Memorial Day Makeover!

A problem.

 

Yes, that is what I've had lately... or rather, one could more aptly put it...a lack of motivation

when it came to sewing.

 

Why is that, do you ask?

 

Well, because the sewing machine was stuck in a dark, dingy corner of our computer room....

there were always people trying to squeeze past me into our library/play room

and the clutter from my 'wall neighbor', the computer desk, inevitably flowed over onto the sewing table.

 

Not a fun or well ordered work environment. :(

 

I realized one day that I needed to put in a request for a change.

With a growing list of sewing projects and no desire to work in that dark corner,

 something needed to be done.

 

The long and short of it is, I got my wish!

 

 Before

 

Just plain ol' white walls.

This is just before the color went up...all the nail holes filled in, drop cloths down and furniture covered. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the family and myself spent pretty much the entirety of yesterday painting the computer/sewing room.

 

 

 

The color starting to go up!!

 

 

 

 

Happy painter. :)

 

 

 

 

A shot from up above...the pretty, yet poorly illuminating chandelier that will soon be replaced.

 Hooray for better lighting!

 

Originally, we were aiming for a nice peachy color,

but once we got it out of the can and up on the wall, it was a lot more pink than we anticipated.

 

Of course, we realized this after we had painted all the walls.

 

With one can of color left, we got creative.

Using some brown paint we had on hand, we slowly mixed it in with our original pink-peach

until we got a more toned down and comforting color.  

 

Leaving one wall the original shade, we preceded to repaint the other three.

We were much happier with the results the second time around.

After

 

 

 

This is the end result.

 

 

 

The wall to the right is the original brighter color, the wall the piano is against

is our modified color.

Can you see the difference?

(Please ignore our dust...we were still cleaning and rearranging.)

 

We also did some custom mixing for the trim color...a little of the original wall color...some white...and a little bit of brown.

The look of the room turned out different than I had envisioned it, but all in all I like it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I am so excited to have a pretty, more friendly working setup for sewing!

Now the sewing machine has its own wall space and no more dark corner!

Yay!

 

Next up, getting that space organized and pretty-fied!

 

I hope y'all had a great Memorial Day. 

 

Vanquisher of Icky Things

There she is.


Lurking through the grass....

waiting....

watching....

ready to pounce.



Hmmm, sounds like a cat, right?


Nope.

It is me.

I was on a mission....
for a day I was....
a bug assassin.

*Dun-dun-DA-DUN*
(dramatic music)


While watering my poor little herb garden the other day,
 I was distracted and let the water run off a bit.

As my gaze followed the meandering rivulets, I saw them pouring into
small little holes in the ground.

Low and behold, it wasn't long and a big, ugly Mole Cricket popped out of its soggy home.

If you take a moment and image search these little guys, you will understand this next sentence

.....

I killed it.


They are ugly, and destructive, and I certainly don't want them
under foot near my plants.


Looking around, I noticed our poor dry, soil was pitted with oodles
of these little monster dens.

So what did I do?

I took my hose and proceeded to flood every. single. one.

Armed with my long hoe, I happily disposed of six of the ugly little fiends.


But I was in for an icky surprise.

It turns out there are other creepy crawlies that live in those holes.

Like, say...oh....six inch long centipedes!!

I'm talkin' gross...this thing looked it crawled out of that one Star Wars movie!

Eww!

Needless to say....

 it died too.



I have picture proof of my brave exploits.

I would show you.

But I don't like bugs.

You probably don't like bugs,
I mean, who really wants to see ugly pictures of hacked up icky-ness?

Right.

Not many.

And so, you will just have to take my word for it
and feel better knowing that I have rid the world,
or at least my immediate part of it,
of a few ugly little creatures.

I know my garden appreciates it. :)


What 'Seams' Impossible

 

Have you ever tried to learn something new and it just. didn't. make. sense?!

 

It feels like learning an alien language...

 

fitting a square peg into a round hole....

 

trying to pretend you could live without chocolate...

 

some things are just impossible.

 

 

 

That was me when it came to sewing.

 

Honestly, I can't count the times I tried to learn to sew over the course of my lifetime.

 

I think of several occasion where mom and I even made a special shopping trip.

We picked out pretty material, a simple pattern, all the necessities.

 

Needless to say, it ended with a red faced, tear stained me

and a head scratching mother who couldn't understand why I couldn't get it.

 

After numerous tries, I gave up.

Accepted the fact that I would never be able to sew,

even though I really, really wanted to.

 

Since then I admit I have had moments of temptation...

it is quite inspiring when one of your friends can whip up beautiful clothes practically in her sleep.

 

But, I always remembered those tearful episodes, and mentally chided myself.

Some things just weren't possible.

Until one day...

A number of wonderful factors came together that changed all that.

One, I received some great advice and inspiration from one of my childhood heroes,
Kristi Yamaguchi.

There was a magazine lying around our house that had her smiling face on the cover,
I picked it up and read a great article she wrote about facing fears.

She said something that struck me right between the eyes,

"Why should a dream have some part of it that was so scary?
Why would I have to do something I feared in pursuing something I loved?"

Sounds so simple, I know.
But for me, that moment, it was a profound thought.

I realized fear was my big stumbling block when it came to sewing.

I was afraid of that machine, with all its buttons, bobbins, knobs and levers.
The scariest part was threading it...so many little holes and twists and turns.

It made me dizzy.

But no more.

Armed with Kristi's words and a determination to face this fear,
 I sat myself down in front of that machine, already threaded from mom's previous project,
...and...just...stared.

For probably 5 minutes, I mentally threaded that machine several times,
memorizing each little detour the string took on its way to the needle.

Then....*gulp*...I unthreaded the string, and soon it was weaving its way through the
eight-sequence maze until it was safe through the eye of the needle once again.

And you know what?
It made sense.


Everything fell into place.

It was like a veil was lifted,
the blinders were removed,
the hieroglyphics made sense.

I was still a beginner, I didn't know how to read a pattern yet, or how to sew a dart,
 but the hardest part was over.

I had faced my fears.

I had forgotten that...
“With man this is impossible,
but not with God;
all things are possible with God.”
Mark 10:27

There was no doubt in my mind that He had made it possible.

And the fun part?

It was Valentine's Day.

What a lovely gift...


"There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear"
1 John 4:18 



Emily Dickinson, A Historical Cake Recipe

Hello!

 

Along one of my various 'bunny trails' I stumbled onto something quite interesting that I wanted to share with you.

 

Did you know that a recipe, handwritten in the script of the famous poet Emily Dickinson,

has survived the passing of time?

 

Yes, it's true!

 

There exists a recipe for Coconut Cake, listing only the ingredients.

 

 

 

I found it very interesting.

 

Here is an article with some history on the poet as well as the original recipe, as pictured above.

 

It sounds like something I would like to make!

 

If you would too, here is a link to another blog in which the blogger takes the recipe

and provides directions for mixing and baking.

 

 

The link and article she mentions in the first few lines is the article which I initially read,

and while the recipe on *that* site isn't true to Miss Dickinson's,

it is still a diverting read.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Italian, Corded or Reverse Single Crochet Edge Pattern

This is a supper simple stitch pattern, though it may feel strange at first.

 

To make this edge, do one row of single crochet all the way around your project.

Next, without turning , chain 1, single crochet in each stitch around, working from left to right.

 

You are making a single crochet stitch, only backwards, in the reverse direction

you normally do your work.

 

Here is a great little video tut from Youtube to help you out.

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Petal Square Motif Crochet Pattern

Petal Square

 

 

 

 

 

ss- slip stitch

sc- single crochet

dc- double crochet

st- stitch

 

Worked in size H hook

 

Ch 8. Join with ss to form circle

 

Round 1: Ch 8 (4dc. ch 5) 3 times in circle. 3dc in circle. Ss in 3rd st of ch8.

(Equals 4 sets of 4dc- looks like a cross)

 

Round 2: Ch 1. *6 sc in ch 5 space. 1sc in each dc. Repeat from * to end of round. Ss in first sc.

 

Round 3: Ch2. 1dc in each of next 3 sts. Ch5. *1dc in each of next 10 sts. Ch5. Repeat from * twice. 1dc in each of last 6 sts. Ss in top of Ch2.

(Basically- there should be 2 dc, ch 5, 2dc in each corner/space; and 6dc on each straight-away

Equalling 10dc, corner space)

 

Round 4: Ch1. 1sc in each st and 6sc in each space to end of round. Ss in first sc.

 

Round 5: Ch2. 1dc in each of next 4 sts. *Ch3. 1dc in each of next 16 sts. Repeat from * twice. Ch3. 1dc in each of next 11 sts. Ss in Ch2.  Fasten off.

(Simplified- There should be 3dc, ch3, 3dc in each corner/space and 10dc on each straight-away

Equalling 16dc across, corner space)

 

 

Excerpt from A Complete Guide to Crochet Stitches by Mary M. Dawson, 1972