Robots and Bunnies

Recently through swissmiss, I found an amazing sketch artist, Alex Noriegas. I can't stop looking!



Seriously if I was a robot, I would totally do all of these things.

Weekend Sewing: Toiletry Bag

I decided to tackle a project in Heather Ross's "Weekend Sewing" this weekend. I pulled out some of my ants marching fabric and gathered up my supplies to make the Toiletry Bag.



The bag was a bit fussy to make but I did learn what the zipper foot looks like for my sewing machine and how to use it.

Super Secret Squirrel Pillow Making

Last week, my friend Amanda came over to teach me all about quilted pillow making. She has some super secret techniques and I was her guinea pig for teaching them. She had a syllabus and told me about the history of log cabin quilted squares.



I learned about rotary cutting safety since as Amanda put it, I "was about to cut off a finger or something!" I had such a fun time making this pillow.

Amanda's reward for teaching me was some homemade beans. I feel as if it wasn't a fair trade but who am I to argue!?!



I can not wait to make many, many more of these pillows.

FBS Completion

On Sunday evening while catching up on Dollhouse (I am really enjoying this show, seriously!), I weaved in my final end and sewed on some simple buttons for the February Baby Sweater.



This sweater is for one of Scott's dearest friends and I can't wait to send it to him and his wife. Scott pronounced the sweater to be re-donkulously cute and I have to agree. I love making this sweater and get so excited when people have girls because it means I can knit this sweater!

I am planning on making the February Baby Hat as a matching piece and have gathered some basic onesies to send too. Of course now I'm thinking that I might want to sew something onto the onesies to cuten then up. I'm not sure what I'd sew on but maybe just a simple little fabric patch?

May Babies Bring February Baby Sweaters

One of Scott's dear friends is having a baby girl in May. Before I could stop my knitting fingers, they started twitching and I now have a beautiful February Baby Sweater on the needles.



I love this pattern for all of it's pithy directions and for the loveliness that seems to fall off one's needles. I hope to knit up a lovely February Baby Hat and some booties to go along with this sweater. It really all depends on how long the yarn holds out.

Pillows Pillows Pillows Everywhere

Yesterday afternoon, I finally finished up the fourth and final pillow for the new couch which arrived in November.



Now my sewing skills are not perfect but I am so in love with how these pillows turned out! I think they are just *perfect*!

Foxy Hat

I've been promising my co-worker hats for his two adorable sons. I am finally delivering on this promise by actually knitting the hats. I finished the first one on Saturday which is a FOX hat and I love it! The pattern comes from Carey Huffman of Full of Fluff.com



Raveled

Pattern: Ear-a-ma-jigs - Fun hats for babies and kids by Carey Huffman
Size: Child
Needle: US 7 / 4.5 mm
Yarn:Cascade Yarns 220 Wool, 0.5 skeins of Colorway 2414 and .1 skeins of Colorway 7822

30 Days of Shredding Update

So far, so good! I haven't died doing "The 30 Day Shred" even though I have screamed some naughty words at the TV during the workouts.

I started Level 2 yesterday and while I thought Level 1 was challenging, Level 2 is twice as challenging. I can only imagine that Level 3 will be three times as challenging.



The workouts are good and hard. I burn about 200 calories in the 26 minute workout and I bet I could burn even more if I could move faster. Needing to breathe is getting in my way of moving faster though.

I must admit that I am getting bored with the workouts though. I usually switch up my workouts on a daily basis so doing the same workout for 10 days straight has been hard. Yesterday was definately more fun due to the new workout but I just know that I'll be bored with it by the fifth day of doing the same workout.

I'm looking forward to being done with the 30 days of working out with this video. I will continue to use this workout just not on a daily basis.

Sox Progress

The Year of the S(ox) is well underway and I've gotten really good at starting socks. I currently have three socks on the needles. In my defense I did finish one of the socks on the bus today and I did cast on for the second sock in the pair so I'm narrowing it down.

The Grey socks are my Malabrigo socks and I am really enjoying the yarn. However I've had to rip back to the ribbing on this yarn twice. The first time the socks were so tight that I couldn't get them over my feet. The second time I mis-knit so badly that the only way to save them was to start over.

The Green socks are my March socks in Jitterbug. I'm doing a very basic simple sock pattern and it is going quickly. The drive from Seattle to Portland and back this weekend provided me with great knitting mileage.

The Pink socks are the Child's First Sock by Nancy Bush. I'm nearly at the heel and I am also loving this pattern. I do not however love that I have to concentrate when I knit this pattern. Oh well, challenging is good.

Patchwork Pillows

I've been busy decorating our new couch since we got it back in November. So far I've made three pillows and a throw for it. I still need to make one more pillow before I'll consider the entire process to be complete.



The latest pillow was made from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. I used silk as the strips between the cotton pieces of fabric.





I do like how the pillow turned out even if it was a bit too snug causing the back to remain open a bit.

30 Day Shredding

For years, I've been addicted to watching "The Biggest Loser" and recently I learned that Jillian Michaels has an exercise video or two out there. I heard around the blogsphere about "The 30 Day Shred" and how awesomely painfully good it is.

Today I decided to start my 30 Day Shred journey. I started up the DVD, grabbed my weights and started working out. Scott was working on his laptop and gently encouraged me to keep going. OK so he wasn't gentle and I did threaten to kick him since he wasn't in pain but he did encourage me to keep going.

Also while they claim this is a 20 minute workout, my heart rate monitor clocked it in at 25 minutes. It was a hard 25 minutes but a good one and I am going to do my best to do the full 30 days of this workout. 30 Days of FUN!

Pillows! Pillows! Pillows!

Ever since Scott and I brought the new couch home, I've been attempting to accessorize it with pillows. After searching high and low at various stores and freaking out at the cost of pillow covers (never mind the inserts), I gave up. Then I happened into The Quilting Loft and was inspired. And in the end, even with the silk backing on this pillow, I spent less than what Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel were wanting for their pillows.



The pattern for this pillow does not necessarily exist. I cut two 20" square pieces of fabric and machine sewed three sides together with the right sides facing. I believe I sewed a 3/4" seam allowance but it might have been a 1/2" seam allowance. I then turned the pillow pieces right-side out and stuffed a 18" pillow form into the fabric.



Then the hard part came, the hand sewing. I attempted an invisible seam and it took about four times longer than the cutting and sewing of the other sides.



In the end though, I love how this pillow came out! I have two more pillows to create and I'll use be using an actual pattern from Last Minute Patchwork Gifts for those two pillows.

Year of the S(ox) - Sox One

The Year of the Sox is well underway and I've finished my first pair! I used my simple socks pattern with Jitterbug yarn.





Now onto my next pair!

Hemlock Love

I finally finished my Hemlock Blanket last week after three days of binding off the border.



I did enjoy knitting this blanket but I personally did not find it to be "easy". "Easy" in my definition is mindless knitting that you do without a pattern while watching TV.



Blocking this blanket wasn't as hard as I imagined. I placed it in the washer on rinse and low spin before laying this out to dry with pins for about 24 hours.



And now I'm ready to cuddle under the blanket while knitting on my socks or whatever else I cook up to knit on.



I used Louet Riverstone in Burgandy with US 7 needles to create this blanket. I used almost 5 skeins. I have about .25 of the 5th skein left.

Building the Fabric Collection

I seem to be busy building my fabric collection instead of using it to actually make things. I hope that changes soon.



But so far, I love the additions to my collection!

Superheroes Meeting

I believe this sign indicates the location of a Superhero meeting. There was a group of people in the building behind this sign sharing a meal. While I have no idea what this sign reads, I pretend that it is for a secret meeting of superheroes because that is fun.

If You Look Hard Enough...

You'll find PINK everywhere!

Year of the S(ox)

I've been watching a few of my friends as they take part in NaKniSweMoDo. I so wanted to join along but knew that I just wouldn't be able to complete 12 sweaters this year. So instead I have decided to complete 12 pairs of socks for myself. Yes, I do plan to be selfish and not share these socks. It feels good to do that.

I was discussing this plan with Jessica and Meg at knitting on Chinese New Year and they decided that this year should be the Year of the S(ox).

I decided to do a simple style for my first pair since I decided on this plan so late. I have some ideas floating around for the other sock patterns but one think I have plenty to spare of is the actual sock yarn. I don't think I'll need to buy any yarn for this project!

Can I Have Ice Cream For Breakfast?

This weekend, I finally made my way to Molly Moon's for their Maple Bacon Ice Cream Oatmeal breakfast and I'm so glad I did!



Molly Moon's served me up some hot oatmeal and then placed a scoop of Maple Bacon Ice Cream on top. I then sprinkled some cinnamon over it all and dug it.



The savory taste combined with the creamy ice cream and grainy texture of the oatmeal was a delight to my senses. All of Molly Moon's ice creams are a delight to me though. They use the freshest ingredients along with some of the most interesting flavors to create amazing ice cream.



All in all, my tummy was very happy at the end of the meal. So very happy! It made the rest of my day, that much better.



Molly Moon's Ice Cream
1622 ½ N 45th St in Wallingford
206.547.5105
www.mollymoonicecream.com