Recieved! Harry Potter Swap Package!

I was so excited last week when this was waiting for me at home and all the way from the UK! I was sooo totally spoiled by my partner LadyLouLou

Patroness's drawn on the top of the box =)
















A pincushion, sweater for my iPhone, yummy sock yarn, tea cup, tea, pins and needle book, stitch markers, a cute owl, my very own time turner and Marauder's Map, and YUMMY GOODIES FROM THE UK!!! EEEE!!




OH NO!! I got the Grimm!!!! EEEK!!! I love everything, thanks soooooo much LadyLouLou!!

This Weekend

This weekend was very productive! I had my romantic night with the Bobert on Saturday for our Valentine's Day ( he bought be daisies, my favorite!), hung out with him all day Sunday (we went food shopping and watched Ancient Aliens in our PJs), and Monday, since it was a holiday, was devoted to cleaning and crafting! I find that I am much more productive in a clean and tidy enviornment and since I don't have that very often ( I NEVER have time or motivation to clean) Monday was awesome!

I actually started on Friday night when my fabric arrived. 4 charm packs of A Walk in the Woods by: Aneela Hoey! I seperated them all out and prepared for the patchwork for The Patchwork Chevron Quilt....

 



I got to sewing and soon had 7 blocks of patchwork completed! It is crazy how much you can get done when you don't have to cut anything! And they are beautiful!






By the end of the day Monday I had 11 completed! I was hoping for more then that but I will take it haha. The background fabric should be there when I get home tonight so I can start cutting out the blocks for the half square triangles. This is coming together super quick, I can't believe it! I am really going to have a human sized quilt, probably by the end of the month! Weeeeeee!!!!

Attempting a New Skill

Wednesday night I finished everything there was to finish for my Harry Potter swap on Ravelry. I packaged it all up in pretty paper, closed the box and put it next to my work bag so I could take it to the post office the next day. After all that, I found myself wanting to do some more sewing. Don't get me wrong, I love playing with yarn of all kinds! But I am determined to sew a human sized quilt this year and after discovering The Patchwork Cheveron Quilt  I decided it was high time I try my hand at free motion quilting!

 This quilt is a go here people, I bought all the fabric needed for the top ( I wanted to wait on the back and the binding so I can really look at the colors in the A Walk in the Woods by: Aneela Hoey charm packs I ordered) and have decided that this quilt is easy enough to allow for all my time constraints but interesting enough to hold my attention. Not to mention the finished size will be around 78x78 inches which is in fact human size! Just enough for snuggling! Oh yeah!

I ordered my darning foot last year with every intention of trying it out, but then I got a new sewing machine and then I didn't have time and then I wasn't interested and then I was just plain lazy haha. It is a universal foot and it needed modifications to work (thank you YouTube) and I didn't have the patience to actually do the modifications that only took ten minutes at the time. But I did Wednesday night and it works great! I watched like 5 YouTube videos before I had the guts to start but eventually I started playing with it. As you can see from the picture below, I sucked at first....




It really isn't a natural instinct to move the fabric to make the stitches right. I had a hard time making it so the stitches werent really long so I upped the speed a little and that helped. As you can see in my second attempt....



It's a little better! Not crazy smooth, but definately an improvement! My tension was off a little and I kept fiddling with it. I eventually got the top looking good, but the back looked awful....I think I will need to re-tread the bobbin. And here is the last attempt before it got to late and I needed to go to bed!...



EEEEE!!! This one is my favorite so far! Still not prefect, but getting there! I can only do really small loops right now but I am going to try for bigger ones next time =) I haven't been home since Wednesday so tonight will be dedicated to practicing this new skill! This is going to be the best quilt ever! Haha....if I stick to it that is =P

This Weekend

I don't really remember if I mentioned this before but I joined a really cute swap on Ravelry in the Harry Potter Read-A-Long group (yes I am a dweeb and I love it). So the read-a-long right now is book 3, Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban which just so happens to be my favorite book of the series. This also means that the swap has a Prizoner of Azkaban theme (LOVE!). Anyways I was having a very hard time finding yarn for my partner, nothing seemed to be just right! I wanted to do this swap really well and nothing I saw was cutting it. There was only one things to do....make it myself!

Now I don't have any pictures since my partner (even though she is a secret partner) might be reading this and I don't want to spoil the suprise. I pulled out my dusty spinning wheels this weekend and was digging through my fiber stash and found a fiber that was already 3 quarters of the way spun and it just seemed like it was meant to be! There is still a little more spinning to be done and then plying and washing, but I am positive I can have it all done by the shipping the deadline this Saturday if not sooner! Yay! There are a few other things to pick up and then off it goes. I hope my partner likes everything and I can't wait to see mine too! =)

Happy Monday!

Pampering

I am not much into my looks. I own shoes with holes in them, I pluck my eyebrows about once a month and I consider myself to be very beautiful in a pair of baggy pajama pants. It never really mattered all that much to me before but I find that I have an inkling to go shopping, wear make-up and have my nails done. I think it is all the time I have been spending in the gym....working out just makes you feel so good! I am very happy with the way I look right now and after going bridesmaid dress shopping and discovering that I am 3 sizes smaller then the lady said I was (I don't even get how that happens) I am feeling pretty darn good!

So I went and had my nails done =)



Please excuse the freakishly long fingers....stumpy everywhere else but my fingers and toes are long and thin...go figure. They came out very nice and even though it cost $50 ( they did some kind of gel thing without my permission...came out good but it was pricey!)  I don't feel the least bit guilty about spending the money! It is kind of silly how nice something so small like this makes you feel but it sure is great to feel this good!

Now if you will excuse me....a celebratory cupcake is calling my name!

Thank You Tax Refund

I finally got my W-2 last week so I could do my taxes and I am getting a really good refund! Since I have been super good about spending money I thought I could get a little treat for myself. I went to the Vera Bradley store on Saturday and got all this for only $80! They were giving away a free gift with a $75 purchase so I couldn't pass it up.

15" laptop sleeve in Watercolor, ipad case in Safari Sunset and the Ditty bag in Island Blooms as a FREE gift!! I LOVE Vera Bradley! I wanted the laptop case because I have to bring my work laptop home every night and I got the iPad case because I am terrified of scratching the one I got for Christmas (my mom would murder me! lol). As for the Ditty Bag....knitting projects of course!

Happy Monday!

Ahhh a New Year!....and I am only 18 days late!

I love when the new year comes! The possibilites seem endless in January! You can make all the plans and resolutions you want and the hope that you will accomplish them is at its highest. My resolution are very similar to last years haha since not many of them were successful but I am determined to try again and maybe make them more attainable.

1.) I would like to do a fitness competition or at least look like I could. I want to be in great shape, toned and thin. I have become a dedicated gym goer the last few weeks and hope to keep it up!

2.) I want to knit a lace shawl. I had a terrible experience the last time I attempted one ( I ripped it out no less then 10 times before I gave up) so it is time to try again! I am doing the Haruni Shawl because the instructions are literally all written out! Not just a chart to get confused with so I am hoping that will be enough to make it work for me. I am on row 27 and going strong! only about 100 (probably more) to go haha

3.) I want to sew a bed sized quilt...not sure which pattern yet =)

4.) Start spinning again, I haven't in over a year!

5.) Knit a complete sweater! I have tried this numerous times but I don't seem to have the attention span. Well this year is going to be different! I even chose the pattern. It is Owls by: Kate Davies. The Yarn Harlot knit it for her daughter for Christmas and I fell in love! I really hope I will stick with it!

That is it for now though I am sure I will think of more haha. I love that most of them are craft related! I started a new job in December so crafting in general has been put on the back-burner. I am excited to start lots of new projects!

Here is my first project of 2012! Only a few inches away from being finished with the first one! They are the Hermione's Everyday Socks by: Erica Lueder and I love them! The yarn is Socks that Rock colorway Retroid =)