My latest obsession

A few weeks ago ohdeedoh posted an article about Fisher Price's little people turning 50. OMG memories came flooding back and I was inspired to force Finn to relive my childhood.

It's easy for me to justify this spontaneous obsession, Finn's first birthday is in July and he's probably going to need some toys ASAP. So I head over to ebay and start bidding away. So far I have purchased The Barn, The A-Frame House, The School, and the biggest daddy of them all, The Parking Garage.

The school and A-frame come shipped together and they are pretty dirty and old looking when they arrive. I put in some elbow grease and get them spiffed up in no time.

As a kid I never played with the A-frame, but as an adult I couldn't resist the cool shape and the sliding doors.

These Little People are grilling, there's even a steak on the barbie.

Yes!, chilling on the deck, that's what these Little People do.

I do, do, do.

So Rip and I got hitched this past February in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We were lucky enough to have a few members of our Family and some of our oldest and dearest Friends join us.

The Wedding was planned in about a month and there wasn't a whole lot of time to get formal invitations sent out. We sent emails and made phone calls giving everyone the heads up about the Big Day. Once I had a head count of who would be able to make it, I whipped up some 'invitations' that would state the where's and when's of the ceremony itself. The front desk staff at our resort were kind enough to hand them out to our guests as they checked in. This also saved me the hassle filling everyone in as I saw them.

The ceremony was on the beach at 2:00 in the afternoon. To help my guests fight off the heat I had picked up some folding fans so they could keep a little bit cool. I designed these tags to hang on the tassels that were on the fans. I would have loved to shown a photo of the tags on an actual fan but Royal, my well behaved dog, ate the only one I had left. What an Ass Hole.

After we got home and we were able to let the dust settle a little and our Folks got us some names and addresses, I was able to send out wedding announcements. There were a few people that I also wanted to thank for checks, gifts and wedding showers so I killed two birds with one stone and used these as 'Thank You" cards as well.

Wedded!

48 Colors!

My boss surprised me with an awesome present the other day. She gave me these super beautiful pastels for my chalk board wall. I LOVE THEM! I've been using the cheap sidewalk chalk you can get at Target and have been disappointed with how dull and boring the colors are. Now that I have this new chalk my walls will never be lame again.

This is my favorite swatch, I am a sucker for blues and greens.

Our summer to do list looks so much more awesome now.

Undies for a Vag Partay

Check it. I was invited to a bachelorette party this weekend, one of the requirements was that you had to bring lingerie for the bride to be. I was kind of panicking about what I would bring since I don't know too much about lingerie and other pretty things one would wear before they're about to do it. Jeff came up with the idea that I crochet her some undies. In Jeff's vision I would put the initials "P" on one boob and "D" on the other (the initials of the brides future husband) and then write the words "vag" across the crotch. I opted not do that, cause I'm classy like that. Here I am modeling the goods.

File this under Finn

Our friend Matt (50's) watches Finn on Thursday's.  One day Matt decided it would be cool if he started making awesome video's of their time together, this is the latest and greatest.

How things are Going: A Christmas stocking update from Scoops

Finn and I went to the fabric store last week to buy some felt and pick up some sequence for the Christmas stockings that I've been wanting to make. It hard to find restraint when looking at all the sequence, edgings and trimmings but I think I did a pretty good job of being thrifty and buying awesome things at the same time. I've also bought a few vintage stocking patterns on the interwebz over the last few months, and have taken a little inspiration from all of them. More than anything I want these stocking to look like they came right out of the 50's.

There are lots of decisions to be made throughout this process, especially because I am making 4 stockings at once. One for Mom, Dad, Finn, and a 4th just in case any one else might want to join our family.

My current plan is to make one stocking with a snowman for Finn, another with ornaments for Jeff, mine will be a sparkly decked out Christmas tree, and the last will be either snowflakes, presents, or reindeer. 

I'm gonna sequence the crap out of this stocking

This snowman does not know what he is in for. Sparkles and beads here I come.

Mix Tape Onesie

I was at Crafty Planet last week for the first time and I was inspired to try my hand at an embroidery project. I have done some cross stitching as a kid but that's it. I pick up a kit of rock and roll and proceed to make Finn a customized onezie.

I am sure that there a lot of people that already know about these kits and embroidery patterns but it is all new to me. So JIC you would like to learn more about them you can pick up your own kit here at Sublime Stitching.

Holy Crap! I am doing it. I just follow the pattern, easy.

Next step, add some tunes. I take one of these cool Mark-B-Gone pens and label the tape. Then I embroider over it. Awes.

In the morning Finn checks out his new outfit he is not as impressed as I am, but that's okay. I think it's cool

Homemade Beer Cozy

Guess what? I made a beer cozy for my best beer drinking friend, Jeff "Waff" Allen!  This is the first time that I've created a crochet project without a pattern, I just guessed how to do it and it worked.

Step 1. I start at the bottom. Beer bottles are round so I decided that making a round shaped bottom would probably be a good idea.

Step 2: Get authentically Krausened, beer is good to drink while crafting.

Step 3: Just keep going round and round.  

Step 4: I changed it up a little bit by changing the stitch, thus creating a pattern.

Step 4: Stop stitching when you get to the top.

Step 5: Add your drinking buddies nickname. Success!

How things are going: A spring project update from Scoops

First of all, Happy April! Finally it is here!  After missing out on most of last summer due to being preggs and having a newborn I am doubley stoked for this coming spring and summer.

Project #1 (Band T-Shirt Quilt)

Since I was a teenager I have had this compulsion of buying band t-shrits, ALWAYS. I can't leave a show without picking one up at the merch table on my way out. I am a junkie. Over the last 10 years I've collected around 50 shirts and I never even wear them. When I was younger I used to wear them all the time but as I've aged my fashions have become more refined (yeah right) and I find myself wearing band t-shirts less and less, although I do still have a few that I wear on a weekly basis. During our move last fall I began to realize how many of these t-shirts I actually had. Not only do I do not wear them often, but I also can not throw them away. Too many of them are more than just a piece of cotton and some ink but a memory of good times. 

So I decided that I need to come up with a solution for this problem, and the best thing I have thought of so far is to make them into a quilt. These are questions that I ask myself; Am I crazy? Can I do this? Will I ever finish this? Will it be worth it? and most importantly, What if I want to wear that shirt again? I own the original Modest Mouse shirt circa 1998, I have over 6 Hold Steady t-shirts including the original "THE HOLD STEADY ALMOST KILLED ME" and not to mention about 10 TPC shirts, some of which are one of a kind. Oh decisions, decisions. I need to commit! So a quilt it is.

I've been briefly looking on the internets for references on this massive undertaking, and unfortunately I haven't come up with much. There are others out there who have also faced this dilemma and have created successful quilting projects. I am hoping to join there ranks.


If anyone else might be interested in doing this, here is a link to a website that seems to have some good foresight into t-shirt quilt making.  I am lucky though, my Grandma is a master quilter, so hopefully I can lean on her for advice.

Project #2 (Baby jars for organization)

Have you ever seen baby jars used for organization? My Grandpa used to use baby jars to separate all his screws, nuts and blots, etc. He had the baby jar caps screwed on to a piece of plywood and hung up on the back of his work bench, then he would fill up the jars with hardware and thread them onto the caps. I've been saving my baby jars so I can adapt this idea to crafting supplies, like buttons, edgings, yarns, etc. Below I've posted a photo from flickr so you can get the idea.

photo by californiaAmy

Project #3 (Christmas stockings for three)

I was so sad this last Christmas when we didn't have enough extra cash to buy Christmas stockings. It was our first Christmas with Finn and I really wanted it to be special for him. Christmas is one of my favorite times of year and definitely my favorite holiday, besides my Birthday, and I wanted to share this with Finn. I decided I would make it even more awesome for him and make our whole family a set of vintage style Christmas stockings. I purchased 2 patterns yesterday on the interweb and am going to the fabric store later this week to pick up felt, sheers, and thread.

This pattern comes with some cool retro templates for the letters.

Project #4 (Bruce Springsteen in pillow form (If I can do this, I can do anything.)

And last but not least, being inspired by the Bob Saget portrait, I have decided to create crocheted pillows of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I can only imagine, that if successful, that this will be one of the most awesome things ever. This is the picture from the cover of Darkness on the Edge of Town, hopefully I can transcribe it into a pattern. I am going to attempt the Afghan/Tunisian Stitch and then will try and cross stitch the image over that, at least that's what I am thinking I will do.


Wish me luck.