Sew Saturday, Book Review, and Dirndl!

Hi!

I've been kind of obsessing about this Darkly Sweet world and in it the characters have tea parties and dress up ridiculously. Dirndls. So I found this book on Amazon, it's in Japanese. It didn't make the slightest difference because the pictoral instructions were amazing. It went together kind of like a nightmare because the cheap satin I had on hand unraveled and slipped like a lambourghini on the ice (did you see that movie?) and I did about ten yards of ruffles. Of that nightmare slick stuff. But it turned out so cute. So adorable. So fun! We both love it. And I didn't spend a cent on it, just used stuff i had on hand. An invisible zipper would have been better, but I didn't have one. Also if it had been green instead of white... but these are small things, and using up stash, and using a pattern from a new book, and maybe coming up with something that might work for a book cover, these are such good things! Anyway, I highly recommend this book. I think it's "LOLITA DRESS BOOK 6" But it's mostly in Japanese so it's hard to be certain since I do not know ANYTHING in Japanese. Alligato?

One thing on sizing, they didn't have sizes small enough for my daughter, but I'm like, 'japanese pattern, I'm just going to throw this together and tie a ribbon on the back to pull it in if it's too big. She'll grow into it." Um, no. It fits pretty much perfectly, although I took in more seam allowance than they allowed, not that much. My point is that this is small. VERY small. Not a problem for my daughter, but I won't be able to wear any of these outfits without severe pattern grading. I am seriously tempted. :D

This is the first piece of her sudoku wardrobe. Did I mention this? I'll have to do a post next week. It's the coolest thing ever. I have six items all cut out, easy things that I should be able to get all sewn up on a nice rainy day without anything else to do. Then I'll make one for me. Or something.

You can't tell, but in these pictures the rain is pouring down. So stormy this weekend! Good for my peas!!!

Super Springtime dirndl. 

I feel pretty...

Way too many seams in this fabric.

She loves it, the spinny awesomeness of it.

All those teeny tiny ruffles!

Instructions were really great. I have no idea if I did it right, but I don't really care.

This is the book version of the dirndl. Cute, no?

The book had this whole cinderella wardrobe, and of course my daughter is desperately in love with it.

Also this Anne of Green Gables wardrobe. So cute. So, so so cute! I really want to order all the rest of these books at once!

These are the wardrobe pics. 

Anne of Green Gables ones. 

The left is the dirndl. And the right is these weird shorts that are made out of squares. I don't think we're going to do that, but that cape is so cute! Also the polka dot tights...

Dragons and shelves

Hello! This post is mostly for my mother. Hi mom! She's very excited to see my kitchen shelf. I am too. It makes me feel all grown up to have a pretty shelf holding pretty things. Particularly plants. I love plants! And my kitchen. I love my kitchen so much. 

We've been having a good week homeschool-wise, full of science, art, and music, the best kind of education as far as I'm concerned. It's been really fun because we're studying the periodic table, and I've been learning about elements and using them in the book I'm working on. Like magical science. Strontium! Magnesium! Which ones make pink flame and which ones make green. 

Also, we did this Youtube tutorial, how to draw a dragon. I spent three hours on that, just drawing. So nice to do real life art, not just mess with and mangle illustrator and photoshop. 

Right now I have a cold. Yesterday was horrible, but today I'm feeling a little bit better. I hope you're all doing wonderfully well!

We got our shelf up!!!!

Love that lily!

Copper! Plants! 

12 year old's dragon.

10 year old's dragon.

13 year old's dragon.

5 year old's dragon. (Isn't it awesome?)

30 something year old's dragon.

Water Lost is out. And I'm a fiction writer.

Hello!

I was reading about how to be a real writer, and I do about half the things on the list, so I'm only sort-of a writer. Ah well. Maybe next year. One of those things I don't do, is be engaging and interesting on my blog/email, to make my readers super happy. Their examples were as follows: to share about the time I climbed Mt. Everest, the time I trekked across China on foot, and the time I went to India to visit a Hindu temple. Also shaved my head and learned the ninja way, no doubt. Who does this??? I'm a fiction writer. I can write about the last trek I took across China, got kidnapped by Mt. Everest climbers and was rescued by ninjas who taught me the way of the orange foot, but seriously, who wants to hear about that? Not my readers. My readers want too-hot-to-be-human love interests.

The deep dark truth about me is that my life as is, is quite pleasantly boring. Our biggest and most frustrating treks are through the grocery store with five kids in tow. That's enough trauma. ENOUGH. I've had trauma and I don't want any more, thank-you-very-much.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I'd like to announce the arrival of a very special guest, one that some people have been waiting for ages to meet. Without further ado:



Monsters. Magic. Mayhem. Genevieve Castle was always part outcast, part loner, but now she finds herself living with her dad in their tiny two bedroom house with her too-hot-to-be-human boyfriend sleeping on the couch and his deadly dangerous trainer unloading his personal arsenal in the living room while the psychotic monster in the lake now lives in her tub. 

With too many people in her too small house, Genevieve's only escape is to sneak out to her lake and sing out her stress. Unfortunately, Prince Oliver, her obsession, bought her lake and every time she sees him she loses herself a little bit more. With pirates, monsters, drug dealers and social anxiety, what could possibly go wrong?


You can get WATER LOST HERE!!!!! Please leave a review if it won't give you a nervous breakdown. Sometimes these things are hard. Happy reading!!!

Water Lost! The cover!!!!

I'm going over the final edits for this fabulous book, at least I was but my laptop crashed two nights ago. My stuff is backed up, but now how am I supposed to write? No idea. Will have to use the desktop or something CRAZY like that. 

Excerpt time! The scent of Sean, seaweed and spice, filled my nostrils while the rest of the world hovered on the periphery of my sleep. That smell was enough, even in my subconscious, to keep me from screaming as I woke, taking deep, trembling breaths as I fought against the nightmare, the swirling water that pulled me down and down and down.

Yeah? The working title for this book was, 'The Scent of Sean'. The working title for Watergirl 2 was, 'Sean is so Hot', so I think I'm getting slightly more poetic. I've been editing this since the beginning of March, and it's looking kind of good. I've also been writing the next one in my head. I'll have to do an outline if I ever figure out this computer thing.

Weird. Half of my house's power crashed and then came back on. It's so nice when things like this blog post save. :) Have a great weekend!

Things in my house.

First off I feel like I should clarify my book, Darkly Sweet, (because my mother started to get worried when she heard about how scandalous this book is) which has no sex, maybe two mild swears, and is genuinely funny. There are characters in the book (not the main character) who are not lovely, charming, uplifting characters, and I write them like that. Some are downright horrible, and that comes out in what they say and how they act. There are frank discussions about sex as well as gossip about who is sleeping with who, and the magic stuff is kind of dark, violent, and scary. Which is why I'm thinking about not publishing it, but it's not erotica by any means. Since there's no sex. Whew. Now that I got that off my chest and probably no one cares besides my mother...

I got a new wheat grinder!!!! It's so pretty. Otherwise it's been pretty dull, writing and laundry and homeschool group and checking math and more laundry and dishes, and dinner. Time to shake it up!

Mmmm breakfast!

Happy Birthday!

Dishes can be so pretty.

Sunrise

Sunset. No, it's actually another sunrise.

It CAME!!!!!! And had sea green bubbles. Magical!

We're all very happy about it.

Sew Saturday: Pajamas edition.

Yeah, I did these a while back on one day, but it was so fun(read insane) why not put them on the old blog? Right? I had just started the monster that is Darkly Sweet when I made these, so impressive I tried to do something else. So I made four bottoms and four tops on one crazed Saturday. I didn't use patterns. Patterns what? So it's a miracle they fit at all. Or I've gotten really good to functioning while obsessing about witches and mages and dragons and snarky Penny Macaroon Lane. Oh I love her so much.

Photoshoots are dangerous with teenagers. Had to dodge that pillow.

So two pairs of pj's that are almost exactly the same. How is that not awesome?

He's all, I think these might be weird, and I'm all, naw, it's cool. Like Jester, you know, super cool. Does he look convinced?

I have no idea.

So green and brown were the themes for these PJ's. And I managed to pull it off. Wow, I have a lot of brown fabrics.

Darkly Sweet

I've been writing what I think is the first draft of a three book series. I'm almost to two thousand words and not finished. So that's taken a lot of time. I'm not sure if I'll publish it because it's a pretty vulgar classless piece of chick lit fantasy that I find absolutely hilarious, but it doesn't appeal to my desire to uplift the world and not traumatize eleven-year-olds. Maybe I can edit out the worst bits, but the premise is witches who are pretty brutal and terrible, who learn how to be civilized or something. Also dragons! Oh my goodness dragons are fun. I've never written anything with dragons before but I think I am now. Everything dragons.

I would love to be finished with this thing so that I can move on to final edits of Hollow and of course edits of Water Lost, book 3 of Watergirl. That is such a fun book. I mean, that was an obsessive writing session more than any other book, just sucked me in and spit me out in three weeks. I feel kind of like a victim where my stories are concerned, just dragged around into these weird worlds without any kind of say, but I do edit them. A lot. You're welcome.

Other news... Hm.

Nothing much, just writing Darkly Sweet like these people are beating me with weasels. I have no other words/brains for anything else. It's a good thing laundry takes so little brains.

Another coat.

Well I made this coat a month ago or so, but the fit was off because of the lining fabric I used, quilted, too thick, and so I sat and stared at it for a while thinking about gussets and in the meantime the kids put him in it and tied scarves around it so it would stay closed and the unfinished seams frayed, so yesterday I grabbed the coat, stuck a zip on it I harvested from an old hoodie, and finished the sleeves, and I'm calling it good. I saw this super cute shirt from Boden with different fabrics, and maybe it worked better for them, but I think it can't help but be adorable when my little snuggle wuggle bear wears it. Zippers. 

Two fabrics, one exposed zipper, but it's finished.

Fighting fists!

Happy New Year!!! This Year's Plan

Hello!!!!

I just have to say how awesome last year was, meeting fabulous readers and writers, writing some really fun books that I'm reading right now, (Water Gambit, I'm on Chapter 17. Sean, what a Tsundere) and getting ready to release the last book in my House of Slide series!

This past year I learned Photoshop and got good enough that some people actually hired me to make their book covers! I'm going to do a few more here and there but spread them out so I don't get quite so stressed out. It probably had to do with Christmas and trying to finish Hollow. That was a tough book! It's coming together nicely, though. Can't wait to hear from my editor.

Last year was a very busy writing year and after some thought I've decided to scale back. I'm aiming at two books a year until I have fewer other more important things to do. Homeschooling. My oldest is going into high school next year and I have to decide what to do about that. I'm pretty sure we'll do early morning seminary and a charter school focusing on science.

For Sewing I want to make a quilt with appliqué, finish SWAP and make adorable outfits for my kids. No coats.

For Writing, I intend to write whatever I like for the entire year. That makes me smile so much. I loved having a schedule, using it to finish up some amazing projects, but I am so excited to mess around for a year and see what happens.

For Publishing: I am going to publish the books I've already written. Namely, House of Slide 4, Watergirl 3, and Wilds 3. Can't believe I wrote those last year with all the other stuff I had going on. Crazy. I might end up publishing Butcher Baker 2 depending on where my muse leads me and where I'm at next fall. No stress. At least not much!

My favorite music from this past year was definitely STRANGE MAGIC SOUNDTRACK

It's just great. Alan Cummings is absolutely phenomenal as are the rest of the cast. Loved the movie too. George Lucas goes fae.

Best movie: Dr. Strange. LOVED IT SO MUCH I DIED!!!! Fantastical Beasts was also fabulous. Rogue 1 was fine, but honestly, I preferred Suicide Squad. It's pretty much a psychotic romance.

Funnest book to write: Water Lost, Watergirl 3. Oh my heck it was fun!!! I was completely lost in the story. It has problems, namely needing a more structured theme for the main plot arc, but otherwise it's seriously solid. I read it a few days ago and really enjoyed it.

Funnest thing to sew: Charlotte's coat. It turned out so cute and wool is FUN to sew. Although coats. I didn't put a zip in. Whew!

Best Homeschool trip: The beach. Very educational. And sandy.

Best YA Book I read: Dreamology. I really, really liked this one.

So that's what's going on with me. How are your plans coming? Any fabulous New Years resolutions? I don't feel very resolute, just thinking about what I want to do so I don't forget to do it. ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Our annual New Year's Tea party.

SWAP 2017 I made something!!!

Hello!

It's been a bit since I've posted. I've been pretty crazy, mostly my own fault because silly me decided that I'd make covers for other people and that pretty much took over my life. I did four covers, and maybe that's not a lot for someone who knows what they're doing, it really took it out of me. Ah well. It's over. At least until I do something for someone else. If I do that. Which I probably will. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm so excited! The rules of SWAP are 11 garments and you can have 2 early birds, and I decided to start with my most difficult thing to see if I could actually get it done, and you know what? I DID!!!! So that's three coats I made this fall. CRAZY. And my husband informed me yesterday that my 9 year old also needs a coat. I told him to take him to Target and get one. Although now that I think about it... :D

What was I saying? Oh, yes, I finished my coat! I've had it cut out for four years or something for another SWAP I did, and it's supposed to be taken after the coat the Victoria vampire wore in the second Twilight movie. That was awhile ago. Great coat, though. So here's my version. I didn't line it because it's baby cord and I wanted it to be a little bit casual, but still swirly long kind of drama without the seriousness of wool.

It turned out so nice my husband wants me to make him one. I don't know about that. It was a lot of work. That collar turned out so nicely, though. Probably all that hand basting different interfacing that did it. Anyway, it's done except I might put patch pockets on instead of the inseam ones because they kind of gap open.

this is my sewing center while my kitchen is in process.

Yes, this is when I'm sitting on the floor cutting out pockets. My pattern is cut out and hanging on skirt hangers so I don't lose any pieces. Brilliant, right? It only took me how long?

This is my fabulous painting that I love so much. Not very Christmassy, but my whole room feels like this. 

This is my pattern for parisian overalls. The pattern came from France. Oo La la! 

Here is my coat, and I'm getting Christmas tree.

This is my favorite photo. I look so interesting. So je ne sais quoi.

Action sequence. The coat is good.