Saturday, November 29, 2008

I have been crafty, finally



I love making stuff, and i've been busy in my sewing room since monday. its so nice to have time for crafty things. I have been working on my wedding quilt, in a crumb/logcabinish kind of way. its looking good.

i've been inspired by just tutes patchwork circle skirt and a couple of ladies over on craftster, and i am done cutting out for a brown and beige version of the skirt, with the last row being colorful. I love the look of the rainbow version but i do not think i would actually wear it, and if i put the time in i plan on wearing it. i will put up pics when i find the thing for my camera.

you can still enter to win the hotel stay in portland, just go here until dec 3.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

another giveaway

my give away is here, its for a hotel stay, but if you go over to coleshomecooking.blogspot.com you can win some cool measuring cups and amish cinnamon. which is obviously better than regular cinnamon because its amish. And the measuring cups are the nice metal ones. i want them... mine are crappy plastic.... and some are missing.... so go check her out. but dont win. i could use these.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Name my etsy store.....please

I am going to open an etsy store. Really. But i need a name. A good one, something catchy and cute, cause I'm not really sure i want to use death by denim for an etsy store. i plan on selling tutus and ipod cozies/carriers to start. non denim related. but super cute and fun. and fast and easy to make. probably some beanies and scarves too. I crochet.

Anyhoo....help me!

any ideas are welcome, seriously, I'm drawing a huge blank. my blog name is the first time I've named something since i was one. And that was my only baby doll, Nina, who lives on my sewing table watching my scraps. I'm not even sure i was the one who named her. I don't even name pets. I had a cat... and i named her cat.

I'm so lame.

But I'm giving away 4 nights in Portland for new years eve! go here

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Hotel Give Away!!

I am giving away 4 nights at the Clarion Hotel Portland Airport (Oregon) for the dates of December 28, 2008 through January 1, 2009.

The room is 1 King size bed, nonsmoking, and comes with a refrigerator and microwave. The hotel also has an indoor heated pool and jacuzzi. Which is good cause it will be winter.

I am giving this away because my husband and I no longer have the money to actually make the trip, and we booked the hotel early on Priceline. I was super excited because we saved a TON of money, but there are no refunds, exchanges, credits toward a future stay, etc. What I can do is change the name on the reservation, and that is how you will benefit.
Don't be worried, I already called the hotel, and I can change the name on the reservation, so this is for real. You will need to figure out how to get there, this is for the hotel only.

So, who wants to win? All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, with a valid email address, so I can contact you. For an extra 3 entries, post about this give away on your blog, with a link to this post. For 5 more entries, post a link on your sidebar thingy. (that's the technical term I promise) Please let me know you will be posting a link so I can go check it out. I don't want to miss anyone.
The deadline to leave a comment is Wednesday December 3, 11:59pm.
Good Luck!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

New things

So since i got my second job at the start of October i have been working like a crazy person. MTW 9-6 at the preschool, in the baby rooms, which was so not what i signed up for. Baby room= me being bored out of my mind, because i want to work with 4 year olds. Huge ginormous difference. TH/F is 9-2 preschool, 3-1:30 hospital, where i answer phones, and Sat. is 3-1:30 at the hospital. 65 hours a week with little sleep between Thurs and Fri. Sundays i have off, woo hoo.

Basically my only time to sleep and see my husband is on Sundays, and sadly, lately id rather sleep. or craft, which relaxes me so much. its very difficult because in the few hours i have off, i don't have time to do what i want or need. And it took me about 1 month to crack. Crying, miserable, don't even want to make things, just sitting in my sewing room wishing i had time to do something. See, the preschool job was supposed to be fun. I love teaching preschool, i usually want to go spend time with the kids in my class. but not here, i was with the wrong age group, spoke up about it, and stayed where i was. No helpful boss trying to put me where they said id be working in the first place.

So what did i learn here? manage to speak to some employees away from the boss during the interview. because while they are great at an interview, they just might be the worse boss you could ever have. but people still work there, even tho they hate the boss. and never get their days off on the days they want/ need them. Because the pay is GOOD, about $2 more per hour than is typical in orange county, ca.

What now? i will not be working at the preschool any more as of Friday the21. One more week! my husband is almost done with the semester, and will be able to find a job that goes along with his career choice for post college, as he will now have some decent availability, and a much lighter load next semester. So we will be back to 1 income for a couple weeks, and i think we can survive it. I am also getting a much better time slot at the hospital, 40 hrs a week, m-th, 10am-8-30pm. its the same thing i do now, only better and more hours. and if it is designated full time i will not have to pay for my ohsoinexpensive health insurance. which is like getting a raise. pray for the free health insurance!!!

Eventually i would like to go back to being a preschool teacher. its what i love and i still collect ideas for stuff to do with kids even tho i don't have a class. This was just the wrong place for me right now. And really, i did not want to be working for that boss long term. no way.

Since my new schedule wont start till dec 8. and i took thanksgiving weekend off, i have like 10 days off after this week. And i have alot of stuff planned.

Like this:
quilt or crochet a baby blanket for cousins new baby, born like 2 days ago (yay!)
dress up some plain onesies for same baby
finish my camera case i started last weekend
take pictures of projects and post them
finish quilting the crayon box quilt, which i didn't even reroll after pics, its just folded on the couch.
work on wedding quilt

I might do this (after that of course)
cut out binding for "my first quilt" in purple.
trim the edges of said quilt and begin binding
start working on the Josephine apron, which is in a pile already cut on my sewing table
buy more safety pins, the smaller ones
iron the fabric that was washed, dried and left on the back of my chair
practice my free motion quilting on the sampler quilt.
buy brown thread for wedding quilt quilting

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Saturday, November 8, 2008

pictures!!!!!

sneak peek, its my wedding quilt. i'm in love with it,
top of crayon box quilt, pattern is from bonnie at quiltville.com. I will probably name/label it as "my first quilt"
And the back of the same quilt, pieced from my stash

Friday, November 7, 2008

Win this quilt!



Isn't this gorgeous! I want one. You can try to win it too. just go to http://sewingwithabbie.blogspot.com/2008/11/win-this-quilt-my-giveaway.html

Be sure to read the story behind it too.

pay it forward

So here are the rules (since i joined on kadotje.blogspot.com)

I will send the first three people to leave a comment on this post a handmade gift within the next 365 days.

I am willing to post anywhere in the world

The catch is that you have to have a blog and be willing to do the same thing....

So if you'd like to participate, then leave me a comment and make sure to leave me a valid email address so that I can contact you for your address, etc.

So if you're game then go ahead and comment!

So I'll send to the first three persons with a valid e-mail address leaving a comment and posting this "post it forward" on their blog too
I'm interested to see when/if anyone comments here in my lonely corner of blogland :)