Charcoal Scarf, Home Library, and "The Office"

I've been busy lately but not doing a whole lot of crafting.  I finally managed to finish a charcoal scarf my mom requested:

It's just a basic garter stitch scarf, knit with double-stranded Lion Brand Homespun yarn on size 13 needles (the color is "Edwardian").  My mom has asked that I knit 3 more as gifts and she's even offered to pay me for them (*gasp* my first commission!).

I have also been working on our spare room, aka "the junk room" as evident in this photo:

About 70% of the junk is boxes of books and about 9/10ths of those books are mine (I have a book problem).  We would really like this room to be a library as well as a guest bedroom.  We've found some bookshelves at IKEA but it's going to be a pain to get them here from the Phoenix store.  The boxes containing the shelves are too big to fit in my truck so we'll have to rent a trailer (buying them online is out of the question - the shipping charges are more than the price of the shelves!).

With the way the room is now there would be no where to put them!  So unfortunately I have to clean it out before we can buy anything.  My first task was to drag out all the books and sort them by genre.  I made a lot of piles in our hall:

There were so many books that I decided it would be a good idea to catalog them.  To make it easier, I signed up with an online home library website called GuruLib.  I picked them over other similar websites because they're free and they have a cool feature that lets you scan in UPC codes with a webcam.  The UPC feature was really helpful though it only works on newer books and it requires a high-quality webcam.  So far I've added 642 books to my online library and I still have more to do!

The other thing that's been eating up my time is this website: dundermifflininfinity.com.  It's an online game created by NBC to promote their show, "The Office."  You play as an employee of the online company Dunder Mifflin Infinity (DMI) and you do different tasks (usually related to that week's episode) to earn fake money.  The DMI employees are divided up into different teams called "branches."  Each branch is based in a real town and is led by another employee who is called the Regional Manager. 

Well, I recently got elected as the Regional Manager of the Ypsilanti, Michigan branch.  Consequently I've been spending a lot of time on DMI.com fulfilling my managerial duties.  I'm probably taking my job too seriously (Kevin thinks so) but I can't help it when I know that other people are relying on me.  Here's me with a shirt and mug with our branch logo on it:

It's not all work though.  I've been having a lot of fun getting to know the other employees - we all love "The Office" so it's fun to geek out about it!  If you're interested in joining please drop me a line.  I'd love to have you in our branch!

Pretzel Day!

I've been craving a soft pretzel for weeks now! I've always been too afraid to attempt making them myself - having to "use yeast" and "boil dough" seemed intimidating. But last night we caught a pretzel episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network and it really didn't look all that scary. I hunted down a recipe online (from the illustrious Alton Brown, no less) and made my attempt. It wasn't as hard as I thought! Using yeast was easy (just a lot of waiting, basically) and boiling the dough wasn't any more difficult that boiling pasta. Unfortunately we couldn't find any pretzel salt to go on top so we used table salt which didn't taste quite right. I also wish that I had made them thinner so they wouldn't be as doughy in the middle. Anyway, they tasted pretty good for a first attempt and I also got to use the stand mixer I received for Christmas. Win-win!

Recovering Deleted Photos from Memory Cards

I neglected to mention in my previous post that I had a crisis when I returned home from my trip to the Arizona Renaissance Festival and tried to use Picasa (Google’s photo management software) to upload my photos. Picasa was supposed to copy the photos from my memory card, paste them into a folder on my computer, and then delete the photos from my memory card. Instead, it copied and pasted nothing, then deleted my photos anyway! Let me tell you, when I realized my photos were gone there were a few tears and a lot of yelling (aimed at my poor husband, who had the bad luck to be calling me at the time). I’m not sure whether I should place the blame on Picasa or my memory card, which every once in a while has given me a read error (but nothing that couldn’t be solved by taking the card out and putting it back in again). Regardless of who’s to blame, I know that from now on I’m not going to let Picasa automatically delete my stuff anymore!
To attempt to fix this, I first tried to get ahold of my computer-genius brother (doesn’t everyone have one?). But due to some St. Patrick’s Day partying he was not available so I resorted to Google. It took me a while to sort through all the recovery programs out there and I found that most of them weren’t free or looked untrustworthy. Finally I ran across an article in the New York Times that recommended a free downloadable program called PC Inspector Smart Recovery. It’s just for recovery from memory cards though the company, Convar, also offers other file recovery programs. I was a little worried about some of the poor English in the instructions (the company is based in Germany) but I tried it out anyway and it was able to recover all but one of my 40 photos!
I was so pleased that I then went on to see what pictures I could recover from the memory cards belonging to my husband’s camera. We lost all our photos from our Galveston, Texas honeymoon in a laptop crash over a year ago and I was hoping that some of them might still remain on the memory cards. I got lucky and did find a couple, though they were mostly blurry fish from Moody Gardens and moon rocks from NASA - unfortunately not the ones I really wanted. But they’re better than nothing!
The one key thing to keep in mind if you accidentally delete photos from a memory card is to not save any new photos on that card until you have done your recovery. With most memory cards the data from the photos is still there after you delete them. It’s only permanently gone when new data is written over the old data. So if we had tried this recovery soon after we lost our honeymoon photos we probably would’ve found more, but instead we waited until we had taken lots of new photos which overwrote the old ones. :( Oh well, I’m working on recovering the data from the crashed laptop’s hard drive so maybe I’ll get my pictures back that way!

Scottish Wench Costume - Completed

We had a fantastic time at the Arizona Renaissance Festival! I was worried that we might be the only ones in costume because I’d heard from several sources that not too many visitors dressed up. But thankfully that was not true - we saw a large number of non-employees in Renaissance garb. Here’s a shot of me in my completed Scottish wench costume:

There was some discussion as to whether it was correct for me to lace the bodice from top to bottom instead of from bottom to top (apparently the way most wenches do it). But top to bottom was the way they had it in the pattern and, anyway, I didn’t want to bother trying to re-lace it during the festival.

I added a few features to the costume to help everything stay in place. I sewed two snaps at each of the shoulders to attach the bodice straps to the shirt. This kept the weight of the shawl and buckles from pulling the straps off of my shoulders, though instead it pulled on the the shirt. To keep the waistband of the skirt from slipping below the bottom of the bodice, I sewed a hook (from a hook and eye) to the inside of the bodice near each front side seam and sewed the eyes onto the waistband of the skirt.

This shot of the back gives you a better view of the shawl. It was an quick and easy sew. The way I’m wearing it is not the way the pattern suggested - they wanted it to be worn longways, with a belt at the waist to keep the excess from dragging on the ground. It just didn’t look right that way, so I ended up wearing it shortways instead.

For the details on how I made each piece of this costume, see my previous posts: Skirt and Shirt and Bodice.

Scottish Wench Costume - Skirt and Shirt

I’m in a rush to finish my costume because we're now going to the Renaissance festival several weeks earlier than planned! I’ve completed the skirt and the shirt; I still have to make the shawl and sew the final seams on the bodice/vest. When it’s all done I’ll post a picture of the completed outfit.

Project Name: Scottish Wench Costume - skirt
Time Taken to Finish: 2 days
Pattern: Simplicity 3623
Materials Used:
-brown 100% cotton quilting fabric
-matching thread
-9 inch brown zipper
-1 hook and eye closure
Special Tools Used: Viking Platinum 755Q sewing machine
What I Did: Pretty simple, just followed the pattern. I did have to hem the bottom more than they suggested or else I would’ve ended up walking on it!
What I Liked About the Project: Very quick and not too many pieces. And I finally learned to sew on a zipper correctly!
What I Didn’t Like About the Project: Again, I had problems in fitting the skirt. The first waistband I attached to the skirt was too small and I couldn’t zip it up, but when I made a second waistband in the next size up it was too big and won’t stay at my waist. I gave up and stuck with the second waistband though I may have to cinch it up somehow to keep it in place.

Project Name: Scottish Wench Costume - shirt
Time Taken to Finish: 3 days
Pattern: Simplicity 3623
Materials Used:
-cream 100% cotton sateen fabric
-matching thread
-2 do-it-yourself fabric-covered buttons
-fusible interfacing
-seam tape (itchy stuff!)
Special Tools Used: Viking Platinum 755Q sewing machine, buttonholer attachment, buttonhole knife
What I Did: Exactly what the pattern said, except I left off the lace/ruffles at the collar and sleeves and I again hemmed a bit more on the tail than they suggested.
What I Liked About the Project: Um, it’s not too small?
What I Didn’t Like About the Project: I’m not super happy about this shirt. There is way too much excess fabric, considering I have to tuck most of it inside a vest! I’m annoyed since this shirt was DESIGNED to go under the vest I made. Look at the size of the armholes and sleeves! I think it’s going to end up looking silly when I try to cram it under a vest and everything ends up poofing out the sleeves. But since the fabric to make this shirt cost more than all my other fabric supplies put together, I feel like I have to use it. Plus I really don’t have time to research and sew a new shirt. We’ll see, maybe it won’t end up looking so bad.
Links to the Bodice and the Completed Costume

Scottish Wench Costume - Bodice

I've never been to a Renaissance festival before though I've always wanted to go. Luckily enough, I've I found out that a friend who just moved here would like to go and she already has a costume! I'm always one to take advantage of any opportunity to dress up so I jumped at the opportunity to make another costume. The first piece I've finished is the bodice/vest. In the photo I'm wearing it over my Jack Aubrey shirt but I'm planning on making a new shirt in a cream color. Right now the shoulder and side seams are just basted so that I can make sure the bodice fits over the new shirt before I sew the final seams.

Project Name: Scottish Wench Costume - bodice/vest
Time Taken to Finish: 1 week
Pattern: Simplicity 3623
Materials Used:
-olive 100% cotton quilting fabric (couldn't find any colors or textures that I liked or could afford in the garment fabrics)
-matching thread
-1/4 inch eyelets
-2 inch belt buckles (to attach a tartan shawl to the vest - that's where the Scottish part comes in!)
-brown ribbon or leather (for lacing)
-3/8 inch plastic cable ties (for boning)
-muslin (sewn to lining to hold boning)
Special Tools Used: Viking Platinum 755Q sewing machine, eyelet tool
What I Did: For the most part I followed the pattern directions. Here's where I strayed from it:
-Instead of real boning I substituted 3/8 inch plastic cable ties which can be found at home improvement stores. I found this substitution suggested many places online for people who don't have access to specialty sewing shops.
-The pattern said to sew the side and shoulder seams before putting in the eyelets and lacing but I ended up doing the reverse because there was no way to keep the bodice tight while fitting it without the lacing.
-After fitting the bodice I had to take in more at the shoulder seams than was suggested since they kept falling down, and I had to take in the back seam a bit because it kept gaping.
What I Liked About the Project: Substituting the cable ties for the boning worked out well. I think they're actually stronger than real plastic boning (which seemed flimsy when I finally found it in a store) and it's washable unlike metal boning.
What I Didn't Like About the Project: This is the kind of project that makes one see the necessity of a dressmaker's dummy or at least a competent fitting assistant! It took me two days to get the bodice properly fitted because I had trouble holding it in position and pinning it at the same time. I'm still unsatisfied with the wrinkles in the fabric on the back of the bodice but I'm not sure what's causing them. I also would like to use leather for the lacing instead of ribbon, but the leather I originally used smeared dye onto my Aubrey shirt (thankfully it came out) so I want to find some that will not make a mess.
Links to the Skirt and Shirt and the Completed Costume.

American Idol Fantasy Draft and "Who’s Getting Kicked Off?" Game

I've been watching American Idol off and on since it first aired (the off times usually due to my attempts to save money by dropping my cable). I even got my husband into it by watching the season 5 finale (with Taylor and Katharine) in the hotel during our honeymoon! Since we have quite a few friends who watch Idol too we thought it would be fun to have dinner at someone's house every week and watch it together. We watch on the last day of singing - right now that's Wednesday but soon it will switch to Tuesday. We rotate houses each week and the host provides the main part of the meal and the guests each bring a topping or side dish. For example, when we had pizza the host provided the crust and sauce and everyone else brought their favorite pizza topping.

We wanted to make things a little more exciting, so we decided to play two games. The first was an American Idol fantasy draft. It's sort of like a sports fantasy draft, except the way you win is by drafting the contestant who becomes the American Idol. Since all you do for the draft is wait and see if your contestant wins, we play another game weekly where we get points for correctly guessing who's getting kicked off that week. I set up a website where we could keep track of our results: http://ai-ptc.pbwiki.com/ (in case you're wondering, PTC refers to the place where most of us work). The site also has the game rules and a calendar. I then made a poster that I could take to each of the meetings (I've covered up our names for privacy):

There were eight teams so we each got to pick 3 American Idol contestants. I attached the contestants' pictures with spray adhesive so I could peel them off and put them in the reject column when they got kicked off. My team is Danny, Robbie, and Luke (at the lower right hand corner). I was the last person to pick so I didn't get any of my top choices and I got stuck with Luke since no one else wanted him. Happily, he somehow managed to survive the first cut so maybe he'll do better this week!

If you want to play these games yourself, here are the rules (pulled from our website):

1. The Fantasy Draft

A fantasy draft will be held after the final 24 contestants have been announced. Each person participating will draw a number which will determine the draft order. To make it as fair as possible it will be a snake or serpentine draft. This means the draft order will go like this: Round 1 - 1,2,3,4. Round 2 - 4,3,2,1. Round 3 - 1,2,3,4 etc. Each person will get to draft one AI contestant per round, and no contestant may be used more than once. Once all the contestants have been drafted, the moderator will arrange a chart so that the contestants' progress can be tracked over the course of the season. No trading is allowed. The winner of this competition will be the person who drafted this year's American Idol.

2. "Who's Getting Kicked Off?" Game

In addition to the Fantasy Draft there will be a weekly competition to see who can guess which contestants will be in the bottom group and who will get kicked off. Each week after the performance episode, participants will be asked to give their guess as to who will be in the bottom group and of that group who will be eliminated. The winner of this competition will be the person with the most points at the end of the season. Here's how the guesses will be made and the points awarded:

Top 24-Top 16 weeks: Guess the 2 men and 2 women who will be kicked off each week. Two points for each correct guess, for a possible total of 8 points each week.

Top 12*-Top 6 weeks: Guess the contestants who will be in the bottom 3 and of those three, which one will be kicked off. One point for each correct guess for the bottom 3, two points for correctly guessing who gets kicked off. For a possible total of 5 points each week.

Top 5-Top 4 weeks: Guess the contestants who will be in the bottom 2 and of those two, which one will be kicked off. One point for each correct guess for the bottom 2, two points for correctly guessing who gets kicked off. For a possible total of 4 points each week.

Top 3-Finale weeks: Guess which contestant will be kicked off. Two points for a correct guess, for a possible total of 2 points each week.

*After the final 12 contestants have been announced each participant will be asked to guess who they think will be the American Idol winner. If that guess is correct, they will be awarded 5 additional points.

Note: This schedule is based on the way eliminations have been handled on the show in previous years. If they decide to change something this year, I guess we'll wing it!

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

My husband and love to collect rocks and minerals, so instead of buying flowers and candy for Valentine's Day we spend our money at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show! Here's a couple of things we purchased this year:

Chrysocolla with Druzy Quartz from Chile

A tiny sample of Wulfenite from the Rowley Mine in Arizona

And a couple of things we've purchased at other shows:

Wulfenite with Druzy Quartz from the Finch Mine in Arizona (my favorite wulfenite locality - doesn't it look yummy?)

Some purple Fluorite on Calcite from Illinois

This year we also purchased two fantastic prints from paintings of minerals by artist Fred Wilda. One was of rhodocrosite and the other was wulfenite. We liked them so much that we're thinking of buying one more, maybe a fluorite.

This year our mineral haul was a little disappointing as we had trouble finding specimens that we liked at a reasonable price. The satellite shows at the hotels in Tucson generally had good prices but they all seemed to have the same stuff. The best selection was probably at the Inn Suites hotel. But the biggest disappointment this year was at the main show at the convention center - the prices were RIDICULOUS! I would say that out of the hundreds of booths present there were only 4 or 5 that sold minerals at a reasonable price. For us a reasonable price would be up to $20 for a decent display sample and up to $50 for something super nice. The minimum prices at most of the mineral booths were in the $100s and some had nothing under $1000. I would understand the prices if the minerals were actually spectacular, but we saw many examples of specimens similar in quality and size to ones we had purchased elsewhere for under $20 that were selling there for over $100. Next year we may skip the convention center and spend all our time at the hotels!

Cell Phone Holder with Fleece Applique

I just finished this fleece cell phone holder that I made to match my fleece goldfish bag. Instead of outlining the details in orange as I did on the original bag, I did them in black. Right now I can't decide whether or not that's an improvement! To attach the applique I used the same technique as the elephant pillow I made a while back, except I used a straight stitch on the edges instead of satin stitch.

It's lined with plaid baby blue flannel and has a button and elastic loop for closure. I really like the flannel and I'm thinking about making another holder using the flannel as the background instead of the blue fleece. The problem with using fleece for an entire item is that after it gets used for a while it starts to pill. They do sell expensive no-pill fleece, but it's really meant for clothing and would probably be a waste to use on the things I make. Also, if I make any more of these I'll probably look into dying the elastic to match - I don't much care for plain white.

On the back I attached some strapping so that it could be attached to a belt, and I also sewed in a D-ring with a carabiner so it could be hung from a purse strap or belt loop.

Since t was a pretty quick sew, I'm thinking about trying to make some in different colors with different applique images. I'd also like to make other small items that matched them, like maybe a clutch or coin purse.

Window Seat Cushion

Not a very exciting picture, but it's the only thing I've finished lately! I helped a friend make this window seat cushion for her daughter's room. It's just a long piece of foam padding with a cover (which has an overlapping slit in the center of its underside so that it can be taken off and washed). It took about 3 hours to make and most of that time was spent carefully cutting out the pieces so it would be the right size (we didn't have enough fabric to make mistakes!). Since I always do projects by myself, it was fun getting to work with someone else for a change!