Crafting for Sanity #1

Sanity was maintained and happiness was achieved today by sending the kids to the pool for a few hours while I worked on this very mindless project. I knew that I had seen instructions on how to transform a pair of jeans into a skirt somewhere, so I Googled and found this site. It was ridiculously easy!

What makes a teenaged girl happy? What else -- clothes! What makes a mother of a teenaged girl happy and sane? Not having to spend money on clothes for the teenaged girl!

The Deconstructed Denim Skirt

Amber's happy dance! (click image for detailed shot)

These skirts are everywhere. Saw one at the Gap.

Gap Denim Skirt -- $63.00. Two hours of quiet while I make the same skirt -- PRICELESS.

This is what I'm...

working on this week! This is part of my Crafting for Sanity while the kids are out of school for the summer. Did I mention that Thursday was their last day of school? Whatever happened to the time when kids went outside to play or meet up with their friends?

Honeymoon Cami

Fabric! Another skirt perhaps?

Project Spectrum - May

I finally finished both of my projects for May's "Project Spectrum". I'm feeling very Lily Pulitzer!


Project Details:

Pattern: Picovoli T-shirt
Designer: Grumperina
Yarn: Sinfonia Mercerized Cotton
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Hook: C/2.75 mm
Start Date: May 10, 2006
End Date: May 23, 2006

Modifications:
Great pattern! I really loved the shaping details. Who would have thunk it... knitting darts into a sweater! I'm easily impressed! I opted not to have the picot edging especially when I decided to make a floral skirt. Now, that would have been a little to cutesy and girly! Casted on and bound off for the straight edge and add a trim of single crochet to prevent rolling. Oh, also add a few extra inches to the bottom for additional length.


Project Details:

Pattern: McCall's M4783
Fabric: 100% Cotton purchased at Hancock Fabrics

Modifications:
Decreased the width of the yoke by 2 inches. Placed invisible zipper on left side instead of back.

Southern Domination!

Congratulations to "Birmingham's Own" Taylor Hicks!

Let's not forget about these good ol' boys

Bo Bice & Ruben Studdard

Keep an eye on Grandma...

...when you go yarn shopping!

Originally posted on Alison's blog.

BTW, have you guys seen the Knitty surprise? Personally, not my cup of tea! Bubble skirts just aren't for everyone, especially those of us (like me) that are well-endowed below the waist. For all of the young skinny-skinnies, work it out!

She blocks!

More pics to come...

I've got the bug!

Sewing bug that is! I think I've got another nasty kinda bug too, that's why I haven't posted in a few days. I haven't done much knitting either (I know... I felt that bad!). I don't think it's a cold, it's probably just severe allergies. It seems that the older I get, the worse off I feel in the spring. I hope I don't get to the point where I have to get weekly shots from an allergist... I have a friend that has to get her weekly "flea bath" as I call it.

Since the OTC meds that I bought made me feel a little better, I ventured out to the fabric store and came back with a bag of goodies! Aren't the healing effects from shopping amazing?

I am so close to finishing this top, I can taste it! My goal is to work on this diligently through the rest of the evening while watching the season finale of Desperate Housewives, The Sopranos, Big Love and Huff, and on tomorrow I should be finished.

While, Tivoli is blocking, I'm going to take one of the green fabrics and make a matching skirt. I should have a couple of FO's by Wednesday if all goes well!

First Sewing Project!

Project Details:

Pattern: Butterick B4758
Fabric: Streaks Decorator Fabric In Chocolate
by Laurie Smith

Sheer determination! Not quite like riding a bicycle, but almost. The hardest part of the entire project was the trip to the fabric store. I walked in and my head started to spin because I had no idea where to start. First stop, the patterns table. Flipped through a couple of books, oooh and aaawd over several Vogue designer patterns that I would love make and finally settled on something simple that I wouldn't be able to screw up to bad. Once I learned to use my new machine and work the kinks out of my tension problems it was really simple. What would I do different next time? If you notice the side of the bag, I would pay more attention to detail by making sure that all of the stripes line up. Overall, for a first project in around 8 years, I'm pretty pleased. Maybe later this week, I'll try a simple skirt.

Oops! Almost forgot to show the cute tags I found at the fabric store.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone especially mom's are having a great day. I know I am. I woke up to this surprise waiting for me on my dining room table! Yeah, another hobby! I had been screaming hinting that I might have a major slight interest in sewing again. I've been reading a lot of blogs of knitters that also like to sew. I haven't sewn in years but I've dug out all of the sewing books and plan to make a trip to the fabric store this afternoon. If I find something easy and cool, you know I'll show you!

Back to knitting

This is the progress I've made so far on my Picovoli/Tivoli.

I'm right at the point of beginning the decreases.

To prevent rolling, I decided to add a row of single crochet.

Nothin' but knittin' today!

Crappy view from my front door

Since I hate to drive in the rain, especially since visibility would probably have been 0% today, I started on the Picovoli/Tivoli. I think I'm rather addicted to these quick and easy littly tops that knit from the top down. Anytime I don't have to sew seams, that makes for a great project!

Start of the Tivoli

Bonita Shirt

Must give shout-out to my favorite LYS owner, Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark of Knit Nouveau. She has her first published pattern in Interweave Knits Summer 2006.

Project Spectrum - May

Springtime, ahh...

I don't know if I've every really been that fond of the color green, until now. While searching for this color, I thought about cheating and just pulling images off of the web. But green is so obvious... it's everywhere! I walked outside and I was blinded by green and all of it's glorious beauty!

With all of that walking and searching, a girl gets a little thirsty! I came across this new vintner -- Banrock Station. Let me just say, this chardonnay is as good as it is cheap inexpensive -- $4.37 at good ol' Wal-Mart Supercenter!

Here is yarn that I pulled from my stash:

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Just found out today that I am Black Purl Mag's Blog of the Week. How cool is that? Very!.

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This is what I'm currently working on:

4 inches into Orangina for the SKC KAL.

Up the frog pond...

head hurts!

without a paddle! Have you ever had one of those crappyassed days where nothing looks right? That's what I'm having right now. It may be PMS, I'll have to check the calendar. Or I may be falling into a fiber slump. I tend to do that every now and then. It usually happens when I do a lot of projects back to back. After I finished Green Brown Gable, it was like coming down from a high. I really enjoyed that project, it was such a fun, easy, mindless knit. I feel like I need to be doing something similar even though there are a million other things I want to make. I can be so wishy-washy sometimes. I think I may be manic-depressive and I'm on the depressive end right now. Knitting and crocheting is suppose to be fun, and I'm making it stressful. I'm stressing over getting it all done and trying to hurry through projects to the point of making stupid mistakes. I really had a brainfart... I looked down at a crochet project I was doing in the round and to my horror it was TWISTED. What a nightmare! Needless to say, all of that gar-bage in the pic above has an appointment with a lillypad and ticket to the frog pond!

Playing Tourist

Birmingham at dusk

The kid really enjoyed herself.

Buns of cast-iron!

Michael

Yesterday, DH and I took Mikaela out to visit one of the main attractions here in Birmingham -- Vulcan. He's the mythological Roman god of fire and metal. This has to do with Birmingham being a steel industry mecca. Mikaela had seen him standing on his mighty pedestal from different points in the city and had really been begging to go. I live in the suburbs and usually when I'm in the city, I'm always on the go, so I decided that she must see Vulcan for herself. To say the least, she had a ball! I'm not crazy about heights but I prayed vertigo would not kick in and made the ascension for her... anything for that kid!

Neo-Soul Head

Neo soul (also known as nu soul) is a musical genre that fuses contemporary R&B, 1970s style soul, and hip hop.

I also listen to R&B, Soul, Pop, Rock and Hip Hop.

http://www.hotfreelayouts.com/music.php