The Finished Totoro - and More Sewing Assistant Nonsense

My son's girlfriend and I finally finished her gift to my son a few weeks ago, and I almost forgot - I hadn't posted a photo of the finished product!  By the time she was about halfway through the figure, her crocheting had relaxed and was a lot more even.  If you looked at it, you could figure out where she started and where she finished, based on the difference in tensions - but you have to remember, he ain't gonna care.  He was thrilled to death that she made him something like this herself!

The finished Totoro

Totoro close-up! 

For someone with very limited crocheting experience, I think she did a bang-up job!  Her mother crocheted the white stomach part - LOL - look at the grey body vs the white part - same size hook, same size yarn.  TOTALLY different tensions!

If you haven't seen My Neighbor Totoro, you can NetFlix it (maybe even instant view, I'm not sure).  It's a typically Japanese animated movie by Hayao Miyazaki.  I believe he's been determined a national treasure by the Japanese, but you could look that up.  If you can, get the Japanese version with English subtitles - it's way better than either of the English dubbed versions.  Here's a quick look at some of the characters:

One of the little girls - Satsuki - her friend Totoro behind her, and behind both of them - Neko Basu (Cat Bus)!

What's that?  You recognize that name from somewhere?  Of course you do.  That's where The Chunk  Neko (The Sewing Assistant) got his name!  Which he literally grew into - pun intended!

Speaking of the "little" dickens, he quite handily kept me from working on my purse yesterday.  

His thought balloon would read:  "You were gonna do some sewing?  HEE, HEE, HEE, HEE, HEE, HEE, HEE!  NOT!!!!"

Pattern and Fabric Inspector, at your service!  (Now, doesn't he resemble the Kitty Bus in this shot?  Look at that Wide Body!)

Look, Ma!  I'm a pattern weight!  Or a Cat Bus! Or both!

My best Gargoyle impersonation!

Only pretending to sleep...

You didn't need this pattern piece, did ya?  Nom, nom, nom, nom.....

Oh, "OOOPS!"  (Heh, heh, heh!)

WHEEEEE!  Come back here, you!  FWIP!

Now watch my sleight of hand PAW! (Shred, shred, shred, shred, shred....)
Darned if he doesn't look like he's shuffling a deck of cards, casino-style. 

Rrrrrrrip!  Chomp!  PTOOOEEEYYY!  (Thought balloon:  "Just doin' my job, just doin' my job!")

Sigh.  The aftermath.  Excuse me while I go look for the Scotch Tape.  And yes, that is cat spit.

The drum covers (the huge pile of black fabric behind Neko in the first couple of shots) are thankfully on hold for the time being - the blue drums didn't clash as much as we thought they would against their new uniforms.  Of course, that doesn't mean the instructors might not change their minds.  At the last minute.  Right before we go to Nationals in Dayton, Ohio.  << hides >>

The purse?  Well, I guess it will keep for another day or two.

  

Before You Hoist That Green Beer....

You might consider putting the cost of one or two frosty mugs toward helping the victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  You might be a little less tipsy, but it's for a good cause:

http://www.redcross.org/en/otherdonationsites/

If you'd like to donate, but would like to help support grass roots efforts (with the possibility of winning something homemade, crafty, and awesome), check out these sites:

http://tearosehome.blogspot.com/  (I guarantee this one will have you scrambling for the Kleenex)

http://nettevivante.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-quake-appeal-raffle-please-share.html

http://molly-made.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-quake-appeal.html

http://verypurpleperson.com/2011/03/japan-quake-appeal-raffle.html

http://jojoebi.blogspot.com/2011/03/want-to-get-involved-with-appeal.html

See?  People like you and me, who really want to help - they are reaching out to friends and blog peeps, everyone wanting to do something, ANYTHING, to help the people of Japan.  It's amazing what you can do, even if you think you are "only one person."

Move a little out of your comfort zone, in order to bring comfort to those in dire need.  The Japanese Red Cross has not "officially" requested help from the American Red Cross, but the ARC wants to be action-ready when the call does come.  And there is no way it won't.  There is just too much devastation.  Too much loss.  Too many needs.

When you're done, hoist that beer a little higher, knowing you did something good for others.

As If I Needed A Reason

I was strolling through Blog-Land today and stumbled upon a site that had me sitting bolt upright:

http://www.operationwritehome.org/

I have an alarming accumulation of paper crafting supplies as well as rubber stamps.  I think if I set all my rubber stamps end-to-end, I could probably get to the moon and back in short order.  Embarrassing, I know.  There was a time when I did rubber stamping projects almost daily. When my son was having a particularly rough patch of health issues and required some pretty serious surgery, though, the crafting sort of fell by the wayside.  A year earlier, I had also had some surgery on my right shoulder, which left me with the rather unpleasant diagnosis of RSD or CRPS.  Not many people know about this disorder and I don't like discussing it because it is pretty complicated, very painful, and there are no known cures (and only mildly palliative pain management in my case).  You can read about it here if you'd like to know more: http://rsds.org/index2.html.  Fast forward to 2008, and I had yet again another major surgery which knocked me out of commission for about six months....and all of this added up to a loss of interest (and some ability) to make cards and other things.

I had rebuilt the interior of my craft room right before my son had his surgery and had put in an upper and lower cabinet set with a worktop, intending for it to be a rubber stamping workstation.  And it's lovely.  Only, it hasn't seen any action since it was built.  (Insert sad face here.)

So, maybe it's time to turn that frown upside down, de-stash a bit, get a little creative (within Operation Write Home's guidelines, very important to read if you're interested in participating), and do some good.  Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

Some samples of things I've done in the past (and I will probably send at least a couple of these along with the new ones):

The inside of this one reads: "Happy Birthday to an Ancient Artifact!"

Images by Stampin' Up

Images by Stampin' Up

Images by Stampin' Up

Images by Stampin' Up

I think this is a project worth pursuing, don't you?

Happy Anniversary, Part Two

Ahhh, here we are on day 2 of the Anniversary Celebration!  Yes, I know there was a day in between the flower delivery and the dinner tonight, but I'm grateful for the lull - I needed time to get this one together for them!

My son isn't working a steady job right now.  He is concentrating on school and when he has spare time, he likes to tinker around and fix up old scooters & motorcycles to resell.  He doesn't make much at it yet, just a little here and there.  So when he approached me with an idea to have a fancy dinner here at the house to celebrate their first anniversary as a couple rather than blowing what little money he had on an expensive restaurant, I realized he'd ended up with a pretty good head on his shoulders after all!

I bought the tablecloth this afternoon at the Assistance League and borrowed the topper and the wrought iron chairs from a neighbor.  The tablecloth needed some reworking to make it fit the round table in the backyard, so I set to this task, aided by my trusty Sewing Assistant:

Let's see, maybe if we pick out the hem here.....

...and cut it right about here....

...sew them together again to make a square, and we should be good to go!
Wait - what do you mean, I need to move?

After I shook off the Sewing Assistant and finished the tablecloth, I went to Trader Joe's again and bought everything they needed for a fancy dinner:  Fettuccini Alfredo, garlic toast, sparkling blueberry juice, and cheesecake; I also picked up another small bouquet for a table arrangement. I added carrots from our garden, along with corn we already had in the freezer.  All in all, it was a fancy restaurant style dinner and dessert, and it only set him back about $20 total!  

Would have looked a whole lot better if our patio wasn't in such sad shape!  They'll be eating after sunset, so maybe they won't be able to see all the cracks & such!  If I hadn't had to run back & forth to the high school to work on drumline uniforms, I would have lit up the ficus trees with white Christmas lights - that would have made it totally awesome.  Maybe next time!

The bouquet - around $6 - and believe it or not, I bought these candle holders at a dollar store! 

My ludicrous napkin-folding skillz! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Sparkling blueberry "juice beverage."  LOL!!!

My son added the crystal framed photo of them from last year's prom - I thought that was a really nice touch!

Ok, so someone forgot to let them know to get dressed up for this fancy dinner.  
Well, maybe they ARE dressed up - if you look closely, you can see that they are both wearing plaid jeans......LOL!
They enjoyed the dinner very much and are now sacked out in front of the TV watching a movie.  I think it was a success!
(How do you like that $5 tablecloth?  Happy Dance!)

Got a couple of inches of the marvelous sock done yesterday and this morning - will put that in a post tomorrow, cuz I love that self-patterning yarn and it's amazing how it is mimicking Fair Isle knitting when combined with the solid color!  Right now I have to get going on black drum covers for Sunday's competition - the uniforms are black and burgundy, but our new drums are blue - you think they could have thought about that color clash a little sooner?  Like, when they were ordering the uniforms?  I mean, it's not like we haven't had the drums since the fall season or anything..... Wish me luck, I might be pulling a couple of all-nighters on this one......

Crafting At The Last Minute

It's the story of my life.  I've worked pretty hard throughout my life, learning as much as I can when I can about crafty and artistic things that interest me; I work to perfect my skills and make things that look as professional as I can manage, anyway.  And for what?  So that when I get a panicky, last-minute text from my 19-year-old in the middle of one of his college classes, I can spring into action.  Well, as much as I can spring these days, at any rate.

"Mom, I'm probably going over to (girlfriend)'s house right after class, and it's our first anniversary - where can I get some flowers (at 6:45 pm)?"  If you're like me, you're probably wondering how he could POSSIBLY have left it until 15 minutes before he was supposed to be over at her house, right?  But then, we are talking about a male, here.

"No worries, Trader Joe's has decent, fresh flowers that won't cost you too much.  I need to go over there to get some fish for dinner (it being Ash Wednesday and all) anyway, I'll just pick some flowers up for you while I'm there.  Bouquet or centerpiece arrangement?"

"Centerpiece style, roses if you can.  Thanks, Mom!!! : D"

Well, they had small roses wrapped up with other flowers, so I picked up another mixed bouquet and brought them home.

Gotta love Trader Joe's!

Added some leather ferns from our yard, a gift from a neighbor that had removed them from their yard during a house renovation.

Love these, but wish my hubby would stop cutting them back so far.  I always need more!

45 minutes later:

Voila!  First Anniversary arrangement!

The flexible paper at the bottom added a bit of color punch, and was tucked into two of the bouquets from the store - she can remove it if she wants and there is a sturdy flower container - pick those up at the 99 cent store when I see them.  So I can give them away like this.  : )

Some of the flowers got a little washed out in this shot, so here are some close-ups (because you never get tired of looking at flowers, right?):

Had to add the freesia - it was a little yellow for this bouquet but smelled so divine!

Some of the larger roses & some lilies & berries from the mixed bunch.

Some miniature roses & alstromeria - aren't they sweet?

Now how could he possibly go wrong with this? 

Crafty moms rock.  (LOL!)

One Step Forward

Seems like only yesterday that I finished that pair of super-wash wool socks for my son.  Oh, wait...that WAS yesterday!  Since this was a week that felt like I was falling down the rabbit-hole (long story), we were watching Alice In Wonderland (Tim Burton's vision) while I was finishing the last of this pair.  He's sliding around the halls in them today (ok, 15 must not be "too old" to go hallway sliding in a new pair of socks).  Amazingly enough, I got him to hold still and pose for the blog before the Giant Slalom run:

How I love my self-patterning sock yarn!

Of course, now that that UFO has changed its status, I immediately had to start on another pair - this time, for ME.  This next pattern is from the book, Outside the Sox that I picked up at my local Joanns Fabric store.  Drool city.  Stephanie Pearl-McFee (a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot) got me started down the road of sock-complishment with her book, Knitting Rules.  Now that I have the plain-sock-with-self-patterning-yarn sock thing down, I thought it was a good time to change things up a bit:

Serious sock-nommage!

I don't have enough yarn to make the sock quite this tall, which is fine with me - I think I can get away with what I have if I just eliminate one or more rows of patterning.  While I love this colorway, I wanted desperately to use some fabuloso yarn I bought last year at Big Lots; they only had one skein, and I went to three other stores hoping to score some more, with no luck.  Sigh.  Along comes this book, and I realize I can just buy a plain yarn and mix them together to have one delicious pair of socks.  As soon as I was done with my son's, I just HAD to start on the next cast-on.  It must be an illness or something.  

Mmmmm....soft, pretty, yarn.  On toothpick-sized needles.  (OY!)

Maybe I'll have these done within the next couple of months.  I wish I could stick to one project at a time, finish each one, and move on to the next.  But, no.  In addition to the shoe pattern I'm still working out, the mending I'm doing for a friend, the winter pajamas that will be ready just in time for spring (*red-face*), two jacket makeovers, and about three handbags, I decided that I need a new handbag for myself.  The last one I did I am still carrying around - it was a gift from a friend who had yard-sale remnants in her trunk, and that purse managed to miss the Goodwill pile.  I recovered it with some awesome home dec fabric, but the purse really isn't big enough to house everything and my Blackberry keeps falling out of it and the stupid straps keep falling off my shoulder.  So I went through my stash of handbag fabrics (yes, I separate my fabrics based on my intended projects - silly, I know) and pulled this out to make a new purse for myself:

Front, back, and facings

A close-up of the home dec fabric.  I LURVE interesting patterning like this - must be why I keep buying that yarn....

Fabric that special just cries out for special straps & trim - this is faux leather from an independent fabric store down the street - a relative rarity in our big-box nation.  My older son went nuts over this - I think he has plans to recover his scooter's seat, so I'd better watch my remnants carefully or they might just disappear! With the stash that I have, it would be years before I would notice, LOL!

Sturdy, plain poplin for the lining & zippered pocket.  And I just happened to have the right size zipper for this - one good thing about establishing a nice stash - kind of like instant shop-at-home!

I had thought that I could get this handbag done in time for my mini-stay-cation tomorrow (meeting friends at Disneyland for an overnight stay), but - ALAS - got a visit from the migraine fairy again so I think I need to lay low today instead.  Hope it's not from project overload!

Hey, Remember That Custom Valance?

Remember the post not too long ago about the valance that I made for a custom candy bar - it was TRULY just a bit part in the whole play, but still.....

Well, Custom Candy Buffet Bars/ Hollywood Candy Girls revved it up and put it to work at American Idol as well as other events, and I was hoping they would post photos of the finished (and filled!) cart on their site.  Woo-hoo!  They did!

Here's the link (and here's hoping your eyes won't pop out of your head!):

http://jackiesorkin.blogspot.com/2011/02/our-new-old-fashioned-custom-candy-cart.html

Now, how much fun is that?
(Good thing the Sewing Assistant can't see it full of sweet things & feathers - it probably wouldn't have lasted five minutes....)