New Craft Room

My husband and I have finally moved! We have been settled into our new apartment for about a week and we love it, though we have learned some really great lessons about moving in general.

Lesson 1.
We have too much stuff. Seriously--most of America probably has too much stuff, and we definitely don't want ours to clutter up our future house. I'm working on getting some of that out of our home and into goodwill (or on craigslist, who knows!)

Lesson 2.
Having a craft studio is the most amazing idea I ever had. Pictures to follow.

Lesson 3.
NEVER NEVER NEVER!! move during teacher in-service week! This was the worst idea in the world. We really didn't have much choice here--the apartment was available at this time and not before. We figured we might as well move before we started really getting into work. We both teach, so we were both preoccupied all day until about 3:30, and then had to come home, take a couple trips over to the new apartment, and then finally have the big move on Saturday. Sunday was spent trying to get everything we could out of boxes, and we started work on Monday (with the first day of school and kids showing up on Tuesday!) Needless to say, we're exhausted.

Priority, of course, was invested in clothing, school items, computer set-up, tv set-up, and kitchen assemblage. Once those things were all accomplished, I could look into the giant mess that was the guest bedroom. I'm almost done unboxing all my craft things... and I think it's coming along pretty well.

The desk is really special because it used to belong to my great grandmother. The teal file cabinet was a gift from my grandmother on the other side, and I spray painted it to give it some flair. 

Here is my great-grandmother herself, hanging out in my sewing room! During WWII, she developed her own soap company, and in this photo she is at her desk on the phone, looking very professional. My mom will have to remind me what magazine this photo came out of... She hit the soap market at just the right time, since apparently companies like Tide were making dynamite instead of detergent. 

While we were up north, visiting my husband's parents, I had some pretty great thrift store finds. These two tea towels are some of my favorite pieces I walked away with, and they're really specially because they represent the years we were born! Mr. Kopf is a little sad that his has to be the one with the butterflies. I'm a big fan of my hot air balloons, though.

We're not planning on having children for a few more years, but I always thought that something like this would be a sweet little decoration for a nursery. When I saw these two right next to each other, and so white and crisp, I just had to snatch them up... even if it is a little early!

I am finally able to frame the embroidery I worked on this summer during our road trips! This

particular piece, "just be kind", was inspired by my grad school friend Victoria--she has this tattooed on her foot and lives by it with one of the biggest hearts I have had the pleasure to meet.

There is certainly a lot to do. My favorite: "Be nice or go away." Coming to the etsy store soon!

Flannery and I share a love for the big window above the desk. I am finally sewing in a room with some decent light, and kitty gets to people watch all she wants. 

Here's to many crafting adventures to come, in a cozy little corner that is all my own!

Camp Days

My husband was working full-time at a 4H camp this summer and had a few weekends where he had to stay overnight. We don't live too far from the camp, but the hours, ending at 10 at night and getting up at 7 the next day, meant that it was just easier if he bunked with the counselors than came home to snuggle with me. On these days, I had nothing to occupy myself than whatever I wanted. I watched a lot of tv I had never seen before, and made a point to watch a couple movies I knew hubs wouldn't be interested in (lots of period films, or movies where I cry a lot).

I spent as long as I wanted in the fabric store. I worked on multiple projects at the same time and left them lying around. I ate pesto pasta three days in a row. I was a bachelorette with a cat in a one-bedroom apartment by myself. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband, and I missed him every day--but it was a pretty neat opportunity to have the place all to myself.

I bought this purple-y satin fabric at Hancock's, thinking it is going to line a pencil skirt for me someday. And of course, kitty wanted to jump up on top of it and nap in the photo shoot.

Draw me like one of your French girls!

First successfully machine quilted piece: a wall-hanging/mini quilt in my favorite color combo right now. The teal I had in my stash, the white was purchased for this project, and the beautiful yellow was part of a dollar grab bag at an estate sale. 

I found this fun fabric at Walmart of all places. Tried to make a shirt out of it. Failed. Or rather, made a successful piece of wearable abstract art.

On one of the longer camp stretches, I hitched a ride with my parents--north, to Indiana!--to visit family. My aunt and uncle have a pretty nice setup on the lake.

And my parents are adorable. 

A leftover tomato became part of a spaghetti sauce experiment! I followed this guy's tutorial on how to peel and seed them, but just sort of peeled them my own way, since it was sadly already sliced.

All peeled and seeded! I have never done this before. It was a little more labor intestive than I expected, but fun!

A perfect meal for just me! Meatless homemade spaghetti sauce, penne, and cast-iron skillet foccacia bread. This was also the night I discovered Land Girls on Netflix. A period show where I cried a lot so it's a really good thing hubs was not home.

I learned how to dehydrate unused mushrooms. The internet is a beautiful thing.

And kitty saw a friend outside.

And stared very impolitely.

Now that camp days are over, I'm incredibly excited to have my husband back and free to hang out with me until school starts. But I'm not going to lie, I'm not quite as productive as I was during that time...

Aaaannnd... it's over

As a high school teacher, I started to feel the end of summer creeping up on me in that last week of July. Inservice will start on Tuesday for me: a week of meetings where teachers prepare themselves physially, spiritually, and emotionally for the new year. I've never been very far from the school during the summer months, but something about going back full time makes the end of the season so final and tangible that I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with it. I am incredibly excited to meet my new students and to see what new relationships form this year. It's my second year teaching, so I'm also super pumped to walk into that building on the first day with at least an inkling of knowing what I'm doing.


So now that it's August, it is really final. Did I do it? Did I live up to my summer to-do list and enjoy every minute of my 2.5 month paid vacation? I think so. I may have missed a few items along the way, but on the whole, it was a very enjoyable time and I'm happy everything worked out the way it did.

I spent a lot of time in this space this summer: my teeny tiny "studio." At the time, it was really just half of our bedroom. It has since been taken down and stuff into various boxes. We're moving apartments in just a week! ...And guess what the guest room is going to be? (a studio/office/guestroom)

My little library of sewing books got taken over with library books for a time.

Here is my dress form, whom I have named Lucy, wearing one of my favorite sale purchases from Target. Sometimes if I have nothing I'm currently making, I will put a random dress on Lucy so she doesn't feel too naked.

And of course, further down the bookcase, a mess of fabric and slightly organized patterns. See that cute pink and yellow floral off to the side? It was a beautiful flannel I bought at Hancock's that I envisioned making into a beautiful fall Wiksten top. However, I cut my pieces bigger than I should have, expecting to do french seams, which I couldn't make work.

It's all in the way you look at these sewing "failures." If I was trying to make a slightly loose-fitting tova dress to wear with leggings and boots this fall, I didn't meet my goal. But if I was trying to make a billowy, never-wear-in-public house dress/muu-muu, I was incredibly successful.

My sewing machine is a brother. As in, when it acts a little fidgety, I exclaim, "oh brother!" My serger, however, needs a name. 

Here are the library books that didn't make it into the bookcase. I didn't read half of them, but this stack made me feel pretty scholarly, so of course I took a grainy iphone photo.

If these pictures indicate anything, my main activities this summer were sewing and reading. Specifically, Agatha Christie, George R.R. Martin, and Douglas Adams for fun, and lots of stuff on Revelation and reading the Bible as Lit for work. 

I'm on the last book of Game of Thrones, and I'm not going to lie, I'm a little scared to finish it. When I do, it will be years until I read the next one. And he's got two or three more to write, I believe. I have never read a series that is so current that it's not completed yet! I'm not sure how I'm going to cope.

I hope your summer has also included lots of library trips and days inside crafting! Or maybe I hope that you had more days outside than I did. I am, admittedly, still really pale.