Monday, October 31, 2016

I finished the dress in time

Even if we don't go out, I still dress up.  I think the dress turned out rather well.
And it glows beautifully!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

My house is full of bats and pumpkins and skulls and spiders.
Goodies have been made.
Lemon bark with toasted pumpkin seeds and worm cookies that stare back!
Later, there will be kabobs and fresh pretzel rolls.  There's pomegranates and chocolate chip cookies too.  Green tortilla chips with chunky salsa...and a vegetable platter because you really should eat your veggies.

I would totally share if I could!

Have a happy Halloween!

Saturday, October 29, 2016

He followed me home. I can keep him right?

This is Spot.
I found Spot on a shelf in the Halloween section of Target.  I will admit, the first time I saw him amidst all the other skeletons, he was the one whose head I stopped to pet.  Then I realized there were other people standing there, regarding me oddly.  Of course, that likely had something to do with me treating a plastic, skeletal chameleon like a kitten in a pet store.  I stopped petting the cute inanimate critter and walked away to peruse the rest of their Halloween selection (which was quite good this year!).
But then we went back to Target for something....and he was still sitting on his shelf.  I scooped him up, announced to Husband that the chameleon was coming home with us and proceeded to carry him contentedly through the store.
Currently, he's part of the Halloween decorations.  When the decorations are put away, he will go back to sitting next to my computer, where I can scratch his happy little head with a smile on my face; much to the confusion of everyone else in the house.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

More sewing than usual

The glow in the dark fabric I had to have is steadily becoming a dress.  Mostly from pattern pieces from Sew Many Dresses Sew Little Time as well as a pocket pattern from an old skirt pattern.

It still needs it's sleeves and neck facings...and to hang over night so I can hem it properly tomorrow.  The dress looks surprisingly well on considering the outrageousness of the print.  We'll have to see if it's a strictly Halloween piece once it's done.
I put together a choker necklace from buttons, ribbon, and some glow in the dark embroidery floss to go with the dress as well.

I also cobbled together a lovely gray wool skirt with black silk insets out of leftovers from the cloak I made Darling Son (which I still haven't gotten pictures of...so much hemming).  I loosely based it on the pencil skirt pattern from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual.
The skirt ends up being decidedly more 1930's looking with the modifications, which means it looks smashing with the sweater I finished.
The lovely Aiken sweater, whose second sleeve cuff took me a week to finish.  Why, you might ask, did it take me a week to knit an inch and a half of ribbed cuff?  I played yarn chicken....
 and lost.  I had to wait for the new ball of yarn to get here before I could finish it.  Then, in less than 45 minutes of far from strenuous knitting...I had a finished sweater.
The yarn is the beautiful Colrain by Valley Yarns/ Webs in the Burgundy colorway.  Sadly, it's been overcast so the lighting does not do the yarn justice.  This sweater fairly glows in sunlight, it's gorgeous.
But....because I had to wait for yarn, I needed to have another sweater on the needles.  So, now there is a Peregrine decently under way.
It's being done in Knit Picks Wool of the Andes superwash in the Oyster colorway.  I am sincerely thinking about making more of them, in lots of colors.

And then, then there was fabric purchase.  It isn't much.  It's not fancy.  But it is a fabric panel that has all my favorite Dr. Seuss books on it!
I had tried to buy it before, only to be told it was sold out.  I searched everywhere I could think of, and then searched for Dr. Seuss fabric in general...and the only place I could find even one panel was a lovely woman on Etsy (whose business card I've misplaced).  There may have been a sonic boom with the speed with which I placed the order.  I'm thinking I will piece it out and make a larger quilt top out of it.  I can't explain why, but this panel had to be mine.

I also made a...statement purchase, (which is supposed to be here tomorrow so I can't tell you how wonderful it is quite yet), from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs' Limited Edition section.  Nasty Woman seemed like a purchase that needed to be made.  I'm thinking I will get Palmyra next month.  Smell wonderful and do some good?   Count me in!


Tuesday, October 4, 2016

It's October!

It's really been non-stop since mid-September.  I finished Petrichor, have been wearing it daily since I wove in the ends, and have yet to take a photo of it completed.
We went to a local parade to, apparently, have candy flung at us.
My eldest turned twenty-one.
My son made his first pie from scratch, video game inspired butterscotch cinnamon custard:
Complete with fresh cinnamon whipped cream:
I finished my Cheshire Noir shawl:
And I finally made my husband his birthday cake, German chocolate of course:
But I may have been over enthusiastic with the frosting, as it apparently squished cake layers:
Husband and I spent  some time at the Hoptober Freshtival which was fun, though got a bit more crowded than was really comfortable later in the afternoon, so we left after a few hours.  I'm hoping that maybe they will have a bigger venue next year.  It did seem as though there were way more people than anticipated as the food vendors, as well as some of the breweries started running out of supplies by mid-afternoon (it had started at noon and was scheduled to go till 8pm).

Amidst all of this frolicking and pastry eating, the rest of my knitting and all of my sewing(none of which are good travel projects), have been left to languish just a bit.
I'll leave you with the cross stitch  I finished fairly recently, bought at JoAnns on a whim:


Started a new blog

  Oooh Shiny! is now on WordPress.  There isn't much there yet, but I will work on that.