Easy Peasy Project: Embellished Flip Flops

Check out these cute flip flops I designed with a complete tutorial over at Craft Stylish. They are really easy to make-you only have to know how to single crochet (and even if you don’t, I’m sure you can figure it out). I get a simple joy out of wearing them around, and the silk yarn is so much nicer on my feet than the yucky plastic. My only suggestion is to steer clear of super cheap flip flops– I got these at Michael’s and if I wear them outside I feel like I’m walking on sponge. Splurge and spend $2.50 at Old Navy.

Also, thank you to everyone who wandered over from Sew Mama Sew and commented on my shirt. I’m actually working on the 2nd version of the shirt now (with much cheaper fabric!). And for those of you who inquired about  *that* fabric, I found it still available in a pink colorway at Superbuzzy, but I haven’t seen the particular one I used in my usual online shops. No worries,  there are plenty of pretty Nani Iro prints around.

Other than that I don’t have much to say this week– honestly, I think I’m suffering from summer doldrums. Sigh. If I don’t pop up again before the weekend, have a great holiday weekend.

Feels Sew Good

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the cheesy pun. Lately I’ve been consumed by about a zillion creative-but-not-for-me projects and to be honest, it makes me a little crazy. I’m always thinking, “Wow, this is a fun project. How come I don’t have time to sit down and make this for myself anymore?” So this weekend I decided that I would not work on Sunday and instead I would make something for me! ME!

I made Simplicity 4589 (View D) using the Nani Iro double gauze that I bought at Superbuzzy back in April (I think I convinced myself that it was okay to spend that much on fabric because my birthday was approaching). I originally intended to make a sundress of some sort but then I realized that being swathed in this color palette would probably not suit my pasty self, so I went for a shirt instead. I’ve been meaning to make a shirt from this pattern for about a year, so it was time to try it out. The pattern was pretty straightforward, only 5 pieces, and I’d say it took 4 or 5 hours from ironing the fabric to finished piece. I always have a little bit of trouble with these rounded collar/facing deals, it is a tad wonky but I am proud of it anyway. The only alteration worth noting was the one I do standardly: cut the sleeves 2 sizes larger than my pattern size. I cannot stand tight sleeves. I also lengthened it by about 2″– it seems kind of short on the envelope and I was glad for the extra length.

In case you were wondering, the double gauze fabric feels amazing. I just know I’m going to wear this every time it’s unbearably hot outside. I like that it feels like a “real” shirt. I love quilting cotton, but it can bunch up and get heavy when it comes to garments, and the double gauze is much more fluttery (without being gross cling-to-the-skin fluttery).

Now it’s back to work work work. Hopefully I’ll have some of the big stuff out of the way soon. In the meantime you can always read some of my crochet stuff over at Craft Stylish.

Pretty Things

This morning I made poppyseed muffins, from the box (keepin’ it real!). They were yummy and I enjoyed them quietly while catching up on blogs. I am wearing a dress for no reason except that I wore one last night and it was nice. I’m not going anywhere today (chained to the desk!) but what the hell, I have dresses and I should wear them.

Last night we went to a celebration for Gennie DeWeese, a local artist who passed away last year. They had all of her work up in Debbie Butterfield’s barn, including a 120 ft panorama Gennie painted of the gallatin range, which she probably never saw all put together. It was so, so, so pretty out there. Just look at this sunset.

I also found this guy, who I really wanted to pet. He was so smooth and muscular and BIG. I did end up petting him, but I was afraid the whole time, horses are kind of magical like that. He kept trying to get closer to me, I have a feeling he wanted to eat my necklace.

There really is something special about living here. Although we’re often feeling stir crazy and bored in the winter, this is what I held out for. Summer! Finally.

WTF World?

To all of you complaining about the heat wave, at least you didn’t wake up to this.

Seriously, WTF? It’s 34 degrees out and still snowing. It’s JUNE. It’s bad enough that there’s no beach nearby, and that it’s been raining off and on for weeks–but this? this? Oh the humanity.

p.s. dear apartment complex: I think it’s safe to turn the heat back on already!!

Finally!

I got my contributor’s issue of Crochet Today in the mail today (a full week later than everyone else in blog land). Thank you mail man for continuing to shove it into the box so it gets nice and crinkly. Really, I think my mailman probably hates me because he constantly shoves things in so he won’t have to carry them up to me. Anyway, here’s my design for the issue- a crochet embellished tee.

I still get all excited when I see my projects in print. I love to see them nicely styled, on a model, and all of that. And, after having been the one who had to worry about the “look” (somewhat, anyway), it’s nice that someone ELSE gets to do it. Yay. If you’re wondering, this project is from the July issue and is not quite on the newsstands yet (I looked today, so impatient with the mailman), but look for it soon. It is chock full of cute, colorful projects that make me wish the beach wasn’t thousands of miles away.

Something else that was kind of funny to me in this issue was a little quote about me in the Etsy article.

“Our regular Crochet Dr. contributor Linda Permann also has an online store, where she sells stylish hats and dainty crocheted earrings–all from her Montana home.”

Oh my god, I live in Montana! I guess it’s just weird to read about yourself, and it was definitely weird to make the big change of moving from NY to here last year. I’m always asked about it, and it’s funny to me. Taking chances= learning= good, in my book. We’re actually trying to figure out where to go next from here…. it’s so daunting to think about another cross country move. So reading this right now, while we’re letting our brains percolate, was just funny to me.

Tagged

I’ve been tagged by the wonderful and talented Roxanne of Cheetah Velour. Here are the rules: I answer 6 questions about myself. At the end of the post, I tag 6 people and post their names. I then go to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read my blog. Finally, I let the person who tagged me know when I’ve posted my answers.

What was I doing ten years ago?

I had just graduated from hight school and was probably freaking out that I had to go away (like, 1 1/2 hours away) to college. I was pretty sad about leaving my friends. Oh, and because it’s funny, I guess I was dating Paul (who I am living with now), and was completely frightened by the whole situation.

Five things on my to-do list for today?
(I wrote this this morning and now it is 10:30 pm)

Mail out big package full of top secret projects- check
Edit some instructions- check, but they never end
Write some things (do you like how vague I am being?)- not so much
Buy yarn for new project- check
That’s the end of my realistic to do list for the day, although there are many other things running free in my head.

Snacks I like?
I’ve never met a snack I didn’t like!
Popcorn
Peanut Butter (on a spoon, I got this from my sister Amy. Drove my Dad nuts!)
Veggies and Hummus
Cheese and Crackers
Walnuts and dried cranberries
Junk Food!

Things I would do if I were a billionaire?
Knowing me, I would invest all of the money and still live my same lifestyle. But I’d buy a house, a new car for Paul and pay off any debts. And then maybe start a foundation of some sort that gave grants for public art.

Places I have lived?
San Antonio, TX
Austin, TX
New York, NY
Astoria, NY
Bozeman, MT

Jobs I’ve had (I was wondering where question 6 was! Found it on someone else’s blog)

Tag Checker (at the neighborhood pool)
Baby Sitter
Telemarketer
Computer Lab Monitor
Museum Assistant
Temp
Administrative Assistant (many varieties)
Craft and Decorating Editor
Freelance Writer, Editor, Blogger and Craft Designer (current)

I tag anyone who wants to play!

Dandelion Explosion

There are ridiculous amounts of dandelions all over town–I love it. Here’s a pretty field we passed on a drive yesterday (it was about to storm)…

And here are my muddy feet from our hike today, with dandelions. We heard lots of thunder, so we ended up turning around when we were almost to the hard part (ie. huge elevation gain, and fast). But, we got a good 3 or so miles in anyway. By the way, it’s not a great idea to walk through mud in sandals, although I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself. So much for my clean new Keens, not to mention my dirty toes.

And in Blatant Self Promotion news, I have an article in the newest issue of Make magazine. Woo-hoo, a real article! It’s about Montanan artist Gary Bates, and let me tell you it was hard to condense all of the information into 300 words.

You can’t read the text from my screenshot, but if you do a google search for him and the title (Earth Wind Inspire– HAH!) you can get to that page of the online edition. Or, of course, just check it out at the bookstore. They feature lots of neat techy projects.

Happy weekend!

Stuff We’ve Been Up To

I meant to mention earlier this week that we spent Memorial Day 550 feet beneath the earth….

in the Lewis and Clark Caverns. There were about 600 steps to walk through–eep!, and a slide, and some zigzaggy sections, and some sections where you couldn’t stand up, which was more annoying for Paul, I think. It was pretty neat although there’s been a lot of damage to the cave over the years and I’m not sure it was as splendor-filled as the ones in Texas. But hey, 550 feet underground! The cave really was that pink in that room. I tried to take more pictures, but as you can imagine, there’s not a lot of light in a cave. Also, I was more focused on not falling down the steps (therby creating a 25 person domino topple) than taking photos.

The weekend before that we went to Livingston, about 1/2 an hour away from here, for an art opening– Paul is showing his puzzle paintings (above–yes, the user is invited to spin the pieces). Local people who I like to fantasize might be reading my blog (and secretly want to befriend me?), it is at the Danforth Gallery until the 24th if you are interested. It’s okay, I know the chances are slim that you exist.

I wore my sparkly shoes that I made for Adorn, since Livingston is supposed to be where the movie stars shop. I didn’t see any of them there, though. Lots of people came to the opening, so that was good. I bought another ceramic cup from Paul’s friend. I have a small collection now. I don’t get to have it till after the show is over, though, so you don’t get to see it.

I’m entering crunch time with work stuff right now so… yes, the posts will continue to be few and far between. How do I always mange to have all the important deadlines happening in the summer? Oh well.

Blatant Self Promotion Friday

Lest you think I’m sitting here idly, here are two of my recently published sewing projects. I actually made these back in January (I think) when I was just dreaming of summer. Unfortunately I am still dreaming because it has been rainy all week– so much so that all of the bread is molding. Whine.

Both of the projects can be found in Sew Simple magazine. If you haven’t checked this mag out, I recommend it–their first issue (which my mom gave me) had a really great story on sewing from patterns, and finally I understood. As the name implies, the projects are simple– but you can always add more to them if you want something more involved.

Here’s a cute Smock top for summer. You don’t even need to know how to sew a buttonhole to finish this (I went with a trusty loop instead). It’d be cute layered, and of course you can lengthen and shorten it, or add embellishments.

And here’s a really easy big summer bag. I love that big floral fabric– I picked it out from ReproDepot (who graciously donated the supplies for these projects).  This one is quick and simple to make– the pattern is on their site but you’ll have to buy the mag if you want instructions. 

If you end up making either of these, I’d love to see the finished project! E-mail or comment and let me know.

And for extra cute, these are the photos of the baby bison I was telling you about. This one is my favorite.

Still here…

Since I last updated…. 

Somebody got his Master’s degree. Yay!

And we’ve been doing some day trips, including one to yellowstone last Friday. It is baby bison season, and they are all SO cute. They are the little orange furballs looking exhausted in the above photo.  I took some better/closer pics with Paul’s camera but he hasn’t uploaded them yet.

We also did a little tour of the Old Faithful Inn, which was pretty interesting. The Inn opened in 1904 and was one of the first of it’s kind–rustic–since before that, national park hotels were made to appeal to wealthy people from the east coast who felt comfortable in more familiar surroundings. Montana was still scary wilderness at that point. The builders  were actually allowed to use materials from the park to build the hotel (including 500 tons of volcanic rock and all of the trees you see–which originally had the bark ON, although they removed it later). The bent branches you see making up the levels form when something happens like: lots of snow builds up and the branch grows around it, or a tree falls and rests on the branch, and the branch grows around it. So the crew (of fifty men, who built the hotel in a year) went out and found those injured trees for their curves. The inn’s roof also extends to 76.5 feet at the peak, which is the average height of a lodgepole pine, the most common tree in the park. And in case you were wondering, the altitude is too high for termites, and due to climate and lack of bugs, it actually takes a fallen tree, out in the elements, one hundred years to weather away in Yellowstone. Crazy! You can watch a little video about the inn here.

We also stopped by the Grand Prismatic Spring again– like everything in the park, it looks different every time. The colors you see in the ground are bacterial mats– different bacteria grow in the different temperatures of the water, hence the color range. So cool. As you can see in the photo, there was still a good deal of snow in the park. It is finally getting nice and warm though (as indicated by my first accidental sunburn of the season), and it is SO nice to go outside.