2009 Daily Photo | Suzanne Earley

finally found what I was looking for, though not in the place i was expecting it. i had seen this photo frame on a blog sometime in the last…month or so…which meant it was really easy to find.

not.

finally found it on the website of the digital scrapbooking site where i could actually buy the set of frames (and it was pure dumb luck that i actually ended up there).

yes, i was going to go to bed, but i just really wanted to find these frames.

i don’t “do” new year’s resolutions, but i’m going to try this daily photo thing again.

we’ll see how it goes.

(the photo is actually quite terrible, but i still like it. i never figured out why will never got dressed today. or why joe doesn’t have socks on. all 3 (the third kid is their cousin ben) have basketballs, but you can’t even see the blur that is joe’s ball…they were doing a silly Disco Dribbling thing, which is why Joe is pointing — dribble with one hand, point with the other, then switch hands (sort of a staying alive disco move…))

and now, i am truly going to go to bed. when i get lazy and don’t bother capitalizing, it usually means it’s time to quit.

p.s. you are welcome for the ear worm in the post title. that’s something else i’m going to try to continue into the new year, the whole song title and/or lyrics as post titles. i wonder how many people i’ll be able to annoy with them.

tomorrow’s daily photo might actually be one taken by mark, as he is going to take all 3 boys skiing tomorrow…we should probably ask his sister for a letter stating that he has permission to seek medical assistance for her son…just in case…

Several months ago, I opened up the seams on a pair of jeans that had developed a hole in the knee. The idea being that I would embellish the jeans in some way, and then sew them back up. Opening the seams is as far as I got at the time….

Next weekend, my mom and I will be going to a wedding in Texas. We were talking about what we are planning to wear — there is a party Friday night, the Blessing of the Wedding on Saturday, and a brunch on Sunday. OK. I’d better stop and explain first: the wedding itself is actually tomorrow. In Sweden. (The groom is Swedish and the happy couple lives in Sweden). The bride’s parents live in Texas, and *next* weekend is a great big party for the American friends that couldn’t make it to Sweden. But it’s easier to say that we are going to a wedding, than it is to say that we are going to a Blessing of a Wedding — obviously it took me a long time to explain just what the heck I meant.

So, back to the story, and why this has anything to do with my jeans. The Friday night event is Western themed party, and we decided that blue jeans were probably acceptable. But I started thinking….wouldn’t it be cool to wear something I had made….and wouldn’t it be fun to actually finish embellishing the jeans I had torn apart? The problem has always been that I simply didn’t know what to do with them. So, I started brainstorming today. Yes, the event is next Friday. At least I’m starting today, and not next Thursday….

No matter what I do, the ultimate goal is to cover the rather large rip in the left knee. This requires a fairly large patch of something, and I just haven’t been able to figure out what. I don’t want it too look dorky….

For some reason I picked up a piece of Michael Miller fabric with big hydrangeas on it — which reminded me that I have a jacket made out of the hydrangea fabric. OK, the reason I picked it up was because it was sitting on top of one of the gazillions of piles strewn around my studio at the moment. But, it must have been sitting there for just this purpose.

Here’s the jacket: (You can click the picture to view it larger)

It’s longer in back than in front and is kind of swingy. It’s an Indygo Junction pattern, and is actually reversible. And *I* made it! Amazing! And oh, I guess it needs to be ironed….

After contemplating the fabric and the jacket, I thought about turning the jeans into a companion for the jacket.

I decided to cut out some of the hydrangea bunches, and am planning to fuse them on. The sleeves of the jackets get folded up to show the red lining fabric as a cuff, so I’m also thinking about adding cuffs to the bottom of the jeans:

Once the flowers are fused on, I’ll use monofilament thread to stitch around the edges. I’m also thinking about adding some beading as an accent to the flowers, both on the jeans and on the jacket.

Any opinions on beads on the jeans? Obviously I don’t want beads on the backside, because I don’t want to sit on them…..but if I use Nymo thread to apply them, they ought to be OK, don’t you think? I’ll probably even try to remember to make a knot before and after each bead for extra security, maybe fuse something over the stitching on the inside once it is all done, just to help secure it. Plus, these will be special occasion jeans, not meant to be worn every day.

Are the cuffs going to look OK? Part of why I’m adding them is that the bottoms of the jeans are fraying slightly, so I thought it would be nice to help neaten those up a little bit.

That’s what I’ve been up to this afternoon.

I bent the truth a little yesterday — the day wasn’t completely wasted, as I did do some beading on my May 12x12x12 quilt. I’m couching the beads on, and I need more practice apparently. Additionally, it points out to me that the beads I was using were not as uniform as I thought.