Crafty Finishes - November 2015

Oh hey, I know I sort of dropped off the end of the world there. To sum it all up: I get headaches on a daily basis but, thankfully, my doctor has helped me be proactive about it so I take medicine for it nightly. However, if I've had an especially stressful day or I try to use my eyes too much (staring at a backlit screen, reading for long periods or small font, or staring intently at something/ cross stitch) the headache turns into a full blown migraine. With Thanksgiving, black friday, and some family issues (don't you dare start to assume to know what I'm talking about; you know who you are and if you don't know what I'm talking about then don't worry about it) all building up, I wasn't able to sit down and write up blog posts or edit photos until now. I'm sorry but I'm back and moving forward.

So, not a lot of words today, just some fun pictures of what I've been crafting. Leading up to Christmas my crafty photos will be a bit vague since the crafts are mostly presents but afterwards I'll be sure to share with you the finished products.

First up, the fun stuff I made for the Star Wars Swap. See the completed package on the swap page.

1-Hour baskets and headbands

And for my final swap for the foreseeable future, the Mermaid themed craft swap. Again, you can see the full swap package (and what I received) on the swap page.

A 1-Hour basket based off my partners mermaid colors and a fun scarf

Once I made the first 1-Hour basket I just wanted to make more. The pattern is free and I think it would be a great scrap buster to make them all quilty. Yup, that's definitely going to happen. If you too want to know what all the fuss is about get the pattern --> here.

Just in time for the big meal, Tom Turkey placemats that I started this time last year (those HST freaked me out back then but I've got them all figured out now).

Last year J and I each chose the fabric we wanted as part of our Mr. Turkeys and then I pieced them all together. Even after messing up the first few cuts, I think both turned out quite well. It was fun to finally have some sort of fall decoration up and I have some plans for next year's decorations. If you are the crafty sort and want to make one for yourself, its a free pattern offered by Bee In My Bonnet -> here.

Speaking of holidays, here are two Christmas gift sneak peaks that I posted to instagram earlier this week. Please don't try and guess what they are or who they're for, it'll spoil the surprise.

For the first photo, I finally conquered my fear of curves by taking on full circles. And the second photo is to show off my improved ability at matching up patterns and stringing strips together. I know the tail is a bit off but considering how crooked the pattern was to start with, I'm happy with it.

Finally, the piece I'm most excited to have finished, was my Christmas quilt. We even took it out for my first ever quilt photo shoot. I'm hoping there are many more of these in my future (and perhaps, someday, with a better camera than just my cell phone).

I wanted the quilt to have the feel of a traditional Christmas quilt to represent the traditions my family has always had and then its quilted with Scandinavian snow flakes to represent J and his family. So, the two together, make a new tradition for our new family - when the quilt comes out so does the holiday planning, music, and cheer. The importance that I was placing on it is what led to it taking me so long. I didn't want to mess up so I was afraid of even trying but, in the end, I'm glad I took that deep breath and went for it.

Here's a closer look at the quilt so you can get a better look at the quilting (there's a snowflake over each diamond and crosshatch quilting around the border).

It was a cold and windy day so it was a bit of a fight to catch a photo of the quilt not blowing in the breeze. The photo on the left was the most successful photo we caught of the back of the quilt. You can see some of the quilting on this side too.

Everyday since September 10th of this year we've been taking a selfie a day to countdown to our wedding, minus a few days that we got tired of taking selfies sitting on the couch (284 days to go!!). It just seemed fitting that we include the quilt in this day's photo.

Aren't we the cutest!? Yes I am definitely stealing more of the blanket than what J had but it was super cold that day!

That's it for my crafty finishes the last two weeks. I have plenty more on my list to complete especially with my Christmas gift deadline being 21 days from now so more pictures coming soon.

Oh, and if you're wondering about my completed book list. Please laugh with me as I say that I read a single book and 2 graphic novels this month. I did play Portal 2 start to finish in less than 24 hours, finish a quilt, work close to 30 hours a week, and keep up on my house chores though so give me a break :) Many of last month's books I still want to read so I've extended their due dates at the library to give me more time. I also have a growing list of books I've received for review so I want to give an honest review of those as well. Stay tuned for all that fun.

On Wednesday, since its the beginning of the month, I'll be sharing my bullet journal (what I had intended to share on the Friday I disappeared) past, present, and future. Hope to see you again and I appreciate your time. As always, you can follow me on Instagram @trekkiechick29 or Pinterest @TrekkerChick29 or Twitter @AimeXAime and check out my etsy shop. Until next time my holiday spirited readers, live long, give thanks, and prosper!

November catchup

Hello!! So, going from unemployed/ working in my pajamas from home to standing for 8 hours 5 days in a row is exhausting. I absolutely love my new job, being around fabric all day and hear about all these fun and crafty projects. I'm sure customers get tired of us asking "So, what are you making with this?" but, at least for me, I honestly want to know. My feet are getting used to being used everyday and my hip is getting tough against me using it to balance as I reach across the cutting counter to make the final snips to some fabric (it was hand sized at the worst).

Besides work, though, what craftiness have I been up to? First up, I learned how to make a latte! Okay, so that's not really crafty but I'm pretty proud of it. You want real craftiness, oh okay. If you insist - I finished my Tolkien swap package:

Map of Middle Earth coffee mug with routes from each of the books

Lembas bread leaf wrap as a coffee cozy to hold some red dragon tea and some chai tea mix

Arwen quote cross stitch and a hobbit hole necklace

I made myself an incredibly unflattering sweater but, my goodness, it feels like wearing a blanket and that is totally okay with me. Please excuse my funky face, I was feeling uncertain with my work but honestly, it was a yard of fabric that I sewed up the sides and cut out a neck hole. Then, since it was longer than I would've liked, I chopped off a few inches at the bottom and turned them into kimono style sleeves and sewed them on. 30ish minutes of work and I have my favorite day-off outfit:

Let's see, I also bought a crazy amount of fabric for Christmas gifts. Well, the fabric isn't the gift, what I'm going to make it all into will be. I'm super excited to get started on it but I have 2 more swaps to finish off. I probably won't be able to show too many progress photos of the christmas gift stuff since I'm pretty sure the majority of you readers are those that the presents are going to.

Oh! And yesterday, though technically not crafty, I finally got a chance to go on a real grocery shopping trip, completely cleaned the entire apartment, tried out a new dinner recipe, and prepped 4 overnight oatmeals for each J and I (because we are definitely not morning people). Here's a few photos from yesterday:

Our bathroom really isn't this crooked, its just because I had to shoot this photo in panorama so it added a curve to it. I added another Mermaid to the wall from the Mermaid swap (switched out the frame she came in for a shadow box and put a layer of shells in the bottom) and hung fresh new towels. Also, look at how nicely the plants are thriving since this is the only room the cats aren't allowed into.





Our coffee cart is one of my favorite parts of our home. It used to be split with the top shelf devoted to coffee and tea and the bottom shelf devoted to alcohol. We were running out of room for our coffee cups and we had finally decided to bring J's college years espresso machine home so I moved to the alcohol to a cupboard and made this cart coffee and tea only. The cart is from Ikea way back when I first got an apartment and I stained it a darker color to better match both my tastes and the rest of my furniture. The wine cork board was an old window from the house I grew up in filled with wine corks collected from McMenamins Edgefield (don't worry, I did not drink all that wine). I'd eventually like to add a few more wall hangings (Like a Janeway quote about "coffee in that nebula" and a chart about different ways to prepare your coffee).









And, as I mentioned earlier, we ended the night with prepping some overnight oatmeal. We each chose 4 we wanted to try out, you can find lots of fun recipes on Pinterest (or google, obviously). J went with pumpkin pie (pictured), peanut butter and jelly, latte, and . I went for cocoa butter nut, butter nut bread, latte, and cinnamon apple. I ate the cocoa butter nut one this morning and it was pretty tasty:


 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup greek yogurt, 1tsp cocoa powder, 1/2 banana, and 1/2tbsp chopped walnuts. Mix it all together and put it in the fridge. Bam! It really doesn't take that long and you could make it hot in the morning but I hate mornings so being able to roll out of bed and just grab some breakfast is pretty fantastic for me. Plus, making lattes takes up my usual breakfast making time and I really like me some fancy coffee in the morning.




In non-crafty news, I'm caught up on Supernatural (actually watching the most recent episode right now). I had to return a few books to the library due to not being able to renew them. I made it through about 1/3 of Armada (and loved it!) so I'm hoping to find it today during our library visit (when a book is recently released or a bestseller, they can't be reserved ahead of time or renewed). I also started reading Felicia Day's book last night and I'm loving it too. Its pretty hilarious that her writing is so similar to her acting/ speaking that I can read it in her voice. If you don't know who she is, you need to look her up, watch a few episodes of The Guild, and fall in love with her as I have.

 I'm working on a schedule for myself so I can stay on track with all my goals while also managing an inconsistent work schedule. I know I fell behind after the first but I'm back on the horse and excited to move forward. That's all from me for now. As always, you can follow me on Instagram @trekkiechick29 or Pinterest @TrekkerChick29 or Twitter @AimeXAime and check out my etsy shop. Until next time my most wonderful readers, live long, get crafty, and prosper!

Moving forward

Today I bring you not 1 but 2 posts! I meant to have this all ready to post on Saturday but then I went for a splendid hike (more on that later) and I spent all of Sunday/ yesterday cleaning so here I am, Monday morning. I've broken what I have to say into 2 posts because 1 (this one) is an update on how my 24 by 25 goals are going and the other post is a crochet pattern (which will be posted later today).

Goals that I made progress on in the last 2 weeks:

Orange and blue are a definite, just not sure on the exact shades

1. Plan our wedding - we sat down for a few hours and decided to start the planning with figuring out the venue (location, location, location - am I right?). I should note that we have a pretty good idea of what we want (colors, theme, attire, etc) so its really just figuring out the specifics. Plus, the wedding is still 410 days away (yes, I'm counting). Follow my pinterest.com/wedding board for more.

Defining the ceremony space with a doorway, backdrop, and trees

3. Read 24 books - continued reading through Storm of Swords and moved from 65% to 73% these last two weeks. J and I are reading through all the Song of Ice and Fire books together/ out loud, so we average, maybe, a chapter a night. Last Monday I also started reading through Divergent, I'm currently at 24% complete, and I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the week (since I need to average reading through 2 books per month).


4. Complete a Norway quilt - I pulled fabric and figured out the measurements of each piece and its looking like I may need to make more than 9 squares. Plans to sew up the first one by the end of the week.

Each pile of color = 1 block, except the grey which will be the +'s in the corners of each block, white is the background

5. Give up candy for 1 month - Last candy eaten was on July 9th so I'm at 18 days. This goal seems so silly but it is, honestly, really difficult. I've seen plenty of things that say throw all the candy out but that seems like such a waste so my still sealed candies I've been including in swap packages (though I didn't have that much when I started on this goal). I've decided that when the 1 month is up, I'm going to continue restraining myself because: 1. I'm an adult and there should be no reason I eat candy every day and 2. I've already experienced so many benefits (more energy, not feeling like I'm always hungry, weight loss!) that the immediate gratification of sugar just isn't worth it.


8. Fold 1,000 origami cranes - J & I sat down and learned how to fold one! I'm hoping to use them in our wedding so I need more paper that matches our wedding colors or just use white (which may be what ends up happening). 1 down, 999 more to go!

Unfortunately our cats think that paper is a tasty treat so the morning after folding these, the red one lost his wing tips and face...

12. Walk Worf 5x per week (Bonus: Take a long walk without the gentle leader) - Worf and I have taken up walking towards the max stop that J gets off at to meet him somewhere in the middle. The pup started on Prozac on July 7th and has greatly improved that we've been able to walk most days without the gentle leader. He does get agitated with his leash more easily now (easy agitation being a side effect) so that's unfortunate but he is calm enough to learn that being outside isn't so scary. He definitely still has room to improve considering he still acts like we're abusing him (screaming and crying only the way an abused dog can and dropping to the ground when he doesn't want to do something). I should note that he acts this way all the time when we're trying to get him to do things like go outside/ on a walk and not to the car, eat his food (there's been several days where he doesn't eat all day and avoids his food bowl), or even take a treat for doing something good (so much for positive reinforcement). 

"Nobody loves me... except those humans that give me treats all the time and take me on walks and play with me and let me go everywhere with them..."

15. Go on a hike 1x per month - Nailed it! We went out to Sherrard Point on Larch Mountain on Saturday (obviously the one of the only days that its rained this summer). I have no doubt that the view is spectacular but it was completely foggy (and did I mention it was raining?). We hiked up to the top and then back down the mountain 2.6 miles. Due to a lack of planning on my part, we opted to not do the 6.4 mile loop we had planned and just (lol, "just") hiked back up to the parking lot for a total of 5.2 miles. Even with the fog and rain it was a pretty great hike (I'm sore in a good-pain sort of way) so we will definitely be going back on a clearer day.

10 minutes into the hike (on top of Sherrard Point), J and Worf looking totally thrilled, and post-hike selfie (2hrs later) freezing cold but pretty stoked that we hiked 5 miles.

Our view of Mt. Hood (fog) vs a clear day's view of Mt. Hood (photo found here)

19. Blog 2x per month - how does 3x for July sound!? Yup, I'm awesome :)

20. Get a full doctor's check-up - scheduled (ugh!)

21. Daily devotion and journal nightly - I was actually really concerned I would completely fail on this one right away but I haven't missed a day! I discovered an app, The Fabulous, that has made making a morning and nightly routine much more simple. A [no longer] secret goal of mine was to also add brushing and flossing to my nightly routine and I haven't missed a day of that either. My teeth are way more white than I have seen them in a long time (another benefit of less candy and cutting back on coffee) and I catch myself smiling every time I walk by a mirror (yup, I'm a dork).

Every morning...

22. Finish all UnFinished Objects (UFO)/ Works In Progress (WIP) - 3/17 completed

• Polka dot blouse resized - I've had this shirt for several years but at XXL, it was just too big for me. I was always afraid of ruining it so I didn't even attempt to bring in the side seams... until now. It was a simple fix (put it on and pinched in the sides, equally, until it was the right fit) and I think I look pretty cute in it. Completed 7/24/15
• J's old polo into a shirt for me - Turned the shirt around, took off the pocket, brought out the neck line (but kept the buttons), and brought in the side seams for a more feminine figure. I think I may need to close the neck line a 1/2in on either side at the shoulders but it fits wonderfully and is crazy comfy! Completed 7/24/15
• Cat purse (needed hole for flipping sewn shut and hardware for the strap to be put on) - completed 7/24/15

I'll eventually remember to take before photos

• Christmas quilt (started with 1/2 of front pieced) - the entire front is now pieced, all fabric cut and partially assembled for the backing. I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt it, though (please, I need suggestions!), so further progress is going to be put on hold until I can figure that out.

Getting back to it, matching up points and lines, progress from 7/23, and final front pieced shot from 7/24

• Sand display - I added 3 new jars to my display. I got a jar and sand from Englewood Beach, Florida in my Viva La Villains swap. The other two jars were from my mom this last week (super cute mini mason jars) and the sand was from my Grandparent's trip to Hawaii in 2013. I have probably another 15 baggies of sand/ rocks that need jars and I probably need another shelf at this point. 

Sand in order of when they were obtained

• Pacman menu board - technically not a UFO since it was finished and just needed hung. It is now up, in use, and dearly loved. Each of the note cards has a meal on it, some are recipes while others are just pick-one-of-each-category cards. For example, this week we're having a meat and veggies 2 different days so there are two note cards labeled as so, with all the choices on the back. Using paper clips on the side, the meat choice and veggie choice is indicated. Having everything on note cards makes it easy to both plan for a month's worth of meals and write out a grocery list for what we need.

24. Watch every episode (and movie) of X-Files - I'm currently on season 7 (of 9), episode 6 (of 22). I had to skip the movie since it wasn't on Netflix but I will get around to locating it and watching it.

There you have it! I'm doing better than I had expected and am motivated to continue strong. I do admit that it all seems fairly easy right now, being that I am unemployed still (boo!) but I know (well, hope) that things will speed up soon and I'll be able to contribute more to the saving money goals and paying for that wedding we plan on having. Here's hoping! I update the 24 by 25 page every Friday evening so check that out. Also, I have more crafty finishes not mentioned here that you can check on on the crafty finishes page (duh). Finally, tune in this evening for the edited Loki crochet pattern that I made for my Viva La Villains partner - That is, the original pattern is not mine but, to help others, I kept notes on all how I understood the original directions and the changes I made. If you're not of the crocheting-craftiness variety, that's totes okay! I hope to see you again in 2 weeks (August 8th). Live long and prosper!