artsy-crafty babe

happy halloween!

Be safe and don't eat too much candy!!

gratitude friday

 
Here we are again, my favorite day of the week.  Friday, a day filled with endings and beginnings and full of possibility. 

When I sit down to write one of these gratitude friday posts, I often feel like a broken record, but can we ever be grateful enough for a healthy family and good friends?  I think not.

On this beautiful fall Friday, I am most grateful for:

• my sweet little family.  When I think about how much those 4 people mean to me, my heart aches.  They are my world.
• fun size snickers (!!!)
• getting my sleepy butt out of bed Sunday morning to go to Mass to hear a homily that spoke to me.  Seriously, I'm still thinking about those words today.  To be honest, I didn't want to go, but Lily was an alter server, so I had to.  I think it was meant to be.
• fall.  I don't think I need to explain.  A cool front came through yesterday to relieve us of the insane heat and humidity.  RELIEF!!
• my friends at work.  If it weren't for my friends, I do believe that place would drive me insane.  And today is special because we're celebrating a birthday, which means going out for lunch.  Yay!
• boots.  Don't tell Matt, but these hopped into my cart the other day...I can't wait for them to arrive.  If you decide to indulge, they run big, so order a half size smaller than you would normally wear - I tried them on in the store, but the on-line deals were better (you can use 3 coupon codes!), so that's how they were purchased.
• Papa  Murphy's (it's nice to take a break every now and then)

• observing my kidlets at play.  They have such imaginations!  That there is a "recipe", as described by Ava (grass, roses, spanish moss??).  I'm so glad my kids love to be outside playing with their friends and each other more than being couch potatoes sucked into the TV.

• beautiful pink sunsets
• Matt :)

Friends, take a look at your life.  I challenge you to find the extraordinary in the ordinary - it's there, I promise.  It's amazing what a difference a change in perspective makes.

Happy weekend :)

goings on

 
Oh life, you're so full & busy right now.  I suppose I had better get used to it because I don't foresee things calming down anytime soon.  It's so easy to get caught up in the everyday, but today I tried to take notice, which is something I've gotten out of the habit of doing.

 
While supper was simmering, I took a little stroll out to the garden to check things out.  My poor little neglected garden!  Once the heat of the summer hit, I pretty much let it fry.  A few weeks ago a cleaned it up and started some new plants.  I'm excited to see the first of my little lettuce plants popping through the soil.  This is the first time I've tried lettuce.  Silly me, I've been checking for it in the wrong spot, where the carrots were planted.  That's what I get for not marking my plants.  With a garden so small, I didn't think I had to.  My fall tomatoes are slowly coming in.  A little small, but tomatoes nonetheless.

 
Homework.  This school year had been a learning year for us.  We lucked out with Lily, who has always done her assignments on her own.  Alex, not so much.  He knows his stuff, but you have to be right there with him while he works on it.  And then he likes to be goofy and put down wrong answers to make sure that we're paying attention.  Silly boy.

 
Tonight Ava was feeling a little left out, so she pulled out the spelling puzzles.  She's all about letters right now.  I'm so glad that she's getting some use out of these puzzles because my other kids hardly touched them.

 
Lemons!!  Today my sister-in-law brought me all these lemons from her co-worker who has a tree full.  I gladly took them.  I love lemons.  Y'all have any good lemon recipes to share?  Sarah, I'm talking to you!

So there you have it, a glimpse at a little snippet of an evening at chez Lambert (pronounced shay lam-bear, of course).

It felt good to walk around with my camera this evening, it's been a while...

yarn-y endeavors

Hey there, guess what?  I still knit!  Oh, yes I do.  I must admit, my knitting habit has calmed considerably since my early days a few years ago, but I've always got something on the needles.  Since my last finished project I only cast on 2 warm weather projects, neither of which I finished.  And now with thoughts of fall (still not feeling it down here), I've been working on a cold weather project. 

Here's my current progress on the chic knits v-neck cardi using some Beaverslide yarn I purchased a few years ago.  I'm branching out a little on this one by knitting from the bottom up.  Er, I'm not so sure about it yet.  I definitely prefer the try-on ability of top down construction.  I'm just about done with the body, so I shall know soon enough if it fits or not.

Once the v-neck is done, I'd like to cast on another featherweight, but in a DK weight yarn.  I plan to make the sleeves and body longer than the pattern.  Wait, I never showed you my first featherweight completed, did I?  Ummmm, I *think* I ripped off the collar after the first wearing with plans to re-knit it in a ribbing because it was curling like crazy (even after blocking) which drove me nuts.  At least that's what I planned to do.  Now, where is that sweater???  (i'm a mess, i tell ya!)

 
Okay, switching gears to crochet now - I finally got my hands on Linda's book, Crochet Adorned. Oh my goodness!  The first time I looked through this book, I thought my head might explode.  I want to try everything in it.  I want to adorn EVERYTHING with crochet.

Before getting the book, I started sprucing up a plain navy blue cardigan with a simple ivory crochet trim.  It is far from being complete, but it's a start.  I think some of my ivory flowers will be making their way to this cardi as well.  With Linda's book as a source of inspiration, I'm sure I'll figure something out.

hits & misses

Oh, those misses, I seem to be having my fair share lately.  Not so much throw-in-the-trash misses, but projects that haven't turned out how I wanted.

At first I thought about not blogging it, but it’s all part of the process, so here it goes.  I’ve had the idea of this bag in my mind a while, so with my chic chic dress momentum, I dove in.  My goodness, I agonized about the fabric choices, but with my little stack in hand, I thought I had a winner.  In a stack, these fabrics looked lovely together, really.

But on execution, uh, not so much.  After I made this bag up, I couldn’t help but think about those jeans I wore in middle school with the acid washed panels.  Man, I thought those were cool!  But I’m no longer in middle school, and it is no longer 1985.  In non-bag form, denim never once crossed my mind about this fabric.  Perhaps if I had stuck with one tone it wouldn’t be so bad.  I don’t think this bag is awful, just not what I envisioned.  Oh well, live and learn

.

***I know that I am super critical, and after putting it away for a few days and looking at it today in natural daylight, I don't think it's that bad at all!  I might even use it if I don't decide to put it in my shop.

Immediately upon completion I felt a little defeated, so I went up to my sewing room, just to be.  I ended up piecing some fabric scraps that I had laying on my sewing table for another project that started as one thing, then turned into something else which I can’t talk about because it’s top secret – got it?  Okay.

And then I played around some more, pulling more fabrics which eventually turned into this bag, which I’m totally digging.  Okay, I love it.  Patchwork, rich tones, dots, a few pleats – totally me, and it felt good.  This would be the hit.

Through making these two bags I learned an important lesson - I can’t force it.  I’ve been doing a lot of forcing lately trying to get my groove back.  Yes, I think all of it was necessary.  And now I'm no longer forcing it, but riding the wave....until I get distracted by another creative idea or crafty endeavor.  Nope, it never ends!!

Happy weekend, friends! 

beavering away...

Ha!  I wonder what kind of hits I'll get from that title.  Yes, beavering away, it's a dottie angel thing ;-)

As soon as the little ones are off to bed (or a little before) I've been making the time to head up to my sewing room.  I think it's safe to say that the creative juices are flowing.

 

I've returned to my first loves - patchwork & bags. Those long sleeve dresses will have to wait a while, which is fine considering that we're still in the 80's.  I don't have anything to show you just yet, but it's coming along...

a couple more

Because I can't stop!!  I only planned to make one more, but when that one was done (the blue birdie) I had to make another.  I couldn't help myself.
 

The blue one is definitely a play dress.  The print is fun and not too fussy.  I added the green around the neck just because.  I played around with the pattern on this one, lengthening it, reducing the fullness, and shortening the sleeves even more.  My goal was to make the body fit on one width of fabric.
 

As I was making the blue dress I thought it would be cute to make one with a different print on the sleeves and a band at the hem.  Yes, this was Flea Market Fancy worthy.  I played with this one as well, making the body a complete rectangle, which added more fullness at the top.  I think I'll go back to the reduced fullness next time.
 

Yes, there's still more...I haven't made any long sleeve versions yet!  At least my addictive behavior is useful this time.

On an unrelated note, today is my 13th wedding anniversary.  Thirteen years that have gone by in a flash.  A whole lot of goodness has happened over these past 13 years, I couldn't be more blessed!  It's also a special day for someone very close to my heart -  today is my Maw Maw's  75th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Maw Maw :-) Happy, happy day!!

and another...

I warned you.  Version #2 of the chic chic dressis here.  Bright pink and zig zaggy.  Ava loves it.

With a print that bold, it didn't need much adornment, though I did sew a 1" deep elastic pocket, then added a 1/2" seam at the top for a little something.  I also added 5" to the length after seeing her bottom a little too much in version #1.   Red leggings & tights have been added to the fall must have list.

When I showed the dress to her this afternoon, she wanted to wear it immediately.  I think we'll be saving this one for church...if I can keep it off her on Saturday.  It's so nice to have someone in the house so appreciative of my creations.  Some little person in this house will have a whole new wardrobe before long....

easing back in

Something I failed to mention on my last post was that during my non-making time I wasn't the least bit inspired.  Nothing.  This is a feeling I'm not used to.  In fact, I'm still kind of there, but I'm trying to ease myself back into it.
 
I thought that once I declared that I was going to MAKE that I could jump back in with no problem.  I tried, really.  I went up to my sewing room, pulled some fabrics, drafted a new bag design, started cutting, but I just wasn't feeling it.  Okay, this is new.
 

I think I was trying too hard.  What I needed was to make something that didn't require too much of me, which is not an easy task as someone who wants to bend the rules and put their own spin own things.  Thankfully, I remembered about a pattern I purchased a while back from Babes of Sweet.  This was just what I needed to ease back into making.
 

The next day I made a stop by my local quilt shop that was going out of business (boo!).  Surely new fabric would inspire me, right?  Indeed it did.
 

My original plan was to make the dress as is, no modifications, no fancy stuff, just a simple play dress.  But once I got into it, the wheels started turning...red rick rack?  yes.  elbow length sleeves?  of course.  And then I thought about Chris' mini boden challenge, so off to mini boden  I went.
 

Bow Trim Dress, you're exactly what I needed to see!  So much for that simple play dress ;-)  I think Ava felt quite fancy at preschool today.
 

And this my friends, is the first of many chic chic dresses you'll see parading through this blog.  You see, I went back to the fabric store again today (and met up with Cathy) - more new fabric. When it comes to sale fabric, I'm weak!!  Inspiration abounds, my friends!!
 

figuring it out

Hello beautiful Tuesday (or Wednesday by the time I get this posted)! What's going on?  I hope you've been lucky enough to experiencing glorious weather like we've been down here.  The lower temps and humidity has sent me in to nesting overdrive mode.  I love love love this time of year!!

Make anything interesting lately?  Sadly, there hasn't been much making going on here. About a month or so ago I got overwhelmed, with just about everything. The house, the kids, my work, homework, soccer practice, laundry, dishes, the dog - EVERYTHING. I had to take a step back. Of all the things I was doing, the only one that I could let go of was making. So I did. (except for the dottie angel weekend ;-))

Since then, my attention had been focused on the kids, keeping the house picked up, cooking supper, and all things domestic...with a dash of crochet or knitting here and there.  Has it made my life any easier?  Not really.  Yes, I've had one less thing to think about, but I feel a little empty.  I miss the making.

Once again I am brought back to my reality that I need to create. There are moments when things seem just about perfect, where I've put all that creative energy into cooking a nice meal for my family or getting all the laundry washed & put away, but it's not the same.  I think I'd rather have my house kind of messy with a fun project in progress - that's much more fun, isn't it?

My new focus is trying to swing that balance to the place where the making can happen and the house can stay picked up.  Impossible?  Maybe, but I'm going to give it a shot.  And I'm going to be here more...not just with silly give aways. I promise, I'm not going to turn this into giveaway blog (i actually find those blogs somewhat annoying).  Up next, some making!!