lining my handbag

I'm stunned. I created my first lining with a minimal amount of wonkiness and mistakes!


Of course, it's not perfect... some of my seams are crooked and I forgot to measure from where the print starts instead of the very edge of the fabric, but I did it! And it didn't take me more than a couple of hours, which is good for me.


And my labels look AWESOME in the bag! I am practically jumping up and down here, people! I know this isn't a big deal for a lot of you, but the first time you succeed is the sweetest, right?


Cross your fingers it fits when I sew it in... I think there's a lot of extra fabric in there, but I'm hoping that's just my paranoia.

truly ugly crochet...

Have you seen What Not to Crochet? It's a hilarious blog that showcases crocheted items that should probably have stayed just a skein of yarn.

It was in this vein that I decided to post my own bad crochet... this is awful. Bad color, bad shape, bad everything! I think it's too ugly to use and too ugly to frog, and I haven't even tried the flap or the strap.

I started out trying to make the cutest bag from the July/August '07 issue of Crochet Today, but decided that I needed to make it bigger and use a large hook and two strands of yarn.

That, combined with abandoning the pattern in favor of what I assumed was my own stellar idea of how to shape the bag resulted in the horrific sight you see below.

Moral of this story... making a pattern your own can be fun and rewarding, but tread with caution!

handbag

After a few false starts, I finally got going on testing the pattern for Futuregirl's Handbag. It took me a few tries to get the hang of foundation single crochet (see her site for a tutorial). I had a hard time with crocheting too tightly and my work was curling. I emailed Alice for help and she told me to make sure the "chain" part of my fsc was loose. Eureka! No more curling. Things went very smoothly from there.

I didn't intend to have just one white stripe and then the white at the top edge, that's just how it worked out. I'm not in love with it but I don't dislike it enough to rip it out! When I try making another one I'll be more mindful of color changes.

You are going to LOVE the handbag pattern! I finished it fairly quickly (for me) and now I'm ready to line it.

Alice has tutorials for that as well, plus I made fun labels to go inside with a tutorial from Patchwork Pottery.

I really enjoyed my first foray into pattern testing! This is a great bag and I'm super excited to put it to work. Thank you for letting me test, Alice!

I absolutely love how crafters are so willing to share their ideas and methods. Crafty tutorials save me from hours of confusion and frustration on a regular basis. :)

fun news!

I am so excited! I'm testing Futuregirl's new handbag pattern! I plan to blog the process and share my results.

So far I have the pattern, yarn, and a hook... wish me luck!

sigh...

I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but I didn't realize it'd been almost a month! Since my last post, I've had Spring Break (nice), been to Vegas (expensive), finished 3rd quarter report cards (time consuming), and pretty much lived at school (trying to make improvements).

Baseball season has started again, much to Hubby's delight. It'll be all baseball all the time from now until October, pretty much. Plus, with the dawn of the MLB network, we'll be watching stuff in the off season too. I NEED the off season to recuperate from the regular season! Bah.

I've spent lots of time contemplating crafty endeavors but not actually doing any work to make those contemplations a reality. I'm weird that way.

I just discovered Cameron over at the Cottage Industrialist. Is it too early to tell her I heart her stuff? Probably. Head on over for fun free printables! I've plans to print myself a set of her calling cards, if I can drag my butt upstairs to the printer. I'm so lazy sometimes, I swear.

I gave up soda for Lent. I'm counting the hours until Easter 'cause I'm gonna slurp down the biggest Diet Coke in the history of Diet Cokes. I really miss carbonation. Is that weird? Plus, I really thought I'd lose a little poundage because I've given up soda, but no dice. Grr.

28 days of school left! I had my end-of-the-year eval with my principal today. She said I had a great year! Awesome. It's always nice to hear positive things from others (who have opinions that count in high places, :) ).

i've got tickets... yay!

I just bought tickets to see Keith Urban and Sugarland!! I am so excited! Of course, it was a pain in the toot with the good old Master of Tickets, (timed out four times) but it finally went through! Now I just have to wait four months for the concert date to get here...

how many have you read?

The Big Read is an initiative sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. It is estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the 100 books listed. How many have you read?

Look at the list and color those you have read. Italicize those you plan to read, and leave the rest in regular font. Comment on those you love!

The Book List:

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling: A favorite of mine... generally I'd get it at soon as I could and read it all in one sitting.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible: I haven't read the whole thing, only parts.
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott: Loved this, and the movies too!
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot .
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh.
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery: LOVED! Read and reread the whole series and gobbled up the movies and I also watched the Avonlea tv show.
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding: Forced to read in school, really didn't like it
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi -Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola7
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web- EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams.
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl: I haven't read this one but I've read many of Roald Dahl's other books!
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

21 out of 100, not great but better than six!

an interesting meme...

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to: leave in plain font

1. Started your own blog


2. Slept under the stars


3. Played in a band


4. Visited Hawaii


5. Watched a meteor shower


6. Given more than you can afford to charity


7. Been to Disneyland


8. Climbed a mountain


9. Held a praying mantis


10. Sang a solo


11. Bungee jumped


12. Visited Paris


13. Watched a lightning storm at sea


14. Taught yourself an art from scratch


15. Adopted a child


16. Had food poisoning


17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty


18. Grown your own vegetables


19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France


20. Slept on an overnight train


21. Had a pillow fight


22. Hitch hiked


23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill


24. Held a lamb


25. Gone skinny dipping


26. Run a Marathon


27. Ridden in a gondola in Venice


28. Seen a total eclipse


29. Watched a sunrise or sunset


30. Been on a cruise


31. Seen Niagara Falls in person


32. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors


33. Seen an Amish community


34. Taught yourself a new language


35. Had enough money to be truly satisfied


36. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person


37. Gone rock climbing


38. See Michelangelo’s David


39. Sung karaoke


40. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt


41. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant


42. Visited Africa


43. Walked on a beach by moonlight


44. Been transported in an ambulance


45. Had your portrait painted


46. Gone deep sea fishing


47. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person


48. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris


49. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling


50. Kissed in the rain


51. Played in the mud


52. Gone to a drive-in theatre


53. Been in a movie


54. Visited the Great Wall of China


55. Started a business


56. Taken a martial arts class


57. Visited Russia


58. Served at a soup kitchen


59. Sold Girl Scout Cookies


60. Gone whale watching


61. Got flowers for no reason


62. Donated blood, platelets or plasma


63. Gone sky diving


64. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp


65. Bounced a check


66. Flown in a helicopter


67. Saved a favorite childhood toy


68. Visited the Lincoln Memorial


69. Eaten Caviar


70. Pieced a quilt


71. Stood in Times Square


72. Toured the Everglades


73. Been fired from a job


74. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London


75. Broken a bone.


76. Been on a speeding motorcycle


77. Seen the Grand Canyon in person


78. Published a book


79. Visited the Vatican


80. Bought a brand new car


81. Walked in Jerusalem


82. Had your picture in the newspaper


83. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve


84. Visited the White House


85. Killed and prepared an animal for eating


86. Had chickenpox


87. Saved someone’s life


88. Sat on a jury


89. Met someone famous


90. Joined a book club


91. Lost a loved one


92. Had a baby


93. Seen the Alamo in person


94. Swam in the Great Salt Lake


95. Been involved in a law suit


96. Owned a cell phone


97. Been stung by a bee

not much going on...

... life is status quo these days. No crafting time for me right now... I sorta lost my mojo, even with the cardigan.

I've been super busy at school. One more week and then I'm free! (for a week, anyway)

movies and projects

I'm watching Nights in Rodanthe right now. Can two strangers really connect mentally and physically so quickly? It seems far fetched but looks pretty authentic in the movie. At any rate, Richard Gere is pretty good looking for an old guy.

-----------------------------------

I'm going to start making this cardigan:



It's the Lacy Cropped Cardi from Crochet Today's March/April '09 issue. I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Oxford Grey. This is the most complicated pattern I've ever attempted, and my first true wearable (besides scarves). I'll post updates every so often. Wish me luck!