allsorts

Blogging for Bliss

Today's the day! The release of Blogging for Bliss, a cool new book that is chock full of useful stuff about creating a blog, along with lots of bloggers' profiles and screen shots of blogs. There's a bit about Allsorts in there, along with most all of my favorite blogs, and some new blogs I hadn't discovered yet! Kari has organized a release party, and we're supposed to post a bit of our own blogging story today.

Blog... now that's a word that starts sounding really weird when you use it over and over. Blog blog blog.

Anyway, here is what I have to say about blogging... and bliss.

This is Mildred Ernst, my grandmother. When I was a wee little Jenny, her house was my creative playground, and with her love and encouragement I discovered what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to live. To me, her home was a magical treasure trove... toys, games, dolls, art supplies, musical instruments, every shelf and drawer filled with whatnots from bygone times. She left me to explore, lost in my imagination, or side by side we baked, painted, stitched, crafted, worked in the garden, or made music. She was smart and funny and made me feel like I could do anything I dreamed.

And what does this have to do with blogging you ask? Because the most important thing in the world to my grandmother was making people happy. Not just me, but everyone. I never heard her say an unkind word, or criticize or discourage in any way. She had an enormous circle of friends who loved her dearly. I fall so short of her, but in my own small way, blogging is an attempt to follow that ideal. It may sound sappy, but when I really think about it, Allsorts is just me trying to make people happy, just like she did.

And by the way, her maiden name was Millie Bliss... so I guess you could say I really am blogging for Bliss.

Cheers,

Jenny

I'll tumbl for you

Inspired by Claire, Kirsty and many others, I've taken a tumbl into a log... er tumblelog. Now when I'm bopping around the net and find an image, link, quote, or illustration that I likey, I can pop it onto tumblr. I see it serving as a kind of inspiration board, so I dubbed it push-pins. Click here to visit!

So now I have a blog, facebook page, and tumblelog, plus twitter, etsy and flickr.

Oh dear.

Jenny

Wrapping up A Post a Day in May, in June

It was nice to be able to skip a day of posting yesterday, but I caught myself getting anxious around 6 pm when I would normally be writing up my entry. Thanks again to everyone who played along, we enjoyed some great posts, cute projects and a ton of gorgeous photography. Barbara suggested I create a final post listing the participants, as a sort of archive. I think that's a fabulous idea, so... these are all the bloggers who participated in A Post a Day in May:

• 4:53 am
• a little of a lot
• a simple life
• a thrifty mrs
• aj's antics
• all things shabby chic
• amazing mae
• anna's blog
• artsy momma
• back woods wife
• because i'm me
• belvedere beads
• blue castle
• burford designs
• candy hearts & paper flowers
• cara lou
• craft n clutter
• curly pops
• dearfii
• depeche mom
• diary of a mad quilter
• diary of a tinyholder
• e made this!
• five minutes of fame
• flower childe cottage
• foxgloves fabric & folly
• frazzy dazzles
• ginger at home
• gingerbread cottage
• growing together
• itty bitty birdy
• jeff likes buildings
• jellybelly*jellybrain
• jumping from one idea to the next
• kit knitty
• kitty's kaboodle
• kootoyoo
• kylie's crafts
• lazy morning cafe
• librarian lee
• library collective
• life in red shoes
• life on two acres
• life with nature girl
• linnea paulina
• little bluebird diaries
• lola...again
• london southern belle
• mad quilter
• mathea
• mean mommy
• meet me at mikes
• miscellany of me
• molly severtson
• momma on the mountain
• mommy holly
• monkey see, monkey do
• my own crafty wonderland
• my peaceful valley
• my road to sanity
• nana's blog log
• nifty adventures into denmark
• no life without wife
• not so cynical knitting gal
• patchy work of mini grey
• pip stitch
• posy press
• puddin pop
• quaint handmade
• redneck dingbat quilter
• sampaguita quilts
• shallow thoughts from iowa
• shannon's introspections
• southern bella
• staindrop
• stitcher & scribbler
• stitchin by the lake
• strokes of magic
• sødeste
• the floss box
• the humming cat
• the ongoing effort
• the stitching surgeon
• the weather in the streets
• thimbly things
• threads for evie
• tweety's nest
• two crazy crafters
• two cups of coffee
• unfinished business
• with needle in hand
• wondermommy
• wraggedy patches
• yours 'til niagara falls

Well done! Happy posting!

Cheers,

Jenny

We made it!

Today was very long and very full and I want to be sure to get up a final post for May before we sit down for dinner and get lost in a movie.

These were the photos I took yesterday of some of the little dresses.  At first I tried hanging them in the dogwood by the front porch but the light was too blue.

Then I tried up in the dogwood in the courtyard. But what with the tricky sun and shadows thing coupled with an active breeze, nothing really turned out in focus or unruffled...

These two behaved themselves pretty much...

but this little shift wanted a picture taken all by itself.

I want to congratulate all the bloggers who participated in A Post a Day in May! Personally I had a blast, and found it very motivating. And I actually posted every single day! Woohoo... I always wanted to win a perfect attendance award but never even came close! And hats off to everyone who kept with it, even with a missed day here and there, it was fantastic to see so many postings. Well done!

This has been so much fun, I feel like I'm into a nice rhythm that I'd like to keep up. Here's hoping!

Cheers,

Jenny

ps - Happy Birthday Jeffrey!!!!

How to make a new ironing board cover and why I'm an idiot

The vintage baby clothes are ironed and lovely. As soon as I started ironing I realized my huge iron and ironing board wouldn't work on those little things, so I used my travel/craft iron and my Ikea tabletop ironing board. And oh so typically of me, I decided to make a new cover for the ironing board since the one it came with was not... cute enough... as seen in its usual ho hum state by my sewing machine:

So I chose some cute Moda fabric and laid that right side down on the table, with a layer of quilter's flannel on top of that. I put the board upside down on those, then freehand sketched on the flannel about three and a half inches out from the edge of the board, and then cut through both layers. I folded the edge in a scant half-inch and pinned, and then stitched that. Here it is before stitching:

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the next step - I folded the edge in again, but fitted the string in as I pinned so I wouldn't have to thread it through after I'd sewn the casing up. I hope that makes sense. I left two long tails of string at the end near the hanger thingie, and sewed the casing, leaving an opening where the tails were. Then I plopped on the board, cinched the top snug around the board and tied up the tails. Tada!

Now for why I'm an idiot. While touching up a little dress for a photo shoot, it looked so cute, I decided to take a quick photo...

But... while looking through the viewfinder I didn't like the reflection in the iron (you can guess what's coming next) I reached down and grabbed the iron to move it, forgetting it was still on.

Hey, no one can say I don't suffer for my art...

Oh, and now I can show you the bracelet Ro brought me from Singapore. Its the silver cable and pearl combo one. I love it! The other Katy gave me. She got another just like it for herself, and we both wear them constantly. As a reminder.

Pics of the vintage baby clothes and stuff tomorrow. I can't believe we've reached the end of May already!

Cheers,

Jenny

Eye candy

A mosaic of some lovely creations from my Flickr favorites...

1. Rose pouch, 2. Springbean the Bear, 3. fairyville house, 4. bloquinho, 5. Mini Quilt from Swap, 6. Pretty Millinery Flowers, 7. Bike and tree - zippy pouch, 8. 1950's dolls, 9. bitty bootie, 10. Meninas para pôr ao peito!, 11. redwork  embroidery pinkeep, 12. Sending You Cheer Bluebird in Red

Cheers,

Jenny

White linens

Last weekend I pulled out some boxes of vintage baby things and saw that some had not been cleaned properly before storage. So I hand washed them and gave them a good long soak in Vintage Soak (sorry, but I bought mine a while ago and I can't give you a current source). That stuff is amazing. It will bring the most stubborn of yellowed linen back to a nice snowy white. I confess I didn't do the soaking in this washbasin, but it makes for a much more attractive photo than the plastic tubs I really used. ;o)

After soaking I laid them out on toweling to dry and now they are nice and bright and crispy. There are a lot of sweet dresses, little suits and even a child-sized dutch apron and cap. I have a bit of ironing to do!

But I'm one of those crazy people who like to iron, especially such sweet things as these.

Cheers,

Jenny

Ladies in waiting

How about a little sneak peek...

These little ladies are waiting for their frocks, and then they will be the first things listed in my etsy shop! Its my own little twist on the clothespin dolls that have been cropping up lately, like here and here. And of course here, which is how the whole dang thing got started!

I can't help it, they make me happy, silly little things.

Remind you of anything?

Cheers,

Jenny

Remembering

Cheers,

Jenny

Boy oh Birthday boy

Somebody is having a birthday! My super amazing awesome hubster is celebrating his *mumble* birthday tomorrow, only he isn't at home, he's here...

Singapore! And that puts him thirteen hours ahead of Texas time, which means it's nighttime there, so when he gets up and checks my blog, he'll see this... on his birthday... I think. Frankly I am totally turned around by the time difference. When he calls in the evening (for me) it is the next morning (for him). So when he says "I'll talk to you tonight," it will be the next morning for me. Agh!

So before I get any more confused, let me just say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my guy, I love and miss you, and I'll see you in a couple of days! Smoochies!!! ;o)

Cheers,

Jenny