The second linen tote. 

With vintage ribbon and buttons.

I’ll be back to sewing clothes this weekend, I swear.

For those of you in the states, I hope you enjoy the 3 days off!  I’ll be painting (and sewing.)

Peeps have already noticed the new layout, which surprised me given that my stats show the majority of you viewing (Into) the Fray via some type of reader.  For those of you who have yet to click through, please do.  After nearly three years (three years!) of writing here, including a switch in platforms and nabbing my own domain, I thought it was time to clean house a bit.  That includes:

1. The curtains now match the drapes.  The main page matches the blog which matches the shop.  And strangely enough, the colors seem to be reflected in the house.  Crazy.
2. So many of the directories I’d joined way back when I was still new to blogging resulted in zero traffic so they’re gone.
3. I’ve long wanted to flesh out my links list and now I’ll have the chance to since they’re located on their own page.  I realize the categories are rough given that so many of my favorite sites straddle the line between art, craft, and general awesomeness.  If anything looks off or a link goes no where, please shoot me an email and I’ll get it updated.

Lisa recentl tagged me to share 10 honest things and I figured I’d focus on all things intertubes given the recent sprucing.

1. Email was my first introduction to the internet.  My university issued email addresses that were the same as our student IDs (a mess of meaningless numbers.)  It strikes me as so impersonal now that I think of how clever people get with their email addresses–and frustrated when they can’t use their name because it’s already taken!

2. Other than email, the internet was largely meaningless for me through the remainder of college. (I’m trying to think now what I did with my time–oh yeah, that’s right.)  After I graduated, I discovered the world of Damn Hell Ass Kings and quickly got emersed in the Fametracker forums.  I liked Mighty Big TV, too but even then I wasn’t much for television.  It still cracks me up that Mighty Big TV took off, underwent a name change and was then bought by Bravo, while the site I loved languished and eventually went on permanent hiatus.

3. Right before I left the country, I toyed with the idea of keeping some kind of online journal and even played around with Diaryland before ultimately deciding it was too weird.  I regret not doing it now.

4. I joined Friendster while I was living abroad.  I wouldn’t have known it existed given that I still had no internet at my flat & barely had time to glance at my email at work–only a friend sent me an invite.  I’ve read a few explanations of why it crashed & burned when MySpace came on the scene but I still don’t fully understand what was up with that.  While I know people love being able to customize their Myspace page, it ultimately feels like getting inundated with LV logos or unicorns or music I don’t like.  In other words, get off my lawn.

5. I met the boyfriend via an online dating site.  He had an ability right from the start to crack me up over IM that remains largely unparalleled.

6. The same week I met him, I met up with another fellow via the same dating service who was also:

a. an only child

b. of older divorced parents

c. from kentucky

and wondered if I’d landed on a reality tv show without my knowledge.

7. While on my first vacation with the boyfriend, I decided to start a blog.  I’m still not quite sure why he was the only one I told about it for months and months.

8. I resisted digital cameras for a long time, which is why my first few sets of flickr photos are actually from a 35mm I refused to get rid of.

9. I was also a bit late to Twitter but still managed to get teased by a coworker when I mentioned using it.

10. I believe my friend Tyler, the very talented artist who is responsible for the new look and layout, is the first person besides Ben to know about my blog.  He was the only person I knew in real life who had one himself (check out his portfolio–he’s seriously talented.)  I’m still not sure why I kept it a secret from people I know–anyone who knows of it is quite supportive.  Silly me being self conscious, I guess.

I’d love to see 10 honest things from Julia, Missa, Franca, Betsy, and Sister Wolf because her constant honesty impresses me.

I’ve admitted my fascination with abandoned places before and have a deep admiration for photographers who risk rotted floors, squatters and who knows what else to capture amazing images.  I can’t imagine what went in to getting these shots of an abandoned shipyard in Japan.

Artificial Owl is all about documenting abandoned man-made creations, from things like this shipyard to the tragedy of Chernobyl to random hospitals that no longer serve a purpose.  These places would be difficult to photograph badly but I remain impressed by just how wonderfully they’re captured.

I could seriously lose hours browsing their archives.

Linen left over from curtains provided the perfect back drop for a vintage handkerchief I was given ages ago.

And a vintage button from Walla Walla provides the closure.

There’s so much of the natural linen left over that I’ve already got another tote nearly finished.

Both will go in the shop.

We are cat people so you’ll have to excuse how entertained I am by these paper crafts.

From Power and Light.

Love this linocut from Kittytown.

And this print by Kerry Beary makes me smile.

Happy Caturday.

While we’ve only been in the house five weeks, it already feels like it’s been ages.  Almost every weekend has involved a degree of physical labor I couldn’t have comprehended before we moved in.  The majority of the time, it’s a labor that feels ludicrously joyful given what it incorporates:  painting 8 foot walls, scrubbing a range caked with the memory of hundreds of fried breakfasts, pruning trees covered in thorns, assembling furniture with instructions that must have been translated from Swedish to French, then English.

The incremental change in a room is the reason it’s so joyful.  For instance, take the living room.

before

We assumed the house was staged.  The house had been on the market for a year and I’m sure the seller and realtor were doing everything they could to get it sold.  The furniture is definitely a mish mash (dining room chair in the corner?) and while I don’t dislike it, it’s got an antique feel that is at odds with the modern style of the house.

The scrolling, vine-embellished light fixtures in copper, the twirly wrought iron of the breakfast set, and the yellow paint are much more French country than 1960s mod.

The boyfriend and I took aaaaaaaaaaaaages to agree on a paint color.  I wanted something cool and he wanted to be sure we didn’t have gray walls in a gray climate.  Ginseng, the Devine paint we finally chose, is a neutral that looks taupe in some lights and dove gray in others.

What surprised me after we actually got our furniture into this room is how well it suits the space.  I had never consciously decided I wanted contemporary furniture with a midcentury touch–I just never liked couches exploding with cushions (they need constant adjusting and get smooshed so quickly) and preferred simple bench backs.  The shelf was one of few that struck us as distinctive among the Ikea Billys and Pottery Barn mission style pieces that are so inescapable.  Even the stools were an impulse buy unrelated to any attempt to achieve a certain style.

Not that the whole room is an atomic ranch throwback (thanks Reese!).  The coffee and end table are more traditional, as is the hutch on the dining room wall–the only antique I own purchased back when I still lived in a studio and needed a versatile piece of furniture for such a small space.

Only the rug, dining room light fixture and curtains are new to us–and the $8 chairs from Craigslist.  Even the mess of frames over the sofa were scattered through out the apartment, our affinity for black making it easy to group these all together.

For those of you who have admired the 1950s dining set the boyfriend picked up before we lived together, we were relieved to find it fits in the nook in the kitchen.  This leaves us without a formal set in the main room.  This isn’t a huge issue for us as we rarely dine in any formal sense of the word–and we’d rather wait to find something we really love.

Craigslist don’t fail me now!

More pics on flickr.

It’s all about the blues.

Credits:
1. 2 pillows in 2 days, 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. Gray Skies, 5. shock + awe!, 6. Untitled, 7. i went to the fabric store to get some buttons…, 8. duck, 9. handmade headwrap/bow/spring hat, 10. the red table, 11. That’s the looks, too., 12. punting on the river Isis

My casual slip on tennis shoes bit the dust over the course of the past few weeks.  They were already pretty worn but between painting and yard work, they’ve been relegated to the garage.  While I’ve always been a big fan of classic sneakers, I decided to mix it up from the usual Cons/Saucony/Roos triumvirate by going with a prep staple.

Tretorn was founded in 1891 in Sweden and apparently had a huge revival when the prep look was huge in the 80s (I’d have been far too small to remember).  I like them because they’re simple and comfortable and the tongue looks like it was trimmed with pinking shears.  As tempted as I was by some of the funkier and more feminine styles, I went with a classic pair.

Though I’d sworn off Birkenstocks, I couldn’t resist these cork-soled sandals by Cordani.  They caught my eye a few weeks back and after a few rounds in my beat up sandals from two summers ago, I got them.  So comfortable!  & they’ll be easier to resole than the super flat things I’d been hiking in.

No more shoes for a while, sadly.

We recently replaced our bed (the old one will go into the guest room) and while you might have guessed that we’d get a platform bed, it was a surprisingly hard choice to make.

After checking in to a few local shops, we found that most of them were stocking items found at Bedroom Furniture…and then some.  This nook bed was so tempting but far more than we can afford.

The price again makes this one out of reach.  & I tend to stay away from wood veneer if I can help it.

While the boyfriend and I both liked this one, we ultimately decided it was a little too distinctive.  We’ve been trying to tread the line between the midcentury revival that’s so popular right now, and things that we can be relatively sure we’ll like years from now.

While before and after shots of the bedroom will have to wait (so many little things still to be done!), I should be able to give a full view of the living room this week

Two very different totes in the same pinwale corduroy.

For those of you who have been reading for a while, you may recognize those bamboo handles from one of the very first purses I made.  The koi fabric was definitely the worse for wear but I couldn’t give up those bamboo handles.

It features my very first welt pocket.  Despite googling a variety of different tutorials, I found this vintage guide courtesy of Bethany the most helpful.  I’m not quite done with this roomier version in white corduroy but I definitely have the feeling I’ll be carrying it all summer.

I actually thought I’d finished this tote some time ago but I wasn’t happy with the handle–and felt like the body needed a little more interest.  With this simple suede strap and two patch pockets, it’s finally been added to the shop.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

Between Braid Wednesday on flickr and these amazing prints by MGU, I’m actually considering doing ornate things with my hair.

Perhaps with Freelancer’s tutorials, I might even manage it.

Via labour of heart.

I can’t seem to get away from those pale, blushing colors that are so ubiquitous this summer.

The latest shop update is evidence of that.  The Francesca necklace features a single briolette I picked up ages ago, made into a pair of earrings I was never quite happy with, and finally turned into this simple piece.

These earrings are a bit more elaborate, a cluster of pearls and crystals dancing from elongated ear wires.  I rarely make cluster earrings because they’re often more labor intensive but I loved all of these elements so much together that I couldn’t help myself this time.  Both are in the shop.

Happy Friday everyone.

I tried on a pair of Gap capris at the thrift store a few weeks back and was super surprised by how decent they looked & super bummed they were a bit too tight.  I instantly set out to find a pair that were equally awesome but, you know, fit.

Found ‘em.  I wore them two days in a row over the course of last weekend.  And to my surprise, somehow managed not to spill anything on myself the entire time.

The overly organized neatnik in me loves the idea of this modular storage system from Pottery Barn:

It was the one thing in the entire catalog that appealed to me.  & minus the spice rack, I could see almost every element in some portion of the house.

Even better, you can pick and choose which elements you want.  I’ve definitely got my eye on that recharger station.

It’s been some time since I last provided a round up of the things I’ve come across that stuck with me, or found myself mulling over and wanting to share.  For certain, the house hunt, purchase and move were a huge part of that but I also think I’ve had less mental space since my promotion in February to devote to things beyond cool vintage pictures or dresses that catch my eye.  Feel free to send anything my way you think might fit in this type of post–I know I don’t hesitate to send Wendy B. random peacock dresses!

….

First, the potentially controversial bit.  I wasn’t the only one pleasantly surprised by Lucky’s most recent issue devoted to all things affordable.  This included a nice 2-3 page spread of various web sites that sell things someone besides Beyonce can afford.  Etsy was on that list and I felt my face contort as I saw their 1 line description: a great site to buy things wholesale.

To sell handmade items wholesale is pretty much an oxymoron at heart.  To sell wholesale means to provide a deep discount because the product is being sold in bulk.  For some people, this is not unheard of; they determine a threshold (say, 20 items or a $200 limit) and provide a discount once that thresh hold is reached.  When you sell items as one offs, however, providing that discount basically means you sell at a loss.

This topic gets covered pretty regularly in the Etsy forums.  The people trying to make a living, or at least cover the cost of their time and materials, often express their frustration with other sellers they don’t feel price their items appropriately.  Those sellers sometimes pipe up and say they’re just hobbyists.  As a hobbyist myself, I can definitely see both sides of the coin.

DoubleX, however, threw some interesting wood on the fire with their recent article: Etsy.com Peddles a False Feminist Fantasy.

…what Etsy is really peddling isn’t only handicrafts, but also the feminist promise that you can have a family and create hip arts and crafts from home during flexible, reasonable hours while still having a respectable, fulfilling, and remunerative career. The problem is that on Etsy, as in much of life, the promise is a fantasy.

The writer has an amazing point that I don’t think many people would be willing to make…but her supporting arguments don’t strike me as true.  Yes, it’s incredibly difficult to actually make a living selling handmade goods.  A lot of wildly successful sellers are not in the one-off business (prints of original art work, for example) or they have help in the assembly of their goods.  Etsy does little to suggest that this success is incredibly difficult to duplicate–and honestly, it’s in their best interest to refrain from making that clear.

However, to say that it’s a woman’s ghetto that men are savvy enough to avoid strikes me as belittling and truly off target.  While a good portion of the sellers are moms, the majority I know are not.  I don’t think being a mom and wanting to have a career is necessarily a huge driver for women looking to achieve a balance by selling handmade goods–obviously it can’t be since such a large portion of sellers don’t necessarily have children.  If anything, I imagine it’s the fact that the average job isn’t 100% gratifying–and who isn’t striving for something better, a work day that is as satisfying as a weekend, a job that makes you feel good about yourself, and the luxury of setting your own hours?  I know that was the temptation for me a year and a half ago when I was at my previous job.  I honestly thought about going to 30 hours a week–but that was as far as my fantasy took me because I knew making a living was just not doable by selling online alone.

I came across this article via even cleveland and one of the very brief comments in response to the post struck me as very true:

Having a job that you love 100% is always a fantasy.

I truly hope to retire from the job I have now.  But you can bet there are bad days and even bad weeks where my frustration can’t even find release in looking at kittens on Cute Overload.  & I imagine that if I’d somehow become one of those wildly successful Etsy sellers, those same bad days and bad weeks would happen.

….

I gave away my dorkiness on Twitter not too long ago.  The Sims is the only game I’ve ever enjoyed (I played a friend’s 1st version back in 2001 when only 12 outfits were available.)  I’ve yet to pick up the latest version but this blog following two Sims the creator has made homeless was surprisingly fascinating.  The fact that the characters actually develop characteristics (instead of acquiring skills) makes the arc that much more tragic–and uncannily similar to real life.

….

Dawn at Plush-a-holic is an insanely talented person who has an eye for finding creations that truly blur the line between art and craft (and who said such a line should exist anyways?)  Leah Evan’s textiles definitely fall into that realm.

Having a passing familiarity with quilting, I have a deep admiration for those who have not only the time that it requires, but the creativity to do something new and interesting with the craft.  My love of Susan’s geisha, cowboy and trompe l’oeil quilts is all the greater given the knowledge I couldn’t think of anything so neat.  Leah’s quilts are an entire other matter.  Like topography or road maps, the gorgeous, subtle colors don’t leap out right away.  Their beauty is no less though and the detail is simply amazing.

Despite forgetting my phone at home, we successfully picked up a few chairs in Tacoma this morning.  At $8 a piece, they were more than a bargain.

Not sure if the one next to the glass doors will stay put since that’s technically the dining area we don’t have a dining set for but it looks great next to the curtains.  & these are both places where we’re often taking shoes off & on.

All thanks to Craigslist.

A single dress, finished last night.

I’ve made this Simplicity pattern before but rarely use nice fabric for the first version of a project and the linen didn’t hold up well.  This floral print is in a heavier cotton with a bit of stretch and feels much sturdier.  It’s perhaps the only allover floral print in my closet, (but for a few shirts with a single, graphic flower) making me a bit late to the prevalence of the trend this summer.

This is also the first time I’ve altered a pattern–that is, other than finagling the finished project after the fact.  Knowing that it was a bit too big through the the body, I cut the A-line from the bust down by an inch and a half or so.  It made quite a difference & I’m definitely much happier with the fit right off the bat–no finagling needed.

I also got a bit OCD with the seams.  While I’ve experimented with French seams in the past, I bound all of the seams in bias tape this time around.  Though definitely more time consuming, this is the first time I’ve been as happy with the inside of a dress as I am with the outside.

A single necklace.  I know I said this was the last agate but I ended up getting a necklace back from a boutique where I’ve consigned (Into) the Fray jewelry.  So this is truly the last agate–I don’t think I’ll be buying any stones soon, much less such big ones.

And for the record, despite being from Seattle, I’ve never seen Singles the movie.

My plan for the weekend includes washing the car, some sewing and potentially picking up some sweet chairs in Tacoma.

Hopefully they’ll still be available.

Have a good weekend.

If you couldn’t already tell from the few images I’ve shared of my living space, I’m a tad organized.  My friend Christine recently teased me for the fact that my craft room looked just like it does in the pictures I recently posted and wasn’t just cleaned up for the blog.  So you can imagine that when I saw this little mini-sweeper on MoMA’s site, I thought it was too perfect.

I’ve touted the fun things MoMA carries before but it’s worth going back often just to see what they’ve thought up next.

Both Eunice and April tagged me with the latest survey making the rounds.  Given the brevity of my most recent posts, I thought it was about time to write something a little meatier.

1. What is your current obsession?
Sewing and my house. I continue to be surprised at how motivated I am in the wake of the Burdastyle meet up. Maybe it was seeing some of Christina’s amazing garments in person, maybe it was the camaraderie of mutual frustration and excitement, but I have never been so focused on not just sewing, but really taking things to the next level. While I’ve never had trouble putting a lining in a handbag, I never thought I could tackle fully lining a dress or jacket—and now I really want to learn.

2. What is your weirdest obession?
I admitted this to Reese when we recently meet for coffee (tea, actually, I think, for both of us.) I can remember when I first moved in with the boyfriend and was captivated by his extended cable TV, that I’d find myself watching Jon & Kate + 8. It was a mindless but not totally brain-cell-killing kind of program that I didn’t have to feel utterly guilty watching–& the family seemed kind of wholesome but still real. The recent total meltdown, given that I haven’t watched it in at least a year or two, has fascinated me. Terrible, but true.

3.  What do you see outside your window?
The Space needle, the radio towers of Queen Anne, construction cranes, and an old brick apartment building.

4.  What is your favorite color?
I would say I definitely gravitate towards certain colors and find myself trying to shy away from them given their prevalence in my closet. This would include blue & purple, and to a lesser extent, yellow and green. The real struggle to resist is stripes, tho.

5.  What is your weakness?
Sweets. Without a doubt.

6.  What animal would you be?
A recently read an article on the long beaked echidna, one of three monotremes in existence (the short beaked echidna and platypus are the others.) That’s what I’d be.

7.  What would you like to learn how to do?
Reverse applique. Really learn what aperture and f-stop mean without having to ask the boyfriend for the 5^th time. Understand what the heck curves really does in Photoshop. The list is endless.

8.  What do you want to never happen in life?
I never want to stop being grateful. Good fortune is a matter of perspective and I don’t want to forget how fortunate I am.

9.  What is on your bedside table?
Jewelry and Barack Obama’s memoir.

10.  What’s the last thing you bought?
A new bed. It won’t arrive for a few weeks which is why it’s taken so long to show the bedroom transformation.

11.  What do you think about the person who tagged you?
Eunice & April are both amazingly talented people. I’d like to meet them both someday given their close proximity!

12.  What was your favorite children’s book?
The Happy Dromedary. Didn’t even need to think twice about that. I wouldn’t mind tracking down a copy someday.

The Trumpet of the Swan is a close second…Wow, both are extremely focused on self-acceptance, being different but beautiful, and challenging standards and perceptions. I guess those messages really stuck with me as a mixed race kid in a Scandanavian neighborhood in the early 80s.

13.  Who do you want to meet in person?
See 11. The next time I’m in Vancouver, I’m tracking April down.

14.  What did you want to be as a child?
A doctor, a clothing designer (you should have seen my horrifying drawings of skin tight outfits with cut-outs at the stomach), and finally a writer. I wrote short stories about our pet cat, Boo, with illustrations of him in the margins.

15.  What did you dream about last night?
Work! How sad!

16.  Which do you prefer, day or night?
I am *such* a day person. I rarely sleep past 8 and have always been most productive before noon. The boyfriend is the complete opposite and you better bet we’ve struggled with trying to match up our days. He’s not ready to run errands until a time when I’m used to being done with them.

17.  What’s your favorite piece of clothing in your closet?
Like Eunice, there is no such thing. If it’s in my closet, it’s because I love it.

20.  What is your must-have of the moment?
There are some jeans I’ve been eying. A light fixture for the entryway. One of those weed weasels for all the dandelions in the back yard. & shoes. Always shoes.

21.  What’s your favorite tea flavor?
It really varies. I like Bigelow’s chais, Tazos Ginger tea, and Stash for just about everything else.

22.  If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
We have a trip planned to the peninsula for the end of summer & it cannot come soon enough.