Thursday, February 03, 2011

so far this week...

~ i bought a product called "hobby skum," which in and of itself, i never thought i would do...not imagining that scum could ever be a hobby. but with it, i made this little mattress to make sabin's built-in bench more comfy:

bench for watching t.v. in sabin's room
it has storage underneath (which isn't quite finished yet)

~ i finally got enough of those little styrofoam bead thingies to fill the handmade fat boy beanbag chair for sabin's new room. you need WAY more of them than you think you do. so many, in fact, that i maybe should just have bought her a real fat boy. she's always got it out in the living room, tho', as you can see here:

iPhone AND iPad in action.
super cheerful blue fabric from Ikea
i got these fabulous new cheery postcards from syko on etsy. you may know her from her scandinavian stitches book.  a little late afternoon sunshine broke through onto them, just as i took this photograph. i'm all about brightening up my environment these days in an attempt to make spring come faster.


i began to read an article that i thought was about the fashion culture of holy warriors, but which turned out to be about how they dare to be suicide bombers. and here, i thought leave it to the danes to want to discuss jihadist fashion during copenhagen fashion week. the misunderstanding arose from misreading the danish modkulture as modekultur for the linguists among you.  it actually was a very interesting article about a woman named ann-sophie hemmingsen who recently finished her Ph.D. on the attractions of jihadism in which she investigated the reasons that young muslims raised in the west turn to extremist branches of islam and are willing to give up their lives for the cause. turns out it's not out of any burning religiosity, but more about finding a group with a strong identity, being part of a counter culture and feeling like they belong. hmm. sounds pretty human to want those things.

~ i spent a good number of hours today without electricity, since a nice electrician was here, changing out our 1940s switchbox for a modern one with fuses and everything. i thought i would be paralyzed if i couldn't use the internet or the sewing machine, but you know what? i was just fine. and had plenty to do.

~ i marveled once again at the superiority of the british when it comes to crime shows. last night, it was a new one i hadn't seen before: criminal inspector banks. just excellent - strong, complex characters and a great story. no dazzling camera tricks and no one was wearing prada.

~ i found husband's growing stash of screws and nails. and let me tell you, i clearly do not yet have enough fabric.


~ speaking of fabric, i had a strange conversation with my mother in which she did not understand my fabric stash. she, the queen of stashing in general (jello or cake mixes, anyone?), claimed she had never bought fabric for which she didn't already have a project in mind. i was incredulous to say the least. and i refused to send my half yard of robert kaufman metro cafe mixers, even tho' she was going to sew something for me. happily, i found an etsy shop with some left and had it sent to mom so i didn't have to part with mine.

~ i learned listening to the radio that our DNA is 4% neanderthal. that explains so much.

what have you learned this week?

9 comments:

Maria-Thérèse ~ www.afiori.com said...

Such cute stuff!! Hobby scum or not, adorable furniture! And what super neat fabric storage you have.

Elizabeth said...

You have such a lovely, colourful stash. What did I learn this week? I learned to make paint of my own dye.

MissBuckle said...

So jealous of your stash. And I love all the colours. I have made that fat-boy fabric as a tablecloth :-)

I have much of the same colours in my scheme. Just check out my newly made mobile: http://missbuckle.blogspot.com/2011/02/sky-high.html

And now I want to make a fatboy as well. Where did you get the little styrofoam balls?

stephanie said...

I have learned that I must write more if I expect my writing to improve. I must take more photos if I expect my skills to improve. I must embrace the fact that I don't always want to cook and that every once in a while it's perfectly OK for us to have cereal for dinner.

Great photo of Sabin. She looks like she is concentrating very hard...but looks comfy at the same time.

Lost Star said...

Jealous of your fabric stash and Sabin's Mac stuff (that fatboy and her room are pretty awesome too!)

Tracy Golightly-Garcia said...

Hello Julie

Please tell Sabin her room is lovely and I love her fatboy!! I guess you could not make me one and mail it?? :) :) I also love all your fabric.

Take-Care

Best
Tracy:)

Kelly L said...

Funny - I have learned that having both of your kids get braces at the same time can be entertaining..lol.

I love love my IPAD..

Love to you
Kelly
I've Become My Mother

Joanna Jenkins said...

Sabin's room looks great and the fabric selections are wonderful. As for sharing fabric, um, I don't think so. Not even for Mom :-)
Cheers, jj

mrs mediocrity said...

i get the stash thing, i buy ribbon and then never use it. beads i cannot part with, and before sewing made me swear uncontrollably, fabric i never used.
i'm still trying to remember what/if i learned... blank on that one.