pixiegenné

i'm a hooker (and a stripper)

no, silly, not really.  i, mean, i just dabble...i'm not a professional. 

hardy-har-har.  forgive me, i am hopped up on allergy medicine and feeling a little punchy.  i am talking, of course, about rug-hooking and wool-stripping.  above is my current work-in-interminable-progress.  i began this at least a few years ago based on a drawing that jane made.  i am hoping that writing about it will motivate me to do something about it - you know, like finish it.  i think it will be made into a pillow or wall hanging.

my friend jen and i began hooking a few years ago.  she has finished several cool pillows, including this beauty.  i have completed one project, this rug i made for a good friend's wedding last summer.

this is not such a great craft for the summer - as you sit w/a pile of wool on your lap.  it is quite a cozy craft for chilly months, though, and i am looking forward to picking it up again soon.

(disclaimer:  this is not a great craft to take up if you have any annoying repetitive-motion-wrist-issues.  finishing that rug required a winter's worth of physical therapy and the purchase of one of those dorky looking "craft sleeves")

there is a chill in the air today.  makes me want to make soup.  here's to fall!

p.s.  if you want to see some truly amazing rug-hooking, check out this.  also - i started a flickr group, so if you are a hooker, please share!

me, myself, and i

by way of introduction, here are 10 (if i can think of 10) totally arbitrary things about me...

1. i have 4 sisters and 1 brother (3 of whom are pictured above - i'm the one on the left).  we don't look a lot alike (yes, we all have the same dad) but we have very similar mannerisms and you can't tell us apart on the phone.
2. my husband and i met in college and connected over our mutual love of neil diamond.
3. i have a masters in library science.  whenever i tell people this, i invariably hear "what did you learn there, the dewey decimal system?"  no matter how many times i hear this joke, it never gets old.
4. i'm pretty sarcastic.  in one of my favorite books, a separate peace, by john knowles, gene (the main character) says that "sarcasm is the defense of the weak."  i know this, but it works for me.  i'm not proud.
5. i have two best friends from college.  when we get together, we act like we are in 5th grade.  well, they act like they are in 5th grade and i sit in a corner and mock them disapprovingly, but actually i think they are hysterical.
6. i have a best friend here in portland.  people confuse us all the time.  she thinks she is my side-kick but, really, i am her side-kick.
7. i overuse both parentheses and the-3-dot-fade-out (but always think they are absolutely necessary at the time...)
8. when it comes to crafting (and really, life in general), i am terrible at following directions and being precise.  i am very good at eye-balling.  but not good enough that i could ever be a quilter.
9. plus, i don't really know how to sew :)
10. i think gene hackman is kind of hot.

ok, then! enough about me. here's something i made today...
matchbooks. i'm thinking toward craft fairs this fall.  have a good night, all!

kitchen corner

a few years ago i saw one of those scary 60-minutes type shows about the dangers of teflon.  i decided right then and there to ditch the set of non-stick calphalon we got for our wedding and find something less scary. it was then that i grew a fondness for vintage enamel.  a few of these are from e-bay; most are from yard sales.  a few are creuset, but there are other fun brands to collect...descoware, prizerware, dansk, and copco to name a few.  the prize of my collection thus far is this little beauty...

no exciting crafting to report...just a tour of my kitchen today.  happy monday!

charlie, supersized

so john's marketing company occasionally needs children to pose for ads.  whenever this happens, john calls and asks me and any friends who are game to bring the kids to such and such a place for an hour or two.  i'm fine with this as long as a) the ad doesn't run locally and b) the "m" word is never mentioned (my 8-year-old daughter would be all over that...).  so this is how charlie became a billboard.  freaky!  if you find yourself at the junction of 302 + 16 in north conway, nh.....check it out!

jumping on the apron/banner bandwagon

me.  circa 1974?  75?  i've never been much of a cook but i do love to bake.  and, of course, love vintage aprons, especially those of the 70s era...

also, here is my version of stolen-craft-idea #465, the fabric banner...

made from thrifted sheets.  and yes, jane's room is painted hot pink.  i know.
not much to chat about today.  just some eye-candy.  happy weekend, everyone!

book nostalgia

the summer after 4th grade, my best friend and i made a pact to read the entire young adult section of our town library. i don't think we made it all the way through but remember walking there almost every day.

i remember when my fifth grade teacher read us bridge to terebithia. on the day she read us the chapter where leslie drowns, she shut off all the lights so we wouldn't see each other cry and be embarrased.  of course i cried (i'm pretty sure you did too).

so now i am a major book worm with a library degree and a major sense of nostalgia for the book covers i remember from childhood.  i pick them up whenever i'm out thrifting.  now that jane is full-on into chapter books, i find myself pushing all my favorites on her, hoping she will like them as much as i did.

here's some of my faves, in no particular order...

• bridge to terebithia/katherine paterson (obviously)...also love her other books, especially jacob have i loved and great gilly hopkins
• harriet the spy/louise fitzhugh...touched off a whole summer of spy club in my neighborhood
• little house series/laura ingalls wilder...played "little house" w/my sisters all the time...constant bickering over who got to be mary and pretend to be blind...
• cricket in times square/george selden - also love the sequel tucker's countryside
• meet the austins/madeline l'engle - obviously a big fan of wrinkle in time, etc...but the austin series is so great and often forgotten about
• from the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e frankwellier/e.l. konigsburg - i'm pretty sure wes anderson was thinking of this book when he had margot and richie camp out in a museum.  am i right?
• summer of my german soldier/bette greene - i remember being way too young to understand this when i read it but it still having a very strong impact on me.

ok - now i've established what a nostalgic-bookworm-geek i am.  feel free to share some of your favorites - i'm always looking for new ones to push on jane.  happy thursday!

p.s.  holy crap - i forgot to mention one of my all-time favorites, a tree grows in brooklyn/betty smith.  there are lots of others i'm forgetting, of course, i just had to add that one in...

glass half whatever

after an escapist weekend, my blahs have returned.  both kids will be in school in a few weeks (charlie full-time kindergarten, big change for both of us)...i am at-least-part-time-job-hunting for the first time in seven (!!!) years...just feeling a bit overwhelmed, uncertain, etc.  i think the kids are feeling it too and are regressing a bit (always fun).

i try try try to resist the hardwired urge to comfort myself (and kids) with food, but made some cookies anyway.

not to brag or anything, but these are the best molasses cookies out there.  really.  you might want to make them.  here's the recipe...

4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/4 tsp cinammon
1 cup butter (that's right)
2 cups sugar (+a little extra)
1/2 cup molasses
2 large eggs

preheat oven to 325.  grease 2 cookie sheets.  sift dry ingredients except sugar.  add wet ingredients, then sugar.  form into 2 inch balls, roll in extra sugar.  smooch balls.  bake about 10 minutes.

oh, also, these make the best ice-cream sandwiches ever.  let ice cream melt a bit, make into sandwiches, re-freeze.  really, they are exceptional.  you should make some.

i did a lot of crafting today...all suitcase work for a wholesale order.  i'm a suitcase makin' machine!

good weekend

so a good weekend is making up for lousy week.  saturday morning: hit some yardsales with my sister, found some fun little things.  saturday night:  went out for dinner to celebrate friend's birthday...wonderful dinner, great time.  rainy sunday: read book, crafted, went for run in the rain, browsed thru fabric store, off to see movie by myself in a bit. 

my ipod knows it's a rainy day.  i have it on shuffle and it has been spitting out lots of catstevens/tomwaits/nico/josegonzales/nickdrake/daminerice kind of stuff.  ok, maybe i just have a lot of mellow music in my ipod.

i made this bag for my friend's birthday.  i've never made a bag before - i think it came out ok (sorry for the not-so-great pics - hard to photograph for some reason)

hope everyone else is having a cozy weekend! 

show and tell, bitch and moan

                           

i love vintage fisher price - this ferris wheel is one of my favorites.  i had a decent sized collection going (although nothing compared to this) until i realized it was taking up half our basement/playroom/office/guestroom/craftspace and that i was the only one playing with it.  so i sold most of it on ebay this year and kept just a few favorites.  living in a 1,295 sq.ft. house keeps my collecting habit in check. luckily, vintage s+p shakers don't take up much space.

is everyone having a crappy week?  no crafting accomplished today, fairly bad parenting day, hiding in the basement waiting for my benedryl/midol cocktail to kick in (on "everybody loves raymond", ray brings his wife a box of midol and starts listing off all the symptoms it promises to alleviate - she interrupts him and screams "what about bitch, ray?!?!?  is there anything in there for bitch?!??)

anyway - here's a couple happies...this just makes me laugh, and this i saw posted here and was completely blown away - so cool.  i think i'll go watch it again. 

thrifty, crafty

i try and hit the salvation army on wednesdays, when all their clothing is 50% off.  since it is summer, my kids are usually in tow, which means i'm not able to browse as much as i would like.  but today, just as my kids were hitting their melting point, my neighbor happened by (i almost always run into at least one friend/neighbor there...my friend meg calls it "sal's boutique").  she offered to take them home with her - lucky me! besides getting lots of clothes for me & the kids, i also found these...
                           
i have been snatching up old bath towels like these lately, ever since i spied this a while back at wee wonderfuls and thought, perhaps i, too, could make something adorable and clever w/cast off towels.  that remains to be seen.  i think they are sweet, regardless.

i was a lucky lurker last week when stephanie was giving away fabric bundles.  mine arrived yesterday and was chock-full of great stuff.  i used a little this morning to make this pincushion...
                                 

that's all for today.  i have a bit of a benedryl hangover this morning (damn goldenrod) so i may go lay down a bit since my kids are still at my neighbors.  wow, it is my lucky day.