And the winner is…..

Posted by Nat on Aug 21, 2010 | Comments Off on And the winner is…..

Congratulations Karen!!!

Karen has a blog, Aspiring Creations. I’m so excited!  The best thing is that I just learned that Karen is right here in my hometown- how cool is that?

I can’t wait to see how this looks in (or on) her home. 🙂  This is such fun- I can’t wait to do the next one.  I’m split between Halloween or doing one for the holidays.  Maybe winter… oh dear.  I need to start collecting major coupons…

And here’s a little tease about one of my upcoming posts.  I got crafty yesterday with this little chica- she’s awfully fun, don’t you think?

An Obsession? Perhaps.

Posted by Nat on Aug 18, 2010 | 2 comments

I bought some fabric a while ago.  If you’re reading this post at my actual site then you’re looking at the fabric because it’s in my background.  I bought too much, for sure.  I still have tons and tons left.   That’s a good problem, though.

Many moons ago I found Noodlehead.   I just have to point out, even though I’ve already mentioned it on my “About Nat” page, that my name is Natalie and my daughter’s name is Anna.  Noodlehead is done by Anna (who just made an awesome dress) and her daughter’s name is Natalie.  Neat, huh? 🙂

I found Noodlehead via my friend Kari of Handmade Mommy.  Kari posted about doing Anna’s tutorial on L’il Cutie Pouches, and how they helped her overcome zipper anxiety.  “Zipper anxiety?” I wondered to myself.  “What’s zipper anxiety?”  I recognized what a great little thing they’d be to have around, though, so I got some zippers (okay, a lot of zippers) and set to work.

I decided to make one just to try it out, and then I’d make more if I didn’t break my machine.

Moment of hilarity:  I followed Anna’s tutorial precisely- it’s very well done.  But once it came time to sew around the perimeter of the pouch I froze.  “How do I go over the zipper?  Can you sew over a zipper?”  Enter:   zipper anxiety.  So what do I do?  I called Kari, of course.

Kari, who was busy building a volcano with one of her adorable boys, took the time to say, “You’ll be fine.  Just hand crank your needle through it and you’ll be fine.”  “Okay,” I said, while in my head thinking, “For reals?  I can sew over a zipper?”  And yes, my friends, you CAN.  It was fine.  Though if Kari had not told me to do it by cranking my needle by hand I think I probably would have broken something.

So after I made the first one, I cut oodles of fabric up (cutting takes forever!) and I made some more.

Okay, I made 11.

I’m officially the SWF (Single White Female) of sewing.  But later today, I am going to my first meeting of the school year and I’m dreading it.  It will give us at least a few moments of fun when I plop these on the table and let everyone pick one.

See the red, white & blue pouch?  That one is special.  A friend of ours recently got her U.S. citizenship finalized and will be sworn in this month.  I’m so excited for her, so I made her a little patriotic pouch to help celebrate.

p.s.  Like the little lion?  He’s probably older than me.  He used to be in a drawer in my grandparents’ house that we’d play with during our visits. Anna loves him now.  I just think he’s adorable and it’s amazing he still works.

p.p.s.  I have no idea what’s going on with my quotation marks.  It’s driving me crazy.

Closing question (if you sew):  How much fabric do you buy if you see something you like but don’t have an intended project yet? I need some guidelines!

Don’t forget about my giveaway! It ends on Friday- hope you can take a moment to leave a comment to enter!  Click here to check it out.

The Miracle of Paint

Posted by Nat on Aug 17, 2010 | 2 comments

Something needed to be done.  Before I get into this let me preface everything by saying that eventually we are going to do a complete overhaul on our house.  We are actually meeting with a contractor this week to talk about what we could do and how many thousands of buckaroos we would need in order to do what we’d like.  Michael and I like to brace ourselves early.  It won’t happen for quite some time, but we need to dream a little and take in the big picture.

Anyhoo, our front entry way has what some would call a security gate.  It also functions as a screen door, so while my first reaction was to rip it off the house, I realized that then we couldn’t leave the door open for a nice breeze, which you can do nearly 365 days/year where we live.  I like to keep tabs on my kids and my dog, so there’s another nice function of the security gate.  Also, lizards like to invade our house from time to time (I can’t tell if it’s different lizards or the same lizard that is stalking us, be he/they are not nice and he/they bite if given the chance.  Neat, eh?), and when we first moved in we heard coyotes howling in the night, too, so there are LOTS of good reasons to not get rid of this thing until we have a nice replacement.

Here’s the “before” shot.  Brace yourself!

Black is not exactly a welcoming color.  It may say, “I’m a security gate.”  But it also has sort of a “go the he** away” vibe to it, too.  I’ve been itching to paint it since we moved in, but other things took priority.  With the school year looming and other things on our horizons, I decided it was time to do it.  So, this last weekend I taped everything off, primed it up…..

And Voila!

(don’t worry, Sophie isn’t dead- she’s just old.)

It looks much, much better.  I’m not entirely sold on the color- maybe should have done a darker brown to match the door, but at least it’s not black anymore.   If you are blessed with a security gate circa the 1970s and need to spruce it up, you will need at least 5 cans of spray paint, lots of drop cloths (light ones- heavy ones won’t stay up), painter’s tape, and depending the color you may need some spray paint primer, too.  I actually need to get one more can and touch up some areas, but we’ll see how important that becomes once school starts… 🙂

Did you notice anything else about the entryway?

If you haven’t seen, you can enter my first giveaway to win a sign similar to this one for fall.  I plan on making one of these for each season, and a few holidays.  Click here to enter.  Hoooray!  I’m very happy with how this helps our entryway- it’s so nice to have some color and fall colors, even though it’s not really fall yet.

The only thing left for this area (for now) is to fix that lovely overhead light.  We have one to put up- I’ll post a picture once it’s done, but that’s Michael’s territory- I’m not allowed near the electric work for good reason.  We’d also like to tile up the cement, but that will depend on our eventual plans for the house- we’re not going to tile it now if we may rip it up in just a few years.

p.s.  Check out this guy- he was hanging out in our small woodpile in the corner.  I’m glad I saw him before I moved the wood- he was HUGE!

Do you have an entryway?  What would you like to do to it?

31DBB Day 25: Ask a Question

Posted by Nat on Aug 16, 2010 | 6 comments

Some of my friends who read this blog regularly (I love them for that) may be wondering how this little huge blog challenge I’m doing is going.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click that little button on the right (under the subscribe button) and you’ll find out what I’m talking about.

Well…technically today is day 29 and I’m working on Day 25.  I’m behind.  But I’m not quitting- just catching up.  Whew!  It’s been a challenge in many ways, but mostly just keeping tabs on everything in addition to daily life has been the biggest one.  I did decide to switch my domain over, revamp the theme a bit, and do some other background stuff that no one will ever see that took a ton of time.  But I’m proud of doing this challenge- it pushed me just like my trainer pushed me in my pre-marriage & mommy days.

Day 25 Day’s task is to ask a question, and my question is a simple one:  how do you stay true to yourself and who you are? I’ve seen lots of blog moms post about this lately.  Blogging can give readers a sense that people are more than they are.  Take Design Mom, an extremely successful woman with 6, count ’em, 6 kids (who are gorgeous).  I was reading her blog, clicking page after page, oohing and aaahhhing, and thinking, “Oh my LORD this woman is Super Woman!”  Then I started getting down on my own situation- my house isn’t perfect enough, my wardrobe isn’t cool enough, I’m not wearing enough makeup and I certainly haven’t gotten far enough with my crafting yet.  Then I clicked Design Mom’s FAQ page and found this little tidbit, which really resonated with me:

“…And the answer is: I don’t. Not even close. In fact, on some level, I believe the whole idea is a myth. If my blog is really good on a given week, then you can bet my house is a wreck. If my blog seems a little bleh, then it’s guaranteed we’ve got a lot going on at home. If you know me in real life, then you know I work in my pjs as often as possible and that I’m a very typical mom. As each new child joins our family, I have to learn to be a more flexible and lower my expectations another notch.

…One more thing. Please keep in mind that on this blog I attempt to keep things very positive and showcase the best and prettiest things happening in my life. That doesn’t mean there aren’t bad days and failed projects and lost tempers. At the end of the day, blogs are a show. I suppose that’s why we like them so much.”

It made me feel so much better.  And it got me to thinking that blogging, while amazing, is misleading.  We see all of these wonderful things, but as Gabrielle points out, people rarely blog about the real stuff.  Blogging is, for me, one way to see the good things in my life, and to make good things in my life.  It would be easy, though, to get lost in comparison and start feeling like you don’t measure up.

So, how do you stay true to yourself? Do you limit your blog-self to a certain amount of blogging per day?  Do you ride the different waves of life and take it as it comes or plan it out to keep it sane?

For me, I try to remember that while I truly love this new blog (and have completely neglected my family blog and family photos this summer), I have to take a breather or it gets the best of me.  I’ve asked my husband to keep me in check.  School is starting soon, and then my time to craft/sew/create will be even more limited by the fact that I have to bring home a paycheck for another 9 months.  I do worry about balancing all of this, but it will all work out in the end- it always does.  I have to focus on life day-by-day, and not get wrapped up in the politics of teaching or who I need to please.  Other than planning doctor appointments and social dates, I have no long term goals mapped out on a calendar.  Maybe that needs to change, but right now I’m doing good just keeping up.  I need to please myself, my kids and my husband, and everything else is small potatoes.

I bought a ring recently- I can’t wait to get it in the mail.  It says, “Be true to your dreams.”  That is going to be my mantra this year as I set out to start a creative life and finish my teaching life, if only for a while.

I’d love to hear how you stay true to who you are in your day-to-day life.  Any tricks?  Words of wisdom?  Little vignettes to share?  Post ’em here- I’d love to do a recap!

p.s.  Did you enter for my first giveaway?  No?  Click here– you have until Friday the 20th!  I’ll announce the winner on Saturday!

Product Review: Ironing Pad

Posted by Nat on Aug 15, 2010 | 1 comment

I hate ironing.  No really.  I hate it.  I know of some people who love certain household tasks (my mom and my brother-in-law love to vacuum).  I have yet to find one that I look forward to. That being said, I love a product that makes any household task easier or better or faster.  This one that I have found does all of these things.  I love it.

We are blessed with a laundry room in our house, which is great.  Not having laundry in the garage seems to be an anomaly here in SoCal, so I was really pleased to know I would have a designated space for laundry and a place to keep chemicals and other things up high.  However, our laundry room is pretty narrow, and an standard, run-of-the-mill ironing board would not work.  I didn’t want to use our guest room or another room for ironing because I’d never take it down, so we’d always have piles of fabric and clothes needing to be ironed, and one more thing to do.  Up to this point I’ve been either a) avoiding ironing all together or b) using our old, over-the-door ironing board.  It’s loud- when I take it down it’s creaky, and when I iron it’s creaky.  The board itself is too small, too.

I wasn’t exactly in search of anything, but then I was looking through Improvements catalog and found this.  (Improvements is one of those catalogs that you never know what you’ll find when it shows up.  Lots of great things for your house, and then as you’re flipping through it they spring things on you like the “health and intimacy” pages- oh my.)

I love this thing.  It’s the answer to my ironing prayers.

Here’s my dryer before:

And here it as after- this was a great “forced organization” for me- I reassigned some things in about 10 minutes to make way for the pad (okay, and I also finally put away the carpet adhesive).  Now the dryer is always clear.  Love it!

What I love it for best is pressing/ironing fabric that is ready to be sewn into something.  I throw all the fabric behind the dryer and pull it forward as I’m ironing, like this:

(Sorry about these photos- they were taken at night.)

It’s great.  I have to shift it to the left or right as I go, but I still get ironing done so much faster, and having nothing to pull out or set up makes it so great.  I wouldn’t say I love ironing now, but I’m enjoying it much more than I used to because of this thing.

So far it’s held up great.  The only place I’ve noticed with any wear and tear is when I ironed some very small parts of sewing projects to press them, the area around it did show some heat damage.  Also, when it comes it reeks of plastic, so if you’re sensitive to smell you may want to open it outside and let it air out before bringing it inside.  Last possible negative is that it covers the lint filter on my dryer, so I have to remember to clean it.  If you have a fancy dryer like the one I dream of I’m not sure where the filter is, so it might not be an issue for you.

I think for $13 you can’t beat this thing.  I’m wondering if one could make one on their own with more fun prints or something.  Maybe I’ll add that to my list…

Happy Weekend!