Aaahhhhorganization!!

So I cleaned my house, and did a little organizing on tuesday. My house looks pretty great!

But some of it is still very messy.  We don't have a ton of storage space in our little place...but really its more than we need. So I spent some time (or like three hours) looking for ways to organize online. I found some really awesome - and cute! -ways to organize.

Now to have the time, energy and motivation to work on my plan! The goal: 20 min every day. I can usually carve that out, and in small portions, our house will look amazing and cute and crafty!

Wish me good luck!

Where

Am I going?

Apparently I'm not the only newly wed wife who feels this way. Married life is wonderful, growing, challenging and fun! There are new experiences with your best friend every day. God knows what he is doing and he put us together and he has a wonderful plan for us!

But with that, for me at least, are a few feelings of uncertainty. I'm not really sure what I want to do. Going back to school and working to get my credential doesn't seem like something I'm that interested in anymore. And the things I'm actually interested in either don't pay well, or don't pay at all.

I'm loving both my jobs currently. But neither are careers, and even with two jobs I'm not working full time. They are not forever jobs, so while I love then...what is my plan? What do I want to do?

God knows. He'll guide me. All I need to do is be patient and trust.

Finished/Nearly Finished!

The post I've been promising for about a week now...

I finished Brett's quilt!

I'm never really sure what to do with the back of quilts. Solid is great, but expensive, and piecing random pieces seems weird. I tried two fabrics with a few extra blocks from the front thrown in. I don't really like the crookedness of the two main fabrics - our three minds (Brett, Andrew and I) kept trying to think of good ways to keep the large quilt straight in the small living room, and we thought we had it, but apparently not. :P I do really like the look of the extra blocks thrown in. If it was just one other fabric pattern on the back, it would look like a modern quilt front. :D (this is the picture before it was bound.

Top bound!

Detail of my super fun new toy - my free motion quilting foot! Just loopty-loos the whole way through!

I did a somewhat scrappy border. I used the two fabrics from the back and did about 2 ft before switching colors.

The day after I finished Brett's quilt, she came over and we had a sewing day and I finished the curtains Alyssa was making for the infant room at our church. She did all the shopping, calculating (or not calculating- cause neither of us are perfectionists) and buying, but doesn't have a sewing machine, so I spent a couple hours helping her iron and pin, then just did the quick rectangle sew all the way around, and voila!

Rebecca suggested the super cute polka dot ribbon loops.

Brett decided her 1-4-16 quilt was too busy with four green/blue fabric patterns, so I suggested borders. It's gonna look so great! I love my borders. I think that might have helped her quilt(the one I just finished) take so long. :P Nothing mixed up the blocks! But good to get outside my comfort zone at least.

In the spirit of the owl curtains, and from a pattern on a blog I read, I created the little yellow and blue strawberry owl. They suggested filling him with beans or rice...so I did, but I didn't really like it. His bottom and his top pieces are the same and he is just too flat and doesn't sit up very well. So I tweaked the pattern a little and created an actual bottom piece, so he has an actual base to sit on. I also stuffed his ears with batting (because on yellow his years kept lying down cause the beans would sink into the body), then i did a layer of beans (actually, split peas), then some more batting, then a layer of beans. I really like the way he turned out! He sits up well because he is heavy, but he also holds his shape due to the batting! It is just a little sad to stick pins in his cute little face. :P (each of these little guys took only about 30 min each, and I hand stitched their faces and wings)

And since then I haven't had a ton of time, but I am getting closer to finishing the top of Kelly's quilt! It's looking so cute! A few little snaffoos with running out of red fabric, but I decided to change up the pattern a little, and I think I'm going to be very happy I did! Can't wait to finish!

Well, once again I am writing late and I think my hubby just fell asleep on the bed next to me. He was in here working and I was sewing, but I came in to keep him company...and then he rolls over and falls asleep!

Which I think I will do in about 5 min!

Button holes!

While I haven't gotten to do any quilting since monday, I did sit down for a few min today for a simple project. And I think it was fitting that I made my first button holes for a little whipped-up button pouch! :D The sewing machine Tandy gave me, while coming without a manual, did have about six extra feet and I'm slowly trying to figure out what they are for! One, for button holes! Makes them super easy! The pouch itself is simple and not very exiting, but it gets the job done and the button holes look great!

I'll show a picture hopefully sometime tomorrow, along with the other projects I finished last week. Gotta hit the hay now as I work at 8!

Night everyone!

Halloween

So I guess halloween with no kids around doesn't do much. :P We had some good friends over for dinner (a normal monday tradition for the past couple months-until I have to work mondays starting in dec!), ranch chicken, rice pilaf, zucchini. Yum! Then the five of us played our Settlers of Catan for the first time since we got it for our wedding, and part way though had mint brownies with ice cream. :) Not even a mention of halloween! Since our apartment is in the back: no kids came by. Still a great night though.

I actually have quite a few pictures and quilting to blog about, but I have to do that another time. :P should probably be turning out the light.

But I got a new job! Quit my 10 hour a week job just a few weeks ago because I wanted to work with kids-and starting friday I get to! I'm going to be working 10 hours a week to start, then possibly some full days! A cute little 6 child montessori in Templeton. I'm so excited! And I am already fingerprinted so I don't have to pay to do that again, and tomorrow I am going in for my tb test, and hopefully get to start monday! God is so great!

And our car is in the shop again, but the $4000 hybrid barry is under warranty! :)

Andrew and I started walking last week. We walked ten miles in the four days we walked. My goal for us is to build up every week. Today started this weeks-and its a good start, but probably a little too much. We dropped off the car and walked home. Thought it was only four miles, but turned out to be five and we had to hurry-my hips bothered me a lot. We did the five miles in exactly an hour and 23 seconds. I remember when it took me an hour to walk a 5k. haha. Tomorrow we'll probably only walk two miles. I should turn out the light so we have time to before work.

G'night y'all!