Sorry about the mini break I took this week. I’ve been trying to come up with more topics to write about. Now that P.R. has ended, it’s not that easy to come up with meanful post to slip into the many posts about my life. Go fig!

As such, here’s a post about my life ^_^…

The baby shower was yesterday. I didn’t go, I just wasn’t in the mood. And I’m semi glad I didn’t. Apparently my aunt hired a event planner who was a friend. My said she wasn’t impressed with the lady, so I’m inclined to say I would have been less impressed. She was over 45 minutes late arriving to the thing, then she didn’t offer any explanantion. Then she preceded to show off the fact that she had money. When they were giving the presents, she made everyone stop and admire the gift she was giving, which was some plaque trimed in 25k with a poem or something on it. And as they started winding down, she start openly trying to network with the other guest. Not professional at all.

My sister caused drama as well. Apparently my cousin and his baby mama did thank you scrolls and signed their names. Well my mom was like she couldn’t read my cousins signature, and everyone was like cause that’s a guy’s signature. Well then my sister was like he should have signed it C.L.A, and everyone was like why? She was like that’s his name. And everyone was like no…it’s CVA, well my sister doesn’t like to be wrong. So she argued with everyone. My deal is how you gonna argue with the person who named the child? Really? Then she wouldn’t shut up, she was being annoying. So much so that my grandmother told her to be quiet, well that still didn’t work. And so my mom said her name, just her name. And then she got even more upset and left the table, like a big baby. She sulked the rest of the time and was short to my mom.

My sister and I haven’t been talking since I laid her out about her treatment to my mom, she’s a user and she’s been using my mom for money for way to long. Needless to say I’m gettng really tired of my sister.

In other news, I was a victim of art theft. Only slightly, someone took something of mins and posted in on a site with their own name as the creator. I was able to get the peice taken down and the person’s membership was revoked. So it be all good for now. But I’ve taken some different precautions to deal with it. That’s why I didn’t feel like going to the shower. I was dealing with that.

The baby blanket was received with warm receptions. Everyone loved it, and was really impressed. My cousin’s friend wants me to make him a blanket. Apparently I unknowningly used my cousin’s college colors. Now they want to go it monogrammed. My mom and aunt were like they HAD to treasure it cause it was handmade, and their daughter could pass it down to her kids and so on and so on. “That would be awesome,” my history geek in me said.

And that’s what’s been happening.

You know I had a post planned all out but I can’t seem to remember what it was. But in other news here are some pictures of recent projects finished.

The Baby Blanket

And a wallet for my mom:

So the wallet is way bigger than the ones I’ve been doing, and it didn’t come out just like I wanted it too. But nevertheless my mom loved it and as soon as I gave it to her she started switching things over. I bet you can guess the theme I was going for…Neapolitan ice cream. I know the teddy bear fabric is not ice cream related but I put in there for three reasons 1) The colors worked with the brown, pink, and cream I used; 2) I didn’t want to have a solid color for the lining since I was using block colors for the details (plus I did want to piece together the lining like the exterior) and 3) I love the print and it’s a nice surprise when you open it up, you aren’t expecting this whimsical fabric. So I’ll be trying it again but not anytime soon I didn’t have the right kind of fleece which is why it ended up kind of off. On the plus side it’s very squishy!

The baby blanket came out pretty good, I think it’s a bit small but it’s just a decorative/top blanket so my mom said it’s a good size. I have to do some serious writing this week so I wont be doing in sewing. Plus the freelance work is starting to pile up.

 

I realized this morning that I never did a follow up post to the National Body Challenge, which ended last weekend. And the total amount lost: 14 lbs. Which almost spreads out to about 2lbs a week over the 8 week challenge. Which is the accepted amount for healthy weight loss. I would have to say that the challenge was a success. Although I can’t help but wonder if it really was the challenge, in an early post I listed my top ten learn things, but most of them can be found in any diet that promotes a healthy change. The challenge had it pros for instance, I set my own pace, there was no over head number of pounds to be reached at the end of the challenge. It was really up to me to create and stick to a diet and exercise plan, the site, TV, and emails had a lot of good tips to help that along the way. However it also had some cons, even though you could sign on the site and join discussions in the forum…it was still a bit like you were doing it alone. It was up to you to find a buddy to do with you and create that sense of community. That’s one thing I have to say about weight watchers and curves…they create a sense of community. You are in a building with like minded women who all want to lose weight for different reasons and you all take comfort in that. If you are a newbie at the diet thing it could be very overwhelming, at some points I felt like the challenge was aimed at seasoned pros. And although the initial cost was free, which meant it was totally budget friendly a lot of the following details were not. Since we don’t have cable I had to rely a lot of the emails and the site to gleam information. Which wasn’t easy mainly cause the site had a lot of downtime and issues, which was odd since it was a Discover channel child site. Like I said I had to create my own diet and exercise plan, granted it came with a 8 week membership to a Bally Fitness, the nearest one to me is three cities away and more than 2.5 hours, I’m sorry but I want to lose weight but not that much. So I had to use my local gym and come up with something. That also went for the diet, a lot of those recipes were just not kicking it so my creativity hat came on.

So was it really the challenge? Well yes and no…the challenge gave me a reason to do the things I did…but it was really my own doing the create the change. So yay for me! Will I stay with it? I’m not sure, anything is possible. I would like to keep up the momentum but not being in my own place makes it hard to change my diet when everyone around you isn’t.

You know what really bothers me? Is when someone can make assumptions about me and be so wrong. According to my Dad I have no ambitions and no plans for my life. I suck and I’m more than happy to be living with my parents, so his job as my father is to making me very uncomfortable because then I will be motivated to do something with my life. The sad thing is that’s not what bothers me, what bothers me is one he thinks I’m that lame, two he has never in my life asked me what I want to do with my life. How can you make assumptions about a person who you don’t know a damn thing about? Better yet how could have given life to someone, lived with them for 21 out of their 23 years of their life and not know them? But what’s really important how could I not know that I wasn’t that lame? I swear you learn something new everyday, so for those of you planning on being a parent someday. Your job as a parent is to be a total jackass, then your kids will grow up and want to do something with their life. Yeah, logic from a Baptist minister for you.

As you can see, I’m not taking what he said to heart, because one he didn’t say it to my face. And most importantly I know I’m not that lame and I know I have plans and right now I’m experiencing a major set back. Because five years ago a voice told a certain all knowing Baptist minister to quit a well paying job without any kinds of savings or backup plan a live off his wife who at the time had to go and find work, because she had been on disability for two years after being diagnosed with degenerate disc disease. Since that time I’ve given more than half my paycheck to my mom and all my savings that was earmarked to my future so I wouldn’t be where I am today. But then again I’m lame so that doesn’t count, in truth I planned this all out but I don’t make plans cause I’m lame.

In other news, I did do the bag for my mom, but it’s way to small for what it was meant for. So now I have to go and get some more fabric and make a bigger bag. She loved the way the first one came out and wants to carry it for personal reasons.Here’s some pics:

  

After I finished it my mom and I went to Walmart and I tested it out, it’s big enough for me and all my junk I cram into a purse and it held up. We then came home and my dad gave that little speech to my mom. I was kind of pissed because well I’m sure you can guess so I did what I always do when I’m pissed I organized. While we at Walmart I picked up some things for my growing sewing habit.

First a fabric container, yes it’s pink.

Before I had my fabric in piles on the counter:

 

But now they have a home!

Also got a container for my scraps:

A container to hold my tool things

 

But the coolest thing is the container for my buttons, I don’t have a empty shot but here’s some with it full:

 

 

I separated them in the ROY G BIV fashion and the neutrals in the back. Worked out pretty well. After all that I was mighty hungry so I fixed some pb&j tacos and was quite happy once again. I took pics of that too!

Just incase you can’t tell…I finally got some batteries for my camera!

Christian won!

That’s right Christian, is the youngest project runway winner. He cried and then became very arrogant as usual. The guest judge this season was Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice), who loved his collection and wants him to dress her. Overall the judges thought the show as a whole was very strong, and were impressed with all three of the finalist.

Jillian: The judges were impressed with the attention to detail and the very feminine vibe they got from it. She was also very innovative with some of her shapes. But it wasn’t cohesive collection, the sense of Jillian was lost.

Rami: Very sleek and sophisticated. Heidi really enjoyed his collection. BUT his color choices were all wrong.

Christian: Very strong pieces from start to finish, very Christian, yet very over designed at some points. A little monotonous because it was nothing but black.

My Thoughts

Jillian: I thought her who collection was muted, especially muted. I agree with the judges that it was way to chaotic from the cohesive point of view. I think her driving force was admirable, ( I love art and I love history…come on.) but I think she could have chosen a specific thing from the painting to use.

Rami: I think it was a bit dated and it might have been the color choices, they too were a bit muted. But for the bright teal and maroon he threw in. I think he did well meshing the draping and the structure techniques. I think his collection was way more together over Jillian’s.

Christian: It was all black (with some brown thrown in too)…why was it all black? Going back to what I’ve said before, it all looks the same. I don’t think anyone really notice that until you see it all together. But differently monotonous. Very over designed and dramatic for no reason. I think the judges hit it on the head…will he be doing feathers and ruffles forever?

Over all I didn’t really like any of the final collections. I think it was all a bit muted, from the colors, to the clothes, even the music they chose to use. I guess I’m not to up on high class fashion because I don’t see how this was the best group of Project Runway designers. I’m not to surprise Christian won, he was obviously the judges favorite and viewer’s favorite. I congratulate him on being so young and having a strong point of view and wish him the best in his career. I know some industry moguls think the show has reached it’s peak but I look forward to seeing next seasons designers.

If you want to read more of my thoughts on the last episodes of Project Runway check out these posts:

Project Runway: Season Four

Project Runway Season Four Episode 11

Project Runway Season Four Episode 12

Project Runway Season Four Episode 13

Well the interview went like an interview. I didn’t get a good feeling nor a bad feeling from it so I can’t even start to say if I have a chance. I should know either way within a week to ten days. It took about 30 minutes, and that was because I had to do a mock memo. The position has changed a bit, but it’s still something I want to go after. Instead of being in the IT department I would work part of my time in the outreach community center and the other part I would be a floater between branches. It’s still part time but I get benefits because it’s an upgrade in titles.

Speaking of benefits, here’s theirs: I would get Vacation and Sick leave (48 hours/year), holiday pay if the holiday falls on a day I’m scheduled to work. Retirement plan, I would make a 6% pre-tax contribution, and they make a contribution also (it doesn’t say how much though). Health Insurance through Blue Care HMO, with a premium of $136.09 biweekly. Also a deferred compensation program that allows employees to supplement retirement income by deferring a portion of current salary before it’s taxed. They have other benefits too that aren’t explained in the brochure, saving bonds, direct deposit, a credit union, employee assistance program, pre-tax health insurance premiums, internal promotion policy.

All in all I’m slightly disappointed because it’s not the position I originally wanted but it’s still a good deal.

As promised here are the pics from my recent sewing tries. It’s a image heavy post so sorry in advance!

I did myself another wallet, using the black flower fabric and the pink fabric. It turned out better than the one before. Both sides are evenly space, so the cards fit in just right and the dollar bill is amble enough. I didn’t use interfacing on it so it’s still a bit flimsy but I used it this weekend on the shopping trip and it worked fine. Since I rarely carry a purse when I’m not doing serious shopping, it fit right inside my pocket.

A shot with it closed

Opened and empty

and with my Christmasie cards!

After I came from the shopping trip with no new fabric I decided to use more of what I had. So I got the fabric that was originally meant for a dress I was going to make, I did this bag:

I had to make up the pattern because I wanted to see if I could. So I looked at some pictures of other purses and figured out a simple pattern and using some of the techniques from the “large purse” trail I came up with this. I love how it came out. I mean I really love it. The strap is the perfect length and it’s big enough to hold one of my writing tablets. I used some of my new buttons for decorations.

the button closure…I used a pony tail holder to create the loop.

the inside of the bag, don’t you just love that fabric? And I made the pocket, the slot on the left is big enough to hold a card or loose dollar bills, two pen/pencil slots and the slot on the right is big enough to hold other random things.

A detail shot of the back, I did a line of green around the top for decoration then did a “V” in the back to add interest. Here’s a picture to show the size or it, that’s a 9in x 7in notebook:

Then I did a wallet for Jen, cause she asked for one. She said she didn’t care what kind of fabric so I did a funky combination. I’m not sure the colors go…but I like it. I hope she does too…

A shot of it closed, it came out so much better than any of the one’s I’ve done before.

Opened

Dollar bill part, see I told you funky combination. Well you would think I was done but no. Remember how I said I can’t stand failure. Well the “large purse” ended up being a failure. The strap was too long, and one side started coming apart. I didn’t like that it was so long…nor that it did turn out right at the top. So I redid it. But this time I did a different style.

 Before                                                                     After!

I just used the same fabric. I didn’t cut any new pieces, just that for the inside, which is a different fabric. It’s smaller than the first one but it’s so freaking cute in real life. And because I reused the fabric the straps aren’t as long as I would have liked, they are long enough but I like mid-long straps, does that make sense? Here’s a detail shot:

I made the bow and the “ribbon” detail too. I’m going to hand stitch the bow some more just to reinforce it just a bit more.

A shot of it inside, it shuts with Velcro, I did a longer pocket this time. Here’s a shot with stuff in it:

I made slot just for my cell phone and also for my Chapstick. I always misplace my Chapstick…so I made a special spot for it in here. The pen actually fits but since I have it on the counter it’s pushing it up some, and that’s a 5in x 8in notebook, for comparison. They aren’t perfect but I’m so proud of them and that’s what matters right? And that’s it, I have to start on the bag for my mom, either tonight or tomorrow morning, then finish it after my interview. I’m kinda tired, plus I have to do this at the kitchen table, the chair in there is no where near comfortable…my butt is still numb.

This weekend I was able to get together with my friend Jen, and we went fabric shopping. Well we attempted to go fabric shopping. Since I’m still a newbie and learning the ropes, I’m not keen on spending a lot of money of fabric just yet (not to mention I’m still without a full time job). Well I usually buy my fabric samples at Wal-mart, because they usually have some good finds in their clearance pile. However the Walmart here that had a fabric section, did a major remodeling last year and they took that section out. The other one never had a fabric section to begin with. So we went to the Walmart in the next city over, I had the four projects in mind. The baby blanket, the bag that wasn’t a tote, the cap, and the quilted wallet. Plus I wanted to get some other random fabric just to have.

The first thing I noticed was I don’t know what’s a good amount of fabric to get when you don’t have a specific project in mind for it. Does anyone out there who sew have a good suggestion, how much do you usually get of random fabric? The second thing was Walmart clearance sucked this go around. So then I looked at the regular price items, because it’s still pretty cheap. Well I found some fabric for the baby blanket, that was a $1 a yard.

It’s a pooh looking bear (but not pooh), with a pink and tan plaid, I choose a maroon fabric to be the back and baby pink yarn for decoration. I was excited about that, mainly cause I had no prior idea of what I wanted. I know I wanted it to be girlie, because she’s have a girl.

Here’s the rest of the fabric…notice a trend? Yeah black and pink, it’s for a bag for my mom. I couldn’t decide which one to get some I got a half a yard of each. They were various prices, I think the highest was $2-$3 a yard. So I was kind of bummed with the choices, I tried to look for some boyish fabric, because my brother had asked for a wallet. But I didn’t find any I liked. Jen found some nice green shinny fabric for her hubby, who was with us for the firs half, she was only going to get four yards of it to make a shirt for him. Some how she walked away with 8 and 1/3 of it thanks to her husband. (He decided he wanted a pillow, a shirt and a quilt from the fabric, he’s no longer allowed to go with us fabric shopping.) They got their fabric cut while I was looking for mine. Then the lady walked away. I though she was still in the area, no. We had someone page her three times, and then after an hour of us standing there, the assistant manager came. Well he was not so nice and the other lady who was apparently working in that department showed up. She too wasn’t so nice. I was not happy with the Wal-mart after that experience.

I also got some tools that I needed as well, a seam ripper, some elastic, thread, d-rings, hand needles, and lots of buttons (they were a $1 a bag):

Well then we had lunch, and then we dropped her husband off at work. We then went to Joanns. I wasn’t to excited about any of the fabric there, and they are way to expensive to be not so excited about fabric to buy it. However I did score an awesome thing. I was looking at the interfacing. They were having a sale of non-fusible (you have to sew it on) and fusible ( iron on), well of course the fusible was more expensive at $5.99 a yard and up, and the non fusible was $1.99 and up. I wanted the fusible because I’m lazy like that. Well there was a thin bolt of interface that said it was damage and it was suppose to be $10.99/yd but to sell it for $1/yd. I was like what’s wrong with it? Jen said it’s wrinkled, so it’s damage, I was like well I’m getting it. She said it was non-fusible, but I was like it’s a $1, I’m still getting it. So I got 3yds of it, turns out it’s so fusible. I tried it on a whim and it was fusible. so I used it on part of the project I did yesterday (when I get batteries for the camera I’ll take pics).

In other news, I have a interview tomorrow for the IT department of our main library. I’m excited…pray for me!

Here’s my March Goals:

1. Look for more places to apply: I’m kind of iffy about this one, I’m starting to get bummed out, there really aren’t any jobs available here in the south. And the option of picking up and leaving isn’t an option. But I’ll keep at it, again one job a week, until something comes along.

2. Gain full time employment: Same as last month, I would like to have full time employment by April 1st. *sigh*

3. Continue the posting pace: In order to do that I’ve got to come up with some posting ideas. I liked the reviews of the Project Runway show, but that’s coming to an end, soon. I don’t have any other reality T.V. shows I favor so I’m at a lost. Any Project Runway fans have suggestions? I’ve been thinking about watching some of the Canadian version, but I’m hesitant.

4. Start actively preparing for an apartment: I’m going to start looking for apartments I would want to live in. With my picky taste I know this is going to take a while.

5. Complete four sewing projects: One project a week, I’ve kind of got them planned out- 1) a baby blanket for my cousin’s baby 2) A purse that isn’t a tote 3) A Hat 4) A Quilted Wallet