On Killing My Computer

Photo by imakethings

So over the weekend I got bored and decided to kill my computer.

Well, that's not exactly how it happened, but I did get the flashing question mark of doom and learned that my hard drive was inaccessable, i.e. dead. I'm not sure exactly how this happened, but it may have something to do with the some 10,000+ photo files and the plethora of documents and info carelessly crammed in there.

Regardless of the cause, I felt panicked and really depressed at first. The techie at the Apple Store looked at me with pity as I walked shamefully back to the car after learning my computer's sad fate. The initial feeling of loss was so great--in my mind it was almost as if all the memories lost in those photos had been completely taken away. I did have the majority of my photos packed up via disk, external hard drives, online photo programs, etc., but there was a good little chunk of the past year that I didn't have on file anywhere else.

After resigning myself to the fact that it was likely too expensive to pay for data recovery at this stage in our lives ($1,000 is no pocket change for us!), I began thinking more deeply about my situation.

I realized that even with the photos I still have, I have far more snapshots of my children's lives than I have of my entire childhood, and my eldest is only 6. I thought about how much time was spent even taking those photos, and how, in the end, how futile an effort it really is.

Don't get me wrong, nothing makes me feel fuzzier inside than looking back at our family photos, watching my kids sleep, drool, crawl, run around naked, and blow out birthday candles all over again. But the photos become a crutch for our memories in a way. And the business of taking the photos (and then spending hours editing and uploading them) can take away from our experience of actually living the very events we're trying to capture.

I don't mean to say that I'll likely stop taking photos any time soon, but I was able to realize the importance of separating the value of life lived from the mass of photos hoarded. I will certainly be more attentive to backing up my files regularly on my still-to-be-acquired new hard drive. And although I do have my husband's computer to use as needed, I think it was fitting for this to happen just in time for Holy Week--there's nothing like the true meaning of Easter to put my life into perspective!

Tutorial: How to Sew a Simple Skirt

I've shared before that I have a stash of four or five giant scrap bags from a local shop hiding out in my garage. I've been trying to use them up (so I can collect more) and thought I'd make a little tutorial on how to make a skirt. I grabbed some gray linen and a few other things I had on hand to make one for Eleanor. You could use any kind of fabric, or even an old t-shirt or dress to make your own. The tutorial is perfect for any size skirt--whether for a doll, your daughter, or yourself, you should be able to whip this up in no time!

Materials Needed:

• fabric of choice (measurements will vary depending on the size of skirt you wish to make)
• scissors or rotary cutter
• measuring tape (not pictured, Eleanor ran off with it)
• pins
• elastic for waistband
• seam ruler
• iron & ironing board

I'd also recommend using a cutting mat, quilting ruler, and tailor's chalk or a fabric pen/pencil.

1. Take your measurements.

I chased Eleanor down and wrapped my measuring tape around her little waist and came up with about an 18-inch waist measurement. If you don't have a toddler to run after, just wrap the tape around your own waist (or your doll's)--and I use the term waist loosely, just measure where you want your skirt to fit. 

Cut your elastic to your waist measurement and make sure your fabric is at least double the length, with a half-inch added for the seam allowance. 

Next, measure the length you want your skirt to be. I wanted Eleanor's to come down to her knees, so I measured from where I wanted the waist to be and got 11 1/2 inches, adding 1 1/2 inches for the seam allowance for a total of 13 inches. (You don't want to forget your seam allowances or the skirt will come out tighter and shorter than you intended.)

2. Prepare your fabric. 

If you haven't done so already, be sure to iron your fabric before you mark and cut it. Using your tailor's chalk or fabric pen, mark your measurements (including the seam lines) to create your base rectangle for the skirt. You can also cut your fabric directly along the edge of your quilting ruler with a rotary cutter without marking the lines. I prefer cutting with my scissors, and marking my measurements directly onto the fabric helps me see that I'm not making any mistakes. 

3. Sew the side seam. 

Fold your fabric in half width wise (or vertically) and baste with pins. Sew a half-inch seam along the edge. If you have a serger, you can also serge the side to strengthen the seam. If not, you can add a zig-zag stitch alongside your straight stitch. This is what your seam would look like following the second method:

4. Prepare the waistband.

Measure the width of your elastic to ensure that you make the waistband wide enough (you want to be able to get the elastic through). Mine was about an inch thick, so I know my waistband needs to be slightly longer to feed the elastic.

Using your seam ruler, fold the top edge of your fabric over 1/2 inch. Iron this first hem as you fold the fabric over. 

Next, fold the hem over again, this time the width of your elastic plus 1/2 inch (in my case, 1 1/2 inches total) and iron along the entire edge of your waistband. It's important to make a double hem so the fabric doesn't fray in the wash. Baste the hem with pins before you head over to the sewing machine.

Pick out a thread that will blend in with your fabric (or one that will contrast if you prefer) and use that for both the top and bottom strands. I chose a gray I had on hand that would easily blend with the fabric. 

5. Sew the waistband.

Before you sew the waistband, you'll want to make sure that you don't close it up completely or else you won't be able to put the elastic in! Leave about 2 inches open across the side seam of your skirt. Sew a 1/4 inch straight stitch along your band, backstitching at both ends (and remembering to leave the opening). 

6. Add the elastic. 

With your 2-inch opening in the waistband, attach a large safety pin to one end of your elastic. 

Thread the elastic through one side of the opening and pull the safety pin all the way through to the other side. Your elastic is shorter than the total width of the waist, so you'll need to scrunch up the fabric as you go and make sure you don't pull the other end through. 

After you've pulled the elastic through, overlap the edges and zig-zag stitch them together; backstitch across the entire width for extra stability. 

Pull the elastic all the way into the waistband and stitch up your 2-inch opening. Your waistband is complete--it wasn't that hard, was it?

7. Complete the skirt.

Following the same steps to hem the waistline, use a 1/2 inch double hem to finish the bottom edge of the skirt (no need to leave an opening this time). And make sure you fold the hem towards the inside of the skirt--I've had to undo an entire skirt because I sewed the waist and hemlines on the outside of the skirt before.

Flip your skirt right-side out and, voila!, you have your simple skirt!

 And I couldn't resist adding a sweet little ruffled rosette!

I'd love to hear about your own skirt-sewing and please let me know if you have any questions about the tutorial!

Dear Amy, Happy Spring!

I received my sweetly wrapped bundle of gifts from Claire of Needlebook today. It was a delight receiving such a thoughtfully wrapped little package. I have always treasured the hand-written note and this one just made my day. It's amazing how the simplest things can bring joy into our everyday lives. What little things make you smile in your day-to-day comings and goings?

Spring Break

Chris's parents came down from Tulsa to visit us for a few weeks while Skyler was on Spring Break and we had a jam-packed couple of days! 

On our first full day, we headed out to the McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels (about a thirty-minute drive from downtown San Antonio). I'm not sure when I first heard about it, but I'm sure it was from one of my mama-friends. The museum was very busy the day we went, but I think they had a big school group visiting. Overall the kids had a blast and I would definitely recommending checking it out (I actually enjoyed it more than the S.A. kid's museum). 

Liam enjoyed the outdoor waterplay area.

Eleanor was a very serious shopper in the kid's grocery store (she grabbed all the butter soon after this shot). 

Liam taking a peek at a mini-croc (I'm sure that's not what they're called, but oh well). 

And Skyler was off with Papa Dave most of the time, but I caught him playing out on the camel out back (by the waterplay area). 

The museum also had an art room, a camping area (and a cave with bat wings for the kids to wear!), a soft-play area for the little ones, a play hospital with an ambulance, a spaceship, and lots more. 

After the museum, we headed out to the New Braunfel's Smokehouse for some great BBQ. 

In addition to the kids museum, we spent the next day out at Sea World. There wasn't too much for the little ones to do, but they enjoyed the dolphin and Shamu shows (oh, the Sesame Street show, too). I was completely exhausted by the end of the day (I think everyone was), but my favorite part was sitting in the shade and enjoying some ice cream before we left for the day. Liam was sweet enough to share his ice cream with his little sister. Thanks Gran and Papa for such a wonderful visit!

Needlebook Lovelies

I was the lucky winner of a giveaway from the lovely blog, Needlebook. I'll be receiving the adorable gifts pictured above (a notecard set, peg doll, and pin cushion) in the mail soon. The online crafting world is such a friendly and generous place! Claire, the author of Needlebook, is an illustrator and has some great things going on over at her blog. I'd love to try out her wool lace wallet tutorial! You can also buy some of her handmade goodies in her Etsy shop. What are some of your favorite blogs?

T-shirt Ruffle Blanket

As I shared with you all last week, Disney at Ruffles and Stuff is having an awesome contest on her blog this month. After making Eleanor's t-shirt ruffle skirt, I fell in LOVE with ruffles and came up with the idea of making a baby blanket covered in ruffles. I haven't really seen anything like it online and am excited to add it to my upcycling repertoire.

Before making the blanket, I sketched out my idea and came up with some color scheme possibilities then headed out to the thrift store. I already had a couple of men's white t-shirts (clean & unstained!) at home, and I knew I was going to need a lot of material so I headed straight for the men's section. I was lucky enough to find some x-large/large pink and yellow t-shirts. I did go over to the women's section, and although it was more colorful, there weren't as many choices as far as large blank tees go (I did settle on a couple just in case though).

I used one shirt of each color for my first blanket, and it measures about 20x22". I would have loved to make a full-size crib blanket, but I didn't want to mess with funky seam lines on the back.

I had also thought of adding a ruffly E (for Eleanor) to the back, but decided she has enough blankets already. And since we haven't decided on (and won't be disclosing) a name for the new baby, I decided to try my hand at a little ruffled rosette instead. I don't think a letter would have turned out quite as nicely. 

I bought the shirts last Sunday, so overall it took me about a week to make--the next one will probably go more smoothly (I had a few ruffles with the ruffles) and turn out even better! I think I'll be taking this one with me (along with any others I can whip up) to the craft show next month. I'm so excited about how well it turned out--this will definitely become one of my baby gift staples!

A Series of Fortunate Findings

I'm getting ready to take things to the next level with my blog and chronic crafting. I'm looking into starting a (very) small business, and here's how I decided to embark on this endeavor. First I was born...


Okay I'm not really gonna start back that far, but it's all been a sort of chain of events. Last year I came across the local group Alamo City Handmade (formally know as Alamo City Etsy Street Team) and attended their Haute Pink Bazaar. ACH is a goup of local crafters, artists, and artisans who sell their goods on Etsy. I was thrilled to find myself surrounded by so many creative people and knew this was something I wanted to be a part of. I wasn't able to at the time (plus I was still honing my own making skills), but I followed their happenings online. 


Next, I came across Sew Deluxe at the Smart Fair last fall. Once again, I was thrilled to find another community of crafters in the Alamo City. Sew Deluxe is San Antonio's only alternative sewing lounge, offering classes, workshops, and lounge hours for your own sewing pleasure--and they're five minutes away from where I live! They're also the home for ACH's monthly meetings. So of course I sat on my butt a little longer before getting over there. 


I finally crashed one of their meetings last month and was greeted by a wonderful group of crafty ladies. During the meeting, I was asked if I'd be interested in doing a craft fair at the Scenic Loop Cafe in April. I was a little hesitant because I haven't done my first show yet, but everyone was very encouraging so I decided to give it a shot. I submitted my application with photos of my work and was added to the vendor list. Besides needing to sew my bum off between now and next month, I needed to sign up for a sales and tax permit, which is one of the steps to becoming a small business.


Looking over all the state requirements online I realized becoming a small business is something I should and could do if I wanted to get serious about selling my handmade goods. So I've been sifting through the enormous pool of info on becoming a small business and have a checklist of things to do like registering my business locally, opening a business account, and printing business cards, to name a few. 


To help learn more about the crafting business more specifically I took a trip to the bookstore for some research and found The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and On-Line. This is a wonderful book chock-full of insider tips and advice on selling your handmade goodies and running a small crafting business. I'm so glad I came across this book, which also led me to find...

The wonderful world of CraftyPod! CraftyPod is a free and awesome resource of podcasts and blog posts all about the crafting world (including small business info!). I now listen to it while I'm busy as a bee sewing into all hours of the night.

So all of these findings have encouraged me and led me to the conclusion that I've just gotta get going on making my crafting a bigger part of life around here--I love making things--the smile a handmade gift brings to people's faces, and the innate resourcefulness of creating--it just makes life richer for me and I want to share that more with all of you!

In the big scheme of things, becoming a small business isn't the hugest step in the world, but there's definitely a lot of work to be done right now--wish me luck as I embark on this journey and I'll definitely keep you posted!

Flowers & Ruffles

I'm working on some needlebook designs and came up with this scrappy flowered book made out of linen scraps last night. You may remember the needlebook I made for my friend Jessica back in October. Well, it was so simple to make I decided it would be a perfect item for my shop! I hope to make a handful of different designs and have them up for you to see soon!

This one is made of a light sea green linen with teal felt inside for the needles. The button loop and applique on front is also made with linen, all trimmed with a bright orange thread. And it's topped off with a cute little silver flowery button. If there are any designs or colors you'd like to see let me know!

I'm also work on a secret ruffle project to enter into the Ruffle Your Stuff contest. Here's a basketful of pink ruffles I'm working with--they're a little tedious to make so I use every extra minute I have--reading, watching tv, and waiting for the computer to load are all perfect ruffle-making moments!

Giveaway Winners

Since I didn't get quite the response I was hoping for in the giveaway (ahem), I've decided to send a giraffe to both faithful readers who posted comments. My friend Lucy just gave birth to her second daughter, Eloise, last month and I had actually made one for her anyway! So congratulations Lucy and Sara you're the lucky winners! Sara, please send me your address and I'll send yours off right away! (You can find my email on my blogger profile). Thanks for reading!

T-Shirt Ruffle Skirt

Two of my favorite t-shirts from the Gap just weren't working for me anymore (regardless of the growing belly), so when I came across this tutorial online, I just had to give it a try! The most time consuming part was making the ruffles, but I pushed on and was able to finish this for Eleanor Friday night. I absolutely love it! Take a look at how adorable she is in it:

 

  

  

(You can tell she isn't used to wearing skirts very often)

  

This is her 'say cheese' smile

And I have enough material to make another skirt in the opposite colors. I am completely in love with ruffles now. Disney of Ruffles and Stuff has an awesome Ruffle Your Stuff Contest going on right now and ideas are already swirling through my head--I just might have to give it a try--but I do need to make sure I'm still working on Liam's quilt for next month too!!

My First Giveaway: Giraffe Softie

There have been a lot of new babies lately and I needed something sweet and simple that I could whip up. So I've been working on these cute little giraffe softies from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby. This pattern was much easier to work with than the simple pants I tried a couple weeks ago.

I had this leftover cotton fabric from some chairs we reupholstered and I thought they'd be perfect for this project. It's a cream, teal, and olive polka dotted cotton print with cotton poly fill, brown ribbon ears, and brown embroidered eyes and noise. I had the option of making them into rattles, but seeing they could be a choking hazard for little ones, I decided against it. The seems are machine and hand-sewn, with the ribbon sewn into the seems.

This is such a quick and simple project! I actually made six, but I've given a couple away already. As much as I've enjoyed making these, I wouldn't be able to sell them online since they're from a copyrighted publication. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to host my first giveaway instead.

I have an extra one and would like to share it with one of you wonderful readers! Just leave a comment below sharing your favorite baby gift (either given or received) by 11:59pm on Sunday, March 7, and I'll announce the lucky winner on Monday. First-time readers are welcome to enter the giveaway too, so tell your friends! I look forward to hearing your baby gift ideas!

Thinking Pink (Again)

I had my second sonogram today and Chris and I found out we're having another little girl! Skyler, our eldest, said all along that we were having another girl, so now we'll have two and two. We were going to take our toddler, Liam to the appointment with us to see the baby, but he decided he would have more fun at grandma's instead. So Chris and I got to have a nice little mini-date today too (anytime out without the kids becomes date time for us!)

Work In Progress: Baby Clothes Quilt

I've been working on this quilt made out of Liam's old baby clothes for about a year now. I don't have much to show for it yet, but in my defense I only started making the squares this past fall. The first part was taking apart the clothes I wanted to use (I did save my favorites in the baby clothes stash), and this took a little while. Then it was cutting it all up into squares and rectangles and figuring out how I wanted to put them together. And since they're all mostly knit fabrics, I've had to iron on stabilizer to the back of each little piece to make it easier to sew.

One short cut I am taking though is using a kind of quilt as you go method. I found the idea in the book Patchwork Style: 35 Simple Projects for a Cozy and Colorful Life (Make Good: Crafts + Life) which has some directions on sewing the pieces directly onto squares of batting. When you've completed your squares, you sew them together, add the backing, tie the squares, and bind the edges to finish.

The book calls for 30 squares for a large twin-sized coverlet, and I have seven so far. Yeah, I don't know if mine will be that large, but I do hope to complete it in time for Liam's birthday next month (the end of next month, thankfully). And if I don't finish it by then, well, then at least before baby number four arrives this summer!

Here are some of my favorite squares so far:

Dino

Froggie in my pocket--recognize this one Papa Dave?

New Orleans red beans & rice

Motorcycle hand-me-down

Wish me luck--I'm gonna need it! (And several more late nights!)