Crafty sunday project(s)

So as you may have all figured out, I have figured out how to use and abuse the "photo right from phone to blog" feature on my camera...it's only been 2 years, but get ready for a whole new level of inconsequential blather.

This weekend I was a domestic whirling dirvish. Saturday was HN's birthday, and beknownst to me but not to him, his dad was coming down for a surprise dinner Saturday. All week long his sister and I had been planning on having an old person double date on Sunday, and HN had been saying he would just love a quiet night in with beef fondue for his actual birthday- mostly because he had so much to do on Saturday that he knew he would be tired. This statement would come back to haunt me. A few times.

Anyhow, once I got the word that his dad was coming into town, I had to tell him that his sister and her family were coming over for dinner on Sat, which of course would be cool in it's own right but see above about overwhelmed with work and tired, which led to a lot of "oh. ok. I thought it would be a quiet night in. Hmm. ok.", with me all feeling bad but trying to be positive because I knew his dad's visit would make him happy. Saturday itself consisted of us leaving the house by 9am to get started on errands (seriously, he had that many to do!) and, expecting our dinner guests around 4, at about 2 I started prodding to go home, because I knew he would want the house clean to show his dad (who was coming around for the first time since we've really settled in, and HN does love to show off his home). HN dug in his heels. He did not want to stop what he was doing and go home, and he did not really want to clean (which would have been fine actually, I would have done the cleaning but I was stuck out of the house with him). So basically the early part of his special day consisted of me nagging him to stop doing what he wanted/felt like he needed to be doing and let's go home and clean. I'm pretty sure at this point, the girlfriend of the year award I got for my awesome presents went into the trash.

Anyhow, we got home, got the house mostly cleaned and at some point HN went on strike. Angry strike. "It's my special day and I wanted to do my own thing and have a quiet dinner and you dragged me home to make me clean when I didn't really even want to have company for dinner and have I mentioned it's my special day and I'm going to go upstairs and read because when I look at you I'm a little annoyed and I don't know if I ever noticed before how pushy you can be" strike, which was pretty awesome because he's just never like that. I was at this point super psyched that his dad was coming because otherwise dinner would have been mad awkward.

His dad's showing up had the intentioned effect and he was all super and grateful and happy and we fondid dinner, which was awesome and made me wonder (as I do every time) why we don't fondue more. I also learned that 90% alcohol and 71% alcohol do very different things in fuel canisters, but all's well that ends well. The night ended with an ever so slightly tipsy HN (2 glasses of wine- woah!) passed out on the couch- mouth open and hand in pants- and me just looking around at the mess that had been our sparkling home just hours before. Satisfactory indeed.

Sunday I woke up and began to clean the party shrapnel of the night before: 1001 dirty dishes, empty wine bottles, chocolate cake crumbs and a random box of cheerios thrown into the mix at some point. Then HN departed to visit with his dad and go to Home Depot for even more birthday tools and I stayed home and decided that because I have roughly 1000 knitting projects going on, I should start sewing again.

First up, to get back in the loop of sewing I made a kitty mat. I got a new shelf from Ikea last weekend and Kitty seems to enjoy hanging out in a particular box so I thought I would welcome him officially with a little felt bad stuffed with some leftover quilt batting. Naturally he hasn't been back since, but I spiked it with catnip this morning and I expect results. You can't really see it, it's the lower left square. Mostly this picture is just about showing you how organized I am (for) now.

Also, I was right about this shelf changing my life. It is as awesome as I knew it would be!

Projects 2 and 3 were to finish up some little zipper bags that I had started way back when, for the wedding I went to where I decided to bring goody bags. I still have a few more to make, but I was psyched to get these 2 done, mostly because the material had been cut and pinned like a year ago and it was just a disgrace that they were still sitting there undone.

The pink one rules. I think I've finalized my plan for bags, other than interfacing. The other one is pretty but made from a fancy placemat so it bends a lot. Once I fill it with crap I'm sure it will work itself out.

Then it was onto the finale, which was the whole point of the exercise: Dog Jacket! I've been toying with the idea for a while, because her other jacket fits ok but is a little weird in the chest, because she is also a little weird in the chest and it wasn't made for her breed. We get by, but it's awkward at times. Also, it's not that pretty- it's blue checkered fleece and I'm tired to people calling her him, and me having to backtrack to explain that she's a girl as evidenced by the fact that she's pretty, der. That is my issue and I own it and I am not ashamed. So for dog jacket part deux I pulled out the fleece and outdoor canvas I had bought way back when I first conceived this gem and got to it. I googled, I blog surfed, I found a pattern. I discarded it and decided to freestyle.

Old Dog in Old Jacket. Not bad, but could be better.

The pic way up top is the almost end result. It needs more work in 2 ways: 1)must tailor bum a bit so it's not so "my mom made this" looking (which it hardly even is because I made straps AND they face the right way AND have velcro so they're adjustable!) and 2) I'm going to add another strap closer to her armpits. Somehow in my logic, the strap ended up around her lower belly and while I don't hate it, it's not the best place. Or at least it's not the best place if you're only doing one strap. Plus it leaves lots of her underbelly exposed, so I thought I would just add another, thicker strap around the chest which would serve to add some warmth and also to keep unsightly wrinkles from forming around her armpits. for not having a pattern and being a bit spatially challenged though I'm pretty happy with it. It's also not as warm as I thought it would be, but it's a good midweight coat and is in fact windproof which, along with being pretty, was the majorest of the goals. It's also not a coat in the traditional sense. It's more in the horse blanket/jacket style which I like because sometimes it can be a struggle to get her to stand still and get into the sleeves of a regular jacket. In my head, velcroing her in seems easier, and it's definitely more adjustable I can say that.

What I'm SUPER psyched about though is that I was so patient and undeterred throughout the whole day of sewing. I used pins, I thought about how stuff would work (and it worked like I thought it would!) and I even ripped back seams like 5 times, which is mega progress for me, because I am just not good with turning back and re-doing.