Under a Blue Moon

How I work

It isn’t pretty. I should have entered in my sister’s messiest workspace contest. I coulda been a contender.

I’m working on an ATC swap with the theme of Makeup or Beauty products. This is my first swap and I am SO nervous. I feel like I am going to be blacklisted once they see my offering. I need a couple under my belt so I can see what others do. Then I’ll feel more comfortable.

Yesterday was one of those days were we stayed in our pajamas until the middle of the afternoon. I love those kind of days. It was stormy out and the house was warm and cozy. I just sat at the table all morning, making a mess.

Part of the time I was trying to bring up my new work laptop and it was not going well at all. I spent HOURS on the phone with the helpdesk and still managed to get no where. It would have really peeved me to spend an entire Saturday devoted to a frustrating work issue but since I could happily sit there, while listening to cheesy hold music, cutting out teeny lipstick tubes it was okay.

This ATC has a much more retro feel than I would normally go for but it seemed to fit the theme so well.

I love the slightly maniacal look in her eyes.

Friday muffins

Here is my $1.50 Japanese bread basket that ended up costing $89.48 after all the paint I needed to make it white. See? Looks cute with the basket liners which are the easiest thing in the world to make.

I think it would make a cute house warming gift – bake a batch of muffins and present them in a little basket with a pretty liner.

I am experimenting with Ina Garten’s tri-berry muffins from her Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. Only I made mine bi-berry since I didn’t feel like adding strawberries (blueberries and raspberries made the cut).

Ina, and this book, is my go to inspiration. Everything I have made from this book makes me look like an accomplished chef. This is my first foray in to the baking section though. I am going to make the cable TV guy test them out as soon as he gets here.

I used blueberries that I bought fresh during the summer and froze. And frozen raspberries from the store. I would recommend letting them thaw on a cookie sheet and then gently incorporate them into the batter. I just plunked them in frozen and they took way longer to bake then the recipe indicated.

Where is that cable guy, anyway?

Feeling Japanese

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto. I’m totally dating myself, aren’t I?

I hit up the local Japanese dollar store (only it’s a $1.50 store, really), Daiso yesterday. I wanted to get some small cupcake holders and just browse. It’s a cheap thrill, what can I say.

For $13.99 I got two Good Luck beckoning handkerchiefs (although I always thought the cat was a Chinese symbol…), two little packets of cards (to be used as scratch paper), food cup holders (to be used as decorative cupcake holders), a bento box (that I will likely never use as intended since I don’t go anywhere for lunch – so I’m thinking little, portable sewing kit), a wicker basket (that I painted white – more on that in a second) and a packet of strawberry chews not pictured because I ate them already.

I don’t know what it is about Japanese products that is so appealing. Because everything is so cheerfully decorated?

I bought the wicker basket to use as a bread basket. Man is painting wicker a pain. My hat is off to anyone that has painted anything bigger than a bread basket – like furniture. I suppose it is probably more efficient to spray paint it. I used an ENTIRE craft size bottle of paint on that little basket. And it still needs another coat.

Finally something to use my bread basket liners in.

Since Daiso is right near JoAnns I popped in for some floss. I’ve been craving pale, delicate colors. I don’t have a project in mind yet but I’m thinking monograms. Loopy, florally monograms.

Happy Friday

Didn’t it seem like this week just whipped by? Feels like I was just sitting here thinking how Friday is my favorite day of the week.

I have a proud announcement. Today is Day Four with having had NO Diet Coke. And I haven’t killed anyone yet. I had a six to eight cans a day habit (okay not proud about that) and I just decided that I needed to stop. It wasn’t doing me any good and it was keeping from drinking the amount of water I should be drinking. Plus there are all these ominous reports out how diet sodas make you fat and aluminum cans cause Alzheimer’s (not sure I believe that one…). It was time to stop.

I imagine Coca Cola stock is plummeting right now.

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s Day. If you get past the Hallmark aspect of it really can be a sweet day. I was telling someone that I had the very first Valentine gift Rick gave to me back when we were 19 years old. It is a little, black, heart shaped box with hand painted flowers on it.

I wanted to find it and I pulled out a box I haven’t gone through since we moved here seven years ago and I found these little figurines that Rick had given his mother when he was a little boy. When we had our own boys she gave them back to him.

He’s always been sweet like that.

Happy Valentine’s Day my sweet things…

May you see love where ever you rest your eyes.

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Show me your backside

I am making gentle progress on my embroidered pillow project. The best part of embroidering, in my opinion, is that you can pick it up and just spend a couple of minutes on it and then put it back down again. Unless you have some sort of self imposed deadline you really don’t have to commit big chunks of time to the project. There isn’t a lot of setting up that needs to be done or hard concentration needed.

Plus you can hop around on the design – if you get tired of green leaves you can move on to yellow French knots.

The pattern I am using is by Crab-apple Hill and is called Journal Rose. I took some liberties with the pattern and shortened the basket because I wanted to make a square pillow. Their pillow also has a pompom fringe and I am going to do a pleated one in a contrasting fabric instead.

This pattern has a LOT of French knots. I love French knots but every new project I start that has French knots involved requires a long look back at the instructions. I *think* I know how to do them – I’ve done lots of them and I confidently start out but my knot just disappears into a teeny stitch. No knot at all. I think it has something to do with being left handed and trying to do it right handed. Thank goodness for Janet at Primrose Design and her French knot tutorial. She can probably tell when I’m starting a new project because her stats on that particular blog entry go way up.

I find that I prefer traceable patterns to iron on ones. I just tape the pattern and my fabric to the living room window and trace away. It’s quite soothing, actually. I bought a great pen whose ink disappears when you get it wet but I find it dries out super quickly. Like I only get one tracing out of it.

Half the time I just use a No. 2 pencil and trace lightly. When I’m done embroidering I spray the piece with Zout and then hose it with my sink spray attachment.

Now for the backside – Yikes!

I’m getting better about weaving the end of the floss into the other stitches but I haven’t mastered doing the same to the beginning of the floss so there are little knots here and there.

A while back, when I was working on another project, a lovely reader sent me some very lightweight fusible interfacing that I use on the back of the fabric to help hide the rouge stitches. I love that stuff and I’m hoarding it. Using up every last little scrap.

One thing I’ve noticed is that I used the same floss colors over and over again. I’m like Picasso only I’m in my DMC #152 period. I think the next project will be done in very pale colors.

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