Books and Stuff

Hello everyone! Look at me, all posting on time. Today, I thought I would concentrate on more crafty-type things, since Patricia has the garden covered pretty well.

One thing to know about me is that I work in an academic library, which means several things:

1. I use interlibrary loan like it's my job. Mostly for craft and agriculture books. Pretty sure they're sick of seeing requests from me.

2. I spend a lot of my time at the front desk, waiting for people to need me, which means I have a bit of down time. Luckily for my ADD, they let me craft while I sit (usually, it takes less of my attention than reading or facebook.) I knit a lot, but any of my projects have to be small enough to tote around, and can't have a lot of "stuff" that they need.

Which led me to this book:


Not only is the cover rather lovely, but it's filled with fun projects that only require needle and thread, and a bit of patience. The project I chose is making dinner napkins from old men's shirts. A trip to the Goodwill fulfilled all of my fabric needs, and last night I measured and ripped everything out. Best part? Checks make for easy hemming! I also decided that rather than making a bunch of napkins from each shirt, I would make 2 from the sleeves and also a kitchen towel from the back (although this had to be fudged a bit when I realized that I bought ONE short-sleeved shirt! GAH!) Today, our software at work is being updated (all week actually) so I've been happily sewing away!

And so, I give you "The Men's Shirt Linens"

The button hole placket is seriously handy.



It makes its own napkin ring.



Also, a hook for hanging! (Yes, ,my calendar is still on July. That's pretty good for me. Also, I just love lemurs!)



Look a all that mad-crazy hand stitching!

Best of all?



It holds my toaster strudel perfectly :-)

In non-crafty news, I made a lasagna last night with my own tomatoes, zucchini, and garlic, and it was MAGNIFICO. Really tasty. I was quite proud, especially since I didn't really look up a recipe, just winged it!

I also put in a soaker hose this morning, since we've been getting almost no rain and 95 degree weather. Hopefully that will help out. I have bunches of tomatoes and beans ready now, cucumbers are still going, some baby peppers, and hopefully the pumpkins will make it through! I broke my cute little round one off on accident while trying to turn it, but I still have 2 big oblong ones, and I'm sure a bunch of others that I just can't see! Exciting stuff!