Crafting Envy

   I've been away for a bit. Not away from home, just away from my blog here. My evil husband signed us up again for Everquest 2. For those of you who aren't hopelessly nerdy, that would be an online mmorpg. It's a place where thousands of nerds gather and fight dragons and orcs and talk with other nerds.   Anyhow, I will try to divide my time between all my craftiness, blogging and questing, oh and raising children, keeping house etc...
   Speaking of my evil husband though, he got a notification to be ready for being notified of a possible deployment in January of 2012. Don't you love the bureaucracy of the military? So it's not a done deal and the last two units who got this notice never ended up going anywhere but it's enough to make me feel sick to my stomach. This would be number 3 since we've been married and the 4th of his career. I can tell he's excited about the possibility of going. I know he loves his family and likes being home but I can tell he is happy he might go again. I'm trying not to be to upset about that, that's just him. I'm trying to not let myself think about the whole thing too much so I don't get too crazy. It does seem to be an effective appetite suppressant so that's a plus, eh? Nothing like the thought of your husband being away in a warzone for a year to make you put down that chocolate. Anyway, I'm sure if things develop along those lines I'll be posting about it.
   I have managed to finish some outstanding projects and some new ones too. There have been 4 plushies, 2 blankets, and one pair of pajamas (with another soon to follow). Not too bad for a Questing Mama... So long for now :)

   The first soccer game is today and it rained yesterday and some today. Wet grass+11 month old baby = dirt ball.
   So I made a little waterproof blanket to romp on, or if it starts raining again we can use it as a poncho. It took about 15 minutes or so, pretty good for a Saturday morning last minute project :)
   I thought it might as well be my first mini-tutorial. Here it is then....









   I used the remainder of a flat sheet for the blue part and a vinyl tablecloth for the waterproof part. Here is a little mini-tutorial for those who didn't already know how to do one of these.

• Pin right sides together.
  
• Sew all around making sure to leave a gap in one of the short sides.
• Trim the edges up and flip inside out.
  
• Stitch around again closing the gap this time and Voila, you have a Quick and Dirty to Keep Clean Blanket.

  Hope that made enough sense. Have a great Saturday :)

   Yesterday was the first soccer practice for the little man. Last year he played in the 3yr old league and he spent more time crying on the side of the field than playing. Boy, have things changed! He didn't stop running or kicking the whole 45 minutes he was out there. He slept soooo good last night :). It was worth the sign up fee for that alone.

   Little Ellie was practicing her model look on the sidelines. I wonder what sports she'll want to do. She's getting better at Peek-A-Boo and she's a champ at destroying things already.




   I'm working on some pajama pants on the sewing front, I have plans to make some for gifts and I need to test out my skills so I just *had* to make some for me first :).
  On the first try I used a vintage sheet that was not my style of print or color at all but I didn't want to sacrifice any of the good stash. I'm glad I didn't cut into a favorite, cause the first pair was a disaster. I put outside pockets on them, I hate jammies with no pockets. Other than a horrible color they were too short in the crotch and too long in the leg. Hello scrap pile here's your new addition.




   I cut the second pair out of some kona cotton so they are a bit stiff but I think they will wear well. I made some owl pockets for these. Something a little Halloweenish without being too much. I'm not sure I like the placement of them too much. May need to move them down a bit. I sewed them on before I did the elastic casing in the top. Live and learn, eh?


The Owls before they were sewn onto the pockets











   I did one other thing too......Hello Scarlet hair color! Now I'm ready for fall!

   Hello September, I'm so glad to see you! This summer has been brutal and I'm looking forward to the cooler weather you bring. Changing weather means changing blog design in my mind so I switched my palette for a more appropriate one.
   How do you like the new look? It feels all fall and dark clouds and storms and soothing rain.
   I admit I do revel in Fall. Gloom comes more naturally to me than cheer. I'm even listening to some Cure right now and it feels perfect!
   Something about darkness just speaks to me. I watched Labyrinth more times than I can count when I was a girl, maybe that's why these pictures make me squeal like a teenager..






  Maybe that's why Alan Rickman as Severus Snape just turns me on..





   Hmmm...maybe that's why I like to imagine my husband in leather pants and eyeliner too.... TMI, sorry.. See what Fall does to me?!
   I'm in need of a hair color change too, I think. I need to erase the highlights the sun has put in. A deep dark chestnut or maybe a nice dark scarlet.
   I can see myself standing by the gates of the cemetery, knee boots, awesome black wool coat, black tights, dark grey skirt, jewel tone shirt, scarlet hair blowing in the cold breeze, brown leaves scuttling down the sidewalk....
   Wow! Someone read Jane Eyre and similar books waay too often growing up. Speaking of Jane Eyre, Does anyone else think that Johnny Depp would be absolutely freaking amazing as Mr. Rochester??? No? Just me? oh..okay then.

   Anyway, weird imaginings aside...I'm hopefully going to be posting some tutorials here soon. I've never done them before so I'm sure the first ones will be awful. Please critique as needed, I'll try not to take it personally and actually correct problems you mention. Until then I'll be reveling in the cloudy day we're having...

    I did manage to work myself out of my funk last weekend.
I think I may have even finished up a project in there.
   One of my husbands co-workers wife is pregnant so I made up a couple of blankets and this sweet little owl. She is a little lopsided but I don't think she minds too much.




     In other news my youngest sisters wedding is coming up next May and I have devised a plan of action. I'm going to make a fabulous dress from a Vogue pattern in a size... ah hem 12 and plan to fit in it by the wedding. Does that sound too optimistic? I'll feel awfully bad if I look like a sausage stuffed into a too small casing in the photos... Guess my sis will have to encourage me to lose weight ;) I have actually been to the gym once and worked out at home once this week. Baby steps and all that.


    I cannot wait for Fall weather! I'm soooo tired of unrelenting heat and humidity. I want to make pumpkin soup and spiced coffee and sit on the deck in a sweater and not be bitten by a million mosquitos. I want to plant my Fall mums and enjoy the color of the leaves. We're taking the kiddos pumpkin picking this year and I'm excited about it! Fall come quick and stay late!





   My sweetly rotten little Elleanore (or as we call her, Devilmore) is almost 1 year old! She's a tiny thing so far, only 14 1/4 pounds and 24 inches tall. I have an awful time finding clothes that fit her right. Pants in the right age are way too long, but tops in the same range are too short or too tight. This is okay when you're buying separates but as we get into cooler weather she'll need lots of warm suits for sleeping in and stuff and those are hopeless. I put socks on her today to see how she'd react and she FLIPPED out, went totally nuts until I took them off. She's started biting when nursing now too. She may be small but she's got 4 teeth fully in and another 2 on the way. She's eating lots of regular foods now and has learned how to drink out of a straw which makes it soo much easier.

   Anyhow, that's the news for now maybe I'll be back this weekend with more postage. Toodles!

   Well peeps, it's the weekend. Normally that would engender some sort of excitement or anticipation of good times but I just can't manage it right now. I'm feeling a bit blah about things.
    Teaching the alphabet to the boy child isn't going very well and I can't seem to get my projects on track. I haven't been to the gym in 6 weeks and it's been too hot to go for walks outside. Like I said, BLAH.
   Do any of you visit Etsy and then regret it? Not because you can't afford the wonderful things you see there or because there just isn't enough time in the day to browse all of the jewelry but because you immediately feel like it's futile for you to put anything up for sale there because inevitably, someone else has it listed and it's ten times better than anything you could do? Long winded and possibly grammatically disastrous question, I know.
   I don't know why I expect to be better than other people at the things I do. Does it come from being raised in the "Everybody is special" generation? Is it sheer ego? It's times like these that the name of my blog is very appropriate. I'm sure I'll work myself out of my funk, just wanted to share it around with you. Happy Weekend!

p.s. This picture makes me feel better, a little. The one on the left is my Husband and the one on the right is our best friend. And yes, they are wearing bras. It was my MIL's 50th B-day.....

   It was a busy few weeks around here. My sweet little boy was turning 4 and I decided to throw him a "fish" themed birthday party. Right away I got started on some games for the kiddo's to play.
There was the bean-fish toss



   There was a magnet fishing game with a kiddie pool and a sand dig with little plastic sea creatures to find, but no pictures of either :(

   There were two babies that wouldn't be getting a goody bag so I made crinkle whales for them instead. The really loud Sunchip bags work great for this.



  And then there was the candy table
(again, not many good pics)

We had

• Gummy Sharks
• Swedish Fish
• Gummy Worms
• Gummy Fish
• Gummy Slugs
• Sour Gummy Worms
• M&M equivalents
• Dum-Dum Suckers
• Salt-Water Taffy
• Pixie Stix
• Goldfish Crackers

Whew! There was a lot of candy. We had it at a park near our house so it was easy to clean it up and my house wasn't destroyed, thank goodness. The boy seems to be thrilled with his presents and we have an opportunity to donate many of his old well-loved ,i.e. destroyed, toys to the Goodwill. I'd say it was fairly successful.


   And in between all the birthday crafting that I did, I also managed to complete a dress for my mom, an appliqued shirt for me, modified uniforms for the husband, 3 pairs of earrings, binding on dinosaur blanket for the boy, tote bag for my Sister-in-law's birthday, a set of coasters for the house and I made time for my first Tattoo!





   Everyone who sees it says, "Of course! It suits you!"

  I think so too. I like it and once it's all healed I'll enjoy wearing my tank tops even more.

    Sorry this post is such a let down after me hyping it up and stuff. Note to self, take more photos.....