Headband

I am obsessed with the website Pinterest.com - which is full of millions of pictures that are "pinned" of food, crafts, homes, and everything else you can imagine. The pictures usually come attached with a link that will take you to the original source where you can find recipes or tutorials. This basically means I see a million things that I want to make and spend hours looking through even more.

Last night I was on Pinterest while dog sitting and came across this wonderful tutorial http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/06/repurposing-tshirts-into-5-strand-braided-headbands.html about making a braided headband out of recycled T-shirts. If you know me, then you know that I am a t-shirt queen and at any given time own 20-25 tshirts that I wear. This is on top of the pile that sits in my room waiting to be made into a t-shirt quilt.

It literally took about 10-15 minutes and I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be making many more considering that I love wearing headbands, especially with short hair.

Fabric!

This blog is an ode to the fabric, which I love so much!

This summer since I have more time on my hands with only nannying and hanging out with friends, I decided to take on a big quilting project. About a year ago I found a quilt in my parents closet and knew I had to have it. It was made by my great grandmother and the women of her quilting ministry back in the day. I asked my dad if I could have it and he said of course. Ever since I have had the quilt I have wanted to reproduce it to keep the legacy alive in my family. Born from this idea is the quilt I am making this summer. It is all hand quilting which is a new experience for me as well as paper piecing but it has been so worth it. I started a month ago and feel like I have come so far already!


I also got a new pattern to test out from Little Lizard King and its a little romper. I am going to be making it for E the little girl I nanny for. She is 4 years old and really likes the color pink so I took her brother with me to Hobby Lobby to pick out fabric and this is what we are going to be using. I cant wait to make it and have her try it on.


I was reading all of my blogs today and one that I follow called Amy's Creative Side shared that a store, The Fabric Quarter is liquidating and had fabric on sale, so I visited the site and bought three 1/2 yards to put in my stash.




That's all for this adventure, until next time!

Tote Tutorial and Wedding

As the summer continues on I find myself needing to be busy doing all sorts of different things. I have been working out with my friend M for the almost 4 weeks now. We meet every morning at 8:30 to go to the gym and bust it out. This is our plan for the summer, to get healthy and get skinny. So far M has lost 37 pounds and I have lost 13 pounds. We are both far from our goals but are moving towards them at a good pace. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will be another 20 pounds lighter.

As I was reading blogs last week (I have a numerous amount to read everyday) one that I follow called Little Lizard King Sewing Patterns was asking for volunteers to test run a pattern for a tote bag. Figuring that I have the time considering its summer I decided to comment and say that I would love to test run it! I got an email the next day and was super excited to get started. It took me a little while to get started because the little girl I babysit was sick and so I spent more time at the house then planned but it was all worth it. I eventually got around to doing to tote and the end product is something I am very pleased with.

I got this fabric for my best friend's birthday present because she likes stuff like dinosaurs and I didn't use it all so I decided to make a bag out of it.

All together it took me about two good Zac Efron movies to complete the tote. I am not sure whether I am going to keep it or give it away. For now it sits in my room awaiting to be useful.


The summer seems to bring about weddings as well. A good friend of mine, Anna who is from the same hometown as me and ended up here in Saint Augustine for school the same time I did got married on Saturday. We all knew it was going to be a beautiful wedding as Anna has such a great sense of style. The whole thing was beautiful and I am amazed that I didn't cry as it was expected by many. For her gift I decided to make something as I love to do and while stumbling I came upon a tutorial for glass etching you can find it here -- http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/06/glass-etching.html -- It gave me a new craft to work on and a new trade to try out. I found out how much I loved it and will be doing more as time progresses on. Congrats to the new Zac and Anna Coleman. I pray many blessings for their marriage.



Until my next adventure....

The Summer Begins

Since my last post, my brother and sister-in-law had their son, whose name is James David Robinson, my dad's name is David and I am sure that he is beaming to know his first grandson is named after him as well as my brother. My niece seems to be settling in well with having a new brother, she has been so excited to show him off to me. The first time I skyped with her she kept telling me "Look Jenny, this is my new brother" and would proceed to give him a big kiss!

She is going to be such a big help to Jason and Brooke and is probably the best child to be an older sister right now. I am going to go up and visit them around June 25 which will be Grace's third birthday. Grace is the first person that I have ever made a quilt for and I have to say I am really proud of the fact that I completed one. It has a number of fun fabrics that I had in my stash icluding some with Elmo and Zoe. I have recently discovered Wonder Under and so decided to put her name on the quilt and it came out really good. There is fleece on the back per request from my sister-in-law and its green with ladybugs. I cannot wait to take it up to her so she can use it to sleep with or play with and keep for the rest of her life.

Back in March, I decided to make a lifestyle change that has taken me on a wonderful journey so far. A number of friends here in Saint Augustine have been doing Weight Watchers and explained to me how easy it is. I didnt really want to believe it but seeing the results of friends I decided it might be the thing that I need. Since I signed up in March and including a month off break during the end of the semester, I have lost a total of 10 pounds! My next goal is to lose anther 10 pounds by July 4, and I believe it is an achievable goal if I really put my mind to it. I can already see the difference in my body and cant wait to eventually reach my goal weight in a year or two. For now I am nannying here and sewing/crafting as much as I can. More posts more often to come!

Untill my next adventure....

Out of the ashes

It has been a while since I have blogged but it has not been a while since I have been crafting.

I have not knitted in a while, I finished a beanie for my 2 1/2 year old niece back in December but I did not send it off untill Friday. It came out really good and I am sure she is going to love it and wear it even though they live in Alabama and it is starting to warm up. Along with her beanie I sent onsie cupcakes that I made for my nephew who is due into the world in May. My brother and sister in law decided that they are going to name him James Jason Robinson as of now. The middle name might change but for now that is what they are sticking with. The onsie cupcakes came out really good but I forgot to take a picture so I am going to have my sister in law take a picture and send it to me when she gets the package. I also sent another onsie in the box because it was too cute and I had to send it.


I love this picture, I did not get to buy anything this cute when Grace was a baby so I am making up for lost outfits with this baby.

I am also continuing to work on a quilt I am making for Grace, I am hoping to have it finished by her third birthday which is June 25. The quilt looks really good and htis is my first quilt so I am attempting to do it correctly. The back of the quilt is green fleece with ladybugs. The only thing I have left to do is the binding and I am making the binding myself out of fabric that is pink with purple and white polka dots.

About a few months ago I decided to invest in a bread machine. There is just something about putting a set of ingredients in a pan and then four hours later having a comlete loaf of heaven pop out. A few months after purchasing the bread machine, I realized that I needed a bread knife in order to cut the bread and not deflate it. Hence a few weeks ago I walked into Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase an actual bread knife. This is now my beloved knife and I attempt to only use it to cut bread because I do not want to mess it up. Living in a house with three other people however, means that things get used when you dont want them to. The knife has been used countless times and now has rust stains on it and so I have decided to do something in order to keep my beloved knife from being used innapropriately. I am going to make a knife bag to keep the knife in and then put it on my shelf in the kitchen to enable its longevity. I am working on the bag today and will hopefully have pictures to put up along with a loaf of bread that I intend on making.

Untill next time ...

FINALS =

Sitting in the library right now. I should be working on the take home final that is due tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. I decided to try and find anything I could do to avoid having to work on the take home final. I am half way done so do not freak out that I have not started yet, because I have. I really do not have that much more to go but for some reason I just need to take a break and do something different, hence this blog post.

Finals week is the most ridiculous thing I have even heard of in my life. Personally, I am not a fan of testing and it is probably because I am not a good test taker. Give me a 30 page project about how I am going to run my classroom and I will rock it, but give me a 10 question multiple choice test and I bomb every time. I think its just a way for a professor to laugh at us and say, "HA! you though you had an A but now you have a C," oh well...

I finally sent out my Secret swap partner package, a little late but I made it in time for it to get there before Christmas and I am so excited to see what my swap partner thinks of it. I cannot wait to receive my package either, hopefully I will receive one. I think my worst fear is that I am going to end up with the partner that does not send me anything I end up with the short end of the stick. Fingers crossed I will be posting a new blog when the package gets here.

I have also decided that for the year of 2011 I am going to follow a new years resolution. I have never really made one that I have followed, let alone made an actual resolution. I am not a runner but I have always wanted to be one, so I decided that I am going to walk/job/run a 5K every month in the year of 2011. So hopefully this time next year I will be talking about all the 5Ks that I did during the year 2011. I talked to my roommates and they are all on board and want to join me in my endeavor and I am super excited.

I better get back to this take home final before I end up in the library way past my already late bed time, until next time....

Home for the Holiday

I am so glad and blessed that my family only lives about an hour and fifteen minutes away from where I live at school. It makes coming home to visit easy and very doable often. This semester though after moving into the new house I have not had as much time to travel back home as I would like. Its just more convenient to stay in the house since I have everything I need there. So when I get an opportunity like Thanksgiving Break I jump on the fact that I can spend time with my family and be back in my home town. I arrived late last night to surprise my mother and sisters and boy were they surprised. I also received a surprise from my family. About 4 years ago I received a huge laptop as a gift for starting my senior year in high school and dual enrolling in college. The laptop was wonderful but it was absolutely huge and the battery was not efficient. I still used it for the 4 years diligently and loved every moment with it. When I got home they escorted me to the guest room where I would be staying and low and behold there was a new laptop in a box with a bow on it just for me. There was also a card from my dad which made me tear up as I read it. Below is a picture of both of my laptops my old one on the right and my new one on the left.



Needless to say, I love it! Its still something I am getting used to but it will definitely work a lot better for what I need.

I am also finished with the scarf that I was making for a really good friend's mother. It came out beautifully and I believe will be a very nice wear especially in Florida when it does not get that cold but mostly just chilly.




I also started a scarf for myself which is something that I do not do that often. I usually just make things for others but this time I found a pattern that I really liked and had some cotton yarn left over that I wanted to use.



Other then that I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend with my family doing all sorts of different things. Until next time...