Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Tim!



Yesterday was my husband's birthday! I made him a huge breakfast yesterday morning of french toast, bacon, sausage, and *coffee cake!* The coffee cake is just fantastic, so I will post the recipe here soon. :) Then we went out to dinner at Longhorn and ate great steaks, came home, and he opened gifts and we had cake. Yum! This years birthday cake was German Chocolate, and was excellent (but not from scratch.) And ice cream that I forget the name of now. :)



So, it was a very nice happy day, which was what we needed.

And, in crafting news, I have decided to go balls out and make a quilt! I've never attempted anything like this before with the sewing machine, so I'm really hoping everything turns out. But the pattern I'm using is a simple mock log cabin, so the geometry isn't that hard. And I already have about 25 squares done! I bought some fantastic spring/gardeny fabric, and I think it's just wonderful together. I hope that by the time spring/summer rolls around, I'll actually have it done! I don't know that I'm getting any better with the sewing machine, but I tell ya, I've got that seam ripper thing down. haha! I'll post updates about it often, so wish me luck!!

We miss you, E-dawg

Well, it's been a sad week for us. Our friend Eric passed away on monday morning; he was only 29. Tim and I drove back to pittsburgh for the services. He is Tim's best friend since they were little kids, and he is such an awesome person. I liked him instantly because of his quick and subtle humor and friendly nature. He's the type of person who everyone just likes, and I honesly can't imagine anyone disliking him.

Of course he was the best man at our wedding. During his speech at the reception, his glass was shaking so badly because he hates public speaking. (that's what this picture is of. Eric's the one on the right, i case you couldn't figure it out.) And when Tim threw the garter and it landed about 2 feet away from him, Eric was the one to step up and grab it while everyone else laughed or, lets face it, juist walked away. I still laugh out loud about it today, over two years later.

We shouldn't have to say goodbye to our friends like this, especially when we are all still so young. Rest in peace, Eric. We miss you.

Inspired!

Hola!

This weekend I have been inspired by a few fellow crafters! Friday, I finally got around to making these most adorable fabric covered pushpins! The idea comes from Jessica Jones of How About Orange. And I was going to bring these to work, but since work is now sans bullitin board, i'll have to save them for later. But that won't stop me from making tons of them! :) For the link on how to make them yourselves, click here!

And tonight, I read up on Craftzine and Knitty, Vintage, and Rosey about how to make a cute little bedside pocket, for holding books, water bottles, etc. Their's are made with vintage hankies, but since I don't have any, I just used some pretty fabric (another clearance $1 find!). And besides needing to be ironed, I think it's cuties. And I made it big enough to hold my primary and secondary books, so they won't clutter up my nightstand! (that maybe have ben the nerdiest sentence i've ever typed.)

Soggy

hello again from rainy, cold, miserable Eagleville. Just a quick update to tell you about my day.

Got to work, found out the that *entire* building is flooded. Apparently, the roof has major leaks and the drain pipes burst. awesome! So, I go to be cube to find three giant garbage cans on the desks to catch the water and ceiling tiles that continue to fall. All of the carpet is completely soaked, and some offices have (literally) waterfalls coming down from the ceiling. So, I try to salvage as much of my stuff as I can. (Unfotunately, I had several origami things pinned up from my origami-a-day calendar last year, and they are all ruined. i'm crushed.) The computer is probably lost forever, along with several other people's computers and my friends laptop. Thankfully for us, it's the company that will be paying for that.

Now, keep in mind, that we are on the first floor of a two story building. That means that the water damage on the second floor is much worse. And the leaking roof water had to travel its way past one whole floor to even get to us. Ok. So I go upstairs to survey the damage. It's baaaad. Carpets are buckled, chairs are soaked, ceilings are on the floor.

So most of the building has been evactuated, and we're currently setting up shop in a tiny building elsewhere. It's smelly, and cramped, and cold, and spider-y. All in all, a great place to care for patients! (I work at a substance about rehab.) And that'll be home away from home for the next month, at least. I'm so happy.

Also, I came home today to find out that there is water in our basement *again!* Even after we sealed everything last year. Luckily it's not nearly as bad as it was last year, but after 8 hours of walking through the rain carying boxes, and trying to salvage as much of my work stuff as possible, water in the basement was the last thing I needed when I came home tonight. ::sigh:: Here's to hoping things dry out soon!

Cookies!

I know, two posts in one day!

To round out a great weekend, I decided to bake some milk choclate/white chocolate swirl cookies! And they are fantastic! I haven't made cookies in a while, so these are a nice treat, especially since the weather is cold, windy, and snowy.

You can't really get much better than these milk chocolate/white chocolate swirl chips by Nestle!

Ready for the oven!

And the finished product. Be jealous. :)

I also made baked applesauce for dinner tonight with steak and fries. There is nothing better than homeade, fresh from the oven applesauce. I And the recipe is super easy! Excellent! (I got the recipe from www.allrecipes.com, but here it is for you all.

Baked Applesauce

-4 tart apples, cored, sliced, and peeled.
-1/4 cup granulated sugar
-1 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Spread the apple slices in the dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture. Cover, and bake for 40-45 minutes or until apples are soft. Remove from oven, uncover, and smash apples with a fork. Serve warm.

Weekend Sanctuary!

I have been looking forward to the weekend since Monday, and I have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a lot of sleeping in, laying around, and spending some much needed quality time with the hubby. In between tho, I am able to get some sewing done! That's right, sewing. I recently bought a sewing machine and busted it out yesterday for the first time. My first attempt at making anything was this sad little brown rectangular pillow. I made it just to see if I could actually operate the machine, and since it was looking a little like a rectangular turd, i embroidered a little pink heart on it. It's lumpy, boring, and slightly mishapen, but for my first time sewing since I was 12, I think it turned out better than expected.


But today, I moved on to bigger and better things with the sewing machine. I made a chair cushion cover. I have this old wooden swivel desk chair that I inherited from my friend Kristen, and it also came with a ragged old blue cushion. So, I found this awesome fabric on clearance ($1/yard!!), and used part of it to cover up the yucky cushion. It looks great with the vintage style of the chair. Plus, it is easily removeable because I put a velcro flap on it, so I can change it later on if I decide to make others. This sewing project was much more successful, as long as you don't look at some of the seams too closely. Hooray!

And is crochet news, I broke down and started to make the round ripple baby blanket for my sister in law. It'll be white and green, since I still dont know the sex of the baby, but it's nice cuz I already had the yarn lying around anyway. Right now I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, but I'll post finished photos if it actually gets that far!! Happy weekend!

My husband is the best!

You know it's true!

So this week has been sooo stressful for me at work, and I've been feeling pretty down lately. Yesterday, to my surprise, my hubby had flowers waiting for me when I got home! He doesn't buy me flowers often, so it's really special when he does. And lilies are my favorite. :)

Also, I've decided on my next crochet project. It will be a round ripple baby blanket for my sister-in-law's new baby, due in August. I just have to wait to find out if it's a girl or a boy before I can start, because I don't want to make a gender neutral one. But I'm very excited for it!

And so starts a hopefully relaxing weekend, because I really need it. :)