glittergoods

back to school

Today is my girl's first day back at preschool.  While it doesn't really compare to my boy starting kindergarten tomorrow (yikes), I still figured I should mark the occasion with a new skirt.  It's the same pattern I used for the green polka-dot skirt back in June (looking back I see I planned a "whole big stack," so I guess with skirt #2 I am slowly inching toward that goal), & is a fine easy pattern for up-late, nerve-settling sewing.  Plus, swishy!

The skirt is the first non-work crafting I've done in a while, but I've had some inspiring things come my way lately:

For our anniversary, my excellent husband gave me a book about resin jewelry and a ring-making kit (I had put the book on my wishlist, but the kit was his own idea because:  "it's a new craft to learn plus it's like giving you jewelry without having to pick it out.")  I've been wanting to learn resin for a couple of years now, so I can't wait to try it out.

Other recent arrivals have been issue 2 of Blueprint, which, I have to say, I liked so much more than issue 1.  The beauty/fashion stuff still leaves me pretty cold, but I thought the DIY articles this time were much more interesting (especially the office one, which I loved, plus lots of good links to sites with cool supplies), & I even though the rest of the lifestyle stuff was ok.  So, as of now, I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic about having subscribed.  Plus, it really is just pretty.  Of course, the latest MCI pretty much blows Blueprint out of the pretty water, though this is not my favorite issue ever.  Still, there were a couple of things that caught my eye in particular, like

This excellent skirt, which of course is not the featured thing in the article & so does not come with directions, and

This super-excellent palmistry pillow, which I think I might just have to add to the ever growing project wish list.

no, really, this time I mean it

Ok, September 1.  Man, remember back in the early summer, when I was writing regularly & I -- along with lots of other people -- was struggling with the whole family/work/craft balance?  Talking about how hard it is?  Oh, & then, remember a month ago, when I thought I was ready to get back into the blog swing?  Yeah, well, my balancing act hasn't been so hot lately, obviously.  My kid, though, the one who's about to start kindergarten in less than a week, has been having a pretty good end-of-summer, so I guess sometimes "balance" is less important than "happy little boy."

At any rate.  Speaking of trying to get back on the balanced-life train, last weekend was my first show in a while, Swank -- oh!  first, I have to say that a significant part of the inspiration to pick up the blogging, um, keyboard, again is that a blog reader stopped by & let me know that she made a trip to the show specifically to see me.  So flattering & cool, & I totally failed to get your name, but, thanks!  I loved that you stopped by!

So, Swank is a great show, by which I mean that it's in a really nice space (a big room in the lower building of the Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Center, locals may know what I'm talking about), & the mix of vendors is a really high-quality & interesting one (if I say so myself, ha).  This was my second time at the show, & the foot traffic wasn't quite what it should have been either time, but the show is also new to the space, & I think that there's a lot of potential there, once people figure out where it is.  There might be an Eastside show coming up in November (if the organizers can find a good location), & then the next Phinney show will be on December 16.  I won't be there (I'll be down in LA at Bazaar Bizarre again), but I hear that the Swank holiday show is fantastic & if you're in the area, you should think about checking it out.

I am trying to remember to take pictures of my booth/table whenever I do a show, though I only manage it about half the time.  When you've got as many products as I do, cramming everything into a 6-foot display is fairly tricky, & every time I'm trying to do it, I end up thinking that I really need to pare down the amount of stuff that I actually haul to shows with me (or, ultimately, the amount of stuff I actually make).  But, you know, it's hard:  do I leave out the shirts?  The cards?  The bracelets?  The sparkly little bobby pins?  Oh, decisions, decisions.

Luckily, I brought my latest embroidery project along to distract me from such weighty issues.  It's my second Stitchette -- I'm doing a series of three to hang on my daughter's wall -- & wow did that pattern get a lot of compliments over the course of the day.  It was especially fun to see how many of the other vendors already knew about Wee Wonderfuls (since I meet a surprising number of crafters offline who don't know about the amazing online craft world).

I suppose I shouldn't be talking about my second Stitchette without showing my first one, which I finished a few weeks ago.  I had a great time personalizing the pattern, though I think it will be a while before I decide to do a whole head of hair in French knots again.  I just love how portable embroidery is, compared to most other work I do, &, given how little time I'm finding to devote to craft lately, I especially love how small these girls are, particularly compared to this gigantic vintage embroidery kit (seriously, I had to buy a set of 18" x 34" stretcher strips for it) that I really want to stitch up except it kind of scares me, since it's going to be almost as big as the smaller of my children, & it's taken three years to get her to this size .

in which I resist an awful Toy Story pun for this entry's title

Between seasonal allergies & taxes, I didn't get much done this weekend that's post-worthy, although I do feel both reasonably accomplished & generally blurry.  Oh, Schedule C, I really think we should talk about seeing other people, ok?

I did manage to finish my daughter's jacket (the one that was briefly admired & then handed back to me with the directive now do the other side), thus:

Given that 1.  it was a largely freehand project (some parts drawn as I went but blue marking pencil on blue denim does not make the most obvious of pattern lines) & 2. my original concept was single-sided, so I would have laid it out differently if I'd known from the start I was doing the whole "yoke," I'm happy with the way it turned out.  Here's a detail of the side I just finished that shows off the sequins a little (but not much, I see, ha) better.

The instant my son saw that my daughter had accepted the jacket as wearably girly, he said "Now you can start working on my Buzz Lightyear doll!"  Alright.  Despite the fact that he keeps reassuring me that it's ok if it doesn't really look like Buzz (which does nothing but make me determined to not disappoint my five year-old, right?), I have some pretty significant performance anxiety about this project.  I am not a seamstress, I am not a soft toy maker, & I turn out to not be a natural at needle-turned applique, which is the skill I'm thinking might save me from a lot of complicated piecing.  But, really, after I'd been putting off the request for what was probably months, the child came to me with a well-thumbed copy of Martha Stewart Kids (this was before the news of the mag folding; I have since fished all issues out of the kids' bookcase)

& excitedly told me that not only had he found a pattern for me to use for his doll, but that he'd drawn me a picture so I could see what Buzz was supposed to look like (although I was generously excused from having to make the laser, which is that yellow & red part on the right side, his excellent attempt at perspective).

& so, really, how was I supposed to refuse?  So, yeah, in between show prep over the next couple weeks, here comes my attempt at Buzz Lightyear in the form of a small, waldorfian doll.  Watch out!

no rest for the fancy

I am washing my version of A Day at the Beach from DSQ for the very first time, which means that the very first quilt I have ever made is undergoing the Laundry Test, & in order to distract myself from the nagging fear that it is disintegrating right this second, I will post about another project whose nagging takes the form of a small almost-3 year old.

(Oh!  I just realized that timezone math failure = missing out on Jen Corace's print at Tiny Showcase!  Terrible!)

Alright, now I really need to talk crafts to cheer myself up.  The story goes:  my daughter, the small nagging one, does not have a coat appropriate for spring, & I haven't liked anything I've seen in stores, so I pulled out her brother's outgrown-but-perfectly-good denim jacket for her, which was promptly & resoundingly refused.

So, I say:  "How about I decorate it for you?  Put some flowers on it!  Would you wear it then?"
She says, swooningly:  "Decorations!  Yes!  But I don't want flowers, I want PRINCESSES."
Then I say:  [eyeroll] "...how about flowers?  I'll make them pink!"
She says:  "Okay, flowers...and HEARTS...and STARS!  Hearts and stars and flowers, and then I'll wear it!"

Keep in mind, this child does not turn three until May.

She's been keeping an eye on my progress, with frequent complaints that I am not doing what she wants, until last night I arrived at this point:

& thought that I might finally be done (hoping that the glamour of sequins on the big flower might make up for it being fairly spare instead of toddler-baroque).  This morning I showed it to her, & she said:  "I love it!  You decorated it!  I see the heart!  Now, do the other side!"