collection jars

I just found this giant jar at a discount store in town...  finally I've found a perfect place for my naked baby collection, and yet another way to creep out everyone who comes into my lair.
Have a fabulous weekend, as it prepares to snow yet again.

friday night lights

I have a confession to make... I cannot stop with the Friday Night Lights. Which is weird because I don't give a rip about football. Originally, based on the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, a 1990 nonfiction book by H. G. Bissinger that I haven't read yet (but it's on my list), the show is amazingly good. 
In it's 5th and final season right now, in the real TV world, of which I rarely participate. So, thank you Netflix for your watch instantly, late-at-night-while-one-is-sewing program. 
Here is an entertaining bit from a NY Times article back when the show started:
Lord, is “Friday Night Lights” good. In fact, if the season is anything like the pilot, this new drama about high school football could be great — and not just television great, but great in the way of a poem or painting, great in the way of art with a single obsessive creator who doesn’t have to consult with a committee and has months or years to go back and agonize over line breaks and the color red; it could belong in a league with art that doesn’t have to pause for commercials, or casually recap the post-commercial action, or sell viewers on the plot and characters in the first five minutes, or hew to a line-item budget, or answer to unions and studios, or avoid four-letter words and nudity.
Amen.

new goods for the bazaar

smaller messenger bags

drawstring backpacks

ahh, the details...

and a few more drawstring bags 

danger, intrigue- the thrill of the hunt

What is an easter egg hunt without a little menacing peril? ...prickery bushes...

I hope you're current on your shots...

 hideously deformed creatures

 stagnant, murky depths

    about that tetanus...

splinters anyone?

dizzying heights

...and here they are, the brave and tireless hunters. The final report in-  the best easter egg hunt ever,  thanks to the fear factor. 

 This final picture will become one of what we call the 'cry baby series'. You know the memorable group photos from your childhood with everyone but you in the picture. As you drearily speculate, "Where the heck was I when that picture was taken?" and "does my family care at all about me?" 

Then, your mom takes a look and imparts, "No, don't you remember? You were just throwing a fit when that picture was taken."

So, just to keep things clear in future scrapbooks, (no more racking your brain, "was that the year I spent a week in the hospital after falling off the storage container or just the time I just being a chump and refusing to be photographed??") if you are mid-tantrum, you still have to be in the picture- then we can laugh about it later- one day later (and for the rest of your life). That'll teach 'em.

something for the boys

This bit of clever inspiration came to Steve O as we were puzzling over designing something handmade for boys. It's been feeling nearly impossible to come up with something that boys would appreciate and wear that isn't too cute, girlie or a skull and crossbones- an image I am so done with.
He came up with this luchador mask from lucha libre,  Mexican wrestling (the book shown is Espectacular  de Lucha Libre, fotographias de Lourdes Grobet) and went as far as to draw it all up, cut it all out and everything. Manly enough for sure, I think I'll add it to the very short list of good design out there for the fellas.

I just couldn't pass up these boys, I found these two never used, but previously owned linen tea towels at the local thrift store this week. At first, I had no idea what I was going to do with them, using them as towels was out of the question, within a week they'd be ruined. Make them into oven mitts?... frame them and hang them on the kitchen wall?... no, they aren't that funny... And then it hit me today- I'm thinkin' a little something/something for an apron or two, perhaps on a pocket. Just you wait, I'll see what I can come up with.

village people

It wasn't me... like it usually is- thinking about my Halloween costumes months ahead of time, it was Steve O. He just showed me the YMCA video by the Village People (fun fact: from 1978), have I ever seen it? or did I just mentally block it out?  I wish I could embed it here, because it is so fabulous (somehow it's been blocked from embedding), so here is the link to watch for yourself- be amazed, wistful, work your way into a nostalgic stupor or just laugh your head off at the dancing, camera work and men in costume taking themselves way too seriously.
What would be awesome is if we could pull off there costumes as a family. But, the kids would never do it. I could buy the each a ski resort, a Ferrari and a pony and they still would never do it.
Actually, Q might do it for a horse...

Given the choice of costumes- which one would you be?

My apprentice

Important  qualities for an apprentice:
1. Serious work ethic.
2. Sees what needs to be done and gets it taken care of.
3. Not needy, likes working in his own private space.
4. Fluffy and cheerful- in a quiet sort of way.
5. Works for free, thank goodness.

the rain in spain

Spring break was delightful, probably too much sewing and too little enjoying the great outdoors- what can I say- apparently I want to burn out. Now, back to real life. About a month and a half left of school for the smalls. The world is greening up, and when it stops raining, I'm going to ride my bike.

 I might even wait until the rain stops (or longer) to shave my legs.

Images from a reusable shopping bag from Mountain Equipment Co-op, brought back to me from a trip my boy took to Canada a while back. I'm afraid to use it cause I love it too much. I should just use it everyday as a purse, instead it's on a shelf in my sewing room- like it's a precious vase.

quilt block tablecloth

How about jazzing up your picnic or party this summer?
I've been cutting up squares from piles and piles of scraps I've have piling up around the sewing room for years now,  and here is the (almost) finished tablecloth (I still need to put a back on this one) . I like the way they are turning out because as it turns out- I've got quite a plethora of vintage and colorful varieties of fabric scraps. These tablecloth/picnic blankets will be available at the Beehive Bazaar, May 5-7 in Provo and soon after on Etsy.

new additions

The longhorn ladies in Escalante have been busy this spring. Here are two of the new additions to Adam & Kristen (my brother and sister-in-laws) herd. That's Freckle-face standing next to his mother Brittney and baby Won-ton with the white triangle on her face.

Here is yearling Q-tip with the kids and Roscoe wearing the cone of shame. When you chase cars and get stitches in your leg that you can't leave alone you find yourself in a cone for a few weeks, and a bit doggy depressed...

Ahh... spring break

Finally spring break is here. It's time to go south for a week, hopefully to warmer weather- it the very least- it will be raining and not snowing. There will be a lot of sewing, but hopefully some hiking and relaxing too.

Find the camping embroidery pattern from Sublime Stitching here.

Sound of Music drapery costumes, part 2

While leisurely looking through a shoe box full of real photos, we came across some more pictures of the drapery costumes I made years ago- it looks like 2000 or 2001. Here's the moment Rolfe, the evening's host, was asking Gretel about her hurt finger, (as you might recall- that got caught between Kurt's teeth). The cast was real, a broken arm with impeccable timing.

I've now scanned and put up all of the photos I have of that night. So fun- if ever you get a chance to be part of a sing-a-long, and dress up (even better)--> dive in head first.
More pictures here.
Drapery costumes part 1, look here.

Feel your anger running through you...

...and channel that angst into Dinner Art. (Mashed potato, broccoli and gravy lion by dinnertime performance artist, age 13)

Parents of teens out there- and you are painfully aware if you fit into this category (younger parents, go ahead and glimpse your future)- I would recommend taking a minute and reading the article, 'Feel Your Anger Running Through You' from the March 27th New York Times Magazine, very insightful, funny, helpful and spot on.


Also from the Times:

How Shakespeare Invented Teenagers
Published: March 25, 2011

Shakespeare described the terrifying beauty of the adolescent so early in its development, and so definitively and so thoroughly, that it is only slightly an exaggeration to say that he invented teenagers as we know them today. “Romeo and Juliet,” his extended study of the humiliations and glories of adolescence, is the biggest hit of all time and, unlike most of Shakespeare’s works, it has never slipped out of fashion. It has been adapted across genres and eras, into operas and ballets and musicals. The most popular brand of Cuban cigars: Romeo y Julietta. State laws that allow judges to exempt minors from statutory-rape charges are called, naturally, “Romeo and Juliet provisions.”

This shouldn’t be surprising: People just love to watch a couple of dumb kids make out and die. (And they are awfully young, these dumb Veronese kids: Shakespeare doesn’t ever tell us Romeo’s exact age but we know that Juliet is just 13.) The great French scholar Philippe Ariès concluded that for most of the Medieval period “people had no idea of what we call adolescence, and the idea was a long time taking shape.” Yet our whole modern understanding of adolescence is there to be found in this play. Shakespeare essentially created this new category of humanity, and in place of the usual mix of nostalgia and loathing with which we regard adolescents (and adolescence), Shakespeare would have us look at teenagers in a spirit of wonder. He loves his teenagers even as he paints them in all their absurdity and nastiness.

Of course, the most important feature of adolescent rebellion is that it’s doomed. In this, as well, Shakespeare was right there at the beginning. He defined what it means to be “star-cross’d.” The opposition between the adolescent and the mature orders of the world can have only two possible endings. One is comic: the teenager grows up, develops a sense of humor, marries, has kids, moves to the suburbs, gets fat and becomes boring. The other is tragic: the teenager blows up in a blaze of glory. We much prefer to live the comedy. We much prefer to watch the tragedy.

Adapted from “Flaming Youth,” a chapter in “How Shakespeare Changed Everything,” by Stephen Marche (Harper, May 2011).

rope, sling backpack

OK, here's one of the backpacks I'll be making for the Beehive Bazaar (among other things).

I don't know the official name of this type of backpack, my kids tell me it's a 'ball sack'... um, I think I'll make up my own name, I'm pretty sure I can't call it that with a straight face.

My kids love theirs and have been carrying them to school all week. This is a good thing, especially for my son- since there isn't a lot of 'handmade' out there for the fellas.

only a month away-

I'm sewing (or just cutting out stuff) like crazy these days... goods for the spring Bazaar. I've been working on some new things this year- some are so new- they only exist in cut up stacks, ready to be sewn together.
I made a few really cute sling backpacks this weekend, and I would show them now but they are in use. Snagged and(please Mom, can I have that one?) loaded up- off to school. I guess that's a good sign. I'll get some pictures of the rope backpack up in the next few days, and how about a tutorial too?
To view the other Beehive Bazaar artists look here.
To like Beehive Bazaar on Facebook, and check out the Spring Event, look right here.
To see what the heck a rope sling backpack looks like, look here.

progress

Once again, I'm organizing. I'm frugally sorting through scrap bins and totes, walking down memory lane, and coming across a few surprises- fabric that have been give to me by those who know I sew and collect fabric, somedays- one more than the other. By the way- bring it on- I'll be your Salvation Army drop box anytime. I came up with the saw horse idea yesterday.

I have all these scraps cut into various size strips all wadded up here and there, very hard to keep track of, or make use of. I needed some sort of display/storage system.

I've got this bit of space in the sewing room, by the sink, so I dragged this horsey from the garage and set to work.

It's not very exciting, I suppose, in general... but it has been making me happy all day to see my sewing room get organized and to find what I'm looking for is delightful.


OK, now down to business-
To all you jokester/ April Fool pranksters out there- here's the best prank I can think of... if you can pull it off, it's bound to be talked about for years to come.
It's the old dirty diaper trick, baby shower game. All you need is a fresh disposable diaper, chocolate bar and a microwave. Take the chocolate bar and melt it into the unused disposable diaper- be creative here folks- Snickers, Milky Way, Mounds etc. Then using your best acting skills, you can really gross someone out. Find the diaper, smell it, taste it- you get the picture. Good Luck.