Summer Top 2

Another top using Simplicity 1693. Sorry to bore you. I bought this dot fabric to make a throw pillow because Blaze has chewed all of ours, then I realized that if Blaze chewed the old ones he would most likely chew the new ones too. So I made this top instead. Same idea as the last one, just a different neck line. 

I only bought 3/4 of a yard, since it was going to be a pillow, so I didn't have enough to try out a different sleeve and just went with cap sleeves again.

I also didn't have enough to make it all the same fabric so I added a back piece in solid purple that matched the purple dots. It adds a bit more interest the the shirt I think. Or it just makes it look like I didn't have enough fabric and threw something together.

Now that I've made this pattern three times it comes together really quick. Like I said before I am going to try a peplum version. We'll see how that goes. It can also have long sleeves so I might make a version to wear in the fall.

Lauren

Spectrogram Art: A How To Of Sorts

One of my summer goals was to paint a picture. On Pinterest a few weeks ago I saw this website where you can turn a voice recording into sound waves and then the company prints the sound waves onto a canvas for you. I thought that was pretty cool, but I didn't feel like spending that much money on it ($700 for some, ouch) I also found an Etsy site that will do a custom sound wave art of a recording for about $40, again didn't feel like spending that much money.

I studied sound waves etc. in college as part of my degree. What I really remembered most was studying spectrograms. Once a professor gave us a quiz and we had to match spectrogram pictures to words, talk about hard, and useless. I have yet to use that knowledge anywhere in my job. That knowledge did come in useful when I wanted to do this project though. I knew there were free programs that would chart sound waves and spectrograms. Enter Audacity. Here is the run down of how I made my spectrogram art.

Downloaded the free program and played around with it a bit. Figured out what I wanted to say. In this case I went really cheesy and recorded myself saying "I love you Charlie."The way the program works is to chart the sound waves, but on the left under "Audio Track" there is an option to switch to spectrogram, if you so desire. Sometimes when Audacity opens it is in "waveform", make sure you're in "waveform dB" if you want to make a sound wave artwork.

Took a screenshot of the program, since I could not figure out a way to export it or copy and paste it.

In iphoto I cropped it down the the part that I wanted (the area in grey). Hilariously enough the below shot of the spectrogram also shows Charlie slamming the door right after I said I loved him. He had no idea what I was doing and was most likely ignoring me.

I wasn't 100% sold on the spectrogram idea so I did screenshots of both the spectrogram and the waveforms. Here is what they looked like. 

I printed them out as a reference, then got to painting. First I sketched a rough outline on my canvas, then painted the background grey and went from there. 

 Giving each color time to dry I worked from the grey to pink and red, then lastly did the yellow and a few different shades of blue. I was not extremely worried about making it look exactly like the real spectrogram. I figured it was a pretty abstract concept to begin with so I might a well make it look the way I wanted to. Plus, no one is going to know that it was not exactly right anyways, except you know now because I just told you.

Then you have a finished product, and I can check #16 off of my summer bucket list. Now I just have to figure out where to hang it up. 

Lauren

Summer Top

I liked my summer tank top so much that I decided to make another one. It's a modification of Simplicity 1693. Here are my model shoot from the beach on Cape Cod this weekend. 

I wanted to make a shirt instead of another tank top, so this was what I ended up with when I added the sleeves the pattern had. I didn't really like them, as you can tell my my expression. The pictures don't make the sleeves look as poofy as they really were. It looked silly, Charlie, my style expert (only other creature I see regularly who talks) said he thought they looked weird too, so I took them off.

To fix the sleeve problem I cut the poofy sleeves into cap sleeves, using the cap sleeve from the Washi dress pattern. I like it much better. Another change is the neckline. I scooped it out a lot more than the first version, to show off more skin, ya know, since I am so risque.

The last change was in shaping the sides more to be a bit more fitted, and leaving a little gap at the bottom seam. I saw that on another blog or Pinterest and thought it looked cool so I did it too. 

It's a fairly versatile pattern, another version has a collar which I might try at some point. I also would like to make a version stemming off of the pattern that is a peplum, which is apparently all the rage at the moment. Just like last time thought I used a fabric with tiny flowers on it, my favorite. 

Lauren 

Bridal Shower Apron V 9.0

Another Apron. I am not tired of sewing these, but I wonder if you're getting tired of seeing all the aprons I make. My Grammy says I am lucky that I have baby showers and bridal showers to go to because all she has to go to are funerals. Unfortunately I cannot go to this bridal shower because my family is getting together to spread my grandfathers ashes. Oy! I bet you wanted to know that. Charlie keeps making references to "The Big Lebowski" that I don't get because I've only seen the first 5 minutes of that movie and I didn't like it. 

Anyways, back to the apron. This one is made for my friend Amanda. We went to college together and were in the same major. We used to study all the time in the big room of the library and we spent way more time talking and stressing about about our test than we ever spent studying. After we both finished grad school she got a job near my home town and so we used to see each other quite a bit since she lived right down the street from my Dad's house. Then she had to move back to Maine. Bummer. She's getting married over Labor Day weekend and I could not be more excited for her wedding. 

I went with a simple apron, not too many frills. The waist tie has bias tape under it because I couldn't find a piping in the color I wanted.

I like the thick ties for the back. Very simple. I hope she likes it.

Lauren

Running

Today I went for an 8 mile run and I saw a bear cub. It was so cute I thought it was fake. Then when I realized it was real I high tailed it out of that area because I figured the bear momma was not far away. I tried to wave to two cars that drove by tell them to look at the bear cub, but they just thought I was frantically waving hello apparently as the both drove right by. This sighting and long run got me thinking about how I have not really updated any of you on my running since the last race I did.

I have three updates. I think all are quite crazy, and am wondering which you think is the most crazy.

Here goes. First up, I am coaching middle school Cross Country again this Fall. I told everyone who would listen that I was not going to do it again but then I forgot my reasons and agreed to do it. I think I know more about the sport now, and will be more of a hard a$$ this season and not let the kids push me around. Heck, I am twice their age, I should be about to show some authority or authoritah, depending on if they will get South Park references or not.

New shoes for all my training.

Second, in September Charlie and I will be running Pisgah Trail Race. It's a 23K which is like 14ish miles. We both did it last year and it was really fun so I am excited to do it again. Looking at that old post made me remember that I threw away my fuel belt after the race so I should probably look into buying a new one, since I hate my running backpack/camel pack.

Third, a few weeks ago I was taking a nap (ah summer schedule) and Charlie said "Want to sign up for the lottery to do Stone Cat?" In a painting induced haze I agreed. He signed us both up for the lottery. Once I came to on the couch and asked what the heck he was talking about he said "Stone Cat is a trail marathon, there is a lottery to get into it." Ha, I laughed, no need to worry, I never win anything. Never win anything except lotteries to get into marathons you got tricked into signing up for! I have the best luck ever. Charlie also won the lottery so he'll be running it too. He said he won't run it with me thought because I take too long and he doesn't want to be "on his feet" for 7 hours. But apparently it's A Okay for me to be on my feet running for 7 hours.  It will also be fun (positive thinking). My brother in law and sister in law have also agreed to come to see us run, and our friends are letting us stay with them, hopefully, the night before.

Since it takes me 7 hours to run long distances I need chafe protection. 

I also figure this race will keep me in relatively good shape into the winter months when I tend to put on some "Holiday weight".

Start carbo loading before you start even training, it's how to pros do it. 

So which do you think is the craziest? Since my last survey was such a huge success I made another. 

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

I would apologize for all of the youtube links, but I'm not really sorry. Goodnight! Lauren 

House Updates

None of these changes seem big enough for a whole post, so this will be quite random. Here are some changes we have made around here in the last week or so. 

1. We got a pellet stove. This one turns out to be the exact one my Dad has. We liked it because it didn't require a pad to put it on top of. It also fits in the space well and doesn't need to be at an angle like the previous one that the last owners took when they moved was. This way there is more room in the area to move around in. I just have to convince Charlie to drill a hole in the floor so the cord doesn't show. 

2. My Dad helped me build this desktop, then Charlie and I installed it, and I painted it. Now I have tons of room to work. I can even set up two sewing machines if I want to. I love it.

3. I won this table for our bedroom reading nook at an auction. Okay, so you don't win things, you pay for them. But it felt like winning. Only $50 for a really nice antique table.

I had never been to an auction before but it was really fun, it was an estate auction so you got to go through the house before the auction started at look at everything. Even if you're not going to buy anything the people watching, and snooping through an old house is enough to entertain you for two hours. I saw this table as well as a few others like it and loved it. My parents used to have a table like this one when I was young and I used to be in charge of dusting it. I liked to let the dust build up on it so that when I did dust it it felt like I was uncovering something super old and special. I was a weird kid in case you didn't know.

4. We got new lights installed in the kitchen. After much searching online I had an idea of what I wanted, then the electrician told us where the lights would go and that if we got hanging lights they would be right in our faces over the island we decided to get recessed lights. There were already two recessed lights in the kitchen but it was not bright enough so we had four more installed. Now it is super bright in the kitchen and I can clearly see all the food I am poorly cooking. 

5. While the electrician was here he also installed a light above the mirror in my bathroom. It was much too dark in there for me to adequately primp myself. Did that sound snotty? I was trying. It was just dark in the bathroom and we wanted a light.

So that's what we've been doing around here so far. We still have painting to do on the outside of the house. The scary side is all that's left, so I've been putting it off for as long as I can.

Hope you enjoy the recent changes.

Lauren