It's a bird....it's a plane...

Nope!  Just the summer FLYING by!!!

Sadly this is just another quick update by photos today.  I still try to read everyone's blogs daily and I've been working on many projects (never understand why I insist on starting so many at once.....other than being distracted by all the pretty yarn and patterns)

I went home last weekend for the wedding of 2 friends and took MY best friend as my date!  Jonathan had to take the Praxis (State certification test to be a teacher) on Saturday so I traveled home alone.  Here are Jonathan's "good luck study shorts" that I made him before I left

Please ignore the white "stain" on his shirt....I'm zero for two on ruining t-shirts of his that he spills on....my mom was giving me tips on the phone last night - I've yet to earn my house-wife of the year badge :-)

I also made Grannie a Beach Ball Place Mat

it's much smaller than a standard place mat but the table in her kitchen is rather small, and she typically eats off an 8" plate so it worked out perfectly.  I'm still 100% in love with this woven pattern!  Again with the pictures I can't see to rotate!!!  Does anyone know what the heck I'm doing wrong?!?!?!

Here are some new photos of my dad's vegetable garden:

cherry tomatoes that are larger than golf balls!

the tiniest watermelons I've EVER seen - seriously smaller than the tip of my pinky

Pie Pumpkins well on their way to being amazing fall desserts

I don't know how he does it!  He's only fertilized once (with Miracle Grow) and they've been pretty close to drought-like conditions so even watering has been limited.  Most of the plants have doubled or tripled since I was just there 3 weeks ago - he truly has a green thumb!  I brought lots of veggies home with me to Maryland (zucchini, summer squash, broccoli, green beans, hot peppers, cucumbers, and new potatoes) - makes me very impatient to move home and have a vegetable garden of our own (along with his) - we complain every week at the grocery story when we see the bill and how much of our budget just went to vegetables that we could grow ourselves!!!

Part of my obsession with the woven stitch made me pull out skeins and skeins of yarn a few weeks ago, cause I was ready to make my own "beach ball blankie"  Of course, I never started it and now I feel guilty about the two blankets for myself that I started back in like March, and the baby blanket that I need to finish in the next couple of weeks....so my Beach Ball Blankie yarn is on my to do list to be put away this weekend.  Instead, I pulled out my Raspberry Wiggles that hasn't been touched in months and started to work on it again:

And if you looked closely at the link for Raspberry Wiggles, you'll see that I actually started it back in FEBRUARY....and never touched it again - total case of crafty ADD I believe!

Then I hurt my back the other night, was out flat on my back for about 36 hours (tried to crochet and couldn't) so I don't really have any progress to show other than what's above.

And in the back of my mind, that baby blanket is nagging me about how I'm going to have to race to finish it if I don't focus on it soon....so that's what I'm planning to work on during the Opening Ceremonies and the beginning of the Olympics (basically, until it's done!!!)

Crafty Sundays

This is my 2^nd attempt at today’s post.  The first draft was already half a page long and I’m not sure I’d said anything of any importance, let alone anything that you would find interesting.

Do you ever have a Crafty day with friends?  Last winter my friends and I would have Crafty Sunday's (or Saturday's depending on everyone's schedules).  We'd craft and watch terrible TV or Harry Potter for the 100th time and just enjoy each others company with a craft in hand.  This hasn't happened yet this year, but not because we haven't been trying!  Whether out of town, busy or sick, it seems they always get canceled last minute.  I received an email from a group of friends this morning about whether or not we could have a Crafty Sunday next weekend.  My first thought was - every Sunday is Crafty Sunday in my house, so you're more than welcome to join me!

I’m crazy exhausted today so I’m going to blame my rambling on that, and hope that round two goes a bit better.

My Momma came to visit over the weekend and we had lots of fun shopping and crafting.  This is primarily how we spend weekends together – whether in MD or NY, shopping trips and crafty afternoons are always on the top of our “to-do” lists!  #3 would be drinking wine ;-) and of course in the summertime, we must find time for the pool if we’re in MD!

I’ve had quite the sewing bug lately.  This past December I was a bit sad when I got my machine out to sew some Christmas presents and found the thread from the last pair of Christmas pants from the year before still threaded on the machine.  Yes, I know, I was a bit “busy” with the whole wedding planning thing so I shouldn’t really beat myself up too much… I do think it made me want to focus a bit more crafty energy on sewing this year!

Anyway.  My sewing “total” for the weekend is 3 pairs of flannel lounge pants, 2 coasters, and 1 pillow case!  Below are the only pictures of the crafty goodness that I remembered to take….Mom’s matching froggy pants and her pillow case made it all the way back to WNY before I realized that I never took photos!

Here is the “stock” of fabric we purchased at JoAnn’s before it was washed Sunday morning.  There’s enough here for 5 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts and a pillow case, not to mention the fun things to be created out of the left over material!

This one was taken last night after I finished my 3^rd pair of pants in 24 hours.  You may recognize the Holly print from Christmas time – it’s one of the many pairs that I cut out prior to Christmas thinking I’d get them all sewn in the month of December if they were already cut out.  One down, two to go!  I just re-read the blog post linked above and it turns out I never posted the picture of all the other pairs that I cut out that night...whoops!

Here are the coasters from above a little bit closer up.  They’re made the same way as last weekend’s coaster experiment, and are just a couple of 5” square scraps from the froggy pants!  One’s for me, and the other I’m sending to Mom in a “thank you for a fun weekend” package, which I’m hoping to send out tomorrow morning.  The frogs aren't quite as centered as I would have liked, but I think they're still cute - which one do you like best?  I wanna send my Momma the better of the two!

Each day I did do some crocheting as well – I mean, I’m still me after all, but not enough to show anything off just yet. 

Hoping to finish up a small crochet project tonight.  If I’m productive during Glee I’ll be sure to take pictures in the morning and post an update tomorrow.

Isn’t it GREAT to have it day light a little bit earlier and a little bit later each day?!?!  I finally have enough light in the apartment to take a few pictures before work AND I can almost make it home from work at night before it’s dark once more…looking forward to warmer days, flip flops and needing my sun glasses for the drive home once more.

sorry!

First, I’d like to apologize for the fact that the only blogging I do these days is an update of pictures from the past week.  This usually includes a quick paragraph of things I plan to do in the near future, that usually never actually happen!

Second of all, before you see the pictures I’m getting ready to share in this update, please know that when I took the first couple over the weekend, they were meant to just be glimpses to post on Facebook.  I had intended to take nicer quality pictures of each project, but as always my weekends go too quickly and I ran out of time before the time had come once more that I had to go back to work!

First is my status picture from a Saturday of crocheting –

My blanket is coming along slowly.  I've spent lots and lots of time with it, but I'm using an H hook so it's def taking a bit longer to see any major progress!

Sunday morning was spent sewing:

Some springtime Pillow Cases for our couch.  We spend lots of time lounging and relaxing on the couch nights and weekends, and I really like to use our spare bed pillows to get comfy (also, it saves from having to store our pillows for when we have guests spend the night)!  I needed something to replace my Christmas cases and I thought I'd take the opportunity to start getting some spring colors in the apartment once more.  This really is such a fun way to use beautiful material, customize it to the holiday/season and with only the cost of 1 yd of material per case - they're super quick to make too!  I've of course fallen in love with these patterns and now want to go buy some material to make lounge pants :o)

I made a set of coasters for a co-worker's birthday on Tuesday.  This was my first time sewing coasters so I also made one pink one for my desk @ work.  They're all the same on the front and back and just have some batting in the middle.  5" cut squares with a 1/2" seam make the perfect size (to me!) for a coaster.  I'm still trying to master straighter lines on my top stitching, but I'll get there.  These were all made at no cost to me - just scraps from lounge pants & shorts made over the past 18 months.  My co-worker loved them and said that they'd go perfectly in her 2nd bedroom (which coincidentally was in need of coasters as it's a TV room in their house!)

 Here's how they were "wrapped"

I also made Jonathan a pair of red fleece lounge pants for Valentine's Day.  I totally forgot to take a picture after giving them to him last night!  But I will say they were a hit, he'd changed into them within about 45 seconds of opening his gift!

In other news,the next two nights after work are being spent preparing for company this weekend.  My momma is coming to visit Friday night through Monday morning.  This means things like the growing pile of laundry and very messy study need to be dealt with tonight and tomorrow so that she and I can have a good old CRAFTY weekend (plus a couple of shopping trips to give Jonathan a break!)

Lastly – a belated Happy Valentine’s Day to all my fellow bloggers!  I read all your posts about LOVE yesterday, but found myself without enough time in my lunch break to write about my own <3

Jonathan made our first Valentine’s as husband and wife a very special one.  Due to come unforeseeable bumps in the road it is one that I’ll never forget!

Here's the awesome dinner Jonathan made us last night (along with pink tulips from him and his gift (you can kind of see the red fleece peekin' out!))  He was in charge of dinner (Porterhouse, shrimp, asparagus and avocado) and I was in charge of dessert (GF chocolate cake with raspberry frosting and chocolate sauce)  I totally forgot to take a picture of my cake but I'll say this - adding a jar of seedless preserves to white canned frosting makes for AMAZING cake frosting!!!  I only needed about half of it for my 9" cake, so I put the rest back into the jar, and popped it into the fridge for a fun dessert in the near future!

I'd like to point out that those pink tulips are my 2nd flowers of the day (I told you he went all out!).  Sadly the roses which were to be delivered to my office, have yet to arrive....the tulips were purchased in the afternoon (before places would be sold out) to bring home all along - I think he'd want you all to know that. 

My Funny Valentine really is the sweetest of them all <3

Hodgepodge Combination - it's everything but the kitchen sink!

I have not been good about updating on the work I've done lately....these are the pictures I've taken after completing each project and had them sitting here waiting for me to post, and it never happens..."work" always gets in the way! So here is what I did in August (I'm pretty sure it was all in August):

1. I wanted to make a case for my iPod...yes, I have a case on my iPod but there is nothing protecting the case from getting scratched up where it's protecting the screen from getting scratched up! Yes, I'm just that OCD. In some alternate universe I thought that after only sewing for a month I could making this without a pattern....this led to the picture below and a very stressful evening!

No, it doesn't necessarily look bad, but it was definitely not right!

I found a pattern online that I loved so I went out and bought some new material and after working on it for 2 nights after work I had this:

It's very cute, it does the job it's destined to do and looks pretty much exactly how I wanted it to. I used flannel thinking it would be extra soft for the iPod. Lesson learned: if using flannel for this pattern do NOT use batting...it ended up so thick on the seams once turned right side out that where I stitched was the furthest out I could get for the top stitch - this makes the case much larger looking than it really needs to be.

Dear future self: if you decide to make this again with flannel and insist on using batting, cut the pattern larger so that you can sew at a larger seam allowance. Yes this may be wasteful but it will allow more room for trimming excess batting out and you may actually be able to get this top seam closer to the edge.

2. Next, I thought it would be fun to make Mom and I matching shorts for relaxing in the hotel room during the August trip. I already had the material to make them for both of us, so why not make them now while it's still summer and hot enough out for shorts. She was very surprised and loves them, but it was a lot of work working on 2 pair at the same time - not sure I'd ever do it that way again. I did make my pair a bit shorter this time (still not as short as the pattern seems to want them to me - seriously, I'm not 18 anymore, I like my butt cheeks to be covered when I'm relaxing)

3. I ordered the material for the skirt pictured below online over the summer and was in LOVE with it when it arrived. I finally wanted to make the skirt (I don't love my skirt pattern so was putting it off a bit). I of course on like Sunday at 3:00 p.m. decided that I must wear it to work that Tuesday prior to going out of town. I sewed it all up on Sunday and had it ready to be worn on Tuesday. That's the good thing about making skirts vs. pants/shorts, lots less to hem w/o 2 legs :-) Unfortunately Monday night rolled around and I checked the weather for the following day before going to sleep and it was barely going to be 70 degrees the following day.....after the record heat we've had in DC this summer, 70 is FAR TOO COLD for a skirt and short sleeve shirt. So it still sits in my bedroom waiting to be worn....

It's already the middle of September and my days for wearing skirts are coming to a close. I did see that CWC mentioned this a.m. that there is a chance that it'll be back up near 90 or higher a couple of days next week so I think I most definitely need to make this outfit happen before I have to wait for Spring!

A good portion of tomorrow needs to be spent being domestic (grocery shopping, laundry, picking up, unpacking, etc. etc. etc) If nothing else I'm hoping to get all that sh*t done tomorrow so that I can spend Sunday relaxing/crafting. I have many things that I've been wanting to work on all week but have been too tired each night when I get home. It's also the middle of Sept which means it's time for me to get into the mind set for "3 months until Christmas" (a bit more, but I will need some time to wrap and travel home). Lots and lots of supplies for all these gifts have already been purchased, I just need to actually work on them!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Hope to be up to date and have an update on the weekends progress by Monday!

Sewing update

It seems as though it's been forever since I used my machine...then I realized last night that not until this coming Thursday will I have had it for a full month! I just haven't used for the past 2 weeks which seems to feel like it's been forever, apparently work has been more stressful that I realized...I haven't really done any crafts lately. I am starting to feel a bit sad that I haven't crocheted or anything in like the past month or so! Time to get back into the swing of things, and it's gonna start with sewing again and it's gonna start as soon as I get home tonight!

Over the weekend I decided that I wanted to sew a pouch for my new iPod...yes, I brought a clear case for it, but the case itself is getting scratched up in my purse and the wheel is not covered so constantly needs to be cleaned. The OCD side of me decided that sewing a soft little pouch to protect my case was the way to go! Sunday evening I got everything out I needed, designed my pattern, looked down and saw that I didn't own pink thread that matched the scraps of material from Mom that I wanted to use.....SERIOUSLY? There went my plans of sewing on Sunday. I sat on the couch, pouted until Jon asked me what was wrong and I responded by telling him that I'd be making a trip to JoAnns Monday after work.

That's exactly what I did yesterday. Of course, I find it IMPOSSIBLE to walk into JoAnns (or any other craft store for that matter) without spending more time than necessary looking at everything, buying things that I didn't go there for and spending much more money than I had anticipated spending! Oh well, I got some really gorgeous fabric not only for my pouch (flannel vs. the cotton scraps I planned to use) and some fun Halloween decorations (place mats and a table runner). I also picked up buttons and Velcro for the pouch. I then hit up Michaels and AC Moore in search of some different/fun beads to take with me on the 25th to see what the girls can create for me this year.

After getting gas, driving home, showing Jon my purchases and eating dinner...I found it impossible to pull myself off the couch and got sucked into a really horrible Shark Week show that I just couldn't pull myself away from. By 9:45 I was feeling a bit guilty but realized that that wasn't the best time to start a project (the I still needed to redesign the pattern for). I decided to hold off and start first thing when I get home tonight so that 1. I can actually work on the project start to finish in one night and 2. I'm not so overly tired that I make stupid mistakes and get really upset with myself.

Happy Shark Week from Silver Spring (Discovery Communications Headquarters)

That's the update on what I haven't done/plan to do! I do have 2 projects that I last made 2 weeks ago and never shared.



My 2nd pair of shorts completed - all shorts finally made it through the wash last week and came out in one piece - yeah!



First work skirt completed - brown with green and white polka dots (cotton). Not super duper happy with the pattern I bought, but I made it work by doing pieces of it my way :-) I have material for 3 more skirts that I look forward to making before it gets too chilly to wear anymore (HAHA like that'll be happening anytime soon1)


Hope to have a picture of the iPod case to share tomorrow!

Add another new "craft" to the list

Not too long ago I posted how reading had become my summer "craft"....well I haven't read all the much since that post (well I have read "The Wednesday Letters" and "What Time Is It, You Mean Now?") and that's mostly because Mom was in town for 10 days. The days we spent at the pool I didn't really spend anytime reading because 1. I was chatting with Mom and 2. it was so damn hot the 50% of our time outside was spent in the pool. One big thing I miss about the Promenade (strange thing to say.....LOL) was that there were no kids at the pool. This meant you could stand in the shallow end and read along the edge. Not the the Blairs! Far tooooo many kinds screaming, jumping and splashing (me and my book) to make it worth while!

My newest craft, for those of you who didn't see my FB status updates over the last 2 weeks is.....SEWING! Mom had brought her machine down to work on some projects on the days that I had to work while she was visiting. We made a trip to JoAnns on Saturday evening to buy some material and a new pattern to make some lounge shorts, Sunday (4th of July) morning she sewed both pairs while I watched and by about 1 p.m. I knew I wanted to buy myself a machine and finally once and for all learn how to sew, have a machine in my possession to practice on and do it right! I did some research on JoAnn's website that night, and of course most of the machines I was looking at online were "online only" lame. This meant Monday after about 4 hours at the pool we made our 2nd trip to JoAnns so I could buy my very first machine (Singer Simple) while my 10% off my purchase coupon was still good. Between that and the holiday weekend sales going on, it came in much under $100 which I was thrilled about! Tuesday so too darn hot to be at the pool so I spent my "personal day" from work with mom in the air conditioning sewing! We had a blast and I was addicted very quickly. During the rest of the week I finished up my first pair of shorts and started making plans for how Mom and I could get in one more trip to JoAnns to stock up on fabric before she left. This trip came on Saturday morning since it was raining. We ended up doing a shopping trip to Target, JoAnns, Michaels & AC Moore which took about 6 hours total (including the driving), about 2 of those hours were at JoAnns looking at material and patterns. Such fun we had! Unfortunately by the time we got home, and got all of our material washed and went through all our other purchases, it was time for Mom to start packing up since we was leaving the following morning.

This was my VERY first completed project on my new machine. They're coaster pads for my coffee table. Learned from them for next time: Need a thin piece of batting, should have made about 1" bigger.

Drumroll please.................first time making anything with a pattern! Very proud of myself, I'm not gonna lie! Looking forward to making more shorts and pants in the future (some also as gifts) it's lots of fun to be able to create something to wear that I can fit to my body (I have to add about 4" to the bottom of a pant pattern, BUT it means I can wear comfy pants that aren't floods!)

Jon also came back on Sunday afternoon and he took me to dinner in Rockville that night, but we got home in plenty of time for me to make a pillowcase! Had a bit of trouble with flannel vs. cotton (slipping around when I pinned it). Definitely learned from my mistakes on this; from cutting off a little too much material to the fact that I should have laid it on the rug to pin, I now know for the future!

Last night I put this on a different pillow that isn't quite as "fat". which makes it not look like I sewed it unevenly! It's super duper soft and I basically want to live in it's softness :-)

Monday morning I came into work and did some online fabric shopping with JoAnns and Hancock. Can't wait for the shipment to come in so I can get it washed and get to JoAnns for some thread to start more sewing! Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to work on the projects that I already have material for at home ready to go!