Friday, April 5, 2013

It's Awards Season in Blogland!

And it's true, flattery WILL get you, well....a lot!  (at least from me)

Alisa at Dragonfly Designs has shared the Inspired Blogger Award with us for the Kraken Bustle.


Which is inspiring to ME since I spend two hours on it with very little visible progress last night.  I'm really getting close to a visible breakthrough.  Fingers crossed.  Tentacles are being prepared.  EL wire being considered.

There are some rules for this award.  I must:
1 - Display the award and link back the the person who nominated you
2 - State 7 facts about yourself
3 - Nominate 15 bloggers for the award
4 - Notify the winners

Seven Things - remarkably more difficult that I thought it would be

  1. The sheer amount of fun I'm having sewing and making things, not to mention blogging about it, has really surprised me.  I didn't expect to fall so deeply in love with making stuff.
  2. I'm hoping to retire soon and devote my life to doing all the things I wanted to do when I was younger and haven't got around to yet.  Like writing, gardening, designing clothes, sleeping in, having bees, photography and baking bread.  I used to want goats, but it's just too much work.
  3. I'm a born rule-breaker (skeptic/scientist).  This has caused me a LOT of grief but I'm still proud of it.
  4. (running out of ideas)  I am a 'citizen scientist' for the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association.
  5. (struggling) I used to jump horses.  Then I got hurt too often and quit.
  6. (help!)  I studied molecular biology in college but wanted to study oceanology.
  7. (desperation) I played in a surf punk band in the '70s.  
Robin can add 7 things too, except that she's sick AND at work, and busy as anything right now.

15 blogs... well, I'm not sure I regularly read 15 blogs.  And many of the blogs I read, I never comment on.  So they might be a wee bit surprised when I do.  I'm taking some discretion here.  I'm posting the one's I can think of right now and I'll be back with more.  Also, I want Robin to chime in.  These are in no particular order.


  1. Disparate Disciplines - Sewing blog  Mari is a fun writer to read, and she is FEARLESS.
  2. Disparate Disciplines Sewing Patterns  it's only a little bit of a cheat.  Mari is starting her own pattern company and has some great ideas.  I don't sew for every day, but I'd like to start trying.  I'd like to be this brave too.
  3. Three Dresses  Leila is another fearless and fun sewing MACHINE.  She cranks out tons of stuff and focuses on fit and fun.  I met her thru the 1912 project and we moved on to discussing fitting our chests.  Because it's not easy.  She takes ideas and clarifies them (at least for me).
  4. Historical Sewing  This lady is a born teacher and really talented.
  5. RetroRack  Gail Carriger's clothing blog.  I don't always agree with her, and we don't have the same aesthetic, but she posts some darned fine pictures.  Also, she's fun, funny, and makes the most egregiousness spelling errors!  (for a writer) 
  6. Domestic News  Becky Gladstone is another 1912 project acquaintance, and she has inspired me to be more accurate and deliberate. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is.  She's a genuine renaissance woman.
Lisa is taking a break now.  She is at work and can no longer ignore this fact.  She and Robin will be back with more blog links.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Kraken and Jacket - moving slowly forward - L

 The kraken so far...
You can barely see the plasma balls in the eye casing.  I will need to trim that back.  The gluing on the body is going slowly.  Once it is done I can add more rivets.  Then I have to add tentacles and hook it all together...  AND once that's done, I have to attach it to ME.  There are little tiny hinges on the eye casing.  The 'eyes' are now removable for battery replacement.

And I'm nearly done with my jacket.  Just need to sew on the sleeves and add buttons and buttonholes.  The pictures are different exposures.  The dark picture is a bit more realistic, but the light pictures highlights the detail.

And I suddenly found myself in charge of costumes for a kids play.   Hmmmmm