Busy February

Hi everyone! I've been MIA for a while here on my blog! So sorry about that, but February has turned out to be busy for me! As an update, I did manage to clear out the apartment for my January goals. It felt soooo good to get things organized, but it's been a challenge to keep things that way. I feel like there are always things to pick up or put away, so it just never ends!

This month my husband and I started planning our summer vacation. We're going on a very long road trip all the way out to Seattle to go to the Sasquatch Music Festival and then driving all the way back. We'll be stopping multiple places on each way, so it's going to be a great trip! Plus I'll get to see Mumford & Sons and Cake live! (And a million other bands...)

With the goal of getting healthier and more fit, we also joined a gym this month. So, we've been spending an hour or two there each day after I'm done with work. It eats up a lot of time, but it makes us feel much better. So far I've lost about 10 pounds, which is great. Here I'll be honest with you - I started off weighing 175! That's not at all where I want to be. I've gained about 20 pounds since we got married in 2009 and I want to get that all back off and more. If I get into the 140s, I'll weigh what I did in high school, and I hope that I can get down that far. Our gym is really fantastic and so far we've really enjoyed going there. :) So - here's a LARGE goal, to get down to at least 155 by May when we leave for our vacation. I really hope I'll be able to revise that number as we go along. So far, so good!

I filled in at another office over the weekend, so I didn't have a Saturday to do any crafting. I'm also hosting a couple friends this weekend and throwing a bridal shower for my great friend Heidi. She's getting married in May (another reason to work out!!!) and I've been busy getting ready for that too. The shower is on Sunday this weekend and Saturday will be dedicated to running lots and lots of needed wedding errands since the bride now lives in Florida and this is the last time she'll be up in Wisconsin before the big day. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Despite all of that, I have managed to do a couple little things with the few minutes I have at night before I collapse in bed.

I started knitting a scarf for my other friend coming up for the weekend. I hope, hope, hope I can get it done! And, now I'm not sure it's going to be very cold any more for her to need it. But, she was joking about how she wasn't going to be able to handle the cold Wisconsin weather and I joked that I'd make her a scarf, and then actually did it. Now I just need to finish it!! It kind of reminds me of the flying geese quilt block pattern since it has a pyramid shape in the knitting pattern. It goes pretty quick, so I'm going to knit, knit, knit tonight and hope I can get close to finishing!

I also played around with some embroidery. I've never really done it before, and I made an awful first attempt. I made this flower embroidery. I used pencil to draw on the pattern. That was my first mistake since I couldn't get rid of the marks and then had to adjust the pattern as I went to cover them up. I hate the shape of the petals and I hate that I filled in the petals, but I had to cover up those stupid pencil marks! Ick! I kept this only because it was so bad I needed to see where I started and hopefully I'll improve from here!

I don't mind the stem and the leaves, but oh my gosh the whole flower should just be ripped out or thrown away. I think I'll hang it over my sewing machine space so I can have the motivation to get better. :)

The next attempt went much better. I made an owl sitting on a tree. I really like the wood grain that I did and I like that I gave it a circular border around the whole design. I also like these cute little leaves on it. So, hopefully my next attempt will be even better. I need to learn some more stitches so I can be a little more creative!

So - that's what I've been up to so far. As far as other February goals, I'd really like to finish my Over the Rainbow quilt this month. It's still sitting on my sewing desk, all pinned and ready to be quilted, so I'm so close to finishing! I think that will be the only other thing I plan to do in February. Hopefully March will be more crafty! Happy crafting everyone!

Cats!!!

Last night I spent a couple hours' time finishing a long, soft, cuddly, white scarf for myself. I had seen one made from similar yarn while we were in Europe a few weeks ago and I really, really, really wanted one.

Unfortunately, I failed to realize how tempting this type of yarn was for my cats...

I don't have a before picture, but this is what the scarf looks like now, and this is the culprit:

I guess I should have seen it coming. At one point during the knitting process I stored the 1/2 completed project in a closet while I was gone at work. I came home to find the knitting needles splayed out on the bedroom floor and the skein of yarn disconnected from the partially knitted scarf. One of my cats had chewed through the yarn, but neither of them would confess to the crime!

At that point in time I figured they were after the knitting needles and the skein of yarn since that is what they usually go for. Boy was I wrong! Last night, I finished the scarf and left it on my kitchen table. I also left the skein of yarn out on my living room couch. (I didn't mean to leave that out, I just forgot to put it away in my sleepy state around midnight.)

Around 3:00am I heard a ripping noise. My cat (see above picture), Sasha, loves to get into things in the middle of the night. Usually she finds some piece of paper on the night stand or she's biting the tag on the comforter, going after the cord for the blinds - anything she can get her paws on. So, I didn't really pay too much attention to it at first. A few minutes later I heard the same ripping noise and I knew I wasn't going to get back to sleep if I didn't stop her.

I turned on the light and to my horror I found that she had dragged my scarf off of the kitchen table, into our bedroom, and had been pulling on it with her razor sharp claws and gnashing on it with her teeth! Needless to say she was escorted from the room with a stern look from me. Upon entering the living room, I found the skein of yarn on the couch untouched!!! I would have rather found that in a tangled mess than found my scarf all torn up. Both the bedraggled scarf and then unscathed skein of yarn were placed in secure, unopenable-by-cat, places until I could properly care for them in the morning.

When I got up for good this morning, I looked at the damage and realized the scarf can't be saved. I tried to weave the pulled out yarn bits into the scarf, but it was just too stretched out. It looked like it had lots of holes and plenty of misshapen parts. So, my cats now have a new soft, white, cuddly cat toy.

My husband told me that the next time I go to the craft store I have to keep in mind to buy things that aren't so tempting to our cats. I told him that the things that are tempting to the cats are also tempting to me! So, I guess I can't fault my pets for having good taste in yarn. I'll just need to keep it out of claws' way.

Here's a picture of my other cat, Leia. She's not quite as curious or destructive as Sasha, so she hasn't destroyed anything that I've made. She does like to lay in some curious places, like the bathroom sink or the laundry basket full of clean clothes...





I love them both despite it all! They're just too darn cute to be mad at for long. C'est la vie! Happy crafting!

Inspired

My husband, Alex, and I just returned from a 2 week long trip to Europe. It was amazing and we had a wonderful time, but I'm glad to be back home. Unfortunately, he had to whisk off on a two-day business trip right after we got back so I'm at home with just the cats. I guess that gives me lots of time to reflect on our trip and all of the wonderfully crafty things I saw!

Our favorite stop on the trip was to Porto, Portugal - famous for Port Wine (yum!!). This city is very artsy. Everywhere we turned there was a little street market with local artists selling their creations. I fell in love! These are two things that we purchased for ourselves:

The left picture is a hair barrette made from a zipper (I guess I'll be the only one using that, but Alex thought it was really cool). They were also selling necklaces and bracelets to match these, but they were all a little too large for me. The right picture is supposed to be a necklace, but we are going to use it as a Christmas ornament for our tree. It's made out of comic book pages and newspaper that has been rolled together and shellacked. The vendor was also selling baskets and bowls that he had made with the same technique. I want to try to find a tutorial for this, or see if I can figure out the craft on my own. The bowls he had were really unique, but I really didn't have room to bring one home.

Everywhere I turned, at any city we went to in Europe, all of the women were wearing scarves. I guess this is a big trend in the US as well, but much more so in Europe. It seemed like they thought they would be committing some type of fashion crime if they didn't wear a scarf every day. I saw a lot of these type of T-shirt scarves for sale in Porto, and I want to make one of those soon. This picture on the right is just one I found online from Make & Do Girl. But... I've started another knit scarf. I'm so new to the world of knitting that I wanted to give it another shot with better yarn. This scarf is so soft compared to the one I made for my husband, and coming out much neater. It's still getting warmer here every day, but not too warm to still wear a scarf.

The last major thing that inspired me was the Rose Window in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It is so beautiful, colorful and vibrant that I can't help being in awe of its splendor. Someday, I really want to make a quilt that tries to capture its beauty - or maybe a cross stitch. Either way I won't be able to do it justice, but I like the idea of having a crafty work of art made in its honor.

I hope you've all been inspired recently to create something beautiful and unique! Happy crafting

Linking up to Freshly Pieced today for WiP Wednesday.

Knit Scarf Finished!

Hello everyone from Europe! My current hotel in Paris graciously has free wi-fi so I can share my finished knit scarf expedition while I'm abroad instead of waiting until I get home! :)

So, after much scurrying around at home to get ourselves packed (and a lot of help from my mother-in-law to clean out our refrigerator (thank you again!!)) we got ourselves off to London on time! However, I hadn't finished the scarf yet!! I only had the very last large black stripe to do on the scarf so I willed myself to finish it on the bus. Here's pictoral proof that I was knitting on-the-go.

Unfortunately, I had to throw my knitting needles and the excess yarn away at the airport. I probably could have taken all of it through security, but i didn't feel like lugging the excess stuff around Europe with me for 2 weeks. I have more needles and I can always get more yarn when I get back home.

Once we got to London, we headed to our hotel for a pick-me-up nap and then headed out to the Fulham Football Club for the soccer (football) game we had planned for that afternoon. London was chilly and misty/rainy the entire time we were there, so the scarf actually came in handy more for keeping me warm than it did for letting my husband show off his Fulham fanfare. Here's a picture of me sporting it at the game and in the Tube around London. I'll add a picture of my husband wearing the scarf as soon as I'm able to get them off of my phone.

So, my first knitting experience was a success! I even learned how to bind off via YouTube video on the bus on the way to the airport. (I finished the scarf with about 2 minutes to spare before we had to get off the bus!)

Now, we're in Paris and just got back from viewing the Eiffel Tower at night. The weather isn't quite as cold here and really just gets a bit chilly at night. So, the scarf has been retired to my duffel bag for probably the rest of our trip. Everyone, both in London and in France, wears scarves all the time, so I've been inspired to make myself a knit scarf out of some snuggly material when I get back. I hear it's 80 degrees in Wisconsin, so I probably won't need it for a while, but you never know! Happy crafting!

Knitting!?!

My husband and I are leaving for a two week trip to Europe soon. We are super excited to get away and see some new places we've never been before. One of the first things we are doing is going to a soccer game in London on the day we arrive in Europe. I'm a little bit nervous to be in the stands with all of the soccer hooligans, but I'll have my husband there to protect me so I'm sure I'll be just fine. :) Anyway, with the completion of my jelly roll quilt I didn't really have any smaller WiPs on my to do list. My husband quickly had a suggestion for me.

He asked if I would be able to make him a scarf for the soccer game. I looked at him and said, "If I quilt it maybe, but I don't know how to knit and I'm awful at crochet." He said, "What if I challenge you to knit one?" I looked at him with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me look. We only have a few days before our trip and I know I'm just terrible with yarn crafts. But, I'll admit, I was intrigued...

So, of course I accepted the challenge! (He is a sweetheart though and has told me several times that I don't actually have to finish this scarf by the time we leave.) I already had some white yarn from a wreath that I made a little while ago, so we just had to get some black. He even came to the craft store with me! Here's a picture of the scarf that my husband would like. At first he chose one with words on it - and I quickly told him that there was no way I could do something like that in a couple days! Maybe once I get different types of knitting stitches down I'll be able to make him a better scarf for next winter. I'm definitely not that great at it right now.

After watching a few youtube videos, I figured it wasn't as hard as I had always thought knitting was. I got my mother-in-law to teach me how to "cast on" and to do the basic knit stitch. After a few tries I got it down and then started going. I'm hoping that I'll have this done by the time we leave for Europe. I have a feeling all of my free time will be dedicated toward making this scarf, but I find it quite enjoyable actually. It's definitely going to be a little lopsided and not as good as it should be, but it'll work! I feel like I should have started with a pot holder instead of a soccer scarf, but I know it's something my husband will appreciate. :) Happy Crafting!