Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Back Home

I didn't accomplish nearly all that I was hoping last week, but I did manage to finish my most pressing project:


a skirt I needed for the Regional Bible quizzing competition I was at this weekend.
I left Seth to fend for himself for a few days, while I was in Idaho for the weekend, returning Sunday night.

The weekend went well, and I was especially glad that we were blessed with beautiful weather. We stayed at a small camp by a river, and the surrounding view was quite lovely in the sunshine.




So now I'm home again, and I will be tackling some of the things that I wasn't able to get done last week. Hopefully I'm more productive this week!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Skirts

A peek at a project I'll be working on this week - it needs to be completed for a trip I'm taking this weekend.


I bought this book a while ago - and I absolutely love it!


I haven't used a skirt pattern since buying it, and I have made several skirts that have turned out really well. It took me a few tries to get the skirts to fit properly, since for some reason I seem to be able to wear things that are a smaller size than my actual measurements, but other than that everything has turned out great! This book has lots of great ideas for different styles of skirts, and it includes lots of tips that are helpful. I think my favorite thing about this book is that it not only gives instructions to follow to make certain skirts, but it gives the inspiration and knowledge to be able to be creative and come up with your own designs, too! Skirts are one of the easiest and cheapest things to sew. Since they only take a yard and a half or so of fabric, a zipper, and some thread, I can often make a nice skirt for $5 or less.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Tote Bags

I recently made this tote bag for a swap I took part in.



I liked it so much that I made one for myself, too!

For this tote, I used the pattern for Esther's Tote Bag, found here. I made a couple of minor changes to mine; for example, I made the handles a bit longer and I also sewed them to the top of the bag. It's a fun pattern!

Walking....again...

I'm without a car again. The engine's been running rough for the last couple of weeks, and we finally took it in to be looked at...and I'll hopefully be getting it back tomorrow, but we'll see. For now, I'll be walking...

Monday, April 14, 2008

Life...

Wow - I can't believe it's been over a week and a half since I've been able to post! Time sure has a way of getting a way from me. I've been way too busy just trying to keep up with the normal stuff - work, homemaking, and other things that come up. I just finished taking a couple of classes to learn how to use my serger, and I can't wait to try it on a project! I haven't made any clothes for a while, so I'm excited to get started on a dress I'm going to make for a couple of weddings that are coming up. This week should be a busy one again, as we are going to be attending a play on Thursday night, Saturday we are going bowling with our church, and some of Seth's relatives are going to be in the area this weekend, so we are going to be visiting with them at some point. Life never seems to slow down! Sometimes it seems like I'm always two steps behind and can never quite catch up!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Spice Cupboard Update

Spice Cupboard Before:


Spice Cupboard After:


I recently decided to update my spice cupboard - to make it look cuter. I bought some cute glass jars with clamp lids, but discovered that they were only big enough to hold a few of my spices. So for the rest of my jars, I got larger ones with a plug-type lid. I still need to get a few more jars, but I think it looks so much better! I used a piece of tape and a Sharpie to label the jars, but I might look for something else for a more permanent label. I think these jars would look really cute on a little shelf in the kitchen - I may have to do that someday. But for now at least my cupboard looks cuter! =)