Wordless Wednesday- Flamazing Flamingo Parade
Tag: flamingos
Wordless Wednesday- Bird Quilts
Cheerful birds from the National Quilt and Sewing Expo last November
Wordless Wednesday- Halloween and Harry Potter Decor
Spooky flamingos and pumpkins
The mantle is spooky classroom themed.
Herbology!
Winged keys and a golden snitch.
Honeydukes! The candy store from the wizard town.
Potions classroom.
Fancy inspecting the newest addition to the flamingo flock.
Just Keep Sewing! Just Keep Sewing!
I feel slightly like Dory lately, from “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory,” in that I seem to have a short attention span for sewing projects lately and lots of indecisiveness for what to actually make.
I do need to get my shark themed outfits done for Shark Week, which starts on July 28th! I have three more things to make, I think, and then will be able to wear shark or ocean themed outfits all week! Oddly enough, I don’t think anyone will actually notice. My teen clients last year mostly just rolled their eyes at me when I told them they should be watching it, but I have hope this year, as I have some younger kids who do like sharks. I have to have someone to talk to about it after all! The Husband can only take so much. 🙂
I didn’t sew any shark themed items this week. I was focused on tank tops for part of it and workout gear. I did make a sleep tank top out of the scrap material from my SIL’s sweary panda shirt, but out of deference to my Mom, I won’t show it.. 😉 It’s got a cute panel on the front with the pandas and pink cotton lycra along the sides and back. It was really cute for my first time color blocking a pattern.
I hacked the Bonus Tank from George and Ginger to make it. I have used this pattern four times now, as it is a free pattern and has only three pieces. It includes actual pieces for the neck and armbands and it’s been nicer than having to measure them out. I’ll show you two other versions, but the third one isn’t done yet. It still needs bands and adjustments.
This one is from a remnant from Joann’s. It was actually the smaller of two cuts that I bought. The bigger one will be a skirt, I think. I believe it is rayon spandex, but I keep forgetting to take a picture of the end of the bolt with the info. It’s lovely, soft, and very light, even in the heat. It also goes perfectly with my blue chambray shorts I made last year.
This one is from a performance fabric, I believe nylon and spandex, also from Joann’s. All the performance and printed knits were on sale for $7.99 a few weeks ago and I stocked up. They are normally $13-20 a yard. I also had coupons!
It’s a bit of a different fabric that I normally use, but is supposed to be moisture wicking and all that fancy stuff. It’s soft and comfy. This was the first one I made and I have since narrowed the shoulders a bit as they were a tiny bit too big.
I also made these leggings with cutouts that I think are super trendy and cute.
They are just black cotton lycra with these panels and I don’t have a good picture of them on. I still have to take about two inches off the bottom of the leggings, but it won’t affect the panel at all. I am short, so the Capri length are actually somewhat closer to ankle. Chances are good I won’t want air conditioning in my leggings in the winter! The Husband thought they were cool too.
Since it has been so hot lately, of course, the best thing to do is to make a sweater, right? 🙂 I actually pulled this out to make because I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it, so it was something I could do quickly. I think it looks cute on me and this pattern has some magic that makes me feel cute, even in a slimmer cut. The fabric is a double knit and was from the Discount Fabric Outlet, which sadly, has closed. 🙁 I had just enough to make it work. The neckband is navy cotton lycra, as the blue floral doesn’t have enough stretch to work for that.
It’s the Fall In Love Sweater from Ellie and Mac. I love it! I have made a black and rose sweater in this pattern too and probably will end up with a couple more for fall and winter. It’s the perfect professional sweater pattern.
In a more seasonally appropriate direction is this dress, which is the Brunch Blouse from Patterns for Pirates extended to my actual dress length with a slight High/Low hem.
If you remember, this is a pattern I have made before, but forgot to add more to the skirt portion when I shortened the torso and ended up with a lovely tunic instead. Joann’s came to the rescue as they had almost perfectly matching bias tape and thread to finish the edges. It is made from rayon voile, which I bought after seeing the fabric on clearance online. I have not worked with this fabric before, but it is so smooth and floaty that I want all of it now. It works perfectly for a little summer dress! I have worn it belted to a friend’s birthday party and with a cropped jean jacket for work (which I thank the same friend for making me buy it every time I pull it out.) It looked lovely both ways and makes me feel super stylish and cute. I plan to make more of this pattern as well.
I have been finding a couple of stash busting hashtags on Instagram that I’m hoping will help inspire me to keep evaluating and adjusting my wardrobe. I’m finding that my style is really emerging and I’d like to keep up that momentum.
This weekend I have fun plans to try tie dying some white cotton lycra to see how it works and I will have some cute things to make after that. For the summer, all the online fabric places have really cool tie dye fabrics and my friend and I decided to try to make some on our own. And of course, my list of projects grows ever longer. For example, how cute are these patterns I found at the bag sale at my local quilt store?
I blame my MIL for part of them. It’s okay though, she got similar fabric (the water color looking ones) to me and blames me for that.
It’s dangerous when we shop together. Also, she has the ruler I need for the Twister Gnomes, so how could I not get it? And and iron pattern called “The Irony?” I mean.. I’m their target market on that one. (By the way, everyone may get a gnome themed table runner this year. Hope you don’t mind… 😉
To distract from more fabric purchases (although they do have a purpose- a quilt with the watercolors/batiks and a skirt or shirt with the floral,) I’ll leave you with this derptastic picture of Fancy on a car ride.
I hope it makes you smile as much as it did for me!
Wordless Wednesday- Fabric Frenzy
Gardening Update
Hello! It’s supposed to rain here all week, so I had to hurry up and get the rest of the garden planted yesterday. The Husband pulled a bunch of dead wood out of the backyard jungle and it looks like we did nothing once again. The three yard waste bags and 3 full yard waste cans belay that notion though.
We haven’t found any other morels in the yard, but we have pretty flowers popping up.
As usual, I have no idea what they are. 😁
I do, however, know what plants I actually planted! I’ll start with the herbs.
Flat Leaf Parsley- I need to chop this back so it grows more evenly.
Garden Sage and Pineapple Sage-
The pineapple sage can be used in teas and is sweeter than the regular sage.
Greek Oregano and Lemon Balm-
Lemon balm for tea and you can make a tea with oregano too, I think. We used the oregano last night to marinate rib eyes and it was delicious.
Three kinds of basil. I just couldn’t stop myself, so we have Purple Basil, Sweet Basil, and Cinnamon Basil.
I’m excited for pesto and for caprese salad. Also, Basil Lemonade!
We also have two kinds of thyme- German Thyme and Lemon Thyme.
Lemon thyme will go in my tea mixes and the German thyme will be for cooking.
We have three containers of strawberries. The ones that I planted in a stacking container haven’t sprouted yet, so no pictures of that. The other two were ones that survived the winter and I separated.
Eventually we would like to have berry bushes in big containers near the garage, but we have a few stumps to dig out first and we’re going to put gravel down too.
The tomato plants all have trellises now out of twine, but it was starting to sprinkle after I had finished them, so imagine them all with twine.
I couldn’t find Mr. Stripey or the Indigo Rose tomatoes this year, which was a bummer. I do have a Yellow Canary Cherry tomato, a Lemon Boy hybrid, a Mountain something or other, 2 Romas, a Cherokee Purple, a Juliet grape, and a Husky Red Cherry tomato. I did buy one of the super fancy tomatoes, the San Marzano tomato plant. I seem to be missing a few, but I think I might have duplicated the cherry tomatoes too. I’m hoping the twine will help keep them in check. A couple of the plants have flowers already!
The second garden bed doesn’t look super exciting yet.
I planted bush beans in the spot with the trellis, and replanted carrots along the back. There’s also Swiss chard and bok choy along the sides. Radishes along the other edge. For peppers I have a purple bell, poblano, serrano, and jalepenos. I’m thinking of trying more pepper seeds in the ground, ut if it keeps raining, I may just have to go with this. Even though there should be a good amount of stuff geowing soon, I still feel like I could be planting more. Next year, I’m starting the seeds later so they don’t die. Also, I will be using bigger plastic pots to help keep them stable longer.
I also have a zucchini and two rhubarb plants in pots. The rhubarb hasn’t grown yet, but the zucchini looks nice and healthy.
The hydrangeas in the front have blooms. I don’t know if I’m supposed to pluck them to make them grow more leaves or not, but they seem healthy.
My flamingo flock is also coming along nicely. 😂
I bought this one at a city garage sale yesterday. It was made out of pvc pipe and affixed to a paver stone. I still haven’t named it yet, but the artist made sure to tell me that I could name it whatever I wanted. He also said that because it moves a little in the wind, it might work as a pest deterrent in the garden. I’ll try anything cor the squirrels, so it might be my backyard flamingo.
This year a bunch of the local cities are holding rummage sales in parking garages or other city areas and it’s very convenient. It’s a weird mix of vendors and items, but worked out for us yesterday. We found two Wii games, the flamingo, and I got some Lego pieces for work. There’s a couple more coming up, so we might go see what we can find. 🙂
Fancy has been excited about the warmer weather. She likes it when our windows are open and she can smell all the things happening. She’s also helpful when we are messing with sticks. This is her, after the kids across the street went back inside.
I’ve started my canning prep list and am going to try to start having at least one canning/freezer prep day every couple of weeks. The mason jars are taking over the house again. I have a few recipes that I can make whenever; Jasmine Tea jelly for my FIL for Father’s Day, pickled red onions, and pomegranate jelly. I will probably try to do some of these this Friday. I don’t think I have much else planned.
For now though, I need to start getting ready for work. Have a great day!
Wordless Wednesday- Fairy And Flamingo Stories
Wordless Wednesday- Signs of Spring
Wordless Wednesday- Fall Beauty
Monthly Review
This has been a very busy month! We have had meetings, outings, rain, wind, trips up north, new things with Fancy, and garden progress. Whew… No wonder I’m tired.
The featured picture is one of the new flamingos I bought. I think it looks so pretty outside. So far the neighbors have been polite, no one has even suggested I think about other yard decorations… 🙂
We’re plotting (ha! Gardening puns!) to get the garden finished over the weekend, so I can get the plants in on Sunday. It’ll be a rush, but I think we can do it. So far my list includes carrots, peppers- sweet and hot, tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, and possibly lettuce or bok choy. Also, more berries, but they will be not in the ground. Wish us luck for getting it all done. Hopefully I can grow a lot of our produce this summer.
We had some good meals this month. 22 recipes were used, with 7 being new recipes.
Hits were Crockpot Beef Stroganoff, Shrimp Pasta, and Chicken Bao.
I made Rhubarb Streusel Muffins for our trip up north from the February 2018 Food Network Magazine.
They were pretty good. I think I was the only one who ate them though. We had grilled steaks and baked potatoes for dinner at the camp. I put together foil packets of asparagus and asiago mushrooms.
It was a very good dinner. I didn’t like the mushrooms very much, but everyone else did.
We only had one miss for the month; the Crockpot Scalloped Potatoes and Ham. It wasn’t very good, kind of bland and too soupy.
My goals for last month went pretty well. I did meal plan pretty consistently this month. I didn’t try any new equipment, but grilling mushrooms was a new technique. I also made some freezer meals. We’ve eaten one so far and it tasted good. I’m still relying on fruit as a side dish and haven’t really been making many. It’s hard to make them before work and I’m normally too rushed if I’m cooking after work.
It’s been a bit of a switch lately, as I have excelled in my sewing projects, but not done so well on food. Maybe I can only do one at a time?
This past month, I made 20 items of clothing! Part of my productivity was due to Me Made May. I did complete my goal of wearing me made items 3x per week. I was not as successful in picture documentation as I wanted to be, but I kind of expected it. I’m so critical of myself in pictures. I did succeed in getting over my fear of posting of myself though, especially wearing things I’m proud of.
I also made six dresses, only one was a solid color. The rest were not neutral colors, but most of them can be worn with multiple colors.
My favorites were the green striped dress and the blue Agnes. I have rediscovered how much I like dresses. They make picking clothes really easy. I did make one dress that was a terrible fit. It was a long version of the blue clock dress. It doesn’t suit me at all. Back to fit and flare styles, I think!
I’ve also made 9 pairs of leggings or shorts from the Peg Leg Leggings pattern. I only have pictures of 8 of them.
Two pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of full length leggings, and two pairs of capri length ones. I love them. My favorites are probably my sewing machines and the dog ones I made today. I played with the fabric and used different colors as a test for my SIL’s swearing panda ones.
I think I’ll use a straight cut for hers though. I forgot it would look funny since they legs fold. I used a red band for the waist.
Skirts were also made, including two pencil skirts and a gathered maxi skirt that turned out exactly how I pictured it!
The maxi skirt has a pocket! I wore it yesterday and swanned around all proud of myself! 🙂 The heart skirt is made from a new fabric, Liverpool knit, which is the same fabric for the expensive pencil skirts I love so much. The maxi on the end is rayon spandex, also a new fabric.
I did bring my serger up north, but it keeps unthreading itself. I have to get a professional to teach me to thread it. My MIL is right, knits will be much easier with a serger.
The one thing I didn’t do much with this month, was to finish things that were already started. 😳I got too excited by knits and new patterns…
While doing some organizing, I ended up making some decisions on fabrics and patterns to try next. Most are with fabrics I’ve had for a while. Here’s pictures of 2 of them that I’m going to try to get done this month.
This one is the dress from my Joann’s birthday run.
This one has the most beautiful color changing ability, greenish-blue. This pattern will most likely be the dragon dress too.
I’m excited to keep sewing new things, but also am going to go back to trying to finish one older thing per week too.
I also need to start and finish a bellydance costume made with this fabric.
It’s “Fancy Month” for one of the sewing groups I’m in and I posted asking if this was fancy enough to qualify and several people asked for progress pictures. Now I actually have to make it! 🙂 I’m going to see if I can find any more of this at Joann’s.
I’m planning on remaking a bra and then using this fabric for a vest and belt/bustle. In my head, it has deep teal poofy pantaloons too. 🙂 I will definitely be making a test version of the vest, possibly not of the bustle. I’ve used that pattern a few times before.
So those are my plans for the month. Not really set goals, just some ideas. I think between getting the garden going and trying to get these done, that should be enough to keep me busy.
Here’s a cute picture of Fancy to close out this long winded review!
Have a good night!