Thimbleanna

Month: January 2014

Oh, The Places We’ll Go!

Those of you who have been around here for awhile might remember that, every January, the school that our boys attended has a fund-raising auction.  I would always go a few hours before the big event and take some pictures because the decorations are always over-the-top fabulous.  Last year I completely forgot about it, although, the theme wasn’t very exciting, so it may have been a subconscious forgetting.

When I heard the theme this year would be Oh, The Places We’ll Go, I knew I had to go check it out.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

Please forgive the darkness of the pictures.  I never use a flash in order to keep as low a profile as possible, because I always feel so awkward walking around taking pictures.  Also, please excuse the random person here and there — the staff were still working on the table settings.

Let’s back up and enter the auditorium through the hall where the attendees enter.  Here’s a very cropped shot of the entrance.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

You walk under the arches into a short little black and white hall and then turn to the right where a few more colors start to appear.  I love the adorable feather trees.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

Once inside, the lighting was pretty dim, much as I suspect it was during the event.  There were adorable, colorful light bulbs hanging everywhere.  Sadly, the colors of the lights are all blown out in all of my photos, but try to imagine all those lights in blues and oranges and reds, etc.  And the coolest thing is that each one of those lightbulbs changed colors every few seconds.  It was so happy and gorgeous!

Thimbleanna: School Auction

There were fun little reminders that the theme represented many books written by Dr. Suess.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

The tables at these events always have fantastic floral centerpieces, so when I first entered, I was surprised to see the giant hats on pillars.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

But, it didn’t take long to realize that those hats were made out of flowers.  Real Flowers.  Aren’t they beautiful?  So perfect for a Dr. Seuss affair!

Thimbleanna: School Auction

And look at the pillars that form the base of the hats.  The red and blue words running up and down them say “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”.  Did you figure out that those pillars are full of water?  With red and blue fish in them?  It’s hard to see the fish in the pictures and the funny thing is that I didn’t see the fish while I was there because I didn’t actually get very close to the tables.  After I left the building, I called MyDadLovesMeBestSister (who would be attending the big soiree in a few hours) and told her that I thought maybe the centerpieces were going to have some fish in them.  I wanted her to try and take a picture once they’d added the fish.  It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the pictures that I realized that the fish had been in the little aquariums when I was there.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

The ceiling and walls were full of jumbo sized characters and scenes from many of the Dr. Seuss books.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

Thimbleanna: School Auction

 

Thimbleanna: School Auction

So, there you have it for this year — I thought it was so much cuter than it has been in the last several years.  I guess I just like the years where the theme is centered around children’s stories, which are a lot more fun than when the theme is an idea or a place. (Haha — I was just looking back over some of the past auction posts and at the end of the last three posts, I commented that I sure hoped they’d go back to a children’s book theme.  I got my wish this year!)   Here’s a parting close-up of those feather trees.

Thimbleanna: School Auction

I’d like to have a bunch of those in the dungeon — they would distract from the fabric disaster that’s happening down there!

XOXO,
Anna

Welted Fingerless Gloves

Thanks for all the yoga bag love — you guys are all so very kind and sweet!  I’ve had fun reading your comments this last week — I’ve been so lazy, it’s been hard to even get back here and post!  (And it may be Easter before Santa and his sleigh up there disappear — ouch!)  I have been knitting like a madwoman though.  After dinner each night I settle down with a sweater I started a few weeks ago.  And then the next day at lunch I rip out what I knitted the night before.  Ouch again!  I’m getting really good at picking up stitches but I hope I don’t wear the yarn out before I’m done.  I’m slowly making progress, but with work during the day, it hasn’t left much time for anything else.

Anyway, here’s a look at a much easier knitting project.  This is the last of my Christmas gift making.  I made a couple of pairs of these pretty little Welted Fingerless Gloves from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.

Thimbleanna: Churchmouse Mitts

I first saw them on my almost-local buddy Anne’s blog.  Anne has made many of these little mitts and she describes them as her go-to gift, which I think is a great choice.  They’re quick and easy and fun.  Thanks for a great suggestion Anne!  (Btw, this is the little project I was working on when I posted about the Yarn Harlot’s visit to our little burg.  I showed a picture of just the cuff in progress and Bonnie knew right away what they were — good eye Bonnie!)

Thimbleanna: Churchmouse Mitts

So, if you’re in North America I hope you’re staying warm.  (And if you’re burning up in Australia, I sure wish I could send you some snow!)  We’re having another coooold week here and I love it.  I love winter when we can hunker down and work on projects.  I know some of you don’t like it though, but take heart.  The days are slowly getting longer.  Here’s a little pic from the archives to remind you that this deep freeze won’t last forever.

Thimbleanna: Daisies

Because, you know the routine …

Thimbleanna: Spring Always Comes

Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Peace. Love. Yoga.

Hello boys and girls!  It’s time to show you the super secret Christmas sewing project that was the most time consuming.  Here’s a little hint:

Thimbleanna: Yoga Mat Bag

Any guesses?

Ok, I’ll tell you.  All the ladies in the ThimbleannaLand family are planning a little yoga vacation this summer so I thought it would be fun if we all had matching yoga mat bags.  Altogether, I made 6 bags and it took me several full weekends to complete them.

Thimbleanna: Yoga Mat Bag

I think the girls really liked them.  CuteNiece2 (who is becoming a certified yoga instructor and will be our own personal instructor on our trip) told me this was her favorite gift, so that was pretty exciting!

I couldn’t find a yoga mat bag pattern that I liked, so I just sort of made one up by looking at commercially available yoga mat bags.  Each bag has one long zipper for the mat compartment in the middle and a smaller zipper on one side that opens into a pocket for wallet, keys, etc.  There is also an outside mesh pocket for a water bottle or towel or whatever.  Here’s a shot of what each side of the bags looks like:

Thimbleanna: Yoga Mat Bag

If you look closely, you can see that I personalized each person’s bag with their name.  The top bag in the picture above just happens to be mine!  ;-D  There’s a big long shoulder strap that runs from the top of the bag to the bottom of the bag.  It’s sewn down on the bottom of the bag, but on the top it’s left open so that it could be used as a carrying handle if someone wanted to carry their bag in an upright position but not on their shoulder.  There are also grommets in the bottom to provide ventilation for the mats.  Here’s a shot of the top and bottom of the bags:

Thimbleanna: Yoga Mat Bag

You can see that I used Sweetwater’s Make Life print on the ends of the bag.  I also used it for the bag linings.  It’s one of my very favorite prints ever and I’ve been hoarding a lot of it for a long time.  I think the little sayings in the print are perfect for a yoga bag.  Like the pencil rolls, I used the Robert Kaufman Essex Linen in Sand for most of the outside of the bags and then chose some scrap fabrics to match the Make Life fabric.

Thimbleanna: Yoga Mat Bag

The machine embroidery is a design from embroidery library.  We had a lot of peace signs this Christmas ;-D.  (They also have a cute Peace. Love. Knit. design that I think would be fun on a knitting bag.)

Thimbleanna: Yoga Mat Bag

And just to prove that I really did make six of them, here they are all stacked together.  This was really a fun project to sew!

Thimbleanna: Yoga Mat Bag

So, that’s the big project and the medium project posted. ;-D There’s still one other little project that I’ll save for next time. I hope you’re having a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Ooooh, P.S.  I forgot to tell you that I got my shipment of Linen Mochi Dots by MoMo from Moda.  I LOVE this fabric and if it had been available before Christmas, these yoga bags would have had a very different look!  You can find them HERE, in my little etsy store.

Thimbleanna: Linen Mochi Dots

Pencil Rolls

Well, apparently time doesn’t pass any more slowly in the New Year.  I was really hoping things would slow down, but this past week sure whizzed by.  Maybe we were just busy trying to stay warm LOL.

I’ve debated in what order I should show you the super secret Christmas sewing.  (Just so you know, there weren’t any quilts — don’t want you to be dissapointed LOL.)  Easiest first?  Save the best for last?  There were three projects and, in my mind, I can put them in a definite order.  I’ve finally decided on a random order show-and-tell, so, this is the “middle” project.

Both of my cute nieces are very artistic, so I made them each a colored pencil roll.  I was sewing these at the last minute on Christmas Eve, so we try not to look too closely at the stitching!

Thimbleanna: Pencil Rolls

I didn’t follow a pattern.  I just bought 24 packs of colored pencils, chose 24 matching fabrics, cut those little colored strips 1 1/2″ wide, and then sewed them together in a long line.  If I could make them over, I’d probably like to put a binding around the edges, rather than do the right-sides-together-and-turn finishing method. On the outside, I machine embroidered a peace signs and flowers design from Embroidery Library.

Thimbleanna: Pencil Rolls

Then, I stitched a “made for you” tag on an inside corner, just for fun.  (Just how many yellow pencils does one 24-pack need, anyway?)

Thimbleanna: Pencil Rolls

The linen is essex linen in the sand colorway from Robert Kaufman and it’s wonderful for sewing.

Thimbleanna: Pencil Rolls

They were a quick, fun little project.  Next time I’ll start earlier so I can do a better job!  (Famous last words!)

Thimbleanna: Pencil Rolls

Ok, next time, the biggest project. As in, the one that took several weekends and a lot of time in the dungeon.

XOXO,
Anna

Winston

I’m sure by now, wherever you are in the world, you’re hearing about the deep freeze here in the U.S.  It’s COLD out there!  We had a quick visit to Iowa to visit TheFirstChild and SweetiePie and managed to drive home in the snowstorm.

The snow got heavier the farther east we drove and, surprisingly, we have more snow at home than anywhere along our route.  It’s surprising because we seem to be just barely out of the lake effect snow belt and it’s rare for us to get this much snow in one storm.

You’ve seen the view out our back window before and here’s how it looks tonight.

Thimbleanna: Happy New Year

It’s SO beautiful and I LOVE it!  It could be a little warmer though — I think we’re currently at -15 F and depending on which version of the forecast you read, we’ll barely clear 0 degrees F tomorrow.  Brrrr!

Oh well, enough about the cold (and just how thankful are we for heating tonight, hmmmm?)  One of the reasons we went to see the kids was to see the new baby.  I’m a grandma.  Sort of.  Meet Winston!

Thimbleanna: Happy New Year

Isn’t he a cutie?  He’s a goldendoodle puppy and at only 11 weeks, he’s pretty big already.  He’s such a sweet little puppy and he sure loves his “parents”.  Here he is teething on his mother’s fingers.

Thimbleanna: Happy New Year

There’s some intense puppy training going on there.  He’s already housebroken (such a good boy), can sit and shake hands,  and he’s working really hard on confining his chewing to one of his 5,000 toys.  He doesn’t like having his picture taken very much, but here he is, showing me his good side.  (We know this because the other side was blurry.)

Thimbleanna: Happy New Year

And, of course, I had to show him how to knit.  It was hard to get a good picture of him — he was always on the move.

Thimbleanna: Happy New Year

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with him — it made me miss having a dog around.  I came home and puppy-roughed up on the Scruffster and he bit me.  Cats are no fun!

Oh — hey — did you notice those cute HOT pink boots in the first picture?

Thimbleanna: Happy New Year

SweetiePie got new Hunter boots while I was visiting and she taught me a clever new trick for boot buying — order your boots in kiddie sizes! They’re a LOT cheaper and just as cute. We went shopping with the hot pink hunters and you wouldn’t believe all the comments she got. I thought the girls in the LuLuLemon store were going to come unglued! That little trick will work for other brands of boots too {cough}Sorel{cough}.

Ok Peeps — Stay Warm. When I come back I’ll start some Christmas super secret sewing project sharing (say that 10 times fast) — better late than never!
XOXO,
Anna