Here, there, everywhere.

I have been a bad blogger lately.  I mean well, I just do not sit down and put fingers to the keyboard.  I probably should break this down into different posts, but I like making a long one! :)

There has been a lot going on over in our neck of the woods.  February we celebrated Emma and Brian’s birthdays.  This year everyone came to us to celebrate.  It was nice having Mom fix lunch and everything else for us.  DeAnne did another amazing job with Brian’s cake.  For those who have not seen it yet; here is his iPod cake. Although his is silver, DeAnne figured a silver/gray cake would not be very appealing to eat.  She had all the details of the iPod included.  I’m not a big fan of fondant, but I do like DeAnne’s.  She makes her from scratch with marshmallow cream and powdered sugar. How can you go wrong with that?  The ear buds were very neat in that she had the shape and everything down to a T.  I still do not fully understand why she does not do these for people.  She could make a killing off them! 

For Emma this year, we all chipped in to get her a Nintendo DS.  She was very excited when she opened her gift, but she is her daddy’s daughter, she does not show excitement much.  Daniel never shows excited about anything.  Emma was grinning from ear to ear when she opened her gift; which I took as a good sign she was excited.

For Valentine’s we stayed home.  This is the first year since we have been dating we did not go to Clarksdale.  While I love going, we have saturated everything there is to do there.  Instead we had a quite evening at home.  Brian picked up my favorite pizza from Pizza Factory and we at off the wedding china and drank champagne out of the crystal.   It was quite fun eating pizza and staying in.  I love my china and really should get in the habit of using it more.  One thing my mother taught me (even thought she doesn’t practice it much) is to actually use your china.  Why wait for a “special” occasion to use it?  For dessert, Brian bought me petit fours as part of my Valentine’s gift.  This is actually all I asked for. I LOVE petit fours!  It’s a good thing they are such a pain to make otherwise I would be making them all the time!

The week after Valentine’s we had a beer tasting of the beer Brian brewed.  For Christmas, I got him a beer brewing kit.  Now, it was no where near involved as Michael’s (see Casey’s blog for his process and her 100th post!), but he enjoyed it.  I did not think to take pictures of the process, but I do have one of all the bottles (we went ghetto and used water bottles) before we starting drinking them.  Do not fear!  We use pints to drink out of.  We were nuts to not taste the beer before we let anyone, but we did it.  I was so scared of what the beer would taste like and that it might be flat. Let me be the first to say I was pleasantly surprised! As you can see it’s a light amber brew.  I believe it was called a pale ale, but it’s a little more amber than most pale ales.  It had a nice citrus taste to it.  We did discover that home brews do tend to have a higher alcohol content.  For some reason that never crossed my mind!

I completely forgot to get a picture of Brian with a pint of it, but I do have Meredith enjoying a glass of it!  

By the end of the afternoon, all the beers were gone!  I do believe others thought it was drinkable too.  I cannot wait for him to try his hand at a different brew.  I would love for him to get the hops and try it all from scratch at some point!

 

I have not been sewing much this month; seems like too much as been going on for me to sit down for a couple of hours to sew.  I did though finish my lunch bag.  Please do not judge me or look closely at it.  This was my first time making anything like this so it does have PLENTY of mistakes.  I am looking forward to making a few more.  Even with all the mistakes it turned out pretty well.  I just need to pick up some clothes pins to use to close it. 

I have some of oilcloth left over so I plan make a few of those pocket bibs.  I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out.  I really like using the oilcloth.  There are so many things that can be made with the oilcloth.  I have seen a few placemats that might be fun to whip up.  Speaking of household items, I picked up a few new pattern books the weekend my family was in town.  One is full of retro aprons (I have become in love with aprons) and then one is different types of linens; napkins, placemats, shopping bags, dishtowels, etc. 

A week from tomorrow we are heading on vacation for one glorious week! Saturday through Wednesday we will be in Pigeon Forges with my family.  I have never been to the mountains; so I am looking forward to a little mountain getaway.  It will be so nice to get away from everything and just be enjoying the scenery.  Wednesday thought Saturday Brian and I will be in Asheville.  We decided to find something near Pigeon Forges for us to finish out the week.  Neither one of us have been to Asheville plus it is only an hour and half from Pigeon Forges.  We plan to tour the Biltmore and winery, take in a Brew Cruise, possible ghost tour, St. Patrick’s day fun, and much more!  I’m looking forward to a relaxing week away from everything. 

I am getting the itch to pick up a cross-stitching project.  Not sure what I want to do, but I do have few patterns to choose from.  Maybe next time I’m in Alabama, I’ll pick up some fabric and start one.  Right now at night, I’m working on another baby blanket.  I just started a random one to have something to do while watching TV (I’m the type who has to have something to do while watching TV.  I very rarely just sit and watch TV; I feel like I’m wasting time if I do not have something to do.).  Turns out this one will be for our good friends Tyler and Whitney!  They just found out they are having a boy; I knew I decided to do a blue one for a reason. :)

Oh!  For those who haven’t heard (and this shows you how bad of a blogger I have been) I got a promotion last month!  I’m uber excited about it and have been going none stop at work.  I am still in the same group, reports, I am just now the manager. Hopefully soon, I will find a new hire to replace me.  I am in need of more help. 

A little sewing going on.

This month I have spent a lot of time sewing.  I am really enjoying learning how to do more things while sewing.  One of my goals for this year is to make several projects out of my Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts (MSFSFC).  I can’t wait to share with you what I make from it.

Back before Christmas I picked up fabric and a pattern to make pj pants for B and I .  During Christmas I had Mom help me work on B’s due to I wasn’t confident to work on them alone.  With her helping and showing me a few things, B’s pants turned out well.  This past weekend I cut out and sewed my pair.  I love them!  They are super soft (we both picked out flannel for the winter) and comfy.  I look forward to making light weight cotton ones for us this spring/summer.  I think I might try to modify the pattern some next time around.  Wish me luck! 

About a week or more ago I 99% completed my first project from MSFSFC; an oilcloth lunch bag.  Sure I didn’t really need it, but I was dying to use oilcloth and who doesn’t need a cute new lunch bag.  All I lack on the bag is topstitching it, but I’m not sure how to start on it.  In a couple of weeks when Mom, Dad, DeAnne, Daniel, and the girls come to town I’m going to get Mom to help me on this.  I didn’t do so hot on the first try, but I will be making more of these. I really enjoyed working with oilcloth and am looking for ideas of things to make from it.  There is a child’s apron that I might just have to make for the girls and then those pocket bibs for my dream of an Etsy shop. :)

I learned how to make a couple of new things over the past 2 weeks. I have always wanted to learn how to appliqué.  There are so many cute dishtowels, pillows, towels, shirts, bags, etc. I see in all shops but have a hard time paying when I know I could sit down and do it myself.  It seems so hard, but in reality it’s not at all.  Mom showed me the basics over Christmas to help me get started.  Last week or so, I gathered up the supplies I needed to try out appliquéing myself. The first attempt was a heart dishtowel for Valentine’s Day.  I made a few mistakes and learned what not to do next time, but all in all it turned out fine.  I also made a heart hand towel too.  I don’t have a picture of it on hand, but I’ll try to remember to take one to share later.  The waffle dishtowel did cause a little problem when stitching around the heart.  It would catch and just stay in place instead of gliding alone.  With practice, I should be able to master using this type of towel since I do love how it soaks up water.  I plan on doing a shamrock and Easter egg one for St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. Maybe one day I will be able to make the gorgeous towels I see in all the stores! 

The second technique I learned this week is making my own bias tape.  Who knew it was this easy to make your own!  Bias tape allows for a quick clean finish on items instead of having to hem everything. I use bias tape on all the aprons I have made so far.  For Christmas, I got a 1/2” bias tape maker in my stocking and I picked up a 1” maker the other day.  I learned my lesson on this one too.  It’s not like the pretty double folded bias tape I have been buying; it is single fold.  I first made the 1/2” bias tape without really realizing that it’s not going to work for me like I was expecting.  Now I need to think of fun projects that I can appliqué using blue bias tape!  Last night I finished making 1” bias tape that I can fold in half to make my double folded 1/2” bias tape which is needed for my current project. I know it’s not as crisp as bought, but it’s sure is fun to make and adds more care and love to a project. 

On another note, I’m ready for SPRING!  All this cold, rain, snow is getting to me.  I’m ready to enjoy a spring day!

On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again….

Happy early Valentine’s Day!  I’m ready to hit the road to Clarksdale for our annual trip.  I hope I remember to take lots of pictures!  I’m looking forward to a relaxing, no schedule weekend.  We have reservations for Madidi at 8:30 tomorrow night.  I’m looking forward to seeing what menu they came up with for the holiday.  The first year we went they did not have a set menu and last year we went to Rust instead.  They have not posted it on the site yet, but I’ll make sure to take a picture to share with everyone. Tonight might be a good night to head over to Ground Zero for some music and dinner.

As I’m waiting for Brian to come pick me up at work, I’m scanning over the dozen craft blogs I read.  I really should stop since I have too many UFO (unfinished projects) as it is in the line and several more in my head to start.  But I thought I would share some of my favorites that I want to actually complete in the upcoming months.

Flowered Paper Lanterns by the Crafty Nest:  I find these very warming and crisp. 

Giant Craft Stick Snowflakes by the Crafty Nest:  I love how big these are!  I have high ceiling so I need something that will take up lots of room. I’m adding these to the Christmas decor this year.

 

Crooked Coaster by the Long Thread:  I have been meaning to make these for about a year now and I have yet to even purchase the materials.  I have them on my list to pick up next weekend when my mom and I are looking for fabric for new curtains. 

New curtains for the house.  I don’t have pictures of these yet since I have no clue what kind I want.  Well, I take that back, I do have some idea but no picture.  I wish I could say I was going to make them myself, but I think I am just going to get my mom to make them for me so they will get done faster. :)  For the office, I just want panels in a red color and a print. For the dining room, I would like to just have some type of swag look.  Basically just fabric that is hemmed and thrown over the rod, you know that look.  Next month we are looking at replacing all the windows in the house (yay, finally ones that will open! :)) so I’m going to hold off on putting up the curtains until after they are installed. 

Valentine's Day Crafts

As promised, I do have pictures of my 2 latest crafts. There are still a couple more Valentine’s Day crafts I want to do, but they might have to wait till later.

Here are the heart coasters I made. The first one was a little wobbly, but the second I did a little better job on. I want to make a couple more so maybe I will improve more. Sewing and turning felt is not easy.

Note:For some reason blogger is changing the orientation of this picture. Sorry.

The heart garland was fun to make. I’m sure I could have figured out a better way to sew the ribbon to the hearts, but I think it turned out fine. I have several more hearts cut out since I didn’t realize how many I would need for it. I’m trying to decide what to do with those.
Here is a close up of the hearts.

Saturday the new store that Brian took me to about a month or so ago is having 75% off their fabric. Could be a bad idea, but Allie and I are going in the morning to see what we can find. I really can’t wait to be all settled in the house and have time to sew and make things.