Happy Birthday to me!!!

Today was my birthday! Nothing extra special, except for the fact that my mother made me the best gift I have EVER been given for ANY occasion. Mom and I have been making teddy bears to sell to raise funds for my walk. In the process of digging through our boxes of fabric we came across the extra scraps from my sisters' and my wedding dresses. Mom said something about using it to make bears to sell, and I was completely against that idea. There was no way I was going to give up that little piece of my sister. When I opened my gift from mom though, I was stunned. She had taken the scraps from our dresses, and made me two matching bears. There could have NEVER been a better gift. These bears mean so so so much to me. The timing, the fabric, the fact that I am doing all this work for the 3-day in memory of Angie. Just thinking about these bears brings a tear to my eye. Thanks mom, you took what I thought was the saddest birthday I have ever had, and given me a joy that I simply do not have the words to express. You are the best!

I started ANOTHER new craft project, naughty naughty!

Just a sneak peak at a project I am working on. Any idea what these are??????

Confessional...

OK, I have a dark little secret. My entire life has been crafty. (no that is not my secret) If I were to try to count on my fingers and toes how many times my mother and I looked at some poorly made doo-dad while we were out shopping and she (or I in my later years) said "Oh! we can make that! Better too, we can add this and that, and change it so that this is like that! It will be so much nicer than this overpriced piece of junk" I am afraid I would come up very very short. I never needed anyone to give me inspiration, or come up with a great idea. I never even wanted one. But then there was this woman. A VERY famous, (to some notorious woman). Her crafts, and recipes, and home decor items are pretty much everywhere. Ask anyone form eight to eighty, and they will know exactly who you are talking about. Well, to be honest, I never much liked her. She was always too perfect, too bossy, too formal, too much of everything. All of my family knows what I think of her....Or at least they think they do. The truth is, I like her, her ideas, her home, her recipes, her website design, even the damn packaging she designed for the many things she sells. I was able to get a free subscription to her magazine with some frequent flier miles I had saved up from all the trips I've had lately. When monkey saw her magazine in the mailbox he said "who sent you this crap, everyone knows you cant stand ______" I finally had to admit that I like her. All he could do was laugh. I think he may have known all along I liked her. So I guess the secret is out. I cannot believe I am going to actually admit this, but,

I LIKE MARTHA STEWART! A LOT! A REAL LOT!

She's waaaaayyy cool.

(now no one start picking on me about it OK?!)

Ships Ahoy!

I know, I know it has been a bit too long since I last posted, but in my defense monkey and I are on vacation and we have been very busy.

On Sunday we bought a 1974 Tahiti jet boat with a 455 Oldsmobile engine in it. (YES a car engine, great for monkey to work on) The boat was delivered to the house on Tuesday, and we have been busting out butts ever since. These first two pictures are from right after we bought the boat, before we got into fixing her up

Monkey decided to pull out the deck boards on either side of the engine, as they were quite worn, and soaked with engine oil and battery acid. The previous owner had a battery explode in the compartment, so the wood was a bit of a mess. Upon further inspection though, we discovered that the entire deck of the boat was completely rotted through, including the center support down the middle of the hull. What a nasty disgusting mess. Rotten wood has the texture and look of dog doodie. DISGUSTING!

So, after pulling the carpet up, we got to the painful and messy job of cutting through ¼ to ½ inches worth of old fiberglass. Mind you , just because fiberglass is full of resin, that doesn't mean that once you take a saw to it, that the fine white snow that is covering every inch of you and everything around you doesn't react the same way as the un-resined stuff. Can I say OUCH. I have fiberglass in my arms, legs, and neck. I tried exfoliating every inch of my body in the shower, but I still have many parts that are quite itchy still. Not to mention that that stuff is terribly drying to the skin.

But we did manage to get almost all of the rotten wood and old fiberglass out of the boat. I did accidentally cut a hole in the hull in the process, but monkey swears that it is no big deal, and he will have it fixed in a jiffy. I was very very upset that I put a hole in our boat especially as I was being so careful.

Tomorrow we will just need to grind down the beam in the center of the boat, and then lay new supports, and marine grade plywood for the decking. We are going to fill the empty space with expandable foam also, so that there will be no way that water will be able to get in again, and rot the wood. The previous owner had re-done the deck, but did not bother to use marine plywood, and just used the regular stuff which definitely didn't help the cause any.

Other than our decking problems though, the boat is in great shape, even though the pictures don't really look that way. Monkey just needs to get a bigger carburetor, and re-do some wiring, and I need to get busy upholstering the deck seats. Then we will be out on the water cruising along! We really hope to get the boat done by the end of the month so we can go out to the water and watch the Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix that comes to town every year.

I am off to go mock up some seat pattern ideas, so monkey can let me know what he wants me to do with the new deck seats. I will post again soon when we have some more finished!

We can make that....

I took my dear sister's advice about the fairy sleeves on my apron project, and went with this one. It was so much like the other apron that I decided that it would be easier to just add pockets to it, rather than try to change the straps on the other one. Granted, my uber-talented mother could have changed it in a jiffy, but if that much work isn't needed, why do it?

I was so blessed to be born into this family of mavericks!

My mother is a very accomplished seamstress, painter, and beader. She also makes the coolest sand casted candles I have ever seen in my life.

My dear sister, Mrs Fox can write, paint, and decorate like no other. She also makes the finest Derby hats I've ever seen (or worn).

My Aunt does great things with lampworking, bead design, and can sew pretty well herself.

My namesake, and grandma was also very good with the needle and thread. She made us ornaments each year for Christmas that I am still in awe of! Not to mention she was the most organized woman I have ever seen. (this lady cataloged her kitchen cabinets) Too bad those great organization skills didn't rub off on me...

I can never remember a time when we went somewhere with mom and saw some great crafty idea or item for sale that we wanted when she didn't say "we can make that!" My mother made wedding gowns for both my sister and I. Not to mention countless formal dresses for our proms and homecoming dances that were made, and modified a few times.
I will never forget my sister's painted couch, growing up our family had somehow inherited this god-awful yellow atrocity of a sofa, and when my sister moved out she was so lucky to get to take it with her....The next time I saw that thing, she had started covering every last inch of that giant ugly banana seat with acrylic paint in all kinds of patterns. Granted, when acrylic paint dries on fabric, it is about as soft as asphalt, but by god that was the coolest couch I have seen to this day. I wonder what happened to it?

I have to agree with Liz though that being raised in a clan of the most talented women does have some downsides. You settle for nothing less than the best quality in stitching. Shopping for art is nearly impossible. Buying jewelry doesn't make sense unless it's handmade, and you know who made it. Not to mention, gift giving, is the most time-consuming endeavor I have ever experienced. Nothing is ever good enough to give someone you know could make it better! I have spent countless hours mulling over what to give my sister and mother for birthdays and Christmas. I think the best Christmas we ever had was when we all decided that we were not allowed to buy our gifts, but they all had to be something we made. Even Mr Fox joined in. He made me the coolest cigar box purse I've seen yet! and yes, I still have it, tucked safely in my hope-chest with all my important keepsakes inside. I can only hope Monkey and I have at least one little girl that my family can corrupt. So long as I can keep mom from teaching her that a table is a chair and a chair is a table (but that's another story...)=

I need an apron for all this cooking!

I have narrowed down my apron choices to three. I definitly wanted a pattern that was super retro. I was looking for something that reminded me of the old pictures of women happy in their kitchens cooking for their families. I think I will be using either pink and brown fabrics, or some sort of great chicken print, as my kitchen is decorated with chickens of every size and shape. I will only do chickens if i can find some cute pattern, since it will be something i intend on wearing often, and I want it to be something I am really happy with. I am absolutly in love with the whole pink and brown/ teal and brown combo right now also, so if there are no good chickens to be found I wont have any trouble finding my second chice. So, what is YOUR favorite pattern......

Number one....

I really like the sleeves and piping in this one, I am totally into the super cute ruffles. I wish it had the scalloped bottom like the second and third one though.



















Number 2........ I like the piping on this one, the nice scaloped edge on the bottom, and the cute angled pockets, but I like the ruffled sleeves better on the first one.


















Number 3...........

Tis one is quite different from the others except for the piping and ruffles, but I think it has a great quilted homespun kind of feel to it. I like the contrast of the fabrics against eachother, and the piping. I like that the neck band is quie thick also, I would be irritated at a thinner string trying to hold it up.

Never clean in the middle of a project

AH! what have i done?! Alas, I started the most fantastic vintage 50's style dress, and it is nearing completion. Seeing as that tomorrow is superbowl sunday I knew it would be wise to leave the rest of the handwork (hemming buttons etc) so that when the big game begins (GO GIANTS!) I would have something to do so that my hand's inability to remain still for longer than 5 minutes wouldn't hamper my watching of the biggest football game of the year. This fantastic dress has a great jacket to go with it, which I planned to finish save for the handwork tonight, but in the meantime, I, with my dear hubby's help cleaned the house from top to bottom and I managed to hide the second half of the pattern instructions from myself!!!! I always have the habit of having the best of intentions when I clean, but i enevitably end up doing it when I am half-way through SOME project of mine, and I manage to loose some part that I needed to complete it! SO, word for the wise, NEVER EVER clean in the middle of a project, the clutter CAN wait. =)