Saturday, February 11, 2012

blogging in a new spot

Through a really over-complicated series of decisions I decided to start a new blog:

mostly glasses

I'll be talking about not only sewing and quilting, but music and silly, fun stuff. Excited!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

I haven't been sewing much because I started a new hobby... portrait photography!

Saturday, November 27, 2010

pear peril

I mentioned my failed craft show a few post back...

I wanted to make my niece a play food set for Christmas. I'd made her a cheeseburger that went over great, so I thought I'd add to the set. Then my best friend got a table at a local craft show that we do every year and I figured what the hell, I'll do it. I went back and forth on what to make for a few days, but decided just to go with the play food since I was in manufacturing mode already. So I stocked up on fleece and two weeks later had a nice little pile of goods. I had some cheeseburgers and fries, a bunch of produce and some other random foods. I was pretty proud of myself.

The first day, I sold three things. One to my best friend's mom. One to my best friend's grandma. One to my boss.

The second day, I sold zero things and a lady told me my stuff was "cute, but totally useless." Sounds like some guys I've dated.

So I left totally disheartened, $50 dollars poorer than I was 2 weeks before and I still had a HUGE pile of fleece and no motivation to ever make anything cute and useless again.

But this week I decided, screw that lady! Unless you can eat it, most things are useless so I should just get over it. She's right. BUT, cute and useless is fun! So many people stopped and looked at my stuff. Every kid that walked past picked up the burger and pretended to eat it. A little boy used two carrots as cheerleading pom poms. The guy working in the booth next to mine went home and had steak the first night because he sat looked at my plush steak all day and got a craving for it. I wasn't just letting her ruin my craft fair, I was totally down on crafting in general.

So I got back to my machine and started sewing hardcore this week. I started listing some stuff from the show on etsy and even making more. I'm drafting all my own patterns, which has proven to be interesting and increasingly frustrating. Case in point, pears.



The first one was too weird at the bottom. The second one was too boxy. The third one was somehow more boxy and had a weird thing going on up top.



So I decided to stop using my good fleece and use some junky stuff. Which, of course, was the time that I got the pattern right.



One of these things is not like the other.

So the moral of the story is this: when life hands you grumpy people, make lopsided pears!

currently listening to:

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

wonky stars taking over my liiiiiife

Unemployment affords me the luxury to sew all day (it's really the only thing I can afford at this point!) So for the last two days, I've been working on this quilt top that I started last year. A majority of the blocks came from my month of sew connected 3 last September.

There's a combination of 12, 9, 6 and 3 inch blocks which has led to me being incredibly indecisive and nitpicky about the placement. A lot of time goes in to giving something the appearance of randomness! I've decided to piece the blocks in to 24" blocks. One down, eleven to go!

it's finally coming together!

I had a stroke of genius/moment of insanity where I decided that my foam ikea mattress would make a great design wall, so I leaned it against the wall and so far so good. It's squishy enough that pins go in without a problem but it's sturdy enough that it stands up on its own. This mattress fits the bed that the quilt is intended for, so it's been nice to see how the placement looks in relation to the size of the bed. And should I need a nap mid-sewing, I just need to tip it over and I'm good to go.

my janky design wall

Working on this quilt has given me more inspiration than I thought possible. I haven't sewn in pretty much a year. I woke up in the night thinking of things I wanted to make. It feels great.

I also woke up with an extreme affection for Jon Bon Jovi. Been listening to him all day... I'm pretty sure it's impossible to not rock out to this jam:

Monday, November 22, 2010

is anyone out there?

Hello blog land? I'm back!

Since the last time I blogged I...

-graduated college
-moved out of San Francisco and back with... my parents
-got a full time job
-stopped sewing
-ended my 5 year relationship
-had the most epic fun summer ever in the history of my life
-lost my job
-started sewing

So, now that I'm unemployed (but diligently looking for work) I now have time to...
-go to the gym, which I hate more than anything
-sell a bunch of junk of craigslist and ebay
-finish some quilts I started, and of course start some more
-do a craft show, which was an EPIC FAIL
-list all my unsold things from the craft fair (um, all of them) on etsy
-make some Christmas presents
-do my hair fancy every single day! This brings me great excitement.
-blog. See?

I was hesitant to start blogging again because my interests are all over the place these days. I read as many fashion and music blogs as I do sewing ones. So my genius plan is to smoosh it all in to one blog. Maybe cover what I'm sewing, what I'm wearing and what I'm listening to in each post. That sounds like a surefire way to alienate every reader in some way but I'll give it a go and see what happens.

and because blogs are no fun without pictures, this is the thing I miss most about San Francisco... watching the sun set over the ocean every single day.

what a view.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

where does the time go?!

It's amazing how fast time goes. I think the last post I made was about 4th of July and it's almost Halloween!

In the last few months, a lot has happened.

I turned in my petition to graduate. I will take my last ever test as an undergrand on December 17th. Woohoo!

I got a new roommate; this one from Australia. It's fun!

I had another birthday; celebrated with a gallon of Mitchells chocolate ice cream and a scoop of avocado ice cream for good measure.

More recently, I cut off about 8 inches of hair. It feels great to chop off a ponytail. It's so liberating.

Frankenstein got a new hat:
Frankenstein goes formal

Today, we had a fanatical wind and rain storm, which somehow snuck inside my house in the form of a massive ceiling leak. This happen before (last year) and my room is (once again) tarped and unusable. The best part is that I don't even have a roof; there are other apartments on top of mine. The wind was blowing the rain sideways, which seeped in through the window frames. Why do these things only happen during midterms or right before a vacation? The last leak happened the day before I left for a week in New York. Today we also had an earthquake and a bunch of big trees falling all around where I live. Apocalypse, much?
ceiling leak :(


So that's pretty much a recap on life at the moment. I feel like such a weiner that I don't update often for my 7 followers. I check my google reader every day and get irritated when the bloggers I subscribe to don't update. Then there's Perez Hilton who updates 50+ times a day... and I read every single one of them. Anyway, the point is that I haven't been updating because I haven't been sewing, but there is a lot more to life than sewing. I'm in my last 2 months of this great city, living with someone who is quickly becoming one of my best friends, enjoying having a car, cooking real food every day, packing for my move, getting ready to graduate, laughing until I can't laugh any more and working my little buns off on Wii fit. So maybe I should get out of my blogging box and open up a little, huh?

Sunday, July 5, 2009

5th of July

Let me be honest here and say that I HATE THE FOURTH OF JULY. I love America, I love history, I love my freedom, I come from a military family and support the troops, I love Obama, I love barbecue, but I can't frigging stand fireworks. I am scared of fireworks. Besides the fact they they are disgustingly polluting they are also frigging loud. It all started when my parents made me go to one of those 30,000-people-in-a-stadium firework extravaganzas when I was a child called 'Stadium of Fire.' That year, the event coincided with a freak lightning storm and I was pretty convinced that the apocalypse was happening right that second. The combination was enough to make me hate fireworks forever. I even boycott the fireworks that you buy from the stand on the side of the road. I hate them.

But I didn't let those stinky, loud, expensive fireworks ruin my day. I put on my best blue dress and red lipstick and went to the local farmers market where hotdogs only cost $1, but my heirloom tomato cost $5. San Francisco, you never fail to amaze me! Here is what $20 got me at the farmer's market:

the 4th of July bounty
And yes, those hotdogs were both for me. The boyfriend had 2 also. I couldn't pass up that awesome deal in a city where one stinking tomato costs $5!

Anyway, I hope everyone out there in blog land had a nice 4th of July whether you celebrate it or it's just another day.



Currently in my Etsy shop: