artsy-crafty babe

play

I've decided that for the rest of the summer I am going to play.  When I first started this blog 3 years ago (yes, I managed to miss my blogiversary a few days ago) I did a lot of playing.  It was fun.  I experimented with different crafts and it was all new and exciting.  Somewhere along the way I lost that.  You may not have noticed it, but I have.  Yes, I am still creating, but I think the playfulness has disappeared.  As more people started reading this little ole blog, I became more self-conscious about what I put out here.  My perfectionist side overtook my playful side.  Right now I'm declaring an end to that!

I want bright, bold colors, imperfection, and childlike themes.  If I mess things up, so what.  It's time I stopped being so worried about what other people think and let the little kid in me out to play.  It's all about the process, right?   

In all honestly, things might not change all that much on the outside, but I have high hopes for changes on the inside.  No rules, no pressure, just fun.  I plan to take my kids along with me on this journey for inspiration and companionship, I think we'll all benefit.  Yes, this is going to be fun :-)

some late night sewing

Last night I gave up a little sleep to make myself a new bag.  I've been carrying around this bag for a few months now, and it's just too small.  I'm a big bag girl at heart!  I need room for a few notebooks, my camera, my wallet, and who knows what else.  I've tried the little purse thing many times, and it just doesn't work for me, so a big bag it is.

I'm pleased with this.  There are a few things I'll change the next time I make it, if there is a next time.  This was made using the the lining piece of my pleated tote pattern (which needs to be redrafted - it's kind of crude!!).  I sliced and diced the pattern to do the piecing.  Forgive me, but I'm not sure if I made the pattern bigger than it is, I think I may have made it a little taller.  I did change up the bottom darts, making them a little wider and longer to give the bag more depth.

I think this bag will carry me through the rest of summer just fine.

a little late to the party

Hello there!  I didn't mean to disappear on you, but this past weekend we decided to take a little jaunt to the gulf coast.  It was nice to get away, but I'm oh, so happy to be sleeping in my sand-free bed again.

I meant to post about this before I left, but I never got around to it.  Preparing for time away from home, even for a weekend, is such a big undertaking for a family of 5, an undertaking I greatly underestimated.  Lesson learned.

I'm sure you all have seen the echos project by now.  If not, go take a look!  I was intrigued when those fabulous girls first mentioned it.  There's a flickr group where you can play along, if you'd like.  I decided to play, but I'm a little late.  I started my journaling on Thursday, but have yet to upload anything.  Truth be told, I wasn't really sure that I was gonna show this or officially join in.  This is hard for me.  But I need it.  I've been in need of an artistic challenge for quite some time.  Because this feels completely foreign and uncomfortable for me, I think that is more reason for me to do it.  Please be kind, I'm terribly insecure about what I've done thus far.

So, there it is.  My journaling  from 7/10 - 7/13.  I'll be posting these from here on out in the flickr pool.

tomatoes

I know I've said it before, but I really am enjoying our little garden.  Having fresh vegetables straight from the backyard is something I took for granted as a kid.  I grew up with my grandfather always having a garden, so the fresh veggies were in abundance.  All those tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, okra, etc were things I could care less about.  Boy, have I changed!

Working around my garden and picking vegetables is a highlight of my day.  Every afternoon I look forward to seeing what new thing is ripe.  Ava usually accompanies me.  Right now the tomatoes are in full swing.  I'm able to pick a few just about every day. 

With this being my first "real" garden,  I bought tomatoes that looked interesting, not necessarily varieties that would produce lots.  I have been greatly disappointed in this orange one, Orange Oxheart.  It grew fine and made lots and lots of flowers, but has hardly produced any fruit.  This one big tomato is about all I got.

Somehow I ended up planting mostly small tomato varieties, which is fine, but next time I want big ones.  Oh, and no more Mr. Stripy, chosen for the cool looking stripes.  He's produced okay, but the tomatoes are small, and bust open easily.  Lessons learned.  It's just about time to plant the fall garden - no more heirlooms!  I'm doing my homework this time and choosing based on performance, not looks.

sewing the day away

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the summer top love! All weekend long I thought about making another, but I never did get around to it. I did, however, manage to wear that top twice - worn, washed, then worn again. I wish I could make one for every day of the week. Anything that can accommodate my boobs, hide my ginormous muffin top, and not look like a total tent is a winner (shh, if I am sporting a tent, don't tell me, I like to live in denial).

I had high hopes for cranking out another one yesterday.  My sweet husband took the kids away from the house for a few hours to give me some sewing time.  Before I could start on another top, I wanted to finish the three black & white bags I had in the works for my shop.  I honestly thought I could knock them out in no time.  I grossly underestimated how much work I had left to do on them.  I ended up spending all my "free" time along with a big chunk of "after kids go to bed" time to finish these bags.  But now they're done, and no longer taking up any brain power - I can move on.  You can bet that I'm moving on to another top for moi!!

**these will be in the shop shortly, er, probably sometime this week, I'm not making any promises!!

THE summer top

That would be Simplicity 4589.  Love it!  I've had the pattern in my stash since last summer, but never got around to trying it out.  I made this yesterday during nap time.  I was able to trace my pattern, cut it out and sew it up in about 2 hours.  That's my kind of pattern!  The pieces all went together well, and I hardly had to make any modifications.  All I did was add 4" to the bottom.  Next time I'll probably add a little width to the center front (for the girls), and maybe do a bit of shaping through the middle, but those are easy to do.  This is the perfect top for summer, made in a cool cotton fabric.  I made this one in a dotted swiss I bought on sale at Hancock's.  I'd like to try the short sleeve version next, though I am partial to sleeveless tops.  I love that this sleeveless version has straps wide enough to wear with a regular bra.  That's always a plus in my book!!  Good thing I have a collection of light weight cottons in my stash - don't be surprised if I make another one before the weekend is up!!

gratitude friday

Oh boy, what a great Friday this is!  Any day that I don't have to get up to go to work is a good day, but today is particularly good because it's the start of a 3 day weekend that will involve a whole lot of hanging out with my family and just doing nothing.  Oh, I'm sure we'll do something, but nothing is planned.  I was really hoping to catch up on some sleep this morning, but my energetic little munchkins decided to wake up earlier than normal.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll get to catch up on that sleep some time.

So, to start the weekend off right, I'd like to share what I'm grateful for:

• 3 day holiday weekends
• yummy new fabric to play with
• that fried eggplant my mother-in-law made last night.  I'm already craving more!
• watching my three clowns entertain the family last night with their silly animal impressions
• a night of talking about fabric, sewing, crafting, blogging, etc. with a real life crafty friend.  Thanks for coming over Cathy!  We need to do it again real soon!!
• a fixed (for now) a/c
• my little garden
• snuggling with all three in my bed this morning
• a slew of new magazines that arrived in my mailbox this week
• all the men and women who have sacrificed for our country

If you're in the US, have a happy 4th of July!  Happy weekend, friends!!!

black & white - revisited

I'm so happy to have gotten around to finishing something that really, really like!  I had planned on making this for the shop, but ended up donating it for the Baton Rouge Little Theater silent auction.  This is the first time that I've done anything local, so I wanted it to be good.  I want to make a good impression, ya know?  Lucky for me (or you) I have just enough fabric left to squeak out another one.  Hmm, decisions, decisions!!