Happy Halloween + BT2 Thankyou to Ariane!

Stole this idea from Dixie... hehe. It's from the Dover clipart sampler.


And here are the kiddies from the Kroger pumpkin patch (yeah, it's not exactly the most sincere one, but whatever...)



And here is my Back Tack 2 package from Ariane!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankyou, it's absolutely fantastic :) I love it and all the goodies. You did a fabulous job!

Beautiful bag with sparkly zebra interior...


Tons of fantastic new fiber art goodies! :D

Crafty Giftiness

Thanks for all the nice comments on the BT2 bag! I appreciated them. If anybody else has made one or is finishes one in the future, let me know. It would be cool to see pics of some other bags. Right now I'm trying to decide how many more to make and give as gifts. The grand plan for the holidays this year is to make as many things as possible. So here are the crafty choices:

1) something Amy Butler (Weekender Bag, Covington Bag, or Midwest Mod Pillows)
2) lap quilt (very few of these... the piecing goes fast, but it takes me forever to get them quilted)
3) handwoven thingy (scarf, shawl, rug, or possibly a throw if there's time)
4) handknitted thingy (gloves, scarf, bag, shawl)
5) misc. crafty thing

And if you'll hate what I make or I don't have enough time to finish everything, you'll get something bought instead. It seems reasonable, right? I know I'll have to buy something for my dad, kid brother extraordinaire (who's really not a kid anymore - he's 21), the in-laws, and a cousin of the male persuasion. A couple of people have actually asked for a crafty gift, preferably woven. So I think I have to go yarn shopping (cry me a river, I know...) ;)

Maybe I'll post a stash picture later this weekend. It's not a huge as some people's but it's organized into bins and takes up the top of my husband's closet... my loom takes up the rest of it. Poor guy! I'm so lucky he'd rather have his stuff folded up in a dresser than hang up his clothes. It's probably more like he'd rather have all the yarn and fabric out of sight than laying all over the living room floor. Hmm... note to self: get him a really good present. :)
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On tap for the weekend:
-Finish Gina's VV scarf and mail by Monday.
-Go buy yarn to weave stuff. And try not to jump up and down too much at the cash register whilst paying.
-Find the most sincere pumpkin patch and purchase several of its offspring. Then chop them open and suck out their brains.
-Finish GIS tutorials and work on the lab that's due next week.

Back Tack 2 bag finished!

Here it is! This is an Amy Butler pattern - the Covington Bag. It took 1 yard of exterior fabric and about a quarter yard of interior fabric. It requires alot of random measurements, such as "fold top panel in half, fold bottom panel in half, match creases to center, sew" and similar things. But it's still a nice pattern. I only put in one of the drawstrings because two drawstrings didn't seem to fit in the casing or function correctly. I'm sure if I'd ripped out the stitching and re-sewn things I could have fit the second casing, but the drawstrings are practically guaranteed to get wound around each other inside the casing... or worse, get stuck and cause the other one to break. So Back Tack 2 buddy, you have one drawstring. I hope this is okay with you ;)

BackTack 2 bag for ???

I can't tell the general public who you are yet. Just incase you're one of those people who goes blog surfing from the swap website to try and find out what you're getting before you receive it. And if you are, don't feel bad. I do that sometimes, too. But your plan has been foiled this time! tee hee.

Here's the inside. Green paisley. All the fabrics are Amy Butler. The exterior fabric is heavier weight fabric from the Home Decor version of her line. The interior is normal medium-weight cotton. The handles, exterior top panel, and bottom have heavyweight sew-in interfacing in them. From Walmart since Joann Fabrics only had thin fusible junk.

Here's the side detail. I like the folded/pleat-y goodness.
Overall I like the result of this pattern. It looks professional even though it's homemade. I think I'll try to make some of these for X-mas. Now to find some heavyweight outer fabric, since my stash has tons of stuff that can be used for the inside.

So, BT2 buddy, hope you enjoy your bag! I wanted it to be professional-looking enough for your day job so you can sneak your knitting in. Let me know how that goes :)

It's a GLORIOUS day!

Wanna know why? Because the maintenance man brought me a new washing machine. And then FedEx brought me back the digital camera! Yee haw. So here's a picture of my baby...



Ben's first picture :) I know everybody thinks their pet/kid is the cutest thing ever and Dan and I are no exception. He's disgustingly cute. Especially with those pretty blue eyes. The only problem is that he farts like a human and likes to stick his face under anything with running liquids coming from them. I'll leave that to your imagination. Yes, it's seriously gross.

Necrogeography?

So I have this project to do for my GIS class... thinking about doing it on Bloomington cemeteries and how their "landscape" changes over time. Now I need to get a little research assistant to help me GPS headstones and write down the year of demise. And do this several hundred times to cover the entire cemetery. And to not mess it up/forget stuff/lose data. But first I have to run it past my teacher (who is barely done with his Master's degree himself) because I forgot to do that last week.

Looked up the digital camera's wait time on the Canon website. It says they mailed it back today via 2-day FedEx! YAY! Probably still won't get it until Monday though.

Designing Wumun

Inspired by Denyse Schmidt's loverly book, I sketched up some stuff last night. Once midterms are over I'm gonna be on sewing overdrive! It's my goal to make presents for as many people as I can this year. That way people who like handmade keepsake-y thangs can have them and people like my dad, my in-laws, my brother and Dan can get a decent present. I have OODLES of fabric to use up. And if I successfully accomplish that we all know what that means... NEW fabric! Woo hoo! Dan's probably horrified by that prospect, but I hafta put up with his sci-fi/comic/video game addictions so it's only fair for me to get yarn and fabric.

So I'm watching Ghost Hunters right now. It's quite entertaining - they're at an abandoned prison in Ohio. Lucy's behaving and sitting here on the couch with me. Little tiny Ben is passed out on a chair. And yes, Ben's totally OK now. We picked him up on Dan's birthday last Thursday night. The company that makes the vaccines the vet gave him has supposedly agreed to reimburse us for his medical expenses. The vet said we just have to agree to some basic things like a) not suing them in the future for this incident and b) not bad-mouthing them. But when they send me whatever it is we're supposed to sign I'm going over that puppy with a fine-toothed comb and then bribing my law school buddies to look over it for us (hey, I figure Tif's had contract law already and she might be able to help me if it's hard to understand).

Gina -- your scarf is growing more and more every night :) When we get our digicam back later this week I'll post a picture on SYNO. Hopefully I'll be on ball #4 by then! It's so pretty... I'm thinking about making some of those for X-mas maybe. Of course they'll have to be knit in overdrive, seeing as I'm being slow with the knitting lately.

Swappin'

No, not spit. Or wives. ;) Mary, just wanted to let ya know that I'm sending your Denyse Schmidt book out today! Since I was a whiney slacker yesterday I didn't get my butt to the post office, but ye olde butt shall be in gear today.

Somehow have to sneak out and get Dan birthday cake before class... but he wants to go out to lunch. Doh. Must figure out a way to ditch him without making him feel ditched... now how to do that? Think think think. I already got on his nerves by joking that he's officially pushin' 30 now (he's hit the big 2-5 today). Maybe he'll decide he's had enough of my shenanigans and go to campus early to teach his class.

Haven't heard anything about Ben yet. They said they start calling people at 7am daily and letting them know about their pets, so hopefully soon. It's slightly after 11am, so I'm getting a bit antsy. Dan says they didn't call him either. Poo.

P.S. -- Got my walking foot! Yay! Hopefully some quilting will take place this afternoon.

Droopy.

*Warning: This is a depressing post because today's events were... um, depressing.*

Tomorrow is Dan's birthday. And we're not going to celebrate... no. Instead we're going to drive back up to Indianapolis and (hopefully) pick up our poor little kitty.

Our new kitten, Ben, had a bad reaction to his vaccines today. Out of nowhere he had a tiny seizure several hours later and couldn't stand up all the way after that. We got Ben on Monday. He's a 5 month old, 4 lb. seal point Siamese guy - picture perfect at that with his little triangle-shaped head. Lovey and beautiful. Even the vet techs said so this morning. One lady told me he looks like he stepped out of the pictures from a cat breed book. And now he's an hour away up in Indianapolis for observation because the vet that saw him today wouldn't help him. I'm SO mad. He's so little and so sweet. If they had taken the time to do a blood test first, he would be okay. He didn't even need booster shots, but the vet was insistent and I thought to myself, 'Well, he would know better than me. What can happen?' And now Dan and I have to sit here without our kitty, hoping they call and say he can come home tomorrow night. It was awful driving an hour both ways, worrying he's paralyzed or dying or not going to be the same or going to hate us for all of this. Now we have to do it again tomorrow or Friday. There AND back. It's so frustrating. And the bill isn't going to be much comfort when we get it, either. I wish I'd never agreed to the shots and I'm not going to let them give him anything else. Even if that means he can't have his neuter surgery. We're just not going to chance it.

I promise not to be this unhappy next time unless he doesn't get better. But obviously I've got my fingers crossed that this will never happen again and when we go pick him up he's going to be cuddly and normal. Gotta go. Thanks for listening.

Technical Difficulties

I actually got some projects done this weekend, I swear! But I have no proof. You see, our digital camera DIED. I had to pack it up and send it to the Canon repair center in Illinois. Or rather I packed it up and Dan took it to the post office. At any rate, it should be under warranty because it's only 4 mos. old and hopefully they'll get it back to us in a week and a half.

In crafty news, I finished one quilt top from Amy Butler fabric and have everything laid out for another. They're throw sized, but should make decent Xmas presents. Now if only that lady at the sewing supply place would call me and tell me my walking foot is in... geesh. It's been 3 weeks! What the heck?! That's the absolute last time I pay for something that's being put on order, I'm telling you. Between that and the part for my car, I don't understand what the hold up is.

I now have almost all of the yarn I ordered. A bajillion skeins of sari silk (mostly reddish/magenta) and a box of recycled sky blue angora-cashmere blend. Still waiting on 3 balls of sari silk and some water buffalo bone circular knitting needles. Yes, I'm a total bioanthropology nerd... hand me a bone any day and I'll be a happy girl. And I'm totally aware that that just sounded kinda dirty ;) Sorry, that's what happens when your cat wakes you up too early and you're sleep deprived - ya get goofy.

Speaking of sleep, I took a nap yesterday evening and woke up to several dozen chocolate chip cookies. Apparently Danny Boy got bored and decided to raid our cabinet of baking supplies. They're so tasty! The only drawback is that Dan doesn't really eat sugar, so we're either gonna have to give a bunch of them away or my butt's gonna get huge.... lol

Ok, off to jump in the shower. Might go geode hunting later today. Yes, that's totally a Midwestern geek thing to do, but pretty rocks are pretty cool people! :)