tania howells

for fun

I love Pinterest for clothes!  It's the first time I have found clothes I like online, I never knew where to look before. I waste lots of time enjoying myself with my nice to wear folder, getting inspiration and just window shopping.  This morning I am playing around with a drawing of an outfit I favour, comfy and easy.  I go to clothing swaps and end up with tons of stuff I might not buy but cheerfully take for free. I like playing around with what to wear.  I like to cut and fix up stuff and refashion what I have.  I also have been making this and that.  I have made three Wiksten tanks, to some success.  I think I need to find the right fabric for it to hang the way I like...perhaps I will show those in a row like above!  I have also made one McCall 3940 tank top, which is a super easy pattern.  Its maternity but I love that baggy drape.  I want to make the dress version in a cozy grey polar fleece for layering in winter.  I am super inspired by Ivy Arch and her year of making clothes and by Sonya Philip and her 100 acts of sewing project.  Amazing!

it's dahlia season!

A couple of pics from my walk home from camp.  The dahlias are wonderful this year, as usual.  I just love the abundance of flowers! I love the fact that when one batch finish, the lilies, then come the dahlias and phlox and black eyed susans.  Sometimes it seems flowers are the most fantastic gift, blooming just to be amazing. I live in a predominantly Portuguese neighbourhood and the grammas and grandpas have the magic touch when it comes to dahlias.  I need to find out their secret!

summer monday

I have been limping along with this for a while, my crochet tee shirt rug.  I do know how to do the plain old chain, so I had been going round and round, adding stitches when it got a bit lumpy.  Its small and I may continue with it, but for now it fits under my feet here at the computer!

It is abandoned for now because I have transferred my energies to this!  Chevron crochet!! I learned it.  I tell ya, what the heck did we do before the internets?  I learned this on youtube here.

It helped me so much to SEE it happening because I really did not get it from pictures in the book I have.  It made no sense.   Triumph! Now I feel I can conquer anything...with the help of coffee of course.  I do have some yummy fluffy yarn to do the blanket, but I just love the tee shirt recycling idea,  there are just SO MANY tee shirts around here. Plus it's so lumpy that it doesn't really matter that I am still adding too many or too few stitches while I learn.  It will just be a mat under my feet, probably in front of the kitchen sink!  So it is not that dire.

Oh look!

Guinea pigs!

Oreo and Jingles were our house guests for the last three weeks! Munch munch munch.  That's what they say to you.  More grass please!  They were just so super cute.  They have gone back home now and I am a little bit glad, since I was the looker afterer and cleaner upper.

Guess what? I have another camp mornings week here! woo hoo!  I have the itunes up loud, an empty coffee cup and a heart full of joy!