Crafty things!

disclaimer: the layout of this entry is weird, and i'm tired of messing with it.  weird it stays.

At one point or another in the past, I've mentioned crafts that I was making/planned on making/made.  I think I even promised pictures.  Some of you (maybe?) have been just dying to know what I've done.... well, maybe just somewhat curious.  Either way, here's the proof that I've actually done stuff!

First up: flowers.  I learned how to make these cute flowers, but didn't know what to do with them.  I started out by following the directions from a website that Jay showed me.  Then, I thought I'd be a rebel and do it differently!  Really, I just didn't much care for the alternating petal patterns. 

So I stopped alternating petal patterns and decreased the amount of petals.They turned out pretty cute, I thought.

Then, I decided to go back to an even number of petals and still not alternate patterns, but put a fancier button in the middle.  What could I do with these flowers, though??

Put them on shirts?  Yes.  Put them on bags?  Yes.  Pretty cute, right?  I think so.  And then, genius struck!  I COULD MAKE MUMS OUT OF THEM!!  At the end of the summer, I will have participated in three weddings and attended another. And I would have attended a second/fifth wedding for the year, but I went to Houston with my family for my sister's wedding shower.  I got to thinking that this is Texas, and we wear mums to homecoming, and make mums for baby showers, but not many people (or any people?) make/wear "mums" for weddings.  Well, not any more!  I can make them!  See?

First wedding mum--work in progress

My very first wedding mum.  It's not complete in this picture (the ribbons are just placed), and the $5 is to show scale.  I also don't know how to take pictures, so this is the best I have of this... and other pictures--before and after this one--of different crafts are really not much better if at all; oh well.

Anyway, though.  I made this first one and was very pleased with it

"I did more thinking"

I did more thinking, and came up with this one here.  How does this one show that I did more thinking?  I'll tell you: look at the back!  See those white stitches?  Rip those suckers and then you have detached the ribbons (which are attached to their own piece of fabric), and can now wear the flower as a pin, or on a bag, or in your hair, or however else you like!  Sweet!  I like this one the best, I think, because the colors are so fun.  Oh, and all the wedding mums I made were coordinated to the bride's wedding colors.  Cause I'm that good.

The back

So, all the mums were made... what now?  Anything else I can do with this leftover fabric I have?  Do I really need  more flowers?  Yes!  I put stems on them and used white buttons in the center, and voila!  The beginnings of a wedding bouquet!  I showed them to my cousin who is getting married next year, and now I'm getting to make all the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnieres for her wedding!  It's a big task, but I'm really excited about it.  I'm learning how to make other fabric flowers as well, so her bouquets will be filled with different flowers of different colors.  They're going to be beautiful!

Headed in a different direction, I started a quilt for my sister's baby.  I took on a pretty difficult pattern, and I have pretty much zero experience with quilting.  Who does have experience quilting?  Jay's mom!  And she's being super fantastic and helping me with every step of the process... and there are a lot of steps just to make the front of the quilt... we haven't even talked about the back yet!  Yikes!  I've packed up my dining-room-turned-craft-room a few times and headed to her place so that we could make work on the baby quilt.  Is it finished yet?  Nope.  I haven't really put much effort into in a while.  I keep thinking that I have a long time to make it, but I guess there will be a baby shower before the baby is born, so I'll really need to get cracking on the quilting.  ...I better call Jay's mom and make a quilting date with her!

Before my sister's baby is born and before she has a baby shower thrown for her, though, my best friend is moving from Texas to Connecticut.  :(  She's going for school and it's going to be great for her; and now Jay & I have a real reason to visit Connecticut!  (I'm focusing on the positives--not on the fact that she moved away.)  I couldn't let her leave without giving her a gift for her new place in her new state.  A long long time ago (I'm talking middle school, folks), I started making a quilt for her for her birthday.  Yeah.  That never got finished.  So I was going to give it to her for Christmas.  Still didn't happen.  I have no idea where that less-than-half-finished project is anymore, so I was hesitant to start another quilt for her.  Would I finish it?  Did I have time?  Would it look like poop?  The answers, respectively, are yes, yes, and--surprisingly--no!  Awesome!  I make this quilt with no help except creative input.  (Picking out the fabric is a huge stressor for me.  Seriously.  I don't know why.)

Once the pattern and fabrics were chosen, I cut out my pieces, laid them in an order I thought looked good, and then got to work on pinning and sewing the top.  Fortunately, I found this great website that takes you through the quilting process from start to finish.  I learned about basting (which I'd never even heard of) and how to make my own binding tape.  I worked on the quilt right up to the day of her going away party, and pulled it out of the dryer right as Jay and I were leaving for the party.  It turned out nicely, if I do so say so myself.  Sure.  The lines aren't all perfectly straight, but is any quilt perfect?  (Okay.  Lots of quilts are probably perfect.  All the quilts that Jay's mom makes look pretty perfect to me!  And so do my aunt's.  Just give me time, y'all; my quilts will get better!)  And my favorite thing about the quilt is that no one did any part of this for me!  (Except helping choose fabrics, of course.)  I'm pretty proud of it, can you tell??

Quilt front

Quilt back

So, that's what's happened in my world of crafts.  :)

Also, can you believe I've updated this blog twice in two days?  Woo!

A Whole Year!

Can you believe it?  It's been a full year since Jay and I stood somewhat nervously at the altar of our church and exchanged vows to love, honor, and cherish each other for the rest of our lives!  This first year of marriage--which people say is the hardest?--has been fantastic!  We've not killed one another, or really even come close... I don't think.  Certainly we've had disagreements and even arguments, but we're in no way calling it quits--or even thinking about calling it quits!  I think we've learned things about each other, and learned how to live with each other as well.  It's been a great year of marriage.  :D

Right after breakfast at home.  Still kind of early for me.  ;)

To celebrate our first year of marriage, we went with the traditional gift route: paper.  So, we'll be going to the Journey & Foreigner concert in September(!!!!!!!  YESSSSS!!!!!), and now own stock in Disney.  And Jay also got a pretty sweet shirt out of the deal.




Annnd!  On Sunday morning (our actual anniversary), Jay made waffles, bacon, and fresh-squeezed orange juice!!  It was sooooo delicious!  For lunch, we had wedding cake (and not a top layer that had been frozen for a year, but a fresh cake that our bakery made for us; yeah, our bakery was awesome!) and glasses of milk, which we ate and drank using our china.  :)  I love using the china!  Dinner was wonderful, as well.  We went to Simply Fondue and had way too much food that was super delicious.

When dinner was over, we went to a super freaking awesome hotel room that my mom got a great deal on!  (It's good to have friends in high places!)  Seriously, this place was bigger than our apartment.  For realz.  It even had two bathrooms!  No one had to wait to go!

On Monday, we walked around downtown Fort Worth a bit, then ate at Pizzeria Uno, and it was also good!  All-in-all, it was a wonderful wonderful anniversary and year of marriage.  :D

4th of July!

First off, I do not have a job.  I interviewed, but no luck.  Oh well... something good'll happen, right?  My resume and application are still floating around on the internet, so people still know I'm interested in their positions.  :)

Jay and I are trying to organize our lives and get rid of some clutter, but we're having a hard time of it--we're not hoarders, we just don't have much stuff that we see as useless.  It's a fine line, I'm sure, but I think we're still on the "sane" side of it.

Being the 4th, Jay's off today.  Know what we've done today?  Nothing!  We went to lunch, but we've spent today playing computer games (The Sim 3 for me, and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 for Jay!), emptying the dishwasher, and watching movies on Blu Ray and NetFlix.  Huzzah!

It's still light out, so we're still not doing anything.  Eventually it'll get dark, and we'll turn our eyes skyward and look for fireworks.  Hope you're enjoying the holiday as much as we are.  :D

- Christine & Jay