Pocatello Adventure!

Yesterday, the hubs and I drove down to Pocatello, Idaho, which is the home of the nearest Costco. Pocatello is over an hour away. How sad is that? An hour and 15 minutes to the nearest Costco in the cold, wet, dark, cold, and cold rain. So much for sunny BBQs this Memorial Day weekend!

This was the first time I'd ever actually been to Pocatello, I've driven through a lot, but I've never actually stopped. I was a little bit disappointed, this city is almost twice the population of Idaho Falls (the "big" city near us) but there really wasn't much there! It was the smallest Costco I've ever been to and that mall was so pathetic I wanted to cry! I think the funnest (I'm petitioning for that to be a word) part of the trip was just exploring the city. Most of the interesting murals and store names were gone too fast for me to get a picture.

On the way back the hubs was nice enough to let me spend way too much time in Joanns. Anyone else take advantage of the 5 for $5 Simplicity patterns? I think having some new ones will help me get over my phobia becuse after all, the more choices you have, the more likely you are to succeed! (Oh, wait, I think that applies to dieting. I heard it during a Special K commercial.) My mom sent me some extra coupons so I walked outta the store only $20 poorer. I was very proud of myself.

I got the green polka dots to make the dress on the top right, I also figured that if I actually had the fabric to make something, I would do it! (Hey, I'm trying here!)

I also got these for a "secret" project that I will be conducting after I finish this post. What could I possibly be doing? Hmmmm.....

To top off the evening, we went to Olive Garden for a romantic dinner. (My mom also sent me a gift card, isn't she great?) See that onion dangling off his spoon? He kept it there the whole time he was eating his soup, insisting that it was "spoon decor." I love him. :D

What did you do this weekend?

LOST finale party!

I was going to post about this immediately after the finale ended, because I was so excited about it, but on account of me throwing up all that night and being "couch-ridden" since then, I haven't felt up to writing a big blog post. (I never realized that blogging actually took so much energy!!)

As you already know (or can probably tell) I'm a big Lostie. The funny thing is, I didn't actually start watching it when it first came out, didn't really watch too much TV in high school. In college, I had a roommate, Shaunna, that watched it and somehow convinced me to watch it whenever I went to visit her (oh, when I visited her after we were roommates. :D) She lent her DVDs to David and I, and we slowly got hooked. We finally caught up with all the episodes right after the fifth season ended, so this latest season was actually the only one we watched on TV! Which I think was good, I hated having to wait an entire week to see what was happening next!!

Hmm, I didn't mean to have an extra story in there. Oh well! I decided to throw a party for the finale! (It was actually my dad's idea...he's the smart one). I had a blast setting it up and making all the food, it really got me excited for the finale! We only had one guest, one of my best friends Sabrina!

It was great to catch up with her and talk about Lost. Most of my Lostie friends aren't around here.

Some of my Lost decor. I changed my little letter blocks and added a few "islandy" touches.

Hence the palm tree. 

And I even covered my boring wall art (ok, it's not really boring) with Dharma-inspired art! It was fun. )

The menu was even more fun to create! All the food was either eaten on Lost or inspired by Lost themes!

This island cake. I used dark and light cake mixes and swirled them together to represent the good and evil the island contains. I then put the two cakes together to turn it into...

The island cake! I'm no cake decorator,  But I had fun trying. Used green icing and dyed coconut green to make it look more like the jungle. The brown sugar outside is supposed to be the sand. And I made a marshmallow polar bear (though it kind of died a little bit). I had fun!

The rest of the menu: Dharma juice (I could only find red wine Dharma labels...), the Swedish fish to represent all the fish they had to eat, peanut butter because Claire loves pb, grilled cheese because that's what Juliet gave Jack in the cage, and Hot pockets because Hurley threw a Hot Pocket at Ben. :D

Fried chicken for Mr. Cluck's Chicken, fruit salad because of all the fruit they ate, pork hot dogs for the boars, and Goldfish for the fish cakes Kate and Sawyer got in the cages.

All of it pulled together. Though too crowded and slightly messy, I liked it! And I liked the finale. It was crazy and kept me on my toes the entire time. My throwing up kind of put a damper on everything but I'm coming to terms with the ending. Since it was only on Sunday and there are likely people who haven't watched yet so I won't put any spoilers in the blog post. What did you think of the finale?

Stomach Flu

I have it. So does the hubs. It sucks. Real bad. It really puts a damper on my hobbies! It was my LOST finale party, it was just too epic!!

Patterns

As  I have mentioned in an older post, I have a pattern phobia. I don't know, they're just really scary! There are so many elements of them that I don't understand, so much room for error from misreading, they're expensive,  plus they use SO MUCH FABRIC. Seriously? I need almost three yards of fabric to make a grocery bag? My goodness gracious. My gracious mother sent me so many awesome patterns for my birthday last month (and even fabric to go with them!) but I've only used two of them so far, and both of them were things  I already knew how to make without patterns. It was good practice, and both of them turned out nicely! Yet, I'm still scared. Here's what I've made:

Ok...so I didn't use the pattern for the pockets on the apron. It's obvious. It looks really weird. But, he likes his apron! And he looks mighty cute in it, I must add.

I also made me some pajama pants. I don't know why the legs look like different lengths in the picture...but I assure you they are even! This was my first pattern attempt, and I didn't get the part where if the intended wearer is petite, you  need to fold to shorten the pattern. Notice on my 5'3'' frame the waistband is up to my waist. :D Oops!

I guess I need to get over it, because I'm planning on making the hubs a nice robe for his birthday next month that I already bought 5 yards of fabric for! Oops...I guess I shouldn't have posted it on the blog. Oh wait, he doesn't read it so I'm good! What about you? Anyone else have pattern phobias or am I the only one?

I blinked and it was over

My trip to Utah was over entirely too fast! It was a really bittersweet experience, it was such a blast, but I felt like we were spread a little too thin. Plus, I was sick the entire weekend, but that couldn't stop me only slowed me down a little bit.

We left after work on Friday and arrived at my uncle's a lot later than we planned (but very comfortably thanks to the lumbar support pillow and the neck pillow I made for myself! :). From there, the whirlwind began! We spent the next morning with a huge chunk of my dad's side of the family and had a blast! I saw so many relatives that I haven't been able to see in ages. The morning changed to afternoon so fast I didn't even have a chance to break out my camera. (That ever happen to you? It's awful!) We were lucky enough to be able to sneak in a visit (AT CHIPOTLE!) with David's sister, Chrisie, before heading off to my cousin, Courtney's, final high school performance.

She (who is in the blue) was part of Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost. It was an interesting rendition of it, there were a lot of very talented girls that tried out, so the director switched the roles of the men and women! The girls played the men's roles, and the boys played all the women's roles! I loved it, I thought it was a great little twist.

And can you say "queen of the stage?" Wow! I was so sad this was the only performance of hers I've ever seen, she was amazing. 

Sunday morning was the only part of the weekend that I was able to breathe (not that I minded holding my breath all weekend!). In the afternoon we went to church and enjoyed the beautiful weather by firing up the grill and taking a walk. Ok, *I* didn't fire up the grill, but I did work on a quilt for the first time!

That's my cousin, Kylie, and my grandma (who I dubbed "Mugga" when I was two, oh the joys of a two year old's vocabulary! And since I was the first grandchild it stuck. :) When I got there the quilt was basically done, all the blocks were sewn together but the the quilt itself was only basted together, so I got to sew it! Huzzah!

On our walk, we decided to take the cat, Lincoln (more formally known as Linc!), on the walk too! Teehee. :)

Courtney and Kylie with Lincers!!
















He had to be held most of the time, the outside kinda freaked him out! He would dart straight for the grass and walk really low to the ground, it was pretty funny!

Isn't he handsome?? I'm such a lucky girl! At one point during the walk Linc freaked out and got himself tangled in his harness. David took the end of the harness while the girls untangled him. From behind it looked like this....

I thought it was hilarious! Who exactly were we taking on a walk?? :)

All in all I had a great weekend, though I need a couple days to recover. :) How was your weekend? Also, I enabled comments for all visitors, so even if you don't have a blog, you can comment on any post you'd like.

Lumbar Support Pillow

The hubs and I are driving to Utah this weekend to see some family.I'm so exited; on my mom's side one of my cousins is performing her last high school play (and she is queen of the stage). To celebrate the event, my grandparents on that side flew out to see it. On my dad's side, my grandma came to visit my uncle for the month, and one of his sons (who I haven't seen in years) is visiting with his wife. Basically, I'm going to get to see all of my living grandparents, a good majority of my cousins (from both sides!) and aunts and uncles I haven't seen for a while. I'm so excited! I get to see everyone! If only our immediate families were coming. :(

Anyway, it's a 4 1/2 hour drive, which really isn't that long...but I HATE long car rides! What I hate even more is driving. Luckily, I have an amazing husband that is willing to drive all long distances for me and never complains. Not even when his lower back is killing him. He mentioned to me a little while ago that driving for a long time really hurts his lower back, so I decided to make him a lumbar support pillow. It's a nifty little pillow that is placed in between the curve of the lower back and the chair (or seat or whatever) and provides support to the lower back.

See the little curve? That's what provides the support. Cute, functional, AND it was super easy! Aside from measuring the hubs, it took me less than a half hour to make. Want to make one for your loved one suffering from lower back pain? (Or yourself? ;)

You will need:
Fabric (I used a 12" x 23" rectangle and the two curved pieces were about 10" x 3". I also used snuggly soft fleece but you can use whatever you have on hand.)
Polyester Fiberfill
Sewing machine, thread, scissors, seam ripper, etc.
*Note: I used a 1/4 inch seam for the entire project.

The hardest part of this project was getting the right measurements for the pillow. I carefully held up a piece of paper perpendicular to my husband's back and traced a line that followed the curve of his back. This also helped me figure out how tall the pillow would be. After a little bit of trial and error, I came up with this shape. I call it the "D" shape.

Feel free to use mine or spend a little time measuring your lucky recipient's back. (You will probably need help if you're making this for yourself)  Next, you need to find out how big your rectangle will be. Don't worry, you don't  need to do any math here, simply lay your measuring tape along the perimeter of your "D" shape and add a half inch for seam allowance (mine ended up being 23 inches). This will be your length, your width can be whatever you choose (mine was a 12 inches).

 

Cut out two of your "D" shape and your rectangle. That's it for your pieces!! Next, you'll need to pin down the flat side of your "D" shape against the long side of your rectangle (right sides together). Be sure to line up the corners. Do the same on the opposite side, so the the curves of your "D" shape are facing each other.

See how the corners line up? Sew both pieces in place.

The next part is the trickiest part of the sewing. Bring up what's left of the long side of your rectangle and carefully pin it along the curved edge of your "D" shape. This is a lot like pinning a sleeve onto a the shirt base. Do this on both sides.

It will look a little more 3D after this step. :D Carefully sew in place, and make sure that the fabric underneath doesn't bunch up or you'll have one funny looking pillow! (Well, I guess it's already funny looking isn't it?) Do this on both sides.

You'll end up with a shape like this.^^ (My rectangle length was a bit too long, so I cut off most of it and left that little tab to help when I folded it under to hand sew it.) Next, you'll need to sew across the bottom, leaving a 4 inch opening to turn right side out and stuff.) Clip the corners, being careful not to cut the seam, to help it lay a little more flat. Turn right side out. Now comes the fun part! Stuffing! Stuff the pillow pretty firmly, it's meant for support!

When it's reached your ideal amount of firmness, fluff to reshape the pillow. Then, hand stitch the opening closed.

And that's it! You're done! No more suffering from lower back pain during long car rides! Wrap in up in pretty paper and see the happy face of the recipient! (This is also fun to do if it was for yourself, it feels like a real present!)

See? Wasn't that easy? And you didn't have to spend over $20 for one from a store. I already had everything in my stash so it was free for me!! Feel free to comment with any questions, this is my first tutorial so I'm not quite sure what I'm doing! Also, please only use this tute to make pillows for your family and friends, not to sell. Thank you!

I'm linking this up to the following linky parties!

Everything Bagels

Um...where did my last post go??? It just disappeared! Very weird...I guess my blogging noobness got in the way of things again.

I realize that from reading a lot of my most recent posts it seems like all I ever do with my free time is sew. That my friends, is false. I have plenty of other things I like to do, and one of them is cook. I LOVE to cook. I watch Food Network all day to hone my skills and I love to try out new recipes. One of my all time favorite things to do is to try a recipe for the first time. I was lucky enough to have this experience this weekend.

On Sunday, I was craving bagels. Not just any bagel, a hearty everything bagel. However, I don't shop on Sundays, so I couldn't go out and just buy one. What's a girl to do?? After moping for a few minutes, I realized that it should be easy enough to make one, right? Right! I found this recipe in an amazing cookbook my mom got my for Christmas, Family Dinner Cookbook by Debbie G. Harman. I tweaked it a little bit to turn it into everything bagels, but you can just omit that part if you're not an everything fan like me.

Everything Bagels
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water (not hot!)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 1/2 cups flour (plus 2/3 cup more to incorporate while kneading)
baking soda
1 Tbs cornmeal (optional)

To make it everything:
1 Tbs onion powder
1 Tbs garlic powder
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp salt (kosher works best)

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine yeast, warm water, and sugar together to dissolve. Let stand 5 minutes. Meanwhile, combine seeds and spices and reserve 1/4 of it for topping. Add the rest while gradually adding 4 1/2 cups of flour to the yeast and sugar mixture. Beat with a dough hook using an electric mixer or knead on a floured surface for 6-7 minutes until smooth. When smooth, knead in the extra 2/3 cup until a stiff dough forms. Let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a large saucepan 3/4 full with water. For every cup of water, add 2 teaspoons baking soda. Dust cornmeal onto a baking sheet. (This just gives the bagels more of a bakery feel) Bring water and soda to a boil. Divide dough into 12 pieces (this will make mini bagels, to make regular sized bagels only divide it into 6 pieces). Shape each pieces into a flatted round disk. Press thumbs into the center and pull dough outward to make a center hole. Drop each bagel into boiling water for about 10 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and let drip for 10 seconds before placing on the cornmeal dusted baking sheet. Use the remaining 1/4 of the spice/seed mixture to dust the bagels. Lightly press the seeds down to keep them from falling off. Bake for 8-10 minutes (8 for the mini bagels, 10 for the larger ones) until golden brown. Cool on wire racks and enjoy!

These are DELICIOUS! They taste just like they came fresh from a bakery down the street.

Enjoy!! They're very good with a nice hot cup of lemon tea. Just make sure when you try to be good and add less brown sugar, you don't "accidentally" pour a scoop in your mouth.

I'm linking this recipe up to Craftaholics Anonymous' Recipe Swap!

I am now fully addicted

To making felt food! Oh my goodness gracious, why didn't anyone tell me this was like the funnest thing EVER!?!? I had a blast making this little felt fruit basket, and I am ready to conquer the world of felt vegetables, felt entrees, felt desserts, oooooh boy am I excited! I raided Porters (local craft store) today and got tons more colors (you can def see the lack of colors I had with my fruit basket) and can't wait to get started on more!!

(banana, pear, two strawberries and an apple.)

I took more of an overhead shot so you could see the happiness of the fruit, so you can't really see the cute little basket that I painstakingly weaved for it. As much as I find the happy fruit completely and utterly adorable, I think the rest of my food will be more realistic. Who knows, maybe my future children can use it in their play kitchen.

Now if you will excuse me, I have food to make. Expect a feast.

Felt

Felt is my current favorite sewing medium. Why? Story time!

My sewing machine is giving me some problems and I got frustrated and gave up trying to fix it. I think it just needs a new needle and some grease but I'm too lazy to do it. :D Ok, so that wasn't really a story. Sorry. :(

So, going back to felt...I still wanted to sew, but I knew that my projects couldn't be huge and complicated since I would be hand sewing. I've seen some cute felt fruit on the interwebs and thought it would be a fun project. Boy, did I underestimate that one!! I'm already addicted, this is SO FUN!!!! And to amuse myself I'm making it "happy fruit." But, sadly I have a very limited amount of felt. I will be headed to the craft store immediately after my Wii Fit tomorrow morning to get more! If you haven't tried it, try it now. It's a blast, you'll never want to stop!!

Pictures to come. :)

Julie and Julia

I really, really like the movie Julie and Julia. I find it to be very inspiring to have a goal like that! (To those of you who aren't familiar with the movie/book, it's about a woman who cooks her way through Julia Child's 524 recipe cookbook in a year.) It makes me want to have a goal like that! Something to keep me on my toes, something to occupy my time and energy, and something to work towards. I really would like to do something like that, but my life is so uncertain right now. I'm moving 2,200 miles across the country in the next couple of months, hopefully (note the keyword is "hopefully") starting my teaching career, and the hubs with his internship is so uncertain I just don't want to take on a project so large. Yeah, I know...excuses, excuses. We'll see. Maybe I'll take on some kind of challenge.

Either way, I recommend the movie. It's cute.

Life's Ironic Little Twists

Sometimes life just throws things at you to make you laugh. :)

In my last post I told you of my careless sewing mishap where I ran the machine several times through my finger. I then boasted that I was much older and wiser now, so I am much more careful. Which is true....for the most part. I am EXTREMELY careful around my sewing machine, I always make sure the machine is off when I thread it and my foot is always far away from the foot pedal when I need to get close to the needle. I haven't even come close to making that same mistake twice. However...my carelessness got the best of me with my rotary cutter. Yes, last night I was cutting out rectangles for a skirt I'm making, and I stupidly got my finger in the way of the blade. It took me a second to realize what was happening, so I have a very deep cut on the tip of my finger. Ironically, this injury hurt A LOT more than running the sewing machine through my finger. Guess I have some more learning to do!

(Recreation of the incident. I'm in awe of my stupidity.)

And, here is the the skirt that resulted from said injury. (From Altered Cloth) I think it turned out a little too poofy (I think cut out the pieces for a size too big and ended up with way too many ruffles) but I really like the way it turned out. I got the material from a remnants basket at Joanns so I didn't have enough for a knee length skirt, so I had to add the extra black fabric to the top to make it long enough.


I wore it to church today. :) There's something about wearing an article of clothing that you made yourself that is so rewarding! I really want to make more, I have so many patterns for cute skirts but I haven't done any yet. I blame it on my pattern phobia which I hope I will someday overcome! This was was easy, only rectangles!