wise craft

almost december and here's where we're at

- Ian has a new fascination with cracking nuts. We have a real, live nutcracker in the house, we do.

- I have 2 more weeks of near-impossible (but, ok, totally doable) deadlines, then I plan to sit with my old friend, the crochet hook and work on some version of this. I daydream of me sitting, and crocheting, with not a care in the world. Bliss...

- Christmas seems to be coming on fast this year, or is it just me? I looked back at Christmas here on the blog and found that I am right on schedule for the beginning of December.

- There are some gorgeous 2012 calendars towels (actually, fat quarters that you hem the ends of to make a tea towel) over at Spoonflower. Wow, there are some talented people! I ordered 4 of them, may be hard to part with any of them. 2 fat quarters for the price of one this week, so now's a great time to order.

- Our first holiday party is tomorrow night. And I have a new dress! I may go with Rachel's Emerald City nail polish.

- On the subject of makeup, I have to say that my current favorite makeup in the entire world is Bare Minerals. I can't believe how well it covers and evens out my splotchy, olive skin, how light it feels, and long lasting it is. I am completely converted and will never go back to liquid foundation again. The only downside to using Bare Minerals is I feel like I am leaving a powdery film in the bathroom where I apply, but other than that, I love both the coverup and the base powder.

- I need to shop for the advent treats. I look forward to doing this every year. How small can I make the treats? How unique? It usually takes me a full afternoon to pull 24 days of treats together, just me, a coffee, and endless possibilities.

 

I haven't made a new music mix in a while, so let's right that wrong immediately. Enjoy!

lappity lap and twiddly bits

Hello! How are you?

My computer failed me last week and consequently, it spent it's Thanksgiving in the hands of an Apple Genius, who must have been just that because its now working perfectly again. Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? (Or, if you're outside the US, did you at the very least have a nice meal last Thursday?) I actually got a lot of work done by not having the distraction of my computer, but I am still very happy to have it back and working again.

One of the things I had planned to tell you about was the class I took at the lovely Assemble shop with Dottie Angel herself, Tif. For 2 Sunday afternoons in a row a few of us gathered together and with the help of Tif found our "inner granny" to make lappity lap blankets. What a completely charming sewing companion Tif is. I went into this class explaining that the LAST thing the wise craft house needed, THE last thing, was another quilt, blanket, or coverlet. (We are quite covered, quilted, and coverlet'ed, as you can imagine.) Quilts of any kind take so much time to make that the thought of one just sitting around, unused, makes me sad. So, if I were to make a lappity lap blanket with Tif, I had to have a recipient in mind or I would not be inspired to make one. But who would that be, whom would I have in the back of my mind as I was designing this little gem?

And then, I realized that the recipent had been sitting right there in front of me all along.

Gracie is always looking for a warm place to rest, and our laps are never available as much as she'd like them to be. Quilts are usually folded away during the day, so why not make her one that could be all hers, for her to use as she pleases?

I had found my muse.

And, in case she can in fact read (which would not surprise me)-

Under Tif's creative direction, we added all sorts of lacy, vintage doily-type things (Tif's technical term for this is twiddly bits.) There are all sorts of little loopy, lacy things for Gracie to play with and me to admire. There is a pesky squirrel applique, just waiting to be caught (because all the ones on the other side of the sliding glass doors alway get away) and he's even got a twiddly bit of catnip for her.

I had several vintage type fabrics on hand that I'd planned to use for the blanket top, but the week after the first class I had an exceptionally good day of thifting (so. much. good. stuff!) I found the perfect sheets, some bark cloth, and several sweet fabrics that I ended up using for the final version of the blanket. For some reason once I'd made the quilt top I didn't like, it became much easier to see what I wanted in my mind. I really enjoyed learning Tif's process of building the top of the blanket, using all sorts of machine and hand stitching, as well as applique and embroidery. Its really a process about knowing when to stop or when to add more. I loved playing with neon stitching on bits of doily and think I may actually do some of that again in a future project.

Here it is, not quite finished but almost there (the heart is still in process and I have to resew on that stray diamond of doily on the bottom right).

But really, the true test of how successful this project was is what the recipient thinks of it.

Success!

So much fun! Tif, I will see you soon!

 

stitch gifts

I did a holiday project for the first ever issue of Stitch Magazine devoted to holiday sewing, Stitch Gifts.

I decided to do a project with those gorgeous Swarovski Crystal Elements sew-on beads that I love so much (I did a pillow project using these beads previously). Its funny to think how totally unsparkly I am in my day to day life, but I adore these beads. I thought it would be fun to dress up a plain cardigan with a mixture of crystals. The finished sweater reminds me a little bit of those beaded old lady sweaters I used to wear in college. (Hey, I guess I once was sparkly after all.)

You can buy beads for this project online at Fusion Beads. The Swarovski color mix I used is called Lexi, but there are some really pretty combinations of colors in their mixed collections. I've already made another one of these sweaters for my mom, a black version with the Suede mix, which was made and shipped out of the house so quickly I never took a picture of it. So fun to make these! If anyone out there tries these beaded projects I'd love to hear about it!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and thoughts on my last post!

thirteen

Emma turned 13 over the weekend. There was a delicious cake made. There was celebrating and general merry making. It was good.

This birthday, which I knew was coming, is both exciting and bittersweet for me. The idea that I have a 13 year old child brings up all sorts of self-evaluating in myself that I don't have time for. Am I old enough to have a 13 year old? When exactly did she even encroach on being 13 years old??  But what a joy I have in this little 13 year old package. She is very much all that she should be at 13, and I try hard to remember that on those topsy-turvy days. And those, we have.

She asks when she will be able wear makeup one minute, and then tells me that sock monkeys are one of her favorite things the next as she hugs it with all her love.

Peter and I carefully handpicked music mixes for her to put on her Ipod (because we think we know better- I hear you laughing), only to realize that she's actually been listening to a popular radio station the whole time through those headphones of her, full of popular auto-tuned songs and, yes.. hip hop.

I hear you laughing.

The same 13 year old that squeals with delight opening a tiny package full of teeny bottles of things like dragon's breath and phoenix feathers (purchased for Emma's dollhouse here).

When I started this blog, seems like Emma was so little (she was). We talked about fairy-themed birthday parties, fairy houses, little girl things. Times have really changed. Emma had a sleepover to celebrate her birthday and, after supplying pizza, cake, and ice cream, we barely saw them. They had a blast, with no help needed from us.

"What? No craft or activity?", I ask.

"No thanks Mom.", replies "the" 13 year old.

Its okay. I took that for what it was, and I do know what it is. This girl is figuring out who she is. I am honored to be a part. And I know this will take a while.

She, just like everyone in our little family, makes me a better person. I only hope I can return the favor some day.

parks and recreation

This is our favorite show on TV these days is Parks and Recreation. There is not much Peter and I both like to watch together. He's got his Cafe Racer, his Top Gear, I've got my intellectually stimulating Real Housewives. (The kids don't watch much TV, but they do love Amazing Race and Survivor.) What's funny about Parks and Recreation is, as Peter put it, its funny but not mean-spirited. I love Amy Poeler, and I love that in real life she's married to Gob (that makes her even funnier to me). I love April, her blank stares kill me.

But my favorite character is Tom Haverford. When I need to cry and laugh at the same time, watching something like this scene does it every time.

 

ornaments and smalls

Are you getting tired of dollhouse talk yet? I'm afraid I've fallen off a slippery slope folks. During the day I may be hard at work on everything else, but any free time in the evening is used to shop/stock my new miniature abode. There's worlds of ideas out there, truly. These red chairs are going to be the dining room chairs, they are acutally tree ornaments from CB2's holiday line this year (I bought these for the patio). They are a bit larger than 1:12, but I'm going go with it, they look great with the table.

I chose a bed (wood painted silver, "faux chrome") and am now pondering what bed coverings I will make for it. I am staying well within mid-century style for this house, but I'm taking plenty of liberties too.

Fun dollhouse blogs out there-

Call of the Small

Modern Mini Houses

Mini Modern - Where I discovered the great tip about the CB2 ornament chairs.

 

the quilts of anna williams

This past summer while taking Denyse's workshop, she mentioned the quilter Anna William's several times and I did some online research about her once I got back home. Like many quilters from her era and area of the US (she grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) she has a very loose, improvisational style to her quilts. She is quite a master at her style of freehand cutting and piecing. I remember Denyse saying "you can't fake that". I clearly see what she means.

Fireworks on the Levee, 1992 by Anna Williams.

 

Monkey Wrench with Metallic, 1990, by Anna Williams.

 

I love the vibrancy of her work. Read more about her.

 

 

halloween 2011 and little things

This would have been a great photo if the camera settings were right, my not-so-little bad fairy. We had such a great time last night with her and our large vanilla milkshake. Although we are totally lame for not even carving pumpkins this year.

Halloween is not my favorite occasion (I've lamented this yearly in this space) but I think last night was just about perfect as far as this particular evening goes. The neighborhood really played it up with great decorations and friendly folks (and good candy, I'm told). Trick or treat bags felt just heavy enough when we were done, and everyone managed to get into bed at a reasonable time.

I'm still collecting and doing a bit of decorating for the I'm a Giant Challenge. I really adore little things!!! These little goodies came last week, a hide rug and "original" sunflower painting, an Eames chair. I also have a "leather couch" and some other little things. I've decided that furniture pieces with faux drawers that don't open are not going to work for me, so I've been taking my time to choose the kitchen and bathroom pieces. I think I finally picked out a bed/mattress combo and when I get it I can decide what type of quilt I'll make. So many of the beds come with bedding already, but I want to make that. So much of the fun is the hunt for the perfect thing.

Who knows if I'll even come close to having it done by the date the challenge ends, but I'm having a ball anyway. Emma is getting in the spirit too (she has had her own dollhouse since she was 4 but its been stored away for a couple years). We have a studio date one evening this week to dollhouse craft and listen to last week's This American Life episode on Middle School. Can't wait!