elsie marley

I feel a little funny calling a post “my bathroom” so we’ll just stick with before and after, because that’s what this is.

My bathroom is 8×6: a sink, a toilet, a bathtub, and an obtrusive radiator all fit in the tiny space and accommodate this family of 5. The photo above shows how it looked three years ago when we moved in. It wasn’t great, but it came with the house so we had to work with it. The pedestal sink was nice and skinny and all, but we own things and they need to go somewhere. There wasn’t anything wrong with the sink so there wasn’t any need to replace it, though I did hate it. The toilet topper, or whatever the hell those things are called, went out right away which made the bathroom feel much bigger. A year later, my brother was installing a light in the ceiling and dropped his hammer on the sink. Suddenly we had to replace the sink and super fast because my brother was leaving and he knows something about installing sinks, whereas we know nothing. The sink and faucet came from our local hardware store and the cabinet was a lucky, lucky find at an antique shop. It was 100 bucks, which I thought was crazy expensive, but all that storage space has been worth it.

This is a during shot. It’s hard to tell from the picture but the people who owned the house before us ripped off the tile that was on the wall and then just painted, just painted over the glue that was underneath. The tile was a peach colored plastic tile, but still, you can work with that a little better than painted glue. Why this didn’t tip us off to their halfassedness I don’t know–you are just blind when buying a house for the first time (or at least we were). You think you’ll just fix everything up lickity split. Yeah, that doesn’t happen because the water heater breaks or the basement floods or you build a fence in the backyard or go and have more kids (or all of the above plus some). So I am embarrassed to tell you how long ago I took this during picture.  But it doesn’t matter now because it’s done!

I had to plaster and sand and plaster and sand and plaster and sand over the glue, but that 6 dollar bucket of plaster made a huge difference. I painted it white and painted the top bit peacock blue, which is my new favorite color. The shiny thing attached to the cabinet is a mailbox! I trash picked it a few years ago  (why? I don’t know.  We didn’t need a mailbox, but I can’t resist good trash). It holds books and magazines and has an added bonus of protecting them from all the sink splashing my kids do.  The toilet paper holder is an old warhead box–really it is–that I stole from my high school boyfriend. The owl we got as a wedding present and the picture above it was a thrift store spurge.  I got the metal first aid kit off ebay and we keep all the medicine locked up in it, so the kids don’t get into it.  The paper whites bloomed just for the picture and the hanging plant is called string of pearls, which is a pretty succulent.  All in all I think we spent a little over 300 bucks (and three years) to get it all done.  So there, now you more about my bathroom than you ever thought you wanted to. There are more pictures on flickr if you want to see more!

I’ve had yet another crochet fail, so I’m going to drown my sorrows in the fantastically creative work of others:

These despondent little leaves are an example of the beautiful work by Lola Goldstein.  I never thought I’d be in love with leaves that suffer from ennui. Her soft boiled egg set with a little egg shaped salt shaker is pretty cute too.

I’m not much for resolutions mostly because my birthday comes up pretty fast after new years (this friday!) and it’s depressing to take stock and realize you so quickly fell short of all those goals you set just four weeks ago. But this creativity chart by Eerika from rag pets is simple and beautiful and is more about keeping track then MUST SUCCEED! She simply colors in the block if she has been creative that day. You could color code the squares or just go crazy with your box of 64 crayons. Someone in the comments even suggested making a quilt based on the chart when the year is done, which is fantastic and reminds me of Lea Redmond’s idea of knitting a scarf where the color of the row depends on the color of the sky that day (she also does the world’s smallest valentine, which is super awesome and seasonally appropriate).

I have wanted a set of letter cookie cutters for a while, but I am now totally holding out for these helvetica shaped cutters by Beverly Hsu.

and last, but far from least, on the list of things that are awesome on the internet this week is this curiosity cabinet by Suzanne Norris. I think the octopus is my favorite. It’s sold in this amazing shop called the Otherist–in Amsterdam– that I discovered via Kasa at the paperama blog.  It looks like a beautiful shop to visit, but their online shop ain’t too shabby either.

On Friday all my kids’ friends came over for a valentines making party–yes all! have you ever had a party where every person you invited could come and then think holy crap! everyone is coming?  At the last minute a few kids couldn’t make it, so it wasn’t quite as chaotic as I thought it would be, but we are still picking glitter out of our hair (four days later).  The kids are still pretty young, so there weren’t any projects proper, it was a how many different things can you glue to one card sort of deal. My son’s inner glitter lover came out and he used up most of what we had.  Actually after the party was over my kids worked on their valentines almost until dinner time. They would get up from the table every once and a while and help themselves to the leftovers at the buffet. It was a rare day in motherhood where I was aloud to sit back, cuddle with the baby, and crochet as I please.

I got kinda themey with the food. It was supposed to be all heart shaped and red, but ended up rather brown and carby.  I made tomato focaccia from my bakery days and it was pretty good, at least the two dogs who finished it off thought so. These financiers were a total bust: they didn’t taste very good–and financiers are usually super delicious–and the heart effect was fussy as hell and didn’t work in the end.  Everything else was pretty run of the mill: heart shaped pb&js, red vegetables, trail mix. Martha’s raisin heart pockets were my favorite and I squirreled a few away to have with tea later.  I know valentines day is all about chocolateness, but these were nice and wintery, not too sweet and perfect with tea. I used golden raisins in the filling, but I think dried apricots with a little cardamom would be even better.  So go set up a little buffet for your kiddo’s lunch and open the glitter and savor some quiet time, or make some valentines yourself.  Next year we might skip the christmas cards all together and just send out valentines.

This coat has been a long time coming. I started it right after I finished making my son’s coat–high off success I suppose–but it stalled soon after when she tried on the rough draft (umm, what do you call the outer shell of the coat, a mock up?) and said, “ewww, I don’t like it.” So it sat in a pile for a loooong while. Then I started looking around for something to line it with and couldn’t find anything big enough to line the whole coat which bummed me out, so it sat some more. I decided to hell with it I would just patch together different sweaters to line it even if it makes it look extra handmade.

Really I probably shouldn’t have lined it. I wanted to just use fabric from my stash (because seriously the stash has to get smaller) and everything is, but the coat doesn’t hang right at all. The pattern is from Carefree Clothes for Girls, which I was really excited about, but I’m not super happy with this pattern (I combined the short coat shape with the long coat length). It’s raglan sleeve, which I love, but it different from the other raglan sleeve things I’ve done in that it has a seem down the top of the arm. So there are four pieces for the sleeves and they are sewn separately to the front and to the back and then the front and back pieces are joined by sewing down the top of both arms. I think this takes away the ease of raglan sleeves and gives the coat extra bulk it just doesn’t need. Oh and I added in seam pockets, which doesn’t help with the bulk issue either, but they’re handy.

Because I didn’t really like it, but didn’t want to abandon it I slapped on some ruffles a la j.crew so I would like it more. And it worked. My daughter was anxious for me to finish it, but damn if those sew on snaps don’t take forever to sew on.  While I was sewing on all those snaps my daughter danced around excited for it to be done, then she tried it on and hated it. It is a little big and hangs weird, so I don’t really blame her. But still. Maybe next year she’ll like it more. Until then she’ll wear it to church because her mother will make her.

I’m starting to really enjoy these linkydoo posts (awesome name stolen from miss rae) I hope you don’t mind them too much. Since I’ve started to crochet, I’ve been on the look out for crochet blogs. I found this one (sc) recently and though I can fake reading french a little, really I have no idea what she is saying but her work is lovely enough even without the words.

Erika from fox and owl makes beautiful articulated teddy bears (and kitties and dolls too), but it’s this idea that I’m going to steal. Healthy and hilarious!

Another craft project idea on the list to steal (someone has a flickr set called “ideas I have stolen” that I always thought was fantastic) is this painted square set from mer mag.  Part art part toy and super fantastic all over.

From another blog I can’t read comes this project. Perfect for valentine’s day or mother’s day or just to use up the ridiculous amount of random art we have piled up in the house.

have a great weekend!

There have been a few crochet projects recently that I have just had to rip out–that cute and jumpy word “frogged” is just not going to cut it here, because I spent precious time working on them, they looked liked hell and then I had to start the fuck over. Here is one example:

This is what happens when you try and crochet over a paper lantern. I wanted a new light fixture for our bedroom because staring at a cheap paper lantern hanging from a bare bulb starts to looks extra crappy in the wee hours of the morning (when you are nursing and staring at the ceiling, wrecked from nursing all night long) but didn’t have any extra cash to get one, or really even make one. I thought lantern would look nice and cozy with a crocheted cover. I had some extra chunky white yarn from this project, so I quickly got to work. I’ve never really made up a pattern from scratch before and it was a little more frustrating than I thought it would be and it took a lot longer. And then because I was running out of yarn and stretching it just a little too tight literally with the very last stitch I broke the shade. Shit. Yeah yeah, maybe it a good thing, now when I make it again I might be able to write a pattern, but still, shit.

I am working on another crochet project (my sewing machine is gathering dust!) and it has not failed yet.

Hexagons for a bathmat. It’s a japanese pattern and my first project worked from a crochet chart (I found it on ravelry here and here is the original site). I’m warming up because I bought this book and I want to make every single project in it. Speaking of ravelry, it looks like there is a sewing equivalent getting going call The Woven! There are a lot of sewing forums out there that are great (craftster, cut out and keep) but this looks more like ravelry and it’s nicely thought out. It would be a welcome addition I think.

I know christmas is long gone, but I never got to show you all that I made, so just deal with it. It was indeed a very crochet christmas this year. I made earrings for all my crafty bitches (sorry, it’s just too tempting) I mean my friends from craft night. The first earring I made turned out waaaay too big, so I turned it into a necklace instead and liked it so much I made another. The other earrings worked up super quick and I think they are very pretty (and so did they, thankfully).  While I was in the jewelry making mood I crocheted a bow tie choker with some leftover alpaca I had. I thought it’d be a sassy accessory for new year’s eve, but they weren’t buying it, so I think some little boy has a new sunday tie. The alpaca was from another christmas gift I crocheted–that slouchy hat up there–for my brother in law. I think I did every single stitch wrong in the hat, but they are all wrong in the same way so it turned out. The used chunky alpaca for the black cowl (the pattern is called the the black hole cowl) and it’s so awesomely soft. If you don’t knit or crochet you should learn just because of alpaca. The last two scarves up there were for my mother-in-law and father-in-law–I’m sure you can tell which is which. The fancy one is made with the broomstick stitch, which is a super cool stitch that you actually use a broomstick for, or in my case a wrapping paper tube, and it’s made out of 100 percent cashmere (on sale) so it’s crazy soft. The one I’m peeking out from is just a quick, easy, man scarf, one I’m sure I will make again.  All the specs for all these project are on my ravelry page (you need an account to see them) and hey while you are there be my friend! I’m lonely over there on ravelry all by myself. There were two more crocheted presents and I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of either: I made 2 moustache hats for my brother in law and his girlfriend. The moustaches were a little droopy, but otherwise they were well recieved–and worn!  So yeah, I crocheted a lot for christmas. How about you? what did you make?

hello. it’s been a little while, sorry. A stomach bug came and destroyed us for a week, but now all has been washed and we are feeling much better, thank you. Nothing has been made, so I’ll show you what other people are making.

If I had a spot in my house for this, you bet your ass I’d be making it. via the always awesome brick house.

This beautiful gold necklace is made from squash seeds painted with gold leaf.   Super fancy and yet almost free!

Trula is a pretty new blog that shows off all the awesome kids clothes the mama makes. They are comfy and stylish and (thankgod) not just for girls. She has an etsy shop (and I’ve got my eyes on that bag).

I’m bummed that I was laid up all week with the sick, because I missed out on Lily’s week of shapes, but she mentioned she might host a week exploring line and one for shadow. Maybe if we all pester her enough it will happen soon.

1. gingham dress, 2. stripey dining room, 3. hat, 4. warren, 5. adele, 6. leaf crown, 7. one quilt: march, 8. summer girl, 9. corduroy coat, 10. earrings, 11. pointy hat, 12. patch on

We welcomed the new year with a big pot of fondue, the everyone promptly got the flu (not from the fondue). So I sort of missed  the first few days of this new year. I’m happy it’s here though, flu and all. Last year was a little rough (me and pregnancy don’t really like each other much) still a few things got made and some good ones at that. I put my favorites up there–that baby being the best thing I made by far. I hope to rework this little blog in the new year and maybe even get going on some patterns I’ve been meaning to work on. We’ll see. This little baby just learned to roll over and crawling comes quickly to my boys, so I’m guessing all sewing time will soon be gone.  I have ambitions though, three days in to 2010 and my list is already long.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

We are getting ready for lots of eating and merry making.  I hope you have lovely meals and lots of cookies in the coming days. I’m going to take a little break and I’ll see you all in the new yeat! Merry Christmas!

Download today’s coloring page here
See all the coloring pages so far here