The curtains are up...

... and here's what they look like! Now, before anyone gets too critical, let me lay out my theory on sewing. I DON'T sew. My brother sews. He made my wedding dress when he was 17 years old. You just don't compete with genius like that. So most of my sewing is done on paper - you know, scrapbook layouts and cards. That kind of stuff. It's rare that I actually sew fabric, so when I do it has to be a project that:

1. Has no pattern. I don't believe in following patterns. Not for sewing, not for knitting, not for crocheting. Call me a free spirit, but I don't follow patterns.

2. Doesn't require measuring. I'm an eye-baller. I don't measure things, I just give it a good looking over and hope it fits. The curtain fits!

3. Can be sewn without pinning first. I think pinning things is a waste of time, for the most part. So when I sew I just want to line up the fabric and feed it through the machine. If I can't do that with the project at hand, chances are the project at hand will end up under foot and unfinished in a corner somewhere.

And this is why I don't sew very often. But I wanted a valance for Ellie's room, so here it is. I have a grand scheme for enhancing the window dressings, but you'll just have to wait until later to see if I actually get it done. One thing at a time....

Feeling Better...

While I'm not completely 100% today, I am feeling better. My temperature is down to 100 today and I'm not nearly so achy, so I think I'm on the mend. Woohoo! I have been taking it easy, but I haven't wanted to spend all day in bed (though I'm still in my PJs at 2:00 in the afternoon!), so that's good. I even got some crafting done today! I made curtains (a valance, really) for Ellie's room as we transition from the yellow and green nursery to a pink and green flowered toddler room!

Speaking of Ellie, she's sleeping soundly and has been since about noon. I suppose she'll be up in an hour or so. But Leif is working from home today, just in case I need help with her. I love that his job is flexible enough to allow for him to do that. Leif's brother Eric is also here today, so he's been playing with Ellie and keeping her occupied.

I'm still bummed that I won't get to see Taylor's babies today, but I will get to see them once I am better. I did get the call this morning that beautiful Etta and Evelyn are here, safe and sound, and that everyone is doing well! So congratulations, Taylor! I can't wait to see them! (But for your sake, I WILL.) =p

Okay, well, now I'm climbing back into bed to rest a little before Ellie awakens. I'll post pictures of the curtains once I get them up.

Sewing...

It doesn't seem like I've been getting very much papercrafting in lately, except for the layout I posted yesterday. The card and mini album I posted I'd done earlier (because I've had this sketch in my head, just waiting for the first Tuesday of February!) and with all the other stuff I've been doing lately I just haven't been making cards or scrapbook pages. That goes for today, too.

The downside to the recent cake fiasco* is that I didn't get all of Taylor's gift done for the shower. So I gave her half the gift, but finished making the rest of it this afternoon. Which means.... I actually used my sewing machine to SEW, not scrapbook! Woohoo! That's pretty rare in my house.

I spent the afternoon making 3 hooded towels. The first was a brown one for Ellie and test run to make sure I knew what I was doing (since I don't believe in patterns, measuring, or even using pins if I can help it...) before I started in on the baby gifts. I made the hood a little too big, so Ellie can use it to dress up like the Grim Reaper if she wants to someday, but it will work for now and I was able to adjust my design for the "real" projects of the afternoon.

The second and third towels are pink, with white lace around the hood. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They have large hoods, too. I'm pretty sure that will overwhelm the newborn babies' heads, but it will be nice when they are toddlers. The hooded towels we got when Ellie was born (the big, handmade ones, that is - not the teeny tiny store bought kind) are getting too small for us to dry her head with while she's wrapped up in them. So I made these big enough that the Taylor** twins will be able to use them for a good long time. =D

*by the way, the "reject" cake tasted really good, and I was even told it didn't look bad. I'm still glad I went with the backup cake, but I had to laugh when Leif took it to work and his coworkers said, "Wow! This is the reject cake? I wanna see the REAL cake!" Little do they know that the "real" cake came from Costco!

** for the record, that is not a typo, and neither is the reference to Taylor's shower. The mom's first name is Taylor, and she is married to a man whose last name is Taylor, thus the babies' last name is Taylor, aka the Taylor twins. Her name is not, however, Taylor Taylor, but would be if she had taken his last name.

Clutch

One of the things I taught the girls for Protocol was that you shouldn't carry a full-blown purse to a fancy event. The proper place for your purse at the dinner table is on your lap, under your napkin. Most purses are too bulky for that. Thus, the evening bag, or clutch. I realized sometime during my research for Protocol that I didn't own a clutch. I borrowed one from my mom to use as an example in class, but it didn't match my black dress. So... I dug around in my fabric scraps and found some stiff-back velvet, satin, and cording I had been given. I did a little playing on my sewing machine and... voila! A clutch. Since the material was given to me, it was basically free. It took about 30 min to make, start to finish (I probably would have spent more time than that shopping for one) and it matched my dress nicely. It's a trifold design, so it essentially has two compartments, which was sort of nice. I promised Robert I'd put up a picture, so here it is. My one-of-a-kind masterpiece.