Pockets to Go

Especially since I have my sewing cabinet organized and ready to use, I have been doing a good amount of sewing these past couple days. Today, I have also taken the opportunity to pull out my small fabric stash. I have now measured and marked all the pieces that are full width, as well as sorted scraps. I even took pics of them all and uploaded them to my google web albums.

Here is a picture of my cabinet in the middle of me using it. I have my little ironing pad and iron. My baskets fit perfectly in the cubby holes and contain patterns, scraps, WIPs, and my new Pockets to Go organizers. Two of them are destined for my sister and her boyfriend as they are heading off to college in a couple of weeks and thought they would make great gifts.

I have also completed two stealth projects, but I will have to post the pics in a couple of weeks, as they are gifts for a friend.

I am definitely excited to be planning uses for the fabrics in my stash. I probably will be picking up the One Yard Wonders book to try and make the most of the fabrics and cost pattern wise. It's a great book and I've been wanting it either way.

Change

I don't think I have publicly stated this anywhere, and maybe it's time that I should. I have taken a break from my business. It was getting to difficult for me to balance between my business and my family. I am planning on returning to dyeing and selling after my boys are both in school as that would give me a defined time to work. My shop is still up and I am selling the remainder of my stock, but I will be doing no more dyeing for the time being. Thanks to my customers, I can't tell you how much I've appreciated you!

Explore!

Today I picked up my sister Whitney and we headed out to the Eagle River Nature Center. We had an awesome time and the boys loved exploring the trails and board walks. The inside of the visitors center was great too, there was lots to touch, which works well with little boys lol. Whitney was awesome and remembered her camera and took some great photos (as usual). You can see her post and pics here.

Now home, I am catching up on cleaning. I have really been slacking (also known as sewing and knitting lol) and have quite a bit of household chores to catch up on. Noah has had a little bit of a stomach bug and I think he is still not quite himself. So an evening home sounded like a good idea!

Oh! I was able to finally able to talk the hubby into carrying up my new (to me) sewing cabinet and have told myself that if I get my list done I'll get to sit down and finish up my notions basket that I am working on.....

Seward

Thanks to now having a reliable vehicle we decided to take advantage of the day that John and I had off together to do a day trip to Seward. I packed extra clothes, rain gear, lunches, and snacks, then I loaded the boys and picked John up by 9:15 or so. We stopped for Coffee and then started the drive.

I love little road trips and John and I really enjoyed the scenery and the chance to chat. The boys did great and were berry happy to be going on an "adventure"!

We took our time and I was even indulged to detour to Cooper's Landing to stop at their quilt shop! It was an awesome little shop and I picked up a wallhanging appliqué pattern and a little kit that will be a gift.

We got into Seward around 1pm and headed to their great playground to have a yummy (if somewhat chilly) lunch. Then we took advantage of the playground and let the boys stretch their legs. Very fun.







Then we headed to the Sealife Center, which we all enjoyed, though Corbin was especially intruiged by it all and was so fun to watch him discover and observe. We all thought the Sea Lion was pretty awesome (as we always do), though I always love the Puffins too!

I hit the yarn shop and quilt shop while the boys napped in the car, then we headed down to the docks and I knit while all the boys napped.

We got ice cream, and then headed for dinner (gotta love dessert before dinner ;P). After a hearty warm dinner we drove out to Exit Glacier and walked out to the glacier. Corbin did great and walked the whole way by himself and Noah was only carried about half way. Corbin loved walking in the drizzle and was pretty impressed with the glacier, thinking it was pretty cool that it could leave scratches on the rocks.

We headed home after that and wearily pulled into the driveway around 10:45pm. We all slept quite soundly :)







*I apologize for the crappy stretched pics - my camera batteries were dead, so I was stick with the iPhone camera and I am writing this from my phone and haven't figured out the stretching, I'll try to correct it at the pc in the morning*

Counterpane Tunic

Finally got some pics of my sister in the Counterpane Tunic. I knit it out of Knit Picks Shine Sport in their green apple colorway. I thought it would be a great choice for her to take down to college. I think it's super cute on her and should be easy to wear summer and winter, and hard to ruin ;P. It was a fun knit and the only changes I made were to knit the lower body several inches longer. I got a little bored with that part, but I think it was worth it!

Sew much fun!

I'm excited to say working at a quilt/yarn shop has been a good influence! I haven't gone crazy spending there (which sometimes is very hard to resist) but I have made a couple planned puchases. I've bought the materials to make a purse, jackets for the boys, and shirts for John and the boys.

I'm half way through the matching shirts, but I've finished the others and here's some pics.

Family

I have a great family and am lucky enough to live close to them.

Today I had lunch with my mom and then helped clean out her office. It turned out to be much more entertaining than expected. We found some amazing letters and journals. Including a journal of my great grandmother's from 1973 & 1975, it was crazy to hear my mother talked about as a teenager and to hear her speak of sewing maternity clothes for an aunt of mine. We also found a letter my mom had written to a friend that had mailed it back after twenty years. It was written when she was 16 and it was pretty funny! I biked home feeling really lucky for the loving family that surrounds me.

Oh, and today is my parents 33rd anniversary!! Way to go Mom and Dad!! You are an amazing inspiration :)