Week 4 Project

An Apology...

Let's pretend I posted this last week, ok? Great thanks! I had one of those supper A.D.D. weekends last weekend. I started 5 different projects and completed exactly none. I thought I'd finish one up this week after work. However this work week made me want to do nothing when I got home but search for a rich husband. Do you know how difficult that is a 4am? Searching for any kind of husband is difficult at 4am. Work this week was so not good that I started a whole new project because I needed at least one thing at work that I like. So sorry for the late post.

A Bit of History...

When I graduated from college my first "big girl" job was in a distribution center. My desk was in the middle of the warehouse. Not in an office, not even in a cubicle... in the middle of the warehouse. It was up against a support beam. Then, new conveyor was built and my desk got moved up against the conveyor.  My employees would come to my desk and borrow a pen to fill out their time cards and then walk away with my pen. Here's how that went...
"Hey, can you leave my pen?"
"It's my pen"
"Um, I think its mine."
"Uh, I think its mine."
"Ok, its a ten cent BIC, keep it"

Then I'd get a phone call or some other reason to write something down and I'd have no pen. I went through probably 30 pens in two months. So, taking a cue from doctors offices and DMVs everywhere I made these.

They look a little sad now, but they worked like a charm. I've had the same 12pens for 5years now!

So I freshened them up!

So super easy, I just wrapped some floral tape around a pen and a fake flower. Cheap, easy and quick. My favorite kind of craft project.

I don't care what the boss in the Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez says. I think carnations are a perfectly good flower, not a filler flowers at all.

Refurbishing Flower Pens Done.

...Arriving at Week 3 Project

All of the "work"  and drama of this past week makes me feel like should have arrived at some grand project. While the project is done, its not so much grand, but I do love it!  It all started with a simple white T-shirt...  

 I made this little flower from some fabric and ribbon.

and added this fun ruched trim

      

               Ta-Da!  Fun little dress, perfect with leggins!

One of my favorite little girls, Grace, agreed to help me model. She's awesome!

Toddler T-Shirt Dress, Done!

Getting to...

      Earlier this week my cousin/roommate told me she had heard some mice in the house. Awesome. I bought some mouse traps, but didn't set them before I went to work. The next morning I'm brushing my teeth and notice a mouse staring at me from the dining room, wiggling his nose like he owns the place.

        Side note. I hate mice..rats, ferrets, guinea pigs, gerbils basically any rodent type creature. They all have fur and claws. That's not natural. Claws and wings, cool. Scales and claws, cool. Fur and paws, cool. Fur and claws... creeps me the you know what out. I can't even really type about it any more.

     I set the traps and thought " this week's probably gonna get better" I have got to stop tempting the universe like that. I woke up today to a fairly chilly bedroom, which isn't too odd in my 82yr old house. I get out of bed and the room isn't chilly, its freakin freezing. Guess what. The thermostat is set to 68 and its 58. I head into work (I work second shift) and call the heating and air guys (who know me by name) to ask them come out in the morning.

   
   I got off work, came home and discovered that since the weather has taken a nice deep dip in temperature, my house is now 46. Space heater and Coffee in hand I head into the sewing room and wait for 8am. I've been sewing, or attempting to,  the last three hours. When I last ventured out of my one warm room, the thermostat said 46. Yay Me!

  

The sewing machine is from 1970something, pre my birth. I'm fairly familiar with this Singer of my mom's. I've been around it from a young age, but we're not super close. I've barely looked at the manual and have basically just turned knobs and buttons until the thing does what I want. Occasionally, it rebels. Simply won't sew anything acceptable. I'm sewing fine and then, I'm not sewing fine. I've changed nothing, but the machine says "you can't make me" and the darn thing is usually right. I can't make it. I had to resort to hand stitching. Not my fav.

the machine's idea of a proper stitch at 5am.

     

trouble shooting a 30yr old sewing machine at 5am



 Does the eye of the needle look blurry to you? Yeah, me to. 

  

Did I mentioned I made a pot of coffee? Well, it turns out you should not drink a pot of coffee in the span of 2hrs if you plan on hand sewing something. My hands were shaking so bad that I had to give up. I put on three more layers of clothes and went out of my relatively warm space heated room to watch TV till the heating guy shows up.

     I heard the fan for the system kick on about three mins before the guy called to say he was on his way. I checked and discovered a new development in the saga that has been this week. Heat was coming out of the register. I had done nothing. The guy found nothing. Thanks man, here's your check.

...Week 3 project to follow...

Week 2 Project

I bought my house 2 years ago this January. In this house I have a lot of "inherited" furniture. I don't mean " I inherited this Chippendale desk from Great Aunt Francis upon her passing. It's been in the family for seven generations." I mean couches with slip covers that my parents bought for their basement 23 years ago. My sister's old day bed. A dresser left in the house after Grandma died. In no way am I ungrateful. Waste Not, Want Not. Hand me down furniture is what gets most young adults settled on their feet when they set out in the world. However, If I were to say have $10,000, I would not exactly buy these pieces.

My mother knows this and will occasionally throw my usually very fiscally responsible plans off course. She did this just last week. Evil, Evil Mother wanted to see if a store had the rest of her new dining chairs in stock. This store carries some seriously nice furniture and some normally serious prices, except... its an outlet. An Outlet. "Let's just stop by Laura". sure, "stop" by...

I bought this chair. Not a cheep chair, but a chair I simply fell in love with. Seriously, if you don't like this chair, you're not gonna get invited to my house anymore. By the way, my mother walked out with nothing. Every time. She needs to go somewhere and walks out with the same amount of money in her pocket she walked in with. I walk out poor.

 I placed it by the front window next to this chair from who knows where. The rando chair has this great goldenrod color. A color I'm sure was "hip" in the 70's (Was hip, a cool word then? or was it groovy?)

I wanted something to tie the two pieces together and chose to make a pillow for the grey chair. I bought this fabric, that in the store looked much more high-end and goldenrod in color. It turns out it looks more youthful and definitely has a cheetah print underlay. Perfect. Well, not really, but whatever.

I like the rectangular shape and the general idea of the pillow. I'm just not in love the the fabric, like I was in the store.

I closed the back of the pillow with an envelope closure.  They're super simple. They don't require zippers, which I plan to tackle this year, and look really nice when finished.

Lumbar Pillow for Fabulous Chair, Done!

Week 1 Project

         The post may be late, but the creation of my project was right on schedule. I was fortunate enough this Christmas to receive a GPS from my Great Aunt Claire. (She is a great lady but she's also my dad's aunt, making her a "great" Great Aunt, but I think that's just awkward to say.) If you know me, you know that this gift is really more of a gift to my friends then to me.  I am notorious for not being able to find my way back to a place I've been before, especially if I went during the night and I'm now trying to find my way during the day. Is there a medical condition to explain that? Seriously, its almost impossible. I'll have no recollection at all. Hopefully now they can just give me an address, without directions, and I will be able to find my way. We'll work on the "on time" part in 2013. 

Well, now that I have this precious GPS, which I probably should have gotten 8 years ago, I want to protect it. I know my GPS's feelings would be hurt it I threw it in a bag or glove box and didn't worry about scratches on the screen. I know I could head to some mega electronics stores to buy one, but where is the fun in that? I'm now of the mind that I would much rather make what I could buy.

(Within reason of course. I won't be making, say, all my meals. That would be crazy.)

I picked out some super cute retro fabric that was one sale. I decided on this project to try my hand at some things I haven't done before. I bought batting, the fluffy stuff in quilts, to cushion Gretchen's screen. Oh yeah, I'm calling my GPS Gretchen. I sewed a few lines up the center of the case and voilà, my modern take on quilting.

For the closure, I wanted a flap of fabric I could tuck inside. It turned out shorter than I planned, so I'll be adding a snap soon. I also tried something new on the flap. I desperately want a serger, but since they are $600 and I have yet to find a rich husband, I'll be working with what I've got. I zig-zag stitched the very edge of the fabric. I was fairly frightened that my sewing machine, which is really my mom's and older than me, would somehow self destruct. Miracle of miracles, it did not. I will be perfecting this skill in the future!

                        GPS Case Done!