HELP

Wow.
Well I am still around trying to get too many things done at once and ultimately getting nothing fully completed. One of the reasons is my sewing maching died tonight when I was SOOOO close to finishing the project that I have been trying so hard to get completed so I can show you... It probably wouldn't have been so bad but I accidentally helped it along with it's brokeness...Oops! and now I am guessing it would be more cost effective to replace then fix.

So I was wondering any ideas on what fixing a machine costs and also does anyone have any cheaper suggestions for a decent sewing machine. I don't want to waste money on something worthless but I don't have money to buy an amazing one.

Any help you can give me would be great!

She's Alive!

Well I disappeared out of no where! I have been all sorts of busy around these parts but it has been the kind of busy that you have nothing to show for (other then a very very dirty house... lol) Hopefully it all will be wrapped up in the next week and I will have something to post about! I do have one fun thing I can share with you though.
Collin asked me to work on a logo for him so for the last few days I have been playing around with some ideas and I finally have something together for him to look at today so... without further ado

I have no idea if he is going to like it or not... but he didn't give me a lot of direction just to include a 3 point crown... and yes I gave him a hair cut I hope he doesn't mind the long hair doesn't translate well on a silhouette.
If you haven't checked out his work you should go take a look (though he really should post some of his new stuff, ahem) My favorite so far is this painting.
It's finally feeling like fall around here and though I am sure it wont last I am enjoying it immensely! Also has anyone been watching Glee? Totally cheesy and I am totally hooked... I probably shouldn't be admitting this. Oh well.

Last Weekend of Summer

We wanted to take advantage of our last official weekend of summer (haha OK so yeah that is funny) so we decided we should hit the water again for a little kayaking. There was a 50% chance of rain but as you can see we were fine. What wasn't fine though was the tide working against us both ways! We headed out right at the end of high tide... which was pretty cool the water was a solid 8 feet above low tide.
This is looking out to the ocean from the bridge. Usually what you see is a ton of grass and a windy river that you have to weave through to get out to the open water. Well when it's high tide you can practically shoot straight down the middle. We hit the ocean fast!

As we were rowing through some of the taller grass i was slightly freaked out by these black things on the grass. At first I was worried they were spiders because there were webs around

But when we slowed we saw they were crabs. There were TONS of them all through the grass.

There were some that were much larger but they were too fast to get a photo of.

I'm so glad they weren't spiders!

We finally made it out to our beach... but it was almost completely under water! And let me tell you this is a very large beach. The little land that was left above water was so saturated that you sunk a good 6 inches with ever step... not cool!

We had a very quick snack and then took off again since we were going to be fighting the tide on the trip back.

And of my goodness did we fight it! We were a little worried we weren't going to make it back. (not joking!) this next shot is grass that we had rowed over on the way out! Can you imagine fighting that much water flowing at you?

Another shot of the bridge on our way back you can see how much the water dropped and this was just 2 hours later.

Well enough about kayaking!

We spent tonight with the cable repair man trying to get our Internet and cable working.... apparently the evil cable auditors came by and put a blocker on our line... we aren't really sure why they would do this but it wiped out all of our service... and while uber was trying to figure out what was going on our modem died! So a new modem and a visit to remove the blocker and we are back up after having nothing all weekend... I had no idea how important the Internet is to me!

Anyway I am crafting... it's all in progress and slow going so I will have to show you that later!

Random

The one item we did manage to pick up on my Orlando shopping list was the EXPEDIT shelf from ikea. Which was actually the most important item... I do have to say the ikea trip was rather rough because it came right after shopping at the millennium mall next door that had nothing I had needed...plus ikea has this ability to suck all of your energy away- have you noticed this issue? We were in and out in an hour and it felt like it had taken at least five. And of course ikea is always slammed. Anyway, we got all the way to the display for these shelves and it said that they were out of stock in the white... it was a total bummer but I know that this happens all the time at ikea so I tried not to let it get to me... actually I told uber it saved him some money because there were some small items I was going to get but I didn't feel like waiting in line for. Anyway we checked the warehouse area anyway and it turned out that had a bunch of the shelves in stock! So mission accomplished.

I don't have much respect for ikea stuff it tends to not be made well but I do have to say this shelf is very sturdy and didn't take terribly long to assemble.
I bought the shelf because it is the exact size of the opening for our closets in the guest bedroom and study. We decided to try it out first in the study and we will buy a second one for the guest bedroom on our next trip. Uber removed the doors from the closet. We are going to store them in the attic for the time being because I wanted the closet opened up for workspace.

So here is the first peek at it. There is a lot more that we are going to do with the closet area but this is the first step. And since I am really not sure how long it is going to take me to get to the next steps I figured I would show you what I had so far!

The ultimate plan is to paint the closet with an accent color. Remove the wire shelf and replace with a floating shelf, raise the ikea shelf up on feet to counter height and top it off with a counter top to make the whole thing feel built in... it wont be done to be permanent since the next person to own the house may not want it and we will make it so the closet doors will still work with it inside.

I found the paper and ribbon shelf sitting on top at Michael's, I think it is a new product they are carrying, I really like them I might run by and pick up a few more of the cubes I think they have about 10 variations with drawers and all sorts of things, they are stackable and they even sell counter tops to be attached across the tops of them. I was in the study cleaning and thinking I could really use something to organize all the random paper I have and then I walked into Michael's and they had this line all on promotion at 50% off. So I grabbed the ribbon thing too. I never realized I had so little ribbon! I think I am going to have to go shopping!

Oh and this is a picture of the whole room so you can see it's a mess. Uber wanted you to see it. He was making fun of me for taking a picture of the closet from the one angle that you couldn't see all of the mess from. So to get him back I took it with him in it.... he is part of the mess you know...

I had some fun this weekend on etsy and ordered a bunch of fabrics for my nonexistent stash. I am loving these prints. I am hoping they allow me to finish a few projects that I have started. I am realizing that you really need to have fabric on hand. I didn't buy a lot of it I am hoping I don't regret it later because these prints are pretty awesome. Alright I have to get to church.

back... finally

So I kind of disappeared for a while oops! I know it's a little late but I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. Uber and I went down to Orlando for some shopping... nothing eventful.... actually I had a rather long shopping list for the trip and almost every store we hit had nothing I needed in stock...bummer... I will show you the one thing I did manage to get soon though. Then I proceeded to be sick all week long. Lovely huh? WELL Thursday I finally got busy again and I have quite a few projects going on now.
I managed to complete the invites for an upcoming baby shower. Which is being held at my house so you will likely be seeing more on it!

The mom to be is doing a butterfly/flower theme in the nursery and her colors are blue, yellow and brown with pops of red.

I had a lot of fun putting these together. I especially liked the different choices in color. No pink! In fact I am sure the blue envelopes will throw plenty of people off.

I printed the seals on mailing labels and punched them out.

I snuck in a little advertising on the back of the invites... whoot!

One small rant though.

***stop reading here if you aren't in the mood to hear me whine!!!***

I just have to put this out there. Joannes is evil. I dislike that store so completely and I spend so much money there it angers me. I hate supporting such a terrible organization. They have terrible customer services and EVERY single time I really need something they are out of it and have no idea when it might be in and won't notify you when they do get it. But they will tell me that a store an hour away has x number in stock if I want to drive there and get it. If you are a super store supplying thousands (literally) of people why would you only order out of stock cardstock twenty sheets at a time or carry only 6 packs of each envelope you stock? ARGH! Ok I am done now because I could go one for hours. In case you are wondering I found envelopes at Target of all places. For cheaper and plenty in stock. I love Target... and costco... well costco is a love hate thing... emphasis on love though. We were doing our weekly shopping on Saturday and they were trying to sell us on an upgraded membership with cash back incentives. They do this by showing you how much you spent in their store the previous year... I had asked them to never show me that amount again... lol

**end of ranting**

My favorite part of invites though is seeing them done and out the door... it's always a relief!

Finally I know

After having make new header for blog on my to do list for ages I finally got around to it this evening. The graphics are actually a preview for a new invite in the works.... thank goodness no one local reads the blog! I hope you all like this one because it will likely be another year before I get around to updating it again!
I am going to go and see if I can get my Etsy header updated as well since it doesn't even have my newest logo on it... oops!

**edited to add- I actually got my Etsy banner updated too. YEAH!**

All over the place....

Friday night I made a coffee cake that is pretty scrumptious. It's the one that Pioneer Woman blogged last week. And she wasn't kidding about eating your coffee! Very good. If you decide to make it be sure to pick a really good instant coffee because that is what the cake is going to taste like!

My grandma me a bracelet that she got for me on hers and my moms trip to Italy this spring. The beads are murano glass and she told me to feel free to restring it since it came with gold findings. So I finally made it to the bead store on Thursday and this is what I ended up making...(of course after reminding myself repeatedly I completely forgot to take a before picture) I used Sterling silver beads in varying sizes of circles and disks. I am totally loving it. I've already worn it a few times.

What happens when you ask you husband to take pictures for you? You have about two hundred shots (most of them where you are out of focus or look irritated) and only the last one he took of you goofing off looks decent... haha... anyway thanks Grandma I LOVE the beads I have already gotten compliments on the necklace!

Another thing off the to do list is this small pouch. I made it for all of my electronic accessories that need to live in my purse but don't because they always get all tangled up and then I take them out and don't have them when I need them....

It's the same pouch as my Tutorial that I sell on Etsy just shrunk down very small. I did some quick patchwork from quilt scraps and then lined it with corduroy... I love it except that I went so far as to french seam it...because of my OCD tendency's and broke 3 needles in the process one which hit me in the lip and one that shattered into my eyes... ummm... yeah anyway I didn't hurt myself permanently or anything but Uber tells me I have to wear shop glasses now while sewing... hmmmm... anyway incase you didn't know trying to french seam something very small that is patchwork and courduroy isn't the best idea...

Other then that I have been working on some new graphics for a baby shower invite I am doing and I have been punching more paper for garland... fun fun fun... We have been watching Eureka all weekend it is a really weird/quirky show - sci-fi. Oh and I finished The Time Travelers Wife. Totally read it if you get a chance it was great.