Happy New Year and the Sewing Room Hangover

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

With that out of the way, I do hope that you all had a wonderful December and were able to spend time with the friends and family you love. I was able to have 4 days in a row off of work, and those days happily coincided with Christmas and a visit with daughter Laura (plus entourage). I feel like I've been so lax in blogging that I must reintroduce you to my family... that is if I have any readers left.

no sewing happening here

Anyway. I've been reading with envy what I'll collectively call the sewing blogger's 2012 round-up. Truthfully, you have all made many MANY gorgeous things, and in the last quarter, I've pretty much made bupkiss, so I haven't had the gracious feelings of awe that perhaps I should.

Do I resolve to change that? Well, I do want to make a few things, and I did get a Tiramisu for Christmas, so look for that sooner rather than later. Steph is hosting a sewalong starting next week, and I might just attempt it! She calls it 30 minutes a day, and c'mon... surely I can manage that!

I would like to blog a bit more, because I do enjoy that, but my topics may not be as sewing related as in the past. Having worked in the bridal industry for 3-1/2 months now, I have formed a few opinions, and might just share a few of them with you. And, in lieu of actual sewing, perhaps a little indulgent fantasy sewing.

My Etsy shop is still open, and I just celebrated my 600th sale, so do drop in now and then. I have some "new" patterns that have yet to be listed, so look for some fresh merchandise appearing soon. You can keep up with the latest in that little Etsy Mini in the side bar on the right.

Finally... and just in the nick of time. Yes. There is still time. There really is. You know you want to shop there. Denise, aka The Blue Gardenia, is having her End of the Year sale, and it ends TOMORROW NIGHT PEOPLE! Click HERE to shop for your favorites and get a great deal. Hurry before they're all gone!

Caramels

Mmmm, yummy!

I had the weekend off from work and of course I have a long "to do" list of holiday-oriented things that should be done. I managed to cross of quite a few, so I'll label this weekend... productive.

One ambitious project was candy-making. I've never really attempted much candy-making, but I was seduced by pictures on pinterest, and chose 3 types that seemed totally doable. MinimIal ingredients, and I had all the tools necessary, including the candy thermometer. I've only taken a picture of the 200 individually wrapped in handcut wax paper caramels, but I also made a 3-layer peppermint bark, and English toffee.

So, I'll do a quick review and link.

The soft caramels (which, for the record, I pronounce "car-mel", you?). Easy. I followed the instructions to the letter. Turned out great! The only downside... those suckers take a long time to wrap. And you get sticky. But definitely yummy. On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give them an 8 for taste.

Next up was a 3 layer peppermint bark.  Even easier to make. Melt some chocolate. Spread. Cool. Repeat 2 more times. Ok, there were a few more steps, but you get the drift. Downside: time waiting in between steps. My plan was to string the lights on the tree. Which would have been accomplished except the tree started seriously leaning and that project was abandoned. Taste rating: 10!

Finally, the English toffee. I had pinned a couple of recipes, but ended up using the recipe inside the Ghirardelli chocolate bar wrapper. Of course, I had used the chocolate in the peppermint bark, so I melted the chocolate chips that were called for in one of the other recipes. No downside to this at all except maybe it takes longer than you might except to reach 305 deg F. Taste rating: 15! It's that good. And sorry folks that might except me to gift this... nope. I'm keeping it for the family.

So. much. sugar.

Kitchen Fabric Art

A little more sewing has occurred, but, yep, it's still kitchen related. Perhaps this year should just be called the year of blogging about the kitchen, with a teeny bit of sewing thrown in. Or not.

Anyway, this was a project that I also started (and mostly completed this summer). A quilted table runner. My mom and I had purchased a kit at the Houston quilt show when we attended way back in 2009. Mom made hers earlier this year, and that inspired me to get on the ball, and get mine made, too.

The pattern is Table Art by Calico Carriage Quilt Designs, and is still available. The kit at the quilt show, had some fabulous fabric, that has kind of an industrial look, which completely goes with our kitchen design.

A close up:

The quilting was free motion, and pretty random at that. Different sections got different designs, but mostly it was straight lines on the circles, outlining the big circles, and the fabrics with "pictures" also were outlined. I used a variegated thread on the top. My bobbin thread was initially a quilting thread (no Ellen... don't use that!!!... wait... where were you when I quilted almost 2/3 of the thing that way) Oh, I'm back. Quilting thread in the bobbin completely messed up the tension and I just couldn't get it to look right. Thankfully, the part that looks the worst is the back which is resting against the table, and I can completely live with that. So much that I even "signed" it...

Window Seat... Finished

I had grand plans for showing you step-by-step how I made this window seat, and those all flew out the window when I got the full-time job in September. I'm settling in to the job, but still exhausted, so the best I can do is let you know that it is finally finished. Just in time for the holidays!!

The dogs both love it, but only Danny really likes to have his picture taken. The blue bolster bit is already covered with dog fur. The good news is that it is washable. The coppery front cushion is faux leather (aka vinyl) and just be wiped off should doggy paw prints (or worse) appear.

While I think it does look great (applause! applause!) I feel I should confess that there is some half-assed shenanigans going on in the parts that you can't see. If I paid someone to make it, I would be unhappy. As it is, I'm thrilled! Long live imperfection!!

Now I must head off to my destiny of ensuring that bridal parties around the southeast (and indeed, the entire country) look their very best!

Road Trip: New Orleans, Part II

So, recapping the New Orleans trip... Thursday, driving to NOLA. Friday, helping build a Habitat house. Saturday, gutting a house.

Gutting? It's pretty much as bad as it sounds, but has to be done, and it can make such a difference to a family that wants to rebuild. The houses that were being gutted were flooded up to the rooflines and higher during Hurricane Isaac which happened just 2 months ago.

Our volunteer group was still using the organization of RHINO, Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans, this time partnered with the St. Bernard Project. We met with our group at the Braithwaite Auditorium, and then headed to the house. The owners were there, and planned to rebuild. According to our SBP representative, Alex, this was an "easy" one. The fridge and food had been removed, and, well, actually, all the other belongings had too (clothes, furniture, etc). All except one water-logged sofa. There was still running water in the house (running water in the pipes, I mean), and the owner had cleaned the bathroom as best she could, so we had indoor facilities. That meant a lot. Trust me.

Our job. Simple. Take a crowbar/sledge hammer to the drywall. Pull it down. Pull out the moldy insulation. Don't scream when you see cockroaches. Shovel the debris into a wheelbarrow. Dump into a trailer which is pulled to the end of the driveway where it was deposited for pick up later.

  

Cute frog clinging to the wall near the ceiling. We saw lots of these and tried to rescue them and toss them outside. They were hard to catch though.

Extended view of the frog. You can see that we tried to leave him a little wall to cling too, if only temporarily.

Blurry, pile o'debris

Our "facilities" sans walls. Yep, as we tore down the walls, we quickly realized that our privacy would kinda be compromised. Of course, we girls can be creative, so we made our own kind of privacy.

The owners were so grateful to have this job done, and they can get on with rebuilding.

Road Trip: New Orleans, Part I

Before I started my wonderful, but time-consuming, never able to do anything else but work and recover, full-time job, I had decided to go with husband Roland on one of our church's mission trips. Roland had actually planned this one, and one of his criteria for choosing the location of the trip was comfortable accommodations. Lo and behold, the RHINO outreach ministry out of St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church, founded in September 2005, 3 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, totally fit the bill.

Last Thursday, we arrived in New Orleans and checked into the Brent House Hotel, where all the volunteers are housed. We were treated to a dinner and NOLA hospitality at a home of 2 of St. Charles Presbyterian's parishioners.

Friday, we headed over to our Habitat for Humanity build that was partnered with RHINO. This house was almost done, but there was still work to be done. My contribution involved painting. First the concrete footings that held up the house, and then interior doors. I actually painted the doors with a couple of other folks from a South Carolina group, and we painted outdoors. In the heat and sun. Which had the advantage of drying the paint quickly.

Anyway, I do have some pictures...

 The house we worked on, a typical shotgun style home. See those curlicue decorative things up in the corners on the porch. I caulked around them! Never caulked before, but yes, it's really easy.

The concrete was poured on Friday which made getting up on the porch kind of challenging, considering the step planks hadn't been installed.

Roland was measuring and cutting the planks for the porch steps. He's the one in the gray tee-shirt. I wanted to document that he had all his fingers both before and after using the power saw.

Our group. Me on the left with super cute and sweaty hair. And those awesome khakis I'm wearing did belong to my son. Guess they're mine now.

So that was Friday, Saturday we did something entirely different. I'm saving that post for part 2.

Catching Up

Well, who knew it was going to be such an adjustment to working full-time? My hat is off to all sewing bloggers who hold down a full-time job and manage to also be prolific sewists! I'm exhausted after working 8 hours, and on my days off (which are not the weekend, but mid-week) I'm catching up on everything else but sewing. Like sleep, laundry, grocery shopping, ... you get the idea. Now that Roland is the stay at home spouse, we're in negotiations for a new division of duties, though, so fingers crossed that will all go smoothly. I think with a little hand holding, he'll even figure out what you do in a kitchen. And, truthfully, probably be even better at cooking than I am (which is a low bar, by the way).

With that out of the way, do you remember the saga of my new kitchen window seats? Way back when, the project stalled after I had made their muslin covers. There was fabric to choose, blah, blah, blah. I'm happy to report that I have one of them covered! And have started on the other, with kind of a plan to make 3 cushions into one. We'll see if it works. And the fabric? Nothing that I showed you at all. You see, with the window seat being primarily a dog perch, we decided on a faux leather from fabric.com that can just be wiped off. Voila!

Excuse the bad photo. It's kind of a coppery color, and really looks good with the painting on the wall (which you can't see). We're still waiting for the table to be delivered, so, well, that's all I have to say about that.

I've got some black knit from my stash ready to be whipped up into a renfrew, and though I have probably lost my mind, I'm going to attempt to do the Thurlow sew along hosted by Lauren of Lladybird fame. Click on the badge in the sidebar and you'll go right to the details. This will be a good excuse to get a great pair of trousers. I'm sorry to say that they will be ... black. As will a couple skirts I have in the queue. Do not come here for gorgeous prints. Well, at least not at the moment.

Oh, almost forgot! The lovely Denise at the Blue Gardenia featured me recently (well, back in September) in her "sew to dress" feature, along with an adorable McCall's pattern, perfect for my new shop girl persona. Please go take a look if you missed it previously.

I've missed my sewing and blogging friends, and will attempt to post now and then, but trust that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but am simply to tired to even type. And if you need a bridesmaid dress or mother of the bride dress and, the horrors, aren't making it yourself (hee hee), drop in and see me at Bridals by Lori in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Yes, it's the bridal salon in Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta. I'm not on TV, though, so don't get all excited. Should that happen, believe me, I'll let y'all know!!

Also, I'm still reading your blogs... just can't comment as often because sometimes its just a quick read on my phone. Trust me, you all rock at all your projects!!