i'm so lame...

it's inevitable...if i go to some kind of social function, i will take pictures of the food and nothing else.  i'm always happy when i actually take shots of something other than the food.  yet today was not the exception.  it was paul and kimberly's baby shower at work this afternoon and all i did was take shots of the treats:

om nom nom nom nom nom...

cake balls:

these cake balls were DELICIOUS!  except jane and i made schweddy ball jokes ALL DAY!  it was especially bad when i was sitting next to her in our friday morning meeting.  no more sitting by jane in friday meetings at work.  i get the giggles too bad.

oh, and this guy sat behind me at the baby shower and kicked my chair THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME:

so i took off his shoe and threw it.  note to self: also do not sit next to andrew at anything.  get giggles so bad i cry a little trying to hold them in.

but kimberly looked beautiful and paul looked like the happy papa he's going to be.  it's really too bad i didn't take any pictures of them or ANYTHING else except the food and andrew.

live and learn, alon, live and LEARN!!

i love my cat...

 he is so cute.

i got a wonderful box full of stuff from hadley waiting for me when i got home today.  fabric, books, magazines, candy, whatnot.  i was taking all the stuff out to check it all out and was putting the fabric on the bed to see all that was in there when kaiser came in.  he jumped on the bed and started rolling and rubbing himself all over the fabric:

hadley has a cat named reuben ( who i like to call ruby dooby) and kaiser and her became best buddies the last time hadley and i lived together.  she is his girlfriend.  they would chase each other all over the house and outside in the yard and play with each other and it was great!  i think reuben must have gotten into this fabric and kaiser could smell her because he went batshit all over the fabric.  

he finally got tired of rolling around in it and just sat there and licked his butt.  i did not take a shot of that.

now, after living with fat molly for about 3 years, kaiser has finally decided that he likes molly and keeps trying to play with her, but she is having none of that nonsense.  she is totally confused by what he is trying to do.  she hisses and claws and hides from him.  he always looks so sad rolling around on the ground in front of her, trying to get her to play.  always makes me think of the fun times he had with ruby dooby.  i remember all the fun when reuben had worms.  good kitty.

how does hadley leaving me a box of great stuff go into a story about my cat?  something is wrong with me.

2 more down...

whew!  2 more of my pay it forward 2011's done!  only one more to go!  this time i made my step-sister, sandra, a reversible bag and i also made my friend from college, celinda, one too.  i hope they both like them!

here is sandra's:

it's made with green satin blend for one side and then vintage cotton for the other side.

and here is celinda's:

it's made with plaid satin blend on one side and blue silk/satin on the other side.

i couldn't decide which side i liked better on the outside, so i took a shot of both:

2 pretty packages, tied up with string, ready for the mail:

i'm not sure yet what i'm going to do for my last person.....

i heart tacky pillows!

paul asked me to make a tacky pillow for his wife for him to present to her when the baby is born!  what a great idea!  he saw the tacky pillow i made ivy smith and really liked it, so wanted one for kimberly.  they're naming the baby something that starts with "J" (he won't tell anyone what the name is until he's born...), so the pillow got a "J" on it.

here's my starting point:

complete with the beginnings of a first ten list of what's on shuffle on my ipod.  i love listening to my ipod on shuffle.  it's like my own personalized radio station.  here's what my first ten was this morning:

• velvet underground
• indigo girls
• mazzy star
• joy division
• billy bragg and wilco
• groove armada
• benny goodman
• cat power
• pizzicato five
• the beatles

and here's the finished tacky pillow:

 here's fat molly, who is a hostile helper:

i wanted her to get her fat ass off the fabric so it doesn't get covered in cat hair and her answer was to hiss threateningly at me.  she's a joy.

nom noms

after work on friday i went to serious pie with christine, denise, dave, solomon and wes.  angela works across the street at serious pie's sister restaraunt, lola, but i had never been to serious pie.

IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!

i want to go again and again and again.  there were 5 different pies on the happy hour special, i totally can't remember what kinds they were, but i'll try...

i think the front one was the sausage and something and the back one was the buffalo mozz and something:

and the one on the left was the truffle and arugula and the one on the right was the potato and something.  the only one i didn't get a shot of was the one with egg.  GREAT IDEA!  i love eggs.

and they had mexican coca-cola (with christine lookin super happy!), i think she was just super serious about picking out her perfect piece of pie...

i really love soda in a bottle.  it's the shit.

and then i had parked outside what denise and dave said was the best cupcake shop in seattle, the yellow leaf cupcake co., so we went in and i got a couple cupcakes.  these were the vanilla ones (which i got for me) and then i got an english breakfast one for maya and laela to split.

they had good stuff on the walls:

and i have to say...i loved my cupcake.  it wasn't over the top sweet like most cupcakes.  it was more buttery.  very delicious.  i'm glad i got a couple:

i have to do this soon again after work...it was fun!

changing mat tote...

paul and kimberly's baby shower is at the beginning of next month, so i got off my ass and got their prezzie ready.  i made a changing mat tote from a vintage pattern my mom gave me.  i modified the pattern somewhat, but the basic idea is totally the same.

the one i made is the stipey thing in the middle there.  basically, it's a changing pad and those flop out things are big pockets that fold inside to hold things in when you carry it.  there's supposed to be a removable rubber mat that's held in with snaps, but i just made it a permanent pad using extra thick batting.  the whole thing is washable, so if there's accidents (and it's a baby, c'mon now...) you can just stuff it in the washer, no problem.  

 they're having a boy and i didn't want to go with stupid blue, so i chose a nice thicker sea green cotton for the outside and a super cute brown with multi-colored hearts fuzzy flannel for the lining and the pockets.  it's lined with brown bias tape which matches the inside fabric.  and i really like green and brown together, so i hope they do too!

the pattern had a cute bear to put on the front of the tote, so i rolled with it.  you were supposed to sew it nicely on there with lots of folding and ironing, but i went with my standard of just sewing the sucker down with a zig-zag stitch.  i think it looks better. 

 mmmm...my icy juice looks pretty good sitting there.

so here's what it looks like all folded out.  i think the flap pockets came out pretty good.  the whole pattern is just rectangles, so it was super easy to put together.  and there are windows right above my sewing table (which is to the left of the picture) so it's casting a nice dark shadow from the light coming in.  sorry...it's a funny picture...

and with the pockets folded in on themselves.  cute little hearts :)

and the finished product!  i made the straps a little longer for being able to go over with paul or kimberly's shoulders without being too short.

it came out just like i wanted it to.  it's soft and squishy and really CUTE!!

one for me...

i liked how poops' puppy turned out so much, i decided to make myself a horse from the same set of patterns.  i think she came out pretty good.  a little punk, a little goofy.

awww...lookit that cute horse butt!

and i really wish i could say that i planned to have the flower on the pattern match up exactly for the eye...but it was just a happy accident.  i love those.  and i didn't really mean for her to get a mohawk either.  oh well.

now what should i call her?