Bag of Swag

Went to visit the Out-laws last week, and came home with these lovelies, which my Mother-Out-Law was planning to toss out. They're all genuinely vintage, from the 70s or 80s (and gosh, doesn't that make ME feel old)! Most of them have a little fading or wear, but if I make them into Small People things that will be easy enough to avoid. I'm really chuffed, even though I'm meant to be cutting down the amount of stuff in my craft room - I twisted my ankle in there this morning, when I tripped over some of the piles.

O hai thur!

Hah.
I do believe I jinxed myself with my new Years' resolutions, back there.
Resolve to post once a week, stop posting for two months.
Resolve to join in a Project A month checklist, feel totally overwhelmed by my list of Things To Do and sit and stare at the sewing machine, quivering slightly, for some weeks.

There has been SOME crafting and sewing going on lately, at least. My Attack of life is done with, for now. I just need to post my stuff!

Old Sheets

I love old sheets. Old sheets are a lot like old friends.

Old sheets are comfortable, familiar. They're worn in and softened in just the right places. They even smell right. Not always good, but never strange.
They have a history - especially when they're yours. Sometimes they have marks and scars as a testament to that history. Sometimes they'll be worn so thin that you could break them like that with a twist of your pinky finger. Sometimes they're still going strong, years and years later.

So I suppose it's not surprising that I love to work with old sheets, refashioning them for new uses. They make wonderful house or pyjama pants - soft and light, and often 100% cotton. They're great for cushion and pillow covers - especially when they're worn thin in the middle, you can piece the edges of different sheets together. Being a simple woven fabric they're usually wonderfully easy to work with, already stretched as much as they will, not overly prone to creasing. And, when there's nothing else for it, they make marvellous cleaning cloths, soft and light, easy to wash and re-use again.

New Year again!

I managed to keep two of my four crafty resolutions, last year. Considering most people seem to get waylaid about halfway through, I think a fifty percent success rate is really quite good, especially as my final resolution was kind of started in a small way (but got held up for want of decent "making space"- a problem now solved by Nana's gift of a small person table and chairs). So I'm going to do some more Crafty Resolutions, for 2010:

• More of the same; more attention to detail and time taken with finishes. I don't think I'll ever stop being a Hack & Slash Seamster, but just a little more given to making my seams neat and strong has given me BIG results. I like that!
  
• Try to achieve at least a third of this year's gifts for birthdays and Christmas festivities being hand-made. Preferably by me, but by other Real People will do, in a pinch. (And don't waste time on hand-made gifts for those who will not appreciate them, such as my younger brother or sister. It will just give me heart-ache.)
  
• Post here at the very least once per week. And something other than Hot & Not or a similar meme.
  
• Do at least one Toy Society drop per month!
  
  I don't think this is a huge goal to strive for, given that I did four Mirabel softies in just over a month. This goal will also let me fiddle about with softie making, which is great fun, requires only a shortish attention span, and is something I'd like to get better at.
  
• Finally, take part in the 12 month sewing challenge over at My Favourite.
  

Hot + Not

It's been a slow craft week, as I've been prepping for the bellydance hafla I had last night. But its Sunday, so time for Loobylu's Hot & Not again.

Hot:
Christmas trees!

We finally got ours put up today.
I love Christmas decorations. Christmas was always a favourite time of the year, when I was growing up. One of the things I most looked forward to during my pregnancy was making it special for my child, too.

Bellydancing

It's been all about the hip wiggling this week.
I won't lie, I've been loving it. Bellydancing remains probably my strongest passion - SO good for body, mind and soul!

Getting gifts together
I LURVE giving gifts. I love shopping for and making the perfect thing for each person. Even the tricky ones - in some things I really relish a challenge.

Not:
Christmas crowds
I hate how crowded every public place seems to be, at this time of year, and how it's all rush, rush, rush.

Feeling flustered
The rushing going on everywhere gets into my blood. I tend to be fret-catching anyway, but everyone being fretful makes it so much worse. It makes me want to hibernate for the whole month.

Summer sniffles

Is there anything worse than a runny nose in hot weather? (brought on by the fact it constantly goes from almost forty to cold and late teens from day to day, sometimes) Yuck.

Hot and Not

Thought I'd start doing Loobylu's Hot & Not every Sunday.

Hot:
The weather
Apparently it's been the hottest November on record, for our part of the world. Thank goodness we got insulation finally installed, earlier this month! It doesn't stop the heat altogether, but does help some.

This cute fabric

I found it in the flat fats pile at Spotlight, from Manhattan Design Studios. I always think of red and this sort of beautiful green as "belonging" to my son - they're my favourite colours on him.

Book orders from Fishpond
   

I am acquiring the most amazing library of inspirational craft books. My favourites from the last haul are Zakka Sewing and Sock & Glove (yes, it's finally happened - I've succumbed to the allure of "Japanese" crafts).

Bellydance hafla
Next Saturday, wahoo! Got my tickets for myself and two friends, now to spend the week frantically making costumes!

Not:
The way the weather makes everyone cranky and tired
I hate the way we all snap at each other (even the baby is surly and prone to tantrums, lately).

The very sad state of my mint plant

Found the plant in this state, with a VERY fat, happy and fresh-breathed green caterpillar on it! Found another of the cheeky buggers on my basil, last night.

How I'm not getting enough sleep lately

Part heat, part stress, part teething baby. Of course, little sleep makes me more cranky and tired, boo!

Interior Design Personality Quiz

This made me giggle a bit, because my favourite tones for clothes for myself and design are almost always jewel tones, and my partner's are earth tones! You can take the quiz for yourself here.

Dear Internets

My name's Aphie and I have a problem. It's been two days since my last Spotlight visit. I said I was going for pinking shears, and I came back with a bag of stickers and stamps for card-making as well. The time before, I was going for a metre of black chiffon and found myself leaving with a bag of miscellaneous cotton prints and some knit polyester that was only $3 a metre so really I couldn't pass up such a good bargain, could I?
My fabric stash is taller than I am, and three or four times as wide. I don't have space left for all my cardmaking supplies in my cardmaking drawers.

I need help. I need an intervention.
Or maybe I just need... to craft more?

O Yes, My Pretty!

Way back when I last saw my grandmother (in May) she brought me a bunch of stuff she thought I could use; a Christmas tree, some of my old toys from when I lived with her, and her old overlocker.

I have never owned (nor personally used) an overlocker before in my life, and I am both squeeing and terrified of this baby. So, she has been sitting in her lovely case, with her box of tools and threads beside her, for month now. Last week I pulled her out and edged some wipes for the baby.



I'm starting to feel braver. I think I need a proper project to try her out on.
I also think I'll call her Brunhilda.

About that resolution...

...the one I made at the start of the year?



On my latest project I discovered that when experienced tailors and seamsters bang on about taking triangles out of your seam allowance around curves to allow for a better curve to the over-all project they aren't kidding around. It really does make a difference! Who knew?

This Year

I pledge to myself that I will

• take more care, and produce more things that I am truly proud of
• spend more time making, less time envying what others make
• Produce at least one new item a fortnight
  
• introduce my little boy to the joy of creating. After he stops eating everything new as a matter, of course

To that end, I have signed up for Twitter and changed my lovely, old drecky blog from livejournal to the more custom-made Blogger and invested time in its graphics and layout (and will spend more time on these things in times to come).

Thanks for coming along for the ride with me.