Well, it has been over a year since I've posted here. Work and things have really just gotten away from me. You might have noticed that the Etsy shop has fallen by the wayside as well. Same excuse/no excuse. This blog is dead completely. It will still be here and I'm not going to say that I will never come back to it, but you won't find me here everyday.

As much as I really need to design some of my own fabric, I knew if I waited around to do that I might never print up some Spoonflower fabric for myself. So, I headed to the marketplace and found a print that I loved to recover my dining room chairs.

Here's my dining room. The chairs aren't bad, but I knew they could be awesome with new fabric.

I choose decoflowers by holli_zollinger in the upholstery weight cotton twill. She's got some other awesome designs for sale and a cool blog and Etsy shop as well.


Of course, Roland had to come jump all over my fabric and see what I was up to. Nothing happens without his thorough inspection.

Yay for ironing! (sarcasm). I am so horrible at ironing, but I found it was easier to iron fabric than clothing.

I didn't have a staple gun or make full covers for these, so if you turned the chairs over you'd see that they are put together all kinds of weird, but I'm okay with that.

Looking at my dining room now, makes me so happy! No more crappy brown suede from KMart. Next up on Spoonflower projects are some cool curtains to rid myself of the nasty plastic blinds.

This has nothing to do with recovering chairs, but just as I was about to connect my camera to my computer to upload the photos, I heard this weird scratching. I didn't think it could be what I thought it might be, but it was:

That big wall was too much for Roland to bear and he had to finally investigate. Of course, it didn't really go as planned, I'm sure, since he was trapped and in a horribly slick place. (He won't even venture into the kitchen because of the tile.) Before rescuing him, I had to snap a picture or two.

I'm actually seriously loving those shoes. Anyone have other suggestions for these items?

It's pretty freezing at work, like leaving your winter coat on and freezing fingers cold. It warms up later in the afternoon, but for several hours in the morning I'm afraid I'll loose one of my fingers cutting fabric and not even notice because they are so numb.

I decided quickly that I needed some fingerless gloves. I had a couple in my queue on Ravelry that I've been wanting to make, but I wanted something quick and a project that didn't involve me having to buy new yarn. So, I made Fetching from Knitty.


Now on Monday, hopefully my hands will say warmer! If you need a quick project or just have cold hands like me, I definitely recommend this pattern for it's super quickness and cuteness!

P.S. Oh yea! The other day was National Delurking Day. So, why don't you delurk now since I was awesome enough to miss it?

I went to Ikea for the first time yesterday. It. Was. Amazing. There was so much to look at and I walked around the set up rooms twice before heading downstairs to pick stuff up. I wish I could have furnished my entire apartment with the stuff, but I had to settle for a couple pieces. The things I did get really, really helped to get rid of the clutter in my place. Before this stuff, the drawers, cabinets and counters in my kitchen were overflowing with kitchen stuff. There really just isn't enough room in there for everything. My kitchen table had become the place for everything including all papers, my computer, coats, scarfs, bags, and oh yea, Trent and I try to eat there every night, too. It was getting a little ridiculous. Amazingly, just a few things have really changed my apartment. Everything is a million times more neat and the space to put things has tripled.I moved my cookbooks from here and now I have an awesome espresso making section with my collection of syrups. That dijon mustard container is actually homemade vanilla. Tonight I whipped up a batch of pumpkin spice syrup from The Yellow Door Paperie. I haven't tried it in a drink yet, but I licked my fingers and it was really tasty! I might just have to go make a latte right now so I can try it.

Here's the cool floor lamp I found for just $14.99! I was worried it wouldn't shed much light, but it's great. Now I just have to keep Roland from ripping a hole in the paper. I've been correcting him all day trying to teach him that the new stuff is not his to chew through.

There's Trent sitting on the couch with the brand new awesomely hard to put together coffee table. We were feeling pretty full of our putting-Ikea-stuff-together-greatness after one piece and this second one didn't turn out as easily, but we got it to work.

This is my sadly neglected plant that my Mom bought me after my beta fish died. I don't care about it nearly as much as I should now that I have a bunny, but I thought of it when I was Ikea shopping and picked it up this adorable little pot.

My solution to my overcrowded drawers was this kitchen utensil holder with hooks thing. I was worried about how many things I actually had with holes in the handles, but I had quite a few.

The one thing I actually went to Ikea for was some kind of bookcase. My cookbooks have been sitting next to my sink since I moved in and I am slob when I do dishes and have ruined a couple of them from water damage. When I was at Ikea I had the bright idea to turn the bookshelf into a sort of hutch as well, so now it's holding my dishes and bowls freeing up two very needed shelves in my cabinets.

I really wanted to get an awesome coat hanger too, but sadly Ikea only had 2 versions to choose from and I wasn't really in love with either and really wasn't in love with the prices. I went for some hooks instead which are being very useful this very minute holding my coat, purse and tons of scarves by the door. I'm probably the last person to ever have the joy of going to Ikea, but if you haven't been, GO. No matter how far, it is worth it.

After only a week and a long weekend, I feel like my life is back on course. Working crazy retail hours all that time left me feeling like I had no time for anything. I had time to make dinner, watch a TV show (maybe) and hang out with Trent a bit.

Now, I've actually had time for a lot. I actually tried out my sewing machine yesterday! It was awesome. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to turn the thing on, but I think I made some progress. I'm to the point now where I would like to try to start sewing some straight lines on scrap fabric, but I'm having some issues. After just a few second of running the machine, a whole bunch of the top thread gets caught in the bobbin area. I have to take everything apart and cut fabric and thread to get it unjammed. I've tried a lot of different stuff and tried to research online, but I think it just comes down to me not understanding how to work the machine.

Things it could be:

• Can you use any thread in a sewing machine? I had a spool I've used for fixing stuff by hand and I just stuck that on there. Maybe it's completely the wrong kind of thread?
• The thread in the bobbin and the thread on top are different. I just found a bobbin of thread in there and decided to use that. Should they be the same thread?
• The top thread is kind of loose hanging on the machine. Is it supposed to be tight? I think I put it on right. I followed the manual, but I haven't ever done it before. I tried messing with the tightening knob for the top thread, but it didn't help.
• How tight should the foot be? I feel like I can't get the fabric through if it is more than 1, but I've messed around with that as well.
• I've tried different settings for everything else as well, but I'm still not very sure what everything does.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong? Or maybe some cool books for learning to sew? I'd like to find a hip sewing book like I found for knitting (Stitch N Bitch). I saw Sew U online. Has anyone heard good things about that book?

Also, I got some work done on my sweater! I blocked it and have sewn up the pieces. Now I just have to crochet some rev sc (which I have no idea how to do. Any good crochet videos or websites that can show me how to do that on a piece of knitting?). Right now it seems slightly big which is a little disappointing. Not so big that I can't wear it, but the head hole just seems a little to long. Not too bad for a first sweater though.

So, guess what?! I got a new job and it is amazing. I don't even know how to express how amazing it truly is. First of all, I no longer have to deal with Barnes & Noble, the stress, the retail-ness of it all, the 8 hours that feel like 12 hour shifts. Soon (only 3 days left!) I will have worked my last day there and I am ready for it.

Where is my new job? Spoonflower.com

You see? Amazing. I'm going to be working with the shipping and packaging portion of Spoonflower. I've already gone a couple days this past week and it was so much fun. Everyone who works there is awesome and being there doesn't even feel like work.

If you've never been to Spoonflower, you really need to check it out. You can design whatever you want on fabric or look through the marketplace for cool designs that other designers have made available for you to purchase. I love watching the printers to see what is coming out next and have already seen a crazy amount of fabric that I want. I think this job is going to make me start sewing!