I'm just so darn proud of this!

To make this:

and this:


You need these:

my wonderful dad cut the little wood pieces for me, and I just used regular old rubber cement to attach the pieces. don't they look nice and fancy!?!?!?!

Fun with a sweater:

I started with this. a 100% wool JCrew sweater, sized adult M, $6 at a local thrift store. I LOVED the fair isle on the top, but assume the sweater was donated because of these hideous elbow patches?

close up of the fair isle...

so I cut it up to make the bean a pair of pants:

and after I took the picture, I realized something...

one person's hideous elbow patched sleeves are another baby's knee patched babylegs!

I serged the tops, but I think I should add elastic at the top to help them stay up. Not sure yet whether to make a casing for elastic, or get some of that clear elastic like in strapless dresses...

I have about 5 square inches of this sweater left... yay wardrobe refashion!

My night:

Lots of strips (Twice Broken Dishes quilt blocks); a wardrobe
refashioned pair of pants for the Bean, a pair of turquoise double
knit pants for the Bean, and a turquoise double knit raglan t-shirt
for D.
I want to go to bed, but the Bean is awake and crying in her crib,
and I'm trying to wait her out. We're going on 45 minutes right now.
...Time to knit some more.

Bean Butt!

Every cloth-diapered baby needs a pair of argyle wool soakers, right?

this picture doesn't do the turquoise justice, it's an amazingly vibrant color. I'm doing this purply-brown color as the solid diamonds, and then I'm going to do kelly green duplicate stitch to do the thin diamonds across.
then the legs will be the two main colors in stripes...
sorta like this, but much cheaper, since I'm making them myself.
...and argyle, because it's cute and gender neutral!

Jam jar labels

I love home canning... I've posted lots of pics over the past few months of my adventures... so I thought I'd take a minute and post the BEEEEYOUtiful labels my wonderful husband made for me.
they're all saved in photoshop so I can go back and put in new dates for future batches... we also made strawberry, and something else, Ican't remember, but they're not saved to the same folder, and therefore are harder to post...
anyway, if anyone loves them and wants the photoshop files, I'm willing to send them along...

I LOVE CLAUDIA, (and blogland in general)

so last night I was feeling a bit discouraged, and posted about it, and when I woke up this morning, I had a comment, from the most brilliant and wonderful person: Claudia W.

thank you. Claudia, you are my angel for the day.

because, of course, you were right, I just needed to use my foot pedal. now the bobbin winder works.

I cannot WAIT to get to work on all my sewing tonight!

and I'm feeling particularly in love with the internet and bloggers in general.

I remember a few years ago, people whining about the internet cutting people off and making society more anti-social and weird, but I think blogging is changing that completely.

Because of blogs (all of the many that I follow daily, and all the others that I stumble across), I've been MUCH more inspired to create, and therefore my ability levels have skyrocketed... I'm much more confidant in my ability, and more excited to share with others, via blogs or just talking to strangers in lines... I feel like I, a stay-at-home mom, have a place to connect with other adults who can both compose and understand complex sentences and thoughts, and this sharing and connecting can happen at any hour of any day. It's wonderful!

so thanks, Claudia, and thank you blogland, for existing, inspiring, and sharing.

More stamping fun

I looked at my favorite fabric store for some jelly bean fabric (to
make a party dress for the Bean), but the closest they had was either
polka dots or m&ms. So, having gotten Printing By Hand for my bday,
and having already carved some jelly bean stamps for the invites, I
decided to make my own fabric.

D decided to help, so I gave him some scrap fabric to paint and stamp on. I'm hoping to use his scraps for the ruffles.

A bit of abstract painting will be cool there... Hopefully.

D looks so cute in his smock! he's happily painting away!

here's one of his artistic efforts. I'm going to use such little pieces, and then gather them into ruffles, that I think it'll be ok.

here's the back of the dress (the playdate dress by Oliver+S), with all my stamping. I'm using purple, red, blue and green, but I stamped about 3 times before re-inking, so I have a variety of shades. I'm in LOVE...

here's the scene of the crime, with D painting in the corner, and the sleeves and front and back post-stamping. I'm going to do the yoke in plain white, with the afore-mentioned abstract ruffles, and maybe some purple piping and purple pants. I have to raid my scrap bins to figure out what color I have for pants and piping...

sewing machine withdrawl...

I took my Bernina Artista730 in for service, I've sewed like a million miles on that poor machine in the 2.5 years that I've had it. I've been putting it off because I NEED a machine daily. it's my stress relief, my adult time, my unwinding and completing my day. Maybe there are toys scattered all over the house, maybe I didn't finish putting laundry away before the kids fell asleep, maybe we ate Starbucks breakfast sandwiches for breakfast and frozen food for lunch, but at least SOMETHING constructive can be done on my sewing machine. I can whip up a pair of kids pants in under 40 minutes now, a shirt in less than 2, (depending on construction)... a skirt for me in under 30, including a zipper. these FINISHED tasks make me feel like a functional adult, who CAN think beyond toddlerese, who can understand multi-stepped tasks, read sentences, understand diagrams, measure, do math, etc...

so I don't really have a machine right now. I took mine in for service, and despite having 7 (yup) other machines, they are all so covered with dust that I can't use them. sad. I bought my Bernina 730 purely for the embroidery functions and the software, I didn't plan on using it as a sewing machine. But oh, it's so so wonderful, I honestly haven't used my other sewing machines a single time since the 730 came home with me. (well, I've used one of my sergers (a Husqvarna Viking 936), but that's a whole different ball game). My wonderful dealer lent me a classroom machine so I would have a working sewing machine while mine gets serviced (it can take up to 2 weeks!!!), BUT once I used up the bobbin that came with it, I did some shirring, which means I hand wind the bobbin. the sewing machine is sewing perfectly (it's a Bernina Activa 210, the most basic of Bernina's, but still, a Bernina is a Bernina, and it's a wonderful machine). so tonight I was all excited to sew... I was gonna work on a quilt and then start on the Bean's birthday dress (the Oliver + S playdate dress, i'm so excited!)

CATASTROPHE! (that's one of D's favorite words)

the bobbin winder doesn't work.

so I knitted tonight instead.

My rant.

Ok, I totally get that not everyone has the time or desire to bake,
but even in this crazy super-speedy world, sticking m&ms on a tube of
refrigerated dough cannot possible be called a "recipe". Free or not.

Fun with embossing!

My baby's 1st birthday party invitations. I'm embossing the jelly
bean stamps I made a few days ago. I'm super proud of the way these
are turning out. If I were doing it again, I wouldn't stamp the words,
I'd do those on the printer, like the insides, and just do picture
stamping, but live n learn.