Kaoru Marie

I can't believe so many days have passed by between posts about my progress on the 365 photos project. Here is a mosaic of photos I took recently. Descriptions of each photo are on Flickr if you are so inclined to know what is going on in each photo. 1. Day 47/365 , 2. Day 48/365 , 3. Day 49/365 , 4. Day 50/365 , 5. Day 51/365 , 6. Day 52/365 , 7. Day 53/365 , 8. Day 54/365 , 9. Day 55/365 I have given up on the "Purple Theme" for the month of February. Seriously, if I had kept up with it, you'd probably see 20 shitty photos of ugly purple flowers. Since I truly enjoy taking photos of my cat, I have reverted to taking a lot more photos of my sweet Bailey. In order to not bore my small readership, my goal from this point forward is to take photos of him in different positions and situations. Only two of the photos in the above mosaic were taken with my dlsr and one of them actually didn't come out that well despite using an external flash. My kitchen defi...

Before the long weekend, which was a week ago, I had one and a half goals in mind to accomplish. The first was to buy fabric at a nearby fabric store. I walked in and walked out after perusing TONS of fabric for about 10 minutes. I think at least 3 different workers asked if I needed help (and apparently I could get swatches as well although I don't even know what I would do with a swatch...), but every time I said " no, thanks, just looking! " when really I wanted to say " I have no idea what I'm doing here! what fabric should I choose for a dress? what about for a skirt? what about for a blouse? why are most of your fabrics unlabeled? " I seriously need to do more research on fabric so I know what I'm talking about when I go fabric shopping. There was one fabric that I really liked and it was a taupe color, which I'm not usually drawn to, but it was $49.95/yard! I'm definitely not experienced enough to be messing around with fabric that expensi...

I've cleaned my sewing machine a few times, mainly after doing some free motion quilting when I know all the layers of fabric and batting are causing havoc on my Bernina. But it wasn't until Lauren of Lladybird slapped the hands of every sewist through the interwebs and shamed us into cleaning our sewing machines that I thought I would read the manual again to see what it says. I could have sworn when I first RTM several years ago that it advised to clean and oil every now and then. Well, to my complete shock, the manual says to clean your sewing machine after every use. EVERY USE ! The manual didn't say how often to oil your machine, but it didn't say not to do it frequently. blerg.....so I cleaned my machine this past weekend. Here is a side-by-side comparison of how my machine looked under the plate before and after cleaning: 1. Before , 2. After I don't sew all that often so I was a bit surprised by the amount of lint build-up. Or perhaps I shouldn...

I finally failed my own monthly challenge of taking photos of purple in the month of February. Next time I do a color theme, I will make it a once-a-week challenge. I would rather take photos that are meaningful to me, than a photo of a particular thing just because I *have* to. Since all of the photos taken during the workweek were taken with my iPhone and posted to Flickr, here is another photo collage. 1. Day 42/365 , 2. Day 43/365 , 3. Day 44/365 , 4. Day 46/365 I really like the photo from Day 44: Hot Air Balloon on Hollywood Blvd . I wish I had gotten a shot of the fire being blown into the balloon, but I was in too much of a hurry to time it correctly. 99% of the time I despise walking along Hollywood Blvd because of all the tourists and costume "performers". Most of the time I feel like I'm *this* close to turning into Michael Douglas in Falling Down , except instead of breaking due to vehicular traffic, I'm breaking due to pedestrian traffic. I don...

I have to start by expressing my admiration for Tasia and her pattern line, Sewaholic Patterns . I love reading her blog and seeing what patterns she develops. Also, she's cute as pie and I really want to support her business. I bought her Renfrew top pattern when it was released and made a couple tops, but the fabric I used was utterly terrible so the tops are more wearable muslins rather than wearable garments. I keep meaning to buy quality fabric because I really like the Renfrew pattern, but I just haven't gotten around to it. One day back in August 2012 I had a strong urge to make the Crescent Skirt so I stopped by Sew LA on my way home from work and bought this pattern along with the Thurlow Trousers pattern and fabric for the skirt. I really wanted to use a cotton voile for the skirt, but Tasia mentioned that quilting cotton could be used as well. I thought the fabric I bought is called "City Commute", but I just googled it and can't find it anywhere,...

I finally got an iPhone a week ago and am now taking way more photos with it compared to my dslr, which is good and bad. It's good because I get to take photos I never would have because I don't want to lug my dslr everywhere with me (especially when I'm holed up in my office for hours on end) and I can take photos a bit more discreetly. However, it's also bad because the photos aren't as great. I admit that I half-assed my mine own assignment this week. First of all, it is a lot more difficult to find purple things to photograph when the rest of the world apparently does not share my love of the color purple. I resorted to taking photos of objects that were near me when I realized I had two hours left in the day to complete the "photo-a-day" challenge. I discovered that the Flickr app allows you to apply filters to photographs similar to Instagram, I think. I've been having fun playing around with the filters, but I'm sure the enjoyment will ...

I am several years late to the Sorbetto Party, but I finally made one! I thought about making a Sorbetto top last year, but of course I never got around to it. A couple Sundays ago, on a complete whim, I downloaded the free pattern on the Coletterie blog and got to work. This was my first time making something with a pdf pattern and I was a little nervous about printing at the correct scale and then assembling the different sheets. My concerns about printing to scale are warranted since I have the most difficult time printing at work. For some reason it takes several tries to correctly print an original 24"x36" pdf to an 11"x17" sheet of paper. (I re-read that sentence and I can't tell if it sounds super nerdy or super lame.) Anyhow...the great thing about this pattern is that there are only two pattern pieces: Front Bodice and Back Bodice. So freaking simple. Why didn't I make this sooner? Actually, I know.  The one thing that kills me about Colette patt...

It's February! Which means keeping track of the "day" will be much more difficult since I can no longer easily reference the day of the month. Sheesh, life is rough. Day 32: Feb 1, 2013 I was thinking during the day about what to photograph when it dawned on me that I should try a theme this month. First I thought about taking photos of something red. But then I realized that was way too easy. Hello, red in February? I might as well take photos of hearts everyday. Man, I am so lame sometimes! Then I decided since love is a theme in February I should take photos of the color I love the most: purple. That is a photo of some fabric I have had for months. I'll post soon about what I did with it. It looks kinda nice in the photo, but don't be fooled! It was a disaster to work with. And I still have a lot left.....ugh, what I am going to make with it? Suggestions are welcome! Day 33: Feb 2, 2013 Had brunch with the fam at Terranea Resort . It was my first ...

This week has been all sorts of busy. I traveled to Flip-Flip- Flipadelphia for a work training session and was there for less than 48 hours. I can't complain too much because I really wanted to attend this training program and I am very glad that I was allowed to go. I was worried it was going to be super cold, but the weather wasn't too bad at all. I took some piss poor photos, but at least I'll be able to remember this week as the " it's tired in here " week. Day 28: January 28, 2013 I'm terrible about figuring out what to eat when I travel. Do I want to overpay for a sad, limp sandwich before I board a plane or during the flight? I was *this* close to getting the cheese and cracker snack on the plane, but really, $9 for some measly pieces of cheese? Instead I bought a couple granola bars in the terminal and then toughed it out. Not gonna lie, that was not the best decision I made that day. All throughout the flight I couldn't wait till I got to th...