Eco Warrior

For Sale

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 12:17:25 -0400

I love quilting, sewing, crocheting, knitting, etc. The only trouble is that when you enjoy these types of hobbies there is a surplus of yarn, fabric, hats, scarfs, bags, quilts around your house. I am now at that point. I would still like to create these things, especially now that I have the time to do it but I do not need anything else for myself.

With that being said, some of you may be too busy to create these types of these things for yourselves but would still like them. Not to mention the holiday season is going to be here before we know it. So, if any of you have project ideas that you would like someone else to complete for you I may be able to help you out. I would like to sell you my time. :o) Everything is negotiable. This blog is filled with projects I have completed and will help give an idea of things I have done in the past.

Here are a few quick links to previous projects:

Queen size patchwork quilt Give Thanks Banner Laptop Case

Kindle Case A new clutch handbag Baby Quilt

Father’s Day Tie Tree wall hanging Tea Towels

A new purse design Knit tree design Ellie the Elephant

Beaded Bracelet Watercolor Holiday Cards

Feel free to send me a pattern or idea that you’ve been tossing around and maybe we can work something out. Thanks!

Our honeymoon

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:48:46 -0400

Within days of being married we were on a plane bound for Prague. Let me back track a bit, in the months leading up to our wedding we set up arrangements with a travel agent. (She was a life savor! I would definitely recommend it!) We told her a rough idea of what we were thinking and she booked hotels, trains, castle and city tours for us, all in advance. It made things so much easier and less stressful for us by mainly only having to hand people vouchers instead of having to settle things in unfamiliar languages on the spot. And even though she helped us set a lot of stuff up in advance we still had a lot of freedom to do what we wanted in a day. We were abroad for 10 days (plus 2 traveling there and back) and we only had designated day trips set for 3 of those days. It was so nice to wander as we liked, stop to eat whenever we got hungry and really take our time soaking in the culture.

So back to on a plane bound for Prague. We spent two and a half days there. Part of one day was devoted to a boat and walking tour of the city but otherwise we were free to wander as we liked. We struggled a bit because we only had Euros and didn’t speak any of the local language. (They accept Euros but also have a main currency of their own and we could never quite figure out if the tip was already included or if it was the tax or if we were converting everything correctly. Looking back, we wish we would have exchanged some of our Euros for the local currency and learned some basic phrases to make the trip easier on all involved.) Regardless, Prague is a beautiful city! We could have easily spent one day alone wandering around the grounds of the Prague Castle. There is so much history and beautiful architecture. To see our photos of Prague follow this link. Most photos have a bit of a description with them.

After visiting Prague, we took a train to Munich, Germany. The rest of our trip was spent between Munich and Rothenburg, Germany. Rothenburg is one of (or the) last remaining walled cities in Europe. We were able to walk parts of the look out platforms and see through the small watch holes, see churches that were built in the 1500s and relax at a cafe along the pedestrian area of the city. I would recommend Rothenburg to anyone; it’s a very romantic place and full of rich history! We only spent two days in Rothenburg, so most of our time was spent in Munich, which is another place I would recommend to anyone. It is a very pedestrian friendly city with an amazing park called the Englisher Garten. We went back there again and again to walk along the river and see beautiful trees and open green spaces. The main thing we did in Munich was walk. We just wandered around the city looking at stores, architecture and soaking in the history. See pictures here.

The beer and food in Germany are Great! Probably the best beer I’ve ever had. Also, some of the best baked goods I have ever eaten! I wish I would have taken more photos of the food and more importantly eaten much more of it. One day, I ate a giant soft pretzel for dinner because I could not get enough of them. (There is a photo of that) We were able to get around pretty easily without knowing much German. A lot of people speak English and are friendly towards visitors. I was bummed because I learned two phrases that I thought would come in handy, neither of which I used while there. They were ‘Where is the restroom, please?’ and ‘I would like the chocolate cake, please.’ Anytime I ran into a situation where these phrases would have come in handy I was able to speak in English. I did however use these phrases, entschuldigung (excuse me) and Danke schön (thank you) whenever possible. I’m glad we knew a few things in German because it was fun having people think we were residents, even if only for a few minutes. Ryan tells me that I look German and that I could blend in pretty easily. I’ve never really thought much about how I look but it makes sense seeing as my heritage is almost 100% German. All in all, it was an amazing trip! We had such a great time and can’t stop thinking about when we’ll go back.

Wedding Bells

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:52:41 -0400

A little over a month ago, my best friend and I got married.

Here’s a staged photo of us signing our marriage license. For the actual ceremony, we only had our closest family in attendance, which was perfect. Everything lasted fifteen minutes and was very intimate. We had an amazing backdrop for the ceremony in the Supreme Court hearing room at the WI state capital.

Photo credit: http://www.wisconsin.gov/state/capfacts/supreme_court_s.html

The following day we had a party with friends and family. Things could not have been better! The turn out was great! The food was delicious! The weather was perfect! My Aunt took photos for us which turned out amazing! A friend let us borrow her speaker system for the dance music, it went smoothly and she used it to surprise us by singing a song that she wrote for me back in college. Amazing! Thank you again to everyone who helped us have the best celebration a girl could ask for!!! There are way too many pictures to try and narrow it down to just one so instead here is the link to see pictures from our party.

Catching Up

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:29:23 -0400

A lot has happened since the last post. Ryan and I have attended 5 weddings, I went to New York, quit my job, got married, and went to Europe on a honeymoon. I think pictures summarize best so that’s what this post is going to be full of.

Here’s a picture of us at one of the weddings. It’s been such a fun year celebrating with everyone!

On my trip to New York, I visited Central Park.

saw the Statue of Liberty

Visited the MOMA and saw some amazing pieces of art!! I also ate a ton of great food, attending a fashion figure drawing class with my sister and rode the subway for the first time. There was much more that happened as well but I just feel like summarizing for now.

Once back from NY, I mainly worked on wedding stuff. I created our invites and quite a few other personal touches for the party. Looking back now, I’m very glad I spent my time on these types of things. It really helped make everything feel like our day. The next post will be on wedding stuff.

It's finished!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:13:12 -0500

I completed one side of my latest project!

It’s so large it takes up the whole floor! I couldn’t capture the whole quilt in one picture.

Emma’s helping show scale

Does anyone notice how one row in this picture is different than the others?

It feels great to have this part done! I’m looking forward to start the other side soon.

Kindle Case

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:53:48 -0500

A few months ago I made Ryan a case for his tablet reader.. one of his co-workers saw it and asked if I could make her one. Here’s the result.

On Ryan’s case I did a diagonal stitch across the whole thing, about 3/4 inch apart. I thought that would take away from the design in the fabric for this one. So instead, I stitched around the diamonds in a matching thread. I’m happy with how it turned out.

Any Takers?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:41:43 -0500

I’ve made a bit of progress on my patchwork quilt.

7 rows done, only 12 more to go.

This got me to thinking.. I like to sew, and pick out fabrics and color combinations. Would anyone like to pay me to sew??

Miscalculated

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 09:24:02 -0400

Thanks for the responses on my last post!

I was laying the pieces out again to see what would look good next together and then realized that I had miscalculated. I was counting how many squares I needed based on their cut size instead of their finished size (which will be an inch smaller because of the seam allowance) So, after recalculating for 4 inch squares instead of 5 inch squares. I now have 200 more squares to cut instead of 45. :o( I’m a little bit bummed out but it will be worth it once I get the top pieced together.

Yesterday, we went to the Neptune Festival and instead of taking pictures of people and the beach I only documented the day through pictures of the clouds..

This picture I tweaked a little in my photo editor to push the colors closer to what I was actually seeing in person

Sorry if it’s cloud pic overload but it was just one of those types of days. :o)

Only 45 more

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:50:43 -0400

Believe it or not I am finally starting the quilt for our couch. (I’ve only been thinking about it, almost starting it and then putting all of my supplies away for almost a year now) Since I couldn’t decide on a color palette, I was looking on Pinterest for ideas. I showed this quilt to Ryan and he said he liked it better than some of the other patterns I had showed him.

Image from http://craftyblossom.blogspot.com/2010/12/custom-patchwork-quilt.html

So, now I’ve been busy cutting random 5 inch by 5 inch squares.

The pile on the left is the actual 5x5 squares and the pile on the right is the strips left over. Before last night I had less than 50 squares cut.

I stayed up and cut fabric until 11pm. Now, I only have about 45 more squares left to cut. Those remaining squares just might need to wait a bit but getting that much closer feels pretty nice. I might piece together some of my scrap strips to create a few of the last 5 x 5 squares?! Any thoughts?

Also, I tried laying out a few rows to see how it might look. Should I just pick completely random pieces to put next to one another or do I play with it a little to make it look random but make sure that I like which colors are next to each other? I can’t decide and I would love some feedback.

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!

Irene

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 16:39:38 -0400

Last weekend, hurricane Irene blew through. The Governor had warned that people should be prepared because they could be without power for up to four days. Since we hadn’t been through a hurricane yet I felt that we should listen to what he was saying. I made quite a few trips to the store before the storm to make sure we had plenty of non-perishible foods and plenty of gallons of water. We still have most of the food and water left but at least they’ll last for awhile so we’re set for the Noreaster season!

We had heavy rain and high winds for around 26 hours straight but that was the worst of it. Our power only blinked a few times throughout the day. Otherwise, I was skyping with my mom telling her things were fine and my sister in NY city to see what was happening North of us. There were only a few twigs laying on our porch and outside our front door once it was all said and done. We were very fortunate and for that I am very grateful!

The following morning we went for a walk around our neighborhood and you wouldn’t have even known it stormed. Most of the water was gone, (After raining for 26 hours! I’m still not sure where it all went) the sun was shining and most people didn’t have much for debris in their yards either.

This was the craziest thing we saw. Two people in their canoe along the side of their house. It didn’t look like they were getting too far so the water must not have been too high. Also, none of the water was very close to their house so I think they were okay. (Most houses only have crawl spaces and do not have basements) I hope others around this area were as fortunate as us during this storm!

Catching up

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:05:18 -0400

Where did July and August go?? It all seems like such a blur. I just had to ask Ryan what we did in July because I couldn’t remember. I think we mainly worked and tried to stay out of the summer heat. This area has the opposite seasonal affects on me. Usually I have a hard time getting through the winters because I’m not able to go outside as much but here it’s almost the complete opposite. The summers are more brutal with the humidity that the cold of the winters are. So, I am very excited about fall heading this way!

One thing that happened with turning 26 is I got reading glasses! I’ve grown a little more used them but at first I was very resistant to wearing them. (I will mention that I should be wearing them as I type but.. I guess I’m still being a little stubborn about them)

I made two bracelets last month for my Aunt’s friend. She had a string bracelet with all of these different colors but was looking for something beaded instead. Each of the different colors represent different types of cancer (pink=breast cancer). It was really fun to put together.

Distracted

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:22:03 -0400

A friend mine recently showed me the site Pinterest and I can’t seem to get enough. (This link should take you to my main page) If you have any interest in finding out more about the site, let me know! It’s super addicting with a bunch of great stuff on there! Has anyone else recently been distracted by this site?

I have been doing a bit of sewing here and there. Last month, I made my dad a Father’s day gift using this link Father’s Day tie along with a tie I found at the Salvation Army. The tutorial is super helpful!! It made the project so much easier than if I would have just tried to build it from the store bought tie. Reason being that I would have added steps that weren’t really necessary.

My dad always gives me crap about being the “Eco Warrior” so when I found this fabric I thought it was perfect. (Not to mention, he works for my hometown Utility company and was the one who taught me about saving energy, reusing things and recycling)

I also made him a card to go with it. The card was inspired by one I saw at Barnes & Nobles recently.

I forgot how much I enjoy making cards. :o)

My next projects are making another reusable grocery bag and a beaded bracelet. We’ve used one or our reusable bags so much it’s starting to fall apart at the seams! I’m going to use the bag that’s falling apart as a template for the new bag. The bracelet is for my Aunt’s friend and should be fun to put together as well! I’ll post pictures once these projects are done. I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July weekend!

The Proposal

Fri, 20 May 2011 17:47:46 -0400

The rumors are true- I got engaged! It’s already been a week and I’ve had quite a few people asking about details and such so I thought this would be the best way to share.

Last Friday, we came home like normal and were going to start dinner when Ryan asked if I wanted to exchange our anniversary gifts beforehand. (We were celebrating 2 years) It didn’t matter to me, so, I gave him his gift first and then he told me to sit on the couch with my eyes shut to wait for mine. Then, I heard a bunch of noise and things falling over in the next room over. I wanted to go help but before I could move he said, “are your eyes still closed?” …Yes… Next thing I know he’s sitting behind me telling me to hold out my hands. As I do, I hear things clanking together. I open my eyes and there are two rings!! Not just any rings but two rings I had showed him a few months earlier from Etsy I was joking around one day and sent him a few links to show him the types of rings I would be interested in. Turns out, that same day he purchased two of them and had had them hiding from me this whole time. He said the reason there were two was because he liked both of them and couldn’t pick just one. Now, I can either wear both or one of the two depending on my mood.

The stone is citrine, one of my favorites. Here’s the etsy link so you can see the stone better. The other is a silver band overlapped and held together with a copper rivet.

Someone asked me if being engaged made me feel any different. I told them no and after I think about it a bit more, it just makes me more excited about our future together!

Does anyone else have engagement stories to share? It doesn’t have to be your own. Here are some cute ones!

Baby needs a new pair of shoes

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 10:00:24 -0400

My shoes are starting to look pretty worn (just the way I like them- nice and comfy but not the way most employers like them) so it’s looking like I’ll need to add a new pair to my collection sooner than later. However, I’m having a hard time deciding which shoes to purchase. It would be nice to be able to wear them with lots of different things, have them be comfortable yet stylish, etc.. I think I might have it narrowed down to Toms brand but now I have to try to pick a color.. Here’s where you come in. I took a photo of the clothes currently hanging in my closet. I was hoping that it would give a bit of color pallet for what I will be trying to coordinate these future shoes with.

As you can see, there is a little bit of everything in there.

Next, here’s a link to the shoes I’m interested in. http://www.toms.com/womens?view=all There are quite a few to choose from but I’m kind of leaning towards a blue, black, green or gray pair. Any thoughts??? I would love to hear from people on this one! Thanks.

I look so Good!

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:51:52 -0400

That is a reference from Strong bad- the Teen Girl Squad if anyone can remember back that far..

Most of the time things are pretty causal at my work, we can wear jeans, etc, but every once in awhile we get to put on our dress clothes because we have ‘visitors’ coming to scope out our company. They are potential clients so we want to look good as a whole unit. Usually, I just put on a pair of non-jean pants with my go-to flats but for whatever reason this week I felt like switching things up a bit. I even thought about what I was going to wear the night before, carefully planning that everything would coordinate from head to toe. (Usually, I just go for what’s at eye level and clean.) In the end it felt pretty good! Here are the results:

I’ve got my bright turquoise tights on, a new thick woven brown belt (found at Target), the dress is from Macy’s (found it on sale last spring), the sweater is a resale shop find (one of my Favorites!) and the shoes are from Ross (a few years ago)

I got so many compliments on the whole look… usually I don’t care about such things but it was kind of fun for once in a blue moon. Even the VP of our department noticed what I was wearing. She told me that she has quite a few pairs of tights at home and now she wanted to go out and find a pair like mine to add to her collection.

It kind of made me feel like I was back in high school- appreciating approval from the ‘upper class men’ but like I said, it’s fun to do every once in awhile.

How do others pick out their outfits in the morning? Is it a night before process as well or are you able to pull things together on a whim in the morning?

Spring Cleaning Bug

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:29:57 -0400

Spring is here and I could not be happier! It is my absolute favorite time of year. It means that things start to turn green (my favorite color), the sun makes more frequent appearances and I get to go play outside again!

One of Ryan’s co-workers overheard him talking about my desire to plant a garden this year but not having an area to do so. She has a few raised beds in her yard that she hasn’t been using and offered to let us plant there! (Ryan’s co-workers are amazing!) So, last weekend we tilled up the first of three beds. It took us an hour because we don’t have a tiller and were doing it all by hand with a shovel and hoe! It was a good workout though and the dirt looked amazing after we were done. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera so I do not have any pictures but if you can imagine leaves, small trees (yes, a two-foot pine was growing in the bed) and many roots in a small area being cleared away to unveil a beautiful bed of rich dark soil that’s what it looks like! Today it’s supposed to rain :o( otherwise I would be right back out there finishing up the other two beds and getting seeds in the ground. For those of you still in the Midwest, I don’t mean to brag that our growing season starts so much earlier than yours, but it is pretty awesome. Although, when you start planting in May it will start hitting 90 degrees here with high humidity and I won’t want anything to do with outdoor labor. So there are tradeoffs.

Now back to what I really wanted to post:

Last week, I was feeling motivated to really clean things up. I don’t have any before pictures of this area but it had piles everywhere! Now, all of my necklaces are together.

Along with all of my earrings. (I’m going to have to add some more reinforcement at the top, I have a lot more than I used to)

I also sorted through my clothes, bringing all of the summery clothes back out! While, looking for things that I don’t wear anymore, things that don’t fit quite right, etc. These are a few things from that pile and I’m thinking today would be a great to do something with them.

More pictures soon! Has anyone else caught the spring cleaning bug?

Bags are Nice

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:14:13 -0500

It’s been another productive weekend here. (If you couldn’t tell by now, I like those!) About a month ago, I purchased a computer. I hadn’t had one for almost 5 years- Luckily the people I’ve been surrounded by in the past have been very generous by sharing theirs when necessary. Also, the Public Library system has been helpful as well! Hurray for public libraries. ;o) Anyways, now that I have a nice new machine I wanted to be able to bring it places safely. I found this tutorial online and used it as a guide to make my own. http://www.crapivemade.com/2010/07/zippered-laptop-sleeve-tutorial.html

That link came from another page that had multiple laptop ‘sleeves’ to choose from. http://tipnut.com/laptop-sleeves-cases/ It was hard to pick just one. If you are in need of something similar, I suggest checking out either page.

Her directions have a decorative strip across the front but I decided to add a pocket to my front piece instead. My power cord fits in that section.

I made my first working buttonhole (with my new machine) on this section- very exciting. :o)

That’s the fabric I chose for the lining as well. It’s been one of my favorites in my stash but I haven’t been able to think of what to do with it.

There’s usually a few times when I need to take out the seam ripper and re-do a section of a project that just didn’t work out quite right. This project was no different, only this time I used the thread that I ripped out to add my initials to the back of the bag as an extra detail.

I also used batting as the layer in between the fabrics instead of the felt that she uses in the tutorial so I did some straight stitches to hold the layers together. All in all, I’m happy with how this turned out and I’ve already put it to use.

What are others working on right now? Has anyone else started thinking about spring cleaning?

Simplicity is Good

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:26:19 -0500

Last weekend, I took part in a crafting swap. Everyone brought things that they were no longer using and put them into a heaping pile for others to find new treasures in. I was very happy to find a few things, one being the charm featured in my new necklace.

I know I said my next project would be the blanket for our couch but I pulled out the fabric this morning and just wasn’t feeling it anymore. I think there are a few missing links yet. Does anyone else have that happen to them? For now, I’m happy with the new necklace.

It’s pretty simple but I figure that way I can pair it with more things… I’m still trying to increase my frequency of wearing accessories. It’s so much easier to walk out the door in a t-shirt and jeans rather than think about all of the pieces that I could put together to make a full outfit. But it is a goal for the spring. We’ll see what happens with that.

On a side note, here a few other things I found at the swap. The yellow zippers are for my sister, she’s studying to be a fashion designer and I can see her using these in a jacket or something like that. The fabric will add to my stash for now. And the flowered bag to the right has my things in it for hand sewing the binding on; the quilting needles, binding clips, scissors, etc.

Finished

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:37:45 -0500

Last night I finished hand sewing the binding onto the baby quilt I’ve been working on!

I ended up “stitching in the ditch” to hold it together so you can’t really see much of it. It’s not very exciting but since some of the prints already have so much going on I didn’t want it to get too busy. For my next project I plan to experiment more with different types of stitching.

I also used a continual strip of binding that went all the way around the quilt. Usually, I do mitered corners with individual strips of binding along each side of the quilt but I had a picture in my quilting book to go off of and tried something different. These corners are not as crisp as the other kind but I think it works for this project.

I’m still surprised at how quickly this went together! Next up, is a quilt for our couch. :o) Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Splash of color

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 09:35:55 -0500

This entry was inspired by this Style Project post http://thestyleproject.tumblr.com/post/2826492196/true-confessions It is about introducing more color into your wardrobe. In general, I don’t mind putting on a colorful top, sweater, earrings or a necklace. Actually, I love doing things like that but there is something about drawing attention to my legs that I’ve never been a fan of…

I bought this pair of blue tights a few years back but have never worn them because I thought they were too eye catching for me. Yesterday, I took a few photos and would love some feedback on what else I could be doing with them (or if they should just stay in the closet for good)

They always seem so much brighter in person but in this lighting they don’t look as intimidating.

Check out The Style Project’s most recent post http://thestyleproject.tumblr.com/post/3233649731/inspired for more inspiring fashion forward ideas!