talent

I just watched this and feel a bit inspired. Great harmonies.

Bumb Grab!

It may sound a little bit like what happens when a pregnant woman walks down the streets of New York City. Total strangers feel entitled to share in the joy of the upcoming birth and will pat the belly, or so I've been told... BUT bumpgrab.com is SO much more appealing and you don't even have to leave the comfort of your own home to enjoy. 

bumpgrap.com is a NY-based company looking to bring quality, specialized  products (aka: fun stuff for parents, babies and expecting moms) for a deal. Once it's lauched, it will work a little like Groupon. bumpgrab.com will offer a daily deal featuring products offered by participating sellers at a discount--for bumpgrab.com customers only! Who doesn't love that??

A couple of girl friends of mine are the co-founders of bumpgrab.com and are about to launch their site. To celebrate, they are offering a couple fantastic giveaways. So head on over to their blog The Grab Divas, like them on Facebook (not sure if that link will work or not), and give them some love!

One Year!

One whole year ago today I made one of the best decisions of my life! 

Happy Anniversary, Babe! 

Christmas Crafts

I think I went a little crazy on the Christmas crafts this year. What else are you supposed to do when you have minimal decorations and no budget for them? 

Our tree was decked with paper and felt and a few Ikea ornaments that I've had for a few years. Tim called it our Valentines tree because it ended up having so many hearts and a lot of red. I can't help it if I've been drawn to the heart shape since birth. Blame my parents for naming me Charity. 

Felt Mistletoe. Copied from West Elm and a fraction of the cost. 

Felt Christmas trees. DIY from Barbara at Joggles.com. I used piece of our real Douglas Fir for the bases. Tim cut and drilled them for me. 

It was definitely a handmade Christmas. I cross-stitched sibling gifts and one for my mom and Scott (mom, will you take a pic and send it to me? I forgot to snap one before I wrapped it up). 

And His & Hers stockings. I've never quilted before, so this was a little challenging. I really really wanted to do mine in a chevron pattern, so I found a tutorial and figured it out. The fabric is from Moda's Twelve Days of Christmas advent kit--I bought on eBay since it is impossible to find quilting fabric around here that isn't either outrageously priced or a minimum cut of 1 yard or both. No thank you. 

 I think I'm Christmas crafted out. I'm sure by next year come November I'll be ready to start all over again. 

Mary Poppins' Carpet Bag

 I've been wanting a new messenger bag for awhile. In DC I just used my Marmot waist pack that has an over-the-shoulder strap, but it just doesn't quite seem classy enough for el manzana grande.  One can get away with being a little more out-doorsy down there. However, this new bag needed to fit a few requirements: 1) lighter weight than leather, 2) big enough to hold commuting essentials + lunch + gym cloths when necessary, and 3) be inexpensive--I didn't want to blow a whole month's fun money on a bag. Read on for my solution.

Some day I will have a craft room where my lovelies can stay out all the time. Until then, the straight stitch lives under an extra dining room chair in the corner and the serger lives in my closet. Per the Captain's request, they can only come out while I'm working on a project and have to be put away at the end of the day, whether or not the project is finished. I have come to appreciate this rule, since I seem to always be working on a project and it is nice to see our table top every now and then.

I'm sorry I didn't start taking pictures until I was well into this project. The guy at Dayton Trimming (oh gloriousness) cut almost a full extra yard of the green webbing I chose for the strap, so I decided to stitch it down all the way around the bottom of the bag. I figure it will give extra support since the strap will not be pulling directly on the fabric this way. 

I've been looking for the right fabric for months and finally found this fabulous brocade at a new-to-me shop here in Brooklyn--Fulton Fabrics. I also purchased 2 yards of another fabric that I ended up using for one of the interior pockets and will save the rest for another idea. I purchase the contrasting fabric at Bay Ridge's only fabric store from their $.50 barrel (same place I found some fantastic red velvet that I used for our Christmas stockings). One day, I will turn my projects into DIY tutorials, but for now I'll just explain what the photos are of. 

I basically made two identical bag bodies, one for the exterior and one for the lining (though I did end up cutting the lining a bit shorter so that the exterior fabric rolls down around the edge, you can kind of see this on the photo of the zipper tail). I ironed on fusible interfacing to the lining, cut out the size pockets I wanted, ironed interfacing to those and then top stitched them in place to the lining. After I had already sewn the pockets and zipper in, which was quite a lot of fun to figure out--using a bag from Banana Republic that I've had for years as a model--I put the two bags right sides together and serged around the mouth of the bag, leaving about 8 inches unsewn so I could easily turn it right side out (see above).  

You can see the opening that is ready to be pressed and top-stitched. 

The zipper tail, which will be tucked into the bag. Don't look too close, my machine doesn't do so well with a lot of layers. it zips near the top, but I attached the strap so that the whole top folds over, making it somewhat expandable. 

A look inside. Finally, I'll have enough space to commute without having to tote multiple bags. There is one big pocket on the left and the pocket on the right is stitched into three compartments, measured to fit my phone and other necessities like my metro card and security pass for work. 

Don't judge my outfit or the dishes on the counter in the background. I'm home with a nasty sinus thing today. One productive sick day for the year gone. Now it's time for a nap.