Jennadesigns

On moving ... out and forward

2012-01-28T19:27:00.001-06:00

I've recently started journaling again ... something I haven't done in a very long time, but I'm feeling the need to again. Perhaps just to put all the loose thoughts bouncing around my brain in one cohesive place. Maybe if I get them all out there, where I can reflect on what, and who and why, I'll somehow have a better sense of life. I've had this journal for years ... full of blank pages, just waiting to be needed. I adore the angel on the cover and the funky pages inside.

For the most part, I've tried to keep this blog upbeat and happy, though those of you who read on a regular basis know that I do not fear honesty and have often shared my issues with depression with my readers. While I'm not currently having those issues, there are others occurring in my life that have caused great upheaval and confusion. Inspired by Beki of Artsy-Crafty Babe, who I have long admired, I figured I'd just put it out there, as she did in her post yesterday.

My husband and I are divorcing. I had hoped it would be amicably, but that no longer appears to be possible, for which I am sad. I know this is the right decision for me and will ultimately lead to greater happiness and personal fulfillment, however, it is currently a time of much uncertainty and frustration. For the time being, my daughter and I have moved in with my parents, for which I am so grateful. They adore my daughter (and probably me, too) and it's nice to have their support. I haven't been able to get much of my belongings at this point, but I did manage to get enough things to hopefully make Hannah feel at home and enough of my fabric to give me endless sewing opportunities (my mother said her stash was off limits - LOL - she's currently whipping out a twin quilt as I type).

But with uncertainty comes anxiety ... and I think so far I'm handling that as well as can be expected. I've found a daycare for my daughter and am currently updating my resume and applying for RN positions around Madison, WI, where my parents live. Financially, I'm in a tough spot, but I'm taking it one day at a time and facing the future with hope instead of despair.

There are lots of things that remain to be done and I recognize it will be a long time before I feel "settled," and I accept that as okay. I need to find the DMV and change my address. Monday, I'm getting a library card and figuring out when story time is at the library for my daughter. We're going to spend a half-day sitting in on her new daycare and seeing what she thinks. I'm going to start applying for every job I can find - and being in a bigger metropolitan area, there are many more opportunities here. I might even teach an English class as adjunct faculty at a local technical college. I am LOVING being back in a big city again, not to mention one that embraces diversity. To celebrate, I recently chopped my already-short locks even shorter - a trendier cut for a much trendier city.

It's so fun and funky and I can totally spike it any way I want ... I'm thinking I might see if I can get it into a mohawk of sorts tomorrow... as suggested by my friend Sally's teenage daughter with whom I spent a bit of time this past week. I love short hair, mostly because it gives one nothing to hid behind. I'm not afraid of who I am - I KNOW who I am. And I am choosing to celebrate that once again. I finally got a set of four graduated hoop earring for all the multiple holes in my ears - ones I can sleep on without the studs pressing into my head all night. My earrings, tongue stud and crazy hair are totally acceptable here, which I adore. I feel like I'm taking back "me" ... one huge step and a bunch of little ones at a time.

So, I'm going to start looking at back at the good things over the day here, as a reminder that even during those not-so-great days, there are always good things that happened, no matter how small. Jeni of In Color Order does this, so if it looks familiar, that might be why.

Good things about today:
- Started journaling again
- Got to sleep in late (no kids this weekend)
- Breaded tilapia, cooked snap peas and mini red potatoes for dinner (thanks mom!)
- Seeing most of my fabric stash physically with me
- Hooking up my streaming Netflix account here

I hope your weekend is off to a wonderful start!

Friday Favorites: Hoop Art

2012-01-27T21:22:00.000-06:00

1. hanging hoop..., 2. Hoop full of Hexies, 3. love is priceless..., 4. Dresden Plate Hanging Hoop Wall Pocket, 5. celebration ... , 6. I love my bed

Taking note

2012-01-26T23:20:00.000-06:00

Mmm... enjoyed a delicious gingerbread latte at my favorite coffee house this afternoon. I've been really trying to appreciate the environment around me lately. I think some times I hurry through life, without really stopping and appreciating the small things.

A few things I've noticed lately:
- The way the setting sun casts a warm glow against the side of red barns in rural areas
- The long shadows cast by street lights against buildings more than 100 years old
- The way you can hear the wind start through the trees before you feel it against your cheek
- That the very old, beautiful oak tree across the street with no leaves in the bare of winter will once again have leaves this spring, and the branches I watch sway in the breeze will rustle with the wind.
- The chirps of birds that haven't fled the arctic winter of Wisconsin
- That the rivers of water have thawed and refrozen in the street have a rather beautiful wavy look to them

WIP Wednesday

2012-01-25T18:25:00.000-06:00

Plodding away at the basting of this first star ... and scouring the Flickr group for what people are doing differently to make it go so much faster. I laid out what I had completed thus far and am really liking how it looks. I'm hoping to finish basting the remaining pieces to this star over the next couple of days.

I also decided to start choosing fabrics and cutting for the Sparkle Quilt Along, which is being hosted by In Color Order and Canoe Ridge Creations. Check out the Flickr group of participants here. Last week was color and fabric selection, this week was cutting and next week starts sewing!

I haven't totally decided on what size quilt to make... I know I want it larger than a mini, and I'm thinking I might even try for a lap quilt size. We'll see... at least a baby size. Hannah picked the colors out - she insisted on an orange palate.

And perhaps my largest work-in-progress is moving. My daughter and I are relocating to Madison, where I will be looking for a job as an RN. We are going to be staying with my parents until my divorce is final and we're back on our feet, which will hopefully be sooner, rather than later.

My cutie pie!

2012-01-24T22:39:00.001-06:00

Stopped off today to grab a bite to eat at The Roman Candle Pizzaria on the way home from grocery shopping. Hannah was immediately drawn to this gigantic mural of Koi painted on the shared entryway with the adjoining new bar, The Atomic Koi.

Spending time in the big city of Madison has been fun for this little one, who rode her first escalator this afternoon at Wal-Mart, which even has a parking garage (another novelty). We shared some delicious pizza, called The Professional, which featured a pesto-alfredo sauce topped with feta, house blend, broccoli, bacon, green pepper, oven-roasted chicken breast and a little bit of jalapeño. Of course, I picked the jalepeno off her pizza, as that was a little much for this two-year-old!

And while she quietly watched a movie this afternoon, I was able to make more progress on my Rose Star paper piecing. I'm still basting all of the stars little pieces, but remain convinced that once that's done, the actual sewing will go faster. If nothing else, I'm getting quicker and quicker at basting with every piece. Clearly, not everyone in the Rose Star Flickr Group has little children underfoot, or else they are WAY better at basting than am I! Practice makes perfect, right?

Friday Favorites: Instagram Love

2012-01-20T23:41:00.001-06:00

1. Lock, 2. Untitled, 3. #versailles #iphoto #ig #instamood #pictureoftheday #shadows #trees, 4. SL, 5. little branches in the snow, 6. typewriter

I recently downloaded the Instagram app for my iTouch ... and I've been loving playing with it all week. Thinking I need an iPhone so I can get better resolution ... oh, such a slippery slope!

"I did it!"

2012-01-19T00:14:00.000-06:00

It was a long 36 hours, waiting, after taking the NCLEX. I got only 75 questions and the test ended. Everyone who gets the minimum feels like they've failed. It's normal. I knew it was normal. Yet, I walked out of the testing facility and tried not to throw up in the parking lot. Thankfully, the blizzard I'd driven through earlier that morning to get there left me inches of snow to clean off my car, and I didn't hurl right then. I couldn't really think of anything so I drove to the nearby mall and proceeded to walk - in and out of stores - not really looking for anything but some reassurance. Needless to say, I didn't find it.

Instead, I headed back to my parents, and managed to have my head about me enough to stop and interview a daycare center for possible daycare for my daughter once I find employment down here. I then went home and avoided doing the "PVT: Pearson Vue Trick" for most of the afternoon. Until my mom came home and asked me if I'd tried. And a friend asked me if I tried. So, I tried it... and got the "good" message. Checked the Wisconsin Board of Nursing ... nothing.

This morning, I got up, played with my daughter, spent a lovely afternoon with Jeni of In Color Order and came home to an email saying my status had been updated with the Wisconsin State Board of Nursing. So, I logged on, and there, on the screen before me, was my license number and the initals R.N. behind my name!

It's official. I survived nursing school. I passed my boards. I am a licensed registered nurse. I survived. And I am so very thankful, for everyone in my life along the way, who offered kind words, encouragement, love and support as I struggled through. Thank you.

Now, it's time to do some sewing! And start looking for the beginning of my new career - as an R.N.!

Fear and courage

2012-01-16T21:55:00.000-06:00

Couldn't have said it better ... There are many things I've been fearing in my life lately: Saying words I needed to say, ones I knew would hurt, but would also set me free; choosing a career path that may mean relocating, away from one of my children; taking an exam in order to further that career, one that if I pass will put me ahead of others, and if I fail will put me behind ...

However, I said the words, I made a career choice and I'm taking that exam bright and early tomorrow morning. It was scary, but I believe in myself enough to know that I can handle what comes my way and be better for it in the end.

Tomorrow at 8 a.m. I am taking my state nursing boards, and I'm hoping that I do well. These are one of those exams that you can never feel quite prepared enough for. Over the past couple of months, I've done more than 4,000 NCLEX review questions and reviewed more than 1,000 rationales regarding questions. Those who don't know me, should understand I'm a type A personality. I like to not just pass, but ace things. And with computerized adaptive testing, you either pass or fail ... there is no grade. No way to ace anything. It's very black and white (and I so appreciate all those beautiful shades of grey in between). And to make it even worse, you don't know if you passed or failed when you leave. I fully expect to walk out of the exam once it closes and push down the urge to vomit in the parking lot.

I recently created a Pinterest Words board, with inspirational quotes that I can refer too when I'm in need of a little uplifting. A couple of quotes are one's I've loved for a long time and would make a great future tattoo. Maybe to celebrate all of these changes that are just beginning. For today, I'm focusing on this one:

I WILL pass my boards tomorrow (though I won't know for quite a few days). I have taken the leap, and now I am building my wings. And now it's time for some sleep ...

Rose Star paper piecing

2012-01-15T21:49:00.001-06:00

Trying out mobile blogging ... Started working on basting my Rose Star pieces. Two pieces done, three more to go. Perfect for keeping your hands busy while watching TV.

Mad-town, here I come!

2012-01-15T10:49:00.000-06:00

Packed my bags this morning and am heading to Madison to spend some time with my parents. My mission this trip: to pass my state nursing boards. If I succeed, I'll be a licensed RN, which will hopefully give me a foot up in the endless job search.

I'm scheduled to take them bright and early Tuesday morning. Let's be completely honest: I'm freaked. I'm already feeling sick to my stomach. I've been studying and studying and studying... but computerized adaptive testing freaks me out.

So, I'm heading down early. Watching the Packers game with my parents. Relaxing tomorrow. Taking the boards Tuesday and looking forward to Wednesday, when Jeni of In Color Order and I are going to hook up and spend some time together. She'll get to meet Hannah, which should be fun, and Hannah will get to meet George, Jeni's adorable bunny!

No pictures today ... unless I add some later. There are going to be some big changes over the next month or so in my personal life - some sad, some scary, lots of unknowns, but hopefully, some new experiences and good times as well. I'll be posting through it all, and trying to keep it upbeat. But anyone who reads me on a regular basis knows I try to keep it as real as possible, and that won't be changing.

Friday fun

2012-01-14T18:47:00.000-06:00

Spent Friday afternoon (and night) with my best friend Sally and her family. I haven't seen them as much as I would have liked over the past year, but I have hopes of changing that this coming year. Last night I enjoyed a great couple of bottles of wine with Sally (some of you might know her from her family's business Night Owl Craftworks - Etsy and Blog) as well as some time hanging with Mike and Sally's three daughters.

Sally and Hailey having fun! Ashley, Sally's 15-year-old daughter, totally schooled me on knowledge of cool photography apps for the iPhone/iTouch!

Ashley (left) and Emily rockin' out!

On our second bottle - Sally picked whites and I picked them out. I've been quite down about not having any pending job offers following graduation despite applying for more positions than I can count, and I knew Sally needed some cheering up too, so I was more than happy to oblige.

Homemade Raspberry Marshmallows - the premise of our entire get together ... Despite the fun, Sally managed to whip them up and they set overnight. We woke up this morning to perfect-looking, mouth-watering mallows, perfect for adding to a gigantic cup of hot chocolate.

I, on the other hand, decided I needed plenty of water and ibuprofen prior to heading home. But all in all, a great night with wonderful friends. Thank you!

Progress, but not quite timely enough

2012-01-12T22:38:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, I managed to find time to cut out pieces for a new hat for my daughter (it should look this this hat from From An Igloo once the lining and outside are assembled and sewn together). I chose to make hers with pink fleece for the top, a dark grey ear band and with dark grey spikes down the center of the hat - because if you know my daughter, she's fun like that. And these colors match her winter coat. She'll also be getting matching mittens. Hannah started the season out with two pairs of hat/mittens - one for at my house and one for at her father's house. And wouldn't you know, I seem to have lost the ones that were supposed to be at my house (not who I would have been money on to loose 'em either, so I'm kinda appalled at myself.).

Anyway, the fail here is that it was 50 degrees and balmy in Wisconsin on Wednesday, which didn't make me over-eager to start sewing fleece together. However, today I woke up to something akin to a small blizzard and 20 degree temps. Fortunately, she went to her father's this weekend, so I have a couple more days to whip them up!

And if any of you with small children underfoot need a reminder ... put your digital camera out of their reach when you set it down, or you may be finding little screwdrivers and trying to fix it yourself in the future. I have 3 point and shoot Canons, this being the oldest of the bunch, and admittedly I have allowed her to take pictures with this one before ... but it apparently it couldn't withstand being dropped on concrete. Oh well. Not sure how badly I want to keep trying to resuscitate this one.

And this is my first Rose Star Block Party English paper piecing block template. This is one of the ways I'm going to be using up some of those scraps around. I have English paper pieced before and I find it strangely calming as it allows my fingers to be busy while watching TV in the evening, or while waiting for doctor's appointments or some such similar thing.

I figured out what colors I wanted my Rose Star to be (5 different colors/prints) and labeled them by which print goes where, then I cut up the little buggers (and they are small).

Each square there is an inch ... so yes, very small pieces - but perfect for those "what-do-I-do-with-that" pieces of fabric! Hop over to the Flickr group and see everyone's progress. I'm hoping to get my pieces basted tomorrow evening. Then to decide on how many blocks I want to make!

Can't run without taking pics!

2012-01-10T18:26:00.001-06:00

Didn't have time yesterday to run between doctor's appointments and working at my daughter's daycare (it's great, I work a half day a week in exchange for my daughter's other daycare during the week - and I love the kids there, they're all wonderful, so is her provider!). However, I made sure I was dressed in my workout clothes and ready when hubby got home from work so I could squeeze a quick run in before it was completely dark.

Of course, I decided to run through the largely vacant industrial area of town - all that's left there are empty metal buildings behind tall fences topped with barb wire. About the only business still going in that area is the feedmill, pictured above. I snapped that one and the one below with the Hipstamatic app for my iTouch.

And here's some desolate rail road tracts. Occasionally, I can hear a small train coming through, but never on any sort of schedule. It's amazing what has happened to this town following the closing of it's largest factory employer a few years ago. However, I will say, in the future, I plan on running in a little more populated areas as dusk is falling. Though it was very peaceful, it's probably not the safest idea.

On Sunday, I didn't run with any music, and running with it today made a world of difference in my mood. I guess I was too preoccupied with my new Garmin toy on Sunday to even think to grab my iTouch. So, I'm now updating the software on my iTouch (no idea when I did that last!) and downloading more music to it. It's one of three I have and I usually use one of my iPod mini when I run because I can tuck it under a sports bra strap. But since it's chilly here (42 today, which is actually WAY not normal for January in Wisconsin), I had a fleece overshirt on with a pocket to store the iTouch.

And since I've been running, I'm feeling a little more motivated to sew. I cleaned up the dining room table this afternoon so hopefully I can start on a couple of projects!

The first project being hacking my heart rate monitor strap that came with this Garmin watch. It's too big for my ribcage even at the absolute smallest setting, so I'm fairly certain it's not reading my heart rate correctly. I ran it by my cardiologist yesterday and even he thought a heart rate in the range of 175-190 is not accurate. So, seeing as I have some wicked sewing skills, the elastic is getting the hack and a redo so that it fits snugly against my rib cage.

If you want to see where I ran today: click here and you can see how awesome this Garmin GPS unit is! You can even see where I stopped to tie my shoe - twice (hello, double knots!).

Technology and running

2012-01-07T16:31:00.000-06:00

Look what beauty came in the mail today! My Garmin Forerunner 405CX GPS running watch with heart rate monitor and some cool training software. I have always wanted a heart rate monitor, as it allows you to train within your target heart range by giving you real-time feedback. I wish I had one of these when training for my previous triathlon. But, in a way, I'm glad I didn't bite the bullet and get one then (nearly 4 years ago) because now I have the option of having GPS as well.

What I love about the GPS features on this watch is that I can come home after a run (that doesn't have to be on marked streets - no more driving my running route to determine distance!) and the watch wirelessly syncs with my computer and uploads all of my running data - including route, changes in elevation, heart rate, average page, distance run, etc. Through Garmin Connect online, I can not only track all this, but compare similar runs, improvement, set goals (which are then transmitted to my watch as I run) and find other athletes in the area and their routes as well. With the addition of a relatively inexpensive bicycle adapter, I can use the watch while on my road bike (hello spring!). And, I also have the ability to turn off the GPS feature and use it as a simple heart rate monitor during indoor workouts.

I did a lot of research before choosing a watch. If I'm going to drop a big chunk of change, I want the product I'm buying to have the functions I desire. This watch has a touch bezel (the grey band around the face) that works very similar to an iPod scroll wheel. I have read that some people complained about not being able to operate the bezel if they are excessively sweaty, but since that's never really a problem for me (and if it were, it can be solved by wiping the bezel off on your clothing before scrolling while running) I wasn't concerned about it. Other people complained it was difficult to set up, but after charging it (it has a AC rechargeable lithium ion battery) I had absolutely no issues with it. I think if you are remotely technologically inclined, it wouldn't be an issue. Within minutes I had downloaded the appropriate software for the watch and created a Garmin Connect account.

I will say, for a small-boned, relatively-thin woman, this is a huge watch. But when you consider what needs to be packed inside it, it's actually relatively small compared to other watches out there (even other Garmin watches). It comes with two different wrist straps, both Velcro bands, and I will likely switch the clasp band for the smaller Velcro one as it will not only fit better, but I find rubber wrist bands irritating over time.

I waited until Garmin came out with a newer model and then scooped this one up for half it's original retail price of $300 from Amazon.com here. In the future, I plan on getting the Garmin cadence sensor for my road bike, which is about $35 here for my roadbike.

The downside to this watch for me is that it is not waterproof (though running in the rain should not be an issue), which means I cannot use it's heart rate monitor function while in the pool swimming. To be quite honest, I am not a big fan of the swimming leg of triathlons (nor the pool swimming to train), so this was not a huge drawback for me.

So, my running plans for this coming year are: the Bellin Run on June 9, which is a 10K race in Green Bay; the Madison Mini Marathon, which is a half-marathon on Aug. 18, winding through the UW-Madison campus and along the lakefronts in Madison, ending on the UW-Madison Terrace with free beer and a concert; and finally the Green Bay Aurora Baycare Duathlon on Oct. 6, which is a 3-mile run, 32-mile bike and another 1-mile run. (Notice no triathlons in there? Decided to stick to what I love ... running and biking!)

Now, off to clean some space on the dining room table and start picking and cutting fabric for this great Half Square Triangle Block of the Month quilt along being hosted by Jeni of In Color Order. What I find fun about this one is that she is posting a new block each month and you won't know what the final quilt looks like until the end. I have a huge fat quarter stack of prints from the Eva line of fabric by Basic Grey for Moda. I'm going to pair them with Kona Snow for this one. Hopefully I can get this block done for tomorrow!

Scraps, scraps and more scraps

2012-01-04T18:11:00.000-06:00

It appears that scraps and works-in-progress have overtaken the studio as of late. I am going to attempt to avoid buying any additional fabric until I make a lot of progress on my scraps (scraps and more scraps!) and stashed fabric. This is just a small bit of the floor of the studio, covered in large scraps.

Here's some more if you look to the left of this pile:

There's also a pattern or two in that pile, along with some vintage flour sacks I'd picked up at an antique store about 5 years ago. Definitely time to start working with some scraps. And, I must admit, even this isn't the end of it.

These are 12x12 bins of my medium sized scraps, somewhat sorted by colors. Other pieces are also tucked away in a couple drawers in my sideboard in the studio as well. And then there are my littlest of little scraps, haphazardly organized into glass jars by my eight-year-old son, in an ill-fated attempt to distract him in my studio long enough to finish a quick project. I'm not sure what sorting system he used... there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to it. Oh well - the things we try to do to buy a little bit of crafting time.

So, what is my plan for all these scraps? I wish I knew. Really. It would make me feel better for saving every last bloody scrap, no matter how small. In the mean time, I've decided to join up in with Rachel at Stitched in Color for her Scrap Attack Quilt-Along. Every week, now through mid-March, Rachel will be featuring a tutorial or interview with an inspiring quilt blogger, all of which will culminate in a Festival of Scrappiness the last week of March. The festival will be a link party for anyone who completes a scrappy quilt top in 2012 - mini quilts count too!

So, after purusing the Flickr galleries, I have some ideas in mind and am hoping to tackle some modern blocks I haven't tried before. I might even brave some curved piecing (no promises there!). I've also joined up with the Rose Star Block Party on Flickr, hosted by SelfSewn, where we'll be making these beautiful blocks (see the link to the right) - all paper-pieced by hand. I've mastered paper piecing hexagons and I find I like to make them while watching TV, just to keep my hands busy. So, this block will incorporate other shapes and appears to make a beautiful finished block! And I have plenty of large and small scraps alike, so this should make some dent in it!

This happens to be another obligation I have this spring. Each year since my daughter's birth, I've made her a quilt for her birthday. This year, she'll be turning 3 on March 6th, and has requested a quilt in her favorite color - green. So, a while back I'd grabbed this panel by Suzy Ultman. It's called Critter Community and I'm planning on making a modern quilt with each block, embellished with some of my scrap fabrics in complimentary colors and essentially floating on a solid grey background (or perhaps a variety of Kona greens). I'm aiming to make this a twin-sized quilt, as I anticipate Hannah will be outgrowing her toddler bed at some time in the near future. ("My quilt for my so-big bed?" Hannah just asked as I was writing this!).

And, at some point here this spring, I would really like to get these two bee tops pieced together. The top bag of blocks has been pinned and re-pinned more times than I can count on Pinterest and it was just laid out on my design wall at that point! I've had these two quilts waiting for the past couple of years... (yes, Mom, I know I owe you two more quilt blocks - they're on my list!)

So, what are you planning on working on this spring?

Cleaning means you can ...

2011-12-21T21:17:00.000-06:00

Cleaning my kitchen this afternoon, as well as my living room, meant that I could two things I hadn't done in a while - bake and workout. It probably goes without saying that I am now full and sore.

Apparently, hubby and I were in some unspoken "I refuse to unload the dishwasher" standoff, resulting in a dishwasher full of clean dishes, the remainder of the dishes in the cupboards piled in the sink and all over the counter tops. After about 5 days, I couldn't stand it anymore. I finally unloaded the damn thing and did the rest of the dishes. And then, I discovered I wanted to bake in my now-clean kitchen.

As I have been trying to incorporate more protein into my diet - something hard for me to do without planning as I don't eat much meat - I whipped up two different versions of protein breakfast bakes. The recipes were supplied by the nursing clinical instructor I mentioned previously. I picked out the peanut butter version and the banana version to try and doubled the recipes as they are supposed to keep well in the fridge.

For some unexplained reason, my peanut butter ones turned out a little on the green side. Especially when compared to the banana ones. The only really different ingredient is applesauce as well as the main ingredient. My peanut butter wasn't green, so I'm not really sure what was up. I've never baked with protein powder before, but it is in both recipes and is NOT green. However, despite it's appearance in the bowl and in the pan, it tasted delicious warm and is pictured above with a half-cup of non-fat vanilla Greek yogurt and some fresh strawberries.

Between the bars, the yogurt and the strawberries, there are 406 calories. Breaking that down a little farther, there are 31.6 g of protein in that meal. That's more than double the amount of protein I get on a normal day and the greatest amount of protein I've had on any given day since I started tracking what I ate roughly five weeks ago.

And since I am starting to work out again, I want to be conscious of my protein intake.

Speaking of working out, after cleaning up the living room (okay, truth be told, I just shoved everything out of the middle and against the walls) I popped in my Shape Bikini Body Bootcamp DVD for a 30 minute workout. And just about died. Seriously. I've never been able to do those workouts well (there are three different workouts, all combining high intensity cardio with weight training and resistance training) even when really fit. But I sucked it up, convinced I was going to die any minute, and made it through. Of course, I literally hurt everywhere now. I dread what I'm going to feel like tomorrow morning ... but at least I know it's one of those "good" hurts, where you know the pain does lead to a gain down the road.

I plugged "high intensity aerobics" into Lose it.com and am absolutely convinced I burned way more than my allotted 167 calories. I'm seriously thinking of buying a heart rate monitor at this point. Not only will it give me a better idea of calories burned, but it will help with pacing and increasing when running as well. Back when I was triathlon training years ago, I recall that my swim coach even swam with hers on as well.

I happen to have a physical this Friday afternoon with my internist, and I'll be curious to see some lab results when I get them. I'm just hoping he can come up with some explanation for the frequent, unexplainable bruising I've been getting lately. I do have a pretty good idea where some of them came from, but the majority, I'm at a total loss.

I promise, sewing posts shall resume shortly ... in fact, I'm off to play in the studio right now!

Happy graduation gift

2011-12-20T20:14:00.000-06:00

My mom and step-dad totally surprised me with a new top-of-the-line Pfaff sewing machine, the Quilt Expression 4.0. Now, I've been sewing on a Pfaff Tiptronic 2040 for the past 10 years (also purchased for me by parents as a first marriage present - yes, go ahead and laugh, it outlasted that marriage!). It has been very well loved and so many different things have been made with that machine, from curtains to clothing and quilts.

A couple years ago, my mom upgraded her Pfaff machine to the QE 4.0 and I've been sewing on it when I visit. From the first time I used it, I told her I wanted one of my own someday. Well, as a reward for sticking with school, even when things got really tough, I am now the proud new owner of my very own Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0. (For the record, I would have been totally happy with basket of wine and delicious food and the card detailing how proud of me they are... this was totally unexpected!) I am already envisioning all of the beautiful things this machine and I will create and I haven't even hauled it down to my studio yet ... tomorrow morning I will!

I'm sure some of my non-sewing friends will have no idea why I'm totally geeking out over my new machine, but it solves so many of the little frustrations I had with my other - no thread cutter, free-motion quilting bobbin tension issues, small foot pedal, narrow quilting throat. It will be getting it's first test run tomorrow morning (last minute presents for the kiddos at daycare) and I have big plans for this baby in the future.

And, being the nice sister that I am, I will be handing down my 2040 to my younger sister, who has been sewing/trying to sew on two different machines of the same model for the past 10 years - both with never-ending tension issues. The 2040 should be a dream for her! I talked to her last night on the phone and she sounded psyched.

My husband might not be seeing much of me for a while, as I'm planning on living in the sewing studio and finishing some of those WIPs... I have two quilting bee quilts I need to piece the tops together that I especially want to finish up. And I always make my daughter Hannah a quilt for her birthday ... and she's turning 3 in early March and has requested a green quilt - her favorite color! So, if I'm not working - or working out - at least I can be sewing and quilting!

Finally done!

2011-12-18T11:27:00.000-06:00

Well, after 3 long years, I am finally done with school and am moving on to looking for a position in my new profession. Yesterday, I attended my pinning ceremony, in which nursing students are honored for their accomplishments and move from student nurses to graduate nurses (we all still have to take our state boards in the upcoming month before becoming licensed Registered Nurses).

I started this journey in 2008, after toying with it for most of my adult life. I have a bachelor's of arts in journalism and was a newspaper editor for 10 years before deciding in June 2008 to leave my position and return to school full time. Of course, five days after my last day of work at the paper, I learned that I was very unexpectedly pregnant, and single. But, I signed up and completed a full load of classes that first semester, went part-time second semester (scheduling my c-section over spring break so as not to miss exams) and continued with that semester of clinicals in the fall, pumping milk for my infant daughter on breaks. That next spring I was back at it full-time and have been since. I was very close to graduating last May, but an unexpected medication error caused me to have to repeat the final clinical, which I did this fall. It was a hard lesson with a long fall, but it taught me a great deal about grace and dignity and in the end, made me a much stronger person. And yesterday, the whole three years wrapped up with an hour-long ceremony, followed by hugs from family and the faculty - all who have watched us struggle and fight though long hours of homework, crazy clinical days, terrible anxiety and the overall upheaval of our previously known lives.

And in the end, everything ... absolutely everything, was worth it. I am presently looking for a graduate nurse position and studying for my upcoming boards. I am also planning on returning to school - sometime in the near future - to get my bachelor's of science in nursing. Being that I already hold a bachelor's degree, I should be able to complete that in two semesters.

My mom was able to come up and celebrate with me, which meant so much to me, as she and my step-father have been some of my strongest support (along with my husband) through this experience. She brought a wonderful basket of wine, chocolates, fresh fruit, artisan cheeses, crackers and even fig spread, which we enjoyed together the night before graduation. She also got me another graduation present, which deserves a post of it's own ... so look for that soon!

Making changes

2011-12-16T00:24:00.000-06:00

What is this, you might ask? Well, it's one of the changes I've been working on over the past couple of weeks. About midway through clinicals, our instructor asked us what we were going to do to reward ourselves for graduating as RNs - what would we do for ourselves that school for the past number of years has made really difficult? It was a good question. My knee-jerk reaction was that I was going to play in all my fabric (we're all fabric junkies, aren't we?) but then I really started thinking about it.

Many of you know of my issues with depression over the years and I've been quite open about it here on my blog. I thought back to the time I felt my absolute best in life, identified it and then examined what made me feel that way. And that time I identified was a number of years ago, nearly six years in fact. I was preparing for a triathlon in May of that year - one that I would end up attending on crutches to cheer others on while recovering from a knee scope to repair a torn-up knee. While I've always been bummed I didn't get to participate, what I haven't realized until recently was that maybe the lesson I was supposed to take away from that experience was that working out, training, and consciously watching the quality and quantity of foods I put into my body benefited me in more ways than just physically.

I realize I need to be the change I want to see. And as with any change, it takes a beginning and some solid commitment. Towards the end of November, I joined LoseIt.com - a free site that allows users to track their caloric and nutritional intake as well as provide support to others on the same journey. I'll be honest here, I don't have weight to lose so much as I need to tone up. But, entering my foods each day forces me to be accountable for what I put into my body. I quickly realized things I hadn't even considered: I'm drinking more than 200 calories of coffee creamer each day. My sodium intake is beyond terrible. And there's a direct correlation to how I feel and what I've eaten in a day. The LoseIt program allows you to track weight, BMI, exercise, nutritional content of your foods, and support each other through a variety of forums. There are some amazingly inspirational people on there, who have - each through difficult choices of their own - made amazing changes in not only their weight and appearance, but in their attitudes and their life overall.

So, I have a goal now. I'd like to compete in that triathlon I wasn't able to do six years ago this May. And now that I have a good grip on what's going into my body, I can better focus on the optimum fat:carbs:protein ratio that will allow me to train my best. Here's an example of my breakdown over the last four weeks for those three items. It might look all over the board to you, but I can look at that graph and pinpoint the days I felt the best, physically and mentally, and they are all days my protein and fat ratios were higher than my carbs.

I'm still looking for better ways to incorporate protein into my diet, being that I'm not a huge meat-eater. I'm also trying to be conscious of eating less processed foods and more natural foods. I'm drinking MUCH more water. I'm feeling much better physically, and mentally as well. It helps to have the positive reinforcement of seeing the needle on the scale budge a little (since I've been doing this, I've dropped roughly 5 pounds - which I fully expect to gain back as muscle shortly).

Being that it's Wisconsin, and winter, I'm not looking forward to getting out and running. I'm not looking forward to finding times to lap swim at local pools and leaving with frozen hair (I'm too stubborn to blow dry my hair). I'm not looking forward to biking on icy roads. But I am looking forward to feeling that ache - you know, the one that reminds you that you're doing something? I'm looking forward to liking what I see in the mirror more, to feeling stronger, to having more energy.

What are you looking forward to this coming year?

So, it appears it's been a while

2011-12-14T20:00:00.001-06:00

Sorry for my lack of recent posts this past month, but I've been dedicating my time to pouring everything I had into my final clinical these past five weeks. I'm happy to say that it's finished, it was a wonderful experience, I got an A (Yay!) and I am graduating this Saturday as a Registered Nurse. It very much feels surreal at this point. Being a single mom through most of this (pregnant at the start, actually) makes it seem all that much longer, I suppose. However, it's done and now I'll get to work, which I know will bring me the joy that seems missing from my life at times - I know this because I felt it during this last clinical rotation.

However, I did manage to finish up my GROCERY sign. I put a second coat of white paint of the letters and after letting it dry for a couple of days, went over the letters with some sandpaper (heavy grit - I found the finer grit didn't do much) to age it a bit. I wiped it clean and enlisted the help of my husband to hang it on the wall in the dining room, above my antique tin ceiling tiles. Total project cost: $1.29 for the metal pieces to hold the two pieces of wood together on the backside. Board were found for free (they used to be shelves) and the paint, sandpaper and hanger I already had on hand.

And we managed to do a little bit of rearranging to accommodate some of the taxidermy my husband has. A previous blank wall near the front door had a console table with a ginormous plant on it. So, I relocated that to the top of the entertainment center (much to my husband's dismay) and found some fun pieces to display on the table top, including this re-purposed cheese cloche I had picked up for about $1 a while ago. I simply spray-painted the bottom an off-white and sanded it to distress it. It's currently holding a paper mache nest made out of the pages of an antique dictionary with the addition of a couple of small decorative nests inside. The heart-shaped rock was one my son and I found while walking the beach a couple summers ago, while the larger shell was one taken back from a trip to Mexico.

The large gold frame was an old picture I'd been lugging around, from home to home for various years, without ever displaying it. A quick couple coats of chalkboard spray paint to the glass and it's now a huge memo board, which helps set apart the two mounted Common Spring Bucks my husband took in Africa. Also on my nature-inspired table is a small moss terrarium, an old kitchen scale with an antique glass floral frog and a larger terrarium, filled with sea glass, driftwood, some of the flattest rocks ever and a Robin's egg - all collected by my son and I over the years.

Needless to say, the rest of the house is pretty much a disaster. I have a bunch of hoops to jump through prior to graduation Saturday, and somewhere in there, I need to squeeze in addressing and mailing our holiday cards, which I managed to order well before the holidays this year.

Now, if only I could muster the energy to put up the tree. Well, decorate it anyway - it's upstairs already. And maybe finish some of the gifts I've started. That would be good.

I think 2012 is going to be a great year and I'm already making improvements to my life that will definitely pay off in the year to come. More on that tomorrow. And yes, with school finished, I'm going to be aiming for more regular posting, with tutorials and the like. Thanks for sticking with me during the down times everyone!

Friday Favorites: Upcycled Clothing

2011-11-18T16:51:00.000-06:00

1. kcwc fall 2011 : pants (from dad's shirt), 2. "Miffy" PJs, 3. Upcycled Romper, 4. Upcycled Hoodie II, 5. KCWC: raglan shirt and pants, 6. Little Big PJs

Hoping to get some sewing in this weekend for my daughter ... have a bunch of upcycled pieces I'm working on her for winter. And maybe a pair of pj pants for my son from a masculine vintage sheet I found today!

Friday Favorites: Retro Olive & Blue Kitchen

2011-11-11T21:09:00.000-06:00

1. Vintage chopping board, 2. Cathrineholm!, 3. Vintage Kitchen Towel Olive and Turquoise, 4. Untitled, 5. Cherry, Japan / Vintage trivet, tile in cast iron #³, 6. Arcopal combination

Finished just in time!

2011-11-09T20:12:00.000-06:00

I am happy to report that I finished up my Pretty {Little} Pouch Swap just in time and shipped it off to my partner, who has received it and loved it! There isn't a much better feeling than knowing that you've done something nice by investing your time and talents to make another person, halfway across the country, open their mailbox and smile. It warms my heart. Every time.

For those of you interested, here's how the back shaped up:

I love the deer and antlers and the colors as well! I included a bunch of goodies, namely chocolate, a small snap pouch, key fob and some hair ties for Stephanie's (Spontaneousthreads) daughter. This was my second time participating in the swap and I'm sure I'll be back for the next round.

I have a ton of project ideas tumbling around in my head and pinned on my Pinterest boards, but with my final nursing clinicals starting up again and going full speed ahead for the next four weeks, I'm not going to have much time to carve out of my schedule to sew. I'm trying to be okay with that. I'm slowly learning that it's okay to drop balls once and a while and trying to keep juggling them all is sometimes not worth the sacrifices that follow (namely, one very crabby me!).

Our first snow was this afternoon, which I had the pleasure of driving 30 miles home in (on my way back from clinicals). Rather then clench the wheel and grit my teeth as the rain turned to sleet and then accumulating snow, I picked a much-loved playlist from my iPod and settled easily for driving 40 miles per hour most of the way home. I made it in one piece, with my sanity still intact. I'm learning that there's something to be said for slowing down - both figuratively and literally. Of course, now that I'm home, the cold I'd been holding off for the past 10 days seems to have hit me with full force. I've downed my recommended dose of NyQuil and it's an early turn-in night for me. After getting up at 4 a.m. for the past two days, I'm in desperate need of sleep.

But even that didn't stop me from taking advantage of fabric.com and their great offer (25% off your order of $40+ through 11/12/11 with the coupon code facebook45) for reaching 45,000 fans today. I picked up most of the Lizzy House Outfoxed collection in half yards... six yards total for about $34 after coupon and free shipping. Not bad. Not bad at all. Is this not the cutest, or what?

Pretty paint and pouch work

2011-11-06T17:45:00.000-06:00

Having a kid-free this weekend meant some extra time to tackle things that just cannot be done with a 31-month-old toddler underfoot (or on the table!). A couple of months ago, I'd found two boards that in a previous live had been shelves. They are a bit beat up, but I consider that "aged to perfection," and an added benefit is that they have a small lip detail around three sides. When joined together (on the back with metal repair bars - $1 for four at Wal-Mart in the hardware section - they make the perfect size background for a sign.

I've been inspired to make a "GROCERY" sign since seeing this sign in Country Living many years ago. Once I joined the boards together I determined how much space I had for the letters, then chose a font I liked in Photoshop and sized the letters to fit, printing them off one per page. I simply laid the letters across the sign and then traced around them - pressing hard - with a ball point pen. Because I traced them on top of the paper (they were not cut out), the ball point pen left an indent in the wood. I then used acrylic white ink to fill in the letters. This is only the first coat - I plan to do a second coat, let it dry for a couple days and then sand the letters to give them a time-worn look. This sign, which is about 4.5 feet long will be hung on the dining room wall above four vintage tin ceiling panels.

Having my evening kid-free Saturday night gave me plenty of time to sit down on the couch and hand stitch a ton of detail on my partner's pouch for the Pretty {Little} Pouch Swap. This is the second round I'm participating in and I love it. Swaps are such a wonderful opportunity to try something new and receive something for yourself or your home that you might not have considered doing before. I've never hand-sewed with embroidery floss before and I found it to be quite amazing the difference it makes on a piece of work. Tonight I'm finishing up the back of this pouch and packaging it - and some goodies - up to send off to my secret partner in the morning.

It's the last of swaps for the time being, as my final nursing clinical starts this week. I'm not looking forward to getting up at 4 a.m. as I'm not a morning person anymore. But I am looking forward to finishing this semester and graduating on December 17th. And I am looking forward to working and bringing home a steady income more than anyone can imagine!

The wind whipped up here something fierce this weekend, downing all the leaves (just in time for leaf pickup too). In one of our two red maple trees in the front of the house, we found this abandoned nest, lying dormant in anticipation of the winter. My husband and I had no idea it resided in the tree until now. But I find something peaceful in knowing it was once a home and perhaps will be again next year.

Friday Favorites

2011-11-04T00:01:00.003-06:00

1. dress5, 2. Dominoes Cushion Tutorial, 3. Cheater Cushion..., 4. For Megan hive 15 4x5, 5. Star struck, 6. Oregon born, ??? bound

Project competed and mailed

2011-11-01T14:01:00.000-06:00

Finished up my The Pillow Talk {Swap} (Round 6) Pillow last night and grabbed a quick picture of it this morning before un-stuffing it and sending it off to it's new owner! This is the first round I've participated in and I must say, I've had so much fun watching all the great creativity pop up over the last month or so in the TPT{S} group.

My finished pillow measured at 20-inches square and featured paper-pieced string blocks with Kona Coal as the accent fabric. I used a variety of scrappy print in yellow, orange, blue, green, and blacks mostly. I love the text fabrics in this pillow - it was hard to package it up and send it off this morning. But, I reminded myself, that means I get to wait in anticipation for my pillow surprise to arrive in my mailbox sometime soon!

Here's just an example of some of the eye-candy popping up recently in the group:

Click here to see even more!

A day of progress

2011-10-28T20:50:00.000-05:00

I finally got my four paper-pieced string blocks for my pillow swap pillow finished and am starting to assemble the top of the pillow. I'm loving how it's looking and I hope my partner will love it too. I have a feeling that once I get this one done, I'm going to have a hard time letting go of it. And at the same time, I'm realizing that I should have made new pillows for my couch a LONG time ago!

While I've been working on this (and who am I kidding, WAY before I started working on the pillow this afternoon ...)

Our wood pallet accent wall in our bedroom! I've had this idea on my For my Walls Pinterest board for quite some time. I just love the rustic look it gives a room and tends to lend a more masculine look to some of the more feminine things in the room (the quilt, etc.). We scored truckloads of pallets for no cost earlier this summer and my poor husband spent a rough couple of nights chopping them up (these were huge industrial pallets and made out of much tougher wood than you typically see pallets). We (he) ended up using a sawsall to cut the nails holding the boards down. With winter upon us in the upper Midwest, hubby wanted to get the boards out of the garage so he could back his truck in farther. And so, today he spent the day working on the wall.

We opted to use 1/2-inch plywood behind the pallets, which we screwed into the studs. We then used a brad nailer and attached the pallet boards to the wall - cutting out around our electrical outlet and phone jack located on that wall (using longer screws allowed him to re-attach the outlet covers). We did the plywood for two reasons - if at some point we wanted to remove the pallets, we could do so without destroying the drywall behind it and because we're planning on mounting a European-mounted elk head and antlers centered on the wall and wanted the plywood to spread out the weight.

Since this wall will essentially be our headboard, I guess I'll have to get going on king-size pillow shams in Kona Coal and Denise Schmidt's Hope Valley line to match the king-size double wedding ring quilt my mom made for Eric and I for our wedding.

I'll post pics of both the finished pillow and the finished wall soon! Happy weekend everyone!

Wet and rainy around here

2011-10-26T13:49:00.000-05:00

Fall has certainly set in around eastern Wisconsin this week. The colors are gorgeous, but going fast! The last two days have been chilly - the kind that make you want to curl up on the couch with a good book or a movie. Add to that some rain and wind (a bit of hail yesterday, even) and I'm having a hard time finding my motivation to sew. Perhaps it's because my studio is still buried in lower-level refinishing project dumping ground stuff. Which, truth be told, is mostly mine and I need to find a place for it or get rid of some of it. But, being the lower level of our house, it's colder and my motivation seems to be hibernating on the couch upstairs.

Instead, I've been enjoying the colors and getting bits and pieces sewn when the urge strikes. The last couple of weeks I've been slowly checking things off my list that I needed to get done prior to starting my last nursing clinical in 10 days - TB test, a flu shot, ordering new stethoscope earpieces (mine are too big for my tiny ears!) and a penlight. Tonight I'm off for three hours to take my CPR for the Professional Rescuer refresher class. Then, it's about starting clinicals on Nov. 7 for 5 weeks. Graduation is Dec. 17, and I will be so proud to receive my RN degree! It's been a long time coming - 3.5 years actually (and I had my daughter Hannah in there as well!).

I spent this morning packaging up and mailing out my Etsy orders, and now, I'm going to aim to get one more string block done for my pillow swap pillow and perhaps watch a little TV. I hope everyone is enjoying autumn!

A daily reminder

2011-10-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

Today, more than 15 years after my first tattoo, I bit the bullet and got my second. I know firsthand that tattoos are addictive. I've fought the urge hard for 15 years now. But I take my body art seriously and have to know that I'm going to love it for all the remaining days of my life. I've never for one moment regretted my first tattoo - my astrological sign, a Virgo - on the top of my right foot. I was 18 then, but very sure of what I wanted and where. And this time, at 33, was no different.

Finding the right artist was the challenge. I finally found one I was instantly comfortable with - Steve at Greenseed Studios in Sheboygan. Steve has a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Illustration and has been a tattoo artist for 12 years now. He is extremely talented, knew immediately what I wanted (I designed the font in Photoshop and gave it to him, so that helped!), and made me feel at ease. After consulting with him, I made an appointment for this afternoon. Greenseed Studios is unlike any tattoo shop I've seen before, and for those of you who don't want to check out the link, I'd say it's a combination art gallery/tattoo studio - with beautiful wood floors, natural light and wonderful artwork adorning the gallery walls. In the picture above, my new tat is only a couple hours old.

I choose this word for a number of reasons. I've spent most of my teen years and adulthood struggling with depression. I - or more accurately - my insurance companies and I/my family, have spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to stay on top of it with counseling, medication and medical treatments. My fight against depression and repeated climbs out of it's depths are something I've accepted as being a part of my life. Yes, there are good periods in between the bad ones, and I'm most definitely in one now. I'm so thankful for them and I continue to hope each one will last longer than the one before.

I've reflected a great deal over this last year regarding my recurrent frustration with meds that stop working for no explained reason and days that seem to never get better. And the thing I keep coming back to, over and over again, is the simple need to believe.

I need to believe ...
... that things will get better, even when they seem their worst
... that I will be okay again - that I will be me again
... that I can achieve {anything I want to, insert here}
... in my family
... in my friends
... and in myself above all else.

There are days I need that visual reminder - to believe - and I want to see it everyday and be reminded of all I've overcome in my life. I've barely scratched the surface here on my blog. I believe that everything that's happened to me, both good and bad, has made me into the person I am today. I love that person, and I wouldn't be here without that "bad."

And so, I continue to believe. Only from this day forward, with a little visual reminder permanently inked on the inside of my left wrist.

Finally sewing ... with accomodations!

2011-10-21T20:47:00.000-05:00

I've been toying with some ideas for the Pillow Talk Swap I'm involved with ... but wasn't happy with any of them until now. I'm planning on a paper-pieced string pillow with Kona gray for the center strips and around the outside of four blocks. I've never string pieced before and find it very fun and a great way to use up some of my smaller pieces. I'm hoping to finish the other three, piece the top and quilt it tomorrow.

Of course, this is very optimistic, as I've been pretty much forced out of my beautiful studio due to the finishing of the remainder of the lower level of our home. I'm okay with it - even the mounds of stuff I'm literally tripping over to get at supplies. I solved the immediate problem by relocating my sewing machine, small cutting mat, table top ironing board and needed fabrics to the dining room table where I've pretty much taken over for the weekend. Then again, my daughter is visiting her father this weekend and not having a toddler underfoot allows one to actually sew outside of the seclusion of one's studio.

Even with all the construction and ceiling-hanging last weekend, I managed to finish up this pair of pants I'd started for my daughter from the $1 thrifted size 14s I'd found a while back. I used MADE's flat front pattern as well as her pocket pattern and they turned out amazing! Not bad for a buck - I had the elastic on hand already and does thread really count? Admittedly, I do have about 10 more things to finish up sewing for her, but we'll finish up the swap commitments I've made first.

This week I did list two different grab bags of vintage sheets in the shop - in 5 fat quarters and 10. It's a great opportunity to get a mailbox surprise of vintage sheet fat quarters at a significant discount over my regular prices.

I'm also (perhaps) overly optimistic that I will list another 25 items in my Etsy shop. I bit the bullet and paid for an ad, which I really didn't want to do. We'll see how it impacts traffic for the next week before I decide what I think.

And in tattoo news ... my mother didn't read my blog, but I told her about it anyway. After all, I am quite the adult now and it's my body and my decision and surprisingly, she liked the idea and even the placement, although it won't be as easy to conceal like my other one. So, at 1 p.m. Sunday the needle and I shall meet again! I'm psyched actually. The tattoo artist I finally went with - after meeting a number - has a BFA in illustration and worked as an illustrator and artist before becoming a tattoo artist 12 years ago. His work is quite impressive and walking into the studio is such a nice change from your typical tattoo shop - it's in the back of (yet visible to) the art studio that also occupies the space and smells of incense rather than smoke. Hubby is coming with my as he's never seen anyone get a tattoo before (and I need him to take pics too!) ... so I'm curious what he'll think.

Op-Shop Hopping

2011-10-14T00:14:00.000-05:00

It's not a big secret around this blog that I cannot knit, nor can I crochet. So obviously, all these delicious Granny squares I see being created out there in internet land is somewhat frustrating. Being the frequent op-shop hopper that I am ... I recently found the prettiest crocheted blanket - perfect for my little girl. It was a tad dingier than this, but some soaking in OxyClean and a run through the washer with Tide brightened it right up (and removed the couple of stains!). It looks like new, and Hannah is more than happy to snuggle under it while watching TV or reading books in her room.

It makes me wonder who crocheted it, why and how it ended up in the thrift store - the colors are beautiful and the yarn is in nice shape. It's obvious to me that it's older, but I have no idea when it could have been constructed. All I do know, is that for the $3.99 that I paid, I couldn't buy that much yarn today.

In another trip this week, I scored eight panels of this gorgeous vintage barkcloth curtain panels, each one measuring about 32 inches square. It's the most beautiful blend of light and dark grays, pinks, browns, tans and white. Not to mention the beautiful images of trees, birds, flowers, houses, deer and maidens. I'm planning on keeping some, and trading the rest with some Flicker friends who expressed interest after I posted my find this afternoon. I'm happy to share and know that some will be traveling as far away as the UK.

And in other fabric news, I caved and bought some fabric from Fabric.com. They had a returning customer sale I couldn't pass up and took the opportunity to stock up on some half-yard prints, as well as a panel print by Suzy Altman (not pictured here). What can I say - I'm guilty. And yet again I fell of the wagon tonight and Hawthorne Thread's amazing scrap packs - in warm, cool and fresh - were on super sale at $5.99, so I picked up one of each. If you ever need scrap packs, this is the place to get them from - you cannot go wrong people! And with $5 flat rate domestic shipping, well, that just sealed the deal!

And yes, I'm making progress on other things as well:
- My neighbor boy Kane received his quilted pillow and promptly put it in his crib to sleep with for his nap time!
- I also made him a lined zipper pouch with rockets and some Ty Pennington wave fabric in lime green and included a box of brand new Crayon crayons and some Buzz Lightyear coloring book pages. Needless to say, the whole package was a huge hit. I LOVE making others smile and I really need to do that more!
- Hannah's Toddler Pants with Flat Front and Large Pockets are cut out, pockets made and attached and the legs are being sewn together. For a buck, those are gonna be damn good looking pants for a 2 1/2 year old!
- I managed to hand-sew one of the many Spool bird mobile birds I'd cut out of fabric with the intention of making my daughter a mobile before she was born ... she's 29 months now and I've finished one bird. Yesterday. :)

- And, I'm starting all the jumping through hoops required to make sure I can take my final clinical, which starts the second week of November. Following that, I will graduate in December with my Registered Nursing Degree! But, in the mean time, hello TB skin test, flu vaccine, CPR renew, application for graduation and more state forms to fill out!

- And last, but not least, if I can ever get a tattoo place to actually call me back (really, are there that many people out there wanting to get inked?) I'm trying to get a tattoo - more on that later. My mom's not reading my blog much these days I'm guessing, but we'll give this a test ... how long before she comments on this idea? Any bets? I'm 33-years-old. This is a well-thought-out plan and it's not my first tattoo, though it has been 15 years since the last (yes, that would have made me 18 at the time I got it ... and I don't regret that one, not for a single moment in the 15 years it's graced my skin).

Baking and Sewing ... more sewing today!

2011-10-11T10:39:00.000-05:00

While yesterday was the kick off of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothing Week Challenge, wherein you are supposed to spend 1 hour a day (or more!) sewing clothes for your children ... I spent the afternoon baking. I made two loaves of this delicious Banana Coconut Bread with Lime Glaze, which is wonderful - provided you like lime! I happen to, and the combination of lime and coconut with the bananas is great! I've had issues in the past with banana bread not baking thoroughly, and being a bit doughy in the middle, but that wasn't the case with these.

At my daughter's request - and partly because I was at my MIL's this weekend and she'd made something similar - I made these chipper bars. No recipe, just followed her basic directions - graham crackers and butter for crust, top with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, coconut and pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over the top. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Cool. Yeah, let's just say, I DO NOT want to know how many calories are in these. My husband called them "artery-blockers." But I did catch him eating some after swearing he wouldn't!

In the sewing department, I really need to finish up this custom Buzz Lightyear pillow for my neighbor boy Kane, which I started eons ago. It's got all the quilting on the top and his name is embroidered in big fabric letters on the back side, which will also be quilted. It's high time I finish it, and I'm definitely motivated to so I can start on my KCWC work, which will require I switch out the needle in my sewing machine.

And speaking of the KCWC, here's my pile of to-be-accomplished work. Tons of cut out raglan long sleeve shirts, two Sienna dresses, a skirt, a beret hat and some other fun ideas.

I also have these great pants - found for a dollar, just like the tag says - brand new at the op-shop. Being a size 14, I figure there's enough fabric to turn them into MADE's Children's Pants with flat front and big pockets! On my list as well. I have the pattern cut out and taped together, so perhaps while Hannah's behaving and entertaining herself, I can cut them out.

I have a lot of running this afternoon and am hoping to sew when she naps. I hoped that yesterday, but instead needed to bake to use up bananas ... so you never know how those best-laid plans will work. But one can hope!

I'll be back later in the day to show you more about our beautiful weekend - despite some setbacks (having to buy a new refrigerator completely unexpectedly and a new coffee maker because mine died - a true panic situation in my house!) - it was wonderful and full of great family memories. We took out the canoe and went fishing with my son and his step-brother, who is also the same age. And we took the boys up to the farm, where the highlight was manure, of course! Boys will be boys, that's for sure.

Hippy Hop - A Bunny Shirt

2011-10-07T11:50:00.000-05:00

When your two-and-a-half year old child requests a "bunny shirt" after watching you play for hours in op-shop collected knits to upcycle ... really, is there any question about what you must do? Not for me - oblige of course!

And so, that is how this sweet little long sleeve shirt came to be. The shirt itself was a nearly-new op-shop find for 25 cents earlier this summer. It's a lovely shade of purple and I took Hannah into the studio to find some fabric for the bunny, which we simply found by searching "bunny images" on Google. She selected this beautiful fabric - after auditioning some truly awful choices! - by Joel Dewberry.

I used some Heat and Bond Lite, fused it to the back of the fabric and cut out the pattern. I then ironed it onto her shirt, selected a complimentary-colored thread and zig-zag stitched around the outside of the image. From my experience, the Heat and Bond holds fairly well, but it's still best to stitch around the outside to avoid lifting of the applique edges after repeated washings. If I'm not planning to stitch around the outside, I usually use the stronger Heat and Bond Ultra and have never had a problem.

So, Hannah is very pleased with her shirt! However, due to the very unseasonably warm temperatures (80 degrees in Wisconsin during the second week of October?) she'll have to wait until next week to wear it! Not too bad for a 25 cent shirt and a scrap of pretty fabric!

Maybe it's just me, but is anyone else excited about the Kids Clothes Week Challenge starting next week?

Thrifting queen (sing to the tune of "Dancing Queen" ...)

2011-10-06T16:01:00.000-05:00

What can I say ... it was a GREAT thrifting morning at the op-shops. My big score of the day was this mint set of Pyrex verde square flowers cinderella mixing bowls - look at that shine, will you! Absolutely mint condition and not a utensil mark inside. These will be making their way into my shop later!

Of course, being the sly Pyrex scout that I am, I also found these two Woodland mixing bowls (402 and 403) at the same store. Also in great condition. My mom collects this pattern, so I'll have to check her "still need" list, but as I suspect she already has these, they'll likely also go in the shop.

And at my second op-shop hit of the day, I scored these two beautiful Early American Cinderella bowls (442 and 443). I'm pretty sure I have a full set of these now, in mint condition, so once they're together and photographed, they'll join the rest of the Pyrex gang in my shop. :) You can never have too much Pyrex, can you?

It was also a good couple of days for sheets and pillowcases as well. I'm now the proud owner of a Go Baby! cutter from my parents, and hubby got me the charm square die and overmat, so I'm all set to start making vintage sheet charm packs for the shop as well!

I did get this piece of Pyrex Snowflake Garland - the 043 oval casserole - for my mom as it was on her "still need" list. She'll be coming up in a little over a week, so I'll give it to her then and she can add it to her collection!

And last but not least, I picked up this great little bowl (see it in reference to the 043 casserole?) but don't know much about it. There's next to no markings on the bottom, except for a small number I-25.

Anybody know anything about this piece?

Happy thrifting everyone!

Back at it all again

2011-10-03T20:17:00.000-05:00

Well, after nearly a month of accidental blog hiatus, I think I'm back at it now - I've been waiting to post until I thought I would be able to keep up with it somewhat consistently, and I'm pretty sure I'm there. I don't know if it's that my new meds have finally kicked in, or that I've been feeling so much better mood-wise since I added a multivitamin, vitamin B complex supplement and vitamin D supplement to my diet (or maybe a combination of both). Either way, I'm just happy to be feeling like me again!

Today I listed this beautiful set of vintage aqua blue Ball jars with glass lids and wire bails in my Etsy shop Jenna's Attic. I have tons and tons more vintage sheets and pillowcases to list, along with vintage housewares and other fun op-shop finds and hope to get that done throughout the week.

I had fun playing around with these great Tape Strips (a free download!) from Pugly Pixel and used them in the creation of my first photo and the following ... super easy and fun to play with! I had pinned the link on my Online Resources board on Pinterest and finally got to play with it.

Also today, I found some time to whip up a pumpkin spice cake with browned butter frosting ... it truly is as delicious as this picture looks! Here's the link to the recipe from Crazy for Crust. It's a very moist cake and the frosting is to die for! Hubby loved it, Hannah loved it and we even brought some over to our daycare provider for her and her son. Because, really, I don't want to be tempted by it for more than a day - so, it's always best to share. :) And what's really great about this recipe ... is uses a yellow cake mix, with some extra additions. Super easy to make, even with a little one underfoot!

And speaking of pumpkins, the miniature ones I grew in our garden are ready to be plucked from the vines - something I'll probably do tomorrow, as our unseasonably warm weather is supposed to hold through most of the week. You can't beat 70 degree temperatures in northern Wisconsin the first week in October! It's a good thing too, because there are plenty of bushes in our front yard that need cutting back prior to winter and I'd love to make a pumpkin display in the front.

I'm planning on joining Elsie Marley's Kids Clothing Week Challenge again this fall. I participated in the spring and made Hannah a bunch of fun clothes, which I'm still waiting for her to grow into (probably by next spring!). I already have four raglan t-shirts cut out and waiting for the week to start on Friday. I used this pattern, which I've found works great! I typically wait until all the children's clothing at the op-shop is on clearance - they usually do that a couple times a year and charge 25 cents per item. I pick up a handful of teen-sized clothing at the quarter-per-item price and then chop them into new clothes to fit my 3T-sized daughter. You can't beat that for savings! I also bought two-yards of rib knit at Joann's with my 50% off coupon this fall, which is used for the neck, cuff and bottom hems... and should be plenty to make a couple dozen tees.

Tomorrow, we'll tackle the sewing projects I'm working on (or pondering working on, as the case may be!). See you then!

What NOT to do when Pyrex hunting

2011-09-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

Last week Friday, I stopped in at one of my regular thifty haunts. Now, they rarely have much Pyrex. Maybe a cup or two, but that's usually it. This time, it was Pyrex heaven. I am collecting the aqua/white snowflake pieces, and I already had the bottom one in this photo. I quickly spotted the white on aqua one you see here on top and snatched it up. In mint condition and at $3.99, how could I pass that up? I contained my squealing ... especially when I spotted more aqua and white in the form of this 402 Butterprint bowl.

I do happen to already have this set - thanks to my in-laws who picked it up for me earlier in the year - but I figure I might be able to trade for something else I needed.

And speaking of things I needed ... here's where the hand slap to the forehead should come in. Also sitting on the shelves, were the 473, 474 and 475 round casseroles in the Early American pattern with lids... for $1.99, $2.99 and $3.99 respectively. I have obsessively collected the EA pattern and have almost ALL of the pieces. I was certain I already had these... and I know from experience that they're not one of the most collectable patterns and thus more difficult to re-sell or trade, so I passed on them. Then I went home. And realized that the ONLY Early American pieces I am missing are the 474 and 475 casseroles. Seriously. Of course Labor Day weekend followed and I'm sure they've been snatched up by now.

So, the moral of the story for all you Pyrex collectors is this: Always carry with you a list of the pieces you need. Such a simple thing and one I'll be doing from now on!

Happy Pyrex hunting everyone!

Thrifty finds of late

2011-09-06T14:08:00.000-05:00

So, seriously, have you seen anything cuter than this vintage ceramic owl bank? I love his big closed eyes with huge lashes and his beautiful blue/gray color. He's in amazing condition and the only "defect" I can find is that he's missing his stopper on the bottom. The coin slot is on the back side of his head. I picked him up at a local thrift last week with the intention to re-sell him in my Etsy shop Jenna's Attic, but now I'm not sure ... he's so freakin' adorable I might have to keep him for myself!

And I hit the jackpot at that specific store, by the way ... all children's clothes were 25 cents. I scooped up tons of clothes for my little girl - either that she can grow into, or that I can upcycle into something fun for her.

Of course, I'm always on the lookout for sheets, and I picked this beautiful vintage floral sheet up on Sunday at Goodwill. We had made a quick stop to try and find a pair of shoes for my son, whose flip flops fell apart over the weekend and only seemed to have dress shoes at my house. We found him a cheap pair of shoes until he could even out the stockpile he must have at his dad's house... and I breezed through the bedding section and grabbed up this beauty! She's in the shop now, here.

While on the way down to Madison to help my parent's move earlier last week, my husband and I stopped at the Goodwill in Fond du Lac. This Goodwill is always good for Pyrex ... but never has a single sheet for some reason. I found these huge wheel-thrown and likely wood-fired vintage ceramic mugs, which would be perfect for the coffee lover! They'll be in the shop later in the week.

And Eric spotted the treasure that stop ... while not Pyrex, still super cool - a triangular Federal Glass casserole with lid and it's original warmer. It is in amazing condition and features a beautiful diamond pattern on all three sides. The diamonds are actually 24kt gold. I have a matching triangular Federal Glass clear pitcher with lid I picked up this summer at a garage sale.

Not sure what my plans are with this one yet. I will spare you all pictures of the Cinderella purple gigantic bouncy ball my daughter had to have and the red aluminum water bottle my son had to have. Eric did find a couple of nice designer shirts there as well. I'm on my way to Madison again this weekend and it's my plans to hit up some more thrift stores along the way when I'm not juggling two children at the same time!

Tomorrow I'm blogging about some great Pyrex finds ... and what NOT to do while thrifting for Pyrex!

A day on the farm

2011-09-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

My family and I spent yesterday at my in-laws - they own a beef farm and cash crop (mostly corn, beets, wheat, soybeans and alfalfa) - about an hour north of where we live. The kids love it there and the grandparents love seeing them, as do my husband and I. Not only are they very sweet people - my mother-in-law is a school teacher, retiring this January, and my father-in-law farms - but there are endless things to see and do for a two-year-old and an eight-year-old, as well as endless things for me to take pictures of, which I LOVE! Like this vintage International replica tractor, abandoned in the dust upside down on the floor of the former pole shed, which is now scheduled for demolition after being replaced by a new machine shed.

There's also other great objects, that while covered in dust, offer wonderful glimpses of vintage labeling.

In addition to all these fun things to photograph, my brother-in-law Phillip created a windmill aerated pond, stocked with hybrid blue gill and native blue gills. It's located a short ATV ride from the house, and offers wonderful fishing for Isaac. And who am I kidding, it's fun for me too. Hannah likes to feed the fish cupfuls of food and watch the fish literally churn the waters fighting for food. While Hannah napped inside with my mother-in-law watching her, Eric, Isaac and I headed up to the pond where Isaac pulled roughly 40 fish out (we always toss them back). I'd never used an open reel pole before, so my eight-year-old son had fun teaching me how to do that. What a confidence-booster for him! And a great mother-son moment.

The fish definitely varied in size, and Isaac caught the largest, second largest, ect... with me catching two, one of which was probably the seventh largest by the time Isaac was done!

We also enjoyed a wonderful lunch and dinner (seafood Alfredo, Dutch apple pie, banana nut bread - yum!) by my mother-in-law. We watched multiple episodes of Pawn Stars, which I never realized my father-in-law was so into, but we really enjoyed, while it rained off an on outside. If you know anything about farms with cows ... rain and the outdoors makes for a stinky, slippery place!

It was one of my best days in a long time, and I am so thankful that I ended up with in-laws like Char and Cliff. And I would be remiss to say, my children and I would never be having these wonderful experiences if it weren't for my sweet hubby Eric. I love you sweetie!

Mystery sheet; Any ideas?

2011-09-01T14:06:00.000-05:00

So, while on a hunt for vintage sheets one weekend, I stumbled across this sheet - which clearly isn't vintage - at a thrift store. There were actually two twin sheets, but since I didn't have any clear plans for it other than happening to like it, I only bought one. Unfortunately, I am unable to determine who made it. And I'm curious. That's just me. Curious. The details on this sheet are super cute ... sketched little bedtime/morning time objects: a rooster, an alarm clock, slippers, pajamas, etc. It almost reminds me of something along the lines of Munki Munki, but I don't believe it is. Here's a closer look at some of the detail.

A sweet orange, pink and gray rooster.

Slippers: 3 in a row ... and a toothbrush.

And here's all the info I have on the tags. I can tell you that it is 100 percent cotton (super soft) and that it was made in China.

So, if anyone can provide me with any more information, I'd so appreciate it! (And yes, go ahead and whack me upside the head for not buying the second twin sheet... I can tell you I'm kicking myself!)

Happy start of September everyone!

The things we don't talk about...

2011-08-29T21:02:00.001-05:00

Tonight I made dinner for my family - Roma tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese paninis on fresh sourdough bread with a pesto, basil, garlic and oil spread. This type of fare was a new experience for my husband, a farm boy to the core, who is more accustomed to eating steak than Italian cuisine. He'd actually never tried toasted sourdough bread and discovered that he loved it. He wasn't all that keen on the cooked tomatoes, and suggested that next time I make this I put his on cold after the panini is cooked. And (farm boy again ...) swap out the fresh mozzarella for American cheese. I'll definitely give it a try for him, but I'm going to continue to eat mine as above. My two-year-old daughter Hannah loved it. "Yummy, yummy" resounded from her side of the table, while my eight-year-old Isaac pouted and tore his to pieces, refusing to eat any of it. He subsequently went to bed with no dinner two hours before his bedtime. I'm a mean, mean mom. :)

Tonight's cooking dinner was something of an accomplishment for me ... which I know sounds ridiculous to most of you. I've posted in the past about my issues with atypical clinical depression and how I underwent ECT therapy earlier this summer. At my last post, I believe I had undergone two treatments and thought it was going well. Since that point, I had an additional six treatments and experienced a horrific decline in mood to the point that my family unanimously agreed that stopping the treatments was in my best interest. One of the unfortunate side effects of ECT treatment is memory loss, and after eight treatments in a matter of three weeks, I ended up losing a great deal of memories - mostly those that had happened in the couple of months preceding the treatments, and everything in the weeks during the treatment. My brother-in-law was married shortly after I started the treatments and I cannot explain how odd it is to see pictures of myself, standing with my family all dressed up, and have no recollection of any of it. It has been a frightening experience. For two weeks after stopping the treatments I could look at something, like a stapler, and know what is was, but struggle to find the word for it. For someone who has always been bright and sharp, this was extremely frightening and caused my already bad depression to spiral even further downward.

I am currently trying a new medication and have just finished my second week on the drug. For those of you who don't know, it usually takes 4-6 weeks to see noticeable improvement in your mood once starting an anti-depressant. Fortunately for me, three days ago I managed to make it through the day without napping during my daughter's nap time in the afternoon because I was fatigued just being awake. It was the first day in weeks I didn't contemplate where the tallest building was. (Yes, I realize this is probably scary to read, but it's honest.) Yesterday, I looked up at the sky, seeing the sun's rays radiating out from behind a cloud, and found it beautiful. It struck me that this was the first time in a long time I'd considered something beautiful in my life and I smiled. Today, my son and I picked our ripe Roma tomatoes in the garden, examined our other fare - especially the bottle gourds and baby gourds - and I let him pull up a carrot so he could see how they were coming along. We left it out and are hoping a rabbit will enjoy a little treat.

I got my camera out and took pictures (obviously) for the first time in a long time. I also lugged out a bunch of Ikea storage units that will be going in my studio and spray painted them this morning. I painted a larger set of shelves that will be used to organize my vintage sheet fat quarters. I played with the kids. I smiled. I laughed. I felt like the me I know ... not quite all the way there, but getting there. It feels good.

Depression is scary. Not only is it terrifying for the individual experiencing it, but it's frightening for their family and friends. I'm so very blessed to have an amazing family who have supported me through the last few months despite their own worries. My husband, who held me as I cried at night, comforted me through the frustration of my memory issues, and held my hand through it all - I love you Eric, more than you could ever know and I am so very, very lucky to be your wife. You are my rock. My mom and my step-father, who took time off of work to get up at four in the morning and drive me the hour to the hospital for ECT treatments and then watch their grandchildren while I slept the rest of the day, who called me and instant messaged me all the time, just checking to make sure I was okay and who listened and offered encouragement and words of hope when I despaired - thank you, I appreciate it more than you know and am so blessed to have parents like you. I cannot tell you how nice it was to know my kids were with their grandparents while I slept in the afternoons. And thank you to my many friends, both online and in person, who called and e-mailed just checking that I was doing okay and asking if I needed anything. I hope I can be there for you all in the future, just as you were there for me.

Tomorrow, my husband, kids and I are headed to Madison to help my parents pack up their house and move into their new one the following day. Later this week, I plan to re-open my Etsy shop. I've been cleaning and organizing my studio to make things more efficient and I am so much looking forward to sewing again. There's a certain bag from Anna of Noodlehead that I'm dying to make!

I'm starting work this fall in a couple of weeks - very part-time, but better than nothing - and I'm looking forward to that. I'm also freelance editing a novel, which while I had read 90 percent of it prior to ECT, will now have to re-read prior to beginning the actual editing, but I'm a fast reader and I remember bits and pieces of it. I also have my final nursing clinical for five weeks in November and December, after which I'll graduate with my RN. Life is looking good. :)

I've been keeping up with all your blogs the past couple months, and I plan to be posting much more consistently now that I'm feeling better.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-08-11T13:44:00.000-05:00

My husband Eric and I are celebrating our first anniversary as husband and wife today! You know how sometimes you hear people mention that they "just knew" when they met their significant other - some such so-called nonsense as that? We were definitely that way. We didn't know each other long when he proposed and we made the decision to get married, but we knew it was right - we had a small civil ceremony a month later and we've never looked back.

Our first year hasn't been an easy one by any stretch of the imagination - between legal issues with minor children, having to retake my final nursing clinical, depression, looking for work, outrageous shipping bills and arguments about taxidermied animals from Africa (don't ask!), and your typical day-in-day-out husband/wife issues - but we've learned a great deal and we're even more sure now how to make our remaining ones even better. In my book, that counts more than anything ... the ability to grow together.

Eric is my husband, my lover, my best friend. I wouldn't change anything about our relationship and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have met him when I did. He is everything I could ever want in a man and there is nothing I love more than lying down next to him at night and waking up every morning with him. I have one very large wish for us this coming year, if we could be so blessed ... and that is to be parents of our own child, together. Perhaps, just maybe, there's hope it could happen.

Vintage Linens & Some Inspiration

2011-08-03T21:20:00.001-05:00

As many of you know, I have a lovely shop Jenna's Attic on Etsy, where I offer vintage linens by the fat quarter (or custom sizes if you need more!). I know that when I first started playing with vintage linens, I had many fewer ideas than I have today for them. So, I thought I would share some ideas with my readers. Pictured above, are a set of Vintage Fabric Flag Embellished Note Cards by Jamie Mancilla. These are a great way to feature a bit of amazing vintage material - not a lot goes a long way and makes quite the impact!

Here are some lovely pink sheets, with a little ingenuity, crafted into Vintage Fabric Deco Tape. Available from themodernmarigold, they are one of many items created from vintage linens in her shop.

Vintage sheets make beautiful wall art, especially when grouped together like this, framed out with embroidery hoops of various sizes (which can often be found at the same thrift stores where vintage linens are often had!). Try throwing a variety of different prints and colors up in a variety of different size hoops.

These two drawstring bags were crafted from vintage sheets and are complete with contrasting drawstrings (also made of vintage sheets). The print on the right remains one of my all-time favorite print ... and apparently I'm not alone as someone else liked it enough to make this lovely bag of it!

To-die-for little girl clothing made from vintage sheets ... perfect!

For those of you without little girls to dress ... how about making a bag out of a great vintage sheet? With one this beautiful, you'll be proud to show off your dirty laundry on laundry day!

I am definitely a sucker for vintage sheets combined with doilies on pillows - the perfect mix of vintage textures, like these from Emma Lamb.

There are plenty of great ideas out there for left over bits and pieces of vintage sheets, including making a scalloped garland such as this one. Some simple sewing skills and a package of bias tape (or make your own if you so desire!) and you've got a string of pretties to liven up the corner of a room!

And I'll bet you didn't know, but there's an entire blog dedicated to vintage sheets. Check out The Vintage Sheet Blog for tons of ideas, fun contests and inspiration galore!

Looking up and forward

2011-07-31T11:17:00.001-05:00

I know my posting in the last few months has been sporadic at best on this blog. But I hope some of you know what I mean when I say that's it's always my intention to keep things positive and when I don't feel like I can do that, I shy away from posting all for the world to read. But I really feel that is changing, and for the better now.

Many of you know I've spent most of my adult life struggling with depression and finding someway to beat that demon. What you might not know, is that I have what is termed "treatment resistant depression," which essentially means that most typical medications used to treat depression have no lasting effect on mine. If I'm lucky enough to find something that works, it typically stops working just as quickly. I've tried more medications than I can list over the years, all in the hopes that some drug, or some combination of drugs, will be the answer ... and only have been disappointed over and over again. My own experiences with depression and the stigma attached to it are what drove me to seek out psychiatric nursing as a specialty, because there, I know, I can made a difference to someone else. It doesn't mean that I will make my life an open book to those I work with, but it does mean I understand things on a different level... and I hope my compassion will show through in the work that I will do.

I am currently doing some freelance editing work on a novel this summer and am so enjoying that work (as it's what I originally have my degree in) while I wait to retake my final nursing clinical in November. I have sought out more active treatment for my depression and while it has required the juggling of some of life's priorities (we'll be waiting a little longer to add to our family), the decision to go this route has given me much peace and comfort and is changing my outlook on life on a daily basis. For that, I am extremely grateful. I will be starting work this fall as an LPN, providing vaccinations for the upcoming flu season, and gaining meaningful experience prior to retaking my clinical in mid-November.

I know this may seem very outrageous to some of you, but after failing something like my 15th antidepressant combo this summer, I began doing some research into ECT treatments for treatment resistant depression. ECT is electroconvulsive therapy, and it is done under the guidance of a psychiatrist in an hospital setting (typically, in the "recovery room" or PACU, or post-anesthesia recovery unit). While in nursing school a couple years ago, I had the privilege of seeing someone undergo ECT firsthand and still remain amazed to this day the difference the treatment made in that patient's life. It was at that point that I knew I would consider that for myself should things get to a point where I thought more aggressive treatment was in not only my best interest, but that of my family as well. This summer, I was there. And after some research, including talking firsthand with others who have undergone ECT, I worked to find a facility and physician who would be willing to do it on an outpatient basis, as staying with those who loved me and I loved in return was of the utmost importance to me, and, I felt, crucial to a quick improvement. (Many ECT treatments are done as an inpatient, at least initially.) I was lucky to find a doctor willing to treat me in the manner I desired, and am very thankful for my family, who have gone out of their way to make sure this was an option for me, rearranging their schedules to accommodate mine.

And, so, where I am I today? I have completed my fourth treatment thus far. To give you an idea of what "treatment" entails, let me give you some options for further reading if you're really interested:

Mayo Clinic and ECT Therapy
WebMD ECT and Depression

For those of you who don't want to do any additional reading, please know that ECT treatment has come a long way since what you might be imagining of that in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

I'm looking at an initial course of six treatments ... four of which I've completed thus far. Following my next two, I will move on to maintenance treatments once weekly for a month, and then likely to once-monthly treatments. My psychiatrist is willing to give it a go on no meds, which will be the first time in many years I haven't been on an antidepressant/mood stabilizer (and yes, most every one of those has it's own set of side effects). Interestingly, ECT alone is approximately 80 percent effective in treating depression when medications have failed. That's not to say it doesn't come without a host of inconveniences as well, and I admit that depending on the seizure I've had in a given treatment, there may be more confusion and headache than other times. Sometimes I sleep a good portion of the remainder of the day. But it's more than worth it in my book. Yes, the confusion surrounding the immediate treatment is frustrating, especially for someone who likes to be in control of everything (yup, that's me!). But the benefits? Want to hear about those?

After the second treatment, they wheeled me out of the hospital to the car, and I couldn't get over just how bright all the color were around me. I expected that to change, maybe it was just the after-effects of anesthesia... but you know something? It hasn't changed. It's almost as if I'd been living my life with this large gray cloud hanging over everything and I really didn't even stop to think just how dull it made everything anymore... I had just accepted that as reality. But guess what? Everything is so ridiculously beautiful now... there almost aren't words. Two more treatments later, that's even more the case. I'm thrilled at the response, but a bit saddened too. What have I missed out on in the past years?

The other thing I'm noticing is that there is a sense of peace that has overcome me of late. A sense of calmness. I'm usually one of these people who has so many things flying around in her head that I'm depressed about not being able to get ALL of them done at one time. But now, I realize the immense value in simply being there, experiencing each moment for what it is, instead of wishing I could speed time up to accomplish more. And you know, my Etsy shop is still open, I'm still filling orders (haven't even fallen behind, despite all of this going on) ... I'm still planning crafty ideas (quilts, pillows, pouches) and I'm still participating in swaps. But I am also enjoying simply being with my children, seeing them smile, hearing their laughs, swooping them up in a big bear hug. I have this new-found ability to stop and take in the beauty that surrounds me, appreciate it and linger over it for once, and I hope that remains a permanent change in my life.

(Photos by me, of our flower gardens surrounding our home and the garden, which actually has some fruit growing, despite being served up as a salad to the neighborhood bunnies!).

And, on tap for today, continuing to work on my pouch for my partner in the Pretty Little Pouch Swap (2):

I've also got a bunch of "new" vintage sheets to list in the shop ... the kiddos are coming back today from time at their fathers' ... and it's beautiful outside! What can I say ... life is good!

Pretty {little} Pouch Swap received!

2011-07-29T18:10:00.000-05:00

A little bit earlier this week I received this beautiful pouch from Megan (hehehe922) in the Pretty {little} Pouch Swap organized through Flickr! I could not be happier ... she hit the nail on the head! I adore all the great fabrics she used for the patchwork and the colors couldn't be more right on! The hand stitching is the perfect accent - multicolors and across multiple rows of patchwork.

Check out this great detail - lovely attention to color! And on top of it, this lovely snap closure pouch (something I've never tried to make before, but would like to at some point) was filled with a bunch of great goodies: a Kokka fat quarter, Gutterman thread, lip balm, chocolate, zipper, and a trio of beautiful blue glass bracelets her sister brought all the way back to the US from India earlier this spring. Truly a lovely gift and I hope to do as well by my partner...

And speaking of my partner's pouch ... here's what I've got so far (gotta get working on it this weekend!), some lovely echino with Anna Maria Horner. This will be a longer zipper pouch and I'm planning on making a smaller coin pouch as well.

2011-07-12T22:31:00.000-05:00

So, I finally got back on the bike. Maybe it was something my internist said when I saw him for a physical last week about getting back on the bike (his wife is an Ironman triathlete and he's not bad himself). That maybe when I kicked this round of depression I'd feel more like giving it a try again. What I didn't tell him was that while I've had the Burley trailer since my son was little, my then-husband always pulled him. I had never pulled a kid in it. I wasn't all that certain I wanted to clamp that sucker to my road bike - she has a name, you know, I love her so. Or maybe it was that I was frightened to death that I wouldn't be able to unclip my shoe from the pedal in time with the trailer and another 35 pounds behind me. It certainly wasn't that I thought I couldn't ride with her ... it's just I imagine tractor trailers crashing into us at 55 miles per hour every time I even mentally considered the idea.

But today was different. Maybe it's the hope I feel that there's a solution down the road for this round of depression. As I let the MAOIs wash out of my system (a process that takes weeks and means you cannot take most other meds due to the severity of interactions that could occur), I needed to do something. So, I pumped up my tires, wiped off my bike, greased the chain, downloaded the Burley manual because I'll be damned if I was supposed to remember how it hooked on from 6 years ago, and loaded up the trailer with Hannah's necessities. I strapped her in, helmet, blanket, dolly and all, and off we headed for the neighboring city to stop in and visit with the hubby at the lab (made his day too!). An 11-mile round trip. Of course, I'd lubed the chain so well it fell off three times before I made it out of OUR town, but being the seasoned bicyclist I once was, I just slipped it back on and continued on my way. It worked itself out somewhere in between.

And we made it home safe and sound - Hannah even slept most of the way back. I pedaled back into the wind on the ride home and I'll tell you, that damn Burley is not the most aerodynamic thing I've ever seen and it felt like it weighed twice as much riding into the wind home than with it on the way there. It will, however, give you a good workout. Yes, my butt is bruised despite the padded bike shorts, but that's par for the course the first ride of every season for me. But overall, I feel good. Hopefully, in the near future, I'll be feeling even better.

I could have ridden earlier in the morning, while Hannah was at daycare for a couple hours, but I'd used that time to do a bit of thrifting. I snapped this picture of the rear of people-hauler sitting next to me at one of the thrift stores, and found it a wee-bit ironic considering the rear of the people-hauler I finished my day sitting next to.

And a couple of hours later:

More on the thrifting later ... today was an accomplishment in itself.

Winners! And some fun swapping!

2011-07-04T23:28:00.000-05:00

OK, so without further ado ... using Random.org ... the winners of the giveaway are:

#5: Jingle - Opal Pyrex Casserole and 10 Vintage Sheet Fat Quarters!
#1: GrayFlannel - Vintage Sheet Scrap Pack #1
#22: mabbettLorraine at yahoo dot com - Vintage Sheet Scrap Pack #2

Thank you everyone who entered! I'll be contacting the winners tomorrow for your shipping addresses (or send 'em my way if you beat me to it)! I had a bunch of sales this weekend, so I have to get them out first, but yours will be on your way shortly!

Speaking of orders, my most recent swap started as a potential Etsy order, but it turned out Jacqui of Hazelnuts and I kinda knew each other... so we agreed to swap vintage sheets rather than have her just order some from me! She's in New Zealand and they have some beautiful, fun sheets down under! We e-mailed back and forth until we'd evened out a trade... and then finally, after anxious waiting, mine arrived at my door!

Check out these beautiful vintage sheets! What's unique is that while most of our (American) vintage sheets tend to be 50/50 cotton/poly combos, most of the one's she finds in NZ are 100 percent cotton. Their hand is amazing!

And the colors and patterns? I really cannot say enough at how beautiful and bright they are!

I'll let them speak for themselves! I was happy to loose a little business, help out a blogger friend and get a little piece of vintage NZ for myself ... such are some of the amazing benefits I'm constantly talking about regarding the Internet and the Flickr/blogging community out there. Thank you so much Jacqui for a wonderful swap - I adore them all! I hope yours arrive soon!

Gathered Clutch

2011-06-30T19:39:00.000-05:00

Last night, having no Etsy orders at the moment to fill and no desire to sleep, I stayed up and made Noodlehead's Gathered Clutch using her tutorial here. It was a joy to make and her patterns are so well-written. No, I'm not just saying that because she happened to also supply all the fabric to make it, and then some!

The outside is an Amy Butler Love fabric and I'm not sure what line the band of small aqua polka dots are from. I had a 9-inch zipper, which I shortened to an 8-inch (the size the pattern calls for). I ended up eliminating the divider/card pockets and using one interfaced aqua dot pocket with my tag for the interior, which is lined with a lemony yellow Kona cotton. The pouch is interfaced with fusible fleece for additional stability per Anna's pattern as I had eliminated the interior divider pockets. I opted to make a small D-ring on the outside of the pouch and will be making a removable wrist strap to accompany it.

I had a wee bit of difficulty with the fabric covered zipper ends, but a few quick references to Anna's tutorial comments helped clarify things for me in the future. I also ordered a 25-variety pack of 8-inch YKK zippers from ZipIt on Etsy (who I cannot recommend enough - I've ordered from her again and again in the past ... she's literally in the next town over from me and will even let me pick up to avoid shipping!).

Once again, there's a lot of great people out there. Today, I sent off an 8.6 pound medium priority mail box full of vintage sheet hems and them some to a sewist in California, where it's apparently really hard to find vintage sheets. She'd asked what I did with my extras and I said that I'd been just hanging on to them, but I'd be happy to send them her way. So, off they go! Along with another swap with a friend who is wanting to make a picnic blanket for her and her children this summer! I cannot wait to see what they both become ... part of the excitement of the blogging world!

Tomorrow, it's supposed to be 98 degrees here, with heat indexes around 115 degrees. My husband was lucky enough to wrangle the day off, so we'll be headed 2 hours west of here to Noah's Ark, the world's largest water park (or so they claim). All I know is I grew up near there, and lifeguarded there during the summers home from college. I always swore I'd never gone back, but it's been long enough that I've had fun going back to play. Nowhere else I'd rather be tomorrow ... and with no kiddos for the weekend, we'll be able to play on all the rides we want, instead of trying to delicately balance what one 8-year-old boy wants versus what his 2-year-old sister can do. No height requirements, no whining (from our kids anyway!), just some fun!

And for those of you looking for the giveaway post, you can find that one here. You have till Sunday night to win some Pyrex and vintage sheets for yourself!

Giveaway Time - Pyrex and Vintage Sheets!

2011-06-28T11:14:00.001-05:00

I believe in the pay-it-forward concept, and after such wonderful surprises last week, here is mine to you! Leave a comment for your chance to win a 024 Pyrex Opal White round casserole bowl (with clear glass lid, not pictured) filled with 10 vintage sheet fat quarters from my vintage shop Jenna's Attic. I've picked out some of my most favorite prints for you, but if there's something you'd rather substitute, I'm more than happy to accommodate the winner!

As you all know my love of all things scrappy ... two lucky other individuals will win a vintage sheet scrap pack, filled with more than 6 ounces of vintage sheets in at least 8 different prints!

The rules are simple: Please leave me a comment! International entries welcome as well :)

Giveaways where I have to follow you, tweet your giveaway, blog about it, etc. are a huge turn off for me and I often won't even enter because of the various hoops I have to jump through. So, I'm making this easy. One comment - simply say "hello" or point me in the direction of some fun tutorial you like, tell me what you're sewing this summer, your most prized thrift find ... I don't care (though I do like reading about what others are doing out there!), just leave a comment!

Giveaway will remain open until 8 p.m. CST Sunday, at which time I'll close comments and use random.org to draw winners! If your e-mail is not linked to your blogger comments, please make sure to leave a way to contact you!

More fun fabric and new Etsy items!

2011-06-27T22:45:00.000-05:00

At nearly 200 sales in my Jenna's Attic Etsy shop, I was running out of business cards, so I took advantage of a promotion for 100 free business cards (pay shipping) from Overnight Prints. I've used them in the past and been very pleased - this time was no exception. I designed the front using photos of my vintage sheets in the shop and opted to pay an additional $2 to have the corners rounded on the cards. Grand total for 100 designed-by-me cards: $6.10 with rounded corners and shipping. Not too shabby and I adore them! The fronts are glossy coated and the backs are matte, which allows me to write a small thank you to include with orders. They arrived today, and ironically, I ran out of my previous Moo cards yesterday!

I also managed to find time to list another 14 items, some of which are shown above. My favorites are the big bold gray and brown floral in the upper left and the pink daisy pillowcase in the bottom middle! I'm loving hunting for more and more sheets for my customers!

And in other fun mail today, the fabric gods out there must really love me, because last week Friday I learned that I had won three scrap packs from Hawthorne Threads in their Warm, Cool and Fresh colorways. I subscribe to their newsletter and drool over it each week in my inbox, so imagine my surprise when I learned I was the subscription winner for the week! I have purchased their scrap packs before and they're amazing ... you can't call them scraps, that's for sure. Charlie and Lindsay include huge pieces in amazing prints - you can see from this photo that I even got some Prince Charming, Aviary 2, Ghastlies, and a bunch of other fun designer prints.

For a while now, I've thought my got-to-have-it fabric line was Tula Pink's Prince Charming, but after seeing it in person (don't get me wrong, it's absolutely lovely!) and this bit of Alexander Henry Ghastlies in Coal, I'm smitten with the Ghastlies line. I just might be swinging back over by Charlie and Lindsay to purchase some more of the prints in the line ... a fun Halloween throw quilt might just be in order! Seriously, does it get cuter than this little girl with the hammer?

And I love the non-traditional Halloween colors (orange never really did it for me, and in fact, it's the most-lacking color in my stash - some upcoming swapping should help cure that!). It's been a great fabric week for me, between Anna and Hawthorne Threads and my other friends on Flickr who have been willing to swap fabrics with me. I so appreciate everyone's generosity!

Come back tomorrow for a chance to win some great goodies for yourself!

I wish you could have seen my face!

2011-06-24T21:13:00.000-05:00

I think the mailman has rarely seen me speechless. Until this afternoon, when he delivered this to my front door. I knew I hadn't ordered anything that would come in a medium flat rate box, let alone anything that would cause that box to nearly burst at the seams, so I immediately looked at the return address... and my jaw fell open. These were the "scraps" Anna said she'd send me?

I opened the box inside and this is what I found - a lovely note from Anna and yards upon yards of fabric, beautiful fabric in all different weights and hands and colors and textures and just oh, so lovely! I burst into tears ... out of overwhelming appreciation for her kindness and generosity and they were the first happy tears I've cried in a long time! And then I called my mother. :) Had to share my excitement and simultaneous shock with someone who appreciated fabric as much as I. Then I unpacked the box, layer after layer of surprises and yummy goodness.

Look at these! Echino, Robert Kaufman, Michael Miller, Lizzy House, Joel Dewberry, Anna Maria Horner, Kaffe Fasset ... owls, ducks, dogs, apples, dots, flowers ...

And underneath all that, were all these beautiful scraps of all different types, colors and patterns.

And more ...

... and even more! All absolutely wonderful - little bits and pieces (and plenty of not-so-little!) designers and lines I've adored online the past year or so.

I am so very appreciative - thank you Anna! I've now got the perfect piece of fabric in my stash to make Anna's Gathered Clutch pattern for my online friend is mentioned in my previous post! And I'm even more excited that Anna suggested a get together of Wisconsin sewist/bloggers - Jeni of In Color Order will be moving to Madison, Wisconsin (about midway between Anna and I, and a very fun city too) in a few weeks and when I was telling Jeni the other night about Anna offering me scraps, she too mentioned we should all get together this summer. I'm thinking that would be so fun!

And I remain thankful for the amazing kindness that exists in near strangers, brought together through an online platform which allows us to share inspiration with one another and support each other during times of need. I encourage all of you out there to reach out to one another. Offer a kind comment on their blog post, post an encouraging note on a Flickr photo of their work ... drop them an e-mail to let them know you're thinking about them or appreciated a tutorial they created. Pay it forward. Please. It will make more difference than you can imagine to someone else who really needed it that day.

And in that groove, I've got a giveaway of my own coming up ... to offer a chance to give something back to you and show my appreciation for your taking the time to wade through my nearly 400 blog posts to date.

Sewing, at the machine this time!

2011-06-22T20:01:00.000-05:00

My daycare provider, who happens to be the best-ever as well as my neighbor across the street (does it get any better than that?), is having a birthday party this Saturday for her son, Kane, who will be turning two. Buzz Lightyear is that guy's hero, and he's constantly toting some version of Buzz, Woody or Mr. Potato Head (whom he affectionately calls "Ha Ha" - no idea why!) around with him. So, for his birthday, I thought I'd make him a 20-inch floor pillow with his favorite cartoon hero. I used some character fabric I'd found at Joann's and cut the Buzz's out of it. I'm making square blocks of Buzz on the front. The back is a larger piece of the fabric in it's entirety, surrounded with blue. It will be quilted front and back and have an invisible zipper, which frankly, is the only way to go when making pillows!

Last night, I was up and online at midnight, mostly because I'd slept about four hours in the evening and got up when hubby was just about ready for bed. I was debating if I should stay up and work on Etsy orders (endless fat quarter cutting) or just call it a night at go back to bed. While I was trying to make up my mind, I posted a wonderful tutorial for this Gathered Clutch by Anna of Noodlehead on my Sewing Ideas Pinterest board. I haven't made it yet, but wanted to easily find the tutorial to make it in the near future for another virtual/blogger friend. As I was linking up to that, Anna herself actually commented on my previous blog post and was kind enough to offer me some scraps! We e-mailed back and forth a bit and she absolutely made my night. It is reasons like this that I blog, that I comment on others and that I support other people who love the things I do.

What Anna didn't know, was that I was having a particularly hard day. I don't blog much about my struggles with depression, but let's just say some days are easier than others.

Earlier this week, we learned that my husband's cousin lost her battle with cancer at the age of 38, only a week after her doctors felt treatment would no longer offer any benefit. She leaves behind a husband and two children, ages 4 and 6. Although I didn't know her well - I did make a quilt for her cancer benefit earlier this fall - I've thought quite a bit about her over the months and was always impressed with how strong she fought to stay here for her family. Tomorrow is her funeral, and my husband, who grew up with her and is the same age, will be a pallbearer. As a mother and a wife, there's nothing I fear more than not being there for my family, with the exception of losing one of them. I feel such deep sadness for her children, who will not remember much of their mother's life and her husband who must forge ahead without his guiding light.

And then on top of all of these thoughts, I learned last night that my former nursing school lab partner had finally given birth - I've excitedly watched pictures of her get bigger and bigger over the last months, paint the nursery and sew for her daughter - only to lose Hadley to some unknown reason at birth. This is a woman who wanted nothing more than to be a mother. And she would have been, and I have faith - will be - wonderful at that. She's one of those people who just strikes you as being born to be a mother, and having lost her own mother years ago, I know what having this child meant to her. I cannot fathom her pain.

The concept of loss was weighing heavily on my mind when I posted Anna's tutorial, and the person who I'm planning on making it for is someone who has gone out of their way to do a couple of kind things for me recently, despite having never met me. She's someone who strikes me as a genuinely kind person, and I believe in repaying that kindness with more of the same. So, when Anna commented and offered her scraps and some other treats, it just struck me ... how things in life go around in circles sometimes. What you give out there, you get back - often not as quickly as last night, but eventually, what you pay forward comes back. I still struggle with how that works for my cousin-in-law and her family, and my friend and her husband ... and I don't know there are answers out there to explain that.

But what I do know, is that Anna reaching out to me last night reminded me of the kindness of virtual strangers and how wonderful this blogging community can be, when we reach out to support each other in times of need. And sometimes, like yesterday, you don't know how important such gestures of support and words of encouragement can be. I'm sure Anna didn't. But I hope she knows today just how much she is appreciated. Thank you Anna. When I said last night you made my day, I meant it.

(Don't worry, we'll be back to our regular light-hearted posting in no time ...)

Yep, I still sew around here!

2011-06-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

Last night, while enjoying some downtime with my hubby, I stitched up this pretty little hexagon flower out of my scrap bin. I have a pair of jeans I love (Abercrombie) that I bought many years ago, when I finally fit in non-maternity jeans again after having had my son ... so, yes, that would be about 8 years ago. Anyway, the knee finally wore through and I haven't been wearing them cause I don't really do the holey-knee thing... so I made up this patch, which hopefully I'll have time to pop on tonight after the kiddos are in bed!

And speaking of scraps, since I'm still beyond poor, but making sales in my Etsy shop, I justified purchasing a scrap pack of designer fabrics from a great seller on Etsy. This way I can enjoy some of the newer designer fabrics that I can't afford to buy collections of right now... I got some wonderful Modern Meadow in the Berry colorway, which I specifically asked for! These will be fun to play with. It's hard not being able to jump on the bandwagon of every great new fabric line out there ... and there are SO many right now ... but this is a nice little way to treat myself without breaking the budget yet still satiating some of my fabric craving for the time being.

With the exception of a couple very hot days, we've had a cool start to the summer, which while not so great for the garden, has meant that our peonies have been blooming for a solid three weeks now. I've been determined to enjoy them for as long as possible, both inside and out of the house, so I've been clipping some new blooms every four or five days and displaying them in a vintage blue Ball jar on our kitchen table. It's such a welcoming sight every morning when I get up to make coffee!

The garden has been boycotting the lukewarm temperatures and I actually had to dig up some of the seeds - actually all of the bottle gourd and mixed gourd seeds - after two weeks as they had not sprouted (I suspect this is due to a combination of cool temps and that my son hammer-drilled them into the ground with the water hose and they were a tad too deep!). I restarted them in peat pots inside, along with some watermelon, radish, miniature pumpkins and a variety of flowers. The gourd seeds are looking great now ... after all, they did have two weeks outside ... but I'm going to wait for a week or two before transplanting them out again and hopefully the others in the peat pots will be ready to go too. I've been enjoying gardening, as this is the first year I've had the opportunity to do so!

And really, did you think I could make it through a whole post without showing you one great thrifting find? I got this beautiful vintage milk glass Anchor Hocking Strawberry Shortcake mug this weekend! Hubby and I were kid-free the whole weekend and spent a wonderful afternoon together hitting up thrift stores and a huge antique mall (the biggest in Wisconsin) in Appleton. It was absolutely refreshing to get to reconnect with him and share something we both enjoy doing. I can't say enough how important I think that is ... finding time for "couple time" among the hectic days of raising a family.

I have a bunch more vintage sheets listed in the shop and another 20 or so to come in the next few days. I also have orders to fill ... so I'm off to cut sheets in my newly-clean studio (yup, even managed to do that this weekend)!

Starting the day out right

2011-06-15T21:23:00.001-05:00

This morning I woke up when my husband left for work, at an early-for-me 6:40 a.m. My daughter usually sleeps until close to 8 a.m., so I got up and fired up a pot of coffee. I decided to actually eat breakfast for a change, and my latest gotta-have-it food has been the new Fruit and Maple Oatmeal at McDonalds. I have a hard time paying $1.99 for a small portion of something that I could make myself for a portion of that cost. So, I decided to give it a go myself. I made up two packs of instant Apples and Cinnamon Oatmeal and milk, with a small Granny Smith apple cut into chunks, dried cranberries, a handful of walnuts and a teaspoon of maple syrup (the real stuff, from a friend who makes it locally - thanks Sally!). I mixed it all up in my 401 Spring Blossom Pyrex and enjoyed a delicious start to my morning.

After dropping Hannah at the sitter, I took a couple pictures of the flowers in the yard before the rain rolled in for the day. Our first poppy opened this morning and it is just beautiful. There's one not far behind this one and a handful more to enjoy in the week or so to come! In the seven years my husband has lived here (alone, before I moved in when we married last year), his lupines have never bloomed ... that is until this year, when we were graced with this one.

Maybe it means something. Don't know... you'd have to ask my husband! I love this one though, it's beautiful. I asked why we didn't have more of them and he said until this year he's never gotten them to bloom. Here's to hoping that in the future, we'll have a garden full of them! And speaking of gardens, ours is finally starting to take hold.

The first of the green beans are popping through the soil and I'm thrilled. This is the first year in many that my husband has planted something besides all green beans (staggered so as to have fresh ones throughout the summer). I convinced him this year to scale back the green bean production and incorporate some things everyone wanted... so now we're waiting for those to join their green bean friends. Some of the snap peas are coming up, as are a few of the carrots. Our tomatoes and peppers - started as small plants - are continuing to do well. The one thing I've seen neither hide nor hair of is our gourds, the large birdhouse kind and the smaller mixed decorative ones. I even dug up three of the eight seeds planted in one of the mounds and found no evidence of any growth ... maybe they need more water than they've been getting? Today's nearly constant rain hopefully will be followed by some heat and perhaps everything will make an appearance. I continue to hope and look forward.

Organizing continues and shop updates a plenty!

2011-06-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

Been doing quite a bit of this lately, every evening after my daughter is in bed and while my husband and I watch television. I've amassed a huge amount of vintage sheets and it's going to be so much easier to handle larger orders with the hems and trim torn off the edges. This technique was suggested by Jeni of In Color Order, a fellow vintage sheet lover and Etsy seller. If you get a chance, check out what she has to offer in her shop! She really has been quite helpful in giving me pointers where sheets are concerned, and I so appreciate having a fellow blogger friend to commiserate with when things are piling up, quite literally around me! I'm about a fifth of the way through my sheets, I'd guess.

Today, the sun was out and I was able to get some pictures of new items for my shop. If you're interested in fun vintage mugs, I have a bunch listed, including these great ones I just recently acquired. I love the hand painting on these and the raised glaze. The handles appear to be hand dipped in glaze as well and I just adore the little finger holes in the handles.

I'm also making my way through some of the vintage items I have from cleaning out my grandmother's house more than a year ago, which have been in storage and traveling with me as I've moved for quite some time. I just can't get over how perfect these vintage Jello aluminum molds would be for storing items on top of your desk, or even using them to make individual Jello servings. The patina that age gives objects is something that keeps me coming back to vintage over and over again.

Both available here, with more to come tommorow, including some Pyrex and hopefully more sheets and vintage blue Ball jars!

I'm continuing to choose to have a positive outlook on things, despite a wickedly horrible job market around here and my continuing inability to find employment, despite putting out more then 60 applications in the past few weeks. Waiting is the hard part, really. It's so frustrating when you've prepared to do something for years and are finally there, ready and waiting, only to have the market fall out under your feet. Due to family commitments, I am unable to relocate to a place where the job outlook is much more positive for nurses... but I'm still looking for anything within an hour to 90-minute drive.

In the mean time, what money I have been making from my Etsy sales is helping pay the bills I need to take care of every month. And that's encouraging to me, and rewarding as well, because if you've ever met me, you'd know how much it kills me to not feel like I'm giving enough back to my family. So, while I may be struggling financially to make ends meet, I'm choosing to focus on the positives right now - I spoke with a recruiter last week about the possibility of full-time employment in my field and am waiting a call back from the director of nursing at that facility; I am spending priceless time with my children during the most beautiful months of the year in Wisconsin and making memories that will last a lifetime for me and the children and our family as a whole; I have time to spend working out again and getting physically fit. My husband and I have made the conscious effort to not let our financial concerns weave their way into our relationship and are focusing on low-cost ways to enjoy family time together, and couple time together as well. Life is good right now.

Meanwhile, I'm going to be listing more often and hopefully making some good headway on the vintage greatness that has been filling my basement as I have collected, rescued and saved it over the years!

Catching up on orders

2011-06-12T19:59:00.000-05:00

Tonight will be spent catching up on vintage shop - mostly sheet - orders. With my son's birthday this weekend, I ended up a tad bit behind, so I'm now working hard to catch up. Couldn't pass up an opportunity to add more vintage sheet goodness to my shop, and I picked up these new sheets today. They'll be going in the wash in a day or two and then up and listed in my shop! I'm loving the pink and orange/red floral sheets!

I've been doing TONS of laundry in the past week or so, slews of vintage sheets, which are piled on my studio floor waiting to be folded and have their pictures taken. I'd be lying if I said that pile was much lower than my thigh. It's ridiculous almost, but I love all of them so!

I'm excited to be swapping vintage sheets with a blog reader in New Zealand - it seems they have much different vintage sheets over there than what we have here, but I'm sure she feels the same as well. She's planning on making a quilt of them, and I cannot wait to see how it turns out! I've also got a couple of swaps with other new friends on Flickr for some bits and pieces of fabric that will expand my collection somewhat. I love happy mail, and I should be getting some in the near future! Of the fabric variety is even better :)

I thought I'd leave you with this pretty sight, two vintage containers - one small empty tin of what used to be gun bluer and an empty vintage apothecary bottle, with the label still intact - now decorating a windowsill in my kitchen. They were found at a local garage sale for 10 cents each. I'm thinking I'll plant a small succulent in the tin and display the glass as-is. Not a bad bit of vintage ambiance for 20 cents!

Off to cut and organize sheets and swaps ... if you're waiting on anything you've ordered from me, it's going in the post first thing tomorrow morning!

Birthday fun and cake messes!

2011-06-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, my oldest child turned 8. Where have the years gone? It seems like I just had him not that long ago (admittedly, sometimes it seems like I've had him forever too!). He celebrated the day by bringing cookies to his class on the last day of school - a birthday present in itself for this active guy! I picked him up from school at early release so he didn't have to ride the bus and we got to spend the afternoon together. I made his cake earlier in the day - marble with chocolate frosting, as requested - and we had his requested meal for dinner: fried deli chicken, broccoli (yes, really), and french fries. I put sparkling trick candles on his cake, which both the kiddos got a kick out of! Hannah "helped" blow out Isaac's candles - over and over again!

Isaac was so full of dinner he barely touched his cake, but Hannah had saved plenty of room and dived right in, two-year-old style! She looks mighty proud of her frosting face here! The kiddos had a fun night, just playing together and I managed to get a couple cute shots of them playing with their gigantic bouncy balls.

Pretty cute children, if you don't mind my bragging! We're looking forward to the summer here, especially tomorrow, when we're planning to head up to Bay Beach, which is a fun amusement park for little kids in Green Bay where every ride (even the roller coaster!) is only 25 cents per person! We decided to make a day of it as part of Isaac's birthday. You know, days like yesterday remind me of just what's important in life - family. For me, that's really what it is all about. It's not about money, it's not about having the latest and greatest things ... I've got an amazing husband and two happy, healthy and beautiful children - I am indeed a lucky woman!

Summer is here!

2011-06-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

So happy our peonies finally are blooming in the yard! I snipped just a few of the ones that were hidden against the house to take inside for us to enjoy - displayed on our kitchen table in one of my favorite blue Ball jars. I always use my Ball jars for flowers... there's something about the color I just adore!

I have a bunch of vintage jars like this in the garage, waiting to get washed out and listed in the shop. Perhaps I can tackle that this weekend! I have spent a good portion of today getting things organized shop-wise. I weighed out, tied up and listed some vintage sheet scrap bundles in the shop today - these are great if you're just starting to get into vintage sheets and are looking for a variety at a great price. Perfect for patchwork too!

I am also reorganizing the studio and creating a staging area for my shop (instead of the living room, which I know hubby will appreciate!) downstairs. I now have a big box full of all my shipping supplies - bubble wrap, air packs, packing peanuts, paper, boxes and more. And I have a shelving system where my listed items are stored and large tupperware with items that need to be listed. Now if I can just get everything into the right place, I can figure out where to start tackling the rest of the shop stuff!

Of course, adding to the Pyrexia around here doesn't help either. Hubby and I road tripped it yesterday and hit up more than half a dozen thrift stores. Didn't find much in the way of sheets, but did okay with Pyrex. I bought home this great Gooseberry 503 Refrigerator Dish for $2.99. I happen to have a lid at home that I'd thrifted for 50 cents earlier this year, so it's all perfect! The lasagna pan is in pink dessert dawn and in excellent shape. It will be joining the other Pyrex pieces in my shop at some point, as well as these two: the 024 round casserole with lid in opal white and the 1963 promotional casserole with original lid in Golden Honeysuckle.

Tomorrow, my son turns 8, so we'll be celebrating! I'm looking forward to spending the weekend together again with everyone and just enjoying time. School is out for my boy tomorrow afternoon (they had a lot of snow days this year to make up), and I know he's looking forward to celebrating his birthday by being done with school. I've got orders to make a cake, some dinner (chicken and broccoli on his order!) and we're thinking we'll take him to Bay Beach, which is a kiddie theme park near us where rides are only a quarter!

Relaxing Family Sunday

2011-06-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, Eric and I took Isaac fishing at a local pond. Isaac's loving fishing and has really been enjoying doing more of it this year. I didn't buy a fishing license when Eric picked his up, so I'm pretty much the take-the-fish-off-the-hook person, which I did quite a bit of today, as Isaac was quite successful! We bought a canoe earlier in the year and Isaac wasn't quite as proficient at casting, so there were some hangups that bordered on frustrating for both Isaac and Eric. So, they've been sticking to fishing from land and that's worked a wee bit better and given Isaac time to develop his casting technique, which he rocked today!

Here's one of the many fish I de-hooked today (with leftover worm still in it's mouth). For some reason, Isaac, while he is able to unhook his own fish, prefers to let me deal with them, or simply lays the rod down and hopes they flop themselves off the hook - which one actually did today before I could get to it. But I did pitch another four or so back as well for him.

Since I was unable to fish, I entertained myself by wandering around and trying to find a turtle sunning itself. Didn't find any, but I did come across this rather loud, croaking bullfrog who actually sat for his portrait! And there were lovely flowers to admire as well.

After fishing, we grabbed an early dinner and headed into Sheboygan to skip stones on the shores of Lake Michigan. It was easily 15 degrees cooler standing by the lake, which was refreshing. Unfortunately, I forgot the sunscreen and scorched myself pretty good (happens every year, then I remember it, but not until I've drastically raised my skin cancer risk once!). Even my feet are burned!

There were plenty of rocks to choose from - and driftwood and shells for mom to admire - and the record number of skips achieved by Isaac was six today! We're so fortunate to live so close to such a huge body of water and I love going to the shore. When I lived there, I used to walk the beaches to clear my head when I was having a rough day. Sometimes I miss that, as there seemed to be such a natural draw to the water for me.

Even Eric enjoyed some quiet, contemplative time on the end of an old jetty. Though I didn't get any pictures because my camera battery was dying, it was very relaxing to sit together on the jetty and watch the tiny fish swim in schools around us.

Hopefully, we'll be making more weekend memories like this one, because scenes like this may just carry me through some stressful weeks.

Trying my hand at gardening

2011-06-05T00:59:00.000-05:00

This afternoon, once the sun moved into a position putting our raised garden into the shade, my husband, son and I planted it. I've never had a garden before, so this is a fun experience for me. My husband has always raised green beans - we're talking tons and tons of greens beans, so many so that he spaced them out into early and late growers. Of course, this was pre-marriage. This year, we voted as a family on what we wanted and added much more variety. Here, Isaac is studying just how to plant the seeds. We learned that some of them have to be planted much farther apart than you'd think, and others, you weed out once the seedings poke through in order to achieve the proper spacing.

Because we like in Wisconsin, where garden planting sometimes isn't possible until well after Memorial Day due to the weather, we went with a variety of already started and established plants, such as these Roma tomatoes, red and green peppers. The others we are starting from seed. Isaac and I especially liked the difference in size between the large bottle gourds and the smaller decorative gourds, although despite their size difference, they require the same planting technique.

Here are the much larger bottle gourd seeds. These are some of my favorite things ... I love letting them dry out following their fall display and then keeping them for decoration year round. My son and I are planning on drying them this year and turning them into birdhouses.

And here are the much smaller mixed decorative gourd seeds, as held by Isaac. These are great in the fall to welcome the harvest season and I enjoy their variety. Because our garden is raised, we're realizing we'll likely need to move the vines around as they grow larger and escape the planting bed to avoid them killing off our grass surrounding the garden.

This has been a great learning experience for Isaac and he had so much fun reading directions then planting the seeds with the help of Eric. Here they are working together to plant my snap peas. I'm looking forward to using them in some stir fries this summer!

It's been quite dry around these parts, so once the seeds and plants were in (the tomatoes and peppers are in the center of the garden as that tends to stay the most moist and that's the type of climate they prefer), Isaac set to watering them all. Of course, being nearly eight, he had a slightly hard time understanding the concept that full blast spray would send the seeks askew, so I ended up taking over the finish the project, preventing an accidental flood from washing away our work.

And I would say our plants are happy so far. This little guy even came with the start of a red pepper. This year, our garden contains bottle gourds and mixed decorative gourds, sugar snap peas, green beans, short and sweet carrots, Roma tomatoes, red peppers and green peppers. Tomorrow, I'll be watering the garden again and hitting up all of the flower beds surrounding the house, as we've had it quite dry around here and our flowers are even looking sad. We transplanted a lot of things this spring to make up for what our very wet winter killed off, as well as lend some additional organization to the beds. We also were lucky enough to fill in some empty spots with plants we split from my mother's beautiful gardens last weekend. But, they'll need water to get established and survive!

Our peonies are just about ready to bloom, so we're looking forward to that. Tomorrow, provided we have time, we'll tackle planting some additional perennials and purchasing and planting some annuals as well.

Groovy Retro Mugs and Other Finds

2011-06-01T23:18:00.000-05:00

I've been crazy busy cutting up vintage fat quarters for the shop ... almost have everyone's orders out with the exception of one very large on to Australia. Of course, I picked up another two dozen vintage sheets over the past couple days, so I need to find time to wash and photograph those in the upcoming days.

I added this set of four absolutely groovy ceramic vintage mugs to the shop this evening. Aren't they awesome! I love the brightness of the colors, the pattern and the size - they're huge! Perfect for that wake-me-up cup of morning coffee or a big bowl of chili on a cold afternoon. Sometimes there are really some gems out there when thrifting ... and sometimes not so much so. I'm content with a find like these!

And I'm listing some other classic pieces in the shop as well, such as this vintage pedestal apothecary glass jar with lid. It would look beautiful as a moss terrarium with a couple ceramic painted mushrooms, or would be perfect to display those vintage pictures on your mantle.

I find my taste hovers somewhere between wanting to let those great retro pieces into my home, but afraid to steer clear of the classic styling I'm so accustomed to and comfortable with. For example, the piece above I'd definitely have in my home (and do, just a slightly different style - as a moss terrarium with train set-sized deer!). But the mugs ... nope. I do have vintage plates and cups from my grandmother I use on a daily basis, a stoneware from Japan ... and an assortment of vintage coffee mugs along with some newer handmade pieces, but nothing that screams "kitsch" like those above!

Maybe I should let go just a little ... let a little "kitsch" in. What do you think?

What a lovely weekend!

2011-05-30T23:22:00.000-05:00

This weekend turned out to be just wonderful! My husband and I spent it enjoying the children and our families, making not one, but two road trips - one to visit his parents on their beef farm and another to visit my parents! I've been making much more of an effort to make some home-cooked meals from scratch now that I'm home, not working and not in school. This week I made my stand-by tuna casserole (in Snowflake Pyrex of course!), as well as some new recipes off my Pinterest For Foodies board, including this Tomato and Mozzarella Pasta al Forno, which turned out wonderfully, with the addition of some browned ground turkey. I also made a Vanilla Pear Baked French Toast, which my husband deemed even better the day after. I have ingredients in the fridge for Cheesecake Blueberry Bars, which I'll make as soon as we finish one of the two 9x13-inch pans of food! And since I may never loose the extra 5 lbs I'm carrying around, I figure I might try the Better than Crack bars, which I also have the required ingredients for.

In other fun news, my Jenna's Attic Etsy sales of vintage sheet fat quarters and pillowcases really took off since I started listing them Thursday and I've spent a great deal of this evening cutting to fill orders - something like over 60! So, if you ordered from me ... I'm working on getting them all out ASAP! This is the current state of the studio, which is in some disarray. I won't even show you the mess on the floor where I've got 50 sheets in various stages of deconstruction! I'm waiting on hubby to install two more of the large floating shelves, which he promises to do tomorrow night. Then I can tackle some additional organization, which should help greatly.

And while visiting my parents, I picked up this half-yard of Scissors and Skulls fabric by Michael Miller in a different colorway than I've had in the past. I had put it in my mom's shopping cart on QuiltHome or some such site when I was down for my LPN boards, and she was ordering some fabric for herself. I love this print ... so many possibilities! Nothing concrete yet, but my nearly 8-year-old son requested I patch his holey jeans with it!

And while at my mom's, I confess that I raided her immense fabric stash in search of the perfect print for a new bag I'm planning on making. (Yes Mom, I borrowed both of them because I couldn't decide ... don't worry, you'll get leftovers back!) So, I need some input ... what would you go with ... the Joel Dewberry print on the left of the Amy Butler print on the right? Here's the bag I'm planning on making and I'm hoping it can carry me through the summer and fall.

It's the Not Just Another Pretty Purse Bag by Sew a Straight Line. I have the cording already and was thinking if I went with the Martini Dot print I could pull the yellow out of it for the piping... but I don't know. Opinions anyone? I have all the necessary supplies on hand, so once I get caught up on vintage sheet fat quarter orders, it's next on my list, as my Vera Bradley bag has unfortunately seen it's last season.

And of course, stealing my mom's fabric wouldn't come without some redemption for that sin ... so I've agreed to make four (instead of my required two) fishy blocks for her quilt for the Bee we're in ... which you might of guessed I was supposed to have done back in something like October of last year, but since she's my mom, she cut me some slack (Thanks mom, I love you!).

And as such, this is the pile of guilt that sits atop my sewing table, reminding me every day that I need to get these done!

Okay, I guess it's back to packaging up orders for me! Look for the addition of some vintage Pyrex, apothecary glass jars, milk glass collections, blue Ball jars and more in the shop in the coming days!

Vintage Sheets and Pyrex Scores

2011-05-25T23:45:00.000-05:00

I've gotten about half of my vintage sheet stash listed in my Etsy shop Jenna's Attic, and they're already selling, which is wonderful and fun for me! I love sharing my passion for vintage linens with others and I have way more sheets than even I know what to do with. It only made sense to spread the love around!

I also found a bunch of things for the shop today, including some vintage apothecary jars, a 50s lamb planter and a beautiful set of graduated ironstone kitchen canisters in white from Japan - they're beautiful!

And I know I already shared these on the Pyrex Collective II blog, but I have to tell all my lovely followers as well. These near perfect Pink Gooseberry Cindrella bowls were scored off of my local Craigslist for $15 for the SET!

They honestly look as if they were never out of the box. I'm guessing that they were likely an used wedding gift, based on the woman I bought them from, her age and reason for selling them. They will earn a prized display place above my cabinets for sure!

I seem to be battling a wicked cold of some sort, so it's off to the doctor for me bright and early tomorrow. Here's to hoping I get a little sleep, breathing through my mouth all night. I usually rely on my good-old-standby 12-hour Sudafed (the stuff you have to sign your life away for at the pharmacy), however, I cannot take pretty much anything with the MAOI I am on for fear of a hypertensive crisis, so I'm suffering through this one without much relief. Maybe my internist will have some ideas for me tomorrow...

Before and After

2011-05-24T15:15:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, it's difficult to have vision - when you just can't picture something in any other form. Fortunately, for me, I have lots of vision (often more than I have time or money). This project was very much one of those. I picked up this plastic faux wood frame and really bad art print at St. Vincent de Paul's for $2.50 a couple of weeks ago. I knew immediately what it would become.

For only a handful of dollars more, I was able to transform it into this:

... a beautiful statement chalkboard! The re-do was simple. A $1 can of Wal-Mart black glossy spray paint did away with the faux wood look while pulling out all the great detail in the resin frame. (I had enough spray paint to do more frames too!) I scrubbed the glass clean and then used some Krylon Chalkboard Spray Paint (about $4/can and it used maybe an 1/8th a can) to coat the glass. Once it was all dry, I reassembled it and it's now ready to hang!

Although I went with glossy black, just think of all the other color possibilities out there - just walk down the spray paint isle at your local home improvement store if you're needing inspiration!

And here are two more little plastic frames, also given a coat or two of glossy black paint. These guys I'd picked up at a garage sale earlier this summer for $0.50. It's really hard to beat the transformational power of paint. Next on my list, an ugly laminate microwave cart that hubby's used for the past seven years in the kitchen to hold the telephone and a variety of other stuff (which he bought way back then at a garage sale for $10). I've already got the primer and disposable rollers/brushes... just have to lug the thing out to the garage and get started. And no, it's not going to be black!

Jenna's Attic work underway

2011-05-19T20:31:00.000-05:00

After some thought, I've decided to start listing vintage sheet fat quarters for sale in my Jenna's Attic Etsy shop. I've amassed an almost-embarrassing collection of vintage sheets and find that I cannot help myself when it comes to buying even more when I find the "perfect" one. So, this week, I sorted threw them and started making some piles like the one above ... so pretty all together like that! I'm hoping to get a lot of them listed by the end of this weekend, so if you're interested in vintage linens, hop on over and take a look!

And of course, since making that decision, I couldn't pass up on these great finds in recent days either. See, I think it's an addiction ... this Pyrex and vintage sheet thing I've got going on. I sit at home and feel compelled to check out the latest arrivals at the thrifts, because - what if - I'm sitting at home and MISS the perfect piece for my collection or the coolest sheet ever? "Hi, my name is Jenna, and I'm a thrifting addict ..." :)

Other items are being added to the shop daily as well. Today, I listed this great ironstone sugar bowl by Ide Brothers of Japan. It has the most graceful lines and rather than being short and squat, is long and slender.

I've also listed some fun retro floral milk glass salt and pepper shakers tonight as well. In the coming days, look for vintage blue Ball jars with zinc lids, collections of milk glass vases and compotes, and some vintage jewelry!

KCWC - Day 6 and 7

2011-05-15T17:20:00.000-05:00

I conquered my fear of knits, finally! I had cut out three Sienna dresses for this week's challenge, and finally tackled the first this afternoon. It went together much more smoothly than I thought it would, which was something of a shock! I used two shirts I'd picked up at the thrift store (the yellow and the striped one) as well as an old J. Crew shirt of mine (the orange). I followed the pattern sizing for a 3T, but I'd venture to guess that once done, this would fit a 5-year-old. I'm seriously considering cutting the other ones down to the 2T size.

Someone posted that these were slightly addictive once you've made the first one, and I can see how that would be! It's so fun to watch some unsightly tee shirts come to life in a totally new way! And the knits? Sewing like them is unlike sewing with cottons, which I'm used to... but it wasn't any more difficult.

I can see a lot more possibilities with these! In the mean time, I might have to find another (larger) friend of Hannah's to wear this dress ... and it's too cute to sit in the closet for another 3 years!

Bright and Shiny Pyrex!

2011-05-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

I have had some really good luck Pyrex-hunting lately ... and I posted extensively about my finds over at Pyrex Collective II, so stop over there and check it out! I'll just share a couple good finds here. These two pristine condition Daisy round cinderella casseroles (471 and 473) found their way home with me with one opaque Daisy lid for the amazing price of $3 total. They are so bright and shiny they're totally making me feel "spring".

This is a vintage Anchor Hocking juice carafe - in amazing condition with perfect stripes and original plastic cover - that I picked up for $1, simply because it coordinated so well with the Daisy set.

And yesterday, I found this 404 Primary yellow bowl that looks like it's never been used. The shine is amazing and the price - only $2.50 - couldn't be beat! This is also a good comparison of the differences between the Daisy yellow color and the Primary yellow color. The Primary is definitely more toned down, but the shine in all the pieces is the same.

KCWC - Day 4 and 5

2011-05-13T22:14:00.000-05:00

Well, I seem to be averaging about an item a day for this kids clothing challenge! This once was a very odd-fitting shirt... with a huge gaping neckline that left WAY too much exposed for just about anyone! So, I chopped off the top and turned under the top of the waistband. I secured it with a couple rows of shirred elastic, to match the same effect as the shirred portion of the shirt, which was now the waistband. The shirt had a neat pattern and this re-fashion allowed me to make the most of the delicate lace edge along the bottom. Here's what it looked like in it's "before" state:

The tonight, I decided to tackle my first ever Big-to-Little Sweater. I took another thrift store flunkie shirt, this one a sweater with one of those fake white undershirts stitched to the edges (remember those?) but with a neat argyle pattern and some fun sparkly sequins. I didn't use a pattern for this one, just started chopping away. Fortunately, I think it turned out quite cute ... and for my first time sewing something besides cotton, it wasn't as rough as I'd thought it might be. Of course I had to go and complicate things with a V-neckline, but that's okay, I figured that out as well.

A pretty cute new addition to Hannah's wardrobe! I'm thinking it's about a 3-4T size, but I'll have to try it on her tomorrow to see for sure. It's late now that I've finally finished it (hence the funny lighting in the photo). Here's it's "before" for reference:

Now, tomorrow, I fully intend to tackle that stack of jersey Sienna Dresses. This knit sweater didn't kill me and I succeeded, so there's no reason to think I can't handle some knits now!

And what would the day be without some great thrifting? Not a normal day around here anyway. Hubby went with me to wrangle the little one and he talked me into getting some fun sheets:

And, of course, some Pyrex! Thrifting wouldn't be right if I couldn't rescue some beauties. I'll save those for you tomorrow (and so I can cross post them on Pyrex Collective as well!).

How is everyone else's sewing week coming along? Are you getting more or less done than you thought? It seems like every time I make something and post it to the group, I just come up with more and more ideas for Hannah clothes (and subsequently print off more and more patterns and Pin more and more tutorials!).

KCWC - Day 3

2011-05-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

Today, I found time to re-purpose a 100 percent linen women's dress shirt that I'd pick up off the 50 cent rack at one of our local thrifts roughly two years ago, with no idea what I'd do with it, just that for half a buck, you can't beat that for linen! Especially in this beautiful shade of blue. Here's what it looked like before, in it's rather sad state, with nothing special, but some neat lace trim that was hidden under the button placket.

So, I set to turn it into a dress, removing the buttons and sewing the side with the button holes under the lace placket. I then used the lace detailing on the cuffs to turn them into pockets and placed them on the front. I added some gathering around the collar, made some wide bias trim for the top, which finishes in a stacked bow on the right shoulder and narrower bias trim to finish off the bottom hem. I am so enjoying using my serger for its intended purpose and it makes creating finished-looking clothing so easy!

Here's a detail of the bow and bias trim which also forms the shoulder straps. And below is a detailed shot of the pockets, made out of the shirt's old cuffs.

I'm really loving this week-long sew-along for the Elsie Marley group. It's motivating me to work on projects I've had in my head forever, but have always found another reason not to do. I have a stack of jersey dresses for tomorrow and I've got about six hours free ... so here's to hoping they get finished! It will be my first time sewing knits, so I'm a wee bit nervous!

I was pleased to have a sale in my Jenna's Attic Etsy shop today and I'm slowly working on listing new items as I take pictures of them and have time. I know my husband will be glad to see more listed, as things are slowly taking over the house! Today, this sweet little ceramic lamb figurine landed in the shop.

And, perhaps I'm biased, but I've got the cutest kid out there! Here Hannah was yesterday, excited to take a bike ride! Could those brown eyes be any more gorgeous?

KCWC - Day 2

2011-05-10T17:32:00.000-05:00

Knocked two of my projects off my girl's clothing list today - these two cute little skirts, which are exact opposites of each other. They are made from some cute fabric I'd found a while back at Joann's in the clothing section and I must admit ... this is exactly what I'd imagined doing with it! It's nice to see something in your head come to life, especially this well.

These skirts feature pleated pockets, which were done using this tutorial from Made by Rae. It's a great tutorial and the result is fantastic - a lined pocket with pleat that sits out from the skirt just a tad. These were large enough that Hannah found she could fit a baseball inside! The skirts themselves I just kinda winged, basing them loosely off the Simple Skirt and Lazy Days Skirt.

Here's a detail shot of the pocket:

Still trying to decide what's up next for tomorrow... thinking probably the pillowcase dress! If you're interested in what others are making this week, check out the Elsie Marley Flickr group, which is featuring all the KCWC projects!

KCWC - Day 1

2011-05-09T21:13:00.000-05:00

Here's what I had managed to accomplish yesterday (a day before the week started) in anticipation of being tied up at school most of today: On the left are three different versions of the Sienna Dress, center top is a Big-to-Little Sweater, center bottom are two Simple Skirts and right is a vintage pillowcase dress.

Today was spent taking the HESI, which is essentially a mock version of the NCLEX (which the licensing exam you have to pass as an RN in order to work). The HESI gives you a good idea of how prepared you are to take the NCLEX and be successful. I was over-the-top pleased with my score, which put me in the 92nd percentile of students in the nation preparing to take the exam, meaning only 8 percent of students nationwide did better than I! :) It is a good indication that I'm prepared to take the RN boards, but I will still need to stay on top of things as I won't be able to take them until December when I graduate following re-taking my final clinical. But, I should do pretty well on them if I keep up with it, and that is so encouraging!

I celebrated by doing what else but adding a new piece to my Pyrex collection - this great 1 1/2 quart divided white/aqua snowflake casserole dish:

Only $2.99 at Goodwill. Even my hubby loves it! (And he was super proud of my HESI score, which I loved even more!).

Pretty little tops, all in a row

2011-05-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

I have had eight empty Ragu Spaghetti jars sitting on my basement floor for the past eight months... through a couple of basement floods the jars were moved to one side and then the other this spring. I got some weird looks from hubby implying something to the extent of "Why in the world are these still here?" ... but I had a plan. This weekend, I found some time and I'm happy to report they're no longer sitting on the basement floor!

Using this tutorial on Design Sponge, I pulled some coordinating decorative scrapbook paper and decoupaged the lids, covering up the ugly orange Ragu printing. Now, I have a set of eight jars with pretty tops, which will be used to organize small scraps in my sewing studio.

I think they turned out quite well and for a grand total of $0, I now have a pretty way to organize scraps, which someday, may just make it into a ticker-tape quilt. Now, I just need hubby to hang a couple more shelves in the studio and I'll have the extra space I need to display them, and a couple other items.

Today was also spent prepping for Kids Clothes Week Challenge. I cut out all the pieces for three different Sienna Dresses, one pillowcase dress, a big-to-little sweater, and two Simple Skirts with pleated pockets. I'm hoping this pre-work will save some major time later on in the week! And I even cleaned up my serger and made sure it was serging correctly (which, yes, involved actually finding the owner's manual!) ... but I'm happy to report that everything is working beautifully! Now, what to tackle first?

Prepping for Kids Clothes week!

2011-05-07T16:41:00.001-05:00

Beginning Monday, May 9th is Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge, where participants set aside one hour a day for a week to sew clothes for their children. I committed a couple of weeks back and I'm still planning to go ahead with this, but it's going to take some advance preparation if I don't want to spend all seven hours cutting pattern pieces and selecting clothes to upcycle!

Here's my to-do list (or a wish-list, perhaps!):
Although I have two kiddos, I'll only be sewing for the girl... boy is 8 and super picky about what's "cool" these days!

For my daughter:
- a handful of Sienna dresses
(PDF is available here: Sienna Dress )
- a Simple Skirt or two
(Free pattern here: Simple Skirt )
- a Retro Ruffle Dress from vintage sheet
(Free instructions here: Retro Ruffle Dress )
- a Shirt Dress from old men's shirt
(Tutorial here: Shirt Dress )

She's got tons of clothes, so I might make some a wee bit big to get her through fall. And if I have time, I'd really like to use Dana from Made's tutorial on making an adult sweater into a kid's one, as i have so many of those. That tutorial is here: Big Sweater to Little Sweater.

Here's an idea of some of the fun shirts I've been collecting to turn into the Sienna Dresses ... of course, I could probably make 50 Sienna Dresses with the amount I've collected (this isn't even half!), but that's besides the point!

And here's my picks for the Ruffle Dress from vintage sheet and Simple Skirts:

I've got everything else I think I should need - knit needles and ballpoint needles for the sewing machine, thread, elastic, buttons ... now I just need to find dedication!

So, who else will be sewing for their kiddos this coming week? Share your plans with me!

On future plans

2011-05-04T10:34:00.000-05:00

Today would have been my final clinical day, but after talking with my instructor, we decided that it might be a bit tough to watch my fellow students celebrate the end of their schooling. I pointed out that it wasn't fair to them to have to censor their own excitement because I wouldn't be joining them and considering I had a great day yesterday, I'd rather end the experience on a positive note, so I can move ahead and look forward to repeating the clinical in the fall. So, I didn't have to get up at 4 a.m. this morning, which was a treat in itself! I'm staying home, vacuuming, doing laundry, baking a tuna casserole for dinner and organizing some things.

One of the things I'm hoping to do is populate my vintage shop with some great new finds. I picked up this small white lotus bowl recently, but unfortunately, don't know that I can part with it... it's too cute! I will however be adding some beautiful milk glass vases and compotes to the shop, as well as some Pyrex.

These are Butterfly Gold Pyrex mugs, and while I don't collect this pattern, I'm hoping someone else loves them as much as I. My husband would prefer to collect the aqua/white patterns, so we're sticking to that! It's a disease, you know ... the inability to let beautiful Pyrex pieces sit on a shelf!

I've been looking for some retro floral vintage sheets like these for what seems like forever. I nice turn of fate and I found not only one, but two different colorways, of the same awesome sheet! These will join my others and hopefully become a couple of beautiful quilts!

I have lots of things on my to-do list, and being a Virgo, seem to thrive on organization and lists!

On my overall life-improvement to-do list:
- Start running again. I've downloaded a couch-to-5K in 9 weeks program for my iTouch. I bought new running shoes and I love them. Now, I just need to get off the couch!
- Start road biking again. I got my bike out yesterday, tuned it up. It's good to go and I found all my accessories (helmet, gloves, etc.). I also got out the Burley, and it's tires have air ... found my daughter's helmet so she can come too.
I know that working out on a regular basis will go a long way to cutting down on my anxiety and improving my depression. Fortunately, hubby is very supportive of this. Yesterday, we bought a canoe and accessories so that we can go fishing with my son this summer. We are trying to plan more ways to spend active family time together out-of-doors. It will be a mood lifter for everyone and should add many more memories to our lives on which we can look back.

On my sewing to-do list over the next couple of months:
- Finish a baby quilt for a friend expecting her first little one
- Pillow shams (2) for our king-size master bed in Kona Coal with Hope Valley, to match the beautiful double wedding ring quilt my mom made for our wedding.
- Patchwork vintage sheet shower curtain for the master bathroom (I have the vintage sheets... just need to lay out a design I like and piece it together.). I'm hoping to make this one with French seams, to avoid the need for backing it.
- A lap-size quilt for my son, who is a bit quilt-deprived. I have a fat quarter set of Lizzy House's Castle Peeps in the blue colorway, along with some turquoise Kona cotton for the top.
- Kitchen table runner in patchwork with Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow (gifted from my step-mom for my birthday last fall and coordinating with curtains made of the same) and a nice linen in taupe.
- Buffet runner to coordinate with above (so my Pyrex doesn't vibrate around when I walk through the house!).
- Two new patchwork pillow for our living room sectional. Not sure about what my plans are for these yet, just that the poor pillows on it have got to go. I have new inserts in the studio, along with invisible zippers, just waiting for an idea to strike.
- A patchwork Buzz Lightyear pillow (mostly cut out already) for my daycare provider's son.

On my around-the-house list for the next couple of months:
- Pallet wall in the master bedroom. We don't have a headboard and we both agree on the pallet wall idea. The plan is to hang hubby's European mount Elk skull/antlers above the bed once this wall is complete (it should be able to withstand the weight). Hubby started cutting apart pallets last night!
- Paint house shutters black. Once we replaced the room last summer, all of a sudden, the shutters really stood out that they where dull and faded. Time to paint those ... thankfully, there's only three windows in the front with shutters!
- Hand-stencil and paint the master bathroom. This one is going to take a while, but cost next to nothing.

What's on your to-do list for the summer?

Looking forward

2011-04-30T10:53:00.000-05:00

Despite an emotional week, overall, it's been a good one. Can't post a serious post without giving you some eye candy, such as these great pieces of Moda's out-of-print Lush line designed by Erin Michaels a couple of years ago. It seems that a lot of quilters have that one line that "got away" or existed and ended before they even began quilting. For most, it seems that line is Flea Market Fancy, which to be quite honest, doesn't really do it for me. I didn't think I had one, but recently I've learned that mine seems to be this Lush line, which features painter's pallets, paint by number camouflage and deer and other beautiful nature prints. I've been slowly trading some of my hard to find pieces I'm willing to part with for other's Lush. These prints are from a great trade I made with Amanda of A Crafty Fox. Thank you Amanda - I so enjoy swapping with you!

This last semester of nursing school has probably been the most difficult one yet - harder even than the semester I was pregnant with my daughter and scheduled my c-section over spring break. I have spent most of the last four months sleep deprived, eternally snippy and crabby to the people I love most, and often piled up on the couch in a puddle of stress-induced tears. Many of you don't know, but I have dealt with clinical depression for most of my adult life, bouncing from medication to medication, finding one (or a combination of some) only to have it work well for about 3-4 years and then conk out. I've tried not taking them - sometimes for extended periods of times - only to have it become undeniably clear that I do in fact need them. I started this last semester switching medications, after my last one died out late fall semester and following Christmas, it became clear that I needed to either check myself into an inpatient setting or figure something else out quickly. I have exhausted all of the typical antidepressant medications and am now on an MAOI, which comes with lots of drug-drug interactions and food-drug interactions, so I've had to be very careful now about a lot of things, like carefully watching what types of food I eat and avoiding taking something as simple as an over-the-counter decongestant. Fortunately, it does seem to have had a positive impact on my depression, and I'm thankful for that - and the support of my family.

But dealing with that, on top of a full load of theory classes and clinicals, was difficult. I mustered up all the energy I had to put on a bright face and get through school and there was little left at the end of the day. I brought home great grades and plodded along. But with every passing day, the anxiety built. I neared graduation with few real job prospects, as unfortunately, where I live there have been significant nursing cutbacks... many new grads are getting zero-hour positions (basically, on call hours only) if anything at all. Due to family ties to the area, I am unable to move where there are more opportunities. I graduated 10 years ago with an undergrad degree in journalism and remember the sense of pride I felt at the time to have already lined up a much-coveted position at an advertising agency prior to graduation ... this time, my looming graduation felt nothing like that.

I'd like to say that my depression caught up to me, or that my anxiety got to me, but the fact of the matter is, I made an error at clinical last week that will cause me to repeat the clinical in the fall. I caught my error immediately, owned up to it and did everything I could to make things right. And I did. I succeeded at that and I did it with composure and class and I am more proud of how I handled that than I am about any grade I pulled down this semester or any previous semester. I met with my department head this week and have had the opportunity to talk to many of my previous instructors, all of whom have expressed such pride in how I handled everything and spoke of how I am a role model to other students. That, and knowing that when it comes right down to it, I will do the right thing without hesitation - even when it is difficult and so much is on the line - has done a great deal to lift my spirits. I am finishing out the remaining weeks of clinical as it will only benefit me in the future and I've never been someone who quits. My positive attitude regarding this situation has impressed not only my friends, but especially staff, both at the facility where I am doing my clinicals and the nursing faculty at school. I had two choices - either be upset, angry and bitter, or look at this as an excellent learning experience that will only make me stronger in the long run. I am happy to say that I took the high road and it has been making all the difference.

Yes, I will be retaking clinical when it's offered in November. Instead of graduating with my friends in two weeks, I will be looking for work as an LPN or a nurse extern for the next six months, and graduating in December. Strangely, the anxiety I've carried with me this past semester is gone. It is as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I have the opportunity now to perhaps get even more hours as an extern/LPN (there are more positions and typically better hours conducive to family life, although less pay) as well as additional health care experience before I graduate. I want very much to work on the inpatient psych unit at our local hospital and have been exploring the possibility of an externship there which could transition into an RN position upon graduation.

We're in good spirits here, my husband and I. I'm happier and more relaxed than I've been in months. There's such peace in that. Today, my husband is out of town at a relative's birthday party and my children are with their father. I have an entire day to myself, which is something I haven't had in as long as I can remember. I slept in. I am having coffee and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. I am going to clean my studio and I am going to finish piecing together a quilt top and back. I am going to work on photographing items for my vintage shop on Etsy. I am going to enjoy the day - my day - for once.

Many of you might find this post a bit unusual for me. It's not necessarily the happy, uplifting stuff I usually post here. But last week, I read a wonderful blog post by Rachel of Stitched in Color, titled "There are things I don't say ..." that made me think about how I appreciate those bloggers who keep it real, who share that their lives aren't perfect but they make it work. I'm not always good at that, as I struggle with keeping things light here because it feels sometimes like so much of my life isn't. But I realize that then I too am perpetuating that "perfect life" image I detest so much. So, here it is, about as real as it gets. If you have some time, please stop by Rachel's blog and read the hundreds and hundreds of comments she received on her post. It's probably the most refreshing blog post I've read in the last year and in many ways, the most inspiring.

I commented there about the things I don't say and have actually had other bloggers stop by here and drop me a note about how my post made them feel, and that warms my heart as well and only furthers my belief that it is important to keep it real. Hopefully, in the future, there will be a little more reality and a lot more actual creating on here!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

It was a fun day of Easter egg dying at our house this afternoon. Happy Easter tomorrow everyone! We got a monster Easter egg dye kit this year, which came complete with goofy faces and fuzzy hair!

There was a lot of seriousness involved in not cracking eggs when putting them in dye baths (after one large "crack" at the start)! Once they were dyed, the fun began!

Another of Isaac's creations! He's planning on having fun looking for these when the Easter Bunny hides them tomorrow morning! Hannah, 24-hours post-surgery, woke up from her nap midway and joined in the fun, coloring a picture with the markers we'd pulled for the eggs.

As you can see here, she came through her surgery with flying colors. Although the whites of her eyes are (for the most part) red now with blood, she's not needing anything for pain and seems generally like herself, only with eyes that are pointing forward all of the time now instead of drifting out to the sides. It's a nice new look for her - and I'm sure she's seeing better! We're so thankful it's done and behind us now!

It took a little convincing to get Hannah to taste try a hard boiled egg, but after salting it, eating it myself and proclaiming it "Yummy" she decided they weren't half bad and even asked for more!

I hope everyone has a happy Easter tomorrow and enjoys time with friends and family!

Time to stop shopping & start sewing

2011-04-21T17:45:00.001-05:00

Today I bought the solid Kona cotton to go with my son's future Lizzy House Castle Peeps lap quilt. I went with Kona turquoise and I'm going to sash the blocks with Kona White.

I also picked up a couple other half-yards (top) in fun dots while I was getting the Kona. The other 4 fat quarters were in my order from Sew Deerly Loved, where I got the Castle Peeps from. There's two of Tula Pink and two Michael Miller prints (dots and bikes).

And then I arrived home to find this fabric love in the mailbox from my swap with Jenny. I had swapped a yard of my Denyse Schmidt Patchwork Promenade for these goodies! It's so nice to get fabric I can use for fabric I didn't know what to do with ... I'd had the DS sitting in my stash for years, and finally decided someone else might be wanting it. So, instead, I have some lovely Anna Maria Horner Waltz (left), some Lizzy House Red Letter Day, another Anna Maria Horner print and some lovely fun scraps! Thank you so much for a great swap Jenny!

And while I was out and about, I hit up a favorite thrift store and an antique store. I got this great pillow case, as well as these fab vintage sheets below for less than $1 each. I also found these zinc Ball jar lids for a quarter each - now all my blue Ball jars have lids! And, this very old conical wooden pestle found it's way home as well... I'm debating keeping it, or listing it in my vintage Etsy shop.

And, I found a 471 Cinderella casserole in Early American (1 pint) for $1.50. I had not decided if I was going to collect the Bake, Serve and Store casseroles in this pattern (I have them in the Butterprint already), but this might seal the deal. I happen to have some extra lids downstairs, so this one will get a lid and join it's family above the cabinets.

So, I think it's time to start sewing. I need to feel like I've made progress on something. I always feel that way when I'm working on a project... so I'm going to try and find time to sit down and enjoy sewing this weekend. Hannah has surgery tomorrow morning, so we'll see how she handles it and how her recovery is this weekend. If she's napping a lot, I'll be getting more done. But I'm realistic enough to know I might be cuddling her most of the weekend and set nary a foot in the studio. I'll be okay either way, provided Hannah's doing well!

Pyrex explosion (AKA, I need to swap some of this soon!)

2011-04-21T09:12:00.000-05:00

I had the most awesome thrifting Pyrex week recently, ending with some great finds yesterday. This 043 1 1/2 quart oval casserole is one of them. In pristine condition, it was a mere $3. Just look at that gorgeous lid! It will be staying with the husband and I as it matches our dishes and is one of the patterns we're collecting.

Another piece I found recently is this great 053 2 1/2 quart Snowflake promotional oval casserole. It's already been scrubbed cleaned and had a tuna casserole baked in it! For only $1.25 I couldn't go wrong. It's also staying with us!

I also snatched up these two great oval casseroles: Bottom one is 053 Autumn Harvest (Wheat Stalks) and the top is an 043 unknown promotional pattern. I'll probably keep the lids from these, as I have a couple that are sans lids, but trade the casseroles themselves.

Many of you know that I already collect this pattern, but the price was too good to pass one these. These is the Early American Cinderella bowls in 444 and 443 size. I also have the matching 441 Cinderella bowl, so I'm pretty close to having a second set... which I obviously don't need, so they're up for swap!

Here's another great piece I came across within the week, an 043 Gold Butterfly Oval Casserole without a lid. It's the 1 1/2 quart size and in great shape - also available for trade!

And finally, this great Autumn Harvest 1 pint 401 bowl also found it's way home with me. It's up for trade as well!

If you're interested in any of these pieces, check out my Pyrex For Trade Flickr set! In the meantime, happy Pyrex hunting!

Adding and subtracting to the stash!

2011-04-18T10:11:00.000-05:00

My mom came up to visit this weekend and brought with her eight half-yard cuts of Joel Dewberry's newest line Aviary2 in the Lilac colorway for me! Thank you mom! I've been scoping out the patterns of Pyrex she's collecting and picking up things I know she'd like here and there. I'd joked earlier I was going to take a "finder's fee" and this is what I ended up with! I cannot wait to decide what I'm going to do with these... but first I have some other projects (to start... and) to finish!

I'm also trying to go through my fabric stash and swap prints/fabrics I don't need for somethings I do need/want. I listed these on the Flickr Fabric Swap group and Fabric Destashers:

I've also somehow ended up with a extra issue of the most recent Stitch magazine... looking to swap for some fat quarters in stash building basics.

Click here if you've got something you'd swap for my mag!

Happy swapping and stash building everyone - have a great week!

Seriously, if you love scraps ... check this out!

2011-04-16T17:46:00.000-05:00

Sew Fresh Fabrics are having the most fabulous giveaway of the scraps that accumulate in their shop. Enough scraps to make a whole quilt. And "scraps" can be as big as a FQ and include designer fabrics from the likes of Anna Maria Horner, Heather Ross, Lizzy House, Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Laurie Wisbrun, Sandy Henderson and Denyse Schmidt. The contest ends Wed. April 20 10 pm EST so hop on over there for a chance to to enter.

Hannah's refinished chair

2011-04-15T13:52:00.000-05:00

I finally finished reupholstering Hannah's little rocking chair, which if you remember, I'd purchased much earlier this fall at a local thrift store for all of $4. It was covered in a very dirty tan vinyl, which was cracked and peeling off. However, it took me months to sneak it out of the living room and down to the studio to take apart, as she loved it so! If you're wondering what it looked like in it's previous life, see this earlier picture here.

Mostly, this project required a lot of time... and not so much money. I bought 3 yards of upholstery fabric at JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon, totaling about $15. I also bought upholstery tacks for the back of the chair for about $4. The rest of the materials I had on hand - paint and sand paper for the rockers (which I painted and then distressed), staples, additional batting, etc. I took photos of the deconstruction of the chair so that I knew how to put it back together and I kept and labeled the old vinyl pieces and used them as pattern pieces to cut the new fabric for the chair. So, for under $20, Hannah now has a very pretty child-sized upholstered rocking chair that matches the rest of our decor! Which is good, because my 8-year-old fits in this chair as well ... so I have a feeling it will be on display in the living room for many, many years to come!

And, in case you've somehow missed the internet/blog/Flickr/Pinterest buzz, there are currently two great lines of fabric available at JoAnn's. The first is Alexander Henry's Farmdale (the top four prints are part of that line), which is priced at $7.99/yard and is currently 30% off. The second is a line Denise Schmidt designed specifically for the store - with a total of something like 21 different prints in three colorways - and is priced at $9.99/yard (The bottom three prints are from that line, purchased with 50% off coupons). I couldn't pass up adding some of these great lines to my stash. The DS is a tad country for my tastes, so I just grabbed the few that were a little more modern. I'm hoping to find more of the dots in the blue colorway in the future.

I've also decided to join Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge from May 9-15. She's challenging us to sew for one hour a day for seven days. At the end, our children should have some fun new clothing! I have been stashing away great thrifted finds with the intention of repuposing them for Hannah. My Pinterest sewing board is filling up with girl clothing tutorials. And that week is the first week in many, many years I don't have school (I graduate on the 14th!), so it's the perfect time to do something for my kiddos!

Trying new recipes

2011-04-10T23:31:00.000-05:00

I started this morning baking this great loaf of bread - but not before brewing up my coffee! This is a recipe I found on Pinterest and had posted to my For Foodies board. This a banana, raspberry, white chocolate chip bread ... and surprisingly, it's pretty good for you too! It's half whole-wheat, half white flour, with yogurt substituted for most of the oil, and other healthy touches. Click here for a link to a printable version of the recipe. My husband loved this bread, as did I, however my son proclaimed it would "better without the raspberries." Hubby and I just stared at him in disbelief!

It was very warm here, upwards of 78 degrees (which is about 20-30 degrees above normal) today and I'd like to say that I spent a bunch of time outside enjoying it, but I didn't. I did however have time to wash out the inside of my car and the windows, which felt good. I settled in for the afternoon, working on reupholstering Hannah's rocking chair, which she's been missing. I'm nearly done, with only the back to do. But to be quite honest, my fingers hurt from pulling and stapling fabric all day and I'm not all the motivated to do the last piece at just shy of midnight! Sounds like an error waiting to happen for me ... and those who know me well, know that for the most part, staple guns and I don't mix very successfully. :)

This morning I also found time to make some jersey flowers to go on my work-in-progress spring wreath, which I wrapped the other day in a multi-colored cotton yarn. I've got other jersey flowers in different colors planned as well. Overall, a very nice day and a very nice weekend with the family!

Adding to the collection!

2011-04-09T22:30:00.000-05:00

I mentioned yesterday that is was indeed a very good mail day ... not only did I get plenty of fabric from trades, but also Pyrex - with fabric (even better!). Amy, who runs the Pyrex and Fabric Swap group on Flicker managed to stumble upon a woman's very large Pyrex collection in her Salt Lake City neighborhood. The woman wanted to part with it and asked Amy to sell the pieces for her, which she did (don't ask her what 350+ pieces of Pyrex sounds like ... I know it sounds like heaven, but seriously, did that girl ever have her work cut out for her!). I picked up this great Early American 404 bowl, which completes my collection of nested mixing bowls in this pattern! It was sold as a promotional item, not with the other three mixing bowls and can be hard to find ... so I was pleased to add it to my collection! Amy also sent me this beautiful Spring Blossoms square casserole baking dish with a delicious selection of green fabrics! Thank you Amy! :)

Because I'm going with an aqua/white theme in my kitchen (with the Butterprint pattern) and coordinating window treatments, I've decided to add the large snowflake promotional casseroles to my collection as well, and purchased these during Amy's huge Pyrex Explosion sale. These are the 045 and 043 oval casseroles. Fortunately, my husband is wonderfully supportive of this Pyrex habit and seems appreciative that I've been decorating the kitchen/dining room to both our liking. Love you babe!

I ran to a neighboring small town today to pick up some vintage British license plates for decoration in my son's room. I wanted to make sure he liked them and allow him the chance to pick out his own, so we stopped in at the antique store where I'd seen them in the past. He found three he liked and we talked the guy down to all of them for $10. So, he's now got two from England and one from Romania. We're planning on mounting them on the wall above his bed, but he wants to take them to school for show and tell first. :)

While we were in that town, I swung by the local thrift, where I seem to have the most luck finding Pyrex. A quick in and out and we walked away with this great 1962 Promotional 045 Oval Casserole in Golden Classic with it's original dual warming tray. I added this to the swap group and it was snatched up by someone who has a piece I need to complete my Early American Refrigerator Set (the 503 dish and lid). So, it will be going off to join her home shortly, but here it is:

Definitely a pretty piece with a very nice patterned lid! I also found these great nested Forest Fancies mixing bowls, which are in my For Trade set and on the Pyrex for Trade Flickr group. I also have the matching Bake/Serve/Store set available for trade as well:

And last but not least, I found my first piece if JAJ England Pyrex, this round casserole in Country Autumn. I love it's subtle colors, but I'm not sure I'm keeping it. Perhaps I can trade it for a piece I need to complete my collections.

Still hoping to find time to work on my sewing projects tomorrow. Tonight, the hubby, son and I enjoyed playing some Monopoly together (and I won both games, for the first time!). I'm also so pleased to find out that I got an A in my Complex Health Alterations II class, which finished on Monday! I want to celebrate by buying fabric, but I'm waiting to find out if I managed to get an A in my last clinical as well (one grade isn't in yet, and I'm only a couple of tenths of a point away, so we'll see.)!

Sewing time in the studio!

2011-04-08T22:13:00.000-05:00

Baby girl cooperated and took a good nap today, allowing me time to play in the studio ... I had pulled fabrics for this very large block a couple of days ago. It's been floating around in my mind for months now, and I recently picked up the houndstooth I needed to make it. This will be a baby quilt, and feature one large block set off center and surrounded by Kona Coal. I'm planning to straight line quilt it and give it a scrappy binding. Here's a shot of the entire block:

I'm really hoping to get the rest of the top pieced this weekend. Today I was also able to tackle making the backing for my 20-inch Buzz Lightyear pillow. I also fussy cut the front four center pieces and now need to choose fun fabrics to make squares within squares for the front. I'm going to quilt both sides, perhaps in a diagonal running both directions and use an invisible zipper (which I love!).

I'm hoping to make some more progress on these as well this weekend. Also on the list is finishing the reupholstery job on Hannah's rocking chair. It's looking lovely so far and I'm very pleased with my fabric choice!

I also got plenty of happy mail today - including this great swap with Jules of ChickenJulie on Flickr. I'd traded her a half-yard of Monaluna Mingle Dots in Tangerine and a fat quarter of Del High Stones in Ocean in exchange for this great Alexander Henry Pink Blossoms print and a fat quarter of Erin Michael's Painter's Pallet (Lush) and some Joel Dewberry! Yummy - it was a great trade!

And I was lucky to receive these Tufted Tweets fat quarters in a trade for a Moda charm pack with Amanda of A Crafty Fox on Flickr. I want to make a large quilt with this line, and have some fat quarters already, but this trade really helped me round it out so I can get started! Amanda was nice enough to throw an extra in as well - thank you so much!

And of course, I got Pyrex in the mail too - more about that tomorrow folks! :)

Signs of spring, finally

2011-04-07T17:20:00.000-05:00

After clinicals yesterday, I stopped by the shoe store and found a new pair of running shoes. I've been wearing my old Nike Shox for nursing clinicals the past couple years (yes, that's how long it's been since I've been out running)... so I was in need of new shoes. I also bought Hannah the cutest pair of pink Sketchers athletic shoes, with some money her aunt and uncle sent her for her birthday! She loved them so much she wore them all night last night and did a bunch of "happy feet" dances!

I recently shipped these red and blue refrigerator dishes out to Leigh, who in return was shipping me two lids for my small fridgies dishes - we of course swapped fabrics as well (I tried to take this one so she couldn't see all of what she was getting!). And today I received this lovely package in the mail:

Isn't it wonderful? I love all of the fabrics - they're perfect! Thank you Leigh! I can tell she knows I really did polka dots! And my 501's are so very happy to have lids now :)

I stopped in at Joann's today to pick up some upholstery tacks for my chair-recovering project and ended up walking out with a couple of unplanned purchases, including a yard each of these great 100 percent cotton prints. They're apparel weight and I will probably make Hannah a couple cute jumpers/dresses for summer out of them.

And if you know me, you'll know that cartoon-ish/character fabric is totally NOT my thing, but I did get a third yard of this Buzz Lightyear fabric, with a plan in mind. I am making a quilted pillow with a bunch of squares of Buzz in different poses for my daycare provider's son, who will be turning 2 shortly and is a die-hard fan of Buzz! Too cute to resist. :)

I was really hoping to find time to quilt this afternoon (even pulled fabrics!), but wasn't able to, as I spent a good portion of it on the phone with various doctors, scheduling surgery for my daughter Hannah, who is 2 and has exotropia (which is the opposite of being cross-eyed). We had her evaluated by a pediatric ophthalmologist a couple weeks ago and learned that she's not a candidate for glasses or patching and needs to have both eyes surgically corrected as she's only seeing out of the one, primarily. The good news is that both her vision and focal abilities are perfect, so once the eyes are realigned, she should be seeing great! It's a little nerve wracking, but we'll be so happy to have her seeing her best in a couple of weeks!

Hannah's Room Tour

2011-04-02T09:58:00.000-06:00

For those of you sick of Pyrex posts, I thought I'd give a quick tour of Hannah's room. I spent last weekend cleaning and organizing it, storing her 12-24 month clothes and making room for the 2-3T stuff she's wearing now. I took out most of her infant toys, leaving only the one's she's playing with most lately. Some details ... the quilt on Hannah's wall was made by my Mom. I made the tissue paper poms using this tutorial. The picture taped to the wall is a drawing of Hannah's favorite doll, a tree, the sun and some grass, done by none other than Grandma. (She makes her draw this over and over again!) Bedding is from Target's Dwell Studio line in pink and brown. I made the coordinating bed skirt out of brown drapery fabrics. All the furniture in her room is by Bassett Furniture and is cherry.

The walls in Hannah's room are a bubblegum pink, which is quite bright actually. At times, I wish we'd gone with something a little softer, as it can be a tad overwhelming. Her drapes are chocolate brown in velvet. Her antique chair has a lambswool rug thrown over the back and a log cabin pillow I made and quilted for her. Behind the chair in the Echino fabric is a very fun felt board with coordinating bags filled with felt shapes and people and all sorts of fun objects - made by my mom for Hannah's second birthday.

I love this pillow - it features a great Heather Ross print in the center and is surrounded by scrappy fun prints, right up Hannah's alley.

There is a lot of art in Hannah's room. This matted piece is by Yellena James and is a limited edition. I have another print - Allusion - by the same artist that goes above Hannah's dresser (the frame needs new glass, as it cracked recently, so it's not up on the wall at the moment). The sock monkey in the back was handmade by my mom and the sheep came from another artist on Etsy. The peas in the pod were a gift from my sister for Hannah and came from an Etsy seller in Israel.

On top of Hannah's dresser is a vintage bamboo birdcage, thrifted by me, as well as a small pink lotus bowl that holds her nuks. Her Waldorf doll, handcrafted by my mom, is also up there for safekeeping, as Hannah is a tad young yet to be careful with her. She also has this beautiful set of nesting wood blocks from Bambolino Toys, a Netherlands toy company, that my parents picked up for her in Europe when they were there a couple years ago.

Hannah has a nice collection of quilts on display in her room as well. On the bottom is her storytime quilt, gifted to her at Christmas by my mom. We spread this one out of the floor and play "I-Spy" with all the great fabric prints. Next up is the quilt I made her for her second birthday out of vintage sheets. On top is the quilt I made her for her first birthday - a great zig zag quilt using a vintage print and Kona white cotton. Her Valentine's Day owl, handcrafted by me, sit on top.

Kind of tucked away behind her door is this beautiful art print by an artist discovered through the Art Fair on the Square in Madison, Wis. a couple years ago. My mother bought an original painting from her and I grabbed a quick snapshot of this print - with the artist's permission. Framed out in natural cherry and a wide mat, it's a beautiful addition to Hannah's room.

Well, that's the brief tour of her room as it looks today... I'm hoping it continues to evolve as she gets older and maybe, someday, we'll tone down the wall color at bit!