woo hoo! sewing room has been relocated! :)

Previous sewing room location: basement.

New location: what used to be the office (on the first floor!).

I love the new location. A few more pictures can be found here.

One of the cutting tables had to stay downstairs and as a result, I had to downsize on the size cutting mat I can use (unless I put the ginormous one on the dining room table). But everything else fit rather well into the room. I would have made it work no matter what - I wanted a first floor room!

After the new pictures were taken, we took a trip to Ikea to find some suitable chairs/stools. My desk is bar-height and I wanted something ~18" tall for the sewing table.

Desk chair:

... and stool for the sewing table (before & after):

Ikea really wanted me to buy one of their covers since the stool already came with the foam & interfacing-type covering stapled to it. It also already had the scratchy side of velcro on the undersides... I knew I could pull something out of my stash to make a cover so that's what I did.

The current work-in-progress:

Which will be Simplicity 2648 when it's done.

I have high hopes for this pattern since its got different fits - different bust sizes and different hip shapes (slim, average, curvy). Mine will be black - I had the cloth in my stash for a looong time so I have no idea what it really is or where it came from. It's kind of like a heavyweight linen, if that makes sense.

And one more work-in-progress:

We also picked up one of these benches at Ikea to go at the end of our bed. We know we (and by we, I really mean me) want to cover the top. The Mr. didn't think two layers of quilt batting was enough of a cushion for his cute little bottom, so at some point I have to go to Jo-Anns and get some foam. And figure out what I'm going to cover it with...

I'm going to try...

...to be better at updating this. And after reading everyone else's sewing blogs, I'm going to try to put more sewing stuff on here.

What I'm currently working on:

Its a trial of what I'll hopefully be selling at shows this fall/winter.

I haven't updated this in a while

I've been busy... kind of.

Our office has officially moved to Waltham. It's a very nice building but the downside (which we all knew it would be) is the commute. I leave the house at 5:30am to get in at 6:30... assuming there are no major accidents shutting down both sides of 128 (like there was yesterday. twice.). There are now two other people in my dept close to my age (meaning they're not old enough to be my father) so that's nice. I don't feel like it's me vs the old men anymore when it comes to brining them into the 21st century with updated software programs.

I got a new motorcycle! A Honda Shadow Spirit (750cc). It's so much nicer than the Honda Rebel (250cc) I had before. So. much. nicer.

But... it's been raining. A LOT. There are usually around 8 days of rain in the month of June for New England. This year I think we had (no joke) 25 days with rain. [[This article confirms the ridiculous amount of rain]]

And July hasn't started off too well either. Today's downpours/heavy thunderstorms are flooding a lot of roads and causing a lot of power outages.

All this rain means I haven't been able to ride my new motorcycle. :(

hmm... what else...

I'm making a circus jacket thing for QueenVanna. :) It'll be red and sparkly.

aaaaand I've been trying to go to the gym and get back in shape. No change on the scale so far, but the muscles in my left leg are finally starting to return, so I'll count that as progress.

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Pictures!

A couple of pictures from Shaun & Becky's wedding on the photographer's blog: link!


I've been sewing lately - which makes me happy. Except for when I make a mistake and have to get out the seam ripper, but that hasn't happened too much in the past few days, so that's good. :) My mom and I are doing a craft fair at Millbury High School on December 7th, so I'm trying to get a bunch of stuff done so the table won't be filled with mostly her stuff. :P

Weddings.

This past weekend Ryan and I went to Shaun and Becky's wedding. It was wonderful and fun AND I got to see Heather for a little bit (she was a surprise for Shaun - he thought she wasn't going to be coming).

So even though it was beautiful, Heather and I were kind of overwhelmed with the amount of details that go into a wedding.

-- gifts for your bridesmaids, groomsmen
-- gifts for the guests who stay overnight at the hotel
-- knowing small children who will be the flowergirl and ring-bearer
-- picking a caterer
-- picking a cake
-- hiring a photographer
-- making sure your bridesmaids are happy with their dresses


And I'm sure there are a few other things we thought of that we're forgetting. Not to mention the formality of everything - especially if you're married in a church.

We (Heather and I) decided everything was too fancy for us and that it would be much easier if we eloped. Not together. But with whoever we're going to marry. :P

So yeah, the wedding was very nice and it was fun to hang out with everyone (except for the one person who decided she was going to be negative and pessimistic the whole time)...

I've been sewing - to make things for the craft fair I'm doing with my mom in December. Whatever doesn't sell there, I'll list on Etsy. So I won't be listing anytime soon, but I will be making things. :) ... in between all the traveling I have scheduled for work.

Oh and there's the 2nd surgery that I've scheduled for Dec 12th... fun fun.

...

I'm bad at actually updating this thing.

I went on a vacation with two cousins during 4th of July week - Amy and I flew down to West Palm Beach, FL to spend some time with our cousin, Mike.

Here we are at Juno Beach - hours before Amy and I got back on the plane to Manchvegas.

The rest of the pictures from the trip can be seen here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcroteau/sets/72157606028187686/

Other than that, not too much has been happening. Ryan hasn't been feeling well at all so I haven't been sleeping much lately. But hopefully he'll be feeling better this week.

Last night we went to see the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Dropkick Murphys at McCoy Stadium with my cousin Amy and Ryan's friend Dennis. It was a good show. Ryan and I went up into the seats after the Bosstones so we could sit - neither one of us were in any condition to stand for the rest of the show but Dennis and Amy stayed down on the lawn for the whole thing. Oh, and Dropkick was making a CD last night, so I'll definitely have to get that one when it comes out. :)

I haven't done any sewing lately. :( Besides altering clothes for a friend. I need to finish the pillow shams I'm working on for someone - I need to experiment with my ruffler foot first, though.

oh! AND yesterday before meeting friends for Indian food, (I'm a busy girl) I went down to Thompson, CT to pick up an old sewing machine and its cabinet. It's still in my truck because I can't get it out myself and Ryan can't help me right now, so I'll take pictures later. I got it mostly for the cabinet, but the woman said the machine still works fine - and it has paper bobbins. Word.

Before I left for Florida, I was at my parents' house for a few hours and was bored so I took some pictures of wall quilts my mom has in the house and some more pictures of her gardens.

New interesting post coming soon

Just waiting for my cousin to send me the pictures from this weekend...

Plus I have a few pictures I should take of the pillow shams I'm working on.