Friday, February 25, 2011

5 Years

Five years ago today my husband and I officially started dating.  Two years ago today we got engaged.  It also means that we're just a few weeks away from our first wedding anniversary.  I feel so lucky to call him my husband. 

Instead of being at work like I was supposed to I called in.  Not because it's our anniversary, but because we were getting so much hail that it was piling up.  DH left work early because he was worried about getting stuck there.  He probably had 3 inches of hail on his car when he got home.  Now, however, the sun is out and I feel ridiculous for missing work.  Oh well.  It's supposed to freeze tonight anyway so it would have been dangerous for me to drive home. 

So, instead of me working, we're spending the evening together.  Now if we could only come up with an idea for dinner.  We're not really doing a big celebration, especially since we didn't even think we'd have more than a couple hours together today, but I don't mind.  I'm just happy to be with him. 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Camera Case

I found this tutorial over at Sew, Mama, Sew a while ago and finally bought some batting that I didn't already have other plans for today and decided to finally make it.  I'm always afraid to take my camera places because I don't want it to get scratched up or otherwise damaged in my purse.  Now I don't have to worry.

It was really easy to make.  Her directions were great and it came together in less than an hour from the first cut to taking pictures of the final product.  I did make a few changes to it.  I didn't have elastic that was thin enough so I changed it up and sewed on some Velcro.  I didn't really measure how far I wanted the fold to go, I just estimated and found I spot that I liked and that fit my camera. 

For the Velcro, I used this stuff:


Cheap and easy to use.  I cut one inch of both pieces.


If you change the size of your pouch you might want to adjust the size of the Velcro too. 

I discovered an awesome sewing tool also.






Technically it's a crocheting hook.  But this one is really long and worked great for turning the camera cover inside out.  I added it to my sewing box so that I'll have it on hand whenever I'm working on a project.

Here's the final product:


It's holding my cell phone in the picture and could easily be used for that too, but I like it for my camera.  It fits better too. 

I apologize for both my lack of posting (which I plan to improve soon) and also for the off lighting in the pictures.  We're expecting another huge snow storm starting tonight so the sun has been hiding all day.

I'm going to be linking up to Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory

Saturday, February 19, 2011

New Fabric

It snowed again last night.  Even more than last time.  So DH and I decided to go out and see what the rest of town looked like.  We stopped at Wal-Mart and I picked up some white flannel so that I can finally finish the baby quilt for DH's cousin.  Then we went to the fabric store and I looked around for a while and decided that I really did want the fabrics I had seen last time.  Plus another one that I found.  So I picked up these


As it turns out my store now carries more designers than just Moda.  The outer two are by Henry Glass & Co. and the middle one is Michael Miller.  I'm thinking about turning the pink one into a purse and lining it with the brown polka-dot one.  I'll share that when I finally get a chance to make it. 

Friday, February 18, 2011

Snow

It snowed again last night.  They were predicting it, but everything was fine when DH got home from work.  He was craving Chinese food so we called our favorite restaurant to place an order.  When we left to go pick it up there was already an inch of snow on the ground.  By the time we got to the other side of town it was snowing like crazy.  This morning it's still all over the ground, but the rain is back so it's getting slushy.  I love it though.  It was so much fun to watch it snow.  Not so much fun having the power go out for a good chunk of the evening, but it's back on now and I'm enjoying the fact that there's plenty of time for the roads to clear before I have to go in to work. 

Now if only I'd bought some of the super pretty fabric I saw at the store yesterday (I just found out our local store sells Moda fabric).  Then I'd have something to work on right now.  I need to make a shopping trip soon so that I can work on a few different things I want to make. 

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is Valentine's Day and I hope you're having a wonderful day with someone special.  Our plans for tonight include DH making dinner (hopefully the rain will hold off a bit so he can grill) and spending the evening at home.  I got off work early because we had orientation.  Now I'm just waiting for my husband and enjoying my little break.

We celebrated a bit back on Saturday.  We did a cave tour in a nearby town, which was really frightening.  There were some really cool parts, but it mostly freaked me out.  Then we went to the casino and had what was supposed to be a really nice dinner, but it ended up being pretty disappointing.  We did a few other things throughout the day and had a lot of fun together.

I didn't make anything special for Valentine's Day this year.  Normally I do. 

A couple years ago I made these:


And last year I made these:


But this year I just didn't have the time.  I tried to make some lemon cupcakes on Thursday, but they had no lemon flavor at all and they collapsed so only a couple of them got eaten.  I didn't feel like trying to replace them.  If DH requests something tonight I'll make it for him, but since we have Thin Mint ice cream in the house I think I know what we'll be having for dessert. 

What are your plans for tonight?  Do you go all out for V-Day or is it mostly forgotten? 

Thursday, February 10, 2011

An Update

Sorry I haven't been posting much.  Between getting sick and starting work I haven't had much time.  I promise to be back a lot more often soon. 

Some exciting news for our area:  We're getting a Joann's.  We have a building that's been empty for a while and there's been a lot of talk about what could possibly fill that space.  The city announced yesterday that Joann's will be coming in the fall.  It seems so far away, but I'm so excited.  It fulfills the one gap I really felt like we had here.  I will finally be able to get fabric without driving for over an hour or paying an insane amount for it.  I'm sad that our little shops will suffer a bit, but they have a different sort of feel and selection to them so I think they'll still survive. 

I'm loving my new job.  It's a lot to learn, but I think I'm picking it up.  The people I work with are really nice.  DH and I now work at the same place, but in different departments.  He was working on some stuff for my department so that was a little weird to see him at work.  It was nice, but also strange.  Neither of us were quite sure how to act. 

Overall things have been going pretty well.  I'm just ready to get back to sewing and crafting and for things to slow down a bit. 

Monday, February 7, 2011

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  I just love her writing style, even when it's non-fiction.  This book is her family's true account of their year of eating locally grown foods.  They're each allowed one luxury item, but they still try to get it in the most sustainable way possible.  Everything else they eat is either grown themselves or purchased from local sources. 

The book is very inspirational.  It made me want to start focusing on eating things that are grown in my area and eat seasonally.  It also encouraged me to try to grow my own food so I'll be planting a few things come spring time.  I don't think I could kill my own meat though.  I would have a really hard time with that part.

There's a ton of information in this book.  I learned a lot and I've done a ton of research on the locavore movement so just about anyone would find at least a handful of things they didn't know before reading this. 

I also love her argument against vegetarianism.  I won't give it away, but it's a very interesting read.  I'd recommend this book to just about anyone interested in healthy eating or food in general, although it would be nice to see a lot of people read it and maybe make some changes in their eating habits. 

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Seriously?

I managed to avoid getting sick since August.  Despite the fact that I was only working one day a week I had no significant illnesses (other than some allergy issues) for about 5 months.  Then, I start a job that I am really excited about and I have to call in on my second day because I have a kidney infection.  The worst part is that the nausea comes and goes so I'll be feeling fine and think I have energy to do something and should go into work, but then I either end up feeling weak or feeling like I'm going to be sick.  I actually wanted to go to work today (I don't think I've ever been able to say that) and I can't because I'm afraid I'll throw up at work.  Fortunately they're very understanding.  I have antibiotics so I am determined to make it to work tomorrow.  Here's hoping it kicks in enough to make me feel better by then. 

Unfortunately I also don't have the energy to craft, but I do have a few things to share in the next couple days.  Stay tuned. 

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Immunity

I completed another item on my 101 list, but it wasn't intentional.  For my new job I had to have my titers checked for a bunch of diseases including chicken pox (which I apparently am very immune to), and some others that I can't remember right now.  As it turns out, I am still sufficiently vaccinated against everything so I don't need to get any boosters (yay!). 

Pieced Together

I finished piecing all the rows together.  Just a few steps left and it will be finished!


Here's what I have so far.  It still needs a border (and a lot of other steps), but the bulk of the work is done.  It's so exciting to see it looking like a real blanket now.

A close-up view:


As you can see I definitely need to work on lining up my corners.  The hardest part about that is that not all of my squares ended up the same size.  They're a little off in some places so they wouldn't line up no matter what I tried.  I think I need some sort of seam allowance guide on my machine.  It doesn't have anything on there to help me visualize the 1/4" that I needed.  I think that will be a treat for myself sometime soon.  Or maybe I'll get DH to get it for me for Valentine's Day. 

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Rows are Sewn

All of the rows are sewn for the baby quilt.  They are also pressed and ready to be trimmed and sewn together.  The plan is to do them tomorrow since tomorrow is my last day before I start my new job.  I'll post it if I manage to get it finished.  Here's where I am so far:


I rearranged some of the rows after I sewed them together and I like it a bit better this way.  I'm so excited to see it finally come together.  I might also try to hunt down some more flannel tomorrow so that I can finish the whole thing.  We'll see how it goes.