Lulu Bliss

Giveaway Winner announced!

Thank you to all who commented to be entered into the giveaway!

And the lucky winner of a copy of Sewn Hats is comment #11, Gussek!  Congradulations...  Gussek, I have messaged you privately for your info.  Hope all of you have a lovely day.  

Sewn Hats Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Let me start off by saying, WOW!!!  Carla sure did a fantastic job on her new book Sewn Hats.  This book has 35 different hat projects that range in skill level from beginner to advanced.  There is a hat in this book for everyone, in sizes ranging from baby to adult.  The hat projects are arranged into 6 categories that cover most of your hat needs; Staying Cool, Keeping Warm, Going Vintage, Stepping Out, Working and Playing and Having Fun.  

Carla and I got to know each other (via a lot of emails and some phone calls) when I was working on Jennifer Paganelli's two books, Girl's World and Happy Home.  She was always so helpful and supportive, while I was trying to get to know the Sis Boom world.  So when she approached me to be a contributor for this book, I jumped at the chance to be included with such a wonderful group of contributors and I knew that Carla would pull it all together so it would be a fun, easy to understand and useful book.  

When I asked what type of hat she wanted me to make I knew it was the perfect project for me... Hello, the Jackie Pillbox Hat!  I love making small fancy cocktail type hats with a vintage twist, so it was a match made in heaven.  I looked through my stash and found a small remenant of a pink, grey and black tweed (perfect).  Searched for a bit of black silk for the lining and topped it all off with a grosgrain ribbon bow.  I kept the embellishments a bit on the conservative side, which is so not like me (have you seen my turqouise and red wedding hat), but thought that it worked with the theme and looked polished.  But I think that you could really have fun with embellishments on this one; vintage buttons, ribbons, feathers, veiling or even a costume jewelry broach.  Also, another way to keep this type of small hat on your head (in the book bobby pins are attached to small ribbon loops) would be to loop a narrow piece of elastic (close to your hair color) through the ribbon loops.  This is my preferred way to wear cocktail hats, since bobby pins just slide out of my stick straight hair.  If you can't find narrow elastic in the right color at your local fabric store, buy one of those skinny elastic headbands at the drugstore and use that.  

 This book is not to be missed (and take a look at all the below contributors)!  Wiley Publishing is giving away a copy of this book to one lucky winner, so please leave a comment below to be entered for your chance to win.  Let us know what type of hat you would like to make. 

*** Update... Forgot to mention when the winner will be announced, oops.  I will announce a winner of the book on 9/17.  Please make sure I have a way to contact you.

Check out the rest of tour, here is a schedule of each stop:

9/4 -  Scientificseamstress.blogspot.com

9/5 -  Mod Kid Boutique

9/6 – FrenchGeneral.blogspot.com

9/10 – Pink Chalk Studio

9/11 -  LuluBliss.com

9/13 – Green Bee Patterns

9/14 – Goosie Girl Boutique

9/17 – Melissa Lilac Lane

9/19 – OneGirlCircus.com

9/20 – Tie Dyed Diva Designs

9/21 – Figgys Patterns

9/25 – Craftiness is not Optional

9/26 – Bari J.

9/27 – Confessions of a Craft Addict

9/28 – SisBoom.com

10/1 – Sew Mama Sew

10/2 – Aesthetic Nest

10/3 – Blue Nickel Studios

10/4 – Betz White

10/8 – YummyGoods.com

10/10-  Wiley Craft

 

Early harvest!

 

-From left to right: the best raspberries ever, cucumber, 2 zucchini and two different carrots on top.

What a difference a year makes.  I can't believe how crazy my veggie garden is growing and producing so early in the season.  The zucchini's were the 4th and 5th that I have picked.  Obviously, the carrots aren't ready, but it is fun to see them.  I am growing three different types of carrots this year; dragons-blood (they are a very dark red on the outside and orange on the inside), Paris market (a round smaller carrot, pictured above) and a yellow carrot (also pictured above).  Last year the spring and summer months were cooler than normal, so the garden produced a lot later and not as much.  This year the weather has be quite a bit warmer (some days just too hot for me) and the garden is loving that.  

I do have some total fails in the veggie garden, no lettuce!  The first year grew fabulous lettuce, all different kinds.  Last year was so-so in the lettuce department.  This year every single lettuce that sprouted got eaten completely.  I don't know by what, since they were eaten down to nothing.  I know what snail can do, but this wasn't done by snails or bugs in general.  It is a gardening mystery to me.  I might try lettuce again in a smaller container that I can cover at night and see how that goes.

Our smaller dog, Butternut, is a bit strange (in so many ways).  He loves almost all sorts of veggies and fruits.  If I am in the kitchen chopping things up, he is right there wanting anything that may fall to the floor.  I also just give him things to see if he will like them .  The lastest was raspberries, he loves them a little to much.

 

- Don't leave a raspberry lovin' dog alone with a raspberry! He made a huge mess on himself and his bed.

 

I Spy...

Turquoise and red, my two favorite colors.  Last week I decided that I need to get some exercise, so my goal is to a 45 minute to an hour brisk walk at least 4-5 days a week.  So far so good, I have been really enjoying my time out and about.  While seeing what is going on in my neighborhood, I have come across some interesting things that I wanted to take photos of.  So I thought I would post them here.  To kick things off I thought I would stay in the color theme of my blog and logo.  Not that these pictures will need a theme going forward, I am just going to take pictures of what catches my eye.  

First up is the cutest little trailer!  I actually squealed when I saw this (I know such a dork).  I have had many fantasies about buying a little trailer, fixing her up and taking to the road for vacations.   I don't think I will be able to afford an Airstream or one of those little teardrop trailers any time soon, but maybe someday I can buy one the of the lesser know trailers and fix her up like this one.  In searching for an interesting Airstream link I came across this group on Flickr, for all your vintage trailer porn needs.  

 

We live about 1 block from a creek that flows through San Jose, so there are little bridges on the streets that cross over the creek.  Some of these bridges are your standard plain jane painted concrete, but others have these fun tile mosaics on them.  All the mosaics are different and this was the one that caught my eye today.  I would love to know if there is some sort of back-story on the who and why of these mosaics, but for now we just get to enjoy.  I vaguely remember when I first moved to SJ, that I saw an older gentleman working on some of these, but I am not 100% sure.  They definitely someones labor of love.  

Some Finished Items!

Despite the lack of new Lulu Bliss Patterns lately, I have been working on a few personal items and have a couple to show you.  The first one up is just perfect for the warm weather we have been having, my second Sorbetto top.  If you haven't guessed by now, my favorite color combo is aqua and red (must be 'cause I got married in it)!  So I wanted to make a fun summer top with those colors:

I do fill out the top a bit more than my dress form, so the bust doesn't look weird on me.  The only change to the pattern I made was to pivot the bust dart down, so it starts at the waist and ends just under the bust (I have heard that this type of dart is called a french dart).  If you have never pivoted a dart, don't be scared... It is a fun and easy way to change the look of a garment.  I think Gertie does a great job explaining how to do this in her tutorial.   This top will go great with the package I received today:

My birthday clogs have arrived!  I was so excited to get them and they fit great, so please ignore the pasty legs and lack of pedicure.  I seem to be in between Lotta from Stockholm's sizes, so I ordered a size 38.  If I ever order a closed toe pair of clogs from Lotta, then I think I would go up to a size 39.  I do think there will be more clogs purchased from Lotta.  

I also have been doing a bit of knitting.  When I am working on something for myself and not writing a pattern, I love me some mindless knitting.  The Phiaro Scarf fit the bill, I didn't follow the pattern really, even though I own it.  But I read what others have to say about the scarf on Ravelry and sort of did my own thing.  Biggest difference is that mine is a cowl and not a scarf or wrap, it is a lot narrower too.  I had some random balls of yarn in my stash that I thought looked good together so there you go.  You can't really tell, but I alternated between two different yarns for each round, so it is technically striped.  If you would like more notes about yarn and modifications made check out this project in my notebook on Ravelry.