I'm still looking for ideas for beginning hand sewers. Sachiko shares a variety of ruffle shirt tutorials at Tea Rose Home. Her linky love posts are really inspirational. She finds just what I'm looking for.
Handbag Pattern and Tutorial
This bag is just one of a number of tutorials, patterns and projects generously offered by
Warehouse Fabrics Inc.
Free Purse, Bag and Baby Shoes Patterns
There is a very large library of sewing tutorials at SewLover Arts School. The entire site is interesting and there are more than 50 patterns just in the bags section. Other sections include toys, patchwork, and items for the home. The site is in Chinese but Google Chrome does a very good job of automatic translation. I was even able to say thank you through the message tab at the bottom of the page.
One of my favorite patterns is for this sweet little case.
The really important stuff!
I am finalizing all of the details of my trip to Arizona to meet NieNie and her family. All of my work material is organized and packed, passport tucked away safely and US dollars organized by presidents in my wallet. (You really need to colour coordinate your money like we do...it's so confusing! ;-)
I can always hear my mother's voice in my head, "Now Linda, be sure you aren't handing over a ten instead of a one!!" I can always count on her for sound advice
On my recent trip to Bangor, I picked up some pretty clothes. Lots of ruffles, soft colours and even a fun pair of gladiator sandals that don't make me look like I'm clinging to my youth too much, I hope.
Here are some of the pieces coming with me:
Two white skirts and an embellished t-shirt from Target:
And from New York Company (Bangor Mall...I know, I'm fancy)
This sweater is even prettier in real life. Very Anthro and I should have gotten one in another colour, too.
Dumb...dumb!
I bought it to go with this dress:
Now, I know what you are thinking: I will look like a mad fool in this dress. But remember, I am 5 ft 4" and am wearing the above sweater (which really does match) with it. So it is not too short and is actually very pretty together; I know this for certain because my mother told me so!!
I also bought this pretty top, which looks great with my white pants and the silver, ruffled flip flops below:
And these sandals in cream. They are very comfortable and not high enough that I feel like Kate Gosselin, either. Because I am NOT a fan of her shoes!
I also bought a very pretty sundress and light sweater at The Gap, kind of nautical, but not so much that it screams Farewell to Nova Scotia. Because, you know I try to be a good ambassador to Canada when I travel. No embarrassing everyone!
Free Doll Clothes Patterns
Susan Kramer shares her doll clothes patterns for American Girl, Bitty Baby, Sasha and other dolls. Some of these would make good projects for young hand sewers, maybe in Alabama Chanin style. Upcycle some T-shirts.
Printable Felt T-Rex Pattern
on the old Potter Craft News site.
He's been there a long time, I just wasn't looking for him.
Out Station
Tomorrow will be at Phuket for a Holiday. At the same time, need to visit few bird house and verify a stand alone bird house there. Will back to Malaysia on Monday 31 May 2010. To All my blog reader, please don't call me during this holiday. Thank. Just email me will do !!!
Paper Mache Tutorials
The Papier Mache Resource is an extensive site for and by paper mache enthustiasts. Shared are tutorials by various artists, inspirational galleries and articles.
Sally Cats tutorial by David Osborne. These are made of recycled cereal box, filled with sand or sawdust for weight.
How about this article? David Osborne considers Eggs - Their uses in papier mache sculpture. His preferred method is 'Sawing through'. Start with hardboiled eggs.
The tutorial for these little cuties by Pun Hui Falkenhainer have an interesting technique in that the facial features are drawn on a separate piece of paper and applied individually. That's a great tip! I can hardly ever get a whole face right. One eye will be cockeyed or the eyes will be good but the mouth will be awful. She uses lentils as noses.
First posted May 2008.
Sally Cats tutorial by David Osborne. These are made of recycled cereal box, filled with sand or sawdust for weight.
How about this article? David Osborne considers Eggs - Their uses in papier mache sculpture. His preferred method is 'Sawing through'. Start with hardboiled eggs.
The tutorial for these little cuties by Pun Hui Falkenhainer have an interesting technique in that the facial features are drawn on a separate piece of paper and applied individually. That's a great tip! I can hardly ever get a whole face right. One eye will be cockeyed or the eyes will be good but the mouth will be awful. She uses lentils as noses.
First posted May 2008.
Free Teddy Bear Patterns
The generous folks at Beary Cheap Teddy Bear Making Supplies offer 10 teddy bear and a bunny patterns shared by various artists.
The patterns are offered as free downloadable PDF files. From the front page click the info and freebies tab. The whole site is interesting but their story is the most interesting of all. Click the About tab.
This Aussie site has been updated since my first post about them. They carry even more of the most beautiful fabrics than they did in 2008. They've added needle felting instructions and supplies.
The patterns are offered as free downloadable PDF files. From the front page click the info and freebies tab. The whole site is interesting but their story is the most interesting of all. Click the About tab.
This Aussie site has been updated since my first post about them. They carry even more of the most beautiful fabrics than they did in 2008. They've added needle felting instructions and supplies.
...bring May showers.
A scorcher of a day on Monday led me to uncoil the hose, hook up the sprinkler and sit back and laugh at the squeals of (cold) delight as my girlie and her pals tiptoed not through the tulips, but the woman-made showers that mothers everywhere know are pure bliss.
Summer...
Bring it on!
Back Deck Make-over!
Short on time (much gardening and more painting to do), this is the Cole's Notes version of my deck make-over:
Dull and in dire need of some sprucing up, I set out to brighten and whiten with what felt like forty coats of paint with a solid stain and one (yes one!) coat of a beigey stain on the deck floor. Why? Sheer laziness and nothing the purchase of a great outdoor rug (on sale for $31 at Zellers!) won't mask...
The handyman took the old top off his original table (and employing old Singer sewing machine legs he found in the woods many years ago). I spray-painted the legs silver for a change and he built a new table, which I promptly painted.
He also built new space-saving benches to replace our bulkier metal chairs and I picked up some great bright yellow chairs at Winners ( = T.J. Maxx/HomeGoods).
Moved everything around, bought a new barbecue cover for our start-of-season-new-purchase of one and re-used the stripey umbrella, now five years old.
Other details: cork placemats from Walmart, vintage blue vase from the Meads, and tulips bought for myself from the grocery store.
And that's that!
Revealing some Secrets...
As some of you know, I am filling the role of Executive Editor for the upcoming HOLIDAY with Matthew Mead magazine, launching in October 2010. Let's just say, there is a whole lot more to do in that role than there was in my role as Editor-at-Large of Flea Market Style, so I have hit the ground running and am learning along the way. I juggle many hats on this project and feel challenged in ways I never imagined. It is exciting and busy and so much fun!
I also have a few secrets to reveal, so head on over to Holiday where we have a few exciting developments to share on the blog today.
We are busy, but happy!
Benefits Of Homeschooling For Families - High Schoole
Why let Tim and Lisa apprentice at home than accelerate them to school?
Well, aboriginal of all, you don't accept to deathwatch them up at 7 every
morning and array them off to academy with endless numbers of
instructions, and delay with an afraid affection till they return.
Homeschooling gives you added ascendancy over the influences that
affect your child. The advance and development of your adolescent
is removed from the branch of the unknown. You, and you abandoned
can adjudge what your adolescent needs to do or learn. Tailoring
the class to clothing the needs and interests of the adolescent
is one of the best accessible allowances of homeschooling
Individual absorption is addition arresting account of
homeschooling. For instance, if Lisa needs added time to apprentice
Math, again she can abate the time for her English lessons.
There are no anchored hours of acquirements per subject. This agency
that a adolescent has the advantage of allotment added cardinal of
hours to the accountable that seems boxy WITHOUT any added
pressure. The bulk of time bare to apprentice anniversary accountable
will depend on the abilities and interests of the child.
The ancestry of the adolescent becomes an continued ancestors activity.
Parents get complex in every footfall of the acquirements procedure.
Field trips and abstracts become ancestors activities. Thus,
the adolescent receives added affection time with his parents. The
entire ancestors shares games, affairs and projects. Ancestors
closeness becomes the focus here. The adolescent is additionally chargeless of
any abrogating associate burden while authoritative choices and decisions.
Competition is bound back it comes to homeschooling. The
child does not charge to prove his adeptness with commendations to added
children. His aplomb charcoal intact. Since parents accept a
deep compassionate of their child, they can plan the acquirements
program to annoyance the child's interest. It is additionally accessible to
intersperse difficult tasks with fun activities. A boxy hour
with Algebra can be followed by a cruise to the abutting museum.
Learning becomes fun. Parents can additionally clothier the class to
suit the acquirements appearance of the child. Some accouchement apprentice through
reading, while others charge to write, and still others charge to see
objects in action.
Homeschooling allows parents to booty ascendancy over the moral and
religious acquirements of the child. Parents accept the adaptability to
incorporate their behavior and ideologies into the child's curriculum.
There is no abashing in the child's apperception either because there is
no aberration amid what is actuality accomplished and what is actuality practiced.
Lastly, added and added parents are accepting disillusioned with the
public academy system. They accept that their accouchement are actuality
pushed too adamantine or too little. Added annoying issues pertaining to
discipline and belief additionally accomplish the academy arrangement beneath welcome. Many
repudiate the educational aesthetics of alignment accouchement alone on
the base of their age. Some parents themselves accept black memories
of their own accessible academy acquaintance that motivates them to opt for
homeschooling back it comes to their own children.
Homeschooling is the best way to advise a adolescent if you accept the time,
the adeptness and the absorption to chase through with his education. After
all, cipher can accept or acknowledge your adolescent added than yourself.
Let the Sunshine in...
We finally had a warm, sunny day and I felt like the race was on to squeeze everything I could from it.
You know how a good cry can make you so very, very tired? Well, I didn't cry but I have that same feeling of tiredness behind my eyes. I think it was the sun...and the little bits of the day that reminded me that you should tackle a day head on and enjoy it to the fullest.
My sunny day included:
This morning I received the nicest letter from a friend, which made me feel appreciated and valued.
I went for a nice, brisk walk and enjoyed a good chat with my walking buddy and enjoyed scanning the streets for "treasures."It is Spring clean-up week and folks are allowed to leave (basically) whatever they want out for pick-up. Didn't find anything of interest, but got rid of some big items, myself!
I went to the hardware store, driving the handy-man's big a*s truck, and picked up some deck stain. It was interesting trying to jump down from it while wearing a skirt! :-)
Painted my new chairs and my new benches. Yep, my neighbours probably cringe when they see us dragging the saw-horses out onto the lawn..which we do a lot during the warm months.
My chairs are now look just like this:
Came in and made the most delicious chicken wrap (chicken, lettuce and hot sauce!) and drank one of these while sitting on my porch swing.
Hung a nice line of clothes out. They dried wrinkle free!
Cuddled a six-week old kitten while at the vet. Is is possible to be a foster mother to kittens? Because I could eat them up they are so adorable!!
Back home and painted my deck walls white. SO much better! Sadly, it took entirely longer than I thought it would and I am going to be a few more days at it. Tell me it is worth it, right?
The handy-man came home and took one look at my efforts and declared that he would make dinner for me! Yay!
Barbecued hamburgers...heavenly!
Now getting caught up on HOLIDAY work. Only two more weeks until we head to Arizona for NieNie's shoot. I can't wait to give her a hug and tell her how inspiring she is. And squeeze her baby's cheeks, of course. Though, if he is anything like my baby boy at that age, he might give me a slap!
And that is that. Bone tired, I tell you. I gave my best to that old sun and now I have a face full of new, summer freckles...oh, there are so very many. I get so many, in fact, that I have to use this to prevent a freckle moustache:
Because once I get one, it doesn't go away until winter!!
So, what did you do today?
Dichotomy...
This photo pretty much sums up my days lately, with a few little differences.
I am painting chairs and benches blue and tables white for my current deck make-over project.
And thinking of all things HOLIDAY, which doesn't feel as strange as you would think it would.
Problem is, once Christmas finally arrives, will I be thinking of summer?
(photo source: Country Living)
Free Vintage Labels
This is a great gift from Worldlabel.com
Download these free fillable and spectacular Vintage labels with framed designs in PDF templates in Mailing and Shipping Label sizes.
That they are available individually and also have the autofill feature makes the gift very special indeed.
That they are available individually and also have the autofill feature makes the gift very special indeed.
Gold Leaf River Rocks
Claire Chauvin has shared this tutorial on Poopscape.
She says it's crazy easy.
"Gold leaf is surprisingly cheap and when used with double tack mounting film, it's really easy to use. The mounting film can be cut into any design, regardless of how intricate or delicate it is. You can add gold leaf to just about any surface."
"Gold leaf is surprisingly cheap and when used with double tack mounting film, it's really easy to use. The mounting film can be cut into any design, regardless of how intricate or delicate it is. You can add gold leaf to just about any surface."
Inkjet Transfer Art
Textile artist Ruth Singer shares this tutorial for what I think of as inkjet transfer applique. Her idea is to use a whole range of different images and then cut them up and use small pieces to create a design.
Changing things up!
I haven't had time lately to do many home improvement projects (nor have we had the weather) but I decided to do a mini-makeover here and there. I picked up an old map a couplemof years ago and loved it for its colours and its chocolate bar origins. I took down the shelf, etc. in my dining area and replaced it with my new/old map.
What do you think?
I am thinking I now need to change out my light to something more modern and casual. Maybe my current fixture can go in my bedroom.
(The handyman is NOT going to be happy!!)
I am strongly considering this:
(source: Ikea)
Oh, and I got some new chairs for both ends of my dining table!
These (except I am painting them, if we ever get a nice day):
I could stand to shake things up!
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