Over on Amity we have a tradition of doing photo logs called "Day in the Life" where we document our days with photos. This is the 4th or 5th time we've done a DILT. Last time was right before an event, the time before that included driving up to Madison for a play group. This time we attended homeschool group, did some sewing & generally hung around.
Enjoy!
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| DITL 2008 |
I watched Beauty Shop the other night while sewing & ended up with a heavy duty craving for greens; southern style mushy, garlicky, stinky greens. I have Andie MacDowell's character to thank for that.
Unfortunately I'm a Bielo-Russian/Southern German living in the Midwest which means I (clearly) have no idea how to make Southern Style Greens.
I swear I've made a good mess of greens once before. I remember my older southern neighbor, a black junk man, laughing at the fact that this skinny white girl from Wisconsin was making greens. I vividly remember the conversation & his instruction to not skimp on the garlic & hot sauce.
Nope, what ever I was remembering was wrong, dead wrong. Sure I choked down a half a bowl, but it did nothing for the craving. Something went wrong somewhere along the line. Probably a mix of issues, no meat, improper cooking technique (you can't just "toss 'em in a hot pan" apparently), general impatience that led to a short cook time, not nearly enough garlic or onions & lastly, too much Tabasco didn't help the flavor.
J suggested I pick up another package & try again, this time with Mustard Greens rather than Collards but I decided to just have a plain salad. That I know I can't mess up.
Happy April Fools day everyone.
This was my contribution to the fun of the day, lunch while at HOUSE.
A very belated update. I've frankly been so busy with historic sewing that I just haven't had the time to do any modern projects, much less update this blog.
Every March Midway Villiage, home of the orignial red heel sock knitting machine, holds a Sock Monkey Festival. L loves this day at the museum, doing crafts, looking at the displays & talking with other sock monkey fans.
This year Harold got a new friend, Helen.
In an effort to earn the "greatest mom of the year" award, I made both Harold & Helen matching leopard prints clothes to wear. Of course the rechargeable batteries were drained in L's new RC car & I can't get a photo.
Sorry to be brief, but I've got more historic sewing to do & a fast approaching deadline. Yikes!
Just a few quick photos of a silk & flannel blanket that I sold this week. I have the green & yellow version on the shop but got a request for a pink & purple version. As it happened I had this 1 blanket in those colors, I just hadn't listed it. I also have the blue & purple version and another yellow & green.
I'm not sure why I was (am?) hanging onto these blankets. Some part of me says it's in case I ever have another child. I want them to have a blanket just like L has hers. Of course I know that I'll never have another child so it's really silly that I use that reason. Additionally, I could always make a new blanket for a new baby. It's not like you don't get 10 months warning!
Then there is part of my that says I hang onto them in case one of my friends has another baby and I need a gift. That too is a silly reason, since all of my close friends are either not interested in having children, or are also finished. Plus I always have plenty of time to make something custom for any friends children.
So I bit the bullet and sold this blanket rather than holding on to it for no real reason other than I really like them. They are so luxurious for starters. The flannel get softer with every wash, yet the silk stays just as smooth and durable. I also have a real soft spot for the variegated colors of the silk. I like to just stare into them trying to find all the different shades and tones. I also love how you can have several silks in the same batch of dye yet every single one turns out different. 
What I find interesting is that my dye work sells better, for higher prices and faster than any of the other things that I've listed. When I first started the Etsy shop my goal was to sell the remaining silks from when The Green Cottage was a free standing internet store 3 years ago and use the funds to start doing some dye work with natural materials. So far I've been derailed by the holiday and the idea of running a shop in general. I'm thinking it's time to go back to the original purpose; making naturally dyed silk & cotton scarves. The idea is that they can be cross marketed; in both Waldorf education circles and reenacting circles.
J beat me to the punch in getting L a Starbucks gift card for the holiday. Instead I made her a little wallet to hold her card, her library card and where she can collect the business cards that she likes so much.
This is nothing fancy. Two layers of wool felt, with a third piece for the pocket. Both appliques are wool felt as well. All the sewing is done with scrap bits of embroidery thread.
It's a little wonky though. To start with it's not very square. I fixed that with a heavy dose of steam from the iron and a few trims with my rotary cutter. I'm really giving that tool a workout lately. I don't know what I used to do without it.
Second the female half of the magnetic snap isn't all that secure. When it eventually comes loose I'll have to replace it with a ribbon since it's one of those item that can't easily be removed without leaving behind damage. I should have been more careful with it but again, late at night and with L hovering over my shoulder I wasn't.
Third it closes backwards. I wanted the cat on the front but I wasn't thinking when I did the appliqué. I forget to reverse the design before tracing it onto the wonder under so when I ironed it on, it was reversed. At least I also forgot to reverse the bird too. to reverse the bird, so it ended up on the opposite side, which is what I wanted (only backwards).
I slipped the card into it before wrapping with a scrap of fabric. Hopefully she'll like it, not loose it & oh yeah, treat her mom to a coffee once and a while!
For when you've got a "monstrous" cold, monstrously cute tissue holders.
Idea shamelessly borrowed from Cherry at Blue Cherry Faerie. It was just too cute not to copy. Plus I had some of that terrible furry fleece sitting in the stash waiting to be something simple. Anyone who's sewn with that fabric knows what I'm talking about. It's furry, it sheds like a German Shepard in May, it' stretches and curls and in general is no fun to sew with.
I used the ever present red double fold bias tape for the opening and lined the inside with plain red quilters cotton. Both were really helpful and made dealing with the fur that much easier. The biggest trick was sewing the buttons on. The fur kept pulling through the button holes. Not difficult to deal with, but annoying as all get out.
These are so simple to construct otherwise. I made them just like standard tissue holders: 1 6"x7" square of outer material, 1 square the same size of inner material. Lay the layers together right sides out. Sew bias tape on the 6" sides to hold it all together. Fold the taped edges to the middle, wrong side out. Serge the 2 open ends, flip, add buttons and fill with Kleenex.
Of course you'll notice that they aren't stuffed. Being the tree huggers that I am, we don't actually have disposable Kleenex in the house. I'm going to pick up some before popping one of these in L's stocking. Or maybe I'll just serge up a few flannel nose cloths for her instead.
