Oh

And I've made like a thousand scarflettes. That is all.

I'm lame

I finished by brothers *cough cough* robe... *cough cough* today, and I was so zonked out that I sent it to Florida without even taking pictures. Or writing a not to my mom explaining what she needed to do to finish it. Lame lame lame. Oh well, I'd just look like a crazed nun anyway.

I have actually been sewing lately, just not necessarily taking pictures! I'm making some oven mitts for the kitchen, cause ours are, no joke, a health hazard. They're gross. So I had some nice forest green plaid in the stash, and I'm whipping them up, but I ran out of thread the other night. It's all good now, after a run to Joann's, but I haven't had any time to finish them. I also bought 6 fat quarters (woot! On sale for 99 cents!) to make some coasters for downstairs, so we don't ruin all the woodwork... I bought a hodge-podge of fabrics, but somehow I think they're all nice together. And there aren't too old-lady-ish, so the kids won't poo-poo them, but they aren't the Jonas Brothers or Twilight-themed. Thank God. I also bought one of those fat acrylic quilt squares to make things easy on myself. Those things are EXPENSIVE though!?? $8 for a 4X4 square of acrylic?? What?! Yeah... But hey, Sarah got paid. So it's all good. Speaking of, I need to find out where my cell phone bill goes... hmmmm...

I also took a little jaunt into the camping supply shop. So. Much. Fun. Makes me want to live in a tent forever. So, for $100, I got:

*2 Pairs of Smartwool socks. These were actually more than a third of what I spent, but after wearing them around all day, and napping in them, I'm a believer. Although, I have heard that just having wool on helps you to sleep better, and have tested this with wool sweaters (oh, little shrunken favorite sweater, I miss you.) But the socks are still really comfy :-)
*1 Dry bag. Apparently, all you do is roll it up, and everything stays dry. Niiiice. Gonna get some humongous ziplocks for all of the nasty stuff. Wasn't worth another $18 to have a clean and a dirty one.
*Concentrated soap & Shampoo/conditioner. I hate bottles of stuff, especially because they usually just explode all over my clothes. The shampoo is tiny, and apparently contains conditioner, although I doubt the accuracy of that statement (gonna try it out tonight to see if I'm going to need something else. I'm betting I'll still need detangler.) The soap comes in tiny little sheets, in a dispenser, like oversized listerine strips. I'm actally really excited about this. HOW COOL DOES THAT SOUND!? So that, and a tiny toothbrush and toothpast, tiny deoderant, and I'm good to go!
*Travel pillow. Don't feel like hauling one of my good ones on a river, so I got a little expandable one. I hardly doubt it will be as comfy as mine, but, hell, it's camping. I'll get over it.
*Sporkife. Part spoon, part fork, part knife. It's a spoon on one end, fork on the other, and then one side of the fork is a knife. SWEET!

Really, I think that's it. For $100? You crazy outdoors people are, well, crazy. That stuff is not cheap.

Ok, trying to install new media player and computer is being dumb, so I'll be back.

Wah

Sorry (Lindsay) it's been forever since I posted anything. But really, school has only gotten crazier (is that possible) and I've been pretty lazy on the craft front. I've been working on a Halloween costume, but I've been rethinking my decision, so all work has stopped on that too. Ugh. And I'm really tired.

Tonight, I'm going to actually go through all of the school finances from the summer markets and figure out what really went on. I am now going to go bury myself in receipts. Brb. Or not.

So Much GOODNESS, so little time!

Well, I opened this window like 24 hours ago to write some updates, and, well, I haven't :-/ Obviously.

Ok, so here we go.

New chickies are still awesome, although we had a near miss when one of them gorged themselves enough to actually choke... Luckily one of our students is quite the chicken expert, and applied the correct pressure to make the chicken vomit all that back up. Mmm. Yummy. I've checked on them twice since, and no such tragedy has befallen us again. Yay! I would absolutely die if one of those babies croaked. They are the sweetest things I've ever seen.

I made another scarflette at the market this week! It's possibly my favorite. A nice brownish-greyish alpaca, super soft, and I ruffled the edge by your shoulders so it's super-awesomely cute! Big wooden buttons finish it off.


I also made a small one with my creamsicle yarn, but I haven't found buttons that I like to go with it, so no pictures of that one yet.

Started making some serious progress on my halloween costume! Yay! Of course, the undies shapes are completely different from all the other costumes I've made, so I have to make new ones (oh darn ;-) , starting with a new corset! It's made from this changeable taffeta I got on the remnant rack at Hobby Lobby (oh HL, I miss you so. Like the deserts miss the rain.) for like $3. Schwing. Already had enough canvas for interlining, and I used this lovely creamy yellow print from my grandmother's stash for the lining. It has little pressed flower images in a a darker yellow, and is lovely. I love sewing with it, and I'll love wearing it, as it reminds me of grandma all the time :-) *Depressing realization: Nearest Hobby Lobby in VA is 190 miles away. SOB. However, there is one in Pennsylvania that is only 93 miles. Only an hour and a half. On weekends, this is a distinct possibility. Sad that I would drive to Pennsylvania for a damn fabric store. But is soooo gooooood.* Boning is, of course, cable ties, my best friends. Will post pictures when I find my camera. Washed my dump fabric, and I think I might dye it a different color. The pink is alright, but I look terrible in pink... I'm thinking a nice wine-y red color! Still haven't figured out petticoat issue, but I'm sure I'll find something that I like. I have some crazy $1/yd finds that I've been meaning to use up... maybe they'll find a use!

These are the snazzy wineglasses we got FOR FREE at our wine party (free because they were still full of wine when the owner left :-/ He is a very nice man!

Ok, off to sewing land! Besides Halloween, I still haven't finished Ian's Jedi robes... sorry Bro.

Okay, I promised.

Now that Gato is all settled in my lap, I feel like I need to sit here longer... so I'll actually get to posting the pictures I promised!

Okay. Of course Gato has left me already... little turd.

This is one of the newer chickens. They're a buff/red comet cross, and they're CRAZY. They still flock together most of the time, and they are a bit wild... But heck, they've already laid a teeeeeny weeeeny egg (young chickens lay weird eggs for a while before they get the hang of it) so they'll do the trick :-)

And the rooster. Isn't he so pretty?

I like him. Maybe a little too much. But he's ridiculous tame, and eats out of your hand, rather than trying to kill you. Nice change.

This is one of our newest! They are Jersey Giants, and they are just as their names would lead you to believe. They're huge. Right now, they're 2 months old... We have two colors, a blue and a splash. The splash is the light, and the blue the dark. They will be 10 lbs. full grown. That is a LOT for a bird...

Her name is Squirt, and she's my favorite.

These are the blues.

Ridiculously. Tame. Birds. This was within minutes of being thrown into a totally new coop, filled with a bunch of other chickens who were not-so-happy about invaders...

Size comparison: Bird on left, 2 months old, bird on right, over a year. Granted, Silkies are a small breed, and ours might even be bantams, but still. Big. bird.

Random other chicken. They say that these are Araucanas, but I think they're actually Americaunas... And yes, there is a difference. I just figure that since ours consistently lay BIG eggs, and the color varies in intensity. And, yes, that is one ugly bird, but their eggs are a gorgeous blue-green.

COMPLETE CHANGE OF TOPIC!!!

Scarflette! This yarn is a handspun merino with something called "firestar". I have no clue what it actually is, but it's shiny and rainbow and I like it. :-P I also like that the beginning of the yarn was MUCh slubbier and thick in many places, so the edge frilled a little bit. It ended up being perfect because it means that it just curves down to your shoulders perfectly. The buttons were from an old blazer. The other side is actually the right side, but it had fake stitching on it and looked stupid. Can't wait for winter! I'm trying to make another with the creamsicle yarn I made (it's orange and white together) but I'm not sure if I'll have enough. I will certainly be making more of these though! So fun!

Just liked this back shot, gratuitious tattoo-age.

These are my new much boots! Possibly the stupidest thing to get excited about, but really. They actually fit, though they are a tad tall (right under my kneecap) so I might think about cutting them down. However, they look just like everyone else's and, well, they're boring. I had been looking at some super-awesome boots, but they were like $100 (eff that) so I compromised and bought $2 worth of puff paint to snazz them up. Adding silver in there later. I will be stylin' as I scratch sheep butts and wade around in pig poop :-)

And (will this ever end!) this is me at the beginning of the Old Rag hike. Not disgusting yet, but, trust me, that came later....

Scenery.

Fungus. Really, HOW COOL IS THAT FUNGUS. Pretty cool, pretty cool.

See if you can spot the smiley leaf! If I can do it in a forest full of them, I think you can too!

The end. Dance class tonight, super excited!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Ok, quick-n-dirty, cause I need to sleep!

*hiked Old Rag, and survived (or I'm writing this post-mortem. Gross.) though I could have used like 90 more gallons of water. Looked like the Pinnacles, which made me terribly homesick. Found faces in everything that I looked at, and saw some great fungus. No joke.

*Chickens arrived Sunday, though I got there an hour early (ME! EARLY!) and had to wander around Leesburg and get coffee. Super cute, super friendly, and super huge. I have SO MANY pictures. Even a video. I am pathetic. If I knew how to embed, I would subject you all to the chicken-hand-feeding-goodness. Alas.

* finished scarflette. Adorable. I'm in love with it. Can't wait for cold. And I'm going to make a million more.

*Bought much boots and puff painted them. I shit you not. Don't diss the puff paint.

* I am more excited about being clean than I ever have been before.

*I am going to bed. Will sort pics later.

Oh Flatwood Dump...

How I love thee.

Truly.

Super score today. I just got bored while crafting, and figured I'd take the 50 pounds of dirty cat litter sitting upstairs to the dump. It would be cruel to make the students take it out, right? I mean, it isn't that it would require another trip to the dump, which would give me a chance to peruse the "Flatwood mall" as it is known around here... noooo. Of course not.

So.

Halloween is certainly taken care of... I've been wracking my brain to figure out something to do with what I have in my stash (don't want to spend a million bajillion dollars this year) and I've been stumped. Besides making another ren dress. And, no offense Renaissance, I've done that for like the last EIGHTY Halloweens. I mean, obviously, give-or-take. But seriously. Need. New. Time period. And yes, I can't get away from doing period clothing (it's just so fun!) but I need a new era. And I'm thinking, it's about time to pay homage to Virginia. And I found OODLES of fabric at the dump, in the form of an old pinch-pleated drape.



There's a LOT of it... It's pink (that might change) and fully lined. And folks...

Sarah's going colonial!

I'm thinking something like these:

I like this pattern, but I'm not sure I want to buy a pattern... Have to check through my stuff and see if I have anything usable. I ripped apart all that curtain, and I have approximately 12 yards of fake dupioni. The horizons are wide open...

I like her dress:
Is very nice. I like the front-closing ones, and I'm thinking Polonaise-style. That's with the skirts all loopied up if you didn't know (who in the hell does anyway?) Not sure what I'll do as an underskirt, but I'll think of something. Maybe just plain with LOTS of ruffles :-) Gonna have to make some new undies maybe? I'd like to get some stockings and shoes, but I guess we'll see how money goes. Def. want one of those super-cute hats...

In the land of re-fashion, here are the rest of my finds!


Cute Mexican smock.


Yes, they are really that bright. I think I'll cut off the bottom embroidery, add some plain length from the bottom, and smock the rest at the waist, and maybe the sleeves. Then I'll take the extra embroidered parts and make a half apron. Sounds like a plan!




This is a rug. I'll probably use it for, um... a rug.

Some Pendleton wools that will find a use some day. Love the light blue one!


This is a sweet little yellow nightgown with lots of lace. I'll probably make it in to a shirt. I love Peter Pan collars :-)


Another cute nightgown with a sweet little print. It will become... something. Maybe wrapping?


This is so cute. I'm not sure what it was (shirt? nightgown?) But I have another shirt with a similar blue/white embroidery scheme. Unfortunately...


This one has some pretty good, un-fixable rips... So it'll have to find a new life! Who knows what!

Okay, serious chicken post tomorrow after Old Rag. No lie.