tumbling blocks - housely things

muslin curtains are the story of my life

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:14:00 -0700

After years of execution and planning, our back family room is finally a pleasant place to be. It's not 100% done, but we're getting there. Elie did almost all the work himself—he is no joke. He figures out the things I don't. And vice versa. Which brings me to the fluffy pile of muslin.

Every so often, my sewing is a contribution and not a distraction. I made simple muslin curtains for all the back room windows, and now it's not a fishbowl. I have made these for every window in this house. We used to wonder and argue and have grand ideas about curtains, but now we know what works. This time there wasn't even a discussion.

I'll show you the back room once it gets a little more, hmmm...furnished. We need some shelves. I love this number.

PS This weekend we made awesome grilled stuff-from-the-garden pizza. Thanks Melissa.

for old windows

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:09:00 -0700

Our therms went up by a good amount this year (Yes, how's that for a killer conversation starter?), mostly due to heating the big family room which is halfway through renovation and which we had closed off for the last two winters. The back itself is now nice and snug, but our front windows are quite drafty. They are old, wiggly-glass single-paned windows, and I love the way they look despite their inefficiency. What we really need to do is have old-school storms built, but that's kind of low on the agenda. Enter the draft buster - AKA stuffed fabric tube that sits on the windowsill. Blair's looked all snug and cozy, and I thought it might work for me too. I feel like mine would work better if they were weighted or filled with wool, but something is better than nothing.

sending out the upholstery

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:52:00 -0700

You may remember (or likely do not--that's fine) that I took an upholstery class some 2+ years ago with the idea that it would give me the tools I needed to turn my worn chairs into things of beauty. As it turns out, upholstery is somewhat of an art, and I have neither natural talent in this area, nor an inclination to practice. My one gray velvet chair I almost completed during the class never became totally completed. In the time since the class, the chair has faded a bit in places to a lavender with peach tones. I am officially giving up upholstery. We have found someone who does good work at a good price, so I am getting both my gray chair and its clawed-up, bright yellow mate redone in a not-too-fussy off-white matelasse. White—am I nuts? Maybe, but at least it won't fade.

Knitting continues to dominate the crafting agenda. I'm working on trying to take cuter in-progress pics.

you big hubbard

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:17:00 -0700

Can you believe that we grew this? It is amazingly huge. There are also a few smaller ones that are plenty large. The pumpkins and squashes grew in the part of the yard where there used to be a pole-barn type garage. They were very viney and huge. Did I say huge yet?

We also let the Queen Anne's Lace and other stuff that blew in grow along the side of the yard, but it has come to our attention that this is quite frowned upon, so we mowed it down. One man's weed is another man's flower, and ours were pretty raucous, but anyway, it's the end of the season and time to clear out all the beds and get them ready for their big nap.

And speaking of opinions...I was very pleased to have my chair cover posted on apartment therapy! (Hey there! if you've come over from that way) Luckily, I knew that better women than me had already been snarked in the comments, so I was prepared. Everyone's got to like what they like, right?

chair clothes

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:38:00 -0700

I knocked a to-do project off the archive list this weekend. (Yessss!) It's part of my efforts to catch up with the things I've been meaning to do—things I'm doing for others, in some way. Although the chair will be enjoyed by everyone, I did it now for Elie because he works so hard on this house of ours. He makes it looks new and crisp while still being old and stately, using methods that are completely beyond my talents. I can sew though.

This chair is one in a set that used to belong to Elie's mom, and she very kindly gave them to us a couple of years ago. They're covered in a peach velvet that has seen much love from grandchildren, dogs, parties, you name it. They've been needing some work, but nothing structural, just prettying up the dirt. I've always liked chairs in Country Living that look like they've put on understated dresses—fitted and tied linen numbers. I've had this in mind for these chairs for so long—I don't even know when I bought the fabric. The chair has such a simple shape that it wasn't hard to fashion covers with some basic pleating. I more or less spread the fabric on the chair and pinned and cut away where it shouldn't be. Then I did the edges in piping to sharpen them up. Now, the dirty peach is still under there, and I was reminded of what the instructor of the upholstery class I took a few years ago said: Upholstery can hold ages of dirt. If you cover an old chair, your cover is as likely to get dirty from the inside out as the outside in. Gross. To combat this, I made an under-layer of blackout curtain lining. It's kind of rubbery-plastic-y, so I don't think the dirt will come through very easily.

Here's the before:

garden revue

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 14:33:00 -0700

This year's garden was prolific. It's had me up to my armpits in tomatoes, which is not a bad problem to have really. For the past couple weekends, my usual crafting hours have been taken up with processing tomatoes—either peeling and freezing them or turning them into sauce and then freezing them. They'll be good later just like they're good now. I'm pleased and truthfully a little surprised to say that most of our dinners from mid-August until now have featured something from the garden. It's really made the "what's for dinner?" question easier to handle. Because really, something from the garden plus bread/pasta/potatoes and cheese is pretty good eating.

kasia skirt?

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:57:00 -0700

1. Kasia(2), 2. Denim Kasia skirt, 3. Stripey Kasia skirt, 4. burdastyle's kasia skirt, 5. Red and blue skirt, 6. green kasia, 7. Burdastyle 6012 - Kasia Skirt , 8. Burdastyle Kasia 6012, 9. Kasia Skirt

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

I love how cute the Kasia skirt is. I admire it often on these folks on flickr. Nikkishell has made three of them, and they are all great. I am very tempted to make one—I even have a stretch cotton twill that would be the right sort of fabric—but I'm afraid it work work on my pear-ish shape. The high waistband (and obviously also the sailor-type buttons) make this skirt really fun, but it would not be fun if the my hips made the waist ride up higher and higher as the day wore on. It's really cute though.

I spent most of today looking really not cute. I'm pretty sure I was wearing that ugly old baggy t-shirt from that team building exercise I did for my old work—the one with the curry stain. I was painting, and then Elie and I hauled a lot of funky insulation up to the attic. We're trying really hard to clear out the back room so that we can actually finish and heat it this winter instead of closing it off for the season, as we've done for the last couple of years. Part of doing this has meant putting a bunch of random stuff on craigslist. I love craigslist and freecycle because we always have so much perfectly good stuff that just isn't useful to us anymore. Beige rolling office chair anyone?

pretending it's almost fall

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:24:00 -0700

Real Fall is a good month and a half away, but yesterday the air was cool, so let's allow ourselves the Fall Preview.

Socks! I finished the pair. The toes are quite messed up, and I think they really would fit Eva better, but I love em.

Pickles! The pickles came out tasting like pickles. We made real canned pickles and refrigerator pickles. I like the refrigerator ones better, but I also added extra unnecessary salt the canned ones. You know, for good measure. It's a bit much

Pulling up carrots! Our garden carrots never really took off, possibly because we never thinned them and due to a gardening miscommunication, radishes were planted directly on top of the carrots. Elie pulled up what we had. It's not bad though—two quarts of baby carrots. Ridiculous.

"Harvesting" the corn! A squirrel planed squirrel corn in our yard and we let it grow. Isn't it creepy-looking?

Cat fest! Wearing a cat shirt and reading a cat book with a real cat on your lap.

pickles and beets

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:26:00 -0700

We came home from vacation to an exploding garden. This year's garden being so much bigger than last's, it a little crazy, but we're tackling it with gusto. Now, I love a garden tomato—who doesn't? But aside from these juicy red beauties, my favorite things in the garden this year have been the beets and the potatoes. The potatoes were fun to dig and so creamy when boiled, and the beets are just so pretty in all their states, and they're delicious. We mostly eat our beets roasted with onions. Elie and I know that we've succeeded in making our child weird because before she left for a week with her grandparents, she begged us not to "eat all the beets and onions without her". Ha!

More than anything else, we have cucumbers. How many cucumbers can a plant produce? Sheesh! So tonight, right now even, and am taking my first stab at pickling. How exciting is that? Actually, I just heard a lid pop in, so I know I have at least one vacuum packed jar. I used The Government's Guide to Canning (actually just the very helpful website of the National Center for Home Food Preparation), because when you've never done something before and it could potentially give you botulism, you should check your facts. I will let you know how the pickles turn out.

Speaking of things taking place in the kitchen, can you catch a glimpse of what's under those beets? Elie is just about done with out new counter tops and sink. I can hardly wait.

sewing FAIL? I think not.

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:38:00 -0700

Friday's sew-a-thon was both productive and fun. There was just one moment of FAIL panic—when I spent God knows how long trying to even out 80 inches of gather at about twenty past lunch time. I had to snack and regroup.

The top is Simplicity 3887. You probably wouldn't decide to make it by looking at the pattern envelope because that features the droopiest peasant top ever, using too much fabric , with a too skinny sash. I only decided to pick this one up after seeing all the cute ways people did it up over on flickr. I was pretty dubious about the side tie at the bottom—Would it make me look like I wished I was Hannah Montana? Possibly, if tied in a bow (as per that fabulous envelope cover) it would, but dangling down I think it has no such pretensions. Because I wasn't so sure how this one would work out, I made it out of an old sheet that was not particularly dear to me. It's comfy in the heat, and works just fine for tending my bean trees. Those are scarlet runner beans, and I sure do love their bright red flower on the yellowy green leaves. If only the rabbits would leave them alone, I might to eat one some day.

spore print

Sun, 31 May 2009 20:16:00 -0700

Our new garden is nothing but mounds of compost on top of a winter's worth of the chicken's straw. The plants seem to like it, but the fungi think it's completely wonderful. Seriously! I have never seen so many types of toadstools. We've been having some fun trying to identify them with the Field Guide to Mushrooms. The book says that an "essential part of mushroom identification" is to take a spore print. You do this by placing the mushroom cap on a piece of white paper, then putting an upside down glass on top of it and leaving it for a few hours.

It seems our yard mushrooms are all mostly poisonous. We think the little yellow ones are Golden Waxy Caps, but maybe they're Yellow Bolbitius. The description of the fungus seems to best match with the former, but the latter grows in "old straw and rich compost". Both species are edible, but I really don't trust myself there. Plus, they are quite slimy.

not here, but not anywhere else either

Thu, 14 May 2009 17:53:00 -0700

Here I am, showing my shining face here again. Where have I been? I'm not quite sure. First I was drinking the workahol, then I had to get summer planned and end-of-year business, and then iPhoto wanted to upgrade, but it wanted to update all of my ga-jillion photos first, and it just didn't seem like a good idea to do that with without backing up... You get it. Where I haven't been: I haven't been having an online life somewhere else and forgetting this place. I'm not on twitter, and I'm pretty much never on facebook. I think about them a lot, and I wonder if that's where other people are and if I'm missing something. But, I don't think they're for me--they seem too "on" always. I like the slow pace of sharing that blogging has. I don't think I can quite keep all my ducks in a row on facebook, and that's how I like my ducks--rowed.

I'm trying to make myself a bunch of summer shirts. This one is from Japanese craft book ISBN 9784834722506. The sleeves were really gappy, and I darted them up a bit, and they're still gappy. I like the keyhole though, and I especially like the keyhole button. The fabric is more bolt44. They have very crisp stuff. This photos was taken on the day Elie and I made compost berms in our garden where the old metal house used to be. We are so happy to be planting a garden there now. It's huge, and I hope we aren't doing too much, but there's nothing wrong with being optimistic in Spring, is there?

green, green garment for me

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:01:00 -0700

If the shirt fits...then you can be pretty sure I'll be making this pattern sometime again. This is Simplicity 4077, view E, sans ruffle. Even though I didn't do the ruffle, I kept the facing, because it makes the shirt look more finished. I top stitched around the collar for the same reason. I do think the shape of the collar is a little weird—it's a little of an era, but I'm not sure which one—so maybe I'll mess with that next time. The pattern also comes with a mandarin collar, but I'm not so sure about that. If I make it again, I might bring the waist up a little bit so it's more petite. I added 3/4 in. of length though, and I'm glad I did. I decided to do that after looking at many photos of this pattern on flickr. Flickr is so awesome for deciding which commercial patterns to sew because you can see all different body types modeling what you might make. Oh, and the fabric came from Bolt 44—thanks to True Up for alerting me (and other people on the internets) to their existence.

In other weekend news: Elie and I (just the two of us!) carried the old powder blue bathtub out of the old bathroom/future laundry room. Now, it was just steel and not cast iron, but still, I think I deserve some kind of tub hauling prize.

The easter bunny was totally in our yard today. Someone's very large velvety-brown bunny must have busted out of its hutch. We call him Bob, for Big Old Bunny. He was trying to make friends (very close friends, I presume) with the wild yard bunny who lives under the lilacs. Bob is twice the size of wild yard bunny, and he chased her around the neighborhood all afternoon. We get so much entertainment from the animals.

A little sew hip

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:39:00 -0700

You know how sometimes you can feel a little shy about something and also really excited about it? There's a little article about my creative space in the March issue of Sew Hip, which is a new-ish UK sewing magazine. Yay! It's pretty cute, and fun to see how someone else arranges all the little bits and pieces of my home which make it dear to me. What really makes this really cool is that all the photos were taken by my good friend Lisa, and we got to do this as a project together, and now we can have a cup of coffee and look at our magazine and be pleased with ourselves.

The pattern for my honeycomb smocking tutorial is also included in the issue, and is the reason for all of this. (Thanks Manda!) There's a lot of other cute in the magazine—an embroidery pattern from Hillary, an interview with Liesl, an interesting article on old-school woodblock printing, and Betz White fuzzy goodness. If you're in the UK, you can pick one up, but it's not to be found here in the US. Maybe one day it will make it to Borders?

from the weekend

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:01:00 -0700

Hope you've had a bit of goodness in your weekend, hanging out with your peeps (and cats). We got stuff done, which is always nice, and managed to have some fun too. This was my favorite conversation. It just happened & cracked me up:

Me: (I've been working on my bro-in-law's website) Elie, want to see something kind of cool?

(I show Elie the thing I've done with the internet.)

Elie: Wow. That's kinda sci-fi. Did you write that or is it some sort of applet or something?

Me: It's jQuery. Do you remember me talking about jQuery before?

Elie: Yeah, I remember you talking about jQuery, because I always think you're talking about something like jDate.

Me: ha!

Elie: Yeah, like it's a way you can ask Jewish questions, even when there are no Jews around! (Mimes typing action) What is hamentaschen?

Me: When is Passover 09?

And more giggling. So hysterical to me, the difference between a JavaScript library and a queriable online source for Jewish facts. Yup, we crack ourselves up.

Also this weekend, Eva and I made Sarah's grapefruit sorbet. So good. You might recall, I'm a grapefruit junkie, and this sweet, tasty, frozen stuff really hits the spot. It might be my choice of evening refreshment this summer.