lazy day sewing

I've had these fabrics for quite a while but couldn't figure out what to do with them. I was planning on making a dog sweater with the paw print pattern but decided a dog bed would probably be a little easier. I also ended up making a pillow for my cousin instead of some pajama bottoms. I need a little more practice with making clothes, that's for sure. I'd like to take a class once I get married and settled into the new place.

Fall

So, this new sewing hobby of mine is pretty distracting! Here's another shirt for the night. This shirt reminds me of fall. I do have to say that I got this type of tree design from a girl who went to school with me who makes and sells all sorts of shirts for different causes in Africa. I just hope to get enough practice to make some cute kids clothes one day. :)

Apron Update

Remember the apron I made for my little cousin? Well here she is! A little big, but it can be adjusted a bit.

Turkey Tees

Life sure has been busy! But I am graduating college in 31 days and hopefully I'll have more time to blog when I am done. :)

This weekend, I went to some thrift stores and bought all sorts of material and crafy items, expecting to have a lonely weekend since I didn't think Jon was coming to visit...but then he completely surprised me when he showed up at my door Friday evening! That sure was a nice surprise. :) Suddenly, I had no time for crafts. Luckily, I finished these two projects on Friday before he arrived.

A turkey for the turkey hunter :)

I revamped a plain white tee for myself!

Reverse print apron.

I decided to make another apron with the leftover scraps. I switched the prints so that the brown polka dot would be the main print, and the blue the accent print. Not sure what I'm going to do with this one yet . . . I might have to keep it :)

Birthday Apron

My little cousin is turning 7 in August. She loves baking and makes her family call her "Chef Natasha" when she's in the kitchen. I thought it would be fun to make her an apron for her birthday! I'll post pictures next month with her wearing it when I give it to her. :)

Neck strap

Bottom trim

Cute fabric up close

gardening, sewing, and other things.

After I got off work yesterday, I decided to explore a little town nearby for a bit.  Since Jon wasn't able to visit this weekend, I decided I'd go look for some new tennis shoes (cross trainers) and stop at a nursery I'd seen before. It seems like whenever you're not looking, you find something. Whenever you are looking, it is the hardest time finding whatever you're looking for! My shoe hunt yesterday was exhausting. I went to 4 stores before I finally found my shoes at the 5th store. I tried them on and fell in love instantly. My feet were happy. 

I did stop at the nursery, somewhere in between that shoe search as well, and found my new favorite flower! They are called Portulaca, aka Moss Rose. Apparently they spread quite a bit. I would love to have those in my yard someday. I bought some and think they are just the cutest little things I have ever seen!I also bought some yellow marigolds to put in my flower box that hangs off the side of my deck, and another big succulent to add to my deck collection. 

When I got home, I went out to check the garden and found a jungle instead! The sunflowers are almost as tall as I am (Ok I'm not tall or anything, but come on, it's exciting!), we have 13 squash and 6 zucchini growing and about 5 cucumbers, 4 tomatoes, strawberries (that are super yummy), and herbs that were like trees! My cilantro was like a giant bush, so I chopped quite a bit off, along with some rosemary and chives. I used the rosemary and chives in some delicious chicken I made for lunch today, and have yet to use the cilantro, but I'm thinking about making some salsa tomorrow. The cilantro is SO fragrant, I think it's going to be very tasty. 

After I stopped by the farmers market today to help take down my work's booth, I decided I would go play with some puppies or kittens at the humane society since I am missing my Charlie so much. Not one dog was half as cute as him, but I did find this little gem. If I was allowed to have cats at my apartment, I would have taken this two month old baby home today. She was the sweetest. 

As I'd been sitting at home today thinking about what I should do with myself the rest of the day, I thought it would be fun to sew something, but thought I was all out of material. However, I looked in my sewing box and found a random piece of scrap I'd found at a thrift shop, and started researching easy sewing patterns. I found a pattern for a purse (it's really a satchel) and decided to go for it. I thought it would take up at least a few hours, but nope.. I banged that thing out in less than an hour somehow!I've impressed myself each time I start a project with how quickly I finish it!

Cilantro

Chives

Rosemary

Insert left strap into right strap...

Which closes it up!

Marigolds from my deck

Inside the flower box.

Portulaca

Portulaca

Such a delicate little rose!

Newest succulent addition. The picture doesn't do it justice. Such a pretty light lavender color.

Some succulents from my deck that are going crazy and need to be separated and re-potted.

Adorable little offshoots.

Suzy Homemaker

I have been such a bad blogger these last few days..but I have been so busy! I started my new internship yesterday. Orientation finished today, so tomorrow I'll actually get to start doing some marketing.

I got a new (ok, it's super old, but brand new to me) sewing machine from my fiance (he knew I had been wanting one so bad!!) and I have been busy! Yesterday I made a dress. It was the first thing I have sewn on a sewing machine since I was about 8 with my grandma. I  put together a sewing box over the last year and had some fabric I'd bought at a thrift store hoping to someday get a sewing machine, and finally put that fabric to use! I saw a tank top pattern online and thought I'd try that. Well, when I'd realized I had forgotten to cut more than one arm hole, and I'd already started sewing parts together, it was too late to cut another arm hole, so I decided to turn this thing into a dress! I don't know why, but somehow it turned out great! I turned the neck hole into a neck/arm hole so that it could be a dress with one shoulder strap. I made a longer hem on the bottom, and used the extra fabric to make a belt! I was so proud of myself. When I tried it on, it fit me perfectly too! So strange. Beginners luck I guess.

Tonight, I made a pillow. I didn't have enough filling to fill the whole pillow, so after it was already made and mostly all sewn together, I decided to add a couple inches of hem on the edges, and then all that extra space was taken up, and it looks good! I've made a couple pillows by hand as well that were pretty cute.

The one in the front is the one I made this evening. The one in the back is the one I did by hand, along with the pictures below.

Sunday evening, I went out to water and check on the garden. It is doing so good, and apparently loves the heat here. We have new tomatoes growing, new strawberries, giant sunflower plants (minus the flowers so far) and the corn is loving this terrain as well. Everything else is coming along great too.

This picture of 4 zucchini plants was taken about 3 weeks ago, and they are giant now!

This is a strange bug I found... anybody know what it is??

We have a ton of lady bugs! 

We have two cilantro plants that are doing great.

Mmm garlic chives.. can't wait to use some of these for cooking.

These are my growing sunflowers! Like I said, these photos are about three weeks old, so these guys are huge now!

This sunflower is one we planted as a small plant already, and it's taking off!

A nice little flowering coming up on a squash plant.

I already ate this strawberry a week ago when it turned red, it was so delicious!!

Hope you enjoyed reading my blog this week. There have been so many new changes this week, but I hope to get a routine going again by Friday!