A Long Time Coming!

Wow! It's been SO long since I blogged last, things have been super crazy, I started up that project I was talking about earlier in my postings. Patchwork Jane's if officially up and running! If you haven't checked out my page yet you can find it here. I started off just making my pillowcase dresses, then moved up to stuffed animals, like owls, funny bunnies and eventually added tutu's and another stuffie, Lil' Monster for the boys. I have been enjoying myself so much and I wasn't prepared for how popular and crazy my new project would become. I'm enjoying the heck out of crafting and making people smile, now to just finish up my schooling and I'll be homework free! I'm into my last term and it just can't seem to fly by fast enough! It's like the last few days of school, with summer vacation just being right around the corner, or the anticipation of opening up presents on a holiday. You're just ready for it to be here! Although I am a tad nervous as well, no more schooling means I'll be ready to go out and enter the work force of Graphic Design. I already have a web page as well as a facebook page, and am already designing but how do I choose between Patchwork Jane's and KCD Graphics and Designs? Should I do both? Can I do both, without jeopardizing my time and talent? I guess it something I will just have to find out.

Finally Finished the Onesie Dress!!

I've found that I LOVE sewing and there have been some projects that I wanted to do, the onesie dress is one of them!

I started off with a simple skirt of grey and yellow, per a friends request. I wanted the skirt to be able to go below the butt so her little one would be wearing a cute little dress. Now I'll be honest and tell you that this was my first attempt at making a onesie dress but I see many, many more in my future. :)

I got the directions for making the dress here. The directions were really easy to follow and I really did have a blast making it. My friend already had a onesie she wanted me to use so she mailed it to me, but when I received it, it was bigger than I had planned as it was a size 24m. So I had adjust the dress, so I detached the ruffle at the bottom, added another yellow/grey polka dot panel, reattached the bottom piece to the polka dot section and then ruffled that section. I then reattached it to the top of the dress. The hardest part and mind you make sure you go slow and take your time, was stitching the dress, through the elastic to the onesie. I actually stretched out the onesie a bit to pin the skirt to it for stitching so it would still stretch.

Once it was all stitched together I added a cute little detachable flower at the waist line. It was so cute! So next up is an Indian themed skirt in shades of grey, deep red and turquoise, with elephants and peacocks. I can't wait!! :)

Here's a picture of the finished onesie dress.

It's starting to come together.......

I've been brainstorming like crazy of what to do with myself. I'm currently going to school, set to graduate next year with my Bachelors in Visual Communications but I've found a passion that I enjoy. Sewing! I've had this idea stirring in my head and I think I'm going to go for it, give it a try and see how it goes......will it fail? Well, I'll never know unless I try right! I have the skills I have the means and I have the passion, now one things I do worry about is getting tired of it, you know when you do something to much that it consumes your life and then you just done! Been there done that with the family pizza joint! Love my folks but dealing with 17 teenage employees gets to be a giant pain!

Anyway, enough about that. I'm working on building up a FB page, got to get the design right, so stayed tuned for something fun and amazing! ;)

Blisters, Family and Chokecherries

So I've decided with all my schooling that I seriously needed to get up off my tushy and get some exercise in, so I joined a group of girls and we walk every morning around a track. I'm about 3 weeks behind, so little did I know they were already walking 4 miles a day. Now I'm not a wimp by any means but, my feet were not prepared to walk 4 miles on a hot track in what were supposed to be walking shoes. My first day I earned myself 2 nasty blisters on the soles of my feet getting in the 4 miles, not bad but ouch! I just finished my second week with 3 days in last week and 3 days in my first week, not bad but I think my feet decided to do an extreme protest on Friday's walk. We ended up walking 5 miles, that day and I earned not a big blister but a layered one on my left foot. So needless to say, my stupidity of "Oh yea, I can keep going" wasn't a bright idea. I should have stopped at the 4 mile mark when I came across it!

Anyway, I soaked my feet in some epsom salt that night, because Saturday morning my oldest daughter and I were off to meet my Grandparents for an hour of chokecherry pickin. Now, for those of you who don't know what a chokecherry is, well it's a large blueberry sized berry that is dark red in color and is very bitter and tend to make your mouth go dry after you eat one. They grow on a tree type bush, so it can get huge and is often found on farms around water. I've included a picture below of what the berries look like.

This particular tree was located near a creek on a very nice gentleman's farm that we got permission to go on. Now the tree was also located on the side of the road so we had to watch out for oncoming cars as well. Now while these particular berries taste terrible eatin raw, they make some of the best jelly around. Course the process of boiling the berries down, mashing, and straining until you get the juice pulp free is a giant pain, the end result is delicious. I have coveted my Grandmother's chokecherry jelly for years, but alas she is getting old enough that us younger folk need to take on the making of the chokecherry jelly.

It took us a little less than an hour to pick a 5 gallon bucket of berries, but it took me 4 hours of cooking, mashing and straining just to get 4 quarts of juice for making jelly. Now about 3 cups of that 4 quarts is un-sweetened apple juice, which we add in to chokecherry juice to help make make enough juice as the apple actually enhances the berry juice and makes a nice mellow blend. Plus it helps you get an even amount for canning. I don't plan on canning right away but probably in the next week or two, so I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. ;)

It was a great weekend spent with family and I look forward to next year.

Enhancing, Kids and Fabric

Well today started off interesting with a very happy baby, some silly kiddo's and an exhausted mom! I actually went to bed fairly early last night at 11:32pm and ended up of course being so tired that I slept in till 9am. Although my sleep was interrupted by the fussiness of Miss Vi wanting fed at 6am, we were able to go back to sleep for a few more Z's. Of course even though I got a couple more hours of sleep I was still tired all day and that extra shot in my Vente White Mocha didn't even help either. So trudging along through the day I helped change a live, to live healthier, hung out with my kiddo's, make 4 doctor appointments, pretending I did some homework and hung out with my bestie while she followed me around the fabric department. I'm pretty excited about my new dress idea, I picked up some super cute fabric with adorable birds on it and my gal pal picked out some pretty blue for trim. I can't wait to put it all together and for this dress I'm thinking a knot dress?? I'll post pictures after it's all finished!

Plus to top off my night I got 2 orders for some special dresses, so it must be time to get busy sewing and less playing. lol Dress number 1 is a americana/sailor theme, striped patchwork dress and dress #2 is a play/wear around Avenger's dress out of a t-shirt for fun, my mind is already reeling with ideas!!

First day of classes and excitment about my company!!

Another busy crazy day, so just a short post but I'll post again later!!

Today my new term started for school and after checking in and looking around I'm already dreading at least 2 of my 3 classes! EEK!! Creative Writing is not more speciality and I don't think I know anyone that likes Statistics! Ugh So I will just blaze through with my head down and look forward to having another 3 classes done and that much closer to graduating. My other class is Advanced Illustration which I'm actually excited about, I love Illustrator and the designs I can create with it. I stayed up late the other night building lollipop looking trees with cute little birds, haven't decided what it's for but I love it anyway. lol

I'm also excited because my healthy living compay is offering half price enrollments for the year, which means more people changing their lives and living healthier, free of these toxic chemicals we find in almost every product around our house. I still can't understand how is it these big name companies can sell products that contains such harmful and cancer causing stuff in them?? Whatever I'm happy with where I shop and I LOVE being able to help others do that same. With my oldest daughter having allergies, asthma and extreme eczema, the all natural products have made a HUGE impact to her as well as the rest of my family!!! LOVE THAT!!

Day 1 - New Term, Spilt Milk & Traveling Pup

So today marks day 1 of my new blog so I'm starting it off right by discussing my hectic day. It started off pretty good with coffee in hand, my network ladders climbing steadily and my oldest daughter playing with the baby on my bed. Everything was going well, little miss Vi decided she needed a nappy change, so I hopped up, took care of that and loving played with her, listening to her coo's and gurgles, my oldest decided to grab that bottle that was sitting pertly on the bed, where she had laid it and as she was leaning over the baby the whole bottom of the bottle fell off, spilling 6oz of ready made formula all over Miss Vi and my bed. Needless to say the just cleaned sheets and quilt were quickly removed, baby was cleaned up and bottle was refilled but I knew this day was going to have it's oops all day!

I start my new school term tomorrow and while I'm looking forward to learning some new stuff, I'm afraid I'm burnt out with school and can't wait to graduate next March. I already have my party planned and a bon fire planned for all my text books! Okay not really but I'm planning on having a really nice dinner to celebrate , no more late night quizzes, last minute crunch time assignments, ready enough chapters to render my brain fried and basically hibernating in my room in front of my computer as I create and discuss the many aspects of graphic design. I've really enjoyed learning but I'm ready to be done, after 4 total years of schooling I will cherish that Bachelors Degree and probably frame it! lol

So our dog is a really great pup, he's almost 3 now but still consider's himself a puppy. He's a mix of Lab and Drahthaar (similiar to a German wire hair) so he's tall, all legs, and hairy! lol He's so smart though, he can  open the sliding glass door to go outside, bring you his food or water bowl if it's empty and pee all over your leg when he gets REALLY excited. Mind you he only does that to 3 people in my family, my brother, my father and my bestie, why he only does it to them I have NO idea but it's pretty comical. Anyway, my bestie lives the next block over from me and has to awesome pups of her own names Jazzy and Arthur, so when my pup decides he wants to play, he literally pushes the metal fence down, hops over and goes over to her house to play. No joke! If they aren't home he comes back, mind you sometimes the long way around the block and waits at the front door to let him in. Seriously!! We have tried everything to stop him from "going visiting" but since the fence isn't ours, we are stuck. I suppose at least he's not roaming the neighborhood or going across town but still! How do you train a dog not to go visit his buddies when he's bored???


So needless to say, today was interesting but fun to, now off to bed I go, I have school tomorrow. ;)