Pay attention to me

Lily kept following me around the other day, tripping me as she tried to sweet talk her way into some affection. Whenever I stopped to look down at her, she'd come up on her hind legs to get closer to me. This both broke my heart and made for some crazy cute pictures.




Oh, I love her so much.


Love, J

Suit protectors

Grandma used strips of old pillowcases to sew these brilliant covers for the tops of the hubs' suits. Now his dress clothes can hang in the closet, undisturbed for years, and remain dust-free.


I had to swipe the pretty one for my own.

Love, J

Tiny Die

Just for fun:


Love, J

Waiting

It is still SO gross outside, both weather-wise and yard/garden-condition-wise.

Today it was rainy enough that the hubs hauled his construction project into the garage. It looks like he's going to finish late next weekend! I'm so excited to see it all done and share pictures.


It's easier to be more patient than usual this spring, because I'm growing my own starts. As long as these little guys need to be tended indoors, I'm okay with the cold rain. But the second they're big enough for transplanting, I will want 70 degree sunshine!


Love, J

Kissed a Girl, Unplugged

It's funny how I can hear a song with just a few changes, and go from hating it to really liking it. "Jolene," done by The White Stripes = me likey. The original by Dolly Parton? Not so much.

I normally am not a Katy Perry fan at all, but the hubs loves her music, so when we stopped at the library last week to stock up on CDs for a little road trip, he picked out one of hers.

Lucky for me, this particular album was freaking awesome; acoustic versions of Ms. Perry's hits. When the poppiness is replaced with a jazz bent, her voice is actually really great. I had no idea!

(This doesn't solve the issue of her lyrics, if they bother you - I've always thought they were sort of funny.)



Love, J

Naptime

Vinny is confused.


He plays ON the bed,



and then sleeps UNDER it.


Silly.

Love, J

And uh-one for me

This could be improved upon, but for an experimental first round that I pinned myself while wearing it, I am pleasantly surprised with the final result.


It began as an average, too big, shapeless t-shirt. The idea was to give it seams and structure to make it flattering. Having a model or dress form to wear the shirt while I pin it could potentially make this project one of the best I've tried. I'll track down a friend or sister volunteer and get back to you.

Yes, I have a garbage can full of hay in my living room.
That's how we roll.

Love, J

PS ~ I just found a tutorial on BurdaStyle that basically explains how to do this the right, non-making-it-up-as-you-go way. I think I'll try it that way next time!

It's coming...

That most glorious, beautiful time of year. The season when you walk around barefoot, play in the dirt, and grow good food.

Yesterday my favorite person in the world began construction on what is simply the best birthday gift I have ever received. Oh, I cannot wait.

Tutorial for newspaper transplant pots here from Bonsai Aphrodite. (But I make mine double-layered, they hold together for me better that way.)

Currently in the inside dirt: all my tomatoes, most of the first round of broccoli.

In the outside dirt as soon as I get around to it: first round of spinach.

Love, J

Bicycle t-shirt for my dad

Complete with "the making of" photos:





A Father's Day gift that's not an e-card! He won't know what hit him.

Love, J

Thursday night tidbits

First of all, this lady's paintings might be some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I need me some.


And second of all, I know that I know better than to try to sew my own clothes (they never, ever turn out), but if I were to have a lapse in judgment and give it another go, I'd try something like this beauty from 13 Bees (she always has the best stuff):


Thirdly, forget Gap Kids. If I ever have children, I'm dressing them all in clothes made from Oliver + S patterns. The jump rope dress is about the cutest thing ever:

And finally, a video I keep forgetting to post. Oprah recently had a contest where people sent in audition tapes, trying to win their own show on her network. I am totally crushing on this guy Zach who won his own travel show. Here's his audition tape:



A couple weeks ago, I caught his hilarious first episode, where he gave a tour of Hollywood. (Zack says, "Hollywood: where many stars live, and millions more are obscured by the smog.") Unfortunately, now I can't find that clip anywhere, but here's his Youtube page, with some other episodes and web clips.

Love, J

Blue shirt for the guy

This shirt wasn't ever anything fancy. It just said "Reebok," and I think it was a freebie he got when he was on the track team. But I always liked how it fit him, and so I was sad when he took it out of rotation after getting paint on it a while back.


But turned inside out and sprinkled with stars (which were drawn just by tracing his badge onto the fabric), and it's back in business.

What else can I applique? I'm so addicted to this right now, it's not even funny.

Love, J

His sweet 'stache

The policy of the hubs' department is that its deputies may grow mustaches, but not beards.

If you think this rule makes no sense, well, get in line.

Fortunately for our marriage, he got sick of it and shaved it before my fake smile/grimace wore off and I told him how I really felt about it.

And if you feel that the true tragedy here lies in the fact that the world is being deprived of him ever being all handsome and scruffy and bearded, well, get in line.

Love, J

Sunny rug

Our tiny, destructive and furry companions like to rip at carpet and rugs with their teeth.


I can tolerate a pretty shabby existence, but eventually our area living room rug became raggedy enough to annoy me into making this replacement. I was going for something cheery, comfy, and rabbit-proof, and this is every one of those things.


It's just a bunch of old sheets torn into strips and crocheted together. I quit working on it before it was as big as I'd planned, but the beauty of crochet is that if I decide to expand it, all I need to do is tie a new strand of torn sheet to one end and start another row.


Love, J

Roots

We are still eating down our basement stockpile of a few foods left from last summer's garden. Off the top of my head, I'd say we've got about 15 acorn squash and maybe 20 onions remaining. I let the pumpkins sit down there about a month too long, and had to pitch them last week, which was very sad. If I'd noticed sooner that they were getting droopy, I'd have gotten a few more pies out of them.

Next year I'd like to grow more foods that will just store on their own, without having to be put up through freezing or canning. I had compiled a list of some long-storing roots that I wanted to plant (which was based solely on the prettiness of each vegetable's photo in the seed catalogue), but I thought I'd better taste test them first, lest I spend all summer growing and harvesting only to find out I hated turnips, for example.

I am SO glad I had this uncharacteristic bout of foresight, because I learned:

1. Turnips, celeriac, and rutabegas are gross.

2. Parsnips taste like carrots only not as good.

3. Jeruselum artichokes are weirdly oily and nutty flavored and not so great.

4. I like beets again. This means I've apparently recovered from the last time I ate beets, which was in 10th grade when at my after school job in the kitchen at the old folks' home, the cook bet me $10 I couldn't eat the giant pile of pickled beets left over from dinner. I won, but at the cost of not being able to look a beet square in the face for the next ten years. Anyway, I'm better now, and beets are good again.

So my list of roots to grow has been pared down to one item, and it looks like I'll be freezing and canning most of our harvest after all.

Love, J

Laura's Birthday Bag

Even though I ordered and was inspired by Alabama Studio Style ages ago, I just finally got around to trying some reverse applique myself in the last week. And I am HOOKED.


This bag for big sister's birthday is made from two of the hubs' old t-shirts. They were particularly ugly even by old t-shirt standards, and it was very gratifying to take materials that were basically garbage and turn them into something pretty and useful.

Hand-stitching is such a meditative way to spend an afternoon, especially when you're working with a fabric as wholesome as jersey.


I've got about 6 projects similar to this percolating in the back of my mind right now. There will for sure be more where this came from!

Love, J

Aaaaand, I'm back

No good reason for the break, I just didn't feel like putting together posts for a while.

But now I do.

The biggest perk of taking a blog holiday is that I've now got tons of stuff saved up to share. I've been sewing, knitting, crocheting, reupholstering, teaching the rabbits how to shake, etc.

(Just kidding about the rabbit tricks. Unfortunately. How awesome would that be?)

Be back soon,
love,
J