February Crafts

I desperately wish I had more time to craft. And more money to craft. :) I would without a doubt do it all the time. I don't even have that many original ideas. I just love making things, whether it's my idea or someone else's creative genius. Some of you know that I have been taking sewing lessons. It has been crazy to try to put it in my already harried schedule, but totally worth it. I have been the girl who walks in late, spends the first twenty minutes playing catch-up, and can barely keep her eyes open by the end of class. My first class I called to see if they had an open spot two days before the class. I got the last spot. That day I worked 7-5, had sewing class from 6:30-9:30, got home at 10, packed and showered, and woke up at five the next morning to drive to Chattanooga for (graduate school) class all weekend. That week I had had a bad cold and an even worse reaction to the meds I was taking for my cold. I was a walking zombie, but now I can present to you my first sewing project that I did myself. My mom might take offense to that because we made pajama pants together, but I couldn't do it again without her because she helped so much. Even though the picture doesn't do much to show off my workmanship, it really looks great. It is what they call a sausage pillowcase with French seams. It's called a sausage, because you roll it up to sew it. Pretty cool technique. And I love French seams. They are my favorite. It is amazing how much I have learned these couple of months.

The next project was the four hour project I made mention of a little while ago. I had this cute printout from Monika Wright of i love it all when she reached 200 followers on her blog, and have been waiting for the perfect thing to do with it. Lately, I have had a real passion for upcycling, using things we throw away or recycle and repurposing them. I have about ten different projects I want to make from old magazines, and I decided to start with this one. The page where I got the instructions for this is no longer available, so if you are interested in making a frame like this just ask me. I kind of made it my own way anyhow. Again, the picture doesn't do it much justice. It is very colorful and really brightens my crafting space. I took these pictures really fast before leaving ATL to come home for spring break. I knew I would have time to blog while home and was antsy to get out of town. So sorry for poor picture quality.

And this picture shows the size of it next to my crafting desk. Love it!

Does anyone know of any more great upcycled crafts to add to my list? I love when I don't have to go to the store to buy the items I need to craft, because they're already around my house being used for other purposes, or even better, headed to the garbage! Are you worried? Do you envision my house full of trash? Or worse, me dumpster diving for crafting materials? It could become a problem. :)

Princess

It's funny how some moments drive us nuts at the time, but a day comes when we would give anything to get them back. This was the day after Christmas this year. I just wanted a nice pristine snow shot of my family. But Princess was so excited and wanted to be with us so she pranced all around in our two inches of snow. All I was thinking was how our pictures were not going to be as pretty, because my crazy dog couldn't sit still. They are treasure now, much more so than perfect snow family pictures. Princess was our family.

I got the call today that Princess had died. She got hit by a car yesterday. I still remember the day we got her. That was almost 11 years ago. I was 13 and my friends and I were at the mall shopping as part of my birthday party. The Humane Society was there, and my mom, who had been standing firm for no dog, melted as the girl told us, "We just don't know how much longer we can keep her." She was adorable and never barked until the second we got home. :)

I am hyper-sensitive to animal suffering, which is why I don't think I could ever own my own animal. I can't even stand the thought of some of the people around my apartment complex owning these big dogs that they hardly ever take outside. Soap box for another day. Anywho, Princess has almost died on two occasions...at least. The first was when she was a puppy. We kept her in the back yard and had to put chicken wire up on the gates, so she didn't squeeze her skinny body through. One night we heard her yelping, not uncommon for puppy Princess. It slowly started to fade until I couldn't take it. We went out and found her hanging from the top spokes of the gate. The crazy thing had climbed the chicken wire and almost got away. From then on my heart would skip a beat and I'd be the first to fly out the door if I heard a yelp.

Her second near death experience happened on a day when we had joined our neighbors to shoot off some rocket or something that shot out these little paper parachutes with plastic men attached to them. We would shoot them off, and the dad's had a four-wheeler to run and get them. Princess would run out there follow alongside of them. But one time she ran right in front of them. I watched in horror, too far to do anything, as Princess got run over. The men had to get off and lift it off of her. She ran out from underneath without so much a scratch. Miracle.

My last story is no surprise to anyone who has ever met her. You see, my dog had talent. She could jump up on our six foot brick fence and walk up and down it. It amazed people. She had springs in her legs. Well, one day I took the brunt of those springs. I was going out to see her in what used to be the area she stayed in. Of course, she was ALWAYS excited to have anyone out with her. She made a flying leap at me, and although it was no surprise, I was surprise when she knocked me right in the face. The dog busted my lip open as I was standing straight up! I would have been upset except that it was so unbelievable. She is not a huge dog!

I miss her already.

Whirlwind Month

Like the new header? Those pics came from my weekend visit to North Carolina to see my precious friend Kayla. Her co-worker gave her free passes to the Biltmore Estates, and we had fun making fun of the old pictures throughout the house and trapsing the grounds in what felt like a wind storm.

We had a fantastic time and wish I could have stayed longer. Then back to real life. Every semester I just get busier. The semester I graduate I may have to take a hiatus in a mental facility. School is one of my top priorities, but I sure wish it did not have to be. I have to remind myself it is a means to an end. So, I thought it was high time for an update on resolutions, seen as I haven't blogged in a month....a few posts shy of my hopeful 3 blogs a week. hehe.

I am very proud to anounce that this week I will be halfway through my sewing classes. I love them!! I have learned sew much :)! This week I will make a pillow case...an awesome one of course. Be excited for me. I have only wanted to do this my whole life.

My other resolutions have been on and off again. So many of them are daily and weekly things that I can conquer some days and some days not. I'm still dedicated to keeping as closely as I can to some. Others have just been a little out of reach for the way this semester/year is turning out. Three blogs a week? Not possible really. It was ambitious, and I hope to be better about writing once a week.

I will end with a random list of things going on in my life:

1. I have heard 3 references to Mr. Rogers this week.

2. Even wierder, I have heard 3 references to Star Trek in the past 3 days. Not elicited by me.

3. I made some awesome cupcakes for Valentine's Day, and you should be jealous if you didn't get one. I was still receiving compliments today.

4. My parents took me to Peter Pan @ the threesixty theatre this weekend, and it was one of the coolest experiences ever, never mind my undying love for Peter Pan.

5. I thought I was going to have a panic attack today, when I realized I was the only one in my class who has not had an interview for their internship starting this summer. I haven't even sent out my resume! I am in serious denial. (Note to self: This is a problem)

6. I spent about four hours collectively on a craft project (when I probably should have been working on my resume) that I want to show you soon.

7. I took a personality inventory for a class project and found out some very interesting things about myself, like I scored extremely high in fantasy. What this indicates is that I have a pretty wild and crazy imagination. It's part of my creative side. I make stuff up. I'm a day-dreamer with my head in the clouds. This in combination with a very low score on openness to ideas, measuring intellectual curiosity, makes total sense when I talk about my trip to Biltmore. I am not the girl who soaks in every detail of the house. I did not wear the headphones and listen to all of the historic details. In fact, I was the girl making fun of the slow-moving head phone wearers. I wanted to go not to learn but to imagine what life would be like to live in a house like that. When I was stuck in line behind the slow movers, I was making fun of the people in the old pictures, with their now outdated hairdos and ensembles. O mutton chops.

8. I am currently flipping between stressed to the max and not caring at all. Hoping that spring break will actually be a break and not what a professor of mine does to us on our class break. "On break, I'd like you to..." I could use at least 2 days in the low 80's to be outside all day, no books, no cares, just freedom and rest.

9. I have class all weekend, and midterms start Monday. Enough said.

I thought I'd go for ten, but I'm bored. So you probably are too. :) Have a wonderful week!

Homemade Cookies

If you can believe this, I have never made cookies from scratch. Seriously. I always buy the prepackaged break and bake stuff. Well, I have just loved baking lately, so all I needed was a good excuse to make some. Kroger (I love that store!) was having a beautiful 3 day sale where I could get 2 FREE gallons of milk with purchase of $10 worth of products I normally buy anyway. I go through a lot of milk on my own, but I could not possibly drink all of that milk before it would go bad. (Found out you can freeze milk, but that's a story for another day.) So, I decided to give some away. Instead of giving friends a random jug of milk, they needed a little something to go with it. The most obvious choice...chocolate chip cookies! Thankfully, I made them one day before this nasty cold came and rendered me unmotivated! :) They turned out perfectly!

Measuring and Mixing

Baking and Cooling

Admiring and Devouring
:)
Any recipe suggestions of what I should bake up next?

Snow Week

I just love where I live!

I have had entire snow week off. Crazy. And I have loved every minute of it. What would you do if you had an entire week with nothing to do and nowhere to go? Here's a bit of what I did.

First: Made a snowman named Stewart with great friends. I'm blessed to have friends in my apartment complex. There was no way I was driving those first few days.

Second: I built stuff...with some help......ok, lots of help. Thanks guys! I finally have a dresser!

Then I built something else. Just the chair. I guess it's more like putting stuff together and following directions. But I like to say I built it.

Next I spent all day in my adorable warm and snuggly jammies and painted my toes. Warmest wishes to you! What would you do on a snowed in day?

Gentle Whispers

This Sunday, the very beginning of my church hunting, I attended a class that spoke on the passage in 1 Kings where God speaks to Elijah. He was not heard in the wind, fire, or earthquake. He spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper. In class we were asked about our experiencing God through His gentle whispers.

Unfortunately for me I don't often hear, or listen to the gentle whispers. Sometimes the Lord has to come to me in a big and powerful way. To spiritually yell at me, if you will. And then I read something like this and His gentle whisper is so clear. It cuts right to the heart. Like Jonah ever stood a chance of running from God. "O Lord, you searched me and you know me."(Psalm 139:1)

I am so thankful for the sweet and encouraging souls I find in the blogging world. I could get discouraged because my blog doesn't draw a crowd, because I speak about matters of the heart and do not hold a well of original ideas to share or a product to sell. But then I read blogs like that, and think that if I could touch just one, it would be worth my broadcasting my life and sharing my struggles and successes. God is still working on me, refining me.

(If you didn't click the link to read the post, do it now. That was the point of my ramblings.)

I heart my bed!

I could stay here all day...well it's almost been half the day already!