Youtube: Berets

It's so refreshing to wake up this morning and read loads of posts NOT about politics so here's my contribution.

Video about hats >>>politics




Cute pictures of animals are also acceptable anti-political posts. :)

Bird!

Some small projects

Since we finally got rid of our old kitchen table and moved my new 50s table into the kitchen, all of my sewing stuff go displaced on to the floor and in a cardboard box. Something needed to change.

So I took this floral canvas and made up a hanging organizer for my sewing things. Small light things like marking pens, seam ripper, and tailors chalk went in the top two rows.

I used the heavy canvas to make pockets for my scissors.

And the bottom two pockets hold patterns and notions for my current works in progress. They are really full right now since I have several works in progress. I'm trying to get myself down to just two!

And I also started working on my Red Riding Hood caplet. I used the same pattern for the hood and caplet from my husband's monk costume and just lengthened by six inches because that's as much as I could squeeze out of my yardage. I thought it looked great from the outside, but a bit cheap with just the wrong side of the red stretch velveteen on the inside so I dug into the stash to find a lining material.

I choose some left over black taffeta with a velvet pattern. I'm not entirely sure that the drape and stretch of the two fabrics will work well together but I also have some cheap black lining material I can use instead. Hopefully there is no fabric fail because I love the look of the black print inside the caplet. *crosses fingers* Right now they are hanging to let the bias set so we'll have to wait and see.

The birds loved the organizer fabric. They kept crawling all over it while I was trying to lay out the pockets.

I was trying to fly through making the organizer so that I could have time to put all of the stuff back in the organizer before my husband got home (instead of spread all over the floor...) so there were loads of scraps for the birds to play with. It always seems like the first step in any organization project is to make a bigger mess than you started with.

Tutorial: DYI Parakeet Activity Center

Ever since my parakeets started playing with my fabric scraps, I've wanted to make them a fabric activity center. It's a bit outside of what I usually blog about, but I'm pretty excited about it.

Supplies:

About 1/2 yd of fabric
Thread
Assorted fabric/yarn/beads etc.

 Start with your fabric and cut a nice long rectangle.

Press!

Attach your scrap toys. I have some strips of fabric with pinked edges, a flap with a button hole, some hemp...Be creative!

Pin any floppy bits out of the way so they won't get accidentally sewn into the seam.

Fold the fabric right sides together and sew along the edge using 1/2" seam allowance. Leave a couple inches open for turning.

Pink seam allowances and clip corners.

Turn, press and slip stitch opening closed.

Don't forget to remove any pins before you let your birds on it!

Now set out your play area where your keets can get to it.

I like to encourage my birds to investigate something new by putting some millet on it.

Some More Me-Made May '12

MMM'12 Day 17

Wearing History Sailor Playsuit skirt

rtw blouse

Birds!

Day 18

No photo but I wore my floral circle skirt

Day 19

No photo but I wore my 30s Pendrell

Day 20

Alas, none of these photos came out because the camera got left on a funky setting. :(  This was a refashion that I made to wear at Disney but never wore. Guess I'll have to wear it again soon!

Day 21

Sorbetto blouse

rtw jeans

Birds!

I'm totally loving the cuffed jeans and fun blouse look right now!

Leah and Rachel are settling in ok. They are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new cage. The one we original one we bought looked so much bigger on the box! The new one is like 3x the size of this one and the old one is going to be converted into a sleeping/travel cage after the new one arrives (hopefully tomorrow!).

In other news, I've not been sewing much. I took in the waistband on two skirts and did some post-weight loss adjustments on two blouses but that's about it. I have been knitting like a fiend though! This is the back of my current wip. It's very relaxing plus I can knit and babysit the birds while they explore at the same time.

MMM'12 Days 14-16 (but mostly birdies!)

So I did slack on the photos for days 14 and 15 but I did wear me made things both days.

MMM'12 Day 16

Today is an old favorite outfit from last summer. Me-made Wearing History sailor playsuit shorts with an rtw orange top and bolero. Perfect for settling in the newest members of the family.

A couple months ago, the husband and I learned that we could have fish, a hamster, or small birds in our apartments so we decided to look into getting a pet after vacation. On Monday, we decided to pop by a pet store and get an idea of how much birds cost and what kinds were available and we walked out with these two budgies (parakeets).

This one is Rachel and she's the more adventurous of the two.

And here's Leah. She's much more shy but I have a feeling she'll be a real sweetheart once she warms up to us. We named these lovely birds after the two sisters in the Bible. They both are still pretty shy as of right now but they were hand tamed in pet store before we got them so they are at least a bit used to people. I've been watching loads of budgie youtube videos and doing loads of research and it looks like they will be worth the effort to tame!