Thanksgiving, a few days late

This past weekend was pretty relaxing. It is pretty rare that we have days off and can stay at home. This weeknd was a mix of friends, football, and knitting. We had some friends, and friends of friends over on Thanksgiving. We all split up the Turkey Day duties, so it was actaully very manageable. One of my duties was to make the celebratory Thanksgiving Mobile of Death. I fashioned this out of felt and fabric glue. I also busted out my mad embroidery skills. Making an appearance were a bloody cleaver, a dead turkey, a decapitated turkey, a dead onion, a dead sweet potato, a dead loaf of bread, and rounding out the stuffing trio, a dead celery. Steve was a little fearful for his life during the construction of this masterpiece, but the cuteness took the edge off a bit.



We also had some veterinary fun. We should have seen it coming. Whenever I get a bonus from work, an animal goes down. This time it was Rey. We were playing soccer last Sunday and he cracked and twisted his dew claw 180 degrees. On Wednesday Steve took him to the vet, and $200 later, we have a bandaged foot with a very, very stumpy dew claw. To prevent chewing and licking of the bandaids, Rey needs to wear a sock. This is bad because now I want to knit him socks and he will get beat up at the park. Anyway, Exhibit A and B are said evidence of sock covered dew claw.


Other craftiness has taken place, but I will only show a couple of things for now. In September (on my b-day, actually) our neighbors Jeannie and Matt had a baby. They got this lovely parting gift from us. I think that they are Christine's Booties and a hat from Itty Bitty Hats. The yarn is Cascade suoerwash and Louet Gems.


Then we got invited to a U of A basketball games by our friends, Kate and Jeff, who have little preemie Henry. Henry is doing quite well and has grown out of his hat. I got some of the Lout Gems in blue and made him his own little elf hat.

And finally, the baby borats. They have been in the US for about 2 months, and my slow ass finally finished thier toys. Of course, I have not sent them yet. I suck. Anyway, I present a cordoroy brontosaurous from my new (and free thanks to a Bookman's thing that is compllicated...just know it was free) Sew a Dinosaur book. Notice the Neutrogena lip protector for scale. Also, a little bunny from a free pattern form Wee Wonderrfuls, I think.


I'm outie!

Just like me, they want to be, cloche to you......

As part of this weekend's endevors, I made a cloche hat. My Nani turned 80 this week and next weekend my family is throwing a Roaring 20's themed birthday party at home in Chicago. I ordered a real vintage dress from ebay (it has armpit stains, ewww. I hand washed it and they didn't come out. I had to change out the water and soap at least 10 times, the water was black almost every time. So gross, but I am wearing it). ANYWAY, I needed a cloche to go with it but I really wasn't into spending any more money, so I decided to make one myself. I had a hell of a time finding directions online, and buying patterns would have been antoher $15. Screw that. I have a winter hat that is a cloche, so I decided to see what I could do....

First I traced the parts of my hat. I figured that to get the right shape, I would need to have four top pieces so I folded the hat into quarters.



Then I made a mock hat out of 60 cents worth of cotton.



It fits!



Then I traced that pieces onto medium weight white felt. I think that this would look good on really heavy felt or darker felt. The white is a little too translucent, but I needed that color for my ensemble.



Sewed it together and added a flower. Viola!




It still needs to be blocked a little. Or ironed. Whatever, it works. However, between the hat and the dress and the blue fake mink that I bought to make a stole, I feel more like Miss Hanagan from Annie than a gatsby girl. Although the though of always having a drink in my hand at this party might not be a bad idea.

I know that only two people read this, but if anyone would be intersted in me making a pdf of my pattern pieces, let me know.

Lots of New Things

The past few weeks have been filled wiht new things. Like right now, I am typing on a new keyboard that is connected to a new Mac Mini. Technically, it is Steve's for work, but he is letting me share.

Other new things include a bird bath. Actually, it is more like a bird torture chamber. The bath itself is lovely (thanks to steve's parents who funded this endevor). Unfortunately, since we live in a god aweful oven of a state, water just doesn't want to stay in the birdbath. Steve ran the daily drip line to it so that it gets water twice a day. Too bad that when it doesn't get water, the thing gets so hot that is it the equivalent of hot coals. When water goes into it, and before it evaporates 5.6 seconds later, it is practically boiling. I have not seen any birds come near it. Someone said that it takes a few weeks to get used to it being there. It has been there three weeks. I think that some poor guy landed on it, burned his feet so bad that he could not move, and then got sprayed with boiling water. Come to think of it, there are far less birds in the yard these days. Word must have gotten around.

Included in new things are a couple of sewing projects. I made my first article of clothing. It is the A-line skirt with an elastic waist from Sew What! Skirts. The fabric is an Amy Butler fabric that Steve thought was too ugly for household things, but was OK for a skirt. Curious. Anyway, it took a few tries to get it right. It came out too big, twice. Third time was sort of a charm. I need to learn how to do zippers. The elastic waist seems sort of granny-ish, but the skirt has already come in handy for the heat. Plus, who are we kidding, I am not getting any younger. The girl wo does my eyebrows told me that my skin texture was starting to show my age, and that is all of the samples of face cleanser, night lotion, and masks didn't help, she will really be at a loss as to how to fix my face. Great. She was also appaled that I use *GASP* regular soap and a wash rag in the shower. Guess what? I also use Trader Joe's shampoo and conditioner. THE HORROR!

Today I made a little blanket for a cat basket that we have in front of the front window. Every week(ish) when I clean the house, I get so grossed out when I clean under the basket. There is a ton of hair and pet dander. Barf. I made this to help be a little grossness collector. I figure that washing is better than wiping.