Tag Archives: Sewing

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Christmas Crafting Has Begun

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The tree is complete.  The stockings are hanging.  The outdoor lights have been strung up (and they look pretty beast this year if I do say so myself.  And also to borrow a hip new term from the teens).  The cookie list is in process – I have yet to narrow down the exact types I’ll be preparing this year, but I’m close.  The gift knitting is in full swing.  I’ll share a little of that as I can…..but we don’t want to ruin any surprises!  Currently I am cutting red felt snowflakes to applique onto the white tree skirt I have made.  Now if we could just get a good snow to really kick the season off!  Ah, wishful thinking around these parts.  But the snowman mugs are out, the fireplace is on and the girls have their new Christmas pj’s.  Which means I have our 2008 holiday picture!

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Little Bits of Progress

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Yes!  We have progress!  I can thank having a birthday for it – one of my gifts was “time”.  And what a wonderful gift it was!

I made some lounge pants from the Amy Butler In Stitches book, using some Heather Bailey fabric.

I made some accent pillows for the bed.

Emily and I spent time making yo yo’s.

I also worked on some knitting and quilting, and made an apple  pie and some butternut squash with apple soup.  It’s officially my favorite time of year (now to January 1).

I also repainted Emily’s room.  When we first moved in I painted 3 of her walls lavender with a butter yellow accent wall.  I thought it was very sweet, and when clean it looked like this:

Then it went through some various changes – the bookshelf was replaced by a smaller one, the dresser was moved and finally a large chrome rack was put in to give her a place for all her stuff.  I hate that rack.  It never looks good, no matter what.  One of these days I’ll sew up a tent for it….but for now, ick.  But I digress.  Emily’s been asking for a repaint to blue for months now, and when I managed to snag some lovely aqua colored mermaid print fabric we decided it was time.  Off to Lowe’s,  fabric in hand!  It took me only a couple of hours to paint her room and refinish her dresser.  I have yet to get her window treatments or bedding done (and you’ll pardon the mess!), but this is the color and how it’s starting to shape up:

A little more grown up?  I’ll have better pictures once it’s complete.

For now I’m off to comfort Oona, who is grumpy and prone to vomiting today.

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When Love and Fear Collide

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Here we are, a lovely day in August in Virginia.  I know, right?  That sounds so unlike me to say that.  It’s because it’s low 70’s and overcast (we’re desperate for rain!!!) and there’s a nice little breeze and I have spent the day making some cute little fabric yo yo’s (they’re not the toy kind – they are more like little decorative fabric swirlies) with some scraps I have left over from other projects.  There are 3 big Yankee Candles going so the house smells lovely (a combo of Cafe Au Lait, Good Morning, and Blueberry Scone).  My new Cooking Light came in the mail.  And we spotted about half a dozen wild turkeys in the backyard this afternoon.  I tried to get a picture, but alas, they were too fast.  Our neighbor’s cat was out there as well, but I could tell she was rethinking her plan to play with those particular birdies.  They ambled off back further into the woods and I couldn’t properly follow since it is still summer afterall, and there is still a bit of thicket going on that is difficult to navigate.  All I could think as I headed back to the house was Darn!  I could’ve had some Thanksgiving dinner there! Oh well.  Not that I’d actually be able to take one of them down.  I just wouldn’t be able to hunt unless I absolutely had to.  Which is why when I get my chickens I will be using them for their eggs and not their meat.  I don’t think I could butcher an animal I’d been caring for.  Now if someone brought me something they had killed that was already dead and I didn’t have to feel guilty and be the reason it had to die….well then that’s different.  I am probably a total hypocrite, but hey.

Anyway my day was going pretty well, despite the dog poop.  Yes, for those of you that are wondering – I am still dealing with the occasional poop.  Like after I brought Pippa back inside this morning after her outdoor bm and she promptly did another loose one on my wood floor right inside my front door.  She’s “had the squirts” as Paul ever so delicately said, all day today, so she’ll be getting a nice immodium pill in her dinner.  But that isn’t what killed my lovely almost – fall day.  What killed it was that in the middle of enjoying the lovely outdoors and picking some squash while Neve frolicked on the swingset and I was reveling in the weather, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.  Caterpillar?  There are plenty of those around my veggies, as well as bees and various types of beetles.  So I casually looked up.  And about a foot from my right hand I saw:

I jumped.  I screamed.  I swore.  I cried.  I got chills and goosebumps.  And I most certainly did NOT take this picture.  Paul did.  Right before he doused the sucker with that most trusted of resources,  brake parts cleaner.  A LOT.  And then whacked it repeatedly with the can.  Even Paul was impressed by its size.  All I could think of was the banana spiders we used to see when I lived on Guam back in the day.  Of course they had blue on them as well as the yellow, but this guy was the right size anyway.  HUGE.  That is a technical term, btw.  I get the willies just looking at the picture.  I think the children may be scarred for life.  Emily declared she would never set foot outside again.  I am not sure I want to either!!!!  I can tell you I’ll have a hard time reaching into the garden now!

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It’s Late And I’m Feeling A Bit Punchy

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Poor Oona just wants to be held. She’s not fully awake but not asleep……probably won’t be for awhile. And it got me thinking how grateful I am to not be working a regular job. I have no one here to help out so if I were up all night I’d be SOL and very tired at work. Yay for being a totally broke SAHM!!!!

And that got me thinking about my last job and the people I worked with and how some of them I really miss seeing on a daily basis. There’s the occasional run – in at Target or what have you, but it’s not the same. Of course, I also had some unpleasant times as well, and that soured the whole darn experience, unfortunately. It’s sad, really. I left because I was pregnant with Oona and my salary barely covered daycare and after care for 2; there’s no way I’d make ends meet with 3. Still, had things been working better I might have found a way to stay. But I had two bosses, and though one was a phenomenal woman I will always look up to, one was, well…..not. So bad that I still have nightmares because my brain has clearly not come to terms with all the times I couldn’t properly defend myself to false accusations and repeated requests for things I had done like 45 times already! You can’t scream It’s attached in 3 emails to you and in several copies in your inbox – open your damn eyes! to someone in a superior position. You can’t call them out on unprofessional behavior when it’s non quantifiable and hard to prove. I don’t know why she didn’t like me, and I asked around to many other co-workers if I was really that unprofessional and bad at my job. Had anyone of them agreed with that woman, I’d have done my level best to improve. But I had no complaints. In fact my team was always very complimentary. But, that is way work is sometimes. There are some people you just can’t work with if you don’ mesh well. Like my spouse. We live together, that’s enough. We’d kill each other if we worked together, married or not!!!!

I guess what I am thinking here is that yes, it can be frustrating to be broke and be low on art supplies and bogged down with kids. But even so it’s late here and I am not worried because tomorrow I can get my older girls to the bus stop in my jammies. I can even nap with Oona after lunch! And I can find enough here to keep me inspired and energized and ready to create and design whatever I want. That’s what keeps me happy and sane and glad to be where I am. Plus I am an introvert, which as Crazy Aunt Pearl correctly points out, means that I get my energy and happiness from time spent in solitude (no, I’m not anti-social!!! I just need my alone time is all!!!)

And the yarn. oooooooo the yarn! I went a bit overboard buying yarn last year and I still have enough for several projects I haven’t yet started, nevermind everything that is OTN right now. All I need is a fabric budget to put to work what’s in my head and I’ll be all set!!!!

As a side note, it would also be great if Oona didn’t insist on biting me with her 7 very sharp teeth at every turn. Here I am thinking she’s nursing herself into a peaceful sleep when CHOMP!!!!

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Making A Mess of the Place

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Well, we’re home alright.  Good thing I pushed so hard to get everything relatively clean before we left because no sooner did we get in the door than all the suitcases and bags exploded all over.  Not only that, but Emily and Neve got their teacher assignments and supply lists for school (hello $200 worth of stuff….as if we can all afford it) so yesterday we spent the day all over town acquiring said accoutrements of kindergarten and 4th grade.  And while we were at it, we replenished our food supply, which was dangerously close to becoming extinct.  So now there are exploded bags and suitcases and boxes of stuff from Sam’s Club and Target.  I have a big job ahead of me today, if this weather induced dizzy spell (impending rain equals sinus pressure equals dizziness and crapitude) allows it.

And speaking of exploding, my garden is doing its best impression of The Blob That Ate Everything. The gourd and pumpkin plants spilled out of the raised bed, into the grass and across the lawn at an alarming rate while we were gone, and now it threatens mankind itself.  Well…….it has at least made us rethink where to plant it next year.  We have plans to clear out the trees behind the house right down tho the stream.  Most of them are those awful scrub pines that seem to fall if you look at them cross – eyed and just never look nice anyway.  There are a few wild dogwoods and even what looks like a big beech tree (can’t tell through the aforementioned crappy pine thicket) that we will save, and Emily is happy that I discovered several sweet gum trees as well.  But mostly it will open up a large amount of land that I think I should be able to claim part of for a proper pumpkin / squash garden.

The good news is that my short time in New England sparked a creative burst and I have had idea after idea since.  I have plans for the craft room, plans for Emily’s room, plans for the pumpkin room (the dining room, which we don;t use as a dining room, but it’s painted a pumpkin color and that’s how we refer to it now to avoid confusion)……etc.  Then there’s the clothing ideas for the girls……with fall around the corner my creative energy is ready to bust loose and take over the place.  Too bad I have no money!!!!  I need paint and fabric.  BAD.