Suzy Q Homemaker

With no more than felt and thread, Kata Golda creates toys and practical items for the home…

via Kata Golda’ s Hand-Stitched Felt.

For the past two days, our family has been tearing the house apart looking for three things:

1. My sewing machine manual
2. The manual for the serger I’m trading for some other stuff
3. The threading diagram for said serger

The last time I saw them, they were on my sewing table, most likely near the serger.  I remember seeing them when I took a picture of the machine in order to post it for sale on Diaper Swappers.  That was quite a while ago, and the sewing room/play room has seen several shades of clean since then.  In the process of organizing the boys’ toys, my table became a catch-all for whatever the boys didn’t know what to do with.  I cleaned off the table yesterday and still didn’t find it.  I went through the bags of “trash” that they had lying around after their major cleanup on Sunday.  I looked in every conceivable and inconceivable place where these objects of interest may have ended up.

No dice.

This isn’t the first time things have mysteriously disappeared in the house, and it won’t be the last.  We often joke about having an imp in the house.  The boys are in on the joke, too, and have taken to blaming this imp for misplaced shoes and other toys that get “lost” in their room.  This imp was also blamed for the temporary disappearance of my basal thermometer, an event that lead to the birth of Simon.  The only thing that has gone permanently missing from our house was a journal that I had about six years ago.  We looked everywhere for that thing and the only trace of it was the bookmark I kept in it; the bookmark was found in a kitchen drawer where I would never have put the journal.

If I could, I would download a diagram from the great and mighty Interwebs, but after searching far and wide, no diagram was found.  The overlock machine in question is a Zoje  FN2-4D-B, which was probably used in a sweatshop somewhere.  Jamie bought it for me off of ebay a couple years ago for Christmas but I’ve never been able to use it because it’s too fast.  Not ever having a serger before, I should have specified that I wanted a more familiar brand that isn’t quite as speedy.  If you do a google search for this particular machine, my listing on diaperswappers is in the first page of the results and most other pages for it are in other languages.  It’s frustrating.

I don’t know who to blame.  My housekeeping skill need work, yes, but it’s not like we’ll end up on “Hoarders” any time soon.  My fear is that these things got accidentally thrown away in one of my husband’s neurotic cleaning fits and they’ll never be seen again.  Until then, I’m just going to have to put on my big girl panties and keep trucking.  If it’s any consolation to me, all the things that I’ve been meaning to organize will now have a proper home.

Today’s topic is “6 things you’ve made during your lifetime that you were proud of (can be a craft, a dish, . . . anything).” You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . .

I’m a crafty person, so I’ve made a lot of things in my lifetime.  Here are six of my favorites:

 

 

I love cloth diapering.  It makes me feel all friendly toward the environment, plus there are some adorable diapers out there.  On top of that, I love the woolies I make for Timothy.  The big complaint I have right now, though, is that Timothy only has one or two t-shirts to wear with his cute shorties.  He’s already outgrown those teeny newborn kimono tops, and there are no tees to be found in Target (at a reasonable price).  What’s a girl to do?

My Big Plan is to buy a few blank lap tees from Dharma Trading Co.  I could just leave them blank, but what would be the fun in that?  Too bad I don’t know how to silk screen.  I do know how to do applique.  So I’ve been browsing etsy for some inspiration.

 

 

I know, I know.  Don’t say it.  Ok, go ahead: ANOTHER something-a-long?  I swear I’m going to stop.  If I don’t, you have my permission to call an intervention.  In fact, go ahead and call A&E so they can get their crew ready.

I meant to make an advent calendar this past Christmas.  There were so many cute ideas floating around the internets and I kept saying, “Oh, I like that one!  I’ll start that tomorrow!”  Um.  Tomorrow never came.

So when I saw that Crafty Apple was having a 2009 Advent Calendar Sew Along, I just HAD to sign up.  I had to!  The calendar that I was most attracted to when looking at sewing pr*n craft blogs was The Purl Bee’s Embroidered Felt Advent Calendar.  I love its simplicity and clean design.  The pockets are perfect for slipping little treasures inside.  And if I start now, I can actually be done in time for Advent!

Ok.  You heard me: I won’t sign up for any more challenges/knit-a-longs/whatevers.  I promise…maybe.