On the road less traveled...

Where does the time go?

The last few months have just flown by.  I'm not really sure where the time has gone!  There are lots of things that I could update on...but where do I start?

Here's the finished product from the last post...hung up downstairs.  I probably should have planned just a little better with the colors, but it works.

[Tribute to Kayci, 2011]

Almost all "extra" time right now is spent on putting together my Stampin' Up! adventures.  I've been having a ton of fun with it, and am realy hoping that it will pick up more and more.  My website and blog are HERE and HERE.

Challenge Completed!

So here's what I selected as my inspiration piece of my pinned "want to makes":

 
(My pinterest site isn't loading right for a good screen shot right now)  But this was pinned from Noodle-head.com with a great tutorial.  I loved the look of the gathered front, and wanted to try it out myself.  The tutorial on noodle-head includes a divider and card pockets, I eliminated both from my version because I wasn't going to have time to try that and make this challenge deadline.

 
[The supplies I would use.]

Stampin' Up! recently came out with fabric, and I ordered a pack (it comes in a back of three coordinating prints...perfect for this project) and thought I'd try it for this little bag.

 
I won't include a tutorial, because there's one on the original website (although I modified this some).  The button was originally going to be a decorative element on the front.  And as you can see, I had the zipper all ready to go as a closure...but that didn't end up working out for me.

I fought and fought with the zipper, and then my bobbin wasn't cooperating, so I had to do a lot of seam ripping...

 
...and finally I ended up giving up on the zipper and just focusing on the bag itself.  I'd need to find Plan B as a closure.  I even did the french seams on the inside, so that there are no fabric ends hanging out.

 

[And then, just when I was almost done...my machine needle snapped.  urgh.  Thankfully I stock up on those kinds of things and had an extra couple of them stashed away!]

 

The ruffle effect was pretty cool, and not very hard.  I will find other projects to use that on for sure!  A button closure ended up being my Plan B.  I would have rather the zipper...and I'll probably try this project again with a little more patience and a zipper that is a better size.  (Part of my problem may have been that I had to re-size the zipper and let's be honest, that was a ways past by sewing skills!)

 

The inside was lned with a coordinating fabric...and then the back was just plain...no ruffles.

 

One more picture of the completed project!  I'm glad I managed to finish it!!

 

I have to admit I kind of hurried through this project...for one I really wish it had a zipper, and if I did it again I'd change how I sewed the liner.  I'm much prouder of projects like my TV unit that we redid a few months back.  But that also involved a lot of prep time in my mulling-it-over stage before I even tackled it.  I am, however, inspired to pin more and try more thanks to this challenge!

Thanks to Katie and Sherry for starting this awesome challenge with Emily and Lana!  Totally loved it.  Did anyone else join in?  I want to see what you all did!!

Summer Pinterest Challenge

Because I have nothing else to do.  (see last post...) No other challenges or goals that I have set for myself.  (note: heavy sarcasm).  Why not take on another thing?  *sigh*  Why can’t there just be more hours in the day?  Why can’t the clock just stand completely still for one week so that I can catch up with everything around me? So what am I adding to my list of things? 

One of my favorite blogs, Younghouselove, has partnered with Bower Power along with Emily Henderson- from HGTV's Design Star and now her own show, Emily Henderson-Secrets of a Stylist for this very cool Pinterest Challenge.  The idea is to make something that has been pinned on pinterest. 

Here's their video 

 

Pinterest, ...btw, TOTALLY addictive.  How great is it that I can now peruse the web, and with the click of one button catalog that picture later I'll know where I got the idea from.  Perfect.  All on my boards.

Seriously though.  It's a great place to catalog ideas and when I am in need of a little inspiration...there it is! And I have a few ideas of what to make.  They said to post by tuesday...hmmm....can I make that happen?

So...

The project that was...

Once upon a time I started a project that I called Project 365.  Yes, and then suddenly, it was the end!  Yikes.  Here’s what it looked like when I started...

I was doing good keeping a decent mix of journaling and pictures.  Doing something to document each day.

There were a couple of spots I was going to pull blog journaling later...but I was keeping up.

I was excited when I made it to month #2, and so I had kind of a fresh rush with the project.

And then by mid-February I was playing some catch up again...

 

And it wasn't long after that that the wheels totally came off.  I started putting a sticky on each day so that I would remember what I wanted to do for that....but then it was just stickys...and then I just skipped a whole bunch all together...stuck in a random one for my birthday (bottom right corner) and the rest of the binder is blank.  Blast.

It’s actually really cool to go back and look at my entries for the days that I did.  I wih I had been better about keeping up on it. 

Ali Edwards has been doing this project (with the actual kit) this year too.  I've been paying more attention to how she has done it- and it looks like she collects over the course of the week and then works on it at the end of the week.  I'm thinking that maybe that would have worked better?  I was trying to be in my studio every day...but the reality is that it just didn't happen.  And then I was out of the groove. 

Ali also does an annual “Week in the Life” project, and a few weeks back I thought that maybe that would be something more up my alley.  Doing the project for a full year got lost…but for a week?  I managed 2 full months…I could do a week.  So I printed out these great little PDFs that she made to help with the project.  And then I didn’t think about it again.  And then as I was doing my usual blog tour (the blogs I try to hit with real regularity to see what’s new) I discovered that she started the project on Monday.  And it’s now ... it's Sunday and her week in the life documentation is over.  Urgh.  The beauty of it, of course, is that it can be started at any time.  I just have to find the motivation for it.  And I need to be ready for it so that I don't just let it peter out again.

So now the question is what do I do with the 3 months of my P365 that I started?  I may just have to incorporate the pieces into 12x12 scrapbook pages.  Then I can at least stick them into my albums....(which I am sooooo far behind in too!)  That or a mini album...but the format I had just doesn't make as much sense now that it's not full.  I suppose that I could also leave it in the dividers and put the 8.5x11 pages into a bigger scrapbook too...we shall see.

D keeps telling me I need to cut projects, not add them.  He says I have too many irons in the fire, I'm not quite able to do anything completely.  *sigh*  I refuse to believe that.  (Although I know he's right.  shhh.....don't tell).   But I can't stop trying new things.  Hello.  My name is Sarah and I'm a craft addict.

And stay tuned...because I found something else I want to do!  ;)  of course.

Mischief Managed

About 3 weeks ago I remembered there was a project that I've been wanting to get around to for...oh, a year?  :)  So out came the sewing machine…oh what might it be?

[Sewing Machine hard at work…circa 11:30 pm on July 12, 2011]

Some time later and more frusteration than I'd like to admit later before I figured out how to make all the seams look the way I wanted them to...these were created:

And by the 14th, it was all wrapped up like this:

And off I went to deliver the owl post to McKenzie.  (I also had a small one for Marcus).

This was one exited girl!  SO AWESOME!  When I got to the door, she had already drawn the lightining bolt on her forehead.  But when she told me she had the scarf from last year and a cloak, I nearly had a heart attack.  You have a what?!  I was relieved to hear that it was just a black cape from a former halloween costume.  Whew!!

[The opened owl post!]

[And here we are...ready for the movie!]

And off we went!  First we stopped to visit Casey at work- had to show off the robes!  And then we grabbed Five Guys for dinner and headed to the theater.

And a little magic before we head in...

[Our wands were picked up outside Casey's office...the robes need to be modified for wand pockets!!]

And an iphone photo once we we were in line:

The movie was, as expected, awesome.  But it was a little sad that it was the last one of the series.  I  know that I looked forward to the next movie with McKenzie at least as much as she did!  We went in July 2009, and November 2010.  Had such a good time each time! 

As I was going through blog posts, I discovered I never posted anything last year about our Harry Potter night!  And I barely have any pictures at all…makes me wonder if Casey took the pictures?  Because I doubt we made it out the door without taking any…but must not have been on my camera.  The only one I have from last year is this one from my iphone:

While we were waiting to be let into the theater (we were there by 9pm for the midnight movie) we walked around the mall a little and wandered on into a little store with lots of random costumes, masks and things, including super hero costumes!  (I tried to convince McKenzie that she should wear a superhero costume for her speech for vice president…I didn’t get very far!)

McKenzie- I love this tradition.  And we will have to find something to take it's place...I'm sure there will be more movie costumes in our future!  ;)

Check it out!

So I've been super busy putting together a new blog/website for all of my Stampin' Up! stuff.  I'd really like to be able to take off with that...

check it out... It's my new CREATE blog (at www.sarahsabri.typepad.com/create) ...there are apparently some problems with the first link

I need to get it all linked up on the side bar on this blog.  A "to-do" for tomorrow!  Let me know thoughts?  I'd love to hear what should be/could be changed or added!!