InstaFriday

It's InstaFriday! Here's some of what I snapped with my mobile phone this week. Random tidbits of my life.

Saturday was the inaugural mowing of the back back. No, I didn't accidentally type back twice. We have an acre that's longer than wide. Our backyard consists of two halves. The fenced in part near our house and the unfenced with the creek running through it. At some point we started calling the creek half the "back back". Here's part of it above when I was heading back to mow.

These clouds caught my eye when I was leaving my house to go over to my mom's house.

Running along the river at Castlewood State Park.

This fabric is so cheery. They're Eddie Bauer pajama pants I bought at a thrift store for $3.

Our Greyhound.

Lilac is my favorite floral fragrance. My lilac bushes are loaded with blooms right now.

I love dogwood flowers and how the touch of dark red at the tip of each petal symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Lizzy Bag

In January I realized I was long overdue for a new purse and had looked but didn't find one I liked. Then I decided to make one. One evening I checked for patterns online and came across the perfect one.

image credit: Clover and Violet

This is the Lizzy bag by Clover and Violet. I bought the pdf pattern for $8 in their Etsy shop.

Here's my finished bag. It was my first time making a bag. I bought the fabric last year at Hobby Lobby.

The only things I did different from the pattern was make the strap longer. I also customized the widths of the pockets on the inside. Mainly so one was the right size to hold my mobile phone. I recommend sewing the button on with upholstery thread. The one you see in the photo has popped off. I need to make a new one and sew it on.

This is the patchwork fabric of a Lilly Pulitzer dress I bought for $4.50 at a thrift store last week. I'm going to turn it into my next Lizzy bag.

An Eagle and a Train

Yesterday I headed to Castlewood State Park. It's one of my favorite places to run. I love the lower portion of the River Scene Trail that goes along the Meramec River. As I was running something in the middle of the river caught my eye and I stopped. I couldn't believe it. There was a bald eagle sitting on a fallen tree. Just as I was pulling my phone out of my pocket to take a photo it flew toward the trees just ahead of me. As I continued my run I kept looking for it but didn't see it again.

After I finished running, I decided to hike up to the top of the bluffs to see if I could spot it again.

I came across this bright yellow flower on my way to the hill.

The first part of the trail goes up the side of the hill. As I started walking up I heard a train horn blow. It sounded strange. Deeper than the freight trains that usually go through the park.

This is the next part that's rocky and steep. A guy came running down this and wiped out right next to me. He slid, rolled, popped back up and kept running. Then he came back up to get the sunglasses he dropped. I've run down this. You have to be very careful.

I love dogwood flowers.

Here's a view from near the top. Way down there by the river is where I run.

Then I went on just a little further and heard that train horn again, but this time it was very close and I realized the train was coming on the tracks right below me. I hurried to the viewing platform that was by me and looked down. That's when I saw what I found out later after Googling was the Shiloh Limited train being pulled by the Union Pacific 844 steam engine. Very cool!

Here's a video of the train taken by somebody in Kansas. The train started in Nebraska and it's destination is Arkansas near Memphis, TN. It's carrying reenactors to the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh. The passengers on the train had to be costumed in Civil War period attire. From what I read, the train can hold about 500 people.

image credit: Columbia Daily Tribune

Here's a few of the gentlemen.

image credit: Columbia Daily Tribune

A couple of the ladies.

By the way, I made a Civil War era dress from a period pattern several years ago. I'll have to get it out and photograph it some time. Lots of hooks and eyes on the top. I still need to make a hat. I am a Civil War geek.

So, I didn't get to see the bald eagle again but I did see it and I saw this historic train. All in all, it was a very nice visit to the park.

Sugar Hill

Recently I won a 1/2 yard bundle of fabric from the Sugar Hill collection by Tanya Whelan for Free Spirit. The giveaway was on the Fabric Shoppe's Everyday Beautiful blog.

Here it is! The fabric arrived the other day. There's a 1/2 yard of each of the eight fabrics shown. I'm thinking I'll make a quilt with it. Granny squares have been tickling my fancy lately.

Do you want some of this fabric? You can buy the 1/2 yard bundle from Fabric Shoppe on Etsy here.

InstaFriday

A day late. I've decided to join Jeanett at Life Rearranged with InstaFriday posts. Photos you snapped during the week with your phone. Not necessarily using Instagram, which I can't use anyway since I have an Android phone.

Here's what I captured this week.

I came home from running errands to find this. We had pouring rain showers that afternoon and our mail carrier decided this was a good idea.  The part of the box sticking out was soaked, but luckily what was inside stayed dry because it was wrapped in plastic. The rest of the mail was damp.

St. Patrick's Day I worked my retail job and added a little flair by wearing this shamrock bead necklace on my wrist.

Saturday night as the storms were clearing out we had an amazing sunset. The photo is blurry and in no way captures the awesomeness of it. Such a shame.

Sunday I went to the Bits 'n' Pieces quilt show at the Greensfelder Recreation Complex. I liked this quilt's pink and green color combination.

I went for a run at Queeny Park and was so happy to see the horse that lives there was in the pasture standing by the fence. Hello, handsome boy!

A turkey flew into the fenced part of our backyard and then couldn't figure out how to get out.  For about a half hour it walked back and forth along the fence longing for the other side. It finally flew out when my daughter and a couple friends came near walking around on the outside of the fence.

Wednesday I took a vacation day from my main job and worked on my continuing project of organizing the basement. These are my war wounds from putting together metal shelving units. Pinching skin between a metal shelf and a metal support pole does not feel good. Doing it a second time doesn't improve the experience.

Friday I took another vacation day and went to a couple thrift stores. I bought this Lilly Pulitzer dress for $4.50. I'm going to make a bag out of it. Conveniently it has a solid pink lining that I'll use for the inside of the bag. 

At another thrift store I found this pair of Lucky Brand jeans. They were in my size and fit perfectly. Only $8. A great deal because they sell for around $100. I also scored a top and a pair of khakis. 

Storm clouds came rolling in Friday afternoon. I was facing east and the clouds were moving in from the west. 

In the Bag

My sixteen year old daughter did not own a bag. It's not due to lack of looking. I can attest to that. Finally, one day when we were out she found a bag she liked. Unfortunately, she didn't like any of the fabrics it came in. So, she asked me to make one like it. I was up to the challenge.

Next step was to find fabric. We went to (not all in the same day) Jo-Ann, Jackman's, Hancock, Hobby Lobby and finally she decided on this batik at In Stitches. It's from the Jungle Time collection from Bali Fabrics. $9.99 per yard.

From there we went to Jo-Ann to get solid navy fabric for the lining. That was $4.99 a yard and I used a 40% off coupon from their handy dandy Android app. It's nice not having to deal with the paper coupons. You can also show them their coupon email on your phone. Here's the navy fabric. It's just navy cotton fabric. I used navy thread, too. Gutermann.

The one thing she wanted changed was the strap. She wanted it all one width instead of wider where it attaches to the bag. Also, no tie closure. Here's the finished product.

Here's a photo of the entire bag. It has a long strap so she can wear it cross body. The fabric has a bit of a sheen to it and doesn't photograph well. The big swatch I showed you is a better representation of the fabric.

What did my daughter think of it? She loves it! Mission accomplished.

Caught My Eye: Anthropologie

In January of last year (yes, I do mean 2011), my daughter and I were in Anthropologie and a couple things caught my eye.  I'm finally getting around to sharing them with you.

These are their stoneware Farmer's Market Baskets. There's something about berry baskets I've always liked. I really love these colors. They remind me I have two or three old wood berry basket totes I picked up at an estate sale that I need to refurbish and do something with.

Nearby were these little porcelain Inside Out Bowls. The combination of the colors and pattern is great. It gives me a retro vibe. You can't tell by my photo but the pattern continues on the inside of the bowl.

Pouch Swap

First, I really don't like the word pouch. Something about it bothers me. It's right up there with moist, supple and panties. Unfortunately, I can't think of another word to replace it with. I could say bag but for the swap what you consider a bag -- a tote or purse -- was not included. So, pouch it is.

At the February meeting of the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild the pouch swap was announced. Anybody who wanted to participate wrote their name on a slip of paper along with somewhere online where someone kind find out about the kind of things you like. I felt bad for whoever picked my name because I didn't have much out there for them to work from. I've done a poor job blogging and pinning. However, Annie drew my name and did a great job! She even gave me a little bonus. I've been making use of both and here they are.

For the one I made, I fell back into my procrastinating ways. On Friday I decided on the color scheme -- blues and lime green. I bought a zipper, thread and some fabric at Jo-Ann. I had some charm squares from a blog giveaway I won last year that included blue and green fabrics. Here are the charm squares I won.

Here's a piece of blue and green fabric I picked up off the free table at the January STLMQG meeting. It had the square cut out of it when I got it.

This is what I bought at Jo-Ann. It includes some pink and yellow fabric in case I decided to go that direction.

Then for some crazy reason I decided it would be no big deal to wait until Saturday morning to make the pouch before heading out to the 10:00 meeting. I've never made a pouch. I've never sewn a zipper. I wasn't until Saturday morning I found out I did have a zipper foot. I decided I was going to piece the front but hadn't figured out which fabrics or what the layout would be. It all ended up coming together pretty well in the end.

Some of the guild members have posted photos of their pouches in the Flickr pool here. I've been negligent in posting photos on Flickr. I am a major slacker on many fronts. 

Green with Indie

Saturday afternoon I went to the Green with Indie craft fair at Webster University. It's the first time I've been to it and was not disappointed. This is how craft fairs should be. Run of the mill craft fairs are always loaded with jewelry and machine embroidery, as well as non-handmade vendors selling sheet sets and party products such as candles and kitchen gadgets. Green with Indie was like a breath of fresh air.

Image Credit: Green with Indie

One thing I rarely see at craft fairs are primitives. Right off I came upon The Ravenscroft Collective. Some great primitive items they've made from the fabric of things like suits.

Here's some chickens.

Some sweet birds.

I love primitive sheep.

Next this Ninja Bunny caught my eye. How super cute is this? There was a bigger one next to it. Shame on me for not getting the name of this seller!

Having just coming from the STLMQG meeting with the pouch swap (I'll tell you about that soon) I couldn't help noticing Down Zipper's wares. She uses a lot of cute fabrics.

Here's some snap top coin holders. I love the fabric on the middle top one.   

Right next door was Riley Construction with these sweet foxes. I've been noticing foxes popping up here and there for awhile. I'll have to do a little roundup post on that.

Last but not least are these awesome pirate owls by My Little Feather. 

They make cupcake potholders, too. 

Seeing all of these artisans really inspires and motivates me.  I'm definitely going to this craft fair again next year, as well as keeping my eye out for more of these types of events.