Me-Made-May '13!

Alright folks, it's time to get serious, serious about sewing!  I follow a few, incredibly inspirational sewing blogs.  Everytime I read a post I think about hopping behind my machine and tackling those UFOs and stacks of uncut, undetermined fabric so that I can really enjoy getting dressed in the morning and toot my "I made this!" horn. 

I've got a small stack of me made, hand made (usually by my mom), and a small number of refashioned items.  Some of these items fit better than others or are worn much more often (Here's looking at you slouchy black tee!).  In this process it'd be rad to document all of my self made wardrobe so I can figure out what's me, what's working and not, and what I should focus on making in the future.  Without doing the sewn wardrobe evaluation I know there are gaps! And some amazing yardage waiting to be thrown into the mix.  

So! With all of that said...
I, Jenna of nudibranchs and toast, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavor to wear one sewn garment on average 5 days a week for the duration of May 2013 so I may wear each finished sewn item I have at least once. In addition I aspire to finish 3 more garments by the end of the month and work down my UFOs.

This will come as a challenge as I'm busy busy this month with many school programs in the mud or on the trails, going out of town for a week or so for work, and have not had a good track record on finishing things lately.  If it gets me back on the path to a custom fitted wardrobe I'll be a happy nudibranch :)

In addition to highlighting my sewn items why not throw some other useful crafts into the mix?  I've been knitting regularly for about two and a half years now and have a good assortment of things on Ravely.  I'm even tackling my very first sweater!  If it's cold enough I'll try to utilize as many of these things that I can.  

I also have been dabbling in making jewelry for a long, long time.  I like to focus on items with beads, glass mostly and the gems that I can afford/justify, and now am loving items with more metal in them.  My mom and I were at Ben Franklin in Eugene and got some amazing advice on a few things here and there.  I'm borrowing my mom's steel block and hammer and am ready to tackle some fun and hopefully quick projects.  Already today I completed a long sought after noodle wrap bracelet!  Happiness.

The last bit of summer

PSU farmers market


TOMS!




Downtown P Town



Mi Gato


Peaches & blueberries care of PSU farmers market


Beaching at Bandon with mi madre


Sunset Bay



Shore Acres




Isn't she cute!




Melon balling... again.


Peach pancakes nom nom



Bike rides & field burning


Buddaaay

july still...

So I brought my bike home a few times this summer and convinced my mom out on a ride. It turned out to be a hoot! Plus a ride along the umpqua on a warm summer afternoon is the best


The ol' bike back in action!


And yes. there was bodybuilding to be had. You're welcome annie :)

p-town

where I should be living... Photos from June 2010








New discoveries:
-roses hate extended rain too
-I've became a bit uptight about taking photos in normal city settings (don't worry i'm working on it)
-doug fir happy hour is all it's chalked up to be
-more food carts: the steady cheap delicious mexican food near psu & the savory creperie on 12th & hawthorne
-swiss chard is as yummy as it is pretty
-carrots are not half bad as long as they are from a farmers market and they are complete with the fluffy tops
-burgerville will never ever ever get old

I know I know it's been a while, but things are generally crazy as usual. Settling in has been nice in the new place, but a few boxes remain unpacked/undecided and a few frames remain on the floors. They are starting to become fixtures in the sparsely decorated flat. I'm also slowly figuring out what exactly my new job is. It's fun and challenging, but I'm really excited to start piloting the education modules we are putting together. I'm working with some fabulous teachers :)

Here are a few updates with photos:
New plants from an very large spider plant that found a new home in my mom's library. I got it during my freshman year of college.

I love this place!



My new $20 dollar chair!


Okay so the flowers have come... where is the normally pleasant weather???


Eugene in the Spring! Curtis got a new place as well. I love the little tiny stove and general man presence. The floral couch remains but will get a slip cover soon or make a move to the donation center.




My first setting for a piloted field trip! The essence of this project is that each coastal watershed education module/unit for the project has a meaningful field experience. We are going to do some marsh plant surveys, exploration of the tideflats through digging, water sampling and looking at some flora/fauna. The sixes river pops out just north of cape blanco so we will be doing some wrack line exploration as well. When I was there a few weeks ago not only was it beautiful but we found subtidal sponges, spruce cones, neat rocks, algae and of course plastic. All in all an interesting exploration of a local small estuary of Oregon that can hopefully shape any estuary field trip in Oregon along with a student field journal and corresponding classroom activities.

Obviously I could talk for a long time about the project's aspirations :) But for now I have pretty photos.




A little trip to Bandon on the same day with lots of heavy winds, poking, photography and watching some awkward windsurfing with southerly winds.
I love these sunglasses!


my dad going out for that sweet "double dip"