Yesterday's Thrifting Finds

Thought I'd take a break from my legal work to show what I found whilst thrifting yesterday: an awesome vintage necklace with a leaf-shaped clasp, and more fabric to add to my ever-growing stash (hopefully this will become part of an apron soon)...

First I hit up the Salvation Army on Fullerton, then the Unique on Diversey. It was the first time I had visited the Salvation Army on Fullerton - I found it sparse and very overpriced. The Unique on Diversey of always a crowd pleaser though.

New Rug

I have been living in my current apartment since October, and have been passively looking for an area rug since. My roommate has a lovely jute rug from World Market, similar to this one, but I couldn't justify $100 for something in a larger size. Then, a few weeks ago, inspiration struck, and I was so in love with the simple idea from idahostudios that I decided I had to make one myself. I meandered over to the local carpet store today, and told the woman I was looking for greens and browns, the weirder the better. She was only able to come up with some weird ones (the plaid and then the smaller print ones), but I think they provide some nice variations to the rug. The pieces were marked $2 each, but I asked if the smaller ones were cheaper. I ended up getting all the pieces for $10, and I'm sure if I had a $10 bill, there wouldn't have been tax, but unfortunately I had to charge it, as I had just been to the thrift store, so the total for the carpet was $11.02. I also had to get a new roll of duct tape, which was a whopping $7.08, but I figured I'd get the largest roll of tape since I was out. So, without further ado, here is my masterpiece of a rug.After taking this picture I realized how hideous my black bedside table is. (You can catch a glimpse of its ugly spidery legs in the photo.) Therefore, I resolve to paint that sucker soon! The list of projects grows by the minute!

The kitchen light also got installed successfully this weekend - it was a 7:30 am daddy-and-me project, which necessitated me eating a bowl of cereal 20 minutes into the project so I wouldn't be so feisty. Other than that, we work well. The project was completed in time for me to meet my friend for brunch* and this included a trip back to the store to exchange a broken glass lightshade on a "final sale" item - see how persuasive lawyers can be!

Finally, this was last night's dinner and it was delicious! I used my bread machine to make the pizza dough from a recipe in this 1993 gem of a book, but I omitted the garlic from the dough. It was crispy on the bottom, yet still soft under the potatoes and fresh rosemary from the garden.


* My favorite and oft-frequented brunch place in the City!

Chicago Style

So, this is how we do it Chicago style. I present my Chicago Flag Quilt:


I finished this quilt a few weeks ago for my sister's boyfriend. We worked together to come up with the Chicago flag idea. He also requested that I put a pocket on the back, so there is indeed a pocket!
Here are some Chicago style carrots that came from the garden this weekend:


And finally, here is the project I completed today, using the TipNut tutorial for how to print on fabric. I am thinking of also using this method for quilt labels, although it seems a little impersonal, however fancy and time saving it may be.

Projects in the works: installing a light over the kitchen table tomorrow morning at 7:30 am, acquiring buttons for a new brooch project, fixing a dress that became too trendy, and getting 4 AA batteries for my hand-held sewing machine. Maybe writing these here will keep me on track...

Pitchfork and DEPART-ment

I attended Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park with my roommate yesterday. While I thought Spoon was going to be the highlight of the fest, it turns out that I got a TON of crafty ideas from DEPART-ment, which was also on the premises. I also bought this really cute necklace from a vendor there called Recycled Rings, and I am wearing it to inspire me as I work on writing this opinion regarding subpoenas! I'm going to need a lot of inspiration.

I also recently found this fun idea for a swimsuit greeting card, which I plan on modifying. I think it will be a great use of some fabric scraps!

Currently baking: onion rye bread with caraway seeds.

Broken, finally

Two days ago, my sewing machine (a Sticthmaster Zig Zag Deluxe) finally conked out on me. It appears to be a problem with the tension. I diagnosed the problem by looking to the decades-old manual that told me the upper thread tension was too tight. It was on 1 - it could not go any lower, so I carefully took apart the offending parts of the machine, and it appeared that an inside screw was slightly bent. I remedied that problem, but to no avail with the tension situation.

Luckily I bought a hand-held sewing machine in Eagle River on vacation this year, and I suspect that might do the trick for all the cards I need to finish quilting. Since telling people I am selling my cards at Wolfbait, people seem to be coming out of the woodwork expressing interest, but I have no more finished cards! Hopefully I can remedy this soon. Hopefully I can also remedy the problem of a real sewing machine - more on this in the coming weeks.

Atelier K!

Today I have finally gotten my "Atelier K" stamp for my cards! next step will be applying the branding to my scarves and quilts and then bringing some of them over to a few specialty stores! Hurray!