Saturday Night In

If you know anything about Mr. B and I we have a whirlwind of a social life. It seems we are out most of the weekend, with just enough time to ketch our breath, do a few loads of laundry, and head back to work Monday morning.

Um yeah, not really. 

Home bodies through and through. 

This Saturday night was no exception. We were struggling with what movie to watch. Were we going to have to leave the house and go to Redbox? The horror, leaving the house on a Saturday night! I had my comfies on since waking up from my afternoon nap, like I said pressing social schedule, I didn't want to go nowhere. 

Then I remember this:

  

We got it a few years ago for a gift exchange.

Mr. B helped me set it up on the dining room table and we played for hours. If you are new to our party here check out this post about the ginormous table Mr B. built me. It's not as wide as a ping-pong table but it's close enough. 

At fist I annihilated him in every match. By the end of the evenings the score was close, real nail bitters.

The Juki

As I mentioned earlier this week I took the plunge and got a new sewing machine. Since moving into my crafty space downstairs, I've been sewing more. And while my litter Singer is great, it was starting to become obvious that I was eventually going to need to take a step up.  

Last month I quilted a lap size quilt on it. Man was that a challenge wrangling all that fabric and batting! And poor Betty, that was a bit much to ask of her. If you look closely at the stitching you will notice that even though I used a walking foot she had some issues keeping her stitch length even. Overall the finished product was amazing. I loved the look, texture, and drape of it. Not to mention it only took me two evenings of stitching to complete. It was rather therapeutic, like mowing the law. Back and forth making my strait lines, following the seams. I know I'm weird, but something about the monotony of mowing the lawn or in this case quilting I find relaxing.

After my first large project of machine quilting, I was hooked, already dream of my next 50,000 projects. I was going to need a work horse, something that could handle the demands of quilting. Enter the Juki TL-98Q.

I did my research and the Juki seemed to me like it would be the best fit. I didn't want a fancy-pants computerized machine; I needed something simple, solid, and would handle any task I put to it. Preferably something that you can drop the feed dogs, the little teeth that pull your fabric through the machine on the bottom. One of my goals is to give free-motion-quilting a try. For my non sewing readers, that's where you are in control of pushing and pulling your fabric, this enables you to do all sorts of nifty loopy patterns. The only down side of a machine of this caliber is the price tag. Yikes!! I was lucky enough to find a lightly used one, you guessed it, on Craigslist. Still an investment, but so far worth every penny. 

I've had her for almost a week, and I'm completely smitten. She just purrs. I'd have to say that one of my favorite bonuses is the automatic thread cutter. So convenient! Press a button with our foot and presto, threads are cut! I've yet to try the knee lift but I think it will come in handy while machine quilting. Of course I will let you know in a few more weeks how she's treating me, along with some details on my latest project!

 

Pink Cupcakes

Guess who had frosting for dinner tonight!

I 

While I Was Out

It's rather obvious that I took a long break from the blog. One of my resolutions for 2014 is to post no less that twice a week. I'm thinking there is someone out there who will hold me to that, you know who you are.

 Since January is half way through I better get going! Let's get caught up on some of the major things that happened these past three months. I think the best way to do this would be using bullet points. I heart bullet points, don't you? They make a list look so nice and neat and organized. That said I like lists too, especially checking things off the list as I get them done. That reminds me I need to get the list of house goals for this year typed up. Mr. B works so much better when he knows what needs to get done, even more so if I prioritize them. As usual I'm rambling again. Let's get to that list. 

The high-lights for November - January are as follows:

• We celebrated three holidays and two birthdays, all of which there were homemade gifts involved. Gus, Gaggle, Girly might have it's first ever guest post involving one!
• We went to a Packer game. It snowed the whole time, a magical day at Lambeau Field. 
• Mr. B said that the house this year was the most Christmas-y house he has ever lived in. We were going to host Christmas Eve this year, and I wanted the house festive!
• My grand plans for a prime rib dinner fell through this year, but we still were able to spend the holiday with family. There might be an excuse for one next month, I know someone with a birthday coming up.
• I completed four quilts. Two that I was commissioned to make. Not to mention a cupcake gig, and another one on the docket for this weekend. 
• Gus and Mr Erwin have become good friends and snuggle buddies.
• It got cold last week, really cold. Like Mr. B agreed to keep the geese in the basement cold. Like kitchen pipes froze cold. One burst, that was not a fun evening. 
• I got a new sewing machine! 

Erwin

Last week Friday we brought home the newest addition to our family. Why am I waiting till a week later to tell you this story? Well I wanted to make sure this story had a happy ending. You never know what its’ going to be like when you bring a cat home and expect your dog to be OK with it. The dog that has been an only child his whole life. The dog who loves to chase cats. The dog who goes nuts when Mr. B pretends to be holding a kitty. Yes we brought a cat home to that dog.

I had been looking around for a kitten. Don’t judge me, but a wanted a cheap or free kitten. I had been looking for a few weeks going back and forth on the whole thing. You know it’s a free kitty then it’s the shots and the vet visits and of course we would get him/her fixed. I don’t need no grand babies anytime soon. Then I thought hey, why not try the humane society. They always have lots of cats, and they go home already fixed and with their shots. Wouldn't you know, last week they were having an adopt-a-thon. They had too many cats.

So Friday night we drove to the city to look at cats, I was prepared and had already submitted our application for pre-approval. As long as we picked out a kitty that was already fixed we could take him/her home that night. (saves us a trip). On the way there we noticed the MINI wasn't running quite right. Ok not a biggy make an appointment and Mr. B would drop her at the shop tomorrow. We were thinking the clutch was starting to slip. Well we get almost there and it is apparent the clutch isn't just slipping, it’s almost shot. NOT GOOD.

How does this happen? Well, probably a combo of Mr B driving it like a race car, the previous owner, and well um me resting my foot on the clutch. In my defense even though my instructor was great in teaching me to drive a manual, luv you honey, he never told me not to rest my foot. How am I supposed to know something that was never told to me!

We were able to make it to the humane society. Since we were there Mr. B had me go inside to pick out the cat while he made some calls to have the MINI towed to the shop and find us a ride home. I have an awesome husband, I know! There were so many fur babies to choose from. How was I to pick. I looked at some kittens and meet with them one on one in the adoption room. They were soo tiny and a tad on the skittish side. I talked with the staff member about wanted a laid back sociable cat. She suggested one a five month old male, we met with him and I fell in love. 

We decided to name him Erwin, after the physicist Erwin Schrodinger. Letting our geek flag fly just a tad on that one. The paperwork was completed and Mr. B had made the arrangements for the car. The three of us took a taxi home and the car was towed to the shop. Then it was time for the boys to meet. 

Obviously since I’m here telling you this story it has a happy ending. How happy? Well only time will tell how awesome it will get having two fur babies in our house. But let’s just say when I got home yesterday they were both taking a nap on the bed. Yes sleeping in the same space together, willingly.  

And how's the car you may ask? Almost $1000 later the MINI is back in tip-top shape.

Carving Pumpkins

Last weekend when the fam was over for Harvest Dinner, Nana was kind enough to provide pumpkins for all of us to carve.

Yes that's Larry and Eugenia in the background. They don't have any fall clothing, or summer for that mater. They have been hanging out au natural. Perhaps they need some camo since goose season is open..

Some of us were to busy watching foot ball to bother with pumpkins. Or don't like to touch the gooey insides (Mr. B).

This belongs to the self proclaimed un-crafty sista.

Can you tell what it is?

 

Not a bad cat for an un-crafty carving free hand.

DIY Planter Box Centerpiece and Burlap Runner

As promised, more details on the burlap table runner and planter box centerpiece.

I've been seeing allot of this look on Pinterest; I thought it would would be perfect for our ginormous table. And this was totally something I could do on the cheap for our dining room. 

I bought a few 1x4s and gave my basic instructions to Mr. B of what I  wanted, I was going to do it myself but no sooner would I have gotten the out the saw and stated my first cut then he would have rushed it to do it for me. I was saving us a step. I asked him to build me a three sided box with a bottom that was 38ish inches long and primitive, no fancy mitered corners etc.

He got it spot on. He filled in the screw holes and gave it a quick sand. Then that's were I come in. I picked up some of the sample size jars of paint in the oops section, fifty cents a piece, total score! So I had a shade of white and a rust color. Using mainly white with just a tiney-tiny corner of my brush in the rust to give it some depth and antique-y look, I gave it a few coats of paint. Then I took the sander and roughed it up along the edges. Finally I took some stain and went heavy on the exposed wood and gave the rest of the paint a wipe down with it, you know to complete the aged look. 

I filled it with a garland of leaves and some blue mason jars. I filled the jars with corn. Everyone has a 50lb bag of whole kernel corn laying around their house don't they? If you don't I suggest you run off to your nearest farm supply store and purchase one. Best $11 investment; you never know when the need might arise. You know to feed your critters, make bags for corn hole toss, or use in your totally amazing fall centerpieces. Once the jars were filled I topped them each off with a tea-light to complete the look. 

As far as the table runner. It is as simple as cutting your burlap to size and gently fraying the edges. Easy-peasy. I do have a bit left over. I bought three yards so my runner would be a continuous strip (my table is 8 feet long, three yards is 9 feet, 6 inches of over hang on either end). It comes in 40 inch widths and I only needed it a foot long. I better start stalking Pinterest for some more crafts.