Apronologie

This is an apron I made for my friend Michele, who gave it as a gift. She wanted something bright and a little modern looking. I thought this fit the bill. Ihave gotten particularly attached to the orange polka dots lately--they seem really comical and light. I made the ties extra long because I like to wrap them around to the front sometimes. This time of year, who couldn't use a little cheering up with some bright flowers and polky-dots?

Red Royalty

I finally finished this bag yesterday after working on it for a week. The fabric was very shreddy and got all over the place!

I do like it though and it's very roomy and has a lot of pockets on the inside for stashing things. My husband foolishly commented that now I would not have to buy any more bags since I do such a good job of making them. Right-0!


I'll be going to Burlington, VT in a few weeks for some oral surgery and I'll be getting a bunch of fabric to make spring and summer bags. Probably my next project will be an apron that I promised to my former sister-in-law. I much prefer making things for other people anyway.

Looking Up

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions; seems like a waste of time. But this year I got into an interesting frame of mind.

I was thinking about personal power and how to conserve it.

Creativity and how to grow it.

What I realized is that gossip is kicking my feet out from under me. Not the kind that one ordinarily thinks of, hanging around the water cooler yapping about some silly nothing. What I more was thinking was talking about someone else who isn't there, with let's say, a less than noble intention. You know what I mean...talking about your mother-in-law and how she drives you nuts or how the plumber charged too much and what a rip-off it is; that kind of stuff. Those conversations that I am too scared to have with the right person. I started to realize that if I wasn't willing to go straight to the person who needed to hear what I was saying, I was just spinning my wheels.

Whining.

Focusing on the negative.

Very uncreative stuff.

Stuff guaranteed to keep me stuck in crabola mode.

And I made a resolution to make a concerted effort to stop gossiping and to not participate in anyone else's. This is going to be a lot harder than losing weight, that's for sure.

Forcing myself to either deal with what I was upset about or just changing the channel in my head and thinking about something else puts me in the power position of either solving a problem or starving it to death and not being a voluntary victim any more.

And getting more energy.

And looking up to see THIS, which I would never have noticed while grumping away on my cell phone. Isn't this the most delightful architectural eye candy? I have probably driven by this about 50 times and just never seen it because I was too sunk in my own boring brain. I mean, lOOk at those charming curves, those crooked stairs, that wrought iron porch. There must be a fairy princess in there somewhere!

Old and New

This is my old friend and faithful companion, Ms. Singer. I cannot even remember where or when I got her, but I'll never give her up. She sews a perfect straight stitch and makes great buttonholes and other fancy stitches with her many accessories. But then, great accessories are good for all of us, right?

This is the wooden box that came with Ms. Singer and it has all of her attachments, uh, accessories in it...





Half of this stuff is a complete mystery to me, but I just like looking at it and opening and closing this nifty wooden box.

This is my new machine. Ms. Janome is her name and fancy stitches are her game. She has a computer chip inside, she threads her own needle and she is programmable. I needed a skill that Ms. Singer didn't have, namely zigging and zagging, so I got her a new sister. She is nice and I appreciate all that she does, but I still love my old black beat-up machine the best. I'm just funny that way, I guess!