And Sew it Begins...

I forsee many bad puns in the future, for this weekend has heralded the beginning of my exploits into the world of sewing! I have a Singer Merritt 9618 that used to be my mother's and was very lightly used.

And my parents have even let me set up a little sewing corner in the living room! The sewing table upon which the sewing machine rests is the one that contains the Egyptian Goddess, mentioned in previous posts. Shwaaaaa! So, my first little messing about project was a little bag I made out of a dishcloth that my father had given me to play around with. It is nothing fancy at all, just four sides, a bottom, and a handle to hold all of my notions. My mother threaded it for me, and my father gave me many helpful tips on what exactly I was doing wrong (i.e. not putting down the presser foot. embarrassing!!).

Yesterday also held many fun shopping purchases! The morning started out absolutely terribly, as I abhor being woken up by texts. Fortunately some retail therapy was in order courtesy of my darling mama and my absolute favorite thrift store in the whole world. It was even having a 30% off sale!

There was also a collectible dishware sale going on outside that was not 30% off... but my mumsie was kind enough to indulge me in some luverly things! The little turquoise plate is GORGEOUS and I also really love the creamer, which is, if you can't tell, covered with Japanese ladies. (The picture really doesn't do it justice.) And then, to top it all off, the lady at the checkout counter threw in a lovely little cloth basket that would be perfection as a yarn project basket! Lovely.

Also inside is a darling little red ikea mug I got that looks like a tulip. Scrumptious. One does wonder what to do with such things, of course, once one has gotten lovely little tea set type things. They are too pretty to use everyday, too precious to risk in the world of bumbling brothers and well meaning boyfriends. I suppose I will have to save them for some sort of solo tea party, but there is also no room for them at Bag End, I fear. Bother!

More useful and still quite happy making is I also got a couple of skirts and dresses that I adore quite a lot. I think my favorite right now is this black jumper type dress that is very simple and plain, but cute. Kind of reminds me of the Uniform Project... Ah well. Some of the things need to be re hemmed or altered, which is probably my next project in the works. Also working on a little cupcake pincushion with the pattern from BitterSweet.

May the force be with you.

The Mechanics of Blogland

Hullo! Well finally the most awful week in the universe is over. Seriously, finals plus moving out of what has been my home for a year was emotionally as well as physically draining. However, now I am so happy to be back at my family home in our tiny little town. Bag End (our apartment) is coming together nicely, with many fabulous furniturey and kitcheny things all combining to be something very much like a home. Home is a very confusing word these days, considering that I had three not too long ago, dorm apartment and house, but now the dorm is empty and I am just a little sad. What is it about saying goodbye to places that you spent time in? My dearest H has no such qualms about leaving his room, but I will miss it too and remember fondly my time there. Anywho.

The avid reader of this blog may notice that in the past 24 hours, the backgroundyness of it has changed no less than 3 or 4 times. Why is this? Well, I finally figured out a few things about the land of blog that no one had really clued me in on before, and it is all thanks to The Cutest Blog on the Block. It is a magnificent and quite cute blog that has many free backgrounds, banners, and other various accoutrements to make a blog absolutely lovely, and my current background is courtesy of them. Thanks! They also have nice guides to editing the html of a blog to make it a three column blog etc. I was rather disappointed when I saw that Attic24's blog client, typepad, was only available with a fee. I resigned myself to blogspot's awful templates and boringness with a great sigh, only to realize after trolling various craft blogs that they were quite gorgeous and still on blogspot. It was confusing for a bit, but I hope that now I too will join their ranks!

Hopefully in these upcoming several weeks of freedom I will be able to post much crafty goodness on the newly revamped blog.

Ta!

The Secret Post: Revealed!

Now, the alliance of magicians would frown on revealing any magic trick, but this is long overdue. The hints, the coquetting, all of it is at an end now. So, would you like to know?

There he is in all of his smoldering glory! May I present, Mister Fitzwilliam Darcy <3!!! Some more glamour shots of the fellow... "Ready for my close up"

"Take me! Take me!"

So, for this fine fellow I used various colors of Lily Sugar&Cream cotton yarn, and a bit of embroidery thread for the nose. The pattern I used was from Geek Central Station, although it needed just a bit of tweaking for the head. It would have turned out looking like an outright bobble head otherwise, so around row 22 or 23 I just stopped increasing, and did them all just in sc, then proceeded to dec at an appropriate juncture. The jacket was of my own design,  and the pattern goes a little like so:

R1: sc 20
R2: sc 20
R3: sc 20
R4: *sc 4 inc* repeat all around (24 sts)
R5: sc 24
R6: *dc 2, dc 2 in 1 st* (32 sts)
R7: *dc3, dc2 in 1 st* (40 sts)
R8-R10: dc 40 sts, finish off

Yay! Obviously very carefully thought out and not haphazardly thrown together at all! I sewed the arms onto the jacket, then sewed the jacket onto the torso. The hair was my brainchild as well, just a simple round bit of crochet that starts with 6 sts, then inc in each sc to 12 sts, then sc 1 inc 1 to 18 sts and so on until the toupee covers as much of the head as you want it to. (Not really much of a brain child, eh?) I did a bit of embroidering around the hairline and the sideburns so that his mane would look more tousled and less Mr. Collins, but I am not sure it turned out quite how I wanted.

Anyway, best of luck to anyone attempting to craft a twin, because who doesn't want a Darcy to warm their bed at night? Heh.

{ Mr. Darcy Amigurumi, Darcy Ami, Mr. Darcy Ami, Pride and Prejudice Amigurumi }

A post! A post! My kingdom for a post!

A post you shall have, then, screeching inner muses who comment on every random event in my life and remind me that documenting such moments is what this blog is for. Well then! It is the midst of dead week, a week of no class for me, since I am skipping my one review session to pop home for a quick visit. Home you ask? I know, it is all a bit convoluted with my family home, dorm room and now APARTMENT! However, while my family home will likely stay the same for a while, dorm home is soon to be home no longer. Myself and my intrepid room mates signed the lease for our beloved Bag End just on Friday, and Saturday brought lots of cleaning and then Sunday moving. I missed the moving on Sunday thanks to Mr. Sandman, but have quite a bit of my own moving to do on the morrow. Therefore, the day today was spent lugging around huge pieces of furniture, disassembling my bed, etc.

I am so. very. excited. about my furniture. First of all, we are going to have the most fantastic couch in all of the land! It is sage green and feels like it is made of lucsious clouds. I cannot believe that my parents are willing to part with it, but apparently it is too "unstructured" for their tastes, cos they are old and can't get up from it. While I pity their loss, I celebrate my lovely couch even though it is awful to move around without the help of strong young men like my darling dearest whose muscles are just withering as he sits in his chair slaving at essays. But I digress. The rest of my furniture came from a barn on our property, which my father has apparently been filling up with old furniture and oscilloscopes. While at first the jumble is absolutely overwhelming, with some careful treasure hunting I was lucky enough to find a desk, a comfy office chair, a sewing table, a dresser, a lamp, a cool jar, an end table, AND an adorable green metal chef's shelf with adorable wicker baskets and drawers. All of these things are fantastic for several reasons...

The lamp is the cool metal kind whose stem is all bendy so that you can twist it around every which way and it will just stay however you bend it, and is also apparently halogen and thus a fire hazard; live dangerously! The jar is large, glass, and closes with a cork, so it has actual storage potential for sugar or something like that. The comfy office chair is infinitely better than the one I got at Staples, which slants forward in such a way that forces me to maintain perfect posture at all times or else slide onto the floor. The end table looks like it will match our table and chairs, which my roomie S was so kind as to provide, and may even work as a TV stand since it is nice and sturdy. The chef's shelf is perfect, providing room for appliances such as microwave, blender, panini maker, and coffee maker. Incidentally, my parents have also been kind enough to gift me with a new coffeemaker! The dresser is particularly close to my heart as it has a fold up top that can be used for changing babies, and it is where I and my brother were both changed as babies.

The sewing table and desk get their own paragraph for sure. They are beautiful dark wood, and both of them at first appear to be simple tables. HOWEVER! Both of them have fold up sewng machines!!!1!1!1!!!!111 Ahh it is too cool. The sewing machine that was in the sewing table was beautiful as well, black with gold detail, reminiscent of an Egyptian idol. Even more impressively, the sewing table had, in secret little containers on the underside, a place to hold the pedal, sewing machine oil, AND! The original manual and sewing machine oil were in the drawer! It was so unbelievably awesome. While the desk didnt have such nifty little containers, it had a space for the sewing machine, herein known as the Egyptian Beauty, which would probably fit in either the table or the desk, and a little bobbin rack in the drawer! I was oohing and ahhing over this stuff for at least an hour, and still am if you can't tell. The only thing missing is the power cord, which my father assures me he will be able to locate no problem.

But do you even know how to sew? Not yet, is my reply. I have been, however, inspired to at least attempt to learn! This inspiration is partly thanks to Project Runway which I have recently become horribly addicted to, and also the fact that stumble upon keeps directing me to adorable sewing blogs and projects and the like.

Anyway, pip pip and cheerio, pictures to come of the new homey home once we have it all set up.