Weekend Adventures

This weekend Charles and I went hiking. It was fantastic! We went to Alton Bay and hiked Mt. Major. There was a beautiful view of Lake Winnipesaukee. 

We must always take a required mountain top photo (I think Charlie is upset that I figured out how to use the timer on the camera so we don't have to ask someone else to take our picture, which means I can veto the bad ones and make him pose for 4+ pictures until we get a good one). Here is it:

I ran 5 miles today, 2.5 of them were in the pouring rain. I have found that if I smile when a car drives by they don't feel bad for me or ask me if I want a ride home. At first I thought it was because I looked like I was enjoying running in the rain, but then I realized how crazy I looked and I think the people think I look crazy too, and don't want to give a crazy wet person a ride in their nice car. As soon as I set foot in the house the rain stopped. 

For the rest of the day I am planning to work on the baby project, quilt, read, and avoid thinking about the impending doom that will come tomorrow when my professors ask me to remember everything I have learned the last 5 years of college and actually apply this knowledge in therapy!!!! AHHHH. 

Wish me luck!

Lauren 

Getting Paid to Quilt??! Could Life Be Any Better?

I love babysitting at night. The kids are asleep, you have free rein over the fancy flat screen TV, and you can quilt uninterrupted for 3 hours, all while getting paid. I finished the 3rd of 7 rows of the quilt while watching Sex and the City on the fancy channel. Here is the close up of the stitching I promised. I don't think this picture does it justice. Although hand stitching takes a long time (much longer than machine quilting) I think it is worth it, even if I am the only one who appreciates it.

Here is the back side. I would like to tell you that I had planned for this cool 8 sided star design to be on the back, but it was just a very happy accident. I love it.
Also, yesterday Charlie came home from work with this free hat. The velcro on the back had come unstitched and so someone returned it to the store and the company didn't want it back so Charlie brought it home. I fixed it this morning and ran it under cold water....that kills lice right? (probably not, oh well, I don't feel itchy) I wore it running today, and I felt like a real runner. I think it was the little logo that gave me the extra umph. 

Now I am going to try to read on the balcony, lets see if this can be less of a catastrophe than last week.

Lauren!

Updates on Life

Hello everyone!

My long weekend was quite eventful, and long. I decided not to check my e-mail for 4 days and came home to 47 new e-mails. I think some people were kind of mad at me, but oh well. Everyone needs so time off every now and then.

Some updates on life:

1. I did get the note back. I used some duct tape wrapped sticky side out around a broom handle. The mission was accomplished at 5:42 am, when I woke up to go running and before the obnoxious neighbors were awake.

2. I painted a picture. I gave it to my mom. She said she'll hang it in her office. Here it is:

3. I went to Orono and saw my old school buddies. One friend is pregnant, the other is her husband. They have a house, two new cars and good jobs. They make me feel very unsuccessful. But I am happy that they are happy, and their baby will be extra cute.

4. My other friends decided to get engaged and wait 5 months to tell me. Hum.....Congrats to you two forgetful people. 

5. I have decided to stop watching Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I think they are dumb, and I don't agree with them using their lives and, sadly, their children's lives to make money. This goes along the same lines of me not reading magazines about the Octo-mom. People can be so outrageous in their attempts to make a buck. I am thinking about canceling the cable to keep me from breaking my promise. 

6.  The biggest update of all my Mom and Grammy and I went to a quilt shop in Madison Maine. It was lovely. I wish to own a quilt shop someday. The women who worked there were very nice to me. One particularly nice woman asked me if I needed any help, then she was roped into guiding me around the store for 20 minutes asking ''How about this one?" and hearing me give some excuse like: "I hate Batik" or "Um No" or "That color makes me want to barf". Finally we found the right combinations, much to my mothers delight (Grammy had retired to the car to read the Rolling Thunder, and avoid being bothered by my picky-ness.) Upon returning to the house I quickly laundered the fabric and stated working. After 6 hours I had the quilt all put together and I have one whole row hand-stitched together= Great satisfaction. This picture isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. I love the back fabric, it's a very pretty dark pinkish/purple. The hand-stitching looks very pretty, and very hand-stitchy, if you get my drift (I'll post more pictures later of the stitching). 

7. My last life update is that I have been assigned clients for clinic!!!! This starts next Monday. HIPPA prevents me from divulging confidential information on my blog about these said clients but I am excited about starting nonetheless. 

Let's hope the sun comes out sometime soon, I am beginning to go a little crazy.

Lauren!

P.S .the fused plastic giveaway is still on so become a follower of my blog and you could have a chance of winning it when I am done!

My apartment is too Small!

Well Yesterday after the balcony incident I hid inside and finished putting the border around my quilt. I think it looks great. Now I have to figure out how many yards I need for the back, and also spend 45 minutes figuring out which fabric to buy to do the back...My mum hates this! I am going to Maine to see her this weekend, maybe she will take me, but maybe not now that I have said it will take me  a long time to choose.I also have to do the backing while I am in Maine because my quilt has outgrown my apartment, see below:
Not enough room to move around. And also no hard flooring to tape the 3 layers down to work on. I hope Mum and Rich are getting excited for me to take up a huge area of space working on my quilt this weekend. :) 

This picture also makes me realize how dirty our apartment is. Good thing Charlie has the day off from work and has been begged to clean, we'll see if he does.

Have a sunny Day!

Lauren

Success at 5:42 am

The Awkward Life of Lauren Cassidy

Today was a marvelous day. I was stuck inside most of the morning/afternoon for a  "clinical orientation" for school. After racing home I decided to go on the balcony and soak up some rays. I had been thinking that if I brought my computer out there and stated playing my music before the neighbor played his that he would think to himself, "My nice next door balcony neighbor Lauren is listening to her nice music, I will just sit here in peace and enjoy her music and not play my obnoxious music, because that would be rude". Well lets just say these thoughts never crossed his mind. Nope. Instead he turns up the base on his techno crap and lights up a cigarette. Maybe I could deal with the acoustic trash if I didn't also have to deal with the constant second hand smoke as well. 

Well, my measly computer speakers were no match for his sub-wuffer, so I grabbed my headphones and hoped to catch some last glorious rays before the sun went behind the trees. At this point I realized that his music was shaking the wall and the floor! I promptly took out my frustration by kicking the wall that separates our balconies several times. I realize this wasn't the smartest thing to do but it lead to my next discovery....HE WASN'T EVEN ON THE BALCONY! No, he had left apparently to run errands, I should have noticed by the lack of second hand smoke entering my lungs. Needless to say I was very angry. Instead of committing the felony I have been contemplating for the last 3 weeks of sneaking over there and breaking those speakers, I instead wrote a strongly worded letter. (Mind you my idea of a strongly worded letter includes the words "please", "inconsiderate", and "thanks") I folded the note and threw it over the dividing wall. Just to be sure the note would be noticed I checked it's placement. Well lets just say the note is not in a noticeable place, no it is behind a lawn chair, in a corner, near a bunch of spider webs. Crap. I contemplated what to do about this situation for about 20 minutes. If I left the note there, they might find it soon, but probably not, that means they would find it weeks or months later. I don't think I can wait that long to resolve this issue.  I also didn't want to keep anticipating the day they would find it and then have some verbal/physical altercation with me in regards to a note I forgot I even wrote. 

The possible options ran through my head like this:  I could climb over there and retrieving the note. But this could be considered breaking and entering (although neither would be exactly what I did....but it could be none the less considered a crime, and if you remember the note was written to avoid committing a crime). Then I remembered that my landlord had mentioned that if there was a fire in our apartment we were supposed to climb over the wall onto their balcony and escape the flames. Should I light fire to my apartment to retrieve the note and avoid criminal charges? No that's dumb. Arson is a crime too. I also realized that we are on the second floor and there is a nice hard concrete walkway for me to land on if I fell. I know, I know, I used to be a diver, I shouldn't be afraid of heights, but I don't think you people realize how many times I fell off of 3 meter or fell down the ladder. Anyways I digress, my next thought was to get some kitchen contraptions like tongs or a broom with some duct tape on the end to fetch my note. At this point I was convinced that my note had anti-semitic wording in and an array of f words, and felt a desperate desire to get the note before I was carted off to jail for a hate crime. (I forgot to mention my neighbors a gay, I have nothing against gay people, unless of course they smoke and listen to obnoxious music at maximum volume). 

I ran to the kitchen to search for appropriate tools, tongs in hand I crammed my arm through a space in the wall and wished my arms or the tongs were 4 inches longer. At this point of desperation I saw something in the corner of my eye moving on the walkway below me. It was my neighbor! On no! Crap, double crap. Hide was the only word that came to mind. He had definitely seen me quickly retract my arm/upper torso from his side of the balcony with metal shiny tongs in hand. Now I was hiding behind the wall, waiting to hear him enter his apartment so I could retreat to mine. Once I heard the blessed sound of the door opening I sprinted inside and closed the blinds. "Why didn't I just ask him to turn the music down? Why did I have to write some stupid note?!?! Why didn't I just ask him to hand back my note? Why am I so awkward??!?" were my next thought to myself. 

Now I am hiding in my apartment waiting for Charlie to come home and tell me what to do. Then I can ignore his advice and wake up at midnight, put on black clothes, and try the broom with duct tape idea until I get my note back. That is in less the neighbor has already found it and in a show of male dominance and annoying-ness has decided to continue playing cochlea damaging techno.

This is just one example of all the awkward things that have happened to me in that last few weeks. I feel like I am getting more awkward by the second. I thought I was supposed to grow out of this stage in life! At least I haven't tripped lately (now I have jinxed myself).

Off to pick out a black outfit....I wonder if I own a black ski mask?

~Lauren

Plastic Fusion

Yesterday after spending 5+ hours on my final I rewarded myself with a plastic fusion experiment. Now most sane people would not think that melting plastic bags together and omitting potentially harmful chemicals in the air would be a "reward". But I am not "most people" and also not very "sane". Any-how I had a blast creating my own plastic fabric. If you would like to try I used this video tutorial and this regular tutorial. My one suggestion is to use an iron you don't like...I rephrase that, use an old iron as long as you have a new/ better one (who really likes irons/ ironing?) I can't show anymore picture of my creations because I am planning to give away my plastic creation to one of my blog readers. (So all 9 of you can hang in suspense until I finish it and send it to one of you). 

I also wanted to let everyone know that I am pretty sure this fusion didn't omit harmful toxins into the air of my apartment, so I still have all my brain cells, and no ozone was damaged in this experiment. I love the environment

Now to avoid doing school work and work on my quilt!

Hasta Luego! 

Lauren

Amy Butler...I'm in Love

 Yesterday was Market Square Day in Portsmouth. This means the main roads were closed down and stores had tents in the street and there were lots of people there with crafts and stuff. I wandered around all the tents looking for good craft ideas. Sadly, all of the sewn things I saw were things I have already done (10 minute head bands), or purses that looked like my brother sewed them. I honestly think I could have sewed a better purse with my eyes closed, or one arm tied behind my back...okay maybe not, but you get my drift.  Charles and I had plans to meet at 5 when he was done working so once I was done wandering the outside tents I walked around some more and ended up at the Portsmouth Fabric Co. again. I remembered my pledge from earlier in the week and decided I would just browse. WORD OF ADVICE: never, never, never go into a wonderful fabric store with intentions to only browse. Duh! 

I have been hearing about Amy Butler since I first started reading sewing blogs, and I was interested. While "browsing" I stumbled upon an entire section of Amy Butler fabrics, and I instantly feel in love. 

If I were getting married I think I would register for 2 yards of every fabric Amy Butler ever made (is this allowed? I'm thinking about it, seriously). It's pretty expensive, I'll have to make rich friends. Basically I stood in this section of Amy Butler Heaven debating if I should break my rule. When the wonderful fabrics overtook my better judgement, I then spent another 30 minutes trying to figure out which one of these wonderful fabrics should come home with me. 

I ended up picking this green flowered print. I only bought a yard because I couldn't justify spending more than I make in an hour of babysitting on fabric that I promised myself I wouldn't buy. Did I mention that I have no idea what to make out of this fabric? I'm afraid to cut it. Maybe I'll just hang it on my wall.

Eww it's raining again and I have to go to the library and do a final project. I think when I am done I will get around to fusing plastic bags. 

Have a great day!

Lauren

No Pattern? No Problem!

Ta da! Here's my no pattern skirt. It was pretty easy. However, when you have no pattern you have no one to remind you about cutting on the bias, and you sometimes run into trouble because you didn't cut on the bias, and then you swear a little but quickly get over it. My only complaint is that my head is cut out of this picture...I need to work on using the timer on the camera and positioning it so my excited face is in the picture. But I was too excited to post about my new skirt to try taking a new picture. Plus my 5 blog readers know what I look like anyways. 

Goodnight!

Lauren!

More Coupons!

ARG! More coupons came today! Normally this would be a cause for celebration, yet since I went on my rant about hating Joann Fabrics I feel guilty about shopping there. And if shopping at chain stores wasn't bad enough my dad e-mailed me this sad story which makes me want to shop there even less. eww. 

This new hatred has lead me to search through my reserves and make some wonderful finds: 

I have decided that I shall not purchase anymore fabric until I make things out of the lovely fabric I have already. The purple dots one will be a shirt, because there is only a yard. I want to make a skirt out of the striped one using a no pattern idea I found (thanks Betsy Ross!). I'm not sure about the other two fabrics, but I have a lot. By my best math impaired guestimate I have 2 yards of each. I might make a dress out of one of them, probably the pink one. I have been thinking that I will just try to make a dress with no pattern. I realize this is very idiotic of me and will no doubt end disastrously, yet I still feel a burning desire to try. Have I mentioned that I want this hypothetical dress to have smocking? I bet my mom can just hear the phone ringing with me crying at the other end about what a colossal mess I have made. My justification behind this is that the fabric has been sitting on a shelf or in a box somewhere for the last 3+ years, so I can't remember when/where I bought it or how much it cost and that means it was free, so it would be okay if I messed it up. I could always rip the messed up dress into tiny shreds and stuff them in my neighbors speakers, thus inhibiting their gay music listening.  

Now I shall go begin the no pattern skirt. No pattern....it just sounds so scandalous. 

Adios Amigos!

Lauren

The Quilting Continues

I have finished sewing the quilt squares together. This could sound exciting to the unexperienced quilter, yet I know that I still have a long road ahead. Here's a picture of it.  This is my favorite square of all. I think it's super jazzy. 
In case you were wondering 2 curious blog readers how our trip to the specialty fabric store went, it was great! The store was kind of hidden, and seemed small but was full of wonderful fabrics. And surprise surprise when you ask the employees a question they know the answer and where to lead you and even give you tips as opposed to attitude and aisle numbers(and no one there was wearing fairy wings).  I wish I had enough money to shop here all the time, but alas the specialty store does not send 50% off coupons to my house to tempt me with their cheap prices and poor service. (this has been a jab at Joann fabrics in case you were lost in my rambling). Also I thought that this trip was so going to be great because Charlie was taking me, and he hates shopping, especially for fabric. Little did I know that he would make me wander around the Kittery Trading Post looking at boats and guns for over an hour before hand, I suppose that makes us even.  Although why we were looking at the hunting section is beyond me, we're vegetarians! Anyways, I found exactly what I was looking for to make the baby project I have in mind, but since I have made this blog available to my friends via facebook, I must keep it a secret until after the next baby shower I attend, lest someone see and ruin the surprise for my unsuspecting pregnant friend. (In one of my summer classes the professor lectured the other day about how some kids don't know how to use commas and either don't use any or use too many....the sentence above leads me to believe that I am one of those people who overuses commas in an attempt to look smart).

Off to check the mail for coupons from the enemy.

Lauren!

Baby Shower! eek!

Today is Lorelei's birthday. It's too early to call her and ask about the gift though. I am anxious to see if she likes it :)

Also I have started school again, summer school to be exact. I sort of feel like I am being punished. I thought only bad kids had to go to school in the summer. What have I done wrong!!!! Anyways classes go from 8-5 (even more punishment!) So when I get home I must do readings and quizzes and other school related th

ings. In other words I have converted my desk from a sewing station back to it's original purpose of a school desk where I keep my computer and not a sewing machine, bummer. 

On another note I have finished all the squares for my quilt, hurray! However, sewing them together is quite another hurdle. I'll get there, I promise. 

Also I am going to a baby shower tomorrow. Here is a picture of the finished product. I am quite pleased, however I hope I don't have to make another one for a few years. I also bought the baby a book (SLPs learn all about how important reading to your baby/kid is so I must spread the word to all of my pregnant friends).  This particular book has a lot of rhyming, which I have been told is outrageously important for learning to read and write, and is possibly the reason why Dr. Suess was so rich. 

I am going to another baby shower in July so today Charles has agreed to take me to a specialty fabric store to buy supplies for the present I have in mind to make. I'm not sure why he has agreed to take me somewhere like a specialty fabric store on his day off, but I will not complain about it. I think he thinks he did something wrong and I shall not let him think otherwise until we get home. (I hope no one reads my blog for relationship advice). 

Now I must go try to convert inches into yards for the baby project that I have been thinking about in my head. It is such a curse that I have been given the ability to think of ideas for sewing projects in my head and visualize them so well, but have not been graced with the ability to do the simple math it requires to make these projects a reality, thank goodness for boyfriends and calculators. 

Have a Happy Day!

Lauren