the black tie affair-white dreams of holland

This is how I feel sometimes

This fits my mood lately!

Hello Kitty Kick

A friend sent me a picture of a Hello Kitty AK and I decided to see what other cool things where out there, so I Googled. That always gets one in trouble! Here are some of the cool things that I found:

Settling In

Sorry for the delay in posting. I am still trying to settle into my new place. Moving is always hard. I have not been able to set up my craft room yet, but am looking forward to spending an afternoon with my friends deciding how to best set up my new space. This could be an awesome beginning! I have discovered that some of my new neighbors are really into arts and crafts. I look forward to spending many hours hanging out with them.

A Year in Bread

I discovered a new blog that I just know I am going to LOVE: A Year in Bread. Hope you can find the time to check it out. Just looking at all the breads gives me inspiration and makes me want to bake something right now!

Crochet Kitty

This last weekend (holiday in the US) I decided that I would like to learn to crochet. I made a couple of attempts and figured out how to do a chain stitch. I decided that because I had a helper (his name is Paul and he is 16 years old) who was very playful and excited with the process that I would do more practice chains.

I then tied all of the chains together and viola- instant kitty toy!

I also figured out how to do a single stitch. So, at the close of the weekend all I had accomplished was this!

I am hoping that I am able to make more progress soon. I had been hoping that I would have been able to complete a scarf because I went to a couple of sites with free patterns and found that they all boasted "two hour" scarves! Apparently my clocks are set to a different mathmatical system :)

Pillow Cover

I made a pillow cover with my serger; an idea stemmed from another blog. I am sorry, but I do not remember which one. I recently bought pillows at our local Fred Meyer store and found out that I am allergic to them (after it was too late to return them). So all of those pillows are now a comfy dog bed for my Ginger! I went to Joannes on Monday and saw that they had all of their pillow forms at 50% off.

I bought a bunch and made a cover for one on Tuesday! I did it too fast and I did nor measure or pin anything. It turned out ok but I plan to do a nicer job on the other!

I serged the inside edges.

Folded them over and sewed them to create a nice (non colored) edge. (in hindsight I am not so sure the multi colored thread thing really was that great of an idea. It really shows up (and through) on the lighter colored fabrics.

I then used the pillow from to "measure" where to fold.

I folded the edges over each other.

Serged the edges and folds together.

Turned it inside out and added the pillow formand WALA- one custom fit removable and washable pillow cover.