The Craft Bot

I was featured!

2012-02-06T21:23:00.000-06:00

Hey all! I know it's been like a week since my last post. I ended up working 2 extra days last week and then I was busy Friday and Saturday so I just never got around to posting anything. I don't have anything to post anyways so, you haven't missed much. I did get a new cell phone over the weekend. I'm all about getting a good deal and this one was on sale and I got a $50 Best Buy gift card sooo, I spent my afternoon getting all hooked up. Of course I need to make some kind of case for it so maybe I'll be able to get it done on Wednesday when I don't have to work. I also need to get cracking on a Valentine's Day present.
Head on over to Blue Bird Sews and link up your stuff to Eat, Grow, Sew. Maybe you'll get featured, like me! Thanks Kelly!!

Goodies!!

2012-01-27T12:58:00.000-06:00

Today, I AM EXCITED! I'm going to warn you that this post is going to have a bunch of pictures :) Earlier in the month the wonderful Stephanie had a giveaway on her fantastic blog, Spontaneous Threads. If you haven't been there go check it out! I ended up winning the giveaway. First of all, I have to say I had no idea how big a "large" flat rate box is! Here are all the wonderful goodies that she managed to pack in the box.

Some fun flannels, I really like the purple with the elephants! And a funky cotton on the bottom of the bigger pile.

Next up are some smaller cuts! I totally love the little hedgehogs in the back on the left. All of these are great fabrics!

Now we have the notion type stuff. There are some ribbons, some clear thread (which I don't have), floss, rick rack, a tassel, a little bag of fabric flowers, a heart shaped paper punch, some wavy trim (don't know what it's really called), a little note pad with fabric at the top, an eye mask (made by Stephanie), a heart shaped keyfob, and a fabric bracelet. Did you catch all that?

There's still more!
Two bigger cuts of fabric and some felt hearts! I kind of love things cut out of felt. I'm totally going to use these for Valentine's day!

Here we have some papery stuff. Three different kinds of envelopes, which I will totally use because I generally make all of my own cards, a little memory book, some tiny cards with envelopes, 2 packs of pre-cut shapes, and an iron on daisy!

Yes, there IS more! This is a huge cut of some fun frog flannel. I think its about 2 yards. I have plans for this little gem!

Last but not least we have three skeins of yarn. I'm pretty sure the are all wool, only one has a label, I don't know if they are all the same or not but they all look similar.

I serioulsy didn't think there would be so much stuff in the box. I was completely surprised when I openend it up and then started taking things out. I think she is going to have another giveaway in Feb. so I would advise you to keep an eye out for it and then enter it when she puts it up.
The next goodie I received was my book that I won over on Sew Mama Sew. I won this book in November so I had to wait a long time for it, and then they had some issues with publishers sending out the books, so I just continued to wait.

A sewing book. I don't have a ton of books about things, and I have none about sewing so now I have one! This was a great week! I didn't make anything, unless you count the sheets and outlines I made for work.. But it was a great week anyways! I hope you all had a great week too and have a great weekend! Hopefully I'll have something crafty to post next week!

Play time!

2012-01-23T15:09:00.000-06:00

My nephew was here over the weekend. He's 5 and he loves Legos. He has a bunch at his house, but I really liked (still do) Legos when I was younger. I have a castle, complete with guards, archers and a jail. I also have an outpost, it's supposed to look like rocks (I think) it has a secret entrance and the front flips open to reveal the inside. I also have a ton of minifigures! We spent some time this weekend looking for the proper faces for the pirates. My nephew was only here for about 4 hours but he spend the whole time playing with the sets. After he left my Mom asked me "how long so you think he could spend playing with Legos?" and i was like "all day". In fact, I have seen that happen. When I watched him over Christmas and we built and then played with Legos all day, two days in a row. He's such a great kid, so I'm not complaining!
Some of these are my boyfriend's, the police, spacemen and race car drivers. Today I decided I'd take some pics. So I built some "steps" for the guys to stand on. I had to make 2 sets and I left out a lot of guys!

My favorites are the skeletons. I went all the way to Mall of America (which is only like 30 minute drive) to the Lego store to get them.

I also like the horses. The two in the middle have special "clothes" because they are the ones that go with the castle. I didn't take any pictures of the castle and the outpost because my picture set up is really small and so it just wouldn't work.
As for crafty things I didn't do dittly squat. I take that back! A few years ago I made a grocery style re-useable bag, she gets compliments on it ALL the time. So I decided that I needed to make some business cards. I just used a free template from the Avery website, it's nothing fancy. And yep it's a picture of my computer screen because I hadn't a clue on how to show it any other way. I did one and then sent it to my sister and then she changed it..so which one do you guys like??

Number 1

Number 2

Leave me a comment with which one you like, advice, tips or anything else you think might be helpful! I've also been thinking about opening an Etsy store. I'm really torn about it though because I feel like no one would buy anything I make so it would be a big waste, but I might feel better about it later in February because that is when my tutoring assignment ends (maybe??).

The only thing I have in the works is one in my head for a knitted ear warmer. We will see where that goes, since I might not have any time to do much until Weds. So happy Monday to you all!!

Who says you can't teach an old sock a new trick!

2012-01-18T21:48:00.000-06:00

I love rice bags. They are so great. Sometimes it's the only thing that will make my headaches go away! I've been wanting to make a new one because the one I have is kinda weird. It's got sections and it doesn't conform to my neck, which is where I usually put it. Last night I decided I had to make one. I remembered that Lil Blue Boo had a little tutorial about rice bags made with socks. I had just the pair of socks waiting to be made into something! Now let me just say that I bought these socks when I still worked at Target, I quit in 2004, they have been in my closet since then.. What's that 8 years? Yikes! And yes, they are Halloween socks!
I didn't use the tute over at LBB I just winged it on my own but really you can't screw it up to bad!

I sewed up the heal by just pinching it and sewing it ankle side to toe side. And sewed up the toe and added some twill tape for the handles. I didn't take any pics of the sock before I hacked it apart (it looked like you would expect a sock to look) but I'm planning on making another one, since now I have a lone sock. It's not super big, I'd call it "kid sized", only about 12 1/4 inch long and 2 3/4 inches wide. It's nice and stretchy though. I'm a little bit in love with it.
Well, that's all I have for today. Hope everyone has a great rest of Wednesday!!

Snack Bags!

2012-01-16T12:21:00.000-06:00

I found a tutorial for these snack bags before Christmas and had wanted to make some of these for presents, but I just didn't have the time. Well I had the time during winter break so I made one, and then I wanted to make another one so here they are! This is the tutorial.

I used flag fabric on the inside. Does anyone know what the difference is between flag fabric and rip stop nylon? I think the rip stop is coated to be waterproof, but I was having a hard time figuring out the difference.

Here are the insides.

The black one is not sewn up on the inside (as you can see). Mostly because I was messing around with the seams. And the sun is out so I had to take the pics. I've really been trying to take better pictures. I have a nice little camera but if the light is crap so is the picture no matter what kind of camera you have.
Here's what I changed on these. The bird one started out with an 8x8 square (not 9x8). I cut my corner squares at 1 3/4 (not 2 inches). The black one is 7.5x8, and the corners are 1 1/2. I also omitted the ribbons on the sides because you don't really need them. On the black on I put the velcro at 3/4 inch down (not 1 inch). I used rip stop nylon instead of the laminate.
The first one I made pretty much according to the tutorial BUT I didn't sew the "flap" down because I didn't want to sew over the velcro. That part seemed strange to me, it says to put the velcro one inch down but in the pics it didn't look like it was the far down. When I did the black one I sewed the "flaps" down by just topstitching between the checked rows (some wavy and some straight as dictated by the fabric). This was a little bulky on the side seam but I just trimmed it a bit.
So there you have it. Maybe you'll make some, and if you do, let me know :) Happy Monday everyone!!

Ragrug-a-long?

2012-01-15T20:42:00.000-06:00

Do you guys read Jodie's awesome blog Ric-Rac? If you don't I suggest you fly over there.. I'll wait.. She makes the most awesome softies! The middle of last week she posted about a rag rug over on Moda. This is one of those things that I've wanted to make for like maybe 6 years, I even got a book from the library, I bought some fabric (horrible choices) and I started braiding it, and hated it so I stopped (that was about 5 years ago, maybe 4??)... I used the strips to make the cat quilt. She wanted to know if anyone wanted to make one, and I was on board right away. I don't know when I'll be able to start it since I have reports to write this week.. The choice I have to make is this: sheets like in the tutorial or t-shirts? I have some shirts around, but I think I have a sheet or two also. Any thoughts from you guys?
Jodie has a tab for the Ragrug-a-long and a Flickr page too! If you are coming over from the RRAL page, Helllo!! Leave me a comment, let me know what you are doing! I've got a few finished things to show but I'm waiting for day light to take pictures so I'll do that tomorrow.. Sorry for no pics, boring I know. If you want to be part of the RRAL head on over to Ric-Rac. See ya'll tomorrow :)

Mmmm.. Muffins!

2012-01-10T13:25:00.000-06:00

I like to bake, I don't do it as much as I'd like but once in a while I make something. This weekend I was trying to think of alternatives to crackers, granola bars (which have gotten super expensive) or cereal bars. So I thought muffins (I love muffins!!) but what kind?? I asked my Mom about it and she had a recipe for some low fat bran muffins. Back in the day she used to make some kind of tasty bran muffin with 3 different kinds of bran cereal in it. I was being lazy and didn't want to have to go buy anything and we didn't have any "bran flakes" but we did have some raisin bran cereal, so I used that.

They are really tasty. For some reason bran muffins are good. Here is the recipe I used my changes are in parentheses.

Low Fat Bran Muffins
1 cup flour (I used unbleached)
2 Tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups Nabisco 100% Bran (I used same amount of Raisin Bran)
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup because of the sweetened cereal)
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 400. Mix the first 4 ingredients together. Then mix the cereal, milk and sugar (in a different bowl) let it sit for a bit, it says 5 minutes but I was on the phone so it was more like 10-15. Stir in egg and applesauce. Add to drys and stir just until moistened (will be lumpy). Spray tins with non stick spray and fill cups 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes.
I have no clue where the recipe came from it's just clipped out of a magazine.

They are not overly sweet but they are dense next time I make them I'm going to put apples in there because they are sort of cinnamony and I think that the apples would taste really great in there. I also made a reusable snack bag but I don't have time to take the pics so I will post them tomorrow. It's back to work today. Oh, and its going to be in the 50's here today.. It's the middle of January and is typically one of the coldest weeks in MN. Ha! I'm loving it. We went for a walk in the park yesterday and I only had to wear a sweatshirt.. no boots, snow pants, thermal underwear, or gloves!
Lemme know if you make the muffins :) Have a happy Tuesday!

Sprockets anyone??

2012-01-06T14:12:00.000-06:00

Do you ladies ever read Cluck Cluck Sew? I do, all the time. I found her lovely blog in the spring when I was looking for an easy skirt pattern. I never ended up making the skirt, but I continued to read her blog. Even if you don't read her blog you might have seen the awesome Sprocket Pillow. She also has a great little tutorial for a sprocket pin cushion :) So, I made one.

I really kind of love it. The only thing I did differently was that I put a piece of warm and white under the pieced part. And then I stuffed a little bit around the edges and then added some rice and then finished stuffing it. It was a pretty quick project, took me like 2 hours but I was farting around and then had to make some calls for work so it wouldn't take that long for someone who could actually stick to one task and just get it done. It's kind of big though. It measures about 5 inches across. I guess it will hold a lot of pins :)
I just remembered it's Friday! I'm going to link up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday! Yippee! Have a great weekend everyone!

It's been awhile...

2012-01-03T12:23:00.000-06:00

Has it really been like 20 days since my last post? Wow! Did everyone survive Christmas and New Years with their sanity in tact? I did, we have a small family so I didn't have to go anywhere or really even do much of anything. I'm pretty lucky! I made a bunch of stuff for gifts and the sad part is that I didn't take pictures of any of them! But I'm planning on it.

Did anyone else have this sort of empty, feel like I need to be doing something feeling after you got all of your gifts done? I sure did. I had busted my but for a few days getting things done, and then I was so glad to be done and then the next day I was like "What do I do now??" Strange. Right now I'm working on my snow pants. I have this totally awesome pair of snow pants (really they are snow board pants but whatever!). I bought them because I needed a pair on the quick, but they were to long so I just tucked them under and sewed them. They have been like that for like 3 years, but this year I wanted to get rid of the bulk and shorten them so that they don't drag on the ground when I walk. I'm also working on crocheting a cowl, but it's more like a neck warmer.

It isn't anything complicated, I just did 4 rows of single crochet on the bottom and then I alternated single crochet and double crochet, this gives it some texture. And it is done in the round so each row the sc and dc don't match up. You can kind of see it in the pics how it looks like it has diagonal rows. I haven't made a hat this year either so I might make one using the same kind of pattern.
I also made this washcloth with the leftover yarn from the 2 fish shaped washcloths I made for my nephew.

I used the same stitch pattern (which I'm sure has a real name..but I don't know it) with the alternating sc and dc. This has a different look though because it's turned at the end of the rows so it makes it bumpy. I like making washcloths, they are simple and quick. I have a giant stack of them because I made a bunch to sell at a market thing we did a while back (which was a major disappointment!). I think that's all I have for now. Hope everyone is having a Happy New Year so far :)

Sweet Sixteen!

2011-12-14T23:04:00.000-06:00

Well, I now have 16 followers. 2 more lovelies just snuck up on me. One of them is my lovely sister (she's the little girl in the funky glasses) so she's been sneaking up on me my whole life.. right? I think it's been the other way around, me following her around my whole life. I blame her though, she was just cooler than I was :)
I was going to blog about my Esty buy, which is the first time I've ever ordered anything off of Etsy, but since she has decided to read my blog again I can't because it will ruin Christmas! So poo on that, I'll show you all after Christmas :) Really that's all I have for now, I have to work tomorrow night and then I'm off till Tuesday so I'm hoping to get some crafting done. I really feel like a post is naked with out a picture so I'm going to find one..maybe...Guess not, sorry!

Giveaway Day craziness!

2011-12-13T21:30:00.000-06:00

Are you guys in on the action over at Sew Mama Sew? Holy cow! This is only the second time I've tried my hand at winning something.. This spring was a no -go. Let me just say that this time around the set up is much better, more like a linky party. You can even see little thumbnails of what is being given away! Sweet, right? I'm not sure how many I've entered.. I'm trying to only enter ones that I really would like to win and not just doing them all.. I can't handle them all!!
I have made a few things but they were gifts that I didn't take pictures of .. The first one was a pillowcase. I made it burrito style. Do you guys know about this method? You basically sew the body (main) fabric of the pillow case up inside the cuff (contrasting) fabric and then when you pull it out the cuff is totally finished on both sides. I thought it was the neatest thing. I don't have a pic of the case but these are the fabrics I used.

Yep, another after dark in the dining room pic.. These are the fabrics I scored on the cheap at Joann's :)

The other project I worked on was another ornament (yes, I'm obsessed) this time it's a tree made with glittery felt. I didn't even know they made felt with glitter in it! This is the practice one I made. I made another one and gave it to my sister. I "decorated" hers with french knots and the ribbon sticks out the bottom with a bead on it.

I made it using this tutorial. It is one I put in my last post. I think I need to be done making ornaments. I need to get to making the gifts. I am going to make a camera case for my nephew so I'd like to start that. I think I mentioned that I won a $25 credit to As Hue Wish on Etsy.. I ordered up my stuff on Sunday and Pamela shipped them out right away on Monday, so USPS says my package should be here tomorrow so I'll blog about that when I get it :) That's all for now! Happy hump day tomorrow!

Fun Christmas Ornaments and other stuff!

2011-12-07T22:26:00.000-06:00

I kind of like Christmas. The snow, the getting together, the tree, the pretty wrapped presents.. Not so much the actual presents I mean the ones that are wrapped up all pretty.. Did you guys realize that Christmas is only 18 days away? Crap, how did that happen? I like to say 3 weeks, that way I am able to trick myself into thinking it's longer (anyone else do that). I decided this year that I wanted to make some ornaments. This was mostly because I kept seeing such awesome ones around in blog land (and started with the Sculpey birds)! So here they are. First up, this cool.. ahh. ball? I made it using this tutorial from Zakka Life.

Kinda cool right? I wouldn't normally pick yellow but I had 2 pieces of felt so I used them up. I think it looks pretty cool from the top. If I have time I might make a smaller one, I was lazy and just used the circle pattern from the ear bud pouch!

The next one I made is from A Spoonful of Sugar. You can find the tutorial here. That's a link to the tutorial page. There is some other cute stuff there!

Here are the other ones I want to make:
Cool 3D felt trees
These Quilt as you go patchwork trees
One of these cool trees

But I have a few other things that I want to make for gifts so I'm going to have to balance that out...somehow.. The constant battle between the "want" to make list and the "need" to make list.. I added to that list today by going to Joann's. I went to look for one thing, which I actually completely forgot about until after I left! And then decided I needed some Christmas fabric to make an early Christmas present. But I got a good deal. Did you guys know that you can buy the remnant amounts for 50% off the price, even if it's on sale? So if you see some cute fabric that you want and there is like a yard left on the bolt, ask for 1/2 yard and then what is left will be 1/2 the price. So if it's $2/yard you'd spend $1 for the 1/2 yard and then 50 cents for the other 1/2 yard, getting it all for $1.50. Just something to think about, it isn't very often though that you find the bolts with less than a yard on them.

Have you ladies heard of Mollie Makes Magazine? The first I ever saw or heard about it was on Jenna's Blog. I decided that I "needed' to have it. I looked for it at Joann's (because you can use a coupon on magazines there) but they didn't have it. I found the last copy at Barnes and Noble. It isn't cheap either, cost me $12. But I got a little kit to make covered buttons, don't know what the heck I'm going to do with those, but apparently I needed to have them. I also don't know if the 3 buttons made it worth the $12....
I'm starting up my "other" job again tomorrow. That's going to cut into the crafting time but I'll manage. It's 2 hours a day 2 days a week, so it isn't that bad. I don't know if I've mentioned before what I'll be doing but I'll be tutoring 3rd and 4th grade kids in reading. I did it in the spring and it was 7 hours on Saturday, so 2 hours after school will be like a cake walk. I do have some prep time and phone time but I get paid for all of that too. So, I hope you all have a great rest of the week and do some damage to your "lists"!

Soapy Goodness!

2011-12-03T14:37:00.000-06:00

I meant to do this yesterday but I ended up not being home in the afternoon to take pictures, so I did it today. I read about Spotted Owl Soap on another blog, and big surprise I'm not sure which. I'm sure I could look it up but I don't feel like it. There was a time when my Mom made soap, I remember it being a somewhat putzy process, but I was young then so I don't really remember. That soap was made with lye, I have no clue how this soap is made, just that it has oils and such in it. I did get a few books from the library about it though because I'm always on a quest to expand my crafting knowledge. I also have to put out there that this is just my experience/ thoughts about this soap, I have no affiliation with the soap maker.
But enough with the talk and on to the pictures!

We ordered a gift package (it was cheaper) and so this was the box that all the soap came in (not the shipping box). It was also tied up with a chunkier type of twine/rope.. not sure what to call it.

We ordered 5 bars but got 6, how cool is that. Plus it was one that was on my "try" list. Yay!

First up, we have 2 bars of Cherry Amaretto. The green one is Green Tea and Mint.

The next three are (from left to right) Fresh Citrus, Fresh Fallen Snow, and Bergamot and Chamomile.

These bars a little smaller than the other 3.

So far my Mom has tried the Fresh Fallen Snow, it smells good but it has glitter in it, which she said was scratchy, so that is kind of a bummer. I haven't tried any of them yet but they all smell great. The shipping was a flat $7, which isn't bad. It came quickly, we ordered it over the weekend (I think) and it came on Wednesday. It was in a nice sturdy and well taped box, the presentation was nice, could have just gifted it with no extra prepping. We got the free bar and a little pumpkin shaped soap. The soap was $14.99, shipping was $7, total cost $21.99, that works out to $3.67/ bar. More expensive than going to a big box store and buying some soap, but I can pronounce and identify every ingredient in this soap so I'm cool with that :) They also have lotion, body butter and lip balm. They have gift sets that range from $4.99-$24.99. Go check them out if you want! I hope everyone has a great weekend! It was supposed to start snowing here at around noon, it hasn't started yet so I'm a little skeptical that we are going to get much, either that or we will get dumped on overnight..

Thursday finish!

2011-12-01T20:20:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! How's it going? Are you all having a great week? Can you believe that Thanksgiving was a whole week ago? Seems like it was just the other day.. I'm happy to report that the sketchbook cover is done!
I'm sorry that the pictures are so terrible but when it gets dark at 4pm it's hard for me to get pics. I'm going to try and take some more tomorrow, but these will have to do for now..

Front with elastic strap.

Pocket in the back.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Do you guys ever have a project where you are just kind of winging it and you aren't sure if it will work out or if it does work out if it will turn out? This was one of those projects.. I'm not always so great at making things where you have to measure and be totally spot on so it will fit (that's why I make bags/pouches) plus, I don't always have confidence in myself. I found a few great tutorials out there, I used this one the most. I liked the fact that it wasn't two full layers just one piece to cover up the wrong side of the outside fabric, plus it was pretty slick. I finished it all up and put it on there and was like "holy crap, it actually fits and it looks cool".

Stats:

sketchbook measures 6.25 x 8.5 inches.

Fabrics: Dark grey is Kona Charcoal, light grey is Kona Medium Grey, Skull fabric is from Hancock that I got for 80% off before Halloween (ended up being like less than $2/yd), and the blue is also from Hancock but I don't know what it is.

I did have to glue a piece of cardboard to the front because it was just heavy paper on the front and I didn't think that would be rigid enough. If anyone has a burning desire to make one and you want any other details just leave me a comment and I will get you any information you want :)

Tomorrow I'm going to show you all some beautiful handmade soap that we ordered up! That way I can take some better pictures when it isn't dark out. I'm pretty excited to share it with you guys :)

Here I am!!

2011-11-29T22:31:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! I'm still here. Just as a side note, anyone else having issues with blogger tonight? Took me a couple of tries to get to dashboard and a few more tries to get to a new post page.. I better make it worth it huh?
First up, last week I didn't get squat done. Oh well! I've gotten one thing done so far this week and I'm very close to getting a Christmas present finished (whoo hoo). I made the circle pouch from Erin's tutorial.

It turned out pretty good I think. The only thing was that the whole circle ended up being smaller than the half circles... even though I measured.. Oh well. It wasn't terribly hard other than sewing a circle, which I've never done before. The other thing I'm working on is a sketchbook cover for my nephew, he's really been into drawing lately so I thought it would be cool. I'll show that tomorrow, when it's all done.
Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving?? My eating schedule was all messed up for like 2 days, plus I felt like I was eating all day on Thursday. And ever since then I feel like I've been eating like crap.. leftover pie and ice cream, brownies, cookies..plus if I don't have that sweet I just keep thinking about it.. I really hate that, and I don't usually eat that much junk.. tonight I buckled down and had an apple instead of the junk
(1 me- Junk 0). After Thanksgiving I needed to use up some leftover turkey so I made up some little pot pies.

It's it cute? Does it make you think, I'd love to make some but I bet it's hard..Nope! Easy! Here's what I did!
1. Get some cooked turkey or chicken, cut it up.
2. One can of cream of chicken soup, put it in a pan and add some milk. I added maybe 1/2 cup, just enough to make it more like what's in a pot pie but not soupy (I didn't measure). Cook it for a bit.
3. Add the meat.
4. Add some veggies, I used what we had in the fridge, carrots and peas. I cooked fresh carrots but you could use canned (drained) or cooked frozen.
5. A tube of dough, I used the croissants but you could use the biscuits too. I separated it into 4 pieces, this would be two triangles smooshed together. Flatten them out, maybe like 1/4 inch thick. Make it big enough to line the tin and have some hanging over .
6. Get out your giant muffin tin (or regular one if you don't have the biggie). Oil it up with something so they don't stick. Put your dough into the muffins.
7. Once your soup/meat/veggies are all heated up, scoop it into the muffins. This made 4 because there were 8 triangles and I paired them up so that makes 4. I had no left over pie mix. Then you just flop the corners over the top and make sure there is a little hole there for the hotness to come out.
8. Bake them according to your dough. Since everything else is cooked you don't have to worry about the other stuff..
9. Then eat them up. These went into the freezer so I don't know if they are yummy but I mean you can really make them taste bad. I'm not sure how I'm going to cook them after taking them out of the freezer, but I'll figure it out.

Last up for tonight, I found (again) a lovely blog called Pink Stitches. I'm not sure even how I found her, maybe from another blog (remember how I said I hop and then can't remember who/what/when etc.). She was having a great little giveaway for a $25 credit to a lovely little Etsy shop called As Hue Wish. Guess what?? I won it. I'm pretty excited because those wrist warmers are super cute!! She has a blog too, you can find it here. I had fun checking out these blogs the other night. I'm thinking about a necklace and some wristers or maybe two necklaces.. Yippee!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-24T19:12:00.000-06:00

It's not Thanksgiving until you draw a chalk turkey on the patio !!

Lots'a waiting and not much to show..

2011-11-22T13:55:00.000-06:00

Finally.. right? It seems that my desire to blog about stuff has also left with my crafting mojo, but here goes. This week has been a lot of thinking and not a lot of doin'. I've planned out the notebook cover so I guess all I need to do it get to cutting and making. I'm sure I'll get to it eventually. I did manage to get the other slipper done, so I have a pair. They were a little small for me so my Mom adopted them.

The one looks bigger but I think it's because the elastic is looser on that one.. They are just two layers of fleece, so they are pretty fluffy. Pretty nice around here, as you can see we have wood floors, in the whole house except for one room we don't use, and the kitchen. so we have cold feet in the winter.

The other thing I've managed to get done in the past few weeks were these scrubbies/round washcloths. I decided I needed some. You can't really tell but they are a super light pink cotton that I scored at the Goodwill for a whopping 99 cents!

The little one about 4 inches and the bigger ones are about 5 inches.

After I finished those guys I thought I would make a square washcloth but I got two rows into it and I though, "hey, that would make a cute bracelet" so that is what I made. I had a great button that I knew would be perfect! It worked out pretty good because there are two spaces to put the button through so if it needs to be tighter. Happy accident!

I kind of like it. Don't have a clue when I'd wear it but it's cute. I have some sparkly yarn that I got for my birthday so I might make a few with that, just for fun :) I'm really going to try and get some stuff done by the end of this week, my goal is two things. That seems doable. We are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving so I don't even have to put on regular clothes if I don't want, and I only have to work tonight for a bit so I should be able to get two things done in the next three days. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, unless you live somewhere that doesn't celebrate or already did, have a great rest of the week.. And here is a turkey picture. I mean I have to put one up right?? The one with her head up is Momma turkey and her baby who is not a baby anymore. I took this last week. Have a good one!

Totally random but in list form...

2011-11-17T22:47:00.000-06:00

Today I am going random. I have nothing crafty to post about. I did make a slipper but haven't taken any pictures. I kind of hate making anything for the feet, because you have to make 2 of them..I sometimes don't have the attention span to do both. I digress.. here are the random things, I will try to at least keep them crafty.

1. I've decided I need a hooded cape. The backstory here is that I was really in love with the "Scoodie". Have you guys seen these? It's basically a hooded scarf, hence Scoodie I saw it on Happy Zombie, there is a tutorial and everything there. So anyways, I never made one. Today I was checking out Sew Liberated and she was doing a giveaway for an e-class. And the lady that hosts it was wearing this little capelette and I was like "I need to have one of those!!". So I might make one. It isn't very practical for MN mostly because I think I would freeze but I still love it a lot :)

2. I have so many things I'd like to get done for Christmas gifts. I had planned to start very early, about a month ago. But then my mojo flew off and now I'm thinking about things but just never doing them. I knew that I would be starting work again coming up after Thanksgiving so I was trying to get stuff going before then because I'm not sure when I'll be working. I guess I still have a week and a half to get some stuff done..

3. I made pizza in a frying pan tonight. Never done it? Try it, it's fast and tasty. I saw it on a local show, this guy used pre-made pizza dough and just fried it up. I didn't do it that way. Here's what I did.
-Get some Betty Crocker pizza dough, you just add water. You could homemade too.
-This stuff is sticky, so I floured it a bit and split it in 1/2 while in the bowl.
-Put some butter or oil in the frying pan and put it at medium heat ( I used butter but next time I will use oil because it handles the heat better), put your hunk of dough in there and press it out.
-Cover it and cook it for a few minutes, I flipped mine when it was brown on the bottom, also the crust will look kind of done on the up side, dry, like how a pancake gets.
-Flip it over, admire it. Then put the cheese on (it needs the heat to melt), cover it again till the cheese melts, then put the sauce and toppings on and cover it again till it's hot. I'd say you could get away with doing it regular style with the sauce first because it gets hot enough to melt the cheese. I kept checking my crust during this part because I didn't want to burn it, I don't so much love burnt food.
-Then eat it. It was so good.

4. I have no clue why I numbered my random things, does that make them less random? Or more randome because I felt the need to give it a number and add it to my list??

5. I really love Thanksgiving. I don't eat myself into a coma though, I hate that really full feeling. Makes me feel like I'll never eat again or that I might get sick.. Not cool. It also makes me miss my Grandma and Grampa, I loved going to the farm for holiday. I probably griped about going when I had to go but I wish that I could do it now. sigh..

6. I need some new blogs to check out. So leave me some links, they don't have to be crafty, just ones you enjoy.

7. I had to take a writing break to see if "Steal the Bacon" was a real playground game. Yes, it is. Kind of like capture the flag. They had to have a debate about it on the news.. Apparently nothing else important happened today that they had to talk about some Canadian school banning "hard balls" on the playground.

Last but not least I'm going to post some links of the things I want to make.
*Ear bud holder, or just plain cute little zip pouch - Tutorial Here @ Dog Under My Desk
*Notebook covers from V and Co.
*Awesome pillow from Maybe Matilda over at Little Lovelies
I'd love to make that pillow but I probably never will, but I thought it was cool so I had to share..
If you're still reading after all this THANKS!! maybe some other day I will have some pictures to post, or at least something more entertaining.

A letter..

2011-11-11T14:33:00.000-06:00

Dear Universe,
I'm writing to you today to ask where my Crafting mojo has gone? It seems as thought I have completely lost it! Have you seen it? Last week I had so much that I did a project everyday. This week I have managed to start (yes, start) one thing. I tried making a scarf (4 different ones actually), but I just wasn't feeling it. I have so many things I'd like to get done. Did I abuse the wonderful gift you allowed me to have? Do you sometimes take it from some and gift it to others so that they can get things done? I have one simple request. Please allow me to have some (only some, I'm not greedy) of my mojo back. Just enough to get me through.

Thank You,
Miranda

Bah! you guys ever just loose it? I've lost it. Here's hoping you haven't and that I get it back. Have a great weekend. I might go ice skating, outside even! We have an awesome outdoor refrigerated rink, it's something like the biggest in the nation (I think). Hope you all have the chance to do something fun!

A scarf....

2011-11-08T16:34:00.000-06:00

That I don't really like...

Reason #1: It's really short!

Reason #2: It's kinda wavy, where I want it to be not wavy..

I like the look of the scarf, I like the yarn, I like the stitch. But I haven't "cut the cord" yet so I think I might take it out and start it over or start something new.. I used this tutorial to make it. It's not hard and it works up pretty fast. I made the mistake of starting with a foundation row of just single crochet. I should have just started it according to the pattern and then added a single crochet border after I was all done. I used a smaller yarn and a smaller hook and it came out very short (even though I added some extra chains). My chain was originally a lot longer but the increases and decreases that you use to make the stitch really ate up the length. Oh well, I only wasted a few hours on it and since I can't really do anything the way the tutorial/pattern is written it's always a crap shoot if something will work or not.
Is anyone else still totally messed up from this sham called daylight savings time? I mean really, I'd rather go to work (if I had to actually go to work in the a.m.) in the dark and have it be light out when I got home then have it be light at 7 in the morning and dark at 5pm. I was really messed up for about 2 and 1/2 days.
Speaking of jobs I found out when I have training (or re-training) for my other job, it will be about a week and a 1/2. It's a good thing too because I need some money, especially since I had to spend $300 to be some new glasses and sun glasses. Any one else out there have to buy glasses, man I hate shopping for glasses! You would think that after 20 years of wearing glasses it would get better, but it doesn't (not for me anyways).

Wowwee!

2011-11-07T12:41:00.000-06:00

So what I have to share for right now is the fact that I won something from Sew Mama Sew! I don't know if you all go there at all but it's a great place to find all kinds of tutorials. This month they are doing a bunch of tutorials each day for things you can make for Christmas Gifts. You can comment on the posts and be entered to win stuff EVERY day. I don't even really remember commenting on anything :) When I checked my blog stats this morning I saw that some of my traffic was coming from SMS. I clicked the link and it was to the winners page. I won a book all about machine and hand sewing, how cool is that? I love books so I'm cool with it. I also learned how to "tag" something on Facebook so that I could be entered to win a $20 gift certificate to Sew Mama Sew (yeah, they have a shop too). And in case anyone wants to find me on FB (I don't use it much) leave it in your comment and we can be "friends". I'll be back later on to show you the scarf I've been working on.

A little birdie told me...

2011-11-03T22:39:00.000-05:00

That today's post would include birds! So here they are! I made these little guys last week and haven't gotten around to posting them until now.

Yellow and says "JOY" on one said and "2011" on the other

Pink and says "2011"

Turquoise and says "LOVE" on both sides

These little birds are Christmas ornaments, they don't have hangers because I haven't decided what to use.. any suggestions? I used this great tutorial to make them. I used some Sculpey that was at least 12 years ago..That stuff hold up. It's been sitting around for that long and it was a little hard to get it conditioned (I had to use two hands) but after a few minutes it was all ready to go. They were simple to make, took me maybe 10 minutes per bird. Strangely enough the first one took me about 5 minutes but the second and third ones were harder!

The project that I finished today are two small (3x4 inches) handwarmers. They are filled with rice. Last year I made a rice heating pack thingy (I dunno what else to call it!!) and it's really great. I don't know how long these will stay warm but it gets freakin' cold here so anything will be better than nothing.

I thought (stupidly) that I would make them with channels so that the rice would stay in place instead of just settling to one side or another. This made it hard to fill, it took me longer to fill one little pack than to cut and sew both of them.. I would have made the stitching shorter so that it would be easier to fill.. Then I made the little envelopes they go in.

In other news, today I actually went out and did something today! I know, right? I went bowling with my sister and nephew. It was pretty fun. Today is my sister's birthday and she invited me. Happy Birthday Sissy!

I'm trying to think of a project to do tomorrow, I feel like I need to do one more to complete the week. I think that I will make some of the small fabric organizers that Pink Penguin put up for 12 Gifts of Christmas. They seem like they are pretty quick and easy.
I also have to mention that I now have 13 followers! I say that on the dashboard and I was like "holy crap, 13, when did that happen??" So I'm off to go check out those two blogs! I'll be back tomorrow and I'll have stuff to link up for Finished Friday :) Waa hoo!

Project Roundup!

2011-11-02T19:42:00.005-05:00

Ok, here we go ya'll this is what I've gotten done this week (starting Monday thru today)
First up: This little thing. I used this tutorial to make it. I found it while following the 12 gifts of Christmas blog hop. Which was full of great things by the way. I'd encourage everyone to check out all 12! You can find the links to them all on the tutorial page.

Ok, the green is a sold green, it looks pretty weird in this picture. I took it after dark and had to adjust it so, it looks wonky. And the left side IS straight, not wonky.. I'm not that great at taking pictures of stuff.. so..it is what it is :)

I really love this white fabric with the flowers! I bought it at Joann's like 2 years ago and haven't used any of it until now. I'm not sure what it is, but they had it in purple when I was there last month so I snatched some up. It's expensive though $8.99/'yard. I realize that there are fabrics out there that are A LOT more but to me it's expensive.

Next up: A new and improved iPod case! I'm pretty excited about it, it has velcro and a button hole on the bottom for the headphones. I made the buttonhole a little small but it works, I just have to work it to get the jack in.

The blue fabric is from Hancock, I don't know what it is because I only bought a little and there is no name, the grey is more of my Kona scraps.

Last up: I made this little guy.

Now there is a story here so if you don't want to hear it you can just skip past this part :) Cheree over at The Morning Latte has been doing giveaways of some great owl pincushions, you can see them in a bunch of posts over there. I enjoy her blog she has crafty stuff, food stuff, decorating stuff..all kinds of goodies..So anyways, I decided that I needed to have an owl pincushion (you know I love my owls) so last night I decided to draw it out and get at it! Cheree used a pattern she bought, and since I don't have any extra money right now, I couldn't justify buying the pattern, even though it was only $6.
All of these projects used up scraps and stuff I already had, so it worked out pretty well. I have a few other things I'm going to get done this week, while I have all kinds of craft mojo! I'm feeling pretty good because I've made three things in three days, I'm not sure that has ever happened. Tomorrow I'm going to post some cool bird ornaments I made and what ever I manage to get done tonight!! I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced!

Tomorrow, there will be a real post!

2011-11-01T22:46:00.000-05:00

Last week disappeared somewhere into outer space..I managed to get nothing done last week. It's kind of sad really.. that I couldn't manage to get even one thing done.... Well, I've made up for it already by starting and completing 2 projects and starting and hoping to finish a third tomorrow. Since I'm being lazy I'm not going to get the SD card from the camera in the other room. Tomorrow will be a picture filled post-o-rama! Rocket back over then and check out what I've been up to.

One more thing to add to "The LiSt"

2011-10-21T23:07:00.000-05:00

You guys ever check out the Purl Bee? I know not everyone knits and like yarn..I do:) I think I found this one through Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. Anyways. They have this great hat that I might have to make. I kind of like it. I like it even more because it's pointy!
Two posts in 1 day. Am I on a roll or what!
Peace out!

Finish it up Friday..

2011-10-21T19:59:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, it's Friday! Man did this week go fast, I'm not sure why but it seems like it was just Monday. I really like linking up with Finish It Up Friday last week so I'm doing it again. I managed to get one thing done this week. I used the great fabric basket tutorial to make this little basket. I didn't follow the sizing on the tutorial because I didn't want it to be teeny tiny. It is still small but not super small. It is 5 inches deep (tall) and 9 inches across and the boxed corners are 3 inches wide. I used up some of my jelly roll scraps and some left over grey.

I kinda like it. It was super simple to make and it didn't take much time.. I think I'm going to make some of these for Christmas. I'm also thinking about linking up to this linky over at FairyFace Designs. It's a winter list of the projects you want to get done. So yeah, that's about all I have for now. There are something like 47 other links over at Crazy Mom Quilts so I have to get busy checking them out!
Have a great weekend!!

Third times a charm!

2011-10-19T17:14:00.000-05:00

This is the third post that I have written this week. I am actually going to post this one..I think..
I really don't have anything super exciting to post about..kind of sad when you think about, so I'm not going to think about it!
Here's what I've been working on this week. On Monday I cut up what was left of my jelly roll into 2.5x2.5 squares and then since I didn't really want to waste any of it, I have some that are smaller 2x2.5 and 1.5x2.5. I'm going to use these to make a few of these fabric baskets. She has another great tutorial for some smaller utensil type baskets that I might make also. I want to have some stuff done so that I can link up with Amanda Jean on Friday.
I finished the iPod case but I wasn't really happy with it. I don't have a pic of it either because I finished it up at night and then the next day I gave it to my B/F. There wasn't anything wrong with it, I just didn't love it. So of course I'll have to make a second one just to prove to myself that I can make something better! I also unearthed a pattern from my basement for a hooded sweatshirt thingy that I'd like to make. Now that I'm not afraid of the serger I want to start using it to make stuff. So we'll see how for I get with that whole idea. I know this is a boring post and there are no pictures so if you've gotten this far I applaud you!!
If you guys want you can leave a link or name of a blog you visit all the time, I'm looking for some new ones to check out! Thanks!

Where am I???

2011-10-14T12:06:00.001-05:00

Hello my lovelies! Today I am guest posting over at SewHappyGeek. Over there you will be able to see my coin quilt that I just finished. I think it's kind of cool because I used the jelly roll that I won from Jenna! You can get most of the details about it over there. So go check me out :) I'm also linking this up to
Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday! I'll probably do a longer more involved post about this quilt this weekend or next week!

The front!

The pieced back!

As a side note I tried the "add caption" thing in blogger and it totally hosed up my formatting.. Not going to use that again!

A pretty scarf!!

2011-10-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

I really like to blog hop..sometimes I can sit here for hours and look at blogs and all kinds of other crap. Last week while I was feverishly working on my quilt. I needed a craft break. Meaning I wanted to work on something but not that freakin' quilt. I found a neat blog called Maybe Matilda. She was having a crochet along, I found it the day that it was wrapping up but I looked at the pattern and decided that it would make a cute scarf. The idea of a cowl intrigued me but I just couldn't do it. If you didn't notice I love my scarves.. I really didn't need another one..I have enough that I won't need a new one for about..oh.. I'd say 15 years. That is not the point though! I really wish that I would have know about this when it started up, it was a contest and people could vote for the winner, and everyone who participated got to pick a free pattern from her shop, how fun! Since it was a CAL she broke down the pattern and explained everything and put up pictures, she did a great job. I would suggest checking it out if you'd like to learn to crochet something.

**Ignore the pajama pants (which I don't wear as pajamas) and my armpit..really just ignore them!**

As a side note to the side note, I "dressed up" for this photo shoot by putting on a clean shirt, not thinking that ya"ll'd be able to see my "sitting around" pants :) And I learned that it helps to look off into the distance when taking your own pic then you don't make yourself look like you have 3 chins!

I used a medium weight yarn, Caron Simply Soft in a color called "blue mint". I got this done in one afternoon. I paid for that though because it tweaked something in my back that gave me a headache for about 3 days... But I digress, I used a size H hook, which is the size it says to use on the label. I made it skinnier because the original was way to wide for my taste in scarves (I like them skinny). I chained 24 instead of 30. I guess I should mention that this pattern comes from the Lion Brand website. It is called the "Time Out Cowl". I think you need to sign up for in order to see the patterns. It is totally worth it though! They have so many great patterns. That is where I got all of my little crocheted animal patterns. By the way, I'm still wearing the scarf!!

It finally rained here this week, we haven't had any rain since the middle of August. And it was in the 80's for 8 days in a row, that is almost unheard of in MN. We have a great red maple in our front yard and this is the first year I remember where it didn't turn red. Pretty sad, usually the tree is beautiful, not this year. It went from green with a few red leaves, then the red ones dried up and were dark brown then the rest turned yellowish green and then started falling off..

That's all I have for now. If you make one of these scarves let me know!

Can you help me?

2011-10-04T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a glimpse at my quilt. And here is where I need some help. I bought 5 yards (yep 5) of the grey. I have enough to make the back but I will need to piece it, which I had planned on doing before I even started working on it. I just don't really know what to do with it. I have 44 coins left over so I'm going to use those but I'm debating whether I should cut them in half and then do one horizontal and one vertical. Any ideas or links to cool pieced backs would be great.. Guess I just need to think about it for a bit...

That's all I have for now, tomorrow I'm going to try and get the t shirt rung how to posted.

A week? Where did that time go??

2011-10-03T23:04:00.000-05:00

It's been a whole week since I blogged last, I'm not Catholic but that feels like what you say when you go into confession.. Anyways, in my last post I wrote about a tutorial that I couldn't remember. Well, lo and behold I found it. And it was a total accident! Ha! It was at Ginger Cake. There is some cute stuff over there. I'm a little in love with the Owl pillows. I wanted to make an owl pillow earlier in the year so I kind of scoped out the web, and drew up my own. I didn't even find the one over at Ginger Cake, but my little drawing looks similar, so I just want to put it out there that when I make one I am not ripping off her design. And I'm only making it for myself and not to sell or sell a pattern so I don't see it as an issue. But it bring up something. We as crafters sometimes (ok really, a lot of the time) think that when we see something we like, either handmade or mass made, that we can make it. See a cute shirt, I can make that. Cute jammies or something like that. I mean I see all these cute bags and things on blogs and I think "Oh, I could make something like that" but I almost feel like I'm ripping off someone else's idea.. Even though I'm really not. How do you guys feel about that?
I love all the free patterns that are out there, and think it's really great that people make all of that stuff available to anyone willing to look for it, and I would never make anything with out linking to it or saying where it came from...
It is just one of those things that I think about.
In other crafty news with out pictures..yet.. I have my coin quilt top all done. I have to admit that it turned out better than I thought and I'm a little in love with it. I am going to be blogging about it but I am saving it for a guest post over at SewHappyGeek. Yep, you read right. Jenna is having surgery next week and she put out a call for guest bloggers, and I volunteered myself... I'm hoping to get it all taken care of by this weekend (finger crossed). The twist of it is that I won the jelly roll, that I used for the quilt, from Jenna. So I want it to be really great, I don't want to send her some crap to put up on her blog. I had one other thing that I thought I might send to Jenna, but I'm not totally happy with it so I'm going to just post about it here. It will be a semi tutorial more of a general how to rather than a full blown tutorial. It's for making t shirt yarn and then crocheting a rug.
"Do something vivid, then stop for a moment and think about it" William Shatner
He's on Nightline right now, and he was on a horse and was talking about something. I wasn't paying attention except for that line but I like it. Do something great, and then stop and think about it, appreciate it, enjoy it! That's my advice for the day (or in this case, night).

I hate it when...

2011-09-26T21:13:00.000-05:00

I can't remember stuff! I don't read to many blogs only about 25 and a lot of times I read the comments and I click and check out other people's blogs. I really hate it when I find something that I should have bookmarked and didn't, then I can never remember when I was there or what the blog was. I can usually remember what it's about, which is why I'm trying to find it.. Last week I was trying to find a cool slipper pattern that had a velcro flap thing. It took me forever to find it! This week it's a tutorial on using the backing of a quilt to make the binding. It was a pretty good one. All I remember is that she had made two charity quilts, one was pink. Can't find it anywhere. If that sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know. There are other tutorials out there, but mostly I want to find it so that it will stop bugging me! Okay, now that it's out of the way.
On to the scarves, which really I'd like to call scarfs, only because it sounds funny :)

The first one is just a knit one purl on to make it ribbed, and it's stretchy. Made from Lion Brand Homespun, don't know the color. The bottom two are a knit one purl on rib with a ruffle at the bottom. I don't know what kind of yarn the pink is ,might be Red Heart Soft Yarn. The blue is Lion Brand Thick and Quick (I think?). The pattern is in a book called Designer One Skein Wonders. I have a bunch more I could show but I would of had to get them out of the box in the closet. Maybe tomorrow I'll do hats. I love to make hats, they might be the best thing to make, they are quick and easy most of the time !
I've started working on my quilt. I honestly can't remember if I mentioned that I decided to make a coin quilt. I've got all the "coins" cut and sewn together. That's all for now! Thanks for stopping!

Check it out!

2011-09-25T22:46:00.001-05:00

Friday of last week Kari from The Purple Quiltapotamus awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award! How cool is that! I'm pretty excited about it! Thanks so much Kari for thinking I deserved an award :)

There are rules to this award...

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share seven things about yourself on the post.

3. Pass the award to fifteen bloggers that you think deserve it.
** EDIT this to say at least 2 blogs, 15 is great but it's a crap ton of work and makes a crap ton of work for everyone else.

4. Contact all of the bloggers that you've picked for the award.

Alrighty, here are 7 things about me.

- I like to eat cottage cheese sandwiches, sounds gross but they are yummy!

- I've known my B/F since the summer before I turned 13, that's more than 17 years..

- I have a reverse birthmark, it is white instead of brown. It only come out when I get a tan and it's the same shape as my Mom's and my Grandma's.

- I love to read!

- I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in psychology (that is going to waste...)

- I really love animals.

- I very rarely drink soda (and yes that is what I call it, not pop). This is mostly because when I got laid off I stopped buying things I didn't need. Drinking none means no caffeine. I used to love Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke..sigh.. I miss it sometimes...

Not very exciting things but there you have it. Now I have to pass it along to 15 other bloggers. Here they are, in no particular order (of course).

Pretty Petal Handmade

Projects by Jane

Running with Scissors

Ok, just so you all know, that was a lot of work! Putting in links for 15 blogs. But they deserve it so if there is one you've never heard of go check it out! Now I have to go let all of these lovelies that they've received an award. I think I'll do that in the morning. I'll be honest with you, when I read Kari's post, I didn't even see myself on the list...

And if any of you don't want the award or don't want to do the work, but want the award or don't want to follow the rules, that's fine with me, I'll still like you! Hehe! I don't think it's like a chain letter where something bad happens if you don't do it.. those bad things really happen..right??
Tomorrow I'm going to try and take some pics of some of the stuff I've done and post some here and then I think I'll put the rest on my Flickr page. Plus, I have some other stuff to share but I've spent all this time hooking up the links so It'll wait till tomorrow. Hope you all check back for that exciting stuff!

Great Giveaway!

2011-09-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

Just wanted you all to know that there is a giveaway going on at Love Affair With My Brother. If you haven't been there go check out the blog! It's for a pretty jelly roll from the Fat Quarter Shop.
Speaking of jelly rolls, I might actually cut mine tonight.. Here's to hoping!

Happy Monday!

2011-09-19T12:56:00.000-05:00

Well hey there! Did you all have a great weekend?? Did you all get a whole lotta craftin' done?? Before I tell about my weekend I have to say "HI" to Jen, she is my 7th follower! Yippee! Thanks Jen! My weekend was pretty good. Friday I got to go out and spray paint my stencils! It was pretty fun. I can't really mention where it was or anything but I got to play with spray paint and ride in the back of the B/F's truck. I think I did like 20 of them. It was kinda windy and my left hand was totally covered in candy apple red paint! Plus I got paid pretty well for my work :)
I did get one project done, my boxy pouch. It was pretty fun and simple to make. Plus, it's super cute!

The outside fabric is some little birds (which up until now I thought were chickens). The inside is just a pink fat quarter. I bought both at Joann's a long time ago. It's about 7.5 inches long and 2.5 inches tall. You can't see in the pics but I did some covered zipper ends, something that I've had a hard time using. I figured out that the reason they weren't working was that I wasn't making them wide enough. By the time I'd sewed the side seams they would disappear. So I shortened up the zipper and made the ends a little bit wider, that way when I sewed the sides it would just catch the edge of the zipper ends. I didn't do much other than that, I was sick yesterday so I laid in bed for most of the afternoon.
I didn't use one tutorial in particular because I've been looking at these for a while but here is what inspired me to get it done! I added the sip tabs, made it bigger, made the loops smaller, sewed it together a little differently and I did not clip the corners (when I turned it they naturally laid to the outside so I left them)
The past week in MN has been chilly. I won't call it cold because 50's is not cold, 30 below is cold! Last year I made some wool slippers and they were OK, the B/F even wanted a pair. I decided to make some out of fleece. I really love them! I have a cold foot problem, we live in an old house, with wood floors..bottom line is that sometimes, especially in the morning and after if gets dark, it is cold in the house. I've been wearing these babies for 3 days!

Yep, that's blue camo. I originally bought it to make pants for my nephew, which I did. It's really nice stuff. I have a good amount of fleece, not super big chunks but just 1/4 yards. I might have to make about 20 pairs of these so that I don't have to wear the same pair all the time. If anyone wants the tutorial/ patter I used (but changed to fit me) let me know and I'll find the pattern and post the link. I'm going to link up to Manic Monday over at SewHappyGeek! Have a great Monday everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

Crafty makes me happy!

2011-09-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

Here's my question, does anyone else feel better when they've made/completed a project? It makes me happy. Gives me a sense of accomplishment for the day. Sort of like, if I don't do anything else the rest of the day at least I did something. Here is what I made.

Outside is blue fleece

Backside is some red stripe I found in the basement

Here's what they look like against each other

This is a bed for the cat. I have an old cat (at least 14 years) so I thought she might like something warm and soft to sleep on. All I did was cut out 2, 22 inch squares. I dug the red stuff out of the basement and there was just the one piece so I had to add a strip on the side to make it big enough. I put a small piece of cheapo batting on the back of the blue fleece and quilted a square and an x. Then I sewed them together. I used some stuffing from a pillow that I had and washed and it got lumpy so I took most of it out, it looked like dreadlocks, very strange. I put some velcro on one side so that I could take out the stuffing and wash it. Not that it really matters because the stuffing was so weird anyways. Will the cat use it? Probably not. But I'm going to put it in "her spot" and see how things go. She is so strange because she has a hard time using things I make for her, they must not smell right (either that of she thinks the things I make are crap..)... Anyways, took me about 2 hours and I everything I used was stuff that's been sitting around for a while. It's not something that I had on my "want to make" list but I feel bad for the old girl so it was a sympathy project, Hhaha! I feel like I'm on a roll today. I have all my stuff ready to make the boxy pencil pouch so maybe I'll start that now. Yippee for crafting mojo!

All work and no play..

2011-09-14T22:15:00.000-05:00

Makes me tired... I posted about my sign job that the B/F hooked me up with. Well, it took me about 4.5 days. 1 sign turned into 2, and that was OK. Plus, I managed to screw it up so I had to start over :( NOT cool. I wasn't making sign I was making big stencils. So I needed some heavy paper, I took a trip to my local craft store that starts with a "M", looked and looked an finally found a piece that I thought would work. A 22x30 piece of Strathmore Bristol 400. This paper is awesome, just heavy enough and smooth but not shiny, fairly easy to cut. It's not cheap $6.50 a sheet (yikes! right?) but it's on sale this week for 50% off. Plus, the cashier used my 50% off coupon on the paper so I got it for less then $2! Not sure what she did but I'm not complaining. So then I had to cut all the letters out, how freaking tedious that was! Anyone who knows me knows that that kind of stuff is right up my alley. I like putzy stuff! It gave me a headache the first day and I had to work last night so I stayed up till 1am working on it last night.. And in general I do not start/work on projects after 9pm so it was a possibilty that I'd hose it up a second time. I didn't really have a choice though because I had to work till 9:30 and since I screwed up the one stencil I had to get it started. I'm glad that they are done! The thing is that I used an Xacto knife to cut the letters out so I now have all these letter pieces, which I decided were pretty cool. I started arranging them and was totally entertained by it. I just thought it was so cool. I made a couple and took pictures.

See, aren't the cool.? Now maybe I can work on some sewing stuff. I think I have made a decision on what to do with my jelly roll so I'd like to start that, and I never got started on my other projects so maybe I'll get to them (fingers crossed).
One other thing I want you all to know about it the great Kona solids giveaway over at FairyFace Designs. If you haven't checked out Sarah's blog I urge you to check it out, it's great. This is for 5 (yeah, I said 5!) 1/2 meters of Kona solids. So go on over there and put your name in the hat to win!!
Hope everyone is having a craftastic week!

Random and not craft related..

2011-09-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

So here's the thing, I really wanted to get some stuff done this week..so far I've done nothing. I did go get some interfacing, which I need to make a couple of things on my list. I'm counting that as a start. Other than that I only have random/ strange? things for today. First off, I saw some car commercial the other day bragging about how much head room the car has, this means nothing to me 'm 5'2". But some guy or gal (not sure) has a mo-hawk and I was thought to myself "I'd really love to cut off all of my hair so that I can have a mo-hawk".. Then I was sad when I realized that it was never going to happen. My hair is down to the middle of my back! That is something I should have done in like 6th or 7th grade. I had bad hair styles back then, one of which involved a perm. Would have been a better look to go for the mo-hawk.
As a side note, it's really hard to take a picture of your own back.. even with the self timer. I was going to show you all how long my hair is, but I managed to hose it up like 3 times. 3 strikes, I'm done!
Second, have you guys ever seen a Spanx catalog? I guess once you buy something from them they feel the need to send you the catalog..Lemme tell you, tall skinny models do NOT need to wear the Spanx.. really, they don't, they need to wear that padded stuff bicyclist wear...I would post pictures of the catalog but I don't know if I can do that.
I'm pretty sure there was something else, but I got distracted by a phone call from my B/F. He picked me up a job to make a stencil for his boss. Which makes me think of something else. Do other crafty people out there have a hard time looking at signs people make? Like for a garage sale or for sale, those kinds of signs? I have a terrible time with it. Now I don't expect people to make these wonderful signs for things but you can't make a sign with a pencil and some paper. It bothers me. I love to make signs. I even made one for my Mom to use at work. That was something that I did when I worked there, made signs to post around the place for whatever was going on. Kinda makes me miss working there..that and you know..the paycheck every week.
My B/F was pretty funny because he told his boss that he "didn't even have to ask" me if I wanted to do it. And then told him that I always complain about the signs people make. Guy probably thinks I'm a weirdo, but every once in a while I make treats (brownies or cookies) and he likes them, so I try to make up for whatever weirdness I may have :)
I guess that's all the random stuff I have for today. Maybe I'll actually get something done this weekend! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Sometimes, it all works out!

2011-09-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

Well, hello there! I don't have a whole bunch of awesome projects to post about, I do have a few things in my mind I''d like get made this week though. I found a cute tutorial for a pencil pouch and then I'd like to make an owl pillow and of course my purple shirt. That is not a lot to get done, right? But here is what I did get done.

A framed female Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

I found this butterfly like 2 weeks ago in the street while I was on a walk. I like me some butterflies so I lovingly carried it home. I decided that I needed to do something with it, and I wondered if I could frame it somehow. Google to the rescue! It was kind of dried out so I tried to hydrate it by putting it in a jar with a wet paper towel. That was kind of a waste of time. I used my handy serger tweezers to spread out it's wings and then I used strips of paper and pinned it down to keep the wings down, then I just left it. I needed a frame that was sort of a shadow box type. I found this one at Micheal's. You can kinda see from the picture that is has a double matte. It was on sale and a I had a bonus coupon. It was $9.99 and then it was on sale for $5.99, the bonus was an additional 25% off. It ended up costing me $4.38. The white part back there is just a piece of Warm and Natural batting, and then behind that is just a regular piece of batting to squish the butterfly up against the glass. That's it. The only hard part was getting the wings spread out, I was afraid I would break them off, but I didn't. It took me about 10 minutes to get it all situated in the frame. Then I hung it on the wall in my room. Looks pretty good. I have one other frame up that I wanted to do tonight but had some shows to watch on TV, so I'll do up that one in the morning.

This year I have seem so many butterflies, and different kinds of them. I saw 3 different kinds today! We also had caterpillars. My Mom discovered them on her carrots. Turns out that the Black Swallow tail caterpillar enjoys carrot tops, who knew! This is what they look like. If I would of been thinking I would have put them in a jar so I could watch them make their cocoons.

Seems like it's turning into the "Craft Bug" with all the bug pictures. The sad part is that I have a bunch more pictures of bugs, frogs, deer, and turkeys that I could post.. but won't. I'll get started on that quilt eventually. Hope you enjoyed the bug show :)

A shirt! Yippee!

2011-08-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

This is the shirt I made. It's light grey, it fits and I like it. I only had to use two sewing machines to make it. I'm glad that we have two so that I could do it. I had to take the pictures of myself so it isn't the best picture but you get the idea. I'm pretty excited to make another one. I bought some purple fabric when I bought the grey. Because I had to drive to said store that was 15+ miles away, so I was all "what the hay, I'll buy two colors!

I really am trying to come up with a design for the jelly roll... I have a bunch of drawings, mostly I like to draw so it gives me something to do, but it really shouldn't be that hard.. I would like to do something simple, but then I look at the ones that are more intricate and I think "Oh, that would be so cool!" But remember I have a talent for making things difficult. Do you think I could put that on my resume? "Proven ability to make simple tasks more complicated and time consuming than they need to be". Some how I don't think that would put me to the top of the pile..

Guess I'll just have to keep at it. Maybe I could comprises with myself and do something simple for now and then the next one I make can be a little harder. I mean I don't have to go all out right away..right? Even thought I really really want too.. The easier it is, the faster it will get done and I'll be less likely to get bored with it.. The last quilt I made took me a year to finish it. I went full speed ahead and got the top all done and had everything I needed for it and then I just got bored and stopped working on it! I did get it done though and that's all that matters...right??

I think that's all I have for now! Hope you all are having a great week so far!!

And then there were six!!

2011-08-28T21:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I now have 6 followers! That makes me happy! I'm a pretty simple gal, doesn't take much to make me happy! I don't have any pictures or anything fun to post. I have made another shirt! This one fits and I like it. What more could a girl ask for? I'm a little in love with the serger that I mentioned a few posts ago.
Well that's all. Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Hey, Hey- A giveaway!

2011-08-24T15:57:00.000-05:00

Hello there pally pals! I'm excited today because I now have 5 followers. I really feel like I should have a giveaway sometime. That's what good bloggers do right? So I guess I'll have to think about it and what number of followers will trigger it..And what I would give away.. Oh the things I have to think about!!
I know someone who IS having a giveaway. Over at Spontaneous Threads she's having a great little giveaway for a cool hoop holder that she made, plus some goodies inside. GO over there and check it out and enter to win.. Or maybe not enter because then my chances of winning go down :)
I also have really been thinking about my jelly roll lately! I mentioned before that I love to make things that are easy as difficult as possible. So I have come up with some designs for the quilt, ones a zig-zag and one is like a diamond shaped zig-zag but as cool as they are part of me just wants something easier. I was over at Karen's blog today and saw her great quilt. I'm thinking of using this idea to make my Terrain quilt. Cut the strips at random lengths and then add the Kona grey in there. I made a small quilt like this for my cat earlier in the year (yes, I made her a quilt..she's white and she sheds, do I have to say more?) it was fun and simple enough, I just used scraps that I had but it turned out nice.. So I'm working/thinking about other things to avoid thinking about the jelly roll!
I had to google a new word today. It was "faffing", I've never heard that word before. According to Urban Dictionary it means: "Time wasting/feckin' around, to aimlessly waste time doing useless tasks, The excessive use of time for nonsense activities". So thanks to Jenna for giving a name to what I do about 90% of the time! I also have a blogger related question, is there a way that I can have the comments left here emailed to me, with out having to approve them? And I get email from people when I comment on their blog, how can I do that with the comments left here?? Maybe I'm missing it here, but sometimes I want to reply back to ya'll but I don't know how to do it other than stopping by and leaving a comment. Thanks in advance to anyone who helps me with that.
I guess that's all I have for now, so have a great day everybody. Don't forget to stop over at Spontaneous Threads!!

Projects and stuff..

2011-08-23T10:28:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I've blogged and I have no excuses.. Just haven't felt like it, plus I haven't really made anything. I was obsessed with making this shirt over at Noodlehead. Anna makes such great things. I wanted to make this shirt so bad. So I got out all my pattern making supplies and found a shirt to use and did all that. I made a pattern... Then went to the fabric store, found some fabric that was 95 cents a yard (does it get any better than that?). It would have been cheaper because I had a coupon but I didn't use it, even though I'm super cheap and could have added it to my list of great buys.. And I got 2 yards because my sister also liked the shirt. Then I started the hunt for a "twin needle" if you don't know what that is it's like one needle shaft with two needles. So I had to call ALL over to find the thing, they had it at the local sewing machine shop BUT I thought it would be more expensive there, so I drove 15 miles (one way) to another shop where I could use a coupon and bought it. It was like $2.50 (plus the gas to drive 30 miles to get it). I get home and the thing will not work in my machine, I mean it works but not how it's supposed to.. Ho humm.. I started to think that I was not meant to make this shirt.... But I worked with it.. Sorry that I have no pics of any of this, I like to see other peoples pics, yet I hardly take any of the process or what things look like.. Yesterday I decided to try my hand with this.

My Mom bought this serger to make dresses for my sister's wedding, that was like 8 years ago. She used to make the dresses and then put it away. I really never had a desire to use it until about a year ago. I decided that I needed to get it out to finish the shirt, since I was having problems with it. I cleaned it and threaded it (only took 20 minutes, while looking at pictures and the color coded front) then I used it. Oh, baby!! I really know nothing about sergers, other than that they can cut while you sew. I didn't use the knife. So anyways, this is the finished shirt. I didn't use the twin needle, I just made two rows of straight stitching (which was kind of dumb because it doesn't stretch)

I know it's not the best picture, but it was windy. I guess from a distance it looks OK. And it's really not that bad but the arm openings are to small, this was a measurement error, which I noticed as I was cutting the pattern so I made it as big as I could. Now If I would have spend the time (like 15 minutes) to see if the twin needle worked in the old sewing machine (it does) I could have used it. The neckline is wonky, it flips out... I think it's a little low, I mean it isn't on me but just for the material. I'm a little sad about it actually, the fabric is really nice and buttery soft, I can take or leave the color but I like it enough. So I'm thinking of what I can do to make it wearable.. I really don't want to take the stitching on the sleeves out, but I might I guess I could just cut the stitched part off and re do it.
Last night I spent some times re working the pattern, made the arm holes plenty big this time, and changed the shoulders and the neck line. Plus, I have sort of conquered the serger so I'm a little more excited about making another one! I haven't decided on a pattern for the jelly roll quilt yet, but I did buy the grey Kona cotton. I was happy because it was on sale for about 4 bucks a yard. This feels like a really long and boring post, so sorry for that! Thanks for hanging on through all of it!!

Some fabric love!

2011-08-10T11:15:00.002-05:00

I got my jelly roll this morning! I love getting stuff in the mail. Now I'm faced with decisions. I would love to make a quilt with this beautiful fabric.
How do I make it?
Do I just use the fabric in the roll or do I add a solid?
If I use a solid what the heck color do I use?
I have only made 2 quilts plus a mini quilt for the cat. The first one is just squares, I was really (REALLY) winging it on that one. It was just I want to make a quilt! So I did. The second one I made for my nephew and I planned that one and it was all squares in the middle and then borders around it. I'll have him take a picture of it tomorrow when I go over there. He's 5 and he love taking pictures (and he's pretty good at it) so he will think that's fun.
This is my call to my 4 followers for help in deciding what to do. I've been seeing a ton of grey solids with print heavy quilts, and I like grey. But does grey work with everything? And what shade?
I'm also thinking that I like this little quilt made by Florence. It's simple enough and I figure if I just use the fabric in the roll I can get 80 squares (made of three 2.5x6.5strips). That would be like a 48x60 quilt and I'd like it to be bigger than that but not huge. If I use a solid then I can get more squares plus I could just use the same grey on the back with some little bits of left overs here and there.. But I really don't know...
And I feel like I have to get some higher quality fabric for the solid and back but I don't know anything about any of these fabric makers. I always see the name Kona, and I assumed that it would be expensive but it's not too bad. They sell it at JoAnn's but of course not the grey, big surprise there. At least there I could use a coupon on it. Oh the choices!
As a side note I'm going to hang out with my nephew tomorrow so we'll see if "the shorts" fit (crossing fingers).

What real vegetables look like..

2011-08-09T22:51:00.004-05:00

It's true folks, the beautiful veggies you see in grocery stores are not "real". They are the "pretty ones". This is what "real" vegetables look like

This little gem is my first cucumber of the year. Is it beautiful? Uhh, I guess it's OK looking. It looks like a cucumber so that's all that matters for me. It was mighty tasty when I ate it for lunch though :) I've got a few more growing out there and they aren't straight either, what's up with that?

Picture roundup!

2011-08-08T15:55:00.012-05:00

Yee-Haw! It's a picture roundup ya'll. Here's what I've got for you.
First up: Owl cake

I made this cake for my birthday. Yep, that's right I made my own birthday cake. I'm OK with that. I like to make cakes and I was just dying to make this cake. Just because it's cake. It is nothing fancy, it's a marble box cake with chocolate and cream cheese frosting. I just sort of hacked off parts of the rectangle cake to make it semi owl shaped. The eyes are cup cake tops. The nose and toes are jelly beans. It was pretty yummy. Now I am caked out.

Up next: Butterflies!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Spicebush Swallowtail

Painted Lady (??)

I love butterflies. They are so fun! Hard to get good shots of though. That black one just would not hold still for me this morning so that show was the best I had. But I'm going to watch out for it so I can try again. The yellow ones we have around here every summer. They love these purple flocks. The black one I've never seen before this summer. My Mom told me she saw it and when I saw it this morning I want hauling out to see it. I think the last one is a Painted Lady, I'm not really sure.. Anyone wanna let me know if I'm right/wrong.
A few years ago we went to a butterfly tent at one of the local zoos. That is so fun! If it's something you've never done before they are pretty cool. We also visited one in Sioux Falls. That was an actually place not a tent. It's called the Sertoma Butterfly House. They land on you and probe you, it's very strange but very cool.

And last but certainly not least: Tiny red shorts!

Ha! These tiny little shorts make me laugh. I finally came up with a pattern that seemed acceptable. It's 4 pieces. I had wanted to make a fake little fly but didn't really know how to do it so I just skipped it. After though I kinda figured out how I could have made it. These are just my practice pair. I'll need to put them on the bear and see how they fit. When I went out to take this picture I just laid them on the patio and took the picture but then I was like "that's boring" so I was like what can I do to make this better. So I tried to stand them up but they are so thin that they just flopped over. Then it was cups to the rescue! I put a small cup in each leg hole, much better than just laying on the patio.

In other news my jelly roll is on it's way!! I'm so excited for this. I ended up picking Terrain by Kate Spain. That little linky will take you to the Fat Quarter Shop (where the jelly roll is coming from) so you can check it out. The reason I'm excited about this is because I could never afford to buy any of this fabric. It will give me the opportunity to make something great with some great fabric that I wouldn't otherwise get to make. If I had money I could (would) spend lots of money at The Fat Quarter Shop.
Thanks for stopping by!! I see that now I have 4 followers! Thanks to those 4 lovelies for following me!!
I'm linking up to manic Monday over at SewHappyGeek !

I won something!

2011-08-06T16:44:00.005-05:00

So I'm pretty excited today! Here's why! For the past 3-4 weeks three great blogs have been hosting Stashtacular. Here are the wonderful ladies:

Jenna from SewHappyGeek
Spontaneous Threads (I don't know her name but her blog is great!!)
Kelly from Blue Bird Sews

Kelly even put a picture of my project up on her blog! Thanks Kelly!! I made Jenna's iPhone holder. I don't have an iPhone so I made it for my new camera. You can head on over to the Stashtacular Flickr page to check out what all the other people made. I'd never used Flickr before and I'm wishing that I would have named my pic because it only has the camera assigned number as a name.. Oh well. There will be a next time so I can make up for it then!

So anyways the reason that I'm excited is because at the end of Stashtacular they were giving away prizes! Now I've entered to win so much stuff on blogs. And I haven't won anything. This one I hardly did anything and I won!!! I won a Jelly Roll of my choice from The Fat Quarter Shop
How totally cool is that?

I also see that I have 3 (yes 3!) followers. This also excites me. I have a short list of crafty/cool blogs that I check everyday (sometimes more than once a day). This makes me want to try really (really) hard to be a better blogger. The thing of it is that my life is pretty boring. I mean I work so little and I'm not married, I have no kids, and I don't have a rocking craft blog. But I'm going to try. I'm going to try and make a quilt from with my Jelly Roll, so that will give me something to post about. I'm also working on some bear boxer shorts for my nephew's bear Jethro. It's taken me about 4 drafts to come up with a pattern that is simple but still looks like boxers. He also wants a shirt for a little stuffed dog he has named Bingo. I'm pretty sure that I have a talent for taking something simple and making it about 500x harder/complicated than it should be. Maybe I just need to work on harder more challenging stuff?? Yeah, I didn't think so either. It's nice to not have to use my brain sometimes..on the flip side of that it's nice to actually use the grey matter once in a while...

I looked at a tutorial today about how to make blog banners in word and I kinda went through and tried it out. Seems like something I can do, so maybe I'll do that this week.
Well, that's all for now. Thanks again to the ladies for putting together some great tutorials and giveaways!!!

More Info?

2011-07-26T17:18:00.001-05:00

Last night I didn't put too many details about how/size or whatever for the two bags. If anyone wants more info let me know, I'd be happy to share. That's all!

Wow, I made something.

2011-07-25T21:42:00.004-05:00

Well, was it worth the wait? No? Well, that's OK! What I have here are 2 awesome bags. Now whats better is what they are made of. These babies are made from pillow shams! One whole sham per bag. It worked out really great! They were the kind of sham that has a finished part around the edge, not a ruffle but just like a big casing (make sense?). I took that out to give me more to work with and then all I did was cut the seams out and then I sewed the sides together with a french seam and then put on the handles from the leftover side piece. I had cut the smaller one for something else a few months ago and it just sat around so I thought 'Hey I'll make something with that" so I did. Then a few days later I made the bigger one. I have one more sham left (different material) so I'm thinking about making another one. It was pretty slick. It has been really, really hot here the past 2 weeks or so, the past 2 days have been really nice (so of course I got a sunburn, no surprise really).
My birthday is coming up on Friday. I'm planning on going ice skating. I'm pretty excited about it because I haven't been skating in a long time. We were going pretty regularly but not in the past year. It's an indoor place, but it's going to be upper 80's on Friday so I might have to bring a change of clothes since it'll be something like 40 degrees colder inside the arena. That will be strange. I've never been ice skating on my birthday. I'm also planning on making an owl cake. I've seen some around the Internet that look pretty easy, just cut it to look like an owl and decorate it. That's all I've got.

You know it's hot when...

2011-07-01T10:23:00.002-05:00

You go outside to clip your nails and you break a sweat. That is what happened to me yesterday. It was 83 degrees at 11am, it was still 90 degrees at 10 pm. Yuck!! And then our AC quit working. Luckily, they were able to come out today and fix it. SO far today at 10:26 am it is 84 but the heat index is 92. Gross. I'm SO glad that I don't have to go anywhere. I mean I'd like to go places but not when it's like this. Are you getting my vibe that I don't like to be hot. I think there was a time when I didn't mind it as much. I am a summer baby after all, I should like the summer.
I'd like to sew something today, I have no clue what. I mean I could make another skirt... I'd like to make a little wallet because I like to go places and not bring a purse with all my crap in it.. There's this super cute pattern I'd like to make, what I need of those for who knows. I just like to make stuff. I also have an idea for an Owl softie, that's been roaming my brain for a long time now. Anyways, maybe I'll have pictures to post later on (here's hoping...)

Finally..something..

2011-06-28T09:43:00.006-05:00

Well, here it is, finally! I haven't been doing much of anything. I finally got around to making another skirt. I used the same waistband technique as I did on the green skirt a few posts back. It turned out pretty good after I initially did it wrong (big surprise there).

Then I made a bracelet, which I really do love. However, after I made it, it dawned on me that it looks like a garter.. It was such a pain in the rear to make though because my sewing machine musta been hung over from making the skirt or something. But I started that little bracelet at 9am and didn't get it finished until 5:30pm. My Mom worked her sewing machine majik and got it sewing smoothly again (for now).

I managed to do the bracelet in a half ass backwards way (another surprise). It worked but it would have been easier to do it a different, but now I know for next time! I really do think it's cute.
Other than those few things I haven't made anything.. In other news, I got a raise at work! Yippee! I was pretty excited about it.. I had my 1 year anniversary a few weeks ago, and no one said anything to me or anything so I was like ..Oookk...But then when I went to work last night there was a letter on the desk saying that I was getting a raise. It's a little thing, but I really do like where I'm working (even though I only work like 4-5 times a month) but this makes me like it more. I worked at my last job for 8 years, I went from being the receptionist 3 days a week to working in the lab everyday, I got one raise the whole time I was there. I got in on Valentine's Day, it was $1. I had been there for 4 years already.. I thought it was so great. I thought "Oh, now I'll get another raise", yeah right.. Let's do a little simple math. 1 divided by 4= .25 so I 25 cents for the 4 years I already worked there..that was OK because the first 4 years I didn't really do much, answer the phones (easy peasy). Now let's do some more math divide that whole $1 by 8.. that equals 12.5 cents/ year. When I worked at Target we got a raise every year, there were a few years where we got 2 because of cost of living increases and such. So I thought it was pretty crappy get one raise in 8 years. Maybe I should have asked. I don't know. I'm not thinking about it anymore. All I'm thinking is that I hope the economy picks up and the city that I work for has lots of money and they have to hire someone for some thing (meaning I could apply for something else and they'd hire me) or at least they would have extra work and I could do that. Well, today I'm off to pick the nephew up from summer school and then we will play and do kid stuff. Looks like it's going to be nice out for today at least, Weds is supposed to reach 100, and if it does it'll be something that hasn't happened in 23 years. 2 100 degree days in June. Here's hoping it doesn't get to 100 (since we all know I don't like to be HOT, and if you actually know me, you know it makes me whine-y).
I'm linking up to Quiltstory!

mmm...Cookies..

2011-06-10T12:16:00.004-05:00

So I did get around to making cookies. And they are yummy. They are peanut butter oatmeal, some with chocolate chips and some with out. I got the recipe from the Skippy website. I don't eat that kind of peanut butter but they had a recipe. Speaking of that, I don't think I've ever had any other kind of peanut butter than JIF. That is the kind we've always had... I wonder if anyone else out there is like that? Only had one brand of something? Kind of like Kool-aid. I've never had any other kind of drink mix like that.. Yeah so I don't know why blogger flipped the picture on me but either way you can see them. I really do love to bake (really I like to make anything). I like to make cakes too, what I call a "fancy cake" which is just a layer cake (yummy).
I never did get anything accomplished the other day.. Then yesterday I had to go to the dentist (again) and so I didn't do anything but watch baseball. The good news is the Twins are NOT in last place anymore.. whoo hooo! Well, that's all I got, peace out!

I'm bored...waaa..

2011-06-06T22:10:00.004-05:00

So here's the deal. I hate to be hot. H-A-T-E it. I just feel like I might die, even though I probably won't. Today, it was 95 degrees at 5pm. I don't know what it was at high noon, maybe like a million degrees. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same. This is the problem. I look outside and I think "Oh it looks nice out there, maybe I should go out" and then I remember that it's HOTTER than hell out. Then I just get bored. And then since I'm bored I want to eat, even though I'm not hungry. I tried to go outside at about 1:30 and I got out there and I was like "oh, hell no" and came back inside. I wanted to make some cookies but it was just to hot. I'm lucky we have AC and our house stay cool most of the time. But I hate feeling like I have to stay inside. It just makes the urge to get out even worse... Then I think "oh I could work on the of projects I have going or things I want to do, but I do none of them. Today I read, surfed the internet and watched TV... But then I braved it at 8:30 pm when it was only 85 out and went for a walk. And I planted some flowers, so I guess. Damn I hate hotness! Tomorrow I will do something! Even if it's only going to work (at 7 pm, for like 1 1/2 hours).. I'm sure ya'll think I'm a lazy ass, I'm really not. Did I mention that tomorrow I will do something (repeating makes it seam possible). Maybe I'll get up early and make cookies :) I'm all for getting up early when cookies are involved. That's my kitty up there, back when she was able to get up on the dresser to look out the window. She don't do high jumps anymore, and needs a stool to get up on the bed. That makes me sad.. so I'm not going to talk about it... Oh well. See ya'll later, tomorrow I will do something and I'll have pictures (of something)

A follower!

2011-05-30T19:53:00.003-05:00

I'm such a nerd. The other day I saw that I had a follower, but when I clicked it it didn't show anything. But blogger no likey the IE9 so it sort of works. I had to download Firefox, so far no problems. Anyways, I clicked it today and I have a real live follower!! .
I had to post about it because it's Jenna from SewHappyGeek! She is so nice and responds to all of my comments (which is way more than I expect from people) and she is so awesome. Thanks Jenna for being my first (official) follower!!

Refashioned Skirt!

2011-05-30T12:57:00.005-05:00

So here's the skirt.

Really, it looks about the same as the original. Which is here.

The difference is that its about 4 inches shorter and actually fits around my waist instead of around my ribs. So I might actually wear it. You can't really see it but it has embroidery all along the bottom. So I guess we'll have to see if I ever wear it. Maybe I'll wear it today because it is supposed to be like 85 out. And it rained all night and then again in the morning so the humidity is probably 100% so it might be a good day for a skirt.
I did start the shirt today, I'm not so sure about it.. I only pinned it together and it was really (really) high up around my neck. SO I need to think about it for a while and see what I can do with it.. I have a feeling that it just might not be a shape that works for me. But we'll see. I think I might just give it a neck line instead of it being straight across.
As for projects I'm not working on anything else right now, the shirt is in the "thinking" stage.
I linked up my last post over at SEWHAPPYGEEK! So head over there and check out her great blog.

Completed Projects!

2011-05-29T20:42:00.005-05:00

So, at 9 am I declared "today is going to be a productive day!" Now, you're thinking "So, was it or not?" and by golly it was.
Earlier in the week I took apart my green skirt that I am going to refashion. I had to take off the waist band, take out the zipper and take the two pieces apart (which I could have left and saved myself a step, but I like the long way..). The I had to make a thread run, because even though we have a ton of thread we did not have any that matched the green skirt. After that I was ready to go and I sewed that baby up lickety split! I used the waist band described in the pattern for this skirt and it was not bad at all. The only problem I had was because my sewing was a little wonky and the casing was tight. But not a biggie, I just had to dig out a tiny safety pin to get it through. I'm declaring it done because all I have to do it sew up the elastics.
Last night I cut out the fabric for my test run of this shirt.
Next up, I finished up this little beanbag game thing that I made for my nephew.

It has 4 bean bags, the mat and the little bag to keep it in. The bag was actually one that was supposed to be a lunch bag but never got completed...I just put a drawstring in it. What a pain in the ass time I had with this. Here's why: first I put the button holes thru both layers of fabrics- fail! SO I had to take out 4 (x2) rows of tiny little stitches. Then when I put them in again one worked fine and one got hosed up because the fabric got bunched up between the buttonholer and the little foot thing that comes down. So I had to take what was done of that one out. But I had experience with it so that wasn't a biggie. Then I get them done and then I sew up the casing and then I realize that the button holes are on the INSIDE .. supposed to be on the outside. Oh well, it was done and it works so it's OK. The mat it really more like a tiny little quilt. The point of the game: you pitch your bean bag and try to get the most points. The center is 3, the spaceships are 2 and the green is 1 point. I'm thinking that it should have 3 bean bags tho- two seems kinda weird.. but.
In case you are keeping track that is 2 projects done for today. I'm hoping that I can get the starter shirt done tomorrow. All I'm going to do is sew the hems up and then sew them together. I'm not going to shir the bottom. Unless I'm in love with it and I HAVE to do then I might.
Over the weekend I bought some fabric to make the "real" shirt and I also picked up some more 60/40 knit. It's dark gray like a gunmetal color. I got a good deal on it, it's $4.99 on sale for $2.99/yd. And i had a coupon for the other one so not to bad. I love coupons by the way. That is a whole nother post there about me and my coupons... <3 them!
Tomorrow I'm going to post a pic of the skirt because the camera is out in the car and I don't really feel like going out to get it. I really try not to sew (or craft) after 9 pm. But I should be able to whip up the hems on the "test" shirt. OH and I have tendonitis in my elbow. Never had that lucky you. It bites and it hurts. And there really ain't jack squat you can do about it.. Ice and rest. Well, I like to be able to USE my arms..
That's all I gots for now! See ya'll later. Tomorrow is Memorial Day, so thank soldier or a veteran. They rock!

Pictures. Yippee!

2011-05-25T11:21:00.003-05:00

Okay, so last post I mentioned that I made a skirt. SO here it is!

I even made an attempt to make the pic look better by taking it outside..

The next picture is of the skirt I am going to refashion.

I bought it about 5 years ago and I wore it one time (to my nephew's baptism). It didn't fit then and it doesn't fit now..I gave it to my Mom but then I saw this skirt tutorial. I was thinking to myself "self, that looks like a great skirt, and not that hard either. I could totally make that!" and then my self was like "hey, that skirt you have that doesn't fit is also too long.. couldn't you do up the waist on that skirt the way the tutorial shows??" It seemed like a good idea to me.. See I have to wear that green skirt up around my ribs to be able to wear it. Who the hell wants to wear a skirt around their ribs? I mean that is worse than wearing it high waisted.. Right? So I'm going to hack off the waist, and use AMH's tutorial to make the waist. She's got a great idea where you make casings around and then put tiny elastic in there so give it a shirred look. I'm kinda excited about it. Even if it is kinda putzy. But I don't mind doing crap like that. So maybe if I can pull myself away from Giveaway Day long enough to work on it..
I've been doing hardly anything the last 3 days but looking at blogs and entering to win stuff. I'm glad that most of them end tonight. I'm sure the peeps over at SMS were like "if it lasts longer than three days people are going to start dying and losing thier jobs" because they have spent all this time not doing anything else.. not working or cooking or eating or picking kids up from school or daycare or something like that..
I think that's all I have for now. I could probably ramble on and on.. but I'd rather eat lunch and work on that skirt.. No one can say for sure if I'll wear it AFTER I change it but chances are I'll wear it at least one time.. Wish me luck!!

Give Away Day!

2011-05-23T13:44:00.004-05:00

Okay, so I know that I haven't posted in forever and I have no excuse. I haven't been on a tropical vacation or sick. Or really busy with work or anything. Nothing. The only thing I've been doing alot of is sitting on the couch, doing some yard work and walking.
Lately I've started walking around the neighborhood. I have a pedometer on my iPod and it's pretty cool. I try to walk like 3,000 steps, I have no clue how far that is... I try to go in the evenings on days when it's nice out or when I feel like I haven't done much during the day. Today I went with the BF and walked around the park that we go to all the time. We got in almost 5,000 steps so that was fun. I made a skirt over the weekend, and I'm pretty excited to wear it and I have an idea for a way to refashion a skirt I already have but is too long for me and is too small so I have to wear it VERY high in order to be able to breathe... And I have an idea for a cool shirt but I have to dig out the material I'm going to try it out on. It's some plaid fabric that is ugly but that makes me love it more..
But like the title says today is Give Away Day. And it's great! Sew Mama Sew puts on this thing where great bloggers make posts and host giveaways. I'd put in some links but blogger is not letting me do it.. SO anyways. If you head on over to http://www.sewmamasew.com/ you can look at 3 huge lists of bloggers that are giving stuff away. I'll try to be back with a skirt pic tomorrow!
Edit: I forgot to mention that today all I've been doing is blog walking and entering as many of these giveaways as I can. I gotta win something sometime...right?

Finally a picture...

2011-04-20T21:28:00.004-05:00

With terrible light. I'll have to say sorry to my sister who takes great pictures. But ya know, it is was it is. I wasn't going to post anything today, mostly because I'm lazy but then I checked my comments and saw that Kim had posted. She's the only person I'm not related to that reads my blog! Thanks Kim. It always makes me happy when she leaves comments. Like I'm special or something! So here's the picture. These are my owls and my mummy. The picture really is terrible.. But oh well! I'm over it.

In other news, I woke up this morning to SNOW. Like a couple of inches of snow. I'll put it in perspective for you, 2 weeks ago it was 70's. It snowed until about 11am and then it all melted. Tonight it's raining.... free car wash. Tomorrow is supposed to be 51 degrees out. Who knows what's going to happen. I've decided that in the midwest, you get what you get and no matter what people are going to bitch about it.
Something else that became apparent to me, my nephew, my little sweetheart is going to be 5! This really hit me when I was loading pictures from my Mom's camera, she has some from a few years ago. And some of them were great pictures and he looked so different, long hair and a round little face. He's done alot of growing in 5 years and I can hardly believe it. I can't really imagine how my sister feels about it.. Maybe it's different when you don't live with him and see him ALL the time..Maybe the time moves slower.. There was a time when I spent alot of my time with him and I loved every minute of it! That's all I'm writing on that because it's going to make me cry....
I guess I don't have anything else. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something more interesting. Other than the owls :)

How boring is a blog with no pictures?

2011-04-15T09:06:00.004-05:00

Well, I still have not figured out/thought about my camera situation. I'm totally afraid to use it because I don't want it to happen again. I mean what if I'm just taking pictures and then it dies on me and then I lose the pictures I've taken... So I have made some stuff and I would like to post pictures of them..but I haven't taken any pictures... For now I will tell you that they are owls. I love owls. I haven't mentioned here recently that I like to crochet. I like to make all kinds of things. But most recently, like the past yeah I've been on an kick of making little things. They are called amigurumi. Last year I made mushrooms, and two turkeys, a skull, some kinds of puffball thing, and a mummy. If you crochet you can find patterns out there on the web. I just google them. There are also a few books out there and people who sell patterns and what not. Maybe later I will get them all together and take a pic with my mom's camera. Because really, posts with no pictures are boring. I also have to profess my love for cake. I made a cake earlier this week and it's just a yellow cake mix (from a box) with some chocolate frosting (from a tub) but it is so yummmy. I think about it often. I mean if it was 9:30 in the morning I would love to have a pc of cake... But I draw the line at have desserts for breakfast. Along that line though, I was offered ice cream at 10 am by a five year old. It was very funny. That was followed by his little brother telling me how much he loves chocolate, but it he said it the funny way three yr olds say things. And with a little bit of a pouty face. And then "he needed" it, like he would die with out chocolate at 10 am. I'm a pushover but I'm not stupid :) I guess I don't have anything super exciting to post, other than just letting the three people who read this blog know that I'm still around. So peace out!

Giveaways and stuff!

2011-04-04T10:09:00.003-05:00

Well, I downloaded Internet Explorer 9 and it's different than IE 8. SO anyways, if anyone out there even uses IE anymore just be aware that it's different. Plus, blogger must not be ready for it yet because I couldn't use the"publish" button. Then I figured out to use the compatibility button, then it worked, sort of. On to the giveways. This is a dual giveaway. There is one over on Meg's blog. http://meganlaneisinyourears.blogspot.com/ and since it's a dual giveaway Anna from The Joy Cottage is doing one also. Here is a link to her site http://www.thejoycottage.com/. That's all for now, go check out their blogs. P.S. The snow in MN is gone! yippee. I've spent three days outside in the sunshine.

Ooohh. The sadness! The madness!

2011-03-25T12:21:00.007-05:00

Well, I started working on my project that was to be a tutorial.... I was taking pics of what I was doing and the camera batteries died.. Not a big deal.. Just put some new ones in. I use rechargeables and I didn't have any charged, so I sat around and waited for them, then put them in. Turned on the camera and I had a "memory card error"! I was all, what the fork! So to make a long story short all 400 of my pictures are gone.. so long, farewell.. 3 card recovery downloads and none of them found anything. I am so sad. I am so mad. The pictures weren't of anything life changing or big deals, not births, or once in a lifetime trips. Just everyday things. But there were some from last years birthdays and walking trips and birds and things like that. I'm mad because it was my own damn fault. And I should know better. So, I guess I'm just going to stew about it and be pissed.

On to crafty things, because that is what makes me happy. After the camera thing I never continued working on my project. However, I found something else that I want to make. I went to Wal-mart last night and found this cute peasant style top, with shirring around the neck and it has these really ugly tassel tie things, that look like they should be on curtains. Anyway, it's only 4 pcs. 1 front, 1 back, and 1 for each sleeve. So I'm going to try and make a pattern and make my own. The only thing is that I'll need to find some fabric. So I'll have to look for something knit that is 100% cotton. Not like t-shirt material though. And I need to find some to make a skirt. I found the easiest pattern last year (somewhere) and its basically a tube for the skirt part that you gather and then a band for the waist. This time I could just shir the waist and it would be even easier... So, no pictures for today. Not much of anything really.

Coin purses!

2011-03-24T13:34:00.002-05:00

Coiny coin purses! I made these little gems awhile ago when we were participating in a market kind of thing. I sold 1. That is a whole different post all together. But fear not these babies are FOR SALE!! There are flowerss, stars, money, and mushrooms. They all have a coordinating inside except for the money one. The brown flowered and mushrooms don't have a pocket. But the others do. The price is $4. Leave a comment if you're interested. Pass it along if you think someone else will like them! That's all for now. I think later I'm going to make something that I will post here! So stay tuned. My first tutorial....

Yippee! C-R-A-F-T-Y!!

2011-03-23T15:15:00.007-05:00

So, I made my lunch bag. It was an experiment. I've wanted to try zipper tabs for a while but never have, mostly because I haven't made much with zippers in while. But I've been sick and doing nothing for the past few days so I decided to do it yesterday. I worked on it most of the day and then finished it this morning. I didn't do the zip tabs correctly, because I made them the same width of the bag. They should have been shorter and then sewn around but not over. But now I know this for the future. And, I forgot about the pocket until after I was sewing up the lining but I was all "Oh, I can still do it after" so I forged ahead. Yeah, right. How am I going to sew a pocket onto something where I can't maneuver it around..so I had to get friendly with the seam ripper (nothing new there)! Then I wanted to quilt circles on it, like on the fabric. I traced some circles and used freezer paper to put them on, well that didn't work out. I had to take out tiny stitches for that one. I decided to do 2 zig-zags down the front. Then when I was about 10 minutes from being done I decided I wanted Velcro on the pocket..half of which I had to sew it on by hand (major suckfest on that one!). But now it is done! Yippee.

I'm pretty happy with it for a number of reasons. I like the zig-zags. I used up stash. The fabric I got in the fall at Mill End with a 60% off coupon. The lining was leftovers from other bags. The zipper was one I got from a sheet set. You know they come in those plastic zippered bag things, I keep those. I had one that would have matched but I didn't want to cut it up (it felt like a waste). The interfacing was some we had in the fabric bin.

Now it's going on Quiltstory! You can check them out by clicking the button too!
That's all I got!

2011-03-21T13:02:00.004-05:00

I think I've mentioned that I love owls. I really do, they are cool. Well, part of that love is because last year we had some around the neighborhood. I could hear them but never see them, which is the way it goes with owls. Well, this year they came back (I'm assuming that it's the same pair). And they've been hootin' it up so on Saturday after a looong day at work I was in a foul mood. I decided that I needed to be outside, so I went looking for them (I had heard them early in the morning while I was getting ready for work) so I had a feeling they were straight back from our house. It's woods at the back of our property so I just started walking around and by some twist of fate, I found him. I say "him" because the female is with the babies. Here's some owl facts for you. They nest early, like the first ones to lay eggs, as early as last January. After I found him I ran back to the house to declare that "I found him". Then I took some pictures. He was awake and he was watching me. Which was s a little strange. I tried taking some pictures through the binoculars. Which usually offers mixed results.. It was really great to find him and to be able to see him and have him watch me. It made my whole long work day worth it, because I might not have gone looking if not for that day!

I don't know if I've mentioned here that I my bird love extends to all kind of birds. Last year we had a turkey family, wild turkeys are fun. I even named the Mom turkey (this is a habit..). We call her Loretta. Last year she had 3 babies, but towards fall one of them disappeared. So she only had 2. I could probably write a whole blog just on these crazy turkeys, the babies getting trapped in our fence, multiple times, being on the roof, crossing the street.. I mean really. They stressed me out. But they are back and I'm happy because they are fun and wild. Maybe this year (if she has babies) they will be smarter than the last ones. I don't have anything crafty to write about today, but I'm going to make myself a lunch bag. Maybe I'll get to it today. Hope you're all having a great Monday.

Cool Giveaway!

2011-03-14T18:14:00.003-05:00

Vickie has a pretty great giveaway coming up.
It's called the "Pot O' Gold Giveaway". You can win a pretty great prize from The Fat Quarter Shop. Go on over there and check out what it's all about. You have until the 17th to enter.
And if you've never been to The Fat Quarter Shop check them out to! Lot's of great stuff to look at. I'd like to win the prize because then I'd be able to get some of the great fabric. And since I'm trying NOT to buy stuff I don't need it would be super great.
Thanks to Vickie for putting up the giveaway!!

Can bread make you sad???

2011-03-10T20:34:00.007-06:00

YES! I was all excited to make some bread today. I had to get up early and so I wasn't doing anything at 9am so I thought "oohh, I'll make some bread and post it's beautiful picture on my blog. Yippee." I've never had this happen before. I've only made like 6 loaves this way. "This way" meaning I put all the ingredients in the bread maker and use the dough cycle. Then I let it rise and then throw it in a pan and let it rise then I bake it. Even loaf I've made has been good. Even the one that I let rise to long (not on purpose) and then smooshed it a little bit. Even that on looked better than this one...

I'm not sure what happened here, I let it rise and then put it in to bake and when I checked it about 1/2 way thru it was deflated. I was sad. That is how bread makes you sad.

On to other things. Like crafts! yea! They can also make you sad, but not today.

So I used the paper and pile of scraps to make this little coaster.

I don't know why the pic is turned but it is and blogger won't let me (or I don't know how) to change the orientation. But it's pretty slick how you make it, you just take good ol' Martha's log cabin template and sew the pieces onto it and there you go. You just use scraps. They don't have to be cut or the same size or anything. It was kind of fun to make. Then I added a little binding to it and blam-o done. Its polka dotted on the back. I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it ( I do know what to coaster is for) but we do have coasters at my house. Really, I just wanted to try the paper piecing.

So, what's a fob?

2011-03-08T20:47:00.005-06:00

Well, I've had 2 comments on my post from the other day. Yippee! Heather wanted to know what a "FOB" was. I was wondering that myself. So, of course I googled it. Here's what I found..
According to Webster's
fob (verb): "a short strap, ribbon or chain attached especially to a pocket watch" or "an ornament attached to a fob chain"
Now, what the hell is a fob chain? Webster's has no answer to that one. But I guess we can all figure it out. So there you are my darling sister. Ask and you shall receive.
So on to other things.. On my crafty calendar is to make some quilted coasters. This is in an effort to use my "Stash". I have a love/hate relationship with fabric (and other crafty items) because it's so pretty that you can't live with out it, but then you look at it and think "ohh, that's so pretty. I should make something with it" and then the next thought is "But I don't want to use it all up..." Like how does that make any sense? You want it to make things with but then you make nothing with it because it's "too pretty" to use. I'm trying to get over that and just use the fabric. It certainly isn't doing anything tucked away in a container in my closet. I mean I can't even look at it when it's in there...
Another thing I've been working on is a chainmaille bracelet. It's pretty cool, time consuming. I started working on it last summer, and then quit working on it and then just started working on it last night. Maybe I'll post some pictures tomorrow...

Of key chains and bracelets...

2011-03-07T15:25:00.007-06:00

Well here's what I made over the weekend. This cool key chain. I think they call them "fobs" I saw a really cool one over at Dixie Mango but wanted it smaller and just a little different. So I decided to make it similar to a bag handle and then sew it up. And there it is! The part that was the most time consuming was deciding, then trying out, then having a FAIL, and then more deciding and then making of the little yellow part around the bottom.... I just love owls, my Mom even bought me a book all about owls, I read it cover to cover.

Up next we have a bracelet. Now if you're really looking you'll see that the bracelet looks a lot like the key chain but without the D ring. That's because I was testing out the key chain to see if it was long enough/short enough by putting it around my wrist and I was all "hey, that'd make a cute bracelet!" So I made one and here it is. It's got Velcro on the other side. Pretty simple! Pretty Cool!

So, I'm waiting for the peeps to start showing up to my blog. I've really been putting myself out there and visiting a lot of other blogs.. So I guess we'll see what happens.. and by "we" I mean me and the cat, since there's no one else around..

Ta-Ta

Quilt Story

2011-03-03T19:57:00.003-06:00

I like crafts! That includes quilts. I don't have a fancy dancy sewing machine that I can do all the cool stuff for quilting so I've stuck to really basic stuff. But I love it (and hate it) anyways. I do alot of link checking.. I find a cool blog and I look to see what kind of links they have, I've found some great stuff that way. Well I found one today Quilt Story. It's fun and there are so many pretty things.. sigh.. So check them out here! I'm making this post because they have this thing where you can put pictures of stuff you've made on the blog. So I did! Yippee. I love blogs!

Bags!

2011-03-03T15:17:00.004-06:00

So here are my pictures!

Bag number One!

This is a bag that I designed when I couldn't find a pattern. I searched all over and looked at bags you could buy or patterns you could buy and I was all.. "hey, I can come up with something like that" So here it is. It's meant to be worn across your body but the handle isn't so long that you couldn't wear it on one shoulder. This was also a stash buster. I bought this fabric to make a bag like #2 for a Christmas present. It can be reversed but it has a seam on the inside but NO raw edges. I've never had an bag like this before. I just used it recently and it was kind of nice not to have to hold onto it. The only thing this bag does not have is a closure. This was mostly because I didn't think about it until after I had done the top stitching.. So I just left it.

Bag number Two!

For this bag I made a pattern from a grocery bag. I love these bags. I also love to make them. They look so cool but are a snap to make. I use them for everything. And they hold a lot of stuff. The outside is basic quilter's cotton and the inside is heavier weight "sportswear" fabric which makes them nice and tough!

Well, I guess that's all I have for now. Blogger was giving me nothing but problems I had to CTRL ALT DEL 3 times and started a new post just to be able to post this. Seems like I remember blogger giving me problems before. But Oh well.
**If you see something you like let me know. I'm not 100% on prices yet but they will be reasonable. These can also be customized (bigger, smaller, taller, longer handles) and if I can make a freezer paper stencil, custom designs painted on the outside (names, initials...)

So..Like is she dead??

2011-03-01T15:46:00.004-06:00

Poke! Poke! wait for it...

Huh? Wha??

What's going on? Oh, it's you! Am I dead? Nope.. still kicking!

Ok, So I know that it has been forever and two years since I last posted. But I am still here and I do have something new in store. Wanna know what it is?

Well, I love making stuff. Love, as in if I could do it and make enough money to never work a real job again, I would.. I wouldn't need a lot of money either. So I've decided that I'm going to try and use this blog as I once did (wayyy back when) plus I'm going to use it to try and sell the things I make. So if (when I get the pics up) you see something you like, let me know.

Here is my list of things that I already have made:

Crocheted washcloths. I love em and use em!

Sewn coin purses, in various fabrics..

Bags. These bags are shaped just like a plastic grocery bag but they are fabric. I love these and use them ALL the time.

Felted bags. Wooly goodness!

Fabric bags. My Mom makes these.

Shoulder bag, has one strap to wear across yer bad. I have one made but love it so I'll post it.

So I guess that's all I have for now. I'll work on filling in the past few years as the posts go.

Almost two years, still nothing to say!

2010-05-29T21:19:00.003-05:00

Well, hello there. I'm sure that since I haven't been around that no one reads/checks my blog anymore... Can't say I blame yous. I am going to start posting again. And I'm going to try to sell some stuff I've made from here. Let's see what's happened in the past years. I got laid off from my job (applied for it again and apparently I wasn't good enough). I've applied for lets see..thinking.. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.. jobs I think... 2 were just last week and I have an interview for another on Thursday. Sadly to say other than that.. there isn't much to tell. Just been crafting. This go around I've been making crocheted washcloths and sewn coin purses.. which are super cute (toot- toot).. And I've made some stuff for my sister's photography business she has. I still have no interest in Facebook. Even though my BF has one and some people that I'd like to re-connect with have em'.
Wow, two years you think I'd have more. But I don't really. Maybe I'll find some awesome pics and post them.
That's all I got, ya'll come back, ya hear!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T13:50:00.002-05:00

Well it's Halloween. So Happy Halloween! That's all I have.. pretty lame huh?

Ahhh, fall..and other junk!

2008-10-24T09:32:00.006-05:00

I love fall.. Here in MN it's beautiful.. You have such a wide variety of weather, it can be 80 one day and two days later it could be snowing. Today is gray and wet, not super cold. The air is heavy and I like that. Sometimes it's just nice to have days like that. This guy is a metal skeleton stake thing that I bought at JoAnn's last night.. It was 50% off. I thought it was cute so I decided that if I bought anything else that I would get him, and since it's not hard to find stuff to buy at JoAnn's, especially in the fall when I'm knitting all kinds of junk. Plus, I had some coupons and you can use more than one. And when I came home I stuck him in the yard so when Mom came home she would see him. She thought he was cute.

This is my second wristband, it turned out a lot better than the first one, but it might be a little small, but it's fairly stretchy so it'll be ok. I'm also working on a wristlet, like a fingerless glove, but I'm putting a thumb on it. I did this thing I've seen called "fetching" and you knit the stitches on waste yarn then you slip them back and knit them again and when you take out the waste yarn you have two sets of live stitches that you knit to make up your thumb. So we'll see how that goes. But I'm pretty excited about it. But I've decided that I like making singular things like A scarf or A hat. This stuff where you have to make 2 seems like a lot of work.... But I might try making 2 at a time.. with 2 circulars.. If I can figure that out..

Well, this weekend should be fun B/F and I (if he still wants to go) are invited to a German themed Halloween party. I'm not going to dress up, mainly because I don't have to. I'm kind of excited because it's my friend from H.S. and her husband who are having the party and I haven't seen her in about 2 years. Even though she lives like 7-8 miles away. But really that's all I have going on.. I have to get some new glasses, and I hate shopping for glasses. Anyone who wears glasses will probably understand thing.. because you can't see with out the glasses but you need to see what they look like on your face so you gotta put them on (but you can't see) and try to figure out if you look like a doof-wad or not.. Plus, you got someone asking if you like these or these or what about something like this.. So it's generally a good 'ol time.. And bringing someone with you doesn't help at all, because they can see, and you might not like what they like. Writing about it makes me want to do it even less.. damnit! Oh well, I could probably find some if I just sucked it up! Plus, I'm a cheap skate- so I try not to spend a shit load even though the last pair I got cost like $200 but that was with a nice discount thru my insurance.. Well, that's enough boredom for one day. See ya'll on the flip-flop..

Skull Duggery..arrg!

2008-10-15T10:11:00.009-05:00

Aey Mateys! I have a thing with skulls. I like them.. I don't know why. SO here is my wristband that I made. It's a little big, because I wasn't sure how big it would end up. So I'll probably never wear it but I'm making another one that is smaller. And it is blue and white. I'm going to try and find a different way to seam it because it's kind of weird. Plus I'm not really good at that because I've never had to do it. I did have my first "blocking" experience though...

Next I think I'm going to make the bat that Lady L has posted on her blog. I was thinking about it and it might be cool to make one and felt it, then it would have more stability.. Well, this post has taken me 2 days to write. It wasn't letting me post the picture yesterday so I quit working on it.. then it was time to leave.. So I'm finishing it now. My MN Wild are on tonight and they are 2-0 so I'm excited to watch them tonight. I do my best knitting when there are sports on :) Hope ya'll are having good time.

So.. I'm still here..no really I am!!

2008-10-14T10:30:00.006-05:00

Well, I started a post on September 17.. that was like almost a month ago. It was about all the books I've read recently. I didn't get a chance to finish it but never got around to working on it.. I'd like to say that there was something preventing me from doing it but the truth is that there wasn't really anything.. The past few weeks I've just been a little busier at work since some people have been gone.. Let's see..what's been going on.. not a ton. Just working and bowling and babysitting.. We were having some wonderful weather here, the only thing is that fall in MN is confusing.. you wake up in the morning and it's chilly.. you need real shoes and a warmer top.. but then you leave work and it's 80 degrees out.. but you've got on the wrong clothes.. But it's my favorite time of year. The sun is still warm but it's cooler out. This is the best time for exploring all the wonderful parks and stuff around my house.. Plus the tress are great.
I have successfully started and finished a knitting project. This is a big accomplishment for me because I start things and then never finish them. I made a wristband. It's black with a skull on it. I'll have to take a picture of it to post. I didn't come up with the pattern or the design but it was fun to make.. now I'm going to modify it a bit and maybe use a different pattern and stuff.. This weekend was kinda busy we had the Walk for Hope and the Bowl-a-thon. Plus, my MN WILD started the season last Saturday and they won. But I was tired and missed the third period. They have a game tonight and I should be able to stay awake for it.. (hopefully). Well, that's all the info and time I have for now. So, hope ya'll are having good times!

Score one for me..

2008-09-11T10:38:00.004-05:00

So I have a hard time finding jeans because of my genes. I have a little waist and I carry most (if not all) of my weight around my butt and thighs. That's just how it is in my family.. I'm OK with that but it makes it hard to find jeans.. if they fit in the waist they are to tight in the butt.. if they fit in the butt they are usually big in the waist.. Oh, and I'm short... so that makes everything to long! I've stopped spending tons of money on jeans /pants because I usually can only find a pair that I'm somewhat happy with, so it's not worth the money. I used to buy my jeans from the GAP but then they changed their stuff so that's no more. Then I found some at Kohl's but now they don't have them anymore either. So I went to WalMart last night for some food and I thought I'll look at the jeans.. and I found a pair that seemed like they might fit and it was like 8:P30 pm and I wasn't about to try them on.. So I bought them, and to my surprise they fit pretty good. They are perfect length and they are stretchy and not super huge in the waist and fit mostly in the legs.. I mean for $16 I'm happy... And since that makes me happy I'm sharing it!

Beautiful Butterfly

2008-09-10T10:01:00.006-05:00

This beautiful butterfly was outside my living room window one day when I was working 2nd shift. I know I mentioned it in an earlier post but finally brought my camera to work and figured out how to get the pictures off without having the camera software. I took /tired to take a bunch of pictures. It stayed around for about 15 minutes.. it was pretty cool, the pictures aren't as pretty as the real thing.. Well, my last post was 3 weeks ago.. and the only other thing is that they tore down the little old house that was next to us, it's been empty now for quiet awhile.. and so we poked around last night, just looking at this little hole in the ground that used to be a house.. today they took the garage and I was still there (since I was running late for work. Big surprise there!) but I'm going to try and post my video.. Well, that's a bust.. I'm not sure why it isn't working, Oh well!
And I'm trying to piss off my co-worker. I'm trying to be as annoying and as slow as him. See if he notices.. Probably not but I think I pissed him off. But seriously, learn to multi-task! It's helpful in the real world!! I mean the work is not that hard, stuff comes up and you do it, but it seems like no matter how slow it is, he is behind when I come in to cover his lunch, which he doesn't take until 2 or 2:15.. We leave at 3:30! I mean come on. I know he does it so that when he comes back he won't have to do anything, but then the 2nd shift girl get behind because she can't do her own things! It drives me crazy!! CRAZY!! But I'm done with that!
Well, hopefully the butterfly brings a little happiness to crazy days. I might put it as my wallpaper :)

So you wanna see my....

2008-08-25T10:01:00.005-05:00

Cucumbers?? Well if you don't, too damn bad. And if you do, here ya go!

They are so weird because it's like they grow from the stem out.. Like those balloons that they make animals out of. When they blow them up and they fill with air from the bottom to the top. As shown better in the 2nd picture. But I have a bunch of them and I'm excited.
This weekend was really, REALLY nice. The weather was what I would call "quit your job and stay home" nice. It was sunny with a cool breeze.. We had a party for my Mom because it's her birthday TODAY! Happy Birthday Mom!!! Well I guess that's all I have for today. Have a great one!

Since you asked!

2008-08-21T21:50:00.008-05:00

Well Kim, since you are like the one and only person that I'm not related to that reads my blog..ask and you shall receive! What do I do in "the lab" well I test products that we make here. We make glue, not the horse kind, but the kind made with rubber and other stuff. Production makes it, they bring it up to the lab and we do tests on it to make sure that they didn't screw up (which they do sometimes). So for most products they bring up 4 blobs and we take a hunk of it and that gets tested the next day for hardness, and then we burn a piece to test for how much filler is in it, then we run a "bond" which is a simulated window (what the glue is used for), we do a strength test and a melt, which is the flow rate. And it's basically the same for everything. Some get all the tests some get more or less or different ones.. And they say you need to have chemistry for it, but you don't. You need to know how to cut with giant scissors and read a scale.. neither of those is hard to.. Here is what most of it looks like..

And tonight I have the pleasure of working 2nd shift. Which really isn't all that bad but I'm just not used to it, I'd be sitting on my ass watching TV @ 9:58 pm. But on the up side I got to sleep in and take a nap before I came to work.. And I saw the prettiest butterfly in my yard and I got to watch that. I have some pics but I don't know if I will have time to post them..

A day in the life..

2008-08-20T14:44:00.003-05:00

Well, since I have nothing else to post and today I was thinking about what I do all day I thought I might share.. Prepare to be bored..and disappointed..
8am - wake up, get ready for work
9am - leave for work, talk to B/F on my way
9:15am- get to work
9:16-12 noon- do some work things but mainly I surf the web learning about shipping cost and types, Siamese cats, or selling things on E-Bay... Among other things.
12 noon - I go to lunch, mostly I eat TV Dinners. This is because Mom and I got bored with having fast food everyday. Now we barely have fast food at all, even at home..
1pm - I usually come back from lunch and then I sit around waiting..
1:3o- 3:30pm - I go in the lab and do all that stuff.. if it's busy I work in there but if it's slow I do other stuff..
3:30pm- I go home! whoo hoo..
Basically that's how all my days go- pretty boring
Well, there really hasn't been anything going on since I posted last, my life is basically so boring that I don't know what boring thing to talk about next.. I shouldn't really say that because I have a great life and I am lucky enough to have a job when the unemployment rate is at an all time high and I have a great family and a great B/F and I have a lot of things in my life that a lot of people are not blessed with.. but still nothing much happens in it.. I guess that isn't entirely bad, just not a lot to talk about.. that's all. Maybe tonight I'll take some pictures of my cucumbers, that's at least something to talk about...

Huh?

2008-08-11T11:48:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm not sure when I blogged last but I remember it being about how being a kid is way better... And today, once again.. It's completely obvious to me that it's true. I've had a very tiring 2 weeks.. working weird shifts, 1/2 shifts and off shifts. But I survived and the second week was much better than the first.. But I thought (for some reason) that this week would be all back to normal and just regular and boring.. Silly me! I should know better than that..

Well, I started this post on Monday.. today is Friday... figure that one out. But I have some pics.

This is my new water bottle. And I love it. The top one is of this thing called a "splash guard" basically it's so that you don't spill it on yourself.. Which I have done- and somehow I spilled on myself yesterday even with it. But that's ok. It's just water. I'm happy to let you all know that I will be having some cucumbers! I've been trying hard to pollinate them so that I can for sure have some. I would have been very bummed if none would have grown. I'll have to take some pictures of them.. I guess I haven't posted since my birthday- which seems like 10 years ago.. but it was really only 3 weeks ago.. The sad part is that I can't really even think of anything to post about.. because the past weeks have just been sort of blurry, blending together. But this week was pretty OK, B/F brought me some flowers that he picked from in the woods. This is sort of a long story but there is some land (between his house and mine) and they recently cleared out all the trees and then a few months ago they burned a bunch of it (why we don't know) but then about a month ago these huge purple patches appeared.. just out in the middle of this land.. and I've been wanting to wander out there and see what they were.. well we never really got around to it (mainly bc it's been HOT) but he went and got them for me. I thought it was so sweet.. And then yesterday he bought me a new hockey shirt.. I'm so glad it's Friday. And it looks like the weather is going to be nice.. 80's and sunny. Yippee.

I've also been watching the Olympics.. I'm not sure why, maybe I'm sports deprived.

Yesterday I had an eye exam.. nothing new there. The Dr. that did was young.. he looked younger than me! I thought it was funny though because the assistant chick wanted me to take off my glasses and asked me if I could read the giant letter on the wall.. and I was like umm.. NO.. I can't freaking see with out them...I mean do they need to ask that? If I could read it with out my glasses, would I be there? No! Wow- it's almost 11am! that means I only have like 4 hours of work left.. Whoo hoo! I guess there isn't really anything else to talk about.. Been pretty boring lately.. Just work and sleep and being tired....

On being an adult..

2008-07-29T14:35:00.004-05:00

4 Reasons I'd rather be a kid..
* having to get up early and not even taking a shower!
* Trying to go to bed early so that I can get up early (good luck)
* Having to get up that early to go to work (yuck)
* having to go to work when I don't get up early..

4 Reasons I like being an adult
* My nephew
* Having my own car and being able to go where ever I want when I want
* Having my own money- not having to ask anyone for $$ to do stuff..
* My B/F

These are just partial lists - And I don't think that being an adult sucks or that being a kid is really all that great but I just think about all the things I did when I was a kid.. Like playing in the hot steamy ass weather. I can barely go near the door some days let alone go out and run around all day.. Summer was great as a kid- summer as an adult.. just the same except HOT! There is no order to the lists either..
Well, today is also my birthday- and I feel like I haven't slept in 2 days so I'm in a salty mood and it's hot. It's just a bunch of things that individually I don't really care about but piled on each other and I just want to go home. I had to take a nap at my desk at 8:00am... It did make me feel better though. So Happy Birthday to anyone else who's birthday is today. I'll have some pictures to post later on this week..

On being a kid..

2008-07-28T13:38:00.003-05:00

Crap, I miss being a kid!
A list of reasons soon to follow.. if I can find time to post them..
Crap!

The day after..a day off..

2008-07-23T11:13:00.003-05:00

So I took yesterday off! The weather has been beautiful here lately. 80's and sunny.. Not too humid a little breeze. So yesterday Mom, Sister, Owen and I went to the zoo. We have a free zoo here that had all kinds of stuff. Let's just say they call it a zoo for a reason. It was so packed that we drove around for at least 20 minutes looking for a parking spot. Glad that I was not driving.. I think we only saw 3 or 4 people leave and we happened to find a spot asking people along the way if they were leaving.. We went to the butterfly "tent".. It's not really a tent but it's a temporary exhibit. It was full of people and kids that are not as well behaved as Owen. Running around an touching things... Ak! But H took lots of pictures and I'm kind of excited to see them. Then we went and looked at the Giraffes because Owen wanted to see them.. And one was licking the building and one was licking the pole that holds the giant umbrellas that shade them.. So then we went to eat and then came home all of us trying to get O to take a nap- I think mostly because we all wanted to take one! But that didn't work.. But I was so tired last night that I could hardly do anything. But I wasn't going to have a repeat of Sunday night when I fell asleep on the floor for 2 hours and then slept like shit when I went to bed.. So overall it was nice.
And I'm excited because I have a few peas growing. And I always forget to take pictures of all this stuff but maybe I'll get around to it.. And I'm going to do something for Kim. She has to answer some questions for a newsletter at work (because she is a newer employee) so this is for you Kim..

Any Pets? Names? 2, a cat named Chloe and a newt (who is 14 years old) named Henderson
Kids?Name? Ages? None
Funniest childhood memory? hmm..I can't really think of anything
How long have you lived in ___? 27 (almost 28) years
What was your position prior to working at the ___? Target
1st concert? Poe, at First Avenue
Favorite quote? Hmm.. I dunno
Hobbies? Anything crafty, gardening, bowling, skating...
3 people you’d love to meet dead or alive? ??
Dream vacation? ??
Favorite movies/music/tv shows? I have alot of them, I like alot of things!
Who would play you in a movie?
1st album? Green Day, B-day present from my B/F when I was 13 (the B/F I have now)
Favorite music to listen to at work? I listen to talk radio.. I know I'm boring!
Last song you karaoke-d? Never, unless you count me singing to Owen in BK to the "I don't want to lost you love tooonighht" song I don't know the name of it..
Favorite book? I've never read one book more than once..
Favorite dish/restaurant? I like pasta and turkey and breads..
If you could have anything in the world what would it be? Happiness
Where were you born? MN
Favorite City in the world? Minneapolis..maybe Winnipeg
1st movie you cried in? No clue
1st movie you walked out of? Never have
Ever wanted to change your first name? to what? Never. But sometimes I am Brenda...
My weekend was pretty good.. I played cribbage with the B/F and then Sunday was lawn care day and it was warm and sunny that day so I was just tired after that.. Nothing to exciting. But it was nice weather Ohhh. no it wasn't. Saturday this pouring rain storm came through and we were at Target and you couldn't even see the parking lot. It was crazy and it flooded the roads and in one spot the water was so deep I thought that my car was going to die or something.. It was like the whole road was flooded and this lady was coming (and since I've never driven on a flooded road before I didn't think about the wake created by the other car) and so I hit her wake and it was so crazy B/F said something like "ohhhh, that's not good.. give it some gas" and I was like 'I am" and then we made it and then when I got out of my car there were leaved and "debris" in the bottom part of the door.. it was crazy. But we needed the rain.. so it was cool..
Well. I guess that's all I really have.. Maybe tonight I won't be lazy and I will take some pictures. Thanks for stopping by!

Ho- hum Thursday..

2008-07-17T10:09:00.004-05:00

Well.. what fun and exciting things do I have to contribute to blog world today?? I guess I'll just start with the crap I can remember.. Last week my boss, who never talks to me, came into my "office" which I call an orffice. Which is a combination of office and orifice.. but anyways. And he wanted to know what I do all day. I left out all the Googling and blog reading/writing. And then he was telling me that we need to "be utilizing the time I am here". And I thought what the hell does that mean. The whole time I'm praying that B/F will not Yahoo! message me so that my computer won't make any noise. Because he surprised me and I didn't really have time to close all my "stuff". The whole thing just pissed me off- because I'm doing exactly what you hired me to do and if you want me to do more things then tell me about it and show me how to do it. That was like Wednesday.

Friday it was hot and it rainy and I heard some loud bangs and it was because there was a pretty large branch in our yard, and it would have landed on my car but I thought it was going to hail and Mom was gone so I put it in the garage and I was so glad. It did however, flattened a garden and 2 tomato plants. The plants are doing pretty well though.. After Mom put them back up and then put some more dirt in there.. So I guess they didn't mind being horizontal.. This isn't the best picture but it shows how big it is at the bottom..

Saturday was the memorial for my aunt. I know that I haven't written anything else about her except for that one post. If you want to read more stuff you can go to my Sister's blog. She has posts about all of it. But the service was lovely. It wasn't all churchy and religious, which was nice. And it was nice to see some of these people who I haven't seen since I was young. After words my uncle, Sister. BIL and Owen came over and then my cousin, his wife and daughter came over and that was nice.

Tuesday my Mom bought a hammock chair, I'm going to take a picture of it and post it tomorrow.. It's pretty cool and we hung it from an old swing set that we painted and hung a wooden swing from. We have a nice fenced in back yard (where the garden is) but it's so weedy and such a pain in the ass that we don't really spend time out there just sitting around.. We did last night though while we were adjusting the swing. See if you've ever had a new hammock, they stretch.. A lot. Because the first time we hung it and I sat in it, my ass was on the ground.. So we've been messing with it to raise it up so that you aren't just sitting on the ground. It was nice last night to just sit out back there and chat, even though it's been so blasted hot here last night wasn't THAT bad.

On the garden front, one of my pea plants has a flower on it, which means a pea is on it's way (yipee) and one of my bean plants, that is a bush variety and I didn't know it, has blossoms and a little bean on it (yippee again) and the rest of the stuff is growing and I'm just waiting. Mom's tomato plants are doing great with lots of fruit.

Sports: Three of my MN Twins went to the All-Star game and they all did good. One even hit the game winning run (whoo hoo). Plus, he won the home run derby!!

That's all I have. Thanks for stopping by!

More pictures.. yippee

2008-07-08T11:49:00.007-05:00

Well. I hope that everyone had a great holiday weekend.. I was lucky and I had Thurs and Friday off work. But like usual I got screwed out of one day because we had 2 off here but the temp company only pays for 1! Thursday Owen came over and hung out with Mom and I- that was fun. Then on Friday the 4th we had a family get-together and had food and hung out. Then Saturday and Sunday were HOT here so I tried to stay cool. But on Saturday I was leaving with the B/F and I couldn't find my keys.. anywhere.. So when I got home I thought I'd check in the car.. and there they were- in the ignition with them in the ON position. SO I had a dead car! So B/F came over and jumped my car and I was good to go- I just felt like a tool! I have never even had to open the hood on my car.. I couldn't find the latch and B/F had to do that too! That's what happens when you buy a new car that has all the services covered for 3 years! Oh well.

And for now my gas experiment is ruined because I can't remember exactly how many miles were on this tank when I killed my car. But I didn't drive for 3 days, which is why I had no clue where my keys were..

These are some clouds that were swirling over my house the other evening before it rained, which we cool because it hasn't rained in a really, really long time..

And here are some of my garden pic, the ones in the bucket are cucumbers and the other is a pea plant that is huge but I couldn't get a good picture of it.

I guess that's all I really have.. Nothing to exciting going on.. Sad part is that this post took me 2 days! Ha! make that 3 days because I must not have published it yesterday...

Results...

2008-07-01T10:01:00.004-05:00

So in case anyone really cares, I got over 30 mpg last week in my experiment to see if driving 60 really helps with gas mileage. I'm sure that my test was flawed, because I sometimes drove faster or was on side roads and such- it was still better than what I was used to. So it's not perfect but I'm happy.
In other news (which isn't very exciting), the past month and 1/2 or so I've really been hooked on reading. I used to read a lot when I was younger.. I think I have/had every babysitter club book. But i get in this mood every few years where I just can't get enough.. So for Christmas 2 years ago I wanted the Chronicles of Narnia, and I got it from my sister, one giant book with all 6 in it. I had started it then but then just didn't get into it until a while ago and I read all that in just a few weeks, but after I was done with that it was like "ahhh what else can I read" and so I picked up another book that I got for X- Mas from my Mom. I read 1/2 of it the first night and finished it the next day. Then I started looking on the internet to see what the best selling books were and there is a series by Stephanie Meyer and I bought the first one Twilight on Friday night and I finished that on Sunday. So I bought the second one Sunday night and I'm very close to being done with that one so I've decided to slow down.... Until I can find the third one in the series in paperback. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find it because I'll have to find something else to read. And I feel kind of dumb because this series is Young Adult (I guess I'm a youngish adult) but it's not like a kid book, but they are well written and the language is not kid-ish but it's not overly adult either just normal everyday language.. They are about a girl and vampires and werewolves, I like that kind of crap. I guess it's so much more than that but I don't really feel like getting into all of it.
Well, I'm planning on taking some garden pictures because everything is growing, the weather has been so nice and sunny here and barely and rain that stuff has been really growing (not the grass though)..
And I got an e-mail from the MN Wild asking me if I wanted to partner with someone who has season tickets. I'm really torn about it because it would be so awesome and since it goes through the team I might get some freebies or benefits or something. I'd be happy with just a parking pass.. I'm just worried that it will cost a ton but I don't think it would cost anymore than if I bought the tickets and since they sell out SO fast I might not ever get to go again.. I mean they want to know what price range you'd like and how many tickets /games you want.. I'd rather get in with someone's tickets because then it will be the same seats every time (and the same people around you) which I've learned by getting in on season tickets for the Twins, how nice that is.. So I'm going to think about it a bit and we'll see what happens..
Thanks for stopping and reading my stuff!

So what if I go slow!

2008-06-26T10:49:00.004-05:00

So I've heard that your car gets it's best gas mileage at speeds between 55-60 mph. And that for every mile over that you lose a bunch. So this week I've been trying hard to go 60.Mind you I drive freeway to and from work pretty much everyday unless it's all backed up then I take the side roads. I'm not sure yet how I'm doing because I haven't used up all my gas.. No if the speed limit was 60 then I would be golden but around here, at least where I drive most of the time, the speed limit is 65 or 70.. I even go 60 in the 70. People just go around me and I just think to myself.. I haven't gotten gas in a week and I still have little less than 1/2 a tank.. How about you? I usually get about 27 miles to the gallon but one week a while ago I got about 30. So I'm interested to see what happens.
Also, I've decided to get a new water bottle.. Not that this is news that anyone really gives a crap about but I'm going to get one that is BPA free. I currently have a Nalgene N-Gen bottle which is a beautiful Red. I really do like it. But I'd like a new one. I thought that I left it in the hotel room a few weeks ago and I wasn't all that sad about it because I could buy a new one. The thing that sucks is that I like to look at them and see them in person and see what it really looks like so I'll have to go somewhere and buy it. And I guess I'm ok with that. Except that the places are not in close proximity to mi casa. Plus, I hate paying shipping for something that only costs 9 bucks. But I might get a new one for Owen- if they have any because he has and old one and since he's a little guy and a BPA free one would be better for him (I have no clue what the BPA does) but the less chemicals the better right.
On the garden front I'm excited because I planted 6 cucumber plants *these are a bush variety and I planted them in 5 gallon pails* but I wasn't sure that they would all grow but they have all sprouted. I was going to thin them out but I mean it's already growing so it would make me sad to pull them out and have them die. SO I'm just going to let them all grow! But I'm hoping that I can sell some of the stuff.. Because last year we had so many beans we were giving them away all the time because we just couldn't eat them all.. So I'm thinking that I might just have some kind of stand at the end of my driveway or something and I hope that people stop and buy the stuff I mean I'd even show them my garden! How cool would that be!
Well, I guess that's all I have for now..

Pictures make the blog a prettier place..

2008-06-24T09:58:00.004-05:00

These are my peas. The pic is from the BB and I'm not sure why it's so big but I don't feel like doing it all over again.

These are a little hedgehog that I made. I got this pattern from a web site called Staindrop something.. I've never worked with faux fur before and it was OK. I did it outside because it would have been a real mess to do inside. I guess other than that I don't have much else. So ya'll have a good day!

A month..

2008-06-23T11:25:00.005-05:00

Well, its been like a month since my last post. And I guess I haven't felt like posting because my post are mostly boring and so I just haven't put it on my list of things to do. Honestly, I haven't been up to much. Working on the garden, watching baseball..hanging out. Last week we went on a mini-vacation. We went to Owatonna and played in the waterpark. Mom took My sister, Owen and I.
My MN Twins have completed 2 sweeps ! Yippee!
My garden is growing, I got kind of a late start on it because of forgetting to get around to it and then because when I did it had been raining for like a week straight.. But it's growing now, and the weather has been awesome.. 70's to 80's with mostly sun. This year we planted a bunch of different things in the garden. Two kinds of beans, sugar snap peas, cucumbers (which I'm excited about) and then Mom planted some carrots, tomatoes and spinach.
I've never grown the sugar snaps (I love them!) but they are growing and I've constructed a cool structure for them to grown on. I'll have to take some pictures of all this stuff.
I've also been working on some craft projects. So I'll have to take pictures of that stuff too. Post are always much better with visuals!
On a sad note, while we were on vacation my aunt was put into the hospital and I guess I don't feel like getting into all the details because this week has just been a daily recount of the events to various family and friends. Not really for me, but for my Mom and then I listen to it. But she is making baby steps everyday. So we are all remaining hopeful and positive.
And I guess that's all I have...