I also received a sewing machine! I have absolutely no idea what to do with it and the book my mom got me to accompany it is only making me more confused. Tomorrow or Friday I will pull it out and play with it. If worse comes to worse I'll just have to visit my mom more so she can teach me.
Of course the best part of the holidays is giving. I told you back in November about painting pottery at Marcy's Clayground. Behold below the wonders I created. And by create, I mean paint.
First is a dragon for my mother-in-law. It's much cooler in person because the green paints have little flecks and makes him look kind of warty. It turned out better than I'd hoped. When I went in to pick it up, I told the salesperson I was there to pick up a dragon thinking 'how many dragons could there be'. Roughly around ten, most of them with obvious child painting on it (one red wing, one purple wing, etc). Anyway, MiL liked it and that is what counts.
Next is a water bowl for TooTall's cat, Pedro. I was going to do stripes but realized that would take skill to get tape to make stripes on the bowl surface, so just used round sponges instead. The dark spots were supposed to be gray, I guess I added to many layers. TooTall looked at me like I was nuts when he opened it....
And finally a water bowl for my sister T's cat, Baby. The background was supposed to be a little more pink and the white flowers were supposed to stand out more. She hasn't opened it yet, but I don't think she reads this so I should be ok posting it.
Also, my New Year's Resolutions:
1) Learn to sew
2) Learn to knit (found a great website with video for this and there will be a class at the library)
3) I forget....
4) Write things down so I don't forget
5) The usual jazz about eating better and exercising
6) Read more non-fiction
3 comments:
Very impressive painting! I love the paint-your-own pottery places, but learning to pick paint colors based on what is on the sample tile and NOT the color of the paint is something I haven't quite gotten good at yet.
Sewing is fun if you don't put too much pressure on yourself. If you're seriously a novice, I'd recommend something easy like a quilt. What's that? Laughing? No, seriously, a quilt. A SMALL quilt. Is that better?
The majority of quilts are straight lines with the same stitch setting and seam allowances all the way through, with all of the work being the cutting which is based on geometry so that should be a total cakewalk for you. Now, something like a skirt or some pajama pants...yikes! Topstitching, different seam allowances and LOTS of curves. Takes some practice and lots of do-overs and very quickly turns into not-so-much-fun.
I have a million and four quilting books and can recommend some easy patterns that you may like. You can see a few of my recent ones at my quilting blog http://piecexpiece.blogspot.com
Love your pottery! I would love to make one of those for Barkley sometime. The poor guy is drinking out of tupperware, the crappy disposable kind.
You have your work cut out for you this year on your goals. Good luck! I love non-fiction, let me know about any good books you come across.
Mandy
Julie - I like the suggestion about the quilt! When I get going with things I'll let you know and ask for suggestions.
Dandy - next time you get to visit for an afternoon we should go painting, it would be a blast! and barkley plainly deserves a new bowl :)
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