A Day in SF

One day Eddy and I just decided to take a day in SF and just do some touristy stuff. We weren't planning any museum visits, but we just happened by the Asian Art Museum and noticed it was a free Sunday so we couldn't resist stopping in.

We also went down to Ghiradelli Square.

The chocolate machines are great, but really, this is my favorite thing about Ghiradelli Square.

We also went to Golden Gate Park to see the buffalo, but they weren't really out and about, so instead we headed down to our second favorite attraction in the park:

That's right. SF Model Yacht Club. We actually saw two model yachts on the water that day!

A Pair of Pink Sparkle Purses

Say that ten times fast.

Recently I've had trouble finding bags that are exactly, precisely what I want (I'm picky.)  But I have a sewing machine and infinite amounts of time, so I figured the answer was probably to just make my own travel bags, purses, and messenger bags.  I'm working up to messenger bags, but I recently made a few purses that I'm pretty proud of!

The first one I made has an exterior of light pink sparkles.  Because sparkles.

You can't use pins with vinyl, so until I get a fancy set of clips for this sort of project, this hodge-podge bunch will have to do.

It has my little label inside.

It's just a simple little bag, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

As if one pink sparkle clutch wasn't enough, I figured I probably needed another. You know. For different purposes. I started from this pattern. But I altered and redrew all of the pattern pieces because I saw some flaws in their final product that I wanted to avoid. Here are a few of the pieces.

Here's the finished bag!

With the label, obviously.

Here's one fancy pin on the front.

And here's the one I think I like better.

One cannot ever have enough pink sparkle clutches. Maybe I could use a few more.

Dirty Dogs

Our dogs lay in the dirt.

A lot.

They are, therefore, sometimes dirty.

They've trampled the grass out there until it's little more than a giant dust bowl.  We figured they (and our house!) might stay a bit cleaner if we gave them a dog bed or two to lounge on when they're outside.  We found this tutorial online and decided to try our and at making our own beds.

Toward the end of the assembly process Norman got pretty interested.

He couldn't even wait until we got the thing outside to give it a try.

We added caps to the ends of the pipes (not included in the tutorial). Because, you know, fancy PVC bed.

Norman was the first to give it a go outside.

But Molly was watching and she eventually tried it out herself.

It's already a popular site from which to launch oneself at top speed. Also, on which to destroy tennis balls.

Also, on which to wrestle.

Also, on which to do some sort of weird, non-stop scratching behavior.

Also, on which to recline majestically.

We'll see how long it holds up.

Scraps

This may or may not surprise you, but I have piles of half-square triangles just laying around my quilt room.  There are a few methods for creating HSTs and some of those methods create a byproduct of smaller HSTs.   Recently I did just a couple of quick projects to use them up.

The first quilt was a byproduct of this little quilt top.

I played around with my HSTs trying to find a layout that I like.

Here's what I finally went with, all quilted up.

That quilt is teeny! The second one I made is more of a table runner size and it's a byproduct of the Suburbs quilt I made for my Uncle Wayne. Lots of leftover HSTs again.

All pieced and quilted up with a nice backing.

Also, sweet binding.

Pretty nice, the stuff you can make from just scraps sometimes.

Care Bear Stare!

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays and this year we did what has become our CA Halloween tradition.  We dressed in costumes and hung out at our neighborhood's block party before heading home to greet trick-or-treaters while enjoying a Halloween themed meal.

This year we decided to be Grumpy Bear and Cheer Bear from The Care Bears.

I decided to make our costumes using some fabric and yarn I had around the house.

I even made fluffy little tails for us (which Norman enjoyed immensely.)

Here we are as Care Bears!

(with Care Bear butts)

And here are just a few shots of this year's eyeball themed dinner. For the record, we had Dark and Stormy Death Punch, Spooky Stuffed Mushroom Eyeballs,

Halloween Spaghetti (though I used a different recipe for the Bolognese), and Creamy Pumpkin Caramel Panna Cotta (to which I added Marshmallow Fluff + chocolate chip eyeball decorations.)

Hope everyone had an amazing Halloween!