Thursday, August 6, 2009

Life in Analog

Long ago, in a place called college, I was all about the film. I sneered at digital cameras, and lugged around a delightfully sturdy old Minolta and a shiny little Colorsplash almost all the time. Those were good days, but at some point my sneering turned into curiosity, and I bought my first digital SLR: a little Canon Rebel XT, which was a pretty sweet camera in its day, and which I still use for the majority of my digital shots. But since then, I have always felt a nostalgia for my film days, when I spent hours scanning photos to upload them to my Lomography.com site, and worked in a CVS photolab to support my habit. Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, Brian and I found ourselves in an antique store in St. Joseph searching for vintage Penguin paperbacks, and there it was: a giant case of vintage cameras. I used to stop at thrift stores weekly to look for this kind of stuff, and would always ask antique dealers if they had any funny old cameras; I had a sweet Brownie Starflash, an old brick an Argus, and too many cheap plastic things to mention. Anyway, back to the present, a GIANT CASE of them, and the man who originally owned them at our disposal to tell us about them all. It was hard to pick just one, and in the end, I asked Brian if he would like one, too, (ha-ha!) and came home with the Mamiya/Sekor and the Zeiss Ikon. Anyway, the whole thing has gotten me excited about film again, (if not about the processing costs,) and I dusted off some of my old cameras and migrated my old Lomography account/home. Yay for film! I've missed you!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Charley's Quilt.

This is a little quilt for a new(ish) baby girl named Charley. Working with different palettes is kind of difficult for me, I am a huge in-rut-sticker as far as color is concerned. Anyway, the original idea was pale pink and yellow, but I seem incapable of making a quilt without some gray in it. Oh, well, I think it turns out well, it started out bigger, but then The Beloved Viking and I had a falling out concerning thread tension, and we had to whack a bit off the sides. I do love the crumplies, though!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

My Pony Only Does One Trick.

Well, this is what happens when you cut out more 3" squares that any normal person could possibly want. Tote bags out the Wazoo. I did, however, finish something that has been languishing in the to-be-finished pile for a while, and will post tomorrow when pictures have been taken. Anyway, in a cheesy advertisement, I want to remind anyone who might be interested that if you purchase one of these babies (at the low, low, price of $24! in my best Billy Mays voice) you also get a free 4"x5" "Yarn Love" print on shiny lovely metallic paper. Man, I miss Billy Mays, (and you might think less of me, but it's the truth,) more than I miss Michael Jackson. This is relevant to craft blogging, because I SAY IT IS.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Sunday Afternoon.

Sewing, sitting around with the animals, "What's the Matter with Helen?" on the weird antenna tv movie station, the husband folding clothes, vacuuming the house, and listening to baseball on the radio. Very very high rating on my afternoon enjoyability scale.

Friday, July 17, 2009

AH!


It is beautiful in Kansas City today. Sickeningly. It's sunny but cool and there's a lovely breeze and everything is really, really green. Rufus and I just took a long walk, down to our neighborhood park to run around in the giant field, and hardly broke a sweat. This morning I turned the air off and put in the window fans, and seriously, it has been bordering on CHILLY in the house. It's amazing. Everything smells good. I really have nothing much to report except that. Oh, and THANK YOU! to Jessamy and Geraldine for tagging me as a lovely blog! I will spread the tagging love around, but today it is too nice to stay in front of the computer! I'm going OUT!

(Above image not at all related. I just like it, and since lately my life has been all about 4" squares, I thought I would throw it up there.)

Friday, July 10, 2009

Process.




These are the things my hands do when making stuff.
(Yeah, I know, I have been lame lately, and only posting about tote bags which frankly, while fun to make, not exciting. But I am planning a party, and doing some freelance work, and applying for jobs, so. By the way, does anyone know if I can use a generic walking foot on the Viking? Because while I would like to buy a Husqvarna one, 100 moneys is a lot to put out for a tiny foot, and I don't want to start quilting stuff until I have one again.)

Saturday, July 4, 2009

More Patchys.


Seriously, these patch things are fun to make. I just put a new one in the shop and have two more on the way. I LOVE the fabric on the back of these, it is a really soft woven striped fabric, and it makes me think of fancy people on boats. You know, the fancy kind of boats. Yeah. Also, as a special summer bonus, I have decided to include a 4"x5" "Yarn Love" print with every tote bag!Also, Happy 4th of July! Also known around here as Brian's birthday, so we went to a Royals game, and ACTUALLY saw them win. It was amazing. Right now there are a ton of fireworks going off in our neighborhood, and Baxter has NO idea what's going on. Yay America!