Adorn: May 2014

By night.

>> May 30, 2014 – before and after, designs in progress, needlepoint, organization

I re-wrote the book, redid all the charts, diagrams, instructions. Whew!! Now it's up on etsy for an instant download.

This is one of the few designs I did on black canvas.

Rae has been working here for some months now and has caught on wonderfully! She will introduce herself to you next week. We all have our strengths. Rae is an absolute detail person. She is very careful and methodical and also loves organizing. You all know how us fiber people need to stay organized... Rae is doing wonders with that here in the studio. She has been helping me keep up with my Instagram page. I haven't really been using much of the special lenses, (the antique, or 70's kinda look). I can't give up the colors that are there naturally.

I'm off to set the place up for a potluck this evening for Nina's school parents and principal. Having a loft is very helpful when you have a big gathering. Should be a fun time!

Have a lovely weekend!
xo
Orna

Mixed feelings.

>> May 25, 2014 – sewing, thoughts

I had planned to write a short update on our granddaughter dresses. It's a beautiful day out and my spirits were high after a few days of a flu-ish feeling. I was going to share photos before going out for a walk, the four of us; Reid, Nina, Bella and myself.

But then I read about the shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels a week ago:

"Two of the four fatalities from the shooting at a Brussels’ Jewish museum on Saturday were an Israeli couple in their 50's from Tel Aviv, the Foreign Ministry confirmed Sunday.

A third fatality was a volunteer at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, according to an unconfirmed report Saturday night on the news site HLN.be, the online edition of the Het Laatste Nieuws daily. A fourth victim, whom HLN reported was a 23-year-old employee of the museum, was also killed... The shooter aimed for the victims throats and heads, witnesses told the daily."

I'm feeling sick to my stomach. I want to write something about this despicable tragedy but I can't.

* * * * *

In an attempt to get some of the awful taste out of my mouth, I will give you a little update about the dresses. The pillowcase dresses were a total bust! They looked big, loose and lived up to their name, pillowcases. So after some thought we decided to cut off the tops of the dresses, with the ties, and attach them to cute tank tops from The Children's Place, ($2.99 each). Here are the results:

I think we will go out for a walk. The sun will be good.

Manhattan in a day.

>> May 22, 2014 – family, shopping, travel

It can be done! You can take someone, who has never visited Manhattan, to the city for a day and give them the NY "feel". Yesterday I took Bella by train to the Big Apple. I got to see things through her eyes, and it was fabulous! She loved the crowds, the yellow cabs, the very orderly chaos. At every traffic light she gasped at how people crossed on red and kept looking up at the tall beautiful old buildings. We walked. And walked. And walked some more.

Next we went to a matinee show on Broadway, Les Miserables. It was magnificent. Bella was a weeping mess most of the time, other times her eyes were huge with astonishment!

Then we walked some more.

We were back home by 9:30. What a day!

As we walked through the garment district we passed by a few shops which beckoned us in. These are photos I took in one of the shops. Can you guess which one?

Dresses and Tops Update!

>> May 10, 2014 – creativity, fabric, family, sewing

We are cleaning up and giving the dresses/tops the last touches. This has been SOOOO much fun! I'm not sure what we'll do when we are all done??

Anyway, this is where we are today. We leave in a few hours for Baltimore where we will be staying with Shiri and family and taking my aunt Bella sight-seeing. Back on Thursday!

Enjoy your weekend and a very HAPPY Mother's Day to all you moms of kids, animals and plants.

Orna

Nomi's top with little flou flou embellishments in tourquoise.

Lia's purple dress, she LOVES purple!

Little gingham pompoms

The brown and tan bird dress for Lia

Little lace caps on the Lia dress

Making dresses, lots of them!

>> May 7, 2014 – family, fashion, sewing

My aunt Bella, who is visiting with us and pampering us with her care, love and good cooking, has a beautiful 7 year old granddaughter, Lia. I came up with a plan; she and I would make summer dresses for our granddaughters, giving us good, hearty girl time together, it would be good on our budgets, and the girls would have dresses by grandma! I took her to JoAnn Fabrics and after stabilizing her heart palpitations, (she had never, ever seen a store with so many amazing DIY stuff), we chose patterns, fabrics, buttons, ribbons and sat down to business.

Bella does not sew, but she is happy to do the ground work, cut the patterns, pin them to the fabric, cut the fabric and then clean up all the threads on the finished product. Perfect! We have 3 done and 3 more we plan on making. F U N!!!

These are, what I found out, called Pillow Case dresses... (we didn't use pillow cases but it is clever).