showing off gifts

Now that Christmas is over and all gifts have been exchanged, I can show off some of the gifts that CJ and I have been working on for the past few weeks.

While browsing online for fabric for myself, I ran across this sock monkey print.  I've always wanted a sock monkey, but could never figure out what to do with it.  My mother-in-law likes sock monkeys too, so when I found this fabric, I knew I'd have to buy it for her and make a pillow.

Here's a close-up of the fabric:



Here's the coordinating fabric I bought for the back.  I know it's just polka dots, but isn't it cute?



I have a little left over, so I just need to figure out what I can make to coordinate it into my house somehow...

Oh, and I bought the fabric from The Little Fabric Shop.  She has lots of cute fabrics (I bought more than just the sock monkeys), in case you're interested.  (Oh, and I wasn't paid to mention this -- just did it because I had a good experience.)

christmas #2

Well, Christmas is finally over for us!  We spent a day and half with both families and are finally settling back in -- as much as you can with a house that looks like a tornado went through.

All in all, it was a pretty good Christmas weekend for us.  In the (nearly) three years we've been together, this was the first Christmas CJ and I have ever been able to spend together.  I think I just enjoyed spending time with our families and not having to rush from one get-together to another.  Plus, we got some pretty great gifts.  And, after running (mostly) loose for four of the last five days, we have one tired Henry on our hands, which might be the best present of all.  (Kidding.  Sort of.)

I still have several more days of vacation, which are probably going to fly by.  I haven't crossed one thing off my to-do list.  I think I might make a special meal for us for New Year's Eve -- stay tuned on that one -- and at the very least, I hope to start my big sewing project.  I also got plenty of cookbooks and sewing books for Christmas, so that should keep me busy (planning out projects that I won't be able to finish for months, that is).

We hope you all had a great Christmas as well!  Now we can move on to other things -- SPRING!

christmas #1

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at my in-laws' this year.  In three years, it was the first time CJ and I had ever been able to spend Christmas together.  And, it was also the first time in about five years that CJ had been able to spend the day with his family too.

On the 23rd, my father-in-law called CJ to let him know we were going to have visitors over Christmas.  Over the past year or so, my in-laws have trained to become foster parents, and just a few days before Christmas, they were able to take in three sisters all under the age of three.  It was fun to watch them on Christmas morning -- I haven't experienced Santa since I was about seven or eight, after all!

Santa even brought CJ something he's wanted for the longest time:

joy!

It's not too late for one last holiday project, right?  I actually finished this one on the 23rd -- it took me a whole five minutes, after all -- but just didn't have time to put it on the blog before leaving for the in-laws' on the 24th.

Basically I took some leftover wrapping paper, a glue stick, and an 8x10" cheap-o frame I found in the Target $1 bin ... and ta-da, more Christmas art!

worn. out.

Someone had a little too much Christmas fun.

happy christmas!

Merry Christmas from all of us, including a humiliated (and bribed) Henry, an angry Stella, and Bridget, who saw what we were doing to the other two pets and couldn't be found.  We hope you all have a safe & happy holiday!

Noel

I'm not going to lie.  We started this project last year at Christmas.  You'd think it was the most complicated project ever, creating a frame and buying the glass, but life sometimes gets in the way.

Anyway, my real point here was to point out one of my secrets for decorating on the cheap -- framing postcards or greeting cards, like what I did here with one of last year's Christmas cards.  I really loved these cards, and now it's one of my new favorite holiday decorations.

So, easy art for around five bucks.  Keep it in mind the next time you see a card you like!

Joyeux Noel.

now I'm ready for Christmas.

We're back to breathing again.  I finished up class on Thursday night, walked outside, and thought to myself, "Now it feels like Christmas."  I still have to go to work three days this week, but because I don't have class again until January 6th, it's like I'm already on vacation.  And it's awesome.

CJ has finished up classes for the semester too.  He gets more time off than I do.  (Not.  Fair.)  I'm not entirely sure what he plans to do with his time, but I know I've been waiting on a sewing machine chair for weeks now, soooo here's hoping he makes that a priority.

We sold two cornhole board sets, plus several sets of cornhole bags, these past few weeks too.  I pretty much hate making cornhole bags, so once I finish up this set (only eight more to go!), I'm done.  It's bor-ing.  On Friday night, I was making a set, grumbling to myself how much I hated making them, got them turned inside out, and realized I sewed the set on a 1" seam instead of a 1/2" seam.  Awesome.  But anyway, enough about that.  Since it's super boring making them, I can't imagine it's super fun reading about how bored I am  about it either.

So anyway, now that I have this time off, I really only intend to tackle one sewing project.  I'm pretty excited about it.  Fingers crossed that it looks all right, because I'm doing a whole lot of mixing patterns for this project, so it could just bomb.  I also intended to make two recipes that I've been dying to make for about a year now, but my break seems to have been filled up already, so who knows if I can even make two meals.  (How sad.  I only have three things on my to do list, and I have no idea if I'll have time to do them all.)

We've had a pretty good weekend too, now that school is over, and we can focus on having a bit of fun.  We went to see Wicked last night.  I really liked it.  I had tried reading the book years ago, but couldn't get into it, so I might try it again.  (Just add it to my to-do-over-Christmas list.)  My parents came down today, so it was nice to spend some time with them.  Dad and CJ watched the Colts game while Mom and I went shopping, as I needed completely random things like hand soap, chocolate chips, and hot pink thread.  And, I even made chocolate chip cookies tonight.

I'm going to close this down.  I'm rambling, and would be quite surprised if anyone read it to the end.  See what a break from school does to me?  I need that structure and stress to focus!

tv fan

Both cats love the tv.  Stella loves sitting in front of the tv sensor so that we can't change the channels or adjust the volume.  And then she just stares at us.  Bridget likes to get right in front of the tv and watch from two inches away, especially if it's the only light on in the living room.

Silly cat.

But at least something was keeping me company in the middle of the night when only QVC offered quality programming.

golden graham bars

Consider yourself warned:  These will not last long.


Golden Graham Bars
3 C. mini marshmallows
2/3 C. Karo light syrup
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 tsp. vanilla
10 oz. pkg. peanut butter chips
6 C. Golden Grahams cereal

Grease 11x7" or 9x13" pan.  Heat corn syrup, butter, and chips to just boiling, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Pour over cereal in a large bowl and toss quickly.  Fold in marshmallows and press into pan.

Enjoy!

upcycled vase

For my birthday/early Christmas, my parents bought me some lighted branches.  I'll admit:  I was skeptical of what I was going to do with them.  But, when I got our Christmas decorations out a few weeks ago, I decided that I did like them, but just needed the right vase for it.  Nothing we had worked, but then I found this broken vase in our hall closet.  It came with CJ, but I never used it because it was in such bad shape.  Turns out, he didn't even remember owning it, so I covered it in twine one night while watching a movie.  And, as a bonus, since I already had the twine and hot glue on hand, I technically count this as a free craft.

'tis the season

'Tis the season...to be sick, stressed, and a tiny bit disorganized.

And when I say tiny bit, I really mean wildly disorganized.

I've posted way ahead, so it appears we've been doing projects, when that's really not really the case.

I've been sick, finishing up Day #8.   It started out as a sinus headache that lasted several days, then turned into laryngitis, and congestion pretty much everywhere.

Amidst this, I finished up Statistics this week.  I turned in my final project and had a three question in-class final.  There was also a take-home final of eighteen questions.  At one point, I had been sitting at the kitchen table for an hour, staring at the same two problems.  I finally broke down crying, praying to God that He'd help me out.  What came to me was this:  "You have a 25% chance of getting these questions right.  Cut your losses and guess.  It's not worth crying over."  I turn in the take home part tomorrow, and I'm not confident in my answers at all.  But, given the circumstances, it was actually my best work.

On a positive note, finishing up Statistics means there is one more core class left...and only EIGHT months left in grad school!

CJ has finals this week, and that's pretty much it for him.

So, Christmas has kind of been on hold for a little bit, but now that school is wrapping up for the semester or at least for a few weeks, we'll be able to get those Christmas decorations up in the house instead of in a pile on the floor.

the original coupon queen

Remember how I've complained about the cats sitting on my coupons?  Here's Bridget caught in the action:

I just don't understand what's so appealing about it.

pillow #2

I found made some time to get some sewing done, and made pillow #2 for our living room.  I'm excited to report that it didn't take me very long either!

I bought some other types of fabric to make pillows, so stay tuned to see what I can whip up (I'm going to branch out of the typical square pillow form)!

picketing elves

Several months ago, I saw a listing on etsy for some carved characters.  They were really cute, and included picketing elves, a Santa, nativity set, etc., among others.  Two problems:  it was $40 for a small little elf (most characters were well over $100) and my husband does woodworking on the side.  So, as with lots of other things, we made our own picketing elves.

Merry Christmas.

such a funny cat

Stella is such a funny cat.  I suppose most animals are, just like people are.

When we adopted Stella, I bought her this little cat donut bed.  I never bought one for Bridget, but felt that I'd need to make Stella feel more at home since she was coming into a home with a set-in-her-ways cat and an over-anxious dog.  She rarely used it, so it just kind of got shoved to the side. I eventually moved it to the guest bedroom.

One day, I got home from work to find Stella sleeping in her donut bed on our chaise lounge.  My first thought was, "Is our furniture not soft and comfortable enough for you?  Geeze."  Then my second thought was that Henry dragged it out of the guest bedroom.  Turnedo ut that Stella dragged it from the guest bedroom all the way into the living room and up on the chaise lounge.

So there it remains, for our cat who is too particular to sit on our nice furniture.  (I guess I should count my blessings, right, that it prefers its own bed to my furniture?)

cornhole factory

My jeep got booted out of the garage again, this time to set up a little cornhole board factory to fulfill two orders (exciting!).

Interested in a set?  Find more info here!

Now that I'm all set up sewing-wise, I'll be making cornhole bags too.  No prices yet for those, but that's an option too if you're interested.