Houses and Puppies and Crafts… Oh My!

I’ve been on hiatus from the blogging world for most of this year and the guilt has finally gotten the best of me.  I do have some good excuses though: getting used to married life, going on an awesome Costa Rica honeymoon, holidays, BUYING OUR FIRST HOUSE (yay!), moving in February, decorating – which is a perpetual work in progress, and on top of all that in April we adopted a boxer-lab mix puppy who we named Maggie. 

Zip Lines in Costa Rica!

Shiny New House!

Maggie Moo!

 
It’s actually Magpie, but we call her Maggie or Maggie Moo most of the time.  She has the sweetest disposition in the world and is learning her manners very quickly; we’re already done with our first puppy class.  So we are officially a happy little family now.
 
Since things are starting to calm down, or I’m starting to get better at time management, I want to try to return to the blogmosphere and start sewing and crafting again.  I never completely stopped but I did get sidetracked and I definitely fell into blog silence.  I hosted a scrapbook party with my Creative Memories rep Mindy in June and had several friends who were interested in starting an album.  The party inspired me to host a scrapbook day for some friends a couple weekends ago.  We listened to music and had snacks and got to be crafty for a whole Sunday afternoon, it was a lot of fun and will definitely be happening again in the near future. 
 
I’ve also been working on a crate cover for Maggie.  Right now we are using one of Adam’s old blankets on top of her crate and I do NOT love it.  So I found some cute black fabric with little paw prints all over it and decided to attempt to appliqué her name on the top in a lime swiss dot print.  I’ve never appliquéd before so I’m using a tutorial that I found on the Sew Mama Sew blog and things are going well so far, everything has been cut out and fused, now it’s time to start stitching down the letters so I can sew the whole cover together and figure out how I want to finish the edges – wish me luck!
 
That’s all I know today, ciao for now!

scooby snacks…

The title of this post is a song by fun lovin criminals… I would not know it but Adam included it on a road trip mix that I recently stole and have been listening to on the way home from work.  I do love a mixed cd.   Unfortunately for me, once I hear a song – especially one with a catchy chorus – I pretty much remember the words forever… and they get stuck in my head like whoa.  And this is not really a song that you can sing along to except for the chorus, so I’ve been singing the only 10 words from it I know.  Yes, for the better part of the last few days I’ve been running around robbing banks all wacked off of scooby snacks, thanks Adam.

The point of the this post, however, is not to whine about the songs stuck in my head, but to share my recent crafty escapades.  First, I had a free night the other weekend, so at 9pm I started some pajama pants for Adam which had been cut out and were waiting to be sewn in my project bucket:

I think that for my first Adam sewing project they turned out pretty well.  He wanted them even longer but I had to stop the insanity at some point… if he really wants them to cover his feet I could always bust out some super-size footed pajama pants one day.

Next, I made a reversible tote bag from a pattern I found online at Loula Louise, I used some Alexander Henry fabric that I had won on Ebay and I have to say I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, being my official first bag and all:

Thanks for holding it up for the picture babe!  I took it home to show my mom and she thought it was cute, so I went ahead and passed it on to her, I hope she uses it!  Up next I’m going to draft my own pattern for some cushions for the chairs around our table (they’re a weird shape and nothing commercial fits).  I’m going to use some Ginger Blossom Fabric that I just bought and I think that when they’re done they will look lovely around the table.  After that, I’m going to work on the small version of Amy Butler’s Frenchy Bag before moving on to the bigger version and also work on my first dress for summer, out of a simple little New Look pattern I found at Joanne’s the other day.  Wish me luck!

patchwork dreams and popcorn skies…

I bought a very interesting crafty book the other night at barnes and noble called Pretty Little Patchwork. It’s a collection of patchwork sewing projects from a handful of well-known and new craft bloggers. I’ve been interested in quilting and patchwork projects lately without a solid idea of what exactly I wanted to do or where to start. I was initially drawn to the picture on the cover and the fabrics used in the various projects inside. They are decidedly more modern and useful patterns than most of the ones you tend to see in craft books, not that I’m totally against all traditional projects – I think that they have their own special place – I just don’t like the idea of spending so much time on a project that doesn’t seem to fit my style/decor/etc. I want to make things that I will want to use and look at and appreciate even after I’ve spent all my free time constructing them, not throw in a corner and forget about. And there are actually useful things in this book! Like cute little patchwork sachets, placemats, clutches and lovely belts! Just look at a couple of the examples from the back of the book:

I can say that I’ve already pegged some things as possible house-warming/birthday/Christmas gift possibilities. I’m also excited about the clearness of the instructions, at first glance it looks like a lot of the projects are a good options for a beginner and not quite as time consuming as a gigantor life-size quilt would be. Since I have no experience with patchwork I think it’s a good place to start… I’m excited to make something lovely for myself, and now I’m off to peruse the fabric selections online for something just right to start my patchwork escapades with. Ta-ta for now!