Things we do

Does anyone else ever do this? I try to stay up as late as possible and do as much as possible on my last day of vacation. I did this on my birthday too. Sigh, Robin starts her spring break today, mine ends on Sunday. I feel like I have to pack as much in as I can get. Oh well.

I will have more pics soon, I hope. My parents bought me some lovely thread from Pacesetter (now made by Robison Anton). It's 61 spools of color. They had me purchase it so I got what I wanted. I purchased it here at I Can Help Sew. I arranged my thread in a much more pleasing manner, at least to me. I finally have color on my very white walls in my office/craft room. Okay, my craft room is the room above the right-side of our house (see picture in this post). I have dormer windows in that room, you'll see them soon, and slanted ceilings. I love my room. It's so artsy shaped. Anyways, here's the corner where my white bookcase is with my thread. Sorry about the shadows, but I took the photo late at night.

The colors are so inspiring. Maybe I'll even do some sewing or something this weekend. Or, maybe I'll just work on lectures and try to get ahead for the week. Sigh, yeah, that's probably what will happen since I went in to work today and out in the field yesterday. Plants aren't blooming, so I'm good for another week or so.

On my birthday, my husband took me to buy a pegboard to hang my sewing supplies on. I bought a white one and tried painting it with acrylic paint. That was a hopeless cause, even with the sanding I did on the white finish. So my husband took me out after my birthday dinner, and I bought spray paint. Today, I finally primed it, then sprayed on the blue, wildflower blue, I think. Very appropriate. Love the color too. So, hopefully this weekend my husband will help me put it up on the wall. I can't wait. More color on my walls. And I get to hang my plastic rulers that I keep worrying will get broken in all the hustle and bustle over here. Oooh, and I have jars to put on there too. Very fun and cool. Yes, I am very weird.

Alright, happy fibering, whoever reads this.

new things

I mentioned we've been busy over here. My husband and I purchased our first house, shown below:

So, we packed and moved within two months. I've also started teaching a new lecture series and lab, which means time is limited, to say the least.

With our new house, we found this little one:

She was about 4-5 months old and sleeping under our side stoop. She's the sweetest little cat. Apparently we are collecting black kitties, because she's our third. We checked the neighbors before taking her in. She fits so well in the family. She's so lovable.

It's my birthday today and I'm off for spring break, so I took a few days to myself. Tomorrow I head out to do some research and will have to work on some grading, but today it's all about me. And spending some quality time with my hubby. Earlier in the week though, I did some sewing. I made "The Jenny Bag".



It's a wonderfully simple pattern. Sewing it was easy, except for the topstitching on the top part of the bag -- it's a bit tight on the sides. I made the first one on the right and found it was a tad too small for me. I could fit my wallet, keys, and phone, but not much else. My wallet is a tad fat, but this was just too tiny for me. So, I increased the pattern by 125% and changed the sides a bit to suit my taste a bit more. I made the inside pocket a bit bigger (125% bigger), but kept the outside pocket the same (adding a velcro tab). It stands up so nice because of the flat bottom. I may keep the other one for something, just not sure. And yes, the larger version does have handles (I had to use the ones from the smaller bag), but no pictures yet of the handled ones. Oh yeah, the handles I made were 30" long instead of the size on the pattern. I like shoulder length straps and not elbow length ones.

I have been knitting, but no pictures on that yet. I also joined revelry -- knittinganet. I have the project up there, but again no pictures. Sigh, I'm so slow. I've been relaxing and enjoying my time off.

Alright, off to find hubby and head down to Home Depot. I'm getting a pegboard for my sewing room/office. Too cool. Oh yeah, I organized a bit too this week. My floor is almost entirely clear. It's never going to be entirely clear, me being me, but it's getting. Pictures soon of the lovely sewing room/office I now own. Too cool!