Stunt Sewing

Will you Marry Me?

Totally impromptus, totally unexpected and totally silly. We made paper carnations for the Teachers V-day gift, put them in a $2.00 watering can and called it good. Grace, always improving on my ideas, twisted up all her carnations and used them to propose marriage to her dad, down on one knee and everything. I know his heart melted just as much, if not more, than mine. Even with all the trouble of having 2 house payments this, THIS, makes it all worth it!

"Love Stinks" brings down the house

For Valentines Day a little contest was brought forth... Choose between "most beautiful", "most original" or "Most Funny" for your valentines collection buckets... no larger than a shoe box (there where some seriously HUGE shoeboxes there) and use your iminagation. What are a 10 year old boy and his dad to do? Paper Mache a Toilet, yup that's right! Off to the craft store the two of them went, returning, so proud, with styrofome, paint and other supplies. It was a fun and time consuming project but so totally worth the First Prize status! Most Funny of course.

One Queen of Hearts

This is one of the "queen of hearts" outfits I made for Valentines. Olivia is loving hers just as much as Grace but I just haven't managed a picture of it. I used some cool-e-o knit from Han... (that I have way way way too much of) paired with campan red/red and some denim. Mostly, I decided on the single layer LAGUNA because I've been hearing about how there are like NO single Lagunas shown anywhere! Now there is, at least this one. It's hard to see in the image, I topstiched in RED on the skirt, it's darling IRL. The ZOE top I guessed on the width for the ruffles, and next time maybe I'll make them a smidge longer, but I like it :-) Oh yeah, about the yardage on this Laguna, It's a super wide denim but I only used 1 yard for the size 7/8, also I put piece a and b together and left it one big spiral. One other thing to note... she really was wearing this outside and all around without feeling one bit cold on Valentines day ;-)

Pink bug

I don't think in all my days, I've ever seen a pink bug before. The color in the image is a little off, it was really a nice bright pink and the wing covers were kind of iridescent. What a very nice treat Mother Nature sent to my door.

colors

A lesson about color mixing, it was fun but now fingers are stained. If you want to know how I got those colors. These are the ingredients. 1. you get a bowl and put water in it. 2. you get some food coloring. 3. you drop only one drop of each color details: if you want it turn black then mix it all together with a spoon or something.

why can't it be simple?

Well we, M and me, have been welcomed properly to Texas, a 3 car fender bender. The days that followed were filled with paperwork and various headache remedies. I'm happy to report that we're both fine. Now the headaches are from dealing with insurance companies.

Cable, cable where art thou?

We have about 100 power cords that moved with us, where I ask you are the devices they provide power to? Okay, 100 is an exaggeration but every time I go looking for something I seem to find a stray power cord. Everything is pretty much unpacked, all plug in devices are properly plugged and humming away when needed, and yet still I continue to find lonely power cords. I also know that as soon as I pitch them they will certainly be needed. Amidst all these stray cords, I'm sure, is the cable I need to attach to my camera in order to u/l all the pictures I've been snapping lately. Valentines fun, sewing fun, life fun. I've been snapping it all and they are having a secret party in the camera, unable to come out to play. And what happened to that special proprietary a/v plug that sony makes us use? Which leads me to "damn, Sony" why must they make a special a/v plug, everyone else seems to get by just fine with red/white and yellow on both ends, but not Sony. While bitching about this last night Terry informed me that Blu ray won out and now HD is the "Beta", this surely mean more lame proprietary plugs, Blugh! Back on track... since I can't share all the exciting times, quite yet, I'd like to say a little something for this AMAZING documentary we watched last week on 'on demand'. I've been checking into the electricity options here in our new area. I've discovered that I need a MUCH larger recycle bin: Every bit of paper and cardboard, along with all triangle numbered plastics and glass can be picked up here! This is so fabulous and really means that the little recycle bin should really be for 'garbage' and the big humongous can should be for recycling. It also leads me to the question "As a business owner how can I leave a smaller 'footprint' on the earth?" First, I will switch to 100% post consumer paper as soon as I need more paper. Until then I will use less paper for invoices, I will continue to reuse papers for the shipping labels. I am broaching the subject of 100% post consumer paper with the pattern companies that I work with and think, hope, that I'm not the only one that feels like the extra cost is so TOTALLY worth it! I'm also looking for more eco-friendly packaging.

An Artist among us?

Humu was our read this morning, after which we set about making our own fishy drawing. She is such a perfectionist.. When she had a hard time making the body, across the room goes the crayon and the paper is a ball on the floor. Notice the crumpled side and hand clutching the bottom of the paper. Take two. Mom helps with the basic body shape and M gives it a face and arms, oh wait, fish don't have arms. MELTDOW.... "No, no Maiah see these flippers are fish arms." Phew! She takes the crayon and changes them from stick arms to flippers and starts to color them in. I think she did a lovely job! Just a little plug for "Humu" It's an all around fantastic book about a fish who learns that it's best to like yourself just the way you are. I'm not sure they come any better than that.