Nerd Ninja Doll, squirrels and my new iPhone purse

Happy birthday to Erin today!

I recently commissioned Ryan Couldrey to make me a Nerd Ninja Doll. Ryan will create a custom-made Ninja Doll for super-reasonable prices ($15 and up, depending on complexity), and offers FREE shipping within North America.

I'm trying to figure out what a Filker Ninja Doll would look like so I can commission another one. Hm...the possibility of custom-made Ninja Dolls are endless. Book Geek Ninja! Chocolaholic Ninja! Evil Squirrel Ninja! Geeky Rock Star Ninja! iPhone Addict Ninja! Hobbit Ninja! But how to -choose-?!?



Above: a gift from my friend Justin. :-) Heh...I'll have to wear this when I drink tea from my matching mug (a gift from Heather B.). Thanks, Justin!

Thanks so much for your comments and suggestions re: our groundhog problem. I'll respond to them individually soon!

Meanwhile, the local squirrels are becoming more lax in their undercover operations. This morning we found one of their spies napping on a telephone pole behind our house:



He scrambled for a quick escape as soon as he saw me. I hope he gets reamed out by his superiors.



I'm working on a new design for my iPhone bag. The old one was ok, but I thought I'd add a shoulder strap so I had the option of wearing it outside without taking anything else, as well as adding some extra pockets.



I used one of the buttons from my mom's collection as a fastener, plus I have an extra elastic that can loop around the whole thing for extra security.

Here's one of the pockets I added, made for carrying cards and perhaps a bit of cash:



I added a hole near the top so I can listen to audiobooks or music while the iPhone is still bundled up:



I only recently found out from Jeff that the white headphones that came with my iPhone includes a tiny microphone that also acts as a answer/hang up function (so I can answer/talk on the phone without taking it out of my purse) and pause/start for the iPod functionality (ditto for listening to audio books and music while I walk).

If I'm listening to music when a call comes in, the music quickly fades and I hear the ringtone instead. Clicking the microphone button once picks up the call. After I end the call, the music resumes. How cool is that?

Here's what my bag looks like in use:



I forgot to turn around the shoulder strap so the rough edge of the strap doesn't show; the strap is attached to the purse with swivel hooks and can be detached when I want to carry the purse/wallet in another bag.

It's still not THE perfect iPhone bag/purse, but I'm getting closer. :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!



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Childhood memorabilia

When we visited my Dad this past weekend, I snooped through the basement of the house where I grew up. Almost every visit turns up something interesting.

Like our old typewriter:



How many of you remember the days of MANUAL typewriters? Note the lack of letters on the keys; I don't remember where we got this typewriter, but I suspect it was once used in a typing course. We used eraser paper instead of a Delete key.

Another relic: a computer game...on TAPE CASSETTE. I think this one belonged to my brother; I was much more into the text adventure games.



I also found a box of old sewing things of my Mom's. Now that I'm sewing myself, I was much more interested. Here's an old tin of sewing supplies, which I suspect Mom must have used as her travel sewing kit:



I also found several jars of colour-sorted buttons, plus a big unsorted button jar. While Jeff helped my father with some computer stuff, I went through the big jar and sorted the rest of buttons to take home and use in my own sewing projects.



Back when I was a teenager, Mom was disappointed that I had no interest in sewing; sewing was one of her passions, after all, and she had so much she could have taught me. I sometimes feel guilty about that now, and regret that I missed that opportunity.

As I picked up each button, I realized that Mom must have handled every one of these buttons as well. Mom's been gone for nearly 20 years, but at that moment I suddenly felt closer to her. Sorting through all those buttons many years later, I could almost feel Mom smiling beside me, happy that all that time she spent on that collection wouldn't be wasted. Mom hated waste.

I also brought home some other sewing supplies, and some unused fabric -- I even recognized some of that fabric from some of the clothes she had made for Jim, Ruth and me. I plan to use Mom's fabric, buttons and some of her other sewing supplies in my own projects.

I think Mom would have been pleased.





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Sewingtalk

Above: a recent sewing project. I had originally intended it to look like the inset photo, which is a Simplicity pattern (4020). Partway through, however, I realized that I had screwed up majorly, and there was no extra material to try again.

I had actually thrown the partially sewn project into the wastepaper basket, but then changed my mind and decided try salvaging it. I ended up improvising a ton. The collar was going to be a neck facing but before I folded it under, I decided that I liked the collar look.

Because the material is a very soft and stretchy knit, however, the collar wouldn't stay up. I couldn't use regular interfacing because it needed to stretch (so I could get my head through to put the top on) and I wasn't sure when I'd be able to pick up some stretchable interfacing, if there was such a thing...so I decided to cut up a pair of old track pants instead. The track pants had lost their stretch and were also too big for me.

Anyway, I was pleased with how my improvised pattern changes turned out. :-)

Seems like ages since my first sewing project two months ago:



I also just finished the 3-class Beyond Beginners course at Sew Be It Studio Workshop. I enjoyed the course tremendously, and learned a ton from Sam Wyton. During the course, we each brought in our own project and spent the class working independently:



The instructor (on the left in the photo below) took turns with each of us, answering our questions and checking on our progress. Whenever she was explaining something especially interesting, the rest of us would come over to watch and listen.



The studio had an industrial iron, plus lots of sewing machines and sergers. Everywhere you looked, there were sewing supplies and projects in various stages of completion. I dare anyone to step into that studio and NOT feel like sewing. :-)



They even had a studio mascot, Betty:



The owner of the studio, Dilys, found this dog wandering the streets of Toronto. Dilys took her in until the owners could be found. When she had no luck in tracking down the owners, Dilys decided to keep the dog herself and named her Betty. Betty recently appeared in a poster ad for a heavy metal group.

What I also enjoyed: chitchat with the other women in the class. Much of the time would be spent focusing on our own projects, but from time to time there would be small bursts of conversation as we all cut and pinned and sewed. I'm a hermit-type by nature (else I wouldn't be able to survive working in isolation for so many hours from day to day), and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the camaraderie in that small room.



I'd love to take some of the other courses but scheduling would be a problem, especially during summers. However, they do offer one-day crash courses on specific topics like zippers, so maybe I'll try one of those.

Anyway, here's the dress I made during the three week course:



I had originally made it to wear to Rand's and Erin's wedding, but now I'm thinking it might be too hot for July. I chose a green brocade material, but it's fairly heavy and might be more appropriate for cooler weather. Still, I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I bought a bolt of black fabric during the Fabricland mega-sale and turned part of it into a backdrop for my clothing pics; Jeff put up hooks in my bookshelf so I can hang the cloth (serged along the edges, of course) whenever I need it. I'm also going to make a lighter coloured backdrop as well.

So here's the pic I took of my beaded butterfly top:



and my upside-down top:



As I mentioned a while back, this was one of my first sewing projects and I accidentally cut the fabric upside down. But, as John Durno pointed out, the pattern looks like right to me when I look down at it. :-)



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Happy Father's Day!

I'm very much enjoying reading about your favourite teachers, and plan to summarize your comments in an upcoming Blathering; it's entirely possibly the post might be found by one of your old teachers doing a search on their own name. Feel free to add your own comment if you haven't already.



Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! Especially my own Dad. :-) The photo above was taken when we lived on O'Connor Street out in East York. My mom's holding Jim, and Ruth is in the dark coat and hat; I'm wearing the lighter coat. I think that's our car to the left.



Looks like it's going to be a wet week. Makes for soggy walking but happy plants. Speaking of the garden, check out my lettuce seedlings:



They're actually starting to look like LETTUCE!

The squirrels dug up my marjoram and one of my Morning Glory seedlings (maybe it's heard the rumours), grr. All the recent rain has been washing away my carefully applied cayenne pepper.

(pause)

The squirrels had better leave my baby lettuce alone or else.



Thanks so much to Walter for helping Jeff dig holes for the new fence posts and our new tree yesterday. Every time I came out yesterday, Jeff and Walter looked dirtier. And frankly, cuter. :-) There's something hugely appealing about technonerdboys who revel in dirty outdoor work; give me rough and weathered hands over perfect nail beds any day (this applies to women as well as men, as far as I'm concerned). Thanks to Trish for lending us her husband (and son, who also helped!) for part of yesterday afternoon.



Went to a garage sale in the neighbourhood yesterday, and in contrast to my usual pattern I went to the clothes rack instead of the books, to look for anything I could practice altering. Happily, all the clothes were in good condition AND it looked as if someone in the household was around my size.

I picked up this vest for $1:



Slightly too big plus it's missing its buttons, but I figure it'll be good sewing practice.



The black jacket above will be somewhat more of a challenge to alter but I figure for $2, it won't matter if I screw up. I plan to take out the shoulder pads, shorten it, make the fit smaller. I might turn it into a vest if I mess up the shoulder alteration.

If the alterations work, THEN I'm going to paint something on the outside, and maybe even add some beading.



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Fruit, craftiness and nurturing

Above: strawberries in a berry bowl that Luisa and I made.

One of the things I love about this time of year is the fruit. Unlike the anemic and cardboard-like winter strawberries, strawberries now are sweet and full of flavour. Ditto for oranges and raspberries. Apples don't seem to suffer much (my favourite type is Royal Gala) in the winter so I tend to overdose on those in colder weather.

I'm revelling in the variety now, though, and come home from the market laden with different kinds of fruit. I like to line up the apples and oranges along the sunlit kitchen window sill where I can see them; I love the contrast of bright colours against the dark brown.



I went to my first 'Beyond Beginners' sewing class last week. Each of us brought our own project; I chose a dress that I hope to wear to Rand's and Erin's wedding, but it will depend on how the project turns out.

There are only four people in the class. One person only started sewing last week and the other two have had sewing machines for a while but haven't sewed much with them. I love the class space; it reminds me of my home office, with lots of creative clutter (Jeff would have another name for it, I think :-)... Two big tables for spread out patterns and material in the centre, lots of smaller tables with sewing machines and sergers (sergers!) and other equipment around the outside.

I learned how to alter my pattern BEFORE I sew it, and found out why I've been having so much trouble making dresses that actually fit -- my top half is apparently 3-4 sizes smaller than my bottom half, at least in terms of standard pattern sizes. I'm definitely pear-shaped! The instructor, mistakenly thinking I was embarrassed about this, hastened to reassure me that this was common. I reassured her that it was ok, and that I just wanted the dress to FIT. :-)



I've added beads to my butterfly fabric painting. Next step: sewing the tank top pieces together.



I keep forgetting to post the photo above: as part of my birthday present, Jeff had four of my Letterpress cards custom matted and framed. I've been working on more cards for Blush Publishing; I've had six approved and am working on the last two designs this weekend. You can buy the first four cards in my Etsy shop.



The squirrels have held off their attacks for now, happily. Either they've been distracted by something else, or they're re-grouping. Hopefully not the latter.

I'm glad, because my seedlings are thriving despite being now moved outdoors. I know I could just spend the money and buy full-grown plants, but I'm getting huge enjoyment out of the whole nurturing process: planting the seedlings, watching them sprout, moving them outdoors. Here are pics of just a few of the plants I'm growing from seed...

Snapdragons:



Basil:



Baby tomato:



Nasturtium:



Parsley:






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