Wee Wonderfuls

Happy New Year!

Lake Shore Drive by Philip Maisel from Gapers Block

resolutions are the best and worst part of new year's. creating a new self in list form is very appealing but you can't get too attached. I'm going to go with resolution/inspirations this year. resolrations... inspirolutions... anyway, number one is become a better photographer. I'm convinced the quality of my life will improve if I have better, more artistic, photographic evidence of it.

have a safe and happy one! it's stew and dominos with my sister & her hubby over here. oh, and a netflick just in case we feel like kicking it.

tie one on - holiday fun

I made it just under the wire for Tie One On this time. I obviously missed Christmas so I've made a New Year's apron instead. Perfect for serving cocktails! I've got a huge pile of vintage slips that I've picked up thrifting over the years and I've been looking for a project for them for a while now. So I thought how about a slinky totally frivolous lacey apron for New Year's.

how to: I laid the slip flat, cut off the skirt, turned inside out, sewed the top shut, turned it back right side out, so now it's 2 layers sewn together. I cut up the bodice to make the pockets, zig zag'd them on through both layers and then zig zag'd on bias tape along the top for the waistband and straps. easy peasy. don't want to spend too much time on it because the second you spill a sidecar all over it it'll be history!

it's been over for 3 days and I'm still in my pajamas!

And I get a little bit cranky when I have to get dressed. Even if it is to go to the target to buy christmas lights on sale. In a fit of real-life avoidance, yesterday I undecorated our tree, took off all the ornaments, tinsel and lights and went out and bought new lights and then redecorated. Tim and I are just never happy with the lights and this year our friend Karen clued us in, we need frosted lights instead of clear. We got these jumbo dew drops and I think they're the perfect mix of nostalgia and modern and I'm so happy with them! So the tree is staying up til February. Actually it doesn't take as long as you'd think to redo a tree. There's no unpacking of ornaments, lugging up boxes from the basement, etc. Ok, just justifying my insanity. But see how pretty!

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend out at my parents house. Things that were awesome...narrowly missing a very nasty flu, an elated Oscar playing with his new train table with all the trimmings for 3 straight days (and counting), well received presents including my Mom's quilt and my sister's heart bear (yay for Jess Hutch patterns!), my special wrapping paper, the su doku puzzles that I became addicted to (perfect for filtering out every to-do thought left in one's brain) and my new Small Object See Sew tote bag full of treats!

I'll wait for a sunny day to take pics of all the fun crafty stuff I got for Xmas. Here's a peek. Oh! and the missing package from eQuilter showed up on my doorstep on December 23rd (btw, did you know I'm the first domestic package of theirs ever to go missing?! odd since I was talking with at least one other gal who'd had the same thing happen to her!) so I was busy into the night making Oscar's annual Christmas pjs.

Ok, that's all the time at the computer I can take. Have to ease myself back into it. Now it's time for a napper and maybe, well you know, some japanese number puzzling :)

Oh wait! Can't forget the best Christmas present I saw this year. My friend Stacey made a board game! for her niece and nephew. So cool!

hurry christmas hurry fast

Hope your Christmas loops the loop!

covers for Grandma

don't do it mom...

Christmas is on!

We are in full-on Christmas spirit mode over here. finally! I have to admit we were lagging a bit there. Tim was teasing me that I was going through my early 20s "Christmas is so commercial" angst a bit late in life. But really when you start christmasing so flippin early how can one possibly keep up? But we've kicked it into high gear. The two things that really get me going have happened. First,  our annual trip to the Museum of Science and Industry and second our big bottle of Baileys Irish Cream. yum!
 

I've been clogging up my flickr with all sorts of Christmas merriment...ornaments on the tree, the kitchen tree, vintage christmas, pics from our trip to MSI (the same pics we take each year) the Christmas around the World trees, the Robots Like Us exhibit, The Great (best ever!) Train Story.

And here are a few Christmas presents coming off the assembly line... a Jess Hutch robot

and some stockings for the boy and his father to match the one I have from when I was a kid...

experiments

Inspired by purldrop's beautiful and inventive crocheted bead necklaces (I'd link but the internet is not cooperating) I've been trying to make a quilted necklace. I haven't quite figured out how to weight it yet so it lays flat. In the mean time I sewed this botched attempt to my favorite old petit bateau t-shirt which has seen better days and needed a spruce up.

p.s. no, I have not been able to squeeze in extra curricular non-holiday projects. this is something I was working on weeks ago.

write it

I've sat down to write a post about a dozen times today and can't keep a thought still long enough to get it out. how about instead some photographic proof that I am a good holiday mom...

threw the boy down a hill on a piece of plastic

let him eat a kitchenaid full of sugar in cookie form

or how about this one. oscar in a trance watching "i love toy trains" with his big plastic thrifted hotwheels garage in his lap sitting on the unvacuumed rug while I pack up orders and write christmas cards.

if I was a truly good holiday mom I'd be scouring the city for the perfect soap-loving santa!

Project Downgrade

Time's running out and I refuse to be stressed by things that are supposed to be fun so a few planned projects have been downgraded a bit. First, the christmas quilt (actually both of the quilting projects at this link are no more) with illustrations printed on fabric using bubble set. I'd already decided this project was going to be a table runner instead of a quilt and this weekend decided I didn't have time to mess around with the bubble set. So I went with a simple table runner using my favorite fabrics from those I had slated for the project and maybe next year I can make a matching quilt.

This combo has been inspired all my christmas decorations. I love this yarn dye striped fabric so much. I think I found it at Hobby Lobby. This plus my vintage white ric rac with silver running through it is the perfect solution to my Christmas identity crisis.

The second downgrade is the quilt I was planning for my Mom for Christmas. Actually I wouldn't call it a downgrade at all. I'd planned on making a pattern from the new FunQuilts book called Book Club that looked like shelves of books. I kept putting off working on it and I realized I just wasn't feeling it. Too representational. The color scheme I'd picked out too drab. So I'm pitching it for a new idea. A way less "mom" idea but I think she's going to really like it. I'm really excited about the fabrics I yanked for this quilt. If mom doesn't like it I'll give her an i.o.u. and keep it for myself! (And yes Kim, this means I'm punking out on the Modern Quilt Along. I know, I suck.)

The third downgrade is up in the air. Oscar's Christmas pjs. Up in the air because my eQuilter order went frickin missing and their best advice is 'wait til friday to see if it shows up.' ok, great. Now I've got to find time to go to the fabric store and see if they have any not insanely bad flannel in the kid's aisle.

This would be a nice lead in to my rant & rave about the horrible US postal service and how they FALL APART during Christmas and all the totally suckass online shopping problems I've had. But I'll save that for another day... a little advent surprise for next week maybe, pull the string and a torrent of complaint and regret come raining down on you!

On Sale - Christmasbot Postcards!

There's no room in my tiny craft room for all these Christmasbot cards! Snap them up at the slashed prices - 8 cards and envelopes for $8. They'll be for sale in the shop at this reduced price til Thursday, the 15th and then no more trips to the post office for me. Shop closes on the 15th. also I've taken away the button for international sales for the cards. I'm so sorry about this but the lines at the post office are out the door and around the corner and I need to use the automated machine which unfortunately do not do international shipping. The international buttons will pop back up after the new year. Thanks!