Trip to the Children's Museum

My husband was here last week for a visit. I was so glad to see him! We didn't have a whole lot of time together, but we definitely wanted to get out and do something fun.

I don't get to Indianapolis very often, even thought it's only about an hour away. And when I do go, it's usually with family who have ideas of where they want to go, so I don't often get to pick and choose activities. I really wanted to go somewhere different and fun though, so I suggested we check out the Indianapolis Children's Museum, even though I was kinda worried people would think we were odd for going there childless.

The outing was really fun though, because everything was so interactive and non-stuffy. I also love stuffy museums, like art of all kinds, but my husband doesn't share that sentiment too much.

My favorite part of the museum was the glass sculpture in the center, which is called Fireworks of Glass, and it's by Dale Chihuly. There are 4,800 pieces, and it took 14 days to install it. I'm fascinated by the glass blowing process. Last year my friend Amy and I went out to a local glass blowing shop and studio. It was so cool because the two were connected, so you could just walk back and see how the pieces were made. They even offer classes, and someday I hope to sign up and learn how to do it. I can't at this stage though, since the studio is out of range for the short bus. Damn not having a car/being able to drive again! :)

Anyway. Sancho and I had a ton of fun posing for goofy photos around the museum. This is my favorite of him:



A dorky one of me doing my polar bear impression:



And one of us later at dinner, a belated celebration of our anniversary on Dec. 29. It's been seven years! A bumpy and eventful seven years, but we're trying to stick it out.



He also surprised me that night with an early Valentine's Day present, which he found when he ran into the grocery store to pick up a few basics for me. I love it!





I miss him a lot already. It sucks that we're geographically challenged right now.

Latest project

I finally decided on a pattern for my strawberry fields strips. I found this perfect green background fabric at Joann's ... it has tiny dots with a lot of the same colors that were in the batiks.

I cut the strips so they ended up 2.5" by 6.5" and ended up with six columns across and each one has 15 batiks and 15 green blocks going vertically. It ended up being a pretty big lap quilt and I think it will match great with my sofa. I didn't plan it that way, but the coloring is very similar. I still have some of the batik fabric left. I am still tossing up the idea of either a border or use some of them for a pieced back. Decisions, decisions!



Here's the naked couch so you can marvel at the color coordinating! :)

Blog posting detour

So I know I said I would post more about the glass sculpture and its home in an upcoming post - and I still will - but I've gotten distracted.

Right now? So much fabric, so many options. I don't even know what to work on. I've gotten engrossed in looking for a perfect (or close to perfect) pattern for my recent fabric purchases, but I'm having so much trouble deciding what to do!

I have this set of Hoffman Bali pop batik strips called Strawberry Fields:



This set of Hoffman Bali pop batik strips called Kiwiberry:



And this Moda jelly roll from a line called Charisma:



Oh, and a few things from two recent trips to Joann's. :)

Yes, I know I was on a fabric diet, but I got all the strips during a half-off sale at Fat Quarter Shop before Christmas and Joann's has all its quilting fabric 50 percent off.

And yes, I lost the recent stash busting contest. By a lot.

My day yesterday ...

included this, which is amazing.



I'll be back later with more details!

An exercise in frustration

Tonight has been completely annoying.

I was thrilled to get home after work. It was Friday and I had nothing I HAD to do, but had lots of things I wanted to do. I decided to start quilting the top of a baby quilt I am working on for a co-worker, so I set to do that right after I got home. My right foot was starting to really bother me, so I popped a few pain pills and got to work.

The machine quilting started to suck early. My stitches were irregular, my thread kept breaking, and I couldn't keep my seams straight enough for my taste. I tore out the first bit I did, but tried again. Finally, I was in a semi-decent groove and then my sewing machine needle broke. Any quilter worth her salt has extra needles on hand, and I'm pretty sure I do, but I couldn't find them for the life of me. I spent about two hours looking everywhere I could think of - and reach - and still no dice. Meanwhile my foot is still killing me. Imagine a foot cramp in the arch of your foot that returns every minute or two. Good times.

The swearing just kept getting worse and worse. It was a toss-up between whether I was cursing more about my inability to machine quilt and how shitty I was feeling.

And I still couldn't find the bloody needles. I found lots of other stuff I had misplaced, but not the needles.

Oh well. I finally gave up, got a couple of scoops of ice cream, unrolled (and fondled) my new jellyroll and settled in to watch the cheesy Miss America Countdown to the Crown show on TLC. And my foot is finally starting to feel better, thank goodness.

Bring on the carbs

I'm a big fan of carbs in just about any form, and I ended up focusing my holiday cooking on two items: one, homemade white bread, which is a Christmas staple in my family, and two, Cinnamon Buns From Heaven, which I've made a couple times before and are amazing.

Christmas Eve marked the first time I ever tried to make bread ... usually my mom or one of my sisters would do the honors. I was excited to try it myself though, since I secretly have this delusion that someday I will magically turn into a super domestic person that bakes their own bread, raises vegetables in a garden and cooks a from-scratch delicious dinner every night. (I'm a long ways from that -- last night I enjoyed chili given to me by my dear friend Amy warmed up in the microwave. Located next to a loaf of store-bought bread. In a kitchen with only canned or frozen vegetables, minus some baby carrots and a bag of lettuce in the fridge.)

Anyway.

I used a recipe from one of my mom's oldest cookbooks ... a Betty Crocker back from the 1950s or so. I love looking at this book, it's got a ton of retro illustrations and tips on hostessing. I was worried about the bread, since the texture of the dough seemed a little off when I was kneading it. My mom told me she doesn't normally use as much flour as the recipe states. Whoops.

After it rose a bit though, it looked fine. I followed the directions and let it rise twice, then we slipped the two loaves into the oven. It was long before we smelled something burning ... one of the loaves had ridden so much it was burning on the roof of the oven. My mom pulled them out, moved the racks and stuffed them back in. Not much harm done.

I smeared the loaf tops with butter after they got out of the oven and then had to wait until Christmas to find out how they were. And they turned out great! I was really happy, since we're all carb-lovers and not having bread would have been a travesty in the house.

Here they are, resting after being baked:



My other baking was the cinnamon rolls. These are, hands down, the best cinnamon rolls I've ever eaten. The recipe is from "The Best American Recipes 2000." This listing on Amazon even includes the recipe.
And here are four of them (the recipe made 18).

Why am I up?

This has been one of those nights where I randomly wake up in the middle of the nights and then can't fall back asleep. Ugh. I know all the sleep experts suggest getting out of bed and doing something else until you're tired again, but truthfully I can't be bothered. I am way too cozy in bed with my flannel sheets and comforter.

Here's a photo of a project I finished last month for a Christmas ornament exchange we held at a party with coworkers. We exchange ornaments every year and it's always fun.



I made the tiny stars in 2007 and didn't really know what to do with them. They are crazy little, just because I love trying to make tiny stuff.



And here's the back:



This combines a lot of my favorites: stars, polka dots and rick rack. Maybe I'll make one for myself next season! It was fun, didn't take too long and used up a few of my tiny scraps I insist on saving.

Mmm ... fuzzy food!

I've spent much of the last few months making Christmas presents for my family and friends. Surprisingly, I got just about everything done I had hoped to do, and even on time. One thing I did finish Christmas day, but still, that's pretty close for me.

Anyway, one of the projects I was working on was some felt food. I love making this stuff, but it does take a lot of time since I do it all by hand. I started around Thanksgiving and got some cute stuff done. I didn't take photos of it all -- there was a slice of swiss cheese and a spread of peanut butter -- but here is what I ended up with.

Jelly


Carrot


Bacon


Bread


Fried egg


Broccoli



I was working on these during my trip to my parents' house over Thanksgiving and while I was there, my teenage niece really liked the food. I was trying to think of gifts to make for her and thought there wasn't much she could do with the lifesize food, but I should either go really small, like a keychain size, or really big, like a pillow. I decided to try to go big.

Luckily the non fuzzy-producing fleece was on sale at Joann's when I went there and even found a remnant of cream ... which was half off the half off. Yay! I also bought a bit of tan for the crust.

I traced half a slice of bread on a sheet of 8.5" by 11" paper then pinned that to a fold of the light cream and cut out two like that. I cut some strips of the tan for the crust. Before I put it together, I had to make the face, so I used a smile made out of felt and some safety eyes. Then I assembled it on the sewing machine and stuffed it with an entire bag of stuffing! Fluffy bread!

And here it is:


This was by far the most-appreciated gift this year! Stephani loved it and hardly put it down the entire Christmas visit. That definitely made me happy.

Shiny, fresh new year

As a rule, I'm not a big fan of new year's resolutions. I take that back, I am a fan of resolutions, just not a big fan of following through on them. It is fun to make all sorts of lofty goals for a new year that is just starting, with the thought that maybe this year, things will be different. I think my optimistic side is decreasing though, and I have come to realize that I'm likely to stay the same old person I've been for the past 33 years.

I do hope to do a few things different this year and experience some new things. My thought: maybe if my resolutions are fun ones - as opposed to the usual "I am going to work out all the time, eat tons of vegetables and get skinny" - there's a better shot at me following through.

Here are some things I want to do this year:

- Watch more movies and less lame TV shows.
- Learn to knit something other than a scarf. Maybe a hat next?
- Try to cook more and try new recipes. So far so good ... I made a pasta with Cajun-spiced shrimp tonight. Considering I didn't have all the ingredients I needed for the sauce, it wasn't too bad.
- Read more books and keep track of what I read.
- Buy a set of oil paints and paint something modern-esque for my bedroom wall.
- Listen to more music.
- Go on a trip somewhere.
- Wear makeup more often (to help make my large collection make more sense). I love buying makeup. I love putting it on. I just don't love putting it on at 6 a.m.
- Add more stuff to my etsy store. Maybe design a cool header or something.
- Not stay up so late on the weekends! (surprise, surprise. I'm yawning like crazy right now.)

Crafting updates

My quest to have a mostly homemade Christmas continues. I can't believe I only have one week left though! Oh, the stress and angst of it all. :)

Just kidding, I am doing the best I can, and at this point am making things that I hadn't especially planned to, or the things in my head are either easy or stuff I just need to assemble. I just hope I can find all my supplies at home! And yay, I just heard from the short bus that they can take me to Joann's tomorrow after work so I can get a few last minute things for a couple projects I thought of in the last few days.

I'm very excited about most of my projects. I hope all the recipients like them as well!

One of my projects was for a friend of mine at work. Last year, I made a Christmas stocking for a friend of mine that -- I thought -- really needed one! I personalized it with an orange kitty to match her cat, Julius. Here's that one:





My other friend asked me to make her a couple of stockings for her pets, Jersey and Cleopatra. I was going to make her something different as a gift, but this idea was even better, since I knew she'd like it! I saw photos of her pets on Facebook and modeled the stockings after them.

I couldn't find any plain stockings when I went to Hobby Lobby this past time (well, except for like 3-inch ones and 30-inch ones). I did find some small fleece sheets there though in the felt section. They were softer and thicker than the felt, and were cheap too, only like 33 cents a sheet. What a bargain! I already had a bunch of felt, beads and embroidery thread at home, so I was all set.

Here is the one of Jersey, who is a tan and white hound-esque dog:

In the early stages



Done, bottom half



Full stocking



I made a little dangling bone to make the top more interesting



And Cleopatra. She was harder to make because she is calico and I was worried that her face wouldn't show up enough.



And for the top of the kitty one. I had the mouse body and tail put together, complete with eyes, but for some reason it didn't look right. Seriously, it took me forever to realize that the mouse ears were missing ... duh!



These weren't terribly hard to make. Probably the hardest part was getting the calico patterns close to being right, drawing the shape of the stocking (this was more complicated than I thought!) and hand sewing the fleece. It was harder to get the needle through that than the felt.

I gave them to my friend today, so yay, I was happy that she liked them. Off to another project now! :)

I heart appetizers

I've always been a fan of appetizers ... I love little bits and pieces of food, and would much rather have three bites of 10 foods than 30 bites of one. Variety is the spice of life!

Anyway, to get to my point, I spent part of this afternoon/evening at a work party at my VP's house. Her house was simply gorgeous and decorated really cool, with lots of unique pieces and modern art. But oh, the food! It was awesome. I had a little bit of everything there was and it was all delish. There was a bowl of fruit salad with a bunch of good stuff, cheese, crackers, raw veggies and ranch dip to start with. Then the finger foods came out. They included:

- A pastry with proscuito-wrapped asparagus and filled with spinach artichoke-type filling.
- Mini crab cakes.
- Beef wellington.
- Coconut shrimp
- Chicken satay with a spicy raspberry chipotle sauce.
- Little chocolate cups filled with either cream cheese or chocolate filling, topped with fresh fruit and mint.

Yum. It was really good and the party was fun too.

I'm still working hard on my list of homemade Christmas presents. I'll try to post photos soon.

Christmas flashback, part 2

As promised, here are a few other Christmas ornaments my mom made that I now have. I love this mouse family, and loved playing with them. You can definitely tell they were probably made in the '70s because of their oh-so-stylish clothes.

The parents:



And the whole family portrait:

The power of procrastination

Heh. I just finished the Christmas ornament I was making for the exchange we're doing at our office party tomorrow evening. Nothing like getting things done at the last minute. I guess I should be glad I finished it before actually being on the way to the party.

I took some photos of it and will post them post-party. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Christmas flashback, part 1

I've finally started pulling out my Christmas stuff and putting a few things out. After moving my 4 bedroom, 2 bath house into a smallish 2 bedroom apartment, it's been an impossible task to find homes for all my Christmas decorations and other holiday whatnot. I've got a very large tree in storage, so I've just put up an 18-inch tree I've had forever. Of course this doesn't give me much room for ornaments.

I'm sad that I won't be able to hang most of them this year, but I still love looking through everything and remembering when I got the ornaments or when they were made. Some of my favorite ornaments are ones my mom made years and years ago, probably in the '70s or early '80s. Here are a few I especially like.

I must have been really, really tired

Just yesterday I was wondering why it was that I fall into such deep, deep sleeps sometimes during the weekends, but it hardly ever happens during the week. These thoughts came to fruition after I spent Tuesday night hardly sleeping at all between the hours of 12:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. (It probably didn't help that two episodes of Dirty Jobs were on then. I heart Mike Rowe.)

So karma of course came back to bite me on my ass when I woke up this morning dreaming that the short bus driver was calling to let me know she was waiting outside for me. I told her in my dream that I needed two seconds to make it out there, rather than one, since I hadn't yet gotten dressed. I woke up in a panic, then looked at the clock. 7:45. What the hell? Seriously, I had overslept by almost 2 hours!

I checked my phone but my last call was from my husband the night before. My alarm was turned off, but I wasn't sure if I had woken up and turned it off, or if it had never been turned on in the first place.

Oh boy. So I called the short bus dispatcher, hoping he'd be able to fit me into the schedule somewhere, but no luck on that. How embarrassing!

This afternoon I installed my new old alarm clock in my bedroom. My hubby sent it up to me in the last care package he mailed. It's a nice alarm clock, especially because it has two alarms. I set then 10 minutes apart and am hoping for the best in the morning! Makes it hard to be snarky about co-workers always being late when I fall prey as well.

I also hope I don't oversleep Saturday; I'm actually leaving the state and going to Chicago! I can't wait.

Now, off to bed. Wish me luck in the a.m.!

To compete, or not to compete

As I have mentioned previously, I'm involved in a stashbusting contest this year. Most of the rules are rather simple: don't buy fabric and use what you have. We lose points when we buy unneeded fabric and gain points when we finish stuff or give fabric to other people in the challenge.

Well here it is Dec. 3 and I am in LAST place. And believe it or not, it's not even because I've been drowning my sorrows in constant fabric shopping. Not that this is news to anyone who knows how I operate, but I am just a really slow quilter. I like to hand piece, I like to hand quilt. I suck at operating a rotary cutter because I can't seem to get the ruler to stay in place (I blame this on my cutting while sitting down but I could just suck at this important skill). I have spent the last year piecing stuff on the machine, but I still am not completely happy with my work. Again, it doesn't seem terribly accurate. And my machine quilting is pretty pitiful, but I know steering with one hand doesn't help the situation.

I have a lot of partially finished projects, but I am starting to wonder if I have a snowball's chance of making up the point differential. And if I do make it up, am I going to have to make a lot of "stuff" that I don't terribly like or want to make just for points? I have to more than double my current point total to even get close to first place. Seems like it may make more sense to cut my losses and chip in the $20 to whoever it is that does win.

Here is a list of some of my current projects that are partially finished:

- Black and bright strip quilt: currently hand quilting it
- Dog print quilt: layered, but haven't started quilting it
- Pink, black and white quilt: need to sew on borders, then layer, then quilt
- Bright nine-patch: currently hand quilting it after attempt at machine quilting looked like complete crap
- Postage stamp quilt: still piecing blocks, not even close to being done
- Snoopy quilt: blocks put together and still thinking about border
- Circus baby quilt: started eons ago, but gave up. Needs a border.
- Ugly kids blocks: I have four done, could be put together for a baby quilt, but I lost the focus fabric in Quilt Campgate '08.

So even with all of that, who knows. All I know right now is that I don't feel like doing anything and am laying in the dark surfing online and watching a bad CSI episode. I had a long, crabby day.

It's turkey lurkey time

Tomorrow (or actually today) I'm heading back to my old stomping grounds for a mini Thanksgiving break. It should make for an interesting weekend. My whole family stuffed together into a house, with lots of tryptophan coursing through our blood. My parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next month, so my mom asked one of my brothers-in-law to bring his nice camera and get photos of the family, including group shots of each of our "individual" families and of the whole bunch. Oy. Not much else helps draw more attention to my current living arrangement than the thought of it being captured for all eternity on Kodak paper.

Other than that awkward situation, I hope it ends up being a nice visit. Even though I am trying to do as much of a homemade Christmas as possible, the thought of battling the crowds this Friday is a strange sort of urge to me. I don't know why I want to submit myself for the surefire pain in the ass, but I just do. I like the crowds, the freak shows, the bad fashion. So much fun.

I most likely won't update until I get back next week. My parents have, get this, DIAL UP INTERNET! Hard to believe it still exists! :) I hope I can continue my fast-moving craft trajectory while I am away, and even better, get a chance to stock up on some more knitting supplies! I hope I can find a yarn shop in Fort Wayne.

Peanuts quilt progress

I got a lot done this weekend! (As long as we're not talking about the pile of dirty dishes or unfolded laundry anyway.)

I worked some more on my holiday gifts that I have in the works, finishing another scarf and starting another. I'll try to get photos of them soon.

I also finished putting all the blocks of my Snoopy quilt together! Yay! I like it much better now, which is good, because how sad would it be to have an ugly Snoopy quilt? That would suck.

So now I'm trying to think of what to do with the borders. I'm going to do the Charlie Brown shirt zigzag on the back in yellow and black, but I'm still kind of meh about the borders. I hope I come up with something soon! And then the quilting pattern. Eek. I could spend months quilting that sucker by hand with all kinds of cool Snoopy/Peanuts designs, but do I want to devote that kind of time into it?

Here it is (needing an ironing, of course):





I went and saw "Twilight" on Sunday afternoon. I went in thinking it wasn't going to be that good, but it was better than I expected. The actors playing Bella and Edward were awesome, but I didn't really like the Jacob actor. He didn't have much of a part in it as well. Plus his friends all had really long hair, and that bothered me because in the book they didn't. Not a huge deal or anything, but still. I also got asked to fill out a survey while waiting in the lobby and then got a free soft drink, saving me about $12. Just kidding, but I still can't get over how jacked up prices are at movies for stuff like that. It did make me feel less guilty for getting a regular popcorn with extra butter!

I saw a tutorial for making a chipmunk out of a glove on etsy last week and of course decided I needed to make one. Or 10. So I went to Wal-Mart last week and bought a bunch of cheap gloves and cheap socks (for a variety of sock creatures that I have wanted to make as well).

Who knew how long these dang these were going to take? Well, longer than I expected. But I finished a chipmunk (I wish I had used a lighter brown glove), but he didn't photograph well. His name is Woody. I also knitted him a small scarf because he looked kinda naked.





And then I thought I'd try a skunk out of the same pattern. And since I had a hunk of white fur just sitting around I thought I would add that as well. That stuff SUCKS to sew with! It looks cute, but my bed was COVERED in fake white fur last night. The skunk still needs its arms and face put on, but that will be easier compared to sewing the fur on. (Also not a good picture, but oh well.)



The skunk looks a bit punk rock from that angle, with the white mohawk and all. I'll try to get better photos after I finish it tonight. :)

No surprises here ...

... Especially in that I've been errant yet again about blogging. I think because my life is boring — or so I would think it looks from the outside — that there's not much point in giving an update about my current goings on.

I work.
I sleep.
I eat.
I sew.
I knit.

Rinse and repeat.

Lots of monotony I would think from the outside looking in. I know a lot of people may envy all the free time I have, but I can't help but envy everyone else's activity-laden schedules at times, too. Not that I don't enjoy my free time ... I never feel like I can get enough hours in the day to create all the things that spark my interest. I'm constantly seeing quilts and crafts online I'd like to try. I'd like to take art/sewing/craft classes. I want to learn to crochet. I want to learn to knit more than simple squares and rectangles. I have ideas for quilts all the time, but just not enough time to do it in.

I wish sometimes I was a Martha Stewart sleeper — you know, able to sleep 3 or 4 hours a night and still be able to accomplish the impossible. I get 3 or 4 hours a sleep and I'm a mess for much of the day. So I give in to sleep at night, even though I wish I were doing something else more productive. Blogging kinda feels like that too. Hard to multi-task when you are typing.

Thanks to the overabundance of free time that I do have, I've been getting a lot done.

This is one of my current works in progress. I've now finished 30 of these blocks and started sewing them together last night. (This isn't the final layout, I was just taking an in-progress picture.)

Damn you, Stephenie Meyer!

Despite the stash-busting challenge, my free time has not been devoted to quilt making this week. While I didn't think it was likely, I got sucked in by Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, which is a sweet - and dangerous - love affair between a teenager and a vampire. Who knew I'd enjoy it so much?

I've been reading it nearly non-stop, but also not hurrying too fast. I'm sure there will be a letdown and withdrawal stage when I am finished with the series.

I keep thinking tonight is Thursday, probably because I have to wake up early tomorrow and work in the morning. Oy. Not especially looking forward to the alarm going off before sunrise on Saturday, but oh well, what can I do?

I'm heading out tonight with Natalie to see Chicago at Purdue. I am excited! I love going to shows like this.