It sounds like there is a bit of interest in a swap (mentioned below if you have not read that blog entry yet:), so I will definitely be posting details tomorrow (Monday) and anyone interested can sign up. I am excited, it will be the first swap I host and I already have some ideas and even a few inspiration photos.

Yesterday I got a bit of sewing in (and blog reading:). I had some jersey knit material that I had bought on sale from reprodepot and decided to make a top with it.

I made my own pattern, inspired by a grey top I own and the top I tried on at Renegade that I didn’t buy. I really enjoy making patterns myself rather than following a store bought pattern, now if only I had a better idea of how to make more complicated patterns… (If you have any suggestions/books to read on this I would love to hear them!)

It was actually my first time sewing something with a jersey knit material (other than 1 or 2 store bought shirts that I have re-sewed the seams together after the poorly done sewing came apart). I am not sure that I like sewing with knits after trying this… Although I have to admit I didn’t do much research on how to sew knits properly, so maybe it was more of a pain than it needed to be. :)

A close up of the cute cherry fabric…

And because it is my blog and I can complain if I want to:) On Friday, at the park we took a walk in the woods and I forgot to put on bug spray… I have (quite literally) 22 mosquito bites! Ouch, and I just happen to be a bit more allergic to mosquitoes than most people so all of those bites are driving me quite crazy… How long can a mosquito bite last before it stops itching and the swelling goes down, that is the question (or at least the question I keep asking myself)!

Doesn’t it figure that when I feel like writing a bit and blogging I don’t have time:) I meant to write a bit yesterday and the day before, but it was just too busy.

I did get a bit of crafting in finally, but it was nothing too exciting. This has been sitting on my fabric pile for quite awhile half finished…

It’s another grocery tote, if it looks familiar that is because I have made 2 others that look exactly like this. It does feel a bit nice to actually have finished something:) Now I just want to get working on a few projects that I have had in mind for awhile… Maybe tomorrow? :)

Ben’s birthday was today, so he took the day off work to spend it with me. It was quite lovely, since it means we had an extra day to our weekend. If only all weekends could start a day earlier! We spent the afternoon at a park, walking around and taking photos of course…

(Me taking photos if you couldn’t tell…)
So glad I am married to someone who thinks the perfect afternoon is going to the park to take photos and walk around! Lucky for me, he didn’t want a cake! (Does that say something about my cooking ability perhaps :) Happy Birthday, Ben!

On a totally different note… I have an idea that I have been tossing around in my head, but wanted to see if anyone else liked it. I was thinking about hosting a bit of a swap, but wasn’t sure if anyone else would be interested in participating. If that sounds like anything you would be interested in, would you just leave a note to say yes and if there is a bit of interest I will go ahead and organize one. (A few more details - I think it would have a theme and probably one or two guidelines, like at least one handmade item.) Thanks, if there is interest I will probably post more on Monday about it.

making me happy today…

:the feel of fall in the air: :the slightly cooler weather: :eating apples & apple pie: :finding a parking meter filled with time: :finally getting some promised packages out in the mail (thanks for being patient amandajean & tiffany): :spending time reading blogs: :2 adorable sleepy kitties: :going to sit & read in the bookstore this evening with my husband:

Oh my! After saying I was going to get back into the habit of blogging daily, I didn’t blog hardly at all last week… I did however take lots of photos.

Photo of Axel

I think I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by my inbox, the amount of comments I hadn’t yet replied to, and maybe being a bit burnt out on blogging last week. After catching up on emails though last night, I felt much better and definitely think I am going to try to blog a bit more this week. :) Now I just have to catch up on everyone else’s blogs. That should be fun though!

Photo of Pounce

I haven’t done much sewing or anything creative the past few days other than taking photos. It was been a fairly busy weekend though. On Friday, Pounce had to go to the vet for his annual checkup and shots. (He is healthy and even lost a tiny bit of weight:) Then after that, Ben and I went and took some photos at the local arboretum.

Trees at the arboretum

Saturday we drove to a state park that is a little over an hour from our house. It was one we had not been to yet and it was probably the nicest one we have seen so far in this state. (Although the back half of the park was actually called the hunting area, which sort of seems odd to me… hunting in a state park?) Who knew Illinois actually had a bit of forest though? And hills! So it isn’t all flat prairie… although around here it mostly is. I am still laughing that a few of you said I should actually post photos of cornfields! :)

Flowers at the arboretum

On our way home from the state park on Saturday we stopped at the local apple orchard and got some fresh cider and apples. The apples turned into homemade apple pie, although I should state that I had nothing to do with that:) Ben made the pie and it was delicious. There is just something so perfect about apples, apple pie, and crisp fall air. Summer is my favorite season, but fall is definitely a close second.


Hidden garden at the arboretum

Sunday we mostly relaxed and wished that the weekend hadn’t gone by so quickly…

Me at the arboretum - Photo taken by Ben

Today after I do a bit of blog reading, I am hoping I will finish up a few packages to mail out to 2 very patient people:) Also I feel the need to be a bit creative this week and I have a few ideas in my head that are starting to take shape. At some point this week, I am also thinking about getting a book on photoshop to help teach myself how to use it more. Any suggestions on good books for that? I would love to hear what everyone else has planned for the week! :)

Forest in Illinois - who knew! :)

Well I am feeling a bit better knowing that I don’t have as many feeds as some people! :) I still haven’t replied to emails/comments yet, but I will hopefully get to that tomorrow. It is actually kind of funny, because Axel cuddled on my lap for awhile this afternoon which made it so I couldn’t get anything done (he is a fairly large cat and I also dislike making him get up since he has only recently become really cuddly.) I suppose I could have done something productive on the computer during that time, but I played a computer game instead. *blushing*

We took a walk this evening to a nearby park… It was quite a lovely evening, although a bit hot out. I don’t think the weather wants to make up its mind here… one day it feels like fall and the next like summer still. That photo was the only one I took on our walk. I feel like I can only be so creative with my photos and there isn’t much to photograph around here except for cornfields… Maybe along with blogging a bit more I will try to get out and take some more photos. There has to be something good out there to photograph, right? :)

Tomorrow’s to do list…
Be productive. :)

I have not been a very good blogger lately! I am behind on responding to comments, I was behind on reading blogs (mostly caught up though), and I haven’t posted much since I have been back from my blogging break. I hope this week will be a bit different though… I am planning on posting every day (!) and hopefully catching up on emails/responding to comments. :) (It really makes me wonder how some of you do it? I don’t have kids, so I can’t imagine how behind I would be if I did! Maybe I need to cut back on the amount of blogs I read - I only have 223 in my feed reader… said with a little grin on my face.)

This weekend, Ben and I took a mini-road trip and went to Chicago on Saturday for the Renegade Craft Fair. It was a nice cool day (felt like fall definitely) and was perfect for walking around looking at lovely handmade items. Oh so much fun!

It was so neat to see all the different booths, how people arrange them and items being sold… It gave me ideas for if I ever participate in a craft fair. (Like, tents/booths that you can walk into are much friendlier feeling than ones where the table is at the front and you stand out from under the tent - too much crowding in the walking area makes you feel like not stopping.) Of course I couldn’t go and not buy anything! Although I did pretty good and only walked away with 2 lovely handmade items…

A letterpress card from paperedtogether (love the colors of this card and so love the letterpress technique!) and a bar of Sweet Mandarin Orange soap from Oliba (this smells so good & I love anything orange-ish smelling!). I also tried on a top at one of the booths, but couldn’t justify the price since I knew I could make it myself and the quality was only okay (is that bad? I just felt like if I made something similar the quality might be a bit better.)

The only frustrating part about the time there was that I emailed the people at Renegade and was told that there was street parking available around the neighborhood that the craft fair was being held in. Um, it would have helped to know that they meant permit street parking and not metered! Oh well, we actually found a parking spot close by that wasn’t permit or metered (free is even better) so it worked out.
The neighborhood was gorgeous though with lots of lovely homes…

After we were done at the craft fair, we also drove to the mall to go the the Lindt chocolate store and H&M. Ben had read that Lindt sold 99% dark chocolate bars and he wanted to try one (he loves dark chocolate, I hate it:). So he got that and I got some new clothes at H&M. A very fun day!

Oh and something I didn’t blog about last week when I got it….

My new crumpler camera bag! I wanted a bag to carry my digital SLR in when I go out on walks, to the park, the craft fair, etc… This bag is absolutely perfect! Crumpler actually makes tons of different sizes of bags and I actually ordered too small a bag first (I have a battery grip on my camera and so my camera didn’t fit in that bag), but returned it and got this one. It fits my camera and a few odds and ends (like my cellphone, keys, wallet). Great for walking around!

Now I am off to get a few things done before my ballet class this evening! Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

I think we are just going to skip over the last three letters and go back to normal posting! Hope no one minds:) I did think of words for those letters (x-ray, yoga, and zebra), but I thought it might be a bit difficult to somehow come up with how those fit in my encyclopedia of me.

I made 4 more headbands today and cut out fabric to make 4 more. I will probably finish those this weekend and maybe even make a few more… (I think these are a bit addicting.)

The one headband that isn’t polka dots is an Amy Butler fabric, but it was the first one I made today and the pattern still wasn’t perfect. After that I made the polka dot ones after tweaking it a bit more. The bottom 2 headbands are already up in my etsy shop (so go take a peek if you would like). The top one is a bit wrinkly, because I don’t believe in ironing (semi-kidding on that - I do believe in ironing if it is for someone else:) and I did wear it for a bit today.

Even better than a tripod for taking photos of the back of your head, someone else to take the photo for you! :)

I thought about not finishing the rest of the alphabet, but I am so close so I am going to try…

U is for…
…umbrella. (I borrowed this one from Anina.) It seems like not a lot of people use umbrellas, or at least not where I live. I like my umbrella though (and my rain boots), it makes it so you can go out and enjoy the rain a bit.

V is for…
…vegetarian. I mostly became a vegetarian because I disliked meat and didn’t like the thought of eating an animal. I try not to push it on other people, since I know not everyone is going to consider becoming a vegetarian and I really think it is personal preference. Still though, I wish more people who did eat meat would consider only eating meat that does not come from factory farms…

W is for…
…walking. I really enjoy walking, especially walks with Ben. We have been getting a bit sick of our neighborhood, since there are not many places to walk to but it is still nice to be able to take a walk in the evenings together (even if we don’t have anywhere special to walk to). Has anyone else seen that walkscore website for your neighborhood? I don’t have the link, but I did try it and it gave our neighborhood a ridiculously high score that I had to laugh at. It doesn’t seem to be very accurate, oh well:)

Oh look, I did a bit of sewing today finally! I have been wanting to make my own headband pattern for awhile now, so these were my first attempts.

Don’t look too closely, since neither attempt really turned out that great… I even sliced right into the side of the pink one with my scissors by accident after I finished sewing it!

Here is the pink one in my hair though…

Have you ever tried taking a picture of the back of your head without using a tripod? It isn’t easy! :)

I think that there will be more of these in the near future, since I really want to try and get the pattern perfect. Since I already made 2, I might as well keep trying right:)

Q is for…

…quiet. I hardly ever listen to music or the radio during the day, so normally the house stays pretty quiet except for when Pounce starts crying for attention. (Who knew that a cat could demand so much attention:)

…quilting. One of these days I really am going to make a quilt and not just a miniature one!

R is for…

…reading. There was an article awhile back about how 1 out of 4 people in the United States have not read a single book in the last year. I definitely do not fit in that statistic! I love to read, mostly fiction but every once in awhile I will read a non-fiction book. Although it has to be really interesting! :)

S is for…

…summer. My favorite season, although this year I am looking forward to fall quite a bit. It has been so hot and doesn’t seem like it is going to cool off anytime soon!

…sewing, of course! Hopefully some of that to resume shortly! :)

…sisters. I just have one sibling and that is my sister, Sari…

T is for…

…tea. Iced tea in the summer and hot in the winter. We actually drink quite a bit of tea in our house between the two of us. There is always a pitcher of iced tea in the fridge during the summer (and sometimes in the winter), and during the winter a cup of tea is so wonderful when you are cold. (Photo of teacup & tea are from a swap, I gave these to my swap partner. It is one of my favorite teas…)

…tornadoes. I do not mind rain or even a little storm, but I am terrified of tornadoes. Which would be funny, if we didn’t live where there are actually occasional tornadoes! (In fact, even small storms make me think of the possibility of tornadoes now…)

N is for…

…New fabric from Sew, Mama, Sew! I didn’t really need anymore fabric, I just couldn’t resist these prints. I have had my eye on the raindrop stripe one for quite awhile now and decided I finally had to just order it. Those owls are just way to cute and I love anything owl. The horses are actually a fabric I wasn’t sure if I was going to like or not (I wondered a bit if it would be too kid-ish of a fabric, but I absolutely love it in real life!).

…Nominated.

Karyn and Laurie both nominated me for the Rockin’ Girl Blogger award awhile back. I think I was supposed to pass on the award to a few bloggers that I think rock, but I just can’t pick since you all rock! :) I would say just look at my links page to know what blogs I read and enjoy, but my links page is really out of date… Eventually I am going to get around to updating it, but I really wanted to wait and update my whole site in the process (so it may be awhile:).

O is for…

…the Ocean. I absolutely love going to the ocean! Really I just enjoy being around any large body of water… I grew up on one of the great lakes and so I really miss being near water where we live now. It is a bit weird to just see flat prairie and cornfields everywhere!

…Owls. I love anything with owls on it! I even bought these shoes, that have owls on them, a couple weeks ago… (The shoes were on sale, so I couldn’t resist!)

(Photo is from keds.com)

P is for…

… Photography. I love taking photos and even more so love taking photos with my digital SLR camera. I feel like I have really grown as a photographer this summer. I started the summer with my new camera feeling a bit like I was never going to learn what aperture, iso settings, and shutter speeds were all about. Now at the end of the summer, I feel comfortable setting all of this myself (I never use the auto setting on my camera anymore) and I take all of my photos in RAW (which I never even knew about until this summer). Of course, I still have plenty I want to learn about! At some point, I am going to actually figure photoshop out (I don’t ever use it right now), and I would love to learn more about portrait photography…

… Pounce. Otherwise known as Sir Pouncealot! Pounce is one of our two cute kitties, and his name totally fits him. He is already 2 years old, but he still acts like a kitten and I think he probably will be that way for most his life. I can’t imagine life without him or Axel, they keep me company during the day while Ben is at work and generally make life amusing! :)

Are you on alphabet overload yet? I really want to finish with the alphabet so I might rush through it a bit in the next week or so! :) Actual crafting to resume shortly!