Not much time for sewing.

I've been far too busy with work, side jobs, house work and of course helping to maintain our own vehicles. We had thoughts to head to Idaho this weekend for a wedding however, the 4-Runner decided not to cooperate with us this weekend for the trip. It's been having an issue (man, I'm tired of all these "issues" we have)with a high idle. After some tinkering and a bit of brain picking, we traced it back to the idle screw... funny since it was a problem with the idle and there happened to be an idle screw on the throttle body. I find that is often the way it is with working on cars... when it's all said and done the solution always seems so obvious (tho trust me it wasn't at the time!). With that problem fixed the stereo then decided to stop working!!! We traced that back to a faulty ground and were able to fix the clock as well. So that's how I spent my weekend... hunched over a computer and over a car. Hope yours went better!

Lilly Ponds...

So here's what I've been up to. Working on this cute play mat for my friend's little daughter who's turning 1 in a couple weeks. I saw something similar to this a while ago and thought it was the cutest, but needed to find a way that I could adapt it to my own style. I used polar fleece, as it is a nice forgiving fabric and I wouldn't have to worry about the edges unraveling either. Now I just can't wait to give it away! I even made some pockets to hide some treasures.... I have some more ideas for more play mats with different themes too. Who would have thought I'd enjoy designing kid stuff???

Feeling Owl-lee...

Aren't they just the cutest??? Still have eyes to put on most of them and yes, they're for my niece. My sister is working on finishing up her owl themed nursery and as you can guess these are for the nursery as well. I love owls too, so it's nice to have a reason to make up some of the owl patterns I've found. I also made up another baby skirt. I just love how this one turned out... pink and orange look so good together. I've been having so much fun using elastic thread to smock. I think it's about time to try to make a little shirt using this technique.

Temporary Fix Installed!

Well today was suppose to be a fun day with my sister, although most of the day she sat and watched me work on my car. I do think I've got a decent fix going on. I traced out the fuel level circuit and ran a new temporary wire in from the sending unit to the gauge. Seems to be working for now... my sis and I were even able to make it out to Walmart and back to pick up some sewing supplies. I'm making some new owls for my sister after I gave her an owl for her baby shower. Here is the second owl I made (which I wanted to hang on to, but I'm pretty sure I'll end up giving this one to her as well)and some fabric we picked up for more owls, as well as some fabric for baby skirts. I'm still working on my tutorial for the baby skirts.... maybe tomorrow I'll actually have time to work on that.

Problem Halfway Solved.

So I got my new radiator in today! It's so nice and shiny, and the flow seems much better. I also narrowed down my electrical problem too. There is a short to ground somewhere in the fuel gauge circuit. I didn't get a chance to check it out today because I was too busy helping replace the rear brakes in my boyfriend's Runner. Man were they bad!!! All four shoes were either cracked or had metal embedded in them. (I'll have to add some pictures of them tomorrow) We still have the front brake to finish tomorrow and bleeding the system.... then hopefully that horrible squeak will be gone! Oh, so much to do so little time to do it in. Maybe tomorrow I'll get sometime to sew....