Happy New Year

Wow! It's already 2011!??! Last year I did a little photo round up of all of the fun and exciting things I had done the year before so I decided to do another one this year. I tried to put them in order but then I got frustrated and just winged it without caring about the chronological order. Here goes:








1. Visiting Zeke and Shannon in South Carolina. Loads of fun. Wish they still lived down the street.
2. Sammy and Keith's wedding.
3. Passing Comprehensive Exams. Yahooo!
4. Getting Engaged! Double Yahoo.



5. Moving and exploring our new area.
6. Graduating!
7. My Dad and Mary Lou's wedding.
8. Christmas Party 2010.



9. Going to MOOD in NYC. 
10. Spending time with good friends.
11. Going to New York City (again, these trips were more spread out than the pictures lead you to believe.)
12. Running my first marathon. ( Did I just say "first" yikes, I must be crazy.)

It's pretty surreal to realize how much has happened and changed in just one year. I hope 2011 brings just as many good memories and fun times as 2010.

Happy New Year everyone!

Lauren

Happy Holidays!

Hello! Just popping in to tell you all that I am almost done with all of my holiday projects. Only hand sewing left to do, and a bit of last minute painting....why I do this to myself I shall never know. Having a sewing blog is very hard around the holidays. I have been sewing and creating like crazy but cannot share any of it with you. You'll just have to wait until the New Year I suppose. Until then,  here's a picture of me and Charlie that was included in our holiday card this year (more on that later.)

Merry Christmas!

Lauren

Holiday Traditions

Last year I posted about how Charlie and I discussed traditions we wanted to carry on from our families or start when we were "older". I guess that a year later we are "older" and the traditions have begun.

Searching for the perfect tree in the freezing cold; saw in hand. 

 

White lights in the windows.  

Advent calendar to count down the days. 

 

Searching for locally crafted ornaments.

As well as a few homemade ones.

And the cookie cutter ornaments. 

Big retro light bulbs on the perfect tree.  

Now all we needs is a tree skirt. Maybe next year. Oh, and a roaring fire would be nice too, but I think that will have to wait until we move into our 1000 square foot home.


What traditions have you carried on or started this year? Whatever they are I hope you're enjoying them.

Lauren

p.s. I downloaded this cool program to make my pictures look like this. Try it out!

Felt Ornaments

Last Christmas I asked my Mum to get me a kit (or 2) to make felt ornaments. I had found the kits with instructions, felt, and all of the other supplies included at Posie Gets Cozy. My Mum did indeed buy me the two kits and I made one kit while I was still in Maine for the holidays last year. I posted two of the three here. This weekend we got our tree and pulled out the box with decorations in it and I realized that I still had a whole other kit to make three ornaments. After setting up the tree I got to work making this kit. I watched "Little Women" and "Gone with the Wind" while making these. Does that give you an idea of how long they took? And I only got two of the three done!

Super adorable ice skate. The kit gave yarn to make the pom pom but I ran out of steam on Sunday night and didn't make it. I'll get to it someday, until then I think the state looks pretty darling without the pom pom.

Little gingerbreak girl. She reminds me of the woman from "The Sound of Music" who keeps bowing after the concert so the von Traps can escape the Nazi's, but all that aside I think she's awful cute too.

Lastly, here is the house from the other kit that I did not show last year. This one is Charlie's favorite, I think because he would like to live in a house like this one someday. I guess I wouldn't mind that, after all it is quite a charming little house. Definitely under 1000 square feet.

Hopefully the last felted ornament will be finished soon. I just need to think of another long movie to watch while making it, and perhaps one that won't make me cry; it's harder to sew with teary eyes!

Merry Merry!

Lauren

Sew N' Tell - Pot Holders

December is a hard time to have a sewing blog, mostly because (almost) everyone I am making presents for reads this blog. I did manage to make a few gifts for non-blog readers though. Pot holders! I forgot to add a little tab to this one. Oops.
The person getting this pot holder will also get a snazzy trivet:
After experimenting with that quilted pot holder I made two more.
I think my brain was not working because I did the binding on all three at the same time and I smacked myself for not adding a tab to the first one, then did the binding on the second one and forgot again! Luckily, I remembered by the third one. My one other mistake was that I wanted both side of the hand pot holder to be the white Christmas pattern but I accidentally cut the pieces out wrong so now the back looks like this:
Oh well. I think it looks good anyways and hopefully the person receiving them will not care.

My post is super late to the Sew N Tell, but there are some really cool things posted, be sure to check them out.