sew what?

I said awhile back that i would share some of my sewing adventures with you soon and well it wasn't so much "soon". So it's here even though some of my stuff isn't quite finished. I've been having tons'o'fun and never really imagined this to be my hobby at age 25. Not that young people don't sew, i'm just sayin...

This is a shirt that i did using the freezer paper method. Its a boojum tree which is the gnarliest looking tree i've ever come across. It was one of my themes this winter in preschool and it was a super fun one at that.

This shirt was long sleeve, i thought it would look better as a short sleeve shirt so i cut off the sleeves. I'm still planning on adding buttons and a strap for a little more fun but i'm exploring how to do that (button holes) on the machine.

This is my favorite so far. I got this large pile of fabric (mostly old curtains) at of course, the thrift store, and was inspired to make this skirt. We're a little over due on a birthday present to a special girl whose name starts with a j:

It was supposed to be a delicious dinner....

just a warning:

tonight we made what was suppposed to be a delicious meal. everything was cooked and we sat down to enjoy. After taking my first bite, i discovered there was something tough in my mouth. As there wasn't supposed to be anything tough in the meal, I removed said object to take a look. here's what i found:

a piece of scour pad, here is everything we found.

it came from our canned tomatoes that we used from Hunt's. We won't be buying Hunt's brand any longer.

some of you are going to think we're crazy...

the rest of you know we are -- crazy about being outdoors. Last weekend we ventured up northeast into the mountains because they got a big storm which brought in a lot of snow. Gabe and I finally have our snowshoes down here for the first time. So we wanted to get out and play in the snow. We planned on getting up there and finding a camping spot in one of the many campgrounds and going snowshoeing.

we had a wonderful drive up and they did indeed have a lot of snow to play in. Soon after driving on the 260 past all of the many campgrounds we discovered they were all closed - huh. We pulled off the road where there was a trail head and decided to at least get some snowshoeing out of the trip before the sun set. We had a good little hike but were quickly reminded how tiring snowshoeing can be and took a lot of breaks . Gabe discovered that he had stepped in dog poop and was leaving a little of it behind with every step in the snow. I'm not sure that he ever did get over stepping in dog poop with snow shoes on. We found a couple little streams that were running from the snow melt and it felt magical, like we were the only ones to discover that beauty.

We came up with a good plan during our little hike -- we would camp in the parking lot of this trail head (it was covered in snow). My only concern was that it was a very popular place to sled as well and well we might have a lot of people traffic at our little made up camp site. So we decided to just drive down random roads and see if we could find an open somewhat flat spot that we could make our campsite. (Undeveloped camping is very popular here). Thankfully we did find a great spot and set up camp. We got a fire, dinner, and sleeping quarters set up fully equipped with a heater. Needless to say winter camping attempt #2 -- successful! (Attempt #1 happened back in college in MN -- not so much a success when you're driving home at 10 p.m.) We had such a great time - it was a wonderful way to spend valentines weekend.

Here is our set up -- in the front right you can see the table gabe built for us.

Just two people loving nature

The ice crystals on the car in the morning were beautiful -- reminded me of my snow study days during student teaching. Its amazing how many different shapes snowflakes take on and all the reasoning behind that specific shape. A great morning treat (probably more so when you don't get it months in a row)! It was 15 degrees in the morning for those of you wondering how "true" our winter camping experience was down in AZ. :)

thrifty things

I love good bargains. Check out my finds this weekend at the thrift store:
TONS of this fabric for $6 and this 1947 singer sewing book for $1 i'm hoping i can teach myself what i don't know through this little gem! I'm not sure what i'm going to make with this fabric but whatever it is, it will be fun!
One thing i love about AZ -- i get to hang laundry out year-round
This is our garden - i posted earlier on beginning our gardening. Here is our progress -- from closest to furthest away: cilantro, carrots, dill. They are trying so hard to get the sun they need. They aren't getting enough is my theory on the slowness of their growth...

Coming soon -- an update on what i've been up to on my sewing machine. So fun!

saturday morning conversation

Here is a peak in our house on Saturday morning.

Me: I need to practice this rap will you beat-box for me?
Gabe: ha! no i'm not beat boxing for you
Me: Why not? Please, i've got the rap down with the snapping beats but I need to know how it sounds with a beat box rhythm.
Gabe: silence.
Me: I'm a boojum tree - not a cactus, The call me a succulent which means I practice (the first 2 lines in my rap) ... C'mon, why not?
Gabe: It's kinda embarrassing.
Me: BEAT BOXING??! It's just me! I'm sitting here doing a boojum tree rap and you think beat boxing is embarrassing?
Gabe: Kinda
Me: Okay lets just beat box together for awhile then and then you'll get the feel of it. bvpphf ch bbvvph bvvph ch...
Gabe: No, k i got it. bvpphf ch bbvvph bvvph ch...

...And all weekend I've been practicing my boojum tree rap i wrote for my kids this week with a beat box beat. My boss has agreed to do it for me during classes this week with just one request: BIG sunglasses. Done

Should be interesting! :)

Surprise!

gabe and i flew up to North Dakota last weekend to surprise Jim for his young numbered birthday. He is now getting attention from a certain four letter organization beginning with A and ending with P.

He had no idea and we arrived at his birthday breakfast with grandma and grandpa. We had a fun few days up there. We watched the ever so intense super bowl and were a little disappointed with the outcome. We ate many great meals and went ice fishing. This is what I shared with people when they asked me how our trip was. More often then I even ever thought would be the reaction was: "Wow! You did that? I've only seen that on TV. Were you in one of those little hut things?" It cracks me up. I got that response verbatim more than once. :) It makes sense in arizona i guess. My big catch and gabes big catch! :)

71 degrees inside and -7 outside; heat is niceThis is for all you arizonans -- these are the fishing houses

So yes it was fun, cold, and quick and we did spend some time in one of those little hut things.