San Francisco

I made my annual trek to San Francisco last week for work. In addition to the conference, I saw friends, went shopping in the rain, ate several good meals, spent hours taking pictures at the Farmer's Market, broke my phone, and got a mild case of food poisoning.

Other than the last 2 items, the trip was great. There are only pictures of the Farmer's Market outing. Fruit doesn't complain when you take out a big camera.

Refusal

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for the free service at Calalog Choice where you can unsubscribe from all the mail order catalogs in one place.

It's a great site. Easy to use, nice UI, a database full of catalogs. I am excited to de-clutter my mailbox. I am a proficient Internet shopping. I do not need catalogs.

Today, I logged in to find out that Performance Bicycle refused my request to cancel my subscription I didn't ask for and don't want. I called customer support to complain about this crappy policy and ended up in looping voice mails that never connected me to anyone.

Nice work Performance Bicycle - I will never shop with you again and now have posted on the Internet why you suck!

Project 5: Pillows

Since Christmas, I've collected a proper sewing tool collection. I have chalk, *really* nice dress shears, a bobbin holder case, some fancy feet for my machine, and, and and... the list goes on.

I've flipped through my 2 sewing books earmarking projects several times. I've found 65 places to buy fabric online. Everything is perfect... except the sewing. I've worked on a couple of projects over the last couple of weeks that either didn't turn out how I expected, or didn't turn out at all.

But this weekend, in a project completion frenzy, I was determined to finish something I liked.

Pillows!


I followed the instructions from Diana Rupp's Sew Everything Workshop to make a pillow with an envelope back.

The first pillow took about an hour - I spent about 20 minutes measuring and cutting fabric, another 20 minutes dealing with a jam, and another 20 sewing and ironing. The second pillow took about 20 minutes total.

I bought the fabric a couple of months ago with no specific ideas on how to use it. I have no idea if they will match with anything the recipient owns, but she'll love them anyway (I hope).

I think they are adorable, and best yet, they are machine washable!

I am still getting the hang of my machine. I really like how easy it is to control speed, but I do get jammed pretty often. I haven't figured out why yet, so that pretty frustrating. Oh, and it's European so the metal plate ticks off centimeters. I am going to have to mark my 1/2 inch seam allowance in marker.

Later this week, my friend Tara is hosting a craft night. For that, I am going to work on a cover for my sewing machine - also from Diana's book. And hopefully collect some advice to move forward on my so-far-unsuccessful "onesies" project. There are no less than 7 babies slated to receive said onesies!

Shopping = happiness

I've had a couple of good weeks on the collecting material posessions front.

I got this awesome necklace from Sprout on Etsy. Dangerously, my Etsy favorites items list is growing by the day. Some prints are up next.

Also, I finally got an SLR camera!



I got a great deal on used Canon EOS 20D & 50 mm lense from someone at work. The camera is pretty intimidating, but I am excited to have it! And my 17mm-85mm lens is on the way. I expect this to be my primary lens.....friends, get ready to smile. Here's hoping I get the hang of this thing before 2009.