My Bedroom/ Sewing and Design Studio

I have a slanted wall (or ceiling, I'm never entirely certain which it is). When I was in junior high, I thought it looked really bare, and I covered the wall/ceiling with Christian music posters and pictures from magazines. At some point I realized how tacky it looked and removed all the paper, but I felt it needed some sort or decoration or definition. That's when I put up my first generation of lights. They were multicolored Christmas lights on green wire. I took apart a silk flower lei, cut the holes in the center a little bigger and put a flower over each light. I really liked them. They would be really cute in a bright, beach themed room, but they didn't go with my room, especially as I got older and added more decor- which took a romantic turn with burgandy, mauve, ivory, and warm brown (the colors in my bedspread and pillows), plus a little black and pewter. For my second generation of lights, I started with a string of clear lights on white wire. I got a pack of clear disposable plastic cups, 8 ounce size I think, but I shortened them to about half their original size, and cut a hole in the bottom of each cup that fit snugly over the lights. Then the fun part! Actually, it turned out to be the really long part. Ribbon doesn't wrap around a conical shape very well, so I cut lots of little pieces and wrapped them vertically or diagonally around the cups, overlapping the ribbon more at the small end of the cup. I covered all the ugly cut ends with one more ribbon on each border. With wider ribbons, I just pinched the excess ribbon out of the way at intervals and glued it down.

I have lots of knick-knacks and doodads. A lamp in the right size with the right colors was the hardest thing ever to find. My sister discovered this one at Garden Ridge and gave it to me for Christmas. It's perfect.

My space doubles as my bedroom and my sewing and design studio. This bulletin board is where I stick my inspiration (and any paper that I find floating around in my room. I make a list for everything and this is usually where all those end up). I got a cheap-o picture frame at the charity store (which should have cost less than it did), spray painted it a modern gold (that turned out to be more expensive than I thought it would be too) and sealed it. Rather than buy a mounted corkboard, I got a roll of cork at the craft store and cut it to size. Then I cemented the cork to a thick layer of corrugated cardboard, weighed it down as it dried, and tried not let impatience get the better of me. The cork and cardboard together were thicker than the space in the frame, so I had to glue it to the frame too. A lot of work it was, but it's so much nicer than a basic corkboard.

There are exciting changes coming to my room soon (on the sewing side of things) so I don't think the room will look like this much longer.

Daddy's Birthday Celebration

My dad chose fajitas as his birthday supper. Heather brought us some clementine juice and blackberry juice that they were getting rid of at her store; I love having a sister who works for a grocery company.

A great shot of our VCR, which got some use again during Daddy's party. While Daddy was reading about the Newsboys on Wikipedia, he learned that the band made a movie (we can call it an art film) back in 1996. So he promptly bought it on VHS for a few dollars on eBay. It's an elaboration on the Newsboys' song "Reality," which is a prodigal son story about a kid who runs away to join the circus. In the movie, lead singer at the time, John James, inherits a bankrupt circus when his Italian uncle passes away, and John needs to put together one more show so that he can pay his uncle's debts and let his widow retire to Orlando. (I don't know how Steve Taylor and the rest of them came up with this stuff.) Most of the circus members leave, and John recruits the other members of the band, which is at the height of its career but having a hard time getting a bass player, to join the circus for just a week. All of them along with the motley assortment of circus performers who are left are then put through a crash course circus school. Meanwhile, Newsboys bass player (hint, hint) Phil Joel, who plays the runaway son, is doing everything he can to get them to let him join the circus. It's really satirical, just like the classic Newsboys lyrics. And like their music, parts of the movie were funny, other parts I just didn't get. The only thing I didn't like was that Duncan Phillips' character was a little leering towards the twin girls in the circus; there was no reason they had to do that.

Here's my dad with his birthday presents. My sisters and I gave him an omelet pan, two polo shirts, a slim pocket calculator (the one he's had since college is finally going out), and a World Market gift card so he can get himself a bunch of snacks and sweets.

 Kayley made an amazing Tres Leches cake!

Recent Sewing and Craft Projects

A few months ago, I kept seeing sailor knot bracelets on Etsy. I'm the sort of person who likes someone else's genius idea and then copies it rather than paying them what they deserve! So when my sister asked me if I could make anything with a pair of white and silver shoelaces she had, I said "Yeah!" I made four identical sailor knot bracelets, one for me and each of my sisters. Then I googled the term "knot" and came up with images for all sorts of beautiful, elegant knots that would make fabulous bracelets. I only made a couple more simple ones, but a chunky, smooth cord reveals the beauty in even the most basic, ordinary knot. I rummaged through my yarn/cord box and found a red lanyard, which I made into the anklet in the photo. (I knew I was saving that lanyard for something!)

I've had this striped knit jersey fabric in my stash for over a year. I often feel hesitant to cut up fabric, because once I do, I can't change my mind and make something else! I decided on shrugs because I have a few solid brown tops that desperately need a complementary second layer. The reason I like stripes is the way they make shapes look wider or longer and the way they interact with each other when they converge. No lines straight across and parallel for me! I cut the shrug on the bias so that the stripes would point up to the shoulder and make my shoulders look wider, which I think they do. I cut the sleeves on the bias too so that from the front they also point up and draw the eye toward the shoulder from the other direction.

What I learned in making this shrug:

• It might be a good idea to let bias pieces that will be stitched to a straight of grain piece hang after cutting and before sewing . It's not extremely noticeable, but the front did stretch out a little- except where the front binding was stabilizing it, creating a few stress wrinkles.
• I should have made the stripes on the left and right of the front binding symmetrical. I thought about all the other pieces, but it's these stripes that are most crucial because they're right next to each other and horizontal too. Oh, well, I just won't pull it closed when I wear it.
• The stretch stitches on my machine never turn out well at all, so I've learned how to use the zigzag for knits. I put it on a stitch width of 1 mm. That allows the seam enough give that it at least doesn't break when I pull the garment on (when I'm not in a hurry anyway). When using a zigzag stitch on a knit, it helps to stretch the fabric a little. Not a habit I've really picked up since I got most of my experience sewing knits on a serger at school and we were taught NOT to stretch the fabric. If the fabric still looks tense around the seam, I pin one end of the seam down on my ironing board and gently stretch the seam while steaming it with my iron. That eased some of the tension in the shrug, especially at the back, which hangs beautifully now!
• I intended for the front binding to reach all the way to the hem, but I forgot to include the 2-inch shoulder pieces in my calculation. How long will it take me to learn to measure properly?! I like the way it looks though. Chance is sometimes a better designer than I am.

I couldn't wait to take pictures once I was done with the shrug (Thus all the sewing mess in the background.) I'm going to keep it new until the fall weather comes along. I'm not sure I'll have much money or time to sew things then so it will be nice to treat myself.

I really like the perfect chevrons at the back.

I made an asymmetrical peplum tank top out of this material too, but I'll save that one for another post.

Cow Appreciation Day

Oh, the things my family and I will do for free food...

"I'm not too chicken to dress like a cow."

Heather got off work at 7pm, which was a nice surprise since she hadn't expected to be able to go at all. Even before she got home, Andrea and Kayley were already helping her by putting her costume together. By the time we left for Chick-fil-A, it was after 8, and we were good and hungry. We drove with the windows down and Air1 blaring (If anyone noticed the minivan full of rambunctious cows, they didn't let on.) Once we got out of the car in the Chick-fil-A parking lot, we elicited some laughter and toots on the car horns. To be fair, it was all my dad. Being with him made the rest of us just look good. The Chick-fil-A employees rang the cow bell when we came in and gave us stickers, and they were really interested in how my dad made his costume (I'd like to blab it all here, but he doesn't want to share his secrets =). The restaurant was still packed, and we like eating at home anyway, so we took it to go and sat around chatting and enjoying each other's company. And Mama made three different vegetables, as usual. We must be the only family in America who eats three vegetables along with their Chick-fil-A!

Awkward and Awesome Wednesday

I started this blog partly so I could do A+A Wednesday, but it was harder than I thought to come up with admit stuff.

Awkward:

• Standing outside a store in the Texas heat, offering to sell your gift card to the people going in at a discount, while trying to look nice and honest and normal and not do anything to arouse the suspicions of them, the employees inside the store, or the security guards down the street.
• Not getting anyone to buy the gift card but in the meantime spending $4 on a strawberry-banana smoothie so you don't die of dehydration.
• Taking pictures of the bricks in the sidewalk on your phone just for the sake of looking like you're busy when people walk by.
• Cutting through a subdivision to save time and going down every single unmarked cul de sac before turning around and going out the way you came.
• Finding yourself whispering in the morning even though everyone in the house is awake.

Awesome:

• Not spending any money on your lunch break at work. Food from the fridge and paid for by your parents + an exciting library book (that's the important ingredient) = A break to look forward to without missing the mall food court.
• Watching an old Blimey Cow video on how to write a worship song in 5 minutes (or less)- and laughing so hard you hurt.
• Sitting around with your family and making your own cow costumes for Cow Appreciation Day (coming up Friday!), and everyone's costume is completely different.
• Eating cherry Jell-o without fruit or cheese balls or any of that stuff in it.
• Being able to say no to opportunities that you might have liked but aren't the best for you right now, and not having any regret at your answer.
• Listening to the sounds of humming insect wings and cooing doves out your window. It can't feel like home in the summer without it.

Independence Day

It was a day of simple, quiet, but satisfying activity... and food... from the pictures I got it looks mostly like food.

But first my dad, two of my sisters, and I began our morning with a leisurely bike ride through the neighborhood and along the bayou.

Daddy grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob for lunch. We don't eat that much bread in my family. This is hamburgers our way! It was good, let me tell you!

One of my sisters and I had to work later on in the day. (Who knew that such a large portion of the population thinks shopping at the outlet mall is the perfect way to celebrate Independence Day? I don't want to start complaining, so let's look at the bright side: time-and-a-half holiday pay!)

In the evening we sat around and ate homemade ice cream cake while our neighbors blew up fireworks all around us. Andrea baked a gluten-free pound cake and made banana-berry ice cream too (her own recipe). It's covered with whipped heavy cream, blueberries, and strawberries.

Earlier this week, I copied the entire Declaration of Independence by hand, just to familiarize myself with it. (I invited my family to join me, but even they just gave me blank looks. "That sounds like school." ) Next year I might copy sections on parchment in calligraphy. The Bill of Rights too. Totally serious. When you write something, you force yourself to focus on what the words mean and you give yourself time to ponder it. Not that I worship the Declaration or the Constitution. They're not absolute truth; I'm sure there are some flaws somewhere in them still. But those flaws are minor, and overall, I think these documents have worked really well over the last couple hundred years, and given a chance, I think they still work for the USA today. It took me a couple of hours to copy the Declaration, but I was watching/ listening to YouTube videos at the same time (patriotic bluegrass, patriotic hymns, military songs, you know, stuff to put me in the mood).

Now on to more frivolous things:

My sisters always do holiday themed manis and pedis. I hadn't painted my nails in years because polish damages my nails, but I really wanted to do some glitter-tipped nails and colored French manicures (I've got Pinterest to blame for that. I've had a Nails pinboard for several months, so I was setting myself up to fall for the temptation at one time or another).

It wasn't an excitement-driven day; I didn't go to any fire works or parades or patriotic concerts or battle reenactments or anything like that. My celebrations had little to do with the Revolutionary War or the Founding Fathers. What I did was enjoy the benefits of living in a country that has provided its citizens freedom and security, the sort that allows them to live a quiet, happy, prosperous life. I love the USA, and thank You, God, for letting this country exist and me be one of the ones who get to live in it!