The Re-Start of TV to Knit By

Most of the time there are many things I would rather do than sit down and watch tv, but last night's kick-off of the new Office season made me a happy, happy girl. Damn that show is funny. I don't know how they do it, but the whole cast is genius when it comes to delivering an uncomfortable work-place moment.

A little video post in celebration:

This is... so frustrating!

Melissa picked the "this is" theme for last week to try to get us back to it. There are plenty of little things that happen from time to time that are very frustrating, like dealing with an incorrect charge on my phone bill or having to drive by four gas stations before finding one with gas this morning, but I'm going to pick the one that I experience almost every single day at my job for pure consistent frustration. A large part of my job consists of signing people up to take a class. They call me to get the class schedule and then tell me what day they want to attend and I get all their needed information. Not exactly rocket science. But every single day I experience this sentence after relaying the current schedule... "Oh, hold on a minute, let me find my calendar". And then I wait. While they shuffle through the stuff on their desk or in their purse. This seriously frustrates me. While I say through clenched teeth "Oh, sure, take your time" I'm actually having to practice deep breathing and hold back a lecture about how my time is valuable and being wasted. I know, it is little, but it is really frustrating!

Great Dress Pattern

I am very, very happy with this dress that I completed last night. I originally bought the fabrics to make more of these skirts, since they were such a hit the first time, but then I saw this dress on One Shabby Chick and after about 30 visits back to her blog to look at it again I finally ordered the pattern. I kept going back to it because it looked almost exactly like the shape of this Boden dress (left), which I knew I most certainly was not going to spend 40 dollars on, that I really liked. The versatility of this dress is a definite bonus, it could be worn without a shirt in the summer, with short sleeves now, and soon with long sleeves and tights (and most likely the pink cowgirl boots that come out whenever the tights do). Looking at it this morning, the older child said she still wanted her fabrics to become a new skirt because she likes skirts better, but I think I will still make her one if I can find some pretty mini-whale corduroy and will most likely applique something fantastic on it.

The pattern was very well put together and easy to follow. I love how, thanks largely to blog tutorials, patterns are now evolving into step by step instructions with pictures. There have been so many times I have looked at a "real" pattern and had my eyes completely glaze over while reading all the text and abbreviations and not very helpful line drawings. Now if this visual style could just become popular in the knitting world I might accomplish something more than a scarf!

See those lovely buttons on her shoulder (donated by the very generous Grammy from her large button horde, I mean collection)? Those buttons are evidence of my very first button holes! Did you know that my sewing machine knows how to make button holes like magic?!! It really is quite impressive and now I'm not sure why I have been so afraid of them.

Stars 'N' Stitches Quilt Show

Nope, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, have just been super busy the past week and a half helping to get my quilt guild's 2008 quilt show up and running. I was mired for days in laying out the programs and then helping to set up and work the show. The craziest thing about this show (at least to me) is that it was held in my old high school gym! Have to say, never in a single pep rally in the gym during my senior year did I think a decade and a half later I would have quilts hanging in it for people to see. So surreal!

It is pretty amazing how in about two hours a show goes from empty gym, to assembled standards...

to hung quilts. Lots of volunteers and a lot of work goes into all this.

My mom won and award for an applique quilt she entered...

I was just happy to have completed two projects in the last year that I could enter...

The girls were very proud of my participant ribbon...

Here is my friend Melissa with two of her entries...

And my friend Shannon with one of hers...

And I have to throw this picture in at the end here just to show what Jay has to put up with all the time...

during the preview party a raffle was held for some prizes, notice everyone standing around with their tickets in hand listening to several numbers being announced, while I am on the left of the picture doing the exact same thing as my mom on the right side... digging for our lost tickets in our purses. We do this a lot, we laugh the same, we make the same faces, and do the exact same things from across the room at the same time, it's pretty amusing. I love you mom, congrats on your ribbon! Thanks to all the family and friends that stopped by, your support of our fabric obsession means a lot :)

Labor Day

Last weekend we joined my aunt and uncle up at the lake house. I love how the girls always fall perfectly into the lake rhythm... days spent in the water and evenings on the porch, where sunset is always an event.

My two favorite boys even joined us this time. Well, Jack never misses out on a chance to go to the lake, but Jay's weekend baseball schedule had kept him away all summer. We had such a great time that we are returning this weekend.

The girls and I did try a little flower experiment inspired by The Crafty Crow.

For some reason the blue worked the best and the red got a little gloppy. The green worked too, it was just hard to tell because Queen Ann's Lace is already so green under the white tips of the flowers. However, I think this little project would work much better if the flowers went into the water immediately after cutting (we were too busy playing) or if we had made a fresh cut on the stems. At least it gave the girls something to check on every five minutes.