wordless sunday

Oh hush, having two jobs and a 1.5 year old can really mess with your days and weeks... and your brain, your sewing productivity and your blogging.

... and did I mention that the aforementioned 1.5 year old can climb, loves donut holes and is super sneaky?

my newest toy

Dana over on Made had a giveaway this week for a Silhouette SD cutter. Like Dana, I didn't think I wanted one, since I SUCK BIGTIME at scrapbooking, but once she showed (and I started googling) all the things OTHER than paper that this baby can cut, I knew I wanted one. Lucky for me, my sweet sweet husband told me I could go ahead and get it as a "going back to work" present (yeah... our family just comes up with random reasons for presents, so sue us).

It still seemed like a lot of $$ for something I only wanted and didn't need, so I decided that I would get it if I could come up with 10 things off the top of my head that I would use it for. So here they are, in case you're curious (oh, and it will hold me accountable to do at least a few of them ASAP!)

1. vinyl decals for Joe's banjo case (ok so that one was his idea- whatevs, still counts.)
2. vinyl conversion chart for the inside of a kitchen cabinet (I am ALWAYS googling these!)
3. freezer paper stencilling
4. decorate onesies for upcoming baby showers with iron-on vinyl (like this) AND a funny banjo shirt for Joe ("banjos... definitely not square!")
5. some sort of SC state art (like this)
6. some sort of cool "Gamecocks" decal for the back window of the jeep
7. an actual framed silhouette of Noah's sweet baby head
8. class room decorations for the windows/doors with vinyl (I'm imagining a really cool "name plate" type deal on my office door)
9. two words: etched and glass. I forsee cool wedding gifts in this category!
10. making (rather than buying!) cards for birthdays, weddings, etc. with all the pretty paper I have from when I *thought* I would be good at scrapbooking!

So, I had ten things on the list, so obviously I hit "buy". The silhouette and approx 8 rolls of vinyl (I know, things got out of hand for a minute there over at expressionsvinyl.com) are on their way to my doorstep!

I really like that I don't always have to cut on vinyl. The thing will cut contact paper (for glass etching), freezer paper (for stencilling), paper for scrapbooking (I mean, maybe one day I'll finish our wedding scrapbook?), even FABRIC! (although I can only see myself using it for little bitty things, not for big projects like quilts and stuff- for that I go to my trusty other toy- the Accuquilt Go! cutter!)

Whew. So that was my online shopping experience for the night. Hope everyone has had a great Saturday (we saw the Steep Canyon Rangers tonight! Yay!) and have a great Sunday!

IKEA hacking

I had never heard of IKEAhackers.net until my wonderful husband combined his love of playing on the interwebs and IKEA and came across it! Honestly there are some pretty cool things on there but others that are just a little too weird, oops, I mean "modern" for me... still way fun to look at!

We have this Expedit shelf in our den as our TV stand. I LOVED the clean lines and all the storage it gives, but was really starting to hate the clutter and... IKEA-ness of it (coming from someone who loves that place so much it seems like blastphemy, right?!).

(hey, don't judge. This picture was taken at the end of Noah's first birthday party... I swear our den doesn't usually look like that!)

We cleaned out all the books that were just sitting there and moved all of our DVDs to another shelf and decided we would attempt to make it look a little nicer. We looked into putting a back on it (MDF is suggested a lot, as you can cut holes for wires, paint it, cover it with fabric- whatever you'd like!), but I wanted to keep from putting nails into the piece just in case we ever wanted to use it as a room divider or something else that would require both sides to be visible. After hanging it up to get an idea of where to cut openings in the fabric for cords, I ended up hot gluing the fabric (Sophia fabric was $.99/yard last week!) to the edges of the piece, blowing on the glue a little first so that it would be a smidgen cooler and not completely scortch the wood (a little trick I learned as a first year teacher hanging posters on the wall that I planned to later take down).

and voila!

If you jump back to this post, you'll see that yellow accents in the den are sort of my thing right now... I just love 'em!

bedroom in progress

I started working agin January 3rd... I worked 5 days and due to the snow, a furlough day and MLK day, we won't go back to work until tomorrow! I realize this will probably all have to be made up, but I've enjoyed being home with Joe and Noah (Joe's job is uber flexible so he can be home a lot if need be... or want) and getting lots done around the house- especially our bedroom which has always gotten the shaft when we decorate.

I'll post pics of the whole thing next week after we paint the room but here are a few things in progress:

Vanity tray re-do

new pillows and new duvet (yes, it's the same one Young House Love just bought... that's how I

heard it was on sale! $39 for a king duvet?! Yes, please!)

Oh, and that first picture is of the glass egg crates I just got at Anthropology to organize my jewlry on top of the new dresser!

Whew.

Things have been a bit busy around here. My church job started back last week, I started my teaching job last Monday (and I think I'm actually LOVING it!), we're on day THREE of South Carolina's Snowpocalypse 2011, and Joe and I have taken on multiple furniture projects in the past 2 weeks (how very Life in the Fun Lane of us!).

So, since I have to have Noah at his doctor's appointment in an hour, all you get today are pictures (with a promise of more soon!):

First, we have Noah ready to play in the snow (which he hated). Please note our version of snowboots: Converse + Ziplock bags = SC Snowboots.

Now that Miss Olivia's quilt is safely with her in Texas, I can show you the finished quilt!

Noah lurves it.

This project has been on my to-do list forever, and I finally got it done last night. Joe helped me picked out the fabrics... I was going to use a fabric with text on it rather than the madras (which I had been hoarding for some sort of clothing for Noah for the summertime), but I like this look!

That's all for today- now we're off to the doctor to hear if ear tubes are in our future... *le sigh*

ambitious

Yesterday Joe and Noah went to do Christmas with his grandparents but I stayed home (sick!) to go to the doctor and "relax".

However, I can not sit still, so I got to work piecing a baby quilt top for an old friend (who is having her baby AS I TYPE THIS!). Once it was pieced, I though "why not baste it?" and then once it was basted I thought "might as well quilt it!" and before I knew it, the binding was on it and I was hand-stitching it on the back while watching "Lost" reruns at 1am.

I did eventually go to sleep.

I tried two new things with this quilt- Kona coal for the solid squares and binding (which it seems I am the last to discover, but seriously? It looks GREAT with anything!) and straight line diagonal quilting (which Jessica did on a table runner the other day and, holy crap- it was cute AND fast!). I'll only show a bit of this right now, since it hasn't been gifted yet.

Oh, and that Christmas quilt is finally finished and has been used for ample snuggling in the past week.

So this is new...

I got a job.

"Oh, you were looking for a job? How exciting!"

No, I was not looking, that's the weird part!
A principal (who, interestingly enough, interviewed me 3 years ago! I guess I made an impression- then again, it could have been my hair... it's hard to miss.) called me and asked me to come interview (I said "Let me talk with my husband to see if we're interested and call you back" and then the husband says "YES YOU ARE INTERESTED IN A JOB!"). I interviewed at 9am Wednesday morning and they called me at 11am asking me to come to the district office the following morning to fill out paperwork.

Not sure yet how I feel about going back to work (probably because it wasn't my idea- ha!), but I do think it will be great once I get used to it. The job is only until May and I can re-evaluate then to see if I even want to continue teaching full-time (and see if they'll offer this position to me on a contract!).

So the sewing (and posting) will probably slow down (can you imagine? Even slower than now!), but I will post soon about all of the gifts I've been busy making/embroidering/wrapping/hiding from Joe! :)