Selvedge links

Two links in the most recent issue of Selvedge that caught my eye:


Old Town, a clothing line and shop in Holt, England, features clothing based on a post-war work wear aesthetic and utilitarian, no-nonsense construction. I love their style!


Saltwater, another British company with an adorable clothing line and very talented stylists and photographers.

Enjoy!

On the road again

We're headed out again. Seems like we just got back from a trip, doesn't it? Kiddo is rather excited today because we're taking a "tak-ZEE", a "choo-choo", and a [point up into the air] plane to Madison, Wisconsin, also known as home.

The small parochial school where my sisters and I attended grade school and junior high is having an all-alumni reunion next weekend, and we're taking advantage of the occasion to have a mini family reunion as well. I think it will be fun once we find places for everyone to sleep. It's not often that all five daughters, their kids, and even a son-in-law are all home at the same time!


In conjunction with the school event, I'm donating a dress I made for the silent auction. I haven't had time to take photos of it, but maybe my model will pose while we're away. Todd made me promise that if the dress doesn't get enough bids I will ask one of my sisters buy it back for me. The purchase price will be my contribution, instead. So I hope I don't bring the dress home again. If I do, I suppose I could sell it on Etsy.

We'll see you in a week.

Much ado about Much Ado

I'm too shy to ask permission to take people's photos, unlike the Sartorialist, so I use the Kiddo as my decoy. If I seem to be taking photos of her, people don't notice that I'm actually taking photos of them as well. I took this picture today primarily as a foil so I could take another photo.


Little had insisted that we check out Much Ado About Nothing when we were leaving the library. Who am I to argue if she wants to read Shakespeare? We had to stop for a short reading break on the (four-block) walk home. She even tried to read it to a dog we met.

So what was I really trying to photograph? This woman's little bag:


Can you see it? It's a tiny elephant. Sorry the photo is so terrible. I thought it was really cute and wondered if she had made it herself. Maybe next time I'll force myself to ask instead of making much ado about it all. Perhaps I missed a fascinating story?


P.S. Beth, can you send me your address again? For some reason, I didn't get your email.

Time out

I haven't got much to say today, mostly because we're all fighting nasty colds over here and don't have much energy for anything besides sniffling and sneezing.

Thinking back, and ahead

It's been over a year since I started this blog, and I thought it would be fun to celebrate a bit. We can use a bit of fun, can't we? I'm often terrible about replying, but I want to thank you all for interacting with me via your comments and emails. It's been so enjoyable to participate with you in this creative online community. I wish I could give you each a gift, so here's how we'll commemorate the occasion:


Leave me a comment with your name, and in a couple of days Kiddo and I will put everyone's names into her summer hat and randomly select two people. Then we'll send each of those two winners one of these little ribbon cosmetic bags, just for the fun of it.

By the way, you're all either too polite or you're as distracted as I seem to be lately.

We entertained some friends last weekend, and as I was setting the table with the embroidered napkins I realized that I reversed the placement of the spoon and knife on my embroidery. I'm not going to fix them, so it'll be our little secret, ok? Apparently when I'm on vacation, I'm really on vacation.

Crikey!*

Yesterday Todd took the kiddo outside for most of the day to give me a little free time. So what did I do? The laundry, the vacuuming, and I spent most of my time listing some maternity and baby clothes on ebay. Hmm. It feels good to eliminate a little more clutter from the apartment, but what a waste of a day. It remains to be seen whether my efforts will be worth the time invested.

On the other hand, I'm making progress on my first quilt. Talk about a time investment! I'm proceeding with a picnic blanket and taking frequent breaks to drool over the fabric I purchased at Purl, which will become a queen-sized quilt when the picnic blanket is complete. I can hardly wait to show you what I bought, but I'm forcing myself until the top of the first quilt is complete.

The picnic blanket has become a copy, more or less, of a Denyse Schmidt quilt. Which was completely unintentional. I happened to have a lot of light green and light blue fabric on hand and wanted to make a string quilt. So what do I find myself making but this quilt. Oops. I love it, but I hadn't planned to reproduce someone else's work. And it's making me crazy to press open all those seams! I will persevere. I'd like to finish the top in time for a trip home in two weeks, but I'll have to work really quickly to make that goal.

I doubt my ebay customers would understand if I told them I just didn't have time to ship their purchases just now, would they?

I'm leaving now. Must sew more straight-ish lines and press many, many small seams.

*in homage to the late Steve Irwin.