Crafts
Review Thursday – Seeing Squares
July 5, 2012
It’s my first review Thursday! I’m not exactly sure what all I’ll be reviewing on Thursday but you can likely bet it will either be craft or baby related more often than not. That’s essentially all I ever think about. And food…maybe food will find its way into that list too.
For my inaugural review Thursday I figured I’d start right smack dab in the middle of craft AND baby!
Seeing Squares Quilt Pattern by Empty Bobbins
I’ve seen this quilt everywhere on Pinterest. I’ve had it pinned for a really long time. Wherever I run across it online I just stare and drool, it’s that gorgeous.
We decided on a robot theme for Henry’s nursery. Searching for robot themed bedding was a bust. What little selection there was typically included black or grey (we have brown walls), or was really not my style. I picked fabric first (Cute Bots in Blue from Rashida Coleman Hale) and then debated on what style quilt I wanted. I went from a simple 9 block to a funky round, I ran the whole gamut. While looking through my quilt board on pinterest (if you’re so inclined check it out here) I found the seeing squares pattern. I was crazy intimidated but I was bound and determined that that would be my pattern.
I promptly ordered it from Pink Chalk Fabrics and had it within a few days. The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern was I had to actually wait for the pattern to arrive. We are much too dependent on the internet and instant gratification, I do admit that. It was absolutely worth the wait though!
It was a small booklet pattern with nice, colorful pictures as well as detailed instructions for cutting and piecing. I was intimidated by this quilt, as I said earlier, but after searching for reviews of the pattern online I found the Empty Bobbins blog and the post about this pattern when it first came out. Shea Henderson says this about the pattern:
‘At first glance, it looks like it would be difficult to piece it, but I promise I have a nifty way to assemble the top.’
It piqued my interest and I was set. I was amazed at how easy she really made it! It is quite cutting heavy, but so simple once all the cutting is done. Even the cutting she made easy, she must be a miracle worker. I hate cutting, hate it, hate it, hate it. Now, of course, I would have been happier just having the pieces magically appear all perfect for me to sew together, but I didn’t really hate the cutting of this quilt.
The pattern is set up for 2 different sizes, a small quilt (48”x56”) and a larger size (60”x84”). I made the small quilt, which she calls a generous sized baby quilt and that it is. It breaks it down very nicely that you need this many of each size for the small and this many for the large. It also has a diagram of how to lay it out that shows both sizes but distinguishes the small from the large.
There are included instructions on how to put together a pieced back. I believe the pieces for the back are included in the initial cutting stage. I fudged on the pieces since I had some large print and didn’t want that print in the smaller pieces. I did not do the pieced back, but it’s just the same as the quilt but in a smaller section. I made my own robot backing, which I’ll discuss and have photos of later.
I cannot rave about this pattern enough! I’m so proud of my quilt and any time I show it off I give them the pattern name and tell them they should make it.
The quilt on the pattern has a gorgeous quilting of each square that I so wanted to duplicate, but I’m just not that fancy. Instead of that I did a simple diagonal and the quilt still looks amazing.
My finished beauty:
(Cute Bots in Blue – Rashida Coleman Hale, Green Gears – Rashida Coleman Hale, Orange Gears – Rashida Coleman Hale. The rest are solids and I honestly don’t know their names!)
Go buy it now, I promise you won’t regret it!
Posted in Babies, Baby Logsdon, Crafts, Quilting, Sewing | 
Tags: Baby, Henry, quilting, Robots, Seeing Squares | 
No Comments »
Revamp and Update
June 25, 2012
It’s been quite a while since the last update….12 weeks to be more precise! Lots have changed and nothing has changed at the same time. I’m in my 29th week of pregnancy and I just realized that I never alerted the interwebz the sex of the baby! This is how we broke the news to everyone else!
It was such a great day. Both Jeremy and myself took off work to just relish the day we find out exactly how our lives will change. We both thought ruffles and bows were in our future. Instead we have peepee teepees and baseball hats! We would have been thrilled either way.
Jeremy was kind of dumb-founded at the first announcement by our ultrasound tech. He was so certain it was a girl. It did not take him long to realize how awesome our son was going to be. We went full robot on the nursery (more on that next week) and Jeremy geeked out hard! He is in full Power Rangers mode. He has a tutorial on how to make a Power Rangers onesie. There are none to buy, trust me I looked. Now just to decide on the color…
We had an awesome time on our babymoon in San Diego. I’ll share some pictures from that on Friday.
I’m diving in head first into really getting my blog to take off. I would love this record to look back on and see what exactly it was that interested me in my 20s. I have to be honest, not sure how the whole blog thing works after you let a domain expire, something I’ll have to look into. But for now, I’m adopting a new schedule for my posts. Hopefully I’ll get really regular at this and you can stop in on any given day and find a fresh new post waiting for you!
Momma Monday
Crafty Tuesday
Fitness Wednesday
Review Thursday
Photo Friday
Of course, these are subject to change at any given time. There may be something amazingly awesome and I skip to photo Fridays on a crafty Tuesday. But bear with me, I’m going to make this work!
And, for the rest of the pregnancy, I will do weekly updates on me and baby on Momma Mondays! I’m really kicking myself for letting it go to the wayside. I bought a bump book so I could take pictures every week and watch the progress. Not a single picture has made it to the book…so frustrated with myself. Once the little guy gets here I’ll start project 365 and make it a picture of him every day. Life goes by way too fast and I definitely want to capture those priceless moments that might not matter to anyone else. The first time he pees in my face, the first time he has a diaper blow-out, and the list goes on and on. I’m so excited to be a mom…I simply can’t wait!
I’m a week behind on pictures…go figure. For now you get week 28 from last weekend and you’ll get 2 next week!
How far along? 29 weeks
Total weight gain: 13 shhh, don’t tell anyone. I’m being much more cautious with my weight now and working out is my friend again.
Maternity clothes? Every flippin day, thank whoever invented them!
Stretch marks? Sadly yes. I’m like a tiger, I earned my stripes.
Sleep: I’m still sleeping well. My hips are hurting more and more every night but it’s totally going to be worth it.
Best moment this week: Every moment when he kicks me, I’m so grateful.
Miss Anything? Not that I can really put a name to right now
Movement: TONS!
Food cravings: Nothing much right now.
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope, I’ve moved on to heartburn these days
Sex Prediction: Boy!
Labor Signs: None
Symptoms: Big ole bump out front and lots of heartburn
Belly Button in or out? Innie
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy with a little moodiness thrown in to make it interesting.
Looking forward to: Our next birthing class tomorrow night.
Posted in Babies, Baby Logsdon, Crafts, Family, Fitness, The Mister | Tags: Baby, Henry, Momma Monday, New Blog Schedule | No Comments »
Anniversary Breakfast
October 25, 2011
Things get crazy and I go M.I.A. Sorry…I really am! Between work and school, husband and the furry ankle bitters I get lost and can’t find my way back home. Today is a sick day for me. Feel sorry for me. I’m lying here on my amazingly comfortable chaise lounge covered in a super comfy and fluffy blanket with a cup of coffee and GMA. GMA is the only TV I miss now that I have a regular job, it’s just so fun and informative, I’m so happy I get to watch it today.
We went to DC over the weekend. Remember me talking about the 5K obstacle course we were going to do? That was this weekend. That’s a story for another time. Somehow over the weekend I either got crazy dehydrated or picked up some type of bug, I’m not sure which yet. So here I sit hydrating and resting, hoping to be 100% soon.
I just realized though that I did not share our anniversary with you. Another reason why I’ve been absent, that took a lot of time. Several months out I found pictures of a romantic picnic, I took that and ran with it. I originally wanted to do a romantic candlelit dinner, but we decided to go to Mariah’s for dinner. Mariah’s is one of our favorite restaurants here, that’s where we went on the morning we got engaged, we had our rehearsal dinner there, they catered our wedding, and I expect we’ll spend most of our anniversaries there. So breakfast it was. I fixed WAY too much, but that’s what I do.
I started out several weeks before hand by picking up 1.5” PVC pipe and 4 side outlet elbows. I was originally intimidated by cutting and putting it all together, but it was really easy. The hand saw I used just went right through it like butter. I probably spent no more than 1 hour sawing and putting together. I cut 4 pipes to 7′ and 4 pipes to 5′. How did I come to these measurements you ask? We’re both around 6′ tall so 7′ was a good choice. I used a 3′ square card table, added on 2 feet on each side for chairs, so 5′ it was. Once it came together I put a coat of spray paint it on it. I just used brown, I didn’t want that to be any type of focal point.
That was pretty much it. I bought curtains from Walmart to frame it and it was gorgeous. All the recipes I used of course came from pinterest…..as does everything in my life any more. I made Biscuit and Eggs, Angel Food Cake French Toast, Chocolate-Filled Brioche, Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls, a fruit platter, regular biscuits, and fresh whipped cream. I had mimosas for us to drink, but instead of orange juice we had passionfruit juice. Jeremy got his first passionfruit in Antigua on our honeymoon and absolutely loves them, not really native to Kentucky though. *Sidenote – has anyone else noticed that sometimes pinterest just seems to lose links? I had to go through and refind all these recipes because the links were gone….SO annoying.
So without further ado:
Set up bright and early at 6am
Mmmm, breakfast
Close-up of my favorite, Chocolate Brioche
Pouring himself some juice
I did not take pictures of the whole process, it was a surprise for Jeremy so I did it as quickly as possible under the secret of a garage or night…. If anyone is interested I can whip up a quick tutorial, it’s amazing how easy it was!
Recovering mouse pad tutorial
September 1, 2011
I did not get my recipe done this weekend. Saturday I ended up working in my front yard which needed it terribly, I also painted a mailbox to replace the our old one which decided to break. Cute right?
Just paint, I wish I had a silhouette so it would have been much more polished, but it was made with love and hopefully we’ll have this for a while!
Sunday I went wedding dress shopping with a friend who is getting married next August, that was lots of fun. Didn’t leave a whole lot of time for cooking though so it went on the back burner.
Friday I’ll be making a flatbread pizza from the cookbook, so don’t miss that!
Today I thought I’d put together a tutorial on how to recover a mouse pad. I found this mousepad at work today.
Not really my style, so I got the crazy idea to bring it home and recover it in fabric I had already used in my office. I started by pulling off the top which, I got anxious at work and started to peel it off, that why I don’t really have a before picture. The mouse pad actually started out pristine, it wasn’t torn up like they end up. I just found a spot and started trying to disconnect the fabric from the foam underneath. It didn’t take long, just some patients. I got it off fairly clean and was left with just the base. I laid the base on top of the fabric and traced around so I know just how big to make it.
Next comes ModPodge! I love this stuff. I used 2 pieces of fabric because my top fabric was a little thin and I didn’t want to be able to see the foam underneath.
For the under layer, which was just white broadcloth, I did half at a time. For the top layer, which is a loose weave and easily shifted, I did a little at a time. Then I was left with rough edges where the fabric got pulled tighter that I cut.
I used a rotary cutter to trim the fabric, flip it upside down on top of a cutting mat and get as close to the foam base as possible
Then you’re just left with the finished product!
I can’t wait to put this in my office tomorrow!
Camera Strap Cover Tutorial
August 8, 2011
I just registered for my fall classes and one of them is Intro to Photojournalism! Jeremy bought an entry level DSLR a year or so ago. I’m slowly learning my way around it and how to take some nice pictures, but why not have a professional train me instead? I’ve heard the first thing to do when you have a nice camera, to avoid looking like tommy tourist, is to get rid of the horrible name brand strap. You can buy them on etsy, really cute ones too, but why buy when you can create! Rather than admitting that I had a horrible weekend….again, I thought I’d occupy your attention with a quick tutorial on how I made mine.
Fabric:
Something durable is a must, I probably won’t actually wash it, but it will likely see it’s fair share of dirt and what not, so quilting cotton it was for me. You could do both sides the same fabric, but I decided to opt for something more comfortable on the neck. I happen to have bought some minky dot for another project that I have not yet done, but I know I have way more than I need. I thought the minky dot was going to be A LOT more difficult to work with than it actually was. I had heard stories of what a nightmare it was. I do have a trick to share with you, but we’ll get to that shortly!
Dimensions:
My strap is the standard that came on it. It has strapping that is 1.5” in width and 24” in length. I cut my fabric to 5”x25”. You could do it with much less, but I want easy construction and use.
Technique:
I started by taking my individual pieces, with right sides together, sewed up the long sides, with a ¼” seam. Then did the same with one of the short ends and flipped right side out. To avoid seeing a seam with the finished product I made my seam be in the middle of one of the sides. I folded the other short side, tucking the raw ends inside, and sewed up the end, repeating the same seam on the other end, so they match.
Start all over and do the exact same thing with the other fabric.
Matching the two pieces up along all four sides sew the long sides together, leaving the short sides open (that’s where the strap will go through). I sewed mine 1/8” in, depending on how much bigger than your strap you cut it will determine how much of a seam to make. You don’t want to make it much better than the strap because then it will move around and that’s no fun.
You can see the minky dot peeking out from underneath the cotton.
You can use less fabric, iron a seam on each side of each fabric and sew the two together, the same as the other. I decided not to do this because I wanted it to be very slim against the existing strap with no extra bulk. The way I did mine leaves no seams to bunch or snag the strap, just makes it much easier.
The hardest part of making this was getting my strap through! On side is strapping and the other is a rubbery texture so it doesn’t slide around your neck. I pushed mine halfway down then fished up and caught it from the other side. If you have a better technique I’d love to know!
My one tip with working with the minky dot (or any fleecy type of material) is to put something between the feed dogs and the fabric, if not, it doesn’t flow through nicely. I used a piece of paper, not advisable, it was thick and hard to pull off. I suggest using parchment or something else thin and easy to rip because once your done you just rip it from the seam and you have a nice neat seam and no hassle!
So that’s that and here is the finished product
Guinness decided to pose for me, so I gave my new strap a whirl!
Now to either buy a purse and make a purse to turn into a camera bag. I’ll make a tute for that too!
I’ve purchased another cookbook and hopefully will actually do my series on it. It’s a cookbook entitled The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight & Eating Great by Pam Anderson. She has devoted several pages devoted to her struggle with weightloss and how she overcame. Like me, she decided to cut out dieting and just eat healthy. Any diet that cuts out a whole food group can’t be well rounded and not good for you! I’m excited about this cookbook, almost all the recipes sound delicious. Tuesday night I’ll be making Baked Fish with Oven Sautéed Tomatoes, Basil, and Garlic, sounds delish right? Check back Wednesday for my review and the recipe!
This is hard
August 2, 2011
I have been a bad bad girl….this weekend we decided to go off path and ate kind of crappy. I don’t know what we do this every weekend, but this is FOR SERIOUSLY the last one! I am in a wedding next October and bridesmaids dresses are so not forgiving. We are also going to start trying to expand our family next summer too and a fat pregnant girl is never as cute as a thin pregnant girl. I want to be able to wear one of these beauties:
Show off (hopefully) a cute little bump. My baby fever calmed down during my summer class because I didn’t have enough time to think, but it is back now! I pinned a ton of baby things this weekend, I just can’t help it. It hasn’t come back as bad as it was, but give it time.
I made my weigh-in day Sunday so I would be more likely to be good on the weekends….so far it hasn’t happened. This Sunday I weighed in at 230.6, if you’re keeping tabs that is up 1.8 pounds up from my weigh-in on Thursday, but down 0.8 from the Friday before that. Oh well, can’t help what I’ve done, I can only focus on how I will treat my body in the future.
I had intended on writing up a post detailing our weekend adventure. Our kitchen faucet sink sprayer has been broken for about 2.5 years, and I really missed it. So with my first paycheck we decided to replace our sink along with the faucet. Jeremy found a tutorial on YouTube that said it was a beginner project so we headed to Lowes! We got a fabulous new granite composite sink in cocoa brown and a lovely long necked faucet with pull out sprayer. We got the faucet attached to the sink and the sink put in and then the hard part came. Our old sink was about 4″ deep with drains in the middle of the sinks, our new sink is 9″ deep with drains in the middle upper corners. Until we got under the sink we didn’t realize our old sink was so incredibly shallow, we assumed it was the standard 8″…definitely not! What was supposed to be a one hour project turned into a 6 hours project with 4 trips to Lowes….We were so disgusted.
So my tutorial on how to install a kitchen sink and faucet is to pull out the phone book find the number of a plumber, call him, and get him to do it….save yourself some time, sanity, and hair!
Wednesday is the start of another series at http://chasingcottons.blogspot.com/. It’s a series on quilting blocks, I’m looking forward to a post of paper piecing, I’m really interest in learning!
And now I will leave with you a few pieces of wisdom I’ve pinned over the last little bit. Motivation for me, and hopefully motivation for you!
Source: fit-and-happy.tumblr.com via Tina on Pinterest
Source: thefitway.tumblr.com via Tina on Pinterest
Source: google.com via Tina on Pinterest
Source: strawberrie-heart.tumblr.com via Tina on Pinterest
Clicking on the picture will direct you to the pin on my pinterest. If you’re interested in the wonderful world of pinterest and aren’t privy to it yet, let me know and I’ll get you an invite!
Little Update
July 28, 2011
The last 3 weeks have kind of been a blur for me. I started my new job at Western and a 3 week web course at basically the same time. My July has basically consisted of gym, work, home to study, dinner, more studying, then bed, rinse and repeat. I have my final tomorrow, which I’m so excited for, but not necessarily ready for!
This week has been a good week for me, yesterday I weighed in at 228.8 which is down 2.4 pounds from Sunday! We’ve worked out every day except today, I just could not get out of bed and needed the rest to get ready for my final tomorrow. I will likely be up and down between Sunday, but we’ll see how Sunday goes then!
I’m also excited to be done with my class so I can get back to crafting! I have 1 quilt in the making and another close to being ready to start. I have a couple more fabrics to purchase for that and nail down the exact scale of the pattern. I’m very excited about both! I will update you on those at some point next week when I actually have time to think about crafting. My poor craft room is so neglected right now.
I have a possible career idea I’ll kick around with you guys later too.
I really want to cook my way through a health cookbook and share with you all too, I just need to find one and stick to it. Maybe I’ll pick the Vegetarian Bible up again, we’ll see.
Until next time! Have a great rest of the week!
New look and MP3 holder tutorial
May 11, 2011
Notice anything different? I was just not happy with my other design so I completely redid it! I love it, it’s so fun, but sophisticated. Just like me 
I’ve been working on sewing an IPod arm case and just finished. This is my first tutorial, so please bear with me. I will get better at this! This was very trial and error, hopefully you can follow it if you wish!
I started out with my fabric, a nice soft solid for the inside, the cute cotton print for the outside and interfacing for a little more support. I cut each piece to 3.5”x6”. I have an IPod touch which measures about 2.25”x5”, so if you have something else you’ll need to change your measurements for your device. Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of either fabric, just so the stabilization is in between the 2 fabrics.
The first thing I did was to sew slots for my elastic band to go through. I’m not sure why I didn’t use my buttonhole foot for the first time, but I would definitely recommend it if your machine has the capability for a hole big enough. If you cannot do that, you can do it the way I did it. I cut a 2 slits in the middle of the case, 1” in length and 1.5” apart. Sew as close to the edge of the slit as possible, around all 4 sides of each slit. I sewed my slits through both fabrics for more strength, but you can certainly do it however you see fit. If you ironed your interfacing to the outside fabric then you could certainly just sew the slits into that fabric.
Closure was the next thing that was tackled. I decided to do a button and loop closure. I used an old hair tie that I sewed to the inside fabric. I just sewed the tie to the inside fabric so you could not see it on the outside. A pretty piece of ribbon would have been lovely too.
I sewed each of the fabrics, right sides together, to themselves, which leaves me with a pouch for the inside and a pouch on the outside. Since I sewed the slits into both fabrics my 2 pouches are joined and the outside just needs to be flipped so the print is on the outside and the inside’s right side will be visible on the inside.
Again something I would have done differently is to have hemmed the top before sewing it all together, it was kind of tricky. I sewed a button to the front and some hook and loop to the elastic and was all done. I can use it just as a case or put the elastic in and use it as an arm case.
I realize this is a horrible tutorial, but I promise to get better with time. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Next post will be about our newly started garden!
End of the semester!
April 26, 2011
I’m very excited because of the title of this post. I’ve 2 weeks of school left then finals then I graduate! It still hasn’t hit me yet, I’m just so excited. I’ve been in school so very long. I’m excited to get a real job and not have to worry about studying or homework or tests. But I still have 2 weeks and 2 days of finals left, which is why I haven’t posted anything lately. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but Chemistry is not my strongest subject and I’m really having to work at it. I have the lab final on Thursday along with an exam in the lecture. I also have a lesson plan looming over my head, trying to work on it. I’m pretty excited about the lesson though, I have connected Harry Potter and Genetics, how awesome is that? I think it’s awesome.
I have done several crafts in the last few weeks. More diapers have been made, I’m up to 6 now!
I’ve also got my chandelier mostly done! Here are the process pics
I’ve got several of the shades done, but not all. I will give you an update later on a few office updates
Jeremy works for Western in the College of Education. A group of Environmental Education students got together and figured out how to make rain barrels then taught a class and we happen to be in the class. We took a syrup barrel from the local Pepsi distributor and married it with a bucket from a local bakery, a few nozzles and mesh screen and we had a rain barrel. It was painted hunter green, but that just did not work for us and we decided to paint it to look like a wooden barrel. We’re both pretty pleased with. We’ve had so much rain here lately we’ve filled it up twice. It only take 1/2 of rain on a roof to fill up the barrel, it’s pretty amazing!
And now my last update. We’ve been saving Jeremy’s ties that he messes up, whether it’s a pull or messy man got something on it, we have a laundry basket full. I got some white fabric and will be doing cathedral squares with the ties. I’m so excited to get started! Here’s what I’m starting with
and what I’m going for
I really like these pillows and I may only have enough to do pillows, that’s the great thing about this block is you can keep going as big as you want or stop as small as you. I’m going to get into it and see how it goes! Wish me luck!
Posted in Cloth Diapers, Crafts, Decor, Redecorating, Sewing, The Mister | Tags: Cathedral, Office, Quilts, Rain Barrel, School | No Comments »
Bad mojo
March 28, 2011
I’m in a bad mood today. The day started off so well, I’ve gotten so much done. This morning I woke up, saw Jeremy off to work, then jumped into high gear. Cleaned the living room then the kitchen, put laundry in, fixed some horribly scratched frames, then did the dishes. I decided to take a break and finish my diaper that I’d given up on the day before. I had fully intended on having a tutorial of my entire process up last week, but I just didn’t get enough free time to finish it.
I started sewing and I had the same problem as the night before, my needle thread continued to get stuck in my bobbin mechanism. I pulled out a piece of scrap to play with and it stopped but then my bobbin was too loose so I tightened it up only to have to loosen it up again when I started sewing on my 4 layered diaper. I get going and feel good about it until my thread breaks again, then I realized that it has skipped huge amounts of stitches….ugh, I just can’t deal with it now. I took pictures all the way up to the end and was going to write a post up to that point, the last part is pretty easy. Then I bought fantastic new fabric this weekend, so I took pictures of it, came to write my post and then another pitfall….my card has messed up and I lost all of the pictures! My entire diaper process is lost, not a huge deal, I have a ton more to make, but it’s the point. It has put a huge damper on my day!
On a bright note, we went to Joanne’s on Saturday and found they had their flannel on sale for $2.49! We picked out 6 patterns that we both loved and got half a yard each, except one that was about to the end so we got all that was left, ¾ yards. So now I have all this adorable fabric and can’t do anything with it right now! It’s driving me crazy.
I have a wreath tutorial coming very soon, save that leftover yard, it’s the most adorable thing ever!
****Breaking news, Jeremy uploaded all the pictures from the card last night, so all the pictures are still here! YAY! Partial diaper tutorial coming VERY soon!
I’ve got much to do, bathrooms to clean, laundry to put up, jewelry and wreaths to make, woo, full day! Hope you enjoy yours!
