Cheaper than a ticket to NZ

Thank you for your terrific suggestions about pulling out of the January Blahs. While the trip to the New Zealand beaches for a real visit with my blogfriends Miss Smith and Mary Nanna sounded really fabulous, the airfare is a bit out of my price range at the moment.

Dear Anonymous seems to know me so well... I have my guesses about who she is. I have taken bits of her advice: particularly, spending time with other people's children, like these sweet feet.

And an impromptu lunch date with four year-old, RaRa. And some knitting with lady friends. And remembering to take my Vitamin D.

So in lieu of a trip to New Zealand or even to a big city, and considerably cheaper, I had a therapeutic shopping excursion to Alewives Fabrics this week. I went knowing that I wanted to make myself pajama pants in flannel. And that maybe I might like to begin a quilt for my boy who will turn 13 this year (December, so plenty of time), in colors of orange and blues. You will recall that his room is orange.

Imagine my thrill when I discovered a precut pack of twenty fat quarters in just the colors I had envisioned, for a Turning Twenty Quilt. That's an amazing retail experience, even more than the usual to be had at Alewives. So, I splurged for it and the border, backing, and binding fabrics and will begin working on it this winter, when I need the color therapy too.

I also discovered a bag I had to make, the Winslow Market Tote (free pattern here). And if you're wondering, the answer to the question "Do you really need another bag?" is *always* Y.E.S. It's lined with linen and is a nice hefty size for all of the stuff that usually travels with me.

And now it is really snowing like crazy outside and I have been home all day sewing intermittently with breaks for shoveling. Perfect.

Here's what I can tell you about Pajamas for Everyone in Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. For size medium adult, you need more fabric than she says, and don't even try to use a fabric that has a directional print. This called for 2 yards and there was just no way to make that work with the direction she wanted you to lay your fabric down in. So I turned and folded my fabric another way and it worked.

pajamas for everyone with small bums

One more thing to know, and this may be TMI blogfriends, is that I do not have a very large bottom. I would call it medium flattish. But the way the PJs fit me is just a bit more snug around that area than I would like. I'll definitely still wear them, but next time I will also adjust the pattern. Maybe I just like a loose PJ. Anyway. Aren't these the happiest looking pants you've ever seen?

I don't think I ever showed you this bit of sweetness that I purchased at our school craft fair at the Mosey Handmade table. It is the perfect size to protect the little bits of technology items that we carry around these days.

Reusable Shopping Bag # 1

Well, hooray! It's done, my little free pattern from Alewives Fabrics. My first foray into reusable shopping bags is complete, and just handed off to a very dear friend as an early Christmas present. Why postpone joy?

The iron-on vinyl was a little fussy, but I didn't hyperventilate. Too much.

If this bag doesn't help you remember your reusables when you head off shopping, I am not sure what will. And to boot, I think it might actually inspire a new kind of verve in the grocery store.

Picking Greens By Moonlight, Boys, Bags, and More

Well, it was me and the small guys this week---Jake was out on a tiny island with his middle schoolers in the beautiful fall weather, looking at the ocean through the trees of the campsite.

One boy made it into the newspaper, in a story highlighting Soup Day (Tuesday) in his kindergarten class. We feel lucky when we ( and I am using the Royal "we" here) remember to bring our vegetable contribution.

Here is a birthday present for Sylvan's friend who is having her 6th birthday tomorrow!

The colors are such gorgeous pinks and purples, sadly they are a tiny bit washed out here, but the lighting was tricky. And I finished a small bag to hold those monthly Girlie Items for the sweet daughter of my friend and gave it to her today---in the same fabric as the above bag. Carly's bag has a flap and velcro and I gave it away without taking a photo of it. Simple and so fun to make.

And I shopped my own Stash to make these lovely wristers from a Knitty pattern called Fetching. I love shopping the Stash. These were quick to knit, out of a merino Filatura Di Crosa yarn---super soft and warm. I added an extra cable at wrist and at knuckles to fit my hands better. I made these to wear at work at the library because no matter how high we have the heat, sometimes I can just never stay warm on certain days and my hands freeze while at the desk. Pris, you'll know what I mean! I'm hoping these will help keep the fingers toasty while still able to clatter away at the keyboard.


Green Smoothie Part I
Last night, I was really inspired by Heather's recent post about Green Smoothies. I really like reading her blog and since I have bundles of chard and kale still hanging on out there in the garden I decided to try it this morning. Actually, I was so inspired that after reading the post I went out to the garden and picked my greens by moonlight, knowing that I would NOT keep my motivation if left til this morning!

So I whipped up kale, chard, an apple, and frozen blueberries and strawberries, with water to thin it, and swirled it up in my Whisky-Frisky (aka Cuisinart, since I have no high tech blender). Jonas recommended that if I were selling it, I might want to consider adding food coloring to make the drink look more palatable. But the rich dark purpley-brown color was fine by me and I thought it tasted yummy, even with no sweetener or dates. Full of fiber, veggies, fruit, and totally raw.

The best part: I think it was the perfect thing to eat before my workout. I have been in search of the "right" thing to eat on workout days...not wanting something too heavy, but something that will fill me up in a not-too-full way. I felt terrific all morning.

Will have photos soon...

The Owl Bag

The Owl Bag is done! I'm a sewing fool! It's a little smaller than my usual purse, but big enough for my water bottle, date book, and other essentials, with a few small pockets and sleeve for the water bottle to be held in.
It was Joanie's idea to have the brown duck fabric along the bottom and I love how it looks, and the durability it will add. I didn't have enough fabric to make a long shoulder strap, so I pieced two strips together, cleverly hidden under the matching duck fabric shoulder thingy (a better word?).
Note the double stitching, above, one of the extra special stitches on my machine!
The lady likes her Owl Bag!

And presenting my new and improved Crafting Storage Area:
A pine armoir, generously given to us by some friends at the school. It now holds my art supplies, my fabrics and notions, and all of my saved-for-cutting up magazines...in one location, where I can see everything and know what I have. I am day-dreaming some nifty totes or baskets for sub-organizing, but for now, this is a big improvement over the pile in the corner of my living room and crowded all over my work table! Now, if the organization fairy only visited my yarn stash...

Apron Love

I am waiting on some duck fabric for my owl bag to protect the bottom, so in the meantime I am already dreaming of the next projects...A couple of aprons and a very special bag for a very special older girl (something to hold those girly products that are a monthly necessity). Those folks at Fabric Hound are sure speedy with their deliveries.

Joanie loaned me The Apron Book by EllynAnne Geisel which is full of fun apron lore, history of aprons, and some simple patterns. I pretty much devoured it in one sitting and it got the wheels turning.

First off, I'm going to try a simple waist apron, from a pattern in the book:

The main fabric will be the green floral, the contrast the pink polka dots:

Next, and this will require some help from an experienced seamstress, perhaps Joanie, I fell in love with this very feminine and oh-so-adorable vintage apron---no pattern, just the photo:

In these fabrics, again the floral as the main, with contrast/edging in brown with white polkas:

But before I will allow myself to cut out any apron fabric, I ironed all of my skirts for this week and am about to do some homework for my internship. I am a work before play kind of girl...Happy Sunday to you!

A Typical Morning at Home

It started with making up another batch of half-sour refrigerator pickles, recipe adapted from cooks.com because I don't like making a ton at a time since they are best eaten soon (and really, you can't help it), or ending up with unused brine, and I like my proportions better than theirs:

• 2 pickling cukes (crispy)
• 4 c. water
• 1/8 c. white vinegar
• 1/8 c. plain salt (no iodine)
• 1 t. pickling spice
• 1 t. dill seed (I never honestly measure this because I just pick the seeds off of their stalks into my brine)
• 2 cloves garlic
• a couple of sprigs fresh dill
• Heat up your vinegar, salt, and water until boiling; take off the heat. Then add the rest of ingredients and stir. Into your tightly packed quart jar of cukes, pour as much brine as you can. I usually end up with about a pint of brine leftover, ready for the next batch.

After slicing the green peppers and onions, while the sausage cooked, (prepping for pizza dinner), I started the above ATC backings. I first laid down a couple of coats of gesso, then some acrylics. Preparing some backings in advance will help me to be able to easily make cards, even as my life ramps up in busy-ness with my upcoming internship. Then, there's no "blank" page looking at me. I will cut up the above boxes into the standard ATC size: 2.5x3.5".

There was vacuuming, laundry, plenty of kissing and cuddling with Sylvan, and also time to scribble out some design notes on my next bag project! It will feature the adorable owl fabric you first saw here.
It was a lovely full morning, with lots of my needs and "house" needs, and Sylvan's needs happily met.

And finally one of our heirloom tomatoes:
Can you believe the colors?