New Stuff!

Even though I haven't posted in a while, I've been up to some fun stuff! I found a new pattern to try, and it came out great!

I started making these wallets... they're very cool. And EASY! I can get one done - from cutting out to the last pressing - in about an hour! That is way quicker than making a bag!! Plus they turn out cute! This one was my first one, so it's a little wonky, but I really like the other ones I've made recently! I'm hoping I can make a bunch to start selling!


One of my coworkers wanted me to make her a bag. She's just started nursing school, so one of her requests was a place for her stethoscope. I thought long and hard about it (and thanks to the fabric being impossible to find, and then take forever to ship, I had lots of time!), and I decided to put big pockets on the sides of the bag. I need to figure out a better way to do it, but all in all I think that it turned out great!

When she told me what fabric she wanted, she also joked that she wanted a monogrammed key chain. Well, I got out my instruction manual and figured out how to make monograms on my sewing machine. And I found the metal hardware on Etsy! (I *L*O*V*E* Etsy!!), so - voila!

Finally, I needed a new bag myself. Despite the fact that it's fall, I wanted something bright and summery! :) So I made myself the whole deal - a bag, a wallet, AND a key chain! I love it all! I'm hoping to make a smaller bag with the same fabric soon!

I've got a few more projects to do for people - a few quilts and quilting projects, a couple bags for one girl at work, and then a few wallets, and then I'm hoping to get my stuff back up on Etsy, with a few new additions! The stuff I put up a few months ago expired, so I need to refresh it anyways!

I can be a show-off sometimes...

I have some friends who are food bloggers. They take pictures of everything they make, and most of the time all the steps inbetween too. I laugh, but I will never be one of those people. My food is usually such a mess (although it tastes good- mostly!), and boring. Well, last night I made a dinner I had to show off... it's like a restaurant meal!

Bacon wrapped filet mignon with crisp-cooked asparagus. Yummmmy! And fairly easy too (aside from some too hot, spitting butter)! I was eating the asparagus like french fries! And I'm very picky about asparagus too... it has to be perfectly cooked! :)



Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon
2 filets
2 strips of bacon
2 tbsp softened butter
1/2 tbsp parsley
1/2 tbsp garlic salt

Mix butter, parsley & garlic salt together.
Brush mixture all over filets.
Wrap filets with one strip of bacon each.
(you can double up if you really love bacon!)
Grill 5-6 minutes on each side, depending on how well you like your steak.
Baste steaks with butter mixture once more during grilling.
Enjoy! :)


Crisp Cooked Asparagus
1 bunch asparagus
1 cup flour
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp butter

Steam aspargus for 5 minutes, keeping it crisp.
I add 1 tbsp butter & some salt to the water for flavoring.
Drain, then plunge the asparagus into ice water. Dry.
Heat butter in a large skillet over medium high heat.
After butter stops foaming, dredge each stalk lightly in flour,
dip it in the eggs, then dredge in bread crumbs.
(This can be done in batches, but stalks may lump together.)
Place stalks in pan of butter.
Turn as they brown, remove from pan when they are golden brown all around.

Chop Chop!

So anyone who knows me, and especially those who have known me forever, know that I love having long hair. I'll cut it short, hate it immediately, and wish I could glue it back on! ;) Well... I was getting tired of my long hair. It's a pain to have 2 feet of hair when it's 100 degrees outside. Plus I was over my limit of "blowdry for 5 minutes (maybe 10 if I care) and go". It was to the 30 minute mark. Ugh!

I've been thinking about getting my hair cut for a while... found some pictures I really liked. Looked into where I wanted to donate - because you can't cut off this much hair just to have it swept up and thrown away! - and I chose Locks of Love. And I made my appointment. For 3 weeks later. Well in those 3 weeks, the girl who cut my hair, and the only one whose cut it more than twice in the past 10 years or something (I don't get my hair cut often, and I usually jump from place to place) "left the salon." So I held my breath, and scheduled with another stylist at the same salon. I like the place when I go in there, everyone is super nice, and I've not seen anyone with a really bad haircut leave there, so I figured why not.


So I went in yesterday, holding my breath, and told Heather what I wanted to do, and she got all excited. That made it easier! So into a ponytail my hair went, she cut off 14 inches, and then went to work. To be honest with you, I wasn't all that nervous while she was cutting it, just excited! She did an excellent job cutting and styling, and most importantly telling me exactly what to do to style it different ways at home. FYI - I go to Blo in Briar Creek. Heather did WoNdErFuL!!! :)

I looked in the mirror afterwards and LOVE IT! It's perfect. And I think I want to keep it for a while! Woo hoo!

Finished projects!

I finished those bags I was working on earlier. They turned out fantastic! For some reason, I didn't take a picture of Mandy's bag :( but it turned out great and she loves it!

Rhonda's bag, the ginormous laptop bag turned out great!

The bag with laptop sleeve and cord case

The inside - it looks a bit busy here, but I like how it turned out!


Now that those are done, I need to get working on some other projects! I just bought fabric for 2 Christmas quilts... we'll see how close to Christmas I finish them!!

Our Summer Road Trip

Every summer, a car club Carl belongs to, the SHO Club, has it's annual convention the last week in July. Everyone there owns, has owned, or is just plain obsessed with a Ford Taurus SHO. A Taurus?! Yep. But the SHO = Super High Output = not your everyday Taurus. Carl has been obsessed with the SHO since before I met him (10 years ago!), and finally bought one a few years back. He started going to these conventions in 2005, and I joined in in 2006. The best part, is every year is somewhere different, so I make it work for me too. Although I truly do enjoy the car part, especially the track day!

In 2006 we went to Memphis and we got to stay with Megan & Kent and check out Mud Island, Graceland, and all that Memphis has to offer. In 2007, we drove far too much in 2 weeks, from New York City, through Ontario (with a couple stops to see my family), and then to Kalamazoo, Michigan for the convention. Last year, I had to say no the convention because (A) we had just gotten married and spent 2 weeks in Hawaii not 6 weeks before, and (B) it was in Washington State, and seeing that it's a car convention, you can't really fly.

So anyways, this year's convention was in the booming city of Nashua, New Hampshire. Haha. Famous for it's cameo in The Office. (Thanks for pointing that out Kristin!) It was actually pretty nice, other than our extremely outdated hotel, modeled after a castle. (Seriously - google it- Nashua Radisson) Haha! It was about an hour's train ride into Boston for some sight seeing, an hours drive to the track, and 30 minutes from Carl's Uncle Ron, where we scored an awesome night catching up with them, seeing their great house & having an amazing dinner!

The first day was the Car SHOw, where everyone opens up their hoods and their cars for all the other nuts to check out. The cool thing this year is that they're coming out with a 2010 Taurus SHO. They only made them from 1989-1999, so it's very cool. No one has gotten their 2010 yet - no dealerships, no one thats ordered one, no one. But Ford sent some of their people out with one to check out. Most of the club also got to ride and/or drive the new car, but we got there too late and the sign up sheet was full. :( We still got to see it up close and personal though! I WANT ONE!!! :)

Here's a picture of Carl with the 2010 SHO.



The back... that thing is HUGE compared to the older SHOs!

I think he might like it...

This is not uncommon to see my husband do this when he's looking at cars. I make a point to take a picture to show him how silly he looks. His response? "So?" :)

After the Car SHOw on Tuesday, we went to Boston for the afternoon. We just had a couple hours, so we just went to the Boston Science Musuem. It was really cool. Carl and I are both big nerds, so we loved it. This cool bridge was right as we were coming into the city on the train.


This was a brain at the Science Museum... some lady who teaches neurosciences knitted it. Each color represents a different area. I thought it was really neat!


Carl being silly in one of the exhibits... :)


And one of the cooler things they had there was this HUGE VanDerGraft generator. You know those balls you put your hand on and your hair puffs out? Carl had been to this museum a long time ago, and he kept talking about this thing. I'm like "Yea, yea, yea, I've seen those before. No big deal." Well, I hadn't seen one this big. It was ginormous! Took up 3 levels in the museum! Pretty cool though. They had a cheesy "Lightning" show that Carl really liked.

After checking out the museum, we headed back to Nashua. Carl's Uncle Ron lives not too far from where we were staying - his office is actually less than a mile from our hotel! He came and picked us up and took us back to his house. He has a few acres of land with a couple horses. It's really nice. Carl and I are both very jealous!!! :) We went and had dinner at a restaurant called The Common Man. It was in an old old house and the food was WONDERFUL!! There are Common Man's all around New Hampshire, so if you're up there, it was one of the best meals I've had in a long long time. I'm still salivating thinking about it! :) After dinner, we went back to their house & watched the BoSox crump out. Seriously. If you're ahead by 3 runs in the 8th inning, you should not lose by 1 in the 11th. :) Since that was our free evening of the week, I'm glad we didn't spend $500 on tickets to go see that game!

Wednesday was track day. We got up ridiculously early, and drove an hour to the track. We got there about 7:30am! I really enjoy track day. You get to see alot of people having fun and making fools of themselves! Carl loves it because he gets to drive fast. He really liked this track. It was alot shorter than some of the others we've been on, but had hills and turns and was alot of fun. This ain't no NASCAR crap. :)

Carl getting ready to go out on his first run.


The green car in the back is Carl... getting ready to go thru a hairpin turn. Without sliding through the tire wall!

At lunch, they had a "low speed cruise" that anyone could drive/ride in. I wanted to do this since you couldn't see half the track behind a hill from where we were hanging out. This is a view of the infield from the top of the hill.


Driving down the straightaway. They do use this track for NASCAR (there was a race a couple weeks before we were there!), but the road course is really just the straightaway and then it veers off at the corners.

Carl out on the track


Crossing the Start/Finish line


Up on the hill


He really is going fast here...

On Thursday, we had pretty much all day to ourselves. We slept in, and then went to Boston for the afternoon. I didn't feel like wandering aimlessly around the city, so we took a duck tour! :)


I forget what this building is (John Hancock maybe?) but I love the reflections!! :)

Thursday night was the Convention Banquet. Its always alot of fun. Everyone sits around and talks about the week, awards and door prizes are given out, and there are 2 auctions - a silent auction and a live auction. The silent auction is stuff like car parts or accessories, and the live auction is stuff that would go for more money. Every year we also have a speaker, most of the time from Ford. This year was Steve Ling, one of the designers of the new 2010 Taurus SHO. It was very cool to hear him speak. We saw a few SHO commercials before they're released, put some truth to some rumors we've heard about future cars, and donated this awesome original drawing of the SHO, signed by Bill Ford, the owner of Ford & Henry Ford's great grandson! I think that this would look great hanging in my house!



Unfortunately, my bids of $450 and $600 were quickly outbid. A couple of the old guys got into a bidding war and it ended up selling for $2050!! Very very cool!

Anyways - Friday morning we got packed up and made our way to Philadelphia for the weekend. Driving through the northeast sucks anyways, but we were driving through the worst parts on Friday afternoon, in severe thunderstorms. Bleh. But we made it to Philly, and had dinner before calling it an early night!

Here's the street our hotel was on at night... it's the theater district so everything was all lit up! :)


City Hall... it's BEAUTIFUL!


And of course Carl and I in the LOVE thing. (Is it a statue? Just "art"? ???)


We've been to quite a few big cities in the last few years (to make up for me NEVER going to any when I was a kid!). I hated, despised, cursed New York, Boston was kinda "eh" (but I was also feeling like crap on our sight-seeing day), Miami sucked - too hot, too much traffic, ugh, I liked Chicago okay, despite the high of 5 degrees that weekend (I'd like to go back in the summer!), but Philly. I loved Philly. I thought it was so easy to walk around, there were tons of things to do, lots of good restaurants, lots of different "feels" in one city. LOVED IT!

The crowd to see the Liberty Bell was ridiculous! We were maybe in the building all of 5 minutes. I don't care to look at every detail. Get in, take a couple pictures, check ya later. :)

Since we really only had one day to see the whole city, we thought it would be best to do another tour. And why not another duck tour?! So off we went. With P-I-T-A kids and their quackers behind us.

Ben Franklin Bridge

I have to say - the Boston duck tours >>>>>>>> Philly duck tours. Granted Boston has the goofy characters, the guy spoke for real. Like he gave it to us straight after his little intro. In Philly, I felt like we were listening to cheesy scripted jokes the whole time and didn't find it all that funny.

Here's Ben Franklin's grave from outside the gate. I was a little dismayed that someone was charging money to walk into a cemetary. Almost as dumb as not being allowed into the US Mint because I had a camera. Not on. Not out of my bag. I just had it. Zipped up in my bag with no plans to come out. Whatever. I actually wanted to see the Mint. Oh well.

One of my favorite parts of Philly was along the Schuylkill River. The Water Works was a very cool area, very pretty. There were at least 4 weddings going on around here! I didn't notice any funerals. ;) We walked down and around and through the park.


The view of Philadelphia was beautiful!!

Even though I didn't run up them, we gotta have a picture of the Museum of Art steps... aka the Rocky Steps. :)


Ginormous Ben Franklin inside the Franklin Institute


We had a great time in Philly! But when I woke up Sunday morning, I was ready to be at HOME! I think I was worse than a 5 year old with the "I want to be at home already!!!"s. I must have said it 25 times! We had a relatively easy drive on the way home - much better than the New Hampshire - Philly leg! We did see the Majesty - the ship we went on in March - in port in Baltimore. I thought it was neat!

Lots of projects done, lots in progress!

I have been very busy with some big projects since my last post. I had a couple of quilts that took me FAR too long, but they're both done now and I'm very pleased with the results!! The first quilt, was a BIG one (Twin size, but its huge when I'm used to baby quilts & smaller!!) It was a lot lot lot of piecing, something I'm not great at. And it wasn't perfect by any means, but I really like the finished product! Here's the quilt as I went:

All the pieces and a few finished blocks


The main blocks all finished....


The quilt top all done, on the quilting machine. Mom got a fancy new quilting machine & frame that is a DREAM to quilt on. No more stuffing the whole quilt under my sewing machine! This thing gets it perfectly!


Up-close of the quilt on the machine. You can see a little bit of the quilting I did rolled up in the back.

Here are some pictures of that quilt all finished. I used a pattern to quilt it, so there are seashells all over it.

As much work as I put into the front, and as nice as it turned out, I like the back the best. The fabric is called Minkee, and it's super soft. I think that the quilting looks soooooo good on it! The plushness is perfect for showing off the quilting! I love it!

Luckily I love the person I gave it to, so there were no (serious) second thoughts about giving it to her!!

The second quilt has not been sent out yet, but I don't think they look at this, so I'm not too worried. But if you are looking, the pictures don't do it justice and I can't wait til you get it!! :)

Megan & Kent just had their 2nd baby boy. When Patrick was born, I made my very first "quilt" if you can call it that, from a pre-cut, all I had to do was sew it together kit. For Luke, I got a little bit more creative. Before Luke was born, he was known as "Pez". I found a bunch of Pez fabric, and here is the quilt! I came up with the design myself, and I think it turned out pretty well! Here's a picture of it on the quilting frame.


And all done! I just stippled it and had so much fun! I really hope that they like it!!

The last gift I've made is for one of my coworkers who is having a baby soon. I haven't given this to her either - now that I've got stuff finished, I'm slacking on the actually getting it to them part!! :) Anyways, this is a car seat cover. The two round pieces velcro to attach to the handle of the car seat. Instead of putting a receiving blanket or something like that over top, this stays in place. Its to keep out the sun, or just annoying people. :) It's really cute and very easy to make!


I also made her a bag. Because everyone I work with knows that the no-fail way to get an Allie bag is to have a kid. :)


Now that the gifts are finished, I can focus on making bags! I've got a couple "on order" that I've been working on. The first one is HUGE!!! It's going to be a big Allie Bag with a laptop case in it. If it all works out like it does in my head, it will be great. I already warned the girl this is for that it might just go missing. I love it already!


The second bag is one for one of my girlfriends at work. She got an Allie bag a while back, but wants something different. So she picked this pattern & fabrics out. I can't wait to get done with it!


I really need to get back into the swing of things. We went out of town last week (a post to come on that!), and most of these pictures are from the week before that. I've been vegged out the past 2 days, not getting more than the essentials done! :) But I will get these finished and on to the next projects soon!

What have I been up to?

Sometimes I feel like not very much. I really only have 1 project on the go right now, but I'm being very ADD about it. I can't seem to work on it for more than an hour at a time! But it's turning out nicely!

Last night, I finished up my last pottery class. I've wanted to take a wheel throwing class for a while, so when Raleigh Parks & Rec offered one that I could get to, I jumped on it. I had fun at first, but I'm no good!! I spent most of my time preparing the clay to make something, and that's no fun! The first bowl I made was by far the best. Here's a picture of that bowl. I glazed it last week, so it was ready to go this week! I really like how it turned out! It's really small, maybe only 3x3x3 and I don't know what to do with it. Right now, it's sitting on my desk looking pretty! :)

I'll post pictures of my other pieces once those get fired and finished up, but don't expect them to be as nice as this one!!!


The past couple of days have been spent making invitations for a friend's baby shower. Cutting paper, printing labels, sticking them all together. I was really into scrapbooking a few years ago, but haven't done much lately. I really like how these invitations turned out! :)

And finally the big project I've been working on - a quilt. It's the most piecing for a quilt I've done yet, so I'm a little slow going. This is what a twin-sized quilt looks like in pieces. Hahaha!



I've done about half the blocks, and hopefully today I'll piece the rest together so I can start putting the blocks together and finish this quilt! I have an awesome backing fabric, so I can't wait to get it finished!

Anyways, after this I have a couple purses for friends to make, a few baby quilts (my friends need to learn to spread out their pregnancies!! ;), and then I'll be able to work on some just-because-projects! It'll be a while though!

It's June Already?!?!

Hard to believe that in 6 days, Carl and I will be celebrating our 1st anniversary!!! :) :) I'm very excited! We're going to the Outer Banks for the weekend - the first time I've been! I'm very excited!

I really haven't done a whole lot lately. I've been taking it pretty easy on my days off, so that's nice! I did get a couple bags pretty much made this weekend. A bunch of the ladies that went to the Quilt Fest in February met up at my mom's house this weekend (Some stayed the whole weekend!) and worked on some projects. I made 2 bags pretty quickly, and enjoyed the company! I'll post pictures of those when they're finished!

My beans all have blossoms! :)

Dozer on squirrel patrol... he'll get on one of these days!

Strawberries! I have like 6 ripe ones!

And this cracks me up... I got a lollipop in a package as a thank you for ordering from us type thing. Dozer was STARING at me as I licked it, so I decided to see what he would do. Ignore me... I had just gotten home from work & pottery class! :) (And ignore Carl too... he didn't know the camera was set to video!)

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a HUGE Carolina Hurricanes fan... so despite the fact that my husband was falling asleep on the couch, I was literally on the edge of my seat at 11:30 last night watching my Canes hold their own against the #1 team in the conference in overtime of Game 7. Not that Boston played like a #1 team through most of the series, but still... And the best words all night - "CAROLINA HURRICANES GOAL!!! GUESS WHO!! SCOTTY WALKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" My poor husband got woken up to my screaming & cheering.

Now we get to play Pitt in the conference finals - this should be fun!! :)

Graduation Weekend!

This was a big weekend in my family! Carl, my brother Michael, and my sister-in-law Katie all graduated with their Bachelors degrees!! The only thing was Carl was graduating from East Carolina in Greenville, Katie from NC State in Raleigh, and Michael from Appalachian State in Boone, all on the same day, within an hour of each other!! We decided there was no way to make it to even 2 of them. Carl has done his entire degree online and REALLY did not want to go to graduation, so we went to Boone with my family for the weekend to see Michael graduate. We had a great weekend!!

We had tickets to Biltmore we got for our wedding (Thanks Deepti!!) that were going to expire in June (we had to buy special Christmas-time tickets when we went in December), so Carl took Friday off and we went to Asheville, toured around Biltmore, and then drove up to Boone that afternoon. I LOVE Biltmore and could go weekly I think! I took lots and lots of pictures of flowers. I decided that I need to figure out how to get paid to take pictures of flowers!!! We had a great drive to Boone - I love backroads and seeing all the scenery! It was a great drive!

My parents had rented a cabin in Blowing Rock for the weekend. It was PERFECT! We had the whole family there - Me, Carl, Mom, Gary, Michael, Stephen, Grammie & Papa. We made dinner and breakfast - which was way better than waiting in lines at restaurants all weekend! We had a great time!

On Saturday, while the grown-ups went with Michael to a luncheon, Carl and I headed up to Grandfather Mountain. This was BIG. I've never been scared of heights, but that bridge terrifies me. Carl thought it was hilarous last time we went. But I wanted to go, so we did. We checked out the animals - the lazy bears were especially funny! When we got up to the top, it was so windy and I was thinking twice about this... but I crossed the bridge anyways! The views are beautiful and so worth it! I didn't do any rock climbing :P , but that's okay. I even stopped in the middle of the bridge to take some pictures (Carl and I were the only ones on it at that time - that makes it easier!).

Michael's graduation was nice. Very long, but nice all the same. And then we came home for dinner and relaxing. We did get to attack Michael with silly string and bubbles after dinner. Haha. Except Stephen thought it would be funnier to attack me with silly string. Whatever, it was fun.

Sunday, after we got home, we had to go to my parents house to pick up Carl's graduation gift. Carl thought he got out of the cap & gown thing, but mine was hanging up at my parents house, so we got that out and made him take pictures. Hahaha! He wasn't too thrilled, but we got pictures in a cap & gown. Except we couldn't find my tassel, so he got a bow. :P It's all good!

Anyways - that's the weekend in short. I'm on nights this week, so time for a nap!!! :)

**Sometime this week, I'll edit this to caption the pictures & such - it took WAY too long to get them straight!**

Allie's Got a Brand New Bag!!

:) After being talked into taking another flex (Really, it wasn't that hard. And I didn't want to send my wonderful coworkers to the floor if I was just fine staying at home! :), I couldn't sleep, so I got up, made Carl and I an excellent breakfast of made-from-scratch waffles, strawberries & freshly whipped cream. Mmmmmm... and then I got to work on a new bag. I got a kit at QuiltFest for a "Mini Bow Tucks" purse. ("The" Allie Bag is called the Bow Tucks Tote) I told myself I wouldn't use the stuff I got at quilt fest until I was finished with the bags I cut out in February. That happened last night, so Yay! New project! So I got started on this bag around 8:30 this morning. And was completely done with it by noon. That is awesome! The plan was to sell it with the others I made, but nah... I like it too much. It's mine. :)

 

Anyways- it's nice having Carl here during the day, knowing we both should be at work (His company isn't paying overtime and he definitely racked it up this month, so this is how he evens things out a bit on his time sheet! :P ), but we're getting lots done. It's great!

Now I'm going to get started on one of the many quilts I have to make this summer!!

Lots done today!

So I always seem to be the most productive when I should be at work. Thanks to our wonderful lack of patients lately, I stayed home today (Its so easy to say yes when the phone rings when I'm still in bed!!) I had made finished 3 purses (they were almost done) and started and finished another last night, and then today I did another purse. All of my purses that I cut out months ago are now done! Yay!!! I can start using some of the beautiful fabric I bought at QuiltFest in February!!!!!

Anyways, the last purse I made today is my favorite that I've made in a while. Why? Let's go through it. First - check out the bright colors! I love it! Perfect for spring/summer!

Second - Magnetic clasp! Woo hoo!!! This is the 2nd bag I made with a magnetic clasp and unless I'm in desperate need of something, I don't think you'll be seeing buttons on Allie Bags anymore!

Third - and the pièce de résistance- Check out that label. This is the first bag that I remembered to put an "Allie's Bags" label on. Woo hoo!!

And fourth - it's for sale!!! I've finally finished a big group of bags, so I'm taking them to work tomorrow (or Friday should I decide to flex tomorrow too! ;) Check out this box of stuff I'm taking to work to spoil my coworkers with!!


And that's not even the best part - under those bags is a bunch of homemade strawberry jam! I made some more jam today (and still have TONS of strawberries!), so my coworkers will be blessed with lots of jam! Now if only we had hot biscuits up in the PICU. :)

Strawberries galore!!

So I've been pretty useless on the crafting front. I haven't been feeling great (yucky allergies!! They get worse every year!!!), so I've been sleeping alot and taking it easy on my days off. One thing I've gotten into is Ancestry.com. And wow- it's pretty cool for a nerd like me! I've traced my mom's side of the family to Germany, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland and as far back as 1475!! I've traced my dad's family back to London, Northern England, and Wales in the 1700s. And yet, some parts of my dad's family are in Johnston County 6 or 7 generations back! It's pretty neat! I've also found some things about Carl's family, which is pretty cool seeing that he can't even tell me what his grandma's first names were! ;) But anyways, I'll be interested to see how far back I can go. Right now, I have my side of the family tree filled out completely for 5 generations!!

This weekend, Carl and I went to the NC Farmer's Market just to go and there were strawberries everywhere!!! I had no idea that there would be so many so early! So we got a basket-full and came on home. Throughout the day, I kept thinking about how I wanted to make jam, so I'd need more strawberries. So Sunday morning, Carl and I got up, went back to the farmer's market and bought 2 more pallets full of strawberrys. That's 14 quarts, or 3 1/2 gallons of strawberries!! This is after I spent an hour & some change sitting outside in the 90 degree heat cutting up strawberries!

Then here I am getting some ready for jam! I've made 12 jars of jam, a strawberry dessert, and strawberry lemonade, and I still haven't touched the two big bowls of strawberries!!!

As for a garden update, everything's growing well. I still haven't transplanted my peppers & tomatoes, but I put them outside today. I don't think they liked the heat too much, even though they were kind of in the shade!

And here is part of my gardne. Corn is in the back, with edemame on the front left and beans on the front right. Everything's looking great! I just have to remember to water every night because it definitely hasn't been raining lately!!!

My Attempt at "Artsy" pictures...

I always try to take cool pictures, and very rarely do they come out. But I figured out why. I got Carl a new camera for his birthday. It's the same model as mine, just like 5 or 6 years newer. :) My "artsy" photos come out so much better now!! I love it! Here's some that I took this weekend!

Cleaning all the strawberries - the sink is FULL, they're not just floating!

One of the flowers I bought at the farmers market!

Another flower

Can you find the four-leaf clover?

Catch-Up!

So I've done alot of nothing since getting back from vacation! I started out on night shift, so that screwed me up, and now I haven't had all that much to do, which means I do even less. One thing I like about myself is that when I have a million things to do, it all gets done. However, that also means that when I only have a couple things to do, nothing gets done! I enjoy being lazy. However, this week, I have also done something for work every single day! I'm working tomorrow, Sunday & Monday too, but then I have 3 days off, so that will be nice!

When we got back from vacation, my plants were HUGE!
So big, that most of my edemame didn't like the contraints of the container and died. :X Oh well. Last Saturday, I got my garden ready and planted most everything outside.

We put deer netting across the garden to keep deer, bunnies, and especially Dozer out of my garden! I think it looks great! In the workshop I took, the lady said she leaves her netting up all the time to keep things out, and also for things to grow on, but I think with beans, melons, cucumbers, peppers & tomatoes, I'm going to have to find another solution when things start to get big!

Carl and I also planted some things around a tree I got for my birthday last year!
I haven't done much sewing -but I do have lots of pieces of bags ready to be finished!

On a side note, I got an awesome new ironing board cover from Etsy.
I think it's so cute! I spent quite a bit of $$ on Etsy last week, so I can't wait to show off everything I got! :)

Vacation!

Carl and I had a great time on our vacation! So much so we're ready for another one! ;) Kidding - we'll wait a couple months before going out of town again!

I had been to the Bahamas once before - in high school on a band/choir trip. Luckily for him, Carl missed out on that infamous trip. So I really didn't have high expectations for this trip - thankfully! ;)

I should've known from how windy it was that first day (and the fact that we were racing a storm system driving into Charleston), but the first 36 hours on the ship were not much fun! It stormed really bad the first night, but even before and after the storms, the seas were very rough. Neither of us slept much that first night!!

Gotta have the awkward muster drill picture!

What's a cruise without some towel animals! Our stateroom attendants had mastered the bunny. Hahaha.


Our first day at sea was pretty rough. It was windy so most of the decks were closed, and it just wasn't much fun sitting outside. So we took it to the library and partook in some board games. Don't let Carl's not-so-happy look fool you. He had just kicked my butt in chess. And if Bingo hadn't started when it did, I would've done the same to him in monopoly! :)


Our first port was Nassau. We didn't have anything planned for the day, but that didn't stop me from waking up at 6:30 to see us come into port. (I have an issue waking up early on vacation - not that it's a bad thing!) As you can tell from this picture, I pulled Carl out of bed for some early morning pictures. Here's us with the Atlantis resort in the background.

We spent the first part of the day laying out on the top deck. It was very nice - warm, sunny & not crowded! But then after lunch we did walk around Nassau a little bit. We weren't impressed. :P And then it rained most of the time we were off the ship, so an hour or 2 later, we got back on!

Our second port was Freeport. It was also Carl's birthday, so he got to choose whatever he wanted. He decided on a bike tour of the island. It was pretty cool!! The day started out pretty wet, with us standing outside under some sort of shelter for 45 minutes while it stormed profusely! We took a bus to where we started the tour, and it was sunny from there on out!

We rode for 13 miles around different areas around Freeport. It was interesting to see what they considered $1 million homes! We also got a chance to peek into the back side of where they do the dolphin experience tours, and got to see the dolphins getting fed. Unfortunately, my camera was less than cooperative! ;)

After riding around and seeing the sights, we had lunch at a beach club, and walked around the shore a little bit.


Finally, the tour ended at the Lucaya Marketplace, where we hung out for a while. This is where I had been in high school (did we sing here?! I don't remember), so it was a little familiar. I was getting tired of telling the hair braiders "NO!" though! It seemed to take forever for the shuttle back to the boat, so we relaxed with some drinks in a coconut!

The next day was Norwegian's private island - Great Stirrup Cay. I'm not a huge fan of the ocean, or sand for that matter, so I decided that we had everything we need right on the ship, so we layed out on the top deck (empty!) most of the day. I got myself an awesome sunburn though. You can kind of see it here, but the backs of my legs got it the worst! *Note to self - don't fall asleep reading next time!* That led to advil + benadryl PO q 4 hrs x 2 days. Haha. I still managed to have a good time though!


Our last stop was Cape Canaveral. We could have indulged my inner nerd and taken a tour of NASA, but my Disney nerd reigned and we spent the day at Epcot! (Believe me, it was a hard decision!!!) It was a perfect day! Not too crowded & not too hot! We only waited 30 minutes for the Test Track (when the sign said 60 minutes!), and got to get right on everything else without a wait!

It was Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival, so they had lots of these cool topiaries throughout the park!



Our last day at sea was spent in bed. After that sunburn and walking all day (Ouch!), I was done! I slept late (We even missed Bingo! ;), ate lunch, took a nap... just generally took it easy!

After we got back to Charleston, we checked into our hotel, and then went to see Magnolia Plantation, an old house & gardens. Turns out the house wasn't all that old (well, it was, but it had been renovated so many times, it didn't do it for me!), but the gardens were amazing! Tons of azaleas (we went the perfect time of year!), wisteria, and oak trees & spanish moss!!


However, on our way to the plantation home, we had some car issues. We spent 3 hours Saturday, and all of Sunday morning trying to fix it, getting a cab & then a rental car, getting parts & then actually fixing the darn thing - twice!

We were able to go into downtown Charleston to eat & do a carriage ride. We took a "ghost tour" carriage ride which wasn't horrible, but not what I wanted either. After that, we went to find food. We ended up walking around for an hour or 2 trying to find somewhere to eat that wasn't too loud (it had been a long day!!!), and we finally got around to Hyman's. Despite the name, it was DELICIOUS! I'm still craving more hushpuppies!!

We decided that after fixing the car Sunday morning that it would be a good idea to head back to Raleigh, just in case something else happened. We didn't get to see all I wanted in Charleston, but it's a good excuse to go back sometime soon!!!

Quick Post before VaCaTiOn!!!

Real quick because (A) I'd like to watch some TV and (B) I'm tired. :) I was lucky to only have to work 1/2 day today, but I came home, packed, and cleaned the entire house! I think except for our shower and the stove, everything in my house was scrubbed clean! And I even got Carl to hang some pictures in our bedroom that we've had laying around for MONTHS! It's all good! Anyways -

Garden Update!
Check out these babies! The edemame is the tallest, then corn, and then one lonely cucumber sprout! Just about everything except the peppers and green beans has some sort of sprout. I took the tops off the greenhouses, so I can't wait to see how big everything is when we get back! This is only day 10 after planting!!



And then, today was a pretty dreary, rainy day. But I liked it. It was a slow rain. Now if it did this for 5 days again, I'd be tired of it. But one day is fine! Anyways, despite the rain (or maybe because of it!) we had TONS of birds at our birdfeeder! I caught a picture of a beautiful cardinal having a snack! His girlfriend hung out all afternoon too! ;) There were probably about 20 finches on the ground eating the leftover seeds too! Very exciting!


Anyways - this is where Carl and I will be for the next week!


I am so excited! I am so thankful for my awesome coworkers for letting me go home early today to get everything ready! And speaking of, sorry, I tried, but there were no pictures of my cornrows from the last time I went to the Bahamas in 10th grade! I think I cut them up! However, I do have some pretty sassy pictures of Kristin! ;) I'll hold off posting those though!

Lots to do... Lots done!

So even though we're going on vacation Saturday, I still have to work 12 hours Friday. And Thursday, and Wednesday. So that means I have to get all my pre-trip stuff done today and tomorrow! I'll leave that til tomorrow! :)

Today I made a purse that I've been wanting to try for a few weeks. Yes - I made a purse other than the Allie Bag! And I LOVE it! It takes about as much time to make as the Allie bag - however, I've made that one a million times, and this one once, so I'm hoping that as I make it more, it will take me alot less time to make it. The whole way to put it together is so different than what I'm used to, so maybe thats why it took me a while. In fact, I thought it looked at bit like placemats for a while!


Anyways - I finally got it done about the time dinner was ready (Warm weather = grilling = Carl can make dinner!) and I .L.O.V.E. it!! This will be the perfect bag for vacation! It's much smaller than the Allie Bag -


But check out those pockets! I got everything from my bigger bag neatly into this one! YAY!
Anyways- that was fun! I'm also loving my gardening. Yesterday was day 5 since I had planted my seeds and I had my first seedling! YAY!!!


Yesterday, I also spent a bunch of time outside planting flowers & strawberries... yummmmmm!


Here's my beautiful house. You can't see my flowers this far away, but you can see the awesome looking lawn Carl mowed. :)


Here are some of the flowers I planted in front of the crepe myrtles. They're Scarlet Flame Creeping Phlox. I'm hoping that they'll fill in over the next couple of years!


Finally, today I checked on my seedling, and WOAH! Talk about overnight growth spurt - I went from 1 seedling to lots!

I can't wait til they're all big enough to plant outside! I'm sure that by the time I get back from our cruise everything will be huge! Yay!

It's too nice out to blog!!

So I know it's been forever since I've blogged - but I'm making up for it with lots and lots of pictures! It has been absolutely gorgeous here lately! And I have been very blessed to have off most of those days! Even today's 55 seemed warm and it was nice being outside! I think I may need to change the name of my blog, because there is not much bag making going on! :)

Anyways - I'll start off with some unfinished stuff. The projects that I blogged about earlier were a baby gift for one of the doctors I work with. She loves to travel, so I was thrilled to find fabric called "Pack Your Bags!" I made her a baby quilt and a bag - which refueled "I want an Allie Bag!!!!" in the PICU! I better get to work!!


A couple weeks ago, my best friend Katy had her baby girl baptized. It was an experience - which started out with being late due to getting stuck behind a church. Yes, a church, on wheels, moving down the road at 11am Sunday morning. Wow. Anyways - it was very cool to see Ellie baptized by Jason's grandfather, her great-grandfather!!


And of course I had to take my turn with Ellie! *Don't get any ideas!!* Carl and I are just fine babying Ellie to death for the next couple of years!! :P


Now... for why I haven't been sewing, or crafting, or blogging... I found my green thumb!! :) I've been in gardening overdrive this week! It's been so nice out, I've enjoyed being outside all afternoon on all of my days off! Even if it's pulling weeds! This is my hydrangea that I pulled out of the garage this week. It's gotten much bigger already and I can't wait for it to start blooming! It was so pretty last year!


I was planting up a storm this week! These are some herbs I planted Tuesday - Lemon Balm, Lavender & Parsley. I also have a little planter of herbs on the windowsill in the kitchen - Oregano, Thyme, and Basil. I can't wait to have fresh herbs to use!!


Here is my seedling planter. I planted all of these seeds on Tuesday, getting ready for my big garden! There are more herbs (I forget what all I planted!), green peppers, banana peppers, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, edemame, green beans, melons, & even more I can't remember! :P


I also put up a bird feeder! We've already had a few birds checking it out! After the last frost, I'll put out a hummingbird feeder & a hanging basket on the post!


Now with all this gardening going on, I had to have a garden! I went to a workshop a couple of weeks ago that taught me all kinds of things! And with everything I have working against me (clay for soil, lots of deer and rabbits around, and voles in the ground), I decided that having a raised bed would be the best choice. The lady that ran the workshop recommended a website to get the beds from, but they were more than I wanted to spend! So off to Lowes we went this morning! Carl made me an awesome garden bed! (I did do the planning, and marked/drew where he needed to saw, but he did all the hard labor!) Here he is at work!!

After the frame was finished, we lined it so the good stuff can stay in, and the bad stuff can stay out!! The frame is upside down in this picture, so we put landscaping fabric down first, and then hardware fabric (wire mesh) down to keep the voles out! Check out a few of the 14 bags of soil we bought in the back!!

Finally, after another run to Lowes, and $250 later, here is my garden - all ready for my seedlings!!!


And an "artsy" photo of some dirt. :P I really like the bolts we used, even though we didn't really need them! ;)

And my men... ready to relax after a long day's work!! :)


So that's what I've been up to!! I've got the next couple of days off, and I'm hoping to get some sewing done! And then... Carl and I are going on vacation next week!! YAY!!! We're going on a Bahamas cruise, that also includes a Florida stop, so lots of sun, water, & Disney (Epcot to be exact!) coming soon!! :) :) :)

Worthless Flex? Nope!

So I took the night off work tonight. Thats one of the best things about being a nurse - if our census is low and we don't need everybody to work, we take turns getting the night off, and only have to come in if it gets busy! I was really hoping I would get tonight off too! Whether or not I work tonight, I still have to be at work from 7:30-noon tomorrow morning for our yearly "Skills Lab", so I would much rather get up in the morning and go, than have worked 12 hours and have to stay, only to be back tomorrow night!! I don't do so well without 7+ hours of sleep! :) So anyways, I thought this would be kind of a worthless night off - but nope!! I managed to have dinner finished when Carl got home, so we ate early. I finished up the outside of the bag I was working on yesterday, and did a whole nother bag-front.




It's so exciting that I can get these done quickly! Now I just have to find some appropriate fabric in my stash for the linings and I can finish up these 2 bags! Now, I'm getting pretty quick at these bags, but every so often I run into a little trouble that holds me up. I rarely use pins. I much prefer to hold the fabric together, and only use pins when I really need to keep things lined up - like when I'm sewing the main parts of the bag together. And even then, I don't take the pins out, I just sew over them.



Not a great idea because of course, I broke a needle tonight. And not only that, even after changing it out, my machine was not to thrilled, and I had to take apart what seemed like half the machine to fix it. But all is well now! Anyways - busy day tomorrow, then back to work tomorrow night (Heck - it's not even 3 hours into the shift, I might get called in tonight!), so probably no more sewing for a couple days. On Saturday, I'm taking a gardening workshop. I really want to start a garden, but literally have no idea what to do first, so I'm hoping this will be fun. The lady doing it was featured in the paper a few months back, so I'm sure it will be good! Not to mention it's supposed to be 79 degrees on Saturday! I might need to break out the shorts! :)

Quilting Overload!

Wow! I have alot to update! I've been pretty busy with crafty stuff. I haven't been to work since last Tuesday and have spent every day doing something quilting related. Woah! I've been working on a couple things for a gift, which I still haven't given yet, so no pictures yet! :) It's just about done, just waiting to get wrapped! And with our 'snowstorm' this week, I haven't been able to get to Hallmark. Oops! Anyways -

On Thursday, I left with mom and Becky (my mother-in-law) for QuiltFest in Virginia until Saturday. We had an excellent time with a great group of ladies! I thought I had forgotten my camera (the problem with leaving at 5:30 am), but lo-and-behold it was in my bag the whole time! So no pictures of the actual quilt show, but here's everything I bought. I've yet to total up how much I spent (I'm a little scared!), but here's a picture!That's 2 quilt kits, 2 purse patterns, one quilt pattern and 2 kits for wall hangings from said quilt pattern, 2 half-yard rolls, 2 fat-quarter rolls, a bunch of loose fat quarters, a kit for a Mini Bow Tucks Tote (a small version of the Allie bag), a panel for a quilt, and some thread. I think I got some good deals (which were hard to find) and I'll have fun with everything! I told myself that I had to use up the stuff I've already cut out before getting into my new stuff! But its so pretty!!

And speaking of - I got started on that pile of bags I've cut out already. I made this bag yesterday. Carl was working from home - thanks to the snow! - and he was amazed that I could make it in a day, while being pretty lazy too. :) I don't have a need for this bag, so it's going in the "to sell" pile! :)

I like the stitching on the pocket.
Alot of my pile of cut out bags, I have the front and all the details picked out, but not the lining. So instead of letting the pile grow because I don't have enough fabric I like for linings, I started putting together the outside. So here's half a bag that I did this morning. Pretty easy, but I'm not feeling like doing too much today! I really really like this one, but it's going into the "to sell" pile as well... I might change my mind when it gets warm... or it might be the perfect bag for my cruise at the end of the month! :)

And here's what's left of my cut out pile - 8 bags left to make before I can dig into my new stash!
Now I'm working the next 3 nights, which means the next day I might be any sort of productive is Saturday - yuck! So hopefully I'll be ready to sew this weekend - however it's going to be 70 something degrees and I think I might want to be outside instead! Oh well! Time to take a nap! :)

Shhhh....

I don't want to share too much since this will be a gift, but here's what I've been working on lately...

I'm having fun with it and doing things a little differently than I normally do! I can't wait until I can post pictures of the final product!!

On a side note, in a week and some change, I'm going to QuiltFest in Hampton, VA with my mom, my mother-in-law, and a bunch of my mom's co-workers. I'm excited, but also a little weary about spending 4 days in a hotel room with mom and my mother-in-law! It's all good though! So look forward to lots of pictures from that - I couldn't believe some of the stuff mom saw last year!

New Fabric!!

I broke down and bought some new fabric - but I did get it on sale, and with a project in mind. I can't wait to get started!!

Mmmm... yummy!

Thankfully, I got flexed off last night (for you non-PICU peeps - when our census is low, we take turns staying home!!). I can only manage 2 night shifts in a row before I totally lose it and by 1am on night 3 am not making any sense whatsoever. So having a night off definitely is a good thing for me! But since I slept all day yesterday, sleeping again was a little difficult. I managed to fall asleep before 2am, and got up a little later than normal so I could have a productive day!

I didn't get any crafty stuff done - I'm hoping that I will tomorrow & this weekend! But I did spend most of the day in the kitchen. I didn't take many pictures (Carl laughs at me for taking pictures of what I make, but it's all for the blog! :P ), but it was yummmmmmmy!

It was all of 30 degrees here today - which is frigid by my Southern standards. And a bit windy too! I thought I was back in Chicago! :P Anyways- I was never a big fan of chili, or any soup for that matter, until Carl mentioned that he did like it. So being the good wife I am, I tackled chili a while ago. And Oh-My-God it was good!! It takes a little bit of work at first, but then gets to sit in the slow cooker all day. I've made it a couple times since then, and I don't use a recipe, but just kind of throw whatever I want in there (the joy of chili!) - usually diced tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and ground beef and then a random mix of seasonings. I made some today and it was delicious! Perfect for a cold, windy day! I also made some fresh bread to go with it. Great dinner!

I hadn't made anything for dessert, since my original plan was cookies and I didn't have any chocolate chips. I was looking thru my cookbook after dinner and had a moment, and knew what to have for dessert.
CREPES! I got to use my not-used-nearly-enough crepe maker that I bought after I got back from Paris. They were delicious! Makes me wish for the day I can say "Ahhh... avec nutella, s'il vous plait!" again!

The Windy City!

Carl and I spent the weekend in Chicago. It was a nice getaway, although VERY cold!!! The temperature was 1 degree Saturday morning when we ventured out. Some signs read -2 or -3!!! And YES, it is WINDY!!! We had a great time seeing things! I'd love to go again in the summer to see what places are like. It was nice not to have to deal with crowds - except the Museum of Science & Industry (which was not only free to get in, but free birth control for a while!! SOOOOO many bratty kids in one place!) - but I definitely would have prefered more moderate temperatures!! Haha. Here are some pictures from this weekend!


Navy Pier - waste of time in the winter! Nothing going on except a field trip or 2!

Carl and I outside on Navy Pier with the Chicago Skyline behind us!

Me on Navy Pier (I think Raleigh had the same amount of snow when we left!!!!)

Carl at the base of the John Hancock Building -
the views and the tour were better than the Sears Tower I think!

A view of Chicago from the John Hancock Observatory


Exhausted with wild hair after an afternoon in the Windy City!

We went to see Spamalot at Roosevelt University's Auditorium Theater. The show was awesome, but the Theater itself was AMAZING!!! Pictures don't do it justice, this was a beautiful space! I didn't even mind sitting in the clouds!

The Chicago Tribune building - beautiful!

Cool buildings on Michigan Avenue

The U-505 Nazi Sub at the Museum of Science and Industry - SOOO cool! We spent an hour & a half at this exhibit alone!!

Carl in front of a train at the Museum of Science and Industry - we spent all day at the museum, and although we didn't get to do some other things we wanted to, it was SO worth it! What a cool cool cool museum! It's like Discovery Place in Charlotte x a million!

Our picture in "The Bean".

Carl and the Bean - so cool!

A view of Chicago from the Bean!

Chicago skyline at sunset from the Sears Tower!

Carl and I in the Sears Tower

We saw this excavator from our hotel window - actually, Carl did b/c he's a nerd like that! It says "Lindahl Bros." on it, so of course we had to go find it and take pictures. Very cool though! Not like there's alot of Lindahls in this world!

My Snow Day - 3 days late!

While everyone else got to stay home during the "snowstorm", I had to be at work! Today was my lazy day this week, so I got to enjoy the snow! As much as I hate the cold, I LOVE snow! I was outside playing with Dozer and taking pictures for hours! I played with my SLR alot - I took a roll & a half of film! So those pictures will be coming in oh, about 2 weeks. Haha! Anyways, here's a few I took with my point & shoot a few hours later. The snow definitely melted quite a bit today!

Dozer looking for something to chase

Digging up something - I don't know if the underground creatures were more active today or what, but Dozer was digging up a storm all day!!

He loves to eat the snow! He just lays down and starts lapping at the snow sometimes!

The sun doesn't shine on the front of the house during the winter, so I'm sure there will still be snow on the roof when we get back from Chicago on Sunday!

And since this is a craft blog, here's my ongoing project - a scarf! It's super simple, knit a row, purl a row. I forget what the yarn is called, but it's a HUGE ball, it's really soft, and it has graduated colors so I can have nice stripes! The goal was to have it done to go to Chicago, but it's only about 3 feet long right now! Oh well!

And finally, I had to clean up my craft room/guest bedroom since Carl's parents will be staying with the Doze while we're in Chicago (I'm telling ya, this dog is s-p-o-i-l-e-d!!!). So here are a couple of pictures.

My sewing table - $30 at BJs... it shakes a bit when I sew fast, but I need to work on being consistent with my stitches anyways, so I don't need to sew fast! :) It works great. There's my Ott-lite, my basket for tiny scraps, my sewing machine (Husqvarna Viking something - my mom's "old" machine), and my supplies.

My fabric storage - this is just one of those clip the sides together things to make cubes. I think it was $15 at Target. The top, middle cube is open at the top only, so my fat quarters and bigger scraps go in there. My stash is kind of sparse since I cut out all those bags last week! I need to get on those one of these days!

SNOW!!

Snow in NC is a hard thing to come by! I can't remember how long it's been since we got any sort of measurable snow fall! On Monday night-Tuesday morning it snowed 6 inches at my house!!!!! However, I still had to go to work. :( This is when it sucks being a "grown up"! Oh well! The snow and ice made it difficult to come and go, so I'm finally home now!! YAY!!! Work has been super busy, so I didn't even get to go to the playground on the roof to play in the snow! Oh well. I did get a picture of Carl and I - at 5:45 am before he took me to work on Tuesday!!

Not too much melted today, so I'm hoping I can go take some pictures in the morning. What a great time to play with my SLR!!

Anyways- thanks to my crazy work schedule (Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) there has been no crafting in my house! Well, I take that back. I have been knitting a scarf while I sit on the couch & watch TV! But nothing else. I stayed at my mom's last night since we both had to work yesterday and today, and she has made some awesome awesome bags! I'm jealous!! I wish (A) I had the talent she does for putting stuff together, and (B) could afford to buy the great materials she does! Some day!

And there won't be any crafting any time soon either! Carl and I are headed to Chicago for the weekend!!! I'm very excited. I've never been and we got an awesome deal. (But of course - who wants to spend any time in Chicago in January?! ME!) I'm excited to go somewhere with snow (Oh the irony!) and I think it will be alot of fun!! I can't wait!!

First Post :)

So I decided to start a blog. I'm finally to the point where I want to start crafting more, so I need a good place to track what I've done and show the world! Ideally, I'd like to start selling some of my stuff. First bags, and then maybe I'll start making quilts for fun! But I told myself that I need to have 10 bags made before I can start selling!

Today I went to a baby shower for my best friend Katherine. Ellie was born a few weeks early, so we all got to enjoy her at the shower! I knew I wanted to make a quilt for Katy & Ellie, but I ended up not getting everything until Wednesday night. Thursday morning I got started on the quilt, and I finished last night. After a few runs through the laundry this morning it was ready to go! The quilt wasn't overly difficult, but there were a few tricky parts (like cutting fringe for 6 hours!!!) and I surprised my self for doing a pretty good job in about 2 1/2 days. That's with my ADD that requires me to get up and do something different every 15 minutes. Haha! I can't believe that I made a baby quilt in that short of a time! It gives me faith that I can do it again that quickly if I wanted to.

When I started making the bags that I love so much, it took me an entire day. I'd have to stare at it for a while, think about what I'm doing, question myself a little. Now, I don't even need to look at the directions. A couple of weeks ago I made these awesome templates so now I don't even need to measure when I'm cutting out the fabric. I can get a bag done in about 3 hours. Which is more than enough reason that I should be able to whip up some bags to sell. I have a huge stash of fat quarters, and while some parts of the bag require a bit more than that, I should be able to make quite a few bags from the fabric I already have!

Anyways, back to Ellie's quilt. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It is so cute! The front is appliqued and chenilled, which posed a bit of difficulty, with a Minkee backing, and it was well worth every bit! Katy, Jason and their friends and family loved the quilt.

A few pictures...

Here are some of my past projects -

A purse for Nicole

A quilt for Nicole & her new baby Weston (he's not so new anymore!!)

A bag for Jen!

Homemade Marshmallows! Yummy, but very messy!!

My most recent bag, and the one I'm currently using!

Lots of cookies ready to be baked!

Mmmm.... Homemade bread! We don't eat store-bought anymore!

My awesome tree skirt - I got the pattern from here.

Cards for Meredith & Jonathon, telling them what we got them from their honeymoon registry!

Twin Quilts for my best friend Angela's twin girls - Kirsten & Liliana!

Black-out blinds for the bedroom - a must for working night shift! (BTW- Carl's parents refinished that dresser, which my uncle made as a wedding gift to my parents!)