Claire the Crafter

"Man, we worked long and hard on this!"

"We've still got a few scraps left, but let me try to lay this out so that you can see what we've accomplished so far."

The Feeling of Satisfaction & Accomplishment = Happy Girl! :)

"There we go! Mama helped me lay it out for the picture...just right! Hopefully those pillows she's going to make next turn out just as good as this! I'd better help her with those too."

I've been seriously nesting these past couple of days! Luckily it's just what our house needs - we're stuck as savers (not pack rats quite, but savers nonetheless). I wish it weren't so...I want to get rid of the 'stuff' but somehow have a sentimental attachment to it. But really, who needs to keep their dead cat's fleece blanket when he's been gone for over two years? (Loved Milo...never loved the blanket.)

Anyway, part of this 'nesting' is also redecorating. How you ask? We'll, I'm getting rid of the old decor! Most of it anyway. ;) I made a $30 trip to the second-hand store (seems like a lot to spend at a second-hand store, but I got a lot of decor, including a really retro lamp!) a couple weeks ago and a $7 trip to the fabric store the other day. So out comes the sewing machine! I'm no expert, in fact I have to read the direction booklet everytime I sew (twice a year?) because I always forget something basic, like winding lower spool with thread...I think that puts me at 'novice.' However, I HAVE a sewing machine and that's a start to learning. Someday I'll learn a bit more about all it can do! Yesterday I told Claire that we were going to 'naehen' (sew) and she was very much looking forward to it, even though she really had no clue what that meant. She asked all morning and I kept telling her that we had to do a few other things first, like make room on the table for the sewing machine...lol. Finally after lunch we busted out the Singer! She collected all the old fabric scraps I had kept (again, why did I keep those?) and I figured a little practice with the machine on my part couldn't hurt. She handed me the scraps to sew together and told me where to put them. Her biggest job, however, was lowering and raising the 'foot' (if I remember correctly...right Mom? Mom was a guru seamstress back in the day - think '70s when fabric was cheap - she made all her own clothes even!) with each new scrap. So, as you can see above, here's Claire with her project.

First thing this morning, Claire wanted to sew. She insisted that we needed to do this before breakfast! Unfortunately we had 'problems' right away and I still need to look in the manual on how to fix the spool. I'm sure it's really no big deal, but this bought us some time for a break from sewing to do more important things...like eat breakfast. Check back, maybe I'll eventually get to 'my project' - I'm just hoping (and realllllly crossing my fingers) for good results! :)