Dresses In Progress

Busy, busy, busy getting ready for the 30th Annual Old Town Arts and Crafts Festival and Volunteer Fair on June 5th and 6th, 2010. These are the skirts of some dresses in progress.

Taste of Arlington 2010

Atalie inserts herself into the Yellin' Moon display at the Taste of Arlington Festival May 15, 2010.

Basement Project #1 Your Couch, My Couch, Old Couch, New Couch

My basement perplexes me. It is our entertainment room, playroom and guestroom. So my problem? How to make it comfortable and fun without throwing all of my old furniture out on the curb.

Project #1, Reupholster the couch. The couch was given to me by some friends and was looking pretty sorry. I wanted a new couch, but was nervous about getting it out and also knew that it was destined for the landfill if I pitched it. I looked for a while on Craigslist and found some good stuff but still worried about all of the lifting. Out of curiosity, I also looked at upholstery how-tos on You Tube. At about the same time I visited G-Street and noticed a great stash of cast-off Juicy terry knit prints for $2.97 a yard. I bought 15 yards and shortly after that my husband went out of town for the week. 20 work hours and three blisters later, this couch is the result.

The hardest parts in order: 1) Tearing out all of the staples 2) Using a light duty stapler over and over and over 3) Piping for the cushions - I ended up abandoning this and remade the first cushion without piping 4) Coming downstairs and facing the mess after night number two of stripping down the couch.

So my conclusion: Couches are more like cars than a pair of jeans. They are durable, not disposable. Most are built to be reupholstered indefinitely and it is sad that so many end up in the landfill. If you have the time and inclination to do it, anybody can upholster a couch and have a high quality and individualized result. However, the time and sweat equity involved are not cheap.

Green Goal: Shirts and Sheets to Bags and Skirts

This year my New Year's resolution is to be more green - something reasonable and small, like using cloth bags every time I shop. Surprisingly, it has been a bit of a struggle. My top hurdles are #1 making sure the bags get into the shopping cart from the car, #2 making sure the bags get into the car in the first place, and #3 getting my husband to use the bags even after I hand them to him on his way out to the car. And even when I do remember, we never seem to have enough bags for our purchases, so I am working on making a strong bag out of recycled materials. That way I can have several stashed all around so that I will never be caught unprepared. It sounds so simple. But for some reason this project doesn't progress. I suppose I could adopt DC's new bag tax and put 5 cents in a jar for every bag I use, that way I could have a tangible reminder. Or better, make sewing those bags a family project so that I have a little outside pressure to produce and use them. Or maybe I should just go cold turkey and put a "no plastic" date on the calendar. At any rate, that pile of recycled fabrics that I have been saving for bags isn't just gathering dust. Today I made a very cute set of skirts from several menswear shirts I had slated for bags. I picked them and a sheet up at Goodwill for $3.

The first post

So I've been thinking about blogging for a long time, and today something was different. Maybe it was seeing my little boy perched on a bike years too old for him, shoes on the wrong feet, heading down the hill with me clinging to his shirt. He knew he could ride that bike, and he could. But he's 4, doesn't always use brakes or know his right from his left. Still, there he was, riding that 20" with handbrakes and gears and smiles and me. Look ahead! Don't watch your feet! Slow down or you will fall! Or maybe it was knowing that my husband was out running 50 miles on a trail he had never seen, because he dreamed it and did it. That simple. Sure, there was planning and training and research, but he would have boarded that plane, laced up those shoes and run even if all the lead-up hadn't been so smooth. And even when he realized that there was mud (which he didn't expect) and hills (which he did, but seemed higher halfway through the race) he still went on. So, with my two men in mind, I begin this blog to record the ways we move forward, make discoveries and push our boundaries, while we embrace the little moments, treasure what we already know and love, and stay true to who we are.