I just installed a widget and I'm so proud...

If it really worked! So I need someone from typepad to leave me a comment... But I don't know anyone at typepad... Hmmmmmmm....

Will be back later with either pics of my granny square bag in progress or some cute little boy boxers.

I finally took these blankets outside!

And they looked lovely in the sunlight. I love the close ups, especially. Here's a turquoise and red, and the colors look very true to life here. They are both just perfectly bold and deep. Some colors get so intense and gorgeous on bamboo. And, oddly, others don't. Another that just knocks my socks off is the marigold below, it's super intense and lovely in real life. Baby A has a blanket just like this one. I love it, but I have to say it makes me even more annoyed that amazon sent me the apple green stroller instead of the tangerine I ordered. Wah! This blanket would look so much better with the orange stroller.


This one is marigold and wedgewood blue. I actually think it looks a lot better in person. I am posting it for the pose, though. This may end up a regular shot I do with my blankets. I love how it shows off the drapiness. And I think most of the colors I use will look beautiful against the leaves.


And this one is the same better black and baby pink blanket I showed in a previous post.



Sometime when husband has got M with him, I'm going to have to take all of my blankets over to the park for pics on the grass and then hang them on the fence for a pic and lay them out on the floor, too, so there're a good variety of views. It's so hard for me to give up that sewing time though. Sigh.

A little embroidery

Augie in his swan onsie
Originally uploaded by smileypomegranate

I just adore this little onsie! I dyed some cotton lycra fire red and turquoise (you can almost see the turquoise at the neckline) and put this little swan on the front and it turned out so cute. I cannot believe how easy it is to do a really nice looking embroidery. This one was from the Sublime Stitching book, but it's just as easy to do your own designs. Check him out here lounging on a matching blanket!

I'm planning on sewing up and embroidering a Dia de los Muertos themed tee for M to go with a camp shirt made from this Abacadabra pattern out of the white colorway of this fabric. I feel like I want to get started on it right away, though because it was on my list of things to do LAST September and I don't want to not do it again... Camp shirts somehow always get pushed to the bottom of the to do list.

I suppose it is time to sit down and figure out what I want to sew up for M's school clothes this year, since he's starting full days and I want to do all that fun back to school stuff with him. Until I got pregnant with A, I sewed everything he wore, except for a couple of handmade gifts. I even sewed all of his underwear. But I had NO energy during my pregnancy and I really dropped the ball. Now he's got only a few mama-made pieces in his wardrobe. So, I'm thinking that rather than trying to make every single piece for him, I'd rather make several special ones. He'll probably be wearing some store bought jeans and cargo shorts.

I asked him the other day, when I realized that it's been literally two years since I made that huge batch of boxers for him, whether he'd like to buy new underwear or have me make them. I was certain he'd say buy. I probably wouldn't have asked otherwise. And he said he wanted me to make them! I wonder what my sewing means to him. I can't believe that he wouldn't prefer some superhero underoos, and he knows they exist. I love the ones I made for him but they're mostly solid colors, not anything you'd think a five year old would like. I was shocked and, of course, pleased.
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So, I couldn't find the fisherman's yarn...

I'd get so much more done if I didn't spend half an hour at the beginning of each project looking for the yarn or fabric or pattern I want. Ugh. I am really hoping that when I move into my new room I will get so organized that I won't lose all that time anymore. I'm definately going to be reading up on those lovely sewing room organizing blogs.

I know I said that I was going to clean up my sewing room the other day, and I really had the best of intentions, but then our contractors showed up and went to work which makes it hard to do almost anything in the house. The room is moving right along though. Woot!

So, when I realized I was only going to make myself miserable if I looked for that yarn anymore, I made the trip to Michael's to get another skein but decided at the last minute that I couldn't invest in one knowing that I had two more at home *somewhere*. So, I did something I thought I'd never do -- I bought four skeins of acrylic yarn!!! Yuck! But I thought acrylic might be nicer for a playgroup snack bag since it's likely to get food and such dribbled on it and I'd like to throw it in the washer without any fears. It doesn't actually feel so terrible. I wouldn't want to wear it or anything, but it feels okay. And the colors are very pretty -- deep purple, deep raspberry, deep navy, and deep green. Very deep, really! I've already made several squares.

And I have to share this gorgeous pic of M. Sigh... It makes me wish I had gone, but I know it would have been so hard to have Baby A there. And I really did have such a good time dying all that velour...

I'm excited again. Phew!

Ok, well, I was nervous that after buying that big roll of organic bamboo velour I was going to get totally sidetracked by crochet -- not even doing it myself, just looking at everyone else's -- and this obv would just be taking up space in my not so big house. But I'm excited again.

Today I finished up two identical blankets. One was intended as a gift and the other was going to go into the inventory bin (not sure how I'm going to be selling them yet, but I'm collecting an inventory just the same). But I am so pleased with them that they are both going to friends. (It does make me wonder what's gonna end up in that bin, though.)

Then I took some more indoor pictures. I really wanted to take the kids to the playground and take some quick shots while we were there in the natural light and on some pretty grass, but M wanted a "rest day" today. Usually "rest days" are exciting for me because he wants to be busy all the time and sometimes I am wracking my brain to figure out how to make every day funner than the last. The ones that really kill me are like yesterday, when I picked him up early from pre-school so that we could go to the 12:30 session at the water park with some friends, where they have this awsome playstructure sitting in a two foot pool of water. They closed at 3:30, we get in the car to head home and he says "so what are we doing now?" And he's CRUSHED that we're just going home. How do you teach your child that everyday is not a day at the beach? Anyway, on rest days I usually get to spend a little time in my sewing room.

Ok, got sidetracked there... So, we stayed home and I took some pics of the blankets, well one blanket because they are identical. I still think I've got to take pics outside, but I actually like some of these. Here are my favorites:





So, I've decided to use lionbrand fisherman's yarn for my granny square playgroup snack bag and dye the squares with kool aid. I know it would look better in the end if I dyed the yarn first and then crocheted it up, but I'm feeling too lazy and like I'd like to get started without waiting for it to dry, so I'm just going to dye the squares after crocheting them. Hopefully I'll have something to show off soon!

Do you think it's the blog?

For some reason I'm not feeling all that crafty lately. Maybe the blog's got me nervous. More likely, it's because my sewing area is such a mess right now that I don't really want to be in it. That was the case for much of my pregnancy and I deeply regret it, so I think I've got to just do what I have to do to make it fun to sew in here -- tomorrow. I will feel so much better if I do. But it feels like a bit of a waste because this is not my sewing room anymore, we're building a new one (turning the garage into a tiny sewing room for me and an office for the husband so that M can finally have his own room). And it will be glorious when it's done, but there's no telling when that'll be.

I did sew up two items in the last couple of days because I absolutely had to. The first was a diaper cover for A. I was testing the pattern and I was LATE. I tried the small one first and did it in a very timely manner. I was so proud of myself. But it didn't fit right, so then I said I'd like to test the medium and it took me like three weeks to make it. I'm kind of thrilled though because last night A did not leak at all! Yay! Here's a modeling shot:



And one of his top half to go with it, he can't get enough of his sweet fingers:



The other thing I made was a number tee for Makenzie's birthday. It was really fun making something so girly. I pride myself in making clothes for M and Baby A that are not overly gender concious. But then when I get to make something for a girl I realize that there is just so much you can't force your boys to wear. Of course A wouldn't know the difference but M is in school now. Sigh...

Anyhow, this is an ottobre pattern and my first capped sleeves, though you can't see them well in the pic. I have had the flowered aqua cotton lycra for years with no one to use it for.



I had M make her a card and I just LOVE it. I can't believe how well he is writing now. He started at the Montissori school last september and he could barely hold a pencil. He just had no interest in drawing or writing and I didn't really push it but always worried that I should. I think he's really proud of himself now and it's so sweet.



And I just thought of one more culprit for my decline in craftiness. I've been obsessing over Attic24's crocheted stuff. I just want to copy it outright. Her stuff is just beautiful and perfect and I'd love to have her chair with the blanket, pillow, and cushion cover on it in my house. And I've been looking at the flickr granny square pool alot. I think I'd like to start with something small like this bag to use for playgroup snacks.

I was so productive... for a couple of days.

So husband and M went out of town for the July 4th weekend to be at husband's brother's wedding. The thing I was really sad to miss was seeing M as ring bearer in his suit and tie and all. And it turned out that there was a second ring bearer who was only 2 years old and they walked down the isle holding hands. That had to be unbearably cute. I hope someone got good pics.

As soon as I got home from dropping them off at the airport, I started dyeing fabric and sewing up blankets and I had a really good time doing it for about 3 1/2 days. I did a few dyes that I just fell in love with, and the blankets turned out gorgeous. It seems that I do have a hard time actually finishing blankets, though. I think I've finished three, maybe. I have several more that need just a few minutes each and then lots of blankets at other stages in the making. I also have around 300 squares cut for the patchwork tops. So, I do feel like I'm getting stuff going, which is nice. Otoh, at 3 1/2 days I hit a wall. lol I was just ready for them to come home and didn't feel like being here alone, busy or not. So I took a day off and spent it watching dvds and eating chips and salsa. I picked them up at the airport yesterday and Baby A and I came back to life. :)

And then today I am still having a hard time motivating myself. I'm a little down because I got my period today. A's not quite five months old. It's no fair. I was hoping for a much longer run. So, I don't know if I'm down because of the hormonal stuff or if it's just because I feel like I'm moving onto another era. My tubes are tied, so there is no upside in this for me. And obviously, I know I'm not having another. And somehow getting my period feels like the official end to the whole pregnancy/birth/post-partum phase of life. So, blah. Not pushing myself too hard today.

I did, though, decide that I should at least shoot a few pics of my partly done blankets to see how far I have to go with that, and I do have far to go, as it turns out. A couple of my favorite dye jobs just didn't photograph well at all. One that I am not as fond of, though, turned out beautifully. Go figure. But I think I will have to finally finish some of them and lug them to a nice green grassy area next week and see if that goes better. I also think that they might look nice hung by the corner, maybe with a clothespin on something, or maybe hanging on a wrought iron fence post with a pointy top. It's also possible that my camera just sucks. So, we'll see...

But here are a few pics, just so I can say "look how far I've come" later. :)

I actually like this pic. It's the only close-up I took. Next time I'll have to do more. I really like how these two dyes compliment each other. The darker one has alot of purple in it but it's so dark that the purple is pretty mellow.



This is one of my favorite blankets, but I don't think it comes across here very well. I may have to sell this one to someone who can see it up close and in real life. The lighter blue is looking very grey here, but it's not. And there's not really any pinkish natural in there, like it looks to be in the picture. You'll just have to believe me.



Here's another try of the same blanket with the back dog-eared so you can see it: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3512/3698894119_e73b8b6942_o.jpg

And here's one of my patchwork topped blankets. And it's actually finished. Woot! I made this one thinking that it would be more "normal" than my usual taste, for my more normal customers, but I actually really love it. The colors are so refreshing somehow. I was definately thinking of pink lemonade alot while I sewed this up. The back is a deeper shade of orange.