blogtoberfest: the post-mortem

the thing about blogtoberfest was that it started out fun, and i was posting all kinds of fun things. and then it got to be a bit of an obligation. and then i was still doing it, but it wasn't fun. and then i wasn't doing it at all. but now i feel like i'm ready to come back. and i've got stuff to say. lots of pictures after this weekend. i've started christmas crafting, and have some birthday crafting to get done, and some wedding quilting and some regular quilting, and i'm pretty excited for this weekend!

holy bias tape, batman!

the girls came over this morning for some crafting. we were planning on making it an uber-productive morning of getting our christmas crafting underway, but it ended up being a lot of chatting and eating and less crafting than anticipated. although i have little voice left, i call it a success!

i also finished up with my bias tape adventure of yesterday afternoon, and that was a success. extremely time consuming, but i now have (hopefully!) enough to finish up the two queen-sized quilts i have waiting, so that's good. going to get at binding one of them, since hand sewing the back of the binding is an EXCELLENT way to spend a damp saturday evening. ;)

my new bebeh...

i got a new iron today. it has some weird special cord, which i haven't figured out yet, and auto shut-off, which i know is hotly debated, but i definitely need because i've come down several mornings to find my iron still plugged in and on, and happy for auto shut-off because the house isn't burnt down. and, it even came with its own little water pouring container, which is way cute!





plan for tonight/this weekend. i'm going to give the dread pirate rodgers' continuous binding technique, which seems highly recommended by the intarwebs. i've got two quite large quilts to finish, and a full day of crafting on tap for tomorrow, hopefully.

me and my shadow.

the dogfink is just LOVING having me at home, especially because i've been knocked out, which means LOTS of napping, which just so happens to be her specialty.



this is how i found her draped over me when i woke up this afternoon.


the only downside is that she's pretty sure i'm going to sneak off ATANYMOMENT, so has to follow about 6 inches (no really, she's RIGHT there) behind me wherever i go.

i'm a crankface.

i'm sick. mister man didn't walk the dog (LIKE HE SAID HE WOULD) because he was "busy" playing on the computer. and then i tried to baste my stupid quilt for the stupid wedding and I AM COMPLETELY INCAPABLE OF GETTING THE BACK TO GO ON NICELY. but now it's all spray basted with small little wrinkles all over it, and I AM SO ANNOYED. in fact, so annoyed that i threw my iron, and now it's broken, which is beyond moronic because i loved that little iron, and it worked so well, and it didn't make me feel better and now i'm sick and annoyed and have to replace my iron. adsoiagrhreajafds;lfdsaldsa

some people's children

long story short, i just don't know what is wrong with people. and i know that thinking that big businesses should have ethics is the naivite incarnate, but STILL, this is just SO.WRONG.

i'be sick. :(

the hat, she is done. i think that it's huge, but mister man said "she's got a huge head and a lot of hair. it's fine". with those encouraging words, i give you the hat.





now i'm going to veg in front of the tv until it's an ok time to sleep. hopefully sleep off the cold.

i just *hate* balling yarn. but at the same time, i can't bring myself to pay to have it done at the store. finished a hat for my SIL, so now i just have to weave in the ends and sew the button on, and post it. next up: starting christmas knitting. i've got quite the list, but am hoping that it will come together quickly, since i don't have a TON of time left before christmas...excited to try out so many new things though as well!

blogtober fail: i blame the booze.

so my plan was to blog last night just before bed. but instead, we went dancing. and, as it turns out, i'm too old for clubbing anymore. but, i ran into some random people from my highschool, and we had a nice time at the concert we left the house for originally.

but it was a LOVELY weekend with my bride. we checked out some possibilities for my bridesmaid dress, and we tried some ideas for centrepieces, and i've decided YET AGAIN to get my ass back on the gym/eating well bandwagon, because the dresses were definitely not altogether flattering. but we *did* find some cute ones! and, lots of food was eaten and lots of laughing was had. :)

xo!

a fun-busy weekend ahead!

this weekend might be my blogtoberfest fail moment. i've got my bride coming in from l-town, and we're DOING STUFF. hahahaha. yay! i shoulds till have time to knit some stuff, but i'm not sure about blogging...i got my hat cast on last night, and tomorrow there's a fabric flea market with notions, buttons, fabric, and knitting supplies, so i'm hoping to find a fabulous button! also, going to drag my non-crafty friend to this--she doesn't know it yet, but i'm going to bribe her with the delish goat-cheese-crack-croissants. and by bribe her, i mean: i want the crack-croissants. ;) then, TRYINGONDRESSES (me). mebbe i'll post pictures if they aren't terrible. and if we remember a camera. sometimes we're clever like that. and then friends coming over and a concert. and then mebbe brunch. a lot of our activities seem to centre around food! i'm pretty looking forward to the weekend, even if it means that my scale will be a B on monday morning!

i'm glad that my mom doesn't read my blog

because when she sees i've been up "too late", she calls me to admonish me for it, usually after getting an 11.30 email from me (like last night). it's cute, but also makes me feel bad. and i'm blogging late AGAIN, while madly (ok, half-assedly) trying to cast on a cute little hat so that i feel like i'm doing SOMETHING crafty with my life! also, i've got a last-minute birthday gift to make for my SIL, because mister man recently told me that she had apologized for still not having sent me MY b-day gift. me, being the ungrateful brat that i am promptly was like "crap, that means i have to get her something!" and then felt guilty because the whole time she was here, she kept saying how much hand-made gifts meant to her and that she liked them so much more than bought gifts, and any time i wanted to make her anything, etc. so after that, i can't NOT make her something, you know? so i emailed a few crafty friends with a desperate "what can i make FAST" and they pointed me here, which is perfect because it's way cute, and my SIL is in edmonton, and it's bloody cold over there already, so it will be functional too! :) and with that, i'm going to CO 80, and sleeeeeeeeeep.

blogtoberfest: just under the wire!

huzzah! blogtoberfest win. upholstery: good, although not as productive as i'd hoped. book sale at work: good, except for some co-worker whining. back slightly sore. weather: obnoxious. snowing. :( bed now.

booktoberfest

today was the sorting session for our work's annual book sale (for charity). it's AWESOME, although it's only my second year doing it, i just love it. a change from the everyday, pawing through a million books, many of which i probably want..you get the idea. i actually only found 2 that i wanted, but so much fun! and it's going to make the week go by super quickly, which is awesome cuz this weekend miss a comes! so yeah. that's all. :)

clever-like-a-fox-toberfest

today's post is brought to you by my hilarious incompetence! so i'm blogging from mister man's computer because he's in bed not feeling well watching a movie on my laptop. and blogging about my quilting bee blocks wouldn't really be that much fun without...pictures of my quilting bee blocks. hilarity ensues. long story short, i managed to set one of my bee blocks as his desktop photo. and i can't figure out how to change it back, so giggling, i changed it to me and him tiled across his screen. now to see how long until he notices/calls me out on it and i have to fess up to my crafty-nerdiness.

so my first block comes from belinda at the beehive. she was so organized, and her instructions were wonderful--she'd even made a pdf and emailed it and included a print copy in our packages. and i still think that i fucked it up. mind doesn't look at ALL like the others (well, it kind of does. i mean, i pieced it right, it just looks...off...)





i don't know why i had such a hard time piecing this, but i laid it out with different fabrics in different places like 10 times, and it just never looked quite right. i hope that it isn't terribly out of place with all the rest. :(

i also had enough left over for a 9.5" log cabin-y block, as requested.





and then i started on the wonky star block for brioni at bee addicted 3. this bad boy started out as one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" ideas. Brioni had asked for wonky stars, and made the mistake of saying that she didn't care what the configuration was, so long as the block came out to 12.5"...so yeah. my block was ambitious, and looks great, but has a LOT of seams! which, in retrospect, i should have pressed all open, but i really wanted the ones IN the blocks to be perfectly matching, so i pressed them in opposite directions, but that made things quite bulky. ANYHOW. it'll be fine once it's quilted, it's just doing its own thing right now...as well, i feel bad because everyone here seemed more than able to make two blocks with the fabric bri sent, but i only managed to turn out one, with VERY little leftover. i'm not sure that i'm up to snuff with these bee ladies. next month, i suppose!





in other news: the man is sick, the dog has been limping and is a suckface, and i don't think that i've eaten a vegetable all day. sigh! better tomorrow, although with less crafting, i suppose.

blogtoberfest, lazy sunday edition

oh my. we had our thanksgiving dinner last night, and i ate far too much, and now i'm feeling bloated and lazy...still. but it IS sunday, and so a lazy day. except that i've got to clean a bit, and i'm going to get going on the blocks for my two bees. i've started on a HUGE block for belinda. they're going to be 18.5" square, which is by far the biggest block i've ever put together, and despite several explanations of the VERY SIMPLE directions for the block, i'm kind of confused. i've got it laid out and it's according to the pattern, but i feel like it still is different from everyone else's blocks....will post pics later, and see. :)

also, i just can't believe how lovely everyone at the quilt festival are with their nice comments. i can't wait to start checking out everyone else's and getting some more inspiration, which is just what i need!

blogtoberfest, NOMtoberfest

this weekend is canadian thanksgiving, and i'm already starting in on the food. diamonddog and i started out early this morning to get park'd, wine'd and going early enough to beat the crowd, as well as to come home and bake before heading to the rents' place for dinner tonight. so far, i've got a spinach, feta & bebeh shrimp quiche done, and pumpkin spice cookies in the oven. but it turns out that the cookie recipe that i had was more of a cake-cookie recipe, so i'm going to just make cake out of it, and hope that it turns out to be yum. yum with cream cheese icing.

i'm also hoping that this weekend will have some good crafting in it as well. i HAVE to get started on sandwiching the wedding quilt for the wedding LAST APRIL. sigh. and, i really need to get started on figuring out what i'm making people for christmas. :P

blogtoberfest: oh yeah!

i kind of forgot to update re: my birthday weekend. i went down to l-town to visit with my lady, miss a (aka bride numero two) over my birthday weekend, and much fun was had. she asked me to be her maid of honour, which of COURSE, i said yes to (silly monkey, of course i would say yes!!), but i'm also stressed about, cuz i might have to speech, and i'm not a good train fluffer, and you don't get much practice time with that. it's like a one shot deal, day-wise. i gather that in that one day, there are many opportunities to hone the train fluffing skillz, but still. i digress.

ANYHOW. much fun was had. we bridal show'd. the only photo i took, which had to be done, was of this lovely cake topper:





and yes, that WOULD be the bride dry humping the groom. on top of your wedding cake. dream? i think so! it kind of upstaged the "classic" bride-dragging-groom-to-the-alter behind it. also noteworthy: the amount of camouflage wedding things you can get. like a guest book. saw that. why you would WANT that tho, escaped me.

next up, we birthday partied with all of the lovely crew down in london--her friends are just DOLLS, and i took this photo. it's a self portrait. of me. grasping her cat like i'm an over-eager 5 year old. and the cat is thrilled to be wearing the tiara that i got because i was the birthday girl. and because i spent the week leading up to the weekend of bridal shenanigans talking about how i really needed to get a tiara just to wear around places. anyhow, here's jel, the most patient cat ON.THE.PLANET.





also, the group was amazed that the cat put up with all this (although he IS a bit of an attention whore) and that i didn't get bit. i think that adrian actually offered to bite me for the cat, since he thought i really deserved it.

this post takes care of a shout out to my lil' bride, and a lovely weekend, and totally justifies the RIDICULOUS photos i took on my cell phone camera, and have subsequently saved as my background photos for my phone. :)

here is my quilt submission. i meant to submit it last spring, but then missed the date, and felt silly about it! so i'm starting early this time around.





this quilt is more or less a denyse schmidt quilt, and it was a gift for one of my bestest girls. it was also one of my first forays into lovely designer fabric--amy butler in pinks and oranges. the orange especially is out of my comfort zone, but it was SUPER easy to choose because the colours were all in the one fabric range, and i just love how the colours come together here.





i had the quilt professionally quilted by one of the women in my guild almost right after i decided to join the guild, so that was a good way to meet people. and she was even extra nice to me as a new quilter when she had to call me to tell me i'd measured the backing wrong and would need to bring her an extra 10" strip of fabric (the pink fabric that isn't striped), which was actually pretty hilarious because now the back has this stupid stripe at one end, because i can't count, and i certainly cannot add. but i think (and my friend whose quilt it is also thinks) that this just adds to the charm of the quilt. and, i guess, it was a good learning lesson...

upholstery class marches on. :)





emily's ACTUAL words "i can see you *muffled giggles*" while i'm trying to have a serious discussion with the teacher about how i'm pretty sure that i've effed up my cutting...which i had, but not that badly.

blogtoberfest numéro 7.

today, i'm going to discuss my insanity at the orthodontist. i've been back and forth (long story) to my orthodontist recently. their records indicate that they haven't seen me since 1999. at which point, i was 17. IN-SANE. but the other interesting part that i've found is that going there, i totally morphed back into my 17-year-old-orthodontic self. i keep forgetting my purse--first in the waiting room, then beside the chair because when i used to go, i didn't have anything, i just went from the waiting room to the dentist's chair and my mom or dad looked after everything. and then i have to remember to pay (boo-urns!), which my parents always handled. and then deal with the appointment (and my 17-year-old self had today forgotten her agenda, which actually, my 17-year-old-self would not ever have done.), and the stupid claim forms and my jacket! all the while the staff is just shaking their head at me, because really, i guess it's not just me that this happens to, but i'm amusing about it.

and i'll leave you with this little bit of intimacy:





yes, that would be my very own teeth, plaster-casted. in fact, i already have a set of these bad boys from circa 1999 in my drawer at home. i should start a collection on a mantle or something. i just find them SOOOOOOOOO creepy, i'm not sure why. so i figure that everyone should have to look at the creepiness courtesy of my orthodontist. who isn't creepy at all, by the way.

ps--i definitely texted this photo to everyone i know with a cell phone! because today, i'm obsessed with my teeth.

blogtoberfest, dogtoberfest

the dog has inspired today's blogtoberfest post because of her current insane crunching (she gets kibbles) and the fact that recently, she's been all over the map in her behaviour. she's been refusing to get up on the bed because she doesn't want to jump, and now she's taken the guesst bed to be her own personal queen-sized dog bed. she's been behaving just terribly towards other dogs while she's leashed, she's extra pathetic (even more than usual, if that's even possible...) when i'm doing anything that isn't paying 100% attention to her. i'm beyond frustrated. i think that mebbe he just needs some more attention, since i've been really quite busy lately, which makes me feel like a terrible pet owner, which i'm not, but still! at least it isn't monday, i suppose!

blogtoober: moving right along...

i've finished my very first "domestic machine quilting" quilt...ta-daaaaah! (sorry it's so cell-phone-y...)





the lines aren't *perfect*, and i definitely gave up on all of the stitching that was in the original kaffe fassett quilt, but i'm quite please with how it turned out and QUITE pleased that it's done!

next up: getting the wedding quilt done. i would like to try out a long-arm machine at one of my local quilting stores so maybe the long weekend would be a good time for that. :) i just have to get the pattern all set up on it.

ooOoOOh!

lovely dresden plate tutorial posted by the lovely amy over at badskirt. definitely on the to do list...

blogtoberfest: lazy sunday interrupted

today would have been a perfect day for a lazy sunday: drizzly, medium cool out...sunday...but instead we took on the race, and then the sunday breakfast lineup of insanity as 10 000 people descended on ottawa breakfasteries, and then my mum and i tackled a local quilt show. i was hoping to get a kit for something easy for a stag and doe raffle quilt, but didn't find one, but i was inspired by this:





and then napped, and then finished quilting our bed quilt, and then, and then...hahaha. if i'm particularly inspired, i'm going to try and tackle this month's beehive block. :)

blogtoberfest: the one in which i've turned into my mum

but in a good way, you understand. got all our team stuff ready and our shirts done up. my black marker ran out a bit more than halfway through though, so i improvised. i can remember my mum being up late doing exactly this sort of thing my whole life so that things would be unique and crafty and special. and now i'm my mum.

blogtoberfest number two:

so i got home later last night, from an extra shift i picked up, walked downstairs, turned on the bedroom light and found this waiting for me.






and it creeped me out enough that my first thought was "where is my camera, people need to see this..." mister man had evidently gotten through his laundry (why we each do our own laundry is another story, nevermind) and had had some of my things in there, which he left all nicely on the tidied bed. but just one set of every type of clothing i own really did not do it for me...

so i'd just been thinking that it's been a while

and this pops up! so being as i'm taking on MORE things, i thought "hey, that seems like fun..." and now i'm blogtoberfest'ing. :)

a good topic today, maybe jocktober: me and some friends and family(ies) are going to be running/walking for breast cancer on sunday, which should be fun. the more i run races, the more i discover that i love, love, LOVE me a 5k race surrounded by inordinate numbers of strangers. :) doing another 5k run at the end of the month as well, which i'm quite looking forward to! will post pics of our team (yes, we managed to organize a *team* and we're going to tart up our race tees, hopefully!) on sunday.