Wallpaper

Normally I’m not a big fan of wallpaper.  I like the colors and prints of wallpaper, almost in the same way I like the colors and designs of fabric but I had a bad experience once, trying to remove it from our bathroom walls after moving in.  I ultimately failed and we had to hire professionals to finish the job because it was just not coming off.    But when the giant blank wall behind our kitchen table was begging to have something put on it I decided to give wallpaper another chance – in a small dose.

I got a large board (3′ x 5′) which just barely squeezed into the van, painted the edges white and wallpapered it.  It sounds easy, but this job took hours – getting the wallpaper to hang straight on the board, then trying to get the board to hang straight on the wall.  I like to think I’m handy with tools, but sometimes it’s still a challenge.  The wood is actually anchored to some pieces of wood behind it so it isn’t flush on the wall – sorta like art.

Since the table was clean, I took a few extra pictures.

I happy with how it turned out.  I originally wanted to hang pictures on and around the board, but I’ve decided I like the simplicity of it.

M. Couture

What I do when I find mushrooms in the yard…

Cloth Baby Shoes

My sister’s tutorial for Cloth Baby Shoes has been around forever, but I only just recently had the perfect reason to make them.

Let me just say that it is a fabuloo tutoriloo!  Remember when you just started sewing and every little project made you feel so good?  This is what these shoes did for me.

It’s a feeling that I miss since when I’m designing my own stuff there are so many failures before a success.

The ruffle gives them a little bit of a house slipper look.

And I sewed lines across the bottom so they look like treads.

Hope they make a baby happy!

Sensei Wu in Taiwan

After getting settled in at home I promptly sprained my ankle playing soccer and have been on crutches ever since.  It’s a new thing for me – crutches.  I’ve never used them before and I’ve found it to be a super humbling experience.  My hands are needed for walking so although I can get myself a glass of water I can’t take it anywhere.  God is good for providing helpful children, a helpful husband, and friends who have cooked for us the past few nights!

So while I have crawled upstairs a few times while trying to convince the dog that I’m NOT playing on the stairs, very little crafting is going on.  To  fill the gap, Sensei Wu is back with some of his adventures.

I am Sensei Wu, Master of Spinjitsu, seeker of joy and peace. I often do not understand art, but this work brings joy and peace to all who see it. It is mine. I will bring it to my garden.

I am Sensei Wu, Master of Spinjitsu, seeker of joy and peace. This creature brings peace and joy to the world. He may stay in my garden.

This guy, on the other hand, had to go. He promotes sadness and chaos.

 

I am Sensei Wu, entrepreneur.  I would like to open a Ninja shoe store. I will call it Miso Toe. Its logo will be a bowl of miso soup with a shoe in it.

I am Sensei Wu, Master of Spinjitsu. A nice walk on the beach brings peace and joy to all. I claim this beach. I am now a beach owner.  (Inspired by this photo.)

I am Sensei Wu, Master of Spinjitsu. This shall be my new beach residence. There are many rooms for my ninja students.

I a Sensei Wu, seeker of joy and peace.  It looks like a giant has been here. It does not bring me peace to imagine what creature this must belong to.

I am Sensei Wu, Master of Spinjitsu. What are you laughing at, big guy?

 

I am Sensei Wu, Master of Spinjitsu. I fear no one. What? A giant dragon behind me? Yeah right. I will not be lured into turning around just so you can laugh at me.

Processing

We’re back.

Back from a much-needed vacation in Taiwan.  Every year I come back with a lot of things to process.  And these past few days I’ve been processing though the fog of jet lag.  Like what a blessed life we have here with a view of a park out of our back window.  And clean air.  A reminder to not complain about the silly, perceived inconveniences of our lives.

I was showing our family some things that we brought back and my niece, who went with us to Taipei last year commented, “Everything’s cute in Taiwan.”  I’m sure she wasn’t talking about the traffic and pollution, but it made me smile to think that that is the impression that she had because I love Taiwan.  And in spite of the smaller living spaces and difficulty we had getting our laundry dry in the washer/dryer combo we had, I hope I never give off a negative impression of the country I grew up in.

Without a car we walked.  A lot.  Walked to the subway.  Walked to the bus.  Carted our groceries in our hands.  Hiked numerous mountains.  And I felt my body shed some of its winter “padding”.

And I discovered I like to photograph mushrooms.

And catepillars.

And beetles.

And Sensei Wu traveled with us.  He’ll make his appearance here soon.

for Baby Zoey

Dear Baby Zoey,

I made you a little cushion to decorate your nursery.  It is a little vintagey and a little moderny.  I was so happy with how it turned out…

until I realized I had spelled your name wrong!  I’m sorry.  There was a little bit of room left to add the Y so I squeezed it in.

When you’re older you can hug and squeeze it.  I put a little texture in there just for you.

Until then I hope you and your family enjoy having it in your nursery.

Love,

Miss Linda (from church)

What Idu.

It’s been 10 months since I got a Yudu (nicely discounted at Michael’s).  I’ve had it on a shelfdu in my sewing room since then and I see it everyday.  I finally pulled it out last night and the good news is that after all that time on a shelf it still worksdu!

It was really hard to pick a designdu to start with.  Yes, you can clean off your screendu and reuse it for a different design, but even though I knew that logically, the emotion of it was this is permanentdu.  I finally just went with something I thought was cute and fundu – something that a friend doodled for me (and I got permission to usedu).  And here she is – the crying girldu herself:

WAH!

I tried to play with different fabrics to see how it looked and at this point I’m pretty happy with what I seedu.  And while I was looking around online I saw that there is a miniature Yudu for cards called Yudu Cardshop.  I’m temptedu – I really am.

Tips for your first Yudu project:

• Clear a spacedu in your kitchen – it’s really the best place to start since you’ll need a nice big sinkdu to rinse your screen in.
• Set aside several hours for the process.  Creating the screendu is what takes a bunch of time – just drying the emulsion to the screen took an entire hour on the drying shelfdu.  Let’s just say that when I got to the actual screen printing I was up WAY later than I had wantedu to be.
• If you prefer reading your instructions lookdu here.  If  you prefer a video demo lookdu here.
• The screening works differently on different fabrics – so try them out on different fabrics to see what you likedu.

My overall thoughts?  2 thumbsdu up – lots of fundu!

Do you Yudu?  Have any Yu-tipsdu?  I’d love to hear them!