mmm.... coffee.....

pomegranate tea

sneaky peak!  i actually managed to get up really early this morning & sew for 3 hours before going in to work.  i made 6 ginko leaves & 5 elmer's glue cuffs.  i drank a ton of coffee with very little food & am quite the busy little bee!  i also dumped a whole pot's worth of fresh grounds all over myself & my shirt pleasantly smells of coffee...
  the RISD sale is this saturday & i'm a lot more prepared than i thought.  i had dinner with teresa last night & we figured out what we're bringing & what we need to display.  i counted up how much merchandise i'll have & i feel less stressed.  i haven't been as stressed, i seem to be continuing with the more relaxed approach to life i developed while spending my summer swimming in art's pool!  it's nice, i like it, not being so frenzied & panicked, i barely have any anxiety the morning of a sale now.  i've mentioned it before, but you have no idea how different my life has become in the last year or so.  it's amazing & i am so grateful.

here's a photo of rosh hashana dinner at neighbor susan's that doesn't even show half of who was there!  18 people came & it took every single one of susan's & my dishes & silverware to set the table. (if you know me then you know that's a hell of a lot of dishes!)  most of my glasses & all my chairs, too.  it was a wonderful group of people, even the new roommie rachel came (in red on the left) & we're still eating the leftovers.  i baked a delicious honey cake that i'm definitely making again...  what else have i been up to?  that was monday... tuesday was spent with a migraine...  yesterday was work & then collecting all my stuff back from next door...  and sewing sewing sewing!  so come by the sale on saturday!  benefit st. in providence, RI from 10 to 4!

nobody walks in LA

you know you want one!  we've always loved elmer's glue & what's cuter than a little record player purse?  some other styles in the works are: apples, mushrooms, scissors, owls, sad teeth, rainy clouds, avocados, cassette tapes, lady bugs, stars, flames, trees, fish, bunnies, birds - i can't remember them all, but i have them sketched out somewhere...  what else would you like to see?  this is wicked fun, i think i will have plenty to bring to the alumni sale next weekend.  they all have a great cotton lining inside, too:

i'm in love with your brother

jodie, teresa
tara, patricia
roxanna,
kristen
allison & me

cupcakes, cupcakes,
more cupcakes,
some candy bars,
cupcakes &
banana bread slathered in lemon glaze
with a side of cupcake.

we crafty ladies sure know how to party!  there was an afternoon of crafting & chatting & cupcake eating at my home this weekend. tara came down for the day, kristen recently had a birthday, teresa's was the day before, i think jodie's just passed & mine will be in a few weeks so what better excuse for meeting up?  later on i let their boys join us for some bbq & drinks & more cupcakes.  did i mention there were lots of yummy cupcakes?  sorry to any of you that couldn't join us or that we forgot to invite!  there will definitely be a next time & i will try to be more organized about it & let you know in advance.

i stayed up really late last night making this new generation of zippurses: vinyl clutches.  i'm really excited: they'll coordinate with the vinyl cuffs & maybe, if i have time, there will be wallets!  i'm using the skeleton one today, test-driving it to make sure it doesn't fall apart & so far so good.  they probably won't be ready for the RISD alumni sale, but i'll definitely have them at the Bizarre Bazaar in Boston if we get in...  i can't wait to go home & make some more!

it's happening again... it's happening again...

i had one of those craft epiphanies last night.  fueled by my excitement about my new roommate, suddenly several half-ideas in my brain finally came together & i had to try to make them immediately.  as i walk home i keep looking at the ginko leaves on the ground - i knew there was an idea in there, but then i'd go home & forget.  so yesterday i picked up a few leaves & stuck them in my pocket.  i was trying to figure out what they wanted to become when my landlord stopped by, he made a comment about giving me some feathers from his bird because he noticed i have a mug full of feathers...  feathers!  now i need some green vinyl so i can make the pattern i saw on some girl's skirt last week - i haven't forgotten that one because i keep doodling it everywhere.  much as i love the zippurses, these vinyl cuffs are fun & simple & i can make a lot more of them in time for the alumni sale!  perhaps you want one, too...

  & the roommate!  she is so very nice & oddly not at all what i thought i wanted.  i had these ideas about what my new roommate should be; my age or older, not a student, someone with a job.  well, she's younger than me, a student (but a grad student) & doesn't have a job!  but i like her & she's getting her graduate degree in textile conservation - what could be better than that?

i'm all about the hair

i spent all day yesterday cleaning the apartment & making piles to bring to the Salvation Army.  come on, do i really need those black & silver raver pants from 8 years ago that i wore twice?  i'd offer to swap like Wee Wonderfuls, but i'm fairly certain you won't want the stuff!  Art invited us over to swim in his pool last night & now i'm feeling more revived & motivated: i've been playing with my new vinyl & some fusible interfacing.  it's been a little frustrating figuring how to sew when it sticks to the foot of my sewing machine (my secret weapon is tracing paper.)  i made this mod sparkley blue vinyl purse with a silver sparkley strap & lined with blue celestial fabric:

after i decide how to sew the parts together in an easier fashion i think i'll try to sell these, would anyone be interested?  next is my first attempt that i didn't show you last weekend, it's a bit too small & not very useful.  i guess it could be like a clutch or handbag, but you can't wear this one over your shoulder:

i was very excited to discover a dial on the back of my old necchi sewing machine that i hadn't used before. i was finally able to decrease the tension in the foot pressure, yes i've had my machine about 5 years, but, hey, it's not like it came with a manual!  now it's wicked easy to sew on vinyl, well, the more matt vinyl, that shiny sparkley vinyl is stickier for some reason.  and, because i couldn't wait to try the snap-grommet-thing, i made a little cuff out of scraps this morning:

look how good i'm being - i haven't knit a single stitch today!  i did however buy some yarn even after groaning at the balance in my checking account.  i've dubbed the colorful stuff "yarn vomit" but it knits up really soft & furry.  i'll show it to you after i knit a swatch.  i also bought the last little skein of the evil alpaca because i'd like to make the orange scarf a nice size since it's going to have to be a gift to someone.  may i go knit now?

mama don't let your chipmunks grow up to be cowboys

  the diner that tara took us to on sunday had old-fashioned booth jukeboxes with an interesting array of song choices; some oldies, some classics, but also Outkast, Tiffany, Maroon 5, the Chipmunks, Queen & my personal favorite, Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash.  tara & i both got grilled cheeses with onion rings & for no apparent reason they put bacon in our sandwiches, but it was delicious.  i think we're going to have to ask for that from now on.  below are some photos of the overwhelming Osgood Textile

  at work today we used a microscope to compare mold to bloom (or spue).  i had some leather scraps with bloom on it & after looking at it under magnification i regretted ever touching it - the bloom is some weird chemical reaction exuding from the leather & looked like sparkley foam.  the mold was pretty frightening, too, you could see how 3-D it is, all spidery with tendrils reaching every direction, even towards you.  and yes, i know, i'm a dork.

have you seen my battery charger?

  look what i'll be bringing to the risd alumni sale this weekend!  i'm sooo excited, i bought some vinyl in white, black, & sparkley diner red to make zippurses.  that's what i'm calling 'em, zippurses, or zippouches, but zippurses sounds better.  i switched from the felt to the vinyl because i wanted them to be really durable.  how can you resist the red sparkle?  i'll have skulls & cats with all different lining fabrics like flames & skulls & crosses & leopard print.  people are already trying to buy them off of me - my friend jim wants to keep his guitar picks in a skull one - so i'm hoping they'll be a hit.  i'm thinking they'll be $20-25 because they take about 2 hours each, but i'm getting faster at it.  i'll try to explain how i made them... 

  first i cut the vinyl & sew on the face, then cut a circle of the cotton liner that is a little smaller than the vinyl.  i sew the zipper to the two pieces of cotton & then sew the cotton into a pouch.  okay, now it gets tricky, with the zipper open, i pin to one side of the vinyl, sew from the inside & repeat with the other side.  the hardest part is getting my darning foot to sew far enough in.  lastly i sew the rest of the way around the vinyl, being careful to sew up to but not over the zipper!