walking

i used to walk the neighborhood streets for exercise with it's hard concrete, car exhaust and vented laundry smells and all the sounds of city life...but now i am so blessed to get to this open space, only minutes away by car. a new regional park we visit most days.  the trails are more like lawn at times.  and the uphill climbs expand my lungs like no other exercise.  heaven sent.  i needed this. 

i think a lot on my creative ideas, and here, in this green space, everything feels possible.

kombucha

it has been too long:) so i will start with today.  today i began another batch of kombucha...which i love.  i was given a small kombucha colony from my neighbor a few months ago and that colony and i, whom i call "betty galaxy", have become fast friends.  she makes the most delicious elixir and better with each new batch.  she started out so small, my little betty, and soon grew into this world of tiny bubbles and spots and strange cloudlike formations.  she looked like a little galaxy and thus.... the galaxy part of her name.  betty was my daughter's addition.

my son and i are the only ones who like to drink what betty hath made.  everyone else who i have offered a taste declines.  i feel a little sad when that happens because i feel so excited about it.  i find it completely refreshing and a little like the flavor of sparkling cider or hard cider in it's bright happy flavors and tiny bubbles.

i would have photographed betty today but she is really the least photogenic of anything in my home:)

the view from my world.

this vintage floral print is so special.  

now in hoop skirt form it is like circus tent.

needing such a wide open space to photograph it's fullness.

bigger skirts call for bigger places to photograph them.

these skirts are going to be trouble:)

there will be 6 in various variations.

here is number uno in an interesting smocked looking cotton textile with cotton print trims and casings.

84 inches in circumference.

so so happy with her.  

i have been wanting to do hoop skirts with metal hooping for years after my plastic hooping troubles.

 and now that i am retail on etsy i can afford the hooping and all the layers of work they entail. 

 hooray!!

finally finishing another vintage textile masterpiece:)...well...study anyway.

vintage euro lace on a 1970's textile waist

and little 1940's british made buttons anchoring the elastic at the back.

12 more skirt studies planned this summer.  

all will make their way to my etsy shop.

i love the look and feel of vintage fabrics for dress up pieces and all my hand sewn details make it feel so timeless in character.  

taking a brain twisting class this summer at my local junior college with my darling daughter. full of plotting points and tiny dimensions on x and y coordinates.  i really thought i would never use that sort of math idea in my life.  it is coming in handy understanding all that.

pictured is my first assignment...re-sizing a bodice up and down. lots of homework and concentration required.  i don't do anything else in my life where i have to pay microscopic attention for so long...super tricky to keep my brain on task.

excited to have a deeper look into where patterns and people grow in sizing.  will be very useful in my vintage pattern re-sizing for miss teapot dress up.  coming soon:)

the pattern i bought today on etsy at little  ticket whom i just love.  i think capes are next:)after i learn how to resize this children's size 1 into something larger.

i just love the shape of that little hood!