creating

In honor of the royal nuptials, I made a fascinator. Fascinator is the fancy pants term for the crazy, zany little hats that many in attendance will be wearing.

My photos don’t do it justice. It is fun, whimsy and totally impractical. Hopefully I will have an opportunity to wear it besides while watching the royal wedding at home. I’m certain I’ll have a spot or two of tea as well. Will you be watching?

I took this,

and these,

and now I have this.

How would you finish the seams on the inside? I am looking to use a woven, but may switch to knit just because it doesn’t ravel. The fit is getting there, the design is getting there–but I’m just not sure what to do on the execution.

I tried bias binding and it is okay, but not ideal. The bias binding feels too stiff and too rigid for the rest of the garment. I have to clip a lot of the curves so rolling it over or self-encasing the seam doesn’t work either. My other thoughts include a skinny 2-thread overlock or zig zag. Can you think of any other options?

I recently made a new make up bag. My previous bag was a disaster–too small, no organization, and it was impossible to find what I wanted. Here’s the new coordinated set.

I love the grey and purple fabric. The main bag is like a men’s shaving kit with a huge opening so I can find everything super-easily.

Here’s the case for brushes.

Here is the case for eyeliners and mascara.

Here is one of the smaller cases closed. I just have to flip the top back to open it.

I love that both cases are super easy to find things and secure when not in use. My previous cases were roll-up cases like those for crayons. My brushes and eyeliners kept falling out and getting mixed up.

Scotch has decided the old case makes a pretty good cat toy. He is obsessed with anything long and ribbon-like. I’ve seen him dragging an ipod around the house by the ear buds before. It is as funny as it sounds.

I love the new case. It is ironic my usual make-up routine includes some lip gloss and that is pretty much it.

Remember that story about the beautiful princess? The one that was “to be continued?” Let me share a little more. The familiar beautiful fabric wasn’t all used up in the pant pattern the princess created. There was just a smidge left. No plans were made about what it could be used for, but it was held onto.

You never know.

Then an amazing opportunity presented itself. The princess and her prince were to go on a quest to a treacherous land. A land covered in snow in the winter. Being from the Bay area this princess and prince were a little concerned to spend a few days without their sunshine. They decided they would have to risk it as the quest was too important. It was too special.

In preparation for the quest the fabric was resurrected. The princess amazed herself with her designing ability and just like a Disney princess eyeballed and cut out a pattern straight on the fabric. There were not any chirping birds pulling threaded needles through the fabric, but there were kitties. Two orange kitties supervised the entire project.

It turned out pretty cute, though there was concern the little man the little suit was intended for, was growing too quickly. Thankfully it wasn’t ultimately an issue.

So the princess and prince packed up the little suit and their things and travelled a long, long, long ways into the snowy, wintery kingdom of Iowa. There, they reunited with some of their dearest and bestest buddies they hadn’t seen in over two years!

The weekend flew by so fast. The quest on their journey was completed swiftly and victorious without problem–though the unfamiliar substance did fall from the sky and was quite perplexing to the prince and his princess.

The little man was baptized with zest by the prince, yet he didn’t cry and was very brave. The gang was reunited and much fun was had.

The little man had an equally adorable older sister, a little princess, but so much fun was had by the prince and princess that not a photo was taken of her. The little princess was generous and covered her mom, dad, little brother, the prince, and the princess with stickers. Two of the stickers ended up in our suitcase and now we think of the little man and his little princess sister daily.

Appropriately the sticker was of another princess. Are you getting confused yet?

Since the prince likes to make all stories about him, he decided to get very, very ill a few hours before the princess and he journeyed back to California. He was so ill it took all the kings horses and all the kings men three bags of saline before he was remotely hydrated again. It was not a fun time at all for the worrisome princess.

Here is the prince with one of the two very coveted ice pops he consumed that day. Notice the bin on his knees in case his body decided to reject the ice pop. Thankfully the potentency of his anti-nausea medicine was stronger than his body’s nasty virus and the bin wasn’t needed.

Unfortunately the prince has not been feeling well ever since and the worrisome princess continues to worry. Thankfully, the most recent news out of all of the kings horses and all of the kings mens’ mouths is positive and the prince should live a long life.

The End.

Okay, by now it is a kind of old show, but new to me=new show.

Have you heard about this show “All on the Line?”

http://www.sundancechannel.com/all-on-the-line/

I found the best write-ups from here.

http://tomandlorenzo2.blogspot.com/2011/04/all-on-line-kara-janx.html

http://tomandlorenzo2.blogspot.com/2011/03/all-on-line-e1-radenroro.html

Looks like I’m going to have to make dinner for a friend with cable tv so I can watch–or else I can buy episodes for $2.99 on iTunes. Have you watched? What do you think?

This isn’t an original idea, but one worth sharing none-the-less.

Step One: Lay out T-Shirt on a cutting mat and cut strips with a rotary cutter. My T-shirt had no side seams, so I didn’t have to tie the stripes in a loop–if you have side seams, you’d need to do this.

Step Two: Remove strips one by one and stretch out so they roll up.

Step Three: Tie strips into bundles as large or small as you desire with a smaller strip. If you had to the tie them in loops to begin with you can wrap the small strip over the knot to hide it.

Step Four: Wear with pride.

This is actually quite a cute alternative to the ever popular scarf trend. At least I still wear scarves like they aren’t going out of style. I never claimed to be a trendsetter, though.

Peace,

^-^

I love hand making Valentines when I have plenty of time to do them. Hence, I’ve already started working on my 2011 version. First I looked for inspiration. Actually, inspiration came and found me, funny how that works.

Next, play around with some ideas. I did do this–but without taking pictures. Then make Valentine and repeat.

Lastly, add candy so people really appreciate them.

Peace,

^-^

A long time ago,  a beautiful princess was given this Decades of Style pant pattern for her birthday. The princess dutifully traced the pattern, cut the toile (fitting garment), then left the project to rot in The Pit of Unfinished and Forgotten Projects. She went about her life very happily and frolicked to and fro.

One day several months later the princess was offered her choice of some very delicious and very free fabrics. The princess hawed and hemmed trying to decide. She realized her birthday was quickly approaching–how rude to have received a very spectacular pant pattern gift last year and not have finished the pants. The princess set her eyes on the goal–finish those pants before another candle was added to her cake. This goal helped her select a generous portion of linen material perfect for the pants.

The toile and pattern were retrieved from The Pit of Unfinished and Forgotten Projects and she worked diligently on them. Amazingly very few and minor changes were needed after fitting the toile and the work began swiftly on the final pants. Alas much celebrating occurred in the land of the princess when the pants were finished. The deadline was just barely missed, but the pants were exhibited at a gathering of royalty from the area.

The princess had much fun and continues to go about her life very happily and frolic to and fro. A few short weeks later, the princess got word from a fellow princess in a faraway land. A royal request was heralded.

To Be Continued…