I Want to Be a Part of It!

Once again, I'm not posting here but I am posting elsewhere...
Check it out.

Black Widow Bling over at the {NewNew}

If you like this little arachnid, then head over to the {NewNew} etsy blog to see how to make her!

Gilligan

—My heart has joined the thousand for my friend has stopped running today.

With all due respect to all the other bunnies I've known, he was the best.

The hole that he has left behind is huge.

Blog? I have a blog?

It would seem that I took the summer off.
A vacation in Minnesota, a sick pet, a trip to Florida, and various day-to-day life things took over.

Not that I've not been crafting.
A knitting project has been finished (but must remain secret to protect the innocent recipient), some quilts progress has been made, some items have been added to my etsy shop, and some clothing projects have been completed. It's just the photographing and uploading that hasn't happened.

So I'm easing back into it:


1. Tanya's Wet Feet, 2. Tour Eiffel Snack Bento, 3. St.Mary's vs Lawrence, Nebraska High School football, ca 1957, 4. Purple sensation, 5. Robert Downey Jr。, 6. Whiskey Sours, 7. Church - St. Petersburg, Russia, 8. Sour cherry blueberry pie, 9. Conan O'Brien and E.T, 10. Baywatch - a dreamy nature, 11. Conscientious objector day, 12. The Ghost of Tom Joad

I saw this post on the Scoop and I thought I'd give it a shot. I totally cheated though. I made one with the first photo as suggested, but it did not look good at all. So I tried again choosing the 2nd photo and that turned out much better...except that I slipped and picked the first one a couple of times. Ah well, It looks nice overall.
Though I don't get the photo of Conan & E.T. at all.

Down On the Boardwalk

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade was two Saturdays ago. It is a yearly must-see event for me. My memory is a blur of sparkles, sweat, seaweed, and sunscreen. To be honest, I don't remember seeing that many mermaids...or maybe we just didn't photograph them. You can get lost in a sea of scales and tails over here. My eye is more often drawn more to the cephalopods than the sirens. There was a girl out there who had a great beehive/pod hat and a tentacle skirt. It was very cute but too far away to photograph well. I missed the sea monkeys and the giant crab from last year. Oh well.

Everyone decamps to the boardwalk and the beach after the parade, including us.

Every year I always think "next year I'll dress up" but this year I at least finished a mermaid-themed dress. It's Heather Ross (Munki Munki?) fabric that I bought ages ago when it was on sale at Repro. I used the simplest of patterns but managed to make it an unholy, complicated mess. I believe it's been nearly two years in the making because I created so much extra work for myself. First I had the brilliant idea to add cutouts (long keyhole?) to the front and back. Since they're totally unsupported, they drooped horribly. Then I made double fold cotton bias tape to bind the edges and tried to sew it over a teeny-tiny seam allowance. The fabric is rolled sooo tightly and I really needed to use a thimble just for slip stitching. My fingers were terribly sore, but in the end it was worth it. I am especially happy with the orange crochet-trim inset. I have discovered within myself a dormant love of orange. Especially with pale blues and grays.
And finally—a little backyard action.
There were 8 of these guys originally on one lone fennel plant. I fear that they may have become snack for the birds, though. I haven't seen them for days. So no backyard black swallowtails for me this year, I guess.

Double-dipping

OK. Maybe this is "cheating" in the blog world, but check it out.

A Thin Line Between Cute and Camp

That line may have been crossed with this particular apron for Tie One On—Havana Nights. I had the red ruffled stuff lying around from the early stages of wedding dress-planning many years ago. What was I thinking? I dunno. I think it works pretty well with a Cuba theme, though.

I'm happy with how it came out. I'm tickled that I made my off-the-shoulder design idea work, but I also suspect that shrugging it back up will get old pretty fast.



I realize now that I'm wearing the same shirt that I wore for my last apron here. It's my penchant for prints in my wardrobe. I don't have that many solid colored shirts/skirts in my closet, so when it comes time to photograph an apron my choices are limited. I actually made a blouse last summer that's even more Havana Nights than this apron, but it would have been visual chaos underneath the ruffles.


Thank goodness for deadline extensions!

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This is not art/craft related at all, but is very good for my blood pressure. I could watch a loop of this all day. The clear-the-dirt-out push just kills me. My very first bunny (Bunny Jean) loved to dig. We would let her dig down just far enough that she could fit in the hole—which was pretty deep since she was about 14 pounds—then out she'd come and the hole would get filled back in. Poor girl.
She was a good bun.



Finally, on the offhand chance that I don't post between now and the weekend (me?) I will be with several other members of the {NewNew} etsy team over at the brooklyn flea on Sunday hawking my wares (those prints you see over on the top right!).