Street Colour

My new mission is to find beautiful colours in unexpected places. It's sort of a way of finding the positive in the everday.

I spotted this lovely splodge of turquoise on the curb while I walked Bella today, and it makes a great start to the project.

A Day out in Bryan

In the spirit of doing things worth taking photos of, yesterday Justin and I had a little stroll around downtown Bryan. I lured him out there with the promise of an icy cold chocolate malt from this lovely little antique shop on the corner. Delicious.

And then, fueled by chocolate, we walked around, stopping every few feet so I could take a photo of something or other! This lovely rusty car was the door knob to another little antique shop:

Justin thinks I'm completely insane. He likes the new, clean buildings, and wondered why I wasn't taking any photos of them. But for me, peeling paint and uneven edges are the most beautiful thing!

And old doors.

Did I mention peeling paint?

This was my favourite shot of the day. The fading white paint on the front of the building makes me think of a geisha's face paint at the end of a day!

Today, we'll be staying home and resting, as Justin isn't feeling well. I've also decided to make my cushion cover fabrics into a table cloth, using the red spots as the main piece and adding a border of turquoise (as the red doesn't completely cover the table top!)... so hopefully I can finish that today.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

Rainbow Mugs

I took this photo today in a fun little antique shop in downtown Bryan, and it just makes me smile so much, I thought I'd share it with you! Isn't colour the best?

Pile of Fun

What a fun weekend I've got planned!

Lots of films to watch, bright fabrics to sew into cushion covers, and a yummy bar of chocolate that has unfortunately already been devoured!

And yes, I'll also be hoping to take plenty of photos! Over the next few weeks, I really want to take more photos of these things:

• Corners, little spaces, and details in our home
• Red things
• Rusty things
• Downtown Bryan

Place Mats

There's something about taking photos that makes me want to live a better life.

Last year, when Loreal got me into scrapbooking, it really pushed us to go out and explore Arizona so that I had more photos to add to the scrapbook. If it wasn't for the urge to do things worthy of taking photos of, we might never have tasted the best of Arizona's wines, eaten pizza at the funky Velvet Elvis, or hiked Madera Canyon in the snow.

Now, in the same way, this project to take a photo every day is inspiring me to do more, to create more, to see more in the world around me. I'm starting to see photo opportunities on the drive home. I'm bringing my camera when I walk the dog.

One thing, though, that I've sort of been restraining myself from photographing is food, mostly because our kitchen table can be so boring, I've never felt the urge to remember it!

Partly, this problem was due to our hideous place mats. Well, not my taste, at least!

Yes, this really is the only set we owned! We had bamboo ones at one time, but they started to rot! And we have ones that say "Happy Thanksgiving," but they're packed away (and really wouldn't be much better).

So, in the interests of being able to feel proud of any food photos I might want to take, I set out to make some more photogenic place mats! And since it was so easy, I thought I'd write a simple tutorial in case you're in need of a new set, too.

Most of the fabrics are ones I used in Matilda's play mat, as I loved the colour combination so much. (And now, if we ever change her on the kitchen table, it'll match nicely!!!!)

All I did was cut 3 inch wide strips of each fabric, about 19 inches long. Six place mats, then, needs 30 strips total.

I pinned them together, right sides facing, five strips to a mat, and sewed them, allowing a 1/4 seam allowance. (Approximately... I'm terrible at even seam allowances, but they turned out okay!)

Once sewed, I ironed the seams flat... my favourite bit!

Then, I pinned the top, right side down, to a big piece of red felt, which would serve as a backing. I cut around the place mat, and sewed the top and the felt together, leaving an opening for turning. I then top-stitched all the way around, which closed the opening-gap, and held it all together.

Finished! Ready for dinner... and photos!

When I showed them to Justin, he frowned and said "You know I'm just going to spill stuff on them, right?"

Yes, well, luckily we have six of them, and so there'll always be another clean one ready waiting!

Ida Pearle Collages

After seeing Soulemama's beautiful alphabet cards, by Ida Pearle, today, I couldn't resist checking out the rest of the artist's work.

All of the pieces are prints of original collages... yes, all those little bits were cut out of paper! Amazing!

I would love to make a set of my own alphabet cards for Matilda in the next few months... yes, another project to add to the ever-growing list!

Snow in Texas

What fun! It's snowing... and the snow is sticking!

I've been out photographing fence-posts,

and our lovely Bella, who enjoyed wearing her winter jumper,

catching snowflakes on her nose,

and eating big mouthfuls of snow!

Just when I thought spring was on the way! My Ugg boots are going to be worn until the baby arrives at this rate!

Knitting

I've started on my largest knitting project yet: a baby blanket for little Tilly. It's a lovely simple pattern, just calling for one colour of wool, but it's done in what's called 'basket weave' stitch, which adds a bit of fun, and keeps me interested in knitting it!

(You can see the blanket in the bottom right corner)

It's a lovely dusky pink, and though I do wish it was a bit softer (it felt softer when it was wound up!), I'm sure we'll find a use for it. It takes four balls of wool, and so far, I'm on ball number 2... so still a lot of knitting to go! Luckily, it's rainy today, so I should be quite productive.

Oh, yes, and I've already spilled a glass of pineapple juice on the blanket, so I'm eager to finish it so I can give it a wash! :)

Cold and Grey

I love the little buds of leaves you can see coming... I can't wait for spring to be here!

Off to my first ever baby shower today (for a friend, not for me!) and looking forward to seeing just what goes on there!

Winter Tree

My photo for today, taken through the decorative details on our porch. I'm finding, so far in this project, that I'm very drawn to shadows, and to little bits of things.

Pancake Day

For the first time since I've been in America, I remembered to celebrate Pancake Day!

Justin was very excited to find pancakes waiting when he came home for lunch.

And Bella very much enjoyed taking part in the fun, too. She managed to gobble up her pancake before I could get a picture of it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Starting today, and running for the next year, I'm going to take at least one photo every day. My Mum suggested this little project, and is setting up a Flickr group some time soon to show all the photos we all take. Exciting!

I got a little nervous today about being able to take a good enough photo, so took a whole load!

Justin's method of keeping the shed closed!

The shed roof

Justin and Bella on our Valentine's walkies

A sweet little flag we saw on the walk

Our Valentine's cards... Justin put a pack of 1994 basketball trading

cards in with my Valentine's card,

which gave me a good laugh!

Apparently, I got some good ones, and he put them in collector's cases for me!

We're barbequeing for lunch, and then off to the cinema... what fun!

Hope you're having a lovely, love-filled day, too!

Tilly's Play Mat, and a Big Bottomed Beaver

Before I even had time to show you the fabric I had piled up for my next project, it was finished! I definitely think I've caught the quilting bug. This is a little play mat for the baby:

The pattern was from Lotta's Simple Sewing for Baby, again, and really was just as simple as promised! One of these days, I'll learn to cut in a straight line, but until then, I'm enjoying the 'handmadeness' of it all!

A little pocket in one of the corners, for an emergency cloth, or a Wupert Wabbit:

And, I couldn't resist dressing Fatty McBeaver up in one of my cute-cute-completely-cute cloth nappies and having her model. Hopefully Tilly's teeth will come in a bit straighter than poor Beaver's!

Oh, and when I showed it to Justin, he pointed to one of the squares of my favourite spotty batik fabric, and said "Oh no, the colour got all messed up in the wash!"

Um... I guess the batik look isn't for everyone!

Finished Quilt

I added the final touch: a little felt heart with Justin's initials on it. It gives the quilt a much needed touch of red, I think!

This is the patch in the center. Perfect for 2010, the year of the Tiger! I'd picked this fabric out as potential baby fabric a few months ago, but now we know she's a girl, the dark blue doesn't really appeal to me for baby things anymore. Luckily, it's Justin's favourite!

Here's the whole thing, laid out. Yes, it goes perfectly with our Ikea duvet cover!

And this is my favourite quilt, the Dog Park quilt that my Mum made for me last year. It inspired the choice of fleece for backing... so comfy, and nice and light-weight. Now, hopefully, I'll have it all to myself again!

Justin's Shirt Quilt

The patchwork top all assembled, with a fun polka-dotty border:

I've sewn on the fleece backing now, and turned the border over onto the back so it serves as binding, too. So, really, I'm just adding finishing touches and it'll be ready very soon!

A New Wabbit

As Wodger Wabbit was such a success, I went ahead and sewed a pom-pomless version for new baby Tilly. This wabbit has a little bow tie, which is delightfully (and accidentally) wonky! I think I'll call him Wupert Wabbit.

Here he is with Bella:

And with Grendal, my mean, green sewing machine:

Wupert is just silly enough to make me smile after a very rough day. Well, him plus a hot cup of honey and lemon and a large Milky Way!

I've finally come down with something... yesterday it was a sore throat, and today it's a rather disgusting cough. All the tea in Texas hasn't done much for me, yet, but now that I've picked up some lemons, hopefully it'll start to go away.

Happily, I've got a stash of Asda cough drops from last summer... there's just something about the taste of British medicines! They're still not enjoyable, but they're familiar, and that feels nice right now!

Travels

Justin's away in Denver this week, and so I'm turbo-quilting in an attempt to get his shirt-fabric quilt finished before he gets back! So far, so good. All 64 rectangles are cut out, and half are sewn together. Here's a little taste of the fabrics:

On Sunday, I got a frantic call from poor Justin to say that he was really upset that he'd forgotten to pack the Family Heart I made him to take on his travels. Of course, I hadn't expected him to remember it! I'd wrapped it in a T-shirt at the bottom of his bag, and he was so pleased to find it later on that night. But it was lovely to know that he does see some meaning in it!

Back to quilting... I can get another row sewed together before work!