Every now and then I like to have a pajama day, a nice lazy day during which I never bother getting dressed. A nap is also a requirement. Sometimes, however, I want to have a slightly more productive yet still relaxed sort of day. These days are best observed when the weather is warm and the sky is blue, and everyone else is at work, and you can just do whatever you want. Attire must be comfortable, just a notch above pajamas-because you might just go out in public (but only if you feel like it), and must include flip-flops. That’s the kind of day I had on Friday. I’ve been needing a couple days off, so I told Mr. HeyLucy I wasn’t going to work Friday or Monday, but he shouldn’t expect much out of me, I was only going to do whatever I felt like doing at the moment.

Here’s how my flip-flop day commenced. I slept in until eight, which is not too late, but enough to feel like I got a little bonus sleep. I took care of the basic morning chores in a leisurely manner (unlike my usual rush to get everybody fed and watered on my way out the door), and finished assembling and painting another box for my beehive. I glued and nailed the ten frames that fit inside. I have a little more to do with the frames, but I’ll tell you about that later.

Because a new hobby requires as many cute new accessories as possible, I whipped up a little headscarf from Weekend Sewing. The first time I wore my hat and veil to work the bees, my hair got twisted up and fell in my face, and you can’t exactly reach in and move it once you’ve got 10,000 buzzing bees in front of you. It worked perfectly when I wore it for yesterday’s hive inspection. Although it’s quite adorable, and I’ve worn it for most of the weekend while working in the yard, it’s not particularly flattering with my short hair poking out the back, so I’m afraid I will not be able to model it for you.

This pattern was just as easy as can be, and took all of 30 minutes. I highly recommend it!

Before leaving to go for a nice swim, I enjoyed a quick breakfast of Greek yogurt and strawberries. One of the best things about living in Southern California is our ridiculously long strawberry season, and I had the most perfect strawberries.

I headed to the pool, swam for a half hour or so, and then I got to just lay in the sun for another half hour. It was perfectly warm, with a tiny breeze and the bluest sky. It was such a treat since I usually swim on my lunch hour, which means 30 minutes in the pool and then rush to shower and dry my hair and get back to my desk.

I went out to lunch with a good book and had some spicy Thai food. I ordered some extra to take home for our dinner, and then headed over to Lowe’s to pick up everything I needed to build a raised bed for a vegetable garden this Summer.

Back home for the evening, I watched a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while knitting, of course. And then, worn out from my perfectly relaxing day, I went to bed and slept like a baby. I feel like such a braggert telling you all about my day, but it was just the nicest ever. I hope everyone takes a flip-flop day soon!

Speaking of knitting, I could use an opinion. I’m nearly done with my pumpkin sweater (Alpaca! Just in time for Summer!) and I have this lovely coral heather laceweight, enough for either the Whisper Cardigan or Featherweight Cardigan (Ravelry link). I just can’t decide. I love the back of Whisper, but being somewhat busty, i don’t know if the front is very flattering. I like the Featherweight Cardi, but it’s still a new enough pattern that there aren’t many finished versions on Ravelry yet. I love Ravelry just because you can see what the finished products look like on a variety of figures. Which do you prefer? Explain please. Oh, and the yarn? Knit Picks Merino Laceweight, $2.99 a hank, either sweater requires two to three hanks, and even including shipping that’s less than $12 total. Bargain sweater!

And one last thing, because this is rather long, but I did one other project recently that I’m quite pleased about. I made a little pin board for above my work table, and it’s so handy and it was very easy. I had a 12″ cork tile laying around, so I cut four one inch strips. I cut one of the strips in half, and then butted two strips together and glued a third, centered between the two. on top. That left the two halves, which I glued on either side of the centered strip, so I ended up with a double layer, 24″ strip of cork. I cut fabric into a 3 1/2 by 28 inch rectangle, and sewed it around the cork I just hung it up with strong double-sided foam tape, and that was that.

So handy! Now of course I’m going to have to make some cute push pins to coordinate. Maybe tomorrow.

I've been going on and on about me, me, me, but I am also finding so much inspiration out there in the world at the moment. I just thought I'd acknowledge and share some of my favorite things lately. My favorite album at the moment (other than Good Night Human, of course), is Lisa Hannigen's Sea Sew. I'm loving this song so much: 

I also love the cover she hand-stitched herself: 

And for a little more handmade goodness, be sure to watch the video for Lille, the video director also made the pop-up books, which are so great!

I know this is everywhere in blogland, but if you haven't had a chance to look at Weekend Sewing, I would suggest you head to the bookstore this week and take a peek.

I'm pretty particular about the craft books I bring home, because 1) I only have so much shelf space, and there's not much left, and 2) I already know how to sew, so how-to books not really necessary. I love this one the inspiration and the fact that Heather Ross so creative and such a great writer on top of it all. Her blog is so much fun to read, just for the stories she tells. I am also really hankering for some of her new fabric after seeing this little project (scroll down to see the finished quilted kimono and dress). 

And one last bit of inspiration is this sweater. I'm not sure if it would be flattering on my busty self, but I sure do love it, and may have to make it regardless.

Okay, now I'm off to do some sewing myself. See how inspired I am!

Oh it’s so nice to spend my weekends in my little house studio. I set my iPod on shuffle, or turn on the portable DVD player, and just get to work. The quilt wall will be getting a lot of use, I hope. I sketched out an idea the week before last, and started playing around with it the last couple days.

It’s lap or baby-sized, and I’m thinking there will be three or four more flowers. I wanted to use shot cotton, and originally thought I’d do the whole thing with all solid shot cotton colors, but the quilt shop didn’t have any good, saturated pinks and greens like I wanted. I was so disappointed, until I wandered over to the batiks. I don’t think of myself as a batik sort of person, but the colors just got me, so I’m giving it a try. I’ll just be satisfied that only the background is shot cotton.

I also blocked my scarf, and am having a little fun playing with some Anthropologie-like embellishments from my vintage lace stash.

Since I wasn’t feeling too great last week, about the only thing I did was knit. I stuck mostly to my orange sweater, but I thought I’d start a couple other, small-ish projects just to mix it up a little. When I cleaned out my yarn stash I decided I needed to find specific projects for the yarn I have, so now I have a half a dozen things to chose from. I started on a shrug, because I just happen to have the exact number of skeins of Homespun in a lovely, deep purple. I needed a size 10 cable needle, so I was searching through all my circular needles and it turns out I have four size 9 needles and not a one in size 10. I’m not sure how that happened. Anyone need a size 9 needle?

I also managed to finish up the needle books and pincushions for the shop. They were a lot of fun to make, so I hope they all find good homes.

I woke up on day three of my three-day weekend with a killer sore throat. I already had a cold this Winter, so I'm not sure what the purpose of that was, but it was annoying. So I've been laying about, and between naps, did a little knitting. I'm powering my way through that to-do list, and started on my sweater. Originally, this yarn (Berroco Ultra Alpaca) was going to be an Assemblage sweater, which I love and still want to make, but because this yarn is alpaca, and therefore very soft, when I knit the patterned cuff you couldn't see much of a pattern. So I think it will be much better suited for the Diminishing Rib Cardigan in the latest Interweave Knits.

This is the first time I've knit a top-down sweater, but I think it might be my new favorite thing-no seams, try it on as you go, and easily adjust to fit! I also learned a new cast-on for this, the tubular cast-on. It was a little tricky, and I admit, it took about four attempts to get it right, but it makes sense now, and it does make for a nice edge. If you try it out here are my tips: 1. Use straight needle to cast on, and then transfer to your cable needles if you're using them, the cable created all kinds of problems for me, and 2. It will look like a big mess at first, but just give it a few rows, and it will work itself out.

Also in orange, the shot cotton scarves I mentioned last time:

I might be a little obsessed with this fabric, although I don't think I can do it justice in a photograph.

One last bit of orange (and white) for your amusement, someone found the catnip stash and had herself a little party:

Later we found her looking for pop tarts (the last paragraph of that news story cracked me up).

And now on to the turquoise. I painted my picture frame, which will eventually be an inspiration board, but it needs some help.

It's a little darker than I hoped, and also a little flat. I'd like it to be more the color of my tray, but I'm not sure what to do to get it there. Maybe a watered down greenish glaze? And a clear, glossy coat of paint? Any ideas?

And thanks for all the little pep talks about my bookcases on Apartment Therapy. I'm not letting the haters get me down, and really, the nice comments you left for me here more than made up for the snarky ones over there!

Saturday I devoted my whole day to thrift shopping/antique mall-ing in search of a dresser for the studio. Mission accomplished!

If you'll recall, it was on my Complete the Studio to-do list. Also on the list is Paint the dresser. I'm tired of painting at the moment, and it's been raining for four days, so painting is not going to be a high priority for awhile. I can live with it like this for a good, long while, actually. It would be better if it was a brighter white, to match the walls, but I can deal for now. The shape is just what I wanted, and the size is perfect. I love the handles, and, while I didn't really want anything too shabby chic or distressed, the little painted swags on the drawers are kind of sweet.I also didn't think I needed a side table, but when I saw that little white one for $45 I kind of had to get it, and it turns out that it's really coming in handy.

I managed to thin out my yarn stash, and fit nearly everything in the bottom drawer. There are a few balls of sock yarn in one of the top drawers, and it's so nice that it's all safe from those pesky cats. I decided to display part of my creamer collection on a tray on top.

I need to find some small projects for the odd balls of yarn. What do you do when you have leftover yarn or orphan skeins?

Once the dresser was organized I was so inspired by my pretty new space, I worked on some treats for the shop. There's a couple peepers in there right now, and I hope to have some pincushion/needlebook sets by the end of the week. It's so nice to work out there now. It's a small room (barely 10'x14'), but I've got so much of my junk organized and cleaned out that it's just so easy to work. 

And, since you haven't seen this fuzzy face for awhile, I leave you with the one and only Winston:

I can't take it when he looks at me like that. I had the day off today, and spent it in the studio with the rain and then snow blowing and blustering outside, and I had to let this muddy thing in because I felt sorry for him. I hope my carpet will come clean.