Marsbarn Designs...

Shell buttons

Little e and I were in an antique shop going through a 
bin of buttons.  I made a pile of lovely, large shell
buttons, and then Little e said, "Oh, I like the other side better."

So I flipped the buttons over, and looked again.

I had to agree with Little e.  The fronts were lovely, 
but the backs of the buttons were so much more interesting.

I bought a dozen buttons to use as decoration for the 
promised bathroom/art room curtains.  

a week in review

Let's see....
Sweetheart G is away at camp.  It's her first weeklong overnight camp.  I'm thinking good thoughts for mighty adventures for her.  I'm really looking forward to picking her up on Saturday, so we can hear all about her exploits.

Little e and I have been spending time together and working on projects.  The long procrastinated art room/bathroom curtains are almost done.   The curtains themselves are done, but I want to a little something more to them.  

Marshmallows are cooling in the kitchen, and graham crackers will be whipped up tomorrow.  The girls go to the beach next weekend with Grand M and need appropriate supplies.  

My second batiking workshop happened yesterday, and was a lovely success.  It was a great group of women who attended, and there were some great conversations with a lot of laughter.  Although I did have a moment's thought of "Oh, I should be taking photos!", I didn't.  I'll share photos of the fabric once I've processed them.  

Extreme batiking

So, you ask, what is that?

Backstory first,  so Auntie O has been trying to get three
pieces of fabric waxed before her trip to Italy.  
(I'm going to dye her fabric when I dye my fabric for the 
workshop I'm running next week).

Last week she came over, fired up the wax, set up the
supplies in my backyard, and managed to get two of her
pieces done before it was too dark to see.

This time, she came prepared.

She brought her bicycle helmet with its light, so she
could keep working after dark.  Extreme batiking in action! 

Soot Sprites!

When I made the Totoro dice bag in June,  I wanted to make a soot sprite too.

And here it is!

Happy little soot sprites bouncing around the sides of the bag! 

An evening of musical fundraising

My sister O, otherwise known as Auntie O, held 
a concert this past weekend.  She's raising money for
a week long mandolin camp in Italy. 

It was a real treat.  She played music with three 
different sets a friends, which demonstrated three of the
many different varieties of music O can perform. 

She leaves for Italy this week, and I can't wait to hear 
about her adventures when she returns! 

Bathroom curtains? Umm.. maybe next week.

Oh, busy, busy.
I've been sewing.
Of course I haven't been sewing the curtains we need
for the upstairs bathroom.  (No, that would be sensible.)

No, I've been sewing for my Etsy shop. (Fun!)
Big Daleks, little Daleks, Soot Sprites, and Orc skulls
(two styles of orc skulls, if that can be believed).
I've been filling special orders and making new shop
stock.  I brought home so many new fabrics from our
trip, that I just can't stop working them up. 

I'm also finalizing the details on a new flat bottom
gaming bag that has a firm bottom.  (Yes, no sag!) 

In addition to sew, sew, sewing, I bought a flat of 
berries on Wednesday.  Two batches of jam and a mixed
berry pie follow!  Yum! 

Next up?  Curtains... maybe.  

Peach Dinner

On the last day of July, Grand M hosted a Peach Dinner with her neighbor.

There was a peach stuffed pork loin, peach pizza, peach
gazpacho,  a peach and roast golden beet salad, peach
pasta, peach caprese, and peach salsa.  Yum, yum, yum!

It was a delicious dinner, and a beautiful evening.
We ate and visited until late.  

What a beautiful way to end July.

Batiking, a second workshop

One of the things I didn't get to post about before our
vacation, was the batiking workshop I did in June. 

It was so much fun.  People made amazing fabrics, and
it was a beautiful day to work outside.

My only disappointment was that several people had to
cancel last minute, so the class wasn't as large as I
would have liked.

But, I had so much fun that I'm doing it again!
I'm holding a second batiking workshop on Wednesday
August 24th.  There are two sessions 10 am to 1 pm or
1 pm to 4 pm.  The class costs $40, and includes all
materials and lunch.  You get to dye two yards of fabric
and have a bunch of fun!

I'm thinking about having a follow-up class to make a 
bag (either tote or messenger) using the fabrics that people have dyed. 

 

Hexagonal Dice Bag? Why not?

At the end of June, I had a request for a hexagonal dice bag.  

Well that's something I haven't done before. 

It took a bit to figure out how to work out the mechanics of it.  And then a bit more time to practice, and to get the corners clean.  I will say that making a hexagonal dice bag requires a bit more attention to detail than a square one.  But, the results are pretty darn cool.

I have plans to make some for the shop, but I have to catch up on my special order backlog first.

Back to the now

We're home now.
Well, we've been home for almost two weeks.

It was such a nice vacation. Everything we'd wanted it to be.  When we got back home,  we had a week at home before Big E had to return to work.
It was a lovely week without our normal obligations.

But now, Big E is back to work, I am back in the midst
of sewing for money, math tutoring, and Taekwon Do.
Hello regular life, it's nice to be back.