rainy day

I had the day off today...

To go to the dentist! Yuck.

But I did find time to make these oh-so-good for your teeth cookies. Yum. Oatmeal raisin. I have been messing around with my camera's settings too, trying to get a better close-up picture. I don't think this one looks so bad, but I still would love a new camera... Oh well, I imagine if I wait I can get the one I want much cheaper. That would be nice.

It has been such a cold rainy day today... I went shopping after my dentist appointment and found 2 sweaters 1/2 off at Old Navy. Yay! I also found a pair of jeans that fit me sort of OK. I never find jeans at Old Navy, so that was nice too. But back to work tomorrow...

baggedy-bag-bag-bag

Another bag... This one is from Amy Karol's book. I like the book well enough, but the patterns are meant to be copied and increased in size, which I didn't do. I just kind of eye-balled it and guessed what 129% would look like... Which translated to a rather shallow bag, but probably my fault not the actual pattern's. Anyways, I do like it, I just can't pack loads of stuff into it. I may also add some buttons or other trim to the stripe-y area. We shall see. (and the bottom doesn't actually look that crooked in real life)

My Grandma did pass on Friday. Very sad, but I hope that everyone can find some peace now. I know it was so hard on her and her daughters too. Tough time for everyone though.

I was thinking about gratitude today

I went to see my Grandma today who is in the last days of her life. And I was thinking about being grateful. For the time I have and for the people around me, for all the things I have and really for each day... It's hard sometimes to remember, but I do have so much to be grateful for. Easy to get caught up in being stressed and upset about small things.

So I just wanted to stop today and be thankful.

sewing day

Ooooh... Look-y here! A new little bag for me! I finally did a teeny bit of patchwork. I was inspired by this, and this, so I finally did my own. I absolutely love the tan outside fabric. I bought two yards of it on sale the other day at Hancock's. I love the way the pink thread looks in contrast to it on the straps and the top stitching. It is so soft too. Yay! I think I'm going to make a wallet to match. I'm also going to make something with this fabric. Maybe a purse lined with it? I was going to do a purse using it as the outside fabric, but I like the heavier feel of the thicker fabrics on the outside. I also added this scrappy little flower made with this tutorial. I'm trying to use up scraps if you can't tell.

Anyways...

I made pulled pork today in the crock-pot. I don't think I've seen Eric as happy about something as he was today eating pulled pork for a long time. He actually did the pulling too, and he was quite proud of himself... But it was quite delicious if I do say so myself.

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!