Productive day!

So I had an incredibly productive day today!! I got up and went to run some errands. I found a GCF (or Goodwill) the other day when I went to the post office that was near our house so i wanted to check it out for some supplies for my next project. I am still working on my t-shirt quilt, and it's not too bad, but a friend of mine is having a baby soon so I wanted to make them something too. I had planned to make a mini blanket out of t-shirt scraps but the knit/t-shirt material is kind of hard to work with, so i was sort of discouraged about that idea.

BUT then I remembered THIS post that Ashley at Make it and Love it did. It is about making a bow tie from an old neck tie. So at goodwill today I found a boys tie (with a velcro closure) and two ties that actually looked pretty cute. I got some velcro and used some thread i already had to make these awesome bow ties for my friend's husband (something he's always talking about) and one for their new son!!



I think that they turned out really cute!! What do you think?? But that wasn't all that i did today, I also cleaned our house a bit for the guests we have coming for dinner and also for the weekend. The cable guy came by and fixed our internet/cable. I ran some other errands while out this morning and still managed to have some 'me time' in the form of a nap and some DVR'd tv.

It was a good day so far and james and sarah are still coming for dinner tonight so there's still that to look forward to!!

Julia

waiting!!

I hate waiting! I'm the most impatient person ever really and I have to wait for a lot of stuff this week. Mostly since I mailed off a box to someone I have to wait for it to get to them. AND I have to wait for my friends amber to get here for the weekend! AND I have a unsettled feeling because I'm spending a lot of time waiting on my job to start!

I feel like for the last few years I have been waiting for my life to start, and now that i have graduated i thought it would be now, but It still feels like i'm waiting!!! ugh that's not fun. Fortunately (or unfortunately) i have little to do to occupy that time while i'm waiting. I'm trying to find projects to do.( like my chair, my sewing fun stuff) Now I'm working on a t-shirt quilt/blanket.

ANY TIPS?? I have already cut out squares of fabric and am sewing them together but you fellow crafters do you have any idea what other things I should look out for. I'm hoping to make a little quilt for a friend that is having a baby soon and some other fun stuff for my sister who is preggers also this summer. Well see if I have the patience to wait for the next craft to be able to be done (i.e. us to have the money to buy the supplies) the Patience to work with my old and busted machine that is mean to me sometimes, and the patience to wait for others to get the gifts!!

Hope you get whatever it is that you are waiting on!!

-Julia

project time!

So i know i have been kind of ambiguous about my projects recently. Mostly it was because I was waiting to finish one of them and then mail it to the person that it goes to. It got put in the mail today. Here is a preview of all my supplies before I started for a sneak peak!!



But after my trip to GA and getting some heirlooms from my mom's house I got another quick project to do. I had a corner of our living room that seemed pretty blank still and i wasn't quite sure what to put there, but Now i have it;



ALL of those heirlooms look pretty chic if you ask me! It's a dictionary and stand, my grandmother's old suitcase, my dad's highchair from when he was little (which i spray painted the legs 'cause they were a little rusty) and my dad's old GI Joe from when he was a boy. I am loving my new corner of decor! and it matches pretty well the rest of the living room if you ask me!

Hope you guys are having a great day!!

Julia

Still standing!

So I am finally back in my 'routine' again after an awesome visit with family. I worked a great weekend (got sick halfway through, but the first half was great!) spent a few days being totally sick, but then recovered in time to have lunch with a great friend, see my mom and give my sister two great baby gifts. One was to use my new found sewing skills to put a new lining into a basket. It was really easy because the basket came with a liner already so i just cut that one up and used it as a pattern and spray painted the basket to match the nursery that she is getting ready for her new baby. (it's a surprise if it's a boy or girl or I would say my niece or nephew) She's due on the 16th of September. so we have some time left before the baby arrives, so she's getting down to business in making things ready for the new arrival.

I also made them three different recipes of food and packaged them into frozen meals for to eat after the baby came. I think that once the baby arrives it will be nice because they just have to pick one, cook it and then be able to eat dinner seven different times with three different recipes. Sorry that I haven't posted too much more, I've just been getting back in the groove and getting back to my regular routine! I missed being with Audie so much, so I'm really glad to be back home for good for a while.

Ok I'm getting pretty sleepy already today, so I'm going to go on to sleep!!
Hope you enjoyed your few weeks while i was out of commission - I loved being more 'unconnected' for a while, so i may not post everyday but I'll still be here for those few that read!!
Julia

family time!!

I'm so excited because I'm in my hometown tonight with my family!! I'm working a retreat (my two sisters are working too, more family time!) this weekend from thursday night until Sunday night and then i get 3 days or so with my family and friends from back home! so exciting even though i just saw my folks at the beach about 2 weeks ago! What have i been up to since sunday?

A friend of mine came into town on Monday morning (she missed her connection flight (which was the last one of the night on Sunday night so she came the next morning) and we just hung out all day monday, and then on tuesday we went to her house in Durham to open it up and make sure it was ready for the movers to come and pack all thier boxes into the truck to go to Florida! Then this morning both of us flew to ATL, me to go see my folks, and her on to Tampa to go to her (and her hubby's) new parsonage (where he is the pastor) It was really good to have someone to hang out with for a few days, and we didn't do much, but it didn't leave time to sit down and write a post. I'll probably be out of pocket the next week or so while i'm at home, so don't worry, but hopefully i'll be back soon with some pictures of my cute projects I made this weekend. I have a couple more to do and then I'll be ready with a whole week or so of posts of my projects!!

hope you have a fantabulastic week!!

Julia

lazy week and weekend!

So i know what you're thinking: Where has Julia been??? Maybe you aren't thinking that But it makes me feel better that some people might have missed me!! Anyway, We have been doing very little. I've really just been doing so little that i haven't had anything to blog about!! This week we hosted our friends Amber and Derek for a night while they went to DC. It was really nice to see them, but we wish we had more time together! After that things calmed WAY down and we haven't done much at ALL!! I've just been playing video games and chilling out most days!

This weekend we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. It was actually Wednesday, but we decided to go out on Saturday since Audie wouldn't have work and stuff that day. We were really celebrating Annifestabuel (rhymes with fuel) because we had been dating 4 years on Thursday too. And we have a kind of accidental tradition of going out for a nice dinner one year and then just getting each other gifts the next year, and i love years that we don't get gifts 'cause i'm the WORST gift giver ever!!! Anyway - So saturday we did a lot of errands- craft store to buy supplies for my next few projects (i'm really excited about these things, but i'm not going to ruin the surprise!) target to get a few things, the post office (only to figure out that it was closed at noon! not cool!) and then to the grocery store.

And taking a page out of Jessica's book I went to a new grocery store. Well new to me, because we have always shopped at food Lion, but a Lowe's food is right down the street from our new place. and while i love food lion, they don't have a great coupon policy (they take them and they give you plenty, but that's about it) I had been meaning to try out Lowe's food and it was on our way home from the post office, so we went in to do our weekly shopping. I'm pretty sure that lowe's food doesn't exist everywhere because i've only seen them in NC, but it is a LOT like publix, because it has plenty of organic stuff and has a pretty extensive meat area and good selection. It was organized a little different so it took us a while to find what we needed/wanted, but i think that it makes more sense the way they had it too. Audie hated the fact that it was really crowded, but it was a saturday at 2 pm, as well as a holiday weekend, and they were restocking some of the areas all of which could be cured by not going at a peak time or on a holiday weekend. So when i got to the register I asked about their coupon policy. they double coupons automatically up to 99 cents, they take competitor's coupons, and they have a value card program that gives you money back pretty frequently, and when you get to 5 dollars it automatically gives you a five dollar off coupon of any purchase. (we earned 75 cents towards our reward cash on a 35 dollar grocery bill and saved 4.75 with sales and coupons. not jessica worthy, but it wasn't too bad.) Another thing that they do, but not all grocery stores do is that if something is marked by one get one free or whatever they give you the sale price no matter how many you buy. I appreciate that a lot because we don't have a lot of cabinet space for food, so we can't really buy four things of pasta or whatever. I'm going to sign up to get emailed deals from them too, so that will help us save money some too!

OK sorry for the rabbit trail about grocery shopping, but anytime you can save some money it's a good thing in my mine!! Audie and I then went out to eat at a wonderful restaurant in Raleigh called Michael Deans! It was SO good!!! they have specials every night so I got a 5 dollar martini and it was so yummy, it was all strawberry and had a big piece of pineapple garnish and i loved every sip! We also both got a side caesar salad, which was really yummy and almost sweet tasting. They also had really good bread, kind of like carraba's but they sauce that you dipped it in was tomato based, so it tasted like eating pizza, sounds weird, but it was really good. We each ate steak and I got veggies on the side, and a bleu cheese potato cake. Audie got two potato cakes. Now i need to tell you about these things because literally it was the best thing i have ever eaten in a restaurant!
SO it was basically garlic mashed potatos with bleu cheese crumbles mixed in that was then breaded in panko bread crumbs and fried!! It was so yummy!!! audie brought one of his home and i'm so excited to eat it again!! After dinner we did order desert, the chocolate platter, which had a ton of different things on it, and all were delicious, and our waitress brought us two glasses of strawberry and champagne on the hosue since we told them it was our anniversary!! It was so yummy! So the best part is that it is kind of a fancy pants kind of place (not too bad, like not tie required, but just nice) and in looking at the specials on Monday they have a dinner for 2 menu for 40 dollars! it includes a choice of two entrees, two salads, a bottle of wine (not sure we'd care too much about that, but it's nice if you do care) and a desert or appetizer to split. we're definitely going there next time we have something to celebrate!!

Ok this has been the longest post ever! hope you guys are all having a great holiday weekend we have for sure!

Julia