Mark carved these while we girls were sewing this past weekend. :)

Templates from Yes We Carve

ETA: my civic contribution was putting up this cool vote poster by Nikki McClure. Buy Olympia’s giving them away free!

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I only finally got around to visiting the Kinokuniya bookstore in Seattle. Some nice reader had sent me a photo a long time ago of the craft section of the store, which had a sign advertising Crafting Japanese. It’s still up! In giant letters! And they were having a 10% off everything sale! So I got a few new books, including some really awesome felt books.

This felt cuff is from ISBN 9784579111152, and is also inspired by the final collection of Project Runway winner Leanne. I liked her all along, so I was happy to see her win. My first attempt at handsewing the aqua wavey-pom thingy was a miserable failure. I wasn’t even going to reattempt it, but Amy and Becket are visiting this week and helped me figure out v2: machine + handsew, with fewer layers, which worked way better. The thick cream felt is a scrap of the piece I got in Japan, last used for the felt sewing box.

The version in the book hooked with buttons and loops, but I used elastic instead. Action shot:

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Our mattress is still on the metal frame it came with pending finding a bed frame/head board we like. Since that hasn’t happened yet, I thought it might be fun to try some of the wall decals from blik as a temporary and renter-friendly solution. I got the Boy in the Weeds pattern from Threadless, which I also happen to own in T-shirt form. The stickers were a giant pain to put up: instead of coming already assembled into the design, I had to cut every one of them apart and stick them up individually, using a level to keep them all straight. It took me and Mark most of the afternoon. But, they look pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Maybe I’ll try these doily ones next.  I have a big blank space behind the door in my office.  Hmmmm.

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