Lovely Package - From Me

Short post - my Internet is working at home today!

This is the package I sent off for the Lovely Package exchange:



Haven't received mine in the mail yet, but I'll post when I do (and can).

August Already?

It's hard to believe that August is already here. It's been quite a busy summer. My husband just got back about a week and half ago - he's just about done with the Navy and is home for good!

He was totally sweet and surprised me when he flew in. My parents knew and tricked me into going to the airport to supposedly pick up some packages my dad needed for work. When we walked into the airport - there he was! I think I just stared at him at first, because it took a minute to sink in. The thought had crossed my mind during the week that he could surprise me, but I didn't really think he would. It didn't even occur to me that night, because I didn't think he'd be flying in to that airport.

It's wonderful to have him back.

The Internet, on the other hand... It's slightly difficult to get to right now. We're staying at his parents' vacation house, which does not have Internet access. We're using a wireless network which is kind of sketchy. I had high hopes to get back into some sewing, crafting, blogging, etc. but it looks like it will be slow going. I'm using most of my time trying to catch up on some of the blogs I like!

Lovely

Heidi alerted me to the Lovely Package Exchange. I just signed up. Tonight's the last night - hurry!

Another Goodbye

It's been quite a hectic few weeks. Last night, my grandfather passed away. This is the second grandparent I've lost, one on each side of the family. He fell a couple weeks ago and cut open the back of his head; since then, his health just got worse and worse. Much of the family was there last night, and I'm so grateful for all the support we have through these tough times. He was a good man who always made us laugh. He'll be missed.

In Memory...

My grandma passed away this weekend. She was diagnosed with cancer in December, and her body was too weak to fight off an infection that hit her last week. It's hard to believe that she's really gone. This is the first grandparent I've lost, and it's just so strange to think that someone who has been a part of my life since I was born isn't here anymore. I believe that I will see her again someday, and knowing that this separation isn't forever and that she's been freed from the troubles of this world brings me comfort. My family and I appreciate any prayers - thank you!

Projects I Plan to Finish... Perhaps

I started a few "refashioning" projects a couple of months ago. Then my husband came home on leave, and since then I've just been busy. I have a couple of bridal showers coming up, and a very low budget for new clothes, so if I just had the time to finish these... problem solved. However, this is what it all looks like right now:

What's in the box? (Not cheese, but I do recommend this company!)

Unwearable clothes - yippee!

A soon-to-be cardigan: Old pullover that had just shrunk too much, with hand-crocheted trim and flowers (still not sure about the khaki trim)

An old shirt (already cut apart): I was thinking about using this to make some floppy flower embellishments, then wasn't sure, then I saw Blair's post and I'm back to that idea...

Another old sweater which will become a cardigan - and this one needs hardly any work, just some sewing up the middle. Not too summery, though :(

My tank top! I was ALMOST finished when I hit a bump in the road and stopped...

This is the section that gave me the trouble! There's some hand sewing here and I totally messed up on that. But I got some tips from Amy (thank you!) and I'm ready to finish it up!

So, those are my projects. Maybe someday I can show the completed "new" clothes!

Traveling Turkey

I just had to share these pictures I took on my phone the other day....


If you look closely, you can see the TURKEY sitting in the front seat of this man's car. (I know it's a man's car because he came outside soon after I took these pictures.) Pet turkey? Dinner? Who knows!

New Job!

I've been looking for a new job for a while, and I found out on Friday that I got one! I had an interview at a Chase branch last Monday, and I start work as a teller two weeks from today. I called my husband as soon as I found out, and he must have called the florist right afterwards, because look what showed up on Saturday:

(Sorry for the poor quality, I forgot to take one during daylight hours so this is a quickie from Photo Booth). Isn't that sweet of him? :) We've been apart for a while now, and it was so nice of him to think of sending flowers from the other side of the country.

There were several reasons I was looking for something new. #1: I needed more hours (right now I've been working 2 part-time jobs totaling only about 20-25 hr. a week, plus some subbing off and on when school was in). I thought this one was going to be about 20 hours a week, but they told me they had a 30 hour position also, and they'd like me for that one. #2: One of my current jobs is constantly on-call, where I find out around lunchtime when (or whether) I'll be working that afternoon/evening. It's not ideal to begin with, and I especially didn't want to deal with that once my husband and I are back in the same house.

This is a huge blessing, and such a relief. My husband is leaving the Navy this August, and we'll be relocating back home to Sonoma County. I think I've applied for something like 50 jobs or so (several of which were very vague, Craigslist postings), and this was the first one that I got called in for an interview. The job situation has been stressful, but this opportunity has really helped with that. I'll keep one of my other jobs (which is only about 8-10 hrs) but I gave my notice for the other already. Now we just need to figure out what the boy will do. Yay!

Swallowfield

Over at WiseCraft, Blair has started having monthly sponsors. This month the sponsor is Jen Judd-McGee of Swallowfield. The previews on WiseCraft tempted me to wander into her Etsy store, and now? Well, now I'm trying to decide what I want.

I recently found a gift card from Christmas that I'd thought was long gone (I have a tendency to put things in weird places and find them months later....) so I designated part of it as "Etsy money." The problem with vague "Etsy money" is that there are far too many things I like on Etsy. Swallowfied, though... Like I said, I'm trying to decide what I want. It appeared in the right place at the right time. I'm fond of the collages, such as this one:


However, I think my budget is running more towards prints. (Check out WiseCraft for some special offers!)

Browsing Registries

My (little) brother is getting married this August. I was taking a look at their registry and thought about how interesting it is to look at what people have picked out for themselves. Whenever I hear that someone I know, even slightly, is getting married, I try to find their registry. Does anyone else do this? I feel a little stalkerish, but it's fun. You can see what someone's taste is, how well they put things together (or don't), and sometimes how well tastes or ideas are combined between bride and groom.

In this case, however, I am supposed to look, so yay! And then I start looking for other things, putting my own twist on their style... but that's mostly all daydreaming. I tend to "shop" for things I can't afford. This, though, is cute:


And it's only $28. The brother and fiancee are doing all sorts of bright colors, especially orange in the kitchen. This has that accent of orange that really stands out against the blue, and it doesn't even need flowers! I have several vases that rarely get used, but they're clear. Clear = hard to use as empty accessories. Hmmm...

And on a(nother) side note, looking at their registry makes me miss all my stuff. I've been living with my parents since August, and I can't wait to be back in my own home with my boy and all of our things. I'm super grateful for my parents, and my mom has some stuff that I don't have, but it's hers. It also makes me remember registering and how I would revise some of that if I were to do it over again today. Did I really need to register for a pineapple corer/slicer?!

I Love Free Things!

This morning I got a phone call asking whether I'd like some stuff from an old house that's about to be torn down. Score! I now have a little chest of drawers just crying out for a makeover, and two old doors on hold - one with 10 panes of beveled glass and a fabulous old glass knob, and another solid wood paneled one that may become our 1st headboard (that's right, after 3 1/2 years we still don't have a "real" bed, just a box spring and mattress on the frame that came with them). No picture, since it's now nighttime and it's in the back of the car, but it may reappear as my own before & after another day.

Being on a *very* limited budget, haha, I've been slowly collecting things for our one-day house. I was catching up on some Design*Sponge before & afters and had to share this one. I have chairs that are similar:

This photo is the one from their Craigslist listing, and it doesn't quite do justice to the color... Aren't they a great shape, though?!

I got them for free off of Craigslist, and I want to reupholster them myself (because it sounds fun), but I don't know what I'm doing so I'm afraid to start. I'm also afraid of how much it will cost to have someone else do it, so I'm in a bit of a pickle. But someday, they'll be great! :) I'm glad she used a print on the ones on Design*Sponge, because I've been wondering how a print would look with those backs... The jury is still out. I'm not exactly close to working on that project, though, so I guess the fabric decision can wait.

Tomorrow I'm off to SoCal for my future sister-in-law's college graduation - Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Green Things

I have a thing for trees (not unlike a certain Dr. who has a thing for ferry boats... haha). But seriously, I really like them. Trees and ferns and mossy things. Green things. Forest-y things.

So I give you some forest-y photos:


Also: One day during my student teaching, a little boy described to me something he found at the park. It was "tiny little grass", he said. "Like this," and he pointed to some moss.

Weeder's Digest

My favorite thing at Design*Sponge is the Weeder's Digest. LOVE it. The photos are beautiful and make me happy. They make me want to be a florist. Check it out if you haven't seen it before.

Hello, again!

Well, my husband headed back to Virginia for the summer; the bright side is that I have more computer time. Semi-bright.

I just wanted to write a quick post to get back in. A few vacation photos - Monterey and Disneyland:

Monterey Bay Aquarium - loved it!

My boy & me at the aquarium :)

View out of our window at the Disneyland Hotel

The Matterhorn from an Autopia car

Us!

Time Off...

The last few weeks I've been BUSY trying to get ahead on schoolwork, so it's been quiet over here. The reason? My husband is back! He was stationed overseas for the past 8 months, but now he's on leave and we're just busy spending time together. :) We have a vacation coming up next week - should be fun!

He'll be around for about a month - so until then, there may not be any updates. But check back later on.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Image from The Kitchn

My Purse

This is the purse I mentioned. I used the Fiona bag pattern from Jenna Lou's Etsy shop, and it was very easy to use. She sells completed bags, too. :)


I made this last fall, and was really wanting something plaid. The upper part is a green/blue/cream plaid, and the rest of the bag is a brown corduroy. I lined it with a blue/tealish fabric and made myself some wonky little pockets for my cell phone, iPod, and lip gloss. I also made a little loop for my keys (which I keep on a caribiner), because I loathe digging for them.

I keep seeing this, the Buttercup bag, all over the (blog) world. It'll be one of my next projects, as soon as I decide what to make it with.

Tote Bag

I've been meaning to post this since last week, but when I went to upload the pictures, my camera decided its battery was dead. So I took the battery out, charged it, and forgot. Today, I decided to finally get those pictures onto my computer, but when I tried to connect the camera, nothing happened.... Lo and behold, I had forgotten to put the battery back in. :) Oops.

This bag itself had quite a lengthy, yet unexciting story as well. A while back I made myself a small purse, and my best friend asked if I would make her a bag - not a purse, but a bigger bag she could use for school. Sometime before Christmas, we met at Joann's to pick out fabric, and she bought a pattern, too. Then we headed back to my house to teach her how to sew. We had quite a bit of trouble with the bobbins and threading the machine and other things that I really do know how to do, but for some reason everything kept going wrong. We made it about halfway through before the thread got weird again, and she needed to get home. I set it aside and meant to get together with her again to finish it, but things kept coming up and it never happened. About two weeks ago, I pulled the bag out and decided to just finish it myself. And I did just that.

So, this may be anticlimactic by this point, but I present: our tote bag


The bag was pretty big - there are two 2-liter soda bottles inside of it holding it up, and I could have fit one more inside. The pattern was for an unlined bag, but we decided to line it since the fabric she picked for the outside wasn't great on the wrong side and a lining is just more fun. It's basically a big rectangle hemmed and sewn up the long sides. Then the bottom corners were boxed, which was really confusing in the pattern directions. I had seen a website before, and I looked back it when I was trying to figure this out and it made much more sense. Now, however, I can't seem to find the website... This one is pretty good, though. I've seen others cut a square out of the corners and then sew it up, but that seems more complicated to me. It was very easy once I figured it out!

Update: The pattern is The Green Pepper Market Tote, found here

Spring Wallpaper

I don't know about you, but I change the wallpaper on my desktop ALL the time. Over at Kindred, they have great, free wallpapers. They're using it as a way to showcase independent artists and designers. The first one I clicked happened to be from Hadley Hutton, whom I've seen (and loved) over at Etsy. No need to look farther! Although I did, in fact, look farther because I was curious. Now my computer looks like this:


Yay for pretty spring things! Head over to Kindred to get your own.

Barry

This is "my" band's album cover, or something like that... haha. I think we're kind of mellow but not too serious.

This is just something I got from Dork-a-thon, a fun little time-waster :)

Here’s how it works:

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”

The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations”

The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”

Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Wicked

Guess where I was on Friday night? That's right - we went to see Wicked! This was my Christmas present from my parents. I didn't really know what to expect. I knew it had something to do with the witches of Oz, and I'd heard it was good, but that was all. I really liked it. It was funny and entertaining and had a good story, plus it's just fun to go down to the city and see a show. We had dinner at PF Chang's on the way there - which was delicious.




If you're in the Bay Area, or New York, or if you can catch Wicked on the tour - I highly recommend it! Catch it before it's gone...

Coming Home Someday

Lucky
Jason Mraz featuring Colbie Caillat

Do you hear me,
I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying
Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair
Though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I'm lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

I'm really liking this song right now.

Rainy Travel

It has been rainy around here, which I must confess, I enjoy. I don't enjoy getting wet on my way from the car into a store, or into work, but other than that, I like the rain. I also like thinking about places I could travel to someday... some far distant day. Here are a few of the places I want to visit, rainy (or not):


Clockwise: Paris, Egypt, Costa Rica (somewhere rainforest-y), Ireland, Japan, San Francisco (my favorite city!), Venice (this is technically Murano), and Germany.

Tickled Pink!

I won fabric! Sew, Mama, Sew! was doing a weekly giveaway during February, and last week, I won a set of pink fat quarters! It was so fun to get my package in the mail. :)


I got:
Alexander Henry - All Cotton - Cute, yes?


Pink Gingham - maybe from Tanya Whelan's Darla collection?


Erin McMorris - Park Slope - Poppy Dot Floral


Amy Butler - Midwest Modern - Happy Dots - how great is that name? Happy dots. :)


Alexander Henry - Spring Mix


Heather Bailey - Bijoux - Tiled Primrose


Yay for winning things!