lisa’s place

If you haven’t already discovered this author, take a moment and find out more about her now.

She is intelligent, easy to read, descriptive in the most appealing way, motivating, and so genuine.  She is brilliant!  I know virtually nothing about her, and yet I know that her writing is that of one of the most intelligent and insightful women I’ve ever read.  Seriously, take a moment.

I need to step back for a minute here.  I read her earlier works because my mom enjoyed them. I loved them and couldn’t wait for more.

Then, there was more.

If you know me, then you know that if I want something, I just buy it.  However, sometimes I can be a little silly about spending money on fiction – and then, not so much.  However, her new book was released and I couldn’t imagine spending $25 for the hardcover edition.  I waited a couple of minutes and was still really unsure about spending that much… and then, this appeared:  Kindle for iPhone.  I was one of those dorks that really wanted the first generation Kindle, but didn’t think it was a good way to spend my cash (instead, I got an iPhone – you can decide for yourself whether this was a good idea or not )

I LOVE this app.  I can read Kindle books on my iPhone – sure it is small and all, but I have relatively young eyes and the thought of moving all of my heavy books makes it all the more appealing…

I got the app, bought the book… and guess what.  I absolutely NEED to have this actual book.  It has been so very long since I’ve loved a book (not a classic) so much that I longed for the smell of that book.  I feel like I am missing out on the experience of these stories by reading it on my phone (and I love this app, don’t get me wrong).

I want to smell paper and glue and chemicals and that smell that makes me happy and a little nauseous at the same time.

Check this book out from your library, buy this book, do whatever you need to do – but read this book!

Really.  No, really.

(I guess I should have finished the book before I said this, eh?)

I recently purchased this awesome little book by Amy Karol.

This book is geared toward beginners, but the projects just beg to be expanded upon. While I have found quite a few typos in the book, most of them are so incredibly incorrect, that there is no problem. The author also has a Flickr group devoted to the book and she seems really, really quick at answering questions.

So far, I’ve finished a couple of projects… as is always the case, some have turned out much better than others. My poor old sewing machine just doesn’t care to sew through multiple layers of fabric and she seems to have a REAL problem if there is cotton or polyester batting involved. Needless to say, I will be making a trip to JoAnn’s to get more needles (they seem to break if you just look at them wrong).

My favorite project in the book to make so far was the “Easy Lap Quilt.” I only wish I’d used nicer fabric… it was a really quick project, but still. Why, oh why, do I always do this? Prepare to see a recurring theme here.

My apologies about the color (I think the bottom photo is closest) and the not-so-appealing backdrop. As it turns out, there is only one place in my entire house/yard where you can get enough light to take pictures – yup, the trunk of the car when you can catch glare off of the paint job. Wouldn’t you think there would be some benefit to having weeks of 95+ degree days… like sunshine?

I’ve also made a couple of bags featured in the book. My favorite is the Charming Handbag.

Again, the color is way off… in reality, it is much more pastel and pleasing than these pictures show (maybe the bottom photo is close-ish).

Last night, I started on the Pleated Beauty Bag. This is where all of the sewing machine trouble really started. There are a few “blips” in the sewing (every time an effing needle broke), but I decided that it is just a bag… well, maybe I didn’t really decide that. Until next time, though.

I used the same green fabric as for the Charming Handbag (got a really good deal on a remnant, but I am not such a fan… but now it is gone It turned out a little gaudier than I had intended, but the shape is great and it holds a lot. I did make one change to the pattern: the reinforcement that should be sandwiched between the lining and the outside of the bag is a little flat piece that sits on the floor of the bag so that it can be removed for carrying different kinds of loads. I’ve found that certain things (laptop, books, etc… many things I always carry around) tend to put permanent creases in these types of reinforcements. We’ll see how this works.

That’s all for now… back to work.