O Christmas needles and pins

The sewing frenzy has started. In between long 6 hour naps.

So far I've ruined about 10 pins due to the fact I like to sew over them whenever possible. 

Only a couple have made the ultimate sacrifice - speared in half and stuffed into where my bobbin sits. 

This used to be one piece with a little red topper on one end...

So far I've found them all...I need to start being more careful though....

Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas. ~ Johnny Carson

Thankful (8)

Today I'm thankful for sewing therapy.  I indulge in it as often as I possibly can. 

Here is my first Barbie dress, (that I didn't have to throw away in a fit of exasperation), taken from this pattern:

Ignore Barbie's head, who is hanging on at a weird angle. 

It took a bit to catch on to the fact that the Barbie in the pattern I was following and the Barbie I was using as a model were differently-endowed....after that I was able to adjust some measurements and things went more smoothly.

Barbie has creepy eyes in that last picture.

So there's a preview of some of the Barbie stuff I made last night!  Right now she has 4 dresses, all about the same type of style.  Now that I have an idea of what I'm doing, I'll branch out to skirts and shirts and hopefully can then cross one Christmas project off my list!

"Don't wanna see you no more...
You showed me nothing but hate
You ran me into the ground,
But what comes around goes around..."
~ Eminem

awkward

i've been very caught up on this blog lately: smartprettyandawkward.com

first of all, she puts in a quote for each entry. how can you not love that? and each entry gives ideas how to be smarter, prettier, and less awkward. good stuff.

i'm trying to get out of a personal funk. its difficult. what would help would be me leaving my comfort zone. but they call it a comfort zone for a reason. oi.

heres a picture of sarah's birthday bag i sent last week....she hasn't gotten it yet but she admitted she doesn't check the mail all that often. sarah!!

(the inside is as busy as the outside!)

i decided to center my pictures today. i wonder if it looks any better.

the dryer just turned off. or, as i like to call it, my internet timer.

"i'm very talented at peeing on my feet." ~ m.segrest

goes

50th blog post. or maybe it is the 51st. anyways....

i wonder why its taken me so long to make curtains. probably the whole "temporary feel" to living in an apartment. why should i make this feel like home when its only going to be a short stop on my road in life? but whatever the reason, i finally decided i had enough.

i mean, look at this corner of my living room. pretty blah. i can't remember where i saw the inspiration (i read too many blogs), but i saw something somewhere and decided to make my own curtains.



ehhh....



much better. (i opened the shade behind the curtains). although its hard to convey the different in just pictures, there was a huge difference in shade open vs shade closed.



and just look out my window....foilage! (aka a little more privacy!)



nice and cozy.



can anyone tell what i made the curtains out of? (hard to see because the pictures are so far away). not the top tabs part (grosgrain ribbon), but the actual fabric curtain part. guesses?

"a son is a poor substitute for a lover." ~ norman bates, psycho

it...

today in review:

messed up making a peekaboo bag

(although it doesn't look as bad far away)

made another origami drawstring bag

figured out how to use the zipper foot on my sewing machine. (success!)

made the first of what i think will be many lil cutie pouches (slightly modified because my zipper wasn't long enough and i dont have any keyrings)

and my favorite thing so far today...

a maggie clutch...

the maggie clutch i made for an old friend from highschool. on facebook awhile ago i "participated" in a get a handmade thing and then pay it forward type of deal. hard to explain unless you're on there. anyways, the clutch is for jolene. the gray outside fabric is my amish fabric, the white thread on the front is japanese sashiko thread, and the inside is some fabric from purl. its partially the light, but i think the inside fabric makes the outside fabric look more purple-y.

atticus has been running from the sewing machine all day. hopefully tomorrow it will be sunny (or at least not rainy) and we can work off some cabin fever at the dog park. * crosses fingers *

i actually made more today but i'll wait til tomorrow to take pictures. i'm planning on making curtains tomorrow (well "making" as in putting hems on long pieces of fabric and then putting them on a curtain rod). so...we'll see... onwards and upwards!!

"third children have no history. there are no footprints of him in the baby book, no record of his baptism, no snapshots of his birthdays, and no report cards to show he ever was." ~ erma bombeck

happiness...

okay, i know this is amazingly shallow, but sometimes happiness CAN be bought. and it looks a little like this:




and like this:




as you can probably guess....my fabrics came!!!!!!

now its time for a little show & tell....


my kiddo choices:




this i saw for a specific kiddo (subject to change!) ....



for a somewhat older kiddo....(shhh!!!)

(and i already know what i'm going to make with it! of course thats also subject to change...)

kinda whimsical & fun fabric...

(i've been digging turquoise lately, dont know why)

sophisticated and pretty fabrics:





up close with the more sophisticated palate (i really wish i could take better pictures):





and my MOST FAVORITE fabric of all...



[insert drum-roll here]







i dont even mind that they're not claussens.

so there you have it....$50.79 worth of fun.

"get a good thing, hold it close to your heart." ~ joy electric

today

i had a good day today. that sounds pretty simple. but its true. i finally finished my friend katie's christmas present (which i will post sometime after i send it to her) & shopping for her (yes, i said christmas, i'm a horrible friend), saw a movie with my friend marka, and then made some more things!

i think i needed the girl time. we saw "its complicated", which i think is really a comedy more for the middle aged crowd, but it was still funny. i laughed at marka's laughing as much as i laughed at the movie. i left the theater feeling like a big weight had lifted off my shoulders. what that weight was i dont know. i just know it wasn't there anymore. it felt great!

it was fun shopping today as well. i went to joanns intending on just getting a bias tape maker:

(look like instruments of torture)

and (of course?) ended up getting much more. including this wonderful stuff.

i used her great idea, a little hocus pocus (read, rice & oil)....

a little patience and thread, and ended up with these!

drawer & closet satchets! they smell yummy! i made melon, coconut, and black raspberry. the black raspberry ones are my favorite, and i will be sending those to my college friend, sarah, who lives all the way down in texas. basically because she has 3 boys and a husband and probably never gets anything girly. and because shes sarah! i started a heart garland for sarah too, but i dont know if i like it. its not turning out right and its extremely time consuming. i figured i'd step away for a day or so and then get back to it. we'll see. before we know it, valentines day will be here and i will be sending yet another belated package.

anyways, i'm currently relaxing with one of these:

and one of these:

have a happy wednesday!

"you gotta laugh. if you dont laugh you start crying." ~professor ron collymore