new digs

we went over to the new place yesterday to get a few things done before we start really moving. kevin painted the walls in eliots room and we decided on the childproofing we need to do. the walls came out nicely although we still need to do some touch up.

a few of the nice things about the new digs are the brick wall and exposed beams in the living room, the nice view, and great building security. it is actually a condo so i am hoping the other building residents are respectful. i want to find out the history of the building. it must have been some kind of industrial space.

here is kevin being as sassy as possible. the orange wall might take some getting used to but our landlord said we could paint it if we want to.

my final stacks for the craft fair, done! hats, pants and jackets. kevin put together some pegboard with hinges for me today (he is being very industrious this weekend) so i can hang up several things instead of having it all flat. hopefully i can work out the logistics tonight and work out any kinks in the display before wed.

my trusty pink string. i just thought it looked pretty by the window so i shot a picture. there is so much on this roll i dont think i will ever run out..and i got it for 10 cents! i really like the color and nubby linen feel of it. ive been using it to tag the clothes.

tgif

this week seemed extra long so i am happy today is friday. we have some lofty goals planned for this weekend including painting some walls in the new apt, finishing up my craft display, laundry and maybe some childproofing at the new place too. i would like to photograph everything that i have made for the fair, to put on the website and for cataloging/inventory, as well. i think i would like to do a photo shoot at fort williams, the usual place, on the beach area where the round gray rocks are all piled. the stars will have to align just right for that one ie: no snow, not too cold, and not busy. we'll see what happens!

this was us tonight. i haven't used this sling in ages and i honestly thought it would be way too small to put him in anymore. on the contrary! he fit in it perfectly and loved it. he was being particularly clingy and it made it a heck of a lot easier to get a few things done by freeing up my other hand. i think we might have to use it more often!

an eye full

this is how my day began. it was a really beautiful, bright sunny day that started with saturated golden light rising up over the neighbors roofs.


i took the day off to have my eyes dilated again. it is quite an odd experience if you have never had it done before. but, to save the day, you get to wear really sassy sunglasses. eliot thought they were irresistible. it did make the bright sun a little too bright but i hunkered down in our living room with the shades drawn. it was still a little intense for a while but really not that big of a deal. the eye dr. warned me to be careful who's eyes i chose to look into today as dilated pupils are a sign of interest in others heehee.

and finally a little picture of eliot wearing the jacket i kept for him. i think a couple of moths got to the fabric so there are a few little holes on the sleeve that i didnt notice until after it was sewn. i cant sell it so i thought i would keep it for him. im working on some better pictures but this was as good as i could get today. please ignore the background chaos :)

geektastic

I challenge anyone to come up with a more geeky school picture than this one...this is the picture that kevin carries around in his wallet. i think this is 5th grade, i remember trying to decide if i should take out the headgear for the picture and rationalizing that i would get in more trouble taking it out than leaving it in. hummm.. little did i know that pictures last forever. i still have glasses, and i still am geeky but at least i know better than to leave my headgear in for pictures :).

snowy day

we are having our first real snow storm of the year today. we are supposed to be getting about a foot or so. we are close to the water so it may be a little less. i like how cozy it feels to be inside when it is snowing. i took this out the window as someone was walking by with an umbrella. i always think that is a little funny in a snow storm.

eliot got to try out his first pair of boots! it took a while to get them on, he likes to scrunch is feet when i put shoes on him. i thought he would hate these but it turns out he really liked them. he clomped around the house for quite a while after he got his 'sea legs'.


here are some little tea bag softies that i made a while ago that i think i will bring to the fair with me. these particular ones are in need of a little repair after their tea strings got tangled up. they are tiny, a good use of left over wool scraps.

kevin is working on some designs for onsies for me.

and the owl is finished! i hope it is well received!

born to ride

we had a fun visit with uncle tim and aunt trish today. they were up here previewing wedding singers and stayed over at our place last night. we had a breakfast out with eliot and he debuted his 'too cool for school' jacket.

i took this picture of the owl progress last night. it is all stitched together now, except for the bottom, and it is stuffed. i need to add some wight to it so that it stands on its own and then he will be finished! the dog will be next but im having more trouble working out the ideas on that one.

i received some nice comments yesterday about my bag and one person had a question i thought i would answer here in case it helps anyone else out when sewing with old sweaters:

I was wondering though how you prevent the yarn from unraveling when you cut it and losing too much of the knit to make the bag. Did you use a straight or zigzag stitch to prevent it from fraying? Just curious how you did it.

The first thing i did when i found the sweater at the thrift store was to wash it on the hottest temperature and dry it. it didnt totally felt it but it made the knit a little easier to work with. i think it half felted and therefore didnt unravel as much as it might have otherwise. surprisingly, most of the knits i have cut into dont tend to unravel. it is a little scary to cut into it at first but i figured all i had to loose was a 5$ sweater so, i took a deep breath and did it.

i sewed this bag with a strait stitch, fairly wide on the stitch length. i have been doing that with the hats i have been making too. i think it gives it a little more give so that the knit doesnt pucker. an over lock stitch would probably have worked as far as keeping the fraying under control but i didnt think of that at the time! i used a very generous seam allowance, about an inch i think, because i was fearful of fraying. lastly, i lined it with a medium-heavy weight upholstery fabric that i made slightly smaller than the shell of the bag so that there wouldnt be a lot of tension on the lower seams, or stretch it out. my machine had a hard time going through the handles of the bag when i attached them so next time i would come up with another solution.

i hope i answered your question! if you have any others please let me know and thank you for the kind words.

old friend, peekaboo and a new pile

this is my favorite bag i have ever made. it was from an old fisherman style sweater that i cut up, reassembled and added wool applique and embroidery. it doesn't get used much when it is warm out but since the weather has changed it is in full use. it is nice and big, big enough for a sippy cups, diapers, snacks and the occasional portable craft project or camera.


looking out another window, and climbing on the couch. our games of peekaboo have become much more physical including running around the house and rough housing. he really is turning into a boy!

here is another pile that will be born into an owl, hopefully by the end of the day. i love wool so much, maybe i should dream of a sheep farm instead of goats..

cards

one step closer to being finished for the craft fair... i printed up some hang tags and business cards today. kevin thinks thinks is a very boring post.. he might be right but since he is giving me a back rub i will let it slide.

crafty work

working hard on the A Little Bunny items for the fair. here are a few details. forgive the bits of string and fuzz, i havent had a chance to completely trim them!




and a picture of eliots new favorite toy...a cell phone. it is bilingual no less! helps with the whining and tantrums when we won't give him our phones :) thank you teri!!

catch up

a start on the picture posting:

::keeper of the scraps::

::pile of hats and linings::

::everyone needs a cup o joe (empty of course)::

::thanksgiving day walk::

::to go bag::

::pile of pants to be sewn::

::new pants with vintage sheets for linings::

long time no see!

whew, we are back and pretty much on track. we had a great thanksgiving down in the cape, lovely weather, company and food. our bathroom is pretty much done..of course then last night the ceiling leaked...again!!! this time in the bathroom and the bedroom. so, another round of contractors has come through the house and we had to move everything around again.

we have decided to move. i think the universe is trying to tell us something.. sending up bright red flags all over the place that this is not the place for us. as luck would have it another place has opened up just in time. we will probably be a little crazy for the next few weeks..as usual :) but i am going to try to post as much as possible. i really do have some nice pictures to share i just haven't had a moment to shrink them down and label them! i miss reading my usual daily reads.. when it rains it pours right?

P.S. Promotion has started for the Shop - a - Do craft fair! (Scroll down for the listings). I can't wait to check out the other vendors.

a slow post

a slow post for a slow few days. our bathroom is in pieces, mostly out on our back deck and our house is in major dissaray. we are trying to play it cool and hope all of the work goes as planned and we have our apartment back to ourselves by wednesday. we will be going down to the cape for thanskgiving and wont be back until friday so it will be a little quiet around here for a few days. i have lots of neat things to show off so when i do get my camera out it will be a landslide of photos!

on a side note.. it snowed today for a good hour or two! nothing is still on the ground but it snowed none the less. i guess winter really is around the corner.

looking for inspiration

i have been looking for inspiration for a little christmas commission coming up. i am going to make an owl and a dog. i think this is my number one chose for the owl and then something along the lines of this for the dog.

i have some pictures to post but i forgot to download them off my camera.. i have one of my hat pattern that i worked out. i can start working on those soon. making progress!

there are a lot of interesting owl links out there:

ann wood
one red robin
little birds

nature

some nature from our walk up bradbury:

rare

a rare afternoon nap for eliot today. i had him all ready to go for a walk and whamo.. he fell asleep. i probably should be crafting but instead i am poking around (wasting time) on the internet and drinking a beer. a mama deserves a break once in a while right?

i took some pictures of the crafting i am working on for the holiday fair. i am making little wrap jackets first. they were going to be sweaters but they are heavy enough to be jackets. i think i will do a little embroidery or applique on them once i get through the stack. they still need buttons.. have about 7 more to go.. halfway there. then it is on to pants and hats. everything else will be a bonus i think!




he loves looking out the window!

bradbury

we climbed up mt. bradbury this weekend. it was a nice easy hike up to a pretty view of the surrounding area. you can barely see a sliver of the ocean from up there. i wish we had climbed it a few weeks ago when the leaves were peaking! eliot was happy on the way up and not so happy on the way down. all in all it was a nice cold day out. my mother at one point proclaimed that this was, to her, like climbing everest. i thought that was definitely the quote of the day so there is a picture tribute below.

God wants a bride, not just a one night stand

here is a silly link for you today, crummy church signs. the commentary is a little labored but the signs or quotes from signs are pretty funny. it must be hard to be creative with such a limited amount of space and letters. if i had a sign in front of my house im not sure what i would put on it. maybe this is my sign? humm.. the psychology of blogging...

no pictures today but, i have done a fair amount of crafting so i will take some pictures of the progress tomorrow. im trying not to freak myself out about getting stuff done for the craft fair :)

challenging day

it has been a particularly challenging day today. with very short notice our land lord is demoing our bathroom to replace a moldy ceiling. it is going to take a few days wherein we will be in and out of the house to avoid dust and contractors. eliot managed to spike a 102 fever today to add to the mix. the poor guy is in good spirits, i think it is related to the teething. i wasnt feeling well last night either so my mother was kind enough to come over and keep eliot entertained while i lay on the couch and complained.

so, not much crafting done and it will, very likely, be a little sparse with the posting over here for a few days. this has spurred on more conversation about buying a house rather than continue renting in other peoples houses.

i did find some nice poems in eliot's children's books this evening.. here is one i particularly liked:

Sweet and Low

Sweet and low, sweet and low
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea,
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

oprah

i finally found out the picture that i had in Oprah magazine for the farm i mentioned last post! it was the february issue i think..i tried to get a copy but they never got back to me. if anyone has it kicking around let me know!

i knew it was a picture of a cow but i wasn't sure which one it was. i also though it was going to be a teeny postage size picture but it is quite large at about 3 or 4 inches across in the mag. pretty cool. i like taking pictures of animals and i had actually thought of livestock photography as an option for me at one point. i guess there is a picture that i took in a cheese book that just came out too. i'll have to find it and post about that at a later time.

on a side note the boys upstairs are driving me NUTS tonight! there are 2, 17 year olds (twins) that have very heavy feet. i try to remember that they are young and don't know what it's like to spend lots of time getting a baby to sleep only to have them wake up after you sneeze 3 rooms over....but it has spurred conversations between kevin and i about making sure to teach eliot respect and consideration for your neighbors. deep breaths...will eliot every really be 17?? oh my..

busy day!

a nice busy fall day today. after i came home from work the family went over to Smiling Hill Farm to visit the lovely jennifer of Silvery Moon Cheese. we had a lot of fun catching up. i felt very nostalgic. i miss making cheese! i miss the physical part, the farmers markets, the sense of creating something at the end of the day. there are a lot of parts i miss about it but i am happy i can always go back and visit.

i also received my lovely swap package from the fall swap i participated in. i will post more about that when i take some nice pictures.

i found out that i have been accepted to sell at the shop-a-do craft fair through space gallery here in town. i have a LOT of work to do between now and dec 13. i am cutting out and sizing patterns and hopefully clearing out a huge chunk of my stash. i need to fill a 6 foot table! busy busy me. this will be a good challenge for me and a good way to work out some ideas i have for the a little bunny line. plus, i'll get to see what sells and hopefully get some constructive criticism along the way..feel free to chime in!



a sad teething boy. poor guy is getting a couple of molars all at once. im glad to get it over with though and at least he will be able to eat more crunchy food :)