365 Project: Day 155 (Busy-Busy)

First of all, let me say thank you to Mrs. Blue Mazda who always parks on the lines. This time, she started to park (badly, as usual) while I was about to take my daughter out of the car. She stared at me for a while, and I couldn’t quite understand if she was waiting for me to finish or if she was waiting to see if she could park on top of me. After a few seconds of this I decided to go ahead and get her out of the car. Mrs. Blue Mazda waited until I was done and then parked as close to me as possible (or so it seems). If I didn’t know she NEVER parks inside the lines, I would think she had something against me.

After this parking faux pas, I went to the post office to pick up my packages. One contained the fabrics I won from Good Sewing and Crafts for sharing the link to their store in the most number of places (see? I’m doing it again). Yey! I didn’t even have to stand in line for very long (only 3 people before me!).

Then, I headed in to town to buy some materials for a few projects I’m working on. I found parking in no time, and I finally used the cellular parking service - instead of paying for an hour “just in case” I paid exactly for the time I was there (1.68 NIS, thank you very much). Genius!

Here’s my loot for the day…

365 Project: Day 99 in Jerusalem

I grew up in Jerusalem, and even though I don’t live there anymore, I still love it.

I met my mother for breakfast, who informed me that the Berninal sewing machine store, where I was planning to buy some supplies, had moved to a new location, which was kind of a disappointment – I expect things to stay the same when I leave for a couple of years... However, the old sewing machines add a nice touch of character to the shiny-new store.

More fun stuff:

365 Project: Day 85, shopping fun!

I’m getting over a bout of the flu, so today I was planning to take it easy. Go get a few supplies from the yarn store, and come straight back. I ended up walking around for about 4 and a half hours, with plenty of loot to show for it.

I started out by taking advantage of the end of season sales, and bought a comfortable pair of simple black pumps. I mean, that kind of shoe is good for all seasons and extremely useful, so why pay more? I discovered that you really must be a professional photographer to take a good picture of shoes. So, no pictures (also, they’re nice, but actually quite boring, so I don’t think you’re missing anything).

Then, I went to the fabric store and bought some fabric to cover my son’s bicycle, about to be left outside for the winter. I was planning to actually make the cover today, but 4 and half hours later, I still wasn’t home. So, no.

For some reason, after this, my camera decided it wasn’t going to focus any more, so this got to be the picture of the day.



It’s been getting cold at night, and I realized that winter is actually going to happen at some point (not really soon, but sometime), and it’s time to start thinking about hats for the kids. Since my stash is practically empty, after the fabric store, I went and bought some yarn. I love going to those stores, they’re so much fun. They’re all colorful and full of stuff you want to buy (but I don’t. I make a real effort to always buy only what’s on my list).



These are the yarns I chose: The dark pink yarn is for Hodaya (I haven’t picked a design yet), and the “poison green” and very dark green yarn in the back are for a dragon hat, which is what Noam requested (I promise a tutorial, when it’s ready).

Tutorial: Semi quilted picnic set (part 1)

It’s summer, and we go out to the park almost every day. My oldest hooks up with other kids and runs around and up and down the slides, but my little one still needs me to sit with her on the grass. I used to have a water proof blanket we got as a gift from work at some point, but it disappeared a while ago and I haven’t replaced it. Until now. And what could be better than a matching tote for carrying all the outing must haves?



Before you get started, decide the size you want your blanket to be. If you want your stitched diagonal squares to be symmetrical in all directions, you should take this into account in your calculations. I didn’t and was sorry later… I used my ruler’s width as the size of the squares, it makes it much easier to mark and make sure they’re straight and all the same size.
If you care about it being symmetrical you can do the following calculation: So, let’s say my square size is X, I’m using 8th grade math to figure out the diagonal size: X^2+X^2=Y^2 ==> Y=1.41X. In other words, multiply X by 1.41 to get the length of the of the diagonal. The length and width of the blanket should be some product of this number (it doesn’t have to be the same for both).

My adventures with a stylist and the making of a skirt which followed

About 6 weeks ago, I won a facebook competition at one of the malls near where I work. The prize was 1000 NIS to spend in a store of my choice with a stylist, and a haircut. I had asked for a meeting with a stylist for my birthday, now – having won this excellent prize, I can ask for something else. I’m debating between a tablet of some sort or a makeup session (now that I know how to dress, I should learn how to wear makeup, right?). Money is, of course, not an issue in my fantasies of what I want for my birthday…

On Friday two weeks ago, I met with the stylist at the mall. First we sat down and discussed my body type and colors and she told me which colors and shapes I should wear. I have red hair, white skin with reddish highlights, blue eyes, and a non-slim hour glass shape (I’m really lucky – I gain weight evenly across all my body, so it doesn’t show as much as it could).
She recommended a V neckline but never spaghetti straps or elbow length shirts – they make your shoulders look much wider than they are. She recommended high waists and tucking my shirt in (sorry, I just can’t). She also said that because I’m tall, I could wear whatever length skirt or pants I want, but I still think that 3/4 length is not flattering to anyone really.

I didn't take these pictures, but you get the idea

Regarding colors, she recommended green, blue, brown and purple (which I already knew) and no red, orange or yellow (how boring, but I guess she’s right). She said nothing about black, because everyone wears black so stylists are on a mission to ignore that color, even though it’s one of the best colors for me. She also recommended off-white instead of white-white (which I wouldn’t have thought of myself), and camel (I disagree entirely).

Now starts the fun: we went to the store and tried out a million outfits. We picked a pair of black skinny dress pants which I would have never picked out myself, ever. They looked amazing! The cut was just right! I also got a drapy-tied black sleeveless top with an off-white lining and it was also perfect. The tied part hid any extra flab I have around my middle, without making me look like I was trying. Excellent. I also got a nicely tailored blue dress. We were running out of time and we needed to pick a 4th item, so I ended up with a light pink top which looked really nice on the hanger, but not on me. I have no idea what I was thinking when I took it, it’s a classic mistake of taking what there is. By the time I got home I already knew it was wrong for me, so I went back the next week and exchanged it for a black tailored dress. Much better.

365 Project: Day 2

A second train sitting next to the train I was on

I don't usually drive to Tel Aviv, mostly because I don't know it well, but also because if you take into account the gas, the parking and the stress, it comes out cheaper to take public transportation. I took the train to Tel Aviv and a taxi to Nahalat Binyamin. I had a fun couple of hours buying fabrics & notions, and then met a friend for lunch. On the way back I was sitting in the train station, when this bright red train stopped next to us. The combination of the red, the yellow warning sign and the black grills (I wonder what they're for) caught my eye and I decided that would be my picture of the day.
I also took a picture of some fabrics, but I think that the train picture is much nicer.

 

fabrics outside a store in Nahalat Binyamin in Tel Aviv

 Last year (I'm pretty sure it was around June), I saw some really nice fabric in this store, but since it was the first store I went into, I decided not to buy it before I saw some other things. I spent the past year thinking about this black-purple-plaid fabric, and wishing I had bought it. Well, here I was, a year later, and there was the fabric! The last 2 meters. It was rather expensive, but there was no way I was giving up on fabric I had been thinking about for a year... So, I bought it. Yey!