Sewbot's Favorites - November 6, 2010

This week my favorite thing is trips to Omaha.  On our last trip, I convinced my parents and Jason to go down to the park on Sunday morning and get donuts.  It's kind of a Sunday tradition.  Jason had never been, though.  It was time he got to participate. 

Another yearly tradition is photos by the planters at the park.  Here's some of this year's photos.


My Mom, Dad, Spencer, & Chloe. 


Jason and I.


I couldn't decide which of these two photos to share with you, so I went with both. 

Favorite Things - September 5, 2010

This week my favorite thing is my new house.  :)  I love our neighborhood.  I love our house.  I love living here way more than I thought I would.  It's become very obvious to us since we've moved in that this is the right house for us.  A few of you have been asking for photos, so here they are...


Yep, you did hear me correctly. Yes, our address is just #5.


We live on a bit of a hill...


Kind of cute isn't it?  I have big plans for it that I'm sure I'll share with you at some point.


My new neighbor, Sunny, told me she had been coming over and watering my flowers so they'd still be pretty when we moved in.  Isn't that sweet of her?


Something that's falling off this tree is attracting deer.  We've been here a little under two weeks and have seen 2 does and 3 fawns right in this spot. 


See my clothesline?  I'm totally excited to have one I can leave up all the time.

I'm not going to show you much of the inside of our house because it is still a little messy. I've been VERY busy since we moved in, so the majority of my studio is still in the living room. Anybody have any suggestions for shelves that have doors to protect my fabric, but isn't too expensive? I've decided it's going in the basement, so I'd like it to be covered. I'm also going to be making some of these puppies... It will be like going fabric shopping in my own mini store!


Jason found this trio for us for $45 at a garage sale up the street.  They're a little worn, but very comfortable.  I think they have a lot of potential and could be easily recovered.  I do kind of like the fabric they are now, though.


Lily likes them, too.  She hangs out here a lot.


What do you think?  I like this; Jason says it's growing on him, but hated it in the beginning.  It's something that seems to be either a stern "Yes!  I love it!" or "Oh my gosh why do you still have that hanging there?"  What do you think?


Our pretty much original 1956 kitchen.  No dishwasher, but we'll most likely be buying one this weekend to "ghetto-rig" in. 


This is a new addition to the kitchen.  The pantry is on the left, broom closet on the right.  I love our fridge, too.  I just wish it had an ice maker, because Jason has already figured out my strategy for not making ice.  The strategy goes like this: 2 ice cubes left in the box.  If I only take 1, that means I didn't take the last one and he'll have to do it.  How did he already figure me out?!  I thought I had him tricked. 

So, that's our new place.  We like it quite a bit. 

Sewbot's Favorites - August 1, 2010

See how bad my old ironing board cover was?  I made it about 3 years ago.  It was yuck-eeee!



Look, this hole in it has been there for probably at least a year. 



It's looked like this underneath since I made it.  I've never loved it, but it did the job.

I've been on the lookout for a new cover for a long time.  I just have a hard time paying $20 for a new cover.  I was super excited when I found this new cover for $5! 


I wish it was a little more fun, but for $5 I'm not complaining.  It has a nice cushy pad built-in.

I'm thrilled with my new cover.  My favorite thing this week is my new ironing board cover.

Happy Father's Day!

Today, my favorite thing is my Dad.



Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you!

Sewbot's Favorites - June 13, 2010 - Free Stuff!

I love when people give me free things.  It could be their junk and I'll still probably love it. 

Cheryl was doing some cleaning in her craft space and brought in a bunch of stuff to pass along to the other guild members.  I was lucky enough to snag one of these cute little guys.

How adorable is this packaging?  Love it!  She divided some of her scraps by color and packaged them into these little guys. 


All this fun was packed inside.  I signed up to make several blocks in primary colors as a part of another charity project with the guild.  I think a few of these may come in handy for that project.  We'll see!

Thanks Cheryl, for sharing some of your scraps with me.  It's always fun to obtain somebody else's scraps.  :)

More Pacific Northwest Flowers

I know I've been slacking a little on the sewbot's favorites, so here's one for your viewing pleasure. 

Today I'm loving the flowers of the Pacific Northwest.  These two little guys were from around Portland, Oregon. 



















I just couldn't stop taking pictures of beautiful flowers on our trip.  I feel I have to share them with you. 

Hope you don't mind.  :)

Favorite Things - April 11, 2010

My new favorite thing is a remote for my camera. I'm not sure I've mentioned it before, but I shoot most of my pictures on a Canon Rebel XSi. I also have a small (purse sized!) Canon Powershot, but that's only really for my out and about and I don't really want to have that touristy look kicking.

Last fall I took a fabulous class at the Photographx Unlimited store not far from me. In this class I learned about how to set aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and other basic things to get my camera out of the "mom zone". (Mom zone = the green auto square that anybody could hand the camera to their mom and tell her to click the button.) It was a great class. I really got to learn how to use my camera and how to analyze what I can do better in my photos. Well, the last day, our instructor brought in a sheet for us on how to photograph fireworks. It's such a cool thing to be able to do and I saw all sorts of possibilities with the method used. It requires a remote and a tripod.

It was pretty stormy here the other night, so Jason and I took Ansel (we've decided to name our camera that) out the other night and try to play with the lights. I picked up the Wireless Remote Controller RC-1 earlier in the week and thought it would be fun to learn how to use our new toy before we headed to Chicago. Here's a few of the shots we took the other night:


This is of an ambulance driving down the highway behind our apartment.


This one is of a car driving through the parking lot.


This is a car backing out of a parking stall.

So, my favorite thing this week is my new camera remote control.

Sewbot's Favorites - March 29, 2010

Yesterday was a fairly nice day so Jason and I headed out and about. I've been wanting to go to Anthropologie for a while now. I've never bought anything there, but I love to look at their stuff. There's so many things there that I could make myself. I just love that place. Anyway... that's not the point of my story.

So, on the way home we stopped my Urban Arts + Crafts. They had a display for this class. It's for the same class Jason and I took a while ago. Do you see the orange bag on the right side?


This bag:


That was one I made in the class! I didn't like it enough to take home, so I tossed it there. Isn't it crazy that they snatched it to display it? I think that's pretty cool. It's always fun to see that somebody else likes what you made.

That's definitely my favorite thing for this week; finding something I made unexpectedly.

Sewbot's Favorites - March 14, 2010

Editted to add this (since I realized after posting that I had not explained this photo.)
My Papa turns 80 on Wednesday. Jason and I got to join a lot of my family yesterday to celebrate. My uncle Pat kept it a secret that my parents & sister were driving in from Omaha and Jason & I were coming from Kansas City. He was so surprised! We met in Des Moines for lunch and had a lot of fun. This photo is of my Gramma, Mom, and Papa.

My favorite thing this week is getting to be a part of the fun.

One other favorite.... Happy Pi Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! This week, my favorite thing is my valentine.

Sewbot's Favorites - February 7, 2010

This week my favorite thing is a gift I received this past Christmas from my parents. It's a pair of earrings they picked up for me in Paducah.

January 17, 2009 - Favorite Things

I scanned it while I was at my parents' house one of the last times. I'm 17 months old in this photo, which would date this to around the new year of 1986. Love it!

January 10, 2009 - Favorite Things

My favorite thing this week is this pin cushion I received as a Christmas gift this year. It's from Jason's sister, Elle and her husband, Kevin. Kevin went to Thailand a few months ago and found it for me there. How cool?

Check in all this next week for the scoop on the annual gingerbread contest.

Mom's Sewing Room

This week, my favorite thing is my mom's sewing room.

My mom has an awesome sewing room. It's a small bedroom (which used to be mine) in their house. It's got plenty of nice light, a walk-in closet, and a small enclosed porch with swing. I thought I'd share a few photos of where my mom works on her projects.


Isn't that a nice Christmas mini quilt she has hanging on her door? It came from one of her recent swaps.

P.S. Sorry about the tiny photos. I have been having issues getting things to load using flickr as the host lately and this is how I figured out how to get around that.