Objects are Not As Close as They Appear

You know you get excited about a project, and you have these grand ideas for how much you'll accomplish on them?  You know that feeling when you don't accomplish that much, and it's not because of you?  Well, Rachel and I each felt this on consecutive days.

We started building Rachel's arcade machine.  But MDF is very, very very dusty, and my dad decided he didn't so much want his basement covered in microscopic glue and wood particles.  I don't blame him.  So, we have to wait for him to recover from the surgery he's having today (he's the woodworking genius), and a sunny, rain-free day that we can cut this stuff outside.  It's February in the Midwest.  That means it could be a while.  Rachel ordered the computer parts yesterday.

I finished the embroidery on my corset yesterday, and laced the whole thing up, thinking it was now wearable, if not finished.  How wrong I was!  My ribbon was too wide to fit easily through the grommets, and only one-sided.  To solve that, I folded it in half, and stitched it down.  It got a little wavy, but it was uniform enough that I didn't think it would be a problem.  In truth, it looked fine when I laced it.  The thing is, in altering the ribbon this way, I must have also shortened it by quite a bit.  A big enough bit that I am now unable to put on my corset! Now that I think about it, it was probably that I skipped grommets when I was doing the fitting, so I wouldn't have to do so much lacing and unlacing.  Gah.

I guess I will try to find the right color ribbon in the right size.  I'd rather not put white laces on my already white corset, but I may have to.  I was hoping I would get away without having to unlace that darn thing again.  Oh well.

Lessons learned.

Living Color

Color  is important.  We can see it because at some point, it helped us survive.  It affects our mood, stimulates our mind (and our appetite), warns us of danger, and tells us of health.  Plus, it makes things interesting to look at.   I have come across a lot of opportunities to choose colors recently, ones that I thought would be easier.

For our living room, we have decided, finally to go back to our original thought: grey.  Our first greys were very cold, and blue.  In a low-light, partially below-ground room, this was not nice.  It felt cold, unwelcoming.  That's not how I want my TV room!  I want it to be warm and inviting, where me, Rachel, and our guests can curl up under blankets and enjoy our evening's entertainment.  We tried a whole host of colors (a very yellow-green, orange, red, fuscia, gold), none of which were we willing to live with.  I really wanted to avoid a netural, but the color we picked still manages to be sophisticated, and not feel neutral.  I am pleased to introduce to you our palette:

Color by COLOURlovers

Vector Patterns by COLOURlovers

We fell in love with this bright, vibrant blue some time ago, and decided to use it to tie the whole house together.  We also talked about using flowers as inspiration.  The fuschia/red is from an orchid.  We have a soft spot for those. It's also great for warming up the room.  The blue and white alone would bring the stone back into cool ranges, which we want to avoid.  

Rachel also helped me pick out the accent color for my corset.  

 

The ribbon company calls it "tornado blue."  Weird.  Wrights calls the bias tape "mediterranean blue." Much more logical.  It looks very peacock blue/green, to me.  Does this call for peacock embroidered embellishments on my corset?  Absolutely!

Color Conundrum

I've been working on putting together a tutorial for the hook and needle organizer that I made, but it's rather involved!  I think I may have to refer to it whenever I make another, honestly.  In the mean time, I thought I would bring you up to speed on the corset progress.

It's got a busk, and grommets down one side.  I'm doing the rest this weekend.  The next step is trim, but here is where I have a problem.  I have no idea what I wanted it to look like!  Naturally, I thought about doing it in green.  Even went and bought this bias tape.

But I don't like it.  At least not against a sea of white.  It's too... Easter colored, or too... I don't know.  Just not good.

photo from Jo-Ann Fabrics

I asked for color suggestions, and got brown and mauve.  While both of these are nice, neither really screams me, you know?  So I'm stuck.  

I did pick up some glorious lace, though!  I decided not to go with the wide lace, mostly because I couldn't find any that I liked very well.  I got this lovely stuff.  

photo from trimplace.com

I might weave a bit of ribbon through it, but we'll see.  This lace is only about an inch, maybe 1 1/2 inches tall, but it's lovely.  So what do you think?  Which color would be best on a white corset? 

And don't forget to check out the group flickr page.

Hook and Needle Organizer

I work best when everything is tidy.  Pretty ironic, considering how much I like to clean (not at all).  Nevertheless, I seek to get organized, and endeavor to clean in spite of myself.  So what was making a mess?  Try my collection of knitting and crochet supplies; an assortment of hooks an needles which I piled (neatly!) on the floor.  So I made something to contain them, over the weekend.

It's cute, it's functional, but not the most well executed item I've ever made.  Still, I'm pleased to have a home for all my things.















It's green!  I mean, literally, and figuratively.  I had tons of fabric left over from my wedding dress, and my table runner, which all coordinated.  Not intentionally, I just apparently have pretty defined taste.  So I drew up this little beauty, a tri-fold organizer.  It ties shut with some ribbon (also remnants from the wedding).

It has a place for long, straight needles (Left), double point needles and crochet hooks (Center), and pockets for circulars (Right).

I even discovered this little trick for labeling my circulars.  I'm still working on ideas for the others.  I had planned on putting in a zippered pocket to hold stitch markers and tapestry needles, but I was getting so very tired of working on this.  I learned many things that I will put to use if I make another one of these.  I'll show you the process in the next post.