*contest is closed, we have a name! Winner will be announced this week!*

Have you ever had the urge to do something a little different than what you’re doing now? Or to share your love of something? That’s what Jane Litte of Dear Author, Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and I are doing. We’re teaming up for a non-publishing related blog for all things crafting and cooking in our world. It will be a little something for everyone, with pattern reviews, completed projects, recipes, tips, guest bloggers (because there’s a whole lot of things in crafting and cooking we’re not very good at) and more (there will be wine recommendations!)

But we need your help to name our new site, so we’re offering up a $50 gift card for your suggestions. Come up with a clever, funny, practical, cute or serious name for our new endeavor and you may win a $50 gift card from the online retailer of your choice.

Rules

1. Email all suggestions to angelajameseditor AT gmail.com with subject line BLOG CONTEST. Please do not post them in the comments here, it will not count as an entry.

2. You may give as many suggestions as you like, but please try to include them in one email, if you think of some later and want to email again, that’s okay, just try to avoid 15 separate emails

3. Contest is open internationally.

4. Contest closes on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. is closed, we have a name!

5. This is the most important: we’ll need to purchase the domain to match the blog name, so make sure there’s a domain available for the name you’re suggesting. You can check domain availability here. We won’t/can’t use a name that doesn’t have domain availability.

$50 gc will be awarded to the person whose blog name we use. If we don’t use any of the suggestions, or end up using a combination of suggestions–or more than one person suggests it–we’ll hold a random drawing.

I have two confessions today. One is that I went shopping this morning for pants that I can wear to cocktail parties Monday in NYC. I didn’t find any because I’m TOO SHORT. Kohls is having some great clearance sales and I tried on an embarrassing number of pants but they all were too long for me by about 4 inches. It might have been worth it at clearance prices to buy them and pay to have them tailored, but I was too overwhelmed to make that decision this morning. Maybe I’ll go back.

The other confession is that I’m not at all ready for the traveling to start again. I think it must be because I’m basically lazy at heart, and it suits me to be able to do nothing all day Also, ever since I told her I was going (last week, because she heard me talking about it and asked) Brianna has been telling me how much she doesn’t want me to go. This morning she was particularly upset about it.

But on that note, blogging will probably be lighter again in the next few weeks, because we all know I’m no good at traveling and blogging!

For the Reader:
Since I don’t normally promo my releases during the week, I’m going to start listing them here, under the “for the reader” section. So, released this week:
Taken by Anya Bast (erotic sci fi romance)
Called by Blood by Evie Byrne (erotic paranormal romance)
Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon (m/m action romance)

Publisher’s Weekly is looking for reviewers in fiction genres including romance!

Kristen Nelson wants to know if free books work on you. On an interesting related note, I got an email from one of my blog readers this week, who was emailing to tell me that the free books she’d gotten from Samhain definitely resulted in her buying others. Anecdotal evidence that free works! I think editor Leah Hultenschmidt talked about that on her blog this week as well.

Jane from Dear Author wonders if you’d be interested in a rent-to-own ereader and ebook subscription?

Smart Bitches has the video from MSNBC that features the Kindle (and Kate Duffy of Kensington!)

Continuing the series about the Dear Author reviewers and their new Sony Readers. I’m really enjoying these posts.

For the Author:

Edittorrent had two great posts up on rejections this week. Alicia wrote this one on form rejections that I swear I could have written myself. Theresa wrote one that relates to my blog post here a few weeks ago about how fast is too fast?

And since we’re talking rejection, here’s one more on post-rejection protocol from Jessica Faust at BookEnds.

Author Lauren Dane has started a Sunday series on promotion.

Author Maria Zannini talks about signature lines. Honestly, an obnoxiously long signature line irritates me enough to remember the author’s name in a negative light.

Author Shannon Stacey has an awesome post up about making sure you’re following your dream, not someone else’s.

In the Kitchen:

Download spice jar labels.

Nom nom nom, these Italian love cakes look good (and easy)!

Pioneer Woman is doing a series on sushi. I actually learned how to make sushi from a Japanese friend years ago, but I’m still enjoying this series.

Peanut Butter and Rice Krispie treats. Me please.

For the Crafty:

Does anyone out there knit? I really want this scarf. Almost enough to take up knitting, except it would take me five years to finish. The scarf combines my love of two things: Doctor Who (LOVE Tom Baker) and scarves.

Sew, Mama, Sew is doing Fat Quarter February. Check out all the fat quarter projects they’re sharing. Tissue holders here (and if I’d thought of it sooner, I’d have whipped up a bunch as small Valentine Day gifts for the daycare staff)

Check out this list of the top 100 tuturials of 2008

I would love to make one of these tea wallets. I like to travel with tea but it always ends up in the bottom of my purse.

I love this idea. Anyone who’s ever been to a conference has a bunch of tote bags laying around. Here’s a tutorial for dressing up and resuing those tote bags!

For Everyone:

Thankfully, the CPSIA Lead-Testing Law has been delayed for one year. I hope they can work the kinks out of that and get a new/different/better law into affect.

An interesting post on recipes and copyright (where I learned, though was not surprised, to find that recipes aren’t copyrighted).

A little insight into the editorial debate between an author and an editor. These are weighty issues we discuss!

Whee! There’s going to be another Sex and the City movie. I’m not sure what type of story line they’ll come up with, but I don’t care. I’ll go see it! Looks to be set for hopefully Summer 2010

It’s what everyone has been talking about. The Snuggie. Now you can make your own and pimp it out to boot! Score!

$25 free from E-Trade when you open an E-Trade Savings Account.

You know you want to make one. A LOLCat purse!

So you’re bored and want to kill some time? Make your own comic strip!

Maybe your music library is like mine and could use a little attending to? MakeUseof.com has 4 suggestions for tools to fix and auto-organize your music library. Let me know if you’re familiar with any of them or try them!

Wi-Fi Hotspot finders. I need to put these links in my phone, with as much as I travel I often need Wi-Fi (even with an aircard, it’s nice to find Wi-Fi)

For the Political:
Not really political but I’m putting it here. Via HighlandGal, a quote about the Michael Phelps thing that made me laugh (also, see the bottom of this post for some links to current articles about Phelps losing sponsors):

Look, I don’t blame Michael Phelps for apologizing. He has a living to earn, so he did what he had to do.

In the meantime, I merely note that this broken wreck of a man’s failure to win any more than a pathetic fourteen Olympic gold medals (so far) is a terrifying warning of the horrific damage that cannabis can do to someone’s health—and a powerful reminder of just how sensible the drug laws really are.

-Andrew Stuttaford from The Corner at National Review Online.

A new video from Ashley Judd about Sarah Palin’s support of the brutal hunting of wolves. The video is not for the tender-hearted.

Obama puts a cap on executive pay at businesses that received bailout money. I really wish more things like this had been put in place before the bailout money was ever given out.

I’ll admit it, I laughed when I read to the end. There’s a follow-up article here. All I can think, though, is that our nation is facing the largest unemployment rate in two three decades and this guy is going to be worried about a suit jacket? Puh-lease.

Michelle Obama is stepping into the stimulus package fray. Oy.

Picture of the week:

Because the whole idea of this still makes me laugh.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Carrie on regardless: How will Sex and the City cope with the credit crunch? (guardian.co.uk)
• Michael Phelps Suspended: Dumped by Sponsor (montysmegamarketing.com)
• Friday Just Keeps Getting Worse For Michael Phelps [Michael Phelps] (deadspin.com)
• New Website Launches to Keep Tabs on Sarah Palin’s Animal Conservation Record (Video) (treehugger.com)
• In the Kindle Backorder Queue? Upgrade Offer for Kindle 2 Coming. (jkontherun.com)

Though I haven’t been doing a lot of sewing or crafting lately, and have a couple of projects that are halfway done needing to be finished, and some promised things to make, I still love to collect fabric. I adore fabric, and find the selection locally kind of depressing now that we’ve gone from three places that carried fabric to only one, in the space of a few months.

So I tend to buy a couple yards of fabrics I like when I find them, though rarely anything too expensive.

But now I’ve been introduced to Amy Butler’s newest fabric line, Daisy Chain. And I am in lust. Serious, total, absolute lust. I want some in every color. I want it to make purses and blankets and stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. Or just to put on my fabric shelves and admire.

I am, however, resisting. Now, on the other hand, you know my birthday was last month and if you’ve found yourself struck with guilt that you didn’t get me anything… Well, here’s your chance to chase that guilt away. Guilt, it’s a terrible thing. Rid yourself of it however you can.

(this post has no pictures because the Iimage browser plugin isn’t working. I give up!)

For the past 5 months, I’ve been searching for the “perfect” pattern for a backsack/backpack. I thought I’d found one back in February, but when I made it, I found the pattern itself was flawed–I thought I’d done something wrong, so I made it again and realized it was just a poorly designed backpack that looked awkward when on. I’ve searched online free patterns, in the craft stores and never really found exactly what I wanted. Then, one night about two months ago, Josh and I were out at the bar and this woman was carrying a backsack. I didn’t know her but that’s never stopped me before–I asked if I could look at her purse. She was happy to tell me about it–turns out it was a backsack by a famous quilted purse designer whose initials are VB (I really don’t want to invite people searching for the real thing here via Google).

The design is relatively simple and I knew immediately that I could reverse engineer it. Yes, it would be easier to go buy one, though they are awfully expensive, but I have some special fabric that I got six months ago for the express purpose of making a backsack as a gift. No, this is not the fabric, this is my test purse. So once I knew there was a design out there that I could work with, all I had to do was go to a store that sold them, take my camera, and snap a bunch of pictures for reference. And so I did.

Truly, I love it! The hardest part was figuring out the straps–specifically how to cover the straps. I’m still not convinced I did it the best way, and I wonder how to go about covering a smaller cording. If anyone has any hints for cover cording for purses/backsacks (it’s different to cover piping/cording for pillows and furniture, because you want to leave a lip for sewing into the piece of furniture. You don’t want that for purses, you want the seams smooth).

I had to have my husband put in the eyelets, because I tried the first one and didn’t have it on a hard enough surface. But other than that, this was very, very easy to piece together. Really, the cords themselves are the only difficult thing.

On the inside, there’s four pockets on one side of the backsack (I have to use it to figure out if I placed them on the right side, or if they should go on the opposite side of the bag). Like the VB version, there’s also a zipper pocket in the outside front. The third picture shows where it is, with the wallet hanging out. I used 7 fat quarters of fabric–I used the fat quarters because I have a bunch of funky material in fat quarters. Otherwise it would use maybe a yard and a half to two yards of fabric, depending on how you laid out your pieces.

As far as I can tell, from carrying it around the house with a metal paper towel holder, complete with a roll of paper towels (to give you an idea of how big it is), it’s comfortable. I’m going to use it on my trip this weekend, carry it around and see if I need any adjustments before I attempt one with the special fabric.

For these. It’s a crying shame I don’t have clue one how to knit, so my lust will remain unfulfilled. If I had like…24 extra hours in my day, I’d actually take up knitting just to make these. There are some other really cute patterns in her shop.

I don’t know if I have enough crafters reading this blog to do a fabric swap but I’m dying to do one (because I want someone else to pick out some fabric for me, lol) and I know I don’t know enough local people who do crafts to organize one. Would anyone be interested in doing a swap, organized here on the blog, where you would send out a certain number of yards of fabric to someone (we’ll assume no one will be sending uber-cheap fabric but will at least spend a couple dollars per yard or share something fun from their stash) and then get the same in return? Keeping in mind you’d be giving your address to a stranger, so if that bothers you, the swap is probably not for you. If we have five or six people I think that would be enough to do it. If you think you’re interested, post in the comments. If we have enough interest, I’ll organize something official. How many yards do you think you’d like to swap, if you’re interested?

A week ago I finally was able to get Amy Butler’s In Stitches from my local library. I paged through it and immediately saw the pattern for these lounge pants (note, this is the picture from the book). I realized later that I’ve seen several craft bloggers talk about these pants. Somewhere I’d read the idea to make the pants using thrifted sheets. I thought that was a groovy idea so Friday, I went thrifting!

I came home with a pile of flat sheets (for pants, quilt backs and whatever else I might decide to use them for) and some pillowcases (for making Brianna her own lounge pants and a pillowcase dress or two, as well as using for lining some purses). At 50 cents for the pillowcases and $2 for each flat sheet, it’s a lot cheaper than buying fabric by the yard and you can get some really fun patterns.

Saturday night, I was home alone, so I decided to whip up a pair of lounge pants. I actually used a fitted sheet, just took my rotary cutter and cut the elastic off so I had a flat piece. I wanted to use something I liked for the first pair, but not my favorite, in case I mucked it up and had to scrap it.

In all, they took me about four hours to make, and part of that process was drafting the pattern (easy but takes time to draw it and cut it using the template) and I lost a good half hour because I’m using a new sewing machine and had never done buttonholes on it before. I’m still not happy because the buttonholes’ thread is loose in places. I did several trial buttonholes and it seemed fine, but the ones on the pants, not so good. I’m not sure what happened.

I took three inches off the suggested leg length, but they’re still just slightly long. The pattern suggests adding trim to the cuffs, and I didn’t, because I wasn’t interested in trimming this pair. I’d like to make a nicer pair and I will try adding the trim to them, to make them slightly fancier. I’d also take another inch off the pattern, which I think would make them the perfect length for me (yeah, I’m short).

I couldn’t wait to get them on after I finished, and I wore them to bed last night. They’re soo comfy and soft. I think I’d like to make a few pair of these, in slightly nicer fabric, for wearing with tank tops around the house in the summer. I’d much rather wear loose, cool pants than shorts because I find shorts uncomfortable for sitting around in, for the most part. But these, in the right fabric, would be very funky and pretty, and I wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen in them if I had to answer the door to my friends the postman and the UPS driver! A stiffer cotton fabric instead of the softer sheet fabric, would give them a more defined shape (like the picture above from the book) and make them even prettier, less “loungey”, I’m sure.

I don’t think the pictures do them justice, because they’re really pretty cute and I think I don’t (I hope) look quite as dumpy as I do in the pictures You can’t tell from the small pictures but they’re white with a pink pinstripe type pattern (click on the pictures for the large pic and you can see it well). And did I mention they were sheets and sooo comfy? I thought maybe I did.

Anyway, I think I could easily make another pair of these pants in two hours. The instructions were good, step by step with diagrams. That’s awesome for me because I can’t always visual written instructions well, and I always appreciate pictures/diagrams to help me along. I’m going to try making Brianna and I matching pairs of lounge pants (all together now…”awwww”).

Next up: Dog collars from Amy Karol’s book, Bend-the-Rules-Sewing

For Valentine’s Day, we got snow. Which made Brianna say “it’s Christmas again!”. We don’t get much snow, and she saw a lot of it over Christmas when she stayed in NY with my in-laws, so in her mind snow=Christmas. Sadly, I had to burst that bubble. But lucky for her, they’re having their (second) Valentine Day party today at daycare so it’s almost as good as Christmas.

Because I seem unable to plan ahead, I realized yesterday morning that I hadn’t gotten anything for Brianna’s teachers for Valentine’s Day. I’m not sure on the etiquette of these things so I thought at least a token something would be nice. But I have an aversion to giving useless stuff (like cards) because, damn, cards are getting expensive and I might as well just take my $4 per card and throw it in the trash since that’s where most cards end up.

But I’d seen this post on making hot/cold rice bags and I decided it was something quick and easy I could do. I should note that I didn’t follow that tutorial, but hodge-podged three or four together so I could have a rice bag that 1)had an outside cover that could be removed and washed 2) so I could make an outside cover from fleece which could be removed. Fleece cannot be microwaved because it’s synthetic and flammable and the fibers will melt/burn/start to smell bad, but does make for some coziness against your neck 3) and I didn’t have velcro, didn’t plan on going to the store to get any, and really didn’t want to sew it on anyway, so I needed a design that would keep the inner bag securely in the outer bag without the use of any type of fastener.

In the end, for the two bags I made for Brianna’s teachers, I decided not to use fleece because it was packed away in a bin in the attic and because I had this cute flannel that was perfect for a VD theme. The picture on the left is the two finished bags. I have the top bag turned over so you can see how the middle looks with the “pocket” to slip them in. The picture on the right shows you the inner rice bag with the compartments. Click on either picture for a larger view.

Here’s a short hot cold rice bag tutorial (this weekend I’m going to add pictures of each step, if you’re a visual learner):

What you need:

1/4 yard cotton, muslin, etc for the inner bag
1/4 yard flannel, fleece or something cozy for the outer bag
4 cups of rice (less or more depending on your taste)
essential oils (optional)

How you do it:
1. I cut two pieces of cotton for the inner bag (again, use natural fiber cloth like cotton or muslin so it doesn’t burn in the microwave). These pieces I cut 21 inches by 6.5 inches.

2. I cut three pieces of flannel for the outer bag. The long piece was 22 inches by 7 inches (you want the outer bag to be slightly bigger than the inner bag so it fits inside). The two shorter pieces were 13 inches by 7 inches, each piece. I’d originally cut two pieces that were only 12 inches long and that wasn’t quite long enough so I did them with extra, which is better than less.

3. With right sides together, sew the inner bag together, two long sides and one short side, leaving one short end open (so you can pour the rice in). Turn right side out and set aside.

4. Take the two short pieces. On one short side of each piece, turn under about 1/4 inch and then turn under again 1/2″ to 3/4″ (whatever looks good to you). Sew this “hem”. You now should have two short pieces which each have a hemmed short side.

5. Lay the long piece for the outer cover right side up. Lay the two shorter pieces right sides down on top of the long piece, with the hemmed edges going towards the middle and overlapping each other by about an inch. Pin all three pieces together (make sure you have the right sides facing each other) and sew all the way around–sew all edges. You don’t need to leave an opening because you’ve created one in the middle of the pouch. Turn right side out and set aside. Your outer cover is done!

6. Now you’re ready for the filling. I used rice because I had a 5lb bag of jasmine rice on hand that I don’t like so was looking for a way to get rid of. You can use flax, barley, corn. You can add essential oils to the filler, so it releases a nice aroma when it’s heated. If you’re going to do this, mix up the rice and the oil before you start cutting and sewing so it has time to mix together and soak in, and doesn’t leave any greasy spots on your fabric. My essential oils are packed away in some unknown place so I improvised and added some peppermint and chamomile loose tea. Just a small amount (a couple teabags worth) to soften some of the “warm rice” smell.

7. I used 4 cups of rice per bag. To start, I poured one cup of rice into the bag and shook it to the bottom. I didn’t use measurements on this next part but you easily could measure your inner bag and divide it by four and put a little mark at each spot. I just eyeballed it and sewed where I thought 1/4th of the way up the bag was, creating a rice compartment. **Note, you don’t have to do this, you could just fill the bag with your desired amount of rice and sew the top closed. I used compartments to keep the rice evenly in place, instead of all pouring to the ends of the bags** I did this three more times, for four compartments, four cups of rice total. For the top of the bag, I folded the raw edges of the fabric in and then topstitched. Your inner bag is now done!

8. Now, using the pocket in the middle of the outer bag that you created, tuck the inner heat bag into its flannel cover. Print off these directions, or rewrite them and give them your own flair, and you have your ready-to-be gifted hot/cold bag. Easy, right?

Acknowledgments to: Melissa Rambles who has this pdf on her live journal, which is where I got the idea to do a pocket cover from, as well as where I got the original printable instructions from, which I adapted and made pretty for my use.

Blair at Wise Craft for the rice bag post, which was my original inspiration for making these.

Random person I can’t acknowledge because it was on an old cached message board, for suggesting making rice compartments.

Since I can’t get my image browser uploader to work, and I wanted to share what I made for Brianna this weekend, I came up with an alternative:

moar funny pictures

Meet Mickey (he’s the funny looking one we’re using to torment Max, one of our REAL cats). I made him from a free pointy kitty pattern I found at Wee Wonderfuls blog. I’m not totally enthusiastic about the way he turned about because 1) his eyes do make him look like an alien and 2) I’m pretty sure his head is going to be ripped off soon. It was a bear to sew it on and I tried to do it securely but I didn’t really know what I was doing.

I actually have one more of these that’s unassembled (the head and body are stuffed and sewn, but not attached to each other and none of the detail work is done). If I didn’t have to sew the head to the body, I would probably be willing to make a few more. But as it is…I need to learn a better technique! And I feel compelled to point out the reason I’m not enthusiastic has everything to do with me and not with the pattern, which is really freaking cute.

One thing I love about this kitty is the fabric. It was in a box of scraps I got from someone and there was just enough to cut two kitties. It’s a really pretty fabric, though a little too stretchy of a knit to make for easy sewing. The other thing I love about this kitty is that Brianna loves him (for now, she’s a toddler, I expect she’ll move on shortly) and has thanked me at least three times since last night for making him for her. I went in to check on her last night around 11pm, and there she was in bed, with her arm thrown around Mickey. That makes all the headaches I encountered totally worth it!

*edited to add, credit goes to Jaci Burton for the first line caption and Shannon Stacey for the second. They rawk!

**edited to add again, if you click on the picture, you can go vote for it at the lolcat site! (and read the comments that have been left)