A bag for work, and some sunshine

I have a mess of craft projects I have been wanting to post about, but I keep getting side-tracked with food. I made this bag a while ago, with no particular purpose in mind - I just liked the fabric, and wanted to try putting a zipper on something. But now that I am in the float pool at work, I need to take all of my stuff home with me every night, and it turns out this bag works perfectly.

In other news: we had a sunny day here in Seattle last Tuesday! I hadn't noticed how long it had been since I had seen the sun until it made its appearance; I could feel my eyeballs cramping up.

I haven't shown you the view out my kitchen window for awhile, so here it is on that sunny day:


I went for a couple walks, first through my neighborhood, then at Golden Gardens, which is a park in Ballard (a neighborhood in Seattle.) Cold, windy, and SUNNY!





















Found: lots of barnacles, a tiny orange starfish, and a few sea anemones.

Painting Smock for a Seven-Year-Old Horse Fan

What were you doing at 5:00 AM on Christmas morning? I was sewing this smock. Which I just finished, barely in time to run off to our Christmas gathering.

My niece found this fabric in my mom's old stashes. The pattern came from Bend-the-Rules Sewing, by Amy Karol. I think it took about an hour and a half for me to finish (that includes the requisite 20-30 minutes cursing at my sewing machine while I try to thread it.)

I have no wrapping paper and I'm leaving in an hour. Oops.

Merry Christmas!

Finally Sewing!

Certain crafts can be challenging to the urban dweller; sewing is one of them. No matter how efficient you are, you still need a wide open space to spread out. For that reason, my sewing machine has been gathering dust for quite some time (the fact that I usually end up yelling curse words whenever I use it probably didn't help.)


Well, I finally have a set-up that will work in my tiny apartment! I christened it by making an apron for my nephew. It is the Vintage Apron out of Bend-the-Rules Sewing, by Amy Karol. I still wound up yelling curse words, but I made it to the end with something resembling an apron. And the best part is that I am still feeling inspiring to try something else!