Video Test (with awesome video)

Saw it first here.

Youtube has done something different with their video coding and I am having trouble posting vids to the photog blog, which is wordpress. Blogger, surprisingly, seems to have no trouble. Anyway, how fun is this video?

I'm here

Hi. I'm alive! Just a slightly punier version of me. This pregnancy thing really caught me off guard. Although this was a surprise, I had been looking forward to getting pregnant again for a long time. Funny how much I blocked out how completely awful this part is. So far, thank goodness I am not feeling quite as miserable as I did with HG. Just moderately miserable.

Anyway, enough of that complaining stuff. I have managed to sew a little in the past couple weeks, and I completed all the projects for my friend's baby boy room. Nothing to show now, but she promised she'd send pictures when the room's ready. She lives in Indy and I met her at Ikea this afternoon to hang out and deliver the goods. Man, I don't know why I ever go to that place on a Saturday. Weekday afternoons there are infinitely calmer.

Hendrix enjoyed his first ever frozen yogurt cone. He really didn't make that huge of mess either. Gosh I love him. 

I have so many projects swirling around in my head, and I hope I have the energy to share them with you soon. Thank you so much for reading, I love you for it!

To Do List... with a juicy tidbit.

To-Do-Along.


So honestly, I'm not a big fan of lots of those "link parties" people do on blogs. There is nothing really wrong with them, I've just never felt the need to participate.

BUT I do like a unique idea that involves getting to know other bloggers, not just promoting yourself. Carmen is starting up a little to-do list blog along, and I thought it would be fun to participate this week. I always have a long crafty to-do list that is very satisfying to chip away at. But lately, due to having some very big projects to tackle, and the fact that I haven't been feeling myself, well, you've probably noticed I haven't sewn many new things lately.


To Tackle This Week Month:

1. Finish crib skirt (so close) and changing pad cover for my friend's nursery, start curtains.
2. Make at least 2 pairs of PJ pants for Hendrix. (His are so small, it's sad.)
3. Write 3-4 blog posts for Fyrefly.
4. Sew 2 Louise bags for Fyrefly and 2 to swap with friends. 
5. Sew wristlet for a friend to match a bag she bought.
6. Design and make 8 (!) new monsters for a family who has commissioned me to make one for all their grandkids.
7. Add some things to the shop.
8. Finish reading Chocolat. (I know, I'm like 10 years behind.)
9. Go to the Dr. on Tuesday because I'm pregnant.
10. Buy more fabric.

Happy Labor Day everyone, and I hope we all get to make lots of check-marks on our lists this week :)

Childhood in the Suburbs

I've already told you I think the new Arcade Fire album is amazing.


But I just had an experience that takes it to another level.


Artist Chris Milk created an interactive film that is a customizable music video to "We Used to Wait." It actually uses Google maps images to take you down your childhood street, to the very house you grew up in.


It is brilliant.


I tried it, not knowing what would happen. I had a very good childhood in Florida with lots of running and playing outside and memories with family. But I haven't been to that house in years. Just seeing it during the song made me a little emotional. There is something sad about the fact that you can never be a child again, I guess. The experience ends with a chance to write your childhood self a letter while the song  and experience is still going on. You don't have time to think, you just write and draw. Then you can choose to send the postcard in and it might be used in Arcade Fire's tour.


Here is mine:

I think I'm going to go do it again....right here.

Interviewed

Hello friends. I just wanted to let you know that my sweet photographer friend Wendy did a feature on me today and a really fun interview!

So if you've ever wondered what I went to college for, who my "celebrity crush" is, or where the name of my blog comes from, you can find out here. Let her know you're visiting in the comments!

My Brother the Yetti

This morning my family picked up my younger brother Luke in the Nashville airport after 75 days in the wilderness of the Canadian Yukon.

He is weathered, furry, muscular, and all around BA after a summer of glacier hiking, bushwacking, ice climbing, mountain dangling, bear encountering, canoeing, and I can't even imagine what else. 

It was kind of like Into the Wild, only he was with a few other people, and in the end he came home instead of eating poison plants.

I'm so proud of him, and so glad he's home.

He took hundreds of breathtaking pictures. Here are just a very few.

Zen and The Art of Sewing Machine Maintenance

First the Zen: some new fabric goodies from an impromptu trip to Ikea.

The one on the left is a new design there, and I'm crazy about it. I love it so much that I'm putting too much pressure on finding the perfect project for it. I think of something, and then I think "No, not good enough."

I'm also finding myself very drawn to royal blues lately.




Now for a couple sewing tips I've learned recently. These are probably obvious to most people, but if you are a fairly new, mostly self-taught sewer like me, you might have to be told.

First of all, it did not occur to me that my sewing machine needed to be cleaned regularly until I had already had it at least a year and my mom told me. The thing about sewing machines is, they get really linty. Especially sewing with things like minky, which I use for the back of my monsters, or after big felt projects like Hendrix's playhouse. 

First you unscrew the little plate area. This is what it looks like on my Singer:

You can already see how linty it is just around the bobbin area.

But what's really fun is when you first take the plate off to behold all the grossness lurking beneath. Ew.

But wait. It gets even more gross when you take out the bobbin-receptacle-thingy. (Yes, I'm almost positive that's the technical name.)

Your machine probably came with a little brush thing like this one. If you can't find it, I'm sure you could use a toddler toothbrush or something.

Then proceed to wipe out large amounts of dirt. You really have to get deep into the crevices. You can even pretend to be an archeologist with fancy bone-dusting tools.


So I apologize if every one who owns a machine already knew this because they are actually smart people who read the manuals that come with devices like this. But I'm a bit slow to catch on, so maybe someone else out there is as well. Go clean your machines! They will run smoother.


I have one more tip to share that is probably also quite obvious. SPRAY STARCH!

For some reason, I was under the impression that only 50's housewives needed this stuff. But I bought some a couple weeks ago, and it makes ironing new fabric about 86x easier. I always wash and iron my fabric as soon as I get it in the mail so that it is ready to use when I need it. But it comes out of the dryer in quite a wad sometimes, with serious wrinkles. Starch= magic. And it doesn't even feel stiff at all. I always thought it was just for making things stiff. Not so.

Ok, now that I've shared my "duh, what an idiot" tips, I have a question. Does anyone have a good way to keep the cut ends of fabric from fraying in the wash? I heard about using pinking shears on the edges before putting them in the wash. I've tried that multiple times and it makes no difference at all. Still get those multi-colored thread balls coming out of the wash. I'd love your ideas. You guys are way smart.