Not Dead. Arm Attached.

So I think it's poison ivy. Just an odd, single dime-sized spot on my forearm. It looks like no poison ivy I've ever seen and I have no idea where it came from. I am happy with mererly disgusting rather than flesh-eating so I'm not going to think about it too much.

In other news, I get to work from the beach next week! Notice that I said work rather than "work" - I'll be in meetings all day that will make me want to stab my eyes out, but it's the beach! It will be warm! We will be doing site visits on ferrys! Our meetings wrap up on Thursday afternoon so I am planning on staying down there through Saturday. Come visit and join me!

This weekend I'm heading to Raleigh for a craft fair and to check out the flea market. I have a very poorly conceived idea of a project I want to make so I'm looking for materials and inspiration. I also need to finish or pitch my current poorly conceived project - a shirt dress that's in pieces across my living room. My sewing philosophy is more along the lines of "eyeball it, sew it, rip out seam, repeat" than "make a pattern, measure twice, cut once" so it takes forever to get anything done. I worked three nights last week and finally have the skirt part of the dress finished. I would never make it on Project Runway. (Except the budget part - the dress materials were $6.)

Around the house

I worked on two projects a couple weekends ago that I never got around to posting. The first is a bag to match my new gold shoes (seriously, I can't believe I actually own gold shoes). It's not exactly perfect but I think it works really well.

The second project was a set of floating bookshelves. I had seen these on some home furnishing sites and picked up 3 at nested, one of the best little shops in Carrboro. Here are the shelves in action on the wall beside my stairs:

The only problem is that I am running out of hardback books to display in the house. I already have all my Norton anthologies and antique books from my grandmother downstairs - I need to stop using books as decorating items unless I want to show off my macroeconomics and differential equations textbooks.

Horseballs!

Last year at the Octoberfest in Ohio we were introduced to what might be the greatest game ever.

I decided to make a set for Jeff's birthday this year and we put it to use a couple weeks ago when Allan and G were in town. The bars are a little wider and the balls are bigger but it works pretty well (except for when the whole side fell off).

Good times. Hopefully we will be able to bring it out more this summer.

Summer dress

I usually start feeling crafty when the seasons change and this year is no exception. I picked up some fabric this week and I've finished one dress - several other items in the works. This fabric came pre-ruched so the whole thing was super easy. I tried to find a link to the fabric because I'd never seen anything like it in a fabric store but I'm not having any luck.

Anyway, the print is kind of cheesy and the fit is not particularly flattering, but it will be a great beach dress for the summer.

100 Things: Part One

Some bloggers write really nice "about" pages to give an overview of their lives and who they are while others give a list of things in place of a personal essay. Here is my first attempt at creating a list of interesting things about me.

1. I can recover a sofa. My mom and I worked on recovering a loveseat, an armchair, ottoman, and several barstools after I graduated from college. I did all the deconstruction, pattern cutting, and construction while she did the sewing. It ended up being a major project, but I think it gave both of us a lot of confidence in our makeover abilities. I am also in possession of the world's best staple remover tool.

2. This is my most treasured book. We had a copy growing up and my sister laid claim to it when my parents moved after retirement. I went online to buy a copy, thinking I could get one for about thirty dollars (ha!). I was devastated when I saw the price so I called my mom to commiserate. We started talking about Bad Mousie, Susan and the bears, and fairies in the lemonade. A week later a used copy arrived on my doorstep, courtesy of mom (she didn't pay near the asking price at this link). I can't even think about that book without smiling.

3. Foot fetish? Not likely. I had two moderate injuries in college, both involving a foot, beer bottles, and a formal dress. (Also, fear of lockjaw.) The more serious one was my senior year after my boyfriend's fraternity formal. I think I cut my foot open on a bottle cap, but I'm not sure since I didn't really notice the cut until I was spreading blood all over the fraternity house. The story is good enough to save for another time, but let's just say it involves CSI re-enactments, Waffle House, and a trip to the emergency room.

4. I would probably name a baby "Baby". My favorite stuffed animals growing up were Bear and Rabbit. (Rabbit met an unkind fate when my parents moved. Bear was rescued from the trash after he suffered a paint stain on his back. He now sits inconspicuously in my living room.) My first cat is named Kitty. I was smart enough to keep the name my second cat came with, but left to my own devices I probably would have named her "Cat". Names are obviously not my strong suit.

5. I have worked as a lunchlady. I worked in the Canyon cafeteria in Yellowstone after my freshman year of college. I generally worked the after lunch through dinner shift. For the first part of the summer I worked as a server (country fried chicken, lasagna, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, etc) but halfway through the summer the managers figured out that I had half a brain and promoted me to cashier. Again, this story is a post of its own.

I'll keep working on this list - I've got a long way to go!

Crafty-ness

Two recent projects: a small travel bag to keep track of what's dirty and what's clean and personalized bookplates. I'd wanted to make the bag for a while but kept forgetting to buy the pieces I needed. Last night, I gave in and used what I had. Each end zippers and there is a seam down the middle to keep each side separate. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. The bookplates are made with individual stamps and are kind of time consuming but a good project to do while watching tv. Click on either project below for more pictures.

Bag idea originally from Uncommon Goods.