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Scrapbooking real life
I’m busy tying up loose ends to get ready to play along with Ali’s Week in the Life scrapbooking project that starts tomorrow (there is also a flickr group). If you haven’t heard of this project, check it out here. Basically it’s documenting all the “other” stuff that you may miss. Not events, or special occasions, not trips or birthdays, but everyday happenings. What you look like NOW, what you are doing NOW, what you are eating, playing with, listening to NOW. I’m so excited! The last round of this was in fall of 2008. I only lasted one or two days, but because of it I have some of the last pictures we ever took of grandpa, so I think even if you are on the fence to try it. The worst thing that could happen would be an extra pile of pictures you can tell your stories with!
Speaking of piles of photos, one of the things I did to get mentally cleaned up for the week was to order my first quarter 2010 prints from Shutterfly. I read an interesting blog article about the importance of prints that I agree with. I love having them to go through, and when I do end up with a few to toss down the road I think it’s worth it to have physical prints to go to when ever I want, or when ever Tuesday wants. I’ll be all caught up on getting prints up to this week so I can get next weeks printed right away with out guilt.
Of course preparing for the week made me go through my supplies and that made me want to play with them! These are the layouts that resulted.
Journaling (and photo) taken from this post.
(it took longer for me to figure out how to add a black border to the picture of this layout than the layout!!! I found an easy guide here, after wasting about an hour of Sciarrino’s time 🙂
I watch/read/listen to Pride and Prejudice way way too often.
(embellishment from the stash I made last time I scrapbooked). Not sure if this needs something else…
I think I’m getting better at taking picture of my layouts. I stood over them tonight as the sun was setting (thank for going to bed early Tutu!):
It was much easier for me. I’m still thinking that I might want to just use a little easel, thoughts?
In other getting mentally clutter free I did some blog house keeping stuff. The dailies are all updated (hey! was no one going to tell me I’ve had that spelled wrong for three years?!?!?!). I have a new Amber Loves List and I’ve updated the Reading list (can’t figure out how to link to them, they’re on my sidebar).
One more thing I wanted to ask, on behalf of Erin, is if anyone has themselves, or a friend, who has gone at least five years with out a teeth cleaning? She is going through (almost done with) dental hygenic school (is this what it’s called?) and needs some patients for her final test things (technically not what they are called I’m sure). The cost is very small and it is in Eugene. You can comment, go to Erin’s blog, or email me if you like.
Also after all this scrapbooking stuff I really am going to set up that swap! I think I’ll wait until this week is over, we’ll see. I might just photo blog this coming week since I’m sure I’ll be in inspiration/photo/story overload.
Christmas for the grandparents – take two
Earlier this year Bj’s parents “cashed in” their photo shoot with Tuesday. Well at the end of last month my mom and step dad did the same thing. We met up outside our beautiful capital in the lovely little grounds that were littered with fluffy pink blossoms. It was brighter than I had anticipated, but I still love the results.
I love taking pictures of Tuesday with all her friends and family. I love taking pictures in general. But it’s interesting taking pictures of my mom. I think because we’re so close she has no problem telling me something she doesn’t like, including her face in some of these. Craziness right? I think she looks gorgeous! She will happily tell you that we often get mistaken for sisters, so she can’t think she looks old. Mom you’re hot! You’re just going to have to deal with your smokin’ self and get some of these blown up for your wall!
Toddle through the tulips
My neighbor and I took our little ones to the tulip festival today. I had to go after seeing the wonderful pictures on Alicia’s blog. I told my mom I was going and she said, “the last time you went you came back with a stick!” I was like, “what?” Yes, she’s right though. The last time I went was two years ago and I took a pregnancy test that morning. Bj thought the line too faint so I brought it to ask Michele, who screamed when she saw it. Best reaction ever. This time with Tuesday was much different. For one she didn’t really care about the flowers. She’s a people person and especially loves little people like her so Aiden had to watch out!
It was so so sweet.
Of course Aiden is a little faster than her…
But she tried to keep up, laughing at herself the whole way. Hearing her run and laugh like that is just the best! I tried to get her interested in the flowers.
But then someone new would walk by and she’d have to say,
“Did you see my cute baby belly?”
All in all a fabulous day. And she only knocked her friend to the ground with an over exuberant hug once. That ended in both of them crying. Ah such is life.
What all that binding was for
I am lucky to have a little god-daughter who has given us many of her old things, including this wrap jumper:
That is special to me because V wore it the day we went wedding dress shopping. After pulling it out for Tuesday I realized that it really is quite simply constructed. So I decided to try my hand at drafting up a pattern using this dress as a guide. Not quite as easy as I had anticipated, but I did learn a lot!
All is fabric is from my stash, and there is the bias binding I made out of shot cotton. Of course it looks even cuter on Tutu:
My neighbor let Tutu toddle around in her yard since ours is still a disaster zone (but only for a few more weeks!).
It was so beautiful out today! I’ve been working hard at getting Tuesday to leave on her sunglasses, each time she leaves them on for a bit longer, but eventually they come off.
Over all I am super happy with this, I’ll probably make at least one more in this size and then see if I want to figure out how to size up (scary!). Tuesday liked it, but maybe that was just because I let her put on her favorite shoes to go outside:
She cries when I take them away. A girl and her shoes…
A couple of details for Carmen who didn’t have a chance to finish hers while she was here:
(really it’s a hack job on the button hole. It’s only on one side (the finishing) because I couldn’t figure out how to get a small piece of fabric like that to feed right into the machine. Maybe baste it onto something?
The lining is from the lining of one of the Target Liberty dresses I pulled apart. I want to get a slightly bigger bias binding maker. This one was cutting it close and I had to go back on the inside and hand stitch a few places where the machine didn’t catch. To make the dress I laid the two pieces together, pinned them, and then took the pins out one by one as I fed the edges through the machine with the binding on, it’s what’s holding everything together. I’ll let you know how it holds up in the wash! It does give me the confidence to try and copy a few more of my favorite ready to wear designs. Have you ever tried this? Tips?
Continuous Bias Binding
So yesterday with all that math and craziness. I hope you saw that I updated the post to say that I did not come up with those numbers, but copied it directly out of the book, you can see how I got so confused! I did find a couple of good site for making continuous bias binding strips that I thought I would share. I had thought I would do a tutorial with lovely pictures.
But after this was taken I failed again to make the lines line up right. To see what I am talking about check out this tutorial. Basically it allows you to make a long strip of binding with out having to cut a giant triangle from your fabric (which I hate doing because you have a bit leftover piece of fabric with a bias edge, and thus lots of waste). Since I never could figure out what size square the book was trying to get me to use I found this lovely little cheat sheet. And I finally managed:
to make a weird tube/cuff thing turn into this:
One long strip, yeah! Of course it's not my fault really. I had some great distractions today:
Babies!
Tuesday running around and Chloe being cute in our new (to us) swing:
I found this thing at a used kids store and it was pretty beat up. I cleaned it all up in the bathtub, Bj put in new rope and I sewed new straps for it. Tuesday has let it be known that it is no substitute for the park though.
Carmen, Chloe, and Andrew are headed back to Alaska tomorrow. So I'll have time to take pictures of the thing I needed all that bias binding for!
Questions
Okay some questions for you my dear readers.
1). Should I change my blog header. I haven’t changed it for five years. Partly because I’m lazy 🙂
(I was going to put a poll here, how the heck do you do that?)
2). Should I change my avatar, across the board (flickr, typepad, etc.)?
Currently:
Possible:
More personable?
3). Are you good at math? I thought I was but trying to figure out this passage from the Sewing Bible was driving me insane, so I had to find another site to help me. Here is what the problem is:
(from page 70): “First work out how much fabric you need. With a calculator, work out the total length, plus 10% (for seam allowances and wastage). Multiply the total length by the width of strip required. For example, for 2 yards of 2″ tape, you need (72″ + 10% x 2″) about 14,600″ total area of fabric. To make that into a square, press the square root key on the calculator, to give you the required measurement for each side of your square. Two yards of 2″ bias strip needs a 121″ square. Round it up to give you some slack.”
edited: I know this is wrong, I didn’t do the math, I just copied the above directly from the book. I am just trying to figure out what size square she is trying to get, I is NOT 121″ that is crazy.
This has to be wrong, right? RIGHT? Plus the way she has you do it does not work:
Oh boy was I getting frustrated! See how the lines don’t line up? I think it was a seam allowance issue. I followed the directions on this site and it went much better. I couldn’t find any errata for the book, but I think maybe it was publish in England first so perhaps something was lost in translation?
4). Ladies when is the last time you had an exam, the down there kind? A friend of the family was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the bad kind, because she didn’t get pap smears yearly. Look, nobody likes those things, but please, if it’s been longer than 12 months (guilty!) make the call for an appointment for free. And if you can’t afford it Planned Parenthood does them for little or no cost! I went there for my yearlies when I didn’t have insurance and they were so lovely.
5). How many projects do you have going on right now? I think I have about eighty give or take…
6). Is there anything cuter than a baby in the bath?
I’ll answer this one for you: TWO BABIES IN THE BATH! (one of who has a mama who should get better pictures of said cuteness).
Calming Hands
Yuck, I got a cold! Boo hoo hoo especially because our dear friends are here form Alaska with their little cutie pie who is four months younger than Tuesday and I want to hang out! But in the interest of not sending them back up north sneezing and blowing their nose (and cursing my existence) I spent the day away and mainly in bed and on the couch (thanks to my mom and then a long nap by Tuesday—baby girl you rock so hard!). I’ve been wanting to scrapbook, and sew, and spin (oh check this out:
New Hello Yarn fiber, so tempting).
BUT I made myself rest, and watch TV. It’s been a while. I watched Bones (Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Ugly Betty (next week’s the series finale, that creeped up on me!), and stumbled upon the para olympics. Restricted Vision Downhill OMG how amazing are these athletes?!?! I didn’t tune into much of the able bodied Olympics, but this had me riveted. Of course I can’t just sit there. It’s not like I’m at death’s door (and if I was, I think I’d want to get in as much knitting as possible, right?). So I knit. Rows of plain stockinette. Genius seamless pattern, and yummy yarn (rav link to my project page).
Just the sleeves to go now, but had to try it on Miss Sparkly Pants (or Miss not wearing any pants here!):
I love it. Did I mention it was seamless? I think I’m going to try and find these pewter buttons I know exist somewhere in this house gleaned from a much loved Gap sweater from High School.
Even though I knit the 6-12 month size and I knew it was going to run big, it ran even bigger than that and I think I’ll need more yarn from my favorite shop. It will be hard not to grab a few more skeins in different colors and cast on immediately for a fall sweater for Tutu. Now that she is bigger I must plan ahead! Did I mention I love this yarn?
So I did that and made some soup. Like from scratch. Those two things combined are making me feel much, much better. Now off to knit some more!
For Donovan
Did you see that Ceara had her baby? A sweet little boy named Donovan that I can't wait to meet in a little over a month. Ceara said she didn't know if she was going to get a carrier, of course I decided that meant I needed to make her one. I found the Sew Liberated pattern and it was quick and easy:
iPhone photos, but you get the idea.
Of course it will look much different with a snuggly little newborn in it, but we had to try it out (and have used it quite a few times actually since it was sitting out). Now that I've made the pattern once I think I'm going to customize one and whip up a summer model to take Tuesday out and about in. The outer is a home decor weight canvas material and the inner is a flannel I had on hand. Oh and the whole thing folds up into the pocket:
Pretty awesome pattern, I recommend it! I only did a few really minor tweaks, like angling the ends of the straps and shortening them a bit.
Loving
All your well wishes.
Having my husband home.
My silly little girl, and the fact that she fits into these.
New scallop punches.
Quickbooks reconciling with my checkbook for 2009. I always wait until the last minute, but I still have over a week to spare. That’s progress people.
More time to create.
Strips of fabric from friends.
Wearing a non-nursing bra for the first time in 15 months… a one evening only thing as I went out with some fabulous friends Saturday.
Cheese.
And a quiet monitor (and diet coke despite my best efforts!!!).
Anniversary flowers:
Sweet, sweet Tuesday Lee. Seriously the girl is so __________ I don’t know what the word is for how wonderful she is. I love her little toddler language and her expressions. Her joy to see me in the middle of the night. I love every little thing about her.
Wool.
Mixed with cotton from my favorite store. And the pattern pretty much rocks too.
Life. It is good.
What are you loving?
