Sunday, January 24, 2010

My first sewing project

After receiving many homemade gifts from my sister in law for our wedding and other events and absolutely loving them I decided to give sewing a try. I have always thought that it would be something I would enjoy but not wanting to jump in and end up in over my head I decided to try a smaller project. I went over to Katie's last Saturday and tried my hand at my first apron. This one was to be for my Mom since she has never had one. Katie walked me through all the steps on how to follow a pattern, how to finish a seam, and how crucial ironing is. It helped so much because I had played around on my mom's sewing machine when I was little with scraps but never really had any instruction. The finished project turned out great. I surprised my mom this weekend with it as a birthday/Christmas gift. (no its not her birthday or Christmas but Christmas has passed and I couldn't wait until her birthday) She absolutely loved it and was showing it off. I got such pleasure from making something homemade for someone else and the fact that this is a hobby that always yields a product really makes me think I could get in to this. My mom, not being to inclined to sew anything (its just not her thing) is letting me borrow her machine indefinitely. I think I will be making a few more aprons as I have 4 weddings coming up for friends. I'm really glad I know so many people who are very talented sewers (seamstresses?) that will be great resources for me.

"My" sewing machine for now


Mom's apron!


Sunday, January 17, 2010

Organization

I have talked about our back rooms and how they were disastrous before. Our new bookshelf in the front entry helped a little. Last weekend we went to Costco and got 2 sets of shelves. One for Ben's room and one for the "office." I have been dying to organize and finally had the time and tools I needed. Much of our stuff was spread out between two rooms. My goal was to put as much in one room as I could so someday if we are still here and have a baby we will have less work to do. My goal is accomplished. My room with everything is a kind of hodgepodge of storage but it suits me just fine at the moment. It may not be pretty but I can find everything and we have a nice good will pile ready to be taken away.

Before


After