wyatt's quilt

Mike and I became Aunt and Uncle for the first time last April. Mike's brother and his wife welcomed Wyatt into the world. We were very excited for them and couldn't wait to meet him. Unfortunately, with them living in North Carolina and us in Missouri, we didn't get to meet him until Christmas.

One of Wyatt's gifts was a quilt from his grandma (my mother-in-law) and me. We decided it would be special if we were able to make it together. So we found a pattern with 2 colors of blocks; she did the red ones, I did the blue ones. Once they were done, she brought her blocks to me and I piece the quilt together and sent it off to get quilted. I think it turned out pretty well, with 2 people doing the piecing. I don't know if I would do it again that way, but Wyatt sure got a special quilt that I hope he will enjoy for many many years.

gracie's quilt

One of my cousins had a baby girl in October, Gracie. They had their baby shower over Labor Day weekend in Chicago land and I made the trek to deliver my gift and see family. 

I made a quilt, just my second.  It's a simple flying geese pattern, but I flipped every other strip to make it a little different.

I like baby quilt's that aren't too baby-ish. I don't like the fabric with ABC blocks, teddy bears, etc. This is definitely feminine but not extremely. I hope little Gracie will enjoy this for many years to come.

cosmo from ms. butler

Back in June 2011, I bought a new sewing book. It's Amy Butler's Style Stitches. I've made purses before, but nothing this complex. I wanted to try to make a real durable bag. I started with the cosmo bag in the book. It was just a weekend project for me and took just under 22 hours to make..... and I was in l.o.v.e.

my cosmo bag

inside. with a pop of green.

I took my bag to work that Monday, and the girls said, "nice bag." I said, "thanks, I made it." Their jaws hit the floor. I had only been working there for about a month and never told them about my hobby of sewing. I could tell they were impressed.

So impressed, that three of them wanted me to make them one. The girls chose their fabrics and then I ordered it and went to work. It took be about a month to complete all of them, which I was happy with.

Here is Dana's.

this shows off the side pockets.

i fell in love with this paisley lining.

Candida's purse/

The other Kristi's purse.

Her pop of pink!

I really did have a good time making this bags, but I do have to say, I got a little burnt out of sewing after that. I realized this hobby of mine will remain a hobby. I enjoy it as a craft, but if it was my job, nothing would be completed on time. It's the procrastinator in me. :)

3

With the few so few votes (I was hoping I had more readers than 3....), I don't think I'll be opening any time soon. Sorry to the 2 that would buy from me, I appreciate your support.

We are in week 3 of our bedroom remodel and it's right on track. Mike almost has the electrical complete, then it's on to drywall. I'm not looking forward to carrying the drywall up to the second floor (do you know drywall is way heavy - it's true), but I guess I can just count it toward my upper body exercise. :)

We have also decided to replace the windows in our master suite while we are remodeling. We always planned to do it in steps, it's too expensive to do at once! Our house has a lot of windows - 25 to be exact! (Including the 8 in our sun-room/back porch) It was one of the main reasons we bought the house, we loved the light. So buying 4 at a time will be much easier on the wallet. I'm really excited to buy them, but it's a little intimidating. I don't want to cheap out but I also do want the most expensive one's we can find either... Once we decide on a kind/model/whatever, it will be much easier next time, just go in and order.

every other

I'm really trying hard to blog more. I know it's better than it was (none at all!) but I wish I was better about it. The only time I seem to get is every other week's mornings. See, at the bank I have to work every other Saturday. And  instead of giving me a half day during the week, they give me 3 morning to come in a hour late and 1 morning to come in a half hour late. :( I would love a half day! It would be so much easier to do dentist appointments, hair cuts, etc. But anyway....the thing I have figured out to use this time for is BLOG! Mike's not home, so it's just me, my coffee, and Abe. These are always good/relaxing mornings.

Gym Update......We are still going! We've been on track with our every other day routine, we have only missed one day. I'm figuring out that it really isn't that hard to fit into our day, and we actually enjoy going. I've kind of kept it quiet at work that I'm working out, hoping for someone to notice....maybe in the next couple weeks. My clothes still fit the same and I never weighed myself to begin with. I do have a general idea of what is was, because I went to the doctor the 1st of December. I know it's going to take time, so for now we really like it. :)

I've been making more onsies as well. I am really liking how they are turning out. The ruffle here is an improvement from my last; I used my serger to do a rolled hem on the fabric before I ruffled it.

happy valentine's day!

I know there has been some talk on here as well as in my head about starting an etsy shoppe. I keep going back in forth about it. If I did it would only have a few things in it at a time, which I don't think is a bad thing. But something I do think about it, is there is A LOT of this same stuff out there on etsy, so why would mine get bought over the others???? So, I'm going to put a poll up on my blog to ask what you all think about it. Just keep in mind, whatever wins the poll doesn't mean that is what I'm going to do.

onesie factory

FACT: Everyone is pregnant it seems like!!!
FACT: I enjoy making baby onesies.
FACT: I am not one of these pregnant people and I'm ok with that! :)

I don't know what it is about baby clothes, but I LOVE them....so cute! When we do have children, Mike's going to have a problem on his hands...me making baby clothes and onesies! I really enjoy making them and I love giving them to the ladies in my life.

So here is what I've been up to lately....

Two Turkeys for girls I work with that gave birth right before Thanksgiving!

necklace for Millie!

....and a ruffle butt to go with it!

I LOVE the ruffle butt!! I have plans to make some Valentine's Day onesies' with ruffle butt. I can't get enough.  :)

my first quilt!

I don't know if you all remember, but all last year I talked about making a quilt. Well, I did it! And it really wasn't that hard to do. I'm glad I picked what I picked for my first one - crib size, simple pattern. It didn't take anytime at all. I worked on it for a total of 4 days, then sent it off to get quilted. Easy as can be!

I made it for my friend Jennifer. She is expecting her first baby, Millie, in March. I'm so excited for this little one to get here! Jennifer is my oldest, best friend, and I knew I wanted to make something special for her first little one. It is still crazy to me that we are old enough to have kids....where did the time go. :)

all the fabric! I love the colors.

me with the finished product!

picture's from jen's blog. :)

My next quilt is for my first nephew! He will arrive in May, and me and my mother-in-law are going to do it together. She is sewing half the blocks and I'm sewing half the blocks - it's going to be a fun project!

abe and me time

It's just been Abe and I this weekend since Mike was out of town, and I can tell you one thing. We BOTH missed him. In the morning, when I went to get Abe out of his kennel, he ran upstairs, because he knows there are two of us. He just keeps looking for him. We will definitely be happy once Mike returns this evening.

It was a lot harder to have my relaxing sewing weekend this time. I've never had one with a puppy.... It's hard to tell Abe that I just want to sew right not and not play fetch. He just sat next to my chair and whined over and over. I really felt bad, so I set the timer and sewed for 30 minutes and then played for 10-15 minutes. Well, this makes my purse making last for Saturday AND Sunday. I was not planning for that.....but I couldn't just let him sit there; it wasn't fair.  It was funny this afternoon, I couldn't figure out what he wanted; didn't have to go potty, just was fed, not really into fetch. So I went and sat on the couch, and you want to know what Abe did - he jumped up and fell immediately asleep on me. He's used to laying on one of us. :) So spoiled, just like a tired kid needing a nap; He is truly our baby.

I did end up getting a purse made for myself in the end and a present for someone. So it was still productive.  Since I don't have my sewing room set up yet, I took over the dining room. It was actually really nice. I wish I had a big table for my sewing room now. I loved having all that work space.

Loved having my four stations -sewing, serging, pressing and cutting.

pretty fabrics

This is just the second purse I've made that has coordinating fabrics instead of just one. What do you think?
I'm liking the change. I can't wait to carry it! :)

sewing - i miss you!

I have something to tell you all and it's not good.....I haven't sewn since before Christmas. GASP!

I know, I hate it.

I can understand not sewing from January to maybe April, because of the whole moving 3 hours away/buying a house thing. But there really isn't a good reason for not now. I don't have my sewing room set up yet and that's probably why it's not in use. It just wasn't anything that needed to be unpacked and with every bedroom needing updating, I felt silly unpacking everything and then just rotating rooms when one is completed. But now since it's been so long I feel that it just needs to be unpacked or I'll never use it until the house is done, which is expected to be Summer 2025. :)

Since Mike is going to be out of town this weekend, my plan is to take over my newly finished dining room and SEW! I know I could do this any other weekend while he's here, he would have no problem with it at all, but I feel better doing it while he's gone. I won't be making myself proper dinners that need a dining table this weekend, just soup.

I'm going to definitely make myself a new purse. I've needed wanted a new purse since December. I bought some fabric for myself when I bought for Christmas presents and it's still in the box. :(

I just want to get back in my groove so to speak. I have other projects I want to start: Christmas tree skirts, stockings, that dang quilt I've been talking about for 6 months, etc. I also want to try my hand at baby clothes. Since I have my serger now and know how to use it, I want to make presents for people. There are a couple of girls at work that are pregnant and I think it would be cute to make them part of there present. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

still here

I'm sorry I left you high and dry....It's funny, when I have the time to blog, nothing is going on; and then when something big and eventful is happening, I don't have time to blog. Oh well.

Here's a bit of a recap:




My job at the bank is going really well. Finally started opening checking and savings accounts. And I got my first loan yesterday! Now lets just hope it goes through. :) I'm really enjoying the environment and the people I work with. Mike is also fitting right in at his new location. There are a lot more employees his age and so he just has more in common with them.


The house is coming along slowly but surely. (I still don't have my computer set up, or there would be pictures). The dining room came out great. The second coat of paint the was darker than the first is perfect, exactly what I envisioned. We bought a new light fixture a couple weeks ago and it just finishes off the room. I still have the corner built ins to paint, but I gave myself a goal that they WILL be done by Memorial Day Weekend. They need to be done, I've dragged them out long enough!

As I said, my computer is not hooked up yet! I know, we moved in 2 whole months ago and still no office. All I have to say is thank god for my iphone! But the main reason the computer is not set up yet is that we are going to be redoing all the bedrooms up stairs and so everything is going to move atleast once to free up another room to redo. And I didn't really feel like setting things up just to repack them.

While I was MIA on here, we had a kitchen designer come to the house. I'm very excited! We knew buying this house the kitchen would be one of the biggest things we changed and we didn't really want to wait too long to do it. We want to fully enjoy it before we sell (we aren't planning to sell for awhile, just fyi). Well, we got the estimate back and it was a bit high for us and it was a bit too fancy for the house. So we are going to go back and have them simplify it a little and maybe the price will go down too. We really want to remodel this house right and so we really want the custom cabinets.

My birthday was last week, and my sister and brother-in-law came to visit. Jeff had never visited us before and Sarah hadn't seen the house before. We had a great time! We were planning on going to a few wineries in our area and then I found out about a beer and wine festival that was happening. Well, we decided to go to that and it was so nice. Great weather and tasting wine all day - perfect! Another great thing that happened was one of a winery representatives commented on my sisters purse, and we told her I made it. She's wanting locally made "stuff" to put in there gift shop and asked me if I was interested....heck yeah! I'm super excited about it! Nothing has really happened yet, just emailing back and forth. I'm probably jinxing myself, but I couldn't keep it in. :)

dreaming of a sewing room

Mike and I have been stuck in our house this whole weekend....cleaning and packing. These are the 2 things I dread most in life, I think. Since we are relocating for Mike's job, they are paying for movers to pack and move us. Yay! But our house was in dire need of a spring cleaning regardless of the move. I hate to say it, but our house has been a mess since the new year. We got home from our Indiana Christmas visit and it's been down hill from there. Now for our defense, we then found out about the move, found a house, did my sister's bachlorette party, Mike's been out of town for work, went to Mexico for the wedding.....phew! Our weekends have  been really busy for the last couple months. 

So now we are cleaning and packing for the movers. It's kind of like cleaning before the cleaning lady comes over so she doesn't think your too big of a slob.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a cleaning lady....

Today I put away my sewing machine. I'm been on a sewing break since Christmas, and I really miss it. I can't wait to unpack my sewing room and start making things for the house. I'm also excited to get back to my purses, I have a couple patterns I've "designed" and I really want to try them out.  I got my serger and it's just sat in the box; there was no reason to get it out. I wanted to paint it an aqua-teal, but Mike said no. :( So I'm going with a grey-blue. I like the grey-blue but I was kind of looking forward to a bright, bold space. It's now going to be more calm looking. I guess I'll just have to do bright, bold accessories and wall art.  Our new home is a four bedroom, so for the time being I will have a room just for sewing. I'm not sure which room it will be (we still don't know what room will be ours, since there's no "master" bedroom).

But here is a contender: 

 

 

non-house post

I figured the blog has been on house-hunting over load. So I will only say one thing with regards to the house; our realtor has figured out the style of the home. It's dutch colonial. I'm glad we've finally figured it out so IF we get the house we can keep with the period of it.

Mike's gone for the week for training. Luckily he's in Rolla, so we can easily put in an offer this week. It's going to be lonely, but I'm going to be able to get a lot done. I may even get a purse sewn! I figured with this whole moving thing I wouldn't be able to sew until we do move. And just in time too, I'm headed to Indianapolis this weekend for my sister's bachlorette party. It was very last minute, but I'm super excited. I'm in charge of the food while my sister's future sister-in-law is in charge of the games. I'm so excited to make the food! We are doing a Mexican theme since she's getting married in Mexico next month. I can't wait to go to Mexico! I need a vacation....

Completely off the wall, but I'm getting a sewing serger!! I never thought I would be able to get one because they are so expensive and I wasn't sure how often I would use one. But on the bright side, I'm getting it for FREE!! And it's NEW! I'm sure your asking yourself how can that be??? Well, my job gives us "bonus bucks" and we got a lot for working during the holidays. Bonus bucks are basically money to use in the catalogs I work for and we get our discount too. So with those 2 things the serger will be free. I can't wait! I'll be able to make clothes for my kids, and just more of a variety of projects in general. I always see these cute kids patterns and dream of making them, and now I'll be able to in a professional way.

christmas sewing projects

We had a really nice visit back to Lafayette. It was good to see everyone and it was a pretty relaxing trip. We ran in to snow on our way home, but Mike did such a good job driving us safely home.

I am so happy I can finally show the projects I made for Christmas! Enjoy!

a book cover

all the purses, and one I made two of...a totally of 7!

The craft bag I made for my Mom. I designed the pattern myself! I'm pretty proud of myself on this one. I can't wait to make one for ME! :)

merry christmas eve eve!

When I was little I always would say this on December 23rd, and my family continues to say it.

I can pretty much sum up my last few weeks in 4 words: eat, sleep, work, SEW! I have been sewing everyday! I think I have figured out I don't really like deadlines...or at least working right up to the end of one. I'm still not done! I have about a half of a project left. I can't wait to be done. I probably won't sew for a few weeks after this.

Another thing I can't wait for is to actually show all of you what I've been making. I hate just talking about what I've made in the most general way and then no picture!

Mike and I will be opening our gifts on Christmas Eve morning. My present still hasn't shown up (hmm...seem a little too familiar). Hopefully I will be opening gifts with him. Then we are traveling back home tomorrow afternoon; both of us have tomorrow off! We will most likely head back to Missouri on Sunday, but maybe Monday. I haven't got my schedule for that week yet, so we will know soon enough how long our visit will be.

Mike had an interview on the 16th. We haven't heard anything yet, I was hoping for something by Christmas. It was for the area we wanted so, please keep thinking of us. I told Mike I won't really be sad if you don't get it, but i hate this waiting thing...just tell me already! :)

i've been commissioned!

*just a fancy way of saying I sold a purse!


I never would of dreamed I would make something someone else would want to buy. I know it's a small step and I don't really know where this step is going to lead, but it's really exciting!

blog-anniversary

I made it!

When I started this blog a year ago, I truly didn't think I would keep up with it as much as a have. Now I know I've kind of been a slacker in the posted department lately, but as a whole I think I've done pretty good. I've really enjoyed blogging, it's a great release and I get to update everyone on our life. :)

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We went Wednesday night to St. Charles, Mo to have actual Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. Since I had to work Friday, we couldn't really justify going back to Indiana for 1 day. Then Friday afternoon my parents came to town for the rest of the weekend. We had a really great time; didn't do too much. We did go bowling though! Bowling was always a big thing in my family. We actually had Lindstrom family bowling the first Saturday of every month. We really enjoyed it and have missed it since moving to Missouri. Mike and I had only been once before here, and the was in February for Valentine's.

This weekend was really nice. It was good to have a relaxing one after the hussle and bussle of Thanksgiving. Yesterday, Mike went to his first auction and I stayed home to sew. :) I really enjoy just being in the quite house and sewing. I didn't get as much done as I would of liked but I got a lot of prep work done so I can do a bit of sewing this week. I'm making some Christmas presents, and I'm just hoping I can get everything I planned for accomplished. I just need to set aside an hour or so a night and just....sew.

Then today, we kind of just lounged around in the morning, did a bit of Christmas shopping, grabbed some eggnog and came home to put the tree up. Our tree is kind of a sad tree; pretty thin. It was my college tree and we just haven't replaced it yet. We went to Lowe's today, and I checked out their trees. Mike said we might be able to buy a new one on the after Christmas sales. :) We need a new one, but since we don't really have Christmas at our house yet, I don't really feel the need to put money into one yet.

But it was really cool to have Mike say we could get a new tree. I hate to say it, but my husband is a grinch when it comes to decorating. He feels it's too expensive, doesn't see the point in it and hates that it's just more stuff to store. I'm the complete opposite...I love to decorate, and not just around the holidays. Maybe I'm finally turning him.....let's hope! :)

a quilt???

Am I ready for one??

I'm thinking about starting my first quilt. I wanted to do small sewing projects until I was comfortable with the machine, the fabric and the technique. I'm really glad I went with this approach. I taught myself to pull through and finish. Now, I know I'm probably jumping the gun, because in reality I won't start it until January; but I'm constantly looking through patterns and fabrics to find the perfect match for my first quilt.

Things I'm looking for in my first quilt:
-queen size
-matching shams
-pattern that Mike likes {believe it or not, he's picky}
-lots of white with pops of color

Yes, I'm going to make it for our bed. We have a plain white quilt on it now and I love it, but I want another to accent with.

the funny thing about purses is......

that I can NEVER have too many! :)

Mike went out to his uncles farm this morning, so I decide to make another purse. Why not? I think I'm really getting the hang of this because the one yesterday took about 6 hours and the one today, just under 3 hours! I seriously can't believe how easy they are. Why did I wait so long to discover purse making??? B.M. (before marriage) I probably bought about 6 or 7 purses a year (don't worry, nothing super expensive); what can I say, I just love the feeling of carrying around a new purse. Well, I have yet to buy a purse in the 13 months we've been married. It's shocking, I know. I joked with Mike last night that this may be the only way for me to get new purses. He just laughed; men don't understand the want/need of a new purse. It's not something that you need, so I get that point on view, but still!

Well, here's my most recent creation. I actually think I'm going to carry this one first. I have to take a 3-ring binder back and forth to work and the first purse was just a tad too small. But this new one fits perfectly. So the other will just have to be a weekend purse for now.

from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Line

It's funny, I always hate making the first cut into a new fabric. I know I'm about to make something lovely out of it, but I feel like I'm destroying this beautiful fabric at the same time.

I'm really liking this flower/purse pose.

Well I'm off to the park to go for a walk! It's too gorgeous of a day to be inside all day.

my first purse!

My $3 fabric!

I really didn't think I would get a whole purse done in an afternoon. I'm still a little shocked. Since I was finished, I couldn't wait to post these pictures! I'm pretty proud of myself for how well this came out. I definitely learn things though; when I snap it closed, it doesn't lay flat, etc. oh well. This was also my first time using fusible interfacing; I don't know why I was so nervous, it was so easy and it definitely gave the purse structure. Anyway, after completing my purse I decided to have a little photo shoot...I know, I'm a nerd.

frost and chirpping

Two nights ago we had our first "frost". I'm using this loosely because I didn't have to scrap my car's windows, I just used the windshield washer fluid. I guess our surrounding area has been having a morning frost basically every morning, but since our house is so close to the Mississippi River, we are sort of shielded.

Last weekend while I was sewing I started to hear a fire alarm chirp. It was really faint so I figured it was downstairs. But then we I went downstairs, it sounded like it was upstairs..... So for like 3 days, Mike and I were trying to figure out where it was coming from; neither one of us could figure it out. Finally on Wednesday, I had a thought...what about the BASEMENT! duh. Well, I was right and we got it taken care of. I still can't believe we didn't think of it sooner and that I could actually hear it on the second floor. I guess that's an old house for you.

Today is such a gorgeous day! I went to the fabric store to get some fabric for the lining of my purse! That's right, I'm finally making my purse. The one I've been talking about since before April. Since this has been in the plans for a while, my original fabric for this purse was pretty "spring-ish" so when I was at the store I found a beautiful "autumn-ish" fabric on their sale rack for $3 a yard! My heart skipped a beat I think when I saw it. So the spring fabric could be scrapped all together or I'll just make it later this winter, who knows.
I'm so excited and nervous. I don't want to mess it up. But if I do mess up, it's just on $3 fabric. :)