Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Yep I Know How to Sew

I have been looking for a new talent/hobby for the past year. I wanted to try flower arranging but evidently you have to go to floral school for that and I think I paid less to get my masters. I looked into cake decorating but thought that might be too pricey on my hips. So I got into running as my new talent but kept getting injured. And then it came to me....

I wanted to learn how to sew. Sure I sewed a dress in Young Women's for a Personal Progress goal but I am pretty sure my mom just did it for me. I also made a baby blanket for my first born child. He/She would know how hard I worked on it because I put blood, sweat, and tears into making that thing. You can even find my blood on the blanket! But this was all amateur stuff. I wanted to learn how to sew cute things! I have several friends that sew cute things all the time and I wanted to be like them. So I got a sewing machine for Christmas and some essential sewing supplies and I was ready. My first task was to sew a patchwork bag from a pattern my friend, Sarah gave me for Christmas. Seemed easy enough.

Well two hours later and a lot of "redoing", I was done with the first step! And then came the pleats. Pleats evidently are not usually something a beginner starts with. But my roommate, Cami, who is also a talented seamstress was able to help me through the pleat stage of my project. After two days and quite a bit of help from Cami, I had my completed bag! It is more a summer bag so I won't be using it anytime soon, but it was fun to make. I signed up for a beginning sewing class called, "Ready, Set, Sew" so maybe in that class I will start with some more basic stuff and stay away from pleats for a bit. I must be good though, I have already had a request to sew a friend's wedding dress. That will probably be my next project...

My little display: The finished bag, my new sewing machine, and my first pattern!

Patchwork bag up close. I may start my own line of patchwork bags. Let me know if you would like to purchase one!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

2011: It can only get better!

Well I must admit 2010 was not the most exciting of years so I was more than happy to get that year out of the way and move on to what could only be better, 2011. But I didn't want to just sit and wait for the year to hurry and move on, I had to celebrate a little! So on the last day of 2010 I strapped on my new snowshoes and went off with my friend, Suzanne, to explore new land up Little Cottonwood Canyon and make new friends. Well it was bloody cold, my nose hairs froze, and I had a little health issue so we had to turn around earlier than everyone else, but I think we still had fun. I got a new Facebook friend out of it, so that makes it a positive experience right?

After an afternoon in single digit temperatures, the night heated up with dinner at The Bombay House, the best Indian restaurant ever! Lots of fun friends, good food, and a waiter who flirted with us and was half my height, made for a spectacular night. And the fun just kept comin'! After dinner we had a billion parties all demanding our appearance. We tried to get to as many as we could before we said good bye to 2010. We managed to hit three parties and rang in the New Year with a bunch of people we didn't know, good times!



Suzanne, Mary, and I in the car on our way to one of the many parties we appeared at that night! It is hard being wanted in so many places.

So we are 5 days into 2011 and I have to say not too much has happened, but I have high hopes! I posted this Mormon Message on my Facebook page but I want to post it here too. I just loved the message of not looking back. I think I do that a lot, look back at what was good and wish it could be like that again. I really hope this year I can look to the future and not live in the past but make each day I am presently living in a great day. I love the idea of agency and how I can decide each day if I am going to have a good day or a bad day. I will admit I chose to have bad days kind of a lot in 2010. But I am looking forward, remembering that 33 is the year for me and I will not look behind thee!

SNOW DAY

I realize this post is a tad late, but I still wanted to document the first day in like 30 years my school district canceled school and had a Snow Day! It was the last day before Christmas Break. I was up getting ready to go to school noticing it was quite snowy and I had better hurry since it would definitely take longer than the 10 minutes it usually takes me to get to school. All of a sudden I started getting calls, "Are the rumors true?" I had no idea what they were talking about and right then the radio announced, "Nebo School District is canceling school today!" I was thrilled not to have to drive in the awful storm, but a little bummed they couldn't have canceled like an hour earlier so I could have just slept in. The teachers were calling me a little sad to miss all the Christmas fun that was planned for that day. And of course we will have to make it up, but baby it was cold outside that day and I am glad I got to stay home!


This shows the snowfall when I got up to get ready that morning. It snowed for a good four more hours after this, definitely deserving of a Snow Day!