The Muse of The Day

A Messenger Bag for Nica May

 

 

This is Nica May's new school bag. No time at all to write, sorry - I am literally going to press publish and run out the door.

Miss you all.

Carolina

She's ALIVE

I have been getting a few emails wondering where I am or what on earth I have been doing - I am ALIVE. I have been over-the-top busy getting my girls ready for school. I have home-schooled them F-O-R--E-V-E-R and this year they will actually be going to school. Hoot, Hoot, yahoo!!! Do you hear me hootin' and hollerin'?

Here is a picture of the "ingredients" for my latest project.

I spent the better part of the day doing this project. I am almost done with it. I will photograph it tomorrow so that you can see what I did with Daddy's jeans.

I love you all,

Carolina

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

I know that you have been very patient with me. I have been, like an elf, working, working on lamp #2 in hopes that it can hold a candle to lampshade #1. To help ease the wait, I am doing a quick, but photo heavy post, of the process, so that maybe you can make some of your own (I would love to see pictures). I am going to be brief, as how-to's are not my thing.

First prewash the fabric - you don't want any of the colors running in the end when you get it wet.

Next, cut out your shapes, and do a blanket stitch around it so that your crochet work has something to hold on to. I went around each shape with the blanket stitch, then I did one row of single crochet, followed by more decorative crochet.

After you have a few pieces made up, start stitching them together.

keep stitching, hooking ... swearing ... you get the idea.

Some will go together with just a stitch, others you need to make a long chain and do like a spider and start connecting things together. If your shape is going to be round, then work on a ball ... stitching, crocheting, and swearing as you go along.

Don't forget to mark the spot from which your light fixture will come through. I actually put part of the fixture in there and stitched right up to it and around it. I left it in there until I hung it.

Having the ball in there let me see what pieces I was missing. I liked the color of my ball (a regular kids ball sold in the toy department at Target) so much that I felt I wanted to keep the color of the ball in there. After a fruitless trip to the fabric store, I resorted to bleaching some fabric in my stash so it would look like the same blue that made up the ball.

Then comes the part most of you are wondering about : how did the fabric keep it's shape? I used Stiffy, sold at my "local-but-I-have-to-drive-an-hour-and-20-minutes-to-get-to"" fabric & craft shop. One and a half bottles was all it took for my shade. I bought more in case I got carried away (which at this point I am regretting).

Once the stitching of the ball was complete, I found a jar to prop it up on. I left an opening in the stitching large enough for my hand to fit through. This is so I can have easy access to the bulb when it needs changing.

I pored the Stiffy into a large bowl (18 inches across), and dipped the shade, ball and all, into it until I felt the fabric and crochet work was fully saturated.

Needless to say, this is messy. I covered an area of the floor in the studio with thick plastic. I made sure I made this mess in an area without much foot traffic so it could stay put to dry.

The jar was placed right under the spot left for light bulb changing. I used a sponge brush to remove any excess and left it on the jar to dry for a couple of days. 

Once it is dry (48 hrs. later) take the eraser end of a pencil and push on the ball in all the empty spaces you can find. The idea is to gently pry the stiff shade from the ball. Go all the way around releasing the shade from the ball - only push on the ball, not the fabric.

Be brave for the next part, take your utility knife and pierce the ball through the opening you left for changing the light bulb. Pull out the now deflated ball through that opening. Let it try another 24 hours. Once dry The next step is CRITICAL.

PRAY TO THE LAMPSHADE GODS.

I have a feeling I should have done a bit more on this last step. The title of this post is "Testing, Testing, 1,2,3" for a reason. West Coast Elizabeth thought I might not want to share a "how-to" because I might put my shade into an Etsy shop that I have been contemplating. That is not it. I actually have been testing the shade. The first few days after it's completion I would crawl out of bed propelled only by the hope of finding my shade still hanging rather than in a lump on the dining table. My fears were unfounded. Since then I have been testing out different wattages - creeping up in number as I go, crossing my fingers. At about 150 watts, unfortunately, I believe I am beginning to see some warp-age. The other day, while composing an email to Alicia, I thought I saw patterns dancing on the wall. My globe was  - ever so slightly- twirling. I thought for sure it was the heat of the 150 watts. Then I thought - "no, it is the hot air from my forced hot air unit kicking on because my mountain hasn't clued into the fact that in the valley it is already spring".  That, my friends, is what we call wishful thinking. I think it is warping from the heat.

So why post a how-to after all that? That is why I have delayed. I have been wondering if I should work out all the kinks and then give you a how-to or share with you where I am at. I have been working like a madwoman on shade #2. My second one is even trickier than the first, but I missed you so much that I couldn't stay away from Blogland any longer. I just need to keep working out the bugs. In the meantime, I thought you might like to give it a go so I posted the general "how-to" you see before you. By the way, all Target stores within a 150 mile radius of my mountain are running low on the pretty light blue balls. I wonder why?

April has been a yucky month aside from the lampshade saga. We have been privy to a seemingly endless bout of tornadoes in my neck of the woods that all seem to be arriving right in the middle of much needed beauty sleep.  Our days have been spent wrapping up the school year. I hate this part - it seems to never end and all I want to do is get it over with. I have other stories to tell, but I am going to hold off on those and go work on my eye-crossing lampshade #2.

 

Until next time,   Carolina

A Flying Crochet Hook

I have been working on my crochet/circle project in any spare snippet of time I have, but I had to take a mandatory leave of absence - I lost my crochet hook. How can this happen? Simple, really, if you knew me. In an attempt to not go totally stir crazy while my unfinished project stared back at me I tried to find some doilies for Helene from auprés de mon arbre. She does fantastic watercolor work on doilies and the other day I found out that I will be getting one of them that she put up on a giveaway on her blog. I thought I might send her any doilies I had so that she could use them to make even more wonderful work. Unfortunately, all I had in my doily stash didn't have the blank center space that she needs to paint her designs on.

The littlest one had a relief of roses in the center and I knew that wouldn't work for her either. Since I had spent the better part of a 24 hour period looking for my %$@* crochet hook, I decided to relieve some stress by painting the doilies myself while my girls continued their schooling.

I really like the way the doilies look when they have been brushed with a watercolor wash. Why don't doilies come this way? In my opinion it might make the food look better. Next time I have the ladies over, I am going to try it out.

So once they were painted I was left with what to do with them. I cut them up and tried my best to make flowers out of them.

 

I think the idea is good, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I think this needs more thinking and working through to find out if there is any germination to come out of this seed of an idea.

 

 I really like how the doily "petals" lift of the watercolored tulip base.

And the flying crochet hook? You know the saying "All is well that ends well". Apparently I had been crocheting an edge on one of my circles while discussing biology questions with my oldest when the crochet hook went flying. Her desk is across from mine. We were in a heavy discussion regarding the relationship between leg length and running speeds in anole lizards when my youngest wanted to show me something in another room. I put my crochet work down. I snapped the book shut and got up to go see what "had to be seen". When I did so, the thin thread that I had been crocheting with caught on my jeans. My crochet work dropped to the floor. In my haste, I decided not to pick it up, but instead go tend to my youngest daughter's needs. What was supposed to be 15 minutes later turned into 4 hours -everybody-needs-something-kind of 4 hours. When I finally got back to the studio to pick up my crochet work off the floor, the #$%@ crochet hook was nowhere to be found. I had no intention of reorganizing the entire studio, despite the chaotic state it was in, but that is exactly what happened. I looked high, I looked low. I even checked my shirt. No crochet hook. The whole family received a military style order to help me look for it. It was like as if the darn thing had wings. I wasn't about to go drive an hour and a half to buy a new one. I cursed the fact that we live so far away from a decent craft store. Two days later, 6 painted doilies, and a handful of unsuccessful attempts at doily petaled tulips later and I FINALLY found the darn thing - waiting for me "right where I had left it".

I thought about "Hook In A Book" as a title for this post. When I finally saw this I could have kicked myself.

Carolina

 

 

While Nobody Is Looking

Here is a quick run down ... I am supposed to be homeschooling the girls. I was waiting on one of them to finish their math work so that I could correct it and I saw that my computer had a few more emails to check. I couldn't resist seeing what they said. Emily of Ravenhill had sent me a quick note. While no one was looking I had to, HAD to, get a quick glimpse of her blog. My parents have been visiting for a week and I have been completely blog deficient. If Emily's blog wasn't so darn PERFECT, I probably would have been able to wait. She had this post about making paper dolls with her kids while they were home from school for a quick vacation. It brought back memories of projects unfinished. I immediately started to dig for that project to share with Emily.  The girls are busy, busy homeschooling so shhh. I figure I may as well show you that unfinished project while the girls take a test. I took it out to the wood pile we have been working on expanding in preparation for winter with my husband's new toy, a log splitter.

It is kind of a yucky day for shooting blog photos ... but the girls are busy and I am scurrying around like a little mouse trying to get this post in for you.

So, anyways, a LONG time ago when my nephew was a little boy he drew a drawing of his "new" cousin, my daughter Nica.

Like all kids' drawings, it was precious. Here I am fourteen years later and I still have that drawing kicking around together with copious others my own kids made. I am getting off track. The point is I copied the drawing and colored it in.

And then I cut each "piece" out of fabric and appliquéd them on to the backing fabric.

That is it. That is as far as I got.

But I actually have a point here. My point is that "while nobody is looking", our children, the world's children, are making beautiful art all around us and it is our responsibility to "be looking". I love it how Emily shares how much she loves her children, and I absolutely admire her for the fact that she always IS looking.

Lots of love and hugs to you, Emily.

The First Cut Is The Deepest

Some of you will be able to relate to this post, others might have to come back in another twelve years or so. I am talking about that point in motherhood when you realize your children are never going back to being little again. The first time my oldest daughter rejected a hug, I thought there was something really wrong with her. Now that I am on my second child that is going through that phase, I realize all of this was and is inevitable. I had two girls, and when they were little they wore what I chose. Some of their dresses were like confections, others were just charming in their simplicity.

 

I know the next statement might tip you off as to the condition of my mental state, but ... I have kept their outfits, I have kept them ALL. I couldn't pass that store in every mall in the United States called Gymboree without going in. Their clothing was wonderful. Every season I could not resist getting another little outfit. The fabrics they were made of were wonderful to the touch.

 

I didn't shop exclusively at one store, though. What I did do was buy clothing according to the fabric because I knew I would be keeping these clothes and making something out of them ... someday.

 

Today is that someday. I have spent the better part of the week rummaging through all these articles of clothing ...

 

and also my memories of when they were little. I remember how they walked in them.

 

I remember going to the Oilily store , after drooling on the regular racks I headed to where I felt more at home - the sale rack. If I could recreate myself into one thing, I would be Oilily - the fabric, the clothes, the stores, the pictures - all of it.

 

Down to every last detail ... Oilily ... was the best. I knew as I was paying that those clothes would never get to see the inside of a Goodwill store. 

 

So now I am going to take a deep breath and cut ... yes I said CUT these beautiful clothes and turn them into a quilt. Below are some other fabrics I have picked up to combine with the first outfits I will be saying goodbye to.

 

Here is a tip to all the young moms out there - savor it all. When your child finally grows up it is like a paper cut that never heals. I enjoyed every smile, every kiss, every scraped knee, every cry, every hug, every time they placed their little hand in mine.
 

 

Watching The Paint Dry

I thought I was all set with my studio desk. I made it, organized it, posted about it, and went upstairs to make dinner feeling pretty smug and accomplished. When dinner was done and the family was getting ready to settle in and watch a movie, I declined to join them and told them all I was too excited about my new desk top and was going to go work in the studio. Giddy, like a child, I walked into my studio feeling like I was getting the better form of entertainment for the night. I flicked on the lights and waited for them to adjust. Those super duper energy saver lights - the CFO's (compact flouresent) take a couple of minutes to "bloom" as I call it. While I waited I admired the grand expanse of workspace I now had. Pause. My table had a greenish tinge to it, I waited for the lights to come on full power and for that greenish cast to dissappear. Big, long, pause... still waiting for the lights ... still waiting ... green, Green, GREEN ??? The lights fully "bloomed", but my desktop still had that green tinge. Apparently, at night, that was the way the lights were going to make it look. Well, I would have none of it. I put some fabric swatches on it to see how well I could judge color, but it was a no go. A sleepless night ensued and the next day I was the proud owner of yet another power tool, a palm sander. 

Since then I sanded all the coating off - I needed the palm sander so that I would only take the clear finish off and not go right through the plywood. The belt sander I had would have been too much. Does it sound like I am quantifying my purchase and the addition of yet another power tool to my arsenal? You "betcha". Now that I had the egg yolk yellow sawhorses screwed into the plywood, I got to test the movability factor of my desk top. It was "no problema". Most of my week has been spent, then, on this desk. Sanding, 2 coats of priming, and many coats of paint later ... I am just watching the paint dry.

In an effort to give you something more creative to ponder, I am going to include 3 images of bridges I saw in Maine while we were on our summer road trip. Since this post is about my greenish hued desk top I think it's a good time to share these images with you. They are a bit "out there" on the color. I think it is important to push the envelope, if you will, with color. It makes you see things differently. Hopefully my desk will dry soon and I can get going soon on my other projects. See you then.   Carolina

 

 

  
 

Ch-Ch-Changes

 
 
 
 

Can you feel the breeze? Can you hear my wind chime? There is a whisper in the wind. If I stop and listen I can tell that a change is coming to me. It's time for a change. I am celebrating these changes with a change of banner up top. Do you like it? I had been using one of the Typepad themed banners until I could come up with one on my own. Took me long enough, didn't it? You can't imagine how dead-on-arrival I was on coming up with a banner that encompassed what The Muse of The Day means. You might think it is easy, now that you see it. Not for me, how do you put the variety of things I like to do all in one picture? - and still know that the blog is about me doing them? I didn't bother changing the theme banner in the beginning in case blogging didn't suit me. It looks like I am here to stay. Everybody warned me NOT to do a blog because what precious free time I do have I would be spending working on the blog instead of getting to my projects. Well, they were wrong. I have completed way more projects than before. So many, in fact, that I feel a wee bit bad that I don't get to my housecleaning as often as I should. The only down side I have encountered is this:

   
  

Messy Desk Syndrome. I have to tell you that showing you this photograph is embarrassing. Things just get going, before you know it I have to make another meal, or my preconceived notions of how I was going to spend my day get jerked around by the demands of others. I thought about making a fuss by sitting the family down and saying I need more time. You know, as well as I do, that isn't it. I know that isn't the problem because I have never heard of any mother saying she has enough time, EVER. The fix? Get organized. After all, this room triples as my laundry room and my daughters school room, as well as my studio. When the UPS man dropped off the homeschooling books for this year I made a mad dash for the calendar. Could summer really be that close to being gone? Gone for good? Good and gone? Long gone? Dead & gone? I was just getting started! If the kids are going to be homeschooling here in a couple of weeks I had to find a solution - and fast.

Now this desk does see better times now & then, but somehow or another it gets yanked back into this status. I have to tell you I have worked on this desk for 26 years. When I went off to college my mother took me to a store called Zayer's. This was BW - Before Walmart. You could get anything there. Mami bought me this desk, a set of white plates that we paid "more' for because I chose the set that came with four tea cups, and a bright red electric wok. I was officially independent. Thanks Mami, I got your money's worth out of it, but it is obviously time for a change. The desk is way too small for all that I am doing now. I am now officially dedicating this desk to my sewing machine and my serger - only.

 

 For years I have been lugging from old home to new home these 2 sawhorses.

    
 

 
 
I bought them at either Lowes or Home Depot. Why did I buy them? Because I couldn't resist that egg-yolk-yellow color. I have another set of saw horses that I use on messy projects and I have been saving these for ... today. 

Today I am making a new "desk" for myself. The economy being what it is, I won't be going to West Elm looking for help with the fix any time soon. My egg-yolk-yellow sawhorses to the rescue. I dragged my husband down to the storage room to retrieve a piece of plywood leftover from the construction. A few tools and tons of water to help with the Tennessee summer heat

and I was in business. Picture this, me in a dress, checking my skill saw and belt sander for how-to instructions. I can't remember the last time I used either of those tools. It's not quite like riding a bike again after many years - at least not for me. Anyways, the point is that I cut it, sanded it, coated it and when it was dry it all got attached to the sawhorses with a few screws from underneath. I now have a 6 1/2 ' x 4' surface to do my projects on. Everything is organized and we are ready for school, blogging, crafting, sewing, drawing, painting, you name it I am ready. My children's desks are on the back side of mine so on school days we will be facing each other.

 

I am also ready for a bigger change. I am off of the white stuff. Sugar, white bread, white pasta, white potatoes, and white white rice. I don't want to remain flummoxed any longer. Sometimes, no matter how long you have been doing the same thing over and over again, one must change. One must listen to the message in the breeze.

You know how much I love to sing with you. Shall we sing Ch, Ch, Changes together? Pardon the political note at the beginning of the You Tube clip. Come on you know this time you want to sing, I will even dance at the chorus, now that my "desk" is done. Ok, let's go, click here.

Inspired By Others

As you know, on this blog I show you what I come up with when I have been inspired by others. Not long ago I got hooked on a blog posted by Gosia, from Poland. She is very creative, and all her work is crisp and neat; a habit I need to work on. Anyways, I am getting off track here. If you go to her blog, Pick & Post , on this actual post    , you will see a card that she drew and had me glued to my laptop monitor for some time. I loved the simplicity of it. The crispness. The purity. So I set off working on a project that would reflect what I gleaned from her post. I started to work on my jean jacket the day after that wedding I went to in Maine a few weeks back.

 

In the hullabaloo of getting back into the groove of things upon our return from our vacation, I forgot all about it. Next thing you know my friend, Alicia , and I were doing our best to tread water with our new sewing project . During the project my friend, Amy did a lovely post on her blog, This & That , that brought my jean jacket back to the fore front. Amy did a post with some beautiful pictures, that to me, represent the essence of summer. The photograph of the Queen Ann's lace brought Gosia back to my mind and I decided to finish the project. Here it is 

 

 

I am sure you would like to see more than a close up so here is that

 
 I added the corner of an antique kerchief I had. I think it balances the whole thing out. What do you think?

Until next time, Carolina

  

Somewhere in Delaware

My new friend, Alicia, lives there. If I get in my car and drive without stopping I can get to my new friend's house in just about 13 hours. If I do it, though, I would have a mighty problem finding her once I got there. You see, I don't know her. You read correctly, I don't know her. In fact, I don't even know what she looks like. I met her in Blogland a few days ago and the typing has been fast and furious between us since. To celebrate our new found friendship we have decided to do a project together. We both will be blogging about it simultaneously. Alicia will post her progress on her blog, Possibilities. You can click on the highlighted word to get to her blog to check it out. When you are there scroll down and see the terrific bag that she made.

And now to the business at hand: We have chosen the book Sew Serendipity by Kay Whitt. If you click on the highlighted book title it will take you to the Amazon page, look for her book under Sewing, she should be the first book in that category.

 

Now I have to tell you, Kay Whitt , is a God send. She has produced a book for the rest of us... yup... the newbies to sewing that still want style and flair.

 

Alicia and I have chosen the dress (below) as a first project. I looked at the instructions, I probably should start with the skirt but typical me, we have decided to go with a little harder project. Now Kay, if you are reading this, I PROMISE to do the skirt if I flunk the Romantic Floral Tunic Dress. You see, Kay says, in black & white (actually black & pink) for everyone to see, start off with the skirt if you are new to sewing. Alas, neither my new found friend, Alicia, nor I have listened. So the Romantic Floral Tunic Dress it is.

 

Early this morning I set out to photograph the fabric for the project. There wasn't a soul down at the lake.

 

I could shoot anywhere I wanted.

 

Since there was nobody around I took a quick dip. It is an odd, delicious pleasure to be able to swim in nature with no other human beings around.

Do you see the little bag on the dock?

 
Take a peek inside it. I don't want to leave you with the mistaken impression that I can go to a fabric store looking for fabric for a project and ONLY come out with the amount called for in the pattern. At all times my addiction must be fed.  
 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

More Than A Stone's Throw Away

Stonington, Maine is more than a stone's throw away from my mountain, but that is where I stayed when I went to the wedding - The Brady Bunch wedding. I have been away from my computer and the internet for almost 2 weeks ... for a blogger that is a near death experience. I will blog about that road trip in the future. For now, a quick post on what happened to all those T-shirts. For 2000 miles (3219 KM) I sat in the front seat stitching my little heart out. By the time I got there it was finished, and a quick pop, pop and my eyeballs were back in their sockets. We were tired when we got there but the next morning I went out with my project to get it photographed for the blog before the wedding. The sunrise was, as my very Chilean Papi would say, ES-SPEC-TA-COOLERR.

 As was the house we had rented. It is called The Lobster Trap. Shhh, can you tell everybody is still asleep in the house?

 

The only people awake at that hour (5 AM) besides me were the lobstermen. All that was left of the lobster boats were the dinghies put in their place.

After a day out in the cold, northern Atlantic waters they tie up their lobster boats to these moorings and leave their dinghies closer to land at the dinghy dock which you see here below is empty. They are all out there in the Atlantic getting lobsters for all of us tourists that descend on this part of the world in the summer ( we are too wimpy to handle their frigid, bone breaking winters).

 

As the light got better my chances for finding a good location to shoot my project seemed elusive. To all you quilters out there - How in the _ _ _ _ do you all shoot your quilts? Everything I tried looked awful.

Tried as I might I couldn't get it right

 

I finally had to enlist the help of two very accommodating young ladies.

 

I cut up all the t-shirts and I stitched them on to dark grey cotton jersey, I backed the coverlet with a lighter grey cotton jersey. The whole thing is kid proof, I stitched it with double threaded button craft thread. It should hold up when the dog comes in all muddy and wet and one of the Brady Bunch needs to wipe him dry.  Into the washer and the dryer - on ANY setting. Would you like a closer look? I hope they like it. 

 

 

Meet The Brady Bunch

Our friends are getting married - Brady Bunch Style. Yup, She and her three kids are marrying Him and his three kids. I have been all for it until this:

I wanted to make a wedding gift for them that was a little more personal so I asked her to send me one old t-shirt from each family member. She sent them to me next-day-air so I could get working on it ASAP ( as always I am running late on a project and flying by the seat of my pants). When I opened the box it felt like all those T-shirts sprung out at me like those silly fake snakes that are meant to shock you when you open the can. Well, I must admit ... I WAS shocked.

Let me begin by introducing the happy couple:

 Just looking at their shirts don't you imagine them spending the rest of their lives outdoors, biking, hiking, sleeping out under the stars? Woo-hoo how romantic ... that is unless all the T-shirts below are "filled" and tagging along on the was-supposed-to-be-romantic experience.

Shall we begin with Sam? His shirt is below; "the Wrangler". When I googled that word it came up that it means to quarrel noisily or angrily, to bicker. The British, ever so polite that they are, say it is a person who excels at debate. The last definition I found is the one I am settling on for Sam: to herd ... I have a feeling he will grow up having to corral all the girls that will be after him.

 

Next comes Quinn, if his & his mom's shirt tell me anything ... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. When girls grow up they all want the kind of guy that is foot loose and fancy free yet with a heart of solid gold.

 

Little Miss Mollie, I understand , is not so little anymore yet she remains light as a feather on her feet. After years and years of grueling ballet lessons she deserves every accolade that comes her way.

 

Next up is Allie, although the tiniest in the lot, I am sure she shines like a traveler's star every night of the year.

 

Tucker, yes Tucker ... the photo of his shirt took absolutely forever to load into this post. Perhaps it is a sign ... a sign that he will grow up to be a great protector and forever dependable once you have won his heart.

 

Last, but most certainly not least is Nate. Don't you just love him already? Just look at his shirt! I once was a teacher and I can tell you with out a doubt that this kid, had he been one of my students, would have had a special place in my heart.

 I don't know what else to say except that when I look at these pictures of all 8 T-shirts, I think three things :

1. Their washing machine is going to shake right out of their laundry room and move into another house - one with less kids.
2. I better hurry up and make something out of all these T-shirts because the wedding is almost here & I am running out of time.
3. I actually CAN imagine them camping with all of them in tow ... and I think nothing could be more romantic.

 

Doodle 'til I Drop

We all doodle. We doodle while we are on the phone, when we are bored, when we are frustrated, when we are waiting ... we doodle. We throw away most of these doodles, at least I do. But what if I did a doodle to keep?

 

So what would happen if you took doodling a step further? ... and doodled on different paper...

 

or on something like a paper bag ...
 

 

or with a different tool on something else entirely ... something more ... permanent...

 

Something you could actually sit on and doodle some more ...
 
  

Would you doodle 'til you dropped?

I did.
 

 
 
 

 

Wordless Wednesday : Fabric Scraps