Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Today is my birthday. I am armed with a several brand new patterns, a pile of fabric (and then some, but who is really counting), a stack of sci-fi movies, and a gin and tonic. The house is quiet and I'm ready to do some serious sewing.
Several of the local designers in Portland were closing out their leftover fabric on Wednesday up at Modern Domestic. Here is my haul:


The beautiful dusty pink with cameos was from Erica at Garnish.

This is some fabric that I have been trying to sew into dresses for the past year... or more.


I did get one dress done out of the Burda pattern shown. After I constructed it once, I took it completely apart, readjusted the pattern and reassembled the dress. It fits beautifully, and I get many compliments when I wear it. Now I just need to sew up some more. I'm all about the dress. No thought required to dress your entire self. No matching. No trying to find two clean pieces of clothing. Just grab and go.

New patterns from the trip to Fabric Depot today:


Again... the dress... it's all about the dress.

These are a couple of other top patterns that I had. Trying to find something for the pink cameo fabric. I don't think either of these is what I want. I'm going to check Burdastyle later... if I get the dresses done.

AWOL for a bit...

I have been gone for a bit... taking a break... trying to find some new inspiration... I haven't done a lot of sewing, crafting, or other things. But I have been reading Peter's hilarious blog Male Pattern Boldness



This man is fearless and will sewing ANYTHING in the pursuit of learning to sew... and he's not afraid to post pictures of fit challenges. Peter is a true inspiration.

Alabama Chanin

Natalie Chanin from Alabama Chanin was at Powell's in Portland last week. Unfortunately I wasn't able to meet Ms. Chanin in person, but I did get to see some of the quilts that Powell's was displaying:






Gorgeous texture and overlapping fabrics and stitching.... I'm contemplating buying her book... because I love books and you can never have too many.

I'm a bit inspired to try some quilting.. but I have so many project in process that I feel like I need to finish some of my others first.

Trip to the Zoo and Outfit Updates

Spring Break was last week. The spouse had surgery on Monday and was home Tuesday to work on recovering which meant that I needed to keep the offspring out of his hair. So I took the pair to the zoo for a few hours one morning. We found a lovely rainbow inside the polar bear exhibit.



These two made me take a picture of them every 15 minutes.



Then it was on to some sewing earlier this week. The blouse that I made for Elsie's Eloise outfit was made in a hurry and therefore did not have a center front opening.. meaning that it was a bit of a tight fit. So we sliced up the front and added some multi-colored buttons... courtesy of Anthropologie's holiday wrapping from 2008.



Working on writing with my stylus... I keep telling myself that the letters will get smoother and more like my writing with a pen if I keep doing it.

I also had to do something about the length of her denim skirt... it was approaching Lolita shortness in the back. Luckily she loves eyelet and I happen to have about 10 yards... so we added a flounce and brought a little modesty back.

Then they both made me take their picture.



Today I am sewing a silver leotard for baton twirling... a request from Miss E.

Tie Dye for Two

I learned how to dye in college and have been a loyal purchaser from the Dharma Trading Company for the past 15 years. I am working on a few dyeing projects for an upcoming dance performance (more on that later) and my offspring were curious and inspired. Since we had a couple of white t-shirts left over from another project, we decided to spend a day or two exploring tie dye.

Here are the two mad scientists at work...

... note the rubber gloves of the littlest participant. The gloves were VERY important... no matter how large.




The finished t-shirts laying out to dry. We only did two dye baths... that seemed to fit the attention span available.

Miss E did these great circles at the bottom of her t-shirt.


Now that the tree pollen season is here, I am hoping to do more sewing since I can't safely be outside without exploding into a sneezing, sinus swelling fit.... I know, I say I'm going to sew and post more every month. I feel like if I keep saying it, eventually it will happen.

Sweater Pictures

It is so grey out today that the lighting is terrible inside the house. So for now these pictures will have to do.




The sweater seems to have grown a bit... although Miss E swears it's the same size as when I finished it. At least she will be able to wear it for awhile.

Double Post Today.... on Alma

I was over at Loobylu and Claire had posted a link to this gorgeous yet creepy short:

Alma

Take a look when you get a chance.

Sick... again.....

I am sick, yet again, this winter. Some cold thing this time, so hopefully it will pass quickly. So I'm going to post pictures of a "stash busting" yarn project that I knitted on the last time I was sick.

After completing several knitting projects, I seem to have an abundance of leftovers, so I let Miss E pick through the box and choose an assortment of yarns to knit up into one grand sweater. We were hugely inspired by Lina Mayfleet's sweaters in the movie City of Ember.



The sleeves came out this way....





... and the body came out this way. She really liked the red fuzzy yarn, and I barely had enough to do the front and back panels.



This was my first time knitting without a pattern. I took some rough numbers off of a children's cardigan, but made up the rest. It is a little wider than I anticipated, but looks really good on body. I'll post pictures when I'm feeling well enough to chase down Elsie and have her put the sweater on.

Absolutely Gorgeous

Check out this fashion spread from Elle Canada using plus-size/real-size model Crystal Renn, author of Hungry.

It is breathtakingly gorgeous....

Project Rungay- Elle Canada- Crystal Renn

Eloise

I have had a long love affair with Eloise from the Plaza. I have also greatly admired her creator, Kay Thompson.... who took the color pink to new heights with the song "Think Pink" from Funny Face.



We have greatly enjoyed the Eloise movies with Julie Andrews as Nanny too. Both actresses are the epitome of their storybook counterparts.



Therefore... Miss Elsie was seized with great inspiration... riding high on the success of Halloween costuming... and flamboyantly requested an Eloise costume to wear for Christmas. It was NOT to be a Christmas present, but rather her official Christmas outfit. I was able to get the skirt and blouse done (on Christmas Eve, no less) before succumbing to the flu. I put on the straps today.



I think it turned out rawther well.....

Remember These?

Miss Elsie had a birthday party to go to and needed a gift. I was going to make a drawstring purse (which is what I usually make, and which meant- yet again- that Elsie herself did not get to choose the gift idea- which I was thoroughly reminded). So I asked Miss E what we should make, and she suggested "these braided ribbon barrettes"... which I TOTALLY knew what she was talking about.
I put on my 80's thinking cap and we whipped out this lovely set of 2 side barrettes and one fabulous barrette of ribbons and beads for the back.




The pink beads were attached to the barrette at the ends. I forgot to take a picture after we finished. It has already been boxed, wrapped, gifted, and unwrapped. I may have to make some for the Little Lady Herself.

Christmas Pajamas

So we are back in Portland after driving 8 plus hours on Tues the 29th... the last 3 hours through A LOT of snow in the Gorge. I'm still sick and my daily routine seems to be getting up, doing one project (i.e. cleaning out the refrigerator and scrubbing down, putting away Christmas presents, cleaning up kids play table in basement for the forth time this year), and then taking a 2 hour nap with the vaporizer running full bore... only to climb back into bed around 8:30pm and lay there in the steamy dampness. I am really, really tired.
But I have located my camera patch cord and can post some Christmas gifty projects!
These were the pajama fabric choices for this year:



There is always great excitement to see what prints I have managed to find for the pajamas. My nephew is quite the fly fisherman, and I was extremely fortunate to find a fly fishing print... which he was extremely excited about.

These are the recipients on Christmas Eve doing what they did for the entire week we were there. My youngest in the front removed something from Nana's floral arrangement for the picture... for extra beauty, I guess.



The gift wrap... I'm particularly pleased with. We stopped putting on bows or anything with 3-dimensions, since all the packages have to be packed into boxes to go to the farm. So this year I got out my stamps and found a silver pigment pad and went to work.



It looks all Martha Stewart-y. Also I am only buying one color of wrapping paper for EVERYTHING. So if you receive anything from me in the next 6-8 months it will be wrapped in red. I'm tired of having all these little bits of this and that left over.

Merry Christmas

I am posting on Christmas Day because I am sick and confined to my room while the rest of the family celebrates and I keep my germs to myself. It is a bit of a bummer, because I really enjoy Christmas. Everyone sounds like they are having a good time, and I'm sure the dinner smells good. I can't smell much of anything.

I completed the traditional Christmas Eve pyjamas on time and the children (my two and my sister's two) opened them last night and put them on with grand flourish. I seem to have forgotten my camera patch cord and will be unable to post pictures until I return to Portland. I have apparently packed 3 sets of patch cords for my iPhone... so no danger of not being able to plug that in.

We did watch Mark Morris' The Hard Nut last night on TV. It was amazing and creative and a great interpretation of the classic Nutcracker.
Scene from Act 1....

.... not your traditional Victorian family. Love the graphic patterns on everything.

The snowflakes actually snowed by throwing snow from their hands.

Gingerbread Men

Miss Elsie wanted to make gingerbread men, and the spouse is gearing up to construct a house out of gingerbread as well. So last night, we made a few men.... careful not to open the oven door in case one got away.



We are using the magazines to control the thickness of the dough. I know you can buy those doughnuts that slip onto your rolling pin which do the same thing... but we didn't have them... and the magazines are about 1/4" thick and work just as well... as long as your 3 year old doesn't try to unwrap them partway through the rolling process.





Of course while the cookies baked, there was a lot of munching on the candies decorating the men. You do have to sample all the components.



I melted some colored white chocolate used for candy making for the decorating. It was late, and I didn't have time to make a batch of frosting and Miss Elsie wanted to give her teacher a couple of the Gingerbread Men for Christmas. Thank goodness for candy making supplies and a microwave. They white chocolate melted in a few minutes and piped out really well from the pastry bag.... well enough that one of the men has eyebrows.

The rest of the men are baking today and will be decorated this afternoon. The house will be under construction soon.

It's Christmastime!!!

I seem to be firmly in the one post per month realm. I really want to break out of that trend and blog more.

We put up one of our amazingly retro aluminum Christmas trees last week.


Of course if you have an aluminum tree you MUST have the rotating light.



Which spends the rest of the year inside it's vintage box.



I did take some great pictures of all the vintage glass balls on the tree. I'm trying to figure out a way to make one grid of pictures with all the images. It's a lot of pictures.

Halloween Goodness

So my serger and myself were covered with all this brown fuzz during the construction of the Halloween costumes.



The skin of the bat.... which caused all the fuzz...



The finished bat...


He's very proud of his wings. I'm still cleaning up fuzz.

Miss Elsie went as a Bride Witch. Yes, that is her real hair that we sprayed black with pink streaks.



I'm still cleaning up the black overspray in the bathroom.

Both costumes worked well and the pumpkins are full.