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!)