elsie marley

Trash picking is my hobby. Granted, it’s not a very glamorous one and not really all that interesting, but I love it.  And the trash gods (garbage men?) have been good to me lately.  This is the biggest and probably the best thing I’ve ever found on the curb.  It took much help from many friends to actually get it to my house, but I would have lugged it home on my back if that’s what it took.   It has three shelves, but only one at the moment because my kids think it’s their clubhouse.  The drawers actually work and there are two sets of hinges on each door so they can open all the way (270 degrees).  It’s on our porch now and I hope to fill it up with art supplies for rainy days.  But it will be perfect as an extra closet one day.

I know there are other out there like me who sift through trash when no one is looking. Who can blame you–people throw away good shit.  I started a flickr group: trash pickins.  Because you want to brag about what you found, but don’t want to get that look from people when you tell them where you got it.

After a week (a week!) of nursing sick children I thought I would have a couple hours to sew on Saturday morning, but of course then I got it.  crap.  I had grand plans of conquering an actual pattern: simplicity 3835 (any advice welcome–has anyone lined this? can anyone tell me how to line this?).  There were some angry and rushed attempts at garment making in high school with very homemade results, but now I’m ready to learn for real.  These pj pants are from Amy Butler’s book “In Stitches” and were dead easy.  Like sewing drawstring bags for your legs and about that flattering–when she says wide leg, she means wiiiiide leg.  I have been meaning to make them ever since I found this fantastic sheet at a thrift store long ago. I think the idea of making pajamas from sheets came from soulemama.  And when you are wearing them it really is like you never got out of bed!  My sick self stayed in these pants all weekend long. I did manage one little project (from soulemama, the book).

another pair of pants! though much, much smaller and from a shirt.  There are many more of these planned for the summer months.  They are easy and comfy and just right for the playground.  I have grand plans for making my kids’ clothes too.  It doesn’t help seeing this and this and this.  But I don’t have a clue as to how to sew clothes (unless it resembles a drawstring bag) so mostly I’m just dreaming.

color week.

color week.

color week.

color week.

color week.

and the winner is…Christine from phila craft.  She even made up a little poem for the occasion:

Elsie Marley never whines.
Her stuffed moostachios are truly fine–
Crazy Elsie Marley.

And the 1000th comment and winner of the secret prize is Julie from letter9.  You have won the first book in the make it yourself series. yee haw!

It was nice hearing from all of you.  I’ll have to do this again sometime. Leya is hosting color week this week and I’m going to join in the fun–take a little break after 100 blathering posts.

have a good week!

p.s. winners, please email me your mailing address and I’ll send off the loot.

I’ve been looking for some kiddy size chairs recently because we have one chair and two kiddies.  I was getting a little frustrated because I couldn’t find anything, much less anything vaguely stylish. Then on Saturday at Vinnie’s there they were.  It was Saturday–the place was packed, there were little kids everywhere and it was well past noon.  How is it possible that no one scooped them up?  They did look a little shabby and there was a $15 dollar sticker on each, so I guess that is a deterrent.  Fifteen bucks is a lot for a little chair and I carried one around the entire store convincing myself it wasn’t.  Turns out it was for the set and since I decided I was spending $15 anyway, I took the lot.  This is much more than you need to know about any shopping experience, much less mine. But hey chairs! with a cool vinyl print–can you even get that nowadays?

Other things:

I was lucky enough to be short listed in the 2nd Annual Softies Awards. You can vote here (if you are related to me, you have to vote for me).

The drawing for my sewing book will happen on Monday (um midday? naptime? somewhere around there central time), so if you’d like to put your name in the hat please leave a word here (if you are related to me, you may enter, but really you should call instead).

Here it is the 100th post.  It’s a nice tradition in this crafty blog world to have some sort of contest or giveaway on occasions like these.  And even though I’m crap at responding to comments, they really do push me to do more and better things.  This sewing book is a great example . A year ago I would have thought up this idea, but probably never got around to making it, and then proceed to mope around because I never do the things I say I will.  No more!  And it’s all because of you.  So the sewing book pictured above is yours (sans supplies) if you win.  Just leave a comment on this post–a joke, a recipe, a book recommendation, the name of your dog, whatever–and Monday I will pick a winner (by random).  If you’ve never left a comment before, go ahead and do so. Click on the comments and write your email in the space provided (no one can see it but me) and if you don’t have a website just leave that space blank.   There are more pictures of the book on my flickr site if you’d like to see.  

Because I’m almost up to 1000 comments (it’s at 984 right now) there will be a secret prize for the 1000th commenter! Good luck! And I’ll see you on Monday.