A Few Bits and Pieces

I've not been posting for the last few days but I have been fighting my ragweed allergy that turned into a huge sinus infection that bordered on bronchitous. Needless to say I've been taking a slew of drugs and trying to get some sleep... between forcing fluids and then getting rid of all those fluids. Such is life :-). To make up for it I have a bunch of things I think you may be interested in hearing about.

Steve and Barry's

I'd heard about this company on Oprah (of all places) and was intrigued by their marketing plan. The chain's stated goal is to provide reasonably priced fashionable clothing for the masses. They signed up a basketball star to design inexpensive but desireable by kids, running shoes. The shoes cost at the most $25.00 and several mothers on the Oprah show were very grateful. I had never been to one of their stores and, frankly had never seen one, but I goggled them (http://www.steveandbarrys.com/) and found several Houston locations. After driving past the mall where it is located just off I45 many times, I finally stopped in to check it out. The store is definitely fashionable in a very Gap/Old Navy kind of way.

There were very few customers but, then again, I was there at 6:00 PM on a Friday night so maybe they were all eating dinner with their families. I made a couple of purchases from the sale racks and came home with a decent pair of jeans for eight bucks, a pair of ballet flats in hot fushia for nine, a couple of shirts for twelve each, and a cute T-shirt for six. I also picked up a couple of head bands at six each, which seemed expensive to me but they fit so I should be happy. I also picked up an exra large emerald green and navy tote bag, similar to those sold by Land's End, for ten dollars.

All the clothing fit well though the jeans were made for those with saddle bags hips which I don't have as one of my figure flaws. The only real disappointment was the T-shirt as the cut was good for me but the cotton knit was really cheap.

If you see one of these stores, check them out. I can't vouch for the running shoes but my son said they were a little chunky and not cut for his feet but your kids or yourself may have better luck.

Embroidery Play

I have had a chance to play with one of the projects from the seminar I was at on Friday and Saturday of last week. I tried out the faux cut work and liked the results. Here is a photo of what we did in class:

The cream on yellow linen was preferred by the presenter but I really like the brown on yellow one. All the cut work I have, and I seem to have a lot from various relatives, is done either white on white or pale blue on white. Here is what I did with it:

As you can see I was cruising right along but ran into a problem. I needed to change my bobbin out and foolishly removed the embroidery frame and the whole design was lost. I now have an overly embellished Steve and Barry's emerald green tote with navy trim and a reminder to save designs with elaborate placements before doing something stupid. I backed the cut work with a blue patterned silky piece of fabric that I had in my stash rather than have the plain navy blue lining show through the cuts..

Anyone who has done cut work by hand knows that you do all the stitching before cutting the background. In this pattern, by Anita Goodesign, you back the pattern area with stabilizer, outline the cutwork, do the cutting then do the satin stitching. If you are going to wash the project anyway, I believe cutting can be done either way and you would get good results as any the linen ends will shrink a little into the stitching. Of course, doing it by machine is a whole lot faster than by hand.

The Red Scarf Project

I finished my contribution to the Red Scarf Project. I used a Yarn Harlot simple rib pattern (knit, knit, knit in the back, purl, continue and end on a knit 2) with a nice wool that wasn't red. After I knitted the 72 inch scarf I then died it using 4 packs of cherry Kool Aid and one pack of black cherry. It came out a little brighter than I had anticipated but I love it none the less. Again I seem to have a problem with the eveness of the dying but I actually like the result. I hope the foster kid who gets it will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. Here's a photo of the finished scarf with a ball of the original wool all on the mums outside my front door.

My Shadow

Alex continues to be my shadow. I'm not sure if its because of his natural curiosity in EVERYTHING going on or if he is just being a pest but it is kind of endearing. Right now he is settling for sitting under my desk chair as I am typing this note with my laptop on my lap. He just doesn't fit... though he has begged three times by scratching at my thigh to wiggle up here. Here is a picture from this afternoon with him inside the storm door (begging to be let out) as I took the picture of the red scarf project.