Happy Holidays

Hello long lost blogging friends. Bet you though I fell off the earth, I did not. I just fell into the Hunger Games Series and also fell into watching season 1 of Grey's Anatomy. My apologies. Here is a picture of our Christmas tree. 

We/I got super excited and cut down a tree right after Thanksgiving. I was too anxious about putting all of the handmade ornaments on the tree to wait one second longer. Now that I have a nearly dead tree and more needles on the floor than on the tree I realize I should have waited. Oops. Live and learn I suppose. 

It sure is pretty though. I tested out some settings on the camera to get the lights to look cool; this is the best one I got. On another Christmas related note; here is a picture of Charlie and me that I think is positively hilarious. It was taken at our friend's holiday party. I convinced Charlie that we should dress up and he convinced me that we should wear blazers, then of course I had to add a holiday pin, and a cheesy pose. Would you vote for us if we ran for Senate?




Happy Holidays!

Lauren

Man Camp

My Dad and brother always make fun of Charlie for not knowing how to do "manly things." This past weekend, to remedy the situation they had "Man Camp." First my dad and Charlie fixed the sink in the kitchen; I read the comics. Next up was logging 101. There were a few dead/ nearly dead trees in the yard that needed to come down. Charlie got to use a chain saw to cut up some of the trees. I ran around the woods taking pictures of my ornaments. Then Charlie cut down a tree with an axe. Doesn't he look proud? 

Not to be outdone,  I cut down a (smaller) tree with an axe. It was pretty exhilarating. My arms are still sore. I am just glad I have all of my fingers and toes.

Man Camp concluded with venison Shepard's pie, and watching football on the couch. I ate the potatoes and corn and took a nap. 

Lastly, I was playing around the with camera and Garrett joked that I should take a few pictures of "a real man" so I snapped this one. It cracks me up, the Cassidy Adam's apple proudly on display beneath the worlds scruffiest beard. 

The next man camp will be all about splitting wood. I think I'll bring some knitting.

Lauren! 

Ornaments

I love homemade ornaments. A few years ago I started asking my mum for kits to make felt ornaments from one of my favorite blogs Posie Gets Cozy. The kits come with pattern pieces, the perfect amount of felt, embroidery floss, sequins, buttons and any other necessities to complete the project. Last year I made two ornaments over one lazy weekend, the year before I made two over my extended graduate school vacation, and this year I decided to get an early start and finish up the most recent kit before we got our tree. Each ornament takes quite a while to make but the details are really what make each one so special. 

This coat reminds me of one I had when I was little, which was not this sophisticated, but it was cute and I did have mittens with strings tied to the coat so I would not lose them. 

I experimented a lot with different pictures of each ornament and this was my favorite of the polar bear. Since the bear is only two pieces of felt it came together much faster than some of the other ornaments which take lots of different colors of felt and cutting etc. The polar bear did come with yarn to make the worlds tiniest scarf though, more on that later, once my fingers stop bleeding.

Last but not least, a lovely mug of hot chocolate. I'd love to spend a few winter nights snuggled up watching a movie sipping hot cocoa from a mug that cute.

There is one more ornament from the kit that I have to finish, the hardest of them all, so hopefully I can finish that up before we get a tree. Oh, and it is snowing out so my polar bear has been complaining non-stop about not having a scarf. Hopefully he'll pipe down once I get it all done.

Happy Wednesday!

Lauren

Hi Dad!

My Dad said I don't post enough so here are some pictures from this weekend. It would appear by looking at recent posts that all Charlie and I do on the weekends is search for waterfalls while I take a bazillion photos. That is correct. Oh, and nap. Wait, that's just me. This weekends adventures were Rainbow Falls, and Livermore Falls. Livermore Falls had more to look at and explore. At the falls there is an old run-down mill, a huge suspension bridge of some sort and a massive tipped over tree. The rocks by the falls were also really cool and had spirals and other formations cut out of them. Lots of the holes had frozen water in them, so I now have about 50 pictures of leaves frozen in water. Hope this keeps my reader(s) entertained. I have lots of sewing that I've been doing but alas it is all for Christmas. I will show some completed projects soon though. Promise.


Lauren

Welton Falls Hike

Charlie and I went hiking today. It was lots of fun, except when we had to take off our shoes roll up our pants and cross a freeeezing river. The waterfall we hiked to looks kind of small in the pictures but Charlie is hiding in the last picture, can you find him? The second picture is a close up of where he is standing in the forth picture. The area was very cool and had been carved out by rocks and glacier(s). I can't wait to go back in the summer when we can swim here. Don't worry though, even I am not stupid enough to think about jumping.

Sometimes I think I want to move to be closer to friends and family, but other times when we go exploring I think I want to stay here because there are so many cool places we've yet to see and experience.

Lauren

Fall Faux Suede Purse

After I finished the  Irene Purse I realized it was a bit spring-ish for the upcoming fall months so I set out to make a fall/winter purse. I started by "pinning" a bunch of pictures of purses I liked. See my inspirations here.  It seems that cross body purses are big this season, as well as leather...or maybe I just liked those looks and searched a lot of them. I really fell in love with this yellow purse from Urban Outfitters and even thought about buying it but then it was out of stock so I had to make my own version (now it is back in stock...figures.)

Let's just say that finding yellow faux leather material in Northern New Hampshire is not exactly a possibility but I did find some faux suede fabric in the bargain bin for $2 a yard! Sold. I still really had yellow on the brain though so I found some yellow cotton for the inside.

 I also looked for a pattern while I was at the fabric store but couldn't find one. The other day it rained all day long so I made up two prototypes for this purse and when I was satisfied I started sewing with the real fabric.

The best part about the purse is all of the details, at least I think so. It has a front pocket perfect for carrying a checkbook and pen, a pocket inside that fits my cell phone perfectly and an inside pocket that is the perfect size for my wallet and keys.

It even has a back zippered pocket to hold my flash drive and chap stick. I like that everything has it's own space and I never feel like I am searching for anything. I also like that the flap opens up and you can see everything inside, no dark abyss that hold all of my junk and is very hard to locate anything. I guess that's the benefit of thinking about the elements of a purse you want for 4 weeks and making your own pattern. 

The last element that I love is that the strap is adjustable so it can go from an under the arm purse to a cross body purse in a mater of seconds.

Here is my best try at a mirror self portrait. I still haven't mastered the don't scrunch your face up when looking trough the camera face.

The best part is the entire purse only cost $16, much better than a $39 purse from Urban Outfitters or $300 from Kate Spade.


Do you have any fall projects you've been working on?

Lauren


edit: I just added this to Friday Sew N' Tell.