mmm.... coffee.....

a war in a beehive on the moon

phew, crisis averted!  my sewing machine was misbehaving this weekend & i had to give up using it entirely because i was only getting frustrated, stressed & losing patience.  i do use my mother's old Pfaff as a backup, but my little Necchi is like a third arm when i'm sewing vinyl & it's hard to suddenly switch machines.  especially when you've got less than 10 days to make a pile of merchandise!  all i needed was a $15 foot pedal, one that wasn't 40-somethings years old.  oh, hey, what's that up there?  pacman vinyl cuff for renegade!  pretty sweet, i think.  after i make a few of these tonight, i'll get back to sewing clutch purses like i said i was going to.  and now some gratuitous photos of the cute kitty Pericles that i'm cat-sitting.  he is so much like the kitty chip had when we lived in the carriage house, even has the same yellow eyes & i keep accidentally calling him PZ.  pericles is the sweetest little thing & never stops rubbing orange fur on my black hoodie so it's all blurry action-shots:

centuries ago there was an E at the end of it

we all thought i would never get around to it, but my vinyl cuffs are now in stock at plain mabel!  quick, snap them up before they're all gone because the rest i'm saving for the Renegade Craft Fair in brooklyn.

(thanks for the photo tara!)

satan sucks, but you're okay

one two more things that i made last night!  aw man, i forgot to take a photo of the lining - it's a blue fishy fabric & the fish are very blocky-nintendo-looking.  it's still supposed to rain on saturday, but they say it's going to be 70 degrees... 

it's like boxing a glacier

i was hard at work sewing almost all of my 3-day weekend.  with a mix of sad & happy emotions, i helped neighbor susan start her move to a new apartment sunday.  sad that she is moving, but so happy for her because the new apt is right on the water & near the bike trail!  my roommate will also be moving soon, i'm not ready to focus on it yet, but i will be roommate-hunting again...  anyway, on to the photos!  please forgive them, they can't help the persistent rain & icky flourescent lighting:

between this & the earlier post, that's about every design i've got.  the last photo has two one-of-a-kind cuffs that i was trying out, but probably won't recreate.  the jellyfish doesn't photograph well, sunlight or not, but they are wicked cool & i'm going to sew up at least one clutch purse with that on it tonight.  i made many more cuffs than i expected, i'm feeling fairly well-prepared, although there is always more that i wanted to get done.  i had more to say, but i'm off to get some lunch.  come by saturday if you're in town!

i'm getting sick of janie's latest kick, she's headed for her own decline & fall

i know i promised pretty pictures of crafts last week & i'm sorry it took me so long, but hopefully this will make you happy!  i know it cheers me up immensely - things have been hard lately, i haven't been my upbeat & happy self.  but now that spring is here i've been doing more sewing & came up with some new cuff styles, too.  here is a sampling of the cuffs i will have at my many upcoming craft fairs.  (there are quite a few more that you've already seen like feathers, clouds, slugs, leaves, etc)

my friend scummy is in town & it was my roommate's birthday on friday so we had a little party full of tasty vegan food from Melanie's Vegan Eden.  i had no idea that vegan hot wings were so damn tasty.  i was especially excited to discover that they have the old arkanoid table from checker's pizza & it works & it's free & i'm still terrible at it!  i'll spare you the details of the night & just share these two photos i took with scummy on the left & mike on the right:

strange looking patty melts at Norm's

i finally started to feel better on sunday & got inspired to cut up my ragged old army surplus bag & make a new & improved version.  it wasn't easy, but that's mostly because i just started sewing without planning it out first & sewed myself into some difficult corners!  it didn't take long, i made it in less than a day - a day in which i disappeared for 5 hours with jodie & george to get coffee & run around lincoln woods.  here are more terrible photos that don't convey how really cool it is that i made myself a messenger bag this weekend!  (do note the presence of the beloved pink hat & the mini-clapotis scarf)

i don't think i'd make many of these to sell, but i am considering making a few, perhaps taking some custom pre-paid orders?  the next one will be much better.  you can't quite tell, but the lining is this soft velvety stuff in a rich brown.  man, those photos are awful, sorry!  just close your eyes & dream it up all pretty...  and, too continue the trend, here are some odd photos i took from the bus in nyc:

behold my hand crafted purity!

i'm updating from home on the sad little laptop so who knows how the html will turn out, i apologize in advance for any weird coding.  i stayed home sick today after an exhausting weekend of what has been confirmed as a stomach virus that is running around Brown & RISD.  i'm going to quietly spend my day sewing in my studio, pretending to be prepared for all my upcoming events.  i'm going to philly wednesday & thursday for a workshop that i'm pretty excited about, but the timing is quite ridiculous.  saturday we'll be at Craftland & sunday is the bizarre bazaar Boston so come visit & buy something!  here is a little photo essay to show you what i've been up to & how utterly not ready i am...  wish me luck & hope to see you.... somewhere!

 

20. John Wayne movie, maybe

woo-hoo, my vinyl cuffs are now available at plainmabel.com!  you can also find them at Frog and Toad on Hope St. here in Providence, RI.  many more on the way, too...

help me pay for all this vinyl i splurged on! 
validate my need to buy so very much! 
make sure i can turn my heat on all winter! 
keep those SallieMae sharks at bay!

no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet

many of you may have noticed that i haven't been returning emails lately.  well, okay, even worse than usual!  i did get some response from my hosting service about the excruciating slowness & they have offered to switch the server my account is located on.  i'm going to go ahead & do that some time this week.  they say it will take 24-48 hours & any emails sent to me will be bounced back.  so you have been  warned!  i'm going to send out a general email to everyone i can think of, but i can't get into my mailbox right now, maybe later... grumble grumble...

rachel drove me to Osgood Textile in western mass yesterday so i could roll around in overwhelming piles of vinyl.  i spent an embarassing amount of money on the stuff.  it was about what i had expected, but i had hoped it wouldn't be that much.  we met up with the lovely miss tara of plainmabel & ate grilled cheeses with bacon & onion rings at a real diner.  we played johnny cash on the jukebox, they had lemon & chocolate cream pies & i had a strawberry milkshake for dessert.  delicious!

and to those of you who have requested merchandise for your store and/or webshop: i am sewing sewing sewing like mad, obviously restocked & expanded my vinyl selection, and will hopefully be able to email you back about it soon!
 

no donny, these men are cowards

wednesday was my birthday!  did i forget to tell you?  probably, it didn't feel much like a birthday, although i must be getting older because i didn't get carded at the restaurant nor at the liquor store.  i went out for dinner & drinks with art & kristen, teresa left an awesome bowling themed package in my hall, tara sent a great mix cd, and there were cards & calls aplenty.  on sunday i bought myself some yarn at sakonnet purls "for my birthday" and then some more today at a stitch above.  i know, i shouldn't have, but it was on sale!  how can i resist that?  i caught up on my bills yesterday so that makes it okay, right? 
i put up several of the vinyl clutches in my etsy shop & i'm adding the vinyl cuffs as i make them, too.  unfortunately we have not seen the sun in new england for what feels like months so the photos are terrible, they're much better looking in real life & you know you have to have one...  c'mon!  buy it!  it's just one little cuff, one leetle tiny cuff...  if it makes you feel better here is some of the yarn i bought on sunday (i'm hiding the most expensive one from you as i'm already knitting it into a mini clapotis!)