An owl and his squirrel buddy

 

I made these for a friend's newborn baby girl. My owl skills are pretty proficient but gotta work more on my squirrels. I followed a pattern for the squirrel and really stuggled with how the eyes turned out. I'm bad with faces. Just need more practice.

 

 

Quick pillow

Back home for a two-week break, I knew I wouldn't do much crafting. My schedule would be full of catching up with people, drinking my favorite beverages, and snuggling my puppy and boyfriend. However, I could not control my crafting itch; I'm an addict.

I found a pile of clothes on the floor next to the hamper, mostly men's dress clothes. Before I went postal about clothes being on the floor, I found out that these were old clothes and should probably be thrown out. Seeing how I had a set of sheets that had just ripped, a pillow that wasn't being used, and some old shirts, I did some awesome upcycling.

I pulled out the stuffing from the old pillow. Then cut a rectangle out of the sheet, stuffed it, then sewed it closed. Finally I cut the collar, sleeves, and rounded bottom off the shirt, and sewed it shut. I kept the buttons on it and used that as a ways to take the, now pillow case, off. It worked really well. I measured and ironed nothing. Lovely. Remember kids, measure never. :)

However, I have a few more shirts to do this to and intend to make the pillow case fit more precisely. It was fun just to do something uncomplicated and see it finished. I plan on putting them in my future craft room :)

 

Knitting while away

Recently, I've been put on a project which requires traveling abroad. On my first trip, I brought some sewing projects and some yarn. I quickly learned that I was way more motivated to knit than to sew. I like doing my sewing projects in my "workshop" (aka the kitchen table). So on my second trip I filled my suit case up with yarn.

I've always been hung up on knitting a blanket because the kinds of yarn I want to use are so expensive. I try to steer clear of synthetic materials. I was also inspired by Restoration Hardware's blankets. Every time I go in the store I'm like, "I can make this."

Since I already knew I'd be spending most of my time in my hotel room, I went ahead and bought 10 skeins of DeAire, 100% merino yarn (Super Bulky - New England Night). It is super soft and warm. The picture below is after 5 skeins of yarn, I'm guessing I'm going to have add 15 more skeins to make it the proper, couch-snuggling length. (Sorry for the poor picture quality, I blame my phone).

 

I really just wanted to knit this in the stockinette stitch but knew that it would roll. So I did the border in garter stitch and knit the rest of it in k3,p1. It ended up being what I expected; it lays flat and is a little stretchy. It was nice to just knit up some swatches and make up a pattern myself, not having to look back and forth to instructions. At a knitting class, I told the instructor I like simple patterns that repeat. She scoffed and stated that was boring. As with most things in my life, keeping it simple is what I strive for. We obviously have different goals for knitting.

 

I also bought some cotton yarn called Lecco which is kind of a novelty yarn. I was really attracted to the colors, they reminded me of summer and the sea. I struggled with what to make with it because some stitches didn't show up very well. I ended up just doing a simple garter stitch which allowed the uniqueness of the yarn to show. I am obsessed with circular scarves. I plan on making nothing but those for a while. I really don't see the utility of the traditional scarf because it aways falls out of place. (Once again, terrible picture, this time I blame hotel lighting).

 



2012 in Review

It seems I haven't posted on this blog since last January, so I figured I had better get to it. Let's sum up 2012. It was a doozy! This should be fun!

Right at the beginning of 2012, I started a dress blog. I wanted to make one dress a month for a year. It turned out that I got through six dresses. I haven't given up. I'm still going to make those last 6 dresses, guess it will just take me two years instead of one!

My sewing motto: Measure never, cut thrice.

http://12dresses12months.blogspot.com/

In February, I visited Texas for the first time with two great girls. Surprising facts I learned was they have hobbit cafes there, Whole Foods originated in Austin, and Liz should never let me do her nails.

I got to celebrate the triplet's first birthday. William, James, and Brian had a blast and were zonked out well before the end. If I am not mistaken, so were their parents!

In June, Greg and I traveled to Israel for a friend's wedding. Check that one off my list.

Soon after that vacation, we got a sweet, little puppy we nicknamed Jerk Face because he eats all our stuff.

Then:

Now:

To finish off the year, I got a new job. Now you can see what happened to the rest of my dress making time!

It is a new year and there are tons of new things to do. I got a serger for Christmas which presents endless sewing possibilities. I've got a zillion new craft ideas. I joined the Y to make sure Leslie's body is as sound as her mind. The new job gives me the ability to save, spend, and be worry free the way I've always wanted to be. Not to mention all the new things I'm learning. I think 2013 is going to be great!

Whoooooo

I got creative this weekend. I made 4 pairs of earrings, two necklaces, and knit one very cute little owl. I was pretty unsuccessful with my dress making, so I felt compelled to accomplish something else.

Here is the cutest little owl!

A catch up on New Things

Recently, things have been a' changin! Since December, Greg and I have been moving and shaking. The first biggest change is our apartment.

As most of you know, the swinging pad we had in Ocean Grove was pretty nice! We had some sweet dark oak paneling that any girl would die for and some moths to keep the food company in the cabinets. However, there were a few things we still lacked. So I started the search a wee-bit early, meaning that in the end we were paying for two apartments for two weeks! But it didn't take too long to find an good apartment. We saw lots of places and it helped that we knew exactly what we wanted. It had to be close to the parkway, reasonably priced, with a bedroom, and a decent living room. Greg was also keen on it being near the water. So after looking around, almost being scammed, and running from some places, we found our apartment in Keyport.

It is the third floor of an old victorian house. It had everything we wanted and a HUGE deck! We were stoked! The only catch was, no pets! :( As you can imagine, we discussed this for a long time. If we took the apartment, my dream of a puppy would have to be pushed back and I would have to stop guessing that every surprise or piece of mail was a puppy (thankfully I really haven't stopped either of those things! whew!). So, in the end we took the apartment and my puppy dreams were suppressed. The upside is we got two little parrots (more to come on them later).

After we moved in we started making and doing all the projects we had planned while we were at the old apartment. We built pipes shelving in the living room, a magnetic spice rack and knife block. We put up hooks and towel racks in the bathroom. Greg even did a bit of plumbing and put a hose on the shower so we could water the plants.

Most news to come!

Gingerbread Men

They've been on my to-do list for months. I couldn't wait to make them. Gingerbread men. They are so delicious but I have never made them myself. This year, Greg helped me make my first batch of gingerbread men. Delicious.