fabric on a stick

dabney made use of her pool-side time in florida by starting production on things for the renegade craft fair. besides the embroidery, she also did a project using leftover fabric, bits of cotton balls, and toothpicks she couldn't help but buy in japan last spring. at the time, she had no idea what to do with them (who wants to actually use such great toothpicks to pluck spinach out of their teeth or to skewer cheese?) but then wound up making these. ann starting calling them the kebab pins, and the name stuck.

crafts-to-go

there is something to be said for portable crafts.

since ann discovered knitting last fall, long flights will never be the same. knitting never really took to dabney beyond the realm of doggie scarves, so her portable craft of late has been embroidery. in fact, dabney dreams of new patterns, threads and not to mention her ultimate dream - the pfaff creative 2124. of course, if her dream were to come true, it wouldn't be portable.

here are a few of dabney's latest hand-sewn goodies.

jack jack jack jack jack jack jack

ann and dabney think birthday parties should be all about you you you. that's why they decided to make dabney's dad jack's 60th birthday party a virtual jack fest. jack masks made from cardstock and popsicle sticks were handed out to all the guests. jacks-on-a-toothpick adorned each of the cupcakes.

jack seemed pretty happy that night. so did all of the other jacks.

the florida bandit

superette has temporarily moved its headquarters down to st. petersburg, florida for a couple of weeks to celebrate a momentous birthday and to join the throngs of happy retirees in the sunshine state. but wouldn’t you know it, one day of deep-sea fishing and ann looks like a raccoon.



ann also finally finished the golf club covers she has been working on. she was satisfied with the result; simple, homemade-looking, and functional. hopefully, they will bring some on-the-course good luck to birthday boy, jack. (that's her lucky springer head cover on the right and our lemon-colored rental car in the background.)

introducing... "at this moment"

we thought we'd institute a new tradition here at superette that will appear periodically. we're calling it "at this moment" and it gives you a snapshot of what we're ... you can see below.

loving: xyron 510
surfing: flickr.com
reading: the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugenides (ann)
watching: the amazing race 7
eating: wild rice pancakes
drinking: effen vodka (black label)
listening: the dawn and drew show
making: knitted golf club covers
plugging: podcasts

just call us renegades...

for those of you who like to plan ahead, mark your calendars for june 25th and 26th! we will be participating in the first annual renegade craft fair in brooklyn, ny. (girlladyfriend, get your aerobed ready, 'cause we are coming to nyc.) this is the first craft fair we've ever participated in, as sellers - if you don't count ann's entry of an "e.t." painting into the delta fair (kennett, missouri) circa 1980.

we are pleased as punch, so look for upcoming posts of possible merchandise here.

now a case for everything

dabney's bout with the knitting needle case just whet her appetite. now, she is a case-making machine. here is her latest effort - pencil cases.



soon, she will be making tailored poker chip cases.

printer, scanner, fax, copier, dog washer

frustrated with the limitations of our previous printer, we finally took the plunge and invested in a new one to aid us in our infamous save the date project.

after much on-line research (and much scoffing at so-called unbiased reviewers on websites) we finally decided on an hp officejet 7310. it's one of those new-fangled all in one printers that also includes a fax, scanner, and copier. for the price, we hoped it could wash the dog, too.

set up was pretty painless, and so far we are pleased. unlike our older printer, the new one prints on custom sized paper (hallelujah). we also wanted to see what it would look like if we laid objects directly on the scanner bed. you can see the result with this picture of cell phone charms that dabney whipped up a couple of months ago. on the full-size version, the scan is so clear, you can see the individual stitches in the fabric.



the jury's still out on the fax function, but we'll let you know.

60th birthday gift

ann is thinking of making these golf club covers for her favorite father-in-law. this will be her second attempt at making these things. as you can see, the first try resulted in one pathetic looking sock that might fit one of bagger vance's old-time hickory clubs but certainly nothing with a clubhead bigger than a dog paw.

hypodermic knitting needle cases

dabney and her friend leandre got together to make knitting needle cases over the weekend. it took them seven hours from start to finish, but the result (in knitter ann's opinion) was well worth the effort.

save the f***ing date

our "client" -- let's call her crazy bride -- asked us to make invitations and save the date cards for her wedding in september.

this is at the top of the priority list. we are nearing the six month deadline for getting these out. (people are so busy these days, we guess they need this lead time. of course, our retiree lifestyle demands merely a week's notice for most things.) not being graphic designers nor techies, the frustration with this project has been trying to get the vision to become a reality using a printer that refuses to do custom sizing and without any publishing software. here's a mock version of the save the date card using appleworks and adobe photodeluxe.