I read her blog occasionally, and find her to be pretty inspirational. I can’t even imagine how she juggles her creative life/business and her enormous family (I think she’s got 5 or 6 kids)! She might as well be Superwoman to me. I can barely manage to keep myself together and find time to be crafty with only a husband and baby on the way! More power to her.

The Halloween party is but a memory now, and I’m not looking forward to putting away all the decorations. That’s the crummy part. You spend all that time and effort making things “just right”: setting the stage, buildng props, making treats, sewing costumes, etc. And in a blink of an eye, you’re left with a mess, lots of leftovers, a bunch of photographs, and some great memories. However, there’s Christmas to look forward to… Ugh *sarcasm! If you were following me last year, you’ll remember that the Halloween party aftermath left me with a destroyed kitchen/dining room floor. Therefore, I couldn’t put up my Christmas tree because the repair/replacement took place in mid-December. No big loss really. I was sort of glad to be free from the chore of decorating for one year.

Now I can return to business as usual with freelancing, sewing, etc. I had to postpone a number of craft projects in favor of Halloween prep, and I’m glad to get back to them. Stay tuned for what I hope will be a craftacular winter — as long as I don’t freeze my arse off in this office! :)

If you follow my twitter feed, you might have seen my note that said, “Grrr. 95% finished with a dress I’m supposed to wear to a wedding next week. A. It’s HUGE. B. I hate it.” Well, this was what I was referring to. I got almost done with it (everything except the hem) and realized that it was about 3 sizes too big. Now, I followed the pattern based on my measurements to a tee! Clearly, the pattern people thought I should look like a potato sack. So I took it in about 2 inches each side, and I still didn’t like it. I should have known not to buy a pattern that only had an illustration as the picture. It looks way cuter on the barbie-shaped drawing than it does on me. Plus, the fabric I bought is a little stiff and doesn’t drape nicely at the pleats on the shoulders. However, I must say that I did a bang-up job assembling the thing. I did my first zipper and darts, and once again made use of my serger to finish the edges. Alas, this cut just doesn’t look that good on me.

Looking at the photo I took of myself, it doesn’t seem too bad, but I think it looks awkward in real life. Mike is usually easy to please when it comes to dresses, but he doesn’t like it either. Because my legs are kinda short, I have to hem the dress at my knees, throwing off the overall balance of the dress. Since the neckline of the dress comes up so high, the whole thing makes me look a little top-heavy, and not it a good way. Oh well. At least it was an awesome learning experience.

As for the wedding this weekend, I went to every damn store in the mall, as well as a bunch of other places around town and was lucky enough to find something I sort of like. It’s OK, but Mike REALLY loves it, so I guess that’s a win. I’m just disappointed I won’t be wearing something of my own creation, and I had to spend money on a new dress on top of what I spent in materials.

Mom helped me pick out a pattern that is relatively simple for my beginner skills. And let’s face it, I don’t have much patience for reading patterns; not to mention all that counting!!! I’m not sure why I don’t like reading directions. It’s not so much that I don’t read them; I skim. And take off running because I’d much rather be doing something than sitting there reading the Greek that is a crochet pattern. As it was, I think I tore out the first row about 4 times until I had the precise number of stitches. UGH. Anyway, the pattern was easy enough to learn once and and not have to look at again, until the end.

I might not want to mention this, because my friend might be reading, but I’m going to anyway. So I stitched away and at some point in the middle, I realized I had screwed up the pattern some 20 rows back: there were supposed to be 8 stitches between sections, and somehow I was only 7 on one section and then 9 on another!!! I had gotten too confident, brainlessly cranking along on auto-pilot that I had stopped counting along the way. Luckily, it wasn’t too noticeable, or I would have pulled it out. I fixed the problem going forward, and didn’t make another mistake for the rest of the project! As my grandmother always said, the little mistakes make it special and home-made.

At least my mistakes didn’t ruin the piece. Also, I finished it on-time for the shower and my friend really loves it!! Hurray! Now, on to the next project: Macrame!

I bought some clearance fabric at Jo-Ann at least a year ago, and have been too busy lazy to make anything out of it until now. I picked up a simple pattern —Vogue #8495—, and made this cute blouse. I also used it as an excuse to become better acquainted with my serger; a device that is pretty complicated, yet utterly fantastic. I used it to finish off the blouse’s side seams, and I think the whole thing looks pretty darned professional. Despite the fact that the blouse wears like a maternity shirt, I’m very happy with the final result.

Next up is this adorable yellow checkered hankie with crocheted edge. I inherited a bunch of vintage hankies from my Grandma (the pink one in the picture is hers) and I’ve been using them for a while now. I’ve started to phase out paper tissues as much as possible because, as I learned, “a total of 300 million tons of tree fiber from virgin forests in the US are used to make its paper products each year.” At any rate, some of Grandma’s hankies are very delicate and I’d rather not ruin them, so I decided to make some.

I want to point out the purple magnetic pin catcher… it is one of my favorite things in the craft arsenal. I used to lose soo many pins, but now, I can just run it over the floor and grab any rogue pins that may have escaped. Sorry, that sounded like a commercial! But anyway, on to the hankie!

First, I used the serger to create that beautiful rolled hem, and then I tried to copy the crocheted edge that my Grandma did on the pink one. I will say this about the crochet: while it’s cute and feminine, I won’t be doing that again too soon. The super-fine thread and tiny needle made it blinding work and it took me about a day to do. Also, as you may remember, I only have a very limited knowledge of crochet, so I spent the first few hours on the internet re-learning my stitches. For the rest of the hankies I plan to make, i’ll do something simpler, like just the rolled hem. That way, I can have a hankie done in 5 minutes as opposed to one a day.

I’ve enlisted my mother to help me figure the damn thing out, but like all crafty projects I undertake, it will probably take me years to complete. Remember the 5-year cross stitch?! Not to mention the countless projects that still wait in half-completion limbo.