A creative mess...

Well hello there!  :)  I'm very happy to say it's Thursday!  Thursday is my second favorite day of the week.  It's filled with the anticipation of Friday, the first best day.  I imagine some people prefer Saturday, but I enjoy looking forward to it instead.  :)

Today my girl's class had a mother's day tea party.  It was fun.  I, unfortunately, had to join the class in a 'chicken dance.'  I'm not big on doing such things...  I made lemon-poppyseed cupcakes and lemon bars for the occasion.  Unfortunately, I have some extras...fewer now than this morning.  0;D

I don't have any finished projects to share with you today.  I hate to use such terms, but I imagine I might be considered as having ADD.  I can't stand to focus on (aka finish) one thing at a time.  So right now I still have that bunting to finish, I've started on another pillow project, I bought a crochet pattern (one of SO many I desire to do) and I'm putting fabrics in hoops.  Oh, and I started on my Single Girl a while back (it's going to take me forever).

Here is the beginnings of my new pillow project. 

note the classic foot-in-photo shot.  lovely socks... :D

I ran out of buttons to cover!  Don't you absolutely hate it when you want to do something and you don't have what you need?  Agh!!!  On the left you can see some of my yummy beads (I made a few pairs of earrings the other day) and my hoops in progress,

I love the threads too...

I hesitate to show you my ugly blue carpet, but you know, it is what it is, and there are too many other things to do before we replace it (she says with disappointment). :)

I can't wait to show you the super-cute crochet pattern I bought, but for whatever reason I can't seem to bring myself to sit and work on it...strange.

These are some leftover bits of fabric from my button making.  I like the shape...

And lastly, a funny little story.  My girl takes a card making class after school.  The other day she said she made our cat a card.  Well she actually 'gave' it to her.  The cat was on jj's truck. It was so cute...

Hope you have a great weekend!  :)

Hello Hello!

Well hello there!  It's been quite a while, hasn't it?  It feels so good to blog again.  I've meant to so many times, but I just didn't do it.  It takes me a long time...or at least it feels like it.  I can only assume that's what deters me.  I've noticed lately that I do a lot of things too slowly. 

Anyhoo, I have a story.  Back in November of last year my sewing machine broke.  When I turned it on it made this horrible noise...the screen didn't come up and the needle didn't move.  Well I was busy with the holiday preparations so I put it off.  For whatever reason the holidays bog me down mentally, and I pretty much shut off except for doing the baking and decorating essentials.  :)

Well February came along and I was finally out of my holiday funk (told you I was slow...) and I wanted to sew.  So I brought my machine in for service.  A week went by and I got a message saying essentially my motherboard was fried and it would cost $350 to replace.  I gave consent and expected it back the next week.  But no, it wasn't ready.  The guy said the part was due in the next day and I should have it back next week (they only pick up the machines on Wednesdays).  Long story short, there was very poor communication and I had to put jj on the case.  :)  Apparently they had to order the part directly from Germany, and the first one they received was faulty.  And then another part broke while they were fixing the one.  So after 7 or 8 weeks I finally got my machine back!  :/  What a mess!  But I'm so happy to have it back, though it acts a little differently now.  :(  After all that, I paid a little more than half of what it would cost to get a new machine.  But the guy told me that my machine was one of the better ones and that they don't make them quite as well anymore, so I feel better.  :)

I've been slightly productive.  I started a bunting using vintage sheets.  I love buntings and I love vintage sheets!

I made a wreath with vintage sheet strips.  I'm not 100% happy with it.  My wreath form is too skinny.  I don't have a pic.  Maybe I'll do that later...

When the whole embroidery hoops as wall decor thing started I just didn't get it.  But the more I saw them the more I thought...what a great way to display some of my favorite fabrics.  I could have covered canvases with them too, I suppose.  Anyhoo, I'm finding it difficult to decide just which ones to use.

And let me tell you, living out of bins is annoying!  But my craft room is so close to being finished.  SO close!  We're getting the moulding up now!  Woo!  I can't wait to decorate it and show pictures.

Note the cabinet and shelf trying to share the same space?  Yet another reason I can't wait for my bins to get out of the living room!  They take up all the space.

I hope this is the start of more blogging.  It didn't take all that long to do this time...

Enjoy your day!

Sneak peek!

My craft room is SO close to being done! Too bad there was no sunlight...

I'm in the mood for yarn...

Hello Again!  I thought I'd share something I made last week.  Or was it this week?  Anyhow, I may have mentioned before that I like to collect old windows.  I had jj put little screws on the bottom to hang little things, but I haven't gotten around to making anything cute to hang.  However, I did make this mini bunting for the one.  I think it looks adorable...really gives it some character, as my mom might say.  I love projects that can be completed in a small amount of time.  You know me...that's about the only way anything will ever get finished!  This one was way-fast, even with the 1/4" binding.

We went to Vancouver, BC, recently and I went to Urban Yarns, a very cute little shop and bought this:

Why is it that I always have the urge to work with yarn when the weather warms up?  (Maybe because I'm crazy...)  I love when they ask you what you're making.  Will I ever be able to give a specific answer to that question?  It's not that I don't have specific projects in wait, but I don't know which project this yarn will end up in!  :)

 I'm actually working on a blanket though.  I have a high failure rate on large projects, but I'm really trying on this one.  I started off striping with complete randomness, but as I arranged the balls of yarn I found I really liked the progression of similar colors.  I'm much happier with the new striping, but I'm not about to redo the old...

This will be for my girl, I think.  It's definitely on the girly side.  And it's going to have an excellent story behind it..."See this tight part?  That's when my mom worked on it during my first week of school!"  Yes.  My tension created a much tighter tension.  So I have a tight, though beautiful, section of stripes that cause the first section of stripes to ruffle a bit.  (No, I'm not going to show you.)  But you know what?  I'm not fixing it!  Not only would that not be my style, but it really is a cute story.  Now if only I could stop gritting my teeth...  :D

I rather like the ends.  Maybe I'll do a fringe...

I noticed that all my pictures looked blurry like the top one here.  The bottom picture is uploaded directly to Blogger, whereas the other I put on flickr first.  This uploaded one is much more crisp.  I guess I'll stick to this method.  By the way, I fixed all the others.

Up and running!

Hello, hello!  According to Blogger I've been without a computer for more than two months, and that's about what it felt like.  At first it was slightly refreshing not having a computer...though in what capacity, I don't know, because I still had my phone.  But you know, after a while that tiny screen starts feeling really tiny.  So here I am, with a new screen (though different, and not as brilliant as my old one) and a newly-fixed internet connection.  (Yup, that 'broke' too.)  I must say, it feels really good to look at a large screen and type on a real keyboard.  Aaahhhhh...

So I hope you've all been having a better summer that I have.  Oh wait!  Summer is over now, isn't it?  Craziness!  I don't really know how I feel about that.  I love fall weather, but I'm not ready for the early sunset.  Really, really not ready!  Are you ready for fall?  (Or spring for my opposite-end friends.)

jj was going to mow the lawn, so I gathered the slugs and brought them to safety

I wish I had something wonderful to tell you about.  Actually, I might...but you know I don't remember anything.  So for now I'll just say "Hi, I'm back!"  And I'll talk to you later...

Today is a special day

Hello! I haven't been around for a while because June pretty much sucked the life out of me. Oh it was a horrible month! And what better way to send off a month than with a broken laptop screen. Ahh, no better way. So this will probably be a pictureless post.

I have so many things I could share, but let's wait until I can do so with my regular camera and keyboard, shall we? (jj keeps interrupting me with text messages!)

So, you want to know what's special about today? Today's my 12th wedding anniversary! And that means that tomorrow will be the first day of our 13th year! (13 is my lucky number!) I don't really expect anything amazing to happen, it just makes it special.

Want to know something else that's wonderful and unintentionally timed perfectly? Well, I decided to start eating right months ago and I'm officially my pre-pregnancy weight!!!! Woo! (Please note that I said pre-pregnancy, not pre-marriage. I have a bit to go before that happens!)

Of course that means new clothes, as my other pants very literally fall off while I'm walking! :) I can't tell you how wonderful it was to walk into my old favorite store (Eddie Bauer) and fit into whatever I tried on! (not to say that everything looked good, of course! ;D) It feels amazing!

Okay, that's enough for now. Thank you for sharing my joy. Hope you have a lovely day! I'll be back with some sharing as soon as we get my poor computer fixed...

I need to vent!

I apologize in advance. There will be no fabric talk, no yummy pictures, but I need a shoulder or 100 to cry on. I think anyone with a daughter thinks she's the most beautiful girl in the world, and I'm no exception. My sweet girl loves pink (yay!), she's goofy as can be, and a few months ago her hair finally grew out long enough that I could get her a fabulous haircut. Sounds silly, right? But it truly looks great on her...it's the kind where the back is a little shorter than the front.

I bet you think you know where I'm going with this, because I know when I was a little girl I decided to 'give myself a haircut.' My poor mom must have been sick! But no, there's more... The kids were over at jj's dad's house for a sleep over. They love that, and it makes for an excellent date night for jj and me. So yesterday we went to pick them up and I walked in to see my little girl with bangs! Awkwardly-short, uneven bangs with a curled-under 'bob' hairdo! He took them to get their hair cut! I feel sick, just sick! It'll take a year to grow those back out again, and my baby starts school in September. I don't even know how to cope with this! If she had taken the scissors to her own hair I would be no less sad, but at least it would make sense, but this... (deep breath)

Thank you for listening. I'm trying to get it out of my system and move on, but needless to say, it's going to take some time. :(