para vacacionar en México

I got home two nights ago from a vacation in Mexico.  I went with my extended family, and we stayed at a resort in Playa del Carmen, about 30 minutes from Cancun.  The beach was incredibly pretty, and the water was perfect-- warm, but cool enough to still be refreshing.

The view from my balcony:



I'm home now, with an ear infection from the plane.  Totally worth it.  :)

It's been a while

Hi everyone!  I haven't posted on here in ages, nearly a year, because the past year has been such a whirlwind.

First things first!  I just added a LOT of new stuff to my etsy shop.  Pretty headbands and dresses!  Check them out here!

I'm hoping to update this more often this summer (which is good, because I cant very well update it less often).  Here are some quick highlights from the past year, which talk more about in an upcoming post!

• I became an RA after all!  I was called in a few days before training started at the end of last summer, and I became the RA for a floor of freshman girls.  It was a challenging, fun experience, and I'm happy to say that I'll be in the same building next year, but on the 4th floor instead of the 10th.


• My Associate's Degree exhibit was at the end of April-- everyone's work looked beautiful.  The theme was Valentino, which was like a dream come true for me-- an entire room full of red and pink and ruffles!


• I made it into, and completed, the Fashion Design Art Specialization program at FIT!  It was such a cool curriculum, and there's no doubt in my mind that it vastly improved my abilities in art and design.  But for now, it's great to be home and sewing again.

My room this past year, which I miss already:



with christmas lights, and a better view of the wall decals next to my bed:



View of the Empire State building from my window:



That's all for now!

xo,

Julie

Tres Tres Enchante

I have continued to crochet like a madwoman!

**********

I finished the red Puff Stitch Beret! 

The pattern can be found here.  I'm really happy with how it came out!  Since I used a sport weight yarn and not a DK weight and went up a hook size, I had to do some modifications so that the hat brim wasn't way too big.  In case anyone else wants to give this hat a try, here are the pattern changes that I made.

• Round 17: hdc 3, hdc 2 in next st* around, join


• Round 18: hdc 1, hdc 2 in next st* around, join


• Round 19: sc in each st around, join


• Round 20: sc 1, sc 2 in next st* around, join

I want to make another one of these closer to winter, maybe in navy blue.  I've been watching too much Mary Tyler Moore, apparently, because whenever I put the beret on I have an overwhelming urge to throw it in the air.

**********

I've been coveting a pair of crocheted Mary Jane slippers for a while, and I couldn't find a pattern for exactly what I was looking for on Ravelry, so last week I  looked on Etsy.  I bought a perfect pattern from wpooh87's Etsy shop, and made a pair in a few hours. 

I'm thrilled with them, and they're soooo comfy.  I might go down one hook size from the H recommended in the pattern, though, just for a slightly denser fabric and tighter fit, more like a sock.  But they're really fast to crochet, easy, and the seller emailed me the pattern PDF just a few hours after I bought it.  There was only one seam, too, which was great.

**********

I spent my day today working on sewing some things for my dorm room, which I will be moving into in eleven days.  Eleven days!  How is this possible?!  I'll be leaving on Saturday to go to Cape May, New Jersey, and then going to school straight from there.  So, I'll probably wait until I'm moved in to blog with pictures of the dorm-wares, so that they can be seen in their full dorm-y glory, along with the wall decals that I bought from Etsy.

**********

Enjoy the last of summer!

Crafty Like a Fox

I think I have made more stuff this summer than ever before.  My schedule right now consists of waking up at 8, getting my room in order (making my bed, clearing off my craft tables, etc.) and eating breakfast, then sewing from 9-5 with a half-hour break for lunch around 1.  Then I do fashion journaling from 5-8, eat dinner, and do whatever I want from about 8:45 to 11:30, then I go to bed.  And what do I choose to do with my exactly two hours and forty-five minutes of free time?  I make stuff.  Usually, I crochet.

I recently finished two of these grocery bags, to use when I go back to school.  The pattern is from The Adventures of Cassie, a really neat blog.  I found the pattern through Ravelry.  I know it doesn't look that big, but after I'd finished my first bag, I tested it out, and put in two cans of spaghettios, two cans of cat food, a can of baby corn, a box of trash bags, and a cannister of oatmeal, and the bag wasn't nearly full.  The pattern was easy to follow, too.  I want to make another before I go back to school, and that should give me plenty of room to carry everything.  Yay!

**********

I also made a little turtle for my brother, from Ana Paula Rimoli's book, Amigurumi Two:  Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too!  I'm so happy with how it came out.  I gave it to my brother today and he really liked it. 

**********

And, currently, (during my two hours and forty-five minutes of free time per day while watching Mary Tyler Moore on Hulu) I am working on a red beret with a bow.  The pattern is by CreativeYarn, the same person who wrote the pattern for the three-strand headbands.  Her patterns are so cute, I want to make as many of them as I can.  I read in the comments to the pattern that some people have had problems with their berets coming out too big, but I wanted mine to be a little roomier than the one she shows, and I have kind of a big head and do my best to have big hair, I decided to go up one hook size, to an H.  It looks, so far, like it will be just the right size and have just the right amount of floppiness.

**********

I also recently finished a Halloween costume I was commissioned to make,  but I'm not going to post any pictures of that until the client says it's alright, because I don't know if he wants to keep it a surprise until Halloween.  Either way.. suffice it to say that while sewing glitter dot fabric was irritating enough to make me crazy, the result is soooo gorgeous.... I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope my client likes it just as much as I do.

**********

Lastly, a family friend was cleaning out some closets, and I ended up with three very neat things.

A long ivory lace skirt, which I'm not going to alter at all.  However, I need to fiure out what I'm going to wear under it, because as it is now it's very sheer.

A long, green and beige plaid jumper dress.  I'm going to shorten this quite a bit, and take the button tabs off the front, so that it's a cute dress to wear over tights.

Third, a jumpsuit that ha a zipper up the front for about a foot, then has two strange flaps that would appear to cross over in the front, but which apparently have no way of staying closed.  This is the more ambitious redesign. I'm going to take out the crotch seam of the pants and turn the bottom into a skirt, then add buttons along the side of the flap in the middle so that they stay closed.

**********

I need to make a thrift store run for crafting material for my dorm room... I need to find some pretty vintage plates and glasses.

**********

Until next time!

Sounds of Summer

BIG NEWS!  My Etsy shop is now officially open !  Please visit it at julierosesews.etsy.com.



Right now, I have three jumper-style sundresses for sale, and I hope to expand to include bags and more styles of dresses and tops soon.  If you're interested in any of the items, but don't see it in your size, contact me either through etsy or in a comment, and I'll be happy to make you a custom listing.

**********

I got home from my all-too-brief stay at Marissa's house on July 18th.  So, the rest of this post will be primarily devoted to that visit!

**********

The first thing we did was go see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  I'd already heard that some significant changes had been made in the transition from the book to the movie, so I was prepared.  But... eh, maybe I just love the books too much to see past them, but I thought that the translation to the screen was rather poorly done.  Or, rather, to someone who hadn't read the books, it would be an fun, entertaining movie, with lots of action of both the dueling and kissing varieties.  But Marissa and I concurred that for readers of the Harry Potter series, it was confusing as to why important things, like the origins of the various Horcruxes, and the whole mystery of who the Half-Blood Prince actually was, were given very little importance and screen-time, while scenes that did not occur in the book, and as far as I could tell had little to no relevance, like a dizzyingly-shot attack on the Burrow, were added.  Overall, I would give it two and a half stars out of five.

**********

More and more crochet has been creeping into my life!  Well, not so much creeping as bashing down the door and throwing a party.  In any event, I have been prolific.  I joined Ravelry, an online knit and crochet community, and a pattern search turned up a super-pretty headband pattern from CreativeYarn.  She has a lot of really cute patterns, I'm going to make the red bow beret pretty soon, too.  But anyway, I took some yarn and this crochet pattern to Marissa's house with me, and made 5 during my stay.  This was the first one I made, and I later made 2 in black (one of which went to Marissa), one in eggplant purple, and one in yellow.  It was a really fun, easy pattern, and a good way to transition into making something other than amigurumi.  I made them mostly while watching Marissa play video games, which sounds lame, but I really, really like watching people play them.  I am terrible at anything that involves a lot of complicated button-pushing combinations myself, so I enjoy getting the experience of the game without requiring any skills in that area.

**********

On Friday, my second day at Marissa's, we visited Knoebel's Amusement Park.  It was incredibly fun!  I'd never been there before, and I was very pleasantly surprised.  There's no admission fee, just inexpensive tickets for rides.  We went on the wooden roller coasters and water rides.  There was much yelling and general hysteria.  We also went in the Haunted Mansion.  The plan was for both of us to yell ridiculous exclamations in our very convincing old lady voices.... however, one of us remembered what a complete baby she is about anything remotely scary and curled into a ball with her eyes closed and her hands over her ears from the moment we entered the ride to when we were outside again, and did not utter a sound the entire time.  Here's a hint:  it wasn't Marissa.  The great thing about Knoebel's, though, is that it's a fairly small amusement park, so we were able to go in at 11:15 a.m., go on all the rides we wanted as many times as we wanted for about  $13, and we were out by 2 p.m, and the longest line we waited in was maybe fifteen minutes.  My personal favorite moment of the day was when we were riding this flume-type thing, except with less thrill-ride and more sit-in-a-boat-and-get-soaked, which was called the Sklooosh.  It was our second time on it, and there were only two other kids with us in this, like, 12 person boat, and after we'd gone down the hill and been drenched, Marissa turned around to them and exclaimed, "Good Skloooshing!"  We'll definitely be returning.

**********

Saturday, was the day I was scheduled to go home.  We had something very important to accomplish before we could leave, though!  Namely... Lord of the Rings cupcakes.  Marissa had wanted to make cupcakes before I came to visit, then she had the idea of having them be in an LotR theme, and how could I say no to something like that?  Without further ado...

**********

We got stuck in traffic on the way back to the town where I live (not to mention that we missed our exit twice), and therefore had to find a way to pass the time.  For about half an hour, this consisted of playing Highway I Spy, where one of us would yell, "I spy something... GREEN!"  The other would ask," Is it the GRASS?!"  "YES!!!"  And so on, about the sky, any car passing us, signs, the yellow lines on the highway... Marissa and I found this incredibly amusing; I think anyone else in the car would have killed us after about the first ten minutes.  We did get bored eventually, though, and we needed a new game.  So, it was time for the ever-popular "Kill, Marry, Shputz."  No, the original last word is not 'shputz.'  But neither of us are a big fan of the word it stands for, and... who could pass up the opportunity to say 'shputz' over and over?  For those of you who don't know, this is a game where three individuals are chosen, and then the two players have to choose which of the people (in our case men... or at least males, as some of them did not actually exist) they would kill, which they would marry, and which they would.... shputz.  Here are a few of the more amusing rounds of the game.  The letters stand for each action.

Potentials                                                  Julie's Answer             Marissa's Answer

• William Shatner (now)                        M                                       K


• Howard Stern                                        S                                         S


• Mr. Bean                                                 K                                        M

• Julius Caesar                                         M                                       K


• Macbeth                                                  K                                       M


• Hamlet                                                    S                                        S

• Patrick Stewart                                     M                                       K


• Link, from the Zelda games               S                                         S


• That Creepy MSNBC Anchor            K                                         M

• Construction worker next to the road     K                                 K


• Abe Lincoln                                          M                                         M


• Dwight Shrute                                      S                                          S

Interestingly, Marissa and I rarely chose the same marry/kill options, but nearly always had the same shputz choice.  Hmm.

**********

I think I'm going to try to start blogging every day, or every other day, so that I don't do these massive twice-a-month blogs.  I still have crochet projects, sewing stuff, music reviews ,and general what's-going-on-in-my-life stuff, but it's going to wait until next time so this doesn't turn into an intimidatingly large entry.  But, in case you want up to the minute information on my life, I've joined Twitter.  I'm at http://twitter.com/julie_rose_sews.  It's really exciting, I think today I tweeted about cat-sitting and having a peanut butter and jelly for lunch.  But my background on my page is super-cute.

**********

Next time:  crochet projects, new etsy favorites, handmade dorm decor, and more!

What do we want? A BLOG POST!!!!! When do we want it?

NOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

I have fiiiinally found my camera!  Success!  Also, this is my first blog post made as a nineteen-year-old.  Which segues very nicely into...

For my birthday, my parents got me lots of lovely things, including fabric, yarn, ballet flats, and two books, both by Ana Paula Rimoli:  Amigurumi World: Super Cute Crochet and Amigurumi Two!:  Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too. They are full of the cutest little creatures imaginable.  One of my favorites is the 'Tiny Ami Bunny,' which I made in pink!  

I also made lots of little foods, which went to the girl I babysit for her birthday, complete with a picnic blanket and basket. 

The egg patterns are from Amigurumi World by Ana Paula Rimoli, The apple and corn are free patterns from Lionbrand.com, the pear is from here, and the cupcake is from here.

**********

In other news, the garden is producing massive amounts of berries!  There are wild blueberries growing up in out field, and inside the garden are black raspberries, red raspberries, and my favorite summer treat, golden raspberries.  Mmmmmm.

**********

What I Have Been Listening to Lately:

• Bishop Allen:  "Click, Click, Click, Click" and "Choose Again"


• The Killers:  "Losing Touch," "I Can't Stay," and "Human"


• Paul and Storm:  "Other Places Jimmy Hoffa Isn't"


• The National:  "Ada"

**********

You know what I wish was sold?  Extra tops for perfume bottles.  I lose them constantly and then I can't take my perfume anywhere.

Speaking of perfume, I finally found one that I like almost as much as the Escada Moon Sparkle that's no longer being made.  When Marissa came up to visit me, she sprayed a perfume and I thought I was going to die, it smelled so good.  Naturally, I had to have it, and asked her what it was.  It was.....  *drumroll....*   Love Spell, from Victoria's Secret.  It has a sort of peachy top-note, and it mellows into a warm berry-vanilla smell.  Yum.  It does fade fairly quickly, since it's a body spray and not an eau de toilette, but at $9, you can afford to spray twice a day.

Love Spell Body Mist, $9, at Victoria's Secret stores or at victoriassecret.com.

**********

I'm going to Marissa's house for a few days, and we will be going to Knoebel's amusement park.  There is no knowing what kind of mischief we will get into.

**********

I am not normally one to talk about how much I like a particular commercial, but I've been watching full episodes of shows on hgtv.com recently, and I really, really like the Blackberry commercial with U2.  They managed to capture the energy of a concert really well.  I mean, I would be pretty enthused if I got to be in the crowd for the filming of that, too.  But... I just think it's a really well done commerical.  I like it a lot.

***********

I am now the proud wearer of the biggest hat in the world. It was a birthday present from  my aunt and uncle, and I love it!  It makes me feel like Strawberry Shortcake.  It's from the Scala hat company.  It's also offered in lots of other colors, for those who don't wish to be seen from space while sunbathing.

**********

Off to Marissa's!

Summertime, and the living is...

So.  School has been out for exactly 19 days.  A lot has happened in that time!  I do have pictures of some of it, but I have, unfortunately, misplaced my camera.  But there will be pictures to accompany these events when I find it.  Luckily... it must be someplace in my house, because I become a total hermit in the summer and don't ever go out.  But I digress.  So here's what I have been doing with my life in the past 19 days.

The Job

Once upon a time, I had a summer job.  I worked as a 'Pantry Staff Member' at a local resort for a day and a half.   I was one of those girls who run around asking if people would like drinks and offering them different kinds of bread.  And who wore high-waisted, pleat front pants.  Ouch.  Since the dining room I was working in held about 750 people at a time, though, it was some pretty loud work.  "WOULD YOU LIKE SOME BREAD?!  THERE'S ICED RAISIN, BANANA NUT, AND OLIVE!!!"  It was like being a drum major all over again.  Turns out, I'm not one for hectic atmospheres, and I kiiiiiinda hated it.  So, when I managed to spill a glass of chocolate milk over the heads of not one, not two, but three people (and I swear, the chocolate milk expanded when it got outside of the glass), I realized that I am just not cut out to be a waitress after all.  Darn.  And that was the end of that.

The Job, Part 2

After turning in my apron and various other polyester resort garb, I was called the family I babysat for last summer.  They'd only had a girl at that point.  She's almost 2 now.  But they had a little boy 12 weeks ago, and now I am back to babysitting, which I looooove.  I either am home with E (which is how I'll refer to the girl, because it seems weird to put her whole first name on here, for some reason.  I mean, I just have such a VAST readership.) while their mom goes out with the baby boy in his carrier, or I sit with A (baby boy) while E does her swimming lessons, which their mom needs to be in the pool with her for.  Those swimming lessons?  Held at the resort I just quit. As Marissa put it, "the great goddess of awkwardness has chosen [me]."  But the babysitting is super fun.

When I'm not babysitting, I am sewing.  I'm making jackets for my mom's fife and drum corps, and soon I will be making vintage-style underwear.  Weird, but apparently there's a market for it, so whatever.

Everything Else!

Since I've been home, I've been able to do some sewing for myself!!  I'd cut out the Sabrina dress from Burdastyle before my first semester started, and I hadn't found any time at all to actually sew it over the school year.  But now it's almost done, I just have finish up the lining and add the straps. Then, I will take pictures of it!  Possibly me in it, possibly just it on the dress form.  It depends if I can find someone willing to watch me prance around in it.

I also want to learn to crochet this summer, preferably in the next two weeks or so.  I love knitting, but there aren't that many patterns for cute little knitted things, like the amigurumi patterns for crochet.  Also, I am totally incabable of using double-pointed knitting needles, so I can't really make anything round or tube-shaped.  With crocheting that won't be an issue.  Since I can't start with anything sensible when I learn to crochet, like, oh, I don't know, a scarf or something flat like that, I've been looking up things I do want to crochet.  Here are some of them.

Ana Paula's Amigurumi Patterns: very cute patterns. 

She has an etsy shop, too, and apparently a couple books.  So, if I do get good at crochet, I'll definitely be checking those out.

One of the reasons it's been so long since I blogged is my ENORMOUS FINAL PROJECT for my fashion art and design class last semester.  We had to choose a muse, and an element of Victorian style, and design 5 eveningwear ensembles combining the two.  I, as some of you may remember, had chosen Amelie, as portrayed by Audrey Tautou in the movie Amelie.

Mood Page: 

Eveningwear:

More when I find my camera!