Finally caught up on sleep

...since I finished the beaded mat! It was down to the wire, but I finished right before leaving for the bridal shower. My sister cried happy tears, so all the hours I spent working on this were worth it. I had the hardest time capturing what the beads and the pearls looked like - the smaller beads sparkled caught the light, while the larger pearls just glowed. The smaller pearl beads were actually from my wedding dress - a bit of something old (and good!) to add to her new life as a couple.

Whew - the beading is finished! I ironed, but many of the wrinkles just wouldn't come out. Proof that it's hand made, I say.

Satin laid out on a pre-cut mat, then trimmed down to size.

Edges glued down to the inside and outside. This took quite a bit of pulling and re-arranging to make sure the beads stayed centered on the mat. I used an acid free glue stick with a pretty heavy hand.

Up against my wall - this is the best picture I got of the completed mat. Sorry about the lighting - it was a really cloudy day. I wanted to get a picture of the mat uprightl, a bit like it will look with a picture and a frame on the outside. I tried to design it so it could hang in any direction since my sister doesn't exactly have her wedding pictures yet.

Close up of the vines and flowers. I really like how the grayish beads accent the pearls and the ivory colored satin. The overall look was very old fashioned, like something made in another era. May have to do *one* more beaded project for myself. There are beads left over, after all...

Half way there

Let's not talk about how many hours I spent trying to thread a needle about the size of a hair, or about how many beads fell off into the couch or onto the floor yesterday. Or about how many tiny needle holes there are in my fingers right now. Or about how late I was up last night trying to sew down that last strand of shiny glass bits. None of that matters. I'm half way there! If I really work today and tomorrow, I should have the beading done in time for my trip to California. Sleep? Sleep is for sissies.

Beading progress

I'm done with one of the four sides and I'm really pleased with how the mat is looking over all. It's a really cloudy day today so lighting is lousy - sorry for the poor photograph. It's hard to capture the sparkle of the tiny beads in any light, especially with such subtle color variations. Back to the grindstone. I need to get this finished by Sunday, so there are many hours of staring at a tiny needle and coaxing itty bitty beads out of containers still ahead of me. Wish me luck!

Secret project revealed

Remember this? My sister was so wistful and sad that she wouldn't be getting any beaded love that I had to do something. I'm already making a shawl for her wedding, so a wrap wouldn't work. Tried to think of something she could use, something that wouldn't get stuck in a box and looked at possibly once a year. I thought and thought, and then the idea came. My sister loves pictures and scrap booking and is very sentimental in general. Why not make a beaded mat for a picture frame? The beading would stay under glass, so no dusting (I cringed at the thought of a beaded frame that would gather dust and dirt constantly), and it would be something she could enjoy every day. Perfect! With a bit of help from her good at being sneaky fiance I got the future wedding picture size and off I went. I'm in the middle of insane beading at the moment that has to be finished by Friday afternoon (her shower is this Sunday and I'm flying out to California for the weekend), so hopefully more details soon. In the meantime, a few pictures to tide everyone over.

Pictures

All right, I promised lots of pictures. Here's a good start. Back in December, my sister called to ask if I would be willing to make up a wrap for a friend of hers who was getting married in February. I answered back with a bunch of questions: what kind of thing did this friend want? How much was she planning on spending? What did the wedding dress look like? Most importantly, was she very picky? I had nightmares of a bride in California unhappy with every tiny thing I did and the nightmares that could possibly ensue. My sister assured me that her friend was very laid back and would be incredibly happy with anything I made.

I talked to the friend and tried to narrow things down a little bit. She sent me pictures of her dress (seen here) and said she wanted something satin-ish with beading that hit around the waist. Off to the fabric store for swatches, since I couldn't really tell exactly what color the dress was via the link or her pictures. I found some likely candidates and sent them off so she could pick something that would work well. Meanwhile, I tried to see what the beading looked like on the dress so I could echo it somewhat. My sister came to the rescue here when she visited in January - we found the exact dress at a store, so I got a good look at it. Yay! That helped a lot when I went to design the pattern.

I wanted something that would coordinate with the dress and look similar in the detailing, so I took the vines and leaves pattern and started drawing. I used graph paper so the end result would be symmetrical and penciled in vines and drawing the individual beads until I liked the overall design. Then I stitched the sides of the wrap together and placed the pattern under one layer of fabric, tracing the lines with an air erase pen. I machine stitched over the lines with a silver thread veeeery slowly, since the thread snags and breaks very easily. I learned to use larger stitches and re-thread pretty often.

Then I started beading. Here's where I should mention that I've never done this kind of work before. I have sewn larger beads onto fabric and I've done cross stitch and needlepoint and all kinds of find hand sewing, but this was all new to me. When I went to the bead store I had no idea what the different beads were called or what to use to sew them on - all I knew was what was on the dress. The nice lady at the bead store walked me through finding the right kinds of tiny beeds (seed beads?), I learned that the crystal beads I wanted were "fire polished", and found out that freshwater pearls are actually not that expensive (good, because they really made the wrap). When I told her what I was attempting, she paused, then very carefully said "...well, that's quite ambitious" thinking, I'm sure, something more along the lines of "that woman is insane."

The beading took a long time and was very exacting. The needles used for beads this fine are unbelievably tiny - so small, the eye of the needle is barely large enough to fit the insanely narrow beading thread through. After a while I got the hang of threading the needles and got into a groove of following the silver stitching with a narrow line of tiny beads, then adding a lone pearl in the center of each leaf. The pearls got double stitched as they are a bit heavy. I beaded and beaded and beaded, dipping my needle into a wee bowl of tiny silvery bits to gather up more as I went, until my distance eyesight would get a bit blurry. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Finally I was done (cue angel's voices here) and stitched up the ends of the wrap, then hand stitched the remaining opening. I ever so carefully ironed it, packed it in tissue, and sent it off, hoping the bride to be would like it.

My sister went to the wedding and told me her friend loved the wrap. Evidently people kept coming up and commenting on it, and several people asked if my sister was going to get a wrap like it for *her* upcoming wedding. Well, no. I am making an heirloom lace shawl, which is just as cool and is exactly what my sister asked for (more on that later). But I noted a bit of regret in my sister's voice when she told me this, so I have something special planned as a bridal shower gift. More on that later, too.

Day five: Winter vacation

Today was a run around and get last minute things done: trip to the auto club to renew our membership, off to the pet store to get a new collar for Tabby, and then a swing by the book store to get a gift certificate for my sister in law. After all the errands were finished, we made popcorn balls for the birds and critters outside. These didn't go as well as I would have hoped. The gelatin is supposed to dissolve into hot corn syrup and sugar, but it never did - the gelatin actually started turning golden and contracting in on itself in the pan. Not good. So I scooped it out and tried blooming more gelatin in some hot water, then adding that to the sugar mixture and boiling for a few minutes to get the water out. In went the birdseed and some pine nuts for extra winter fat reserves, and then a quick mix with the popcorn. Ryan tried making balls for a little bit, but didn't like how everything stuck to his hands and stopped pretty quickly. Arden didn't want to touch the stuff at all, but watched me crank out popcorn balls. Then I grabbed a long, thick needle and thread and started stringing. Not easy - the needle kept getting stuck. Finally got one put together and hung it up on a tree outside, only to have the popcorn balls start slowly sliding off the thread. Ah, well. The seeds will be just as good to eat on the ground as they are on the tree, I suppose.

Dan came home a bit early today, so we were all able to take a long bike ride around the neighborhood. I loved seeing holiday decorations and waving to everyone as we peddled on past. The boys are still figuring out how to stay a reasonable distance while hugging the side of the road (no sidewalks here), but thankfully there is little traffic anywhere nearby. When we all got home there were pink cheeks and slightly less energetic small folk, so our work was done.

Dinner was simple, but good. I used the rest of the ground beef from earlier this week and made hamburgers, adding a good measure of salt, pepper, and Worcherstershire sauce before I formed the patties. Then a good brown on each side to get a nice crust before being plopped onto a bun. We all piled slices of uglyripe tomatoes (which are absolutely delicious, if a bit odd looking), red onion, lettuce and toppings, then dove in. Oh, and paused long enough to grab some slaw to put on the side as well.

By the way, Dan loved his Wii! When I told him how I snuck out and waited in line, he was amazed at my sneakiness. Fortunately, I use my powers for good ;-) He's still configuring the game and reading the manual (swoon! I married a man who actually read the manual!), but it looks like we'll be playing tonight. The controller is seriously fun to use - it follows every movement your arm makes, and the controls are really, really easy to figure out. Even Arden was able to figure out how to work things. Much fun all around.

Day three: Winter vacation

Today we made ice lights. The directions call for leaving the molds outside to freeze, but it hasn't been quite that cold, at least not during the day, so into the freezer they went. It took several hours to get each layer set, and getting them out took a little longer than I would have thought, but they're just gorgeous all lit up. The boys both said, "whoa!" when we turned out the lights.


Also went to our local library, conveniently located at the outermost edge of our local mall parking lot. I kid you not - I can go to the mall and the library all in one fell swoop. Of course, I hate shopping with a vengence, so when my car is headed in that direction, I'm usually in search of books for loan. Ryan picked out a book on pirates and a book on spies. Have to make a career choice sometime, I always say. Arden chose an I Spy book, perfect for late night viewing.

Tonight's dinner was pizza and salad. The boys helped knead the dough and measure out ingredients for the sauce. Then Ryan helped cut up lettuce and cucumbers, and Arden poured the salad dressing. Both helped put the toppings on the pizza before I put it into the oven. Some Christmas cookies for dessert, and another day is done.

Day two: Winter Vacation

We made the coolest three dimensional snowflakes. I used plain old printer paper, folded in half lengthwise. Then I folded each edge down to make a triangle to measure out each smaller square. The boys used bits of tape and staples to put them all together, and they came out so nicely!

Then we went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry - known as OMSI around these parts. We have a family membership to the children's museum back in Southern California that had a nice plus: it applied to all the other children's and science museums throughout the country. We go as often as we can, making the $75 membership more than worth it. We've already seen the Star Wars exhibit (Ryan was on cloud nine the whole time), so we went quickly to the Innovation Station where the boys got to throw balls inside with impunity. This was Arden's favorite exhibit, bar none. We could have spent all day there. But Ryan had other plans. First the Physics lab, and then the Chemistry Lab, which he has now decided is the coolest place in the whole museum. Not sure if this is due to the protective glasses or the magnets and liquid nitrogen. I promised both boys that we'd go back with Dan next week when he has time off.

Dinner tonight was tacos. Ryan helped grind the meat (big sale on chuck a few weeks back, so I bought a few roasts and froze them), then I made the taco meat and cut up tomatoes, onions, and lettuce and shredded the cheese. Flour tortillas only needed warming up, and oranges got cut into easy to eat slices. Recipe for the taco meat (which could just as easily be made from ground turkey or even vegetable "crumbles", though I'd add a bit of fat to saute the onions and garlic) here:

Taco meat
serves 4

1 pound lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
dash cayenne (good-sized dash)
1 teaspoon salt
dash black pepper
1/3 cup kechup*

Crumble meat into a pan over medium - high heat. Add onions and garlic, and cook until meat lightly browned. Add spices and tomato, but not kechup yet. Continue to cook for 5 minutes or until tomatoes are disintegrated. Add kechup, stir, and cook for a few more minutes to let flavors meld.

* Yes, I actually said kechup. No, this is not in any way authentic. But it gives a nice bit of sweet/sour to the mix, and helps bind everything together so it's similar to fast food taco meat. Feel free to leave it out - the mix will be looser but still delicious.

Day one: Winter vacation

We made ornaments (dodecahedrons! I love math) from construction paper. Used the lid from a vitamin bottle to make the millions and millions of circles (OK, there were only 40, but it felt like millions). The boys decorated each circle, then we started gluing them together. This was harder because all of the folds weren't exact. Also, had to let each section dry completely before putting it all together. I'd leave at least a few hours total for this project. Ryan decided his ornament needed googly eyes, while Arden added a "Texas" flag to his. Haven't a clue on either count!

We made whole grain waffles for dinner, topping them with vanilla yogurt, crushed raspberries, and toasted walnuts. Maple sausage on the side made Ryan a very, very happy boy.

After dinner we went out driving to see Christmas lights around the neighborhood. There are some amazing displays - some beautiful, some "special", all worth a trip to find them. Makes me glad we're finally able to have some icicle lights on the front of a real house so we can add to the wonder a wee little bit.

Ah, there's nothing like a hoarde of small children hopped up on sugar

Today was D-day. In the last twenty-four hours I:

• Bought construction paper, feathers, tacky glue, googly eyes (surprisingly hard to find), a long adhesive magnetic strip, and clothespins.
  
• Cut out 28 rectangles out of orange construction paper (to go along with a reading of "The Little Orange House")
• Planned out a ghost finger puppet craft project (teacher handed me white felt and ribbon and said, "you can make some kind of ghost puppets with these, right?")
• Cut out 48 felt ghosts
• Cut out 24 orange ribbons for the bows that went on the ghost puppets.
• Tied and trimmed 24 orange bows for the ghost puppets.
• Made up a sad sample ghost...at around midnight.
• Traced out 24 mask shapes from orange construction paper.
• Made up a pathetic sample mask...at around 1:00 am.
• Painted 24 clothespins black.
• Drew out bat wings (teacher handed me a bat magnet and said, "can you make up something like this for the Halloween party craft?" I stupidly said yes. Then I lost the bat so this one's all my own.)
• Cut out 24 sets of bat wings from black construction paper.
  
• Cut 24 strips of magnet for the back of the bats. Have to have something to hang on the refrigerator door, you know.
• Cut 24 lengths of narrow orange ribbon for the bat magnets.
• Tied and trimmed 24 orange bows for the bat magnets.
• Made up a not entirely pathetic sample bat magnet...at around 2:00 am.
• Got to bed by 3:00 am - at least I beat the sun!
• Made cheese dip for my youngest's Halloween party.
• Got both boys to school and stayed at the youngest's party long enough to play musical chairs twice.
• Went back to Michael's to get orange construction paper for the jack o lanterns.
  
• Picked up youngest at school.
• Ran the Halloween party for 20 first graders, 3 younger siblings (all four years old), and a darling 5 month old baby girl.
  
• Somehow managed to run all the children through four craft stations without anyone gluing themselves to anyone else or loss of life and limb.
• Served humongous cupcakes, juice boxes, and chips to the above mentioned children (aside from the baby who was quite happy with breast milk, thank you).
• Distributed goodie bags to 20 first graders while assuring the siblings that their bats, jack '0 lanterns, ghosts, and masks were really lots of goodies and just as nice as the goody bags. Honest. Only a few tears here.
• Managed to maintain my sanity. Mostly.
  

...and we haven't even done Trick or Treating yet.

I'm doomed.

Oh, and can I just say publicly, for the record, that 89 degrees is too freaking hot for Halloween? Just had to get that out.

Just call me magpie

Ah, pretty sparkly things. I love them all. Goes right against my usual Birkenstock wearing, no makeup, wash my hair and comb it as a "style" self, but there you have it. A shiny, sparkly bead will turn my head every single time.

I've been lusting after beaded stitch markers for quite some time now, so I decided to do something about it. Bought some beads, jump rings, t wires, and borrowed Dan's needle nose pliers and went to town. Soon I had a set of stitch markers and a pile of beads remaining. Some rummaging through my craft boxes revealed earring wires, so I made a set as well. So sparkly! So shiny! Must. Make. More.

Why is it I always finish projects at midnight?

I was pondering this last night....oh, around midnight. My sister leaves for China tomorrow morning, so I wanted to get her gift ready so Dan could drop it by after work today. I started this a week ago, then set it down as I did other things. I've got *lots* of time, I kept telling myself. Finally realized on Sunday that I did not have much time left, especially since there were other things I needed to do this week besides sewing like a mad fiend.

Enter in Kathy's patented midnight sewing spree. Usually saved for the night before Christmas or perhaps an important birthday, but useful any time there just aren't enough hours in the day to finish something. Who needs sleep, anyway? I close the door of the closet so Dan doesn't hear the sewing machine and go to town*. I think my best creative thinking is done late at night when everything is quiet and I can get really into a project with no distractions. Either that, or I tend to procrastinate a wee bit.

First, here's the finished messenger bag, complete with goodies**:

The denim fabric was left over from trivets my sister made for her classroom volunteers at the end of the school year. There are tiny hot pink flowers here and there, and I topstitched with matching pink thread that you can't see in the crappy middle of the night picture. The lining I found for $2 a yard back in the bargain section of Joanns. I love me a good cheap fabric hunt - there always seems to be something that will work back there, and the price soothes my frugal soul. There are pockets for magazines, pens, scissors, decks of cards, and a special pocket for her plane ticket (a real, honest to goodness printed ticket - in 2005!) hidden behind the magazines. I tried to get a shot of the inside with all the pockety goodness, but it came out really, really bad. Trust me here.

Next come the goodies:
That's a portable game board with backgammon on one side, checkers on the other. Beside it is a pouch full of pink and yellow buttons to use as markers. I used a narrow pink grosgrain ribbon to tie both.

Checker board:
This started out well and ended up being a huge pain. I ironed fusable web to the two colors of fabric then cut out 64 squares, all 1 1/4 inches per side. So far, so good. Then I placed them on the muslin backing and ironed them down, alternating stripe sequences. Things were looking good at this point. Then I started to stitch down the edges with a narrow zigzag of pink thread. Ploink! Broken thread. Grumble, rethread, keep on going. Ploink! Another broken thread. This time I noticed that there was goo of some sort building up on the needle, which was pulling on the thread and breaking it. Allrighty, I'll just keep the needle clear of adhesive gunk. No problem. Ploink! Evil, evil web with plasticy stuff that makes sewing impossible. Grumbling quietly so as not to wake Dan, I carried on. Took forever, or quite close to it. I won't say how many times the thread broke, other than it was too damn many times. But the end result looked really good, so I'm not complaining. Much.

Backgammon board:
I love how this came out. Had a hard time figuring out what to do for the center bar since I didn't have a third fabric. Then I realized that turning the stripes would make a nice contrast. By this time I knew all about the adhesive issue and went to find another stitch that wouldn't pick up as much of the nasty stuff in the first place. Blanket stitch to the rescue! The needle would only dip into that evil pool of goo every 3 stitches. As long as I kept clearing off the needle, it went just fine. Some topstitching and a ribbon tie, and the game board was done.

There are a ton of things I'd change about the bag and the game board, but they came out really well, especially considering I made it all up as I went along. It was done in time to send along with Dan this morning, and I think my sister will like the colors and get a lot of use out of all of it. I got a pattern out of it, so sewing up the next one should be much easier. Oh, and today I find out about Sewer's Aid, which keeps residue off the sewing needle so nothing jams up. Why didn't anyone tell me about this YESTERDAY? Agggh.

* Yes, I sew in my closet. It's HUGE - you could easily put a twin sized bed in there and make it a room, although the sloped ceiling would make getting around tricky. Perfect for my sewing machine, serger, fabric, yarn, the occasional small furry animal....
** Please forgive the truly crappy pictures. Note that they were taken in my closet at midnight.

Craftiness

My sister is going to Shanghai, China for a month this summer. She'll be teaching elementary age children English by day, sightseeing and exploring by night. She's thrilled at the opportunity, but a bit nervous about being so far away from home for such a long time.

Here's where the crafty bits come in. She asked me to knit up the backgammon board and checkers board with carrying bags from Weekend Knitting for the trip. Well, I'll admit to amazing time-bending powers, but it just isn't going to happen. Far too much to do between now and July 11th, and for once I'm going to take the sane route and demur. However, that doesn't mean I still can't make up both boards some other way. I'm thinking applique, mainly out of my fabric stash if possible. A two-sided board with backgammon on one side and a checkers board on the other with a matching bag for the board, beads/buttons/markers of some sort, cards, and any other game type things she wants to take wouldn't be hard at all.

On to details. Thought I'd start looking for dimensions and what each board should look like so I can start sketching and planning. Googled and voila, backgammon board! Also found rules to play with in PrintShop, pretty up, and tuck inside. The checkers board is simple: 64 equal sized squares. I think she knows how to play ;-)