We have a winner!

And that winner is Christy!

Congrats Christy! I'll be shipping your book out as soon as I get your mailing address!

I'm thinking of listing the other books on Amazon.com. Or maybe we'll do another giveaway sometime in the future.

I'm settling in (sort of) to college life. I actually enjoy all the walking I'm doing. I walk everywhere! Dad brought my car to me on Friday which makes me very happy. I missed my little car. I still plan to walk as much as possible though and save the car for when I have a late class or am coming home late from Bible study or if I get a job or need to run to Walmart or go home for a weekend, etc. It is SO hilly up here. And the stairs...oh the stairs...lets just say who needs a stair climber with all the stairs I climb every day? :) I plan to lose the freshman 15, not gain it! I'm not a freshman anyway so I definitely don't want to gain a junior 15. :)

Not a whole lot of crafting going on here. It's kind of hard to find time in the middle of classes and homework and Bible studies. Plus I try not to pull out something that I can't put away easily. I think my roommate would be rather unhappy if I left fabric and patterns out all over our tiny floor while I ran to class. I do plan to do some sewing though. And in the meantime I have some knitting and card-making stuff here to keep me busy.

And how could I forget to mention that I'm taking non-major Ceramics this semester! Right now we're working on wheel-thrown pottery. I had my first real lesson last Wednesday when we practiced centering the clay on the wheel. It was amazing! I came home covered in clay and my hands felt wheel-burnt and my arms were sore (it's hard work!), but I loved it. I think it's going to be my silver lining while I'm here at college. I feel so incredibly blessed to have gotten into this class. I not only get 3 credits for taking it, I also have to practice outside of our class meeting time which means that anytime I want to I can go to our classroom (as long as there isn't another class meeting) and play with clay. And aside from the 4 assignments we have in the class our teacher told us we could make anything we want (aside from ashtrays which he said is like a desecration to the art of ceramics...I think my teacher is SO cool!). Yep, I think I lucked out on this class!

I'll post more about it as I learn more. I am so excited about this class! I already want to switch my major to ceramics, but I won't (don't worry Mom and Dad!). Maybe whenever I finish school I'll go back and get another major in ceramics. That would be so fun!

Happy weekend all~ I hope you have a lovely week. :)

Skyline Drive

We (Dad, Adam, Holly and I) took a little trip down to Skyline drive last weekend. It's so beautiful there. We brought a picnic lunch and spent part of the day driving around and stopping at various overlooks and taking pictures. At some of the places we stopped we were over 3000 feet in the air. It was absolutely gorgeous! It's about 109 miles long and we went through about 45 miles of it before turning around to go home. We got through some of the highest points and decided to call it a day after that.

(doesn't this make you want to sing, "the hills are alive with the sound of music!?")

If you have a chance to go it is very beautiful. We were hoping to see a bear but didn't end up getting to. I'd love to go back in the fall and drive through again.

Please check out my giveaway! You have a week before names are drawn!

Harpers Ferry on a summer evening

This past Sunday I went out my Matt, Jacqueline and Olive to visit some friends and to go down to Harper's Ferry. They let the baby stick her feet in the water. I don't think she liked it very much. Not nearly as much as she likes bathtime!

Anyway, these are a couple of photos I took of the town. The last time I'll be down there this summer. My how this summer has just flown by!

Goodbye lovely place. Maybe I'll get a chance to see you during the fall. I'm sure you will be gorgeous as ever!

Pretending I live in Denmark...

A little dessert I made for my former co-workers as a little goodbye. I can't believe I am moving in 2 days!

These are a two day project. But they are oh so yummy!
They are made by scratch and so are the fillings (except for the nutella). They have 5 cups of flour in them and two were whole wheat, the fillings were made with frozen blackberries and cream cheese and the nutella (yummy!). So they were not as unhealthy as they could have been.

These are the kind of food that can only be made once or twice a year. Any more than that and you're in trouble. The recipe came from a Baking With Julia cookbook. :)

GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is my 91st post! I've been blogging on this site for a little over a year now and I've had a lot of fun. Even though not all my posts are craft-related I've tried to keep that the theme of this blog. It's motivated me to do creative things and I've met some pretty talented crafters through it!

So...I was packing up for my move to college and I realized that I have a pretty large collection of craft books. Some of them I've used frequently, but then there have been others that I've never used. 8 of them in fact! And because I'm going to be moving on Friday to school and I know I won't be able to use these books anytime soon I thought it would be great to give one to someone who would enjoy using it. So in honor of moving away, and in honor of my 91st post, and in honor of blogging here for a year, and in honor of anyone who reads this blog...we're having a little giveaway!

Here's the plan: One person will any book of their choosing from this collection. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment saying what your favorite thing to sew/make is. Be sure to specify which book you would want if you won. If you post about my giveaway on your blog, comment here again for a second chance to win the giveaway!

Here are the books up for grabs!

Simple Sewing with a French Twist:

The Crafter's Companion.

Sew What! Fleece

Sew U: Built by Wendy.

All the patterns in this book are intact!

Saturday Night Hat. There are directions on how to make everything from berets to cloches to fedoras to sunhats.

In Stitches.

All the patterns in this book are intact.

Printing by Hand.

All the patterns in this book are intact.

Simple Sewing:

All the patterns in this book are intact.

So there you go. That's the giveaway. The winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday the 30th of August.

Locket

I LOVE our new Michaels craft store! They have the coolest pendants. I gave up my interest in jewelry making back when I was 10 years old and I lived in NC. I used those big chunky alphabet letter beads to create such masterpieces as necklaces made of shoelaces with MOM in big chunky letters strung on. My mom was a great sport and wore that necklace a lot (I love my mom). I enjoyed playing with beads but I never figured out how to make my jewelry strong (a lot of my stuff broke and the beads all got lost) enough to wear very much.

This is my more grown-up version of a necklace now. I used a very thin ribbon and strung on a locket pendant and then I tied the string to a toggle closure. I painted the ends of the ribbon with clear nail polish to keep them from unravelling. I'm thinking now that I could probably put a few stitches into the ends of the ribbon to secure it even more. And if something should happen to the ribbon I could always cut a new piece of ribbon or find a chain for it.

It took me about 5 minutes to make. Every once in awhile I need an instant gratification project. It makes me think I've actually accomplished something! Now I need to find something tiny enough to fit into it. Any ideas?

A gift

Last week was my last week at work for awhile. I decided to take 2 weeks off to get ready to leave for school. All summer my boss (a dentist) has been taking a pottery class. I have wanted to take pottery for forever. So naturally I kept asking her how it was going and if she liked it and when she was going to bring in her work so I could see it and she kept saying stuff like, "it's not very good, but I'll bring some in to show you."

Last week as a gift she gave me two pieces of her pottery and I was shocked at how gorgeous it was! I say she was totally being modest about her work because I think that her work is beautiful and I was so excited that I got to keep a couple of pieces of her pottery. And I am so in love with this color lately. How cool that I now have pottery in such a lovely color!?
I just love handmade. :) I love it when someone gives me something they worked on. I think it's cool when someone makes something for you because it gives you an idea of two things:

1. What their perceptions of you are. Did they design something because they think you would like it? If so then their work probably reflects some kind of characteristic or trait that they see in you.

2. What their own personal style of craft is like. Is it bold, colorful, earthy?

So in the end you usually get a unique blend of your tastes mixed with someone else's vision and talents. Awesome!

I am hoping this fall to work on developing my skills as a crafter. Maybe I'll finally sign up for a pottery class too. Either way I hope to make time to continue working on crafty things and I will definitely be posting those things on here. :)

Too much to do

So I haven't finished that quilt yet. It's #1 on my to-do list though. The other day I was getting a bit overwhelmed with everything I needed to do before I leave next Friday so my mom recommended that I make a list of everything I need to do.

The quilt is at a bit of a standstill. I'm machine quilting it because I know if I did it by hand I would never finish it. I messed up the back and had to rip out a whole bunch of stitches so now I'm pinning it and am going to try to finish it up this weekend. I love it.

The second thing on my to-do list: Finish packing. And in a smaller print I should just write "throw everything away!" Seriously! When did I accumulate SO MUCH junk? And why haven't I throw away clothes that haven't fit me for 2 years? I keep saying I'll fit into them again (and I plan to) but by that time I'll just buy new clothes.

Oh, and how many craft materials does a girl need? I decided to get rid of a LOT of craft supplies. I sent some to my boss's mom who is a teacher and I gave some away to a few friends and I feel like my supply is a little more under control now.

Speaking of getting rid of craft supplies I'm planning to have a little giveaway. I'm not sure when I'll post about it, but soon!

So there. That's what I'm up to lately. That and my laptop arrived today! :) Now I should add to my to-do list: Figure out how to work the laptop. And install Microsoft Office.

But for now I think I'll get out of here and get ready for Bible study. :)

One more thank you

I made one more card for a co-worker this past week. It's hard to believe that I'm actually finished working at the dentist office for awhile. I've been working with this doctor for 2 years and I will miss her and my co-workers. I'm excited about leaving for school though and I know there's a lot to do in preparation.

I'm baby-sitting my niece tonight. My sister and her husband went to a concert at a Messianic Jewish church with a friend from Bible study. I told them I'd watch Olive for them at least once before I left for school so they could have a night out. I completely adore this baby, but boy has she got a powerful pair of lungs (which I am grateful for). She was so sleepy and couldn't fall asleep so much crying ensued until she finally cried herself to sleep. Then she unswaddled herself, woke up and cried some more until I fixed the swaddler and put her back to bed. She cried some more and finally fell asleep again at which point she started hiccuping and waking herself up so then she'd cry some more. Now she is sleeping and I keep tiptoeing in every so often to make sure she's doing okay.

So far so good. I started quilting my quilt and messed up the back and had to rip out about a thousand stitches. I am a complete novice at quilting and have a somewhat haphazard way of crafting anyway so I'm learning a lot and having fun even though I've had to go back and correct a few errors. It's all good. :) Now I just need to finish that quilt up before I leave in 2 weeks. And I still need to post pictures of the skirt I made.

Lots to do and so little time.

Until later~