who's that space invader??

Why, it's Eric of course!

Did I mention he started school Monday? He's going to be a welder you know... So of course he needs a fancy-schmancy new welding helmet. He looks awesome though, no? Very sci-fi, scary, space-man, robot-ish.

But adorable as always.

I had to con him into lifting up the mask thing for this one. But I actually got him to smile for a picture for once! Cute eh? He says he's going to sneak up on me some night with it on to scare me... Nice of him huh?

We cleaned our old apartment today and went through check-out with the old landlord. He wanted to take $65 off the security deposit to clean the windows!? I have never in my 9 years of renting had anyone say a word about windows, let alone take money off a security deposit. Crazy. So I said no thanks, I'll come back with some Windex and do those puppies tomorrow. I'm kind of salty about the whole thing though. He wanted to charge us for the oven too because I didn't run the self-clean, I just cleaned it myself with oven-cleaner. Hmmmm.... Oh! And the other thing we found today when we were getting the last of our stuff out of the bedroom closet was a bunch of black MOLD(!) on the closet wall and baseboard. Yuck! I can't believe we were sleeping in there. Gross. I'm just glad it didn't get on any of the stuff I had in the closet. But we better worry about those dirty windows... Right.

little this, little that

This is a new little doorstop I made from Lotta Jansdotter's book. It looks kind of wonky, but it's not quite done. I stuffed it with fiber-fil because I have no beans!
I was also trying to sort through my stash of fabrics today. I want to make a bag that has some sort of patchwork, but I'm not quite sure what to do yet. I have piles of fabrics, but for some reason I'm having a hard time picturing any of them put together... So instead they're all mashed up in a pile on the floor! Hopefully that will give me some inspiration?
I did get my Martha pans yesterday. They seem nice, but I'm a little annoyed about one pan. It has some kind of sticky black stuff all over the outside of it. I'll try to scrub it off, but it's a little disappointing... You would think Martha of all people would be a little more fastidious...

I also got my new driver's license today. I'm actually kind of pleased with it, because the picture at least looks like me. My last license was SO terrible I was mortified to show it to anyone. So at least now I can leave the new one picture-side-out in my wallet without breaking out in hives.

happy day

I got my new Blueprint magazine (which I love) out of the mailbox today, and I opened it up and found this...

Which is funny, because I had just been looking at a fake Le Creuset (sp?) pot at Target earlier for $46. So I of course looked this baby up on the Macy's Martha Stewart site and found it on sale for $49. Well there you go. So I then see the free shipping offer for orders of $125... So I imagine you can see where this is going. Right. A $99 dollar set of Martha Stewart non-stick cookware of course! Now, in my defense I have been contemplating buying new pots and pans for quite awhile. The ones we have now are probably giving us some sort of cancer or something because the Teflon is scratched off so badly. I was going to try to wait until we got married and register for pots and pans, but since I don't see a wedding in the very near future... I get new Martha pans in 5-7 business days!! The beautiful blue pot is on order, so it will be a while for that one, but that's OK. I think that this whole Martha at Macy's thing may be a bit dangerous, but hopefully I can restrain myself from buying all the pretty blue accessories that match the pot.

I also learned about spray adhesive today. I covered our NASTY lampshades with gorgeous Amy Butler fabric. Good idea right? Except for the spray adhesive still stuck to my fingers. They are NOT kidding about not getting the stuff on your skin. So I gave myself a nice acetone soak and hopefully it will wear off soon...

And I made this...

A yummy, yummy lasagna (the picture doesn't do it justice). I made brownies too (from a box, but hey, get off my back, the lasagna's from scratch!). I forgot how satisfying it is to cook. I didn't cook much in our last apartment for some reason. I think partly because it was a bad space to work in, and partly because there was no disposal or dishwasher. Not that that's a good excuse, but I'm definitely going to start cooking more again. I need to be better about spending money on eating out. It's been a little out of control lately. I was forgetting how satisfying it is to make your own meal.

So it was a nice day. And I will have all the more reason to cook when my *gasp* new Martha stuff gets here!

zoo

Giraffes.








And an elephant's butt.








These are my favorite 2 pictures from today.
The zoo was nice. A bit overwhelming, but nice.

And look at the present we got!









How freaking adorable is this?? I mean seriously...
Could not be a bit cuter.

pretty little post-it flower

a cute little origami flower...

(also blurry close-up)

I didn't know post-its could be so pretty.

It's from how about orange's list too...

moved in

So we moved. And I finally have internet. And this is the view from my new little balcony. Nice, huh? Granted, behind these trees is a bar, but no worries. There are trees. We got cable today though, and we can't have cable in the bedroom we've got our bed in... So I don't know what we'll do. It's kind of sad how dependent I am on TV, but hey- I need my Brewer games, and Bravo, and some occasional MTV dammit! Right, sorry. And by the way, the coffee table and new cheap furniture actually look quite cute. So there you go... I can stop complaining for awhile.

But what I'm really excited about is tomorrow I get to go to the Zoo! Fantastic. I am probably the only 26 year old I know with no kids who loves the Zoo this much. Maybe it's kind of strange? I don't know. But I'm sure I will have piles of pictures to post tomorrow.

And I made some tacks today from How About Orange's Tutorial. They are so cute, I have to put a picture up. I am discovering though, that my camera does not take good close-up pictures at all. It's just a cheap-o Kodak, but disappointing nonetheless. Anyways, onto blurry thumbtack picture...
Aren't they adorable? Yes, I thought so too. Must make more...

annoyed

So our current landlord has been showing our apartment since we gave him notice a month and a half ago. Which is fine obviously, but it gets kind of old having the PLACE YOU LIVE shown and shown and shown and shown... Right. You can imagine I'm sure. Last week he was supposed to show it and the people showed up late, so poor Eric got barged in on by the landlord and lookers. Nice. So tonight he was supposed to show the place at 7:15. We come home at 7:40 and he's sitting out front in his car, then comes walking up to us, "uh, the girl can't come tonight, I'm going to show it tomorrow at 7:30." How about no? Right. I'm a tenant. I have no choice. You can come and look at my boxed up crap whenever you want to. Really, it's my pleasure...

So we will again be hiding out somewhere until 8:00. Fantastic.

keys to everything

This just seemed appropriate after my last bit of bitching... I guess I need to remember that an aprtment key belongs there too.

table and such

So this is the new coffee table I ordered yesterday from Wal-Mart. Yes, I know, Wal-Mart... But I do like the look of it. Hopefully it won't look horribly cheap once it's put together. I was thinking about it today (the table) and I think it's kind of a physical example of how I feel about my life lately. Nothing seems permanent (except maybe Eric). I don't know how long I'm going to stay at my job, I know we'll move again in a year, my new coffee table is a cheap-o from Wal-Mart, etc, etc. I'm not trying to whine, but I guess I just feel frustrated about my lack of roots lately. 27 is looming and I would love to decorate a house that I knew I would get to stay in for a little while at least... Find a neighborhood, plant some flowers, buy some decent furniture... But seriously, I should probably count blessings for what I do have and the fact that I can afford a roof over us, even if it is temporary.

Speaking of that roof... I moved a few boxes and clothes to the new apartment today. I brought a pile of hanging clothes and they barely made a dent in my HUGE walk in closet. Fantastic. I can't believe the closet space in the whole place. There's a nice linen closet in the bathroom, and a nice sized hall closet by the front door. The other bedroom closet is good sized too. Mmmmm... closets... See, I really have nothing to complain about.

movin' on up

Well, I reserved the moving truck today... I think we're getting close to being ready to move. There's a few more things to pack, but I'm really almost done. We're signing the lease tonight too. I'm sad though, because I'll be without cable and *gasp* internet for a week... Yuck. Oh well, Hopefully I'll be able to motivate myself to unpack and get organized in the new place.
One thing I got for this move that I've never used before is shrink wrap! Have you ever seen it? It's magic stuff for sure. Eric said we had to get some for wrapping his CD's onto the bookcase things they're in. And it's really quite nice! I've never even thought about using it before, but I was shrink wrapping all my kitchen stuff today.

Ta Da! CD's are ready to go...

just one more skirt...

Sorry. Just one more skirt. It's the last thing I'm sewing before I pack the sewing machine and all the junk that goes with it. I had to finish this before the 25th because Julie and Trevor are bringing their kids to the zoo. (Yay! I *heart* the zoo!) So seriously, no more pictures of skirts. Although this is adorable, no? I kept laughing like the Count on Sesame Street while I was making this. Ha!

(not spider) Pigs!

Went to State Fair today.
Hot out.
Very, very hot out.
Saw some pigs.
Ate some corn.







Wanted to do what this pig is doing.






Now I'm going to pack some stuff.
That's a pretty productive day.
Right?
Sure.

different sort of fairy

I was so enamored with the idea of a packing (or even moving) fairy, I searched google images for a fairy of just that sort, but unfortunately no luck. But I did find these...

Washing fairies? Nice.

long drive...

Honestly, it felt like all we did this weekend was drive... We went 2 hours to Mineral Point Saturday morning, took a quick break, about 2 more hours to Elkader, IA, then 1 1/2 hours back to Mineral Point Saturday night. And 2 more hours back to Milwaukee today. OK, that's enough driving for a little while.
This is the pond at the park in Elkader (and one of the frogs from the pond). It was a really nice little park with a great shelter and even a fireplace. There was confetti all over the place from a wedding, so obviously we weren't the only ones who thought it was a nice place... And really Elkader was quite a nice town. It has some cute little shops and antique-y kind of places. I found a fantastic dining table and chairs set but alas, no place to put it.
Here's the lovely model with her new skirt. Such a cutie, I can't even stand it.
It was nice to spend time with people this weekend, but now I feel like I have zero time to pack or get my shit together to move. Jamie is coming Tuesday to go to the State Fair, so I am going to meet up with her sometime too. Hmmm.... Maybe the packing fairies will come while I'm sleeping?? Right, or I guess I could just suck it up. I do think I found a place that will pick up the entertainment center and baker's rack.

So at least it's 2 less things to move. But a million minus 2 is... Pretty much still a million.

made more stuff today...

Blanket for Amber's baby shower
(holy green, huh?)










Skirt for Sophia (practice)
I'm going to see how it fits her this weekend then do one with the numbers fabric...
(I used this tutorial to make the skirt)



:( and by the way the brewers lost (but so did the cubs, yay!)

brewers and the numbers

So my brewers are no longer in first place (by a percentage point, but still...). So what to do? Just watch the game today and pray the Cubs lose. So cross fingers everyone!

But on a lighter note, I'm going to try to sew a skirt for Sophia with this cute numbers fabric. We'll see how it tuns out...