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five idiosyncrasies

Should be five reasonable excuses for why I cannot for the life of me spell that word. Anyway, thanks Kelly for tagging me. I put Tim to the task of coming up with these because I, of course, think I’m perfectly normal. Actually we both worked on the list together and had a really difficult time. We could think of plenty of pet peeves, phobias, character flaws, but few idiosyncrasies. Here’s what I came up with.

1. I cannot throw a magazine away without going through it and tearing out all the photos and articles and ads I may ever at some point in the future find interesting. This results in a lot of piles of magazines waiting to be "gone through".

2. The moment I get in the car I need not only my window down but Tim’s too. Cross breeze! CB!

3. I never finish a drink. I’m like that kid in that movie.

4. I’m garage sale shy. I always want to go to them and then we pull up, get out of the car and halfway down the driveway I want to turn back. They’re always looking at me so expectantly and I don’t want them to watch me judging their junk. Tim always has to drag me the rest of the way.

5. This one is more my parents’ than mine. Burgers every Saturday night. For forever.

Ok, I’ll pass it along, how about Robin, Siri, Alexia, Jess and Alison. I hope none of you have caught this already.

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odd little couple

Today I’m singing the I’m lucky lucky song (and doing the dance). I’ve had some amazing trades in the past and here’s another one. I’ve long admired Jess Hutch‘s amazingly cool, soft, fuzzy knit robots and I swooned over her adorable bug for month of softies. So when I recently discovered her flickr account I added her as a contact right away. That’s where I spotted the photo she posted of her latest little guy. I freaked out! I loved everything about him so much. So I worked up some courage and begged a trade. Jess graciously agreed and I sent her Miss Lilian Bunny and she sent me not only odd fellow, but his pal odd fellow 2. Two! 2! They’re amazing. The knitter in me is so humbled in their presence. They’re beautifully made and their little faces are perfect. We’ve all become fast friends and I’ve agreed to take them on many adventures.

Here they are visiting the 1880s (via the awesome fake oil painting thrift score from last week).

Thank you so much Jess!!

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a couple of bears

Here are a couple of bears I’ve been working on this week. Debbie sent me all that great Comes Mart stuff and I wanted to send her a softie in return. I asked her bunny, kitty or bear and she chose bear and so I tweaked the bunny doll pattern to make a bear doll. Shorter ears, shorter legs, big nose… they turned out sufficiently bear-like I think. My Mom got in on the action and asked for one for her friend’s new granddaughter so there are two. Cordelia, on the left, is made of corduroy and is for Debbie and Cora, on the right, is brown flannel for baby Alicia.

Cordelia has a wool felt collar and cute pink vintage button (thanks Melissa!). I experimented with making the one-piece dress actually a two piece top and skirt. I’m excited with how it turned out. And she has a little pocket for whatnot.

Cordelia’s shoes. I’m pretty happy with them but what I really want to get is a teeny tiny hole punch so I can punch out little designs in felt. Maybe something like that is a scrapbooking gadget?

Cora’s sporting a little wool felt cameo pin that I tried to embroider a bear profile on. heh heh. Stephanie the answer to your question is because I’m a wacko. She had a big wide spot in the center of her collar to fill and the dress fabric seemed sort of victorian to me and a cameo popped into my head. It’s a pretty wonky cameo and surely this baby will chew it off in a new york minute but it was fun to make.

Cora’s little wool felt victorian button ups that actually button up.

Ok, Oscar’s up from his marathon nap. Off to the baby pool!

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Thanks Kim!

My flickr group co-admin Kim and I did a little vintage fabric swapping. I hope she’s as happy with her package as I am with mine. She sent me so much amazing stuff!

this beautiful vintage apron

pretty buttons and vintage fabric – what could be better!

I love these little prints so much. They’re so delicate and the slightly muted colors are beautiful. This is why I love vintage/antique fabric.

and Kim was so thoughtful to indulge my current obsession with folky prints

These German/Dutch/Folk prints are so appealing and comforting to me. Guess they remind me of imagery from my childhood. Not that I grew up in the Alps or anything but they remind me of my wooden music box, the wallpaper at my Grandma’s house, the illustrations of my Betsy Tacy and Tib books by Lois Lenski and my favorite christmas ornaments. I’d really love to make a quilt out of all the folk art style prints I’ve collected. Something traditional and homey as well as modern. Something equally at home in Carl Larsson’s house or a Neutra house. Maybe something with this great yellow. Need to get my sketchbook out!

Thanks Kim!!