Friday, July 27, 2012

Woah. So busy lately. Tons of sewing commissions and in general life happenings.

my good friend catherine is moving back to LA, travelling via motorcycle cross country. www.mybikeignites.tumblr.com

she asked me to make her some saddle bags for her trip....so i met up with her a couple times to brainstorm and take moto measurements.

worked up a plan that made sense to both of us, and i got crackin. took four days to totally finish em, i also had two pairs of out of town visitors and other good distractions.

they came out really well, even though the math and planning involved in making them broke my brain. the bottom is one flush piece for strength, and for some reason making hidden seams on all sides of the bag just seemed so daunting.

first time using high end waterproof material too...terrain xpac is the jam! lightweight and waterproof up to 200psi. driving rain equates to 2 psi.

ride safe friend.

planning an etsy craft party at the end of the month, working on a top secret installation that will have a one night opening on the 5th of august, and preparing to take Egon to the dog neurologist to better diagnose his seizures. theres a lot going on.

oh! and i have a website now too! one more internet thing to keep up with, ugh!

www.bravebags.com

check it out.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

i've had a significant amount of time off lately....for the end of june i took time off for birthday stuff, then worked one day, was off two for july fourth, worked one and a half days, then had another normal two day weekend. its allowed me a ton of time to sew, work on stuff in the house, and hangout with the dogs and andrew.



we got some pretty gnarly wind/rain storms lately that knocked out power to lots of folks...our across-the-street neighbors lost it for a really long time...felt bad as we were maxin and relaxin and they were sweating their guts out for five days. stoli came to work with us saturday, huskies and 100+ degree temps with no power are not a match. she's a real sweet dog.



picked up andrews great grandma's singer sewing machine...been meaning to stop working frantically on projects to take the time to get cozy with the singer, start using it instead of my kenmore.



its really nice, a centennial model from 1951.



even came with the little original oil can still clipped in place! so tight.



came in from one of many late night treat runs to find a male and a female stag beetle flying around the porch, tryin to get it on. they're super cool to see...this is the male, females have much smaller pincers.



in other exciting bug news, we've had a rash of HUGE hornets and butterflies creepin on the mulberry tree andrew recently trimmed. i saw a couple large eastern swallowtails hanging upside down, beating their wings, and thought they were tryign to cool off in the shade. but then the hornets came, they hangout near the slices in the tree. i can only assume they're getting water or fluid? weird. theres almost always at least one hornet or butterfly in this exact spot, its a go-to if you're trying to witness some insect activity.

in weird yard news, we seem to have found a portal of some sorts.

over time, rain was washing away dirt in our side yard. a concrete chunk was makign itself visible, and with a little raking/sweeping, a large circle became visible.

weird, right? started digging into it and pulling out trash, bricks, and hunks of concrete.



with a little more digging....



even more digging







so we apparently have a well that used to feed the house. i called the county to see if they had any record of it being "abandoned" or filled, after the late 80s/early 90s they required a permit and a lisenced contractor to perform the work. there was no record. it was not on the survey from the 50s that the county had on record and it was not on the survey that we ordered when we bought the well. so really, its a suprise.



andrew dug out about six feet of it. the first concrete section goes about three feet before it has a gap of a few inches where the pipes come in. then concrete begins again. ususally its just dirt after the first concrete section, so this one seems like it was pretty legitimately dug.



finding all kinds of crap in it. can't wait to see what else comes up. and how deep it is! i guess we'll be calling a contractor for advice soon.

been working on sewing projects as much as i possibly can while getting totally distracted with dogs and boyfriend.



worked up a front rack bag for braden at carytown bikes, will most likely turn into a little run of bags for the shop. little collab, a few design improvements/tweaks on the bags he was kind of bummed on. a little bigger, a map window, different opening direction, y'know...stuff that you want when you ride.



dottie found that the new sewing machine table plus the windowsill makes for a cozy nap spot.



good dog.



it was awesome having so much time off cause i could really hangout with the dogs. they're pretty hilarious. egon slept/snored through a total manicure/pedicure...trimmed and rounded all his nails while he slept. he was out cold! what a lazy dude.



hanging out with bostons is real fun. they're pretty wild, but real sweet too. good snugglers and vicious attackers when a toy gets stuck under the couch.