Month: November 2014

Pictures from my “snow” day.

It started as a two-hour delay.  Here are the three ways I’m informed of school delays and closures:  via text message, via the app FlashAlert and via email.
The two hour delay turned into a full day off because of worsening conditions.

Fine by me.  I used the time to cut out the Lined Swedish Shade I’m working on for my bedroom.  You can see I had a good helper.
Here is the back part of the shade.  It might be familiar to you as it was material left over from my uniform shirt/dress.  I have blackout curtain fabric on top of the blue.
Here is what it will look like when I get it all sewed together, though right now I’ve just folded the blue over the top of the bird fabric.  I love this fabric. It’s from Ikea.  My favorite two birds are the blue and the orange.  I like to think Matt is the blue one (his favorite color) and I’m the orange one (my favorite color.)  Aren’t we cute, sitting there talking?

I met Tiffany downtown for a drink–plans we had for “after school” on Thursday.  We just shifted them to “after snow day” instead.  
On the way back I took this picture of drippy ice.  The roads were fine, though.

Mirrors? We don’t need no stinkin’ mirrors!

Today’s project was to cover the mirrors in the Yoga studio at the gym.  A quick trip to Ikea, another to Fred Meyer (because it’s not a project until you have to go out and buy something you are missing) some drilling and hanging.

Et voila!  No more mirrors. 
It is so nice!  And this is the project that taught me that I don’t know how to hang things evenly if the ceiling isn’t straight.  There a difference in distance to the floor from the left side to the right side.  It will take about eight to ten months before I stop noticing that. 

I can’t help but think I made this urban farm happen.

There has been an empty lot between the Head Start/Apartments on the left and the beautiful (though boring colored) house on the right since before I moved to the neighborhood in 2007.
I used to walk by and imagine buying the property, building a tiny house and having a huge garden.  Then the foursquare house went up for sale and imaged buying it and the empty lot and living in the beautiful house with a large garden.  That house sold and then the small house that backs the lot went up for sale.  I imaged buying it and the large lot and having a small house with a huge garden.

And all these years after imagining this, guess what has popped up on this lot?
They’ve built small sheds to store things in, and raised beds for growing.  The small house that backed onto the lot was sold and ripped down, apartments replaced it.  The small house next door was also sold, ripped down and even larger apartments replaced it.
But here is my large lot, filled with a garden.  This picture shows the huge hoop house they built, so things can grow through the winter.
It’s been a great addition to the neighborhood.

Shrug comes together quickly. And then is delayed.

Some cutting, some serging, some applying of Wonder Tape and we’re ready to use the twin needle to finish the edges.

The twin needle had other ideas though.  It broke.  This project is on hold until I can get another one. My poor arms will have to be cold for another week.

Provence Smock finally finished.

And I love it!
This was supposed to be done for the first day of school.  Unlike the other two aprons I made last year, this one has half-inch binding instead of quarter inch.  I wasn’t paying attention when I bought and I couldn’t get back to the fabric store, so I rolled with it.  I like the quarter-inch binding better, but this is okay.  I adore the material, which looks like Portland in the winter, with the grey background and the colorful buildings and the bridges.  I think the pink ties everything together nicely.
And look at the fun buttons I got, which were half-off at Fabric Depot.

I had some trouble with the corner where the yoke joined the apron bottom.

If you turn your head sideways you can see this pocket detail.
There were many expressions of glee when I wore this to school.  I like all three of my aprons for different reasons, and I’m very excited to welcome this one into the fold.

Some finds at Fabric Depot…

…that stayed at Fabric Depot.
You have no idea how much the matchy-matchy part of me wanted to buy every single color and make 14 of all the same thing.  Fourteen!

I adored this turquoise and purple print.  I think it would make a fantastic shirt. Julie and her friend Olwin found it revolting, which means it’s perfect for me.

All three of us adored this coat, which was on display.

It meets all of my coat requirements which are:  thigh length, hood, hourglass, easy, can do autumn and winter.
Julie bought the pattern.  Now I only have to speed through my oh-so-many-projects so I can make this twice:  Once in heavy material for winter, once in something light for fall/spring.  Don’t hold your breath.
We also bought material for my shrug. It’s boring, but warm.  And I got buttons for my apron as well as the bias tape I need to finish that project.