collaboration

Stephanie and I make an awesome team. One of our favorite things to do is to peruse the fabric store and come up with great combinations. We try to have an idea in mind beforehand so that we know how many different fabrics we'll need, how much we'll need, and what theme or feeling we have for the finished project, etc.
(click to enlarge) In this case, I saw a similar quilt in an old magazine I had laying around. It was a much larger quilt, on a different scale, and was bright green and hot pink. I knew I wanted to create a quilt with lots of great colors - and I knew that I wanted it to be boyish.

I liked the brown print a lot and used it as my inspiration for the other fabrics. Ideally, I would have backed the quilt with the brown as well, but I didn't for two reasons: 1-I wanted the print on the back to be less busy than that, and 2-The other fabrics in the quilt were much less expensive (it's backed with the red print).

I got the fabrics home, cut, and laid out, and then sewed it all together. It's a super simple pattern and it came together pretty quickly. We liked the circular theme throughout many of the fabrics and wanted the quilting to follow. We picked a pattern with a varied swirl and Stephanie got it marked and started quilting.

Stephanie finished the quilting and binding last weekend, so we were finally able to give it to my newest nephew, Mason. My sister-in-law loved it. I hope they get a lot of use out of it!

random

I look forward to Thursdays because I get to watch Bones. It airs on Wednesdays, but I don't have tv reception and I'm too cheap to pay for it, thus I watch things online the following day. Such a fun show. It combines humor, science, and logic. Perfection! I sometimes think I would have made a great scientist - this is, of course, before I remember that I'm far too impatient, I hated both of my chemistry classes, and didn't like wearing lab goggles. Yeah, I'll stick to a non-scientific profession. It's best for everyone!

I ordered some adorable papers from Adornit, which happens to be a local scrapbooking company, on Tuesday and I got them today. I'm excited to play with them. There is a great one with little stylized trees on it. So cute! Yay!

I've been working on the blog makeover and I think I'll be posting some options on Monday and I may let people vote. I have a favorite or two and my sis definitely has a favorite. We'll see how things go.

Work went well today. I got in a silly mood and started laughing so hard that I had tears rolling down my face. My coworkers were laughing too, but I think they were laughing at me more than they were at the conversation. Haha. That works for me! They laugh at me a lot. Once I get comfortable with a person, I let my funny side show.

My tummy hurts. I ate some sugar and I shouldn't have. I didn't have a wednesday weigh-in this week because I didn't see the point in weighing myself when I've been cheating on the diet for over a week. I blame my brother. LOL. I was doing really well until he had a craving and my sister-in-law and I ran to the store to indulge him/us. Luckily for him, he has the metabolism to pull it off. Me, not so much.

I'm kinda dreading work tomorrow because last Friday sucked so bad. Hopefully we won't have a repeat. I'll snap if we do.

Anyway, life is good :)

update on nothing

I haven't blogged much lately because there hasn't been anything I particularly want to document or remember. That sounds bad. I was sick, and then I was stressed, and then I had some issues with a friend of mine, and then I was stressed again. Oh, and I got a flat tire. See, nothing that needs to be publicized.

My stress level is good now. I don't get stressed easily, so this month has been weird. I'm feeling better. And things are okay with my friend. She apologized 250,000 times and I let it go (I don't like to hold on to things that are relatively trivial).

I've been working on my 5 projects, trying to get them done. I'm honestly SO sick of being limited on what I can work on. I'm never doing that to myself again. I will just try not to start more projects (as in new hobbies). LOL

I've been working on the blog remodel as well. It's coming along... One of these days...

In happy news, Meg took our family photos on Saturday and we had a lot of fun. Steph and I, and our parents, had dinner at my brother's home on Sunday. It was fun to play with the kids and eat yummy food. We bought Office season 4 today and we're not telling anyone (except anyone reading this) because we want to actually have a chance to watch it. It seems the other seasons are always on loan to someone.

Oh, my 2-month-old nephew has a tooth. It's not a front tooth either. I was the same way - got teeth early, and not in front first. Still, it's weird to think the he's got a tooth already!

Steph and I did some bargain shopping today. We got 6 shirts and a pair of shoes for $27.00. Yeah, we're freaking amazing. We saw an adorable plaid jacket and knew it was coming home with us, regardless of cost. Then I saw it was on clearance for $7. At the register, it rang up $4.20. Yeah - SO awesome! Now I'm just trying to think up an awesome necklace to make and wear with it.

sunday's snuggle

This is my newest nephew, Mason. He is such a precious baby. We snuggled on Sunday and ended up falling asleep on the couch together. There's something so peaceful and hypnotic about a baby. I need to borrow him once in a while to just have a totally awesome nap! (it kinda reminds me of that episode of Friends when Joey and Ross fall asleep watching a movie and have such an awesome nap that Joey attempts to get Ross sleepy so they can nap again...LOL!!)

My brother and sister-in-law asked me to take some photos of him, so I dropped by their house bright and early Monday morning. It was stormy and cold, which was awesome for me (I love storms) but not so awesome for a teeny little bundle, so we took some photos inside by their big living room window. Mason takes after me... he hates being in front of the camera. He fussed every time he heard the click, saw the flash, or saw me coming at him. He got fed up with us and fell asleep. I wish the weather had been better so that we could have gone outside and used the natural light. Hopefully there's 2 or 3 decent enough photos in the 180 I took (LOL, but also a little sad).

wednesday weigh-in

The diet slid a little this past weekend... It was Labor Day. That's how we're justifying it, anyway. I can handle sugar, but white flour kicks my butt. It makes me sluggish and I think it causes breakouts. Sugar doesn't affect me, so long as it's in moderation. I was starting to get hungry despite having just eaten, so I've started eating more grains now as well.
I was surprised that I lost anything after enjoying food Sat-Mon. LOL. I'm more likely to see the added weight this week, I guess. I'm back to being good as soon as the orange juice in front of me is gone :)

Today I'm going to weigh-in on: taking time for myself. I once read that intorverts need time alone to recharge, while extroverts need time with people. I'm definitely an introvert! Years ago, when I had a busier social life, I would schedule "time off" so I could just do my own thing. Now, I have plenty of alone time during the week and practically none on the weekends - and it's taking its toll!

I'm trying to find ways to get what I need on the weekends so that I can function at the start of the new week. I have to take care of myself, and this current trend of mine leaves me frustrated and exhausted right off the bat. Perhaps changing my work schedule to half-days on Tuesdays or just setting aside some time for myself - without errands to run - on Mondays. I'll come up with something :)

better

I had a nice, relaxing day. I finished running the errands I hadn't completed yesterday, ate lunch, and spent the rest of the day being creative. I split my creative time between scrapping (digitally, today) and beading.

My Etsy shop is looking pretty bare... not that I mind really. It's bare because things are selling :) I placed a small bead order today and I'll be placing a larger one in the next week (from two different companies). I also made 2 necklaces and a pair of earrings, and discovered a cute set I made while I was on vacation in July and totally forgot about.

The digital scrapping was focused mainly on the blog makeover. I'll have four proofs soon that I'll share and then decide which I want to commit to (for a little while, anyway). The one I worked on today is adorable. Haha.

I want to do some traditional scrapbooking as well, but I need to get some other projects done before I take more on. One of these days...

*sigh*

This past weekend was pretty fun. I didn't get anything done, but I babysat two of my nephews and hung out with my brother and sister-in-law. We had dinner and watched a movie, which = me, asleep on the couch. I cannot just sit and watch and not do something else. I like to be working on projects while I watch movies. I'm a multi-tasker extraordinaire. LOL

I'm really starting to hate my work schedule. I have Sun/Mon off, which is fine... but I attend church and choose not to shop on Sundays and then end up running errands ALL DAY MONDAY and get no chance to unwind, work on projects, clean, etc. Tuesday comes and I crave some time to be creative. By the time my 8 hours is done today, I'll be mentally exhausted and I won't get anything done this evening. That will continue to happen Wed-Sat and then I'll start my whole frustrating weekend over again. Sigh.

I am incredibly frustrated today. I'm not going to get into it. My normal tolerance for all things minor is completely absent. The girl sitting about 6 feet from me badly needs some mucinex. I want her to go home so I don't have to listen to her. Scratch that. I want to go home. I'm ready to flip out.

**Edited to add: I worked for one hour and then took the rest of the day off. I ate bad stuff (sugar) yesterday and I think it's messing me up.**