oh fransson

Oh, I see . . .

AMC is having Hitchcock Week, which is fabulous, because I'm going to be baking every night this week and I like to watch television while I'm baking.  Tonight, they're showing The Birds, aka the least scary horror movie ever made.  I really love Hitchcock but, unlike everything else of his (except, of course, Marnie!) I find The Birds to be unintentionally hilarious.  The best part is the way everyone keeps saying "Oh, I see" with this ominous, knowing, tone every time someone mentions lovebirds.  I had no idea lovebirds were so fraught with innuendo!  The other awesome recurring theme is how absolutely everything Mitch Brenner says or does must somehow relate to his being an attorney.  The man can't even have a conversation with his mother without asking, "When did you go to law school?"  Touche, Mitch!

At any rate, I'll be baking this week.  I'm making cookie box wedding favors for Drew & Mieke's wedding on the 29th.  Each box will have three cookies in it.  I've finished the first kind, which is Coconut Fudge Swirl.  They are kind of tedious to make, but very good.

Also, Adria and Dan's very beautiful wedding was yesterday.  Here is a shot of the mats I made "in action."  (Not a very good shot.  It was pretty dark in the room.

Scrap Swap: Ready to Go!

I finally made the time to put together my Scrap Swap package, which is going out to Nancy tomorrow morning.  Hopefully she'll like it!

I have to say that I'm super-excited to be sending a package to a fellow Nancy Drew fan!  It reminds me that I really want to read some of the old Nancy Drew books my Mother-In-Law sent me a while ago.

They have fabulous illustrations!  Way cooler than the ones in those yellow and turquoise books they had at the library when I was in fifth and sixth grade.  I'm seriously going to have to find a way to do something with some of these images -- particularly the ones lining the inside covers.

The ones with blue covers are from the 30's and 40's.  There are also a couple from the late 50's, including this one, which inadvertently makes it look like Nancy wants to be a DJ.

Also from "The Scarlet Slipper Mystery" is this illustration, which is just kind of odd.  What is up with that tied up person?  For some reason the top part of her outfit looks like she should be publishing a newspaper in the old west.  The whole thing makes me think of this amazing Flickr Group I found today, Stick Figures in Peril (and its counterpart Stick Figures Who Have The Situation Under Control).  Some of those are just hilarious!

My husband bought me Girl Sleuth - Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak for Christmas last year and it was really an interesting read.  One of the reasons I'm interested in reading the older Nancy Drews is that I learned in the book that, apparently, there was a massive overhaul of the earlier titles (during the 1970's, if I remember correctly) to make them seem less dated for contemporary girls.  Surely the versions I read in the 80's were the "modernized" versions, so I'm curious how the older versions read. 

I think the best part of Kathy's (My Mother-In-Law's) books is this:

I'm not sure if it was her or one of her sisters, but I love that she was keeping track of which books she'd read!

Bird Bags

I just finished a couple of bags for friends.  One if for my best friend, Jenn's birthday.  The other one is for Jen from kickball.  The one on the far right is for me, since it didn't come out quite right!

This was my first time using canvas as a stabilizer and, while I loved the effect, it was a pain to work with.  One of the reasons the yellow bird bag didn't turn out as well as it could have was that I simply had too many layers to sew through -- I could barely get it under my presser foot!

Jenn's bag is made from brown wool suiting, with a deep red satin lining.  The exterior has two slip pockets, lined in Alexander Henry's "Koto" and trimmed with a patchwork border featuring Alexander Henry's "Tsukiyo Owls," Michael Miller's "Shibori Texture," a dot from Amy Butler's "Lotus" series and more of the "Koto."  The owl thing is sort of a joke -- we'll see if she gets it.

Jen's bag is made from brown twill with a patchwork lining from Moda's "Uptown" and Denyse Schmidt's "Flea Market Fancy."  The exterior pockets are lined in the "Paint By Number Birds" from Uptown, and the patchwork border includes all the fabrics I've mentioned, plus a couple more from Denyse Schmidt -- one from "Katie Jump Rope."  Jen's bag also has a keyring attachment, since she specifically asked for a place to put her keys.

My bag is made of gray wool with an apple green satin lining.  The exterior pockets are lined with Alexander Henry's "Bird Seed" and the patchwork border also includes a green dot and black and white [the fabric that shall not be named] and a yellow print from "Katie Jump Rope."

I'm looking forward to trying this bag again with a little less canvas, so the seams aren't quite so bulky.  We'll see what happens!