Monday, March 31, 2008

the littlest googie

hee hee hee. That's what we call her.


So here is what I learned over the weekend: Baby things are quick and easy to make! In one day I made three and a half dresses! And they are ridiculously cute.


The white farmyard print is made of flannel, and this pink one is reversible. Is that spit up? no problem! i'll just flip it inside out!


Kristen is going to be the proud recipient of lots of things from me i imagine. It's not that i'm spoiling her over the others- it's just that i'm a much more advanced crafter now than i was for the others. Johnny is four or five now, and i was just learning how to sew, and i hadn't even learned how to knit until January of 2007.

So it's just the luck of the draw that the littlest googie gets to have all my handiwork. I hope i don't make them so that photos are embarrassing when she is a teenager.

here are the others

So here are the other photos of the dresses.
This one is the inside of the pink one- it's totally reversible. This side is nice and bright- orange and bright magenta.


This blue one is actually the first one I made. It's made almost entirely out of on hand materials. I'm doing my best to work only with materials that i already have on hand. (course that's a pipe dream just ask the people at the fabric shop)


then there is this nifty trim around the edge- i had concerns about using the yellow, but i think it turned out pretty ok.

Monday, March 17, 2008

St. Patrick's Day, So Tis.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. and at the risk of being silly, I do extend a happy one to you.

On St. Patrick's day, I often forgo my bright kelly green and Kiss Me I'm Irish shirts, and instead opt for my Dublin Shirt from the Gaelic Athletic Association. The Association was founded as a way to enjoy, promote and preserve culture that was inherently and fundamentally Irish. What is truly brilliant is that it's through sport. Sport has a way of uniting people, even when their teams or clubs are polar rivals.

As you must know by now, I'm a sport-o at heart. So the GAA is like home for me. A dream for me is to work for the GAA. I secretly wish that someone reads this and has a stateside job for me. Did you know that the players who play in GAA Teams get no compensation for it at all? They play because they love the game, and they love being Irish. I love being American, and I love being of Irish decent, so i think that makes me an ideal candidate to work for them; but I dunno if I could play hurling.



I like to think that Gaelic Football is something i could play. Since I'm a soccergirl, I think I would be able to at least understand it a bit, but I don't think i would be very good at it, and it would be a learning experience, for sure.

So today is St. Patrick's day, hoo hoo! It's a day to celebrate being Irish, not just a day to get bombed. Go have a look around the GAA Site, or these wiki travel sites: Cork City, Dublin, Belfast, Sligo. Here are some good Neighborhood cameras.

Menu Pages is a great way to keep from starving, and Arnotts will ensure that you keep the Irish economy afloat. If I had just a bit more money, I would return to Ireland again and again. If I had just a bit of luck, I would work for the GAA.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Can i borrow another pencil?

So it never occurred to me that people might be reading this blog. I mean sure, we've all heard about the Facebook horror stories, in which a blogger posts disparaging comments about their boss and then gets sacked. But i confess, it never crossed my mind that people would have a look round. I sort of figured, for sure people took one look, saw how boring and frivolous the thing is and then split for something more....relevant.

So imagine my surprise when my pencil case partner said she saw a post on my blog and was suddenly stricken with swap anxiety. Gosh, i feel so sheepish! get a load of these great things she made for me:


They are so well made, and so fit my personality that I can't believe she had anxiety. I'm so excited to use them and put things in them. i'm going to use the green meadow one for pencils and pens and things for continuing education classes. The crazy quilted one has got all my manicure supplies in it. I so needed one for that job, because the old one sacrificed it's zipper pull in the name of haute couture. (and a zipper with no pull is not actually a zipper anymore!)

and have a look here.
Shermy even received new toys to chase all over the apartment. He's quite good with a catnip toy, he wings them all over the place, then he carries them with him and hops into the bed. occasionally he puts them in his water dish, which makes me mad.

I'm pleased to have done this swap, What fun! Though i don't think i'll lend out any of my new pencils. i'll just keep one or two of those chewed up ones with the eraser missing and give those out instead.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Can i borrow a pencil?

I belong to craftster.org, as it seems half the whole world does. I used to enjoy it quite a lot, and i still do, though i find it much less useful than i did before. I did what many members did- Swap Swap Swap like crazy, until i blew myself out. A swap is when a person collects some members, and questionnaires about themselves, and then assigns partners. the partners do a bit of conversation back and forth on-line, and then craft for each other. The item crafted is usually centered around some kind of theme- i.e. a Pink Purse Swap would require all participants to make a purse that is pink for their partner, based on the questionnaire and bits of cyber conversation.

I don't swap too often anymore- the themes are a bit too.... mundane for me, and there are all sorts of qualifications and requirements and deadlines and things that for me, it's just gotten a bit too stressful. I really just like to craft for people.

so to the point of this post:

i recently completed a swap for pencil cases. My partner in this swap is still in school, so i wanted to make her something she can use with binders. but i also wanted to make something centered on her great loves- music and polar bears. well, it's hard to find polar bear fabric, so i had to settle for her favorite color, teal.

I think i hit the mark pretty well. the case is useful, and it's full of fun things. it can be threaded around the binder rings, and it's pretty durable. the omi-yuri pin was an afterthought, it can go on a purse quite nicely.


I really like to craft for people; Though i DO NOT like to do freelance or commission work. I like to try to make something i think someone will like and be able to use. For me, it becomes much less fun if a person keeps asking- where is my bag? how much fabric will it take to make....? my all time favorite is How hard is it to make curtains? not hard at all. my first sewing projects were curtains and pillow cases. You should start there too.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Major League Jerks

One would think in this day of Mitchell Reports and Perjury allegations against Hall of Fame Contestants, that major league baseball would be a bit more inclined to foster goodwill toward fans and take part in a renewed effort toward young players.

But, oh no! As I hear over and over and over ad nauseam, MLB is actually a business,not a game.

Sorry, but get stuffed, MLB. How can you say that a team with a mariner for a mascot has to pay royalties- The team mascot is a tribute to a bunch of Massachusetts fishermen you jerks. I suppose a team can no longer call themselves the Cardinals. After all, it is a bird. My grandmother had a pair who liked yo use her bird feeder. I hope she doesn't owe money. Can't be called the A's? surely the team isn't made up of a roster full of Athletes, so Athletics is certainly a logical thing to call them.

MLB is a bunch of sillies, who want nothing more than to run the show. They like to dazzle us with their fund raising and community service, but they only want to serve the community on their terms; and ONLY when it ultimately benefits them- they make big fat money of the sale of Licensed Merchandise and they would on the purchase of uniforms. At Cape League games- they make big fat money of the 50/50.

An interesting thing is that many of the players who play in the Cape league go on to have fantastic MLB careers- thus helping the MLB recoup the money granted in the first place. This is simply bad business, and if you ask me just another PR mess for the MLB who appear more and more often to be like F-troop.

Go See a Cape League Game this Summer- you'll be glad you did. you can find all the schedules, rosters and stats here:
http://www.capecodbaseball.org/