Goodbye 2010 Hello 2011!

I know that I am a few days behind, but I hope you will forgive me! I haven't posted in a long while, but one of my resolutions is to post more often, at least once every 2 weeks. This is because I go on my blog everyday to see if the bloggers whom I follow have posted anything new, and when they haven't I'm a little sad, and I don't want anyone to feel that way about mine!

So this post is just going to be in pictures, just to reflect on last year, they are in no particular order, and there are more but it was taking a lot of time to do them! (I got this idea from Garrett's sister Lauren! thank you!)

1&2 Trip to Foxwoods to celebrate Ben's Birthday and our (Garrett and mine) 8 year anniversary!
3. My first quilt ever finished!!
4. Muse concert

1. Earth Jam at my college, where I first sold my crafts!
2. Solar fest at UNH
3. Spring time in Plymouth, my favorite! my last spring spent there :-(
4. Gogol Bordello concert!

All these pictures are from My college graduation. BS in Mathematics with teacher certification option (5-8)
This was a very exciting, and sad time for me. I miss all my friends from college!

The music festival Garrett and I attended in 2010. Osheaga in Montreal Canada.
1. Arcade fire
2.Snoop Dogg
3. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
4. Weezer!

1.Garrett and I Climbing Bald Mountain together
2. Celebrating my Graduation with some friends
3. Halloween, Isabella and Phineas, from Phineas and ferb. (the first article of clothing i have ever sewn...i have a lot to learn!)
4. Warm Fire

1. Painted my room from being a bring orange and yellow to a nice shade of turquoise! A much needed change!
2. A crinkle toy for the best little boy!!!
3. Bonsai Bag for one twin for her birthday!
4. Oven mitts for the other twin!

This is the summer set.... I don't know why I put it last.
1. Hanging out at Newbie!!
2. Summer flowers
3.More fun at newbie
4.more summer flowers!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures. I'm really excited to see whats in store for 2011. Garrett's Sister Lauren will be getting married, and my sister Christine will be getting married! Garrett will almost be finished with school, and I will be an auntie for my best friend Tonia's baby boy Chase! I am really excited for this year and I hope it is one of my best!!

Peace & Love J-me

Bonsai Bag & Oven Mitts

Happy Friday everyone! Today is a full work day for me so while I'm on my hour lunch break i decided to do my Friday finish post. This week sewing has been crazy. Doing some last minute things for the craft fair this Saturday over at the Bennington elementary, and Wednesday was my twin sisters 25th birthday. Soo of course i was crafting for them too!

One of the twins recently moved away to live with her boyfriend in MS, and i decided i would make her some oven mitts. Her first place, and i thought they would be a very use full tool.

I made them using this pattern

i made them out of the PEZ fabric that my mom snatched up at a local quilts shop's HUGE summer sale.

They have been shipped and are on there way to her. I hope she likes them....also i hope she doesn't read this!!! woops!

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For the other twin i made her the Bonsai Bag found at Rae's Blog. My sister loves purses and big ones so she can put a lot of stuff in them. She is always on the go, and hardly ever stops so she needs a big bag.

I think that it came out awesome and i have fabric all cut up and ready to make one for myself!!! Its a great pattern and very easy to follow.

i used piping for the trim, first time using it and it came out not to shabby!

Here is a picture of some ornaments waiting for ribbon

 Have a great weekend everyone!

Make sure to check out Amy's blog for other finishes!

Peace & Love J-me

Cold Hiking Trip

Happy Sunday everyone! The clocks have been changed back, and it's been kinda a weird feeling day all around. My normal routine on Sundays is get up around 10 with Garrett, make break fest watch TV and basically nap all day. Sometimes we go on errands, other times Garrett will go for a bike ride or an outdoor adventure and leave me to sleep all snuggled up in his bed.

This day was a little different. We got up at 9, and made some breakfast, watched a little TV, the nova special on the Chilean miners. We then went to Garrett's Dad's house that he is flipping which is right across the street from my house, and helped move a HUGE fridge and stove into the house.

We went over and visited my mom next and Garrett said...Lets go climb Bald mountain. I have climbed this mountain before, but I'm not huge on climbing mountains, (I'm very out of shape, but need/want to get into shape), so i said sure! We packed up some food to cook, and lots of water, and an extra pair of shoes for me, because i was testing out the hiking boots Garrett got me for free from the dump.

The climb was really fun, and extra special because i had done it before and he has never. Before we got to the top i told Garrett about this "cave" like thing, so i took a picture of him in it.

Garrett was very impressed with me because i didn't complain at all! I had to stop a couple times to catch my breath, but there was no, how about we stop here? lets just go back! ugh I can't do this. haha. In fact i said a few of those things in my head, but not out loud! (haha I hope you don't read this Garrett!) I just said to myself just keep going, its rewarding, having fun with Garrett, doing something he really likes to do!

we finally made it to the top and it was a little cold! We tried to get the cook stove going to make some beans, but it wasn't cooperating, so we just drank some tea and took some pictures!

this is a panorama i took with my camera. We didn't got to the tippy top, but almost all the way. and the view was amazing!

This is our skills with the self timer and a small tri-pod

Don't I look cold?

We decided we'd better head back because we had no idea what time it was, and didn't want to get stuck on the way down in the dark. The walk down was fun because we just talked and talked about everything. He even mentioned how when we have children we should strap them to our...really my, back and climb mountains. :] That won't be for a while though!

When we got back we were happy to see that Garrett's dad, Nevan, had started a bonfire, so we stood by it to warm up.

It was a great Sunday, one of the best ones recently. I did miss the napping, but it was totally worth it! Now Garrett's back at school, and I can't wait for next weekend to see him again, and find another adventure to go on!

I hope everyone had a great weekend too!

Peace & Love J-me

*p.s. on January 9th (in about 2 months) Garrett and I will have been together for 9 years!!! wow that's almost half our lives! (were 22)

Friday Finish! Crinkle Baby toy!

Hello everyone! Let me tell you this story about an amazing friend of mine. Her name is Miranda, and she has the cutest 7 month old baby boy whose name is Cyrus. When I heard of his arrival, I was so excited to be able to make him some fun baby things! I made him a mitered square blankie, and baby blocks with his name on them, and now i have made him a crinkle toy, with some fun tags on it.

I went over and visited with them 2 Tuesdays ago, and they are such a perfect pair! Lets just say I am super jealous and can't/can wait to have kids of my own. I spent the day catching up with Miranda, and watching Cyrus play with his blocks and his new toy. It was such a wonderful day! I can't wait to go over and play again, I will have to come up with another toy to bring him, or maybe some baby pants?

So  let me introduce you to Miranda and Cyrus. (Miranda is an awesome photographer by the way!)
(I also raided her facebook page for these pictures!)

His first time going apple picking. Isn't this the cutest picture?

I love the hood and the tongue sticking out!!

So on to the actual finish. I had read on the Internet about how babies love things that crinkle, and I had seen blankets made with tags, so I did a little searching on the Internet and came up with this.

I decided to give it a try and made my mom go to work on eating a bag of sun chips, because they have the loudest packaging!

 So this is what I came up with:

The tags are a bit long, but i didn't know, i just thought they would be better to tug on, and stick in his mouth! They are all different texture ribbons as well to for some added stimulation.

The only issue i ran into was I didn't make the whole to turn it big enough so when i started to turn it the bag started ripping off the stitching.  But i went extra slow and made it work.

I hope you like it! I will leave you with an awesome picture she took for me, just for this post!

Peace & Love  J-me

an earring holder thinggy....

Hey Everyone. So I love earrings. i own a lot of dangle earrings. If you didn't know i have 5 holes in my ears, and none anywhere else.

here is some back story.... (i know you all wanted to hear this)

When i was younger my mother decided that the 3 older girls would get their ears pierced. She took us to the mall i believe, and my two older sisters went first. then it was my turn. I was excited to have pretty ears, but scared to get holes put in them with this thing they call a gun! I didn't want my ears to be shot! But mom told me how it would be fine and would only pinch a little bit. YEAH RIGHT MOM! I only ended up getting one pierced , because it hurt sooo bad and i cried and screamed so much that i didn't want to get the other one done.

Now fast foward....I'm not exactly sure when, middle school, i got the holes redone. and this time no flinching and It really didn't hurt! Then I saw that my best friend had her cartilage done, and i really thought that was cool, so i got that done as well. We used a normal stud and a normal gun, i thought i was cleaning it properly every day, but when it came time to switch it the earring was stuck! that was very painful! So i bought a stainless steel earring, and put it in, and it hasn't come out since. But that's okay because i like it that way.

One of my older sisters Christine, had let her holes close over the years and then she decided she wanted to get them done again. We were at the mall and she said that she would get hers done if i got my second holes done, so that's how i got those.

anyways...back to the holder thingy. I have lots of earrings and they all are just thrown into a little Wooden box, and I have trouble finding matching ones, and i hate digging through them all. So i wanted to find something easier to store them.
I searched online and I'm sad to say I don't remember the site for where i found this idea but it is perfect!

It is a Canvas that I bought for 1.99, and painted it with some sparkly paint!

Then you poke holes with something sharp..like a push pin, and insert your earrings!

Then you can hang it on the wall and it's like art! (don't mind the messy desk!)

I  have it hung right next to my fabric covered tack board i made from One Yard Wonders.

I hope you like it!!! Check back tomorrow for a Friday finish! (hopefully)

Peace &  Love J-me

Things I Have been up too

Hey everyone! Long time no talk!! So if you don't already know, I have a new job! I no longer work only 6 hours a week! I work between 20-25 hours a week! Not full time i know, but its better then nothing, and it still gives me time to sew! Which i need!! If your wondering, the job I got is at a local NH bank, and i love it! The first two weeks were kinda crazy, full time hours and doing a lot of training! But now that I'm done taking mini tests, I'm so happy to be actually working! I love it, all the customer interaction, and its not a boring job at all!

So i have been busy with that, and I have also been busy painting my room, and getting everything together, There are still some changes needed to be made but for the most part it is done!

Everything seemed to come together nicely all at once, finishing my room, getting a job, and my car working and inspected. Garrett (my boyfriend) pointed it all out to me, he said hey are lives are beginning to come together. That made me soo happy!

Other things...My friend Tonia is having a baby! A boy, and I am so excited because I am going to be the Godmother, and I'm throwing the baby shower! She is due in early February! She just started a blog so you should go check it out!
I'm making her a cute baby blankie, but i cant put pictures up, because then she will know what it is going to look like and I want it to be a surprise!

So on to crafts. I have made curtains and two throw pillows out of fabric I LOVE, i got it cheap too at Mardens in Maine, amazing store for buying fabric!

Yes that is My first quilt in the pictures too!

I also recently went to a Quilt show, and picked up some fabric from the Pure line, and made a cute gathered clutch from this tutorial!

There is more to post about but, I think this is good. More to come tomorrow I'm sure, because it's my day off!

peace & love J-me

Amy butler sew-n-tell

So for the amy buttler sew-n-tell i made a coil basket from a book that my boyfriends mom let me borrow. Its called It's a Wrap: Sewing Fabric Purses, Baskets, And Bowls. It is a very neat book

here are the pictures. Its kinda messy but i think it came out pretty cool for my first one!

Make sure you check out Amy's blog!!!

Peace & Love J-me