Ooo-eee ooo-ah-ah, ting tang Walla-walla bing-bang

A few weeks back,* Luke told me that if he lived in the middle ages, he'd want to be the village baker. He likes the idea of waking up in the wee hours of the morning to bake big loaves in a stone oven. When he lived in Guatemala, there was a baker in one of the towns that was a good example of what he has in mind: a fat man with strong arms and a big laugh.

*On a side note: I have no concept of time. Anything that was longer than a week ago is "a few weeks back." It could've been two weeks, it could've been six months. I don't know.*

When he asked me what I would be, my first thought was of taking the job of midwife. But I should leave that to someone who actually likes birth, and not just the idea of liking it. The job I would really choose is the herbalist/medicine woman/witch doctor. I like learning about herbs and plants and mushrooms- edible things that can be foraged, medicinal properties, etc. It would be fun to have a job of it (and if I was the baker's wife we could combine the two and give medicinal breads).

For my friend Drew's birthday I got to play medicine woman, and made him some tinctures. It was fun to research which herbs I wanted to use, which medicinal properties they had, etc. I ended up making a St.John's Wort tincture for mood elevation; nettle tincture for colds and hay fever; and a sleep tincture using chamomile, spearmint, lavender greens, and lemon balm.

 

 

As I do any time I want something to have a cute label, I asked Luke to do it.

Also for his birthday I finished his Christmas present that I never gave him. It's a magic bag. It can hold his tinctures, stuff for reiki sessions, books on shamanism, whatever. The front of the gray linen bag is embroidered with wheels ("chakra" means "wheel") with the corresponding color and number of spokes for each chakra. The crown chakra is represented by a lavender lotus (just to make it more interesting and because I was not about to embroider 960 spokes). This was a fun project. Though I don't believe in chakras the same way Drew does, it was fun to learn about them and the ideology behind taking care of them. And it seems like something a witch doctor should make, right?

Sewing, take two.

Yesterday I spent a really lovely rainy afternoon listening to music, drinking iced green tea, and re-teaching myself to sew. I was working with a rainy-day gray linen and looking-forward-to-sunshine yellow eyelet, and it was perfect. Kind of. I talked to the sewing machine, the needle, and the fabric when, at various times, they all refused to do what I wanted them to. I yelled at nothing in particular when the tension would get messed up and there'd be a big knotted mess of thread, but then fixed without me knowing what I'd done to fix it. There was a huge pile of strings next to me when I finished.

 

But the first project turned out- better than I expected, even- and I was encouraged enough to start a second, a skirt for my sister-in-law's wedding on Saturday. Fast forward three hours, and I had to quit and go to bed, because I had a I had a boxy apron instead of a springy skirt, like I'd hoped. The longer I worked, the more frustrated I got and the less I knew what to do to fix it. I'm hoping that with a day of separation I'll be able to look at it anew, and won't have to go buy a skirt last minute.

Bumble bee wallet

The wallet I made Luke for Christmas didn't hold up all that well, and was a little bigger than he'd like, anyway, so I hand sewed/embroidered him a new one that's sturdier, and a better size. I asked him what sort of thing he'd want on a new wallet, and I'm happy with what he chose and how it turned out:




It's sewn on the cotton from one of those old fashioned flour sacks (online I found a lot of other cute things that people did with these old feed sacks, from chairs, to purses, to dresses).

Garden Party

May was a slow blog-posting month. Between graduation, a sister-in-law's out-of-town wedding, and spending most of most of my time studying for the Utah bar exam, I haven't been spending too much time on hobbies. But I'm back!

My birthday was at the end of May, and I planned a late-night garden party for myself. There was a three gallon recycled glass cooler (like this one) with limeade and all the mix-ins for cocktails (mint, basil, strawberries, tequila, vodka). Rather than a full meal, I served bread, flat bread, crackers and dips: hummus; sundried tomato and pineapple (I tried to replicate the one from Paradise Bakery, and think that besides being a smoother texture, it was a pretty good match. It seemed to be the favorite of the night); sweet onion (my favorite); Coriander-Chile Pinto Bean; and a tomato basil butter. Ash brought a delicious bruschetta.


For decoration, Drew and I put blankets on the grass surrounded by candles in mason jars. I used some of my vintage fabrics to make some fabric banners, one which hung between a tree and garage, and one that we draped around the table.

It was a little early for the garden to be far along, but I did have a couple pots filled with snap dragons, dahlias, and celosia. I also had jupiter's beard and daisies in a bud vase Whitney found at an antique store and gave me for my birthday.


So everything was beautiful, and just as I'd planned it.... And then it was too cold to enjoy. After ignoring everyone's shivers for an hour, we moved the party inside, where (despite not being as pretty), we warmed up and had a good time.

Poor Man's Christmas

One thing about being totally broke is that you've got to be creative with the Christmas gifts you give (because I think two years in a row is the most you can go without giving presents to your best friends, and I'd already used those up).

One that I had a hard time giving away was a little wallet that I made for my husband Luke. It was on an oatmeal muslin (the lady cutting at the fabric store kept calling it 'muslim'), and embroidered with a simple little fern and fiddlehead:


For my sister-in-law, Jenny, I made an apron with a frilly ruffle:

For Eber, a satchel; for Drew a kelly green wallet with embroidered feather; and for Whitney a vegetarian cook book, and recipe box with twenty or so of my favorite recipes.

Oh, and for Ariel, the weird moon shoes she gave me last year:

Christmas Tree

My mom, little sister Mari, and I spent about twelve hours designing, cutting out, sewing, stuffing, and hand-embelishing little 'quirky bird' ornaments inspired by the ones I saw in Crate and Barrel. I loved the way they turned out, and loved our tree this year- birds, Scandinavian straw stars, and little bearded men:

Hot pink gray matter

This weekend I made this pillow:
For this sister:

It's totally not my style, but it turned out how I wanted it to, and I think (hope) she'll like it (she's fourteen and very picky. It's hard to tell).

When you smash seventy-five hot pink rosettes into a small area, you get what looks like a coral reef. Or hot pink brains:

Tweed Buttercup

I made what I think is the cutest thing I have ever sewn, but because of crappy lighting and a crappy camera, I can't get a very good picture of it. Regardless:

It's a purse for Luke's sister, who had a birthday a couple weeks ago. I made it from the Buttercup Bag pattern from Made by Rae. It took me way longer than it should have, and at one point I was got really frustrated (let's be honest, I had to leave the sewing machine in order to deal with my I-just-wish-I-could-do-something-right mope session) after sewing the lining in wrong. Twice. But I really really love the way it turned out, and want to make myself one.

flower basket pillow

It was a simple project, but I made this little pillow for our living room. It looks cute with our very-60s furniture (think avocado and orange).

It's just an old vintage dishtowel, and was only a matter of sewing up the sides and top, but I like the way it turned out. It was the first time I had an excuse to use the cutie-pie stitch setting on my sewing machine:

Some lovely blue

I bought a cute little computer, which weighs a mere 2.3 pounds. This weekend I sewed a little carrying case for the computer so that it doesn't get scratched while in my bag. I made it with some sweet Scandinavian vintage fabric.

It has snap closure, with little white buttons on top to make snapping them closed easier:

dandelions and brown calico

I made my sister a bag, my favorite of all the ones I've made so far. I wish I could keep it.


It's reversible.


































Last night I also finished this skirt, which came from a skirt that I got at the thrift store. It's nothing fancy, but I like it a lot. It was the first time that I've ever put in a zipper. And it was a size six, and I made it a size sixteen, so I'm pretty proud of that (the conversion, not my size). The bottom is really cute, too:



And, just because I love it, here's a picture of the shirt I'm wearing it with today. A cute tee that Luke got me for Christmas from threadless.com

Curtains

I've decided I want to start blogging in a place separate from my social networking (myspace, facebook) about my attempts to find hobbies that I really enjoy. In the past few months I've decided I really want to get my shit together and make my house and life really reflective of the person I feel like I am. That includes: being a more prepared student, working for causes I care about, keeping a cleaner house, sewing, gardening, cooking, getting enough sleep, giving gifts, etc.

Luke's parents gave me a sewing machine for Christmas, which was really great because my old sewing machine has been broken for a year, and I can't figure out what to do with it. I've been wanting to sew some cute curtains for our house since we moved in last April, and now I'm finally starting to get some done:


These curtains were made from a vintage tablecloth my mom gave me. I like how cheery and colorful they are- perfect for brightening up our tiny kitchen.




Drew gave me about three yards of this material for Christmas a few years ago. There was so much, I wanted to use if for a bigger project, but had a hard time deciding what. I think these are great, particularly because there's a streetlight that shines in our bedroom window all night. These sweet curtains make falling asleep a lot easier.