Monday, February 27, 2006pity party, pity party & yarn, yarn, beautiful yarn I'm a little bit depressed on the crafty front today. This weekend I was in a bitter battle against the sewing machine and so far, the sewing machine is winning. I wanted to make a little apron for Tino for this month's theme of Tie One On. I had my little design and everything, cut the pieces but the sewing did not go smoothly. Other than the fact that I don't know what I'm doing and I had crooked seams and some pieces were to be glued, the tension was all messed up. I read the manual, read the books, did everything they said to do: re-thread the machine, change needle, check the bobbin, change the tension of the upper thread... you get the picture... and nothing, the stitches still look wonky on one side. Tonight (if Tino permits) I will try to mess with the bobbin tension... I'm just sad because I won't be able to make the apron on time for the Tie One On deadline AND because it is really difficult for me to spend a lot of time working on something and not having it turn out the way I wanted it, I feel like I wasted some precious time. Alex always points out that I didn't waste time, I was learning, but it's still hard because I rarely get bit chunks of time to dispose of. Which makes me question whether I'm really up for this (my project for sew? I knit)  I'll still make Tino's apron... someday. OK, enough of my little pity party. Now, on with the plans for the week.The beautiful yarn on the picture, I ordered from handpainted yarns, the color's name is Pagoda, isn't it lovely? I love ordering from that place, their customer service rep, Mariana, is soooooo nice, it is truly a pleasure to deal with them. I highly recomend this place, beautiful yarn, great service, what more could you ask for? So I'm planning two experiments and one project with this yarn. I'm not going to tell you about the experiments, I will show you (I promise I will, even if they fail). And I'm going to knit myself something similar to this. I made one for my sister in law last Christmas and it looked so cool and warm, I don't have a picture but you'll have to trust me that it was cute, plus it knits in no time, so I should have a couple of things to show you before the end of the week. Wednesday, February 22, 2006something cute and something funny Above, something cute via moco loco. And this is kind of funny, via etc. Ten Top Trivia Tips about Mery!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006self-portrait tuesday All of me: my furry eye brows. I hate my furry eye brows! I am not a vain person, honestly I'm not. I feel kind of stupid admiting to this but my eyebrows really, really bother me. They are only eyebrows and can be fixed, right? but is so much more than that. Having nicely groomed eyebrows remind me of a time when I felt more in control of my life, when I had the time and money to do that kind of thing for myself on a regular basis. When I felt civilized and pretty and kept and most of all, I felt together. The furry eyebrows are a constant reminder of the frumpy person that I have become. More self-portrait tuesday bloggers here and here. Monday, February 20, 2006it doesn't look like much Last saturday I took my first quilting class ever. It was a one day class about hand quilting. I looooooved it! The lady that taught the class was very charming in a southern-old-school kind of way. There were 8 students in the class, all women but only one was about my age (the others a bit older). The teacher and some of the students started talking about quilt shows and who's had the chance to go to one etc. etc. and I was going to contribute to the conversation and tell them about the incredibly and crazy beautiful and gorgeous (I run out of adjectives in my vocabulary to describe them) quilts from the Japanese quilt show that Be*mused went to, and all of a sudden all these ladies start bashing the 'modern quilts' or 'art quilts' as some of them called them, and how it was a pity that you hardly ever see those good old geometric designs and they went on and on... so I kept my mouth shut. I don't know much about quilting and it just recently peaked my interest but I seem to be attracted to both equally (strictly geometric and more free form ones). That's a little picture of what I made. We joined two squares, and learned how to make and join the half square triangles and learned how to do the quilting itself. The very last part of the class (like the last 10 minutes) was spent on attaching the border and I was kind of bummed because that really seems like the hardest part. I have a little charm pack that I ordered from here, so I'm going to try to make a baby quilt out those patches... we'll see how it goes. Friday, February 17, 2006japanese goodness and stunned by kindness Here's the picture I promised of our little valentine's presents that Alex got for us. The two boxes are pretzels type of thingies, but how cute is the packaging?, those are for Tino. And the little notebook is mine... I was tempted to post pics of the pages because they are so adorable but I restrained muself, however if you do want to see them you can go to my flickr account [where I will post them as soon as it lets me log in...I'm not liking flickr too much right now]. On another subject, yesterday Tino and I went to the library, we always walk there (I walk, Tino rides in his stroller) because Alex takes the car to work. Anyway, it looked like it was going to rain so I had two raincoats, one to cover Tino, and one for me. When we left the library it started raining super hard, so hard that I didn't think the one raincoat was enough to protect Tino so I used mine to give him some extra coverage. So I was getting rained on, big time. After a couple of blocks this nice man stops his car, gets out and hands me an umbrella! How nice was that? I was so touched and I can't get over the fact that someone did that for another human being in this day and age. Thank you, thank you, thank you kind anonymous man!!!! You have some good karma coming your way. Tuesday, February 14, 2006my own little cupid Happy Valentine's day everybody! You are not going to believe this but this is my first time celebrating valentine's in many, many, many years. When Alex and I were dating we were never together for it, I was usually away in college and he was back home in Guatemala. Then the very first time that we were physically together we didn't really get into it, so it's been kind of a non-event for us. That is, until Tino. For some reason he makes us want to celebrate every holiday to the max. I made Alex his favorite cake (cream cheese pound cake) and I had big plans of making Tino Wee Wonderful's little kitty...yeah...but, remember? I don't know how to sew? I tried to sew it by hand but the seams were too weak. I shall persevere and once I get the hang of the sewing machine I'll give it a go again. Alex gave Tino and I some super cute things (almost as cute as this here) that I'll have to wait to show you tomorrow because of the lack of natural light to photograph. A great valentine's day was had by the whole family! *feliz dia del cariño, sort of means happy valentine's day in spanish...except cariño means something like love but is more like caring. I looked it up in the dictionary and one of the translations is affection. I don't think it translates well. Anyway, Feliz Dia del Cariño! Monday, February 13, 2006the problem with me is... That I already want to master all the skills I need to make the stuff that I want to make. Take knitting, for example, I don't even remember when I learned how to knit. I was very young and then when I picked it up later in life it was easy because I had the basic skills and I just had to build on that to be able to do stuff. But everything I want to do now I have to build from 0. I know, I know patience and practice, patience and practice. Thank you Tino for letting me practice my stitches. Sunday, February 12, 2006tino at the museum After what turned out to feel like a very looooooong week, Alex, Tino and I spent a (much needed) fun saturday morning at the Louisville Science Museum. It's a small museum but it's very cute. They have a small area where children under seven can play around in sessions of 45 minutes. From what we saw that peaked Tino's interest we decided that he'll either be A. an architect, B. a plumber, C. a driver. After the play seesion was over we walked around the museum and Tino kept on having a ball. He was having so much fun that a tantrum was had when it was time to leave. Luckily by the time we got home there was a Valentine's present in the mail for Tino from his aunt Kiki (Alex's sister)and all was well again. Wednesday, February 08, 2006a little bit off & a little bit fo Today I'm feeling a bit tired, a bit sad, a bit cold, a bit lazy, a bit off. Feeling very indulgent eating a bowl of chicken noodle soup in front of the tv while Tino naps. Also a little finished object. These socks (my very first pair) are a long overdue christmas present for somebody with an extremely discerning taste. I just hope the recipient will enjoy and wear them often. They will be on their way to Chicago tomorrow. Tuesday, February 07, 2006self-portrait tuesday Was this supposed to be easy? There it is: all of me. Those numbers have been a constant issue in my life. For a big part of it they have determined how I felt, what I did and how I related to others... to be honest they still do, although in a slightly lesser degree. I'm hoping this will be liberating. Right now is just scary. More self-portrait tuesday bloggers here and here. Monday, February 06, 2006step one: threading the sewing machine As I mentioned before I don't know how to sew and I had never, ever used a sewing machine before yesterday. It took me a good couple of hours to learn how to thread it and to try out the first few stitches. I was ecstatic when I finally got it to work but I was mentally exhausted when I stopped playing with it... as if I had been writing the most complex paper on the cultural implications of new handcrafting trends and the contemporary woman. Yes, it will take me sometime to master this skill. I joined this to keep me motivated. Friday, February 03, 2006too cute Thought I would leave you with some cuteness for the weekend. Look at these super cute stamps that we got. They are definitely too cute to mail bills (the lowest form of mail, if you ask me). Wild Thing is a personal favorite of Tino, him being a wild thing himself and all. Thursday, February 02, 2006about the name Is pronounced pee-hee-he. It's a type of duck native to Central America. I think the word is very beautiful typographically speaking ... mmmm, all those dots. Plus it reminds me of Tino. When he used to crawl, he never laid his hand flat on the ground, he always positioned it just so, like a duck. Wednesday, February 01, 2006i am sew doing it As I started this blog to keep tabs on my crafting endeavors I decided to present myself with a monthly challenge. I have big plans in my head: wonderful softies, whimsical embroidery, delightful quilts, and then comes the reality check, ehem...I really don't know how to sew. I vaguely remember some basic stitches you learn in elementary school, you remember? those stitch samplers that everybody had to make...mine always looked a bit wonky. So the time has come, the time is now (too much Markin K. Mooney latelty) I must and I will learn how to sew! So I propose that before this month is over I shall present you with a little embroidery sample. A simple one, very basic and very pretty. So please come back and check on my progress, ok? In other news: teething Tino + one nap a day = grumpy mama looking forward to: tonight's Project Runway! GO DANIEL!
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