Random Thoughts

Sometimes when I'm doing something totally different a random thought on another subject will pop into my head.

That's what happened when we were walking the dog this morning. All of a sudden "you should do some pretty stitching in red" popped into my head.

So when we came home, that's what I did!

Hmm I have to say it looks much brighter and pops better in real life but I guess that's life in the winter huh? Anyway, it was a great random thought and it really adds a punch to the aprons and makes that little bit more Christmassy.

Hopefully I'll have one just about done and have more pictures for tomorrow. I need to rush on these a bit because I'm babysitting L'il Miss C in a week or so and since these are for her and her mom...can't really be working on them while she's here. But having them done to send home with her and her Momma would be perfect so...sewing now!

More later. Ta!

Shhhhhhh

Why shh?

I just got back from walking the dog and the one thing I noticed is how quiet it was on the side roads. It's snowing again (again!) and it always seems to make the word quiet.
All I heard was the crunch of the snow, the jingle of Scooby's leash as he snuffled around and the pft of the flakes landing on and sliding off my hood. So quiet and peaceful I had to stop..and listen..to nothing.

Shhhhh

It's also a shh day because I'm supposed to be at work and I'm not! But don't tell!
My library is closed and I was supposed to go work with another librarian on one of our many extra projects but she says the roads are horrible so....I'm starting my vacation a day early! If the weather clears I'll probably head out while I'm on vacation and we'll work on the project then. It's not like it's urgent and really, spending time with another librarian, especially J who's "TOSO"  (that's The Other Sane One) isn't much like work anyway so it will be a nice day even if some people will think I'm crazy to "work" on a day off.

Now, off to do some vacation type stuff..like sew! 

Ta!

Oh Snap!

As in Cold Snap. Yep, we have actually cold weather here today and there was still snow on the lawn this morning! yuck!

Usually the first snow fall will have the decency to melt and be gone by the time I get up in the morning but not this one, no sir-ie. This one started Thursday at noon (unusual) got worse through the day (unusual) and by the time I got home from work was sticking on the lawn. This is *highly* unusual for the first snowfall of the year. And let's not even mention how *freaking early* this years first snow is!The middle of November? I don't remember the last time that happened and I've been in this town over 30 years!
(Of course, to be honest, if it did happen before I'm pretty sure I would have blocked it out anyway! )

The dog thinks this is great though. For some wacko reason he loves the snow. Loves to snap at it and bite it and devour snowballs thrown for him and roll in it and generally be silly when there's snow on the ground. Friday mornings walk with him led to a frozen face and many laughs on my part and silly doggy grins on his. Doofus dog, we think you're nuts but we love you!

Being cold and blustery did finally get me into the sewing room though and here's what's on the table.

Earlier this year I made L'il Miss C a cute little kitty apron for her birthday. She loved but had 1 little concern later - Momma didn't have an apron like hers. So for Christmas her Mom and I connived a little scheme, looked through Her fabric and I am now working on 2 matching aprons for l'il Miss C and Momma!
The green is for the body of the apron and the Santas will be the pockets. For Mommas apron the bottom pocket will have some green edging to make the pocket bigger and more proportional, L'il Miss C's won't have that as she's pretty tiny.
I'm not sure yet if I'm going to do a top pocket like the kitty apron but I'll decide on that later. No rush, it's not even December yet, right?
So far all I've gotten done is the material pre-washed and ironed and the apron bodies cut out so no exciting pictures. Except for this cute one.

This is Todd and Zoe and yes, they're sitting on my ironing board. Actually they're sitting and washing in my ironing board >sigh< Is it any wonder I have a hard time getting sewing done?

Ta!

No Actual Sewing was Accomplished

I had a lovely long weekend this weekend. Thursday was a Stat holiday (Remembrance Day up here in Canada) and then with my usual Friday off I had a 4 day weekend.

A perfect time to do some sewing you'd think, wouldn't you?

Sadly you'd be wrong and so was I. I had great hopes for the weekend but what I wasn't counting on was a cold that started Monday. It wasn't a horrible cold per se but it felt like I had a big bag of fluff stuffed into my head and frankly it didn't leave much room for my brain.

So instead of sewing, which I don't really like to do without my brain, I decided to clean the room I use now for sewing. Until recently this room was Miss C's. When I finally put my foot down and told her to pick one room or the other (the other being the spare room/sewing room in the basement) she picked the basement. So I cleaned out about 1/2 the room and got the major sewing stuff in so I could work and she could have some space.

But it wasn't quite what I wanted. For one thing 1/2 the room really wasn't cutting it plus somehow I had made it so that I couldn't get into the 2nd closet in the room at all! So I decided that this weekend would be a good time to do some rearranging and keep cleaning the rest of the space, and that's what I did.

Now I have the closet I store material and costumes so that I can get to it, I have the ironing board set up so it's I can use it *and* watch DVDs on my computer and I don't have 1/2 the room clogged up with who knows what. I'm much happier with how the work surfaces are all arranged and I even got some ironing done while watching an episode of Mad Men.

Not exactly the sewing weekend I was looking for but a productive weekend just the same.

On a parting note, a cute cat picture (since I don't have any sewing progress to show!) and a visual explanation of why sometimes doing your homework isn't as simple as you would think. Ta!

Hallowe'en Recap

Sooooo, long time no post. I know, bad blogger, no cookie. Do I get a reprieve if I say I have pictures??? Thought so!;-)

To start - a picture of our garage.  It's the first thing you see when you come up our driveway so we've always tried to decorate it but this is the first year I've really liked what we did. The edges are spray painted (black) ivy and ...something that I got at the thrift store. The tree is one of those wall decorations you buy for your house (for inside) and the rest is from a MS Hallowe'en decoration set, also the stick on vinyl stuff. <3 that stuff! It looks great, goes up easy and comes down easy too. What's better for Hallowe'en decorations? Nothing!

I think it turned out rather well, what do you think?


Now for a little verbal info on how the Hallowe'en sewing went.
It went pretty well except for the problem with my jacket. I forgot the shoulder pads and didn't have them when I should have, tried to add them later and ....well, let's just say it didn't work. So.....I put it on hold and am currently working on taking out the lining so I can put the should pads in properly. When it's finally all done I'll make sure to post pics I promise.

On to what I did finish. I managed to finish all the bits for the girls. YAY! I didn't get back to the Gryffindor robe to add pockets but that was not in the original plan so it doesn't count as far as I'm concerned.

For Miss C I had a skirt, the robe, and a sweater to make or remake. We re-used a white dress shirt, bought new shoes, socks, and of course the tie and I also bought the Gryffindor partch.
I think it turned out rather well.

 
 For Miss S I bought the t-shirt, but made the stencil for the design and I added a flannel lining of sorts to her thrifted jean jacket. Doing Annabeth from the Percy Jackson books is probably the easiest costume I've done in years! The jeans were her regular ones and we bought the Yankees ball cap. But for a mostly purchased costume it caused a fair bit of talk at school and was well received. I'm very proud of it. (Mostly because the stencil took me over a week of hard stressful work! )

If you've read the Percy Jackson books you'll know why she's wearing the necklace that she is. She made the beads herself. Did a good job too.
If you haven't read the books I'd recommend you do! They are great books.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and post a bit of a "how to" on how I re-made the sweater. For once I remembered to take some pictures during the process.

Right now though, it's time to walk to dog. Ta!