ugh..oooohhh man...ugh

i am sick. i feel so weak and tired and my insides are scratchy. i felt this cold coming on over a week ago, dosed myself with emergen-C and hoped for the best. i got the worst. this cold keeps morphing and mutating, to allow me to feel every potentiality a cold could offer. congestion, sore throat, sore body, foggy mind, weakness, exhaustion, so much pain in my head. on and on. don't come near me! you don't want this.

i am hoping and praying it's over soon--this is rodney's spring break and i have been looking forward to FINALLY being able to sew sew sew until i have a good stock of offerings to post on my poor, neglected etsy site. he took jubal for a longish bikeride yesterday (before the downpour) and i was able to sew a bag from start to finish--even making the handles and overcasting the seams. the whole thing! i've also been making a few zip pouches and have plans for a bunch more. i think zip pouches are one of my new top tens--they are so handy for putting stuff in (i have a weakness for all things that hold other things--shelves, baskets, pouches, etc.) he's planning to take jubal out again today at some point, so i will be sewing some more later--through the fog.

the upside of this cold is that i--totally by chance, as i wasn't even looking for a book for me (i was reading paul theroux's hotel honolulu)--found wally lamb's new book at the library (i was there to get the little house in the big woods to read with the girls) and it's very long, big and thick...you only get the new releases for two weeks and i wondered if i'd be able to finish it. thanks to this cold, i will (though i might not remember any of it!) i'll post more about it when i'm done reading it.

congratulations to loki, who sold a story to fantasy and science fiction--hooray! loki blogs here http://www.lokikohall.blogspot.com/ and asked me the other day if she could post my old bummers and gummers nettle story for spring (yes! of course!) and i'm so excited for her. i need to write again so i, too, can sell things.

when the mindfog and the exhaustion clears i will post a bunch of pictures of my latest creations here or on the flickr site, so you have that to look forward to. until then, it's soup and bedrest (the new bed ROCKS, by the way, it's like sleeping on some very supportive clouds.)

gratitudes:
1) magazines are still buying stuff!
2) soup is easy to make
3) bodies heal
4) nothing lasts forever
5) wally lamb FINALLY wrote a new book, and just in time

krafts are sew kool

i am pleased to announce that whatever neurological problems are going on, so far they are not interfering with my ability to sew or knit (my energy level and thus my will to do so....'nother story)...i've taken back up my abandoned handwarmers for myself that got tossed into the knitting drawer and forgotten and i've been sewing halloween costumes like mad. a wood elf dress for vesta, which involved a lot of leaves and actually SEWING A DRESS!!!--albeit a very simple jumper type bodice, but still. hazel changed her mind three different times--first, she was going to be lee scoresby (the aeronaut from the golden compass--played in the film by our dear friend, sam elliot), then a witch, then at the very last minute (a.k.a. right before i bought the dress material), she decided to be ginny weasly (ron's younger sister in the harry potter phenomenon)...my least favorite choice, but which did result in hazel needing a robe/cloak thingy, which i made up and turned out great, if i do say so myself. more kudos to gramma judy because when she gave me a big stash of sewing materials, there was a giant piece of black polyester, which worked great for the cloak. it turned out so well, in fact, that i think i might save my pennies for some nice wool and sew myself a cloak. mmmm yummy softness and warm.

i was doing some random internet craft-blog and search engine perusing yesterday and finally came upon the name of the product that bottle cap artists use to finish the insides of the bottle caps, giving them a shiny, glossy depth. a probably horribly toxic two-part resin epoxy thing called envirotex...although i actually think i came across some info that said it doesn't off gas...could that be right? more research is needed, i suppose. anyways--i can not wait to try this stuff out! the realm of art has always been my environmental albatross...the place where i just can't help making compromises in the name of being in the moment of creation. i ordered some along with some magnets and am going to play around with it until i'm comfortable, then i think hold a workshop at blue mountain school for the kids.

last night and this morning i worked on making a bag out of that orange and black day of the dead-themed oilcloth i bought several months ago. i put rivets in the top to string the handles through and i really like it. i'm interested to see what kind of weight it can hold. just how strong is that oilcloth, anyways? i definitely had some trouble sewing with that oilcloth and really want to get a teflon foot and figure out just what is the best needle for sewing plasticy things, as i also have some vinyl sheeting i got out of a remnant pile that i want to sew into a pouch. anyone have tips?

today i am grateful for:

1) it's not my day to wash the dishes
2) jubal is so happy and joyful and delicious
3) how supportive my family is during this not-ideal-health crap
4) the other volunteers at BMS for spreading the work around
5) hebrew national hotdogs (when you're so freaking sick and tired that you can never think of foods to prepare, they are right there for you--quick to prepare, savory, and kosher. ah yeah)

hot mama

it's so painfully hot these days. whew. the yard tub is seeing lots of action, my friends.

so...i sewed 8 tote bags (well, one's a shoulder-ish bag) from SCRATCH!!! and now i'm off them, it's enough for people to pick over and hopefully buy a few. i've made two sets of notecards, one is of a little fat bird and it says "hello" (called "hello birdie), and one is of this abstract geometric weird, dog-god thing i can't possibly describe called "all hail geometrix"...that one has several colors and lots of connecting lines and was quite a fiddly gocco experience. gocco works best with thick lines and lots of space between the colors, but it was such a great time this morning, just sitting down to draw anything random and figure out how to gocco it. it was about seven million times more fun than battling the tote bag sewing monster. plus, the note card sets look so cute all bundled together with their matching envelopes, all secured with bean twine or ribbons. i think i'll make one more design in time for the bazaar...then i'll have to buy more screens and bulbs, and i'm super eager to get more ink colors. so fun. i have several blank, already made canvas grocery totes--i embellished one for dad that i really love--different fabrics sewn on to be peas, a carrot, and a tomato...i may try to do some more of those...they are a bit fiddly as well, as the bags are already made and it can be tricky to sew things onto them without sewing the bag to itself, but certainly no more time consuming than sewing the bags themselves (yes, i've found another thing i can craft and can't possibly charge enough for!)...but i also have those big letter stamps (the ones i bought before my lunch date with sam elliot) and they are awesome for doing tee shirts and whatnot ( i made rodney a "megan's best one" tee shirt for our second anniversary--cotton is the traditional gift for that one--he gave me a bright yellow apron with red chili peppers on it that he got from Past 45, this old lady crafters store in downtown cottage grove that we love....but i digress) so i want to stamp some witty baggish phrases on them and hopefully can sell some of those, as they'll be cheaper than the made-from-scratch-with-blood-and-tears ones. i'm going to do a couple that say "bagism" (remember that?! john and yoko in bed...), and maybe potato stamp a couple, as well. should be fun and A LOT easier than the other ones (dear god, please let at least two of those bags sell!)

well, it's late and it's hot and rodney and i are supposed to have a movie date watching The Postman tonight, so i'm off to melt in front of the fan.

i'm grateful for:
rodney
opportunities to learn
my kick-ass sewing machine
the yard tub
creative energy
AND my pig pills, they higher dose of which is helping some

bipolar tote-bag disorder

dad asked me if i wanted to do a table at an upcoming Fair Trade on Main craft bazaar and i foolishly said yes...so i've been madly (as in insanely) trying to create a stock of goods--which didn't exist AT ALL. sewing my own tote bags from scratch. it goes like this: swift, beautiful, perfect, delightful tote bag...crap, horrible, awful, painfully slow and problematic tote bag which i hate and don't want to give up on because i've already devoted HOURS to making it...then beautiful, heavenly bag, then demon bag from the pits of hell...i feel adept and hopeful, i feel inadequate and ridiculous and bumbling and STOOOOOOOPID...etcetera, lalala.

i need a break and don't have time for a break and i'm exhausted and i can't fall asleep at night. then i feel on top of the world--a design diva of the finest order, i'm amazingly fast at picking up this sewing thing, yippee! then crap, then wonderful. you get it.

now the baby needs me, then i have to sew some more. see you in a couple of weeks! if i survive.