April 22

Today is the birthday of Vladimir Lenin.  And Vladimir Nabokov.  And probably thousands other people, but those two always stick in my mind for April 22.  It was a holiday of sorts at school when I was growing up, Communism and all.  I always think of April 22 as when spring REALLY starts.

I needed some normalcy after this past week.  So I shopped for a patio set.  Now, I'm on a serious budget, and I have some seriously limited space to work with.  Have you ever bought patio furniture?  If not, I refer you to this Apartment Therapy post I just saw - Small Space Outdoors.  While it shows some absolutely pretty bistro sets, they range in price from $200 to $2,400.

I was hoping for something modern, and closer to $100.  I succeeded, but it involved trips to 3 stores and some spray paint.  Behold, my new deck:

I am looking forward to at least 5 months of breakfasts and dinners as this table.

Jan 12

This is a commemorative post.

Every time I pack to move, I get rid of lots of things. Sometimes these are rash decisions, and sometimes I agonize. Today was an agonizing day, but I'm pretty sure I made the right decision.

I bought this sweatshirt over 20 years ago. It was one of the first purchases I'd ever made in the US, it was stupid expensive at the time ($50 is a lot of money when you're a scholarship student), and I needed it to fit in. It was also hella warm, which in Maine was necessary.

20 years is a long time to own something, especially a piece of clothing. Over the years, this sweatshirt lost a hood and cuffs, acquired stains - some mysterious, some from work - but I continued to wear it any time I wanted something comfy. Last week, while trying to keep warm in my eternally freezing house, I looked at the stained, torn hem and collar, and realized that if one wouldn't wear this outside the house, well, maybe one should no longer have this.

But I could not let it go completely. I cut out the lettering, and put it in my craft bin, in the vain hope to maybe, one day, make a silly pillow out of it.

A pic a day

I am going to try to do 365 days of photos.  I think it's a fantastic way to chronicle your year, and it appeals to my OCD self.  I don't want to start a tumblr or flickr or a Facebook album or anything else for this - I like the look of this blog, and I feel loyal to it, even if I abandon it for two years at a time.

The rules: a picture that I take that day OR a picture that I have/scan from the past which holds some significance.

Since it's Jan 3, here're the last 3 days:

Jan 3 - this was two weeks ago, but I can't forgo the sweater.  Not only did I embellish this sucker, I won an Ugly Sweater prize with it!

Jan 2 - my new bathtub in my new place - can't wait to take a bath after a long cold day!

Jan 1 - got to love the Beebz!

Eye Candy

The result of a fruitful Saturday.

More experiments in furnishings

Before: slightly outdated, sometime eaten by a small canine who pulled the stuffing out, and very very very dirty.



After:


Unfortunately, red is a very hard colour to photograph, so you can't see the fine woven detail on the fabric. It's also more crimson and less tomato in real life. BUT it also attracts lint like crazy - I must have lint-brushed it 20 times while I was working.


As a bonus, when I took the previous upholstery off, I discovered the fabric was a sheet. Just a regular ol' flat sheet. Needless to say, not the best material for upholstery.

While the chair hung out in my apartment, the cats have adopted it, and often used it as a two-tier cat seat - one on the seat, the other under. They also got very sad when the chair went away. So I've been scouring Craigslist for a cheap chair to bring back for the felines, but to no avail - all the cheap ones have really bad lines.

More Recent Distractions

As I can't stay away from doing crafty things with fabric, I covered this screen with different fabrics I chose for a production at work:

Notice how the screen fabric matches the throw on the chaise? That's intentional:)

And then I turned this:

Into this:

I think to date the back-and-white has been my favourite fabric to work with, as it was a linen that did not fray at all, and the pattern, while complex, was both symmetrical in all directions AND predictably repetitive:)

Not terribly original

Another brief post on recycling of clothes. The first item was a misguided purchase a couple of years back that never got much wear. While it might look lovely and care-free on the mannequin, this shirt NEVER looked good on me.

So I turned it into a tank to be worn over another tank (since it's rather sheer...)

For the second item, I had a white button-down that belonged to my grandfather at some point. I don't think the man ever really wore it, but it had a couple of faded "Сделано в СССР" labels in it, so it was probably older than me. Polyester wears well. I had no desire for wearing a polyester-blend shirt too much, but I was inspired by Ms. Forty-Two Roads, in particular by the shirts she made from other shirts. I must say this top has been my absolute favourite past summer.

What is Italian for "couch"?

This was never published because I kept waiting for the "before" pictures of this lovely couch, and finally got tired.

The "before" was Italian pink silk dupioni from 1980s - gorgeous, but not appropriate for upholstery. It was falling apart if you looked at it wrong.

This is the "after".

Kimonos live many lives...

While still on the subject of reupholstering, here is an example of what happens when you have a WHITE armchair in your family for at least 40 years:

(not MY family, so I am a little hazy on the actual timeline, but the chair was quite solidly built)

And THIS is how you bring it back to life with a vintage kimono and some material left over from drapes:

This detail is where I had to seam two pieces together because the kimono was not wide enough, and so then I had to pretend I meant to do this:

summer diversions

I had promised a friend I would show her some of the things I did this summer. They included upholstering multiple pieces of furniture. Here is the latest (and the one I love the best thus far...)

Before: a lovely down-filled Crate and Barrel sofa that was bleached by the sun and worn out. Please excuse the quality of the photos, they were taken with a Polaroid and then scanned in...



After: IKEA fabric that makes the piece look vaguely Marimekko-ish.






*On a side note, I finally organized my iPhoto to my liking (I've only been using a Mac for about a year) and I can't be more excited than I am right now about the ease of posting images. It's as if I've been using a card catalogue for years, and finally upgraded to a computerized library search!!!

Tops for tanks...tanks for tops?

What do these 3 garments have in common?

(aside from the fact that they were made in the same factory...)

And no, it's not their supreme uglitude.

They actually make one very spiffy summer top!!!

I believe I bought 1 new piece of clothing this summer, which is a record for me...

She's a Kraft-machine...

...And not the yellow-processed-cheese kind.

Behold, the results of another day where I could not sit still*

*I told someone yesterday that the chief difference in temperament between my mother and me is that my mother doesn't sit still in order to get further in life, whereas I MUST make things with my hands for the sake of creating (as anyone who knows me, I have NOT chosen a profession that brings one further in life...)

I had one too many "belly-shirts" and while I thought I'd just make another t-shirt, I realized I did not have enough jersey to make it pretty...

...but I had a yard of stripey silk, a workshop and hours of time...

Cute, HUH?

I hate Blogger...and NBC...and my slumlord...

Did I leave anyone out???

I hate Blogger...because one wrong keystroke publishes an entry that was in no way complete...yet the only way to take it down is to delete it completely, without the ability to save the post - does that make sense to you? I didn't think so.

I hate NBC because they took all NBC-related programming from iTunes last year, thereby rendering me unable to watch Top Chef or Project Runway (yes, Bravo is owned by NBC.) No, I don't have cable. No, I don't mind paying $2 per episode of TV. Yes, I was watching this season on YouTube, until NBC went and policed that this week, ending my knowledge of current Top Chef competition at Episode 11.

One of the main points of contention between NBC and Apple was the per-episode price of $1.99, which NBC reportedly found to be too low. That same programming is now available on Amazon Unbox for $1.89. Go figure. Of course, it is only available if you are on a PC running Vista, or have a TiVo or some weird personal video payer. Those of us with pretty Apples are just s**t out of luck, I guess.

Question - if you have TiVo, chances are you have full cable. Why on earth would you want to download a cable program onto your TiVo from the Internet? Boggles the mind.

I hate my landlord because they haven't upgraded the electrical service in the building since, oh, NEVER! The building was constructed circa 1920, and the ENTIRE apartment is on the same circuit. So if you are using the microwave and pretty much anything else, you trip the breaker. And the switch is in the basement. I live on the 5th floor. Good times!!!

Now onto what I originally wanted to post:


Another craft project, a table runner made from fabric sample squares, given away by recycling interior designers. This is the second step towards changing the decor of the apartment to a blue-grey scheme from a black-and-white scheme (the first step was painting the living room greying blue...)

Since I had boundless energy this morning (or so it seemed then...) I also made another shirt:


from these sad castoffs:





















I fashioned something a bit more elegant: