Five on Friday: February 14, 2014

Yes, this post has to start out with the Valentine's Day message but baby it's cold outside! We actually have a special lunch to go to compliments of our financial adviser. He does this every year and it's a nice treat. We'll see if the weather makes it possible.

1. Are you thinking about Project Life? Here's a link to a freebie from the source...Becky Higgins. A free Project Life Starter Kit. You will certainly see how easy it can be if you're ready for the digi version.

2. I had my first experience of working directly with the guests in Hospice and loved it. I'm so glad they call the people in probably their last days of life guests, and not clients or patients. It represents a whole different attitude. btw, beat the hell out of any place that calls the people in that institution as beds. People are not beds. Beds hold people. People with names.

3.I'm thinking these little albums might make a great gift for the grandchicks. I suspect they will be or are now in some independent scrapping stores. Aren't the colors dreamy?

4. I finally got round to making the slow roast beef recipe my dil gave me, saying my son and grandson devoured it. That's a good recommendation any time. 2.5 hrs per pound at 200 degrees means 10 hours cooking for a 4lb eye of round. I had to plan that pretty well since I'm not up early and functional enough to get it in for a 6 pm dinner. So I got it prepped and my dh put it in as he gets up in the dark a.m. Nice to have the oven on all day in this cold.

5. I'm seriously thinking about finding this pattern and even considering making this tunic top. It would be so nice for the summer in a linen. I love it and looking at a lot of similar items on Etsy etc, they are usually over $100. and more often sold out. I have a machine and once could sew fairly well. This looks sooo comfortable and covers a multitude of 'sins'.

I sew, I sew

I am making slow progress with my SEWN class but that's ok with me. What is not ok, is how the cut paper and sewing bits has taken over too much space in my house. Today and/or tomorrow is the time to get more bits sewn and then get the sewing machine out of the dining room.  My dh has not complained as we have all of our meals in the kitchen but with our open plan, that dining room is always visible.

Sewing upstairs means putting the sewing machine on my computer table or...setting up a card table. I have filled this room with so many things it cannot take too much more without my falling over myself.  But enough about my challenges... because we haven't even discussed the time it takes for painted and gessoed papers to dry!! They take so much space! Finito.

Here is what I have done...

Now I just have to get some more bits sewn and then put them away for a bit. I need a week of TIDY and maybe get back to the digital for a bit. Then it will be time to make a mess again. Is that your process at all? or do you happily live in the artistic clutter?

SEWN - Barefoot Style

Yes, that first SEWN book is done, done always being a relative term when any kind of art is involved. But yesterday I rescued my sewing machine from the sewing machine hospital and set to work a-sewing. btw, they did a wonderful job of cleaning out the solidified oil gunk and getting my machine back to health. Aren't we blessed to still have a functioning sewing machine store?

Once I jogged my ol' brain into recalling how to actually thread the machine and get down to business, it was a lot of whirring and humming. My stitches look like a maniac was doing them and I did have a hard time controlling the foot pedal as it wanted to run away on our hardwood floors. Finally, it became barefoot sewing which is fine in the summer. No more escaping foot pedals!

This is how their stitching looked... (The paper towel and newspaper under the machine is just in case the new oil leaked at all. It didn't though.)

 I had no illusions as to my skill but I plugged along, sewing all those various shapes.

Eh voila!  She is sewn!

Next came the binding of the signatures for the inside. Oh that was another challenge! Mary Ann Moss refers to guerrilla sewing. I aspire to that peak! Mine got done but with a lot of 'use what you got' style.   More to come later.

Five on Friday: July 12, 2013

A very rainy morning, the kind where it would be so nice to just stay in bed and sleep and listen to that rain. But it was not to be...aerobics, a chair yoga and later a drive down to Southern MD for a retreat. I'm looking forward to it but suddenly a lot of stuff is going on in my life and it isn't the quiet summer I'd imagined.  But we mush on!

1. I have been keeping a mental list of some of the unusual jobs I've heard lately. Jobs I just never fathomed.... nuclear reactor sales.  Concrete sales - I knew that but strictly sidewalk installers...hmm, that was a new one. Data artist. I love the description of that one, and only wish I were younger and qualified! Do you have any unusual jobs to add to my list?

2. We have a slow but steady crop of the giant cherry tomatoes. Now if we can balance the good summer rain with hot sunny days, it will be fun to have those little gems to snack on.

3. I am finding that paper and paint and glue and scissors create a much bigger mess than digital work. Well, duh...but I'd forgotten how much I dislike the mess. My paper cover for my pattern book is glued but not sewn. Look at these cuties.

4. I cleaned my sewing machine and have my manual. Now all I need is ...thread, needles, a few more bobbins, and the patience to thread follow the instructions on how to thread that machine, ditto on make the bobbins, and then...pray that the needles don't start breaking as I sew the cover for my SEWN journal. Mary Ann I'm starting to doubt....

5. Yesterday, I asked himself to go to the Amish market for meats and cheese and anything else he'd like while I'm away this weekend. What did I do yesterday?? Mostly start the key-wording of my zillion .png files in my new Lightroom 5 catalog. I love that this version of LR 'sees' .pngs.  It's well worth all the doing but it is eye crossing. What did he get extra? Some pulled pork sandwiches sold by some cut little Amish girls.  :)  I added hot spiced vinegar to mine since I like mine North Carolina style.

This is ...my favorite fabric store

It's terrible to pick this as I haven't sewn in YEARS but for sensual delight, I'll pick G Street Fabrics in Washington DC. It used to be on "G" Street in NW Washington, back when downtown WAS the shopping area. e.g. pre malls.



That was where I would go and get luscious material and patterns when I was a teenager. I'd come home and announce that I NEED this tomorrow night. Can you believe my mother and grandmother actually did it????? Perhaps the word spoiled comes to mind. btw, that lovely tulle and feather deal will only set you back $149. a yard. On sale now from $199. but sadly, polyester. (n.b. This is NOT one of my purchases. I was buying back in the 1960s when $10 a yard would make you faint...)

Today, if I need any kind of fabric for anything...it's usually Jo-ann's, with a coupon. I think my days of having a personal dressmaker are over. (Tho I have to say that after my years ordering my mother and grandmother around, I also had a lot of years with dressmakers in various countries of the world. Wool, Irish linen and Liberty cottons in England and loads and loads of silk in Thailand...I was much much kinder with paid dressmakers - to my now shame.)

To get loads more ideas of where to buy fabric or crafts, look at that button on the right that says This Is and you'll go off to the list at ThreeButtons. Thanks to handmaiden for this week's meme theme. (PS..Handmaiden is going to be compiling a list of all the fabric and crafty emporiums you listed in This is. Won't THAT be a treasure.)