Belated Anniversary Round-Up + WIPs

Hello! Remember me? Yeah, I've been a lazy blogger these past few days. Plus I've been sick - we've both been sick here in the casa de Cost. Not good at all.

But I won't bore you with the sniffling, hacking details of that - instead I'll give you the promised, belated first anniversary round-up! The photo to the left is what I gave to Matt to commemorate year one. This is a lovely, tiny (that frame is 4x6!), print by the talented Portland artist Swallowfield aka Jennifer Judd-McGee. It is still available for sale in her Etsy shop. Following that link will take you to a picture that does this little work a lot more justice. A long time ago I read on Amy's blog that she and Pete give eachother a piece of artwork every year for their anniversary - so they kinda have a little love gallery going. I thought that this was a lovely idea! I picked this print because a) it's paper - first anniverary's traditional gift is paper, yes I'm a dorky Emily Post-ish type and b) Matt and I have been through a lot of trials in our short time together, but we always manage to make things work. That nice little cozy house is like us, trying to stay happy and warm and away from those darn rainclouds!

We drove three hours down to Jacob's Pillow to see a dance performance. The Pillow, for those of you who don't know, is a summer dance festival presenting hundreds of performances from nationally and internationally prestigious dance companies each year. It is the only dance institution to be listed as a National Historic Landmark. I had never been there before, and now I'm throroughly obsessed with the place. It is so beautiful - and is pretty much the manifestation of all of my work-related fantasies. Two theatres, check. Outdoor stage, check. Multiple dance studios, check. Historical/Archive building, check...and ooooooh so much more.

We had a kick-arse meal at a local restaurant - Chez Nous. Very chi-chi and French and delicious. On the drive home, fireworks greeted us on the horizon over the highway. I told Matt that I had planned that. He didn't believe me, but it certainly was a nice ending to a fabulous day!

Anyways, enough gushing about my awesome husband. This is a craft blog right? These are a few re-useable coffee cuffs that I'm working on to put into le shoppe which has been very le empty for quite awhile. I'm trying to get a dozen done and they're all a touch different. I'm having lots of fun making these!

Cheers for now, off to wallow in a cup of ginger tea and honey!

Too Sleepy

...for a proper post. Anniversary round-up tomorrow! *YAWN* All I can say for now is that it was perfect.

Vintage Pillowcase (*cough* and sheet) Tunic

Today I had one of those lighting bolt striking down upon my sewing room crafty urges where a project has to be completed now NOW NOW, so I decided to try out making a pillowcase shirt from my new awesome book The Crafter Culture Handbook. Did I mention that this book is awesome? It's awesome.

As is usually the case when I'm in a crafty frenzy like this, I'm prone to making more stupid mistakes, swearing and wielding my seam ripper like an amazonian tribal woman on a warpath. Today was no different. Did I read the directions that carefully stated that a standard pillow case would make a shirt/dress for a person with "36" bust and 40" hips"? Uhhhh that would be a no. And honey child, my measurements haven't looked like that for a loooooong time. I tried to squeeze myself into the happy little vintage tube that I had sewn and my boobs looked like over-stuffed sausages trying to escape their casings. Not too attractive.

So, I improvised. The pillowcase was from an entire bed set that my MIL gave to us when we first moved in together. Matt promptly deemed that it would never go on our bed, and I promptly filed away the set in my brain as fabric worthy enough to outfit the entire Von Trapp family. Or, me. I'm a greedy Gus!

What I ended up doing was adding a six inch wide panel, cut from the fitted sheet, on either side of the pillowcase, resewing up the whole shebang and ending up with this:

Please excuse the mildly perturbed look on my face. It took 43 photos to get three that looked half decent and two of them are dark-ish. What you can't see is that the tunic extends about two inches below me bum with slits on either side to accomodate some booty wiggle room. There is a HUGE hem on this thing, because had I cut my panels an inch or two more it would have fit as a sundress. I'm holding out that I'll lose a little more weight and I'll be able to let the hem down and sew the sides up. All in all it was a very satisfying project :)

P.S. Our one year anniversary is tomorrow!!! Expect a big gushy warm fuzzy post in the PM!

Flashdance

Okay, okay - I know from the multitude of beautiful blogs that I read that flash photos are complete crap. But I just couldn't wait to post any longer! Is that a crime? Hopefully all of you won't be blinded by the light of the following pictures and you will return again!

I'm sending off a fun little swap package. It's a Swap-bot swap, and you had to pick ideas just from the person's profile. You were just supposed to pick one thing, but I of course ,the over-achieving "heart" hunter, picked three:



Ginger candy, a post card and an owl wallet - I designed the little blinky owl myself - cute eh?

More wallet shots:



Now for a few of my favorite things as of late:

-Such an inspiring read, The Crafter Culture Handbook, and the newly aquired Bend the Rules Sewing - Amy Karol is one of my personal heroes!

-Yoga Today - free streaming one-hour yoga classes EVERYDAY! That's a price I can afford! My fave instructor so far is Neesha Zollinger. She's like a valley girl turned yogi, I love it!

-Drinking green tea steeped with a slice or two of ginger poured into a honey lined mug. Mmmmm.

-Using my awesome redesigned studio

-My new favorite corner:



Cheers, Sarah

After Midnight We're Gonna Let It All Hang Down: Late Night Crafting

This is what happens when one tries to take blogging pictures of oneself at 3:00am...one finds themselves utterly unable to aim correctly at one's head to capture the beauty of a late-night crafted item. I was in a crazed crafting mode last night - not so much over this modified "bonnie band," but over my latest rekindled obsession. The art of the mix tape or CD in my case, but it will always be a "tape" no matter what format that it's mixed in.

I used to make mixes all the time, and as of late, instead of doing craft swaps I've been doing CD swaps. I'm a little borderline obsessive about the mixology of it all. Has any one out there ever seen/read High Fidelity? I'm like the girl version of Rob when it comes to mixes and music. There is an art to making a great mix! A great mix will subtely lead you through musical peaks and valleys. A great mix can relax you, energize you, empathize with you and just plain rock your socks.

So I thought it would be fun to give you the tracklists of the last few mixes that I've made. Copy the mixes for yourself or use them as jump-off points to create your own! Maybe you'll find a new favorite song :)

I <3 Music April, 2007

This mix was supposed to be your all-time favorite songs by your all-time favorite bands. I'm rubbish at choosing stuff like that! So I picked a few faves from Junior High, High School, College and Now and mixed them up. It's an interesting representation of my everchanging musical "phases"

1. Jump, Little Children - Not Today
2. Radiohead - Paranoid Android
3. Bjork - Army of Me
4. Weezer - Hashpipe
5. Beck - Nicotine and Gravy
6. A Tribe Called Quest - Da Booty
7. Salt-N-Pepa - Shoop
8. Prince - Gett Off
9. Joni Mitchell - Raised on Robbery
10. Ben Folds Five - Steve's Last Night in Town
11. The Beatles - Blackbird
12. Rise Against - Swing Life Away
13. Jeff Buckley covering Bob Dylan - If You See Her, Say Hello (Live)

Coffee Shop Mix May, 2007

1. Billie Holiday - Embraceable You
2. Neko Case - Star Witness
3. Jamie Cullum covering Radiohead - High and Dry
4. Ani Difranco - 32 Flavors
5. Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet
6. Led Zeppelin - Going to California
7. Jill Scott - It's Love
8. Madeleine Peyroux- I'm Alright
9. Ella Fitzgerald - Black Coffee
10. Jill Scott - Do you remember me?
11. India Arie - Wonderful
12. The Ditty Bops - Wishful Thinking
13. Madeleine Peyroux - Dance Me to the End of Love
14. Jamie Cullum covering Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary
15. Anita O'Day - Peel Me a Grape
16. Nellie McKay - I Wanna Get Married
17. Jeff Buckley - Calling You (Live)

Summer Sun June 2007

This mix is cut into two different track lists. "Summer Days" for driving out in the sunshine and "Summer Nights" for driving at night with the windows down.

Summer Days

1. The Beatles - Good Morning, Good Morning
2. Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
3. Bruce Springsteen - 10th Avenue Freeze-Out
4. They Might Be Giants - Why Does the Sun Shine?
5. Francis Dunnery - Too Much Saturn
6. The Damnwells - Golden Days
7. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - American Girl
8. Dave Matthews Band - Stay

Summer Nights

9. Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama
10. Marvin Gaye - Got to Give It Up, Part 1
11. Yerba Buena - Electric Boogaloo
12. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
13. R.E.M. - Night Swimming
14. Luka Bloom covering LL Cool J - I Need Love
15. Indigo Girls - Galileo (Live)

Indie Mix June, 2007

1. Aimee Mann - One
2. Eisley - Trolley Wood
3. The Ditty Bops - Sister Kate
4. The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
5. Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun
6. Ryan Adams - Burning Photographs
7. Regina Spektor - Samson
8. The Postal Service - Clark Gable
9. Feist - Mushaboom
10. The Shins - Sea Legs
11. Dropping Daylight - Lucy
12. Howie Day - Ghost and Beams of Light (Live at Penn State)
13. Jump, Little Children - Say Goodnight
14. Better Than Ezra - The Stars
15. Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye

Big Bad Sunglasses and a WIP

Well as far as I'm concerned my "I <3 Big Sunglasses Swap" that I hosted on Swap-bot was a success! I received my package from Amber of My Aim is True fame yesterday. What do you think? Do I look like Batman? Or Trinity from the Matrix? These are some serious big rockstar shades. Not my usual 70's Jewish Princess fare, but I like them very much.


Amber was also kind enough to include a blank stationary card and a set of cute citrusy 1" buttons. I love how these are packaged with her super sweet logo. Thanks again Amber for participating in the swap! I really enjoyed this package :)









Today was a beautiful day. I woke up very late, after a night out of dancing with the girls. I hadn't been out dancing in such a long time so it was fun and strange at the same time. As I was getting ready to go out for the evening I said to Matt, "I don't even know how to get ready to go out anymore. What do I wear???" There's no incentive for getting dressed up, I'm not out to meet guys. It was very funny indeed. And boy was the place a meat market. I miss the dancing, but I don't miss those days. Anyways, back to waking up late...I got up and cleaned the living room. Ahhh, that's better. Grocery shopped, mmmm full fridge, yes. Didn't get pulled over for expired sticker, excellent, worked on this cross stitch pretty much all day. Cross stitch? Yes call me Memere Cost, I've crossed over to the dark side of "geese in sunbonnets" crafting as Matt so nicely put it. I'm only showing off this little corner now, but it won't be so geesy sunbonnety when I'm done. I hope.

Well, I must continue my loungey, luxurious evening. I'm getting too sleepy to look at the screen! I drank a glass of milk with my dinner, which I have discovered is equivalent to me taking a valium when drunk in the evening. Lord, I don't even have tolerance for MILK anymore. I'll leave you with a photo of Hobbes looking impossibly cute.

Before, and a year later, AFTER

Well as is usual, when I am busy my house turned into a natural disaster area. The worst disaster zone of our apartment is our craft room/music room/office area. I've been scheming forever to give it a makeover, but alas procrastination is one of my best (worst?) skills.

This picture was taken 06.10.2006



Now imagine that with about three more layers of crap on top of it, so that you lose complete sight of what the floor looks like.

Shovel, throw out, replace, pick-up, paint and this is what is left:

06.08.2007

Welcome



to the



new and improved studio! At last!



The inspiration station...







A place for Matt to sit and play bass.



Moogako, my Sewing Stars monkey.




Where the crafty goodness will happen:



Sigh. We have so much to catch up on!