Posted on 5 Comments

Fun with chalk and fabric scraps

Colored chalk

It wasn’t brutally humid today, so we spent some time outside the afternoon, dipping our feet in the pool, playing with chalk, sharing a snack mix. Neil used the chalk to write you all a warning, which I rather hope you do not heed. (Aside: did you know that you can hover your mouse over the “a warning” link over there, and the image will be displayed in a little preview box for you? You don’t have to click through unless you need to see it larger. All of the links to flickr images work that way. You can tell by the dotted red line under the links.)

*sigh*

While Neil was writing his message, Eamonn was inspired to write his own message: “Beware the gnats” is what it said. I was a bit distracted, however, by Aidan’s artwork. Thank you, Aidan, for labelling your brother’s rear end. I might not have otherwise known what it was.

Boys. Never a dull moment, eh? 😀

Poring over code

As for me, one of the things I want to fix with this new blog design is that I want the comments to work the same as they did in the old one – threaded. The problem is, I don’t like the way the plugin formats the comments, and I couldn’t get it to look nice in time to launch the site, so I just skipped it. It’s bugging me, though. I really liked the threading before. I printed out some HTML/PHP/CSS and took it outside with me this afternoon so I could try and figure it out and still enjoy the fresh air.

My feet got nicely cooled-off, but I didn’t really get anywhere with the comments. Oh, well. Not a huge deal. I have a less-than-elegant work-around in place until I get it all figured out, and now that I have a test blog, I can take as long as I want playing around. It beats doing my experiments live like I used to!

New bibs

In other news, my cousin in Montana is expecting a December baby. While she’s back home in the rest of the family’s corner of the world this week, my aunt is having a little shower-like get-together. I’m bringing bibs. They’re a wee bit wonky, but I’m going to call that “handmade charm” and not worry about it 🙂

I had signed up for Craft Leftovers this month, to see what it was like, and one of the things in the package was a fat quarter of this fruit fabric. It instantly reminded me of a table cloth the grandmother my cousin and I share had, and I decided it would be perfect in the bibs. Lucky for me I am enough of a procrastinator that I still hadn’t made the bibs, even though it was the day before I’d need them.

New bibs

I tried a little patchwork on one of them, using some scraps I still had from two different sets of cloth napkins, and the other I just made solid on both sides. I think I prefer the solid. I filled these with batting, too, so they had a little umph. I don’t usually do that, but I like the effect. And I am happy to report that I only destroyed one snap in the assembly of these bibs. I don’t usually have such a good record, but I think I finally figured out why I sometimes have so much trouble: I haven’t been careful to make sure the stitching doesn’t get in the way. Once I started paying attention to that, I had no problems at all.

Now I have to wrap things up so that I may go off and ponder the age-old question: what am I going to wear tomorrow?

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Posted on 5 Comments

5 thoughts on “Fun with chalk and fabric scraps

  1. Hey – I have the perfect bag to go with that skirt you are wearing 🙂 I get compliments on it all the time!

    As for the bibs – I think they are really cute!

    (and is the “butt” picture what I really have to look forward to with two boys? How many years apart are yours?)

    See what Jen has been blogging about: It’s a BOY (shocking!)

  2. @ Jen:

    Oh, yes, You have that to look forward to and so. much. more. **cue evil laughter**

    They’re three years apart – isn’t that what yours will be? It really is mostly sweetness, with a healthy dose of teasing and a tiny bit of really horrific behavior. Good luck 😀

  3. I think it’s the “tiny bit of really horrific behavior” that scares me! They will be 3 1/2 years apart, so hopefully they will get along 🙂

    See what Jen has been blogging about: It’s a BOY (shocking!)

  4. I love those bibs…they are cute. There is something about scrapy sewing that I love – I think that it the one I like best. It is economical, but it is charming. It says, you can’t buy me in the store. Someone special made this for me!

  5. @ Teresa:

    Thanks – I enjoy patchwork, too, although I think my own often leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not as straight as I’d like it. She was really happy to get the bibs, though, and that’s what counts 🙂

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