Here's a little before-and-after montage. Click through for the description on flickr.
So I'm sure you're all wondering what happened to my workspace redesign. Well I keep procrastinating on assembling my fira chest and I was wanting to hold off until I'd done that. But I decided since I'm already enjoying what I've done that some pictures of a partially completed makeover are better than none.
And I had to do it before all the plants croaked. I just don't have the knack with houseplants. The fern was so unhappy even at home that I've never bothered to lug it into work. The bamboo has been getting a little yellow at the base of the stems, which I think is lack of light, but it is growing. The mystery plant seems content and has even shot up a pale green shoot of some sort.
However, despite the minor issues, some of my lack of finishing is probably because I love what I've done so far. The pictures and lamp made a massive difference and the bamboo and mystery plant do add a nice bit of lively green.
My sister and I used to make lots of paper snowflakes and I still enjoy making some every year. Last year I made some along with another friend for lainevierge's Christmas tree and this year I made some to hang off my shelf at work.
A couple weekends ago was my friend fuzzymitten's baby shower. We made cupcakes and ate cupcakes. We're all looking forward to meeting her little one when he arrives in January. Since babies tend to be a bit messy, I made this padded burp/mess cloth with duckies on one side and blue polkadots on the other (and some towelling sandwiched in between). Sewing together three bulky layers was trickier than I realised (and something I'll have to do on a much larger scale eventually with my quilt), so the first time I unpicked half of it and started over.
I used a special duckie cam that I borrowed from my mom to embroider a row of ducks across the cloth. It's not very obvious unless you look really closely, but the thought was cute.
In any case, I hope it turns out to be useful. So you see, I do manage to get the occasional bit of sewing done. I just hope I just figure out where to find some more reserves of energy to do it more often.
I love seeing "mood boards" on the design blogs I read occasionally (Making it Lovely, Decor8, sfgirlbybay, etc). I've made one only once before based on some stationery. It's cool how some random pretty item can be used as inspiration, but I wasn't trying to create a specific room for a known space that time.
I thought about somehow covering the ugly puce-yellow-beige fabric walls with something more attractive. But this would be tricky, require quite a lot of fabric, and perhaps not look very professional. So I decided instead to make it work for me.
With a zen sort of theme, I would end up seeing the dull yellow colour more like a grasscloth or bamboo. Adding some plants would add colour and life while still being "neutral" office items. Some containers for messy desk stuff would make my desk prettier AND more efficient. To make it a happy place to sit, nicer lighting and some pictures were the final elements to add.
Obviously, I can't actually get rid of the flurorescent lights, but the ones directly above my desk are off, and I can add a pretty little table lamp to give it a better mood.
The lovely summer holiday that my sweetie and I took in August was mainly to attend the wedding of one of my best friends from high school. It was 5 days of colourful activities and delicious food. We also crammed in a lot of touristing and visiting. We ate at such yummy places, that I was inspired to expand from our Montreal restaurant guide to having a list of our favourites in other places. Afterall, it doesn't get much more fun than Japanese fusion hotdogs from a stand with a huge lineup and a staff of four.
In other news, I've got an injured foot which is going to hinder my plans for sewing over the Thanksgiving long weekend (that's this weekend for the non-Canadians reading this). Alternate crafty plans will have to be made! Maybe I'll try to finish my jolly blue socks or crocheted afghan at long last so I can cast on (with no guilt) the seaweed shawl that I've been planning for ages.
I haven't forgotten about blogging, but several things have contributed to a slow-down. I was in Vancouver for 8 days (where I caught a nasty flu from which I'm still recovering) and there's mountains of luggage and laundry as there always is upon one's return from a holiday. To top it off, tomorrow I start a new fulltime job as a user interface designer.
I decided to go with the artistically random pattern and I've started sewing my quilt top. I've sketched some lines into my photo of the random layout in order to delineate the blocks and I've done 4 so far (out of 30 total). The poll was pretty evenly split, but I had secretly made my choice already (though I might have reconsidered if it had been strongly weighted in the other direction).
Since I have so many different fabrics, the theme blocks pattern still looked quite random. You could really only see the themes if you already knew to look for them. The overall effect in person was that it was a less well done job of random. It had pools of colour/pattern and yet no overall discernible pattern. I think it would have been more successful if I'd had fewer fabrics or more distinct colours.
I'm really pleased with how the squares are looking. I've been only doing a couple at a time so that I don't get careless. You can bet I'll be posting photos of my progress. I read just today that the actual quilting usually takes as long as sewing the quilt top together, so it looks like it's a good thing that I wasn't planning on having this picnic blanket for use until next year.