Testing

Trying out my new laptop and Windows Live Writer. Who knows, if this shiz works I may actually start blogging regularly again!

Happy Gay New Year!

My favorite time of year. We didn't get to celebrate last year because Sarah and I both had the Swine Flu. This year it was on like Donkey Kong!

I have a not so secret obsession with bad reality television and one of my guiltiest pleasures are those "Toddlers in Tiaras/Little Miss Perfect" shows about little girl beauty pageants. Perfect fodder for a Halloween Costume. The original idea was to have Steve be the Skeezy Emcee but he chose to go as Friar-Rhymes-With-Tuck.

This is an original made by me creation. There was so much pink glitter and sparkle tulle in my sewing room for the past month it was insane. I even implemented a new technique and did a fishing line rolled hem using my serger on all the hems. Maybe I'll feel generous after tomorrow's inevitable hangover wears off to share what I learned about this tricky technique.

Until then, "Sparkle baby! Sparkle!"

Dear Internet,

I'm not dead yet.

I've just been distracted (Facebook much?) and busy. There have been many a day that I've "written" a blog post in my head while driving or showering but never got to the actual computer to type it out. Or I had an idea for a tutorial but my camera battery was dead or the usb cord was missing. Hard to believe my last post was before Emma went to camp. (She had a great time by the way even though she really didn't want to go.)

I'm in a hurry again this morning to get ready for a busy weekend and work this afternoon. My new job is going great, so wonderful to do something I'm good at and love and to work with great people. I get paid to sew stuff when we aren't busy! How great is that?

I'm also in another play that opens in two weeks. I haven't blogged much about my theater experiences. Those are the posts I write while driving to and from the theater and never get actually typed up. I promise to share that part of my life with you all soon.

For now, this is just a quick "hello" and a pledge to get back here soon to reconnect.

Love,
Beth

Tutorial: Sleeping Bag Duffle

Emma heads off to summer camp tomorrow for the first time. She will be 13 in less than a month, I thought it was high time she spent some time away from home. She isn't exactly excited about it but we're making the best of it.

When I was a kid summer camp was the highlight of the summer, right after the County 4H fair. Probably because I lived in a small town where everyone knew everyone else from birth to death and the majority of us were cousins I looked forward to any opportunity to get away and meet new people. For either one of my many trips to camp or maybe when I was in the Performing Arts Troupe that toured the state all summer, my Mom made me a drawstring duffle for my sleeping bag and pillow. Mine was heavy denim and had my name appliqued on the side. It was also huge!

I made this simple duffle for Emma to put her sleeping bag in and to keep it neat and easy to identify. I made it in less than 2 hours with one yard of cotton fabric. It would probably take less time now that I have measurements and am not stopping at every step to take photos!


(It still needs an actual drawstring, seems that no matter how much fabric, notions and other stuff I have here at home I still need to make a trip to the store to finish a project!)

Step one:
Measuring and cutting.
Measure around the rolled up sleeping bag. I added quite a few inches to leave room for extra stuff like a blanket or small pillow or if Emma can't get it rolled back up as tight at the end of camp. I determined that one yard would be just right.

Cut yard of fabric in half length wise set aside one 36" x 22" piece to use for bottom and optional pockets.



Finish raw edges of 22" sides. I chose to serge mine with a narrow 3-thread overlock stitch. You could also trim with pinking shears or sew a small zigzag stitch.

Step Two: Marking and Sewing
Fold right sides together matching finished edges. Pin
Make small marks in seam allowance 1.5" and 2" from top edge. I chose to leave the selvage as my top edge.
Sew seam using a 1/2" seam allowance from top edge to first mark, secure, cut thread.
Sew remainder of seam from second mark to bottom, securing stitches at mark.

Press seam open.

Step Three: Making Round Bottom.
Here's where the math part comes in. If you don't remember your basic algebra the formula to determine the circumference of a circle is: Diameter x 3.14(pi) or for our purposes we're going to reverse the formula and take the circumference and determine our diameter: Circumference/pi + 1" for seam allowances.


Because I serge my raw edges I ended up with a 34" circumference instead of the original 35" that I had planned. That gave me an approximately 11" diameter (10.83 to be exact) So I cut a circle with a 12" diameter.

Fold circle in quarters and mark with small notches.

Fold main body into quarts and mark with notches.

Step Four: Sewing body to bottom

Match notches on body to notches on bottom, pin. Continue matching and pinning the raw edges (right sides together). You may need to make small snips in the raw edge of the body to help ease around the curve to match the bottom.

Sew. Be careful to keep both layers flat under the needle, stopping every few inches with the needle down to straighten fabric and keep raw edges matching.

Finish edge.


Step Five: Make Drawstring casing.

Fold top edge down, wrong sides together 1 1/4" inches. If you have a raw edge here turn raw edge under 1/4" then turn down remaining inch. Press and pin.

Sew 1" from folded edge. I chose to sew from the right side using a 3mm topstitch. You could also stitch from the wrong side 1/8" from finished edge.

If you made your small opening in the side seam in the right place you should have a small hole right at the top of the bag to thread your drawstring through. I typically use one and a half the circumference of the bag for my drawstring, 1.5 yards in this case. I plan to get a slippery nylon cord and a cord stopper. After my trip to Joann's I'll try to remember to take a photo of the finished product and post it here.

I just made mine plain and simple but you could add a pocket to either the inside or outside, if you have an embroidery machine you could add a cute design or your child's name to the side. If it is going to get a lot of rough and tumble use, like when I took mine on the road for the summer, you may want to make it out of a sturdier fabric like denim, canvas or home dec weight cotton. There are even some really cute new vinyl coated cottons out there that would make it slightly water-resistant.

Happy Summer. Don't miss your kids too much while they are off on new adventures. I'm going to try not to miss Emma but it won't be easy.

Princess has her wings

Heidi - "Liebenhund's Hydrangea"
3/21/00 - 5/21/10

It's been almost 3 weeks and I still can't talk about it much. It was time. She left us with dignity and grace, just as she lived her life. She will always have a special place in our hearts and memories.


This is Cate our neighbor and dog sitter. We got Heidi right after Cate and her family moved in next door. In middle school she started a pet sitting business. She just finished her junior year in high school and has been the greatest friend to all of our animals. When she heard that we were preparing for the inevitable she came over to say goodbye. You can tell by the looks on both of their faces how much they loved eachother.



This is my best friend Jayne with Heidi the day before we made our final journey. Jayne and I have taken our dogs to the local off leash forest preserve for years. She also dog sits for us when Cate isn't available. She came by to say goodbye and offer her love. Again, it is obvious how much Heidi touched lives.

Retro Amazing

Since I started working at the Bernina dealership and am surrounded by sewing machines and fabric all day again I've been inspired to sew again. I've made a few projects at work for store samples but wanted to do something for me. Plus I needed clothes to wear to work.


This simple sundress has a fabulous retro 60's housewife feel to it that I just love. The bodice is fully lined and it has a zipper on the left underarm seam. The bodice detail of the bust pleats instead of darts and the waist band give a nice fitted look. Plus it has pockets! Who doesn't want a dress with pockets?!?!

I put it on and immediately began channeling Lucille Ball, Barbara Billingsley and Betty Draper. I must wear this dress with pearls.


The fabric is from the Moda line Freebird by MoMo (available in my etsy store!) The pattern is Simplicity 2886

What's Up?

This is the latest project to keep my hands busy during season finales of my favorite shows. I used this yarn (Caron Simply Soft) to knit Emma a little cardigan hoodie quite a few years ago. It was striped so I ended up with a lot of left over yarn in these fabulously bright, cheerful colors. You may remember this post from last fall and the large granny blanket I was making out of this yarn. It sat in a bag since then, never finished. But then I started seeing the gorgeous Hexagon Blankets on Ravelry and inspiration hit and once again I was frogging an almost completed project. Even though this is inexpensive (read: cheap as hell) acrylic yarn I'm loving this project and know the finished object will be lovely. I think it will end up either in a hope chest awaiting a grandbaby someday (or maybe just another grand-niece from one of our many nieces and nephews) or it may just grace our guest bedroom where the walls are painted that bright green.


Speaking of FINISHED crochet projects here is the Ripple Blanket in its natural environment. (In truth, its more natural environment is in a heap on the floor in front of the sofa because it is always being used by someone in the family and they don't remember to fold it just so and put it back on the back of the couch.)


I have some other things I have been working on around here too. I have a back and one front done on the Nantucket Cardigan but it seems to be in a little time out right now. I love it and it is coming together quickly but I've just been enraptured with the crochet again.

We also spent a good long weekend working on the yard and I'm really happy with how it is looking again. All the hard work I put in last fall has paid off this spring. I finished up a few last little tasks and ordered 15 yards of hardwood mulch. The four of us spent three days edging, mulching and trimming about 2 weeks ago. Then it was warm and then rained a lot and now everything is up and green and gorgeous.

These purple clematis are right outside my den window and I just adore them. They are my favorite shade of purple and are blooming like never before. I have white and dark red clematis elsewhere in the yard that should burst into bloom this week.

The last and maybe most important bit of news to share is that I finally found a job! Back in the fall when I realized I needed some outside help to pay off my debt from the store I stopped at the new Bernina dealership in town and dropped off a resume. The owner was very nice and interested in having me teach some kids/teens sewing classes. We finally got around to talking seriously about scheduling some classes and then she called to ask if I was also interested in working part-time on the sales floor. I jumped at the chance! I've been there just about two weeks and I'm enjoying it very much. It's nice being "just an employee" again.

Oh Happy Day.

Yep, I must be doing something right. Nice to have a reminder every once in a while.

Prepare to be Assimilated

Had to do the total BORG routine last night. My new dentist thinks that some of my jaw problems may be caused or aggravated by sleep apnea or other sleep disturbances so she ordered a sleep study. I had to suit up with a plethora of wires, probes and other paraphernalia to test how I sleep. I don't think I have a sleep problem that wouldn't be solved by sleeping in an isolation tank with no snoring husbands, snuggling dogs, or purring cats. We'll see what the results tell me.

Now that I frightened away the last 4 readers with that scary ass picture of my bedtime mug (trust me, there was an even scarier picture that if I get cranky enough I will pull out to scare away the rest of you intrepid readers!) I will leave you with some pretty to cleanse your eyeballs.

Still not pretty enough? How about this?

Fresh start

Spring here in the midwest is such a welcome relief. I've lived here all my life and still this first week when everything turns green and the weather is consistently warmer that freezing gives me hope for the future. We get into this feeling about mid-March that it just will never get nice again and stay that way. We cry and curse that we never get a real spring and why the hell is it snowing AGAIN? and on and on. But every year the daffodils and magnolia bloom and before we know it we are cursing the mosquitoes and dandelions.

This is the time of year when things that have been in hibernation for months and months make a reappearance. In some cases what goes into the cave at the beginning of the winter makes a transformation into another form once the warm air of spring arrive. Take for instance the lime green cardigan knit with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece a year ago.

It was yarn and a pattern purchased on a whim about a year ago at a Friday knitting group when the project I brought to knit either ran out of yarn or something and I needed something new to work on. I've always admired this yarn and the color just screams SPRING! to me. The problem was the pattern. The photo in the pattern book appealed to me, totally something I would buy for myself, I love cardigans. But it is constructed all in pieces with a lot of seaming. I hate seaming. Also the store only had 4 skeins of the Cotton Fleece in that color. I figured it would be enough and being cotton it would stretch. But once all the parts were knit I could just tell it wouldn't fit in the loose unconstructed way it appeared in the photos. So I put it all in a bag and stuck it in a closet.
Then the other day I finished my Ripple Afghan (oh my, I just realized that I never posted the finished pictures. I'll get to that, it is gorgeous!) and was going to cast on a new project. I had picked up a huge amount of Paton's Classic Wool at Joann's last month on sale with a Central Park Hoodie in mind. But then Turtlegirl posted that she was starting a Mama Escuelita sweater and I really wanted to make that. But then I realized that Rosi hasn't made the pattern live yet so I was out of instant gratification luck. Plus it was nearing 80 degrees that particular day and knitting a wool sweater was getting less and less appealing as the temperature rose, especially one in a dark neutral color like the yarn I had on hand.

This of course led to a few hours of browsing on Ravelry (second only to Facebook for sucking any and all spare minutes of my life right out of me.) Through no logical progression I found myself admiring Ysolda's Liesl. A light went on in my little knitter brain and I remembered the unfinished lime cardigan hibernating away up in the guest room closet. Let the downloading begin! While the pattern printed I started frogging.

I am now a few repeats past the armholes. Another day or two and I'll probably be knitting sleeves. I debated making the sleeveless version but with this pattern I have more than enough yarn so I'm going for the 3/4 length sleeve.

I did order a new usb cord for my camera so getting photos to my blog isn't as time consuming and annoying as it had been for a few months there. I will do my best to get some updated pics and finished project photos up here in a more timely manner.

By the way, I changed my blog template the other day but when I hit the "preview" button I still get the original template. If you read this in a regular browser window (not a feed reader) could you take a second to leave a comment and tell me what the template looks like? Thank you.

Open Wide

I wish I could.

I had an appointment with a new dentist yesterday. I've never been so happy when I got home from a medical appointment in my entire life except for maybe after my LASIK surgery.

For the past 20+ years there have/had been three things about my physical self that have given me grief. Number one was my years of endometriosis. From practically my first period on I suffered terribly from pain and all kinds of other nasty things. The only times I had any relief were when I was pregnant and nursing. A hysterectomy about 4 years ago changed my life. The second was my extreme near-sightedness. I got my first pair of glasses at 7 years old. When I finally got LASIK surgery and could wake up and go to the bathroom with out fumbling around my bedside table for my glasses it was like my life started all over again. The third has been the pain and immobility I have had with my TMJ since college. I don't remember specifically when my jaw problems started but I think it was sometime between when my braces came off at age 13 and getting my wisdom teeth out my freshman year of college.

I've sought treatment for this problem from every dentist I've seen for the past 20 years. I even went back to my original orthodontist (who probably caused it in the first place). I've had numerous bite guards and other dental appliances fitted. But they never got to the root of the problem. They also always fell short because most of them were made to be worn at night while I slept and while I do grind my teeth in my sleep I also clench my teeth all day, every day. I needed something I could wear while talking, eating, and just generally going about my daily activities. I also needed someone to look to the cause of my problem and not just treat the symptoms.

I think I may have just found those people. Yesterday's appointment was initially for a general cleaning and TMJ consultation. One of the things they did was measure just how far I could open my mouth. 23 millimeters. That's right, I can only open my mouth about 2 and a half centimeters. SMALL grapes are about the only whole food I can fit in my mouth, every thing else has to be cut up.

Also the hygienist that cleaned my teeth is also a TMJ sufferer and for once I didn't have a hygienist that just didn't get it that I had to take a break every 3-4 teeth to rest my jaw muscles. She didn't continually berate me to "open wider" and "don't bite down on that!" or "I'll be done in a minute." There have been dentist visits in my past where I was literally crying in pain, in my face and jaw not my teeth, by the end of my visit. The best part was that at the end of the visit they used a cold laser on my jaw muscles and joints to relieve that pain and inflammation that was inevitable from holding my mouth open for over an hour.

Even with all that special care and consideration I'm still in pain today. But I do have hope that maybe sometime in my future I may have relief from the last bane to my existence.

Spring Break 2010

This is the second year Sarah has gone on the high school youth group work tour for our church. Last year was her first year and she didn't really want to go. She had never really bonded with any of the kids at our church and because she works at a babysitting job on Wednesday nights she had never gotten really involved in the youth group. But we'd been told by many other parents that going on work tour had changed their teens' attitude about church, themselves and youth group and it was worth the effort to make her go at least once. So we pushed and she went. She did come home with a completely different attitude toward youth group and work tour in particular. She still doesn't get to participate in the weekly meetings as often as she'd like but she's made friends and does participate as much as she can. She also started looking forward to this years spring break trip about 6 hours after returning from last years trip!

With her gone for a week Emma and I are once again on our own. Last year we booked a couple nights at an indoor water park resort north of Chicago. It was great having some time together without Dad and Sarah. Being the youngest she and I don't get a lot of just Mom and Daughter time together. This year we hadn't really planned anything ahead of time.

Sunday night we were just hanging out watching television and talking. Because the weather forecast was so good I thought an outdoor adventure was a good idea. Many people have been telling me for 18 years that Starved Rock was a great place to see but I'd never gotten down there. I got online and when I realized that it was less than a 2 hour drive from here and practically on the way to my niece in Iowa's I had a plan. We would spend a day or so hiking and then drive to Iowa to see our new cousin/niece. Steve looked up rooms available in the area and we had a room booked for Monday night using his many Marriott points.


We headed out Monday morning and were hiking by noon. We hiked for almost 4 hours the first day. The weather was perfect. Just hearing Emma exclaim over and over, "this is awesome!" "I love this place!" "OMG, look at that!" made every sore muscle worth it. After all our hiking we headed back to Peru and our hotel for some rest. After a game of Phase 10 and a change of clothes we headed across the parking lot to Target to buy bathing suits because we didn't think to pack any and then to Red Lobster for dinner. We enjoyed a great meal of "Chum Stuffed Fungi" (stuffed mushrooms) and crab legs and I had one of those ginormous Lobsteritas, the waitress was all, "You know that drink is huge right?" I was like, "You've never met me but trust me, it'll be fine. Plus I only have to get about 100 yards to the hotel."

We ended the evening with an hour in the hotel pool and hot tub. Even though it was spring break we didn't have to share the pool with anyone. I guess Peru, Illinois isn't on the top 100 list of spring break destinations.

The next morning we headed back to the park to hike to a couple of canyons we'd missed the day before. We were sore and tired but we had looked online the night before at photos taken in these canyons and felt the extra hiking was worth the effort. It paid off. The first canyon we hiked to that morning was the LaSalle Canyon and we were the first ones back there that morning.

It was so beautiful and peaceful, like a natural cathedral. I'm glad we hadn't made it that far the day before because we would have been too tired to enjoy it and there would have been a bunch of other people there too.

We then made a quick stop at the Lodge for a potty break and ice cream cones. I learned that hiking around waterfalls when you have to pee is really uncomfortable! Our last hike was to the St. Louis Canyon where the tallest waterfall in the park can be found. Again, definitely worth the hike.

I took almost 100 pictures during the 24 hours we were there. You can see most of them on my Flickr page

I'm now looking into selling my super 100-300mm zoom lens and buying a 14mm wide angle and the fast 50mm that I've always dreamed of and heading back down there as the seasons change. You can bet Emma will be joining me for many more of these trips as well. I'm looking forward to it, I have been since about 6 hours after we got home last night!

March Madness

It seems that March is the time for new beginnings and what better new beginning than a new baby in the family?

This is Kolbie Elizabeth. She was born Friday evening to my niece Mylene and her husband Dean.

Emma and I took a little mini-spring break Monday and Tuesday (I'll post about that in a few.) and we topped our trip off with a brief stop in Iowa to welcome Kolbie and take gifts to her and her big sister Kaija.
Emma made this cute flannel kitty pillow for Kaija.

I made this little busy bag for Kaija and filled it with coloring books, stickers and Easter story books.

Kolbie got a quilt. (And my brother Scott got another girl!)

I made this quilt out of the Tula Pink Hushabye fabrics. It is only about 36" square so it will make a nice stroller blanket or car seat cover. I really like the block pattern for this. It looks complicated but is really easy to assemble. It would be even easier if I used the precuts from Moda that it was designed for originally. But cutting the squares and sashes isn't that hard, just time consuming.


It was nice to get back to my sewing room and to actually make something again. Now I just have to get back up there and clean up the mess I made! I still don't have the actual sewing area set up the way I'd like it but just doing something is a start.

On other sewing news, I'm going to be teaching some sewing classes at the new Bernina dealer in town! I talked with the owner last week and we are still working out the details of what and when but it looks like I will be starting with some kids' sewing classes this summer. I'll update the blog with more information when I have it!