My poor blog has been kind of neglected lately! I just realized today after my own mother commented on my infrequent posting, that I have only been posting about once a week. So I am thinking I might try to blog every day next week starting on Monday. My blogging voice has gone missing a little bit I think and just jumping into blogging might help me find it :) Anyone want to join me?

I haven’t been spending nearly as much time sewing lately as I would like, although I did make another simplicity 3835 top. It was either that or do laundry & I decided it would be more fun to make a new top than to do the wash. :) (Of course I still had to do the wash anyways, I just got to procrastinate a little bit longer.)

I added an inch & a half to the bottom of the top this time and I love the extra length. I also took it in a little bit so that it isn’t quite as big around, but I think next time I will also try adding the darts to the back (as suggested by Lera) to make it a little more fitted since it is just big in the back now.

I love the fabric that I used for this one, it is just perfect for summer. This pattern is making me feel inspired to try & make some more summer clothes for myself. Of course having a new sewing machine might be helping that a bit too, since it is so much easier to sew on this one than my old one. (I think I would be screaming about the casing for the elastic if I had to use my old machine!)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I am off to try & get some stuff done (like more organizing our new place & maybe even a little bit of crafting). I’ll be back on Monday with a post a day for the week :)

Life has been a bit busy lately with just the ordinary stuff & trying to still get completely settled in (the reason for the lack of posting lately - hopefully that will change soon though), but I have managed to fit a little bit of sewing in. :)

I have had this pattern, Simplicity 3835, sitting in my pile of patterns for awhile now so I decided to finally follow the trend and try this pattern out for myself…

It is a tiny bit big around, but I still really like it! I followed Lera’s advice & made the back one piece, which I think looks a bit better than the 2 pieces that the pattern suggests (although it does take a bit more fabric that way). On the next version of it, I will definitely take it in a little bit & I think I might add some length to it since I am fairly tall.

There is of course going to be a next version (this pattern is addicting), since I have already bought enough fabric for 3 more tops…

I went on a special shopping trip yesterday with Anina so that I could buy something I have been talking about for awhile… My new sewing machine!

Is it weird that I just want to sit and stare at it? :) I am just amazed that I have such a nice sewing machine! Part of me is amazed because this honestly was not the machine I went into the store planning to buy yesterday. The machine I had planned on buying was a step below this one (in the Activa line), but the shop was out of stock on that machine so they offered me an amazing deal on this one to make up for that. It was just too good to pass up, so this lovely machine came home with me :)

Anina did ask me if I was going to name my new machine, and even though it isn’t very original I think I am going to name her Aurora. It was either that or Nina - which isn’t too original either, but I am just terrible at naming things. :)

Apparently not having a sewing machine the last few weeks made me instead want to buy fabric. Does that seem a little backwards? I didn’t have a sewing machine, so I went fabric shopping a bunch instead. I think it was the crafting withdrawal or something :)

Some lovely new linen that was on sale so I just couldn’t resist…

Fabric from a shop that was closing…

Celebrating buying my new sewing machine with a little bit more fabric…

I think it is probably safe to say that I am addicted to fabric :)

Fabric shopping is not the only thing going on around here though, I am still working on setting up my studio space. Just a little sneak peek with Axel’s help…

A big thank you to my wonderful husband who wanted me to be able to have a better sewing machine, gets that I can never have too much fabric, and doesn’t mind that I only left him a little corner for his desk in my studio.

Edited to include: I am trying a little to catch up on project 365, so there are some new photos over on my flickr page. Head over there to check them out :)

My sewing machine is still packed so there isn’t any crafting going around here. Although I do know where it is, which is a start right… (Seriously we do have almost all our stuff unpacked except for a few things like books and such.) Actually I am not sure if I am going to bother unpacking it, since I think a visit to the sewing machine shop might just be in the works soon :)

So mostly photos without words this evening…

(This last photo is because I noticed I had a lot of photos of Pounce on my flickr & blog lately, but hardly any of Axel. Plus I think it is a cute photo of him :) 

Ben mentioned to me the other day that my blog was trailing my real life by about 2 weeks :) It really does seem like that! Right now, I still have photos sitting on my camera from over a week ago and I have photos from several weeks ago on my computer that I keep meaning to post. So I hope no one minds a couple photo heavy posts. Especially since we moved into our new apartment on Monday & my life this week has consisted of boxes, unpacking, and visiting IKEA for some new furniture… (Can I just say that it is wonderful to be out of temp housing & into our own place! :)

All of these photos were taken at a park in Seattle the first weekend we were here… (See I did say these had been sitting on my computer for awhile:) There were quite a few good photo opportunities, but I think the best part of the day was getting to meet the sweet German Shepherd in the photos below. (German Shepherds are actually my favorite type of dog.) He came up to us with a stick (more the size of a log) and wanted it tossed, so I asked his owners if I could take some photos of him. So much fun! :)

Posting all these photos has made me think a little about how far behind I am on project 365… During the move & the last couple weeks I didn’t keep up with it, but I think I am going to try to start taking a photo everyday again starting today actually.

Glad to see that some of you found the studio inspiration photos inspiring too. I am so ready to be moved into our new place and have my crafting stuff set back up.

In the meantime until I have my sewing machine, I have been exploring our new city a bit and of course taking a lot of photos (at least when it isn’t raining :). I actually have a list going of things to do or see around our new city since I keep thinking of things & don’t want to forget anything. At least it means we won’t have any reason to be bored ever again :) One of the things on my list was to visit the Japanese bookshop, Kinokuniya, which we actually did 2 weekends ago now.

I was just going to window shop until I saw the large selection of craft books! My resolve to not spend anything didn’t last too long - oh maybe about 2 seconds :) I ended up getting 2 craft books, 1 crafting magazine, and 2 cute little notebooks.

This book (on the right in top photo) is full of lovely stitching patterns. I think it is sashiko embroidery, but I don’t read Japanese so I am not totally sure about that. I just love the stitching though and the linen that is used quite a bit throughout the book…

The book in the middle of the top photo is the Cotton Time magazine, which really seems more like a book than a magazine to me. How much do you love those rainboots with that bag? I think I might need to make a bag to match my rainboots now :) There are a lot of other lovely projects in this magazine too…

The book on the left in the top photo has a lot of lovely clothing in it, but it also has some other projects like this lovely purse… Another pleated purse in a slightly different style. I just love how the colors on the bag look so bright & lovely against the solid neutral…

Of course when I spotted these 2 cute little notebooks I had to get them too… Although I had a hard time choosing which 2 to get, since there were a bunch of different colors. I think I might use one to keep my list of things to do in our new city a little bit more organized and maybe the other one will have to become a little ideas notebook for sewing. (Or I might just save them because they are so cute!)

Yesterday we signed a lease on a new apartment! Of course we don’t actually have our stuff yet, so we will have to wait till next week to actually get moved in to the new place… (It is all sitting in storage, and if it were up to me we would probably move in tomorrow but we have to wait until the movers are able to move it back out of storage and into our new place. Probably the only downside to having movers move your stuff!) In the meantime I am dreaming up ways to arrange & decorate my new studio. I put together a little studio inspiration mosaic… (click to see a larger version of the mosaic.)

1. tree card, 2. believe it or not…, 3. Studio Mirror, 4. My Studio!, 5. New Improved Studio 01, 6. The Posie studio, repainted and reorganized at last!, 7. sunday afternoon sewing, 8. Casa de Washtub, 9. Sewing table, 10. studio :: so clean, 11. studio 4, 12. studio 2, 13. Creative Nap-spot, 14. New colors, 15. my view, 16. a peek at my studio, 17. the shelves, 18. close up, 19. Sewing table with storage underneath, 20. 03.31.08 {nifty thrift | tablecloth }

I think I could spend days just looking for inspiration photos, there are so many lovely craft rooms out there on flickr! I think that decorating my own craft space is definitely going to be a fun project, so I am sure there will be some photos of the process in the somewhat near future :)

Two other projects I was able to finish before packing up my sewing machine for the move were 2 more linen pleated purses… I even decided that one of the purses should be for me, since I wanted a new purse for the move. (Because everyone knows you need a new purse when moving right? ;) I love horses and riding, so when I first saw this West Hill fabric by Heather Ross I had to order it.

This fabric is even better in person too, since it is a really soft cotton and such lovely colors. The green really goes great with the neutral colored linen. Of course I added 2 pockets inside, the bigger pocket fits my i-pod with some room to spare and the smaller pocket fits my cellphone. So no more digging to the bottom of my purse when my phone goes off.

The other linen pleated purse that I made went to Capello… Can you tell that I have a bit of this Katie Jump Rope fabric in my stash? :)

I have almost used all the green colorway up though, so I just have the blue left. If there is any interest, I might make one or two out of the blue colorway and stick them in my shop. Although it will probably be at least a few weeks before I get around to that…

Thanks to Regina of Creative Kismet, Ashley of Handcrafted Happiness, and Niki of Knockout Niki for tagging me with the “You Make My Day Award.” I was supposed to list 10 bloggers that make my day, but honestly I can’t just list 10. Thanks to all of you who stop by my blog to hear my rambles and leave comments! How about I just give the award to all of you :)

Is it really Friday already? Here I meant to blog several times this week and almost the whole week has gone by with only 1 post! :) Well I guess I will just have to remedy that. Yesterday I had coffee with Anina of twiddletails. It was my second time meeting another craft blogger and it was so neat to get to meet Anina in person. Thanks Anina for making me feel welcomed to the area!

We also got the front passenger seat of our car back from the movers yesterday afternoon. Ben and I went out for dinner & laughed on the way to dinner about how it was nice to be able to sit next to each other in the car again! :) Now I just can’t wait to get all our other stuff back, but for now it is in storage until we get into our new place. Which will hopefully be early April! We found an apartment and I am so excited to finally get settled in. It has a second bedroom so I can have a studio space (and Ben can have his desk), and it is south facing so hopefully there will be lots of sunlight.

I do think I am going through a bit of sewing withdrawal. I have managed to convince myself to wait until we are in the new apartment to buy myself my new sewing machine, but just barely:) This is probably made all the more difficult by the fact that I went and sewed on some machines & decided exactly which sewing machine I am going to get! I guess in the meantime since I don’t have any current crafting to show, I can catch up and show what I made before we moved… The project up above and closeup shot below are of a scarf I was making when my machine decided to die right in the middle of the project.

Luckily I did get my machine back in working condition so I was able to finish up this project and a few other projects before moving. I didn’t really want to have to move a large w.i.p. pile, although there were still a couple things on the pile anyways:) The fabrics on that scarf probably look familiar since I also used a few of them for this blanket. I added 2 tones of blue linen to the scarf though to make it slightly different from the blanket and really like how it turned out. It was a tough scarf to part with since I really love the colored linen and the somewhat ornate flannel backing. It went to a good home though:)

Another project I finished up was this little zippered pouch to match this purse…

It was a request from my mom, so she can keep things a bit more organized in her new purse. It was supposed to have a matching little camera case since she got a new camera and is trying to carry it with her all the time, but the designs I tried just didn’t seem to work quite right. I might try again though when I get my new machine, since a lot of the problem was that my machine just didn’t want to sew through the layers.

Oh and I have to say thanks to Steph, because the other day she let me know that I had a blog feed that wasn’t working… A big thanks to Ben too, because after a day of computer stuff at work he came home and fixed it for me. Also, he pointed out that it would be easier for readers to subscribe if I created a little place on my sidebar with links to my blog feeds so I added that. If you are not sure what a blog feed is and you read a lot of blogs, check out google reader (my favorite) or bloglines (or any other feed reader out there) because it will make checking your favorite blogs so much quicker! :)

I hardly even know where to start… I have so much to write about & share, so many emails to read & write, and so many of your wonderful blogs to catch up on (I feel totally out of the crafting loop). First I should say thanks for all of your comments & emails about the move! If I haven’t already emailed you to say thanks, you can be sure that I plan on it. I also think posting might actually become a bit more frequent around here for awhile, since I have lots to share… (Totally off topic, but google reader says I average about 5.4 posts a week which is funny to me since I don’t feel like I post that frequently!) I have some sewing projects to share from before we moved, but I think I will probably share a bit about the move first and save the sewing stuff for another post(s).

Where to even start about the move… We had movers come in and pack up our stuff on Friday (the 14th). It was so wonderful because there is no way we could have packed that quickly & honestly they packed our stuff better than we would have! :) I think the movers thought I was crazy when I took my camera out to take a photo of our living room & then asked if I could take a photo of their truck. What can I say! I am a typical blogger, so I had to document it right :)

Our messy living room in the middle of being packed up…

Notice that dark thing to the right of the vacuum in front of the couch? That would be the front seat of our little Hyundai Accent. :) Our little car was packed pretty tightly, so we decided one of us would have to ride in the back seat so we could take the passenger side front seat out for a bit more room. The funny thing is that we only have 1 car & the movers have not yet delivered our stuff, so we are still driving around with only 1 front seat :)

There is no way all of our belongings would fill a truck this size, they are actually moving 2 other families stuff out to the west coast along with ours…

I do feel a bit bad that our stuff is traveling on a truck that is probably going to consume a ton of fuel, but I feel a bit better knowing that it was going to travel this direction even if our stuff wasn’t on it (and it isn’t like selling/getting rid of everything we own only to buy it again would really be all that better for the environment either).

The cats both did pretty good on the trip, even though Pounce did make it clear each morning that he would rather not get back in his carrier. It was lovely to see a bit of the country, I found myself wishing we could just stop and take photos all along the way but I just didn’t think that would be fair to Pounce & Axel. So mostly I just took photos from out my window while Ben was driving :)

I honestly have no idea where I took this one… maybe somewhere in Montana or Wyoming?

Really though the very best part about the trip was pulling into the Seattle area on Monday (the 17th)! It was lovely to finally get here & see the area we will be living in. It was in a lot of ways a big move for me, since I didn’t really know exactly what to expect. Ben had already been to the Seattle area before we decided to move, but I had never been to Washington before. Honestly it is even more beautiful than I imagined it could be! :)

This isn’t our “permanent” view, since we will hopefully be moving out of temp housing by the beginning of April, but our current view from our balcony is this…

I feel very lucky! (And as if all that wasn’t even enough, look what I got as a gift before we moved… a nice new ipod which definitely helped to pass the time on the road:)

Okay now I am off to try & catch up on emails and blogs! :) Poor google reader has stopped telling me exactly how many unread feeds I have & resorted to 1000+ unread. :)