March Goals

Quick peek at my goals for March.

* Make this cinnamon pull bread for book club Sunday.
* Make these guiness/bailey cupcakes for work the Friday before St. Patrick's Day.
* Read this month's book club book.
* Read a book club book from the past that I never actually read (haven't decided which one yet.)
* Take pictures to do an "Apartment Tour" for the blog. This is also for myself to look back on in the future.
* FIND AN APARTMENT and PACK!!!
* Work on the scrap chevron afghan for Jeremy. (More deets to come on that soon.)

Things I am looking forward to...

* Seeing The Black Keys on the 10th!!!!!
* Looking for and finding an apartment <3
* Daylight Savings Time...longer days!

Here's to a spectacular March

Jamie

February's Goals

Here's a quick recap on how I did with February's Goals.

* Send the package of crafts I am making for my Valentine's Day Swap partner.
Sent...see here.

* Finish one of the books Liz gave me for Christmas, The Mystery of Grace. Finished. I didn't LOVE it but it was a fast read and the core story was good. It was just full of a lot of unneccesary fluff.

* Start and Finish the Book Club book, The Heretic's Daughter.
Started and I am 3/4 through it. I will finish it by Sunday for our meeting.

* Finish Shannon's Birthday Gift.
I guess I was going to make her something?! I decided against it apparently because I ended up giving her a WLD board and markers of her own. Also, a really pretty picture frame.

* Figure out Jeremy's Birthday Presents.
I gave him a tshirt, a flannel, boxers that I painted little things on and a Clutch cd.

* Figure out what I am going to make/give Shannon for her baby shower.
I made her this baby afghan.

Woohoo!! I did pretty awesome!!

Jamie

Happy Leap Year!

Happy Leap Year (do people say that?!)

Either way, I thought it would be kind of cool to reflect on where I'd like my life to be by time the next Leap Year comes around.

1. I hope I'm much more content with my life. Right now I feel so restless all the time. I flip back and forth between wanting a "career" and being totally fine with having just some job. This way the rest of my outside life will be what satisfies me, crafts, friends, family, extracurriculars, etc. I can't really decide what direction to go in. It drives me crazy some nights!

2. I hope I'm more stable as far as money is concerned. Right now I live paycheck to paycheck and can only pay any extra bills I have (doctors mostly) little by little. If I want something big, like finishing this tattoo, a new pair of jeans, a concert ticket, etc. I have to plan ahead and save for a while before I can get it. Part of me is happy about that, I know I appreciate things a lot. I have to really work for it, I can't just run out and buy a new pair of boots on a whim. However, it sucks when things happen that you don't plan. If I get a flat tire, need to go to the doctor, etc. That's not good, I need to have money in savings for when things go wrong.

3. I hope to be married and have a kid. Wow! That's kind of huge and sometimes it scares the shit out of me to think about. I still feel like I'm 16 inside. Really though, I think about how much I want a family with Jeremy. I think of all the fun crafts I can do with the kids to surprise him when he gets home. I think about what kind of dinners I would make for us. I think about a house I hope we one day have and how we would decorate it. I think about how I need to learn to clean better, etc. You know...all that super domestic girl stuff. I totally imagine things as if I'm Lucy and he's Ricky. I stay home with the baby and he goes to work. When he comes home it's all clean and dinner is ready but there's some crazy antics I've gotten into! LOL! Ridiculous I realize but still...I guess I'm just at that point in my life where I think about that stuff.

4. I really want to be able to write my own crochet patterns one day. It seems so complicated to me. I've figured out how to alter patterns to make something I want but I can't create something from scratch. It's definitely on my to do list!

Also, apparently today a woman can propose to a man. Obviously that can literally happen on any day now. I guess there's an old tradition thought that the only time a woman could propose to a man would be on Feb. 29th. I found this out because Sunday Jeremy and I were at his mother's house having a birthday dinner for him. She informed me that I can propose to him since it's leap year. (She likes to ask when we're going to get married and have a baby...OFTEN). So...that was nice and awkward!

Anyway, have an awesome extra day friends!!

Jamie

Baby Afghan

In September one of my dearest friends, Shannon announced that she's pregnant!!! She's the first one in our group of friends to have a baby and it has been so exciting. I knew instantly that I would have to make something awesome for her. I flipped back and forth between a baby blanket and an item of clothing. However, after making the dress I made my niece and seeing how babies grow SO FAST and you don't even really know what size they'll be when they're born, I went with a blanket. Now I didn't want to make just an ordinary pink baby blanket. Oh she's having a girl... I searched around on ravelry, pinterest, etc. looking for some inspiration. I decided on this chevron pattern but wanted some nice colors, not just some lame soft, dusty, baby colors. I went to Joann's and found this beautiful pink. It's Caron Simply Soft in Watermelon. It's so bright but not neon, I just loved it! I opted for an off white, also Caron Simply Soft and Vanna's Baby Yarn in Duckie. I really think they all compliment each other so well.
I'm not very happy with the pictures I got of the blanket so I hope you can at least kind of appreciate how pretty it is. I finished it the night before the shower (procraftination at it's finest) and it was so cloudy the morning of. The yellow isn't as velveeta cheesy looking in real life, I swear!! It's a very soft, baby yellow.
Anyway, Shannon loved it of course!





It was kind of funny too at the shower. These two older ladies were sitting at a table with the book club girls and I (sans Shannon since she had to be shmoozing with the other guests). We were all chatting and somehow it was mentioned that I had made the blanket before the gifts were actually opened. The ladies both started talking about how you don't see many young girls these days knitting, crocheting, quilting, etc. I immediately informed them that there is a craft revolution happening, they just don't know about it! They kind of laughed it off but the other girls backed me up. We told them how much I craft and talked about swaps I've done with other people, etsy, etc. Then after Shannon opened the afghan, her mother in law came over and asked me if it was knit or crochet and where did I learn to do that. I let her know that it was crochet and that my Nana taught me when I was little. I didn't stick with it but I started again about 2 1/2 years ago and haven't been able to stop. She was really impressed as well which really...never gets old! I kind of love that people get this first impression of me (the two ladies were kind of appaled to find out I have a giant skull and graveyard tattoo on my ribs...they asked if I had other ones after seeing the one on my wrist. I don't randomly tell people about it!) and then when they find out that I make things, it all changes.
It just goes to show you, you can't judge a book by it's cover!

Anyways...sorry I've been MIA the last week or so. I'm still adjusting to my new work schedule and was feeling a bit blaaaahh about blogging. If that makes sense?

I hope you love the baby afghan and have an awesome day!


Jamie

Tea Wallet for Mom

My mom saw the little felt heart ornaments I made and she asked if I could make one for her. Of course I would! She asked me last Thursday so after work I went home and while I was rooting through my fabrics I realized that I should make her a tea wallet too. I mean, she's the whole reason I love tea!! I wanted everything to get to her before Valentine's Day though so I had some planning to do...how the hell could I make the heart ornament AND the tea wallet in time to get them to the post office the next day?

Do any of you do this? Make ridiculously unattainable goals for yourself?!?

Anyway, I decided that I would send her one of the ornaments that I had already made to keep for myself and make the tea wallet. It wouldn't take too long and I had a few hours Thursday night after work and a couple hours before work Friday. If you look at the tutorial, I sent her the red heart with the white and pink gingham fabric.

Here's a lil' look at the tea wallet. I like this color combo together, light blue and white flowers with navy blue and white stripes. They both remind me of my mom and look good together so it was win, win. She didn't know I was mailing them to her though. I seriously love randomly mailing things to people when they don't expect it. There is nothing quite like getting a package in the mail!



She received the package on Monday and said it made her day!
I hope you have a great weekend!

Jamie

Fun Fact Friday #7

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When was the first time you were hurt?

Now I realize this question can be interperutted different ways. I am going to describe the first time I was physically hurt...that I remember anyway.

I don't know my exact age, I was under 5 though. We (Mom, Dad, sister Jessie and I) were living in the Double A apartment. To you that means nothing. When I was little we lived in an apartment complex called Kings Village. The apartments were addressed with letters and numbers. The first apartment was AA something...I don't remember the number. The second apartment was V270. See...so we always refer to the first one as the Double A apartment.

Anyway, I was in the back yard on my white and purple big wheel by myself. I have no idea where my mom or Jessie were, I imagine in the apartment. I was just riding along the sidewalk by myself. To my left were the rows of apartments and to my right was the woods. There was a step down in the middle of the side walk. The back yard was on a slight incline so there were steps randomly. I don't know if I conciously decided to or it was by accident by I rode my big wheel down the step. As you can imagine when the front wheel went down and the back wheels were still on the step, my little face smashed into the center of the handle bars. I could taste blood and see a little bit of it on my handle bars. I started crying. I looked to my left and saw a neighbor who I didn't know sitting in her living room looking outside at me. I know she knew I was hurt because she had her sliding glass door open and must have heard me crying and was looking RIGHT at me. I remember thinking that any moment she would get up and come running out to see if I was ok. Instead she turned back to the television. In my little mind I thought "What a bitch!" Well not those words I'm sure, but I definitely remember thinking that it was so mean that she wasn't going to come out to see if I was ok!!!

I don't know if my mom came out to get me or I just went inside. The next part of my memory is that I had one of the little ice packs that my dad used in his lunch box wrapped in a washcloth held on my lip.

When my dad got home, I was laying on the couch and he sat next to me and said that he heard I got hurt today and to let him see my lip. I stuck it out and he said that I would be ok, I would just have even bigger lips for a few days. (I don't know if you've ever noticed from my pictures but I have kind of big lips, my dad does too.) He laughed and I must have looked mad because he said was "just joking kiddo" and kissed me on the head.

It's a little choppy but that's the first time I remember getting hurt.

What about you?!

Jamie

Fun Fact Friday Disclaimer:
I found The Imagination Prompt Generator and loved the idea of writing posts based on its random prompts. Every Friday I will share a lil' something about myself based on these prompts. I see it as a means of sharing a bit more about myself with you! It will be a random topic or question and my responses will be pretty free form and random as well. I'll of course edit for spelling and punctuation but I want to just let it flow for the most part. I hope you enjoy and maybe even join in!

I'm Mad

As you may or may not remember, I participated in the Oh Strumpets Valentine's Day Craft swap. I showed you last week that I sent my partner a few stuffed heart ornaments and bunting, you can see it all here in case you missed them.



Saturday I got an envelope in the mail with a card that had an image smaller than the card itself taped to the front, with two stickers stuck on either side and a bunch stuck to the inside with a random Far Side comic. I can't even use these stickers if I wanted to because they are already used now. The Love pennant is cute. On the post-it-note included my partner said she is "not a crafty person" but hopes I will enjoy the stickers. I guess they are nice to look at. My main issue here...WHY WOULD YOU JOIN A CRAFT SWAP IF YOU ARE NOT A CRAFTY PERSON?!?!?!?!?

Now for the most part I try to keep things positive on this little blog o' mine. I find that in blogland everyone is generally happy and positive...or I should say that's generally the part everyone blogs about. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. There's tons of shit in life that sucks so why put even more energy into writing and posting about it? Just to drag it out...I get it, it's not always a great idea. Today however, I am mad and I am going to talk about it.

I am mad that I spent time, money, my coupons and energy to make those felt heart ornaments. I spent time at Joann's looking for the felt and coordinating fabric, cutting out the stencil, cutting the felt and fabric pieces out, embroidering the back and sewing them together...3 times. I am mad that I spent time in Joann's looking for cute Valentine's Day fabric to make the bunting. I cut out all those triangles, sewed them together, attached them to the bias tape, cut out the felt hearts and stuck them on. I am mad that a few times I even second guessed myself whether I had put enough effort into these crafts for my partner. I'm mad I spent time writing a letter to my partner to include in the package. I'm mad that I looked forward to going to the mailbox every day waiting for my swap package. I am mad that I am now jealous when I look in the Flickr group and see what everyone else got, instead of being happy for them.

I know that when joining swaps there is a risk that you may not get something you like, well made or even anything at all. Of all the swaps I've participated in through other blogs, private and organized ones on Craftster and Swap-bot that's never happened to me though. I always appreciate when someone gives me something hand made. This sucks though. I even feel bad saying that like I'm not allowed to be mad or something. After thinking about it and talking to Jeremy and some twitter pals, I think I'm justified. I got screwed and it sucks. I made some awesome things for someone and she gave me something that looks like it was thrown together 20 minutes before she put it in the mail box.

So...I'm mad and even a little hurt about the whole thing.

Thanks for listening.


Jamie