She’s Crafty…she gets around…she’s crafty…she’s just my type!

I’ve been doing some crafting lately.  (And also listening to the Beastie Boys new stuff – Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2 – is awesome and you can listen to the whole thing online.)  I was bestowed a sewing machine…a nice sewing machine…a machine that can practically make me eggs for breakfast, embroidered with my initials, and appliqued onto my plate…a seriously nice sewing machine.  I don’t know how to sew…or I didn’t.

Now, not wanting to break this machine, I have dabbled a bit, hemming some curtains, and making a few gift bags, pressing buttons and seeing what happens…but my knowledge stopped there.

Enter GroupOn.  (if you don’t know what groupon is…you should look it up)  One day, a GroupOn appeared for a class at The Sewing Studio.  I snatched it up…and then let it sit unused for a couple months…expiration date approaches and I schedule a class ASAP to make sure my discounted class doesn’t go to waste.  I chose the Tote Bag class…although I was reminded by several friends that I don’t really need another tote bag.  Class was great – I bring my own sewing machine in, along with fabric and basic supplies – they provide a pattern and the know-how to complete the project.  It was supposed to be 4 Saturday afternoons, but I finished the bag in 3.

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with myself!  Mainly with the details, as most of my projects look fine from a distance but upon closer examination…you see that the lines are crooked, the seams don’t match, there’s some bunching here and some crazy stitching there…but this is not the case with this bag!  And…it’s reversible.

I was feeling so good about this project that apparently I think I can just sew anything.  I’m sure this will be proven wrong in a matter of days…but a little over-inflated confidence can’t hurt, right?  So…I bought an ambitious pattern for a tunic and some beautiful fabric…we’ll just see how that goes!

Maybe I’ll try a few smaller projects first, like some pillow cases, or placemats…things that are square and (should be) simple!

This guy…

keeps me company on my desk…all thanks to a certain Miss JP in the office!  You might recognize that he is munching a packing peanut.  I first met him as he was swimming around a box that contained some fabulous birthday surprises.  There are many more birthday related things to mention…I’ll get to that later.  Mostly, it’s nice to have a desk that feels like it’s got a little personality at this place where I spend at least 8 hours a day!

What does your desk or workspace look like?

5 Good Things…

1. Monsters on my desk
2. Target run at lunch for some quick errands
3. Yoga at 5:45 tonight (the second time this week…might be setting a new record for myself here)
4. Tomorrow is Friday and I get lunch at work
5. A perfect 79º day…and my office isn’t an icebox!

Feeling studious today…

How about you?

New Rug…New Feel

You know when you’re really excited about something and you make quick decisions…like when you’ve just bought your first house and there is nothing but hardwood floors and some nice colored walls…I made some quick decisions…and after living with them for two years, thought better of at least one of them.  Our family room is filled with solid colors, and our couch (counted as a good decision) is charcoal grey.  Red walls, charcoal couch, white cabinets right next to a kitchen with black counter-tops and white cupboards = red, white black and grey = not my ideal color palette for a sunny bright family room.  I digress…short story: we bought a small rug which was very colorful, modern and provided a rainbow of color…turns out I didn’t really want to whole rainbow!

I found a lovely gem of a rug at HomeGoods which was bigger (almost 7×9) and quite affordable at $249…and I brought her home.  It brings in some nice earth tones (distinctly lacking before) and has enough grey-ish green that it works with the couch and enough red to work with the wall.

It doesn’t hurt that Cleo looks really nice on it as well!  Most importantly, it makes me like the room even more!

I know why it’s cold in Pasadena…

…and it’s all my fault.  It all started a few weeks ago, when it was hot.

Reason 1:  When we moved in to the house, not a single window had a screen on it, and that was fine for two years.  But our interior bug population grew in diversity on a nightly basis as we cooled the house the California way…by opening up every single window and door and letting the cool air flow into the house.  It was time for some screens.  Behind our garage, I discovered what seemed to be a stockpile of old metal mesh screens, many of which looked to be the right sizes.  I grabbed the one that measured about right for the bedroom window, hosed off the cob webs, and climbed through the rose bushes to see if it would work.  Nope!  I cannot figure out for the life of me why it would be ½ inch on all sides for the window…very strange.  I wedged it in there to make it mildly effective and then convinced Woody we needed screens.  Turns out it is simple and completely reasonable in price.  I researched, called a guy, scheduled them, and then in one afternoon, we were set…brand new screens in 15 out of 20 windows!

And now…it is freezing.  No reason to open the windows to cool the house off when it’s only a high of 63 degrees.

Reason 2:  When I scheduled the screen guys to come out…Woody was disappointed I hadn’t yet dealt with our sprinkler issues.  (Sprinkler issues meaning multiple geysers in the front and back yard and most likely additional unknown problems).  So, why not deal with everything all at the same time.  Sprinkler guys arrive Monday morning for an estimate…and then I was hit with a doozy.  Some serious sprinkler issues, like pressure issues, some kind of commercial backflow, many broken heads, poor zoning and at least one broken sprinkler line. So, I scheduled the work as the lawn has been teetering on the edge of dead-ness…in the tunnel, looking at the beautiful light and thinking it looks pretty good, and the weather is bound to turn ungodly hot very soon.  So I scheduled sprinkler guys, and the weather turns cold, chilly, dreary and rainy!

Now we have screened windows and working sprinklers…any time the sun would like to show up would be fine with me!

So you can blame me.  It’s all my fault.  (Disclaimer: This is only for the southern California region…I am not to blame for all the May snowstorms and below 60 degree weather in the rest of the country.)

Hope you’re getting a taste of spring!

Also, today was bike to work day.  I did, and for this I received free breakfast, a bag of goodies including some patch kits, clif bars and bike maps of the LA area.  Also, free lunch and a raffle ticket…which I won.  $10 gift card to Subway!

And now, Cleo is snuggled next to me and has had at least 3 different dreams in the last hour and a half…there was some sleep-barking, some sleep-running and a lot of good twitching.  I’m guessing there were squirrels and maybe some rabbits involved.