9 months in the making

Believe it or not, I can actually do a small June round-up. Although I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet, for the most part.

So this month, I...

• Finished all of the hand-sewing on the second quiet book, thanks to a week where I literally had nothing left to do except hang out at my parents' while Doug was at work and wait to see if I'd go into labor. All that needs to be done is to sew the finished pages back-to-back with the machine, and assemble the book. 
• Finished knitting a scarf from a Craftsy class that I started last year sometime. And I have quite a bit of the second ball of yarn left, but I do have an idea for a project to use it on. Just need the time.
• Did not use up any of my fabric stash. But I did order 7 yards, because Fabric.com suckered me in with geeky novelty prints. 
• Got the scrapbook that I've been working on almost completely done, minus a few pictures that just got ordered. (Since I got married, I've been doing one per year, running from June to May in order to coincide with our anniversary. I seriously love the pocket-style scrapbooking, it makes it so much easier to keep up!) I even managed to finish up some older unfinished album pages, too! 

Oh yeah...and I finished this project.

He was born on June 22 (a week and a day past his due date), 20 3/4" long and 8 pounds 10 ounces. He's 10 days old now, and though it's been pretty exhausting, it's been fun getting to know this little guy, too. He's usually pretty happy, except when he has to get a bath or I take too long in getting ready to feed him.

Of course, when I do feed him, then he looks more like this:

Speaking of feeding, he's ready for that again. Hobbit was a very accurate nickname.

Back later...

2014's top 5 Highlights

Continuing with the lists... I was originally intending to lump the last 3 topics into one post, but this particular category ended up being pretty wordy. So I'll spare you the mega-post.

The new category this year is "Highlights", which is pretty much anything not sewing-related going on in our lives. I don't know about you, but sometimes I find it hard to share life stuff on here, mostly for fear that I'll bore people. So this seems like a pretty good way to keep it real! (Of course, I have actually talked about some of this stuff on here...oh well.)

1. Travel. This was a really good year for that, and I'm really enjoying that I can say that I went fabric shopping in both New York and Paris this year! And there was also my girls' geekout weekend in Atlanta for DragonCon. Aside from those three trips, Doug and I took a day trip down to Washington, D.C. for our first anniversary, which was also a lot of fun, and I also got to spend a day hanging out with some of my cousins down at the Delaware beaches. That's been a tradition since I was a kid, and I'm glad I found some time to go down this year, even though I wasn't able to stay overnight at all this time. (The picture is me and Doug at the Eiffel Tower, because why not?)







2. I got a piano this year! Both of my grandmothers have been trying to downsize their belongings recently, because it's getting difficult for them to live on their own since both of my grandfathers passed away in 2013. So one of the big things going on in my family right now is that my parents are building a new house, and both of my grandmothers will be moving in with them in the spring. My mom's mom had two pianos, so she asked me if I wanted one. She actually gave me the bigger one! So this is a baby grand that my great-grandfather originally purchased in 1928. It's horrendously out of tune, which I'll need to remedy at some point, but I like the family history behind it, and it's been fun brushing up on my other instrument. I took piano lessons for about 7 years when I was a kid, but my parents didn't want us overloaded with too many extracurriculars, so once I got to 7th grade, they asked me to choose between continuing with the piano or the flute, which I'd been playing for about 3 years by then, for my music lessons. Obviously, I picked the flute, though I still played the keyboard at home for fun when I could, and I also had to take one semester of basic piano as part of my music degree. (Which, since I already knew how to play scales and stuff, I basically spent learning the "Linus and Lucy" song from Charlie Brown specials. The professor didn't care as long as we tested well.) The other thing connected to this is that I'm actually teaching one beginner piano student now at a local school, in addition to the flute. So in the long run, this could be a very good thing for my music teaching career.

3. In the category of non-sewing/knitting hobbies that I don't talk about on here much, I am still scrapbooking. The Project Life system has turned out to be a really good fit for me--I can save photos without feeling like I have to make a layout for everything, and the pockets make it really easy to finish pages quickly. I still do "real" scrapbook pages from time to time, usually for bigger events. And I still use my older supplies, usually in the form of cutting down big pieces of paper to make cards when I don't have a color I want. But aside from still needing to write in a few notes and paste down a few pictures, I'm basically done with everything from the wedding to our first anniversary. And I already have some stuff in an album for year 2 as well. That's a nice feeling.

4. Meeting writers. As if I didn't have enough to do to keep myself busy, I've always loved to read. And I got to meet two of my favorite living authors this year! A couple of friends and I went to see Brandon Sanderson at a quasi-local bookstore signing, and I briefly got to meet Jim Butcher when he was signing books at DragonCon. (I was wearing my Belle costume at the time, and when he saw me next in line, he sang one of the lines from her intro song: "Look there she goes, that girl is so peculiar..." So that's a fun story.) One of the friends I went to Atlanta with is a published author herself, and she introduced us to another writer friend, Diana Peterfreund. I bought two of her books and read one on the plane on the way home from Atlanta. I have yet to read the second, but I quite enjoyed the one I read, so I'm sure I'll get to it before too long.

5. Family stuff. Being able to say I've been married for a year was pretty exciting for me, since I wasn't sure I'd ever get married in the first place. And, of course, what's been mostly occupying my brain lately is being pregnant with our first child! (And all the nausea that goes along with it, which is sadly still going on. I thought the second trimester was supposed to be better!) I'm sure this will be occupying a LOT more of my attention for 2015.

What about you? Anything exciting going on for you this year?

Top 5's of 2013, part 4: Knitting and other craftiness

Because those things deserve recognition, too, right? So here's all the things that weren't sewing clothes.

Top 5 hits of 2013: 

1. The Branching Out mitts that I knitted. Look, I did colorwork! And they're soft and cute and from a pattern I already had on hand. And I used the yarn in a fairly timely fashion, so win all around. I did have a bunch of this yarn leftover, but I'm actually using the leftover blue in a current project, which I will blog about when I have more to show for it.



2. The "Project Life" scrapbooking system. I started playing around with this during the summer as a way to try to stay more on top of my scrapbooking and document newlywed life. For those of you who don't scrapbook, the basic concept is that you can get these kits with pocket page protectors, cards that fit into those slots, and then you just add your writing and photos and you're basically done. Most people seem to do one spread a week. I've been doing more of a system of add stuff as I have photos for it or things I want to write down, occasionally mixing in more "traditional" scrapbook layouts, and go on a more month-by-month basis. I can't say I'm caught up, but it really is making it easier to scrapbook on a more regular basis--it's so easy to just grab the stuff, sit in front of the tv, and see what fits where. I'm also able to use some paper and stuff I already have, just slicing it down to size. I haven't showed too much of that on here, so here's a sampling of some things that I've (mostly) already gotten done!



It's not all pocket pages, obviously. The top two show what I've been doing when I have a "real" scrapbook page on one side--I've been making my own cards here and there to coordinate with whatever the main page is. The bottom left-hand corner is a finished page, from a concert that I went to over the summer with two of my closest friends, the bottom lowest right is one of the straight-up Project Life pages, though with a few additional filler cards that I made or printed myself, and the one above that is an in-progress one from the honeymoon. Yes, they're all Instagram pictures of a little plastic TARDIS. Doug and I were having fun with that! I just need to print out the captions and paste them on, and then that spread is done, and same thing with most of my honeymoon pics. I've only gotten stuff through the end of the summer mostly done at the moment, but I'm still feeling much better about this particular hobby than I have for a couple of years!

3. Geeky shoes. My bridesmaids and mom got a huge kick out of our mostly Whovian shoes for the wedding reception! And I have occasionally worn mine since, though not recently since it's been wet and icy a lot lately. Not the best scenario for painted canvas footwear.





4. It's nowhere near finished, but I'm going to add my Roheline cardigan. This is what it currently looks like. I have a long way to go, but once I got past the initial trouble with starting it, it's been a pretty easy knit, albeit slow. I think my stockinette knitting is starting to look pretty nice and even, which is why I'm calling this a win, even if it's still in progress! And now that I finally understand what it means by "wrap and turn" on the short row sections, the top will look even better.

5. Making things for others. Yes, this includes sewing too, but I tend to often be selfish in my crafting, and I did make more things that were gifts for other people this year. So that makes me feel pretty good.

Top 5 misses of 2013:

1. The scarf I knitted for Doug near the end of last winter. It was successful for stashbusting, but he hasn't really worn it at all so far this winter. This isn't a criticism, because he does wear the hat I knitted for him in 2012 all the time! He just doesn't get as cold as I do.






2. The bedroom curtains, to some extent. They do block more light than the blinds do alone, though it still can get way more bright than I like in the mornings. They're way shorter than I would have preferred. Note to self: Next time, be more generous with curtain yardage estimations.

3. Jewelry-making. Mainly because I just didn't take the time to do any this year. Note to self: must start playing with beads again, because I have way too many of them not to!

4. Home decor crafting in general. I meant to do a lot more, but once again, time management and I didn't get along so well, and I only got to the bedroom curtains.

5. Honestly, I can't come up with a fifth thing, because that more or less encompasses everything I made this year! So let's just say the time factor and leave it at that, since having more plans than I finished was a running theme this time around.

Finally, in the interest of not leaving projects unblogged, here's the handwarmers I actually finished to wear to my retail job.

It's honestly not my best work--I messed up the very easy stitch pattern here and there because I was in a hurry, and the yarn is pilling very quickly, because my job is hard on them. The stripes don't match up, and I don't care, because I just wanted to get them done--though I did do a surprisingly good job of getting the thumb gussets to match the stripes without even trying! But they've been keeping my hands warmer than they would have been on their own, especially during October when I was still mostly sitting at an outdoor register. This is how I was wearing them then:

Yes, those are other gloves underneath. Along with a hat, a scarf, long underwear, at least 2 other shirts, and a 2-layer sporty winter coat. Incidentally, one of the main reasons I still want to sew a new winter coat rather than just use this one, other than fashion, is that the inner layer is fleece, and I've found that it's really, really difficult to pull that on over my sweaters and blazer jackets, on the occasions that I forget to bring my "real" winter coat with me to switch to before I go do my teaching!

Aside from a couple of secret projects that I won't post until after Christmas, and a few in-progress things, that pretty much wraps up 2013! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas (or whatever you celebrate)!

haven't done this in awhile

One of my post-wedding goals that I had in mind was to try to carve out some more time for crafting. So I spent some time this past week playing around with the 30-minutes-a-day sewing thing. I managed to do so 3 out of 5 weeknights. I couldn't sew yesterday because I spent this past week teaching the flute/oboe section at a middle school band camp held at my alma mater, and last night was the concert. I also didn't make it to sewing Wednesday night because my best friend and I went to a performance for a Shakespeare festival that's held here every summer.

So yes, I've been sewing. I've also been knitting. But aside from a gauge swatch, what I'm working on in both realms right now are gift projects, which means I can't show anything yet. Suffice to say, I'm pleased with the progress so far, particularly with the sewing, since I did get a few hours of that in today.

The other craft time I've been attempting to work in is for my long-neglected scrapbooking. I'm keeping my target time a little easier on this one, and aiming for just 15 minutes, because it's better than nothing. But that means I do actually have things to show for that, which I haven't in a long time.

First of all, I finished this layout, which is from a backpacking trip that I took back in 2008. (Told you I'm behind.) This one was actually really easy to finish, because the only thing I had to add to it was the writing strips up in the left-hand corner. The rest of it had been done for some time.

(I'm pretty proud of that tag--it was recycled from some jeans I bought a few years ago, with just a little lettering added.)

I'm also playing around with a new-to-me scrapbooking idea. It seems these pocket-type pages are really popular right now, and I wanted a way where I could quickly throw things together to scrapbook newlywed life. Not to say that I won't do regular layout pages again, I am definitely planning on doing some for the honeymoon pics, and possibly some of the non-professional wedding pics that our friends and family took and put on Facebook. But I think this system just might work really well for me for events that aren't quite so picture-heavy! The cards are a great size for Instagram photos, and I like that I can decorate the cards a bit if I want to make them a little more interesting, like the card with the flower, or just slap a couple of photos and some writing on them and say I'm done. Plus, even though I did get an actual kit, I can (and am) mix in homemade cards cut from my own hoard of paper--that's where two of the cards here came from. This page isn't 100% done yet, I have to do some playing around with it to fit in some larger photos and see what I can do with those pockets. But it's coming along well, I think. I mostly see these albums done online where each layout is just one week, but I don't want to force myself into that box. So I'm just going to write down and throw in pics of whatever everyday stuff I want, and see how I do with keeping up with this thing. (And hopefully still catch up on some older layouts, too!)

Sewing Surprise!

It's reveal day for the Sewing Surprises swap that Nova is hosting!

I received a package from the lovely Kerrilee, from Sew Exhausted. (The sewcialist that I sent to was actually her co-writer, Laurie!) My package got a bit lost in transit for awhile, but arrived just in time for reveal day, on Friday. Which was great, because the end of the week was pretty stressful and it was the perfect fun surprise to cheer me up! So here's what was inside:
The package came all tied up neatly with a pretty ribbon. It was much neater than this, but then I repackaged it when I realized that I needed to take pictures--I was too excited and had torn into it right away!






There was a card with the cutest little cat sticker to seal it up.













There were two packages of wedding-related scrapbook stickers. Which is perfect, because of course I'm already plotting to make a scrapbook so I can hoard all of the candids that my friends and family make, as well as professional shots that we can't necessarily fit into the album that comes with our package!




The latest addition to my stash of sewcialist-given chocolate. I'm still working on the first of the two bars I got from New Zealand for the stash swap (eating them verrrrry sloooooooowly so there won't be any last minute dress-fitting panic issues!), but sea salt and dark chocolate is completely yummy, so I'll be looking forward to this for sure.


And finally, there were two coordinating pieces of super-lightweight jersey, and a pattern to make them into! I'll have to see if I can squeeze this in before the wedding, because wouldn't this be great for a tropical getaway?

I had a lot of fun putting together my package for Laurie, and it was very exciting to see what I got in return! Thanks again, Kerrilee!

2012 in review, part 2: In which I talk numbers and stuff

I know I've posted this picture before, but it has two of this year's finished projects, so I thought it would be appropriate!

2012 totals:
Fabric in: a whopping 63 yards. I blame the wedding dress. And my future curtains. Also, since I'm posting this a few days before Christmas, obviously this doesn't count anything I might receive there.
Fabric out: about 27 yards
Stash total: about 248 yards
Total number of finished projects this year: 21, if I count the dress muslin. Here's the breakdown:

• Garments sewn: 13, + one very time-consuming muslin. Actually, make that 2 time-consuming muslins...the jeans took awhile, too.
• This amounts to a raincoat, 2 fully-lined corduroy jackets, 5 tops (2 of which were reconstructions), 1 skirt (also a reconstruction), 3 dresses and a pair of jeans.
• Knitting projects completed: 3 (Doug's hat, my Camille shrug and a scarf)
• Other projects: a bridal shower gift, a baby shower gift, a knitting needle case and a scarf. 
• This total did not count scrapbook pages, though I did finish several. It's just that most of them were ones I'd already started a year or two ago. And I'm too lazy right now to actually pull them out and count them.
• The sewing project that I'm proudest of is obviously the jeans, since finishing a pair of those successfully has been on my yearly goal list probably every single year since I started this thing. The knitting project that I'm proudest of is the Camille shrug, because I think that is the most complicated pattern that I've followed so far, minus that sweater I mentioned earlier. And this turned out to be a really fun knit, which surprised me!
• UFO projects from this year: I have 3 knitting projects (Doug's scarf, the "Branching Out" handwarmers and a "Gap-tastic" cowl that I started ages ago to use up the yarn from my Cadence sweater. (I'm not counting that top that ended up getting completely frogged.) I also have a Vogue knit top that I cut out back in the spring, but set aside because it would be too warm to wear it for months and I never got back to it. And I have a pillow that I started making at a craft day at a friend's house, which won't take me too long to finish but the wedding stuff is higher priority now, and a patchwork skirt for my sis-in-law that I only work on when she's around so I can make it exactly to her specifications. 

Things that surprised me: 

• I made absolutely zero jewelry all year. I guess this is making up for the year of the ill-fated craft fair/Etsy shop?
• I barely did any reconstructing, but considering how few finished sewing projects I had, period, I guess it's to be expected. 
• The sewing projects I did do were rather complicated and involved, for the most part. Due to this, I made a lot more muslins this year than I think I ever have. Which is definitely a factor in the next point...
• My sewing has slowed way, way down, since I only averaged about one project a month. But I think that has the potential to change after the wedding--I'm sure it will be easier to work in creative time once we're actually living together and therefore see each other on a more regular basis. Plus there won't be all of that travel time between my place and his.
• Apparently I like knitting complicated lacey patterns. See above. I also really like brainless knitting for tv-watching purposes, but that's not a surprise.
• A recent surprise is that I've really been in the mood to pick up my scrapbooking again lately. This is probably because I've also been thinking that should be the next major supply stash that I should sort through/pack up/move.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for this year! In the meantime, I'm trying to push through the last week of 2 jobs for awhile, reading up on any tips and tricks that will help me actually get this dress going for real, and going through the flurry of activity that inevitably comes with Christmas! So I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very merry Christmas, and to thank you for your time spent reading and commenting on this blog--it really means a lot, especially knowing that I haven't had a whole lot to show this year!

2012 in review, part 1: Life happened.

I know it's not quite the end of the year yet, but since there is going to be absolutely nothing that changes anything I'd write in this post between now and New Year's, I thought I'd just get this out of the way early. (Gives me more time during the Christmas-New Year's week to focus on actually, you know, working on my wedding dress.)

One of my long-time favorite quotes is this one, from a John Lennon song: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." I think he hit it pretty spot-on there (even if I tend to not like his post-Beatles music). Obviously, this year did not go as planned--but in the best possible way. If you'd told me this time last year that I'd be engaged, I probably would have laughed in your face. So since I generally review the goals and plans I made at the end of the previous year in this traditional post, I'm going into this with the disclaimer that life definitely had other plans. On with the show!

Since I basically have nothing crafty to show right now, in order to avoid this being a massive text-only post, I'm breaking this into two parts. So this part is basically a review of my goals from this year, and looking ahead to the next.

Part 1: My 2012 goals, as stated here: 
1. Continue chipping away at the fabric stash. And whatever other stashes.
 The verdict is: Mixed success. On the one hand, I did use up several pieces of fabric, including several that had been around for years. (The lining being the piece in the latter project.) On the other hand, I did end up purchasing several things. They're mostly things that will get turned into curtains for the townhouse, since I haven't really been in the habit of stashing home decor things. And, you know, yards and yards of fabric for a rather unplanned wedding dress. I'm ok with that, because like I said, these are special circumstances, and these high-yardage projects will take huge bites out of that total all at once. (After the dress, it's back on the wagon for sure!)

As for those other stashes--I think I used up one type of yarn. I did get rid of some beads by giving them away. So that counts, right? 

2. I have a handful of specific projects I'd like to sew. #1, the jeans. It WILL happen this time. #2, a jacket or two. #3, the Lonsdale dress I've been envisioning for at least six months. Aside from that, I want to leave things flexible for seasonal sewalongs and the like.

Now this one I totally nailed! Exhibit A) Jeans!! Exhibit B) Two jackets (and a raincoat!). Exhibit C) Lonsdale!

I guess it's a good thing I left that flexibility loophole in there, since I am now on month 3 of total sewing monogamy.

3. On the reconstruction end of things, I've had an idea simmering in my mind for a couple of months now. Since I'm already an Anthropologie fan, I'm setting a little mini-challenge for myself. Once a season, I'd like to choose a garment from the current catalog, and make a recycled piece inspired by it. Perhaps even with a tutorial, if the interest is there. (I was originally thinking once a month, but again, I'm trying to avoid over-committing myself. And once every 3 months sounds reasonable.) Also, I'd like to reconstruct often enough to stay a part of the Refashion Co-Op.

Total fail. Not only did I not do this mini-challenge at all, I got shuffled out of Refashion Co-Op months ago. Oh well.

4. Continue working on my knitting. Specifically, I'd like to make something with a cable that actually looks like a cable, something with multiple colors in the same project, and at least start that afghan that will take me years to finish.

I did not make a cable project. But I did make a striped hat.  In the most technical sense of the word, I did start the afghan one night.... I just had to rip the entire thing out because the gauge of the yarn was waaaaaay off with the size of needles that the original pattern had called for, and I haven't gotten smaller needles with a big enough cable yet.

5. Keep chipping away at the scrapbooks as I feel inspired to.

I did finish a couple of pages here and there. So I'll call this one a win.

6. Get better at picking projects that will help me make complete outfits. (I have a couple of orphan pieces that I still love and I want to wear them.)

I kind of feel like I haven't really had an opportunity to test this one out, to be honest. But I do think that things like Me-Made-May and my "fashion diet" this fall and winter has made me much more aware of what holes in my wardrobe need plugging.

7. Make some more things for others. I can be a terribly selfish crafter.

And for the most part, I still am. I did make a few gift projects this year, though, and I did spend some precious sewing time resizing t-shirts for my bestie and crafting a skirt for my sis-in-law (which is nowhere remotely close to being done, since I've only worked on it when she's been around.)

In 2013, I'd like to....

1. ...finish my wedding dress, obviously. Nothing like an immovable deadline and the pressure of everybody that I know being aware that I'm making it to motivate me! There's also other handmade things planned as far as reception decor goes, so I'll lump that in here too. 
2. ..find a way to work craftiness in on a more daily basis. As I was preparing to write this, I was struck by how few things I've made this year, compared to every other year since I started this blog. I understand why, because I've never faced a year where I was dealing with starting a new relationship, getting engaged, starting the biggest sewing project of my entire life, and having virtually no time to sew for an entire season due to regular 6-day workweeks. But it still saddens me a bit. I know that things will get crazier right around the wedding, and I may not have time to sew or craft at all then. Aside from that, I think I'd like to try Tilly's thought about just taking 15 minutes every day. Surely I can do that, even if it's not necessarily sewing. (It'll probably be way more than that for awhile, now that I'm almost done with the retail job for a few months and will be sewing like my life depends on it so I can finish as much of The One Dress as possible before that starts up again. So this is more for when I go back to more regular work.)
3. ...get my craft stuff organized. It's pretty much a necessity, since I'm also going to be moving all of my stuff within the next 6 months. Some things, like the majority of my jewelry-making supplies, are already at my fiance's townhouse. Thankfully, I do get an entire room, and a guy who actually thinks organizing is fun and is excited about the challenge of getting my stuff in there in a way that is both neat and functional. (He already spent hours of evening time getting all of my beads organized and consolidated into a few containers, even though I told him that if he'd wait a few days until we could hang out again, I'd help him...did I get a great guy or what?)
4. ...make the townhouse ours. It's already started, since we've repainted several of the rooms, and as I just mentioned, I did move a few things there that I don't foresee needing before the wedding. I am looking forward to having a place to decorate, and already have fabric for two rooms' worth of curtains--as well as plans to reuse some stuff so I don't have to make all the curtains. So yes, I'll probably be talking decor a little more than usual, at least for a little while. Hope you all don't mind.
5. ...still keep chipping away at those scrapbooks. Which will probably be easier after the wedding, since we're setting up the closet in my sewing room to be a scrapbook/jewelry-making nook. Complete with a table so I can leave half-finished layouts out on it instead of putting everything away all the time!
6. ...sew a few basics--or cake, if you will--that will help tie various parts of my wardrobe together. I'm thinking specifically about some pants of the Thurlow variety, assuming that the pattern works on me, since I am in dire need of some pants that aren't too short for me. And maybe another pair of two of jeans, since I very well may wear these jeans out within the year from constant wearing! (I already have several pieces of fabric stashed for this purpose, so I shouldn't need to buy too much there.)
7. ...as mentioned before, get back on the stashbusting wagon. Some stash purging will definitely be in order!
8. ...IF time permits, try another mini-wardrobe. I'm thinking specifically for the honeymoon, and that I'd like to pull it together using mainly pieces that I already have in my wardrobe. If I finish the dress in enough time, making one or two things would be great. (You know, since I basically have zero pairs of shorts that fit me and we're going somewhere tropical. Thurlow test, anyone?)
9. On the knitting front--I started this sweater months and months ago, kept picking it up and putting it aside because it was giving me all sorts of issues, and finally just put it into complete hibernation once The One Dress came up. I know that if I can just get through this top part (enough to make sure this will look good), it will be a great learning project. So I would like to either finish this particular sweater, or find another use for that yarn that will work for me. (Either way, it would be nice to get through one sweater next year.)
10. On the blogging front, I really would like to make some changes around here--a new blog design, if I can figure out how, and most definitely improving my photographs. I know that's a huge weak point, and I'm hoping that having a little more space (and a better chance of having a photographer on call) will help me out there.

That seems like a lot, doesn't it? But I do know that at least some of these things will happen out of pure necessity. I'm trying to leave these goals mostly open-ended, since I don't really have much way of predicting what sort of effect this sort of Really Major Life Change is going to have on my crafty life!

Next part to come later this week...

A mending experiment

I made a sad discovery last Saturday morning. (I meant to post this last week, but it kind of got away from me.) As you can see from my last post, I wore a brown shirt that day. My original plan was to wear my Engagement shirt, since it was supposed to still get pretty warm that afternoon, but then I found this when I was about to put it on:

Holes! Four of them, right in the lower back! I'm not sure if this snagged on something in the wash or what. But this made me very sad, because I'd only worn this about twice so far!

I had other sewing plans for that morning, but I decided to try and fix this first, lest it end up sitting under my bed with holes in it for months and I forget all about it until next summer. (Now that I think about it, immediate mending is probably a better strategy for me in general.)

I've mended jersey knits before. The problem is, you still see it. And one of those holes is particularly large for this type--pretty close to a full 1/8" in diameter. So I decided to try a little experiment to minimize that as much as possible.
I ironed a little bit of double-sided fusible onto a scrap leftover from the shirt--fortunately for me, I hadn't emptied the trash by my sewing machine since I made it! (Incidentally, I think the problem might be with the fabric itself, because the scrap had holes too. Yikes.)



Invisible patch!! Then I just cut around that piece and fused it to the wrong side of the fabric over the holes.

It's not perfect. I was afraid that just ironing the fabric on would make it fall off again the first time I watched it. So I did secure it with some hand-stitching as well. The biggest hole (all the way to the right) is still kind of obvious. But the smaller holes ended up pretty well-hidden, I think. Hopefully it will stay.

I have been doing some sewing lately, but it's a gift project, so I can't share it yet. I'm hoping I can finish that up in the next day or so, because I'm getting very antsy that I haven't started The Dress yet! I also got as far as I could on said gift project on Friday night-- I was having a Once Upon A Time/craft marathon with my best friend so she could get caught up before the season premiere next weekend. So I also did a little scrapbook work (trimming page protectors to allow access to pockets and the mini-albums I like to make on pages that I have a lot of photos for). And I even attempted to start knitting that afghan that I want to make, with a modification that I liked even better. The bad news is, I discovered that the needles I'd bought, which is what it called for in the pattern, are too big to make a good afghan--they're just way too big for the yarn I ended up with. The good news is, turns out I was doing the background for the trees wrong anyway, so unraveling it wasn't a huge loss. I guess knowing that I need to buy smaller circular needles is still progress, right?

Which leads me to the question...I'm trying to figure out what on earth I should work on when tv-watching with the fiance over the next several months, because it sure isn't going to be The Dress. So I've been debating whether I should knit some simpler/smaller stuff like hats and handwarmers, or work on catching up on some scrapbook type stuff. They both have their pros and cons--knitting doesn't need a whole lot of stuff out, but following the patterns would mean that both the shows and Doug would get less attention. Scrapbooking takes way more stuff, but writing aside, it would be more of a brainless thing, I think. (And I'm probably way more behind on that, so catching up some would be a pro....but then, I have to take the time to match a bunch of papers to my printed photos, so that's a con.) Hmm.

April in review

I figured I'd go ahead and do this month's writeup now--I know there's still a day left, but honestly, I'm not going to make any progress towards anything tomorrow, between work and teaching and finally getting my car into the shop to get repaired from its fender-bender. I had to get two estimates thanks to the insurance run-around, and then I couldn't get an appointment at the shop for well over a week after that.

On the plus side, I do get to pick up Bernadette and the unnamed serger from the shop tomorrow. (Christina suggested Sergio, which is a great idea. But I already have a friend who is somewhat "real life", since I know her from the internet but did meet her in person once, who named her serger that, and I don't want to steal her thunder. At the moment, I'm considering Molly, after the somewhat temperamental apprentice wizard from The Dresden Files book series.) Oh, and before I forget-- turns out that the reason that Bernadette wasn't doing so well with the newer buttonhole foot was due to the foot itself. I guess it was defective. So I have to get a new one again, but if it means I get my automatic buttonhole feature back, it's worth it!

So, enough of that....on to the review. This month was a lot less productive than I'd hoped, due to having little to no weekend time to myself. I knew I'd have extra Sunday afternoon rehearsals since I have a concert next Sunday, but I wasn't expecting to end up having to work a bunch of Saturdays in a row and lose my prime sewing time as a result. But I did get some stuff done. Let's see how I did, shall we?

#1: Finish the blue corduroy jacket. Check. This also enabled me to check bagged linings on my Check the Technique.

#2: Go through the Jean-ius class that I have from Craftsy. A partial win, as I've only gotten through two of the videos so far. But I'm hoping that maybe I can at least start on part 3 this week and get cracking on that pattern.

#3: I'd like to get a quick project in between the jacket and the jeans. Which I did, with the convertible dress. I also cut out and have about halfway sewn the blouse for my Colette Palette Challenge, since I got stuck on the jeans. 

#4: Get my Onyx sweater sorted out so I can continue that. I did at least get an answer on Ravelry for something to try. But I honestly haven't touched this one in about a month. Fortunately, my KAL buddy has also been busy, so I'm not holding her up.




#5: Cast on my Strafford Tee. I have done this, and have knitted about 2" so far. See, progress!

#6: Finish putting my fabric swatches in their new notebook. Yeah, I think I did about 2 swatches this entire month. Fail.

#7: Make one scrapbook page. Now this I actually did do! Since they were very simple pages, I actually managed to get three 2-page spreads assembled. Nothing exciting design-wise, but it's something.

I guess I did better than I thought, but on the sewing front especially, I still feel rather behind. I'm anticipating this month being similarly nuts, since I already know this weekend is shot between rehearsals/concert and having to work before the Saturday practice, I already know I'm going to lose a good chunk of Memorial Day weekend due to having to work yet again on the Saturday, and I'm very much hoping that I will be out of town (and therefore not working) for one of those weekends. (But in that case, the girls I'd be hanging out with are my crocheting buddies, so there's a fairly decent chance I can get some knitting in between rounds of board games, and it wouldn't be a total loss of craftiness.) So I'm going to keep things fairly simple this month. Here's what I'm hoping to get done:

#1. Not flake out on Me-Made-May. If I have limited time to create things, I want to at least enjoy the things I've made already. And since I need to add some things to the Handmade Closet page on here, I am going to try to keep up with the daily photos, with the goal of posting those outfit photos a couple of times a week. (Besides, my boyfriend was excited to hear that I've taken on something that involves taking lots of pictures of myself that he can steal for himself later!)

On a side note, before I continue, it occurs to me that I never actually posted my pledge on here. So here it is:

I, Becky, of Sew and So, pledge to wear at least one me-made or refashioned piece of clothing a day, and aspire to wear at least one handmade accessory, for the duration of May. I also pledge to aspire to do better with taking photos this time! 

#2: Finish the three pieces of clothing for my Palette Challenge:
      a) the blouse, which as I mentioned, is about halfway done
      b) the jeans, which I need to make the pattern for and then actually make, as per the class instructions
      c) the skirt, which I've only started in my head about a dozen times when work gets boring, but haven't touched in the real world.

#3: Make some visible progress on my Strafford Tee. This shouldn't be too terribly difficult to accomplish, since I'm sure I'll at least have some tv-watching time with my guy on our lower-key hangout nights. (Thankfully, he is completely cool with me keeping my hands busy with crafty stuff while we watch movies or hockey or tv shows. Hey, maybe I'll do something totally crazy and finish that next step on the Onyx too! We'll see how it goes.)

#4: Finish weeding out my wardrobe, and get the things I'm getting rid of out of here and to the thrift store so I don't have a huge pile of laundry lurking just behind my door!

So, yeah, I'm going to just leave it at that. Hopefully once I get past the spring, which is the busiest season at a garden center, I won't be working 6 days a week anymore and can actually get some of my personal stuff done. If nothing else, I should be able to get some Sunday afternoon craft time in there, once I get through the concert next week.

March in review

Since I'm doing the monthly round-up thing now, figured I'd start the new month off right! So here's how I did on my goals for March, as stated here....

#1: The Renfrew top--done, great pattern, will definitely use that again sometime.

#2: Finish knitting the Camille shrug--check. And since I had a request from my Onyx sweater partner-in-crime, I did get an action shot of it with the dress at the wedding (this was at the reception, in a side room of the church.) Overall, it worked very well with this dress that I'd originally envisioned it with. (Aside from some fitting issues in the dress bodice itself, which I'm now in the process of resolving since I was apparently too lazy to do it right the first time. Basically, I'm taking in the side seams above the black waistband, stitching it by hand because I have to take apart less of the lining than I would by machine. I need practice on handstitching anyway, right?)

p.s. The sleeves are actually full-length, I just had them pushed up in this picture since it ended up being a bit warmer than I'd anticipated.

#3: Reconstruct that brown suedecloth skirt. Check, although I still need to do something with the lining.

#4: The next step of the Onyx sweater. See previous post for the reason I didn't finish this. (I have a phone date with my KAL partner tomorrow to see if she can help me figure out what on earth I did wrong.)

#5: Blue corduroy jacket. It's not quite done, but it's getting close.

#6: Swatch for my Strafford Tee. I did actually do one earlier this week, and am now debating what to do--according to the swatch, I had about a stitch more per inch than I was supposed to. Which honestly doesn't seem like a big deal to me, and I might just go with it since I was trying to figure out how to incorporate some more fitting into it anyway. It looks like it's pretty loose at the waist.  So I guess this confirms that I am a too-tight knitter.Maybe I should just re-knit the swatch and try to relax a bit, since I'm actually using the right yarn for once...

Essentially, though, I got 4 out of 6 done, and the Onyx was pretty much due to circumstances beyond my control. Not too shabby at all!

So here are my goals for this month:

#1: Finish the blue corduroy jacket.

#2: Go through the Jean-ius class that I have from Craftsy. Which will hopefully result in a new, well-fitting pair of jeans!

#3: I'd like to get a quick project in between the jacket and the jeans, since they're both pretty detail-heavy projects (and that's been on my mind since reading Tasia's post last week about how long sewing projects should take.) I'm not entirely sure which one yet, but I'm thinking either Butterick 5606 or a reconstruction project. (I've decided to hold off on the knit shirt I already have cut out, since that's long-sleeved and it's increasingly unlikely that I'll get any use out of it in the next several months, by the time I finish. So I may just knock that one out later in the summer when my brain turns to thoughts of preparing for fall.)

#4: Get my Onyx sweater sorted out so I can continue that.

#5: Cast on my Strafford Tee.

#6: Finish putting my fabric swatches in their new notebook.

#7: Make one scrapbook page. Gotta start somewhere if I'm serious about getting myself back into this.

One last note: The patterns have all been claimed. Sarah and Muireann, I'll get those to you asap.

Things left unblogged

Warning: This is going to be a rather picture-heavy post.

My raincoat has a sleeve now! Which I forgot to waterproof after I got done teaching last night like I'd meant to. I got sidetracked by finishing up the last two rows on the chart for the back of my shrug that I'm knitting, and swatching for another upcoming project. So I guess I'll have to do that today, and not sew on this. (It doesn't really have a lining in there yet, I just stuck it on the hanger with it so I could get an idea of what it looks like.)

And since there's not much more to say about that, I remembered that there are some things I've done more recently that I haven't written about yet. So I'm just going to put these up now.

#1: Yes, I know it's February, but I'm going to post about a Christmas ornament anyway!

The backstory: For the last few years, an out-of-town married couple that I'm friends with has hosted a game party around New Year's--basically, lots of board or card-type games and usually some kind of movie or tv-show watching that has some kind of geeky twist to it. (This year, it was a bunch of episodes of The Big Bang Theory.) And one of the first years, the guy closed the email invite with comparing Sauron (the big flaming eyeball bad guy from Lord of the Rings) to Santa, because they're both always watching. So that became kind of a running joke. This year, I had the thought one day while I was bored at work that this could become a pretty funny ornament. So I approached my best friend (who is also friends with them) with the proposal, and we agreed that I'd paint the ornaments, and she'd crochet the hats. (I made 3, because of course we each wanted one too.) Since we rode up to their house together, we had some pretty amusing moments of me gluing the hats to the balls in the car and hanging them from the rearview mirror to dry! Our friends thought it was hilarious, and so this is Sauron Claus hanging proudly near the top of their tree at the party.

#2: I'm easing myself back into scrapbooking, after basically not doing it for a couple of years. Admittedly, these aren't my most creative pages ever, and I certainly wouldn't win any prizes for them. But hey, they're done! Most of these fall into the category of "I just want to get something done so I'm just going to write on these pages that I'd already glued pictures to awhile ago and call it finished."

And you can't even see the writing on most of these, but since it's been sitting unfinished in the album for awhile, it's still better than nothing! I did have fun with making the wavy paper shapes on this one to kind of go along with the way the wall was painted in the restaurant, though.

Easiest page ever, and one that was truly made recently. I just slapped the pictures from the manicures we got for a friend's wedding, oh, 4 1/2 years ago onto a piece of patterned paper and just wrote on it. I don't know why I kept putting this off.

This one had been mostly done awhile ago, except for one thing...

See that writing? Yeah, bubble letters that I colored around with a black marker on top of the paper that was already there. I don't know why I didn't finish that one 3 years ago, either.

The actual layout took some effort, due to all of the little photos....the writing falls into the category of "it's getting kind of late and I don't feel like taking the time to type this and choose a font and print it and everything." Honestly, I'm thinking I'll just have to transfer all of my fonts to my laptop, because the printer is in the kitchen, and then I can just sit next to it and feed paper into it to print things. I'd be so much more productive that way.

I'm a little more proud of this one, from a concert I went to back in 2008. Same deal, just writing on the paper myself, but the gold pen makes it more fun.

And I did enjoy doodling on the patterned paper some to go along with that paisley printed scrap of paper that already had the gold on it.


I do have another page about halfway done, but this one actually will need stuff printed on the computer before I can glue it all down. Ok, so I have several pages about halfway done, but at least I'm starting to get some work done on them now!

Aside from the laptop for writing, I'm hoping this will help...one of my major deterrents has been that my scrapbook stuff is mostly put away, so every time I want to work on it, I have to haul a bunch of stuff out and figure out what I want to use and then put everything else away and then put what I actually did use away and it just takes so much time. I like things I can just pick up and work on. But when I was out running errands with my mom recently, we stopped at AC Moore and she found these little totes on clearance. It has all of these pockets and even a pull-out drawer at the bottom, so I can store a good number of the most basic tools I use (other than my computer for typing, obviously.)

See that box? That's about 2 years' worth of photos that I recently got printed. And that's not counting all of the photos from the 2-3 years before that where I either only halfway did a page or just stuck some paper with it to do later or never started at all. Kind of overwhelming, isn't it? But since the stuff is here now, that will make it easier to start chipping away at these and actually get some more albums done. If I can ever sort out once and for all whether it would be better to organize everything after my last fully completed album chronologically or by broader categories. (My last fully completed album stops at the end of spring 2006. And there's so many holes in the chronology from photos I never finished--or started--that I'd thought categories might make it easier. Either way, I have my work cut out for me, now that I've actually been in the mood to work on this again!)

2010 in review...

Drat....my plan to work on the Anthro-inspired shirt didn't work out very well at all. I got it all cut out and started sewing it together...but then my serger broke. Again. So it's in the shop. Again. (A different one than the first time--this time I took it back to the place where I bought it. It's the timing issue again-- I broke 2 needles in about 10 minutes just trying to sew a basic side seam:. And this was only maybe the third time I've really used it since the last repair, since a lot of what I've spent my time on in the last few months have been serger-less jackets with a ton of Hong Kong seams and serger-less pattern testing. I hope the fix takes this time.... I got something like 7 pieces of fabric for Christmas, and 6 of them are knits!

But to take my mind off of that...time for the annual year-end roundup! Let's see how I did this year...  

7 Things I hoped to accomplish in 2010 (revisited):

1. I'd like to give myself a little bit of a style makeover, or at least give it a kick in the pants to make it fun again. Along those lines, I'd also like to start making more of a conscious effort to make sure I have things that will go with other things. The crafting translation is that I'll need to either make or acquire (preferably make) some basics that will help to tie some of my beloved funky prints in better.


I think I mostly succeeded in this one, thanks to my little personal style project that I spent the first several months of the year on. Self-Stitched September was a big help too, since it forced me to think about the entire outfit. Still feel like my winter wardrobe needs a colorful kick in the pants, because it's only the end of December and I'm already tired of most of the things I've been wearing, but oh well.. (I hear there's going to be another monthly challenge in May or March or one of those M months...it would be interesting to try this again in a different season.) As for making basics, I did manage to make some things in solid colors, like a couple of knit tops and a basic black skirt. So that's something.

2. I'd like to sew at least 4 Burda mag patterns this year. That gives me an average of one every 3 months...not unreasonable, right?


Let's see: 1 (and a half), 2, 3, 4. And a half, because technically I sewed most of this last year but I fixed it this year. Either way, I win!

3. I'd like to make a significant dent in getting caught up on my scrapbooks.   

Once again, pretty much a fail. Considering I haven't really touched anything having to do with it in at least 6 months. I blame the jewelry.

4. I'd like to continue with trying to use more of my stash than I buy new, for fabric, paper and beads.


I can't really say I used up paper, but I didn't buy more. And I did give a pretty big stack away via Freecycle. I definitely used up some beads this time. Fabric....I did use up some pieces that had been sitting in my stash for quite some time. But I did definitely buy some things. Several of which I used right away, but a few that had leftovers. And I recently got another stack of fabric, but it was free. So I probably broke even on this one.

5.  I'd like to finish getting this room put together, including the sewing projects for it. Preferably sooner rather than later.

My room's still not completely done--there's still some details, like I need to finish a dresser (still), and hang a couple of things on the walls. Which I should probably at least do the latter, because I've been in here over a year now and that doesn't require being outside where it's cold like the dresser would.  But I did do an ottoman, finish a quilt, make several curtains, and the pillows. Overall a success.

6. I'd like to continue working on learning how to alter and fit patterns. My specific goal for this one is to apply what I learned in last year's skirt-making class to make both a skirt from my master pattern, and a well-fitting skirt from applying those principles to a new pattern.


Well, I didn't get to the skirt this year. Still in the queue. The jeans class was probably the biggest distraction on that. But it does count as fitting work!

7. I'd like to try at least one craft technique that I haven't before. (At this point, I'm thinking screenprinting, since I have a gift project in mind that practically requires it, and there's no way I'm getting to that before the end of this year!)

Success! (I also played around with wire wrapping, which I hadn't really done before, for a couple of pairs of earrings that were for the craft show.)

What I'd like to do in 2011:

Rather than post numbers, I'm just going to go by category this time.


Sewing: I'd like to continue working on fitting--now that I'm armed with Donna 2.0, the two new fitting books I also got for Christmas, and a lot more practice at muslin making! My goal, I think, will be to learn the basic alterations I need to make a well-fitting skirt (because it's the easiest and I've already started) and shirt. Supermega bonus points if I finally succeed on the jeans that I've been trying to make, oh, since I started this blog.

Thanks to a few of the blogs I started following this year (particularly Gertie's, Tasia's and Sunni's), I'm finding that I'm getting a lot more interested in things like finishing techniques and other more "couture" touches. So this is something I'd like to play around with more as well. I guess that I'm beginning to venture more into the quality over quantity school of clothes sewing. I know I'll learn a bit, at least, thanks to the Little Black Dress class coming up in January.

Another major point for me is organization. Because let's face it, I'm the stereotypical crafty pack rat slob. I'm going to be realistic here and say that I just want to get my fabric and patterns reorganized in order to enable me to effectively use up a good chunk of my stash (since that's a perpetual goal of mine). But it would be nice if I could also get myself to the point where my sewing space is organized enough that I'm not constantly doing things like setting down my scissors or seam ripper and then losing them!

Last thing in this category: I want to get back into the reconstruction end of things a little more. I feel like I kind of got away from it this past year, but it's a fun and completely different challenge to start with a garment instead of a flat piece of fabric and a pattern. I like the looser approach to it, and I feel like I've learned some useful skills from it. The idea of the Wardrobe Refashion Wednesdays was fun, but not very realistic with how my schedule's turned out. But I do have a fairly decent-sized stash of clothes that are either intended for recons or already torn up for that, so I want to play with that along with my actual fabric. I'm going to set myself a goal of one reconstruction a month, because sometimes those can be really quick projects and they would still count.

Jewelry: I guess the big thing here is figuring out whether this little Etsy shop thing is going to work out! But I do want to continue chipping away at the bead stash, and playing around with some new techniques. The craft fair stuff got me playing a little more with wirework instead of just stringing, and I'd like to continue along those lines, I think.

Scrapbook: Honestly, at this point I'm thinking that I need to either find a way to better integrate this into my crafty life, or just let it go. I'm reluctant to just give up on this, because when I do work on it, I enjoy it. And I like being able to look back at the old ones and relive the memories that way--it's kind of therapeutic sometimes, especially when I get into my "everything about being single sucks" moods and then I can go back and look at the fun times again. But it seems like every new year, I make a goal to catch up on it some, and every year, I get to the end and have barely done a thing. So I need to evaluate this. At this point, even something as simple as doing the photo layouts on a page with the captions would do-- I don't have to do the pages all fancy all the time. Must think about this.

And finally, the tally for this year:

Sewn stuff:
Tops: 11 (3 reconstructed)
Cardigan sweaters: 2 (both sewn, 1 reconstructed)
Jackets: 2 (though you'll only see one on here, since BurdaStyle has the other and it won't be seen until next fall)
Skirts: 2 (1 reconstructed)
Dresses: 3 (2 reconstructed)
No pants, unless you count two attempts at muslining jeans...
PJs: 1 set
Total garments:  20 (I thought I did a lot less than last year, but I glanced at last year's and I was only 3 garments less.)
Bags: 2
Home decor stuff: 1 quilt, 3 sets of curtains, an ottoman recover, 4 pillows
Gifts: Apron, TARDIS tissue box cover, 6 baby bibs

Scrapbook stuff: I could only find pics of 3 pages on here. But I'm sure I must have worked on more than that--probably somewhere in the 6-10 range.

I think jewelry wins for this year, thanks to the craft fair. Between that (which I did tally up before the day of) and the stuff I made for myself (which was mostly the Elements series) or for friends, it was somewhere in the vicinity of 42 necklaces, 56-60 pairs of earrings, and 12 bracelets. And since it won't fit anywhere in any other category, I'm going to say those 4 embellished crochet hooks go here too.

As for favorites, I think my favorite sewn-from scratch is a toss-up between the Ayden shirt and the flowery jacket. Favorite recon, hands-down, is that Indian tunic top.  And going by the jewelry not made for the craft fair, I think I liked the "Air"element jewelry the most.

And that pretty much wraps it up....happy crafty new year, everyone!

The BurdaStyle Book Project, part 3: Moving right along...

My plan all along for today was to pretty much sew all day and get as much knocked out as possible. I didn't have much time at all to sew this week, except for Thursday night, which was when I stitched down that trim. This is how my sleeve turned out, and I think it's pretty good! Except that I forgot to check which way the crossovers were going--so they're the same on both sleeves except for mirror images like they probably should have been. Oh well.... I decided that leaving it would be the best thing, because ripping it off and starting over on the one sleeve would likely ruin it, and as long as it took me to iron that blasted bias tape and get it taped on, I didn't want to cut a new one and start over!

So, as of today, the entire outer coat is sewn together.. Not bad, for basically starting with just the two front pieces and the back piece assembled.  I still have to sew the lining in, but I'm hoping to knock that out by next weekend. We'll see how it goes--I actually will have several weeknights next week with reduced teaching loads, due to vacations and whatnot, so I'll have more evening time than usual. But then, it's also my annual week of vacation from the garden center job to teach flute at the middle school band camp hosted by the local university. (I think I need to work on understanding the meaning of that "vacation" thing...) So even though I'll have the time, whether I have the energy and/or brainpower remains to be seen!

I probably could have gotten more done today. Except that the sleeves took me awhile, with all the pleating and pinning (and unpinning and re-pleating, in one case, since I pinned them inside-out! Fortunately, I realized that before I sewed it.) But look how good it looks!

And, well, I also got slightly sidetracked for a bit tonight... I was going to sew some more after dinner, but since I'd been working on it nearly non-stop since 10:30 before I stopped for dinner around 6 (except for lunch and laundry), I decided to leave it at the good stopping point of getting to the facings and linings. And I'm kind of getting in the mood to work on scrapbooky things again...

I actually did do some paper-cutting and basic page assembling about 2 weekends ago, because I was dogsitting. And this dog is the type who will drop slobbery balls right on top of your craft projects, so no way was I letting this coat anywhere near her! Besides, I still needed to trace out and alter the pattern pieces...which I did go home for several hours to do. So the scrapbooking is what I did at the house. And then, for the last couple of years, I've had a "scrapbook rewards" credit card as my one and only credit card. (No Joann's one available at the time. Or now, when I've decided to move on to something else. Somehow, my mom managed to snag one when they did have it, and gets gift cards as a result. Lucky her.) Well, I've pretty much exhausted the interesting rewards on there, and have decided to close the account once I get my new card in the mail. But first, I cashed in all the points I'd built up that I could, and got a huge package this week of stuff like paper embossing templates, alphabet stamps, embellishy things (which I very, very rarely buy) and a couple of idea books. So the bug is definitely back now.

I had the thought today while I was sewing that I should go through my paper stash and get rid of all of the stuff I'm unlikely to ever use--a lot of my paper came from people who tried scrapbooking and don't do it anymore, or those value packs of 100+ sheets that you can get sometimes at the craft stores. And while I've gotten a lot of good stuff that way for less money than I would have buying individual sheets, there's a bunch that weren't really my style. Not to mention some of the leftover paper from when I first started doing this in high school! So if I haven't used it in about 12-14 years, it's most likely not gonna happen. I've learned that when I'm actually in the mood to clean and/or organize, I'd better take advantage of it, because that doesn't happen much. So I went through all of my patterned paper, and while I didn't count individual pieces of paper, I pulled out enough to make a 2 1/2" stack according to my seam gauge. (Probably a quarter of that is pink... I had a pretty significant amount of pink stuff from the paper stacks because I don't use that very often at all-- I probably got rid of at least 2/3 of that! And most of what I kept also had a good amount of other non-pink colors in the prints.) And I went through all of my stickers, too, and pulled out a bunch of those. I hardly ever use stickers anyway-- I could probably get rid of the entire stash and not notice. But I'm not. Yet. I put a notice on Freecyle and am hoping someone is willing to take it!

musings on paper

...or, more specifically, what I'm doing with it.

I mentioned last Saturday that I'd spent a good chunk of the day making some paper. Well, the main reason I was making it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped....

The idea was to use some of the dried petals that I'd saved from my bridesmaid bouquet for my friend Julie's wedding so that I could have some nice handmade paper to incorporate into the page when I get around to doing her wedding pictures for my scrapbook. (Which I should probably get on that, seeing as how their 2nd anniversary is coming up in June!) Well, it didn't turn out so great...the hydrangea petals, which were a really pretty touch of blue when the paper was wet, completely lost their color as it dried. And the rose petals, which were kind of cream, turned brown. The worst part, as illustrated on the left, was that all of these petals decided to bleed brown all over the paper as it dried. I may still be able to use it, at least if I flip it over to the side of the paper that was drying on the fabric and therefore didn't oxidize as much (see right), but I'm still kind of disappointed in the look of it.

I also had some other miscellaneous scraps of various-colored cardstock that were too small to recycle as is, so I threw a bunch of them into the craft blender while I had it out to see what would happen. Also didn't quite turn out as I thought, especially the browns since I was trying to make them about the same color, But hey, my cat approves. She plopped right down on it almost as soon as I'd laid it out, and refused to leave until well after I took the pic.


And then there's the actual usage of the paper (not the handmade stuff, it took half the week to even dry so I haven't done a thing with it yet other than stack it in my room.) I've been developing....not a love-hate, but more like a love-apathy relationship with my scrapbook hobby over the last year or so. It's not that I don't enjoy it....it's just that 4 times out of 5, when about to do something crafty, I'll choose something sewing-related instead. Probably the main reason is sheer laziness--I can generally get to the sewing machine much quicker than I can haul out scrapbook stuff. But then, deep down, I know if I had to drop one crafty hobby I'd stick with sewing. There's this growing part of me that really wants my life to be more simple, and when it comes to my hobbies, I do sometimes consider dropping that one. I can justify sewing, since I can always work new clothes into my life. But I look at the scrapbook culture, and it makes me wonder why I do this...after all, it's not like I'm trying to preserve the childhood memories of my non-existent kids, like most of them do it for. And then I'm also so far behind on it, since I barely touched it last year. But then I was thinking about it at work today, and there are some pretty compelling reasons to stick with it...for one, like I said, I do enjoy doing it. And I know that sometimes on my really bad "I hate being single" days, it's good for my head to look back at the old ones and remember the fun times I've had while I'm in this place. And then there's the fact that it's my best portable option for things like when I hang out with friends and craft for an evening/weekend/whatever, at least as long as I do some prepwork ahead of time to get things ready to assemble. (Since that type of thing generally also involves lots of chatting and movie marathons, the machine's a little too loud to force that on my friends, and I don't always have handwork to do. Or the desire to do hand-sewing for hours on end. It's not good for my carpal tunnel anyway.) And it's also probably a better option for me than sewing on days when I'm henna-dying my hair...after I get the stuff on, it's pretty much a 5-6 hour wait time in which I don't want to risk staining my fabric.  So I'm thinking maybe I should just try to keep the pages simple, use up what I have as much as I can, maybe combine things as much as I can so I end up doing fewer pages and can catch up faster, and then take it from there.

On that note, I did do some scrapbook work on Wednesday, since I didn't have to teach band and had a good chunk of afternoon free time.

Mostly ready to go--I had the layout figured out, the writing and title already done, anyway, and the paper picked out. (This one was in the queue for the last major scrapbook-day binge I had, and I just didn't get to it.) So this one is done. Except maybe I should add another circle on the other page to help tie those in better.

This one was a little more time-consuming, since I basically recolored the patterned paper with colored pencils. I'd bought it because I liked the design, in spite of the pink, but realized it would be pretty much perfect for the canoe camping trip. The story: I had "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" stuck in my head for a good portion of it, mainly due to the opening line about picturing yourself in a boat on a river, so I decided to give the page a bit of a psychedelic vibe. And orange and blue are complementary, so the pink paper needed to be more orange. But the recoloring was done before Wednesday. It needs a title and some writing, which will probably go into the big blank orange space, but is otherwise done.

This one also needs a bit more writing, which I'm thinking should go over top of that ribbon to help hold it down. The title was pre-cut. (This is why I like doing prepwork---I feel so much more accomplished when I can just slap all of the ready-to-go stuff on a page and call it done.)

This one may be done...I'm not totally sure. I'm not totally sold on the layout, though I like the color scheme, so I wonder if it needs a bit more of something.

I'm thinking it's about time to get some of my ready-to-go "page kits" together again...the next 2 weekends are shot, but then I think I might be due for another henna day. Which would be a perfect prepwork day, since it looks like I'll be hanging out with the two friends whom I traditionally do the big movie-crafty weekends with in May.