Plans for Tonight

This is my plan for tonight:
Watch Twilight on DVD (rather than the version I downloaded....) and fold paper cranes with the new origami paper I got in the mail today until my hands won't fold anymore. Believe it or not, I'm really excited about it.

Also, here's a shot of the storm that came through on Saturday night. How creepy are those clouds?!

Happy happy Monday.

Paper Cranes

This is what I've been doing in my free time the last two days. Folding, folding, folding.
These are made from 12x12 scrapbook paper. There are 15 here, the first of my thousand.


I can't wait until my living room is full of paper cranes hanging from the ceiling. It's going to be magical.

Oh! If you'd like to learn how, I found this video the most useful and easy to follow:

Something Different

Also, I thought I'd try something different for my banner for a while. We'll see how it goes.

Hello Springtime!

I've taken these in the last week. Some were around Statesboro, some were in Jasper.


Next up, adventures in paper crane making!
Happy Friday!

Quilttt!

Very quickly, here's the quilt. I spent three days with my Mamaw working on this. We got the top completely pieced together and we found the most gorgeous fabric to back it with. I've done a very tiny amount of quilting so far, but I brought it back to Statesboro with me so I can work on hand quilting it here. Hopefully I'll have a fully completed quilt in a few weeks. Yay!

Now for the pictures:
My favorite lady in the world, working her magic.



Aaaaand, a not-very-attractive picture of me quilting. I look very serious about what I'm doing. I'll try to get some more detailed shots of the quilt and the backing and everything this week. Several of the squares of embroidery were never posted here, so they're sort of like a surprise.

And now, I have to go finish packing for a quick trip to Jasper. Happy weekend, everybody!

Almost a week later...

Sorry it's been a while. I got back from my grandma's house last night, with a newly almost-completed Long Distance Quilt. There are pictures, but I haven't gotten them uploaded yet. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to Chris' parents house in Jasper, so I'll try to get them uploaded and posted tonight. If I don't blog, check my flickr. They may be there. No promises. Now, I just got back from eating Greek food with Lydia. I need a minute to recuperate from the copious amounts of spinach and mushroom calzone I ate.

Also, I have 279 unread items on my blog list on Google Reader. Something must be done.

Heaven on a Plate

I have found the most perfect cinnamon roll recipe. This was posted by Emily at The Black Apple a while back and this is the fourth batch I've made in the last month or so. They're that amazing.
If you get the hankering for a tasty treat, try out her recipe. The only tweaking I did was to make 6 rolls from one recipe instead of 4. The recipe says you can make it only two, but I'm not sure I would try that. The first time, I made 4 and couldn't finish one. I've been making 6 ever since and they are so filling that it's all you need. Other than cutting back on the portions, I make them exactly as she instructs, and they are delicious.

Wedding Inspiration

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to share a link that I found tonight. After months and months of looking online and in magazines at wedding stuff that has just never been quite what I'm looking for, I came across THIS. (One of those things I wish I had found in the beginning)

The website is actually a place where you can buy or sell "gently used" wedding gowns for really good prices. While I didn't find anything in that section, I did find the "Real Weddings" section and fell in love. Everything there seems to be very unique and have that hand crafted look (of course I would love it). All the creativity and attention to details has inspired me to do some re-thinking about decorations and other details. Luckily, everything I'm re-thinking is all stuff that is no where near set in stone. I'm sure I'm giving everybody whiplash from changing my mind so much, but I suppose as long as we haven't bought and paid for anything, a little mind-changing is alright. I have found more ideas and been more inspired and excited to work on wedding things now than I have been in quite a while. I've been a little lackluster in the wedding planning area lately.... but no more!

Here are some of the pictures from the above mentioned site that were particularly inspiring.


And now, a song. My favorite.

Any knitters out there?

I am absolutely floored by what some people can create with their own two hands.
I came across this hand-knitted cabled owl sweater today and am just amazed at the creativity in the world. If anybody wants to knit me one of these, you can can find the pattern (and more info) here.

Sunday Stitching

Okay, I didn't exactly do this today, but we'll pretend. Sorry it's so wrinkled. They get that way sometimes after washing the water soluble marker out.
This is another Elsie pattern. I think half of my quilt is going to be Elise patterns.

Now, I'm off to find food and clean my apartment (in that order).

PS....

One last thing for tonight....
I am CRAZY about this album. And Neko Case in general.

Listen to some of her stuff here.

Or here:

Weekend at the Beach

Chris and I went to St. Simons this weekend. Here are some pictures...

They're pretty much all dark. It was before a storm. The whole day was gray like that.

(Actually, I think Chris took this picture.)

I love these next two. It was crazy- you could see the reflection of the clouds perfectly in the water. One of those weird things.

This one was taken in the cemetery at Christ Church. Lots of pretty flowers to see. This one had fallen off a tree. I'm pretty sure there were bugs in it.

We took three pictures like this, I think. This wasn't the best of him (though it's perfectly nice) but it was the best of me... I win. Also? Wow. My hair looks super red in this picture. We look like a pair of ginger kids.
An obligatory shot of the lighthouse. You can't see from the picture, but there was a couple up there and I had to wait forever for them to walk around to the other side so they wouldn't be in the shot.
Then Chris started taking pictures of me. He's been working on his photo skills. Even though I don't ever really like pictures of myself, these are quite nice.
There was this crazy "sand weasel" thing (we made up the name) that scurried under the little pier right before this. That's why I'm looking over. There's another shot (that will probably never see the light of day) of me just as I saw it... my mouth is wide open in shock.

Not terribly crazy about this one.... it looks like I have "grandma arms."
This one isn't in focus exactly, but I still really like it. I think he was playing around with composition... and all the buttons....
And this is the casino. It isn't really a casino... it has nothing to do with gambling. This is where our wedding reception is going to be!
Just up the steps is this atrium. Isn't it gorgeous!?

I love the brick archways. I wish we were going to be using it at night, but it will be mid-afternoon. If you walk back out those steps, you can see the ocean and the pier right in front of you. I'm so excited about it. Chris is too... can't you see him skipping in the picture?Okay, that's all for now. Goodnight.

Elephants, Unicorns and Rainbows, etc.

Okay, so I thought using flickr would make the blogging process easier. I was wrong. I'm sure I'll figure out how to make it all work more efficiently someday. But today is not that day. I have quite a few pictures up on flickr, but not nearly as many of my huge collection as I'd like. I can be found on Flickr HERE.

For now, here are several new pieces that I recently finished and mailed out to Mamaw for the long distance quilt.

First up is Trixie the Elephant. This was the free pattern for February at Badbird and can be found here.

This is another Badbird pattern. There's a pegasus to go with this little guy. I may do that one in the next batch. Sorry it's so hard to see. I think it was pretty late at night (therefore I was tired and probably half blind) when I took this picture.

I don't know if I like this more because it's an Elsie pattern or because of the pretty colors. It's probably a mixture of both.
Oh, and I definitely ran out of white after one cloud. I had to go to Hobby Lobby with a tiny piece of scrap to match it to one of the hundreds of colors of embroidery floss. That was fun.
And lastly, something not for the quilt, but for me to wear! I found this cardigan (I looooooove cardigans) at Sears for $15 while I was in the mall killing time until they finished my new glasses at Lenscrafters. I really liked the pearl buttons and it's so soft. Once I got it home, I realized that it needed something. This flower is the one and only pattern I have embroidered twice. I think that says something about how much I love it. This, too, is an Elsie.
Also, this was my first try at fabric stabilizer and I found that I like it quite alot. You just peel and stick and your fabric won't stretch on you anymore. It was just what I needed for this project. And it washes up quite nicely as well.
If I don't get pictures from St. Simons up tonight, it will be tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

Flickr and Promises

Okay, here's the deal. One of the things I've wanted to do for a while is get my photos on Flickr and they just recently lifted the "3 sets rule" for free users. So, I'm working on that. After they're all there and organized, I'll be linking the pictures I blog here from Flickr. Soooooo, please forgive any possible wonkiness this whole process causes.

That being said, I have quite a few pictures to post. Hopefully I'll get them up tonight and will blog them, too. Pictures including, but not limited to:

• fabulous new pieces for the LDQ
  
• crazyawesome pictures of the beach from this weekend
• drawing projects that I just got back from my professor today
• a few pictures of me that Chris took. I'm so proud of his budding photo skillz. (Yes, with a 'z')

Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to Flickr-ing I go!

Wish I Were There

I really have been terrible about updating lately. I have tons to share, but too much homework to do it tonight. Chris and I just got back from a delightful weekend at his parents' condo at St. Simons. I didn't lift a single finger to do homework while I was there, so now I'm up to my eyeballs! Perhaps one day this week I'll update and share a few photos of the beach. Oh how I wish I could be back there now!
Have a good Monday, everybody.