weekend

hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

mine was pretty good even though i was sick most of last week [cold, cough, yuck] and am still trying to shake it. so, let's see what did i get accomplished?

-worked friday night at my day job [a contradiction i know but i have have to work one friday night about every other month] during which time it snowed a bit

puppy prints

-took some pics for Etsy vintage listings..here's a sample of what's to come

peacock napkin holder

-went through a box from an auction last summer full of vintage fabrics and quilt pieces. i LOVE going through the box and seeing exactly what goodies i ended up with, all the while picturing what i'm going to sew the already cut squares or sewn blocks into. but i HATE the soaking, washing and ironing that it all requires. i know, i know, it's a necessity but to me it's the worst part. however, almost the whole box was worth all the work...here's a few pics that shows about 1/4 of what was in the box total [and you have my sincere apologies for these dark, flash bombed photos, but it was dark outside. what are you going to do?]

oh, and did i mention there were four full feedsacks in the stash! mwahahaha! [can you tell i love feedsacks? :D ] three are the same pattern but the one on top is wonderful and still vibrant!

 AND there was  a couple of good-sized pieces of bark cloth in the mix too!

one last thing: Rachel from One Pretty Thing so very kindly included my crocheted wrist warmer pattern in her Crochet Roundup yesterday! thanks soooo much, Rachel, i really appreciate the mention!!


well, those are the highlights of my weekend. i need to go swap out a load of fabric...


what exciting things and projects did you work on this weekend?

pincushion swap sent...

 ...which included this pincushion and needle book.

I really like how they turned out and am very proud of myself for several reasons...

First, with inspiration from sew ritzy-titzy's daisy chatelaine tutorial, I created my own crochet pattern for the pincushion. I'm a chronic pattern-follower but decided it was time to break out! My thread colors were dictated by my second proud moment...

 I actually got up the courage to cut into one of my vintage feedsacks! (You can do it too, Courtney :D ) I used the feedsack as the inside cover of the pincushion, for the pocket on the back cover of the needle book and the closure on the book. The closure leads me to my other proud moment...

I finally found the nerve to use that intimidating piece of metal, the Crop-a-dile, to set the snap for the closure on the needle book! It really is a wonderful piece of machinery but I'm sure it will take me five years to figure out all of its multi-tool potential.

I really had fun making these and I hope the recipient -who lives in a far-away land- likes them. even just a little bit...

And of course, Kate @ Foxs Lane deserves a very big 'THANK YOU' for putting this swap together! I'm so grateful I had a chance to participate!

color inspiration...

...from one of my vintage feedsacks. I was looking for color inspiration for all the cotton yarn I have and decided to use this

to determine my colors for these

 I really love the gray and yellow... who am I kidding? I love just about any color with gray :D

Would it be sacrilegious to make a tea towel out of part of a vintage feedsack? It would make for a really cute dish set, no?

my first post...

... and I'm very nervous for some reason! I read so many great, well-written blogs and I know it can't be easy putting yourself out there for the world to see. I want to be witty and interesting, not dull and boring- but I guess it really comes down to the fact that I just need to be me. My one true goal for this blog is to document what's going on now in my life so I can look back at it in 20 years and LMAO!!

So, to start off, this is where I spend waaaaay too much time- but, I just can't help myself!

 

This corner of the dining room table is mine, mine, mine... except at dinner time, of course! I like to surround myself with a few of my favorite things. Right now those things are:

1. My Chococat Pez dispenser (forget Kitty! just kidding... she's cute too but this black cat is my fav)
2. Little plastic animals my kids got off their Shirley Temples (remember those?!) at my birthday dinner
3. Ear plugs for when my son is practicing drums (really, you can't practice after school when I'm not home?!)
   
4. A 1962 French Holy Calendar

I'm not Catholic but love this little book so much for three reasons: it's vintage, it's in French and it has the most darling illustrations!

My reason for parking myself in the dining room, which runs right into the living room, is that I can keep myself in the middle of all the action. It allows me to interact with and be available for my two teenage sons, my husband and our two pups. (Plus I have a direct line of sight to the television!) I also set my sewing machine up on the dining room table and do my other crafting and crocheting in this part of the house. Someday, when the basement is finished or the kids are gone (not quite sure which will come first and our youngest is in 8th grade... sigh) I will have my own studio. But, for now I'm satisfied with neatly storing my craft stuff around the house and making the most of my dining room table....

And what do I do with all of my real time in this virtual world? I have a vintage Etsy shop (which I need to spend more time on), I read a lot of fantastic blogs, I search for crochet and sewing patterns, and I have recently opened a Flickr account (which leads to subsequent browsing of so many wonderful things!). One would think that after spending all day at my 'real' job sitting at a computer, I would not want to spend my free time doing the same thing, but like I said, I just can't help myself!