I think I am going to need to join Karyn on a fabric diet:) Last week, I gave in and ordered a few of the fabrics that I had been wanting for awhile (including some of the new Denyse Schmidt fabrics).

I am definitely glad that I got all these fabrics, but I think I may try using up a bunch of what I have for awhile. (Not counting things like thread, interfacing, zippers, skirt/dress lining fabric… you get the picture.)

Look at that fabric on the right though! Little blue hedgehogs and numbers:) I think this may have to find it’s way into a gift for my sister (not a surprise gift since I have no doubt she is probably reading this, hi Sari!) since she loves hedgehogs. I also bought some linen (not pictured) for making a few more tote bags and other things for my etsy shop.

I was going to write about it yesterday, but I forgot… On Memorial Day, Ben and I went on a tour of this old mansion…

It used to be a private house/estate area, but was donated and made into a large park. Unfortunately the mansion was turned into a retreat center on the park grounds and normally the public cannot go inside. However, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity since it was actually open to the public for once.

The conservatory…

There were supposed to be guided tours, but I guess they were short on volunteers so instead we got to just wander around. It would be interesting to go on a guided tour though and learn a little about the history of the place.
Front room…

I would love a staircase like this in my house!

One of the many bedrooms…

Looking outside… (normally I am trying to peer in:)

In one of the hallways…

I really liked this floor and thought it would make a great kitchen floor! Honestly, most of the decorating in this place could use some touching up and the whole place could use a very good professional cleaning (it was rather dusty and could use an airing out, I don’t think they ever open the windows). However, it was pretty neat to get to see inside and the original parts to the house like the woodwork and floors (wood in most the house, but marble I believe in parts) were pretty amazing. Could you imagine living in such a big house?!

Well I am off to try to use up some of my new fabrics:)

Apartment Therapy: Chicago included me in their Etsy Scavenger today! Click here to see the posting. I could hardly believe it when I saw that! The linen tote bag has actually sold already, but I am planning on making some more since there has been interest in more like it. I guess I am not the only person who loves the linen/cotton patchwork combination:) (If you interested in a tote, just send me an email and I will try to send out an email to everyone when I have updated the shop.)

Okay, now I need to go get some stuff done with what little is left of this monday morning….

Do you think a post a day might work this week? I think I will try at least!

Random thoughts and stories about my week, just because I can… (Also, because I keep thinking of little things to blog about but haven’t taken the time to:) So this post will be a little random and full of little odds and ends (plus pictures that I keep meaning to post).

Megan wrote something on her blog today (actually since she lives in New Zealand, I think it was yesterday here but today there:) that I really liked. Her words were “we are at our most beautiful doing the thing we are made to do, and though that kind of beauty doesn?t remove pain and neglect, it does outshine it.” Some good words to remember and think about…

Ben & I went hiking towards the beginning of the week (not sure what day now). On our hike we happened to see the perfect dog for the both of us. The dog was half german shepherd and half siberian husky. A very cool mix of our two favorite breeds (my fav is german shepherd and Ben’s is the husky). We stopped to talk to the lady walking the dog and she told us that the dog was 2 years old I believe and a Hurricane Katrina rescue. The lady was very nice and her dog was oh so sweet and friendly. The dog reminded me a lot of my dog growing up… (Which is a very good thing, since my dog growing up was seriously the best dog ever:)

We also managed to get near enough to this farm or forestry equipment that is in the middle of the woods for me to take a couple pictures. Unfortunately the light wasn’t very good and I don’t have a tripod yet, so this was the only one that turned out okay. It makes you wonder how it got there though and the story behind it.

I took my lip ring out this week. Not really so much by choice, but more so because it kept rubbing against the inside of my mouth below my teeth and causing a decent amount of pain. So now I have a small hole underneath my lip and I will probably get a few less strange looks in the grocery store:)

On Wednesday, Pounce, Axel and I had a little photo session. I took a bunch of pictures and they looked cute:) Feel free to skip over this part, if you don’t like pictures of cute kittens… (What am I talking about! Doesn’t everyone love to see cute kitties!)

Pounce attacking the cord on the camera. He always does this whenever I take pictures:)

The two of them kind of looking at me… I don’t know if it is obvious or not from this picture, but Axel is actually a decent amount taller than Pounce. Sometimes it is hard to remember that Pounce is actually older (his birthday is actually in June and he will be two).

Axel watching for birds out the window… (I love this picture of him)

The two of them playing… Or what a lot of their pictures look like, blurs:)

Hanging out and getting along…

So happy that the weekend is here and it is a three day weekend! Ben and I will hopefully get to do a little bike riding this weekend, and we are going to tour an old mansion that is open for tours in monday. Hopefully they will let me take some pictures inside!

Thinking about sewing projects and what I want to work on next… I have quite a few ideas:)

I can hardly believe it, but the treasury that I created on etsy made the front page! Very exciting:) Go check it out quick! Click here. It probably won’t be up for long, since they switch out the front page fairly often. Still though, I am fairly excited about it.

I definitely needed something to make my night better…. Since, when I arrived home tonight from horseback riding I happened to find the stray kitty that we have been trying to rescue had been hit by a car in our alley.

Life is strange sometimes…. it’s weird how we can go from being sad and crying, to excited and happy about something and then back again within the matter of seconds… I guess I am just thankful tonight that I have my little family to be with and that my kittens are safe and sound with us.

Just so that those who miss it when it is one the front page can still see, here is a screenshot of part of the front page of etsy. (I couldn’t get the whole thing….) Click for a larger image.

I just finished this tote bag today and added it to my etsy shop. It is 100% linen on the outside with 100% cotton patchwork and the inside is also 100% cotton. I love the combination of the linen and the patchwork. It was my first time using both on a bag and I think I will probably do some similar bags again in the future.

Do you see the teal Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy fabric that is the middle patch/handles patch/inside of the bag? Ben said the other day that he was surprised I actually had some of that fabric left:) I have used it for quite a few projects (I have a tunic top out of that fabric, I made a few keychains, tissue holders, bookmarks…), but I love the color and pattern of it. Well after making this tote there really is only a scrap or two of it left, so you probably won’t see any more projects with it:) Now I just have to keep resisting the new line of Denyse Schmidt fabrics that came out… So far, so good, but I am not sure how long I can manage:)

I finished a bit of sewing!

This is my skirt for the Sew What! Skirts Sew Along that M

Trying to ignore the weather outside right now and actually get something done. The thing is it doesn’t need ignoring because it is nice out, it needs ignoring because there are all sorts of severe weather watches right now and I am terrified of tornadoes. Which means I find it difficult to focus on anything…

It was gorgeous and sunny out this morning, so even though it looks right now like it is nightime (and it is only 3pm) I did manage to get some pictures this morning while it was still sunny out.

I got this zippered pouch in the mail yesterday from M

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in a little over a week! This post is probably going to have way more pictures than normal because of that:) At least I have a reason for my lack of posting, I have been out of town since Wednesday to see my sister graduate from college.

The night before I left, I decided that my old purse wasn’t going to be big enough to cram a bunch of magazines and other stuff in for the flight. So I made myself a new purse (when I should have been packing and sleeping!). I actually took the purse pictures on my sister’s apartment floor, because by the time I finished making the purse there was no way I could photograph it.

Why do last minute handmade items always turn out the best? Does anyone else experience this? I guess I always wrote my best papers in school at the last minute too:)

Anyways, the outside is some pretty Amy Butler fabric that I had been hoarding and the inside is some gray cotton. It also stands up by itself because I added some Timtex interfacing. I was a little skeptical about the interfacing and had ordered it on a whim, but was pleasantly surprised by how well it works. Of course, anytime you make something there are always ways to improve on it. So I don’t think this is the last bag I will try like this!

Being in a different city for a little while, also meant that I took a bunch of pictures. I use to live in the same city as my sister, so it was fun to get to see everything again and see how stuff changes. It was also fun to walk around with my parents (who also came to her graduation of course) and take a ton of pictures.

I also got to see my best friend from college, Linnea, who still lives up there with her husband. We had an absolute blast together, in fact I laughed so much that my face hurt:) Silly me though, we were so busy talking I totally forgot to get any pictures of the two of us.

I did however get lots of pictures at the flower conservatory and the zoo. I think that flowers just might be one of my favorite things to photograph. Which is actually kind of funny, because I am not much of a gardener and usually have no idea what the names of the flowers are:) (Actually I do know that the picture above is a cala lily, but that is only because my wedding bouquet was made up of cala lilies.)

Other highlights of the trip…

• my sister’s long graduation ceremony (during which she sent a text message saying she was bored)
• seeing my Aunt & Uncle and twin cousins (and their dog, Primo)
• eating at organic/vegetarian friendly restaurants (this is a highlight because I live in a city without anything like this)
• going to “Half Price Books” and buying old Martha Stewart Living magazines for super cheap

and the best highlight of all… landing back home & getting to see Ben, Pounce, and Axel again. (Flying and traveling is fun, but I missed them a lot while I was gone!)

This week promises to be another busy week! I have my summer horseback riding class starting up, another Saturday ballet class before the summer session starts (luckily it won’t be on saturdays anymore, so I can get out and enjoy the weekends a little more), plus I really need to get my skirt finished up for the sew along.

Thinking about all of that makes me think this guy has a good idea though…

a nap does sound wonderful!

Wish me luck with my to do list! I hope everyone else has a productive week:) I promise this won’t be the last time I post this week, in fact I am thinking about posting once a day this week to make up for last week. We will see how that goes…

(Does anyone have any idea what this little guy might be? I saw him at the zoo, but didn’t see the sign saying what he was. He was a little bit smaller than a medium sized dog, and oh so cute!)

So after reading about the new “Martha Stewart: Crafts” line on everyone else’s blogs, I decided to go to Michael’s to check it out. I actually managed to walk out with only the things pictured below, plus 2 spools of ribbon. Although, I did decide that now I need to go back for the amazingly cute animal alphabet cards. I tried to resist, but I think I need them (okay need is a strong word, but the cards are super cute and even look vintage!)

The ribbons are gorgeous too, but I forgot to add them in the picture. I have absolutely no idea what I am going to use the decorative tape that is on the left in this picture for, but I had to have it….

In other crafting news… For awhile now I have wanted to make my own shopping totes so I can stop using plastic bags (or telling the cashier, no I really don’t want a bag). Melissa of Tiny Happy was kind enough to share her shopping tote dimensions with me awhile back, so yesterday I worked on making a shopping tote.

The outside is a thrifted curtain for thickness and strength, and the inside is some nice cotton fabric I picked up for sale at Joann’s for really cheap.

I have enough fabric for 2 more bags, so I think I will probably make at least 1 more shopping tote and then I am thinking about making one into a purse for myself. Not sure about that though, I may just end up with 3 shopping totes… I guess we shall see:)

Ben & I went for an afternoon walk today and enjoyed the nice weather that we are having. Hopefully, it stays that way! (Did you hear about the town in Kansas that got hit by that tornado recently and the whole town was basically flattened? If not, go find the story on Google news… So sad and crazy at the same time! Have I mentioned I hate tornadoes? Um, yeah probably:)

Can you believe that this is someone’s back yard?

Doesn’t it look more like something you would see in a park or botanical gardens?

My favorite street to walk down…

Which is probably good, since you really can’t get anywhere from our house without walking down this street.

I hope everyone has a wonderful afternoon!

I have a few more items listed in my etsy shop. My photos finally came back from the printers and I have been working on getting all of them listed. All of them are up now, so go ahead and take a look! :)

I have been working on my skirt for the sew along a little, hopefully I will get far enough to take a couple pics of my progress tomorrow…

Last night was my horseback riding class… I am loving getting to ride once a week (I only wish I could ride more frequently), and last night was a really good class. I got to canter a bunch, so much that my instructor joked the the horse I ride was going to sleep good. The horse I have been riding the last several weeks is named Hot Rod, and I love riding him but he is actually going to be leaving for the summer. His owner (who is one of the instructors) is looking to lease him out, so he is going to be going to a different barn. At least I took my camera last night so I was able to have some pictures of me riding him before he leaves…

(Anyone want to donate a bunch of money to the “Chara wants a horse fund”? That way I could lease him :)