Polka Dot Creations

You might be wondering where I scuttled off to after asking for your opinions. I really appreciate those opinions by the way! Despite the fact that the poll isn’t working (guess I should have tested that) I still got a nice amount of helpful feedback. What, in particular, have I learned over the last few days?

Never publicly ask for anyone’s design assistance because you will inevitably change your mind and go a completely different direction before the first vote is even cast.

Yeah, that’s what I did. See, I made the mistake of posting my questions and then hopping in the shower. I really should know better, because the shower is where I do my best thinking. I came up with a few ideas all on my own, which pretty much negated the need for a blog synopsis or a background vote.

I thank you for weighing in. Even though I don’t intend to use any of those backgrounds anymore, your responses are still helpful in terms of seeing how well my own design opinions compare with those of the people who may actually be using the site.

Oh, and Patricia, I totally love your “postcards from the land of artful living” phrase! I don’t think I have anywhere to use it anymore, but I’m going to file it away for the day when I may need a slogan of some kind. If you’ll email me your postal address, I’ll drop a fun little something in the mail for you

So what, exactly, am I doing to my website? Can’t tell you. Not yet, anyway. Let’s just say that sometime this week (I hope) this blog will be down (or, at least, behaving kind of wonky) so that I can move it to a new address and slap on a new coat of paint. It’s that new coat of paint that I’ve been working so hard on for the last few days.

Techy projects like this have a tendency to consume me until I get them just the way I want them. Neil and I have been collaborating on this one, with me doing most of the mock-up design, and he saying “no, that doesn’t look right; try this” every now and then. I’ve pretty much got the mock-up looking just like I want it at this point, and all that remains is for me to immerse myself in CSS and make it come to life as a blog theme. That’s not exactly a piece of cake for someone like me who is still more comfortable designing websites with tables. I have to train myself to think differently before CSS will come naturally to me.

Wish me luck! Actually, I don’t really need luck for that - I know I can just plug away until I get it. What I really need is “don’t let the house fall apart around you while you work” vibes, “don’t forget you have to ship some orders this week” thoughts, and “hey, you’re teaching a class at the library Thursday night” reminders.

As I type, I’m looking at a basket of laundry that I should take downstairs to the washing machine as soon as I’m done posting. What I am more likely to do, though, is flip over to another window on my laptop and see if I can get my new blog header to display properly. Oh, I have such a sickness when it comes to these things! Pity my family. They’re probably getting Burger King tonight…

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As long as I’m asking questions, how about this one? I could use some opinions regarding my personal website’s background. (Click on the images to see how they each look in actual size)

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Thanks so much for your input! I know what I like, but I could use some objective opinions, especially from people who may be using different types of browsers or computer screens than I am. If you have any further observations, feel free to leave them in the comments.

What would I do without you to bounce these things off of?

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A lily from my mother’s yard. Isn’t it pretty? I think so. It’s got nothing to do with this post.

I have ideas. A head full of them, in fact, and I’m contemplating something right now that requires me to summarize this blog in just a word (or two or three). I think I’m too close to it to see what it’s really about, so I thought maybe you, the people who read what I write on an almost-daily basis, could just leave a comment and tell me how you would categorize, summarize or captionize this blog in as few words as possible.

There might even be a little prize for anyone whose comment really captures it perfectly, or inspires me to come up with something myself. Maybe

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The lure of the Jersey Fresh fruit was just too strong to let me be lazy for very long today. It compelled me to clear off the kitchen counters, unload the dishwasher, re-load it (thereby freeing up some sink space), clean off the table, and give everything a good wipe down.

Once that was done, I had the space to make a new mess cutting up farmers market peaches, measuring berries, and packing brown sugar. I used a recipe that I’ve been using (and modifying) since last summer when I first discovered how wonderful it is to pick fruit from your own back yard and bake up something delicious with it. This is the first crisp I’ve made this season so far, but I doubt it’s the last. There are 6-8 cups of wineberries in my freezer that can vouch for my intentions in that direction.

What’s the verdict? Scrumptious. In fact, I’m thinking it’s going to be supper tonight. Hey, it’s got fruit in it right? That’s got to mean it’s healthy

Here’s the recipe. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Throw the two types of berries into a bowl, cut the peaches into small bits and throw those in. Sprinkle the white sugar over them, stir, and set aside.
• In another bowl add the flour, salt, oats, sugar and cinnamon. Mix together and then cut in the butter until you have a crumbly mixture.
• Grease an 8 inch cake pan and spread half of the oat mix in the bottom. Pour the fruit over it and then add the rest of the oats.
• Bake for about 30 minutes.

Recipe By: Lisa Clarke, based on a recipe by Abby of abbytrysagain (URL)
Servings: 12
Weight Watchers Points: 5

NOTES

• The original recipe called for blackberries, but I use wineberries that grow wild in the yard.
• The original recipe called for half as much fruit, but I prefer it with more filling.

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I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see all of these clear surfaces in my bedroom.

Neil left Thursday morning for Readercon, and I’ve been on my own ever since. Somehow I have managed to pass the time… I have been pretty busy, in fact, and I just spent half an hour writing about it, only to realize it read like a really boring diary. “First we did this, then we did that, then we went here, blah blah blah.” So I deleted that.

Why don’t we just say that there was a day of business, a day of visiting, a day of cleaning, a evening of movie-watching, and then today?

Today, which has yet to be defined, even at Noon? I am enjoying the fact that there is once again a spot on my desk for my coffee cup. And my feet. I’ve got all of the windows in my room open, despite the 87-degree day out there, and I’m actually getting a pleasant cross breeze. As long as that continues, I can avoid the A/C.

Neil will be home later today sometime, and before then I will probably dump the icky green sludge out of the kiddie pool and refill it with nice crystal clear water. I feel like a relaxing Sunday afternoon by the pool is in order after the busy few days I’ve had.

Actually, I’m in the midst of the eternal struggle between Mind and Body over here. Mind says, “let’s make a summer fruit crisp before the peaches we bought for it are over the hill!” Body says, “that would be great, but we just can’t do it until we clean up the kitchen, and cleaning up the kitchen puts a real crimp in our plans to lay around and do nothing all day.” Mind ponders that thought and replies, “Still… I imagine it would be really nice for Neil to come home after a long day on the road, to find the kitchen clean and a delicious baked treat waiting for him.”

Darn it. Body can’t argue with that, but she really hates it when domesticity wins out over laziness!

If Mind manages to prod Body into action, you’ll want to check this space later for images of plump, juicy berries, photos of delicious purple fillings oozing out from under a tantalizingly crispy coating, and maybe even a recipe. But that’s a big IF

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I haven’t blogged in two days, but I’ve thought about it. And now that I finally have some down time, I can’t seem to stop watching TV. I watched my usual Friday night episode of Stargate: Atlantis, and then I should have turned off the television and started writing, but I didn’t. And now, we’re 53 minutes into Doctor Who, and I just can’t seem to tear myself away.

[seven minutes later]

Whew. Ok, glad that distraction is over. Of course, I’m entirely too sleepy to post anything substantial. So sleepy, I can’t even remember what I wanted to say. Forgive me, but I’m just going to write in random bits tonight.

These are awfully nice pictures, aren’t they? Love those flickr favorites. This set looks particularly summery to me. Makes me want to clean the kitchen and make a summer fruit crisp. Well, actually, it only makes me want to make the crisp. The kitchen cleaning is just a necessarily evil before the crisp-making can happen.

Got my box from Oh Fransson’s sheet swap today - yippee! I had requested aquas and yellowy-greens, and I think Elizabeth did a really nice job choosing for me, and the packaging was so pretty and sweet. These are all fat-quarter size pieces that I got in return for this set and this set. I have an idea for a “green” product that I want to make for my shop, and these will be just perfect components. It’s going to feel nice to make something that isn’t a personal project for me or my house. I’m starting to feel like I’ve been a little too self-focused with my crafting lately.

This probably speaks for itself…

In the interest of full disclosure, I thought I’d show you my bedroom from another angle. I generally show you little snapshots of pillows, with maybe a corner of the nightstand showing or something. It’s much more pleasing to look at in isolated areas like that All of those piles of clean laundry waiting to be put away had been sitting there for some time, but I tackled them yesterday and rediscovered some surfaces in the room that I hadn’t seen in months.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the boys’ computer desk in here, and the mess that accompanies them wherever they go. Why do my kids have their own computer lab in my bedroom? Let’s just put that in the “It seemed like a good idea at the time” category and move on, shall we?

Wow. Starting to fall asleep as I type. Looks like proofreading isn’t happening tonight. Hope I’ve been coherent enough Maybe tomorrow I’ll be back with luscious berry pictures and a crisp recipe.

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Earlier in the week I made that Simplicity 3835 I posted about in my Reasons to be Cheerful, and having 2/3 of a perfectly good vintage white sheet left, I got brave and tackled the pattern that has been languishing since I bought it a few months ago.

Introducing my first attempt at Simplicity 4589. I bought this pattern back in May, pulled it eagerly out of the envelope, read the instructions, and promptly shoved it in a bin never to be seen again. Have I mentioned I hate patterns? They scare me. They come across as utterly complicated and confusing. They require me to know how to do things like make gathers or use bias tape and interfacing. This particular pattern included all of those things and I was too overwhelmed to work it all out.

Well, last week, I saw Beki’s version of that top and really wanted to make one myself. I fished the instructions out of the bin and realized that in the last two months I have actually already gotten some experience with bias tape, gathers, and interfacing. All that was left to overcome was the confusing directions, and with my kids out of the house every morning this week (and therefore not interrupting me), that would be easier.

Because I chose a size based on my fullest measurement, the finished result was much wider than it needed to be, and shorter than I like. I played around with the side seams and made it fit me better that way, but it still had it’s problems.

I still had more of that white sheet left, so I decided to try again from scratch.

I’m much happier with Take Two. I went down two sizes and then adjusted my pattern from there to take my curves into account. I also added a few inches of length. Plus, I emailed Beki and took her suggestion to add darts to the back. It looks a lot better from the front this way, but the back view is really wonky - I’m chalking that up to user error. It was my first attempt at darts, and I totally guessed how to do it. (Thanks for your advice yesterday, Beki! It was really helpful.)

Feeling relatively successful, I decided that I might as well go ahead and make the one I’d had in my mind for the last few days. I mean, really, who needs to set aside time for taking showers, washing dishes, and vacuuming when there’s craftiness to be had, right?

Just a warning - you might want to grab your sunglasses before scrolling down to see my third attempt.

Heh. I warned you. I’m usually more of a solid-color girl when it comes to my shirts, but I just couldn’t get the idea of using a crazy floral with this pattern out of my head. So here it is. I think this qualifies as a crazy floral. It’s one of the sheets from the swap, and it originally came from Arizona.

I left the darts off of this one - the fabric is much more drapey, so it doesn’t feel like it needs them as much as the stiffer white fabric did. I also left the bias tape off of the sleeves, and just did a double-folded hem there. The bottom hem of the shirt is the hem that was originally on the sheet. I like the way the linen looks on top, but I didn’t really like working with it - it’s pretty heavy stuff. This shirt still has some fit issues, but it’s good enough.  Particularly if I walk around with my hands on my hips like this all day, and show the world that there is, indeed, a waistline in there somewhere.  It’s not an accident that I pose like this, you know

I think there may be more of these shirts in my future, and I will work on bettering the fit of those. But not today. I really need to switch off the sewing machine and change my focus for a while. For one thing, there’s some cleaning to do, and for another, I’d kind of like to feed my family something that doesn’t come out of a box (or a drive-thru window) tonight. And then there’s the email to read and the orders to pack. But first, I’m going to take that shower I put off this morning, and when I emerge all clean and smelling of brown sugar, I’m going to put on one of my fun new shirts and enjoy it.

Happy Wednesday!

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1. Thrift shop find: a white vintage sheet that has a border of flowers along the bottom hem. That said “make a shirt out of me!” So, I did, and now I have a lovely new Simplicty 3835 to wear, and a large portion of a plain white sheet with which I can experiment on other things, like the other summer shirt pattern I bought that has been leaving me feeling intimidated.

2. Finding the Greasemonkey Script Flickr Buddy Icon Reply that lets you easily include images in your comment replies. I’ve been wanting to know how to do that for months! Finally had a “duh” moment and just googled “icon in flickr reply.” Duh.

3. The subsequent discovery of the Flickr Hacks group, which could lead to some fun things to play with next time I have a moment to really look through it.

4. Playing “Fabric Designer” via Spoonflower. More on that in its own post, when I actually make something with the fabric.

5. Finally locating the missing flag panels, even if it was almost a week too late. (They had gotten slipped in the middle of a pile of skirts waiting to be hung up. Oops.)

6. Easy conversations while looking out the window of a train.

7. Taking a late afternoon shower, and the accompanying aroma of newly clean skin.

8. Even numbers

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I had some sewing planned for today. For starters, I wanted to fix my duvet cover, which I did finish after midnight last night, only to find that I had somehow measured my bedspread as being 20 inches longer than it really was. I have all of this extra material now, and will have to put my seam ripper to work. Could be worse, though. At least it wasn’t 20 inches too small.

I also wanted to make myself a new summer top, using a sheet I’d found at the thrift shop yesterday. It’s all white, except for some blue flowers at the hem, and I just see that making a pretty peasant shirt.

But I didn’t do either of those things today.

Aidan let me know last night that he was feeling a serious need for some Mom time, so we hit the road together today, just him and me, and went to Flemington to ride the train.

The Black River & Western Railroad operates an ambling old passenger train on Summer weekends between Flemington and Ringoes. We started our ride in Flemington, which is, for those not familiar with the area, basically an Outlet Town. The little train station is located right across the way from Liberty Village, home to Anne Klein, Van Heusen, Nautica, and other high-end shopping (which didn’t interest us in the least).

The track meanders through farmland, woods, a golf course, and a few business districts, and comes to rest in Ringoes, a town that I know next to nothing about. From the train station itself we could see a residential area and very little else. Aidan was expecting more fanfare in Ringoes.  I admit it would have been nice if our intermission had been in a downtown area or something, but it was still interesting.

There were plenty of beat up old trains to look at in the station yard. We had 15 minutes to kill there, which was enough time to buy a bottle of overpriced water from the vending machine and a souvenir sheet of stickers to bring home to Eamonn.

The ride back to Flemington was as quaint as the ride out was, and before too long we were disembarking, ninety minutes older than when we’d first boarded the train.  Besides the rare and wonderful opportunity for some one-on-one time with my firstborn son, I also got something else priceless out of this little trip: photographic evidence of Aidan’s flair for the dramatic:

And with that, I’m off. I’ve been doing my blogging at night lately, after the kids go to bed. Often it can take me an hour or two to write a post and do any other online catching up I want to do, and as such, we’ve got a pile of Netflix stacking up around here. I am making an effort tonight, to wrap things up in time to watch one of them so we can start sending the darn things back!  G’night

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Despite the fact that I am home all day during the week, there’s something about the dawning of a bright, new Saturday that fills me with anticipation.  This Saturday has been breakfasting on the patio, cutting out fabric pieces on the family room floor, and whipping up three new pillows, all before I’d even hit the shower.

I tell you, these pillow covers are so easy, they’re addicting!  I’ve been pilfering ugly Wal-mart throw pillows from the family room and using them as my pillow forms.  And I love that these are really just covers that I’m making, which can easily be removed and laundered.  Easy to make, easy to replace at whim.  The two above feature Martha Negley prints from her Mums collection, which I found at Repro Depot last week.  I really love the square pillow (I put solid turquoise on the back) but I’m not sold on the roll pillow yet.  The ruffly ends are a little too “girly” for me.  I may be happier re-doing it with more of a “tailored” look, but that’s somewhat more complicated than this, and for now, it will stay as-is.

For both of these, I followed projects in Quick and Easy Slipcovers, and I really did find them to be quick and easy.

For this smaller square pillow I used yet another colorway of Heather Bailey’s painted mum’s print.  Do you see a theme here?  I really didn’t intend for my bed to become Mum Central, and now I’m suddenly wishing I had some stripes in the mix.  Or at least some solids.

That actually brings me to my duvet cover plans.  I’ve been eying the duvet cover they have in Quick and Easy Slipcovers, and using that project as a springboard for my own ideas.  Originally, I thought I’d sew together two white sheets, make a linen “flap” on the top, and fasten it with some clay buttons.  But there was a problem. The Queen size sheets I bought are not as large as the Queen size comforter I want to insert inside, so I can’t use them as the front and back of the duvet cover without adding more material from somewhere.

After I realized that this morning, I hopped in the shower and went off to Target to buy another white sheet that I could cut up and use to extend the other two.  I never actually got to Target, because I took a detour to a farmer’s market first (JerseyFresh blueberries & peaches - mmmmm!), which took me past a thrift shop, which led me to that lovely aqua sheet you see on the top of the pile.  It’s King size, so it should fit the entire back of the cover (I haven’t measured it yet, but I’m hopeful).  This will give me pale aqua on the back, and the linen and white on the front that I wanted.  I think the little tiny bit of aqua peeking through at the edges will be very pretty, and it will be picked-up by the buttons. If I use them.  They may just make the whole thing too busy, so I’ll have to wait and see.

Speaking of “too busy” I’m feeling like my pillow shams were a bad idea.  They were fine until I started making more throw pillows.  Probably they should be white and linen like the duvet cover.  I’ll have to wait until I see the whole ensemble together and decide then.

Are you enjoying this little stream-of-consciousness brain dump here?  I know, your eyes glazed over three paragraphs ago.  It’s ok.  I’m used to that.  I live with a bunch of boys, remember?  I’ll just continue talking about pillows and bedspreads and pretty shades of blue and green, and just pretend that someone is still listening, like I usually do…

So, anyway, I also spied this glass vase at the thrift shop.  I don’t know if it’s anything special, but it has that vintagey, milky aqua aesthetic, (and it was only $1.40) which is precisely what I want.  I’ll have to find something pretty to put in it.  I’m suddenly reminded of pussy willows in a jug in my childhood living room.  Or were they in my grandparents’ living room?  I can’t remember (it was actually the same room, anyway - I grew up in the house my father grew up in.  We moved there when I was seven years old, after my grandparents retired to the Catskills).  Either way, pussy willows would look nice in that vase.

Ok, I think I’ve rambled on here enough tonight.  I promised Aidan a movie night, and we have to run out and pick one up before it gets too late.  And while I’m there, I have to try and avoid wandering to the next building over and succumbing to the temptation that is Starbucks Mint Mocha Chip.  Wish me luck.

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