Monthly Archives: July 2012

Update and Randomness

So, I know it’s been awhile. For the three of you (if any) who may be regularly following me, sorry ’bout that. I haven’t had any crafts to post about lately because all the crafts and designs I am currently working on are surprises for other people/designs that are not ready to be released yet. So, in order to keep you entertained/keep things rolling/prevent me from talking to myself (out loud, anyway), here’s a collection of random thoughts I have been having lately:

  • Jell-o Jigglers are infinitely better than regular Jell-o. You should make them sometime soon to remind yourself. However, do not transport cut Jigglers in only a piece of Glad Press-n-Seal. That shit does exactly what it says, man, and you’ll smash the Jigglers trying to madly tear into the wrapping. When the edges of the wrapping get lost from sticking together so well, it’s murderous.
  • One child on the way does not necessitate the immediate purchase of an SUV or minivan. Stop trying to tell me it will, it’s pretty infuriating. If you are already in the market for a new car and you plan on having 3+ of kids pretty quickly, it’s very financially practical to skip a new sedan and go right to the larger vehicle. If you live in a snowy, mountain-y area and need the 4WD and heft of an SUV, you should probably already have one. If you have, like, 75 Great Danes you need to cart around, a lage vehicle makes sense – but it doesn’t involve having kids, so I guess that is irrelevant here. Anyway, has everyone forgotten how our parents would shove, like, 4 of us in the back of a Ford Escort? Some cars can’t fit 3 car seats, different requirements now, I get that. But only ONE kid? “Oh but there’s so much you need to carry”? Eff that. What you need is to clean out your trunk and carry less shit. Strollers are big? No one told you to buy the huge one. You need room for groceries and a stroller? Use the back seat too. There’s also a diaper bag? Those are big purses, not full-sized adults. I once packed for a 10 day trip to Europe/Mediterranean cruise in solely a 1.5 x 1.5 x4 duffel bag, and for one week overseas packed in a high school backpack. I am fully confident I can fit the three of us in my hatchback Prius. I’m not going to go from 47mpg average to 18mpg and pay an assload for gas just so I can carry extra shit I won’t need in order to run to Jo-Ann Fabric and park poorly because I can’t handle the thing’s size. That, of course, being said, I will more than willingly capitulate to a Prius-V. Same seating, basically same exterior size, extra room in the taller hatchback, all while maintaining a 40+mpg? Yes please. Plus, I like turning on a car by pressing a button. It feels so technologically advanced. :)
  • Speaking of hybrids, WaWa is opening a location in Florida. For those outside of Philly who don’t know what a WaWa is, Google it and find out what you’re missing from your empty, empty life. I cannot fathom how this deli-convenience store combo has not been recreated by another company – it’s genius. Sheetz is like a big 7-11 that doesn’t count, and I just found out about something called a GetGo in Western PA/Ohio-ish that doesn’t quite seem like the WaWa but merely like it wants to be when it grows up. The only downside: whether you spend 5 hours in WaWa working or 5 minutes grabbing a coffee, you come out smelling like you’ve been roasting the beans yourself. It’s strange, but worth it. In and out under 5 minutes, you are probably safe.
  • My god, I LOVE me some bacon.
  • I miss some things about being myself. Like loving wine with dinner. I hope that when I can regularly have it again I won’t have lost the taste for it, as well as the ground I was gaining on being able to detect nuances. I also miss going to the gym to weight train (not that I am a bodybuilder by any remote stretch – far from it), or going on long walks. My love of yoga is suffering too in these later weeks – getting into “happy baby” is now near impossible, and I hate feeling like I am too awkward to do things I never had any issues with before. Being physically forced to lose momentum is crap.
  • I wonder how different I feel now than I used to feel before pregnancy. I mean, I KNOW I walk (well, more like penguin-waddle) slowly now, that I can’t sleep in one position for more than 3 hours on a good day, and that I handle the heat even worse than I already did. But I can’t remember how normal feels, it’s been so long. Am I more different than I realize, or am I a horrible whiner? Thank god I haven’t puked this whole time – no nausea, nothing. I guess that kind of good karma relegates me to a huge public poo on the delivery table and vomiting my Rita’s Water Ice at least 3x during labor. Ah well.
  • When the hell is UPS getting here with my print order? “Out For Delivery” on package tracking is very vague.
  • I still think that the 1990’s are not that far behind us. A date like 1995 doesn’t seem to me like that long ago; maybe it was because I was in high school then. I remember alot of that time: I was starting to form my adult personality, beginning to really understand that I was an artist – a genuine creative and not just a minor dabbler. I was incredibly into Pearl Jam at that time, something which I am still incredibly into. And somehow, being into one thing seems to stop time: like if you’re still in that “stage”, life isn’t exactly stagnant, but somehow seems to be frozen in space on one dimension. And then I remember that last year, “Pearl Jam Twenty” came out. For their 20th anniversary as a band. When you realize that you’ve loved something for 20 years, and that 20 years is well over half of your life, you simultaneously feel old and confused. Which I guess go hand in hand, really.
  • And finally … “That’s what she said” jokes will never get old.

– Me

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Filed under Hello, Travel

Pretty Pretty Princess Hat and Wand

So a few weeks ago it was my beautiful little niece Olivia’s 3rd birthday. I had no idea what to buy her, and I was itching to make something. Thanks to her dad (my brother… who is almost 31 and unnaturally in love with All Things Mouse), she has a healthy love for the Disney movies and, as a result, playing Disney Princess.

Princesses. A 3 year old. I can do this.

I figured, “hey, a princess hat and a magic wand shouldn’t be too hard, should they?” And you know what, they weren’t. For the hat, I used semi-stiff but still thin interfacing on the fabric for both the inside and outside of the hat. For the streamers and ribbon I used scraps I had been collecting (read: not hoarding!) “just because”, attaching self-stick rhinestones for a bit of girly sparkle. The hat itself was a simple semi-circle (well, a little less than half, more like a wedge), wrapped in a cone and sewed, streamers attached before turning right-side out. For the wand, I just purchased pre-fab wooden dowels and balls (don’t think dirty, this post is about a kid’s product, thakyouverymuch), used the same streamers and rhinestones, and a little bit of metallic non-toxic paint I had, connecting everything with the time-tested magic of a glue gun.

She gave the cutest little *gasp!* when she opened it, and I wish I got a photo of her wearing it (which I forgot, boo). But can you just imagine how adorable this would look on any pixie?

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Filed under Crafting, Sewing

Patchwork Scrap Blanket (and crafts)

In order to try to clean house – if even just a little bit before Baby S comes – I went through my shoeboxes upon shoeboxes of fabric scraps to try to whittle them down into usable pieces. I ended up being able to make a bunch of totes (all but one of which sold out!) and headbands that are for sale on my Etsy page. I also made some blankets for niece/nephew Christmas presents, and, of course, one for my very own soon-to-be daughter. This project was great because it was inexpensive, thrifty, and a good way to “save” all the fabric patterns I love so much but had all but finished off. I just cut the scraps I had into approximately similar size groups and sewed them together where I felt like they would fit, working those strips of scraps into bigger strips until it was the approximate size and shape I was looking for. I then interfaced the visually stimulating patchwork side with some light iron-on batting and backed it with a cushy flannel, finishing it off with a simple stretch of blanket binding. I can’t wait to see her take a nap with it. Or stretch it out on the floor and watch her roll over for the first time on it, then writhe around live an overturned beetle because she can’t figure out how to get herself back to where she was :)

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Filed under Crafting, For Sale, Sewing