Sept. 13

If you follow many embroidery blogs, you have probably come across Feeling Stitchy. Great site. They just announced a little contest that I am quite intrigued by... embroidering a book cover! I'm quite excited.

The big question though, is what book? 

Jane Austin? Moby Dick? Roald Dahl? Harry Potter? Raptor Red? There are so many books! I wonder if I would be limited to one entry? I wonder if I will have enough time to even finish one?

July 21

Today is a big day in Lawrence... We have a great downtown and every year there is a huge sidewalk sale! I got there pretty early and I'm so glad for it, as i was actually able to find a parking spot and it wasn't yet unbearably hot (we hit 102 even without the heat index!) 

I don't really like shopping for clothes in that kind of crowd (long lines, crowded, etc), but I did walk away with some booty from a couple of the antique stores. I got a great deal at one booth on some sweater clips, a necklace, and a super cute pin (all for $6!). At another booth I got another necklace, some buttons, and a gorgeous vintage scarf.

I love this pin! And one of the sweater clips is of angelfishes, the other has kind of creepy hands!

I also went out to Milton's for breakfast, then had a job interview, took a nap, and completed a little art project that I'll post about tomorrow. It was a productive day!

July. 6

Found Here

I'm currently on the road, so I'll just update with a few great embroideries I've found on Flickr this week. I simultaneously want to do all of these. They are just text links because no one lets you save images now apparently. Really guys?

1. Adorable owl reading a book!
2. Lovely whale.
3. Petri dishes.
4. Summery landscape.
5. Muskoxen!
6. Bovine Beauty.

June. 1

An artist I have been following as of late, Scott Campbell, has just released a jigsaw puzzle featuring one of his works of art. The puzzle itself should be art!

It features an epic battle between Medieval knights and a full piece orchestra. The pieces themselves are carved into amazing shapes too...

And did I mention the whole thing was made out of wood and comes in a lovely wooden box? Oh how I wish this could belong to me!

You can find it HERE!

May 4

Happy Star Wars day! (as in May the fourth be with you.... too witty for me to have come up with it, I assure you). I don't know yet how I am going to celebrate, but rest assured that the holiday will be recognized.

Also, I was very recently featured in a great little magazine called Babiekins. The whole magazine is online and it is really great! The photography and styling are lovely and I'm really happy to have been included. Check me out around page 270!

April 13

I have been chugging away on my first pattern drafting project today, with a bit of a break to go to a KU music department jazz show downtown (which was faaantastic!) Then I enjoyed a glass of chocolate milk and some relaxing music... I'm looking forward to crawling into my bed.

Not before telling you about a great post from one of the blogs I read, Eighteenth Century Agrarian Business. This lovely lady just gave a tutorial on some super simple window shades that I can't wait to use... if only we didn't have ugly mini-blinds in our apartment! They just use dowel rods, hooks from the hardware store and hook and eyes. So easy.

Check it out HERE and be happy!

Mar. 18

I had a good spring break. A good portion of it was spent sewing, and kite flying, and CP (crock pot) bbq chicken eating. My friend Mary and I sewed up our own kites and while it was fun, they didn't ever really get too high. We think they might be too heavy, so I'm going to get some lighter dowel rods and see if that helps.

This weekend is the first one I am working at the greenhouse, so I'm going to be a crazy busy woman until school get's out. On the plus side, I bought a couple cute biodegradable pots and some pansies. I didn't think I liked pansies, but they have grown on me. Once everything starts to bloom I'm going to be so happy there I think.

Also, my DNA card was recently featured in Que Interesante! Take a look!

Mar. 4

I seem to always be finding embroidery inspiration. Here are some of my recent favorites!

Source HERE

Source HERE

Source HERE

Source HERE

Feb. 14

Jan. 9

Okay, so I lied. I do want to make a resolution this year. I have been collecting books when I find them cheap that I really should read, and I have pure intentions to read them soon but that just doesn't ever seem to work. I reach for a book I know I like instead of reading a new one. So as of right now, I am only going to read books I haven't read before. Or at least make it a ratio of 5:1.

Some books on my list in no particular order:
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Plainsong - Kent Haruf
Collections of Roald Dahl short stories
We Were the Mulvaneys - Joyce Carol Oates
Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors - Carl Sagan
I Am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe
Lucky - Alice Sebold
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
Winsburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson

And those are even just books that I have on my shelves! Here are some I need to get from the library.
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Eating Animals - Johnathan Safron Foer
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan
I also want to read a few books from the Extended Universe of Star Wars and more environmentalist/scientific non-fictions.
I should finally get around to reading the Dune series as well.

Surely this can last me a year right?

Jan. 3

I have so many updates!

I have been recently reunited with the craft of rubber stamp carving and I am loving it. I have been a bit of a stamping fool since sales for my embroidery items have died down after the holiday. I'm so excited!

Warning: This is a slightly image heavy post. 

First off, I did one of a tiny beaked toad for the Mad Scientists of Etsy December challenge and am pretty darn pleased with him. It looks like he is having a slightly disinterested conversation, so I gave him a speech bubble.

Can be found here!

I'm also quite pleased with a couple more geeky ones: Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars and Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Find it here!

Find it here!

A couple more geeky cards are of DNA strands and the Moon!

Find it here!

Find it here!

And the last two are cute little kitties based off of cats I know. I would really like to make more stamps based off of actual cats in my life. These are Tristan and Felicity, two kitties of a friend.

Found here!

Find it here!

It's been a long day taking pictures and doing stuff on the computer, so I think I'm going to call it for now and eat some of my turkey noodle soup. Some Star Wars could definitely be in order as well. I want to do a lot more Star Wars and MST3K stamps... possibly Star Trek as well. I've also gotten some more ideas for science related stamps. I love being geeky!

If you have an idea of something YOU would like to see in stamp form, let me know!

Nov. 29

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, the long weekend has spoiled me I think, I don't want to go back to school tomorrow. Yesterday my mom and I shared a booth at the Holiday Bazaar in Perry and though it was slow (what timing for a KU game!) I had a good time. A friend in the next booth over suggested I join the Lawrence Art Guild and I think it would be a really good idea! Students get a discount and I would also get a discount at the Lawrence Art in the Park show in the spring... it would mean that I will have to find a way to make ceramics over next semester however, so I may have to explore options or possibly take it at JCCC again next semester. That would be a lot of hours though which I'm not sure if I am okay with. It would be super exciting to be in a bigger show and sell some pottery though!

In researching vintage Christmas ornaments, I came across these little guys and though there aren't any pictures of them in a tree, I can just imagine how lovely they would look on one. I may have to explore that if I ever have a tree of my own, just maybe sans the shinyness...

 

Nov. 22

Hi all, I just wanted to update a bit on some of the treasuries my shop, Two Hungry Blackbirds, has been in lately!

Weekend Browsing by ReyesRobledo

Nordic Dream by ElleMeredith

Ornamentation by littleaxe

And lastly, this one is actually linking to my other site, Spottedsushi, it's absolutely adorable though. Her shop is cute as can be as well.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by amyawalters

Check them out!

Oct. 13

Last week I was walking around downtown and saw that a used bookstore that I've been eying (that has previously been closed whenever I've been around) was open. This place was so full of books that I could barely even get around the owner to go down the narrow row between the shelves and almost all of them were vintage. I worked my way around the whole place and walked out with a sewing book from 1943, one of my favorite fashion periods!

The inside is full of great techniques on how to restyle older dresses and mending, not to mention a huge variety of examples of details and necklines and other elements.

I have to admit, the only neckline I really like here is the scalloped one on the model.

I may have to make one or two hats as well!

I like the little cape idea in the top lefthand corner of this one especially.

I don't have school for the next couple of days, so I'll be sure to get some sewing done, then this weekend I have a birthday shindig for a friend in Kansas City and I'm going to a Sufjan Stevens concert! So excited.

Oct. 10

I've been trying to rearrange my room this weekend in hopes of clearing a wall for the sake of taking pictures. I've ended up moving my dresser, a bookcase, and my bed, and got the wall across from the window clear, but now my room is a mess! At least I now know what I'm doing tomorrow night. I was able to take a bunch of pictures this afternoon of a new batch of sewing patterns to put up on my Etsy, so I'll have to get to that here this week.

Today Hancocks was having a pretty good sale, so I hopped over there to check it out and came back with the apron fabric for my Sound of Music dress (blogged about here) and a couple solids that I'm in dire need of. I've found that when I buy fabric I only seem to buy prints, and that is not always a good thing. There have been a few things that I've wanted to try but I couldn't without a contrasting solid fabric. They also had Simplicity patterns for a dollar apiece, so I got a few of those. I'm really excited about a few of them.

I'm loving these Cynthia Rowley ones... I've been seeing that skirt on the top for months now and I think it looks great every time, the waistband detail is lovely. This second one must be new because I haven't seen it anywhere. I think I'd probably make the version A with the shoulders or maybe no shoulders at all for a summer dress. I haven't ever really made anything with long sleeves, so that version might be good to try as well.

I got this one almost purely for the peplum. You can't see it well in the picture I'm afraid. I've been itching to make a dress with one for a while now. This fits the bill of being more fitted than most of my other dresses as well. Almost all of my dresses and skirts are full or shapeless which I don't think works as well for winter as it does for warm weather. I have a few patterns for pencil skirts and simple A-lines, so hopefully that can be averted this season.

Sept. 27

I don't know if it is because it's getting around Oktoberfest or if I'm just feeling rather romantic at the moment, but I have been dreaming of dirndls this week. Tonight I had a really strong desire to watch the Sound of Music mostly due to the costumes I think. I fell in love with two dresses in particular...

The Baronesses! It's a lovely polka dotted/pink combo which usually doesn't do anything for me, but the cut of the top is killer. The silk looks so dreamy and luxurious!

And of course, Maria's dress in the opening sequence..

Isn't she so beautiful? This is kind of an idyllic picture for me.

I adore it! the stripes and the bodice... I was reminded instantly of the 1912 Kimono pattern from Sensibility Patterns and I'm certain that it could be used to make this dress.

I would have to make the skirt a bit fuller, but that would be it; I'd rather have 3/4 sleeves than full length ones anyways. I've been looking at that pattern for years but I never got it because of the price. My roommate convinced me to go ahead and splurge a little though, since I usually spend so little on patterns when they are on sale at the big fabric stores it evens out. That's my rational anyways.

I'm thinking Halloween if I get the pattern in time... I'm super excited. It figures that I didn't even post any dirndls!