairly strong magnetic rod that needs no drilling. Don't buy cheaper varieties. The magnet is not as good, and the plastic is cheaper and will shatter if it falls to your granite floor. Ask me how I know that.

I sewed a very long tab onto the inside of the curtain (which is just a long strip with tubes sewed at either end), and wrapped it around when I gathered it up. Then I marked it where I wanted it, and sewed the end. Then I sewed on a button where I had marked it, and a button-hole on the tab.

This last picture is one that I took with all of the dirty dishes still in the sink. Don't judge me. (Now you know what I have to let go in order to get a sewing project done!)

Simple Table Runner

2009-07-21T20:42:00.004-06:00

My Ma's mother-in-law is more than 90 years old, and she still lives by herself (with some assistance). When I got married, she gave me a stack of these awesome trivet hot-pads that she crocheted. Being that I don't have that skill, and that I love bright colors, I adored them.

But I wanted to make them "shine" just a bit more than setting them under a pot now and then, or using them as washcloths. So I set them on a diagonal, and stitched them together by hand with embroidery floss. Now they are a very pretty table runner, or a nice feature on my buffet when guests come over with hot food.

Super Yum

2009-07-12T17:59:00.000-06:00

I made a dinner a few nights ago that was lovely enough that I thought I'd share the recipe here.

The pasta dish started with roasted garlic pasta that we bought fresh at the farmer's market. I have no idea if that makes any difference in the taste, but the pasta was definitely more flavorful than your average package of Barilla Linguine. So for what it's worth, that's what we used.

1 lb. Roasted Garlic Pasta
1 1/2 lbs. fresh asparagus, cut diagonally (we skimped because our grocery store doesn't have scales in the produce section, and I'm bad at guessing what 1 1/2 lbs. of asparagus looks like.)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
2 oz. prosciutto, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese

Boil the asparagus for 5 minutes. Remove from water, throw in a little salt, then add the pasta. Cook pasta for 8-10 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of the water, then drain the pasta.

In a large skillet, heat oil & add onion & garlic - cook 3 minutes. Add prosciutto and vinegar, cook 1 minute. Add asparagus, pasta, 1/2 cup reserved pasta water, red pepper flakes and salt. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan.

It's a com-Post!

2009-04-18T14:37:00.000-06:00

Ok, Gina, I finally got out to that compost bin last night! Here's all I know:

There are not many things that I love more than passing on a good tip. And this is the best gardening tip I ever got from my friend Sarah, who has a yard around a newly constructed house (which means yucky clay soil) in which everything grows like it's the tropics. For a few years I quizzed her about her fertilizing & feeding habits. I wanted to know how often she watered and how she pruned. But after a while, I finally figured out the difference between her garden and mine: she had been using compost!

At first, composting sounded like a lot of work, and I wasn't terribly interested in having a large bin of rotting food and plants anywhere near my house. My grandpa (who has grown many a garden in his day) told me I was asking for a pest problem. But I decided that if Sarah could do it, I'd give it a try, too. I mean, I didn't notice a horrible smell and an army of mice or raccoons in her yard.

So I bought a bin on-line. That was only after going to every garden and home-improvement store in our area only to be told that they don't sell compost bins. What can I say, it's Central Illinois and we're kinda behind the times down here. This is a listing for my type, but I swear I payed way less than that 3 years ago. I've also seen announcements in the paper these last couple summers about an environmental organization that comes to the Peoria mall one day each summer and sells bins for super-cheap. Also, if you have a big yard, you could just make a pile somewhere and compost that way (although I don't know if that would increase your chances of inviting pests). You could even cut the bottom out of a garbage can, drill holes in the sides and use that. But I do love my bin because of the sliding door on the bottom that allows me to get ready compost out before the stuff at the top of the bin is broken down.

I know there are "recipes" for composting, but if you just follow the general rule of "not too much of any one thing at a time" you should be fine. Here's a link to an on-line list of what things are/are not compostable. For us, our main ingredients are garden waste (like weeds that haven't gone to seed yet, flower stems from flowers that have bloomed and faded, and errant grass that was growing in the wrong place), kitchen scraps (we keep a big bowl in the fridge and dump produce & grain scraps in there until the bowl fills up every few days, then we take it out to the bin...and no, we don't do that in the dead of winter), and dry leaves and grass clippings. Those are basically the 3 categories of stuff that you can compost, and you just have to remember to always bury your kitchen scraps, and stir up the whole mixture every few days. If you do start to notice a smell (normally, it should just kinda smell like dirt) that means you've put too much of one thing in there and you need to break it up with other ingredients.

I think this is our 3rd or 4th year of doing this now, and I've never noticed an ant or mouse near the bin, much less anything scarier. The bin is outside my son's window and we're a family that has the windows open in the summer in all but the very hottest couple weeks of the year, and I have almost never noticed a bad smell wafting into his room. So if you want free, nutritious plant food, or if you just want to produce less garbage (once we started composting our food scraps and recycling all paper trash, we got our family of 4 down to one plastic bag of garbage a week that we set out for collection) this is a really great, and fairly easy way to do it!

Diaper Cakes

2009-04-09T08:36:00.005-06:00

I told my brother over the phone that I was making a diaper cake, and he said, "That... Is the most disgusting thing I've ever heard in my life." (And for someone who rented every horror movie that was available at Video 102 in the eighties over six times each, that's saying something.) No doubt he envisioned the SNL skit in which Kristen Wiig cooks up "edible Pampers" as a recycling solution. But no, as I'm sure the two people who read and contribute to this blog are aware, diaper cakes are not for eating. They're for smiles! And also, pooping on.

When Ruby was first born, I did my Gina thing of trying to "getting ahead" and be a prepared, good mommy. So I bought the giant cases of diapers because they are less expensive, not realizing that what I'd given birth to was Giant Baby, who would rapidly outgrow each size in a week or two, pick them up and look at me as if to say, "Can I eat these, or what?" So I ended up with lots of extra teeny diapers that will not so much as cover one of her thunderous little thighs. And then I Googled "diaper cakes," and ended up with this video on YouTube. I knew lots of people locally that were having babies, so I decided it would be a good way to give gifts.

The video was very helpful, though I'm not sure the numbers that she gives for each layer are what I ended up with. You can use any size diaper, and as a tip, the pampers newborn ones give you a totally white cake, while some of the Huggies give you a patterned one. I used 66 total for each cake, with a center of eight in each layer. The middle layer has 20 total, with 8 in the center and 12 outside that, and the bottom layer has the 8, then the 12, then another 18 around that. Here is my general list of supplies:

about 66 diapers (if you have a couple less, you can insert presents inside the cake)
a 14" cake round, or other base, such as a wrapped box flap, cake pedestal, or books
a roll of ribbon (Joann has some on clearance, usually)
wooden cake dowels (one bag does several cakes, and these are necessary)
tulle netting (one roll, again, does several cakes. I got lavender because it is neutral) or cellophane wrap
assorted rubber bands (these are available at Target)
various stuffed animal toppers, outfits, blankets, whatever

So, what you do first is sit in front of "Biggest Loser: Couples," and roll up the diapers, open end first. I'm a little obsessive and I fold the sides in a bit so that I get a roll with flat ends, and they stack better. Center the bands on each diaper, and then gather eight together, with one in the center and seven around it. Put a larger rubber band around that. Do that three times, then build the middle and lower layers around two of those. Turn all the diaper seams to the inside. Stack the layers and push two dowels down through them. This really works well to stabilize the cake. If they stick up above your cake a bit, no worries, just pop a topper up there. Put the cake on your base, tie the tulle across your cake one way, put the topper on, and tie another tulle ribbon across the stuffed animal or topper's "lap."

You can also take out some of the diapers and put surprise gifts inside the cake. (The Mustela products work really well for this, because they are cylindrical, and fill the center on two of the layers.) Or, you can roll an outfit and tie it with a rubber band, etc.

I was making a cake for my friend Jenny, when I realized that I had enough for two. Our brand new next door neighbor had just had a baby boy two days before that, so I tested out my first one on them. I used leftover blanket quilt binding for the ribbon around each layer (this hides the rubber bands), and wrapped a box flap in foil for the base. (It can be square, as long as it is smaller than the cake). This one is all white, and I didn't even need to make a second trip to the store! I delivered it with a giant pan of manicotti, and I think I made some new friends.

The second one I made was the one that I spent a little more, for my friend Jenny. She had a circus theme to her shower, and I had so much fun making this one. I got a circus receiving blanket on Ebay, as well as Wilton circus cake toppers, an "M" for the baby's name (Milo), and an outfit for the monkey. I doubled the ribbon for that circus look (the bows are all made with hot glue, not actually tied. And everything is hot glued to itself, never to the diapers). I put the blanket on top of a plastic cake pedestal, and the cake on top of that. I tied the monkey's hands together around the cake, and stuck the "M" in between them.

I was going for Kong scaling the cake, but I asked Chris if he thought it looked like the monkey was humping the cake. He said, "Oh, I hope so."

The third cake I made was for my friend Beata, who had a safari-themed shower. I got the animals on sale after Valentine's Day, although the dollar store has some good little topper animals, too. I stuck two books together with Zots (removable sticky dots) so that the books aren't hurt, and used that as the base. I also put Mustela shampoo in this one.

I found the ribbon on sale. I hope I don't sound cheap - but the idea is that the diapers and the baby supplies are really the gift - you don't want to spend too much decorating the cake.

Maybe it is really "suburban mom" of me, but I have lots of fun making these. I used all my extra diapers, and then some!

Pillowcase Chic

2009-03-07T21:09:00.001-06:00

You'll be in style during the current depression wearing a cute little dress made out of a pillowcase! The one I made earlier today was actually just made from regular fabric, but the dress is based on the idea on the "pillowcase dress". I'm just gonna link that phrase to a blog I found giving instructions on this dress, because I just don't feel like typing that much tonight. But suffice it to say, if you've done much sewing before, you can probably figure out how to make this little project, even without instructions.

Instead of instructions, I'll just give you the quick story of how I came to make this dress. You see, it appears that I am the only person under the age of 65 in this town that knows how to use a sewing machine. So when friends of mine see something they like, some of them think to themselves, "I wonder if Nicole could make that?" A friend of mine was looking at a photography blog a while back from a really great photographer in our area, and she came across this post. She thought the dress that the baby had on was adorable and asked if she could commission a similar dress from me for her 3-year-old. It looked like a simple design, so I said I'd give it a try. I was describing it to my sister and she said, "Oh, that sounds like a pillowcase dress." I googled that and came up with all sorts of instructions confirming that the way I had planned to make it would work out just fine. So that's why the dress looks crazy short on my daughter - it was actually made for a little girl two years younger than her.

I guess this can be my "depression back-up plan". If we need some extra cash, I'll whip up a batch of dresses to go sell on the street corner!

Your Fake Album

2009-03-04T02:55:00.002-06:00

Here's the useless thing I've been doing and you can do it too!
Go to Wiipedia and select a random article. Then, pick a random quote from The Quotations Page. Next, find an image by exploring Flickr's most interesting pages. When you put them all together you have a fake band name, a fake album title and a fake record cover. It's fun and totally pointless.

King Vulture
I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. -Joan Didion
Image by 4123

House Call
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising. -Mark Twain
Image by Superbomba

Bringing My Dining Room Out of the 90s

2009-02-15T23:20:00.002-06:00

Or out of the 70s? I don't know....exactly when was beige fabric printed with small music notes and square dancing calls ("Do-si-do!" "Promenade your partner!") hip? The story of how our dining room set came to be ours is kind of an odd one, so I'll give you the short version: It's 1998, we just got married 2 months ago, and we're moving into our very own home! It's the start of the school year, and I mention our new house to one of my co-workers because I know we live in his neighborhood. He's a very nice man in his mid-50s, and he says, "Do you guys need any furniture? We're cleaning out my mom's house because she just died. Come on over after school and you can take a look at what we have left."

Since I have a personal policy of never turning down a guy's dead mom's furniture, we drive out to her house after school that day. He gives us his mom's dining room set, a twin bed, a giant ladder, a dehumidifier, and probably a couple other things I'm forgetting. He won't take any money for it, so to show him my gratitude, I bake him an apple pie next day. He smiles and thanks me, then puts it on the table in the teacher's lounge to share...later someone told me it was because he'll go into anaphylactic shock from one of the pie ingredients (was there nuts in the pie? I can't remember what he was allergic to.) So anyway, kinda an odd way to aquire furniture, but it's served us well!

The chair seats, however were totally worn out when we got it. I set out immediately to find fabric to recover them. And for some reason, I liked the beige square dancing stuff. (In my defense, the words are very faint and you wouldn't necessarily take the time to read them if you were just sitting down to eat!)

A couple weeks ago, I was out at Hobby Lobby and saw some fabric I just loved. I stood there trying to figure out what I should make with it. It was a heavier cotton fabric and I decided it would be just the thing for our dining room chairs. Partially because our chairs were getting so ghetto again from years of use, and partially because the colors were perfect. Our dining room sits right between our kitchen, which has walls same color as the blue in this fabric, and our family room, which has a lot of espresso brown furniture. So this was the perfect fabric to tie it all together.

I feel a little silly explaining how to recover a chair, because it really is pretty self-explanatory, but since this is a craft blog, I'll go for it.

First, unscrew the chair seat from the frame, then pry out the old staples. Take off the old fabric and toss it, but you might save the old padding and just put new stuff on top of it for a little extra fluff.

2009-02-15T23:06:00.002-06:00

Cover the chair with a few layers of padding. I used about 4 or 5 layers of quilt batting, but there's probably a variety of battings, foams & padding stuff that you could find at any craft place to use for this. Just depends on how smushy you want the seat to be.

Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the seat, lay in all on top of each other, they break out the staple gun! I like to put a few staples on the sides across from one another before I move on to the two remaining sides. It keeps the fabric nice & straight, and it's easier to do the corners when the middle is already stapled down.

When you're all stapled, trim the fabric so you can see the holes that the chair screws are going to fit back into. Plop the top back on the chair (I find it helps to have all the screws slightly screwed up through the top of the chair so you can make sure the pad is situated properly over all 4 holes before you go screwing it all back together), and go to town!

Now I need to get to work on a tablecloth to cover up the old, scratched up table top!

The Littlest Print Exchange

2009-02-14T23:02:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure if anybody around here makes artwork in editions, or if you know anyone that does, but I thought I'd take a chance and tell you about a new project that I started today. It is a juried print exchange (in which I am the juror) and it goes like this: Submit an online portfolio of some of your artwork. If your work fits into the group, you make an edition of fifty 3.5" x 3.5" prints and send them to me. I sort them out into portfolios containing one print from each of the fifty participants. Each participant is then sent one complete portfolio. I'm planning a fancy package to house the prints. At the end, you can buy a bunch of tiny frames from Ikea or Dollar General and cover your walls with awesome artwork. I'm mostly interested in printmaking disciplines like relief prints, intaglios, silk screens, or lithography, but I'm also excited about digital prints or photographs. Anyway, think about it and check out the Littlest Print Blog if you might be interested.

Two Silly Projects

2009-02-12T14:08:00.001-06:00

After finishing a Very Big Knitting Project (a sweater that took me a month to complete) I needed a couple of quick instant-gratification-type projects. A "palate cleanser" if you will. I also didn't want anything I'd have to put much thought into color/type of yarn. In fact, this first project was originally going to be something that I used leftover odds & ends from past projects, until I realized that the sizes (and washability) of the various leftovers were so different, I wasn't sure how it would all come together. So I spent the $3 and bought two skeins of "peaches & cream" 100% cotton yarn to work with.

This first project is, obviously, a SWIFFER COVER (try not to be too jealous). When I showed it to a friend, she said, "Oh, I just use a dishrag on mine." Hmm...well, that would have been quite brilliant if I had figured it out. But then I might not have seen the need for this knitted swiffer cover. And I wouldn't have felt nearly as fancy while I swiff.

Quick & Easy project two was knitting cuffs onto dish gloves. Theoretically, the cuffs are supposed to catch that water that runs down your arms & into your gloves when you accidentally lift your hands out of the water at the wrong angle. I haven't tested them yet, so I'll have to report back about whether they work. But in the meantime, I'll feel much cuter than usual as I wash dishes. (It may even motivate me to stop sticking every giant pan I use in the dishwasher!)

The Shelf

2009-02-12T10:11:00.003-06:00

I don't know if this qualifies as something I made, since it is a "found item." And I don't know if it qualifies as a "found item" since I had my stepfather pry it off a hearth in someone else's home with a crowbar. But it sure was a project!

This shelf came from an old house that has since been burnt to the ground. It stood on my grandfather's property in southern Illinois, on one of his fields. He had purchased the land from the Hawf family, and came to own the old house. It was in serious disrepair, and only squatters had lived there recently (or meth addicts, if you like.) The house was so old you could see through it; it had no plumbing (just an outhouse), and a potbelly stove heated the place. We went through it and salvaged what was left, then it was burned, and my mom built her new house where it stood.

I fell in love with the hearth shelf, and my stepfather pried it loose for me. He flattened the rusty nails on the back. I didn't change a thing on it. I just scrubbed it down with a bucket of soapy water on their front lawn and let it dry in the sun. Then, when I finally hauled it up here, I was just faced with how to hang it up.

First, I attempted to drill through it, mark the holes, and screw it into drywall anchors. That was a miserable failure, and nearly led to divorce. The wood was so incredibly thick and sturdy, and it took forever outside in the hot sun to drill through it. Then, because the wall in our spare bedroom turned out to be more plaster than drywall, I only succeeded in putting several large holes in it. I patched them, repainted over it, and tried again. I finally succeeded in mounting a couple 200-lb. hanging hooks, and mounting hooks to the back of the shelf, and simply hanging it up like a large picture.

I love the old decals along it. It has held up very well, and I have to say it was almost worth all the work of dragging it up here, washing it, and mounting it while pregnant and crying hormonally. Almost. Just don't look at the wall behind it... It needs to be sanded down and repainted one more time!!

Personal Triumph Booties!

2008-12-06T20:18:00.001-06:00

This past fall, I decided the time had come to tackle a knitting project All By Myself. I had done scarves, hats, potholders, a blanket, socks....but in each project, I either had the friend who taught me to knit, my Knitting Guru, who entered the picture a few months later, or You Tube videos to show me what to do. I decided I wanted to try to tackle a project just by following a pattern, and see if I could do it without any help.

I chose booties, thinking that they couldn't be much harder than socks. I did go to my Knitting Guru to ask for a pattern that she thought was do-able by an amateur, such as myself. She gave me two great patterns, and although the one I decided to do had a mathematical problem in it (the directions for each row didn't match up with the number of stitches in each row) I figured a way to get around that and knitted up five lovely pairs of booties. A couple of them had little holes around the ankle where you can string a ribbon, and although it was very cute, I thought it was also totally impractical. (I am not the type of mom who would spend any time tying and re-tying ribbons around my baby's kicking ankles.) So I modified the pattern yet again and came up with this bootie that I really liked. I knitted six pairs in various colors...they were pretty quick to make, and I wasn't sure what sex my sister's baby was going to be so I wanted to be prepared! Since my nephew turned out to be a boy (as nephews often do) I sent a couple of the boy pairs up to Wisconsin this weekend. I gave away two of the girlie pairs to friend's babies, but I still have this one multi-colored pink pair left. Anyone know a baby girl with about an infant size 3 foot who needs some warm booties this winter?

Hot Air Balloon Centerpieces

2008-12-06T17:40:00.005-06:00

As you saw in Ruby's nursery curtains, I have a hot air/flying machines theme going in her room. I decided to extend that theme to her baby shower this past summer before her arrival. I know, I know - you aren't supposed to be in charge of your own shower decor or theme, but my mom lives pretty far out of town, and she had already thrown me one shower at her house. So I decided that the more I could have done by the time she got here just one or two days before the shower, the less she would have to do and the more we could just visit together, have fun, and eat. The eating was especially important to me in my last month of pregnancy.

I bought some potted flowers. I think these were called "firewitch cheddar pinks" or something like that. I'd be lying if I said the name alone didn't appeal to me. But I wanted to get perennials so that people would get a more lasting take-home item. I got some unisex-looking baby fabric from the clearance section of Joann Fabrics, some unpainted napkin rings, and several 8" styrofoam balls. By the way, are you aware how much those balls cost?! After looking around for quite awhile on the internet, I actually felt that Joann had the best prices on them. If you get the next size up, there is a huge price jump of like $10. So I decided that the $3.99 eight-inch balls would be perfect!

I wrapped the fabric around a ball, then pulled it through the napkin ring. Then I took scissors and kind of hacked away at the bottom until all the fabric was trimmed away. I pushed a kabob skewer (you know, the kind you get at the regular grocery store) up through the center. The sharp end was perfect for that. Then I stuck it down into the plant. Then I cut up a regular white plastic party tablecloth to cover the container that the plants came in. I tied curling ribbon around the base to secure that on. Next, we tied ribbon on by going under the bottom, up to the top and crossing it over, and then taping it down to the bottom so it didn't move (you could also start at the top, cross under the bottom, and then tie at the top so you can curl the ends). Ma had made cute little buntings from leftover streamers (from the other shower with my aunties and cousins) and brought those with her to tape onto the sides. You just cut a circle, put a slit in it to the center, and accordion it until it is a half circle. Then you repeat with a smaller circle.

We put one centerpiece on each table with some confetti, then tied a small ribbon under one of the chairs. Then we announced that the person who got the ribbon under his or her chair won the centerpiece. I was proud and happy when people actually seemed happy to have won...

Weird Shirt

2008-11-17T14:20:00.005-06:00

Last year, Chris and I went to a Weird Al concert in Milwaukee: the GREATEST CONCERT OF MY LIFE. (And no, it wasn't my first concert.) I knew we were sitting in the front row (yeah, NOT easy to score if you are familiar with the screaming hoards of nerdball Al maniacs), so I had to represent. A t-shirt was necessary to let Al know that I'd been with him since the beginning: third grade, when I first snotted to the tune of "Another One Rides the Bus." But many weeks of browsing Ebay yielded nothing in my size. But who needs your size when you have skillz? I got a size large shirt and customized it.

I used the book "Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt." I chose one that was ruched on the sides. First, I got a shirt that I already had and knew fit well to use as a template. Then I traced a bit larger than that to figure in seam allowances, and a few inches longer so that it could be gathered.

In this design, you cut strips to use as the ruching cord. Then you sew the seam allowances to the outside, and sew them down so that they form tubes to thread the cord through. You weave the cord up one side and out under the arm, then down through the other tube. Then you tie them at the bottom on either side. White trash-a-licious.

The neck holes and the arm holes can stay unfinished, because you're using jersey knit, which won't unravel (the whole book is really based on this principle.) I cut a slit in the top, and sewed a small piece of extended elastic at the bust for a nice little gather. The shirt came out really well, and the evening was a total success, except for the time Al looked right at me and I was singing the WRONG WORDS. He pointed at me, like, "NOW sing that line!" one line later. Doh! I'm sorry Al! I love you!

Incidentally, I didn't post these pictures last year in part because I was afraid they MADE ME LOOK FAT. Um, yeah. And now? I just look at them late at night and allow a single tear to trickle slowly down my cheek.

When this shirt fits again, I'll know the pregnancy weight is off!

More advanced knitting maneuvers

2008-09-28T21:59:00.000-06:00

I learned how to knit last winter. I mastered scarves and potholders early on. Once someone showed me how to "knit in the round" and do increase and decreases stitches, I realized hats weren't too hard either. I got very brave last spring and, with the help of some videos off of You Tube, figured out how to make socks (they're pretty similar to hats until you get to the heel...that's when those fantastic You Tube videos come in handy!)

But the final frontier for me was making an actual piece of clothing. Not just accessories like scarves and socks, but something that was solely responsible for keeping me from getting arrested for nudity on the street. I really want to make a sweater that I can wear, but I figured it was better to start out small. Make all my mistakes on a baby-size sweater so I could hone my technique before moving on to an adult size. But lo and behold, my first attempt turned out pretty well! I still have to find a clip or snap of some kind to attach so the sweater can be worn closed, but besides that it's done!

This sweater is actually knit flat, starting at the bottom of the back. As you go, you knit the sleeves, then bind off the neck and finish one side of the front. After you get down to that side's hem, you pick up stitches on the other side of the neck, finish that sleeve and then knit the other side of the front. (That probably doesn't make much sense, but I swear it's a very easy way to knit a sweater.) So when you're done knitting, you still have to stitch up each side and underarm seam before it's actually wearable. Next project: a Nicole-size sweater!

I built some sh*t

2008-09-03T09:05:00.011-06:00

So, I was really flattered when Gina invited me to be a contributor to this blog; then I got some sort of creative block. A year and a half later, I finally have something to share.

I live in what was a really drab (Navajo white paint and cheap gray carpet) apartment when I first moved in. Slowly but surely, thanks to cheap rent (and rent control) and real estate prices, I've been motivated to make some minor improvements.

The last bastion of ugliness was my kitchen; the scope of the project was so overwhelming I didn't know where to begin. Finally, I took the plunge and signed up for woodshop class through the adult education program in my area. I proceeded to build a new cabinet for one wall in my kitchen, strip, sand and repaint all the existing cabinet frames, and build all new doors and drawers for them.

Why do this, especially when I rent? Well, due to the aforementioned cheap rent and high cost of owning, I knew I was going to be here for a while, and why live in ugliness when you don't have to? Secondly, it cost me less than an additional month's rent to redo the kitchen and when you take a gander below, I think you'll understand why it was so worth it.

So, with no further ado, I present to you, my kitchen (oh, and if you click the little callout symbol on the lower left of the embedded show, you'll see the captions for the pictures - and I think if you click on the slide show itself you can go to a full-size version of the pictures...):

I! Have Made! Paint!

2008-09-01T10:54:00.003-06:00

First of all, let me point out the elephant in the room. I have painted the whole upper level of our house while pregnant. (I only intended to do the nursery, but then I just couldn't stop). Sometimes I get the reaction, "Oh, you can't do that!!" but I did a much research as I could on the subject on my own, and haven't found any real evidence that modern paints have ever done any damage to an unborn child. There are lots of women on the message boards that I frequent who said that their doctors were okay with it, and some that endured and participated in enough renovation that they were sure their baby would be born "with a brush in his hand..." I also received the go-ahead from my doctor, as long as I had proper ventilation in the room, and took breaks. I stopped short of the basement (our TV and rec area) because I couldn't keep that area as open, and because by then I was just too freaking big to get up and down my little step ladder safely. Or at all. I hate stairs right now. I used low-VOC paint (many of them are now, but I used Benjamin Moore), and when it came to our bedroom, I painted it just before we left town for a long weekend at Ma's, so that we wouldn't be sleeping in a freshly painted area. Anyhow, that was my choice and I was personally comfortable with it. I'm very glad of it right now, because all this painting is something I just wouldn't want to address with a new infant. Also, I feel much cozier in my house now (much more like a home).

I've been very happy with how all the paint colors have turned out in our house. I used subtle, almost pastel colors everywhere, except for one chocolate brown wall in our dining room. That's why I was dismayed when the "Withered Moss" color I chose for the hallway looked to be a very, very dark green when I painted a test-swatch on the wall. The original color is the one on the far right. Chris said it looked like "Orc Green." He's nerdy, but he was right.

I had been too much of a doofus to buy a sample size, of course, so what could I do with this big gallon of dark, yet intense, camo-green paint? I started to experiment on a hand-palette, like you would with a mixed drink: one part this, two or three parts that... My first mix is the one you see on the left. Too brown. The mix I ended up with was three parts orc green, one part white (I actually used trim paint), and just a drop of light brown. I re-created it, approximately, in the same proportions using an empty can of the light brown paint (figuring that the brown coating the can was enough of that color) and adding the green and white. I brought it back to the hardware store, so that they could use their high-powered shaker thing and I'd get a good mix.

The finished result is the one you see in the middle. Just right! We call this one "Uruk-hai": modified, and stronger. Dorks.

Nursery Valances

2008-08-13T13:54:00.004-06:00

All right, time for me to tend to posting to this blog again. I've been baaaad about posting, but I've been good about doing stuff and taking pictures. I just gotta get on the stick now and post!

If you've been to my house, you've already seen these valances. I know, because as soon as you came in, I hauled your ass into the future nursery and showed them to you first thing. I am really proud of these, and I don't mind sayin' it.

I didn't have a pattern, but I figured valances (or curtain panels) are really just rectangles. I used my giant three-panel Olfa self-healing rotary cutting mat (with the dual-quad exhaust pipes). I can't recommend this thing enough. I don't quilt at all, and I still use it all the time. You can cut on it without gouging your table, and the measurements printed on it help you cut a straight line of whatever size you need. It doesn't retain any cutting marks, either (hence the self-healing part). Also, the clips that come with it are replaced for free through Olfa's web site customer service. I emailed and said that I lost mine in our move, and they sent four in the mail pronto.

What I don't recommend is getting in a hurry, and mowing over the tip of your ring finger with the rotary cutter, because it will come clean off, fingernail and all. And yet, the cutters are so sharp, it will heal before you know it! (That's one clean cut).

I decided to do tab attachments. I had a bolt of hot air balloon fabric that I'd bought years ago for $3 (I'd been intending to make a dress out of it), and I found a stripe that matched it in color. I just sort of eyeballed everything and wrote down the finished dimensions that I wanted (I ripped some measurements off of a set of rod-and-pocket store-bought valances I already had), and then added the seam allowance measurements in. I cut panels of interfacing (I used heavy fusible interfacing because I wanted some body to the valances and some opacity, but for curtain panels I'd probably use something lighter-weight) in the finished sizes that I wanted the three panels in. That way, when wrapping fabric around them, they would all come out the same size even if the seam allowances were a little different. I marked out a line on the interfacing where the seam between the stripe panel and the fabric panel should hit at the same spot. Again, that way each one would have stripey panels the same size as one another.

I decided to do the stripe vertically across the bottom panel, and horizontally across the tabs. To run the balloon and stripe patterns the way I wanted, each valance had to have two panels of fabric, sewn together vertically. I sewed the hot air panels together first, then the stripes, then sewed the double stripe panel to the double hot air balloon panel (they match up better that way). Then I attached the fabric to the interfacing, hemmed the sides, and used a blind-hem stitch across the bottom and the top. I used Stitch Witchery to attach a grosgrain ribbon across the seam between the stripe and the pattern fabric.

For the tab valances, I spaced them out where I wanted them first, then clipped interfacing in the finished size that I wanted. I fused them to the fabric, cut them out, and hemmed them around the edges. By the time I did 27 of these, I was going a little crazy, especially since everything has to be ironed along the way. (Though if you know me, and you know why I had to have exactly 3 panels and 27 tabs, you knew I was already crazy). I pinned them on each panel, measuring the same distance down for each (the mat was great here again), and then sewed them on.

I alternated two kinds of buttons across the tabs, mostly because I didn't buy enough of one kind, but I like the finished look. Since the buttons were just decorative, I used a Buttoneer, which was a little tempermental, but I still think it took a lot less time than sewing on each button. This tool may not attach a button sufficiently for heavy use on a pair of pants, but it works great for decorative uses like this.

Overall, the project came off problem-free (except for the bit of my finger that accidentally ended up down my disposal - YUCK) and they set the theme ("Flying Machines") for the whole nursery. I can't believe I made them, really. I was very proud when my Ma said, "You remind me so much of your father." And I said, why? And she said, "Because you're so precise, and you iron things to an absolute knife's edge." Yeaahhh. A dream project for someone who would only sew straight lines, if she could.

Crafty? No. Arty? Maybe. Hopkins? Definitely

2008-08-11T21:44:00.008-06:00

I'm usually working on a ton of projects all the time, but for some reason I feel like they'll seem out of place on this blog. Well screw it, I know this isn't going to fit in very well but I'll tell you about it anyway.

There is this town called Hopkin's Park. I've never actually been there before, but I know it has a bad reputation. Maybe that reputation is earned, maybe it is just because the population is predominantly black. Maybe a little bit of both. In any case, I accidentally ended up there with a couple of friends while driving aimlessly through the country looking for things to take pictures of. Not long after reaching the proper city of Hopkins a guy (a black guy) offered a piece of advice, "Knock on people's doors to see if they are home before taking pictures of their property." This advice seemed reasonable enough, though the property I was photographing was clearly abandoned. A few minutes later he came along again with some more advice, "I said, knock on doors or else I'm going to put a cap in your ass." personally, I interpreted this advice as "Get out of Hopkins" and proceeded to do so.

Before long however, a county sheriff driving past decided he should offer up some advice as well. He turned out to be a middle school pal of my passenger and so he gave the kind of advice that I was already acting upon, rather than the kind of advice which costs me court fees and fines.

The secondary point of this story is to tell you that I took a series of pictures that day of which I'm proud. I think you should look at them. They are available for viewing at hopkinstour.blogspot.com

The primary point of this story is to tell you that there are websites on the internet, to which you can upload your photographs and then receive a softcover or hardcover book which can be used as a gift or as a selfish keepsake that you keep for your own sake. I tried out a couple of these services. I wasn't happy with the design process or the print quality of the books produced by Lulu.com. Another guy looked at the book and thought it was fine. Blurb.com, on the other hand, has a nice looking site and the design interface is pretty easy to operate. I haven't received a physical book from them yet, but most reviews of the print quality seem to be pretty positive. Both of these companies allow you to offer up your new book for sale to the public from their websites. So make a good book and get filthy. I'm working on a fat photo-book about Abraham Lincoln. When it is done, it is going to be so freaking awesome. Seriously.

Linen Napkins

2008-07-06T19:36:00.001-06:00

So for the past couple years, our family has been trying to make some changes. We're trying to be more conscious of the things we buy and use, and just the way we do things in general. A lot of it would fall under "being more green". Some of it would be under the heading of "healthier lifestyle" and some of it is "being less wasteful."

Today's post is a combination of the "green" and "less wasteful" parts of our plan.

We've been on the paper recycling bandwagon since the beginning of this mission. We designated the cabinet under our kitchen sink as our paper recycling headquarters, and try to divert all paper and cardboard from the garbage cans and put it there instead. Recently, Jason remarked that we're still using paper napkins, and wanted to know why I still buy those, even though I've put a ban on the buying of all paper plates and disposable cups and silverware. I didn't have a good answer for that, other than "One thing at a time, Man!"

My latest change was getting us to all consistently use reusable water bottles & thermoses instead of plastic water bottles and juice boxes. Besides not being thrilled about the water bottles I purchased, that mission has been pretty much accomplished (especially since I don't leave us much of an option since I stopped buying the bottled water and juice boxes!) So I agreed that we could take on a new challenge, and it might as well be using linen napkins instead of paper.

I priced linen napkins at WalMart while I was there yesterday and the decent-looking ones are about $2.50 a piece. You can get cheapie ones for $1 each, but I just wasn't feeling the red-and-white-pizza-hut-table-top look of them. I figured the "greenest" and cheapest way to get a bunch of linen napkins would be for me to go through the fabric scraps I have in the basement and use those to make my own. So that's just what I did.

A minute of internet research told me that typical fabric napkins are either 12, 14 or 17 inch squares, but that they can really be just about any size you want. I wasn't too worried about having matching sets (we already have a fancy-schmancy set for special occasions) so I just grabbed any fabric that looked remotely appropriate and started cutting squares. I made them 16 inches if the fabric scrap was big enough (so the finished napkin is about 14 inches square) but I had a few scraps from a quilt I made for Maya that will turn out to only be about 10 inches (which will be a perfect napkin for our 5-year-old's lap! There's not much to making these...just cut, iron in the sides (I double-folded each side so there were no raw edges showing), then stitch all around the square. I double stitched each edge, so there's a line of stitches all around the very edge, then another row of stiches maybe 1/8 of an inch inside the first line. I thought that might help the edges lay nicer after they are washed, especially since I have no intention of ever ironing these bad boys.

We used them at dinner tonight, and I must say, it felt like quite a luxury to have linen napkins and a regular old Sunday night dinner! I know this one isn't going to save us a ton of money (I think those $2.50 packs of 250 napkins lasted us at least a month and a half each) but I think it'll be another good example for our kids of using what you have, and not wasting things.

Forever Midwest

2008-01-13T08:22:00.000-06:00

This is a silly self-portrait I took of myself this summer wearing my new favorite t-shirt my sister got me...it has a map of the US with the midwest highlighted and says: "The Midwest! It's in the Middle!" :)

Materials include: Scenic Route and My Minds Eye patterned paper, Creative Imaginations Journaling notebook, Love, Elsie epoxy and letter stickers, Sassafrass Lass Owl stamps, and lots of labels and other random stuff. :)

The journaling is: What is it about the midwest and the people from it? We may not seems as hip or exotic as the coasts---but I think there's nothing like midwesterners for their sense of humor or strength of character. Sturdy stock. I'm proud of my hometown, Kankakee---that I went to Southeast Missouri State and Western Illinois universities and that I still live "in the middle!"

****

This is one of those pages where I was just goofing around and having fun with my supplies...the sentiment is true though and I thought my fellow midwesterners might enjoy....
Love,
Brooke

The Cake My Mama Made

2007-12-28T21:39:00.000-06:00

So this one was not made by me. But it was so fabulous, and my mom, who did make it, said it was super easy. So, I thought it was worthy of mention on this blog.

I believe my Grandpa named this creation "Christmas Fantasy Cake", so we'll go with that. To make it, get yourself a Duncan Hines devil's food cake mix and whip up two round layer cakes according to the package directions. Once they are cool, carefully split those suckers in half so you have 4 very thin round chocolate cake layers. While you're doing all the splitting business, leave a half gallon of peppermint ice cream out on the counter to soften up. When it's slightly melty. build the cake up - chocolate layer, peppermint ice cream, chocolate layer, etc. until you have a giant cake tower. For the outside, my mom used whipped cream, but I think frosting or pudding mixed with cool whip would all work just fine.

For the final flourish, mom put candy canes and a little melted chocolate on for decoration. It's a pretty quick, yet tasty and impressive holiday dessert!

Li'l Bites of Heaven

2007-12-16T19:01:00.000-06:00

I have been fortunate enough to attend a couple cookie exchanges in the past week, and I am here to share with you the most fabulous cookie of 2007. Now, the cookie tasting was judged by me, of course, so you might think that the title of Most Fabulous Cookie is being awarded a little subjectively. You would be right. But I strongly believe that if you don't like this cookie then you are an alien and therefore I don't think you should be reading this blog anyway. So there.

Ok, here it is: Oreo Snowballs.

This cookie has exactly three ingredients. And that is all it needs to achieve its fabulosity. Take an entire package of Oreos and crush them. I had to laugh at the "pull-off tab" at the top of the Oreos Jason bought for me. Like, if you need access to the entire package of Oreos immediately without the hassle of cutting the end and pulling out the little tray, then this tab is genius. But if you're like most people and don't eat the entire package all at once, it seems pretty silly. Anyway, I digress.

Crush the entire pack of cookies, creme centers and all. The person who gave me this recipe recommended using the blender. I found that to take a long time, and I had to keep emptying out the crushed cookies at the bottom of the blender so it didn't clog up the blade. I think a baggie and rolling pin might work just as well. But you do want them to have the texture of good garden dirt. No chunks, because it will take away from the oreo cheesecake texture you're trying to achieve.

After the cookies are crushed, chop an 8 oz. block of softened cream cheese (full fat, because it's CHRISTMAS!) and dump the cookie crumbs in a bowl with the cream cheese chunks. Take off your rings and squish it all together. And if you want anyone to eat them afterwards, wash your hands first.

Chill that mixture for a couple hours, then take it out and form small balls with it. I used a heaping teaspoon for each ball and came out with about 35 of them.

Chill your balls for another hour or two, then take about 16 oz. of almond bark and melt it. Dip your balls in the almond bark and put them on a sheet of waxed paper to cool. I sprinkled some colorful sprinkles on the ones I'm bringing to Maya's preschool, and some white sugar over the tops of a few others. I left a few plain, just for some variety. I only melted 12 oz. of almond bark when I made mine, and as you can see, I was just a little short. So 16 oz. should be plenty to create 35 perfect balls.

After the almost bark cools into hard little shells on each one, they're ready to eat.

Good luck not eating all 35 of them yourself!

Our Christmas Card

2007-12-12T13:22:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted lately...I've been too busy making Christmas crafts to talk about them! Okay, and like, working and parenting too. Anyway. here are our Christmas cards this year. I actually started working on these back in July with Eva. Bob was in Texas at a workshop and we needed a good project. She helped me punch circles and stars and then stamp the inside of the cards. I think we got 10 done. Only 70 more to go...which we did in little dribs and drabs of weekend time, finishing shortly after Thanksgiving. This is a very simple idea I saw a picture of in The Look Book (scrapbooking idea book) that I made even simpler. Just free cut some triangles for the trees and trunks, punched some circles (which I stapled to the tree) and stars (which I adhered with tape runner). I made a background of patterned paper and ribbon to put the trees on and stamped "Happy Holidays!" inside. Look for one in a mailbox near you. However, it probably won't look just like this one. I made these entirely out of scraps...the leftover pieces of paper I save after making a scrapbook page...so no two cards were really alike. It was eco-friendly, less expensive and kind of neat to see little pieces of the past year brought together for our Christmas cards!

2007-12-06T09:20:00.001-06:00

Still a favorite...

2007-12-06T09:15:00.000-06:00

A simple project but an awesome one nonetheless!

More Legwarmers!

2007-10-20T21:18:00.002-06:00

Hey, I might as well tell you, I made TWO pairs of legwarmers. These were pure recycling: I made them with an old sweater.

I know that photo makes my carpet look really gross, but really, it isn't that bad. It's actually pretty white. But my old, non-digital photography somehow made my off-white carpet look like the floor of a crackhouse. Ignore that. Stop looking at it!

I cut the sleeves off of a sweater that was both too large, and also chafing to the new disorder that I've added in recent years to my growing collection of disorders: the one in which I can't wear anything around my neck. No, no, that sweater would not do at all. So I cut into the body of the sweater just a bit for a cuff around the top of the legwarmers, then I turned them inside out, cut more of a calf and knee shape ( I measured around my knee and calf), sewed it back up, finished the top, and turned it right-side out again.

I like them. They don't come over the knee, so they don't really have far to fall, and are made to be a bit slouchy, anyway. They are a great use for a knit you like, but a sweater that you don't.

Leg Warmers

2007-10-05T12:18:00.002-06:00

I like to wear skirts, but dang those Chicago winters. If you don't want to wear thick tights around every day (though it's handy to have a couple of pairs of those, too), here's an alternative to waiting for the train in a skirt. Legwarmers!

I don't knit. As of yet, it isn't a crafting project that has held my interest. I think I'm just too impatient. Anyway, lucky for me, you can buy knitted material right off the bolt. This particular piece I bought was on sale for $3 for the whole thing. (In cases like that, I buy first, and figure out what to do with it later.)

I decided to do a LONG pair of legwarmers, so that the cold air didn't hit the tops of my legs. I took three measurements to make these: around the widest part of my thigh, and around the narrowest part of my ankle. Then I measured the length from one to the other. I basically made a long cone.

There were stripes in this material, so I matched those up.

Then I just hemmed the top and the bottom. I also placed a hemmed slit in the bottom at the back, so that I could get the narrow part over my feet when I pulled them on. I also sewed some elastic around the top, so they would cling around my thighs and wouldn't fall down easily. I used a piece of elastic that was just smaller than the measurement around my leg, and stretched it as I sewed it in.

These pull on right over pantyhose or tights, or keep you warm until you get where you are going if you are wearing neither. I might one day sew some short zippers into the back at the ankle, because at this point, you have to pull your shoes off, then pull these off, and then put your shoes back on. Still, I like 'em, and I like the sort of witchy-poo look they came out to having. I especially like the way I seem to have matched up the stripes pretty well!

Variations on a Theme By Gina

2007-10-02T14:45:00.000-06:00

Ok, so Gina came up with one use for old t-shirts. This past week, I helped Maya clean all the too-small clothes out of her closet, and came up with another use for old t-shirts, when she looked heart-broken that I asked her to give up her beloved Hello Kitty t-shirt. Darn all that "growing"!I'm sure y'all know how to make a pillow...so I won't bore you with the details.
I will say, however, that after I was done I had a "wish I had done it differently" moment. The knit t-shirt material is so stretchy, that it makes the pillow pooch all out deformed-like on the front side. If I had been smarter, I would have sewn the shirt square flat to a piece of the polyester fabric, THEN sewn it on to the back of the pillow before stuffing. The added layer of polyester would have given the front a lot better shape.
Here's the back (all nice and normal and pillow-looking).
And here's the front (all crazy and pooching out at the sides and whatnot.)But whatever. Maya is only 4 and she thinks this pillow is the best thing ever. Probably because it has SPARKLES!

Crafty Weekend

2007-09-30T18:50:00.000-06:00

This weekend I did a couple crafty things that I had never done before. The first was that I took a candle-making class and poured my very own soy candle. The process was very easy, because the teacher already had the wax all melted down, so we just basically poured a layer, waited for it to set, then poured another layer. I thought it was a blog-worthy project, because I learned a few things that I hadn't known before. The first was that regular paraffin-wax candles come from oil, and that buring them is kind of like burning deisel fuel in your living room. Apparently doctors recommend not burning candles if anyone in your home has any kind of respiratory problem because of the indoor air pollution. But, soy candles are not a problem like paraffin candles are. I snagged a list of benefits off a random website for you to peruse:

Soy candles are cheap - Beeswax is a great natural alternative to paraffin, but to get the same results as a soy-based candle, it is very expensive.

Soy wax is a new alternative to paraffin wax that is cost effective. Soy wax is also made from a renewable source.

Soy wax is all-natural - Soy wax is a favorite of environmentally conscious people because it is not made from petroleum, like paraffin candles. Burning of soy candles does not increase the CO2 level in the atmosphere.

Soy candles last longer - They can last up to 50% longer than paraffin candles.

Soy candles spills are easy to clean - It's very difficult to remove paraffin wax from furniture or textiles. Soy wax spills can easily be cleaned up with hot soapy water.

Soy candles produce less soot - Soot should be avoided because it is very unhealthy and can eventually coat furniture and walls. Soy candles produce about 90% less soot that paraffin candles.

Scented soy candles distribute more flavour - The incorporation of soybean oil lowers the melting point of the candle, which translates into cooler burning candles and faster scent dispersion.

Amen to that last one...I was surprised to hear that the candle I made in my little mason jar might have 70-80 hours of burn time.

Ok, on to last night's craftiness. I went to a knitting bee. Ok, actually it was more like trying to learn to knit in the middle of a drunken riot, but that was just because one girlfriend had too much sangria, and another guest was just the loudest person on the face of the earth. And also quite intoxicated. But I persevered in my craft and came away with some Crazy Phat Knitting Skillz.

but I learned how to knit. This is not something I would ever attempt to explain with words or drawings. But I thought that next time I start a project (which won't be for a while, since I started another one today that will take at least a week to complete) I might attempt video-taping the three basic knitting stitches and posting a video knitting tutorial. Because it's really not hard, but I definitely needed someone to show me a few times how to do each maneuver before I could do it on my own. Then this morning I had to run out for yarn and knitting needles, because I knew if I didn't practice some more, I'd completely forget everything in less than a week.

So, that's a subject for another blog...for now I'll just post a picutre of the proof that I knitted something. I was going for a dog scarf (I don't have a dog, but it was small and I couldn't think of anything else to make it into) but I had to just be happy with a 6" x 3" rectangle because it took about 3 hours for me to complete that! And my knitting tutor was trying to teach me how to "bind off" the end...but I didn't quite catch it because she just took over the project and finished it up herself. At the end of the project I'm on now, I'll have to take it over to her house and have her show me again, in slow motion, so I can practice that skill as well. I was pretty impressed though...in the space of an hour last night she taught me how to "cast on" stitches, how to knit, and how to perl. Woot!

Seasonal Wreaths

2007-09-26T20:26:00.000-06:00

I have noticed a trend on this blog...we something we like and figure out a way we could make it cheaper. That is the same theme of this tale. This past spring, I found a Making Memories wreath kit on sale at Target. It was being clearanced at 9.99, but had originally been over $20. I realized it was a simple concept. Cut small squares of patterned paper. Place pictures on them. Place a frame over those pictures (cut a square out of a square). Adhere. Attach a ribbon to the top of each matted and framed picture (via a hole or staple). Tie the ribbon to a wreath. Voila. So, I made my own, sans kit for summer and fall. I got the wreaths when they were on sale at Hobby Lobby for half-off. So, the whole project costs less than $6 when you do it that way. On the fall wreath I just completed, I used my coluzzle templates and blade (available at most craft stores) to cut out the circles and it made the process much faster. On the summer one, I weaved in some of that sparkly garland that they always sell for various holidays that looks so fun but I have previously never been sure what to do with. Also, I have found that you need to use more than a typical adhesive runner to attach the pictures. The sun tends to make them peel away from the paper. I have used brads and staples to secure them.

I Ain't Afraid of No Manual Labor!

2007-09-26T09:53:00.001-06:00

Alright, Gina...this one's for you!

A couple years ago, I got so sick of the astroturf (yes, I said ASTROTURF) that someone had long ago laid on our front porch, that I ripped it off. And was left with a giant glue-stained slab of concrete. It wasn't pretty. We needed a new plan. I went to the tile shop and was told that porcelain tiles work just fine on outdoor areas. So I jumped right in. I rented a wet saw, bought the tile, thin-set & grout and was on my way.

This past winter, the corner tile came up...maybe because I've bumped into that corner with the lawnmower countless times. Anyway, you have to wait for a certain type of weather (no rain for 72 hours, temps between 55 & 80) to work with tile, especially if you're an amateur like me. So while I was waiting, the tile next door also popped up. Too many piano students walking on my porch, I guess.

But this past weekend, I finally had the right weather and enough time to do the repair. And if I can lay tile, YOU can too!

The only stumbling block I had was not being able to get the same color grout, because they discontinued it. But it hadn't really dried true to color anyway, due to my husband using way too much water washing the grout off the tiles when I originally laid them. So I picked a grout a couple shades lighter, and I don't think you'd every know that the two corner tiles had to be repaired.

The hardest part about laying tile is mixing the thin-set and the grout. They should be about the consistency of peanut butter. And in order to mix them in large batches, you have to buy this giant beater thing that you hook to a drill (we burnt out 2 drill motors mixing like this, so I don't know what we were doing wrong.) But it's next to impossible to mix large batches by hand. For the repair though (Thank God), I mixed up just a small batch by hand. The whole repair took less than 20 minutes on two consecutive days. (The thin-set has to dry 24 hours before you can grout). The lady at the tile store asked me if I had used the new mortar that is supposed to be better for outdoor areas, but when I bought supplies at her store two years earlier, no one had mentioned it. But if you want to do an outdoor area, you might ask about it. Also, you should use sanded grout (as opposed to un-sanded) for outdoor tiling projects. The wet saw was a little intimidating, but you have to use one for porcelain tile. For ceramic, I guess you can just score it with a utility knife, then knock it in half. But I think the saw made really clean edges, and it wasn't hard to use. So don't be scared to tile. Brain surgery it ain't...but your body will be hurting the next day!

2007-09-21T09:45:00.000-06:00

Mob of Monkeys

In other craft fair news, I've been busy making sock monkeys this week. I had a dozen "red heel socks" tucked away in a basement craft drawer (they've been there since maybe 2003) so I figured I'd turn them into sock monkeys to sell. They are very easy to make, only requiring about 10 minutes each on the sewing machine to make each appendage. Then you stuff everything and hand-stitch the whole thing together. I went for embroidered eyes on these, since I don't want to take a chance on selling one to a dumb lady who might let her baby eat button eyes off and choke to death. If the baby eats the string eyes off...well, that will eventually come out just fine, in more ways than one.

So I could give you a step-by step on the instructions, or I could just show you the instructions that come with every package of these socks. I think I'll be lazy and go for that. Here's the big secret you need to know to make sock monkeys: they ONLY sell Red Heel Socks at Farm & Fleet. You will not find them at any craft store or any department or discount stores. Just Farm & Fleet. I'm sure you could turn out really cute monkeys using other socks, too...I'll have to try that next time. The offical instructions also contain directions on how to make either a little monkey had or a monkey fez, but I just went for the basic monkeys this time. Now I just have to throw them all in the washer so they don't smell like our musty basement any more!

What I've Been Up To Lately.....

2007-09-15T19:11:00.000-06:00

So every so often I get an itch to create stuff to sell. My latest nudge came from a moms' group that I belong to. They decided to host a "vendor sale" in November for all the moms who have at-home businesses to come and peddle their wares. I don't actually have an at-home craft business, but seeing as how I can't exactly peddle my actual at-home business of piano & voice lessons at a vendor sale, I just made one up. And voila! "Trinkets and Trappings" was born. (Yeah, the fact that I had to come up with a name was kind of lame since I don't plan on this being a regular thing, but they wanted something to call my table at the sale. And "Nicole's Crafty Stuff" didn't sound like it would draw in many shoppers. So, I went to the on-line thesaurus to look up synonyms for "jewelry" and "accessories" then picked two that would make an alliterative title. Anyhoo....)

The thing I've been making lately for this sale is kiddie aprons & smocks. I actually have 3 styles, but one was a little too complicated to photograph well for this forum. So I'm giving you the two easier styles. The first is this two-sided beauty. They're both reverseable, with the inside fabric being the same as the pocket I attached. The ties come out the side seams, so it can be put on with the blue side facing out or the Winnie the Pooh toile facing out and the ties will work exactly the same.
This one was made with a full back. So it's not only reverseable inside-out, but you could actually put it on backwards and it would fit exactly the same. These were both made to fit 12-24-month-olds, so it looks like a real shorty-smock on my 4 1/2 year-old, but you get the idea. On the right-size kid, the hem should hit somewhere in the mid-thigh-to-knee range. To make either of these, make a pattern out of newspaper (you could trace a tank top, then add another 6 inches to the bottom that flare out at the sides. Hold the pattern up to your kid before you cut the material so you can make changes to it if necessary.)

Cut out two pieces of each fabric, then sew the matching pieces, right sides together, at the shoulder seams. I should mention that I picked a cute cotton print fabric and a heavier canvas or denim fabric for the other side, just so the apron would actually have a chance at being thick enough to catch whatever is spilled on it. My sister said that there is also some sort of scotch guarding/waterproofing stuff you can buy to treat the fabric, so I might look into that, too. Ok...back to the instructions: Cut a rectangle of the fancier fabric, and turn the edges in with an iron if you want a pocket for the other side. Stitch the top of the pocket or sew bias tape over the raw edge. Pin the two one-sided smocks together at the shoulder seams (still right sides together), then pin down each side and at the hem. Once it's pinned, cut 4 lengths of ribbon (about a foot long each) and slip them inside the smock (2 in the front half and 2 in the back.) Pin them so they hit at the wait of the apron . The ribbons should be inside the smock, with just enough sticking out each side so you can sew it securely into the side seams, and so you can see that the ribbons line up on the two sides when you fold the smock flat in half.

Stitch the entire way around the outside of the smock. Use the open neckline to turn it inside-out. Iron the smock flat and pin the sides and neckline. Top-stitch the entire way around the outside of the smock, then stitch around the edge of the neckline. Pin bias tape over the neckline seam and stitch that in place. Go have an ice cream sundae. You deserve it!

2007-09-15T18:49:00.000-06:00

Here's apron style #2. This one is a little easier to make. I put a shirt (size 3T) under an apron that I intend to fit the 12-24-month-old crowd. Just so you can see how it would be pretty easy to lay out a shirt a size or two bigger than the ones your kid actually wears and draw out an apron shape on newspaper that you could use as a pattern for this project.

It's sewn pretty much the same way as the first style of aprons. First doing the front pocket, then laying the first side face-up and pinning the neck ribbon & side ties in place (pointed in toward the middle of the apron), then laying the second side on top of the first one so the two sides have their right-sides together. Stick all but a small portion of the hem, turn inside out, iron & top stitck all the way around to finish.

If you were really ambitious, you could put a pocket on both sides, but I figure it's really just for decoration on the "boring side". I mean, how many preschoolers are actually going to carry around their paint brushes or wooden spoons in their big pocket while cooking or crafting? Speaking of that though, I thought this would make a really good birthday or Christmas gift for a little kid if you had the apron pocket full of paints, brushes, markers or other various crafty stuff. Cute and practical!

T-Shirt Blanket

2007-08-22T12:52:00.002-06:00

Between the two of us, Chris and I had a lot of old t-shirts that we no longer wear, but just couldn't get rid of for sentimental reasons. Chris still wore some of them to bed, but because of the sentimentality attached, I knew this would eventually mean they would wear out from "threadbare" to "complete disintegration." So I decided to construct a t-shirt blanket, as I'd seen someone construct when I worked at Joann Fabrics.

My t-shirt book has been packed away in storage with some other books (so that we could "stage" our condo for showing), so I kind of just made it up. I made a square template out of cardboard. After a bit of experimenting, it seemed like a template that was 12" x 12" square was the best -- it nicely encapsulated most of the designs. If the logo on the shirt was longer, I just traced a "double" tile onto it, as in the number 12 one that you see in the photo. The next decision that I made was to just use the sports t-shirts, as we had enough of those to make one whole quilt. I reserved some of the other shirts for a future blanket.

I put the template on each shirt, traced the square with a Sharpie, and cut them out. I got two or more tiles out of some shirts, with the front and the back. Then I laid them out on a piece of fleece (though you could also use an old bedsheet) until I found a pattern that fit nicely on the fabric I had. I ended up with a blanket that was 6 squares long by 5 squares wide. I rearranged them until I was pleased with it, then I sewed each square together in rows. Then I sewed each row together. Then I just flipped the whole thing face-down on the fleece, pinned it to the fleece fabric, and cut around it.

The fleece was easy to use, because it has no nap, and no grain. So you can't cut it crooked. I also used some sleeve stripes as an embellishment on one tile. I just sewed it down before hemming the edges, because jersey knit won't unravel.

Lastly, I sewed around the edges, leaving about a foot open. Then I turned it right-side out, ironed the edges and seams, and hand-sewed the open corner. Then I machine-sewed all around it again to tack it down, and keep the top from shifting. That's it! I didn't iron the individual tile seams, or use any batting.

As you can see, there are some real gems in there. There is Kankakee stuff, gradeschool jerseys, my softball jersey from Chris' current company, fundraisers I helped arrange professionally, bike rides Chris has been on, Cubs stuff, Bluejay stuff (Chris' randomly picked childhood favorite), and others. And the whole thing is such a cool mix of Chris and I, it is like a kind of memory album for his life, my life, and our life. I also like the recycling aspect of it. It would be a great use for kids' jerseys and shirts that you just can't bear to get rid of!

And of course, it is super, super soft. Like a body-sized t-shirt!

Fish Cupcakes

2007-08-14T15:20:00.000-06:00

Ok, so these aren't the most brilliant creation, but it's time for a new post up in here. We took our kids and a couple of my son's friends to the pool today for Evan's birthday, and to go with the "water theme", Evan decided he wanted to decorate his birthday cupcakes with sea creatures. We have a fancy little candy store here where you can buy all sorts of gummy fish, starfish, seahorses, frogs, dolphins & sharks. We used smarties for "bubbles" and I cut up some sort of sour gummy string to use as seaweed. We made lily pads for the frogs out of sugar I dyed green.

I wouldn't recommend serving cupcakes with blue frosting to anyone over the age of 13 since it's kind of revolting to eat anything blue, but for a bunch of 7-year-old boys, this was as good as it gets. And my kids had a great time decorating the cupcakes, so it was win-win all around!

Craft Idea

2007-08-03T11:41:00.000-06:00

Here's a thought... Find cassette tape in dumpster. Make animated short around cassette tape. See? Easy!

mangia!

2007-07-24T09:20:00.001-06:00

by Brooke
Haven't posted in a while and Gina's post on her What's For Dinner? blog about her sweet nonno inspired me to share this. I am not Italian...as much as I like to think there is a drop of Italian blood running through my veins somewhere, I'm fairly confident it's all German and French Canadian. But, I love Italian food and Italian people and their attitude about their food. Being friends with the Gianottis and Ciaccios from birth and later with the Patinellas and Segneris, I went to a lot of parties with a lot of food. Love = Plenty to Eat. And I love the command of "mangia! mangia!". Not, "Oh, here, I hope you enjoy this" but "Eat! Eat!" It can be startling with how direct it is, almost seem a bit coarse, but it is loving---like, "don't worry about being dainty or polite---we want to see you fed."
So, here is a picture of Eli that I felt spoke to that. Now, granted we are eating at the Pasta House, which might not be considered truly Italian. But there is spaghetti and there is sauce (I won't go so far as to call it "gravy") and he is enjoying it big time.
To represent the big-ness I love, I used giant chipboard letters for the title, Italian-flag colors in patterned paper by Frances Meyer, a big photo corner by Heidi Swapp (which covered the people in the background fairly nicely), a journaling card by Creative Imaginations, a Bazzil blossom and brad and some Italy stickers that I was given.
And since a post from me would not be complete without a little of my scrapbooking philosophy:
You do not need to fill a book with random shots of your kids eating. But, I like to do pages like this because I believe in scrapping more than birthdays, vacations and holidays and other "special occasions." And, such a page does not have to be about just what is happening in the picture: "Eli enjoying his spaghetti in a messy way" or the date "Summer lunch 2007" but can also be a memory triggered by the picture, or an overall feeling like the one I described above.
:)

Tooth Jewelry

2007-06-25T10:28:00.003-06:00

The last portion of school was pretty crazy... Some of the girls that had graduated before us told us, "Oh, spring semester is EASY." The instructors said it, too. Well, I dunno if they were being cruel or what, but we all decided that was basically bull honky. And in the midst of it all, we had to do a final craft sort of project. It was to represent our philosophy of dental hygiene. It could be anything we wanted.

Some girls dreaded this more than I probably did, saying that if they could draw or sew, would they be in this program? But I loves the crafty stuff, and I had been unable to do practically anything for two years because of homework. So I enjoyed doing this AS homework. I decided to do a necklace, mostly because I had already purchased a lot of the stuff to play with. I had Sculpy clay, and I fashioned the tooth beads out of that. You just shape it, and poke a hole in it, and bake it at a very low setting so that it dries out. Ma and I had played with Sculpy many times in the past, resulting in many deliciously tacky earrings that I often wear.

I painted the teeth with acrylic paint after they cooled. I made them white on the crowns, and then added a coat of gloss to simulate enamel. The roots are a matte finish, and just off-white or pale yellow.

The word-beads were a lot of fun to play with. They are shrink-plastic, or what they used to make Shrinky-Dinks with. They sell them at craft stores in clear, white, black... The stuff I bought was supposed to work on an ink-jet printer, but, uh, no. The sheets printed nicely enough, but the ink never dried. Hours later, it would wipe right off on either side I tried it on. So I busted out my sandpaper, and took off the glossy finish. The ink still smudged, but not as badly, so I just handled it carefully while cutting it out. I would have just used permanent marker, but I wanted very neat, legible letters.

The shrink-plastic tells you what percentage it will shrink down to, so I used my basic math skills to see what size they should be before shrinking, in order to get them to the final size I wanted. A hole puncher worked great to put holes in the ovals I printed, and when they came out, they were perfect beading size!

I strung them onto jump rings with small beads, between the tooth beads, and put a clasp at the back. For display, I cut out a felt tooth and sewed it onto scrap fabric with a running stitch, then placed it atop a bucket that narrowed at the base.

I had some tooth beads left over, so I made some earrings for a "white elephant" auction we were having at school. I liked these the best. I may not actually wear the necklace, but I will wear the earrings. They were a really big hit, and when people bid like crazy, I was so flattered.

I made a couple pairs with blue/green beads, and one with deep pink/red beads. I don't know if the photos do them justice, but they are actually pretty small and not easy to photograph:

Some of the girls said they wanted to buy them, and I sold four sets to a couple of instructors. I made forty bucks! I'm sending an email to see if anyone else wants these today... Wish me luck!

A Crafting Trifecta!

2007-06-10T21:03:00.000-06:00

Apparently I've had more time on my hands lately than the other posters to this blog! But I made one more thing today that I thought I'd share with y'all. It's another easy, yet cute baby gift: monogrammed onesies!

These two are for twins (TWINS!) Sophie and Addison who were born last week. They were five weeks early, but in good shape, both weighing in at almost 6 1/2 lbs!

So all you need for this craft is some good quality onesies (I like Old Navy & Carter brands...I hate Gerber onesies) and some very basic embroidery knowledge. I drew my letters with tailor's chalk first, then embroidered them with a chain-stitch (at least I think that's what it is called.) I'll do my best to describe it: Poke your thread up through the fabric, pull it all the way through, then poke the needle back down through the same hole. Pull until the thread is almost all the way though, until it kind of looks like a little teardrop, but stop when there's maybe a half inch of thread still looped on the front of the fabric. poke your needle back up through the fabric, and thread your needle through the loop of thread still on top of the fabric from your last stitch. Pull it fairly tight (you still want it to kind of be teardrop-shaped) then stick the needle back down through the second hole, making a new loop. Repeat as many times as it takes for this to make sense. You'll end up
with lots of little loops making a chain.

On the arm holes I did a little crosshatch thing on the "S" onesie, then a alternating straight stitch on the "A" one. I made one of these for my daughter when she was a baby and did some stitching on the neckline, only to realize that babies have no neck so you can't see the cute neckline while they're actually wearing it. So now I just stick to sleeves. If you're doing a long-sleeved onesie, be careful to stretch the wrist hole out after you stitch it, and before you tie the thread off. If you are making it for a chubby baby, those wrist holes need to be able to stretch to accommodate big fat wrists! (I think I learned that one on my own daughter, too!)

That's about it...a nice personalized gift that you can be sure no one else will be giving the new baby!

It's My Special Day!

2007-06-09T14:31:00.000-06:00

It was my special day last Thursday when I went to a pottery shop in Peoria to paint my very own piece. The place is called "Fired Up" and it's got a ton of unfinished ceramics. You just pick out what you want, paint it up, then they glaze and fire it for you. You really don't have to be an artistic genius to make something that looks great. And they've got little tiles painted with all sorts of fantastic-looking (but easy to do) finishes if you need a little direction. I had such a great time there, I couldn't believe I've lived in Central Illinois for 14 years and never done this before. The other town I lived in, Bloomington, has a sister store (also called Fired Up)that used to be "2 Pals Pottery."

Anyway, I modeled this plate after one my mom had for us when we were growing up. We'd pull it out for birthdays or if you got a good report card, or whatever. I don't think she got the plate until I was a little older (maybe 9 or 10) so we didn't use it for a long time. But I figured with a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old in the house, they'd be thrilled to use it for years to come.

Teacher Gift

2007-06-07T14:13:00.000-06:00

So this year I was a room mother for my first grader's class. Basically, this meant I was in charge of calling up parents before each holiday and reminding them to bring the napkins or cupcakes they signed up to provide for the holiday "party."

But there was one other responsibility that came with the job: the teacher gifts. At our school, it's accepted practice to do a class gift at Christmas along the lines of a gift certificate that everyone contributes to, another smaller something for "Teacher Appreciation Week" in May, then another token at the end of the year.

Being a teacher myself, I know that the reason good teachers teach is because they really do love the kids. Even the rotten ones. Good teachers can find something redeeming about every single kid. And I can imagine that for a classroom teacher who spends 40 hours a week with the same kids, leaving them at the end of the school year can be a little sad. I mean you're happy to see them growing up, but a little sad that you won't be a part of their lives anymore. (I avoided this problem by being a music teacher, so I get to see the same kids year after year, some for 5 years or more.) Anyway, I decided a good end of the year gift would be something for her to remember the kids by.

I made a mad dash around town taking pictures of all Evan's classmates and asking them "What did Mrs. Getz teach you that you liked the best this year?" They came up with great stuff, from "How to be nicer to other kids", to "I liked it when she told me the names off all the flowers we saw on our hike at the camp we went to last month. I made up pages like the one I posted of Evan for each kid. But, afraid of being sued for posting pictures of other people's children on the internet, Evan's is the only page you're gonna get to see.

As my grand finale I wrote a little poem. I got the idea from a little story she read us at "Meet Your Teacher Night" at the beginning of the year. It was written by a teacher who said her job was to "polish the stars" and how that was an awesome responsibility, blah, blah, blah. It was a little over-the-top for my taste, but half the people, including Evan's teacher, were crying while she read it. So, my little poem was kind of a "response" to that story. Jason thought I stole it off the internet, but after he googled the first line and didn't come up with any hits, he conceeded that I wrote it. Hopefully it will strike the right chord for Evan's teacher, and she'll enjoy the pictures and quotes from each kid. And when she sees them in the newspaper as graduating seniors, she can look in her old scrapbook and laugh at how they thanked her for "teaching me how to read the big words in a sentence" and "how to count to 100 and how to count to 10 in Spanish!"

e & e

2007-06-04T08:08:00.000-06:00

by Brooke

Some more scrapbook loving. I scrapbook chronologically because that works for me. Some folks like to jump all around a collection of pictures. I just sort of scrap as I go. Some folks do all "event-based" scrapping. Some eschew that all together...scrapping just feelings and thoughts. I do both. This lo is one of the more "thought" kinds...sprang out of how much I love this picture of the kids and what a neat little pair they are. I don't know if we will add to their party or not, so I am enjoying them as a duo right now. The 8 x 10 was printed by www.scrapbookpictures.com. You can add those borders for free. I printed it on metallic paper (which is a little extra). The background is graph paper by Scenic Route. I had fun with all the little embellishment stuff around it...just pulling from my scrapbook stash and other silly little stuff I keep around (like the Curious George matching cards the kids stopped playing with and My-T-Fine pudding box) to create with. Some of the ideas were also "scraplifted" from The Look Book by Autumn Leaves---a layout by Tara Whitney in particular. Love that book.

Customized T-Shirts

2007-05-18T08:24:00.002-06:00

Gina:Because I'm a dedicated second-hand shopper, I often come across a t-shirt that has something that I want on the front, but it will often be too ludicrously large for me (or for anyone, and often that's why it is still in the store), or it just has that boxy, "I got this tee free at an event" shape that doesn't do anything for anybody.

So this was my first attempt at customizing a shirt to look just a little more flattering on me. I loved this shirt my friend Pen gave me from In-and-Out. I love any t-shirt with a reference to food on it, but especially junk food. I don't know why, since I try not to eat that stuff.

I laid the shirt out flat, and ironed it. Then I just drew chalk marks down the side seams and the sleeves (making sure that at the narrowest part of the sleeve and the hourglass shape that it wasn't narrower than I am.) Then I cut along those lines and sewed them up. (My line wobbles a little -- you can see it in the photo -- but you can't tell when you are wearing it.) I also cut just under the ribbed neckline, cutting it out completely. I folded the edge over just once and sewed it -- with knitted material, you don't need to worry about unravelling. Then I made a single cut to just above my bustline, and I sewed a thin strip of elastic in, outstretched, to pucker it right there.

I was just modeling this shirt after my favorite t-shirt that has the piece of elastic in the bustline, but now I have purchased "Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt," by Megan Nicolay, and I'm excited to get started on some of those. I'll let you know if anything good comes out of it!

Simple Skirt

2007-04-30T13:58:00.002-06:00

Gina: My posing is crazy dorky, but I'm just gonna get over that. It seems that when I try to take a simple picture, my natural JC Penney catalog posing instinct can't be fully suppressed.

The type of sewing, until a year or two ago, that I was most comfortable with involved sewing a straight line to another straight line. Anything that involved "easing" the fabric was avoided. Since this limits one to square curtains or square blankets (and since there is not one straight line to be found anywhere on my body), I picked up a few books and a really good iron and faced my demons: the set-in sleeve, and the attached ruffle. I got the sleeve thing down pretty good (see scrubs jacket), and after this simple skirt, I'm not afraid of a ruffle anymore, either. I gather a basting stitch in both instances, and iron well before sewing.

Yeah, so suck it, ruffle demon!

I got this fabric on deep discount, natch, and it is a nice thick linen with a one-way embroidered pattern around the base that washes and irons really well. I think it may be intended for tablecloth material, but that doesn't bother me. And spills just wipe right off. Shh'kddn.

Photo features the requisite kitty posterior, from a cat who won't leave you alone while you're trying to photograph objects, or trying to do yoga on the floor.

Cookie Cake

2007-04-24T06:11:00.000-06:00

by Brooke

Sunday night, I was feeling a little grouchy about the fact that I was probably going to have to try to leave the house early the next morning to go buy a cake at Schnucks and take it to a play date for my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) small group. One of our members (who I really like...I wasn't grouchy about getting something for her...I was grouchy about getting something) is moving before our next meeting and our mentor mom suggested to me that we turn the play date into a going away party. Since I found out about this with just a couple days notice and two of our moms just had babies (like 2 and 4 weeks ago) I figured making phone calls about it would just lead to guilt rather than actual cards or presents for the leaving mom.
So, a cake was the solution...one I would feel awkward about soliciting donations for later.
Wait...I'll make my own. No, I don't have any cake mix and the thought of making one from scratch at 9 PM didn't seem like a good idea.
A decorated cookie would be a good solution. But, how to make a big one without it being mushy in the middle?
I worked at The Original Cookie Company the summer before I started grad school. So, you would think I would have some expertise in this, but no. On my last day at The OCC, I took several bags of the frozen pre-portioned cookie dough with me (not really stealing---we were given a lot of product, it was just usually baked first), only to find that it would not bake in a regular oven. Various temperatures and baking times all produced the same doughy result. Somehow, that dough only worked in that oven...I've decided I don't want to think too hard about that.
So, a little internet research helped me out. I have a Pampered Chef baking stone and knew that there were recipes out there that used it when making a cookie crust for various fruit pizzas, etc. So, I looked that up. They all said to use refrigerated cookie dough. So I kept the baking temperature and times and looked for "quick and easy" sugar cookie recipe. I found one that I liked because it made a soft dough (easy to form into a crust) and required no refrigeration.
In about fifteen minutes I whipped up the dough and had the thing in the oven. The cookie went over the side of the pan a little bit, but other than that came out well. The next morning I decorated it with buttercream icing (Martha Stewart's recipe that I used when creating Eli's birthday cake a few weeks ago). All through this process, I kept thinking, "And if it doesn't turn out, I can still go to Schnucks." I was a littler nervous taking it to the play date because I hadn't actually tasted it yet, but it got RAVE reviews! Loved by mothers and their preschoolers alike.
So, I'm happy to now add this recipe to my short list of special occasion things I can make (Eva has requested it for her Birthday DAY dinner...cupcakes for her birthday PARTY day) and share it with you.

*Sugar Cookie Cake*

Mix together one at a time:

2 eggs

2/3 c. oil

2t vanilla

¾ c. sugar

2 c. flour

2 T baking powder

½ t salt

1 t nutmeg (I added this to the original recipe...I like the way it makes sugar cookies taste, but you can omit it if you wish)

Spread on ungreased baking stone. Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes.

*Buttercream icing to decorate*:

1 stick butter

½ tsp. vanilla

1 ½ c. powdered sugar

food coloring as needed.

Mix butter, vanilla and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy; about 2 minutes; add the food coloring and mix till blended.

(I use disposable pastry bags and my Wilton tips. Just put a tip into the bottom of the bag and snip off enough for the decorative part to stick out. Cuff the bag and scoop in the icing. Pretty easy clean-up. Also, I never took a cake decorating class. I just have my trial-by-fire experience from The OCC and the kids' birthday cakes. Note, though, how I just made my border where I wanted it to be...hopefully distracting you from the fact that the cookie cake is not perfectly round and actually going over the side of the stone a little bit in some parts.)

So, there...it didn't take very long and I didn't have to spend any money. Grouchy mood averted! :)

Not Another Kid Craft!

2007-04-16T14:17:00.000-06:00

Ok, I fully realize that last time I promised a non-kid-centric craft next time, but what can I say? I'm a pathological liar who apparently needs a life. Moving On....

Back when my son was very little and needed lots of molding, I needed a fun way to drill into his head what we expected of him and how he should be behaving without making him feel like I was constantly on his case. The result were these 3 books that I gave to him on his second, third and fourth birthdays.

I used them to help him understand the expectations of his new age, as well as to help prepare him for the big stuff: how to treat his new sister, to build excitement (instead of dread) about going to preschool, and encouraging him to give up thumb sucking. But mostly these books were a way for me to show him what a special kid I thought he was and how proud of we were of the person he was growing up to be.

I used little 5x7 photo album books that I found at Walmart for like $2. They have plastic sleeves for each page, so I would just make up my pages on card stock or construction paper and then slide them right in. If I could use a picture of him for the page, that was great, or sometimes I cut his head out and glued it into a scene I created. There were plenty of pages made out of stickers and my own drawings though. The pages with Evan on them were always the biggest hit with him.

There's not much more to making these....when I started each one, I would just sit down and make a list of all the new expectations and privileges he would have now that he was 2, or 3, or 4, then cobble them together into some sort of book. One year I tried to did the entire thing in rhyme, but then the next year I couldn't jump that hurdle again.
So there you have it...not only a lovely keepsake book that you child can treasure forever, but also a wonderfully manipulative parenting tool! What a grand combination!

Jammies from Scrubs

2007-04-14T11:10:00.002-06:00

Gina: When I wrote that title, I was thinking about "like blood from a stone," or "Like Water for Chocolate." Anyway. This is sort of "chapter two" of the scrubs post... As I may have mentioned, in 2005 I got a job on the weekends at Joanne Fabric, one that was closing out all of of its merchandise so that one of the really big ones could open down the street. I went absolutely berserk buying fabric with the one-two punch of up to 90% off, plus my 15% employee discount. For those who are math whizzes, that's like them paying me to take it away. And I did.

I eventually came to the conclusion that if one is only making $20-40 per weekend, and spending all of that on fabric, that it is sort of a false economy to keep one's job... And school eventually overwhelmed my ability to keep up and still see my husband once per week. But it was a fun ride while it lasted! You should see the trunkload of material I could get for that twenty bucks!

I have a weakness for anything with a "food" print on it (see my other blog), so I got some pizza print and some ice cream printed flannel, and made them into pajama bottoms. There wasn't too much of the pizza print available, so I had to make them into little shorty pants. I used the scrubs pattern, with a simple elastic waistband.

With my newly acquired french-seaming skills, these have held up really well. They're tough little pj's!

I still have a couple of flannel prints that I'll be doing the same thing with... Can't wait until I have more time to sew in a few weeks!

Baby Shower Gift

2007-04-04T17:59:00.000-06:00

I stole this idea from a "Martha Stewart Baby" magazine a few years back, but it's a quick homemade gift that's always a hit at showers, and is useful to the new parents to boot. Back in the day, when I was the first of the people I knew to have a baby, I used cloth diapers as burp cloths (not cloth diapers that had been used as diapers, but still, they were kinda tacky.) Now I like to give all my new mom friends stylish & fun burp cloths, so at least they can pretend to be chic as they're getting spit up on.

I used 2/3 of a yard of 2 different fabrics. I prefer the soft flannels they usually market as being for kids' pajamas in the fabric stores (although it's stamped right on the fabric "Not intended for use as sleepwear") So if you're giving these to anyone who might be prone to setting their baby's stuff on fire, you might pick a different fabric. I lay the two pieces, one on top of the other, on a flat surface and cut it into 3 equal sections. Size is totally up to you...I'd guess mine were something like 14" x 24". The key to this project is having a couple fancy stitch settings on your sewing machine that you can use as an edge. My machine is nothing special...I think it cost around $100, but I have 4 different fancy stitch options. I like the curved one the best...experiement on a scrap fabric first to see what you need your length & width settings at to make the nicest looking border possible (it'll probably be a very high width setting and a very low length setting).
Then strap in the first rectangle of fabric. I don't even pin mine, because they're not hard to hold together properly if you just hold them tightly. But if you're a scaredy cat, then go ahead with your pins. Just do one continuous stitch all around all 4 sides, turning when you're through with an entire rotation of the stitch pattern (I wouldn't turn the corner in the middle of my little curvy design, for example).
Once you're done with all the stitching you get to the tedious part. First, I'd recomment you do this under bright light and only when you're not tired or hung over. (But who crafts hung over, right?) Ok, take those fabulously stitched rectangles and carefully cut around the border you just created. Obviously, you don't want to cut into the stitching, but you do want to cut it pretty darn close. I'd recommend small, sharp scissors for this job.

I like to make 3 at a time and tie them together with a ribbon to put in with a shower gift. If you want to be super-fancy you can slip a piece of vinyl between the two layers to make a waterproof pad. Until you have a kid, you'd never realize how many uses these burp cloths have: besides wiping up urp, they're a light blanket in an air-conditioned store, a cloth to lay a baby on the floor for a diaper change, a peek-a-boo prop, and my daughter loved to suck on them when she was an infant.

Ok, I promise something not kid-centric for my next post!

Interior Design Secrets

2007-04-02T12:17:00.000-06:00

I love that Ms. Gina came up with this idea of sharing creative info and projects! It's so cool to be able to share work and see what other people do on their personal time! I must admit, I don't think I'm as "projecty" as others on this post; but I will share some of my projects and post "secrets" that we interior designers use to make great spaces!

Secret 1: Make a space interesting with color! I've learned that most people are afraid of color in their homes and, as a designer, I'm here to tell you... don't be afraid! I've recently used a "trick" in a work project... multi-tonal color to achieve interest! Find 3 or 4 shades of a color and apply it to a wall in stripes or blocks in order to make a statement! Choose just one wall and paint the other three in the room with the lightest shade in your palette... It's fun, not permanant and looks really cool!

Above is a project that I recently completed in Palos Heights, IL... check out the paint job above the BIG graphic image!

This is my husband's Chiropractic office in Crystal Lake (just after painting).

Lastly, my new nephew's nursery! We used wall paper animals (a'la pottery barn kids) and painted stripes!

See... fun with paint!

Spring, and time to clean!

2007-04-01T16:05:00.000-06:00

So I know that what I am about to tell you guys isn't exactly "crafty", but we can all appreciate a good tip on how to get rid of that stain, to stop that scum, to obliterate whatever that thing is growing behind the tub, and so on. I am about to start the insane scrub down of my apartment because my instincts are telling me too. So, here are the tips.

Tub stuff:
If you have tiles in your shower, rub a half lemon all over it to help bead off the water. Not only is it a natural sealant, it smells darn good! If you have any glass, the same rain-ex that you use on your car works wonders on your shower door.

If you have any stains in your porcelain that you just cant get rid of no matter how hard you scrub, use a pumice stone.

Kitchen:
Baking soda will get rid of all that nasty stuck on food on your pot. Just fill with water, pour in some baking soda, and let sit. No scratches!

Ice, lemon, and salt swished around in your coffee pot will remove old coffee stains and make it sparkle again.

A loofah works better then a sponge in so many ways, and doesn't get moldy because it is plastic.

Other:
Dryer sheets rock! Put them in your undie drawer, in stinky shoes, in between your pillowcase and pillow, and in your heater vents for that awesome laundry day smell!

White vinegar and newspapers clean mirrors and glass better then anything else.

Lint rollers clean dusty lampshades.

If anyone else has some tips on Spring cleaning, leave a comment. Once the house is clean, then I will start being crafty and post it! Some things to come are some really funky and strange sock monkey type dolls, making art with items you find dumpster diving, taking an old book and making it into an art journal, and any new recipe that I make that comes out yummy! Thanks for listening!

Katie

how about chickens?

2007-03-31T19:07:00.000-06:00

Ok, so as the resident straight guy who's been invited to post on an arts and crafts blog, I'm feelin' a little bit like Charlie Sheen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. So as not to get too freaky on y'all, I thought I'd start with a nice suzie-homemakerish post about a cake dish I did that had chickens on it.

I'm not kidding. My mom was doing her kitchen up in a chickens theme, so for Christmas I made her a couple things. The first was a rooster mosaic that could serve as a trivet, but also makes a nice wall hanging. I started by drawing on a charger I bought at target (I didn't know what a charger was, but apparently it's something you put a dish on). Then I put in the glass tiles:

Then I proceeded to fill it in some more...

Until it was done. Normally I'd then grout it, but for some reason I wanted to try not grouting a piece once. I think sometimes the grout takes away the ability to see the whole tile, so the effect is a sort of muting of the colors. Since there were some bright colors here, I went sans grout.

Then I mixed up this special epoxy. You mix it and it heats up, then you pour it and gently blow on it. The carbon dioxide in your breath removes all the bubbles. Comes out like glass.

I kind of wish I had grouted it though. But whatever, it came out pretty well. Next I decided to put some chickens on a cake plate (which I also got at target). I started by finding a suitable chicken pic, blowing it up, cutting it out, and putting it on the plate via permanent marker.

Then I just started choosing colors and filling in...

Finally it was filled in:

This one I grouted.

Then you have to wait til the grout dries a bit, and wipe it off with a wet sponge. This part is a pain in the ass, because if you don't wait long enough it just spreads around. But the biggest reason it's a pain in the ass is that the tiles have little grooves in them. This means that you have to remove grout from each tile. The only way I've found to do this is with a toothpick, picking it out of each tile individually. That's right. Trust me, I tried everything before I finally settled on that method. Now you can see why I experimented with not grouting the rooster.

That had to dry for at least 24 hours. Then I mixed the epoxy and glassed it in. You let it drip over the sides to create a nice smooth edge. Once the drips dry you have to sand them off.

After it dried, though, it was (if I do say so myself) pretty impressive. The epoxy is just as hard and clear and smooth as glass. Crazy.

And the final product (the circle in the middle is a reflection of my overhead kitchen light):

I wrapped it up in bubble wrap, newspaper, cardboard, etc. and mailed it off marked FRAGILE!!!! in about a thousand places. When we went to visit my mom, she opened it, and as she picked up the box I heard clinking. My heart sunk. It was busted. Luckily, though, only the bottom part of the stand broke!! The top was in tact. Bill, the genius that he is, took it out to his shop and ground the bottom flat and smooth. So now it's a slightly shorter, but still functional, cake plate. Voila!

Man, it took everything I had not to swear in that post. Can we swear here? I saw pictures of children.

Next up: the lamp from hell.

The Easiest Dress You Could Ever Make

2007-03-31T14:30:00.000-06:00

Ok, here I am back with the easy stuff. Gina wants me to strut my skillz, but the truth is, now that I have kids, those complicated projects are few and far between. Much more often, I pick up fabric on a whim and spend an hour making a super-easy dress while also avoiding taking part in the housecleaning spree that my husband is on. It's win-win!

So, above we have our cute little finished product. I'm just giving directions for the dress here...you'll have to figure out how to make your own little girl to go with it.

This dress looks much more impressive until you realize what the fabric I started with looks like. The big secret is that it comes already gathered at the top! But you don't have to mention that to family and friends who ooh and aah over your creation. I won't tell.

Anyway, in order to figure out how much of this fabric you need, you should measure the little girl's chest. Maya, who is going on 4 is pretty average sized and she was 21 inches around. Knowing that I wanted the dress to be just smaller than her measurement and I wanted enough left over for a couple little straps, I bought 25 inches of fabric. And ended up with no scraps.

Step 1 is to pin the fabric around your little girl, stretching it just enough so it would stay up without straps, but not tight enough that she'll make you regret it. Guessing by how much I had left over, I'm guessing Maya's was 19 1/2 -20 inches around.
Sew the seam from the very top to the very bottom, making, in essence, a giant tube top.

Cut two remnant strips (mine were about 3"x 12" (and way longer than I needed) and fold them in half. Sew up the side and turn them inside
out. (See bag project below for rant on turning straps inside out.) Iron the straps flat.

Put the dress back on your model (still inside out) and eyeball where you want them to go. Pin them with the strap seam showing (cause we're still inside-out here) on on each side of the front and back. Because I was feeling extra-fancy today, I pinned mine so they made an X on the back.

While you've got it on your model, you could also pin up the hem to the length you want it. I just pin it in one spot, then lay it flat on a table to pin the rest of the hem. Turn it under twice so the scraggly threads don't escape.

I might buy some ribbon and make a little tie belt around the waist. It would be easy to sew it around the front and sides, then leave the back open so you can tie it in a box. I'd stay away from sewing anything all the way around the waist, since you want the fabric to stretch and give easily for putting on and taking off. And there you have it...a dress in under an hour!

Neighbor's Yard Waste = Lovely Home Decor!

2007-03-29T19:32:00.000-06:00

This is my kitchen. We've lived in this house for almost 9 years now, and to be exact, it's the 4th incarnation of our kitchen. It's not that I'm obsessed with redecorating....it's just that the kitchen was ugly when we moved in, so it had to go immediately. Then we had a nice kitchen for about 7 years and I just got sick of it. Kitchen #3 was a very unfortunate decorating mistake that looked great in my head (bright green, terra cotta & watermelon paints in a sort of "Fiesta Kitchen!" theme), but did not translate well to reality. So after 6 months of Ugly Kitchen, calm beachy kitchen was born. And you get to hear all about it.

The house is like 50 or 60 years old, so the kitchen has soffits above the cabinets. I liked the paint color we picked, but those big empty soffits were mocking me, so I had to put something up there. Since I'm not a senior citizen, hanging plates and baskets was out, and I had never actually seen any other decorations used for such a thing.

But one day, inspiration hit. I wanted it to look beachy, and what could be more beachy than scraggly branches? (Somehow that made sense at the time.) So I went to a friend's house, hacked down her grapevine (it was fall, so it was all good) and brought all the branches back. I laid them down in the backyard on some newspapers and spray painted them mostly white. I wanted some of the natural color to show through, so they're not crazy fake white. If you don't have a friend with extra vines growing in her garden, I think most craft stores sell grapevines.

Then I pounded nails into the soffits every 12-24 inches, depending on where the branches bent. I wired them, one by one, on to the nails, just using regular thin wire that you'd get at Ace. I just kept layering them and wiring them to the nails until it resembled something Martha might make. If you really look you can barely see the wires, but the nails are completely covered up because I wired a few branches in front of each one. By the way, no need to go crazy with the nails...grapevine branches weight almost nothing, so it doesn't take much to hold them up there.

Patricks and Nostalgia

2007-03-29T06:14:00.000-06:00

by Brooke

Here are two layouts I have created recently that make me happy. I tried to take pictures of them leaning against the wall as I have seen some other scrappers do on the aforementioned website, instead of trying to take them face down on my floor and then cropping out the carpet on the computer. If I were hard-core, I would "scan and stitch" my images, but I'm trying to swear less, too. But, I don't think I like the resulting shadows on these, so I'll probably go back to my old way. Regardless, here we go.

First we have, Little Patricks.

This layout was inspired by Eva's name for leprechauns. (You can read more about that story on our family blog.) Materials: cardstock (Stampin' Up), patterned paper (Reminisce), Ribbon (can't remember), Buttons (Oriental Trading Fun Expressions), pen (American Crafts); letters were cut with my Quickutz Studio die cut alpahabet.

And yesterday, I made April 10, 1976.

I resisted the temptation to entitle this "1970-something" like the song lyric because I do know what year I was born. This layout was inspired by some patterned paper at the scrapbook store that I really liked, but wasn't sure what I would use it for. There are a lot of "vintage" prints in patterned paper right now, but this was more of a 1970s era baby print than your traditonal vintage. I decided to scan and print one of my old baby pictures to use with it. It is a picture of my Aunt Dawn (who is actually my mom's cousin---we just call everybody autn and uncle), who was a nurse at St, Mary's hospital in Kankakee getting me ready to go home. Yes, she is pinning on a cloth diaper. I think my mom tried those for about 3 days before switching to Pampers. Anyway, the journaling says: "Abba on the radio, Ford in the White House, SNL on TV...and I hit the scene." The pink bunny and the bug are cut from the paper that started it all.
Materials: Scalloped cardstock (Bazzil), Patterned Paper (Basic Grey for the stripes; Anna Griffen for the bunny and bug, American Crafts for the Green), Ribbon (American Crafts for the polka dots and I can't remember where the floral one came from. Probably American Crafts.) Buttons (Oriental Trading), Brad (Karen Foster), Labels (Avery), Pen (American Crafts) Stickers (Making Memories) and the year was cut with my Quickutz.

Something Simple to Start

2007-03-28T19:57:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I thought I'd pull out the simplest thing I've sewn recently, since Gina told me that she just learned how to sew on buttons last year. Just now, as I went to post this sucker, I see that she has already posted a whole thing on homemade scrubs. I guess you can do quite a bit without sewing on buttons!

So anyway, you're still getting the simple project for my first post. Because I realize not everyone grew up in a house where everyone sewed. And cross-stitched. And painted. And drew. And washed off styrofoam meat trays and egg cartons to use for future craft projects. Apparently we had a lot of free time.

So these are two little book bags I made for my kids when they went to preschool. First, because the regular backpacks were as tall as they were when they were little 3-year-olds hitting the preschool scene for the first time. Second, because you have to put their name on the bag anyway, so why not put it in big letters on the front. And third, because my mom did the same thing for me when I went off to kindergarten, and I just couldn't resist reliving history with my own kids. So here's how it's done....

Get some heavy fabric. I picked a thick corduroy because I had it on hand, but canvas would work nicely, too. And it probably wouldn't hang on to every hair and piece of dust that comes its way like the corduroy does. (Enlarge the pics and you'll see what I'm talking about.) Cut two identical rectangles (think that you're probably going to want to be able to put 8 1/2"x 11" papers in there, so leaving an inch for seam allowances, you might cut them 10 1/2 x 13 or larger. If you want matching fabric straps, you'll also need two rectangles that are about 2 1/2" x 17 1/2". I wouldn't go much larger on the straps if this is going to be for a little kid, or it'll be dragging on the floor.

Now you get to decorate the front. I picked a square of fairy fabric, turned the edges in with an iron and stitched it in the middle of the front side for Maya, then (this is hard to see in the picture) I pinned her name using ribbon over the fairy fabric and sewed it down using a zig-zag stitch that was as thick as the ribbon. For my son, I did the same basic thing with the truck picture and hand-sewed his initials (yeah, his name isn't "Ebm") over the picture. There's no reason you have to hand sew the initials, I was probably just too lazy to change the thread color on the machine 3 different times to sew 3 little letters.

Once you have the front done, put the two large rectangles face sides together and sew from the top of the left side, across the bottom, and back up the right side. Then turn down and hem the top edge of both sides...if you turn it under twice then the little scraggly threads won't escape.

If you're doing fabric handles, now is the time to fold each long rectangle in half, so it's now 1 1/4" by 17 1/2" and sew from the bottom all the way up the 17 1/2' side. Now you have the hellish job of turning that sucker inside out. There's no easy way to do it...which is why I used blanket binding for my daughter's bag. If I recall, I think it took a lot of poking the material through the long tunnel with fingers, pencils, knitting needles, maybe a coat hanger, and lots of swearing. Once you have a right-side out strip, poke the last 1/2" back up inside of each end and iron the whole thing flat. Turn the bag right-side-out and pin both ends of one handle to the inside of one side. It should only hit about an inch or so under the top of the bag. Then sew a little square along the bottom of the handle, up the inch of each side, and along where it meets the top of the bag. If you don't want the square to show through to the front, hand-stitch it to the inner layer of the 2-layer top hem that you're attaching this to. Lay the bag flat and use handle #1 as a guide to where to pin handle #2 on the opposite side. Rinse. Repeat.

If you want to save yourself the headache of turning handles inside out, buy some 2" blanket binding and instead of hemming the top of the bag, just fold that over the top and sew it down with a zig-zag stitch. (In case you haven't used blanket binding before, it will be very obvious how to do this once you see it.) For the handles just cut a strip of binding about 17 1/2" and sew up the open side using that fancy zig-zag stitch. (Ta-da! No turning inside-out required!) Then stitch the handles on just like I wrote above.

Wrap it up and give it to your big kid on their first day of school. Then put a big smile on your face and do your best not to break down crying until after you've dropped the kid off at preschool!

Scrubs, Natch

2007-03-28T14:52:00.002-06:00

Gina: Aw, RIGHT!! Two things have already happened... Brooke has already posted, and I have already lost an entire post! Two important milestones for any Blogger. So here's the redo.

I think I'll start with some pics I took nearly three years ago, when I made the questionable decision to sew my own scrubs. You can see the blissfully optimistic look on my face, all, "I'm gonna be a hygienist! It's gonna be FUN!" Oh, to be young again. But when I'm in private practice (if I make it out of school alive), at least I'll get to choose some of the more non-dorky prints to make for myself.

And... speaking of dorky!

I have since scrapped this pair completely. You can't totally tell in the photo, but even though I made the XS, this pair came out with a butt the size of a barn door, and so short in the legs I had high-waters. It was like... who are they making these for? Aunt Sponge from James and the Giant Peach? That's what you get for buying used patterns from the 1980's on Ebay, I guess. But the whole idea was to make them for next-to-nothing, with material I'd bought on deep discount while working briefly at JoAnn Fabric.

My next pair came out better. I have no idea how to alter a pattern, but I cut away some of the top, lifted the crotch up off the knee area, and added some paper to the bottom. Pretty good!

I continued to adapt the pattern, and I made a purple pair (not pictured) that fit the best... They have since retained a large bleach stain, but I cover it with my scrubs jacket.

Oh, and I made a scrubs jacket!

I had never, ever sewn buttons on anything before this, and after reading some advice on the subject, I must say everything came out very well. It was also the first time I'd done french seams, which I now routinely employ. They are a hardy seam finish, and nothing ever unravels with them. You basically sew the garment right-side out, then flip it, then sew it again -- so the seams are enclosed inside.

Unfortunately, I now know that the jacket should be a size UP from your scrubs size, or its gonna be too small. It fits me perfectly, but not with something larger underneath it. But it has made a nice "back-up." And I learned a lot in making it!

As a final note on the project, if anyone out there is considering making scrubs (right), I would stay away from the material in the fabric store called "scrubs fabric." I made the first pair out of that, and it is really canvas-y and scratchy. I used the solid color, thin cotton/poly blend fabric, and it looks great right out of the dryer, but you can actually breathe in it. Also, I put in an elastic waistband instead of the pull-and-tie kind, and I love how easy they are. Who has time to tie their pants?

Just also wanted to say how excited I am about this new project... I have so many talented friends, and I can't wait to see what everyone is doing. If you know anyone else who would like to join, be sure and let me know!

Greetings from a paste-eater

2007-03-28T14:03:00.000-06:00

by Brooke

Gina invited me to join this blog because I am one of her "Creative-type" friends. Originally, that meant theatre. However, even though I have an MFA in acting, I don't do that much theatre these days. My posts will probably revolve around scrapbooking---with the occasional cake I made for the kids' birthdays thrown in just to show you how many, many things can be done with cupcakes even if you do not excel in cake decorating. Anyhoo, it's mostly going to be scrapbooking, so I thought I might clear a few things up. I think scrapbooking, outside the "scrapbooking world" tends to conjure up images of soccer moms waving deco scissors around as they try to document that their children's lives were, in fact, perfect. And, inside the scrapping world, I can't say that such an image doesn't exist. I am active on a scrapbooking message board that is rather clique-ish. There are "Suzy Scrapbookers" (the soccer moms who want pretty pages but don't want to have to think creatively), the "Digi Gals" (people who have gone to using Adobe photoshop and other software to create their pages), the "paste-eaters" (people who like to use real paper and stuff when they scrapbook instead of creating it all on the computer), the "pubsters" (people trying to get published in scrapbooking magazines), etc. I am a paste-eater who dabbles in getting "pubbed" but mostly likes just adding page after page to our family's albums. I also teach classes at the scrapbooking store in town. It will be fun to post some of the pages I create that I like but don't think are "pub-worthy" and still want to share. I will probably post the materials list (in case anybody is interested in that kind of thing) and a little about what inspired it, etc. But, why blog more when i could sum up some of my other feelings about scrapbooking in a layout? The message board I mentioned earlier had a contest called "Why do I scrapbook?" I entered and got an honorable mention (which made me pretty darn happy) with this: Materials
Cardstock: WorldWin Treasures (kraft), Prism (orange), HP (white)
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (elephants), American Crafts (flowers), Sweetwater (school book), Daisy D's (teacher), A2Z Essentials (swirl)
Stamps: Paper Studio (large), Stampin' Up (small), PSX (heart)
Ink: Stampin' Up and Color Box
Pen: American Crafts
Other: Dymo Label Maker
Journaling:
THE MAMA: I never realized how bittersweet parenting could be. As you celebrate a new skill learned, you mourn just a little for the baby-ness left behind. Scrapbooking helps me feel like I won’t forget the dearness of their different stages. I feel proud documenting their milestones and like I also have an outlet to be wistful about how they are ever-changing and growing.
THE ARTIST:So, yeah, I have an MFA in acting., not visual arts or graphic design. But that doesn’t mean I can’t play with paper and words. Performing and scrapbooking have the same idea at the heart: telling stories. I don’t get to be on stage much right now and this satisfies my need to create and to share.
THE STUDENT: I never want to stop learning. About so many things. But, Scrapbooking is a great source for always being able to learn something new…trying something different, exploring a new technique, getting excited about new products and how to use them.
THE TEACHER: Ever since I was little, if I learned something, I immediately wanted to share it or teach it to someone else. So, I’m a university professor. And, naturally, as my love for scrapbooking grew, I felt compelled to start teaching at the scrapbook store. My classes aren’t always the most popular because I don’t always want them to totally copy the original design...I want them to explore and try their own thing. I get a rush when something clicks.
THE ANXIOUS: It’s not a joke that scrapbooking is therapy for me. I guess I should not have been surprised that I developed post-partum anxiety and depression after Eva was born. I have several relatives on Paxil, after all. But it totally floored me to feel so out of control. I discovered, though, if I kept celebrating how wonderful life was through scrapbooking, eventually, I began to feel that life really was wonderful. After both the kids, scrapping was what helped me get back to normal…and any time anxiety rears its ugly head, I know scrapbooking will help tame it.
Quotes going around the edge of the page:
That it shall enver come again is what makes life so sweet-Emily Dickinson
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time-Thomas Merton
The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live-Mortimer Adler
The mediocre teacher tells; the great teach inspires-William Arthur Ward