Zakka Sewing 25 JapaneseProjects for the Household by Therese Laskey and Chika Mori

I just received Zakka Sewingfrom Therese Laskey in a giveaway this past week and I already have many projects dogeared to make as soon as possible. The room shoes/slippers will make the top of my list. After that, I believe I will make several things as gifts for loved ones.

The book begins with basic terminology and techniques, both about Japanese trends and sewing. It also explains some common fabrics and materials used in the book. The patterns can be enlarged and printed, tiled, on regular paper. You can use those as the pattern pieces or if you find that too stiff, trace them onto tissue paper from there.

I found that several of the projects were perfect for my 16 year old daughter who has only been sewing for about 6 months. And yet there were projects that were nicely challenging for me, someone who has been sewing for 20 years or so. Conveniently, each of the projects is rated one to three buttons based on difficulty so you don't find yourself in over your head.

The household goods and personal items included are both functional and beautiful. How lovely would the covered tape measure be in a gift basket of sewing supplies for a seamstress? Perhaps with a copy of this book. :)

Mar 2009

the others

no, not the Others from the tv show Lost. (altho i can't wait for that some on again! yay!) these are the other paintings i got completed. and they're all in the shop now. and there are still a couple days to get your name in for the drawing on the first. see previous post or my etsy profile for details. :)

sneak peek

here's a little peek at some of the new girls that will be available later this week. :)

lalala

wow, a whole week has passed since my last post. i guess i fell off the challenge bandwagon. i have taken some photos i just need to resize and upload. we had our normal unplugged night. kids brought home wonderful grades. i got their applications (and of course the astronomical checks) sent off for their summer activities. oh did i mention a tornado touched down 3-4 blocks from our house?

just one of several trees that were uprooted and/or destroyed. of all the places in town it could touch down we were blessed. it chose the middle of the park. of course there is some small-scale structural damage around town from the winds but nothing like what it could have been. even here it at our house it tore a large limb off our tree and hit the neighbors' house but missed their car by 5-10 feet. we have a couple roof/eave repairs, nothing major.

so i have some paintings i'm excited about and some photos to upload. and a new running contest to announce. oh heck, i'll go ahead announce the contest thing now. from now until, well, forever-ish everyone who has added my etsy shop to their favorite list will be in the running for a free print on the first of every month. that right - every month i will draw a name from everyone who has added the shop to their favorites, and they will receive the print of their choosing, no strings attached. so get over there look aound and stick your name in the running. :)

eta: when i say "added the shop to their favorites" that means having an etsy account and clicking the button that says "add this shop to my favorites" (or something like that). because if you just added it to your favorite links - well, i wouldn't know, would i? hehe and what would be the point of being a link in somebody's browser anyway? ;)

"publisher" steals art and interviews from little chimp society

then sells them in book form for $100 a pop. wow. highly disturbing story here. please read and pass it on in every illustration and other suitable forum you can think of.

mad gaming skillz

so this what i do a few times a month. "Heroscape (sometimes HeroScape) is an expandable turn-based miniature wargaming system" according to wikipedia. the full article is here. cameron (my 11yo son) and i play by our house rules and a game takes about an hour and a half. i'm the only one that will play with him. nobody else has the patience. honestly, i think it's also because somewhere in me there's probably a bit of an 11 yo boy/tomboy lurking. it takes strategy, a little luck, and a bit of ye olde trashtalk. again with the prepubescent boy coming in handy. it usually takes him a little bit of sweet-talking to talk me into a game but once we get into it, it gets competitive. we're pretty evenly matched. (yeah, i'm not even gonna think about the implications that makes on my intelligence.) pictured are two of our favorite heroes, syvarris the archer, who belongs to cameron, and agent carr, my hero. and of course the 20-sided die, beloved of geeks everywhere. anyone that plays it seriously would laugh at us and our batardisation of the rules. then kick our butts.

portrait of a lady

at etsy as usual.

i owe several emails and replies. getting right on that, bob. i'm also a day or two behind on my macro shots. i don't count wednesday since it's my unplugged day. convenient, eh?

sometimes life just bites you in the rear.