This growing pile of things to finish....

it makes me very happy.

It starts with this....


and ends with this (I'm aiming for the Farmer's Market next weekend, I hope. And this is definitely going to be a homemade Christmas).



Took some time to Mr. Skelligen for a 3 month old cutie, who I (embarassing) haven't met yet. Here he is doing his one time only performance of "I ain't got no body" *snicker*.

In keeping with my horrible, procrastinating Hallowe'en traditiion, it's almost 1pm, 10/30, and I have no costume. When's the party? Oh, that would be tonight. SO I'm putting on my big girl panties and going to WalMart. Wish me luck.

My creative space....

Really? It's that time already? Well, wow, what a mess. My creative space is my messy, piled up, can't-find-a-damn-thing space. Tomorrow: things get tidied up.

Did a little material shopping today. Found this awesome table cloth (which is no longer in one piece...)

And buried deep down in a $2.99 bag from Value Village (which is now my favorite place to buy material), I found about this. It's beautiful, there's almost 3m of it, and it's miiiiine, allll miiiiiine (the picture doesn't do it justice at ALL. It is incredible).

Updates on what I've been doing tomorrow, cross my heart.

I know when to admit defeat....

Ever have one of those days when it just feels like your running in Jell-o? Going and going and getting nowhere? I did do things. I overhauled Adam's Value Village Grim Reaper robe. I'm not sure I'm done, but we'll see. Did laundry, dishes, went to the grocer, made supper, and zucchini bread, and most importantly went to Fabricville and got some snazzy remnants.

Regardless. I've been contrary all weekend, for no discernible reason. I blame the full moon. (Not the best picture, you say? Why did I post it, you ask? Well, just after I took this one, my batteries died. Yea. It's been that type of weekend).

This type of weekend. I was actually getting something done, and BAM, zip in the tea. Grreeeeeaaaaatttt. I waved the white flag, shrouded the machine, and left the room. Well. After washing my zipper...

*Gratuitous pooch shots*

We've had Rocco since the first part of July, just after we moved. He was 7 weeks old when we got him. He was wee.

He's 5 months old now. I'm not feeding him miracle grow, I swear!!

(Brought to you because I was looking at old pictures of him, and holy crap, he's getting really BIG!).

Happy Monday, people. May the moon get darker, and my mood get brighter.

The making of things...

... I missed it.


Yesterday I made One Cup Coconut Cakes. They are not nearly as bland as I make them look.
1 cup coconut/flour/sugar. Mix. Add one cup of milk, except don't, because that'll be too much, so add about 3/4 of a cup, and drink the rest, it's good for you. Bake them at 375 until they're brown; if they're black, you left them too long.


I love the smell of fabric as it's being ironed. Just like the smell when you lift the iron and the steam is still rising off the material. It reminds me of my Nanny, and it's one of the best smells in the world.


This is my make-it-up-as-you-go purse. I'm wishing I'd have actually drawn up the pattern because I'm v. happy with it. The vintage polyester material is helping.


Happy weekend :D

On Vacation. I guess.

You may be wondering why I'm around so much. I'm pretty sure Rocco is wondering the same thing (although I don't think it's because I'm cutting into hit Maury watching like my sister thinks). We're having a bit of a slow down at work, so I'm on "vacation". Which I'm not at all happy about. Le sigh.

Moving on.

It's almost hallowe'en, and I'll be scrambling for a costume at the last minute, same as always. I was hoping to be a sock monkey since I saw this Kia commercial, and then I found this tutorial. But I simply left it too late, so I think Medusa will be revived once again. Next year, it will be mine. Big red arse and all ;D.

Do you have a favorite monster? I've always been partial to Frankenstein. See?

*This was one of my recommended videos on YouTube. I shouldn't be able to relate to Bluto quite as well as I do. But c'mon, you've never been tempted to do the same to some asinine douchebag? What was that? Anger Management? No, I'm fine, thank you.

My Creative Space.

Not overly exciting, I know. Check back, there are more exciting things to come...

Quoth the raven....

..."Well, maybe one more time, but that's it." Er... something like that. Decorated for Hallowe'en today, and it turns out I have a real-life Scooby Doo. I put a scary ghost window cling on the back door; Rocco saw it and proceeded to bark, and bark. And bark. And bark. So we let him outside, where he stood on the deck, looking at it from the outside, and barked and barked and barked. We let him back in, and I peeled it off the window so he could see it, and sniff it, and.... he ran away. Then came back, barked, and ran away again. Ruh-roh.

Oh yea! Here's the bag I made for Marcia. I call it "Stage Fright".

OoooooOOOOooohhh.

Did a little (very little) Hallowe'en crafting today, since I finally found my decorations. I think I'll keep this on the deck, year-round. I know you're thinking, "My, those skulls look savage and monkey-like." Well, yes, but so do the feral children on our street.

Finished off a little match-box advent calender too. A tip: those Dove chocolates fit perfectly.

And also: Hello to Gillian, who just opened an awesome fabric shop, and who sent me a lovely message after I entered her giveaway. Pop over, say hello, and marvel at those simply lovely fabrics!

Guy walks into a bar.

"Ouch."

I did nothing house-related today, or for that matter, anything overly productive. But to hell with that, I sewed! Again!! I know, right? I made something I can't show you yet... well.. maybe just a sneak peek...

I sort of jumped on the mug rug bandwagon as well, mostly because I was thinking, well, that'll be a good way to try out my machine quilting, and, as it turns out, I can't machine quilt. I know it's a matter of working at it, and getting in some practice, but dear lord, what a mess! It took me 15 minutes to rip out a very small amount of stitching because were roughly the size of a molecule.

So lets not talk about that. Here. Look at our backyard.

Pickin' up the trash, put it in the bag, bump bump...*

*This is in my head for no discernible reason. Oh, Humphrey, you make me laugh. Poor bugger, though. He should have just eaten the ranger. And then I found this one. I never liked the traditional Disney cartoons much, but these ones are just neat. Just one more.

Today was our first N'oreaster of the season, so much rain, and no work (and maybe none for the next week, as we've hit a lull. I'm not thinking about that right now). However, there was sewing to be done. I won't lie: I missed it. Remember about 40 years ago, when I found that awesome souvenir table cloth? Well, it's finally become a bag. Not sure about keeping it; I think it'll be coming to market with me next time I'm there; I'm aiming for early November, for the Christmas fiends. I'm pretty happy with the sack... I just really don't need another one... But it does so bring me back to the good times I had in the channel islands... (for the record, I had to look it up, as I'm not familiar with Guernsey). Miss Roxy is just incredible.

Started re-working the medicine cabinet too, and wanted to share this:

Poppy was the master of improvising when he didn't have quite what he needed (I like to think I got a little of that as well). In case it's not clear, the knob is actually a spool. ;D

One of those tools up there is the hook that my grandmother used to make this:

As far as I know, it's the only one she ever made. I loves it. :D

Gobble, Gobble*

*Previously titled: Oh God, my pants are tight.
But that has nothing to do with anything.

The boy and I spent the weekend at home with my parents (have I ever mentioned that they're really not dog people??), not doing much of anything. So crafting? There wasn't a lot of that. This was more of a crafting-prep weekend. Want to see?



This was my grandfather's medicine cabinet. Handmade by himself, it lived behind the front door in the porch; in the drawer I found the the tools he made my grandmother to hook rugs. It'll be living in my sewing room. Y'know, eventually...

















Remember my frame dilemma? Well, it's in the works, thanks to a really old house on Creighton St., and my dad (and his terrifying, wonky table saw).

Rocco spent most of the weekend outside. He likes the beach. There are many, many, things for him to smell. And taste. And chase. And scratch at...



And all that fresh air led to....









a very sleepy puppy.











Two unrelated things:

a) I just realized that although we have a doorbell, one that makes a very loud buzzing sound, there's no speaker. There's none by the front door, and there's none by the front door of our flat. I have no idea where the sound is coming from. That's weird, right?

b)I need a haircut. As in, the blue is faded. The ends are toast. It's just too goddamn long. I'm thinking it's time for this:





Thoughts?














Edit: the screwy spacing? I can't seem to fix it, and I'm frickin' tired of trying. My apologies.

So I played hookie today. Except not really. I tried to go to work, I did. I called at 6am and was told to wait and see if it kept raining. And at 7.10, I was told it was raining, stay home. Everyone was staying home. Then an hour later, I was told (via phone message) that I could go in if I wanted the hours, bring my rain gear. I ask you: do you want to climb 35 feet on slippery staging while wearing rubber pants? Me neither (it's not the rain that put me off, it's not even the rubber pants; it's that the staging is decidedly unsafe when it's wet, but I digress). So I stayed home with my Brother (my Brother from my sister. Huh). We've bonded.

Here's Miss Roxy with her first project: a phone case that hasn't been sullied from work. Is she awesome? Yes. She works so well. I haven't had a chance to really play with all the settings yet, or try out the walking foot, or any of the hemming feet, but oh it's glorious. I love that I'm the only person who's ever sewn with her. I'm still amused by the needle threader. It's lurve.
This is what I managed to get done today. My phone case, and an e-book cozee (I'm trying to rebuild my market stock). Does anyone have a kindle, or a kobo (I think that's what the chapters version is called)? I'm not sure I'd like one, but I'd like some to hear some opinions.

See this? This cornucopia of awesomeness?? (Excuse the terrible picture please). This is my bday present from my BFF (see the prarie dog? Bwahahaha. I named him Sir Bartholemew LeMinky). Notebooks, and ribbon, and votives, oh my. Good thing I'm already working on the Christmas present.

You can't really see them, but right there on that polka dot material, there are earrings. Earrings that look like antlers.

Remember when I said we did some pumpkin purchasing? This was taken last sunday morning. Yes, it is getting cold, isn't it?

Sneak peak of my sewing room; here's my work table, or as Adam said, "But it's a door, and two other doors!" He thinks it looks good now that it's done (as far as you can tell from the picture, at least), but he was a little concerned at first, suggesting I don't make it too permanent, and just replace it with something better. What's better than FREE? It's big, and it works. And now: it's blue. It says create on top but *ahem* that part isn't finished. Also: Rocco discovered there's a rug in there; I didn't think he was going to leave.

I bought material. How could I not get this? It's was 40% off. There's a man who appears to be courting a bull. There's a band, so you know everyone is having a good time. But these images didn't prompt my purchase.
Nor did this interesting fellow; this man of many (odd and useless) talents.

(Do you suppose that's a regular umbrella, or a chicken-shit protector?).
It was this scene. Anyone want to propose what they think is happening? All I know is that I want a bear now. A bear who makes coffee.

And tomorrow, we sew.

My sewing machine, virginal, as yet unnamed, remains in the box. (I was re-siding an apartment building this week; dragging myself and my tools up 30'+ feet of staging for 9 hours a day kind of wore me out). So tomorrow is my day to work on organizing my sewing room and actually sewing. Today was more for groceries/tidying up/ walking the monster/buying pumpkins and maybe possibly spending too much time bumming around the interweb. Whoops.

I've been trying to figure out what would work in there for a cutting/work table. A kitchen table? Yes, but the extra expense doesn't seem worth it (I'm not cheap, really! I just like a challenge). Then I stumbled on this blog, and, sweet relief, why didn't I think of that?? We have a stray door in the basement (that doesn't fit any opening in the house. Someone broke in, and left a door behind? Who knows) and it will be PERFECT. Now, I just need legs. Update, of course, to follow.

But to tide you over (since I know you must be as excited as I am!!), a picture of my tuckered-out pooch.