Uwajimaya

Stopped at the Uwajimaya in Renton today after taking the boys to have lunch with their Great Grandma, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunts, Uncle and cousins. 

I can hardly wait to show you what I found!

Moomin Candy!!!!

Y'all familiar with Mumintroll(Swedish spelling)?  Read much Tove Jansson?  She's a Swedish-Finn illustrator and writer.

I have been such a fan of Moomin for a few years now and it is not easy to find anything Moomin-ish, in stores here.  Uwajimaya has had the most offerings, besides online sources, that you can actually see, touch and feel.  I got candy, folks!  And it's good!

I figured these little tins will make great craft containers and I just love the Moomin stories and characters so even just to look at them makes me happy!  If you aren't familiar with Moomin, check out the comic strip and books.  If you like unusual, strange, interesting, funny, smart, weird stuff like I do, you'll LOVE the Moomins!

I also found some more new kitchen containers.  Look at what they say:

I just LOVE these!  Some of you may remember the ones I got over the summer:

I also found a few small ceramic containers that are so cute and useful:

Luckily (for my wallet's sake!), they did not have a Kinokuniya Book Store attached to this particular Uwajimaya so I didn't have to struggle with the do I buy it, don't I buy it, soul-splitting head-banter I always encounter upon trying to leave Kinokuniya without spending the mortgage money!  Oh, those Japanese sewing books!  They have me by the balls!  Love, love, love them!

Blessed Holidays Everyone!

Enjoy the season,

xoxox,

Jennette

New - Old Sweaters

So my Aunt Charlene saw my previous post about the Granted-type sweater I found at the Flea Market for $30.  It looks like this:

And it reminded her of the sweaters my Grandma knit (first photo, above)for her and my Uncle Steve, way back in the very early 70s, when Grandma was still working at Boeing and before my cousin Marci or I were born.  My aunt sent me an email a couple days ago and asked if I would want them, when we met at my Grandma's today for lunch, since she had had them in storage for many many years.  YES!  YES!  I want them!

August LOVES the sweater that fits him.  He says he feels like he should be wearing it on a college campus!  Can't you tell he thinks he looks good!  He does look good!

My Grandma knit them in wool and she even lined them!  They zip up and they don't have pockets but that's OK.

August is showing you the lining here.

So the other sweater fits me great but Gus is not thrilled that we have "matching" sweaters.  I told him that I wont wear mine when he wears his, but otherwise it's fair game!  Some day Jasper will fit into mine and then they can be matchy matchy brothers!

We LOVE our new - old sweaters!  Thanks Aunt Charlene and Uncle Steve!  Thank you Grandma for being a knitter back in the day!  I so adore having these family treasures and I love to use them!

Merry Yule and Blessed Solstice everyone!

xoxo

Jennette

 



Man Child

Hilarious man child, cracking me up!

xoxoxo

Jennette



Carpet Bag

Finally finished the carpet bag!

I found this rug piece in Tucson last spring and hauled it home with me.  I also found a full size rug, perfectly worn, that I hauled home too.  Thank you Southwest Airlines for letting us each check two bags for free!  I was able to bring home a massive ton of loot!  Anyhow, here is the rug piece, as found:

Here is the piece, as found, layed out on my floor.

Here is a closer-up detail.

I used dark brown linen, from an old dress, to line the inside side.  Its hard to see but I made a pocket too.

This photo shows how I just guesstimate about where and what size I want a messenger style bag to be.  I line the entire piece first then play with bag/flap size until it looks just right to me.  Then I pin in the side/strap piece.  This time I used the brown linen for one side of the strap and some army green linen from and old pair of shorts I picked up at the Lopez Transfer Station, Take It or Leave It, over the summer. 

Here is the strap before I began pinning it to the bag.

In these two photos I am trying to show the pinning of the strap to the bag in a way that you can see how I construct it.  But these photos don't do it justice.  I basically pin the bottom of the strap to what I want to be the bottom of the bag and then sew it up the sides to the top.  In this case, I made the strap too long so I need to go back and shorten it.

So with the carpet bag finished I can move on to other projects that have been left unfinished and half started.  Still working on my jacket from a vintage pattern.  Still working on a few other bags in progress.  Still have a few dolls being embroidered.  Still have mending and tweaking on several garments to finish.  Still, still, still.  And most of it will have to wait until I am back from vacation because that is fast approaching and I have many little ends to tie up before we fly off.  I plan to show you many of the finds I have discovered in the past couple weeks.  Stay tuned.  Normal programming will resume in the New Year. 

xoxox

Jennette



Turkey

Jasper embroidered his turkey design for his Grandma.  Every year he gives her some kind of turkey art project near Thanksgiving.  This year he decided to draw his own design and "sew" it on muslin for Grandma.

Jasper drew his turkey on paper with pencil.  Then he traced it with a Sharpie so the lines were dark.  Then he taped the picture up on the window and then we taped the muslin piece over it.  I helped him with the tracing of the design onto the muslin with pencil.

Hard at work, concentrating.

The back side.

Jasper asked me to finish the edges for him.  He did not want it to have tabs or any particular way to hang.  He wanted his Grandma to lay it flat on the table for his other clay turkeys to sit on.  He signed the bottom corner with a Sharpie.

And the minute he was done:

he picked up his knitting!

Turkey!

xoxox

Jennette