Shower Curtain Poll

don't worry, I spelled the title correctly! I meant poll, not pole, :) as this is all about asking for help in deciding what I want to make for my shower curtain, not how to put it up!

I just bought this fabric for my shower curtain,



And It just arrived and is beautiful! (and the colors are perfect with my master bedroom's stuff, which is this bedding from Pottery Barn,



The feather fabric has the same colors, and I like that they have a great feel together without being matchy patchy (as my sister Sarah would say) and the feathers are very gender neutral to me.

Anyway, here is my dilemma, I originally thought I would make my shower curtain in the style of this one from Anthropologie,

 
But now I am not so sure. You see my bathroom is tiny, and the tub is right next to the toilet, so I am suddenly worried that the ruffles will add enough poof, that when pushed open, the shower curtain will invade the gap and touch the toilet (gross, there is a lot of condensation here in Korea with the humidity, so the toilet side is always a little damp after a shower.)

So here is my question, should I make just a plain shower curtain out of the feather fabric (I'm going to remember to do a tutorial this time too, so keep that in mind, would a plain shower curtain be to boring, or is it a good basic, and would be a more helpful tutorial?) Or should I do the Anthro version, and I don't know, live with the toilet touching? (I really don't actually know if this will be a genuine issue, there is about 10" of space next to the toilet, but you can only open the curtain towards the toilet, since otherwise you would have to step out of the shower into the toilet.) I wouldn't mind washing it more often, except the ruffles will wrinkle in the wash, and that's a lot or ironing..... I guess the shower could steam it straight!

OR do you have a totally fantastic suggestion for me that you could either tell me about, or leave me a link for? I am open to ideas here!

Paneled Master Bedroom Wall

Today while shut in our apartment due to Osan Airbase being on lock-down in preparation for Typhoon Bolavin, Paul and I painted the "paneling" onto our back accent wall.

I love the effect, and even in person it's hard to believe it's just paint! We took photo's of the process along the way, so I will add a photo tutorial asap, we are just waiting on a new power cord for our computer to arrive so that I can upload photo's to our laptop from the camera. (Our current charger went the way of the dinosaurs last week.)

We lost power twice today, so I don't have any really good pictures of the finished product yet (these are camera phone pictures taken with the lights on at night since there wasn't enough natural light during the outages) but you can sort of see the gray color in the rest of the room, and the general effect of the "panels" I'll try to take better pictures tomorrow during the day, and add them to the tutorial (I was too excited to share the finished product to wait!) I am desperate for our household goods to arrive; they are apparently in country now (i.e. not on a boat) but we will only hear on Friday at the earliest if they can schedule delivery next week sometime. Oh! and our van is in country too! We might get to go up to Seoul by train on Tuesday (while the kids are at school) to get it. We got our Korean driver's licences last week, but still haven't driven off base at all, I can't wait to have a vehicle again; we are itching to venture out further afield then we have been, since there is only so much you can do hoofing it, or going by train or taxi! 

Cross your fingers our power stays on! Tomorrow is business as usual for Paul's work and the kid's school, and I totally don't want to sit here in the dark by myself! I'm also taking a HUGE step tomorrow and putting in my resume and an application to be a substitute teacher here on base. I haven't worked outside of the home/not for myself in about 12 years, but I am going to be here alone an awful lot, and I think earning a little extra cash for all the fabulous trips we want to take while in Asia (The Great Wall of China, both Disneys, riding elephants in Thailand) and this would help me feel like I was contributing a bit more instead of just spending (I buy a LOT of fabric......) It would only be on an occasional basis, but there are apparently shortages of qualified substitute teachers around here too; so now I have a degree, I suppose I should put it to work! 

Okay, it's 12:30 now, I suppose I need to go to bed or else I won't be able to get up to get the kids out the door in the morning! (We are having 6 levels of h,e, double hockey-sticks trying to make arrangements for the kids at school, no teachers were around until the first day, and getting the kids correct placement, and record coordination has been a nightmare. We finally have all the documents we need, and I will probably do a full blog post about the adventures we've been having later once we know what is happening, but oh my goodness.)

Success/Failure?

I've been stinking it up/productive here at home lately, so I'm not entirely sure what to say about what I've been up to.

I started knitting Isaac a sweater 3 days ago, and I thought I had the gauge down, and it turns out not so much. In other news, the body of PAUL'S new sweater is done, and I only have to finish the sleeves now. (It was huge on Isaac.) Serves me right for making up a knitting pattern on the fly I suppose, I should probably stick to having instructions from now on! I'll have to take a picture when it's done....

Attempt at making something take two: while Emmie and Isaac were at their first day of school yesterday I decided to sew Emmie a skirt, since I didn't have her measurements I decided to use a child's size 12 pattern piece for the waistband thinking it would fit her then, but it turns out it was HUGE on her and fits me instead! Luckily I made it long enough so that it will to go to my knees, but what the heck? Fail at making Emmie a skirt, win for me? (Not back door bragging Sarah! I am certainly NOT a child's size 12) <3 bear="bear" br="br" you="you">

We are in the middle of a Typhoon right now, so we are all hunkered down in the apartment watching the wind and rain whip by; school and work were canceled for the day, so everyone is here - maybe I should retry some sewing at the kids *actual* sizes while they are home! Korea is still proving to be quite the adventure!

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Knitting Thoughts

I tried my hand at cable knitting for the first time the day before yesterday, and finished my sample yesterday,


There are a couple of bigger loops that I am going to try to block out, but all in all I am happy with it. I think I am going to try to knit Isaac a sweater after school starts, so hopefully I can either block out or figure out my tension issues!

Anthro Knock Off Sweatshirt

Earlier I showed y'all a picture of this Anthropologie, shawl collared sweatshirt,

I decided I wanted to make one for myself, but I wanted to start with one for Emmie, since I am doing back to school clothes for her right now, and I wanted to test the pattern on her first since it would take less fabric as I figured out the shapes.

For Emmie's I eliminated all the extra seams on the bodice, because I was mostly working on the collar, and I made it out of a medium weight blue polyester knit I have had FOREVER, so it was nice to get that out of my stash too! I didn't do a traditional tutorial for this, since I was working it out mostly, but I will post what I did take cell phone pictures of!

The first picture shows all of my pattern pieces, the second shows the center front of the top when gathered, the third just shows the gathering in context, and the fourth shows the top once the shoulder seams are sewn and the sleeves are put on.

In this set the top left shows the collar sewn on and top stitched, and the front gathers sewn to the collar pieces, I used orange thread so that it could be seen. The second picture shows is a little further back, and the third and fourth pictures show the making of the little rectangle that will be sewn over the orange stitching.

These pictures show the finished product, the rectangle when sewn on, and the zig zag top-stitching done.

And the last 2 are of Emmie wearing the sweatshirt, I chose to make the sleeves long, rather then 3/4 length, as I think she will get more wear out of it, but I can't say that I am totally satisfied with this top. I think I want to use a lighter weight fabric, and that way the gathers can be more full, I also would not use a synthetic, as the hand isn't great. Emmie loves this top though, so I might play with adding some color to it to make it more special and interesting.

I am definitely going to be making one of these for myself, so I will probably show the process of making the pattern then, as I have a more clear idea of the neck shape!

I also finished my first valance in this house; it's a crewel fabric, with French stripe points on top. It's simple and not my usual long drape, but I like that it is simple and not on the floor for a change, as the mate to this one needs to cover over the door to the patio; I got the body of the valance done the other day, and I just needed to do the French stripe points. All told today I made an American girl doll dress, a shirt for Isaac, Emmie's sweatshirt, the valance points, and dinner - not to shabby if I can ever get the living-room vacuumed!

Anthropologie Inspiration

EDIT: after writing this post, I had a complete change of plans come along, Emmie wanted to make an american girl doll dress, and Isaac wanted to make a hooded t-shirt out of fabric he picked at the LA fabric district - so no shawl collars or dresses for me today! (I like being flexible while they are still home with me, so we can spend memory making time together!)

Here's Isaac's top,

He cut out the whole thing, (we used a commercial pattern, but made the pocket) and helped with the sewing, although the serger scared him a bit, he did a good job, but the coverstitch machine wasn't happening, so I did all that for him!

So I was on Anthropologie's website last night, and I found a couple of things that I thought would make really great inspirations for things I am working on around here (some clothes for miss Emmie, but also some for me, although mine might wait until after the kids go back to school on the 27th.

The first is this little jacket,

I can't remember what it is called, as I saved this image ages ago, but I own this one from Anthropologie, and I LOVE it! I did surgery on mine by buying a bigger size, and then crossing it over more and moving the trim so that it still looked right, but it fit my arms and bust a lot better after I did.

I'm thinking I might not do all of the details if I make this for Emmie, especially since the hand embroidery would take too long and she's still growing so she doesn't get that much time dedicated to her projects!

I LOVE this shawl collared shirt, it looks soooooo comfy, and I think I want this one for me, but I am going to try the pattern on emmie first, and see how it breaks down (she thought this looked really pretty too!) I've got a lot of knits in my stash, so I'm going to have to think about weight and color for this one! (Click on the picture for the Anthropologie link)

And lastly for this post, I liked this dress a lot! I love the lace front and back, I love the pin-tucking, and I love the colors! The length is an issue, as it is VERY short as far as I am concerned, (this picture is a link too)

And although, beautiful, there is just not enough to the top, I am going to to try making this for Emmie, and she will need there to be much more to the back then this! I haven't decided exactly what I am making this out of - do I turn it into a knit playdress, or do I use wovens and have it be easier to make, but need to be ironed...... hmm.

Anyway, I am going to be working out the details of some of these over the next couple of days, we'll see what sticks, and I will try to have a tutorial or two up over the next little bit! Have you seen anything that has struck your fancy at a website recently? Links? I would love to see what inspires you!

Potential {photo of the day}

We went shopping for school supplies today, and every year I am struck with a distinct sense of potential as I look into the cart and see all of those crisp and fresh supplies waiting to be used to help expand the minds of my not so little (anymore) ones. 

I'm not looking forward to them going back for my own selfish reasons, I love having them here at home with me, and it gets rather lonely in the house without them! (Although it has been lovely being here in our apartment, we are a five minute walk from Paul's work, and he has managed to come home for lunch almost everyday so we can eat together! It is the first time in our marriage his commute has been less then 30-40 minutes, so having him so close is wonderful!)

We are still short a few supplies, as the BX didn't have everything we needed, and they are unlikely to get them in either if rumors are to be believed, (we can't get them off base either since Korean paper is a different size then American paper.) But I'm not too worried, as we have learned that Amazon Prime can be your friend in situations such as this!

P.S. We are enjoying the weather recently, as it has been lovely and rainy instead of just plain HOT! Tonight Paul and I went for a walk to take in the lovely weather, and I was frightened half to death as I almost stepped on this little guy who was obviously enjoying the wet weather too!

School Days!

First things first, I wanted to thank everyone for their votes during the open auditions for Project Run and Play! I can't believe how many of you voted for me (I am deeply touched, and slightly embarrassed by the effort so many went to to vote for me! - I'm looking at you, everyone who went on facebook and did shout outs that traumatized me, I am terrible about ever campaigning for myself, and the fact that so many of my friends and family posted links about voting, was very touching!) I think I came in third, which was amazing considering how aggressive the voting was!!!  

Anyway, here is a picture of my project from today, I am trying to make all of Emmie's school clothes this year (except a few pairs of Jeans I got for her.) because I don't love the clothes that are out there for children her age, and I decided that this would be a fun challenge!  

This is a tunic length top, with a gathered front, a curved baseball hem, and lace capped sleeves; the pattern is my own, the blue and white knit fabric came from a discount place near my sister's house in AZ for $1, and the lace was from Hobby Lobby, and with the 50% of sale it was on, I believe it cost me $2.

I'm thinking black capri-length leggings would look really cute with this, but I plan to play around with the styling a bit. I will take photos of her actually wearing it later, after I have had time to get a few more pieces together. 

Potty Talk {photo of the day}

So the bathrooms in Peru prepared me in unimaginable ways for Korea, as there are holes in the floor here too! I am an old hat at them since we hiked the Inca trail, but poor Miss Emmie was NOT prepared for what is lovingly called "the squatty potty" by the Americans around here (everywhere she had gone so far has been on base or just outside of base, so they have had American style bathrooms.) This little gem was up in Seoul, and I am pretty sure she didn't believe in the existence of  this type of restroom before actually seeing one. Unfortunately for her she was desperate to go, so she had no choice but to dive in squat first.



I was more kind to her then Peru was to me, and I showed her how to go by leaning most of your weight on one leg, and went in with her and held her up so she didn't fall over or have some other "issue", but man - Traumatized doesn't even begin to cover her reaction to the bathrooms here!


Please don't forget to go vote over at Project Run and Play! (only through today)

Eating at E-Mart {photo of the day}

We went out and about on the train the other day and visited a local store called E-mart (sort of like Korean Walmart). We walked around and perused the merchandise (I'm not going to be buying many clothes while here - I'm way to big and tall) and after a bit we found the food court so we could get some lunch. We tried a couple of exciting things by mostly pointing at pictures, and although everything we had was delicious, man was it SPICY.



p.s. Please don't forget to go on over to Project Run and Play and vote by Sunday!

Voting Time!!!

So remember the exciting news I alluded to? (pretend yes!) I am one of five finalists to participate in the next season of Project Run and Play, with my Jeans, Top, and Raincoat that I made this spring! If you have a moment, please jump on over to Project Run and Play and vote (top right sidebar) for your favorite look, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that I am one of the 2 people that moves on to compete in the next season of PR&P!!!  

A Nautical Shower Curtain

I've been pretty busy trying to make the apartment a home here, within my limited ability while our furniture is still on a boat being shipped, and one of the things I made this week is a shower curtain for the kid's bathroom. I found the skull and crossbones fabric here at Happy Quilt for a little under $4.00 a yard (KILLER PRICE!) and it's a 65" wide heavy sateen cotton twill. I decided to add nautical flags to the top as a border; each of the flags is either machine embroidered or pieced together, and I just sort of made them up in a nautical-esque style. I have a few pictures of the making of, but I'm not sure they are really exciting enough to warrant putting them up online!

the construction really was just making a plain shower curtain with button holes at the top, and a double fold hem at the bottom, with just the addition of the flags and the rope at the top of the flags!  I did have to make this shower curtain about a foot longer then a standard shower curtain because the fixed curtain rods here in base housing are crazy high!

I have started on the window valances for the living room too since the curtain rods arrived, so I'll have to take pictures of those too! (I might be asking for advice, too many options!)

Oh! and I've just had some exciting news I'll tell you more about tomorrow! as a hint: I'll be here begging for votes for something this week!

EDIT: My exciting news is that I was selected as one of 5 finalists to compete for 2 slots in the next season of Project Run and Play for my Rain Coat, Jeans, and top. Please feel free to hop on over and vote by Sunday for your favorite!

First World Problems

Although this picture may look like it is rather boring, and missing something, but in truth, it's actually VERY exciting to me! You see, I haven't been able to find any non plastic curtain rods here in Korea, and I couldn't find any of my regular curtain rod haunts that would ship APO, and I don't have any other address I could get something shipped to.




Using technology as my friend, I was able to find a company in California, willing to ship APO for a very reasonable price, and in less then a week, they are now here! As much as curtain rods shouldn't make me feel so triumphant, they do. I feel like I have found my first work around for this whole new world I have entered, and like I CAN do this (some of my silence here has been stress related as of late, we are still a little jet lagged, and I am struggling to find my groove a bit here - we keep joking that a lot of our experiences here so far have involved the sentence "what's that smell?")
Anyway, we are coming along though, and now I can have curtains!
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