Massive Project Dump

Greetings, my people!!

I just finished watching the latest episode of Downton Abbey and I am emotionally drained. So, instead of attempting to be witty and smart and funny when I am in a state of despair and am feeling quite done in, I am going to do a dump of the projects I have worked on over the past month or so.

First up - The Pencil Holder. A very awesome woman in my CHEM 312 class switched lab days with me since I was unable to acquire a time-turner from the Ministry. According to the party line over there, they were all destroyed during some yearly cleaning exercise. What. Ever. Anyway, she was awesome and didn't have to switch with me and so, when someone does something nice for you, you do something nice for them. I made her a pencil holder.

I noticed the first couple of days we were in class together, she was wearing Green Bay stuff and I wanted to make her something Green Bay related. Sadly, I didn't have any of the right green, so I found this fat quarter that I had and it had green and yellow in it, so I grabbed some coordinating felt and made this pencil holder. I gave it to my classmate and she liked it. Enough so that she loaded her pencils and pens into it and put it in her backpack. Yay!


Next we have my yoga mat bag. Like a million thousand billion other people, I decided that 2013 was going to be the year I got healthier. I bought a punch card for classes at the local studio. I'm taking a willPower and grace class on Wednesday nights and yoga on Fridays. I had the mat, but wanted a way to carry it, my wallet, my towel, and my water. So, I needed a bag. I tried for a couple of days to make a cylindrical one, but getting a circle cut out for the bottom was vexing me to the point of the phrase, "NAMASTE, MY ASS!" came hurtling out of my mouth. So, I found another pattern and using more material I had sitting around, I took a half hour the morning before my class and I came up with this:

The outside is canvas and the inside is lined with yellow cotton. The strap needs to be shortened and I wish I had incorporated a pocket on the inside. But the owner of the studio liked it very much and said that if I made them, she would sell them in her shop. !!! I about passed out. I've thought of selling my stuff before, but I don't know if I can motivate myself to make things en masse. I might try for this, though. It would be awesome to sell something locally made in a locally owned and run business. 'Twould be awesome.

Thirdly, I have always wanted to paint. I have often said that, like Ariel, I would gladly give something up for the ability to paint. Well, this summer I took one of my required art classes and the professors made me paint. And I did it. I painted. And so, I've decided I'm going to do some sort of painting, mixed media, or something. This is what I've started -

The pencil sketch.

With the background painted in.

The tree painted.

I'm planning on adding color with either a cool stamping process using paint and the bottom of a plastic soda bottle or using some of my trillion buttons. If I do the buttons. I might add some texture by covering the tree with some dark brown yarn and then putting button leaves on. The next one I do will be the other half of the tree. I want to hang these in our room once we get the walls painted. I'll post new pictures when I finish them.

I have also recovered a chair cushion for an Ikea chair we bought at an estate sale, but that deserves its own post. It is really awesome and I am really proud of it. Instead, I shall show off my new jammies. But first, a bit of back story. The end of the summer brought some major upheaval in my life. It sucked, it was hard, and I really wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But one of the things that came out of it was a discovery of an inner strength that I was never aware I was in possession of. I learned - am learning - a lot about myself. I am strong. I can handle whatever gets thrown at me and come out victorious. And so, I have taken a page from Captain Hubby's comic books and started embracing my inner superhero. And so, I have been buying myself a lot of Supergirl, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman stuff. It started with underpinnings I found at Target. Now, I can't remember WHY I went searching for DC Women fabric, but the point is I did and bought some on eBay to make an ass-kicking apron. Then, while at JoAnns this past Sunday, I found another version of it that I liked just as much. So I bought two yards and made pajama pants and then, using a red t-shirt I already had, appliqued some of the scrap onto it and vye-oh-lay! New jammies to watch the SAG awards in. I came out in them and Captain Hubby got a huge grin on his face. I think he's loving seeing me in superhero stuff. Finally, he's influencing my sartorial choices.

These pajamas will kick your ass in my sleep.

Close up of the ass-kicking fabric.

And there it is. My massive project dump. Hopefully, you didn't find this post tedious and awful. I promise to be funnier and smarter and wittier next time.

So with that, I am off in search of more Downton Abbey to completely undo me. The women in this show are amazing and show great strength in their British, aristocratic way. In honor of the strong women that surround me and to inspire those that might need the words, I leave you with this anonymous quote I found.

"Sometimes the strongest women are the ones who love beyond all faults, cry behind closed doors, and fights battles that nobody knows about."

Love to you all, 
The Empress