1 year, 3 months and 20 days

I hadn’t wanted it to end like this, with me issuing excuses and apologies. It would have been preferable to have gone out in a blaze of glory, announcing that I had a quilt accepted into the Sisters’ Quilt show (http://www.sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org/ ), or was appearing on Martha to discuss storage options for Tupperware. But regretfully I will have to simply say farewell.

That’s right, I’m hanging up my blogger hat. Not for lack of ideas, believe it or not; there are still plenty more craft/home/organization adventures I would love to share with my few – but dedicated! – readers. But the time has come to say adios.

And therefore, the title of this post shall serve as its epitaph, even though it is not as heartwarming as, say, “Billy – Loved and Was Loved” or “Patches- A Fun and Great Cat,” and not as funny as this goodbye.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiBxDk3dWYA

A few final tried-and-true cliches: It was fun while it lasted! Every vote is sacred! We’re in the business of winning!Thanks for the memories!

Bye.

P.S. Can’t imagine cyberspace without me? Don’t worry, my Etsy shop will still be open  http://www.etsy.com/shop/ElonaLandau as will my Yoga website http://yogawithelona.com/ . I know, what a relief.

Big Couch, Big Project

I have been wanting a new couch in our living room for many moons. Unfortunately, the sectional I have fixated upon is well out of our price range (especially since we don’t even really have a price range). Well, since you asked, it is this one, in leather:
http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=3303&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuSubcategory=201195

Not happening. So, I trolled good ol’ Craig’s list, and found a “mid century” beauty, but there were 2 catches: 1. it smelled like smoke and 2. there were no seat cushions.

No problem, I thought. We’re going to recover the whole thing, and we’ll add seat cushions when we do. We went and picked it up, paid $100 cash, and were on our way.

Or were we?

I have never done a major upholstery project before. Chairs, sure. But a whole couch? Yikes. The more research I did, the more foolhardy this project appeared. It turns out, upholstering a couch requires quite a bit of knowledge, and just as important, patience. I am short on both.

Plan B: clean the couch to remove the smoke smell and make cushions in a coordinating fabric. Hooray, we were back on our way.

I first used some spray on/vacuum off foaming upholstery cleaner. It did not clean it, but rather just made it have a febreeze-y, smoky kind of smell. After some googling, I learned that I should be using carpet cleaner. So we bought it at the Depot and gave it a try. Here’s what it looked like on the couch:

And here it is being vacuumed off by my partner in this project, my patient and dear husband (who may ban me from Craig’s List after this).

It smelled better. Not perfect, but much better.

Then we had to make the cushions. As you can see, the cat thought the couch was just fine as it was:

I had bought 5″ thick foam from JoAnn using my 50% off coupon (otherwise, the foam is REALLY expensive). I “test fit” the cushions, and they were too big. Duh.

So I cut them down, using really sophisticated tools:

And ended up with smaller cushions.

I made the slip covers (sorry, no pics, I was on a roll and didn’t want to stop sewing to take pictures), had my Dear Dusband help to slip stitch them closed (and discovered that he’s very good at hand sewing):

and popped them on the couch…uh oh. Too tall! AND too long!

Bah.
I un-stitched the hand sewn closures, removed the foam, had DH cut the foam height this time down to about 3″, re-sewed the sides, re-slip-stitched the closures and now, finally, we have a couch. Oh, and I made coordinating accent pillows, too.

The cat doesn’t seem to mind this either.

Lessons learned: a couch is a big project. Smoke smells are hard to remove. DH is good at hand sewing. Dense foam is expensive. Our cat can sleep anywhere.

P.S. If someone would like to give us the sectional sofa as a gift, we’d be happy to offer this couch in exchange! Just a thought.

Not a knitter. But I keep on trying!

I want to want to knit. No, that is not a typo. I like the idea of knitting, and admire those who have crazy knitting skills. I have been putzing around with needles and yarn for a few years, but I simply don’t have the touch.

I have examined the reasons why I want to knit, and here’s a partial list:
-It is a portable craft, unlike sewing (NOTE: I know hand sewing is portable, but as you all know by now, that does not interest me)
-It opens a whole new world of potential creations
-It seems like it could be relaxing
-I always love looking at beautiful yarn
-Some of the things I have seen friends and relatives make are so lovely and I want to make those kinds of things, too

But I just don’t seem to have it. (NOTE: I suspect that “it” may simply be “patience.”)

Judge for yourself.

My first neck cozy:

A recent baby hat:

A scarf (looks like a weird caterpillar):

And, in progress, wristlets:

Perhaps after I finish the wristlets I will have a better answer for why I am not able to progress in my knitting. Any knitters in my audience who want to offer wisdom or encouragement, please feel free. Go ahead, share your knitting yarns. Naysayers, no need to needle me.

Baby Present- part 2

Yes, people keep procreating, so I keep sewing new things for them.

This time: a first baby, a girl, and I had the benefit of knowing the colors of the nursery.

I had gathered all of my fabrics and had given myself a generous 6 weeks before the due date to complete the quilt.

Of course, she was born a month early. I had to spring into action! Quick, start cutting!

Perhaps it was the time pressure, or perhaps it was that my design skills have been gathering dust on my mental shelf, but the assembly of this quilt posed significant challenges.
The fabric for the back was a jaunty polka dot with a brown background. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with traditional stars in the center of the front.

As soon as I finished the last one I knew they weren’t going to work. They were just too green, too pink and green, too traditional, too something.

So I went back to the cutting board. And I whipped up a few of these:

I liked the way they looked but they seemed a little too geometric. I thought I could soften them by intermixing a different block pattern, and so busted out with paper and colored pencils to figure it out.

I sewed a few parts and pieces…

and I played around for a while with some layouts. And still: nothing. It simply was not coming together. (NOTE: all of this sewing, cutting and laying out was broken up over several days; I have compressed the re-telling for your sake. You’re welcome.)

Finally, I realized that I should probably incorporate my inspiration (and backing) fabric. I made a few of these:

And liked them quite a bit. What on earth could go with them? I settled on these.

When I put the main blocks together, I noticed a little pinwheel motif had evolved, which would be a great design for the corners.

The layout was done, and I began to sew. What a relief to see that they did actually work; I was beginning to think my quilting mojo was gone forever.

Here is the final product:

Whew. One lesson learned: don’t rush.

Another lesson learned: the mom loved it, and I suppose I must always remember the important part of giving a quilt is that it is made with love. (Awww. A rare sentimental moment on the Elona Landau Designs blog. Don’t get used to it.)

Keep your eyes peeled for a quilt made with the “rejected” blocks from this quilt!

Baby presents

I always like to make a little something for a new baby, with my favorite project, of course, being a quilt.
(As a reminder: http://elonalandaudesigns.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/quilting-my-first-love/
I just think there is something special about having a handmade quilt made in honor of a new little person. I make my quilts to be used, not to be hung up on a wall for decoration (not that they’re that fancy anyways). As I often write in the note I enclose with the quilt, “This is meant to be used, and I hope to see holes, puke stains, and other evidence of wear and tear on it when I see it in the future!”

That said, there are times that a quilt is not the best choice, usually when it is a second or third child (and you know that the parents already have a stock pile of blankets), and particularly when I know that the family is pressed for space. (Baby quilts are not that big, but they are kind of bulky.)

So, for my friends who just had their second child, I thought I would try something different, and make a little patchwork pillow for the baby’s room. (SIDEBAR: I know, no pillows or other potential suffocation items in a baby’s crib.) I haven’t done much patchwork, and it was pretty fun! Of course, the practical side of me also wanted it to be useful, so I decided to make it into a tooth fairy pillow as well. There is a pocket under the “H”. Here’s how it came out:


You knew it had to have a ruffle, right?

I can’t just send a new baby present when I know there is an older sibling simmering with jealousy nearby. I often include an older sibling book, or a personalized cape:


This time I whipped up some beanbags:

I also jotted down a few suggestions of what to do with the beanbags:
FUN BEANBAG ACTIVITIES
-Indoor hopscotch (use masking tape to make the board)
-Bucket toss (line up empty boxes or plastic containers and assign points to each one)
-Balance games (practice walking around with the beanbags on your head, shoulder, back, etc.)
-Learn to juggle!
NOT FUN BEANBAG ACTIVITIES
-Throwing the beanbag at the baby

Then I tied them all up into neat little packages and off they went to NYC!

Next time, I may include something for the parents, too. Maybe earplugs? A bottle of scotch?

What might be right for you…

Last weekend, a friend was helping to clean up after dinner. She asked for a Tupperware container for some leftovers.
(SIDEBAR: Tupperware is in the same category as “Kleenex” and “Band Aid” where a brand name has come to represent the whole category of items. The technical term is, apparently, “proprietary eponym” which I learned when I was writing this post. For more: http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/10056/american-proprietary-eponyms/ Ah, internet.)

When I instructed my friend to look under the sink, she opened the cabinet and sighed, “Only you.”

This is what she saw:

I said, “What? The squares/rectangles go together, and their tops are underneath; same with the circles.”
Friend: “I just don’t think that way.”

This reminded me that another person made a similar comment about my plastic container storage solution. (Specifically, she had said, “That would never work for me.”)

Here’s the scoop: it doesn’t have to.

Both of these people (I love them dearly) are somewhat “organizationally challenged” and I have on some occasions inspired each of them to take steps to reduce clutter in their homes. I find it interesting that upon viewing my system, they both immediately said that it wouldn’t work for them (not that I had asked or suggested such a thing).

As I repeatedly informed clients, during the good old “Free Space: Professional Home Organization” days, the key to being organized does not rest in a certain tool, container, or the like. Any new system or tool must make sense on an intuitive level to the user or users. (NOTE: this can make it particularly challenging to solve an organization conundrum when there are multiple users, each with his or her own instincts of how things should look/be accessible/etc.)

Back to the Tupperware.

I couldn’t stand not being able to stack things together; furthermore, I was frustrated when I would look for lids. As you can see, I own quite a few plastic storage containers. It made sense to me to split them up according to shape, and then to have pull out drawers for the appropriate lids.

The space under the sink is challenging because of the reduced height and the division of space due to the drain and disposer (I almost wrote Dispose-all, another proprietary eponym). You’ll notice that I have a basket for dishtowels and rags which fits perfectly between the two storage racks. You’ll also notice that I did not straighten them up to make them picture perfect, striving instead towards honest representation. You’re welcome.

So, my friend doesn’t have to use this system at all, but I would argue that there probably is a system that would indeed work for her. Perhaps by size? Or by brand?

Do you have a clever Tupperware storage solution? Leave a comment and tell the world. Or at least the people who read my blog.

As you probably guessed, there’s a YouTube clip a-comin’, from which I lifted the title of my post. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1g6IlB8f98

A present for mom

I have a hard time buying gifts for my parents. Not because I don’t know things that they’d like, but mostly because I can’t afford to buy them things that I know they’d like.

So I was excited that my mom had mentioned that she would like a purse that she could bring to “fancier” events; a little bag, that could hold just the essentials. I knew I wanted to make it in neutral colors, but I wasn’t excited to use any of my previous purse designs.

I started sketching, and I came up with a patchwork type pattern.

I had some nice upholstery sample squares, and also some cream colored silk shantung. Great! I created some paper patterns for the pieces, and pinned them to the fabrics.

After cutting out the pieces, I made sure that it would work:

And then I started sewing them together:

Once I had assembled both the front and the back, I added interfacing so that they would be more stable. Here they are, ready to be made into a purse.

It would make sense at this point to include a picture of the finished product, right? Unfortunately, I was “behind the eight ball” and had to mail it lickety-split. (Don’t you love it when I use 2 idioms in one sentence?)

Hopefully I will get a picture with her using it and I will post it retroactively…but don’t hold your breath. The process is the interesting part anyways, right?

Summer Vacation

As you know, from the dearth of posts this summer, there wasn’t much blogging going on. But that does not mean that I was just kicking back and doing nothing! Oh no, not at all. (OK, maybe a little bit of nothing.)

At the end of the post is one of my favorite songs about summer. See if you can guess what it is before you click on the link.

We went to the coast:

We went to Crater Lake:

We held a birthday party! (At home, of course. Remember this post?: http://elonalandaudesigns.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/is-it-mean-to-give-a-child-a-frugal-birthday-party/ )
The theme was “An Italian Feast.” Here’s the menu (as created by the birthday girl):

With an appropriate table setting:

Cookies, no cake (birthday girl doesn’t like cake. Weird, huh?):

And, we went to Cape May, NJ. In Cape May, we were lucky enough to stay in this gigantic home, one of two with unobstructed views of the ocean. In order, here is the house, the second floor deck, and the view from that deck:

What does that have to do with a craft/homegoods blog? Well, I wanted to send a little thank you gift to the owner, and so I whipped up a little “fish tote” (not for toting fish).

I have heard from several eco-tote users that they wished they had pockets in their totes, so moving forward I will add pockets. Here’s the fish tote pocket:

OK, so it is not that relevant to the blog, but I did want to partially account for my time.

So what is one of my favorite summer-related songs? I think you may be surprised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_PDns23RWY

Welcome back!

I don’t have my own theme song, yet. So this one will have to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVS3WNt7yRU

Did you miss me? I have had a bunch of blog posts running around in my head (there’s plenty of room up there since it is relatively empty)…but haven’t had the time to get around to actually posting them.

What HAVE I been doing with my time? I will, over the next few posts, show and tell my various and sundry projects, but I would like to begin with the most exciting one: our backyard.

This was the year that we decided to dedicate all of our energy (and some significant $$) to sprucing up our disastrous back yard. (Front yard is next year.)

First, there was the issue of a fence which was barely standing, and frankly, was simply an eyesore. To hear more on this topic, please review my blog post from June 1, 2010. http://elonalandaudesigns.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/holiday-weekend-progress/

The next step was to create a patio, with steps to connect our deck and the lower level of the yard. Our first attempt, after days and days of digging, graveling, tamping and paver laying came out looking like a**.

We pulled up all of those pavers and though we were rather disheartened, we decided instead to go with flagstone and gravel. It turned out much better, and now we have a nice lower level of the yard (though we cannot sit there when the girls are on the swing, as you see).

The remaining big issue was what to do about the hideous “retaining” wall, and the 80+ year old Doug Fir that seemed to be affecting the integrity of said wall. After many, many, many meetings/consultations/discussions with experts and amongst ourselves, we finally decided that the tree had to go.

And, if we were going to pay the big bucks to have that tree removed, we may as well also have the annoying (and ill-placed) Mountain Ash removed, too.

Of course, in order to have the trees removed, there had to be some changes made on the deck, and also a section of the fence had to be replaced…but wow, now it looks completely different! It is really sunny (well, not the day this picture was taken, but you get the idea) and we now have a whole new area of the yard to landscape. More importantly, I am not going to worry about an 80 year old tree falling onto our house in the middle of a windstorm.

(SIDEBAR: I do not like landscaping/yardwork. So if you have any suggestions on what to plant up there that will be 1. green 2.non-invasive and 3. require absolutely no maintenance, please speak up!)

We finished just in time to (hopefully) enjoy the yard on the beautiful autumn weekends…no, wait, we’re already onto the next project: the Zen deck. Stay tuned.

Excuses, Excuses

Though it would be hard to beat this scene from The Blues Brothers…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hExIwSgD8Tc&feature=PlayList&p=8C92E8C69B580BDD&playnext=1&index=17

I do have a list of excuses for neglecting the blog. Here is what I have been doing with my time (in no particular order):
1. I have been teaching and/or preparing to teach and/or practicing yoga
2. I have both kids with me all day, every day
3. My studio is very hot, not conducive to creative sewing projects
4. The sun only shines for 3 months of the year here, and I need to absorb as much vitamin D as possible during that time (must avoid getting rickets)
5. Did I mention I have both kids with me all day, every day? (SIDEBAR: Don’t get me wrong. I love summer break, and I am truly appreciative that I get to still get summer break by virtue of my position as a stay-at-home-mom. It just means that mommy-ing becomes an all-(time)consuming event.)

In any case, I actually have sewn a few things over the last month. Mostly utilitarian sewing, including the following thrilling projects.

My older daughter’s favorite sundress was too short this year, so I added a stripe at the bottom. (SIDEBAR: why would you need the ribbon hanging straps on a little girls’ sundress? And why haven’t I just cut them off?)

In contrast, the younger daughter’s pants (hand-me-downs) needed to be shortened. Fortunately, they had a decorative detail at the bottom which allowed me to do an almost invisible modification! I folded them up and sewed the hem:

and when they were done, you couldn’t even tell they’d been shortened!

I also needed to make new counter-wiping rags. You can see the old ones were icky icky icky.

But with some new terry cloth squares and zip-zip-zip through the serger, new rags galore! (FULL DISCLOSURE: I actually only made two.)

Let’s see, what else? Oh, I had a bunch of projects I had been savingprocrastinating. Some napkins I needed to finish:

A Loop Purse I had already cut but not sewn – check that baby off the list!

And, finally, a tote made from a really cute square of fabric from the bins. I am keeping this one, it’s been great at the pool.

The good news is, I am really looking forward to getting some more sewing done, especially since I have two people for whom I am making baby quilts.

The bad news is, I will not have much more time in August than I have in the last month. So my (two) blog readers, you’ll just have to live with the dearth of posts, for a few more weeks. HANG IN THERE. I know you can make it!