Welcome, Twenty10.

Eeekkk! I am so excited for 2010! Did you all have a fantastic New Year’s? We stayed home, chilled with the kids, played Monopoly and ate Thai food with great friends. Loved it. PERFECT night, in my books. 

 

This week has been A.MA.ZING. I have LOVED every second of the holidays – they have been so relaxing and lovely!  Um, but can anyone relate to the MAJOR itch to redo and clean and organize and throw out and declutter? I’ve been doing just that all week long…. feels good but it’s also exhausting.

It’s also been fantastic just hanging out with the girls … making homemade playdough (scented, of course) …

 

playdough

 

Yes, that’s marker all over her face. 

 

playdough2
Oh, did I mention that Santa brought me a sewing machine for Christmas?????? 

 

sewing

 

 

 

Yeah, me. Sew. Hmm. Well, let’s just say, if you knew me two years ago, you would just LAUGH if someone handed me a needle. And, well, you’d still laugh to this day because I don’t even know how to sew on a button properly. But now that I have this fine, handy, dandy machine staring me in the face every morning, I think …….. I THINK  …. *cringe* ….. I MIGHT just try to learn how to sew in 2010.

In 2009, I learned how to cook. In 2010, I will learn to sew a straight line.

So I had this horrible itch to get to the fabric store in town after opening this lovely present over the holidays. I can’t even BELIEVE I’m saying that. The fabric store? Seriously? 

I walked in and immediately felt like a five year old child in a china shop. I had no clue what was what and what I could touch, unroll, or whatever. All the clerks had bifocals on and as I walked through the aisles, I could see them, lower their chins, peer over the top of their glasses, and shake their head … I don’t even want to guess at what they were thinking. 

 

I continued to be ‘casual’ – pretending I knew what I was doing, what I was looking for when in reality I had NO clue. Immediately drawn to PINK (gosh, surprise, surprise!), I walked over to the pink fabric spool (is that the right word) and pulled it off the shelf … and within seconds, a domino effect of falling spools of fabrics rippled its way around the fabric “cart” … I struggled, I fumbled, I held on to the pink bolt and leaned quickly over to the multiple falling bolts and tried to save them from landing on the dirty cement floor … all the while, the scary intimidating employees were glaring at me over their glasses, clucking their tongues in disbelief. 

 

Oh my gosh. So embarrassing.

I hung my head in shame as I piled 25 bolts of different fabric together in a five foot ridiculous pile (couldn’t figure out how to get them back on the rack) and walked over to the Table of Humiliation, where the Bifocal Ladies ask the dreaded question: “What is this for and how much do you want?” Well, I had no clue what it was for and I had no clue how much I wanted. I babbled on about how I just got a (squeal!) sewing machine for Christmas and was excited to just try something out …. yeah, long story short, I bought the pink fabric and scooted my behind out of the store as fast as I could, feeling like a fish out of water and feeling the burning of their eyes on my back as the store door shut behind me.

 

Lesson learned about the fabric stand though. NOT making THAT mistake again. 

 

So, what, you ask, did I do with the fabric? Oh, no. I didn’t sew. I glued. Yes, glue. But look – how fun!

 

A homemade magnetic message board for my studio:

board11

 

board41

 

See those scrabble magnets? Those were old scrabbles tiles I found in the basement and just stuck magnetic tape to the back. Voila. Fun times. 

 

scrabble

 

And I had fabric left over so I turned this stool from white:

 

seat

 

into a pink stool: 

 

chair2

 

 

No sewing required so far.

Just a staple gun. 

 

chair3

 

and the next project is this chandelier, so sweetly dropped off at the studio by Bethany Lee …. 

 

chand

 

Guess what color we’re painting it? (I say, we, because Hubalicious is involved in this.) 
Yup, pink and white.  It’s going to look so cute!!!!

 

Oh, and I added candy to the studio, too. I told my kids it’s fake candy and they believed me. Sweet. 

 

candy

 

 

candy2

 

Ahhh,  candy, pink, kids, playdough and a scary seamstress??? All makings of a fantastic week so far!

January 17, 2010 - 12:55 pm

Krista We all begin somewhere! I just got my first sewing machine after chrismas and have yet to use it not sure what to do yet. However I have made quilts for the boys and Eric. I’m going to send you photo’s, these are far from perfect but perfect in every way.
The boys I used there recieving blankets and Eric’s I used the old army pants that had holes everywhere and he won’t give them up so I cut them up and made him a blanket.
Use the girls old dresses, hats stained cloths that you don’t want to part with you will be amazed with what you come up with.
I’ll send you photo’s so you can see.

January 6, 2010 - 2:30 pm

Jenn I know the EXACT ladies in Fabricland that you’re talking about! They’ll warm up a bit as you go in more often…and they look more intimidating than they are!

Good luck with that sewing machine!

January 2, 2010 - 3:24 pm

Kristi Love the stool!! Too cute! and the candy, what a great idea!!

January 2, 2010 - 9:59 am

Brenda (Gillian’s mom) Gillian, this is hilarious!!! You have such a knack for writing … loved the fabric store episod e! I’m suprised the ladies weren’t more helpful to you 🙁 Iwould love to help you learn to sew but you will learn, just like you learned to cook!! Love the stool, it looks awesome … and the magnetic board too! See how creative you are, with just a glue gun and stapler? Imagine how fantastic you will be, when you learn to sew! 🙂 Can’t wait to see the studio makeover (take before and after pictures) xo

January 2, 2010 - 9:42 am

Catherine Pick up some Christmas fabric and make Christmas bags! It’s better than wrapping paper, and it makes Christmas morning much more fun and tidy! We take everything out of the boxes and assemble it, and put it in the bag…. voila! no tinkering on Christmas morning!

I think you’ll be great at sewing! If I can do it, you can too!

January 1, 2010 - 11:28 pm

~love you’re funny! why didn’t anyone help you?! help you find what you need AND help you pick up the bolts?

everything is super cute! [per usual!] =)