Me-made-may day 4 and project list

So I just realized how un-photogenic I am when I try to take pictures of myself using the timer. Oh well too bad. Anyway here's day 4(may the fourth be with you). Its Butterick 4443, again!So, since after tomorrow I will have worn all my home-made clothes for Me-Made-May, I've decided I might need to make some more items. AND, since I'll be done with finals at noon tomorrow, I will actually have time to make some!
So I was going to make a ruffly-shirt with this, but then I realized its pretty thick and will be too warm now that the weather is staying nice. So I'm thinking maybe I'll make a Cynthia Rowley skirt. I was thinking maybe the one on the body left.

And then I think I'll make the upper left shirt on this pattern with this pretty flower-y pattern.

And, I've been planning this shirt dress for a while too, and I finally bought some buttons for it! I'm going to make the one in the middle, with this awesome geographic pattern.

I'm also trying to figure out something to do with this yellow polka-dotted fabric. I only have 2 yards, so I'm a bit limited unless I go back and pick up some more. I think I might want to make a less-flow-y dress. I only have 2 or 3 patterns that allow for such small yardage, so I guess I'll figure it out!

Me-made-may day 3

So I skipped day 2 of Me-made-May, but I'm doing a lite-lite version, because I only have a couple of dresses made.

Here's McCalls 5800 without a belt...
And with a belt. Too bad I'm going to be in air conditioning all day and will have to wear a sweater over it :(

I really like this dress because it feels a bit vintage with the circle skirt. I think I need to make a crinoline to go under it and make it poofier too. The fabric is quilting fabric from Joanns that looks a bit vintage to me too. And it was pretty easy to make!

Me-made-may day 1

Well, its day 2 of Me-made-may and since I'm doing the lite-lite version, I wore nothing homemade today. But yesterday I wore Butterwick 4443. Its a pretty, light-blue, sparkly damask. The sparkles at first seemed super fun, but now I can't wait for them to wash out of the fabric. I also find specks of glitter everywhere in my apartment.

I paired the dress with plain white belt from H and M, and I wore a sweater part of the day too. Please note the crappy 10-second delay photography skills, no one was home help, so I discovered new tricks on my camera.
I just realized I've made this pattern, or variation of, for 4 dresses. It is one of the "Sew Easy" patterns, and it really was, except for zippers...but it also has a pretty full skirt and only requires 2 yard of fabric!

Yorkshire pudding...or wait popovers?

So after I finally found a summer job I decided to treat myself to Jamie Oliver's new Food Revolution cook book. His basic idea is we should al learn to cook and make healthy food with real ingredients. The surprising part is that half the recipes call for either bacon or heavy creme....but they do look good. I like that they are all kinda British and he has a ton of recipes for curries, which I've kind of always wanted to learn how to make.

Anyway, I decided on making Yorkshire pudding, or what my Dad/Grandma call "popovers" because they pop over the side of the pan.

Here they are at about 5 minutes into the cooking process(out of 15).

This is after about 10 minutes and right before my smoke detector went off. This recipe takes a pretty hot oven (475 degrees), thus burning all the bits of pizza (my roommate never puts her pizza on a baking sheet), and pie filling left from Thanksgiving, which reminds me I should learn how to clean out an oven.

So I pulled them out of the oven at 12 minutes because the smoke detector surprised me and I wanted it to stop, but I soon realized it wasn't the Yorkshire pudding that was burning, so I put it back in for 2 minutes. This probably made some of them pop less, but they still turned out tasty.

I paired my puddings with some leftover Shepherd's pie, making for a nice British Sunday dinner! (and the shepherd's pie is a "healthy" recipe, so if I had followed it exactly it would have been only 350 calories per serving).

The only problem I found with the Yorkshire pudding recipe is that they were a bit oily. The recipe called for a tablespoon of vegitable oil in each of the muffin holes, and it left some of the puddings dripping in oil, or in the case above, with a little pocket of oil inside. But they turned out delicious and crispy, even though I pulled them out before they were done!

Happy May Day!

Apparently, no one knows what May Day is! I guess the only reason I know is because one time as a kid we celebrated in girl scouts and had a May Pole dance and everything. It turned out pretty cool.

But with May Day comes the first day of Me-Made-May. Since I only just started making my own clothes, I'm going to be doing a super-lite version. Basically, I'm gonna wear my hand made clothes as much as possible this month, but since I only have 5 dresses and 1 skirt, its not going to happen every day.

Today I'm going to start with my sparkly blue damask dress, but I'm still in my gym clothes (I was about to go out to the door to the gym when my landlord showed up to fix the washing machine, which 3 hours later he is still doing. Though, I gotta say, even though this is taking a while, he is a much better landlord than anyone I know, and is actually fixing things! :) ).

But on an other awesome point, I got my patterns I ordered from Vogue today! They had a sale the other day so I had to scoop up all the ones I can never find at Joanns!

So, right now I'm not sure when I'm gonna make these or what fabric I'll use. I'm not letting myself think about it until my finals are over on Wednesday. But I certainly do have a lot to make!

The Chronicles of a book case.al

So I have decided that I should chronicle my bookcase. When I moved to Chicago 6 months ago, I bought a trusty, 6 foot tall, 1.5 foot wide, Ikea Billy bookshelf in white. I wanted it in black, but alas, Ikea charges twice the price for a black one! My dad put the shelf together, and then I filled it with the 20 books I brought with me and the hand-full of textbooks I needed. Now, after my obsession with buying books or getting them for free from Bookmooch.com, I have absolutely no shelf space.

Here is a partial pic of the bookshelf in question.

Please note the 2 textbooks on the floor. Those are just the beginning of textbooks that no longer fit on my bookshelf(and a ridiculous mess around the bookshelf)...oops. So, well, I need a new bookshelf, but I'll probably just fill that too.

Instead, I have decided to chronicle the books that are on my bookshelf, because, as a litophile, I have an unstoppable obsession and I want to talk about it.

Here is the shelf that is second to the bottom:

This is the shelf of "read books." I usually don't keep books around that I have read, because lets face, I have a list of books I want to read that extends half-way to China. Notice the Russell Brand "My Booky Wook" on top. This is my most recent book purchase, and I'm excited to hear about the sex, drugs and rock and roll in his life, something I will never come close to experiencing(oh the places you go when you read)! It also came alllll the way from Gloucester, UK "par avion." Currently, I'm saving the mailer because I worship all things British.

I now notice, I've actually only read 7 of the books on this shelf...but still, its where I put the ones I've read. The four flowery things to the right are actually journals I decoupaged and was planning to give away as graduation gifts last spring, but never actually got around to giving away. And the three frames on the left are competition pictures of my old synchronized skating teams that I never found a place to hang up.

"The Red Tent" is something I got from bookmooch, "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" was a fun read I picked up last summer and always read on Metro to surprised looks. And then there's two Huruki Murakami books. I own several more, but I think they are all being borrowed by different people at this moment.

I guess I have nothing else to say about this shelf, I thought I did, but no. The rest of the books are; "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"(a book I could not put down and I have the next one sitting on an other shelf), "High Fidelity," "College Girls"(go women's studies books!), "Confederates in the Attic," "In Cold Blood," "The Time Traveler's Wife"(one of my all-time favorite books), and "Her Fearful Symmetry"(somewhat of a let down after Time Traveler's wife.)

Screen Printing!

So this is the angry typewriter. I think I need to give him an evil name, like Walter or Jeeves.I basically traced him over a picture of an old typewriter that looked it had a face, he came out pretty well!
And then I turned him into a screen at a class at The Needle Shop. Its a cute shop, with gorgeous fabric, and they have classrooms for sewing and crafting classes. I gotta say, screen printing is way more intense than one would think. You have to use an emulsifier to get your image on the screen, so its kinda like working in a darkroom, you don't want to expose it before you get the image. Then after you expose it to your image, you wash out the light parts(what was originally in black on the image) with water and then the screen printing can begin!

I made hand towels with the evil typewriter, so he stares at me while I pee.
This is his beauty shot close-up. Sexy, right?
He's also an awesome bag, so he can see the world and give the stink eye to everyone when I wear it!

Flowers

So, I'm kinda really girly and freakin' LOVE flowers. Alas, I also love taking pictures of flowers, and I finally uploaded all the pictures off my camera. So, yay flowers!That's Monticello in the background.

Ok, so this one isn't a flower. But its a pretty pic of the sun setting while my friend Anna was fishing. I just realize I have a million pictures of her fishing at dusk from different fishing excursions.

This one is from the apartment I lived in last summer, which had a great view of the complex's pool and a city scape behind!

I'm totally making this

Linen powder. It seems kind of old fashioned, but I guess my family never used it because my mom always put a plastic case around our mattresses. But alas, it makes so much sense, to deodorize and remove stains from the mattress by powdering it a bit with baking soda and a little something scented. I'm thinking about using lavender, so that it will be soothing too! I like scented things, but room sprays are always a bit strong, this however, will be nice, refreshing and tasteful. I just need to find a jar!

Fakery Bakery

Sooooo cute! If I had a kid, they would totally be playing with felt fake food instead of plastic! I'm also kind of jealous I didn't have these as a kid...

For the love of Blogs!

In my continual attempt to avoid doing work...even though I know I should, I spent all of my office hours today searching for new craft projects. Alas, a list:

This is just a book blog I feel in love with
http://www.bookliciousblog.com/

I want to try to make a ruffle tee!
http://adventuresindressmaking.blogspot.com/2010/02/simple-ruffle-tee-makeover-original.html

Great rug idea, but i'm not sure if I like the Chevron pattern thing. Maybe I could try a stripe or stenciled pattern though
http://adventuresindressmaking.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-am-so-proud-of-my-diy-zig-zag-rug.html

I wish I bought more interesting food in cans to make these!
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/01/made-with-love-tin-can-planters.html

If I had a house I would buy this
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/02/hollys-houses.html
But since I don't, the stamp thing inspired me to make note cards ect...I love using that stamp stuff that makes it pop up and shiny, so I might be heading to a craft shop soon to get some...

I'm also seriously thinking about taking a screen printing class...and then opening up an etsy shop...
http://www.theneedleshop.net/fashion.php

This menu planner/shopping list is awesome too, but I'm not sure my life is organized enough for it...
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/01/diy-project-kates-grocery-planner.html

A really easy cardigan updater that could also work on an old sweater. I should think about updating my wardrobe when I get tired of it, instead of just buying new stuff.
http://angrychicken.typepad.com/angry_chicken/2010/02/fancified-cardi.html

That is all...now I have to go to class and remember to actually do all this stuff that I want to do!

fun furniture

I totally plan on doing this! I have the perfect wall to put a china hutch, and I saw a bunch with great structure at the thrift shop a couple of blocks away....can't wait until I actually have time to do it too!