Map kid

Wow. That's all I can say. I'm dumber than a 1-year-old.

Here I am!

Miss me? No? Geez.

I've been super-busy lately, so let me recap on everything, even the unimportant stuff:

1. Our refrigerator was broken for 2 weeks. We finally got our new one Thursday and I've rarely appreciated anything so much. It's a shiny black side-by-side with ice and water in the door. I love it, mostly because it keeps my food cold and I don't have to go out on the front porch to get my soup out of the cooler.

2. Mark was out of town and then came back and got really, really sick with a terrible cold. My two work neighbors had had it and had been coughing like crazy for a week and a half, so I figured I was a goner. I tried to keep my hands really clean, and my home, too. Mark had a miraculous recovery after two days and I still have no signs of illness! Yay!

3. For reasons in number 2, our Christmas stuff has yet to be put away. Mark is going out of town again, and so our very large tree will stay up another week. Boo.

4. I am learning to spin yarns, literally. I have a friend who just retired from my workplace. She lives in San Ysidro on a little property with 2 sheep, 1 horse, 1 dog, 2 cats and a bunch of chickens. She invited me over for a lesson. I had a lovely time. She taught me a few spinning basics using a drop spindle. It's, um, really hard. It's an ancient technology, but it's something that must be mastered. It involves a stick that goes through the center of a circle of wood. You let it hang from the yarn that goes up into the wool roving and you give the spindle a whirl. As it spins, you try to pull the wool bit by bit and let the spin move up into it, making yarn. It's not easy. Every time I get it spinning and move my right hand up to help my left hand, the spindle tries to go the other way, thus untwisting what I have. Of course, having a spinning wheel makes it much easier. They are expensive and Mark said that since I'm not 90, I don't need one and I should find hobbies that aren't for old ladies. And I took care of him when he was sick!

5. I plan to also learn to dye wool roving and yarn.

6. I made felt from wool roving and am making a brooch from it. I will be posting to describe this exciting process after the brooch is finished.

That's a wrap up of my life! I've just been so busy that I haven't had time to sew much.

Kill 'em with cuteness

I've found something cute. It's so cute, I almost can't contain myself. Check out these needle felted creatures from -- OK, wait -- the name is so awesome: Motley Mutton!!!!!

Here are some examples. Click the pics to go to her shop. I don't really need to explain anything once you see them!

Ring ring. "Is your refrigerator running?"

Why, no. No it isn't. It's been flat dead for a week and a half now. You don't realize what your fridge means to you till it's gone.

You don't appreciate the cold water at your fingertips until you have to put your glass of water outside to chill.



Go now, and tell your refrigerator you love it. Go!

Hey! "First" rhymes with "worst"!

I came across these awful pictures of me at age 10 the other day. I was torn between burning them and keeping my awful little secret to myself and sharing them with the world to give everyone a good laugh at my expense.

I remember this hairdo. It was my first real hairdo -- the first one that I decided on myself and asked my mom to take me to the salon.



What's that? You want a closer look? Well, you asked for it.



We went to Fantastic Sams. I wanted feathered hair, like my friend Tamara's. We were and still are best friends. We had to get feathered hair at the same time (it was 1984, after all). In the end, hers looked much more "feathered." She pointed out that she didn't get a perm. I had gotten a perm. Doh! Thus, I looked like a 50-year-old woman in a fifth-grader's body. Tamara was always a step ahead of me (or a hundred steps) on the coolness scale because she had an older sister to learn from. I just had my mom, and she had this hair:



What's that? You want a closer look?



(This is a test to see if she reads my blog, in which case I may not be of this Earth much longer. So, just in case she sees this, I'd like to say that my mom has very nice hair now. Very stylish and pretty. She's the most beautiful lady.)

Snuggle wuggles

Making stuff, as usual. Here is a fringed scarf, knitted in a seed stitch with a removable crocheted flower brooch:


(available at Burst of Happiness)

This scarf and flower I made for my mom for Christmas out of a lovely alpaca/silk blend:



And here are a few bags offered up to the highest bidder. Or whoever will pay the regular price:

Spammy

I never get blog comments. This may have something to do with the fact that nobody reads my blog, but lately I've gotten a few. And they are both this crap:

Hello I just entered before I have to leave to the airport, it's been very nice to meet you, if you want here is the site I told you about where I type some stuff and make good money (I work from home): here it is

Who would really click the link? Can I please have some real, nice people, non-spam comments? Please?

Scrumptious textiles

I like to knit and crochet a little. I'm no expert, but it's fun to do. I love textiles -- be it yarn or fabric.

I've only recently discovered my love for luscious, natural yarns. If you just go to a chain craft store, you're going to have to choose from mostly synthetic, mass-produced yarns. They are evenly spun, evenly dyed, and to me they lack personality.

Once I stepped foot in Village Wools, I realized I could never go back. Local yarns, exotic yarns, fat yarns, skinny yarns, alpaca yarns, wool yarns. And naturally, synthetics, too. All these yarns are beautiful, but also so much more expensive. I'm currently making myself a wide scarf/narrow shawl from an alpaca/silk blend and I think it's going to cost me $50 in supplies -- never mind the time it takes to knit it. This is why a hand knitted or crocheted item made with nice yarn will cost you a pretty penny.

I especially love bulky wool yarn. Thick and chunky, with plenty of personality. They hold up well when you use huge knitting needles. They knit up fast and look so snuggly. But even better are bulky WILD yarns, like this one I drooled over and finally bought:

The colors are so dreamy together.

I like when some parts are spun skinny and some are spun fat, like this, which I also want to buy from etsy.com shop Hobbledehoy (click photo for link to item):



I am interested in learning how to spin yarn from roving, and also to hand paint it. Some beautiful, hand-painted yarns that I love include this one from etsy shop Jirbydesigns:



I hope that for my birthday I can get the gift of taking a spinning class at Village Wools, and maybe a dyeing class, too.

Caught up on picture-taking

I finally finished taking photos of the items I have for sale (not that there aren't always more coming up!). Here are my aprons.

This one is a gold-beige underskirt with a double-tier topping of chocolate lace:



This one is reversible, in a retro print. The front and back are in coordinating colors.

Everything I needed to know about New Mexico I learned from the movies, part II

Remember this post?

It was about how whenever my home state of New Mexico is featured in a movie, it's featured as some freaky, backwards place full of mutant murderous freaks? (I have to say that "Little Miss Sunshine" was successful at treating us as normal people, even if the movie's geography was on crack). See, the thing about being a New Mexican is that most of the country doesn't know you exist. The ones who do usually think we're part of Mexico and are surprised at how well we speak English. People in other countries know where N.M. is, but other Americans don't seem to. Then, when we finally get noticed, it's always for something bad, like teen pregnancy or kids who don't get enough to eat. But even those things are better than the movies make us out to be.

I wonder how things will change now that New Mexico is becoming a big player in the film industry. With the new Albuquerque Studios at Mesa Del Sol, south of Albuquerque, and the Rio Rancho Lions Gate location, along with all the state incentives, maybe filmmakers will start playing nice.

But until then, I'd like to complain about "The Hills Have Eyes." You see, if you've never been here, you need to know: All of N.M. is a desert with a couple of broken down gas stations with creepy toothless workers who are bound to set up a trap with the other creepy people in the area. They will kill you and eat you. Also, much of New Mexico is a nuclear test site wasteland, and therefore we are all mutant freaks. I, for one, am proud of my three eyes, so please stop making fun of me.

Bumble bee heaven

More stuff I was able to get photographed and finished up:



I posted the apron before, but since it went with the theme, I posted it again. All are available at Burst of Happiness, along with this:

Catching up with my life

Everything has been so hectic lately. Work is crazy because we're down so many people. Being a newspaper, we are working 365 days a year, so no guaranteed holidays off. I am pleased to have Christmas Day off this year, but I'm a busy bee working till then.

I had trouble getting to my sewing machine as much as I would have liked, but I sat down a week ago and spent hours cutting, cutting, cutting. Cutting out the fabric is the worst part. I hate it. But it does allow me to be able to sit down and sew a bunch of things quickly.

Here are a few things I've finished. I have several more aprons and bags, but I need to photograph them. I depend on the sun for good lighting, and it's been overcast a lot since Thanksgiving. To top it off, whenever we do get sun, it's been windy and my items try to blow over. This has gotten me a little behind on posting stuff for sale.

New things:

Sewing challenge

I was approached by Albuquerque the Magazine to participate on a prom dress makeover project. Or maybe it's bridesmaid dresses. Or both.
I was given two dresses and asked to turn one into a handbag and the other into an apron.
I think this will be in the February/March edition.

The first dress was a casual Hawaiian print. It wasn't what I expected, and to be honest, I didn't feel very inspired by this fabric. I think it would make a fine men's Hawaiian shirt, but not much else. I wanted to make a bag like this one but much bigger -- like a casual beach tote. I didn't have enough fabric. It's really challenging when you have a garment with seams and slits and zippers and not just a big piece of fabric. In hindsight, I wish I'd considered a yoga mat bag. I don't know that I had enough fabric for that without having weird seams all over the bag, anyway.




The second dress was exactly what I pictured: Big, poofy sleeves and everything. My mom wanted to get in on this project and she had some great ideas. We really utilized everything, including the existing neckline and the rosettes from the sleeves. OK, we did not utilize the puffy sleeves.




I'll post more when the issue publishes. I'm sure their pictures will be much better, and I'm excited to see what other people did with their dresses.

Warm and cozy

Since the weather turned chilly, I have felt like knitting again. I am especially into making rosettes, though I have found that crocheting them is 10 times easier than knitting them. They are cute when attached to scarves or used as brooches on a coat or big sweater. I plan to make lots of them!

This scarf is knitted, with two crocheted rosettes:


This is a fuzzy, cornflower blue rosette brooch:


Available at Burst of Happiness.

9 bits of cuteness

I just finished a big holiday order for my friend Autumn. She picked all the fabrics, styles and details. I had so much fun with it because I really like to make different items every time. It's fun to see how they end up coming out.



Orders available at Burst of Happiness.

Rear view

Fashion Tip:

If you're wearing a longish skirt with boots, and you figure you can get away with really high white knee socks that stick up over your boot tops because your skirt is long, please take note of whether your skirt has a slit. Because, you see, from the back we can all see your ugly white knee socks whenever you take a step. Yes, we all know your dirty secret, and it's awful.

Blech

Among terms that I hate: "Girly-girl"
As in, "I'm such a girly-girl!"

Do you mean you're female and you're feminine? Wow! That's crazy. It needs its own term, definitely.

Merry Christmas to myself

I was given a little mad money, and I splurged on this fabulous handbag I'd had my eye on for a long time. I know, I make handbags. But this is knitted. I know, I knit, too. But not this well. Please explain this to my husband. Then he will understand that I neeeeeeeeed this bag.

I bought it at Bandamy Boutique (Amy, she's based in San Jose. You should go find her. Find her! And buy lots of cute bags in person.)

A few new aprons

Here are my two most recent aprons. The plaid one sold right away.




The pink one I just completed. I LOVE it. It's pink and chocolate, first of all, which is a perfect combination. It's pleated and has little brown strips peeking out of the pleats. It's also reversible and has a little heart on that side.



available at Babycakes Aprons, part of Burst of Happiness.

Duke City Renegades holiday show

The Duke City Renegades art guild had our group show last night, and I was really worried about attendance. For one thing, the weather has been blustery, and New Mexicans aren't used to dreary days. I, for one, tend to want to stay home when it's cloudy, rainy and windy.

Ren Adams spent a lot of time sending out press releases, and she even got a story done on us in the West Side Journal (part of the Albuquerque Journal).

I was pleased with my sales. My mom and I took our aprons, too, and people seemed to love them. We sold a total of four aprons and one bag, which is still the best show I've ever done. After some of the rough ones, I'm very pleased with that turnout!

Here are some pictures of my booth. It was held at an old warehouse that's been converted to art studios.