I Like Thursday: Getting Stuff Done

I have some real odds-and-ends to share with LeeAnna and friends for I Like Thursday.  I never know what will catch my eye or tickle my fancy.

I drove by this pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago and was struck by the color, but didn't get a chance to photograph it.  I was so excited last week when I saw the pumpkins were still there, plus a rainbow in the blue sky!  

I Like Thursday: Wait, It’s July?

Goodness.  I've done nothing but quilting posts for over a month.  I've done plenty of good things that aren't sewing that I'd like to share at I Like Thursday.

Let's start out this post with a guinea pig!  This is Madea.  She's the first foster we've had since October. 

Madea is a sweetie and is settling in quite nicely.  However, she doesn't know what to do with veggies.  What kind of silly pig is this?  She will only eat carrots.  Not cucumber or lettuce or tomatoes or peppers or corn husks.  I'm working on her.

Playing with Buttons

I wanted to decorate some hair combs to go with my dancing outfits - I was in need of something blue.  I enjoyed making the fabric flowers; now I wanted to play with buttons.  I wasn't happy with the buttons I had, so I found some blue and green (and unexpected gold) buttons at Swanson's.  The blues and greens are not as vibrant as I wanted, but I think they will look nice.  I fell in love with the golden-brown buttons and bought them without any specific plans.  They fit on a comb nicely and I can already think of at least one outfit that will go with.  

It was a quick evening project to wire them together with a bit of florist wire.  

Sharing with:
Quilt Schmilt - To Do Tuesday
My Quilt Infatuation - Needle & Thread Thursday

I Like Thursday: Pigs, Poets, Pumpkins, Prancing and Paddling

Whew!  Lots going on in the last two weeks!  So many great things to make me happy.  Let's see - the Powerpuff Girls are settling in.  There's been much loafing when they're not fiercely demanding treats.

There really is a guinea pig in that photo... the first week Bubbles tried to hide under everything. 

They're learning to beg properly and they're enjoying the three level cage - everyone has favorite spots.  And they were pretty excited to check out the cleaned cage.

I Like Thursday: April Foolin’ Around

April! It's been another full-throttle month.  Whew!  Let's see what I liked best...

It kicked off with April Fools Day.  My local librarian celebrated the holiday with a sign that said "Please excuse the mess while I reorganize the collection by color!"  Indeed, the first shelf is red, orange, green, white, blue and black.  If you flipped the paper over it said "April Fools!"  

The eclipse was pretty cool - no fooling!  We chose not to drive up to Vermont to see the total eclipse, but instead hung out on our front steps to witness the 95% coverage.  We played with the colander, marveled at the strange shadows and the drop in temperature (about 10℉). 

We wished there had been more leaves on the tree to better see the funny crescent shadows the sun produced.  The pine trees gave us a bit of little taste of it.  And I had eclipse glasses, so we could look at the sun.  It reminded me of the Cheshire Cat as the slice of the sun got bigger (a grin without a cat).

I Like Thursday: Into 2024

I missed writing an I Like Thursday post in January.  Lots to like - just no time to write about it.

We got snow in January - but on New Year's there was not a snowflake to be seen.  I went walking with my mother and we came across this creative wooden snowman.  He was big!  Must have been heavy, too. 

I came across a Scottish word this last week:  hurkle-durkle.  It means to lie in bed, or to lounge after it is time to get up or go to work.  Lots of overcast days this month - I'd much rather snuggle warmly under the covers curled up with a good book than face the day.  So I've been doing a lot of hurkle-durkling. 

I Like Thursday: Halloween Festivities

Welcome to this week's likes!

I had a jammed packed weekend.  Went to a Halloween dance on Saturday night.  Some fun costumes.  My favorite was Baba Yaga's house.  He actually danced in it for a short while which was pretty funny to see in the line.  One couple came dressed up as Punk n'Pi (one person in fantastic 80s punk and the other in orange with π on the front and 3.14 on the back).  I threw on my basic goth outfit - I didn't have time to pull together anything else.  There was a Laura Ingalls - in pigtail braids and wearing her mother's old Gunne Sax dress (I remember those!)  A wolf in sheep's clothing.  Heidi.  Witches and skeletons and winged creatures.  All good stuff.

I Like Thursday: Now We Wait

Counter template has been done.  Now we wait for counters, trim, cabinet doors and two new cabinets that are back ordered.  Need to order tiles and handles.  I'm waiting, too, on my car's AC getting fixed.  All I can do is cross my fingers that nothing else goes amiss.  

I'm generally not a selfie person, but I finally got to wear the dancing tank top I "fixed" two years ago.  That's exciting stuff.  It went awesome with a skirt that nothing else I have goes well with.  Huzzah!  Added bonus, I got my hair chopped off earlier that day, which means I got the braided pigtails that makes me feel like a kid.  Oh, what a wonderful way to kick off the weekend.

I got several compliments and even had a person or two recognize my top from the original blog post.  Fun!  Great music, lovely dances, saw a few more people I haven't seen in years - it was a fun night.

I Like Thursday: Stress and Progress

When I told Rob I needed to sit down to write my I Like Thursday post, he asked what I had to like about this week.  Admittedly, it's been a long, exhausting and stressful week.  Every single day some minor crisis or decision came up with the kitchen.  The workers are great and the noise level was reasonable, but it was hard to concentrate on my high-priority project due next week.  We took in a very ill foster guinea pig that didn't make it.  We're both pretty frazzled around the edges.  Goodness, just writing this down makes me tired.  

But...

I have over a half-dozen photos documenting the good things that made me smile this week.  Let's take a gander at them, shall we?

Rob clearly is not impressed with taking selfies, but look! We're dressed for a contra dance!  This was the first contra we've been to since March 2020.  The masks make it warm and I need to figure out how to keep hydrated during the dance in a way that makes me comfortable, but it was lovely to see happy people and get out and move.

I Like Thursday: Kick up Your Heels

How can it be Thursday already?  Another crazy busy week.  Still managed to snap a few pictures.

This little peeper had been sitting on the garden hose.  When I got close he leapt off and stuck right to the wall.  Pretty cool!  Love his patterns, too.  I'm amazed at how pretty they are.

Finished Tank Top

I finished the tank top! 

The kanzashi flowers were far more difficult to attach than the folded flowers.  When I sewed them on by hand, the knit fabric underneath pulled unevenly.  Machine stitching wasn't much better:  the edges were so thick they nearly didn't fit under the presser foot.  I needed to stitch as close to the center as possible so the stitching would be hidden by the center button.  But if I stitched too close to the center, I often failed to catch all the edges.  A few flowers needed to be stitched around three times to properly attach them to the tank top. 

It was a challenge to attach the kanzashi's button centers, too.  I picked shank buttons for most of them - I really liked how that looked.  Turns out the shank was hard to access once the first couple of stitches were in place.  They look awesome.  We'll see how long they'll survive through the washing machine.  The folded flowers all have flat buttons - so much easier!  And I have no worries about them pulling a hole through the knit fabric or coming loose.

Full of Flowers

The "spot removal" project is coming along.  I cut a pile of leaves.  Initially I was going to simply turn the edges and sew them in place.  No matter how carefully I ironed the edges were choppy and angular.  I decided to sew a pair together and turn them right side out and was much happier with the results: uniform and smooth. 

So the leaves are a bit heavier with the extra fabric.  I toyed with tacking them down so the edges would pop up.  In the end, I straight-stitched them all in place.  This top is for dancing.  If too much sticks out, it's likely to get snagged.

Next up are the flowers.  There's two different styles.  One is folded geometric shapes (I found this tutorial).  The second are called kanzashi flowers - from folded, gathered fabric.  I made a load of both - they've been a lot of fun.  It also made me realize, my stash desperately needs a set of primary colors.  Somewhere along the way I used them all and never replenished.

I Like Thursday: Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I love this old Lanz dress.  I bought in the late '90s as a Halloween costume.  I trot it out every 7-9 years when I dress up as Mother Nature.  Most of the leaves on the hem I picked from the yard earlier that evening.  I feel a little guilty stapling them to such a nice dress!  I lost about a dozen leaves at the dance.  Said I was shedding.  It's Fall, after all!

Lots of people liked the dress the Halloween dance.  Very retro.  It has a wonderful full skirt - so it was fun to dance in.

There were lots of terrific costumes there.  Black cats and witches.  Several kitted out pirates.  An aviator.  Beetlejuice.  Johnny Cash.  A pair that came as Ursa Major and Minor - those were really cool.  It's fun to see people's creativity.

I Like Thursday: Fall Ball, Fog and Faucet

I ended a rough crazy week of work with a day of dancing.  Oh, the Fall Ball!  Great music.  Fun dances.  Lots of happy twirling people...

and twirling skirts.

Health issues kept me from dancing as much and as long as I wished.  I was grateful to last as long as I did.  And while I rested I got to spend time with friends.  Listen to the music.  Watch the people dancing.

I Like Thursday: Shopping Trips and Errands

It's been a busy weeks, picking up a lot of things.

Saturday included a trip to the Greenfield farmer's market.  I got to use my guinea pig and bunny picnic bag.  Isn't it cute?  Mabel thinks it's even cuter filled with carrots.  (Although Kiki and Mason ate the majority of the carrot tops.)

I was very excited to bring home a 25lb box of tomatoes to make sauce.  The house smelled delicious on Tuesday as we cooked them down.

I Like Thursday: Happy July 4th

Mabel worries I'll steal her lettuce

Another week of chaos.  There's packing, contacting various businesses to start or end utilities, researching, whatever.  And Mabel has required trips to the vet nearly every other day for treatment (isn't she cute with the purple bandage?  it was green before).  Ugh.

But...

I'm happy that the boxes in the house are piling up.  The more stacked boxes, the less there is to pack. 

The Goodwill pile is growing too.  That goes on Saturday - I will have a clean spot ready to amass more boxes.

By Special Request

People like the name tags I've created.  Most of them are made of Sculpey.  I love the detail I can add to those name tags, but they're heavy and prone to breaking (only one of them has survived without repair).  I recently made one from fabric.  Much lighter, should be far more durable.  Nothing is going to snap off!  It's a whole different process to create.  I haven't figured out how add all the detail I'd like; I will be experimenting for a while.

A few weeks ago I was asked how one could get a Sally-made name tag.  I told him; he requested one in blue and green.  Weeks later, I finally had a little time to work on this.  Some research, two sets of background before I got it right and this what I created.

I Like Thursday: Smartphones and Sewing

Missed last week's I Like Thursday.  Too many distractions (and not enough photos).  I pulled myself together this week.  I enjoy writing these posts and it's nice to be back.
 

The new house has no cell service.  So I bit the bullet and moved from a dumb phone to a smartphone (so it will work at the house through the WiFi).  Spent hours on the phone with tech support:  between the age of the phone, the limits of my old plan (I don't think they even offer it any more), the spotty connection I have at my place, it took us three days of attempts before the phone number was successfully switched over.  I was pleasantly surprised with the three tech support people I dealt with for knowledge and patience.  (Although it would have been nice to know that the spotty connection would cause so much trouble - I'd have tried activating closer to a cell tower.)  Spent another day with setup and understanding how it all works.  My brain is full.  But it's done!  I'm officially in the 21st century.

I Like Thursday: Birds, Toys, Dancing and Sewing

I glanced at the feeder on Tuesday and thought the goldfinch was looking a little green and grey.  I know their summer colors are still coming in, but this one didn't look right.  Then he sang.  Ha - not a goldfinch, but a pine warbler!  I discovered they're the only warbler that visits feeders.  I've never seen one here before.  He's been back several times every day.

A titmouse visiting last spring had one back feather that stuck straight up off his back.  Very odd.  Tuesday I caught glimpse of titmouse that had a feather shaft sticking out in the same spot.  Same bird, I'm guessing?  I had thought it was the bird equivalent of bed-head, but I guess it's really stuck like that?  (I wanted a photo, but he was too shy.)

I Like Thursday: A Smattering of Stuff

Welcome to this week's likes.  It's going to be over the place.

I have always been fascinated how people can pin their hair up with chopsticks.  I bought this pair of child-sized chopsticks years ago (possibly last century?).  I couldn't get them to work, so I split them up to use around the house.  Recently I found both pieces and gave them another try.  Hey!  It works! (mostly)