Searching for the Writing Spirit...

So, today I was going through some old poetry I wrote. Back when I was younger; back when I didn't go to bed at 9:30, back when I didn't have huge bags under my eyes. Back when I was horribly, horribly depressed.

Here's where it gets personal; this is something that I often don't talk about, because I feel like it's still a very taboo subject. If you are close to me, however, then you know that I've dealt with depression for many, many years. Not the "got a case of the Monday blues," but serious, clinical depression.

Here's the thing: I have not been clinically depressed for several years now. This came about, firstly, in part, to my wonderful Mom, who, when she realized I was suffering, came to my rescue. Secondly, I got the help I needed. Thirdly, I cut out unhealthy relationships from my life and committed myself to a very healthy, loving one.

Here's the other thing, though: when I stopped being depressed, I stopped writing.

I think there's something about feeling an emotion so strongly that you need to write it down. I don't feel that anymore. So I have nothing to write down. A poem about taking out the trash and having a perfectly fine evening eating leftovers and watching CSI with your life partner is not exactly noteworthy. Not that my poetry before was that great; but it was cathartic. And, some people actually had good things to say about it.

I want to write again, but can't seem to conjour up an emotion great enough to write about. So, I'm working on that. In the spirit of finding my writing muse again, here is a part of a poem I found today that I wrote...well, I'm not exactly sure when I wrote it. But I like the sound of it.

We are glaciers of being--

Solid frozen rock submerged in a vast ocean

just barely peaking above the surface.

I am my own eternal history:

ancient skin and bones and blood

pumping just beneath the frozen tundra, and yet

I feel so alone in this frigid wasteland.

A stitch in time

So, if you're my friend on Facebook, then you've seen the many, many pictures I've posted of the T-shirt quilt I've been making. Oh, you'd like to see them again? Why sure :)

The first 6 squares.

After adding a white and black polka dotted border (with blue squares at the corners) and quilting together.

The very flowery and colorful backing!

It still isn't quite finished yet; I still have to bind the edges together. I suppose I'm rather proud of this project because it's something I've been talking about doing for years--and I actually took the time to begin and (almost) complete it! Sadly, with grad school, I can't really recall the last craft project I began and saw through to completion. Now, my mother wants me to make her a scrap quilt of my brother's and my baby clothes. I would love to do this--it would be a much treasured keepsake, I'm sure. Let's just hope that is another project I can actually finish!!

A few of my friends have asked me how to make a T-shirt quilt. Unfortunately, I did not think to take pictures while the quilt was in progress. However, stay-tuned, and I will try to put up a detailed, step-by-step tutorial of how to piece together your own T-shirt quilt :)

Refinishing Attempt: Take 1

I finally decided to try my hand at finishing furniture. This may not have been the best project for 100 degree weather, but what can I say, I'm a rebel...a very sweaty rebel, but a rebel nonetheless!

Ok, so I found this $5 drawer at Goodwill, and my parents very graciously picked up the tab. I'm not sure why I wanted it so much; there's nothing incredibly special about it. It's just a little two-drawer-table-thingy. But, for some reason, I really, really wanted it:

First, I sanded it. This was the part that had really kept me from ever trying to re-finish a piece of furniture. But, my mom said all I really needed to do with this was to "rough it up" a bit so the paint had something to stick to. Ok, I could do that; next, I applied a spray-paint primer and then slathered on some bright yellow paint:

So far, so good. I wanted it to have a bit more character, though, so I started taping off some "Chevron"-style stripes:

 Then I painted the stripes...

...then very, very carefully peeled off the masking tape...and voila!:

Next came the fun but terrifying part: distressing. I had never done this before, so I went at it like I go after everything else: ALL OUT. I attacked that 2-drawer table with sandpaper and it turned out like this:

I took the two drawers out, spray-painted them white, and tried to distress them the best I could. They seemed to be sort of distress-proof, however. Anyway, here's the final product:

I'm pretty proud of my first piece. Of course, it didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned it--I had wanted more of a "sun-shine-y" yellow than the mustard-y yellow it turned out to be--but it really inspired me to keep going and try again!

If you have experience with furniture refinishing, do you have any tips or tricks? I'd love all the help I can get!

Happy 4th, everyone :)

The Non-Sewer's Adventures with Colorful Stuffed Birds

In my quest for more bird-oriented projects, I stumbled across this cute stuffed-mobile project from Spool Sewing:

Totally adorable, right? Well, I don't have a baby, but I could definitely make something like this for ME! Luckily, Spool even offered a free pattern for the stuffed birds that you can download here.

Ok, now I'm gonna need to detour here a bit.

As we all know, I am a NON-sewer, so the instructions on the pattern were completely useless to me. The bird is in two pieces - the body and the belly. The instructions basically say to pin one piece to the other and sew together. Say...what? Pin what to what? I seriously sat staring at my two pieces of fabric for over an hour trying to figure out how to sew this damn bird. Finally, I decided to stop overthinking it and just take the instructions literally and just sew the two pieces together. Uh, yeah...

...I sewed the bird's belly to his back... Whoops.

So, anger ensued. Why would Spool offer this awesome pattern and then leave us non-sewers stranded?! Then it hit me--if I was confused, maybe someone else out there in the blog-o-sphere was, too? Or maybe, just maybe, someone wrote a step by step tutorial...? Off to Google! And, there, amidst all of the other useless links, was this one from Struggle Sews a Straight Seam. Pictures and step by step instructions for all of us without a scrap of sewing knowledge. Exit anger, enter calm and appreciation for the talented blogger who took the time to write the tutorial!

So, of course I sewed up a bunch of birds. At first I stitched a bunch of little ones:

And then a big mama one...

Bents even got one that didn't turn out!

I'm still working on trying to get them look a little better. I can't seem to get their breaks to turn out pointy enough...they sort of look like little stuffed horses with tails how they are now. And, I'm not really too sure what I'm actually going to DO with them once I have a bunch of them stitched up...grown-up mobile, perhaps??

Sleeping Beauty

In a couple of months, there is going to be a new baby girl entering the world. She is an incredibly special little girl, mainly due to the fact that both of her parents were Blinn theatre folks, and that alone can pretty much tell you how awesome they are in my book :)

So, here's my contribution to the "welcome wagon" for baby Evangeline Rose:

Yep--more birds! Hope you guys like birds, Rachel!

Trying to get a better shot from a different angle...it's hard to see the whole name in one picture!

After three days straight of stitching, re-stitching, starting over, and many pricked fingers, I showed the pillow to Aaron. Of course he gushed over it, like a good boyfriend should--and then said, "Did you double-check to make sure you spelled the name right?" My heart fell. I broke out into a cold sweat. No, no, I did NOT double check. Sweet baby Jesus. Then I looked it up, and thank you dear infant in the manger, it is indeed spelled correctly.

So get out here already, little still-cookin' baby girl! (Just kidding--not until you're ready :) ... but whenever you DO get here, I've got ya covered in the cool-hand-stitched-monogrammed-pillow department :)

And the songbirds keep singing...

I'm still on this "bird" kick. I'm obsessed with birds of all feathers...

Yellow birds:

From Vintage Green Unlimited Etsy Shop

Painted vintage birds:

From Kaboodle

Clay birds:

From the Art of Natalia Skye - Etsy Shop

Felt birds:

From Daisy Daydreams Etsy Shop

Embroidered birds:

From jennnnie's Etsy Shop

I sort of want all of these birds in my house. Maybe it's kind of fitting that I began collecting bird houses before I started in on this bird thing :)

Ciao! Happy Friday!

Rag Ruggin' Riot!

I've been wanting to make a rag rug ever since I found out what a rag rug was a few months ago. But then, I worked two jobs and usually came home wanting to pass out instead of weaving long strips of fabric into a usable rug. Alas, those days are behind me now, and today I am a free woman with plenty of time. Thus, the first attempt at rag ruggin':

The finished product; I used an old sheet (one I loved but which had a giant coffee stain on it!), an old navy blue pillowcase, and some scrap gray fabric.

I remembered to take a picture of the project at the very beginning, but this was about it...

And I had a hard time getting pictures of the rug once it was finished because Bentley thought it was HIS and wanted to bite on it/chew on it/burrow in it

...Kinda like he does when I'm trying to do laundry and he just comes and falls asleep in the middle of it. But, I digress...

I found a great video on how to start off the rag-rug making process on the Etsy blog; click here if you want to see how to make one of your own!

My rug didn't turn out as neat as I would have liked, but the process was pretty fun. If you decide to try your hand, here are a few things I learned the hard way:

1. DO NOT pull the knots too tightly because it ends up making the finished product all lumpy at the end.
2. Cut a bunch of strips of fabric before starting so you don't have to.keep.stopping.to.cut.countless.strips.uggghhhhh
3. Use cotton, if you have it. It seems all of my scraps are jersey and the jersey (because of the stretch) pulls too much--thus, the bumpy look at the end.

But, anyway you go about it, you'll have a nice, handmade piece to show off in your home. Not quite sure what I'm gonna do with mine yet...perhaps a nice food dish mat for the pups? Hmmm...we shall see :)