Auf Wiedersehen 2009!

What a year it has been. Instead of writing an insanely long post about all the fun, exciting, and amazing things that I have done this year I decided to post 12 pictures of the highlights of the year. Except I couldn't cut it down to 12, so here are 16 pictures of all the fun things I did in 2009, in no particular order.

1. and 2. Ski trip at Loon. 3. Shannon's Baby Shower. 4. Charlie's Work Christmas Party.

5. The Grand Canyon/ Road Trip. 6. Hiking with Charlie. 7. Adventure with Mum. 8. Hanging out with Shannon and Zeke.

9. Halloween. 10. North Carolina Trip with Lorelei. 11. Welcome Dylan. 12. Braid Gang.

13. Half Marathon Runners. 14. Apple Fest Prize. 15. Turkey Trot. 16. Las Vegas Half Marathon Runners.

Here's to many more great experiences and a fantastic 2010!! Happy New Year!

Lauren

A Christmas Wrap Up

Why Hello everyone! I have had two wonderful Christmas celebrations. And got many excellent gifts! Two of those gifts I would like to share with you.

The first was from my dad; he bought Charlie and I a canoe!!!! How exciting. It is green and holds two people, or maybe more, and has 2 *paddles. I was so excited, and still am very excited about it. I wish the snow and ice would melt so I could go cruising in my new canoe. Charlie and I just need to buy life jackets because even though New Hampshire is the Live Free or Die state we still need life jackets. We also need to think of a name for the canoe, because it's bad luck to have a boat without a name, and sadly Jenny is already taken, perhaps Jenny 2 will work. Oh and we also need to learn how to steer a canoe, since neither of us know how. It would be quite typical for Charles and I to set out on our first canoeing adventure on Great Bay with no clue how to steer and then ending up in Venezuela 10 days later. So although it goes against my genetic make-up to read directions or ask for help I will be learning to steer the canoe before I do anything drastic or stupid.

After my dad showed my the canoe on Christmas day he pulled out this picture:

It is him exactly 30 years ago on Christmas day 1979. His parents bought him a canoe. And there is some long story about that stuffed person in the canoe with him who he named Mr. Lupiner, but I won't get into that.

Anyways, we decided to attempt to re-create the picture 30 years later. Here is it:

We didn't have a stuffed man hanging around because Mr. Lupiner died when he was shot with a flaming arrow so Garrett had to do.

Afterwards we figured that since it was winter and we couldn't go for a canoe ride we might as well put the canoe to good use and sled down our hill. Here's Garrett and Dad on one trip down.

And here is a video of Garrett and I on one trip down. It was quite exhilarating.

Now on to my other great present. I can hardly contain my excitement so here it is:

A serger!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurray. For those of you who don't know what a serger is look at the seam on the shirt you are wearing at this very second; that my friend was made with a serger.

I was extremely excited when I opened this gift from my Mum. When she told me the big gift was for me and told me to guess what is was I said "A toaster oven?" and she said "Oh no, how did you guess?" and had a really sad look upon her face which made me believe that it was a toaster oven. Then it was a serger instead, my Mum is such a good fibber/actress.

The next day I set it up on the kitchen table and without reading the directions began to serge and proceeded to mess up the serger instantaneously. I then spent the next hour and a half re-threading the entire thing and reading the entire manual in the process.

I suppose the Christmas lesson I learned this year is to read the manual/know what you are doing before you start, and I am glad that I learned that lesson on the serger and not in a canoe on my way to Venezuela.

Lauren!

Signs of Christmas

More than ever this year I have been thinking about traditions and things I want to do around Christmas time when I have my own house and family. I made a mental list and even talked to Charlie about what he wanted...to show that I sometimes care. Then I came home and realized that all the things I want to do are things that I have been seeing every Christmas all my life.

Candles in every window of the house.

Homemade stockings for family members hung on the mantel, thank you Frank (that's my grandfather, he is a skilled embroider-er. He made these for my brother and I.)


A beautiful tree with big retro Christmas lights and a medley of homemade and sentimental ornaments.

My future traditions have an origin; and now I am off to enjoy being home for the holidays.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Lauren

Working in the Cellar

I'm at home in Hancock which means I can sit by a warm fireplace, read all I want, bake cookies, surf the internet with my brother finding hilarious websites, and also hang out in the cellar with all the tools.

I like making things, in case you hadn't noticed. I was trying to make 2 things for the holidays with Dad and Garrett's help and then there was this piece of wood just sitting in front of me and all of a sudden it told me that it wanted to be a candle holder and I needed to drop everything and make it into one. And I did.

Here it is. It was quite simple indeed, I cut the two ends with a saw (surprise surprise Garrett and Daddy let me use the saw....with their supervision). And then I drilled holes in it with the drill press, my favorite piece of machinery of all time. And then I was done.


Now I just have to move to an apartment/house that allows candles so I can use it.
Lauren!

More Ornaments!

I found a free pattern online today to make these cute little birds. I hit print and quickly dug through my scrap box and started working.

Aren't they adorable? This one is made from some scraps of my advent calendar.

And this one is made from some AB scraps left over from a present I made for a friend (but I can't tell yet!)
I took a break to take these pictures and post but now I am going to get back to work and make some more! The only problem is that the ones I decide to keep will have to wait until next year to go on a tree because our 2 foot tall tree is too small and full for anymore ornaments!
Enjoy the snow!
Lauren

EDIT: I just added this to the Homespun Holiday Sew N Tell, check it out

Wreath Ornament: How To

I've been on an ornament making spree ever since finals ended. I got an idea to make these wreaths with some green felt I had. It was very easy and here is how I did it in case you want to make one for your tree.
Materials:

• Green Felt.
• Scissors and wire cutters or a Leatherman.
• Green wire, I don't know what gauge, but it's thin.
• Ribbon (red).

1. Cut the felt into one inch strips:
2: Cut those strips into squares. They don't need to be perfect, the less perfect the better.
3. Take the wire and poke the tip though the center of the squares. I did it one at a time. Do that until you have enough squares to make a circle. (Charlie said this step was boring, but I find it relaxing.) I didn't use all of the squares, but Charlie did, it just depends on how big or small you want the wreath to be.
4. Make a circle, twist the wire tightly then cut the ends and tuck them down to hide between the squares.
5. Make a bow out of ribbon and sew it onto the wreath. Add a wire ornament hanger and put it on your tree!
I took a break from shoveling snow to do a little photo shoot with the wreaths that Charlie and I have made:
I can't help by sing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" when I look a these ornaments.
Merry merry
Lauren!

Things to do after Christmas:

1. Make a doll quilt. I don't have any dolls and I don't know who I want to make it for, I just want to.
2. Make the Sorbet quilt that has been sitting cut into squares in a corner for 5 months now.
3. Finish knitting scarf that was started in August.
4. Work on cross stitch that was started in August (2008.. {notice I said work on, not "finish". At least I am being realistic.})
5. Read a book for fun, and finish it before it is due back at the library.
6. Organize sewing area and sewing supplies storage area (which happens to be the space under the end table.)
   
7. Make an apron from the "A is for Apron" book. There is one called the "Lorelei" and it is calling my name.... I wonder why?
8. Relax. Which is something I have been wanting to do for a while now and whenever I decide to take a few minutes to myself I remember all the things I have to do and start getting heart palpitations.
   

And now to finish this random post here are some pictures from our trip to Las Vegas:

Polar Bears on display in the Belagio, made completely out of flowers.

Charlie and I with a snowman made out of flowers and seeds and beans.

Now I am off to Charlie's work Christmas Party. Oh what to wear!!!
Lauren!

Half Marathon Recap

Me, Charlie, Danielle, Jay and Meera

Well I don't know where exactly to start so I will just start. Whenever I go anywhere Jaclyn always asks me to tell her the top 5 best and worst of the trip so that's how I will organize this post about the half.

I feel somewhat negative at the moment, it might be the extreme amount of lactic acid in my legs and my sore back and the fact that one of my ears hasn't "popped" back to normal since the flight home but I'll begin with top 5 worst of the race.

1. There were a lot of people. It was a half and a full so total there were about 25,000 people. I am a country gal and I get agitated/ nervous when there are a lot of people around. During the race it wasn't so bad, there was always enough room for me to run it was the post race amount of people that scared me. I didn't run with a cell phone or a room key so once I finished and couldn't find Charlie at the designated area I began to panic a bit, and then once I did find him I decided to cry loudly in front of all those people (but that wasn't the first time I cried, read on...)

2. The finish line was at Mandalay Bay hotel/casino. The problem was that you could see said hotel from about two miles away. I felt like Mandalay Bay was taunting me and wanted me to give up. Mandalay Bay was like a mirage on the Las Vegas desert horizon, I thought I would never reach it. By about mile 12 I decided that I would never get there and I would be stuck running forever, that was when the tears started welling up in my eyes. All along the course there were people taking pictures to post on the site so you can buy them later and show your friends. For the first half I would see the photographers and smile or try to look like I was all that and then some; let's just say I won't be purchasing any pictures from mile 12.

3. There was staggered starts. So all 25,000 people didn't start at the same time, which is good because I would have probably gotten stomped to death if that were true. However, when there are staggered starts you have no idea who started before or after you. In a race when everyone starts at the same time if someone passes me then that means they are beating me and I get angry and try to pass them (or at least hope they get a severe cramp). Yet in this situation whenever someone passed me I justified it in my head by saying "oh it's okay, that person started sooner than I did, they aren't beating me"....when they very well could have been beating me.)

4. No one cheered for me. I tried to be happy with strangers cheering for me and standing on the side giving me high fives, (which is very nice by the way, thanks all you nice strangers) but it didn't cut it for me. Everyone I knew in Las Vegas was running the race so I had no one on the sides cheering for me. I guess I am not very intrinsically motivated when it comes to sports (I always dove best when my Mum or Dad was watching me). It feels good to have someone you know up ahead who will yell to you and say nice things and be at the finish line waiting for you. That was depressing; finishing and having no one there to say "hurray you did it!" I think that just means I should only run races where I can force my parents to come see me.

5. I didn't make friends with anyone in the race. In the last one I met a woman who was running the same pace as me and we talked for more than half the race, but not in Vegas. I just couldn't find someone who was nice and was running the same pace as me. In fact I don't even remember running in the same group of people for any length of time. I think this might be because of the staggered start and me not being in the place I should have been based on my time (I was in a slower start group than I actually should have been, so I ended up passing a lot of people, not really a way to make friends).

Now on to the good stuff.

1. Being able to run on a 4 lane road that is usually hustling and bustling 24/7 was pretty cool. Not to mention running past some of the most expensive hotels in the world. All the lights and signs were entertaining to see as well. Oh and some of the hotels had the race on their jumbo screens so you could see the fast people and the huge crowds in front of you and also behind.

2. The race went up the strip then back down, this means I got to see Charlie running twice and cheer for him and tell everyone around me "That's my boyfriend, he's wicked fast!!!!"

3. Las Vegas is flat so running there is easier than running in New Hampshire, where the hills are numerous.

4. There were fireworks at the beginning of the race. Nothing gets my blood pumping like the smell of sulfur at 6 am. (Must be the fact that I am the daughter of a fireman and a firework loving mom.)

5. The people in the race were certainly more entertaining than most people in races I have run. There were more people dressed up like Elvis than I could count. One man wore a speedo and bow tie, some people didn't wear shoes, I saw one man wearing a huge brimmed cowboy hat, and lots of couples ran the race and stopped along the way to get married. They were very cute, I liked the brides who wore veils. There were also people who pushed strollers, not filled with kids but with coolers of beer and boomboxes. (I hope none of these people beat me, but they very well might have).


Anyways I made you wait this long for the results so here they are:

• Charlie ran 13.1 miles in 1:16:03 and was 38th overall and 36th for his gender, which means that 2 women kicked his butt (if I can't do it am am glad someone could).
• I finished in 1:56:18 which is 4 minutes faster than my last one and I am pretty excited about it. I consider anything less than 2 hours a miracle. My place was 2630.
• Charlie's dad, John finished in 2:16:20 and his brother Jay and his girlfriend Meera finished in 2:16:30 and 31 but because of the staggered start they finished 10 minutes before John (see that staggered start is very wacky and can play tricks with your mind)
• And Charlies sister Danielle finished in 3:33:23. She was smart and had a cell phone and was able to call us and let us know she was going to finish soon so we could go cheer for her. I think that gave her the extra umph to sprint to the finish.
  

All and all it was a good race and I was glad to have had the opportunity to do it and I had a lot of fun with Charlie and his family and am very grateful to have been taken along for the ride, or run.

Goodnight.
Lauren
p.s. I'll post a picture tomorrow (I am too busy eating ice cream now.)

Lots to Say

Well I have been buzzing around like crazy lately and now at a time when I thought I would be doing more crazy buzzing I have some free time so I will catch everyone up on the details of life, since I know all 5 of you care a lot. Here goes:
1. Thanksgiving in Maine was great. It was fun spending time with all of my family. A bunch of us ran a 5 k on thanksgiving morning. Garrett ran with me for the first 2.5 miles then he left me in the dust. There were 6 runners in all and we had a cheering squad of 5 people, Macy cheered the loudest:

Here are all the finishers and supporters:

Garrett and I jumped in the lake after the race, but I have no pictures on my camera of the incident so I'll have to get pictures from my Mum to prove it!
2. My first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian was quite easy, much to my surprise.
3. Charlie and I have begun adventing. (I made that word up). It has been enjoyable thus far. Also I have been waiting to tell until it was safe; I made Lorelei an advent calendar as well....I know, I'm crazy. I send it to her in Iraq with specific instructions to not open it until the 1st, but she did, oh well. I am just glad she likes it! Here it is:

4. I sent my ornaments for the ornament exchange and then yesterday I got some from my swap partner! I am so excited she sent three tiny little scenes. I love them and they look super cute on our tiny fake tree. She also sent me a bar of soap from her company, it smells like candy canes, but should not be licked even if you really want to (yuck).



5. School is almost over, and I could not be more thrilled. (Although my joy has been pushing my desire to do school work onto the back burner).
6. And the biggest news of all is that in about 45 minutes Charlie and I are leaving to go to Las Vegas. We are running a half marathon with Charlie's whole family. I am very excited. I have been preparing for this half marathon since July (my initial thoughts about the matter are quite hilarious to look back on). I have actually enjoyed training for this race. Before July I had never run over 5 miles, and now I have run over 10 miles more times than I can count. Training forced me to take time to myself, and running 12 miles takes a lot of time. I have never liked listening to music when I run so I really am all by myself on these long runs with just my thoughts, and it has been very good for me to have those times during the week when I am free to think about whatever I want. I have also really enjoyed seeing the seasons change from back roads and trails. Charlie always talks about how much he loves running on trials and now I can say I understand his affections. It's also a good way to get to know a small town, the other day I saw about 6 families setting up Christmas decorations, it made me happy.
Alright we are off, wish me luck!
Lauren

Secret Recipe!

By request I have decided to let everyone know the secret recipe for the Sticky Buns that my family makes for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:
-1 frozen bread dough (found in the frozen section at the grocery store)
-Light Brown Sugar
-1 Stick of Margerine or Butter
-Cinnamon
-Nutmeg
-Nuts (Walnuts or Pecans)
-Flour
1. Defrost bread dough and let it rise.
2. Roll out bread dough on a floured surface. This takes a while and a lot of muscle, but you can do it! Make sure the dough is pretty flat and kind of a rectangle shape.

3. In a sauce pan melt the stick of butter, once it is melted you can add about half a cup of brown sugar, a few shakes of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. I never measure but basically you want the mixture to be goopy.
4. Sprinkle the bread dough with cinnamon and nutmeg then pour almost all of the butter and brown sugar mixture onto the flat dough.
5. Roll the dough into a tube, make sure the butter doesn't spill out!
6. In a 9x9 glass pan spread chopped nuts on the bottom of the pan. Or if you don't want to use nuts you should just spray the pan with Pam.
7. Cut the tube into 1.5 inch sections and lay the sections into the pan. Be sure to spread them out so they aren't touching. Then you can pour the rest of the butter/brown sugar mix on top of them.

8. Cover the buns with a dish towel and let them rise for about 15 minutes. (If the oven is on I usually put them on top of the stove so the heat will help them rise)
9. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until the edges are golden.
10. Once the pan has cooled a little flip the buns over onto a nice plate and enjoy!!!!

I made a frosting for these ones, that isn't in the family recipe but Charlie and Lizzie wanted frosting so I made it. The frosting was made with half a stick of melted margarine, some milk, vanilla and confectioner sugar, just stir in those ingredients until you get the right consistency.
I hope you all enjoy my recipe and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Lauren

** Edit: November 27th.
I have added this to the "Sew-N-Tell over on Amy's Blog which for this week has been converted into a "Bake/Cook-N-Tell". I'm looking forward to finding some new delicious recipies for next year or for Christmas, alhough I will probably make Charlie cook them!**

Giveaway!

I have heard through the blogosphere, as Charlie likes to call it, that there is a giveaway over on Penny's blog. She is trying to get enough virtual signatures to get a fabric line that I had never heard of reprinted, because it was so popular. I just looked at some of the fabric, called Flea Market Fancy, and boy oh boy can I see why it is so sought after, it's great! To enter the giveaway you have to "sign" a petition and then you can get entered to win 29 fat quarters and quilting books! Who wouldn't want to enter? Click the link below, you know you want to.




Have a good night! And everyone please be sure to enjoy your Sunday, because I will be stuck inside a classroom learning all day, breath some fresh air for me!
Lauren!

It's Done! Friday Sew-N-Tell

Last night I was puttering around and my advent calendar was in the corner of my sewing area (I say area, but it's more like a huge messy pile). Then I realized how few days there are until the 1st of December and that kicked me into high gear to finish the advent calendar. And last night at 11:30 I did!:

*Thanks to my long john wearing helper for holding it up for a photo shoot

moments after waking up.

I ended up tying the quilt, I loved all the ideas everyone posted last week, but I just had the need/desire to try tying a quilt. It was harder than I thought, but I like how it turned out. Someone asked last week if the fabric was Figgy Pudding and the answer is yes. I love it. I wish I had yards and yards of it.

I decided to make a list of things I learned when making this calendar so that I could have something to look back on in case I forget:

• Tying takes less time that machine or hand quilting, but you should still use a hoop to keep it tight, otherwise you will snip about half of the ties because they are too bumpy.
• When doing applique, leave a little bit of applique paper and fabric extra from your cut out design so that when you peal the paper off the fabric that you want to show doesn't fray, and you can just snip off the extra fabric that may have frayed a little. Also don't cut your fingernails before trying to peal off applique paper, that will just drive you crazy.
• Use a zigzag stitch around the appliqued fabric to keep it from fraying.
• If you don't have a pattern be sure to stop before every cut and make sure you aren't going to totally screw something up.
• Hand stitch the binding, it really doesn't take that long, and you can watch the Project Runway finale while you do it.

Speaking of hand stitching the binding does anyone have any hints for doing the corners of the binding? I always try to miter the corners but they turn out a little more messed up than I like to admit. I would love to hear any suggestions or tips. See....I need help!

Now I just have to get my dad to cut me a strip of wood to use to hold the calendar to the wall, then start filling it with goodies. Charlie and I have agreed to take turns filling the pockets, he get a gift one day, I get a gift the next and so on until Christmas!

Can't wait to see everyone else's finishes over at the Sew-N-Tell.

Lauren

Friday Sew-N-Tell (Friday the 13th!!)

I can't show any projects that I am making for the holidays for my friends and family, but I can show things I made for myself for the holidays! Here is the top of an advent calendar that I have been working on.I didn't realize how crooked day 23 was until I took this picture, oh well, now you know it is homemade. I used fat quarters I got in NC and I spent about 30 minutes searching a quilt shop with my mom for an olive green color for the backing. And the yard of fabric that I "ruined" was going to be the backing of the calendar, but like I said I ruined it, so I ordered more online, and it came in yesterday. I will prewash it tonight and then get "quilting" tomorrow, and it will hopefully be done by December 1st so Charlie and I can start adventing. If anyone has any ideas on how to "quilt" this I would love to hear them. I was thinking of tying it, but haven't decided yet.

I didn't use a pattern (see reason why here) , I just based mine on a picture I found online and used almost every single scrap of fabric I had since I totally guessed about the yardage I would need. Call me crazy, I told myself I was insane at least 10 times during the making of this project.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has made over at the Sew-N-Tell.

Have a great day everyone!

Lauren

Thank You

Thinking of all the veterans in my life who I love and respect.

Lauren

Ornament Exchange? Why not?

I, much to my surprise, had most of the day off today. After spending much longer than I should have trying to figure out what to wear, and then settling for a sub par outfit, forcing Charlie to make me lunch since I was running late, and realizing my car was running on fumes and stopping to get gas, I checked my phone and had a message telling me that everyone was out today and I would have no supervision; and therefore didn't have to go to the school. To think of all the time i could have saved... oh well, a happy surprise. I only had class from 8:40 until 11 and then a free day at my fingertips. Which is lucky based on how yucky I have been feeling the last few hours. Anyways, it was also lucky that I had the time off because I was able to come straight home and got a to chat online with Lorelei!!! Hurray. It was certainly the best part of my day.

Then I started feeling crapy and searching for fun ideas online; if you can't do anything crafty you might as well think about crafty things and find crafty ideas. And then I stumbled upon these holiday themed tutorials and this, an Ornament Exchange. How exciting. I'm number 133. You should all join, it sounds like a lot of fun (plus then I can share some of my holiday ideas with people I don't know and not ruin the holiday surprises I have in store for my family and friends.) I can't wait!!

Off to hydrate myself and pray I am not dying, and also search the web for more awesome Ideas.

Lauren!

Friday Sew-N-Tell

I was so inspired by Amy's post about sewing a dress to wear tonight, that yesterday when I read it I decided I should make something. I have been working on Christmas presents, but can't show them off so I thought it would be a nice break to make a little something for myself. And who doesn't love that?

I dug through my box of fabric and came upon an orangish fabric that I have had since high school probably and was never really fond of, until last night! I have seen a cool little clutch somewhere that is basically just a tube that folds down and buttons closed. Sans pattern or measurements I set out to make one and an hour later voila!

I found the button in my button tin, which I acquired from the dump a few years ago and have added to ever since. It is the spare to a sweater that I have, I hope I don't lose one off the sweater and have to replace it with this one, because I really like the way it looks!

The button and loop are a little off center, but I like to wonky look (and it's a good thing, since most of my projects tend to turn out a little wonky!)

I look forward to Fridays a little bit more now that I can see, and be inspired by everyone else in the Sew-N-Tell.

Have a great weekend!

Lauren

Recent Oversight

I have been working away feverishly on things for the Handmade Christmas, and then it stuck me....everyone I am making present for reads my blog. Drat. Guess I won't be posting any tutorials or fun pictures of all of my handmade gifts until after Christmas.

Also I recently destroyed a yard of fabric, I'm not very happy with myself. And now I am contemplating whether or not I should go searching for a replacement fabric or just order the one I want online and pay shipping. Decisions decisions.

Lastly, my very bestest friend Lorelei left the U.S. to go to Iraq this week. I am sad that she left but mostly I am very proud of her. Lorelei likes quilting too, she's much better than me, and she took supplies to make 3 quilts while she is gone. My only fear is that I will be sending packages of thread, wonder under, and scraps of fabric to her every other week. I think (and hope) she is prepared, but I will send her anything she wants or needs! *hear that Lorelei!

Anyways, now that it is November I think it's okay to tell everyone I am working on Christmas things, but like I said, I can't show you any of them! All I can tell you is that I am working on them :) And you'll just have to wait.

Have a good day!

Lauren

Friday Sew-n-Tell

Hello all! Yesterday was a pretty unpleasant day. The school I am interning at somehow lost it's plumbing capabilities. The toilets wouldn't flush and the water fountains wouldn't work. At first I thought; "Oh it's okay, I can wait an hour to go to the bathroom." 3 hours later I was not so sure, and by then end of the day I thought I might go into renal failure, if that's possible. I can't even imagine how the little kids at the school felt, although there was a lot of complaining coming from the hallway. At the end of the day I was very excited to get the heck out of there and rush home to you know....but then the principal announced that the plumbing would not be fixed for a while and there was no school tomorrow! Hurray I almost peed my pants with excitement! Long weekend for Lauren!

I got home and decided to kick off my long weekend by finishing up some sewing projects I have been working on. The woman I babysit for let mer borrow her copy of Sublime Stitching so I have been doing some fun embroidery. I decided to put the fun little scraps to good use and make some fancy dishtowels.

I made 2 sets of 2, this is only one. The other set I can't show because it will be a Christmas present for someone. But I can show these two for Amy's Sew-N-Tell.

Now I am off to do nothing on my unexpected day off!

Can't wait to see what everyone else made!

Lauren

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is upon us. Today Charlie and I went to 4 stores searching for elements for his Halloween costume. I will update after the party with pictures of his costume; but I will just tell you that it is great. Today I also remembered we have had two pumpkins sitting around since my fall adventure back in September. While Charles was cooking dinner tonight I was busy gutting and carving our two pumpkins. I started with the small one first, and am not that happy with my results. We have very nice knives, today Charlie said; "You're going to carve a pumpkin with a 40 dollar knife!!!!" And carve away I did. I blame the nice 40 dollar knife for my poor quality carve job on the first one:But I also think the small size of the pumpkin also had a negative impact, as well as that fact that I drew the design on the pumpkin with sharpie and was forced to cut that out so that sharpie wouldn't show. It's cute but nothing to write home about. After the unsatisfying results on the first one I was a little hesitant about the second. I was going to just do another face, but Charlie convinced me that I had more artistic talent and should try something else,"branch out" he said. We came up with some ideas, like that state of New Hampshire, or The Old Man in the Mountain. Then I found a picture online and decided to do a haunted house:
The shapes are all straight cuts and then a lot of just carving away excess, so it was more my style and easier than trying to get curved cuts.

I also tried a new technique that I made up. I drew the outline on a plastic bag with a sharpie and then duct taped it to the pumpkin and used that as the outline and cut through the plastic and the bag. That way you don't have to draw on the pumpkin and be stuck cutting things out since there is sharpie all over them. I was surprised Charles did not yell at me for cutting plastic with our nice knives.
They both look pretty nice on our counter. And the apple spice tea candles burning inside smell very nice too :)

Has anyone else carved pumpkins recently?
Have a great night!

Lauren

I Knew There was a Reason I Bought the Praxis Book so Early....

Making it higher means I have to hunch less, so I can sew for hours and hours. Which is exactly what I did today. At 5 o clock I felt my stomach rumbling and realized it was 5 and I had been sewing for the last 3 hours without stopping! Don't you just love being so engrossed in a project that you don't even realize how much time has passed?

I spent my Sunday exactly how I wanted to, I hope everyone else had a very happy fall day too!

Lauren