wise craft

i just noticed this post has a lot of blue.

hee hee, so happy you guys liked my evil money washing project.  Nobody's been asking to do it again, but as I commented to Meg recently, I recently have also begun letting the kids know that if they have a problem being in the same room together, we have a couple of bathrooms that need to be cleaned.

Just so you know, we had some *really* clean bathrooms last week...this week, a little less clean.

Okay, so I wanted to share some things that are making me really happy right now.  That print above is from Tamara's new etsy shop and I just love it, just the kind of colors and shapes  I like to look at these days.

See that cup there?  It was made by Diana. I just adore it. I know you guys can appreciate the fact that there is just nothing better than having afternoon coffee in a cup made by a friend and artisan as talented as Ms. Fayt.  I adore this cup! I also am the proud owner of a similar cup with red inside, so come by and we'll have afternoon tea in a matching set! (The fabric is another piece I'm working on out of this book for a belated birthday present.)

I treated myself to a new summer scarf from Heartisans.  Its so light and airy and comfy to wear, and looks cute with everything.  And they donate a portion of all sales to charity.

Oh! And I purchased and downloaded this great 2009 calendar from Patricia (a Little Hut), which I'm going to work on tonight (it might be the one thing I actually finish before the end of the year).  You can use your favorite fabrics to peek out through the letters! What a fun thing to look at all year!

And finally, thanks to some inexpensive frames from IKEA, I've been working on a "greatest hits of summer 08 wall" in our family room.  We have needed to update our family photo displays in general around here for a while, so this is a start (I take more photos than ever, yet I print out less).  The other day Ian asked who that was pictured in the hallway.  "You, silly!", I said.

I may be scarce for the next few days.  We are doing a M A J O R clean out/clean up of the kids rooms, (with their help this time, requiring tons of extra time dedicated to negotiating, bribing, and motivating to get it all happening). Plus, Peter is taking my laptop off campus temporarily.

I trust everyone out there is well.  If I haven't said it lately, thank you so much for being you, for stopping by here and leaving a comment, for supporting my shop, and all that you do.  I am so happy to be blogging again.

a true story of our money laundering

The kids were looking for something to do the other week, after a morning of bickering, and I was searching, desperate for an idea. (Just a sidenote, but I really don't remember telling my mom or dad that I needed something to do.) For some reason, the scene of Augusten Burrows polishing his allowance suddenly popped into my head. Here's what went down next.

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me: "Kids, we're going to wash our coins."

Emma (shoulder shrug): "ummm, ooo-kay"

Ian (scowls): "But why are we going to do that mom?"

me (very matter-of-factly): "Because you like shiny things."

At this point, I feel the kids' eyes turn away from me to stare at each other, all without moving their heads.

I kind of like the quiet this brings to the room.

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I gave them 2 large bowls of water; one soapy and slightly warm and one to rinse in, some old toothbrushes, and polishing cloths (old towels).  I tried to make it a little more interesting by adding in some Japanese and Canadian coins, suggesting we make necklaces out of the Japanese ones when they are shiny (they have holes in the middle).

I didn't turn this into any sort of learning experience, counting game, anything like that. Just plain 'ol washing the money. We did put on the audio book of this. And do you know what?

They actually got into it (I really wasn't sure they would).

I'm proud to report that our spare coins are shiny, clean, and classified by type and year of mint. Come by and take a look any time.

For some reason, the kids got along really well after that. I'm guessing its because they found a common ground; them on one side, weird mom on the other.

Hey, it worked for me.

Have a happy Monday.

fall inspiration

I hope I'm not rushing the season too much here, but it was time to recharge these humble studio walls with a some color.  This is the same pinboard I've had for years, but I recently took it out of the plain wood frame, and wrapped it in some beige linen I had.  This board's been gracing the wall above my desk for years, and I've always updated it with new things when the season changes....so I can go to my happy place when I look up to it.

Whereas Spring had me wanting to wipe the colors clean, Fall makes me think of very saturated, cozy, yellow-tinted colors.  Those J Crew cords are so gorgeous to me...bright rhubarb, golden yellow (yes, please)...sea salt...deep indigo...  That brilliant blue print on those white pillowcases on the bed there, contrasted with the orange piece on that wall? I really love how that looks.

There are so many new fabric collections bursting with color right now too.  "Garden Party" is one I'm looking at with my coffee almost every morning, and I'm still loving the simple, modern feel of Cake Rock Beach (I have two colorways of the honeycomb dots from that collection pinned up on the board). I was lucky enough to score one of Lotta Jansdotter's remnant fabric bags recently and feel sure they will find their way into something soon. And I recently scored a great floral print on ebay that has me wanting to cover a chair in big flowers, although I'll probably use it for something smaller.

J Crew's newest jewelry collection full of colored enamel goodness (oh good lord, I just found a blog devoted to the someone's personal obsession with J Crew) There is always inspiration at The Sartorialist. The woman in the pale gray-ish blue pants and the simple v-neck sweater and white shirt, and the woman on the bike in the plaid coat on the bike were two I pulled from there.

To see more fun inspirations, take a look at Erin/Design for Mankind's downloadable PDF's.  I really love these and look forward to the next one.

*You can click directly on the top photo to scoot over to more details on its Flickr page.

So, what's inspiring you right now?

playing to learn

So, here you have it... what our house would look like if Emma decorated it.  Pea green walls with dark green and white trim, purple walls with big flowers and blue trim (what?), and an orange bathroom... By the looks of the paint job, she's inherited Peter's tendency to one coat everything. But really, this all works beautifully when your 10.  I'm sure it worked for me when I was 10 too.

...please notice the pet skunk we'd have.

She's been working her way through the projects in this book for over a week now, with the focused determination only a craft blogger would understand.  All the tiny materials are pulled together for the next project each morning, and then off she goes, away to build. I'm pleasantly surprised at how little help she needs from me to do these projects.

Notice the bamboo skewer cut down and painted to look like a pencil.

The bed was very fun to make (even if it is for a skunk). Now we're moving on to the tub, and I'm forfeiting a small loaf pan to the cause.

I wanted to pass on a great piece I listened to on our local NPR station the other day, all about the importance of unstructured play for children.  It's on KUOW's "Weekday", called "Is Creative Play Important for Children and How is it Changing?". I loved how objective the entire hour was, the guests were great and its worth a listen in you're sewing or knitting in silence today. I'm going to listen to it again, while I send the kids outside to play. (You can choose one of the options under "Listen to Weekday" on the right).

Peter and I watched season one of Bret and Jermaine and I have been laughing till I cry ever since I found this clip on youtube of my favorite song from season one (the actual song starts at about 2:36 into the clip, but don't miss the imaginary children and wife discussion).  I refuse to admit to how many times I've actually watched this clip.

Happy Wednesday!

new

Good day to all!  I just added some new fun pieces to the shop today.  In case you may have wondered, I am loving this whole jewelry making detour my creative thoughts have taken.  I really enjoy the process of hunting down and finding the components that inspire me, then sitting here and putting them together.  I never thought that making jewelry was my thing, and still don't know if I've entered into a lifelong pursuit of the perfect jeweled piece, but it is truly fun for me.

When I was around Emma's age, a had a collection of necklaces and I wore one every day.  Of course I had the puka shells, the ropey macrame ones, and later on in high school, the add-a-bead necklaces (remember those?).

All these hanging on a nail by Emma's bed makes me realize she has inherited the family "necklace" gene.

Okay, it feels like winter here today!  Off to make tea!

blooming

Thank you for loving the bag from last week every bit as much as I do. Do you know that bag has been sitting around this house for several weeks now and nobody...nobody said a thing about it? I'm taking that to mean that either they thought it was something I purchased (which I'll accept as an offhanded compliment), or they truly did not notice. So thank you for noticing!

The next summer project on my list was a skirt, also for me. (That's a new trend around here apparently, making things for me.)  After making the rooster T-shirt from my Alabama Stitch Book, I knew I wanted to make the Bloomers skirt.  I mean, it's gorgeous, right?  Looks like it would feel amazing to wear?  And, I love the idea of a garment for myself stitched entirely by hand.  But I thought it would be fun to do a stencil pattern of my own design.  So, I doodled, and doodled, and tried to find some inspiration.  Something as pretty as that Bloomers stencil pattern...the one that was right there in the book, ready to pull out and use right away.  The other day I just stopped doodling and just jumped in. Just like the bag, I used fabric from my stash, in this case a dark navy and cornflower blue.  All the panels have been cut, and the top layers have been stenciled with that pretty bloomers stencil (in a dark charcoal gray), and now I'm doing the handstitching (with dark-ish gray button thread).

This book has made me fall in love with handstitching all over again. I love the rhythm, the portability of it, the quiet and comfort I take in it.  I think I will think of that when I wear this skirt.

Daria and I are taking turns posting one image each day which conjures up inspirations of July's eight by eight theme of water.  Today is my image, which I could talk way too long about, but I won't.  Let's just say the little southern girl in me thinks of summer, water, and sun when I see "vintage" Lilly Pulitzer.

OK, its time to put up some new inspiration images around the studio for me, so I'll be working on that a little this week. Even though I don't want summer to end, my mental gears are switching away from my spring/summer inspirations. And friends, my best advice for you today (if you need any) is to make a big glass of something good, and belly up to your computer to listen to This American Life's episode #293 "A Little Bit of Knowledge" , in particular their definition of a "modern jackass".  This is my new favorite term, could be an all time favorite, and I have used it more than I should this past weekend.  Which probably makes me one.

little bits

new little faux mossy rocks from Small Stump...

settling in with a pack of colored tissue, scissors, and glue sticks to make some patterns with Emma from this book.

This has been the best summer I've had in a long time.  I say that with complete surprise.  Its the one I feared the most.  I had no idea if we could succeed in juggling it all.  I mean, small business operating here at home, two kids home all summer (with no camps scheduled).  We've had some bumpy days, but I really think we've found our rhythm, at least for now.  We are playing, going on picnics, swimming, meeting some new friends, really everything we wanted to do (although we still need to go to the zoo to see those new flamingos).  The kids know that mom needs a little time each day to work, and that they must quietly knock and wait before barging into Dad's office to show him their newest Lego creation, in case he's on a call.  We've somehow made it work.  I'm so very thankful.  Every morning I come down stairs to find Peter and Emma watching the tour, I pour my coffee and notice the sunlight streaming in through the windows, everyone happy, (Ian's usually still sleeping) and I feel like yelling out "Hello World!".

I don't really know why, but I just feel like yelling it.

And just for the record, I don't really yell it out.

travellin' bag

I'm having some technical difficulties uploading video this morning, so we're going to switch gears.

A few weeks ago I made Amy Butler's weekender bag. I've had the pattern for this in my hands for nearly a year, and, truth be told, I was a wee bit apprehensive to start it. I love projects like this, the idea of sewing something strong, sturdy, and usable like luggage makes me feel very happy with my abilities, but I knew it would take tons of focus (and who has that when kids are home for the summer? not me, but as usual fashion is to ignore that fact and start anyway...). I did focus (she says with pride) and finished it in time for our June trip to North Carolina to visit family.  I used it as my carry-on for the trip, figuring if it held up okay, I'd write about it here. (Or if it didn't, I'd be really bummed out and still write about it here.)

I resisted the urge to buy new fabric to start this, instead using a mid-weight pink/brown floral print I'd brought home from Goodwill a year or so ago.  I did use new fabric for the piping, the Fire Honeycomb dot print from Joelle's Cake Rock Beach collection.  I love the way the two fabrics go together.

I find Amy Butler's sewing pattern instructions to be beyond complete, and I mean that in the nicest way.  I mean, there's absolutely no inferring or guessing what to do at any point. (I think she may even mention when to take a break in there somewhere.) Every question has the answer in there somewhere, but I usually have to read them a minimum of 14 times to find it (that's the focus part).  But eventually it makes perfect sense.  Does this happen to anyone else with her instructions? Is it just me?

It's really the reason why this project took a few hours each day for about 3 days, all that rereading (and seam ripping after rereading). My biggest challenge on this bag is the combination of sewing the layers of Timtex. canvas, and piping all together neatly.  I ripped out the bottom panel 3 times before I finally got it in right- and Melissa, your advice about hand basting the seams/layers together did the trick and was absolutely necessary for me to make those thick layers come together neatly, my machine basting was making me crazy because it wasn't working.  And yes, Melissa, I think that bottom panel could be a little long.

(photo by Ian)

Well, I'm happy (and relieved) to say that the bag made the trip just fine, no seam busting, carried its share (my camera, a portable DVD player with movies, what seemed like an awful lot of charger cords, 3 paperback books-for me, 2 magazines-also mine, boarding passes) with plenty of room to spare.  And it fit in the overhead bins no problem.  I'm fully in love with the bag, and with the print, which is a happy surprise (thought I'd be sick of it before the bag was done).

The one piece of advice I'll pass on to you is to NOT leave 5 pins stuck in your bag, you know, the ones you are stuck by find later at the airport...

"What?...this bag isn't home sewn!  Who me????"

Claire has made this bag more than once and I love the additions she's made.  I think I might make another one I love it so much.

We here at the house are finished watching the Jericho series (which I am so sad to see end), and will now be starting Flight of the Conchords, which will be fun.  The kids are loving the audio book of Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One, and Jen reminded me I should pull out the audio Harry Potter again, because the whole family loves that one. 

I know, I know...the amount of excitement oozing from the household is too much for you, right?

Hope your summer is currently full to its brim with good TV, successful sewing, riveting audiobooks, and sunshine.

a video a day: Wednesday

well, this was actually from Tuesday, but believe me, its just as good the next day as it was then-

good mail day from Blair Stocker on Vimeo.

The fabric and pattern are from Sew Mama Sew.

The book is here.

Happy Wednesday!

a video a day: Tuesday

This short video was taken a few weeks ago, when I took some little people I love to the Olympic Sculpture Park.  It was such a beautiful day, we had a great time.  (I thought of you Sally.) That space is amazing on its own, but I really liked the Geoff McFetridge installation currently there.  I smile when I think of the fact that beautiful art like this is such a part of my kid's life, I'm thankful.  Plus, I have such a love of clean graphic design.

Those loud voices you hear are, of course, my lovely children (I had 3 that day).  No one minded how excited they were to be there.  Thank you Seattle.

Geoff McFetridge's "In The Mind" from Blair Stocker on Vimeo.

You can see some stills from the same day here, its my first try at pulling snapshots from my flip video, they are grainy but not too bad.  Check out those gi-normous safety cones.