If you were reading on our anniversary, you saw that Alan brought me to the book store. I didn’t find the book I was looking for but found this one instead, Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin.

I’ve never heard of it before. It was just luck that there was that one copy in the store and that I pulled it off the shelf. I opened the book and fell in love with this reverse appliqué swing skirt.

I sat there flipping through the pages of beautiful pictures. Stopping occasionally to read about beading, stenciling, deconstructing a t-shirt, and at the unexpected like a biscuits recipe and “loving” your thread. And right then and there I knew I had to have the book. I ordered the book and since it’s arrived I’ve been carrying it from room to room reading it.

There’s a paragraph in the first chapter where she writes about how in the mid-1990s a lot of garment factories closed with businesses moving overseas. It makes me sad.

Ok and here is where I go off on a completely different subject.

I read that chapter and in the back of my mind I think about a link my sister sent me, The Story of Stuff and how whenever I go to Target there is just stuff everywhere. Racks and racks of clothes made by cheap labor in other countries. Clothes we don’t need. Clothes that are inexpensive to buy. I think about how much time and effort it takes for me to make something and it makes me mad.

Do we care less about things when we don’t have to pay a lot for them? When they are easy to replace with more cheap stuff that we don’t need?

It makes me think of the documentary my friend, Veronica, recommended, The Corporation, and how big uncaring companies are everywhere. Companies that do not care about the world we live in or the people who live in it. And then I get mad that I shop at Target. That big stores have things cheaper. That food sprayed with pesticides is cheaper than organic. That I don’t even know where to find a mom and pop store for the necessities.

It makes me sad to think our country is a consumer country. We don’t make things anymore. We buy things. Our economy is based on how much we buy. The government is giving us a tax rebate hoping we’ll buy more stuff to stimulate the economy.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. It all just makes me sad, this fast paced life we live in where everything is easily had and easily thrown away.

And even though I think all this I can’t stop myself from wanting a play kitchen. Even after or especially after I quickly made a sucky drawn one for Isabelle.

She sits down and we pretend to have tea on it. So she thinks it’s a little table, not a stove.

I just don’t want to think about any of that anymore. It’s all depressing. I guess I’ll just sit down and sew all the sad thoughts away. Yeah. That’s it. Sewing. Hand made. With love. By me.

Yes. Isabelle really did this today. She got the idea from the book, The Adventures Of Super Diaper Baby. So can you guess what I’m sewing her next?

And in my washer, right now as I’m typing this, I have some cotton jersey. I got it from Joann Fabrics. It was a bit hard to find. I had to ask a salesperson. The only bit left was in the red tag section. Oh wait. They had one shade of green in this tiny organic section. I didn’t even know they had organic at Joann Fabrics. Or can you really call five or six bolts a section. It was barely a shelf.

I also have two t-shirts I’m going to be deconstructing. Can you guess what I’m going to be making for myself?

Go to cute baby #16, new word.

Hope you all are having a great day. I was surprised with this:

I was at the kitchen counter when I heard a rolling noise. I turned around to see Isabelle pulling a little wagon. Inside was a box of chocolates, an orchid, and a bamboo plant.

The box of chocolates was a big hit with Isabelle. I let her choose one piece then I closed it and put the box on the kitchen counter. Well she is so tall now she can reach up there without a chair. So what did she do? She helped herself to some chocolate of course.

She sat there holding it in the palm of her hand, taking tiny little bites out of it.

And making this face saying, “cheese! cheese!” (She wanted her picture taken)

When she was done taking her tiny bites I told her to put the rest down. But she wouldn’t let go of it. It just sat there melting in her hand.

It finally melted away into a flat messy blob. That’s when she decided to put it down. All she managed to do was smear chocolate all over a plate. So we had to wash it all away.

Ok off I go. Alan’s up now so he’s going to bring me to a fabric store!!