Well, this month was a bit different. The funeral in the middle threw a few things off. One of them was that I had to finish a project I had been procrastinating for a long time. For Mother's Day, I offered to make my mom a custom church bag that would be the exact right size for her binder and scriptures and what-not. We picked out fabric when she was here, talked about the design . . . and then it sat in my living room. This project scared me a bit, mainly because it wasn't for me. When you are making something for yourself, it is easier to make all the little judgement calls. Things like how "many pockets do I want", "what do I want it to look like" - and especially "is this mistake worth fixing, or would I rather just leave it how it is."
Well, with her in town, I figured I needed to get it done so she could carry it home with her instead of ship it home. Ta-da!
It was especially interesting making this for someone with different tastes than my own. For example, I would have wanted the straps to be the dots instead of the floral. And I would have wanted as many pockets as possible on the inside. In fact, to be honest, I'm sure my bag would involve more feminine bows or flowers or something. But this was exactly how my mom wanted it, down to the two pockets inside. I had a lot of fun engineering this from scratch to her dimensions, and especially figured out how to make the sides stiff, the bottom have a plastic stiff sheet in it, and also give it feet and the brass loops on the handles. I'm fairly proud of it, overall. But that took up most of my crafting energy this month.
As for the Halloween costumes, this was my first year meeting up with a child with an OPINION. I have always just picked out something I thought they would enjoy and made it. But Kaitlyn is now old enough that I knew that would not fly. She told me she wanted to be Princess Aurora. So I showed her the Disney costume online - and she said yes, I needed to make her one of those dresses. Not buy - make. As Daddy said, "she knows how this works."
So I started looking into it. First of all, Princess fabric material is not all that cheap. And at the end of the day, the dress is actually sorta plain. It looks good on Aurora because her waist is the size of her neck. But it really is just a plain pink ball gown -with a neckline that looked like a headache in the making.
Just when I was about to buy the fabic, Kaitlyn said that she would also like to be Rapunzel for Halloween.
That killed it. I was not going to spend hours making this for her to change her mind. Time for the $8 version at Big Lots! This is her at Ballet class last week. They got to wear their costumes, and Daddy even came to watch. They each had a turn where the teacher would play music to go with their costumes, and they would make up a dance to go with how that character would dance. When it was Kaitlyn's turn, she told the teacher that "Princess Aurora dances with somebody", so they each grabbed a partner to dance with.
I decided I really liked how her costume is the length of a ballet tutu, since Sleeping Beauty was a Ballet long before it was a Disney movie. So since she actually stuck with that in the end, she was settled.
But then there was Tyler. I tried to think of things that he is "into" right now, and really drew a blank. He loved construction trucks one year, so I made him into a dump truck. Another year he loved Toy Story, so he was Woody. But now . . . he isn't really big on anything this year. All he does is walk around all day singing songs to himself. He sings over his cereal in the morning, he puts words of what he is doing to random tunes he knows, and has even been singing church songs all day at school sometimes.
So this is what I came up with.
You can't quite read the sign through his drumming, but it says "Tyler's One Man Band". I was worried that it would be too cumbersome when I was done, and it is a bit much for him to cart around. But he loved it! I got it done just in time for our neighborhood party, and he had a grand time making as much noise as possible all night. He can play recorder and use the sticks to beat on his drum and the cowbell all at the same time. He had jingle bells on elastic bands around his knees, but they started to all fall off. Maybe I will repair that for tomorrow.
I think it worked. (Needs more cowbell!)
In the meantime, my crafting has finally moved to a new home. I have always just worked on my dining room table, since that is the big long table in the house. But it is also in the front room - visible from the front door, and the front windows of the house. At first I was good about putting it all away every time I was done, but for the last year or two I really have been making something just about every week or so. With countless trips to the basement to put away the parts I was done with and get the stuff I needed, it still looked like a constant mess. But there was only one unoccupied spot I could take, and I wasn't eager to make that move.
I finally did it though. My crafting has a new home. See that sewing machine, way back in the far corner of the basement? That's me.
I liked being upstairs so I could keep a better eye on the kids, but they do have some toys in the basement, so I'm hoping this won't be too bad. I still need to get things set up, but it is nice that I can make a mess back there and no one will see it. And I really like having my little plastic drawers to hold sorted tools right where I can reach them.
You might also notice the little cabinet in the shadow there. That is my recent treasure. It was my Grandmother's, and my Grandpa kept it around all these years because it was where his phone sat. At one point I mentioned to the family that was in love with that cabinet and the contents in it , and they said that I could probably have it someday - but not then. That was where the phone sat. And Grandpa was not fond of change. He was such a funny man. I was happy to chuckle and wait patiently.
But now it is mine! And oh, the treasures my Grandma left in there. Lots of sewing tools, books, and thread. I have always wanted a pair of pinking shears, and I have put them to good use already. But this is the box that always had me drooling. Check out the trims!
Those are all ribbons and lace edges for decoration. How fun is that? I can't wait to put some of those to use.
Another of the treasures that I inherited was something it looks like Grandma made to put her jewelry into while she traveled. It is actually just two ziplocks sewed into a fabic envelope. I love it, especially because it looks like just the sort of crafty thing I would make. I didn't know my Grandma very well, but apparently we had a few things in common.
Crafty things may have been shifting around a bit over here, but I think it has all found a good home now.
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