May 2nd, day 1: Dress the way you want to feel

It's been one of those very strange weeks that cause you to step back and take notice of the things that are important in your life.  Maybe worrying about the way I look is a bit silly, but after some thought and a great book club discussion a couple of weeks back you've got to act the way you want to feel to be happy somedays.  It really does work where you might force a smile or throw on your latest internet cat to get a chuckle in.  Some days though it's harder than others to act happy, so dressing happy is a must.  A big pair of earrings, a bright red blouse, your favorite $10 blue skinnies, a wild paint job on your nails.

And this is what you get.  Remember to be more awkward for the next photo mmkay?

This top was made from about a yard-ish of a super awesome cotton silk woven that's shinyish on one side and matte on the other.  I think I made it in 2010? about the time that the sorbetto pattern came out, but I used a simplicity Cynthia Rowley pattern I had laying around.  Just a few gathers to shape the neckline and self facing with the matte side showing. 

Overall this one fits alright.  The armholes are a tad tight making it a bit uncomfortable, but a few pounds here and it'll probably fit differently.  Although that does seem to be a particular problem area with my sewing.

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.

grads & pears

A pear for Hillary of is there life on mars. A dear old friend like her needs a crafty pear to help with projects aplenty, to remember hillarious summer memories like falling in the hammock on hard apples, dogs with bad fruit additions and permanent tan lines from the trusty red lifeguarding suits. Thinking about it 1) reminds me about how pale I've been since I've moved to the coast, 2) how badly I could go for a fresh off the tree pear, 3) how much I miss that lady!

This was from that awesome heather baily pattern

Curti P is donezo!! wooooo! so is that skirt I started on eons ago... also, note the brazil jersey. World Cup anyone?? He even included a plug for his favorite team in the "what I've done and will be doing/thank you they read aloud when they called him up.


The rescue charlie brown lei complements of a Monday graduation. He said he still really liked it though.


Successful creep on Kaleo!! Congrats to you too!


The unit


My prize for being the supportive girlfriend for the five years: a beau and a token of gratitude.

Human Phys is not the easiest of majors and pretty competitive with the intensity of pre-med kids. It called for lots of food, beer, friends & family to celebrate. He'll be continuing with prosthetics and orthotics somewhere much warmer come August. Congrats!!

the month of may

was incredibly packed! I think I stayed at my apartment for maybe one weekend the whole month and of course that was a the weekend an incredible opening happened at the Schnitzer for a really cool show... pisser. That's another story for another day, but if you are in Eugene and like polaroids and sparkly shoes you should go...

nom nom tikka masala


an experiment in making workout clothing...



A gift for a certain someone...


Pillowcases! They turned out pretty cool, but required a lot of patience. I found nice, but badly sewn pillowcases at ross, ripped out the stitching, recut and ironed them, found backing to do embroidery on the machine and by hand. The wash away backing and I had a tug o war and I recommend hand rinsing the stuff out before putting in the washing machine. it's pretty gooey, but kept things stable while stitching. After little lessons learned I loved this gift idea and I think he liked them too. And yes those are my attempt at making outlines of ginkgos... they look at little bit like odd hearts, but I like them and curtis always tends to get a kick out of me yelling out "Ginkgo! look!" every time we walk or drive past one.




So of course we made pizza & had beer. His apartment is nice and warm from all of the exposed windows so the dough poofs up really well.


And visited my photobooth

has it really been 5 years already? <3

working for the weekend?

I'm shooting for a post a week... doable right? I suppose I don't really care if anyone every reads this, I just like have a little mini collection of photos with random thoughts. Plus I know there are at least a couple of dedicated ladies out there :)

So I've been thinking quite a bit lately about the whole working for the weekend thing. what a damn waste. that means you spend the majority of your week bummed out and you are constantly posting on facebook about how blah blah poo pooo your job is and how you got sick again and how you only want to spend the rest of your life in bed with your boyfriend and a pint of ben and jerrys.

once again it is a damn waste of air and my mental capacity to see this junk posted constantly. I'm about ready to go on a positivity campaign to get people to forget about all of that. Everyone gets sick and everyone hates their job every now and then, but it's nice to be able to focus on the good things or maybe even the humor found in the poo situations of everyday life right?

Now!! to highlight the time of the week everyone loves (because we all love days to sleep in, go on walks in the daytime, stay out late, clean our respective places of living, what i've declared as sewing sundays, drinking coffee out of the hungover cat mug...)

CONAN!!! no big deal


Hiking with Curtis & Cam (those good lookers below), baby bananas & multitudes of millipedes




Sewing Sunday, ftw


Steven's first time at the Oregon Coast... <3 my friends




Watching the sunset with Marissa & the huge swell

winter in a flash

Really though... did we have winter? With all of the driving back and forth, learning new things, walks, lack of sewing & abundance of traveling to visit friends and family I've been neglecting my photos.

I made it up north a few times to visit with Hillary. We embarked on the usual walk, sfny pizza and the small but surprisingly interesting art museum. Portland is always on my mind and with the new flat a trip to ikea is probably in order.





These are from where I work. Mostly I sit at the computer, but occasionally I can get out on the trail system for a break, a post work walk or to help out with visiting schools. The skunk cabbage is thriving now with its large yellow flowers and soon they will be covering the wetland area.




Buddy is adjusting slowly to my frequent absence.


And this is why living in a small coast town isn't really all that bad.







Bits of the new place with too much space. yes I just said that. It still remains undecorated and mostly organized. Retrieving my furniture has become quite the task but my papers and such are waiting patiently unrolled and protected in the sewing room closet. Good things to come!





Some small handmade items for a marine biology grad and some lovely girl's birthdays. So quick and fun. I've got a mad obsession with "quilting" and stitching things on my machine. The blue ones were made with a pre-embroidered fabric, but I added to it. The crab fabric was from a remnant at ikea and the blue fabric is featured on a cotton lawn dress my mom so patiently made for me 3 years ago when my demands were high and my skills were subpar. I'm not quite sure I could even make it today. The little pouches are lined with some amy butler love flannel that I turned into a pair of pj pants. They are insanely bright and loud but I love them.


I keep finding myself hording scraps for something ambitious like a quilt but always wind up using them for lining or a new project. Someday I will commit to making a quilt and perhaps the new sewing room and the ability to leave all of it laying all over the floor will help.

Leanne Marshall Fall 2010 collection

omg omg omg!!!

If only I had money and reasons to wear any of her looks. If only I had some of her talent. I will always love her noodles, but the cutouts combined? It makes fabulous clothing fantastically fabulous! I snagged these photos from the Project Rungay blog. Thank you to them for keeping me in the loop while I cannot watch the show on Thursdays! The real and decoy shows from this current season are promises of good things to come hopefully.

Okay so in my dream land:




Here come the noodles!