Winner, Design Wall(ish), and Weekend Report

Oof, what a weekend!  I went to Boston Balance with a friend of mine on Saturday, and learned the hard way that I am very much a big fish in a small pond in my local spin classes.  6 hours of grueling cardio later, I now know the definition of "advanced" in terms of spinning. I am maybe upper intermediate.  I am also in no small amount of pain, but it was so, so worth it.  I'm getting certified to instruct in 2 weeks, which I'm so excited for.

Which leads me to my design wall.  Mostly right now it's kind of in my head.  I still have the Ohio Star blocks going (lots and lots of ironing going on with that actually) and I still need to finish the place mats for our winner (quick digression here) who, according to random.org, is #2...Keeley!

I will get on those and send them out hopefully by the end of the week. In case you missed them, here are the pictures:

The "in my head" projects are definitely more in progress.  I've been thinking about making my spin towels more fun by adding some kind of silly applique to them.  I was thinking something like this:

I'm thinking I can just applique each picture/letter individually or something.  The dino would be probably 4 inches tall, with everything else to scale.  It would definitely keep me giggling during a workout.  I could make a running one too, for treadmill workouts.

Anyway, that was my weekend, that's my design wall, and now I'm off to work.  It's Hungarian week over at my cooking blog, so if you have any good Hungarian recipes to suggest, I'm all ears!

My First Etsy Listing!!

I did it!  I took the leap!  I posted a listing for a custom flowergirl basket (the easiest of the set to make) on Etsy!  Check me out! 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52930216/custom-flowergirl-basket

More listings to come as soon as I get my life back lol.

Boxes N Such

Quick photo update on last night's progress, then back to work. 

My brother's boutonniere...with a little hidden surprise!

Surprise! :-)

The ring box.  The middle section is the same fabric, just turned 90 degrees so the flash caught it differently.

Doing its job nicely.

 Patrick's box

Different angle.

Also made some progress on the basket and the corsages (I need 7 of those I think...2 mothers, 2 grandmothers, 1 great aunt, 2 readers, 1 flower girl...8 then), but I don't have pics of those yet. 

Also, if you're a momma who wants to get rid of old crayons, I'm taking donations of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns for a completely selfish, wedding-related project.  It won't be going to sick kids, but kids will enjoy it.  Let me know if you have some you want to get rid of.  I'd need them within the next couple of weeks or so.

Thanks!  Have a great day!!!

Multitasking

In usual form, I've got about half a dozen things going on in "the lab" tonight.  I took a personal day from work today...after all the chaos of the past few days (long story short, I've been to the vet 4 times in 3 days, and I'm writing this post to avoid the 8 o'clock critter med rodeo) I needed a day to decompress and regroup.  So today I did some dishes, went to Michael's, and got inspired.

I've got one more boutonniere (I DID IT!!  I SPELLED IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!!!) to make...these are kinda growing on me - they've taken some getting used to, and there's definitely a "right ribbon" and a "wrong ribbon" to use for them, but I really like how they've turned out.

Here's the group against a black background: 

 There are definitely a couple I like less than others...there's a small but non-trivial chance I'll redo them.  We'll see.

Here's a close up of MOTU's boutonniere:

 I used some of the white satiny stuff I used in my bouquet, and some of the sparkly stuff I used in my throwing bouquet - I like that they're all tied together like that. If you look closely at the previous picture, there's one boutonniere that has satiny mustard-colored fabric in it.  That's also in my throwing bouquet, and that's going to be my dad's boutonniere (ok that time I didn't spell it right the first 3 times).

I wandered Michael's for a good long time today, picking up and putting back.  I eventually came on this for my flower girl's basket:

 I'm going to line the whole rim with these flowers - they're sturdier than the boutonniere ones, but maybe I'll throw in a couple of those style as well just for kicks.  We'll see.  This is just the first flower of many.

This is the box I got for our rings.  After seeing this:


I decided that, though my cousin's kid (Patrick, he'll be 3) is adorable and probably much better at this than this kid was, I'm not really willing to risk it.  So I'm going with a little treasure box. 

I've got some spare foam from the headboard and I'm going to use some of the spare fabric from that as well to cover the foam inside to hold the rings. 

As his ring bearer gift, I got a box that's one size up from the one for the rings (admittedly, they came as a set, and the smaller box wouldn't fit his name on it) and am painting it and adding letters in the wedding colors so he can have a little treasure box.  I'll post pics once they're both painted, but here's the raw idea:

Here are the letters painted the wedding colors (the box will be dark brown):

So to recap, I'm working on  one more boutonniere, the throwing bouquet, the flower girl basket, the ring bearer boxes, and a partridge in a pear tree.  Busy busy, but relaxing night. 

In other news, I'm considering opening an Etsy shop for this wedding stuff (specifically the flower stuff) once the chaos is over.  Thoughts?

Kat's Draggin' In...

Lordy lordy what a week.  We started training this week for the new company, which has been unrelentingly fast paced and difficult to absorb.  It's also a pilot training course, which means the materials are in far from perfect shape, which adds to the difficulty.  So with bleary eyes and barely functioning brain cells, here's this week's fave five:

1. My number 1 cheerleader.  On top of all this training stuff, I'm trying desperately not to stress eat (fail) and to get to the gym more often (sort of fail).  Yesterday, I got my ever-expanding booty out of bed at (groan) 5 am.  MOTU, of course, kept right on sleeping.  However, as I was about to head out the door, from the bedroom I hear him sleepily yell, "You rock and I love you!" to keep my spirits up (which were also half asleep at that point).  He's too cute.  Every day this week I've come home mentally exhausted, physically drained, and nearly unable to function enough to even make dinner.  Every day he's told me how smart and beautiful and awesome I am.  He's my number 1 cheerleader, and I'm so glad I get to spend the rest of my life cheering him on too.  :-)

2. Getting it. This training is rough.   Everyone is struggling with it in a major way. I'm not going to claim that I'm not struggling, but I'm definitely getting it.  Wednesday I even felt *good* when I walked out of here.

3. Future families. Last weekend, MOTU and I went up to VT to book vendors and figure out wedding details. We had dinner with his extended family, and I realized at some point during that meal what I'm walking into...his family, while quirky like any other family, is amazing.  They are so supportive and happy and eager to help.  They make some sarcastic comments to each other, but overall they're never mean or snippy to each other.  They respect each other and care for each other...the amount of effort that goes into taking care of MOTU's grandmother, for example, is humbling.  Every one of her children (4) were there on Mother's Day, and they went out of their way to take lots of pictures with her and her sister (Aunt Margaret, who helped raise MOTU).  It was very sweet...even sweeter that they pulled me into the pictures like I was already family.  They're good people, and I'm really happy to be joining their ranks.  Having family like them so close (but just far enough that visiting is still special) makes MOTU leaving not so lonely.  It also makes me less stressed about the idea of someday having kids...there is so much support and love that I'm not afraid. 

4. Wedding stuff coming together like woah. Here's the latest, as of last night:

• We have the following vendors booked, with deposits either cashed or in their hands: 
• Reception - Snow Farm Winery
• Ceremony - Immaculate Conception Cathedral
• Photographer - Margaret Michael
• DJ - Digital DJ
• Photo Booth Rental - VT Photo booth company
• Paper for the invitations is on my doorstep, from paperandmore.com
• We have the following vendors tentatively lined up, with contracts/deposits pending: 
• Pie people - Allenholm Farm
• Cake maker - Cosmic Bakery, St. Albans (no website yet)
• Caterer - Chow Bella

I've decided not to get a florist, since the flowers I've made have worked out pretty well: 

It's slightly more filled out than yesterday, and the pieces are actually glued together.

I think I've also decided that, in addition to the bouquets that the bridesmaids will obviously get to keep, I'm going to make them all some kind of carrying case that can double as a purse. I'll need to figure something out for Jimmy. 

5. Training is almost over.  For this week. Honestly folks, my brain is completely fried.  I haven't absorbed anything since about 2 pm. We have another week of this next week (keep in mind that by "a week of this" I mean "start the day by driving in to Cambridge from Nashua".  Google maps that.  It ain't pretty.) but you know what?  I'm getting it.  For the most part, I'm actually understanding this stuff at least to a point.  After next week, I'll have ANOTHER week of training in June, which will be really interesting...because that training (actually it's only 3 days, not 5) is the stuff that I'm going to be in charge of rewriting.  It feels really good to have a solid direction, and even better to know how much responsibility I'm going to have.  I am the sole writer for this product, and it's the second biggest product the company has.  Yowzah. 

Anyways, that's my week.  Tonight, I'm going to hole up with my honey in our favorite local beer joint, have some yummy food and beer, go for a run (not in that order), and rock my jammies until I fall asleep.  Tomorrow, hopefully I'll get some work done on Mai's quilt...maybe even Alishia's if I can commandeer some floor space someplace.

Infinite Awws

Get ready for some adorableness folks!  This post is just loaded with it!

 First up, Miss Shelby.  Yeah, she's the adorable destroyer of hard drives.  That computer no longer functions. Probably not related to her, but I can blame her anyways.

 It's a comfy quilt.

 The man of my dreams chillin' with his third ladylove.

 Asleepin'.

 Eater of hair.

 Nom nom nom.

 <3 Sun

 Purdy girl

 My design bulletin board.

 I have a few blocks for the princess quilt done.

Sort of playing with the idea of using these as flowers in my bridal bouquet...thoughts?

Friday Fave Five!!! #5

Phew, another week gone by already??  The days are getting longer, so how can these weeks keep getting shorter??  It's been a great week though.  I'm pretty sure it rained Monday, but the past couple of days the weather has been so great that I honestly don't remember if it did or not.

On that note, my Friday Fave Five:

1. Summer beer.  God bless the Germans, they know their beer and they know what to do with it.  This lovely little concoction is half UFO (Hefeweizen) and half lemonade.  That's right, lemonade.  Any white beer works, but the unfiltered kinds tend to work best I think.  It tastes like summer.  I had one glass last night and just wanted to jump in Helen and drive. (Wendy, Helen is the van.  Yes, that VW beauty is our van...she's our first child, for all intents and purposes.  She needs a lotta lovin' and some new tires, but she's pretty badass.  She made it all the way up to Newfoundland and back last summer, with only a few small mishaps along the way.  You'll hear plenty more about Helen in the coming weeks though, I'm sure.  I'm going to need to fix up her canvas by hand, so there will be reports.)

Anyways, don't judge me on the glass...MOTU doesn't have a dishwasher, so it's sort of the dish equivalent of laundry day right now.  Good thing he's working from home today and has sworn to do it before I get there...I HATE doing dishes by hand.  HATE IT.

2. Project success!  I decided to make my cousin (who just had a baby) a diaper bag instead of a stuffed animal of some sort, and it came out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself!

I won't lie though...I cut out double the pieces and plan on making one more of these.  I'll send her the better one and keep the other one for myself.  Maybe I'll get more fabrics and turn this into my giveaway prize. I love the colors on this though.  The butterflies is light courderoy (fine bumps) and the pink is coarse courderoy (big bumps).  The gray is just thick lineny material I found...I really dig it as the inside of the bag though, it's nice and heavy but still washable.  The whole thing is machine washable actually.

3. My kitty.  He is just so...special.  Thursday night, I was making dinner and heard him making the same noise he made when Shelby ate his food the first time...this long, low howl that kind of raises the hairs on the back of my neck.  It's eerie.  I went to find him, and he was looking out the storm door to the back yard.  It was after dark, so I figured he'd been conversing with another kitty outside.  I didn't see one run away, so I flipped the porch light on...nothing.  Grisgris stopped howling and started sniffing at the door, but didn't see his friend anymore so he started purring.  I turned the light back off and went to walk away, but as soon as I turned back around Grisgris started howling again.  I went over to see what he was looking at and realized...he was howling at his shadow on the ground outside!!!  It looked like a black kitty and kept moving around (because he did), so he thought there was an intruder who wouldn't talk to him!  I about fell on the floor I was laughing so hard.

He reminds me a lot of Alex the Lion from Madagascar. Pretty boy, kinda slow, goes completely wild sometimes, but all in all he means well.

He jumped out a window (first floor) yesterday to get outside, then hid under the trailer every time I tried to get him back in.  He's a little punk.  But I love him dearly.

4. One more week!  I have to say, every time I make the commute in or out now, I am a little more excited about not making it ever again.  Even on the good days, it still takes 45 minutes plus each way and I'm just so over that.  I can't wait until I can bike to work again too.  And have time in the evenings to run, cook, AND sew.

5. Spring skimpies!  This is what MOTU calls it.  At first, I was sort of offended (or at least annoyed) by both the term and the attention, but let's face it...it's a seasonal rite of passage.  What woman doesn't love that first day where it's technically still a little cool out, but darn it, it's been months since your shoulders have seen the sun so it's time for a tank top?  Apparently the boys love this time of year as well...the first day that women suddenly *aren't* wearing hoodies and parkas and jeans...some of us opt for the hoodie and shorts, some opt for tank top and jeans.  Personally, I know my legs glow in the dark so I'm all for jeans.  What's your spring skimpy style?


Addendum:

Another fave for this Friday?  The Friday Night Sew-In, of course!!




I'll have another post later to organize my thoughts for tonight.  I know I'm going to make another bag, and I'll probably put the top together for Emily's Matilda's baby blanket.  It's a pink/green/white rail fence, nothing spectacular.  I think I'll call it Fencing Matilda.

Also, I need to start doing labels for my quilts.  The QFK ones came with labels, but I didn't put one on Abby's Road.  I thought about it and sort of meant to, but then got excited about sending it to her and forgot entirely.

More Boring Posts

Ever feel like headbutting stuff? I do.



It's maybe not always the *best* idea in the world though.

I found that while I was looking for a clip of one of the baby dinosaurs growling.  I know I'm not crazy here...I know there's a part where one of them is just sitting there going "rawr rawr rawr rawr" with this childish angry look on its face.  That is absolutely how I'm feeling today.  I'm not really angry, I just want my damn sewing machine back!!  I keep looking at all these projects and I wanna sew!  Argh!

In other news, MOTU and I have applied to adopt this little cutie:

Her name is Marlow, but that's not gonna stick.  We're trying to find something better.  She's a purebred pitbull at one of the local shelters, not even 2 months old yet.  She'll be ready to go home with us (we hope) after Easter.

I also found this, which I'm going to make for my cousin who just had her second baby:

http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/diaper-bag-pattern.html

You know, as soon as I get my @(*&^%#*( machine back.  Rawr.

teeny tiny scrappy little pinwheel

from the ends I cut last night from the borders for the qfk quilts. thinking one of these days I'll have a "scraps for kids" quilt.

Panoramic Room Shots

Here are a couple of panoramic shots of the room, sans carpeting.

Isn't that hardwood GORGEOUS??  I LOVE the dark stain and the wide boards!!!  I'm all giddy just looking at it!

 

From the other side.  You can see where we're thinking of putting the bed (masking tape).  The far left is the space we're using for the bathroom.  The plumbing for the whole house comes in at that corner, so it shouldn't be too hard to extend...famous last words.  MOTU is calling a plumber today to see about it.  That's going to be the toilet and shower space.  In the above picture, the space to the left of the window is where the vanity/sinks will go.   I'm so excited to get going on this!  I'm thinking darker denimish blue for the trim and a lighter denimish blue for the walls.  Kind of gray blue I guess.  For the bed quilt I'm thinking something white/blue and traditional...I'm not sure I'm excited about a log cabin design, but something of that vintage I guess.  For the headboard I'm still at a loss.  MOTU really wants something quilted for there too, but I'm afraid two quilts right next to each other like that will get busy and ugly pretty quickly.  Anyone out there done a quilt for a headboard before?  I'd love some help on this!

I leave my computer for a few hours...

And look what happens!!  Thanks, CJ, for cluing me in!  I might not have checked back in until tomorrow! 

Can't wait until next month's sew-in...third Friday of every month now.  I'm glad it's a Friday night...this time I was up (don't judge) until...4:30...am...I couldn't stop!  But I didn't need to function yesterday, so it worked out. 

This is what MOTU and I accomplished this weekend: 

There used to be a few more walls in here. 

 

This one it's maybe more obvious that there used to be walls here.  The right part is going to be where we put the bed, once all's said and done.  In the other picture, the leftmost wall is going to be one long closet, sticking out about 4 inches further than the wall sticks out now.  The space created in the back right where the wall juts out is going to be a vanity with a big mirror and two sinks (fancy!).  Behind the wall on the right there is going to be the shower/toilet with a door.  It's hard to describe with just these pictures, but it's going to be fun to make it "our" space.  

Also, I just realized these were from before we got the carpet up.  Under that nasty carpet is (ready for this?) GORGEOUS hardwood floor!!!  WHO COVERS THAT UP???  It's a disaster though, with paint all over it and a big black stain, and half the floor isn't even stained.  We're going to have to put in some work to make it pretty again, but my heart just leaped out of my chest when I saw it!  MOTU wanted to put down some kind of laminate and I just about cried at the thought of covering it up again.  I convinced him to let us keep it.  :-D 

SO!  That leads me to a general poll.  I need ideas.  This is going to be the first space that will really be "ours".  This house is in his name, we're not married, and I don't actually live here (yet).  It's hard to feel like I'm more than a roommate...or at least it was until today.  It's got a definite rustic vibe to it, and I want to make us a quilt to fit the space.  We're going to repaint the room, but haven't decided on exact colors (I like blue, but I like blue for everything).  I also need to make something for a headboard since what he's got right now (seriously) is...a sleeping bag nailed to the wall.  I wish I were kidding.  At least it's soft and plaid.  So...what do you suggest?  If you had a room to decorate in a rustic-ish fashion, starting from scratch, what would you do?  

Also, I'm not opposed to learning how to make a rug to go with everything too, so if you have opinions/suggestions on that, I'm all ears.  

Thanks again, Heidi and CJ!!