New tricks

Maggie in a bucket on the first sunny day in weeks

Remember number 3?  This little jobby: "learn to sew, even a little?"  Well, check.  I spent the first sunny Saturday in six weeks in a strange industrial building learning how to wind a bobbin and sew a French hem.  It was just me and one 2o-something hipster boy in an ironic t-shirt who barely spoke except to say he wanted to learn to sew so he could alter his thrift store clothes.  Oh, 20-something hipster boys, how it warms my heart to learn that some things never change.  And here I thought all San Franciscans were now driving minivans and discussing pediatricians or how, on second thought, maybe Botox isn't so bad.  But, no, many are still buying clothes by the pound at Thrift Town and fashioning bedrooms out of hallways with nothing more than an Indian tapestry.

But back to sewing.  Here's the thing: it's fun and I made a nice little drawstring bag, but now I'm scared it requires a knack for spacial relations that I genetically lack. Also, there was some nerve racking adding of fractions.  Still I plan to persevere.  I'm even planning on making everyone I know beautiful cloth napkins.  Squares, I can handle.   I think.

My mother-in-law just made this outfit for Maggie.  Cute, right?

A thing I like

Craft Haven Collective, where I took my class in San Francisco. Not only do they teach sewing to hipsters and anxious 39-year-olds, they also teach sewing and entrepreneurial skills to at-risk girls through Turning Heads.  Pretty cool, huh?  If you want to learn to sew, you should take a class there. Really, they are very nice.

Valentine making party

Our mess

When we were kids, my best friends, Sarah and Leah, and I used to get together with our mothers and their aunt Martha to make elaborate, Victorian, over-wrought Valentine's Day cards.  Someone—I think it was Sarah and Leah's late mom, Hannah—invented a technique for creating these big, stuffed fabric hearts that protruded like sentimental little pot bellies from the front of our construction paper and doily creations. 

The originals: Leah, Sarah, and Martha

We made dozens (collectively, hundreds) of them over the course of many years for many different people: boyfriends long gone, parents deceased, friends whose names we've since forgotten.  And here we still are, surrounded by rubber stamps and old magazines and bits of ribbon and scraps of fabric, making valentines.  This time with our own kids.  We don't do it every year, but yesterday we did it big.   Its kind of like our modern-suburban version of a sewing circle.  Or at least it's as close as I come to that sort of thing.

Maggie, grandma, and Georgia making valentines

A snippet from the party:

OLIVER (holding up yet another stale conversation heart): Mommy, can I eat this?

ME: No, honey, you've already had enough and that one has glue all over it.

OLIVER: No, I already licked it all off. 

Some of our handiwork.  Cute, huh?

A thing I like

This photo by Christian Chaize of a beach in Portugal.  I love the colors.  I love the composition.  I love the vibe.  You can buy a print at Jen Bekmans' 20x200 gallery here.  I would, but I'm still not buying anything.  So do it for me.  I can live vicariously.

A mostly handmade Christmas (with one Barbie)

I sort of made a vow to myself not to do anymore shopping-inspired posts (there are enough other people doing a better, more consistent job of it—check out Bliss—and it's just not really my thing) but I went a little crazy on Etsy today and instead of making me feel all dirty and rotten like most shopping does (think weirdo, subversive secret trips to Target), this made me feel clean and smart and well made.  So much so that I've decided to try to have a completely handmade Christmas (when I am not buying books, which, as everyone knows, are the best gifts of all). 

Here are just a few of my finds today:

These baby leg warmers

This felt play food

These strawberry booties

Next I am going to make a Six-Word Memoir t-shirt with Smith Magazine and Spreadshirt.  I think it's going to say "I started blogging this year too." Not exactly handmade, but cool just the same.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure I have to admit that I had already made a few non-book, non-handmade purchases before my vow.  If I could undo that "Baby Doctor Barbie" and those Matchbox cars, I would.  Believe me.