Moving Day

This is it! In a few hours David and I will be leaving Rexburg for good. At this point, I'm very sad. This has been my home for five years and I'm really going to miss it. But I'm excited for the new chapter in our lives.

We have a very long road trip ahead of us, we've broken up the 33ish hour drive into four days with about 8 hours per day so we wouldn't be overwhelmed with driving a gigantic truck for so long. First stop: Laramie Wyoming. Never been to Wyoming, so this should be fun! I'll probably post again tonight with the tons of pictures I've taken document all of our "lasts." Stay tuned!

Bittersweet

I'm not exactly sure what the mood of this post is. I'll start with the negative things because I like to end on a positive note. :)

David and I are moving back to Maryland a week from today. I thought I was excited, I've been dying to leave this place for a while now, but my feelings are starting to change.

Things that suck about Rexburg, Idaho:

1. Long, COLD winters with snow from late September until June. There is no such thing as spring. It goes from winter to summer.
2. Too small town, population like 16,000 (but if you take out the BYU-Idaho, that number goes down to less than 3,000)
3. Too college-y (ok, that has only been a downside since I graduated :P)
4. Stupid cops that bust you for ridiculous things (like "failing to yield to a pedestrian" when the pedestrian was clearly letting you go. Grrrrr) Included in this is IDIOT pedestrians that walk out in front of you when there is an inch of ice on the ground and still expect you to stop on a dime. Hello pedestrian, you will lose in a fight with a vehicle.
5. Too much sky, I like trees and buildings in the way of my horizons
6. It's a desert. This means dry heat (I HATE dry heat, I'd rather melt than fry) and little rain. I love rain and thunderstorms. 

I haven't really come to terms with these things. I grew up on the East Coast! I like humidity, spring, green, cops that chase bad guys, and big cities. There are more things that suck, but this is my main list. But, in the process of packing up my apartment and the move really beginning to hit me, I've realize I'm really going to miss this place! I've lived here and called this place "home" for the better part of the last five years, there are things that I've come to love!

Things that I like about Rexburg:

1. Everything is cheaper here. Everything! Rent, groceries, fabric, everything. This includes the cheap theater, I loooove the cheap theater. 
2. Beautiful temple just a few blocks away. I can go whenever I want. 
3. People I can relate to. There are a lot of young married couples here and it's easy to make friends. I have some great friends out here that I'm really gonna miss.
4. Weekend trips to Utah, I love those.
5. Except when I freak out about too much sky, it really is gorgeous out here. Especially the sunsets. 
6. Everything I need (need, not want) is within 5 minutes of my apartment. 
7. Pita Pit, Wingers, Craigos, and other delicious restaurants. 
8. So many memories!! I won't even begin to write a list. 

I feel like these things outweigh the bad for the most part, and it makes me sad! This is the first time I've left a home with no intention of ever going back. When I left Maryland, I always knew I was going back. When I was single, I went home for the summer, and since I've been married I've still visited because that's where my family is! But, that's not the case with Rexburg. There's nothing left for me here, Rexburg was for school, and now that school is over, Rexburg is over. I'm packing up all my stuff and driving it 2,000 miles across the country to my new home. It's so...surreal. So bittersweet. I don't know what to make of it!

Now onto the good news, I have a lot of the apartment packed. :) I was doing it all by myself and it was taking forever so a friend offered to help me. Man oh man, packing is soo much easier with help! I am so grateful to have friends that are willing to help me, it was so wonderful to have help with such an overwhelming task. I left out my sewing machine and a few other crafty things to help keep me sane, but those will be packed up pretty soon.

And now, the biggest news of all DAVID GOT THE INTERNSHIP!!!! Starting in January, he will be interning at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the biggest accounting firm in the world. The world!!!! I almost can't believe it, I'm so proud of him. :) This is such a huge opportunity for him and for us. He's worked so hard and he really deserves a great internship. I'm so happy that when we move back we won't be hoping he'll get an internship, we know he has one. It's so relieving and so exciting. PWC!

Yaiyaiyaiyaiyaiyaiyai. :)

More camping adventures!

David and I had tons of fun camping last weekend, so we thought we'd go again one last time before we move! We went with some friends in the ward and we had a blast! I'm not the biggest camper, but it really was fun.

Our friend's truck decided to be fickle and not start when we were about to leave for the trip. This is how late it was when we finally did leave...we were really worried we wouldn't find a camp ground. We went to a few places with no luck, and finally ended up at the Warm River Campground near Targhee National Forest. The sign said the campground was full, but since it was the last place, we decided to ask just in case.

The owners felt so bad for us because we had car troubles and left late and couldn't find anywhere to camp, that they let us camp in their "back yard!" They live in a fabulous 10 person RV about 50 feet away from the banks of the river and they let us set up camp behind there RV! Not only that, they built us a fire in their own personal fire pit and set up chairs for us so we could cook our dinner. We were so grateful that there are still nice people out there. :)

 I got a fire shot this time. :)

This was taken right outside our tent! We were practically in the water! It was a beautiful little shallow river and it really was warm!

We picked this particular area to camp (Targhee National Forest) because we wanted to spend some time outdoors enjoy our time left with Idaho. Here we are overlooking Henry's Fork River while on a hike.

 The men were a little more daring and perched themselves on some rocks! (Eric and David.)

At the end of the hike we came to an old, collapsed train tunnel. There was a very cold breeze coming trough and you could still smell the train. It was totally creepy.

It was SO HOT! Luckily, I found a little faucet that produced some of the coldest water I've ever felt. Claire convinced me to get my hair wet so cool off and I was so glad I did! (Just to give you an idea of how hot it was, when I air dry my hair it can take up to 4 hours for it to get fully dry. I put my hair in a french braid after I got it wet and it was dry within an hour. We had to do it again!)

Freezing cold and happy. :)

After an hour of lunch and games, our final destination was Mesa Falls. David and I went together last summer, but it's hard to not be shocked by the beauty of the Falls, even if you have seen it before. :)

GORGEOUS!

Claire and I kept stopping to take pictures of all the pretty flowers during our hikes. :)

Did I ever mention that David LOVES root beer? I mean, LOVES it? He about freaked when we saw this on the way home. :) He wanted to take it home with us and display it.

After we got home and showered (twice) we hooked up with our friends again to enjoy delicious steak. Man I love steak! We went to the grocery store at 11:45pm (15 minutes before it closed...) to grab some stuff for Sunday (since I don't shop on Sunday). When we left I looked at my watch and noticed it was after midnight and therefore it was 7.18...the day David proposed to me! We scurried on up to where he proposed and reenacted the "Yes, I will marry you!" picture!

7.18.08 The original "Yes! I will marry you!" I was so thrilled that night. :)

7.18.09 One year anniversary of the engagement.

7.18.10 Two years since he proposed! Notice my sunburn, lol.

And still happily married. :) (Even more sunburn on my nose! David has way worse sunburn, but it's all on his arms.)

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. :) This was our last fun weekend...at this time next week our entire apartment needs to be packed because we're packing up the moving truck Monday and leaving for our four day drive back east early Tuesday! Ahhh!!!

Wow!

My Nauctical Bag was featured on Fireflies and Jellybeans Show off Your Stuff Party favorites! I am so excited! I'll be putting this button on my sidebar. :)





Thanks Fireflies and Jellybeans for my first feature! :)

UPDATE: I can't believe my luck!! My Nautical Bag was featured again!!This time on Under the Table and Dreaming. Thanks Stephanie Lynn. :)

 

Nautical Bag

A few weeks ago I saw a great bag at DownEast Outfitters (same place where I got the $10 wedding dress!) For some reason I couldn't find it on their website or anywhere else I checked online, so you'll have to deal with horrendous pictures from inside the dressing room.

I loved the idea of the bag, but there were a few things that I didn't like about it. The fact that it was black striped (the name "sea striped bag" seemed like it had to be blue!), the ropes weren't "ropey" enough...

the pleats at the bottom and the strange, metallic/ silvery liner with a weird green zipper.

But that's the beauty of doing it yourself, you can make it how you want it! And that's exactly what I did. Here's the final product!

I looooove how it turned out! It was a serious pain in the butt to make (trial and error and I are very good friends now) but the end result was worth it!  It's blue striped, pleat-less, with nice "ropey" straps....

And and has a nice, clean white liner with pockets for everything I need!

Now here comes the fun part! I'm going to walk you through how I did it! But please keep in mind that I screwed up A LOT while I was making this, so my process isn't perfect. :)

You will need:

• 1/3 yard of blue striped, home decor fabric (it took me forever to find this, but I finally found it at Ikea!)
• 1/3 yard white liner fabric
• scrap of red home decor fabric (this will be your base)
• 1 1/3 yard (4 ft) of soft rope (I found mine at Wal*Mart by the trims)
• 1 package red quilt binding
• Fabric glue (like Fabritac)
• Usual sewing notions (sewing machine, thread, scissors, pins, seam ripper, etc)

Gathered your materials? Let's get started! *Note: I used a 1/4" seam unless otherwise stated.

You'll need to figure out what you want the base of your bag to be. (The original bag was round, but I though an oval would look better.) I found a small storage basket with an oval base and traced it with my disappearing ink pen.

Cut out your base and then find the circumference, but don't worry, you don't need a calculator or equations! Just use your measuring tape and lay it along your traced shape. Easy peasy! Keep that number in mind, you'll need it when you  make your pattern.

This next part is a little confusing, I hope it makes sense! My oval had a 27.5" circumference, so I added a half inch to get 28" (Remember we need to add the half inch for 1/4" inch seam allowance on each side). Since the bag has two sides, each side of the bag needed to be half of my 28" (14") at the base. I wanted the bag to be symmetrical, so when I was making my pattern, I folded a piece of freezer paper in half and drew my pattern, making sure that the base of my bag was 7". That way, when I cut out and unfolded my pattern, I would have a perfectly symmetrical bag with a 14" base! Phew...does that make sense?

This is what my pattern ended up looking like. I added in my measurements to help give you an idea of what the dimensions of my bag are. Cut two pieces from your striped fabric.

Next, you'll need to repeat all the the steps with your liner fabric (though this time, you don't have to figure out all of the math or draw a new pattern! Huzzah!) You should then have six pieces of fabric: one red base, two blue striped pieces cut out from your pattern, one white base, and two white pieces cut out from your pattern. If you want any pockets on the inside, make sure to cut those out too!

Pin your blue striped pieces with the right sides together and sew up the sides with a straight stitch. Sew another zig zag stitch right next to your original stitch for added strength.

Then, pin your base on! This can be tricky, but just be patient and make sure everything lines up. Sew around the base, and then again with a zig zag stitch.

See? This helps make the bag stronger.

Moving onto the liner! If you want to add pockets, now is the time to do so. I cut out two 8x10 pieces out of my liner fabric, folded them in half (right sides together), sewed around leaving a few inches to turn, turned them right side out, and pressed flat.

Pin your pockets onto the right side of your liner and make sure it's all straight and even.

Sew around the sides and bottom of the pocket. Now, this is much easier if you do this BEFORE you assemble your liner. A friend called me while I was working on the bag so when I came back I jumped right into sewing together my liner, completely forgetting about the pockets. Oops!

Next, repeat the assembly process with your liner. Sew the sides together, and then add the oval base to the bottom. You should now have two bags, one made out of your blue striped/red fabrics, and one made out of your liner!

Now we've got to add the rope handles! You need two pieces of two foot long rope (or shorter, if that's what you like!) Slightly fray out the bottom to make it easier to sew through and pin it on the wrong side of the "pointy" part of your liner. Sew across the rope several times and test it to make sure it's secure. Repeat with the other side of the rope on the same side of the liner, and then do the whole thing again with the other rope!

This is what you should have right now. A liner with handles! Now we get to assemble the bag!

Put the liner into the striped bag with the wrong sides together. When you look inside, it should look like the inside of a purse, with no exposed raw edges (except for the ones at the top.)

When it's all lined up (take extra care lining up the raw edges at the top of the bag, this is where it counts) pin the bag together. I pinned farther down because I wanted the bag to stay together, but I also wanted room to pin on the quilt binding.

This to me was the trickiest part of the bag (this was my first time using quilt binding, and I've only used bias tape once!). Use your quilt binding to hid the raw edges all around the top of your bag. (You'll need to cut different sizes and different angles, don't try to use just one continuous piece!) Pin in place.

Sew along your quilt binding, hiding the raw edges. I loved that I didn't have to do any turning right side out with this bag!

You're almost done!! I didn't use all of my quilt binding so I cut four 2 inch pieces to cover the part where the rope meets the bag (if you're like me, it's a little bit messy! But you seasoned sewers might not need this step :) I used fabric glue to secure it on the bag, then wrapped it around the rope, folded under the raw edge, and glued in place. Do it again three more times.

AND YOU'RE DONE!!! Fill it up, and go out there and flaunt your beautiful new, Nautical Bag! This would make a great gift for any lady (including yourself ;) in your life wanting a little more summertime!

By the way...I don't like having to say this, but this tutorial is for personal use only. If you use my tutorial, link back to me and give proper credit. And please don't use my tutorial to make bags to sell! Thanks!

If you have questions about it, feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to clear things up. Also, if you make a Nautical Bag using this tutorial I would love to see your final results! Email me Amikins48 (at) gmail (dot) com or leave me a comment with a link to your blog. Happy sewing!

I'm linking up to these parties! (For some reason blogger isn't letting me add buttons to this post, but each link will take you to the linky party I linked up to!)


Under the Table and Dreaming Showcase Sunday, I heart Naptime Sundae Scoop, Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up, Crystal's Craft Spot Feature Friday, Sew Can Do Craftastic Monday, Fingerprints on the Fridge Feature Yourself Friday, A Few of my Favorite Things Favorite Things Friday, Tea Rose Home Wednesday Link Party, Fireflies and Jellybeans Show off Your Stuff Party, The Girl Creative Just Something I Whipped Up Monday, Just Another Day in Paradise Christmas in July, Craft Envy Saturday Spotlight, "Tute"-in Tuesday at Oops, I craft my pants, 

Camping and Car Washes

We had a lot of fun camping this weekend. Last summer David was supposed to go camping with a buddy of his, so we bought a ton of camping equipment. A tent, nice sleeping bags, everything. But, at the last minute, his friend got sick and couldn't make it (he was actually going to fly out to see David). Needless to say, David was pretty bummed about it. He's been wanting to go camping ever since! Luckily, our ward had a campout this weekend and we were able to go camping together! First time ever. (Going camping together, not going camping in general. I've done plenty of that.) We went to Beaver Dick Park, no kidding, that's the real name. I had to take a picture, just to prove it.

It's a great little park. I've been there many times to attend the annual "Beaver Dick Bash" but I don't know for the life of me why it has that name. Won't forget it though, will you?

We bought this tent really on sale. It says it's a two man tent, and it's not kidding. We also bought a full sized air mattress (From D.I. only 7 bucks!) and this picture is my attempt to show that the air mattress COMPLETELY took up the tent. It fit in very snugly, with no extra room whatsoever!

We did fun things like brush our teeth with water bottles, use latrines, cook all kind of hot dogs over a fire (my favorites were the pineapple dogs and cheese filled dogs!) and chat with friends. There weren't very many photo ops...so this is really the only picture I have. But, you can picture it in your head. Tents, sleeping bags, blazing fires, marshmallows, hot dogs, yeah you got it!

On the way home we decided the car needed a wash. I love this car wash, it's a self car wash and you pay by the minute, so you can get it done fast for cheap. (Which isn't what happened...but it's the idea that counts!) My favorite part of the car wash though is the multicolored foam. LOVE IT! It changes colors while you use it and so your whole car looks like its covered in melted Lucky Charms marshmallows. It's so much fun!

You just can't help but play with this foam!

See? You can see the pink and yellow and blue all mixed in!

This is why it took so long to wash the car. :)

After a not-so-long night of camping, we needed refreshment. We made orange juice with our juicer. I just thought the bowl of naked oranges looked funny. :)