Feeling Productive

So I took all my quilt pictures...be ready for a feast of the eyes!

This is the back for my puzzler quilt. I still have to sew all of the blocks together, but I LOVE this quilt. The colors are amazing.

The fabric for the back is a purple with bats on it...how perfect. It looks more blue in the picture, but it is purple in real life.

The rain boots were too cute and perfect for the back of this kids quilt.

This is what I originally bought for the back of this quilt...it doesn't really go with it, but the fabric was beautiful.

Then I came home with this (kind of on accident...I was hoping there was enough for the back of my puzzler quilt) and realized it worked MUCH better with this quilt.

This is the back of my black, white, and red quilt that I just got back from the quilter. It is my favorite quilt that I have made. And the back just cracks me up.

Here is the front of the quilt. Almost as amazing as the back. :)

This is the fabric that I bought "just because". I don't really have plans for any of it, but I'm sure whatever it becomes it will be amazing.

This is the back for a charm quilt that I haven't started....bold move I know.

I can't believe how well this fits with my winding ways quilt.

I can't wait to get all of these quilts done! Even after getting all of these done I will still have five tops done, plus all of the projects that are in the process of being finished. I was pretty excited to find so many perfect backs at such a good deal. It was a Christmas miracle!

Package This

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this, but in case I didn't we got rid of our cable! We have been without cable (and our house phone...since only my mom and the ADN called us we decided it was time for it to go too) for almost two weeks now and it is awesome. We bought an amplified antenna and I get channel 2, so all is good. And we are saving TONS of money (about $70/month) which also makes me happy. Cable was just such a waste. I never watched it, and when I did I got sucked into things that I'm pretty sure made me dumber. And GCI is such a rip-off with all of their stupid packages and bundles. So we said so long to that. Between netflix and all of our DVDs we have plenty of things to watch.

On another note, I have been buying a ridiculous amount of fabric lately. All the shops are having their after-Christmas sales and fabric is 40-70% off. So I bought backs for 6 different quilts and then some other fabric that I'm not sure what I will do with but I needed it. I will post pictures of the quilts with their respective backs soon. Today my goal is to clean up my mess of a craft room. It is seriously out of control. I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like a hurricane hit it. Hopefully by the end of the day it will be useable again.

Lazy Saturday

This morning Weston and a group of his friends left for a three day long ski trip. They are skiing from Hope to Cooper Landing on the Resurrection Pass. Three days is a bit too long for me to be outside...so I'm roughing it here at home. :) And since Frito is gone it is just Maverick (mom's dog....known to Craig as Emerson for some reason) and me. And he loves to nap as much as me. SO....we haven't been getting too much done.

I did cut two quilt tops out while at finishing class this morning. So hopefully I will get some sewing and cleaning done tomorrow. Today I have been enjoying the first season of 30 Rock. LOVE it!

That's so Blu

Weston has been wanting a blu-ray player for a while now. Whenever we go to Costco he spends forever looking at all the different sound system and blu-ray set ups...it has been driving me crazy. I don't care about getting a blu-ray. They are expensive, I can't see that well anyway, and I'm not sure that it makes THAT much of a difference. Weston had finally picked one out the last time we were at Costco (the sony sound surround sound system that has the blu-ray with it...a steal at only $700) so he was determined to drive me so crazy that I told him to just go buy it and leave me alone. That is always his plan. We were dog walking and he kept talking about all the things he learned about blu-ray players on the internet. "I don't think we are going to make it to the end of the year without buying a blu-ray player" I told Frito. Apparently we weren't going to make it to the end of the day. We went to Diamond Costco....but they were sold out. I told Weston we should run to the other Costco just to check. It was very traffic-y and we were on a time crunch (Weston had to give a tour at work at 6:30 it was now 5:50) but we were determined....or rather he was determined. We didn't see it. Weston had given up hope. And now he was pouty and wasn't going to even look if he wanted a different one. But I had not yet given up hope. I didn't want to hear about how cool these things were on another dog walk....I had to come home with one. And hiding in the corner...under another brand was the system we wanted. One box. I grabbed a cart and saved Christmas.

Surprisingly, I can actually tell that it makes our regular DVDs better. We also bought the Dark Knight on blu-ray and it is amazing. I hadn't seen it, but it was better quality that you get at the theater. And now I don't have to hear about how badly we need one anymore.....hopefully they don't come out with anything better anytime soon.

Holiday Break Day One

Whoo hoo! When I walked out of school yesterday at 10:30 I felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I don't have to go back to school until January 5th. Amazing. The only thing that is a bummer is that I am sick. Of course I would get sick on my break....but I will beat this over the weekend and be back to 100% in time to enjoy my break!

So this last week Weston and I watched the movie The Happening. I was pretty excited to see it as it had a lot of hype as it was the first move by M. Night Shafhngnkmfa (insert correct spelling there) that was rated "R". Well...it should have been called "Nothing is Happening". The movie was SO boring. You never really find out what is causing it...there is speculation, but no conclusion. The characters aren't very developed. The plot doesn't ever go anywhere. Lame. I was mad I lost 90 mins of my life watching it. So take it off of your netflix queue unless you like to be bored.

On the crafting front...I was cruising along on my dad's second slipper when I got a phone call from Weston. "I'm going to leave the house just the way I found it so you can see what happened." Not a good sign. I get home and the house is a mess. There are couch cushions on the floor, my yarn basket was ripped into. Yarn was everywhere. Frito had not only tangled up the yarn for my dad's slipper, he had decided that he wanted to chew on the needles and destroy them. Really? Of course he had to do that. So now I'm going to try and pick up the stitches, but odds are I will have to start over. Good thing my parents are out of town for Christmas!

Woop Woop for the Weekend!

Last weekend was crazy. I had too much to do and I felt like I didn't get to hang out with Weston and Frito enough, which by Sunday was making me cranky. This weekend we have nothing planned. The only thing I HAVE to do is pick up some medicine and buy Frito some more dog food. WHEW! That might wipe me out. :) And then only four more days with students and it is winter break!!! Yea! So I am looking forward to my relaxing weekend.....

Insurance...

I can't remember if I blogged about it, but a while back Weston and I watched the Michael Moore movie "Sicko". Now, I am normally not a MM fan. I think that most of his documentaries don't do a good job of showing both sides of an argument and are simply meant to ruffle feathers. This one is different. This one takes a hard look at our health care system and the health care systems of other industrialized nations and shows the good and the bad of each one. Ours is riddled with problems, which anyone who has had to pay to hear that they aren't sure what is wrong with you... can attest to.

Anyway, on to my bummer of the day. Weston recently enrolled at his job for insurance. Which means I get to opt out of mine. YEA! We couldn't really afford mine....at $300/month it is a bit steep. Except for the fact that I apparently faxed in my form a day late. See, Weston signed up on 11/13 for insurance. I had 30 days to opt out....I know what you are thinking. But Sally today is only December 8th...how could you be late? Oh, well that is simple. Apparently even though Weston signed up on the 13th of November it was retroactive and the effective date was 12/1. Which means that when I faxed in my form on December 2nd I was a day too late.

And that is how I became double insured.

And poor.

Yea America.

I wish I didn't love Alaska so much, because Europe looks like a great place to live and they had a pretty cool healthcare and higher education system. Damn you Alaska for being so wonderful.....

Amazing Kitchen Wonders

This is a picture of our dinner the other night. Weston and I don't eat out that much and I've been meaning to blog about how awesome he is at putting together a wonderful meal. This night we had sausage with peppers and onions along with mashed potatoes and rice. It was wonderful. When we cook dinner Weston is usually in charge of the meat and I am in charge of the sides. Works out well.



This is what I call our bakery. My mom got this for us for our anniversary. It is BEAUTIFUL and I love it. It is a cake display with alaskan animals carved on the outside. Wonderful. Anyway...I bake a lot. So the new plan is that I can bake as much as I want as long as it will fit in the bakery. It is funny when people come over and ask if the sweets are for eating or just on display.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. It is too warm and now super icy out which is horrible. It needs to snow at least two more feet now.

You scream! I scream!

We all scream for ice cream! I have made ice cream three different times now and it is so good it might kill you. The first time I made cookies and cream. Yum to the max. It was devoured as we had a bunch of people over and we were all hanging out by the fire. Wonderful. The second time I made mixed berry ice cream and luckily there were people over again because I realized that I don't really like things in my ice cream (except cookies and cookie dough) so I only had a little bit of that ice cream. Then last night I made just plain vanilla. Wow. It will literally stop your heart it is so rich.


In knitting news, I am knitting my dad a pair of felted slippers for Christmas. Here is a picture of one of them....they are giant. I can not wait to see how they look when they are done. It didn't take too long to knit this, so I will probably be able to finish them by the end of next week.

Promise not to rant

Ok. I don't want to get up on a soapbox, but I did want to blog about this very briefly. Over the weekend a dog was killed by a trap. A trap that was sitting in a bucket of rotting meat on a porch. In a neighborhood. Where you shouldn't be trapping things. My heart truly goes out to the family who lost their dog. I can not imagine that happening. Pretty sure I would lose my mind. I realize not everyone is a dog person, but what happened to that dog is just plain inhumane. I hope that what happened was an accident and the person will be ticketed or fined for the trap being in a CRAZY place. (It could have been a child, or another adult who got severely hurt by that.) I also hope they apologies and offer their condolences to the family who lost their dog.

Anyway, I got really worked up about this over the weekend because I made the mistake of reading the comments on the ADN website. They were so heartless and rude I could not believe it. I don't want to rant here, but I did want to say how badly I feel for the family. Losing any member of a family is a big deal...even four legged ones.

Wintertime

Whew! I was worried that winter wasn't going to show up. Luckily, it has been snowing almost all weekend. We have probably about 15 inches of new snow and it is BEAUTIFUL outside. I LOVE snow.

Sadly, the weekend is coming to an end. I loved having four wonderful days off. I didn't get as much done as I could have, but I had a lot of fun. I went shopping on Friday and got some neat stuff. Then I went skiing with Weston and Frito which was a lot of fun. I used muscles that I forgot I had and I'm still recovering. We also went tubing with my family Friday night. Saturday I hung out with Frito while Weston went ice climbing. I made a cute little bag. It is too small for my taste, but it can be easily resized. Today I pretty much just stayed home and relaxed. I made ice cream and muffins and cleaned the house.

Frito is loving the snow. He just sits outside and watches it fall. Walking him after it snows is a bit of a pain because he likes to smell every snowflake, so tomorrow morning I might have to run with him just to make it manageable. Hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I am very excited to have FOUR days off! I hope to maybe stamp some Christmas cards, sew a few bags, enjoy not going to work.....I will keep you updated on what I accomplish.

Purse!

Yesterday I decided that I was going to make myself a new purse. I had bought the fabric the other day at Quilt Tree and have been wanting to make this purse ever since I got Bend the Rules Sewing a month or so ago. I LOVE this book. The directions are easy to read and all of the project are the CUTEST. This bag was really easy to make, and it only took me two hours to make. There are a few things that I would change when I make another one (which will be soon because this bag is amazing). 1. I used batting instead of flannel for the facing fabric because it was what I had in my room. It made the bag seams a bit thick. I am going to go buy a bunch of cheap flannel to make more of the bags in the book. 2. The pocket on the inside isn't lined and is a bit too big for my taste. I plan on lining the pocket so you don't see any of the wrong sides of the fabric and making it a bit smaller. 3. I don't really like how I did the handles. I'm not very good at folding over fabrics and ironing them. I can never make them straight. So my plan is to cut different pieces and sew them into one handle and turn it inside out. That way I have a nice even, straight tube for the handle. Other than that, the bag is perfect. It looks so cute and professional...I'm a bit impressed with myself. :)

So if you don't have Amy Karol's book...go buy it right now. They have a copy at Quilt Tree, or you can get it on Amazon, or at Title Wave. Go now. You will love it and want to make everything. And the projects are so easy and quick you can make them for Christmas presents!

WOW. Big dog.

Obviously, the pictures from the earlier post are of Frito playing with his birthday toy. He loves playing with those squirrels. Too funny. The above pictures are of the knitting needles I was telling you about and the piece of art that I bought at the Make It Alaska Festival a while back. It was only $50 and I am in LOVE with it. It hangs in our living room/entry area and everyone always asks about it. Probably the best $50 I spent in a while.

Also, I just finished watching a movie called The King of Kong. It is about the world of competitive video gaming, specifically Donkey Kong. It was interesting and funny to watch. The whole time you kept thinking this HAD to be a mock-u-mentary. But it wasn't...this was for real. Very fun.


HA! I just changed my header to a funny picture of Frito. Didn't realize it was going to be GIANT. That just makes it funnier. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm obsessed with my dog....

Frito!

The Long List

1. New Knitting Needles
On Halloween Leah and I drove out to Eagle River to go to the Tangled Skein. I stopped myself from buying any yarn, but did leave with two new pairs of knitting needles to use for my socks. The are the TINEST circular needles I have ever seen. (I will post pictures tomorrow...) They are from the Shanghai Hiya Co. and they are called Hiya Hiya needles. I bought both a size 3 and 4 because I wasn't sure which size I used for my socks. Lucky for me, I was using 3's because those were the bamboo ones (the other ones are metal) and I pretty much only knit with wood needles. So the bamboo socks have been resurrected. I LOVE the new needles. They are super easy to work with and make knitting socks so much more portable! Having to carry and keep track of 4 DPN is a bit of a challenge for me unless I am in my house, so I was quite excited to take these to the movies yesterday and knit. Of course, Weston thought I was crazy and kept trying to convince me that I did not need to knit in the movie and it was rude. He lost and I did knit.

2. Wall-E
The aforementioned movie from yesterday was Wall-E. We finally got the chance to see the Pixar film last night at Bear's Tooth. It was very cute. I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to see the next Disney film, Bolt. That comes out on Friday and looks funny.

3. Frito's birthday
Yesterday was Frito's SECOND birthday! I can't believe he is already two. He had a great dog birthday which started out with a special dog pup-cake for breakfast. Then he got his presents...two squeaky dog balls (which he loves!) and a new toy called Hide-A-Squirrel. The HAS was a HUGE hit! It is a plush tree with holes in it where you hide squeaky squirrels. Then Frito is challenged to get the squirrels out so he can play with them. He wasn't too fond of it at first, but once we hid some treats in the tree and he realized what he was supposed to do he LOVED it. It is an inside toy (he has struggled with this, he loves to take his favorite toys outside) and he can't chew it up so we have to supervise him with it, but it is a hit! He is in love with it. Overall, probably his best birthday so far!

4. Rock Band 2
Everyone loves Rock Band. It is the best party game we have because even just watching it is a great bit of fun. We bought Rock Band 2 (just the game, since we already had all of the instruments) right after it came out. It doesn't have as many classic rock songs as the first one, but it is nice to have more songs to play. We made it into the Hall of Fame in both games already, so we just play for fun. Last weekend we were at Best Buy and came upon the Rock Band AISLE. Yes, there is a whole aisle of Best Buy dedicated to Rock Band. Gross. Anyway, we found something that we DESPERATELY need to complete our Rock Band experience. A smoke machine and strobe lights. That is right, a smoke machine and strobe light the hook into your X-Box and coordinate with the song you are playing. How could it get any more awesome. I really hope that we get it because I have dreams of amazing parties where we all dress up like real band people and play concerts in my living room. Crazy fun.

A quick list

Some things I want to get around to blogging about. Don't have time now, but hopefully tomorrow.
1. New knitting needles
2. Wall-E
3. Frito's birthday
4. Rock Band 2

See you soon.

Bananas, Pumpkins, and Pies...oh my!

I don't know if any of you have ever made a pumpkin pie from scratch (meaning from an ACTUAL pumpkin) but it is a PAIN. I made one last year because I was so excited about the pumpkin patch and the fact that I had just learned that I loved pumpkin bread. I thought, hmm...pumpkin bread...pumpkin pie....delicious. Well, it turns out that I HATE pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, since I had made one from scratch Weston was hooked. It was his favorite pie. Great. So this year I decided to do it again. I love my husband. So I got home late from work and started my pie adventure. About an hour and a half into it (yes, this is a long process) I discovered I didn't have all of the ingredients I needed. So it is all in the fridge waiting for me to finish it up tomorrow.

I was on a baking spree that couldn't be stopped...so I made some banana bread. I'm also not a huge fan of banana bread, but it is SUPER easy to make and smells pretty good.

Last night we went and played pub quiz at Humpy's. For those who don't know what pub quiz is, basically it is like playing Trival Pursuit at a bar with lots of fun prizes and delicious food (at least if it is at Humpy's!). It is best to have a very diverse crowd so that you have the best chances of getting the answers right. We did pretty well. We even won one round (out of seven) and won some t-shirts! I had a good time, minus the fact that we didn't get home until 11. I wish it started earlier, because I would probably go every week if it did. As it stands now, I probably won't frequent pub quiz as I like sleeping better than free t-shirts that are way too big for me!

I'm bad

At blogging...at keeping up with friends...basically at everything that isn't right in front of me while at school.

So sorry.

A few updates...Taylor Swift (one of my favorite new(er) artists) released her second CD today. Wonderful.

I had other things...but they have since been forgotten. I am really going to try to be better at blogging. Tomorrow.

Homemade Brownies

I came home craving brownies. Unfortunately, I come home like this a lot and there wasn't any brownie mix left in the cabinet. So I searched my many cookbooks and found a brownie recipe. I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate that the recipe called for, so I substituted handfuls of chocolate chips. And man, they are yummy. They are a bit different than normal brownies, but still delicious. I might post some pictures tomorrow.

Pictures Galore

Five yards of this fabric was turned into what felt like a billion blocks...

That look like these. And one day they will be turned into a quilt!

And here is my sweater that I have been diligently working on for a while now. It is coming along.

Trick or Treat...where are you?

Weston and I were SO excited about trick-or-treaters this year since it was our first Halloween in OUR house! We invited people over to help hand out candy, we had a plan to scare older kids...it was going to be great. For some reason, there weren't many trick-or-treaters out. We had less than twenty come to the door. :( It was very sad. We talked to other people in town and it seems that fewer and fewer kids are trick-or-treating. WHY? I don't get it. We live in a really populated residential neighborhood where there are a lot of kids...but they were all hiding in their warm homes. Lame. I did love that I had Friday off because of conferences. Three-day weekends KICK butt. I wish I had them every weekend. Well, I'm off to enjoy my Sunday.

Who would have thought...

After reading my blog I realized that I never mentioned something big. My brother (I have two, one is 22, one is 13, the one I am talking about is the older one) went to France to join the Foreign Legion. Here are the answers to some common questions:
1. Can you join the French Foreign Legion if you aren't French? Yes! In fact, you can ONLY join if you AREN'T French. It is their foreign legion....I don't think we have something comparable.
2. Does that even still exist? Yes! And in fact it is fighting in many places right now, including Afghanistan.
3. Really? Yes. You can look it up on Wikipedia.
4. How long do you stay there? Well, if you get in (which your odds of getting in are 1:10) you sign a 5 year contract.

So anyway, he left on October 8th for his adventure. I was pretty emotional about it. I couldn't believe that I might not see my brother for five years. Sure, he lives in the same town as I do and I probably see him once a month, but still. Five years. I was worried about him, and worried about my mom. Then I got an e-mail today that said he was back home! He didn't pass the second physical (because of scarring in his ears from ear tubes he had in when he was younger) and he packed his things and came back to the USA. I was very excited. I probably won't see him for a few days, as he is resting up before he has to start looking for a job, but I was really happy to hear he made it home safe.

He's getting a quilt for Christmas.

Crazy amounts of Random News

First, some sad news. My friend from school had to put her dog down yesterday. Her dog had been having some health problems that resulted in her becoming rather aggressive, and she had to make a tough choice. I feel terrible for her, but I know she did the right thing. She doesn't think she is going to get another dog, but I bet she changes her mind in a few months.

Next, some exciting news. My mother-in-law cleans houses for a living. Sometimes she cleans out houses that have been recently sold or getting ready to go on the market (which is convenient with my FIL being a realtor). I guess she was cleaning out a house recently that had a TON of stuff left in it (not really sure what the story is there) and I basically got a whole new wardrobe out of it! A lot of the clothes were in good condition (some even had the tags still on them!) and were SUPER cute. So that is exciting.

On another note, I can NOT wait for the election to be over. Being in Alaska it is getting next to impossible to watch the news, with all of the Palin drama unfolding. I also hate having to listen to my students discuss it. For one, they don't really know what they are talking about...they are in 7th grade. And two, it always ends in a fight. AND they are supposed to working on their homework, not deciding the next president. So I finally told them today it wasn't debate class and to hold all political discussions until they are out of my classroom. And all of these Ted Stevens ads..."It's not about Alaska anymore." I don't get it. When was him being in trouble ABOUT Alaska? Pretty sure when he was getting a new Viking grill or whatever happened he wasn't thinking...hmm, I bet the people of AK would love for me to have this. And then there are the anti-Mark Begich ads that talk about how he "claims to stand up to his party, but does nothing about the democratic attacks on Stevens". Well, maybe Begich doesn't disagree with the ads. Why would you stand up against something you agree with? I don't get it. And I consider myself a pretty educated person.

ENOUGH about that. My sweater is looking awesome. I can not wait to finish it...which will be a while off, but still. I'm excited. I also started my One Block Wonder quilt on Sat. It is amazing as well. I will post pictures tomorrow...hopefully. Right now we are watching Indiana Jones with my FIL, so I can't have the lights on. I also had some other GREAT news this past weekend. My mom found my camera charger when she was cleaning her house, so SCORE! I have my digital camera back in working condition. Pretty exciting.

Hopefully I will be able to post more frequently. I've been pretty lazy, tired, blah lately. I hope it snows more soon....that would perk me up!

Sweater

I started knitting my sweater last night at knitting class. It was quite exciting. I don't have too much done and pictures will be coming soon, but I am pretty happy with it. Something that has been kind of weird the last few classes I have been to is the sheer number of teachers that have been in the class. It is a bit crazy. I hang out with teachers all day, so it would be nice to meet some people who do something else.

Anyway, not much else to report. I'm apparently not in the blogging mood as my post is rather lame. Sorry. I'll work on that.

Target

Target had its "soft open" today and I happened to make my way over there. The grand opening will be on Sunday and I imagine that it will be crazy. It is kind of a big deal that Target is opening in Alaska. For those of you who have known me for a while, you know that Weston used to work for Target...which is what brought us to WA and what drove us to come home early. We love Alaska too much to live anywhere else. We also don't like working 60+ hours a week (not that I was, but I don't like Weston working that much either) and that is why we left.

SO anyway, back on track. Target is open and business is booming. The parking lot was the most crowded part of the whole adventure. They had security that was "directing traffic" (or chatting with their friends, whatever happened to be more entertaining) which was a bit over the top. Once you got into the store it was clean, bright, well stocked, and the employees were incredibly helpful. They had plenty of carts, baskets, etc. They also were willing to get anything that you wanted that was out of stock. It was quite impressive. It is organized a bit differently that the one Weston worked at, but it was easy to find your way around. I wound up buying an ice cream maker for my Kitchen Aid mixer (on clearance for $40! Reg $80) which I am VERY excited about and I can not wait to make ice cream tomorrow. Ice cream...The Office...I can't wait.

Here are some things I like about Target (compared to Wal-Mart)
1. It is clean. And not just new stores. I don't think I have ever been to a dirty Target. The few we went to in WA were always very clean, and the new one is spotless.
2. It is bright. The lighting is very appealing.
3. The quality of the products. Some people may argue that Target is a "red Wal-Mart". I disagree. The products are higher quality and last a lot longer.
4. The employees are all very friendly. Not that employees at other places aren't friendly, but I have never been to a Target where I have not been asked if I need help. Normally I don't, but when I do it is really easy for my to find someone who can answer my question. And if they don't know, they all have radios so they can find out quickly.
5. They don't stock during shopping hours. (With a few exceptions...) It is quite common to go to Wal-Mart and find pallets blocking aisles. Even on the day after Thanksgiving when Target was CRAZY and they were stocking during the day, I still never had a problem with stocking being in my way.

I'm sure there are more things, but I want to go mess with my ice cream maker. Watch for pictures tomorrow.

Happy October!

I love Halloween. I am strangely obsessed with holiday quilts and at the moment I have plans/patterns/fabric for three different fall/Halloween quilts. Not counting the one I already have finished and on the wall at Dina's. So I am excited that it is October.

I am also excited that my friend had her baby! I was beginning to think it was never going to live in the outside world. :) It is almost Friday too. Can't wait for the weekend....

Almost October

On my class agendas today I wrote that it was the "last day of September" to remind both the students and myself that time is moving and we WILL get out of school eventually.

Anyway, now that I have finished Horton, I was dying to cast on a new project. Never mind I still have three on needles...I don't feel like knitting them. :) So I was on a hunt. I had the yarn for a pair of mittens and a baby sweater. I wanted to knit the sweater, it has a rhino on it and is INCREDIBLY cute. But somehow I have LOST the pattern. UGH. This is a chronic problem of mine since I am not the most organized person in the world. I was espically upset about it last night. I even cleaned out my car trying to find it. (I figured it could be in there since I had taken it to the shop to buy the yarn at some point) The pattern is MIA. So back to square one. I didn't really want to cast on the mittens because I knew that I wanted something a bit easier to knit while watching TV. The mittens are a really cool mosaic pattern, but they require five different colors and a lot of attention. I will make them, just not this week. So I settled on a hat. I have a pattern for a basketweave hat that I was going to use the extra yarn from my mittens so I dug up some OTHER yarn that coordinates with the mittens (and oddly enough was actually bought to make a pair of mittens) and has the gage I was supposed to get (which is probably not what I'm really getting since I didn't swatch, but hopefully it will still fit.) so off I went. And I have calculated that if I knit the same amount every day that I knit last night I should be done in 9 days. So hopefully that will pan out. I need a new hat as it is getting chilly outside. Yesterday I had to warm my car up! It had frost all over the windows and I wasn't about to scrape them.

I'm sure there were other things I wanted to blog about, but my mind is blank. I am TIRED this week. Monday was a super hard day and now I feel like I am dragging. I almost took half the day off today to recover, but I muscled through. Tomorrow is already Wednesday! As long as the VP debate doesn't pre-empt The Office I will be good. Sure, I care about the nation, but Jim and Pam got ENGAGED last week. That is a big deal. :)

Horton can actually hear a who!

And see! He is completely finished. I could not be happier with him. He is probably the cutest thing I have EVER knitted and I wish I had more yarn to cast on another animal. I have to be super careful to not let Frito get it because he LOVES to eat yarn into little pieces. Well, I guess that isn't really an accurate description. He mostly loves to tangle balls of yarn into big messes that are too terrible to even think about untangling. Today I went outside for like one minute (to take out the trash) and I came back and BAM! the yarn I had in a nice ball for Horton's eyes was in a crazy big mess and tangled all over his claws. I had to cut it off of him. So yeah, Frito needs to back off the elephant.

House Flipping

So Weston and I used to watch this house flipping show on TLC (called Property Ladder) all the time in Spokane. Now that we have cable again (ugh) I was watching it this afternoon while enjoying some Cherrios mix. These people blow my mind. They are intelligent (I would think) but they do the DUMBEST things. Like buy a house without a home inspection. REALLY? Our house was basically brand new when we bought it. It was built in 1964 but completely remodeled in 2007. We had a home inspection done even though there was ALREADY one done by the homeowner. We weren't taking any chances and our house was FAR from a fixer-upper. It blows my mind that someone would by a house without a home inspection. Anyway, moving on. It is an interesting show and you learn a lot about houses which I think is fun.

I've mentioned a few times that we have cable now. We were going over our downloading cap on the internet connection and the only way to get unlimited internet with GCI was to get cable. I hate that. I don't WANT cable, I want unlimited internet. We would get internet through AT&T but we need the super basic (local channels only) cable to watch NBC, which is pretty much the only thing we really watch. So now cable is back in our house. I just hope that I continue to use my time for things besides watching TV.

I finished my grandma's felted bag. I will post pictures soon. I also made my mom a zipper bag for all of her crochet accessories. I didn't take pictures of it, but plan on making myself one as I keep my knitting things are in a ziploc.

Review and Funny

So Weston and I celebrated our 1st Anniversary yesterday by eating dinner at Sullivan's Steakhouse last night. Neither of us had been there thought it would be a nice place to go. It was wonderful. We spent too much money ($100 before tip) but it was worth it. The steak was delicious, the sides were wonderful, and we got a free sufflate because it was our anniversary. The sufflate (I know that is spelled wrong but spellcheck is only coming up with sulfate which I know is also wrong. We did not eat sulfates) was ok. I had never had one before, and probably would not have one again, but it was free so I can't complain. The wine was also delish, but pricy. So, if you have something special to celebrate check it out. Or if you are just dying to spend your PFD/Energy Rebate/Being an Alaskan kicks butt money check it out.

On to something that is funny. If you haven't seen the show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" you need to stop what you are doing and check it out. Now. Well, if you really want you can keep reading, but you should just trust me. It is a RIOT. One of my favorite episodes (which can be found on Weston's website under TV Shows is called "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off". It starts out with everyone arguing over who is the best worker at the bar. (Really it is none of them, they don't really work, they just drink.) Then Charlie comes in and says that he signed the bar up for a dance contest. The dialogue continues. I will use "C" for Charlie "D" for Dee (the only girl) and "B" for Dee's brother, whose name has escaped me.

D: (Reading the form) Event Dance Marathon. Date with Charlie. Prize Paddy's Pub. What?!? You put the bar up as a prize.
C: NO! I put that under the PRIDE section, you know something you are prideful about.
B: PRIDE section? Charlie that is a Z
D: There is no PRIDE section Charlie
B: Your illiteracy has screwed us again.

The show has been described as "Seinfield on crack" so if that sounds tempting check it out. I think you can watch them for free on hulu.com. They always cheer me up after a long day.

Another random thing. We have cable now. BLAH. We had to get it to get the unlimited internet. DAMN YOU GCI.

Monday, Monday

There aren't many good things about having to wake up at 6am and walk Frito. He's tired, I'm tired, it's cold and dark, there are moose on the trail, etc. But this morning was the first clear morning in a long time. Normally it is cloudy and rainy, but today you could see the moon and the stars and I thought it was really nice. It made the walk a bit more bearable.

Another thing that is exciting about today is that it is our 1 yr anniversary. Can you believe I've been married for a whole year? Crazy.

I've been working on a felted bag for my grandma for Christmas. I only have one handle left to finish and then I can felt it. I'm pretty interested to see how it will turn out after it is done. Felting is a fun process, but you don't really know what is going to happen with it.

I hope you had a great weekend!

Rain, Rain, Go AWAY!

AH. So I know that I haven't posted in a while. I've been pretty busy. Teaching is quite tiring and then when I wasn't teaching I was getting my class samples ready for the next quarter of quilting classes. I'm tired. And now all it has done all day is RAIN. I don't like rain. It was horrible walking Frito this morning at 6 am when it is WET and dark. It made me want to crawl back in bed and not get out. So hopefully tomorrow is just cloudy...as long as there isn't any more rain. Another thing, when there is bad weather, why do they feel the need to make the weather people stand outside? I don't need Jackie Purcell to be out in the rain to know that it is raining. I can just look out my window. I also don't need Al Roarker (spelling??) to get blown over by a hurricane to believe that it is happening.

One pretty exciting thing that happened this weekend was that I got an iPhone! I am too cool for school now. I am in love with it and use it way too much.

Another exciting thing that happened was that Monday was PAYDAY! My first real paycheck. It was quite exciting. I had a lot taken out for taxes, but I can't complain too much. It is awesome being paid.

Palin Fever

So in case you have been living under a rock for the past week or so, the humble governor of the GREAT state of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is running for VP. CRAZY. I would have never thought that this would happen. Our governor. I'm still a bit in shock. The rest of the nation has Palin fever. It has gotten so bad that i can't watch the news. I'm a bit tired of hearing about Sarah. Not that I don't like some things she has done for our state. She is a bit of a political maverick though. Like when our legislature decided to look into the whole "trooper gate" (lame name, btw) thing. Well, Sarah decided...that's cool, I'm going to investigate MYSELF. Oh yeah. :) She is nuts. She does make some good decisions and she does make some bad ones, like anyone in politics. One thing that most people can not deny about her is that she is the hottest governor out there. Can't beat that.

Saturday Surprise

Today I taught my first quilt class. And it was AMAZING. It was the Buggy Barn pattern "My Three Stars" out of the Seeing Stars book. It is one of my favorite patterns that I have made. There were five people in the class and they all left with about five blocks done. It was just a lot of fun. It is hard to explain how excited I was. If you are a teacher it was the feeling you get when you plan an amazing lesson that the students get excited about. If you aren't a teacher, just imagine everyone thinking that you are amazing and what you did was amazing and wanting to hear all of your tips. It was a lot of fun and everyone was really nice. I think that everyone will probably actually finish their quilt, which is exciting. I can not wait until next weekend when I teach again.

Another thing that got done today was the building of our fence. My amazing husband worked his butt off and built the back of our fence today. Also, he built one side last night. So now there is only one side left to go and then Frito can stay in the yard all day. I think he will enjoy that more than being in the house as he will be able to run around and play with his toys.

Seeing Stars

So this is the quilt block that I finished at today's block of the month. The center star was last month's block and then this month we added the strips around the star and the stars in the corner. Next month the block is called a chain star. I'm not sure if it is a traditional block, but it is pretty cool and I can't wait to make it. This is the center of the quilt and then there will be different star blocks around it. I'm in love with my BOM quilt so far and can not WAIT to have it done! :)

Labor Day

I wish every weekend were three days long. It is Sunday night and instead of mourning the end of my weekend I am pumped that I still have another day off. And not only that, I have a fun day planned. It is September's BOM day! So I hope everyone has a nice Labor Day!

Yarn Harlot

So I don't think that I blogged about this, but reading Stephanie's post on her blog today reminded me of the situation. My mom and I were in the fabric cutting line at QT on sale day. We were a person or two apart because my mom had decided at the last min to buy some more fabric. ANYWAY, I was asking to look at her class supply list for her beginning crocheting class. The lady in between us asked my mom, "Why don't you just learn to knit?" Then my mom explained to her that she had tried knitting and wasn't successful, and yes, she had taken a class to learn to knit, but she decided to try crocheting because maybe one needle would be easier for her. The lady then goes into this speech about how she used to crochet but then she got tired of making dishcloths so she moved on to knitting. She also told my mom that you, "can't make very many things crocheting" and it is best for "dishcloths". At this point both my mom and I decide to ignore her because we are done with the conversation. I just felt so bad for my mom though. This was her first time at quilt store sale day and some stupid customer was rude about her class choices. I told my mom later when we were at lunch (BK Lounge baby...) that you can make TONS of stuff crocheting. She was like, "Oh, I know. I can also make blankets." I laughed... and informed her that NO! I mean you can make ANYTHING. Sweaters, socks, bags, WHATEVER your heart desires.

She said she might start with a dishcloth.

Fair Fun

Weston and I went out to the fair today. It was pretty fun. The highlight of my day is seen above...meeting Lance Mackey! For those who don't know, he is a dog musher who has won both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod two years in a row. This is quite a feat because they are both really long and less than a month apart. Two years ago when Mackey won both races it was the first time that anyone had done it. Then he did it again...pretty amazing. So I was pretty excited to talk with him. We talked about dogs and then later I went back to talk to him again and he remembered me! I went back to ask him if I wanted to get a dog from him what I would do. So then he gave me his phone number and e-mail address. That's right...I have Lance Mackey's phone number. That was pretty much the only thing that was different about the fair this year. I always have a good time and can't wait to go back next year! :)

Quilt store sale day!

Today was one of my favorite days of the year....quilt store sale day! I was actually rather well behaved and spent a lot less than I anticipated. I bought the kit for the farmyard quilt I've been wanting, signed up for two classes (one block wonder and the top down sweater), and bought my fabric for my BOM. I also bought yarn and needles to work on my 2-at-a-time socks. I'm through with the cuffs and I'm on the body of the socks. They are only little kid socks, but I'm still pretty proud of my work. I'm having a bit of trouble with laddering, but I think it may get better now that I am not working the ribbing section. Who knows.

Anyway, quilt store sale day was a success and I had a great time! The only thing that is a bit of a bummer is my weekend is almost half over. This whole working full-time thing is quite a bummer!

Bamboo yarn and chicken bites

(Picture of my school bag. A beautiful quilted bag that I blogged about a while ago. I love this bag. I use it for just about everything now. I am planning on buying a button for the bright green square there as I am not in love with it.)

Random, I know. But just wait. It will all come together.

First things first, I started a pair of bamboo socks yesterday at my inservice (no, I don't knit during presentations, but I had about 2 hours of down time and got quite a bit accomplished. And the link is to a site that sells the yarn I have. It is WONDERFUL and I am in love with it.) and I noticed a few things. First off, I am not normally a "public" knitter. I normally knit in the comfort of my own home or a friends house...not where other people can see me. I did notice how interested people are in what you are doing. And even more so when you tell them that your yarn is made of bamboo. After my inservice I went to get my school mandated physical. I knitted in the doctors office while waiting which also struck up a conversation with him that ending in him telling me he HAS to call his mom and tell her about bamboo yarn. It was pretty amusing.

**Random side story about the doctor** The nurse told me when she was taking my vitals that the school district also pays for a tetanus shot if I wanted one. At first I said no, but then when she told me it would be free I said sure. Free my butt. My arm is KILLING me today. When I woke up I could barely move it. Then this afternoon I started feeling sick and am just now getting over that. My arm still hurts though. When I told my husband I got it because it was free he replied, "Well so is a punch in the face but you don't want one of those."

Now on to the chicken bites. My team all went to Boston's for lunch and I ordered the buffalo chicken bites. There were a TON of them and I barely got through half. I got the rest in a box and was planning on eating them later. They were in my school bag along with my knitting (and some random paper work...I do work while at work sometimes). So Weston and I go to Lowe's to pick up some lawn furniture (at 50% off!) and a bookshelf. When we come home he tells me that Frito got into my yarn. This is not that surprising. He for some reason loves to carry yarn all over the house, get tangled up in it, and basically cause a lot of trouble. When Weston asked me why he would have gotten into the bag I realized I had FORGOTTEN to put my chicken in the fridge. So Frito being the mischievous dog he is ate ALL of the chicken, some fruit snacks, and chewed a hole in my baggie of dried cherries before he realized what they were and that he doesn't like them. On top of all of this he not only totally messed up my ball of bamboo yarn (not beyond use, it is just a tangled MESS) but pulled a needle out of my socks and dropped 20 stitches. So. I am going to pull out my other ball of bamboo and start a new sock. That will be less stressful than dealing with that mess right now. Which is fine because the sock was a bit large anyway. And it was hard to be mad because I can just imagine how funny it would have been to watch the whole thing happen. You can tell he struggled with the yarn trying to get to the chicken because it was wrapped around the handles of my bag. Oh, my dog. He is so funny.

So that is how bamboo yarn and chicken bites caused me a bit of stress today. Not to mention students come back to school tomorrow. Crazy!!!

I love your style

I went to JCP today with my mom and bought some new clothes. (A link...not that you can't go to JCP in town, but it was a goal...) Having to dress up everyday requires more than one pair of dress pants and a few mis-matched dress items. Anyway, JCP had a ton of clothes on clearance for $5 which meant that I could get some pretty decent stuff without dropping a lot of cash. Which is good since I don't get paid for another month (AGH!). I got two skirts, three shirts, and a nice shrug to wear over shorter sleeved items. I was pretty excited.

I am supposed to be cleaning my sewing room right now. You would think that since we moved in 6 weeks ago this would have been done and taken care of. Think again. I have a very bad habit of putting things like this off. And I just bring all of my stuff to the living room and sew on the dining table. It is way more work to do this because I have to clean up after myself, but it has been working. I do want my sewing room to be functional I'm just lazy. Plus, now it is already 8:30 so I'm going to start getting ready for bed. Having to get up at 6 am to walk the dog is really taking its toll on my sleep. Maybe I will start my cleaning tomorrow....

Back to School

So today is my first official day as a contracted teacher. I have been going to training all week, but today is the first day that I HAVE to be there. We have four (that's right FOUR) inservice days before the kids come to school on Wednesday. I am nervous and excited about going to school today. I have met the office staff and my department chair but no one else at the school. It should be an interesting day.

On the knitting front, I finished two dishcloths for my kitchen. They are very cool. Pictures will be coming. I was excited about how fast they knit up. The pattern (I used the ballband dishcloth pattern, free on ravelry) was easy to memorize so I was able to pick it up whenever I had a break at work and knit a few rows. I still have a ton of one of the colors and not enough of the other to do anything with. I think I will get another ball of the variegated and make two more just so I have a bunch of them around. I've also thought these would be great housewarming presents, or wedding presents, or happy tuesday presents because they are so easy to knit and very useful. I am excited to see how they wash as well. Ok, I should get ready to go....

Random thoughts

1. Why is McDonald's sponsoring the Olympics? Really? Am I supposed to believe that if I eat McDonald's I too can make it to the Olympics for an athletic sport? I don't think that Michael Phelps makes a habit of stopping by McDonald's on the way to the pool...
2. There is a new commercial out for JCP (I think) that is a mock of the Breakfast Club. Pretty funny. Except the target audience (teenagers) probably won't understand the commercial because they haven't seen the movie. A hit and a miss JCP. Really should have thought that through.
3. I found a blog last night called Knitosaurus (oh yeah, a link!) and I'm TOTALLY jealous that I did not think of that name first. I add -osaurus to everything. Laz-o-saurus-rex, Pudge-o-saurus, etc. Mostly when referring to my crazy half dinosaur dog.
Off to bed. I have a big day tomorrow. BOM starts and then I get to go back to work. Oh yeah. Every American's dream....

AHHH

I have been busy reading new blogs today and realized a few things. One, I should have been working on the border of my pumpkin quilt. The sewing machine is plugged in and rearing to go, but here I sit like a very lazy person. Two, I do not post enough pictures on my blog. I have been trying to work on it, but not having my own digital camera (well, I do have my own, but the charger was lost in one of my MANY moves these past two years and I have yet to find a new one, so it is dead and I have nothing to charge it with. LAME) is a bit of a roadblock to that. Three, I do not post enough links on my blog. Clearly I talk about things in my blog. And OBVIOUSLY it is very interesting so you would want to look at it or read it or whatever, so I should post links on here.

SO...anyway. Here are a few goals I have for myself for this quarter (or semester...we will see how it goes)
(Random note: Being a teacher makes you think in terms of school years forever. You can not escape it. January is the middle of a year to me.)

1. Learn to sew more of my own clothes. I hate clothes shopping and I like sewing. So this should solve that problem. Maybe.
2. Make my blog way cooler. (See notes above.)
3. Finish (and by finish I mean have it quilted and on a bed) at least one quilt.

That is all I can think of now. I should have a knitting goal, but I am not sure what it will be yet. Plus, I don't want to set the bar too high...I do want to accomplish my goals.

Valley Quilting

Leah and I ventured out to the three quilt stores in the valley today. It was quite the trip! It was raining hard core but that didn't stop us from finding all of the different shops and even the yarn shop in Wasilla. Everything was quite nice. I was very impressed with the selection that Sylvia's Quilt Depot carried, there were fabrics there that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I didn't do too much damage to the bank account...kept it under $100 which is pretty good having gone to 4 quilt shops (we also went into Dina's in ER. They have a TON of new fabric and some of it was too cute to pass up. The new fall line from Sandy Gervais called Pumpkins Gone Wild is AMAZING) and a yarn shop. Leah also got all of her shop hop blocks which is always fun. Frito got to go to dog daycare for the day which is always a good time for him (and for me because he is tired!). Everyone was pretty excited to see him again as they really miss him there. And who wouldn't? He is probably one of the most amazing dogs ever. :) Not that I am biased or anything.

I found out last week that I actually get to start back to work on Monday. AHH! I have three days of training BEFORE our four inservice days. So that was a bit of a bummer to learn, but I guess it is good I go back to work. Every day I go is one day closer to payday! And quilt store sale day! If only payday came first...but I probably don't need THAT much fabric. I'm going to go work on the border for my pumpkin quilt. If I can finish one project I won't feel too bad about starting another one.

Spooky

I buckled down today and sewed all of my jack-o-lantern blocks together. I am teaching this quilt as a class in October. I still have to make the candy corn border on it but I'm pretty proud that I got this much done! I am almost done with my kuspuk. I just have the hand sewing left to do. I'm getting ready to take Frito on his afternoon dog walk then I think I will sit on the porch and finish it up. How exciting! I have been pretty productive lately, which is good since I have to go back to school in 8 days. :( But on the plus side I will have real money to spend at the quilt shop soon, which is very exciting!

Charm School

I went out to the quilt shop in ER to go to Moda U. Moda U is a club that is run by Moda fabrics where you learn about new fabrics and over the course of a year you get the directions to make a quilt top. So it is kind of a block of the month club. ANYWAY, today Moda U was about charm squares (5" squares of pre-cut fabric) and all the different ways to use them. I accidently spent a lot of money. Class was really inspiring! :) I got a new book called "Charmed and Dangerous" which has different table runners and two full size quilts made from charm squares. So I got christmas charm squares to make one of the quilts and 60's reproduction charms to make the other. I'm not sure if I'm too crazy about the 60's fabric, but they are cute and it isn't something I normally make so who knows how it will turn out.



I have my last kuspuk class tonight. Hopefully I will get it done!

Last Day

So today was my last day working at the quilt shop. It was sad for a few reasons. One of them being that now I'm going to have to go to actual work. 13 days and I have to report to middle school. As a teacher. A career. I'm grown up. I bought a bunch of stuff before my shift started and have a ton of projects planned. Probably too many.

So I don't know if any of you have noticed, but I go in spurts with my crafting. For example, when I was still living with the in-laws all I did was knit. It was pretty much impossible to do anything else. Now that I have my machine back I have been sewing all the time. I started a table runner the other day and almost finished the top tonight. I probably would have it done but I messed up on one seam and then decided to be done with it for the night. It is late. So I am heading to bed. Be on the lookout for pics of a completed table runner soon. It may also be up for grabs as Weston doesn't like things on the table....

Kitchen Aid Mixer

Weston got me a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas and today I was finally able to use it.
Isn't it beautiful?

So I made pizza crust.

I was pretty excited about it. And it was delicious. I will definitely make it again. It took practically no time to make (minus the hour it has to rise) and was pretty darn good. I was very happy with my mixer and my dough.


This is the dough hook that my mixer uses. It also doubles as a lethal weapon. Watching this thing spin is about as amazing as the pizza crust.

Kuspuk pictures

Oh it is wonderful. And wearable. I'm pretty excited. Just needs a zipper, hood, and bottom seams.

Friends Again

So the kuspuk and I are friends again. After a talk this morning and then again tonight at class we made up and it is almost done. I only made one other mistake which was easily fixed and now it is beautiful. I have to do the pocket the zipper and the bottom edge and the kuspuk is wearable art. How exciting.

Pictures coming soon.

Long day

I work today from 1 to 7 then I have quilt class until 9:30. AH! It is going to be a long day. I worked on my kuspuk last night and it was incredibly frustrating. Mostly because I don't know how to read directions. Two of the pieces that I cut out were supposed to be cut on the fold so they are one piece. I decided to ignore that comment and cut them normally. Which means that I had to seam them together after I realized my mistake. Which was frustrating. AND I just hope it works out in the end. So we will see how it turns out.

I did take pictures of my shrug and my apron to show everyone. If you have ever tried to take pictures of yourself in the mirror you know that it is kind of hard, so don't make fun of the pictures too much! :)

Unmotivated

Last night after the whole ironing board fiasco, I finished my apron. I LOVE it. I topstitched all of the blue trim with a beautiful half daisy pattern and then sewed on the buttons and it looks awesome. I am going to wear it to work all week (we have to wear aprons there) and show it off. It's also my last week working at the quilt shop. :( Which means there are only three-ish weeks until I have to check in to my teaching job.

I have yet to start my kuspuk, which is bad news bears since I have my second class tomorrow and I am supposed to have the first four or so steps done. I don't know why I am so intimidated by this project. I think it has to do with the fact that I have never really sewed any clothing and I haven't had much luck working with patterns where you have to cut out pattern pieces. But I really need to start. I don't want to be as unprepared as I was for last class (I showed up without scissors, which are pretty important if you are going to cut fabric) or a pencil to trace my pattern with. AH! So I would like to be on my game tomorrow. We'll see. I have been cleaning the house to avoid facing the project. I really should get started.

Ironing Board Blues

So when we moved my ironing board didn't make it back to AK. Not sure why, since I wasn't there for the packing, but I was sans ironing board in my new house. Which makes quilting a bit difficult. So today I had a break down and had to buy an ironing board. I had seen the one I wanted at WalMart (ahhh...) but it was $45 so I decided to wait and go to Fred Meyer. So then I went to FM and they didn't have the extra wide boards. So I wound up going to WalMart and buying the one I wanted. Why was it so expensive you ask? Well, it is 22% wider than a normal ironing board and it has a rack on the side for the iron to sit on. AND as if that wasn't enough it has a rack on the bottom to stack things (not sure if that will be useful or not). The only downside was it took me about 7 minuets to figure out how to open it. There were no directions and even with my two college degrees, I had a bit of trouble. But I am back in business baby.

7/28 So this is embarrassing, but a bit funny. I realized that I misspelled minutes. I ALWAYS do that. For some reason I always put minuet, which is a ballet not a measure of time. When I was in college I actually had to put a sticky note on my computer screen with minutes spelled correctly and a picture of a clock so I would remember how to spell it. This is why I explain to students that spelling is important, and that I am not the best at it. I always ask that they politely correct me if there is a spelling mistake. I think it is important that students know that teachers are bad at things too. Like spelling...or reading directions....

Shrug me

Well, I finished my shrug. It is beautiful. And it FITS! I'm SO excited. I love it. I'm trying to decide if I want to add a closure to the front. I think a cute hook and eye piece would be nice, but I don't know. I don't really know where to find something like that, and I'm not sure my shrug needs it. I'm pretty proud of myself right now. I'm also excited that now I can start a new project. :)I will get pictures up of the shrug when my camera turns up again. I'm not sure where it ran off to.

Beer Brewing

So Weston and I received a beer brewing kit for our wedding. Since we moved to our new house he has been dying to brew his own beer. Fine. So Josh comes over tonight to brew beer with him and at first I was excited. I get to hang out with Josh and Weston and knit while they do something they enjoy. Perfect. Except then it started to smell. Not too bad at first. But then the smell kept growing. And I was forced to head to my room because it became overpowering. And now I'm in the bedroom with the door shut, widow open, and fan going at full blast and I can still smell it. I went into the kitchen to throw something away and almost puked. It is HORRIBLE. I hate it. I don't like beer, but this isn't even just a beer smell. I can't describe it, except to say that it is awful. If you have seen the Seinfeld episode with the smelly car, I feel like I am trapped in that.

On to more exciting news, I am almost done with my shrug. Had I not been chased to my room by that horrible smell, I might be done with it. But alas, the knitting was a casualty to the smell war and it is still in the living room. I also worked on organizing the sewing room a bit more today. Still not done, but it is getting there. I just hope the house smells normal in the morning.

Pictures of house

Bathroom. Has two sinks and a very large tub. Plus, the toilet flushes by pulling this thing on the top. Very strange, but I'm starting to like it.

Weston's gear closet. It is the third closet in our bedroom.

The bedroom. It has three closets and it is a lot bigger than the picture looks. It has a nook over in the other corner that could hold a small crib or something, if needed.

This is the kitchen. It finally has food in it after going food shopping yesterday. And pots and pans!

Wallet

This is a cute little wallet that is made with less than a fat quarter of fabric. It took a little bit to get together, but now that I have made one it will be very simple to make others. I plan on using mine to keep all of my reward cards in so that I have them all in one place and never have to go searching all over for them. These would also make great gifts because they are easy to make and use so little fabric.

Grocery Sack

I hate plastic bags. They are out of control. If you go to the store for a few groceries, sometimes you wind up with as many bags as groceries. And they just take up space. So I have moved to not getting bags as often as possible, and when I do need a bag I bring my own. So I was excited to take this class and learn how to make my own grocery sacks. I figure they would make great gift bags for Christmas and then they are reusable! I'm happy with how it turned out. The inside of the bottom leaves room for improvement. I will try to make it look a bit nicer on the next one. They are great to use up scraps, as it only takes four 18" squares.