Flea Market time ! Now with surprise pigs !

 

Current Mood : Happy, if tired. 

Spent on dolls : $3.

Spent on patterns : $4.

Spent on sewing stuff: 50c

Current Image Notes : Mini Barbies ! Squeeeee !

Flea market ! And from what I heard from the sellers, the next three weeks are also Flea Market weekends ! Wheeee !

 

It was uber-crowded today. There were pigs being shown, and from the patter of the announcer, evidently being sold. Each one was just perfect for breeding, for ham, for bacon, whatever. I heard more about porcine bone structure while digging through doll boxes than I ever thought I would - or ever wanted to. Yep, the pig show/sale was in the same building. In the parking lot and the main Fairgrounds building was the twice-weekly Farmer's Market and this week, a craft show and sale. Lazy me is used to parking right outside the tin barn the Flea is normally in, but today, I had to hoof it for about a block. Lots of parking, which is good - I just hate that I needed it !

 

Spent $3. at the dollar-toys lady's booth - got a Ballerina Aurora in her glittery tights under Ballerina Ariel's tutu (now I have two of that tutu !), and a gorgeous Snow White in a lovely blue gown. I'd swear the gown was Fashion Avenue, but it has a standard ‘Genuine Barbie' tag. How their hair is still in the factory set but is completely destroyed is astounding. I also got a cute red Barbie romper with gold braid trim, a purple jacket that's probably from a Happy Meal doll, and a jade-green t-shirt with doll-size dog tags attached. You know I had to have that one !

 

And you're gonna laugh at me for this. After years of swearing and cursing at the patterns in Johana Gast Anderton's book Sewing for Twentieth Century Dolls, vol. II, I actually bought Vol. I today. Well, it was only $4., and frankly, I've always wondered about Vol. 1. If the first volume was as bad, how did there get to even be a Vol. II ? Perhaps the first wasn't so awful and useless ? Plus, if you have the second of a set of anything, ya usually want the first, if you can find it cheap. And I did. Used, this book normally runs about $20. plus shipping. My curiosity could wait at that price, but $4. was good !

 

Wandered through the craft show. Ugh. Tons of tulle little-girl tutus with $20. tags on ‘em, a field of hairbows, and the usual three or four booths selling over-scented candles. Someone has begun a screen-printing business, but $25. for (again) over cutesy kidswear seemed a bit high. Especially when the shirt's manufacturer tags had been cut out, and replaced with the company's name one. They probably don't want anyone to know the shirts came from Dollar Tree - since those all have split tags, denoting seconds or overstock. Or maybe that's me being snarky, since clearly, I'm not the target audience. I don't see m'self putting Dearest Son in a t-shirt that reads ‘My Mommy is Foxy !!' any time soon. There was so little there that wasn't designed for little girls that I had a pink overdose and had to leave. If it hadn't said ‘craft fair' on the signs, I'd have thought I'd stumbled into an overpriced kid's boutique.

 

As it was, I gladly wandered the Farmer's Market, to wash out all that pink and brown in my brain-vision with some green. Most of the booths had nearly sold out, and several were packing up. I snagged a nice bar of solid, local beeswax for 50c - it really comes in handy for many things. Especially hand-sewing - push your needle through beeswax (or even a bar of soap), and it glides through even thick fabric. I've seen folks do that with leather.

 

My funds - right down to the change in Molly-car - depleted, I came back home. After a nice leftover lunch, I started in on Aurora's dreadlocks. Much like her sister Belle ballerina, who was purchased from the same seller, her hair was wooly and dreadlocked. It took me over an hour to brush it out, and that's with conditioner and rinsing ! Much as I hated to straighten her curls, there was simply no way around it. Maybe I'll curl it back up some day. Like Belle's, it frizzes out alarmingly about halfway down, and it's unmanageable at the very ends. So I took off about a half inch. Much better. Her bangs brushed and curled becomingly, and her hair's nearly dry already.

 

I had another surprise waiting for me when I removed her tights - she's been facing the wrong way for who knows how long ! Yup, her twist waist goes all the way around, and there's very little delineation between ‘front' and ‘butt'. It's there if you know dolls, though. She looks much more ‘upbeat' facing her front instead of her behind !  For now, though, she's resting, and doing what Disney Princess dolls are born to do - look cool in Barbie clothes.

 

Let my arm rest a bit before taking on the over-shellacked hair on Snow - I think she's Sparkle Princess, due to her red and gold hairbow and vivid red lips. I just couldn't resist her, she has stars in her eyes ! Since that seller doesn't care if I switch clothes, long as I pay for my choices, I put them each in what I wanted from her selection. And yes, I did redress the dolls I stripped nekkid. That's only fair to them. It was kind of funny at the Flea - I'm digging eagerly through two boxes of various dolls, and about two feet away, two ten-year-old girls are exclaiming "OMG !" every thirty seconds over her pile of costume jewelry.

 

While attempting to ID my new Snow, I saw that mini Barbie set. OMG ! Dorrie wants ! This was on Entertainment Earth, and it's due to hit shelves in September, probably for about $20. - $23. or so. EE wants $27., and they routinely have prices about 10 to 15% higher than Mal-Wart or TRU. Far as I'm concerned, this is my ‘Barbie's 50^th' souvenir. I also got to see several Princess and the Frog dolls from the upcoming Disney release - very pretty !

 

I also learned that there's upcoming My Favorite ‘Swirl' and ‘Peaches and Cream' repros coming out, a ‘Vintage Career' assortment that sounds like ‘ ‘repro' line to me, Italy and Russia DOTWs, a 30^th Anniversary African-American Barbie Heritage doll, and ‘Barbie as' Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett, and Deborah Harry dolls ! Whew ! No photos yet on any of this, but there're not on the Barbie Collector site either. Well. I may have to start saving the pennies, in case half of these are good ! The ‘Vintage Careers' I was especially interested in -  in hopes they'd do ‘Stewardess'. The year I got the Friend Ship airplane, I got the Get Up and Go costume sets for both my Malibu Barbie and Ken, and a vintage repro would be so sweeet ! Of course, they're doing ‘Student Teacher', ‘Candy Striper' or ‘Registered Nurse', and ‘Miss Astronaut'. Oh, well.

 

Snow didn't take near the effort or time that Aurora did. Her hair was just shellacked at the factory, then squashed in the back. Clearly, she wasn't played with much, if at all.  Main reason I got her was because she reminded me of Dawn Wells (Mary Ann, Gilligan's Island), so I brushed her hair down, removed the rubber band. That helped her eyes look a bit less huge. Not sure why there's this black tinsel-glitter stuff rooted in her hair, maybe that's part of her Sparkle that's not her dress. Oh, and I've confirmed once again how cheap Mattel is - her gold-and-red hairbow ? It's only gold and red at the top of her head. The ribbon tying it around her head is thinner, cheaper, and has no trace of gold edging. Now, even the edged stuff can be found for four or six spools for a buck (about 24 to 36 yards), so I'm not sure if this even saved them a whole penny. Even cheaper than that, the cheap ribbon wasn't tied - it was sewn together ! 

 

And ya'll thought I was cheap !

Without the black boxes, they're everywhere !

 

Current Mood : all hopped up on new Venture Bros., Season 3

 

Kind of a boring day, really. Beloved Hubby was home early, but we all sort of sat around anyway. Stained a piece of balsa yesterday, so I embroidered on it today. Um. Not good. I'm still using the really narrow stuff since I'm still in the testing phase, and the design I tried was just barely small enough. Between the stain, the stitching, and having to wash water soluble stabilizer off it, the wood cracked. It's still usable, but it doesn't look as good as I'd hoped. It's of a couple tango-dancing, something Beloved likes. So I'll fix it as best I can, and glue a ribbon hanger to it, display it in his Studio window.

 

Yeah, after calling it his ‘parlor' and his ‘salon', I decided on Studio, the name I used to call the Lab. ‘Parlor' and ‘salon' just sound too fussy.

 

Beloved got bored after a bit, and wanted to see Season 3 of The Venture Brothers. So I called Hastings, and they said they had it. Fifteen minutes later, we're there - but the series isn't. Yeah. Somehow they sold their only copy in the few minutes it took us to drive there. A DVD set that's several months old. I'm figuring ‘Mark' didn't bother to check when I called, he just figured they had it. And they didn't. Oh, well. We put down the other movies we were gonna buy, told the manager why, and left. Borders had it.

 

And that, plus Chinese delivery, was how we spent Friday night. The writing is better in Season 3, but there's a lot more gay jokes. If you haven't seen their take on the old G.I. Joe cartoon series, it's a sincere blast. And for some reason, the Season 3 DVD set - which looks like an old Atari game box, so adorable ! - is completely uncensored. I always figured that they drew those black censoring boxes instead of drawing character's privates. Not those cheeky devils over at AstroBase Go ! . There's flopping appendages everywhere, at least one set per episode, and every glorious swear word is there in full surround-sound stereo. I'm not sure why, but it made the whole series seem more like a show for adults than just bad taste and questionable gimmicks.

Is it Friday yet ?

 

Current Mood : Hopeful

Current Image Notes : This pattern came in about four sizes. I already had the 12 to 13 inch size, but not this one. Cool !

Spent on embroidery supplies :  $11.14

Spent on wall décor : 63c

 

I got to have a bit of a spending spree today, mostly because that paper mache dress form I got last weekend had to go back. It's too big, and was not worth the $8. we paid for it. Since it was in the markdown section, I thought it was a bit cheaper. Nope. When Beloved Hubby came home early from work, I had a raft of little errands to do, so I seized the time to get them done without Dearest Son. He's gotten better about not begging for stuff, but taking him to two craft stores and a video shop is kinda askin' for it.

 

Returned a very late video, then had some fun at Hobby Lobby. Since my Brody and balsa wood experiments went fairly well, I wanted some wider balsa wood. After a lot of digging - most of the balsa and basswood was not in the right cubby - I found the right depth and width in both. Yup, I'm gonna try the noticeably firmer basswood soon. I also snagged the recommended size needles, and used a printout 40% coupon on ‘em. Got two more plastic bottles that Beloved requested, and a small package of markdown safety pins. All I have are the tiny ones, and there's no others in the whole house !

 

And I saw my ‘compact' sewing tote, the one I got for $5. at last week's yard sale. It was on markdown at Hobby Lobby - for $19. ! Full price was $27 ! It came with some craft organizers mine didn't, but I still think I got a steal. If nothing else, it made me revamp the sewing area, which would be invaluable all by itself.

 

From there, I got the dress form returned, and took my time prowling Michael's Crafts. Found two of those plastic ‘suncatcher' pieces shaped like dogs, so I snagged ‘em for Dearest, to paint, color, or whatever. Also got a small felt and painted wood star for me, and a neat wood stain pen. Only $2. ! Now I can experiment with staining the wood I'm gonna embroider ! Oh, and Michael's now has a Fun Zone, with lots of interesting goodies for a buck or three. Well-worth checking out, especially if ya got kids -or are one in some ways.

Wednesday's a bit better...and there's balsa !

Current Mood : Sleepily triumphant

Current Image Notes : I thought I had this one - but I don't. Turns out, it's been sold under at least three different pattern numbers, about fifteen years total. So I'm glad I got at least one of 'em !

 

Busy day. Got most of the dishes done, and had dinner on the table early. Beloved Hubby worked on Bonnie-truck for most of the evening, but she's still down. Don't ask me how this happened, but it's somehow become our responsibility for picking Friend up at night and driving him home. (sigh) I hope Friend is saving his money for his own (expletive deleted) car, because I don't think Beloved's gonna put up with being a taxi service for long.

 

But, with everything done early, I got to embroider a bit. Late last night, while touring the Brother website, I found projects and free embroidery designs. One of the projects was for an embroidered balsa wood frame ! So, see, Brother knows their machines aren't gonna sew silk and cotton exclusively - and clearly, they want us to ‘think outside' a bit. I felt like thumbing my nose at those who scoffed at me for embroidering on vinyl a few months ago, because they're afraid to wreck their machines. Well, if I had an over-fussy over-priced temperamental prima-donna machine, I probably would feel the same, but I know my Brody is sturdy, stable, and loves a challenge !

 

Decided to just go ahead and do the balsa wood trials, since sitting and pondering it over and over was driving me nutty. Only two problems. One, the balsa I had was three inches wide, and a yard long. Nearly every design I had that would work with the wood - which means no tiny satin stitches -  was at least 3.5 inches in both directions. (sigh)

 

The other was that I thought I had the Brother recommended size needles, since it's a standard ‘denim' one, 80/12. But nope. Nowhere. Not in the newly redone needle stash, not in KJ's tray, not on the bulletin board above the sewing desk. Well, shoot. I poked various unidentified mystery needles in one end of the balsa, and one seemed to displace less wood than the others. So I loaded it into Brody, hooped up the stabilizer, and glued the balsa to the stabilizer. Figured I'd just use the designs that came with Brody for this experiment. And that I could use the spray adhesive to attach the wood to the stabilizer. I wasn't much up for starting this project with just about everything new and untested.

 

I ended up getting eight small trials on that one bit of 3" x 3" wood. The first, a large outline D, did not go well. The first few threads pulled up, and others were quite loose. And most of the ones parallel to the balsa's grain sank into the wood. Yikes. Took the mystery needle out and reinstalled my well-worn embroidery one. The next two didn't go well either, but that was because I forgot that alphabet was nearly all satin stitches.

 

Increased the tension and tried again. Better. A bit more, and it was nearly perfect. Most designs stitch at around ‘3' on the tension dial, but it was nearly on ‘4' at this point. Stitches were still sinking in on the grain, though. I remember that the Urban Threads tutorial showed a sheet of water-soluble stabilizer on top of the wood, something the Brother one didn't do. Well, now I knew why. A scrap of WSS taped to one corner of the balsa, and booyah, baby ! We have balsa wood embroidery ! A few swipes with a wet cotton swab, and it still looked great.

 

Aren't you lucky ? Thanks to pattern week, you don't gotta look at all that - but you'll see a finished design once I get one going ! Since I gotta go out tomorrow, I hope to get the right size needles and maybe even some more balsa. Hope it works better, ‘cause I wanna do something besides tests and trials.

 

What a Tuesday...

 

Current Mood : Aggravated

 

As is usual when I have photos planned, taken, and edited for a week ahead of time, I have lots of day-by-day stuff to take pictures of, too. Yesterday, for example, I stitched out a pretty card. Today, I actually bought a Barbie outfit.

 

Hard to believe, huh ? But I couldn't resist it. It had stars and moons and was partially silver - like it was made to snag me ! Plus it was just a bit over two bucks, and after the morning I had (more later), I wanted a bit of a treat. So I got it. And the one I bought had a wrinkle in the ‘Barbie' signature sticker on the box front - which put it just off registry enough for me to peel off and use on my ongoing desk notebook. I have a photo of it waiting for another blank spot on the blog calendar...

 

Ok. This morning. (sigh) Beloved Hubby somehow left his cell phone home. This never happens. But I'm glad it did today. We got our second truck back from loaning it to DFIL and waited two weeks...and loaned it to Beloved's friend, who's trying really hard to make a fresh start in his life. If he doesn't have a ride lined up, he starts walking to work at 4am. He lives in another town from his job - and his hours don't start til 11am ! It's hard to ignore that kind of dedication, and really, Bonnie-truck was just sitting around...

 

So, yeah, you know where this is going. Second day he has it, it breaks down. He couldn't get it to the convenience store parking lot, so it's still on the street. Yikes. Friend's already called in late to work. And I was just out of the shower, getting ready for the weekly grocery run... so I toss Dearest Son into Molly-car, put the pedal to the floor, and we're off to where he says he is. Too bad he wasn't there. Couldn't find Bonnie-truck either. I check other gas stations on the road. Nope.

 

Maybe I misheard, and he's on X street instead of Y. Both X and Y are off of A, where he said he was, so off we go. Nope. So I travel further down A. Nothing. Since I know where he works, I figure I'll travel that road, see if I can find him that way. And, an hour and a half after he calls, I find him. Some guys helped him push Bonnie into the parking lot, so at least I didn't have to. Not like I haven't pushed a few cars around in my day. But anyway. Friend has since called to work again, to tell them he'd left his security badge at home, so... He voices concern that he'll be fired, so there's not much for me to do but drive him all the way to Other Town, let him grab the badge, then drive him to work. In short, (too late !) I got in the car at 11am, and got out of it at 1pm. Too tired and sweaty and frazzled and hungry to do groceries. I grabbed Dearest a Mighty Kids meal on the way home, and just sat around for an hour or so. After my energy restored, we headed out and got it done. Aaargh.

 

I'm just glad his call to Beloved Hubby came to me instead. Beloved was waaaay out of town, and it just would have added to the stress of his day. As it was, he was pretty wired when I told him. We spent three hours trying to fix it in the parking lot, but the source issue is still there. I'm now wondering if someone tampered with the fuel tank...

 

So that's been my day. About all I got done was driving, helping Beloved a bit, and groceries. And a load of laundry got done that I'm too tired to put away right now. At least the ‘crown' shirt and the Barbie mini-backpack got washed. Backpack looks pretty good, but the t-shirt has some spots on it that probably didn't come out. But now, I feel confident enough to go after the shirts I bought new from Hobby Lobby !

 

And in other good news, the packages we shipped to our eBay winner Friday arrived today, and he's happy. I really should get goin' on the stuff I have to list... Also, I found directions for embroidering balsa wood on the Brother home site. They call for an adhesive-backed stabilizer - which I actually have ! Thanks to a sample book AllStitch sends all its new customers, I have enough for this project. Lucky !

Just another headache-brewin' Monday...

 

Current Mood : Storm front movin' in - along with a minor headache. 

Current Image Notes : Ya gotta love a 70s doll pattern. In addition to Barbie, there's patterns in this one to fit the 12 1/2" Cher and Farrah dolls ! Don't they look like something Charlie's Angels would wear during an especially stylish martial arts lesson ?

 

Ho-hum Monday. Got about half the dishes done, mostly because I've felt blah all day. Not really sick, and not much more tired than usual, but I clearly wasn't m'self. Didn't help that Dearest was kind of clingy all day, so that when I did give in and lie down, he just had to tell me all about the same Lego City news he'd told me ten minutes ago. Which normally involved waking me from whatever level of doze I'd just reached. (sigh)

 

Brought Brody in and loaded him up with Dearest's five remote-control car designs, and two redwork travel kitties, Japan and Paris. It's typical of me to assemble everything I need for a ground-breaking project (embroidering on balsa wood) then shy away from it for several weeks, mostly by working on stuff that's nowhere near as challenging. Then one day, I'll shake m'self off and do the really unique stuff.

 

So today, I decided to stitch out the redwork design on cardstock, since another SiCK forum member told me they usually worked out well. And I wanted to try using the masking tape to secure the cardstock to the stabilizer, instead of the too-expensive spray adhesive. Got it all hooped up, swapped the needle from a knit ballpoint to a well-used sharp, threaded up a nice scarlet spool, then ran Brody's ‘outline' function. I just recently rediscovered that - it traces a square shape version of the chosen design, so the operator can make sure it's lined up. Or, in my case, I can make sure the needle doesn't come anywhere near the tape. Chose the Japan kitty, and aside from some slight tearing and a bit of bobbin white showing through, it came out beautifully.

 

Unfortunately, the masking tape ripped a bit of the cardstock's top layer up when I removed it. Not a big deal - I just pulled out the curvy scissors I got from a yard sale and trimmed most of the scrapes away. Then I propped it up by Beloved Hubby's computer. He loved it, and it's hanging up at his desk. I'm thinking of stitching up the same design in other colors, and giving a full set of eight countries, one note at a time, to Dearest's teacher this year.

 

After I get a fresh sharp needle installed. That may be why the tiny stitches tore the card. Blunt needles will do that. On the whole, though, I'm pretty happy with how it worked out. Once the pattern series is over, I'll post a photo of it here. It's a really pretty design. I'm glad I spent my ‘magic birthday money' on the whole set.

Sort-through Sunday

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

Current Image Notes : Already have this one, but I wasn't quite sure when I saw it at Friday's yard sale. Any pattern that says ‘for Barbie and Dusty' on the back, I gotta have - just in case. What makes it more annoying is that I spent two weeks trying to duplicate ‘Leia's Flight Suit' from the pattern pieces shown on a collector's website a couple years ago - and here it is, ready to go ! Arrrghhh.

 

With the success of the crown on one of my old t-shirts last night, I knew I was ready to start Dearest Son's Back-to-School wardrobe embroidery. So I cleared a few designs off Brody, which left enough space for all five of that remote control car design set I wanted to stitch for him.

 

Unfortunately, I'd need to do a lot more cleaning before getting new designs installed. My desk was a disaster of patterns, receipts, plates, glassware, half-finished chip bags, tissues, and paper scraps. And along the sides of my desk were piles of more stuff - the craft tote I bought Friday, a kitchen towel, an overflowing Disney Princess trash can, Brody's embroidery hoop and printouts of designs, the manual for the new air conditioner... ah, what a mess. The rest of the living room, now that Dearest's home from his grandparents', wasn't in any better shape, but that didn't concern me much.

 

So I got busy. I could put all the new patterns away once I got ‘em scanned, so that got going. I could scan and sort through desk detritus at the same time. In between sits for resizing and saving, I got plates returned to the kitchen, trashed some fast-food misc., and shoved all the Lab stuff in the new-to-me tote, including the freshly-scanned pattern envelopes. That gave me an idea...

 

Y'see, all this new stuff's gotta go somewhere. And I wanted most of it near me. The shoebox I was using for doll patterns was at Critical Load last year, and all the new dollar-sale American Girl and clone patterns were stacked on top. If it weren't for the sewing desk cubby holding it tight, it would have split years ago. But what if... that new craft tote, minus the storage tray under the lid, could hold dozens of patterns. Possibly all the doll ones. And moving the patterns out of the desk would free up that cubby, which would be a much better place to store the sewing notions bin I had balanced on the ribbon box.

 

In the end and an hour later, I had pretty much completely redone the Lab's immediate sewing table area. I ditched dozens of not-doll patterns I finally admitted I'd never use to the Donations pile, redid the sewing notions craft tote, used up two small plastic storage boxes that've been lingering around - they used to be school boxes for Dearest - and redid the sewing notions bin using the storage tray from the new craft tote. Much better !

 

I found that I've had water-soluble stabilizer for years - it was in the notions tote. Carol, of Perestroika.ca , sent me some to use for sewing Barbie panties. It's in the stabilizer bag now. Discovered some onion-skin and tracing paper that Beloved Hubby can use in his hobby, and got all the sewing needles and hand-needles together and stored. In short, a buncha stuff that's been sitting around near where it belonged now is where it belongs. Not underfoot anymore. I have a lot more space around the sewing desk, and it's much easier to dig in the ribbon box now. I can actually flip through the doll patterns now, something I've not done in ages, for fear of destroying the storage box.  It's a lot less cluttered now, so it feels much less confining.

 

Yeah, I know - it seems like I'm cleaning the Lab every other weekend. But it gets a mess fast in there, and I'm quite lazy when it comes to ‘detail' cleaning. If the new buttons are in the general vicinity, I often don't put ‘em ‘all the way away', which leads to clutter. Plus, it's fun to putter and reacquaint m'self with all my treasures. Especially the ones crammed under or on top of something else that I don't see or sort very often. I'm also bad for bagging up new goodies and hanging the bag on the Lab doorknob, and leaving it there ‘til I need something out of it. So I got the current one emptied, then used it to line the DP trash can in there. Wheee !

 

Ironically, unless I do so right after finishing this, I never got the new designs installed on Brody, although my desk is nice and clean. Oh, well. Hope I can do it tomorrow !

More yard sale fun !

 

Current Mood : Daydreamy

Current Image Notes : Have this pattern already - but who can resist two ? Especially since it's for the 19" Supersize Barbie, and Tiffany Taylor !

 

Hit a couple yard sales, spent a big $4. Beloved Hubby gained a clock, stylish silver and black, with words like ‘dilly', ‘dally', ‘stall', and ‘dawdle' marking the hours. He thought it was hilarious, since he was playing hooky from work today. He also got an authentic Japanese teapot, and if I can find some nice orange/brown/cream silk geraniums or mums, it'll make a great decoration.

 

As for me, I found eight small frames that double as Christmas ornaments. Four gold square ones, four oval silver ones, with matching red and metallic ribbon threaded through the hangers. A simple cross-stitch or embroidered initial or monogram will make it a near-instant gift. If it weren't for the small snowflake designs embossed in the frames, they'd make great year-round gifts, but I'm sure I can find them new holiday homes. I also scored three new vases for a dime each. I inevitably lose two or three a year to teachers, and another couple for other events, so I like to stock up when I find ‘em cheap. Ya kind of hate to spend $5. on a vase for $5. worth of flowers, ya know ? I'd rather buy a $10. bouquet and use a nice clean ‘free' vase I have at home.

 

And waiting in the hamper for a wash is a kids' Barbie backpack - I think it came with a book series subscription. It's white with pink accents and the Barbie logo, with the legend, ‘Anything is Possible !' amid butterflies and flowers. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it, but I'm hoping it comes out clean and nice.

 

It'll be in the same load as the t-shirt I embroidered today. Not one of the new ones, not just yet, but I did put that two-tone crown you've seen before on one of my older ones. Used a nice medium green, with a dark grey shadow. It came out really nice, on-grain, good registry, and centered well. Just a bit low. Oh, well. There's always the next shirt ! And, hey, this one's wearable - or will be, once it's washed. There's chalk marks, hoop marks, and just plain handling all over it, so it'll be much nicer when it's clean.

 

Pattern Score !

 

Current Mood : Happy ! 

Spent on craft tote : $5.

Spent on 8 patterns : $1.

Spent on elegant cardstock : 50c

 

Dearest Son and I had some fun today ! Major thunderstorm last night meant that things were cooler this morning - and everyone got a good night's sleep last night. In fact, it was cool enough this morning to turn off the new air conditioner for a while. I'm impressed !

 

Had to head out to mail a package for Beloved Hubby - he sold some old hobby stuff on eBay he wasn't using anymore - and return our slightly overdue DVD and Wii rentals. On the way back, we hit several yard sales. Dearest cleaned up ! He bought two Pound Puppies and a Pound Kitty at one sale for 25c each - then scored three really nice stuffed dogs for the same price at the next one. What can I say, he's having such fun with the toy dogs (and cat), and they were so cheap... He now has his own Hotel for Dogs, with a cat wing, on the sofa. He's named them all, and created ‘rooms' for them, out of totes, toys, and cardboard boxes.

 

I scored pretty heavily, too. Found another plastic craft tote like the two I already have, for $5. The two I have hold Elphie's wardrobe and small props and general consumable notions under my sewing table. This new-to-me one's slightly smaller, but matches the other two, and I couldn't resist. The larger ones run about $20. each at Hobby Lobby, so I got a deal on this one.

 

And, of course, on seeing half a table of craft supplies, I had to go through it all, millimeter by millimeter. Found a cardboard pattern box, and I'd be possessed by aliens if I didn't flip through it. Wow ! 70s Simplicities ! And not just any Simplicity patterns - doll clothes Simplicity patterns ! I grabbed each one as I found it, then couldn't remember which ones I already had, or just wanted for years. Figured better safe than sorry, and bought all but the Cabbage Patch ones (I already have four of those, for Timey and Dottie, without a CP in sight).  I was so happy - turns out, I only duplicated two. Scored a tote bag pattern set, too, ‘cause it'll be fun to embroider my own. I think I know what photos you'll be seeing here for the next week ! I got the craft bag one, two large baby doll ones, and five Barbie patterns. Whoo-hoo !

 

It just amazes me, since I'd decided to quit buying patterns. Stop spending hours hunting for this one I don't have, or this one that looked like something my mother would have used to make doll clothes that one time. I mean, what could anyone possibly design for Barbie that I didn't already have, in some form or fashion ? Two arms, two legs, chest hasn't changed much in 50 years, one head.  I have over a thousand Barbie patterns alone - and about half of those patterns make five or more garments ! No, I needed to spend more time sewing and less time hunting and buying. Pretty much came to the same conclusion about patterns to make me clothes and accessories. About the time I got that established, Brody came along...(sigh) Things haven't really returned to normal since !

 

Just for kicks, I bought the deep purple Beanie Baby bear with a white rose embroidered on it. It's my DMIL's favorite color, even though I know that she, like me, isn't much into bears, but it's always nice to know someone's thinking of you. And the elegant cards with the black-marble edge design were quite pretty. I may experiment with embroidering on those this weekend, if there's time.

 

By then, it was noon, and even Dearest's hunger for the hunt was waning in the rising humid heat and giving way to lunch-pangs. So we headed home. It was more fun than last year, going yard saling with him. Last year, he had to have something from every sale, no matter how silly or bizarre. And he'd invariably find some big expensive thing I just couldn't get for him, which would lead to upset all around. This year, he gladly went back to the car empty-handed if he didn't see anything, and even he admits he has plenty of cars and big toys. Just wish there'd been more sales this summer - but there's always August and September !

 

Tonight, Beloved and I had a quick taco dinner and went to Hastings. Didn't find anything to want. They must have three hundred crafts books, but never anything I'm interested in. At least 200 of that number's on scrapbooking or quilting. (sigh)

Frigidaire...I think I love you....

 

Current Mood : Relaxed and *cool*....

Spent on embroidery designs : $1.95 

 

Another swelter of a day. I couldn't sleep last night, between the heat and the simple fact that my body and my psyche hates me. Every time I'd begin to nod off after reading myself down, I either started to itch and sweat, or my mind would break in to visions of stuff I haven't done yet or did wrong years ago. I think I finally passed out around 3am.

 

Beloved Hubby slept restlessly, too. So today, he bought an air conditioner. I helped install it... and for the first time since June, it's cool in here. I turned off the increasingly useless central unit, and within an hour, it'd dropped two degrees inside. So nice...

 

Yeah, it was an expense we weren't really planning on. But you don't wanna know how high our power bill is already, and it's still 87 degrees in here at 3am. At this point, darn near anything is an improvement. My hair's finally totally dry in the back. I may actually restart my Wii Fit exercises, now that I don't feel like I'll pass out if I try.

 

Got some dishes done, and decided to use that scrap of sweatpants that's been underfoot in the Lab for the last few weeks. Looks like the design and Brody are fine, he didn't snarl once today. And if ya look closely, you'll see that I hooped it wrong - the ‘grain' is going horizontal, not vertical. I'm now wondering if it's the thread that was screwing up in the first crown trial, since the new brand and colors performed perfectly. And while I had the iron hot to apply the interfacing, I also attached it to the t-shirt I'm planning on sewing up for me tomorrow. Saturday, I gotta get going on Dearest's shirts for back-to-school, I'm already behind on those.

 

Oh, and I finally ‘spent' my birthday gift from Embroidery Library. Got three just-released designs on special for a buck each, and got the rest of the ‘Kitty Travelling' redwork designs I wanted. Minus my $10. gift, I only spent $1.95 on the lot. I'm gonna stitch out some of the kitties as notecards, maybe for Dearest Son's teacher this year. Start her on a collection of sorts. I wanna sew ‘em on the scrapbooking cardstock, then glue ‘em to the blank white cards I have. Just wanna practice ‘em first... so you'll see ‘em here soon !

 

Right now, though, I'm ready to sleep not soaked in sweat and itchy... it'll be like heaven...