Summer Fun with Merri !

Ugh, what a day. I thought I was just having some tummy troubles at the VA yesterday, and my tired-wiredness was my usual post-medical-anxiety crash. Be fine in the morning, I thought. 

Nope. Both Beloved Hubby and I were ill all day, upset tummies, headaches, exhaustion, sluggishness, neuralgia. . .all either of us wanted to do was sleep. But I had plenty of sleep and still felt like a frozen, looped-out slug all day long. Barely got me fed, and was darn grateful for the big bag of pizza rolls that Dearest Son could fix himself. He’s perfectly fine, of course. As the day dragged, I got some minor but long-delayed stuff done, like washing the electric blanket, getting some boxes into the recycling bin, and redoing the living room to host my old computer chair, but it was fits and spurts of energy, and I was tired after each minor exertion. My speed for the day was set at ‘can clean off desk’, really. So I did that, too. 

In a place like that, FaceBook is suddenly a good idea. So many embroidery designers have sales going on that I can’t keep up. A few have had so many sales, there’s nothing I want from them, and more than I wanna count have never had a sale, and of course, they have exclusives I’d love. So I look, and window shop, and double check to make sure I don’t have this or that. Like with sewing patterns, I’m at the ‘several I like, a few I love – tons of stuff cheap or for free I’ve already got’ stage. 

Browsed idly through one Etsy sale, recalling that I’d already snagged pretty much everything from her ‘website rework’ 80% off sale a couple months back, and hadn’t done anything with ‘em. Not really a surprise – these were more doll shoe designs that came in a ‘two shoes in a 5” x 7” hoop’ format. Since I have only a 4x4, I’d have to cut it down to one shoe (as-is, they fit Timey and D’ella), carefully resize it to fit Disney Princess and Me dolls, save it, then test it. But hey, I could do nearly all that sitting down !

So I did. Only had to get up to hoop the tear-away stabilizer and choose thread and felt, everything else from printer to computer to Brody is at my fingertips. Cut up a newly emptied syringe box to make a smaller drawer organizer for some hair elastics and snap clips, then some shoe templates, and got down to it.

And, less than hour later, Merri got new shoes to go with her new skateboard ! These new sneakers look much better with that than the ballerina flats do. Darn good thing I got so much experience with stitching those flats out – the sneaker design came with no directions at all. Aside from a few more stitch steps, though, they’re really about the same. (snicker) Saved lots of time doing the whole shoe in one color thread, but I can customize darn near the whole thing. While they look black in the photo, they’re actually from the same cheep sheet of felt the last purple pair of flats – and the felt doll ‘Rarity’ wig – came from. Got a lot out of that 23¢. Definitely a keeper, and a ‘do many times’ design !

Oh, and that’s the Room With A View backdrop Merri’s posing in, with added light from yesterday's thrifted pole lamp. I’m still mad at the Room company, but that brick is nice for photos. I also have to get a bigger piece of tinfoil. The Room is much bigger than the cutting mat, so Junior-kitty can still jump up and not be on foil. Maybe if I feel better tomorrow, I can bake something else and reuse some more !