In the effort to be a better blogger...

Here's a random mind dump of things I've been up to lately:

1. Taking a whole Saturday to play at Six Flags New England
2. Feeling like I've taken a beating the day after said adventure
3. Signing a new lease for a new place with my roommates - we'll be moving at the end of August
4. Buying tickets to visit Utah at the end of August, which will make moving 5 days after getting back from said trip super fun
5. Enjoying Edwina, my new iPhone 3GS, whose name had to be changed since she was just too pretty to be a boy
6. Lamenting the fact that pretty much everyone (and everything) in my life is now female - where have all the men gone?
7. Volunteering as a costume assistant for Shakespeare on the Common and then feeling like a crazy person for continuing to email them since I haven't heard anything from them (but keeping my fingers crossed)
8. Watching Harry Potter 6 last Wed! And loving it!
9. Continuing to love my new car, Gemma, and the freedom it brings to go anywhere I want whenever I want
10. Getting some fabulous knock-off Coach bags at a great "purse market" in New Hampshire for super cheap (ie around 10 dollars a pop - oh yes I bought more than one)
11. Watching "So You Think You Can Dance" every Wed. and Thurs. and consequently wanting to start dancing again (thinking about taking a class)
12. Thinking about maybe teaching a bookbinding class at the "Cambridge Center for Adult Education" since I heard their teacher left
13. Reading lots of good books, especially the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, you should check it out
14. Getting no where on the quilting projects that I made goals to finish before the end of the summer and feeling guilty
15. Finally starting on the tan I vowed to get this summer - I no longer look like a vampire
16. Video chatting with the nieces and nephews - this is probably the best invention ever

That's it for now... And just because it's not a post without a picture:



Part of the group I went to the beach with 2 weekends ago which was the beginning of said tan!

Thrifty

So one of the things I was looking forward to do now that Gemma and I are BFF's is check out some Flea Markets, but the season hasn't gotten into full swing yet, plus I haven't found any recommendations for good ones that don't happen on Sundays, so for now I've been checking out the local Thrift and Antique Stores as well as Craig's List for things I've been needing (or wanting, really) for my room.


My desk chair has been broken for a while now, the seat will no longer stay raised, and although it's cute, it's been very annoying trying to work at the computer or sewing machine when I'm about eye level with the desk. So my initial goal was to find a cute chair to re-do a la Design*Sponge, but I wasn't having much luck with the flea market thing and the antique stores were a little pricier. I got lucky and found a chair on Craig's List that was pretty close to what I was looking for and it was only $15!. I wanted something more like this one above, but I'm not about to spend $150-300 on a chair for my desk. My only requirement was that it had a padded seat, since I've been using a pillow from my bed to sit on for the last few months, and for the price of the Craig's List chair I couldn't go wrong. The one I bought looks more like the one to the left (it doesn't have a skirt) but I'm ok with it. So I now have a project to put to use the brown damask fabric I bought a couple weeks ago! I'll have to post a before and after picture when I get it done. I'd like to go with a lighter color really, but I figure I should use what I already have. Plus, it does go with my room.

I also made a great find and I was super excited about! I've been wanting a mirror like this for a while, and I found one that was gold at one of the consignment antique stores I went to and couldn't resist. I brought it home and put a couple coats of blue spray paint on it and voila! I'm really happy with how it turned out! I'll have to take a good picture of it and post it, the lighting in my room was too bad for Edwin last night. I also found a vintage tea cup to go on my dresser and hold some of my jewelry which is another little thing I've been wanting to find for a while. So it was a successful weekend Thrifting!

{ Time for some Design }

Meet Gemma

Yep!  I bought a car this week!  So there's a little bit of bad news that goes along with this decision... I'm not going to England this year for Grad School.  It's no longer the right time, with the way the economy is going, to leave a great job I love for 40K dollars of debt.  So I decided if I wasn't going to England, I was getting a car!  I really don't think I could have taken another year without a car here in Boston.  So although I really wanted to go to England, I am so happy I have my freedom and independence now it almost makes up for it!

So meet Gemma.  Keeping with the whole British thing, I figured, she's a gem (in my opinion), so it fits!  (btw, she's a 2007 Mazda 6 Sport)

It was that or Lola, but I kinda want to save that name for a dog someday... I can't name my dog after my car...

Yeah, she's got a spoiler (or wings as my Dad likes to call it) and dual exhaust... lovely.

And she greets me every time I start her up.

She's got lots of fun options, which was something that was kind of important to me since I plan on driving this car for many many years to come.  And I really just can't explain how happy I am to be able to get around.  And in style to boot!

Anyway, enough about the car.  Here's a look at some of the fabric I bought to finish up my quilts.  

The fabric to the left on the bottom is for the back of the Amy Butler Modern Block quilt with some pretty damask fabric I found that I'm going to make some pillows with.  The one to the right is the pink backing fabric I bought with the finished quilt top of my Charm School Quilt.

These are just a couple other fun fabrics I picked up.  I've already used the yellow and gray to make the purse from my last post, and I'm going to make a messenger bag from the brown damask.  Man I love that fabric! (As you can tell since I bought the same print in three colors...)

So I haven't gotten as much done on the quilts as I'd like, but I'm determined to finish at least 2 quilts before the summer really kicks in.  Oh, I should mention that I have plans to start two other quilts as well.  This Cathedral Window Quilt and also this denim quilt (normally I don't like denim quilts, but I think this one is really cute!), which I think will make the perfect summer picnic blanket!  Plus, I'm going to use up the old jeans I never wear anymore!

I'm going to try to finish the other two quilts before starting the new ones, but we'll see what happens... I always say that, but I think I have project ADD sometimes...

Oh and in the next post I'll have to show you what I've been up to at the letterpress studio!  And last but not least...

{ Happy Easter! }