Canvasbacks Sale

If you are in the area, Canvasbacks is having one of their sales starting today. It goes through Saturday. I can't remember the hours, but it's something like 10-4 today and tomorrow, and 9-12 Saturday. Fabric is upstairs on the third (or fourth?) floor. I won't be going (I have enough stuff!), but great fabrics are to be had. One year I bought a bunch of lovely rayon knits for $4/yard. Prices will range from $2-$20/yard.

Canvasbacks
224 W. Washington St.
Milwaukee, WI 53204

Have fun!

Comic Top

for 7 years old, Calvin isn't a bad photographer

I made another top for myself on Monday, and hemmed it yesterday. This is Simplicity 4076 again (also View D), but with long sleeves. I had to shorten them 2 inches. I bought this fabric from Ressy's co-op a few years ago. Isn't it cool? I love comic books (oops, I'm sorry, "graphic novels"). My original plan was to make tops for my boys, but when the fabric came and I saw it was all sparkly and mostly a girl on it, I figured it was for ME. Caleb likes the silver sparkles, but he agrees, he wouldn't wear a shirt with girls all over it. This took 1.75 yards, so I have 2.25 yards left. Any ideas as to what I should do with the extra? I was toying with doing a DVF style wrap dress, finished off with black FOE.

30 yards

Thirty yards of 118" wide fabric for sheers arrived on Monday (yep, a big jump in the $ spent and yardage in stats). I have my big project for the next few weekends! This will be for the living room (2 88" wide windows, 2 45" windows) and the dining room (1 96" window). Now I have to get some rods for the wide windows.

My friend Alysia works at Calico Corners, and she helped me figure the yardage and how to pleat them up. Making curtains is fairly easy, but I find it boring. Lots of long, straight cuts and stitching. Once I get them up, then I'll figure out the outer curtains. At least I'll have something up, I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a fishbowl when I sit in the living room!

Six New Covers

I finished Connor's diaper covers yesterday (reviewed over a year ago here). Six brand new covers -- sorely needed! I ran out of white capped snaps, so only 3 are functional right now. After setting 63 snaps and changing a diaper, I found out I put them on backwards (meaning I put the sockets where the studs should go, and vice versa). ~SIGH~ I probably wouldn't have had enough sockets anyway. If he takes after his brothers, he'll be out of diapers in July. These should last that long.

After the covers were done, I also did some cutting, adding 4 yards to my "out" stat. I plan to do some more cutting today, and then on to more sewing!

Off to get that cranberry coffee cake made. Yum yum!

Thanksgiving Aftermath

We had a lovely Thanksgiving:


The brined turkey was fabulous (oh did it make the most delicious gravy). Turkey paninis were had yesterday, and I now have five pints of stock in my freezer, with one more in the fridge for either soup or pot pie. A cranberry coffee cake will be made tomorrow, and there is one more helping of mashed potatoes left.

Now to get in the sewing room and spend some time on myself!

Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
I am grateful for:

- my wonderful husband who works hard so that I can be home to raise our boys.

- our wonderful children who make me laugh, smile, and aggravated every day. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

- family, both near and far.

- friends (online and IRL) that I can go to for anything and support me.

- that we have enough, and can share and help others.

Off to get started on breakfast, then on to fixing Thanksgiving dinner!

Rowr!

We saw Casino Royale last night. Daniel Craig is absolutely yummy as Bond. The man has a fabulous body, but there's just something more about a delicious man in an impeccably tailored tuxedo (sans jacket), sitting in a shower. :)

btw -- if you haven't seen it yet, rent L4yer Cake for more Daniel Craig.

Assembly Line Sewing

I don't like assembly line sewing. It's boring and tedious. It always reminds me of the few months I worked in a patio furniture factory, sewing cushions and umbrellas. BORING! I got to where I could stitch together a patio umbrella in under an hour, and I was one of the slow ones. To this day I cannot sit under one without looking up to see how it's put together.

However, Connor really needs new diaper covers. These were cut out a few weeks (months?) ago, and I'm now getting them put together. Next I'll do something fun and pretty.

Painted Kitchen

"I paint too, Mama!" You can see we had some excellent help in getting the kitchen painted. :D

When the boys and I got home on Saturday night, from Chicago, we found that David had painted all the trim! Hooray! Less painting for me! This meant we could start right away on painting the walls. Sunday morning I started the cut-in work. I prefer to freehand the edges instead of taping; in the few places I taped, it doesn't look as nice. After I had gotten about 3/4 of the way done with the cut work, David came down and started rolling. Once we got the first coat of paint on, we left for the hardware store and mall (I needed to pick up some outlet covers and switchplates, plus we needed to get a birthday present). When we got home, I started the second coat, with more cut-in work. Monday afternoon I finished the second coat on the walls. There are a few little touch ups to do on the trim but ....

.... it's done! :D We are thinking about stamping a fleur de lis design on the walls in silver, and then roughing or wiping it off so it looks worn.

Now on to window treatments (ugh!).

The Windy (and very rainy) City

On Friday the boys and I went down to Chicago to visit with Peter and Julie. We got there mid-afternoon, and it started raining a bit later. You need to have a parking sticker/permit in order to park after 6 pm, so we walked over (in the rain) to the alderman's office to get one. It was closed! Luckily it was still early enough that I easily found parking on a non-permit street.

For supper, we went for pizza at Giordano's. YUMMY! Again, we walked (it's only 2 blocks or so), and it was kinda funny: two mamas, a baby, a toddler who insisted on holding his own umbrella that was bigger than he is, and two older boys. It was so windy our umbrellas kept blowing inside out! Then the puddles! oy vey! :D We did have a fun time and a delicious meal.

Saturday we went to see the Day of the Dead exhibit at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. Families had come in and made ofredas to the deceased. We saw altars to people of all ages: a singer, a radio personality, a police officer, and more. One could look upon their whole life history in the altar. There was an area that we could leave ofredas of our own, and both Caleb and Calvin left a note for my dad. We also browsed the little gift shop, along with 2 other exhibits.




Otherwise, we spent the time just hanging out and playing with Cuzzy. Calvin read stories to him, Connor read stories to himself. They wrestled and roughhoused, and pouted and cried. Laughed and played, watched TV and ate lots of treats.

No Sewing Happening Here

We've been working on the kitchen instead.

This is what the kitchen used to look like (if you click, you can look through the album and see our progress). Saturday we painted the ceiling. On Sunday David went and picked a color for the walls (it's some kind of dark blue), and also got trim paint and primer. Yesterday I started doing the cut-in work on the primer. We put some texture stuff in the primer, and it was like painting with pancake batter! It worked great.

The kitchen is all primed and ready for the regular paint. I'm going to do the trim next, then we'll paint the walls.

Purple Sweater

This one is for me!

It's the sweater on the cover. I'm using Classic Elite Duchess yarn (color is Priveleged Plum), size 10 Brittany needles (gotta have pretty needles), and it's coming along fast. I cast on for it a few weeks ago, and finished the back on Tuesday, at the dentist's office.

I have never knit a sweater for myself before -- here's hoping it works out! I chose to do a size S, since every other sweater I have done (for my kids and for my dh) have ended up bigger than I thought they would. Of couse, now I'm second guessing myself.

Dia de los Muertos

Besides being my sweetie's birthday, it's also Dia de los Muertos. We'll be remembering my father. Calvin wants to make up a little altar, and get some flowers. I hope to get over to the local mexican grocery store, El Rey, and pick up some pan de muerto and calaveras.

I'm sure my uncle will be going over to the family grave to wash and clean it, if he didn't do it yesterday. I've only made it to Mexico for Day of the Dead once since Dad's death, and it was nice. Unfortunately, America is starting to seep in, and more people are doing Halloween and trick-or-treat. I didn't like seeing that, it made me sad. I guess the farther south you get, the less that happens.

If you are curious to learn more, there are lots of links here.

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to my sweetie! I hope you have a wonderful day with lots of your favorite chocolate. :)