Finally Here!

My yarn finally arrived today! Hopefully I will get this project whipped up fairly quickly. I've been so anxious to start it! Cross your fingers for a new post with a finished project soon. The end of the term is Friday, so Monday is a no-school day for me! (ARRA funding-- I can go and get paid if I attend training that consists of poorly done videos that will somehow make me a better teacher, or I can not go and not get paid. Last term I stayed home in my pajamas, had my grades done by noon when the other teachers there were sitting in the training, texting me to complain about the training, and then I had time to play with Zack and get my house cleaned. An extra day at home is definitely worth missing out on only 75% of my normal day's pay. Darn legislators who think teachers don't need a day for grading & getting ready for a new trimester. Now they've gone and hacked up our retirement, too. How do these idiots keep getting put in office?!) Wow. What a rant. I intended to end with, "Monday is a no-school day for me, so I plan on making the most of my time with my yarn."

A Few Completions

When Sarah lived in Richmond, she and I used to get together once a week to craft. Sometimes we ended up just going shopping or browsing (much to Aaron's & Rich's chagrin), sometimes we ended up just talking, we have a few projects that we started and have yet to finish. . . all in all, we always had fun. When Aaron called me in early January and said Sarah missed me and wanted to craft (perhaps he's feeling a bit too rich?? ha. ha. ha.), I jumped on it and we set the date. Jenn joined us in the fun and we made some baby projects to stash away (Sarah is expecting little Pheobe in July, so her projects won't be stashed for long).

We had all planned on making sleepers. This is my finished product. Not the best craftmanship, but without an official pattern, I'd say it turned out ok. I learned a lot making it and would do things much differently if I do another one. It has a zipper on the side to help put baby in and out easier. Since I was still figuring out how to make the sleepers, no one else started one.

In my online wanderings a few weeks ago, my attention was caught by the question "Do you carry your car seat up in the bend of your elbow? Or on your forearm? Does the handle pinch and twist your skin and drive you crazy?" I remember that I hated the pinching when I had to carry Zack around in it. I snatched up this tutorial and made myself one of these covers. It wasn't hard and didn't take much time at all.

These carseat tents are the latest craze up in Cache Valley. I was a bit dismayed to not find any "boy" cotton fabric that I loved in red. I did find some flannels, so I will probably make up a boy version from the flannel. However, I love, LOVE, LOVE this girly fabric!! I think I may go buy some more to make something else out of it. A girl that lives near me made some GORGEOUS fabric flowers to go on her carseat tent ties. I'm thinking about making a few of my own for a finishing touch. I've also seen them with bows and some with large buttons on them. Very versatile and easy to make your own rendition. The project wasn't difficult, either. Jenn is close to having 4 complete (she can't make up her mind of what she will want, plus she doesn't have a carseat yet, she wants one that Allen will carry without feeling demasculated-- U of U-- and it's always a good idea to have an extra on hand so you can throw one in the wash), and Sarah also completed hers.

I like that they just flip up over the handle so that you can see baby without having to take it off everytime. Ignore my boring backing fabric-- I couldn't find anything I loved enough to go with that luscious red fabric on the top! Zack, of course, thanked me for making him a cave. Of course, now that I love this so much, I will probably end up with only boys.

Finally, the creme de la creme. I've been working since New Year's on this project in my snippets of time. Oh, how I long for more time to crochet & craft than I can squeeze in around school & home duties! It was a 2009 blog giveaway for Sarah and I finally finished it up just before she arrived Monday morning to craft. I didn't anticipate learning anything new with this project, since I've been crocheting for years, but I did! The border was crocheted separate from the afghan and then stitched on. It took 2 attempts to get the spacing correct on the border (the second time I was smart enough to tack the corners on first, counting out the correct amount of shells for each side, before stitching it on). Ignore the matress in the pictures-- I was trying to avoid getting dog fur on the afghan and the sheets were in the wash.

With my grades completed, I was hoping that my Herrschners order would have arrived today so that I can begin my next project (remember the yarn drama?). No such luck. I guess I enjoyed my weekend and I need to devote my night to cleaning my neglected house.

Part Two's and some Frustrating News

As of yet, I don't have any real crafts posted on this "craft" blog. *sigh* Not to worry-- that will soon be at an end. I have been working hard for about 2 months with my snippets of time on a project that I had hopes of finishing last night. All that remains is stitching on a border. Attempt one failed, but attempt two WILL be successful today!

Unfortunately, I MUST get grades in today, so attempt number two must wait until that is finished. All morning I've been procrastinating, catching up on my craft blogs because I haven't been online much this week. I must say that I am very unmotivated to grade papers when I have so many projects waiting my attention. June cannot arrive quick enough for me!

Since Monday is a holiday, the girls are getting together for part two of our "baby" craft day. I will wrap up a few more projects there. Come Tuesday (or Monday night, depending on time) I will finally have some completed projects to post.

I have been patiently waiting to buy yarn for a new project. I finally went to purchase the yarn yesterday, only to find that Michael's (the only store in Cache Valley that carries the particular yarn) did not have the colors I wanted. *sigh* I returned home and put an order in online. I am so anxious and excited to start this project! I want the yarn NOW! I don't want to have to wait! I suppose I should be grateful that we have technology and I can get the yarn via the internet. Wait until you see this project! Hopefully it will be finished shortly after the yarn arrives. I want to have it done before March is finished-- hopefully early in March. We'll see how quickly the package arrives.

Self-Indulgence

After a particularly long week at school, I thought I would enjoy some self-indulgence tonight. I arrived home to find *gasp!* my order from Keepsake's had arrived! I am so excited to begin working on those projects (I ordered 2 purse patterns for myself. . . which one to make??? plus a book full of patterns for little kiddie fun). It was all I could do to not rush upstairs and dig into my stash to find fabric to begin. I MUST finish the two projects that have been sitting in my living room for weeks now before beginning anything new. sigh. I keep them in my living room so that I will think to work on them when I have a few snippets of time. I took out my mindless reading book (currently Pride and Prejudice. I skipped reading it in high school), but when I sat down to read, the computer caught my eye and I thought I would devote an hour to catching up on craft blogs. What fun! I can't wait until May is over and I have time to work on my ever growing list of projects. For now, those purses will sit in waiting as I scrape together snippets of time for crafting.

Of course, my self-indulgence resulted in Zack crunching an entire bag of popcorn on my living room floor by driving his trains over them. Now it's time to go back to being a mom and vacuum up kernels.

Framing, Reframing, and Still Not Happy

I have a problem. A few years ago I stained all of my picture frames that hung on the same wall to match. I only had 8x10's so I used mats and I loved the way it looked. This year, I printed off an 11x14 of one of my favorites, hoping the size variation would be more pleasing to the eye.
This picture definitely needs a different frame. I've never loved this frame to begin with and I HATE the glass that's in it (I know, I know, just get a new piece of glass. It just is never the thing that's on my mind at the right time), but it was what I had. I've bought 2 other frames, trying to get one I will be happier with. This is the newest of the 2 frames. I didn't even bother hanging it up for 5 minutes when all was said and done. It looked terrible with the other frames. It is more bronze-y than the picture shows. I took this picture and its mat from the above frame, put it in this frame, and I like it much better on the wall it's on-- away from the "matching" frames.
This is the first frame I bought. It is a deep mahogany stain. I love it. The trouble is, it looks more black when it's hanging on the wall than I want. Especially on the wall with the "matching" frames. So, I took the mat from the bronze-y frame, put it in this frame with this picture, and I LOVE the results!
Now the only trouble is, what on earth will I do to make myself happy about the picture I was trying to frame in the first place?