A Day of Celebration

IT IS FINISHED!  THE BATTLE IS OVER!!!!!!

Today, I graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill!!!!

I could not be more excited!  After 4 long years of papers, exams, and more readings than I knew what to do with, I am finally finished.  In that time, I have lived in 4 different homes, 3 different cities, gone to 2 different universities, and walked away with 1 Bachelor's degree in Global Studies (and a minor in Arabic).  It was certainly a challenge, and I certainly enjoyed a lot of it, but I am very happy to finally finish that chapter of life.  I'm not sure where the future will take us, but I look forward to seeing what God has in store for us!  I also look forward to a lot more reading for pleasure, no more exams, learning for the fun of it...

Since I was not in Chapel Hill for graduation, we had a little graduation ceremony of our own here in Texas.  My in-laws all came to celebrate, and my nieces and nephews all got to be my classmates - they walked, received their diplomas, turned their tassels, and threw their caps!  On Saturday, I made construction paper caps for the kids, and a cardstock cap for myself.  They had yarn tassels, and the kids decorated the caps with stickers.  I also made little diplomas for each of them.  Jeff's brother-in-law also made this great Italian Cream Cake with blue icing - it was four layers of rich deliciousness!  Perfect with a cuppa tea :)

Before the ceremony this afternoon, we had a special lunch with diploma sandwiches (turkey and cheese rolled in a tortilla), and lots of fruits and veggies.  Then it was time for the ceremony!  We played "Pomp and Circumstance" (of course!) while my father-in-law (the acting Dean of Students) called out each name and presented each person with their diploma.  After we all got our diplomas, we turned our tassels and threw our caps in a fit of glee!  Then we got special graduation snacks - fruit roll up diplomas for the kids, and graduation cap chocolates (from Pinterest) for the grown-ups :)  My parents and sisters FaceTimed in to watch the ceremony, so even though they couldn't be there in person, they still got to celebrate with us.   And the super fun thing - my dress!  I just finished making it this week!  I'll post more about that later...

Today is also Mother's Day, which means I got to celebrate my wonderful mother.  Unfortunately, I couldn't be there to celebrate with her in person, so I sent her a gift instead and was FaceTimed in for the big reveal.  I made her a Grateful Jar, which is a jar filled with thank you notes so whenever she's feeling sad or unappreciated or missing her baby #2, she can pull one out and be reminded of how much I love her.  She loved it :)  I also got to celebrate my mother-in-law and my two sisters-in-law, all of them fantastic mothers who work tirelessly and selflessly for their families.

To be honest, this Mother's Day was bittersweet.  Sweet, because I got to celebrate all the wonderful mothers in my life (especially my own!) who have been such an encouragement to me.  Bitter, because I was painfully reminded that my first child would never be able to celebrate this day with me.  I would've been 22 weeks along today, over half way through. I read a blog post from Deeply Rooted magazine this week, and Allie Rasmussen wrote it beautifully:

We grieve deeply, but not “as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). We have hope to press on because we see His good gifts to us, even in our pain: our salvation, family members, His Body surrounding and comforting us. We have hope in knowing that this life never has the last word. Think of what awaits us that we do not yet see: God himself, along with the precious itty-bitty babies that we never got to hold or know. We have babies to miss but to rejoice in meeting someday, with the One who saved us from our sin and promises all will be made right and new. Author Timothy Keller writes, “If the death of Jesus Christ happened for us and he bore our hopelessness so that now we can have hope—and if the resurrection of Jesus Christ happened—then even the worst things will turn into the best things, and the greatest are yet to come.”

So today, I'm celebrating.  Celebrating the end of college, celebrating precious time with family, celebrating the women who pour out their lives to raise us and care for us, and I'm celebrating the hope I have in Christ that all will be made new.

The Lettering Project

Towards the end of last semester, I was looking for a way to procrastinate (no surprise there), and thought the perfect way to spend the afternoon would be to draw a special 90th birthday card for my Grammie Esther.  I found a cool font that I liked, and decided to recreate it by hand.  I had seen a lot of hand-lettering recently, and I thought it was really cool!  So after a few hours, I was surprised that my efforts turned out better than I had expected.  Thus the seed of hand-lettering was planted.

The more I looked at other works of hand-lettering, the more I fell in love with the idea.  I began paying closer attention to the smaller details of fonts and signs.  By exams, I had decided I wanted to do a 365 project - starting January 1st, I would do (at least) one piece of hand-lettering a day for an entire year.  Committing to that project was pretty daunting.  But I knew that if I wanted to improve a lot at lettering, I needed to practice it regularly.  So I did some research on materials, bought myself various sizes of black Micron pens (they're awesome!), and a notebook to get myself started.

My first month of hand-lettering was awesome!  The necessity of a piece a day fired up my imagination, and I attempted things I thought beyond my capability.  I found that when I took my time and worked hard and carefully, the pieces turned out better than I had imagined.  As I continued to post pictures of the pieces, family and friends began to encourage me to try to sell some of my work.  I thought that was silly, I wasn't anywhere near good enough for that.

Towards the end of January, intense fatigue set in.  Not with the project, that is.  I was physically exhausted all the time.  3 naps in a day? I rocked that. I found out that it was due to my pregnancy, and of course, I celebrated.  I began planning different ways to announce it - with hand-lettering of course!  But I also began to realize that it might not be feasible to complete the project.  I had missed a few days because of illness, and felt pressured to make them up by doubling up later on.  That really wasn't the point.  I didn't want to feel like it was a chore, something that just had to be completed.

By the time my energy started to come back, I lost our baby (more about that here).  I wasn't in a place to work on lettering every day.  So, I took a little break.  I grieved.  Still grieving, to be honest.  But after a little time, I started looking outwards again.  Ideas for lettering pieces started to form.  I created a piece that was - and is - incredibly dear to my heart.  It's my favorite yet, mostly because of what the words meant to me after losing our baby.  After I finished it, I decided to aim for 3 days of lettering a week.  More, if I felt like it.  It was a way to continue the project, knowing that some days I just can't handle picking up the pen.

Now, back in January, when family was encouraging me to sell my artwork, I had looked into opening an Etsy shop.  It looked like a neat way to sell my work, but I was put off by having to pay to list items.  It's not that much, but it still bugged me, enough to use that as justification for not doing it.  Well, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like maybe I was not doing it because I was scared of rejection, and worried that no one would buy anything.  The thought annoyed me in a way - I was never that way as a kid.  Growing up, I would set my mind on something, and go get it, regardless of what my peers thought, or even what my family thought.  But now, I seem to by hyper aware of what other people think regarding my work.  For the most part, what others think hasn't been an issue, only how I view my work as compared to other work.  Bad idea.  I'll never be good enough in my own mind by comparing my work to other people's.  So I'm continuing to put my work out there to be enjoyed, and constantly trying to only compare my work to earlier versions in order to see improvement.

Now then, for this week.  Earlier this week, a friend of mine (who has a super cool Etsy shop of her own) posted a link on Facebook that would allow someone to get their first 40 listings for free if they opened their Etsy shop through her link.  It looked perfect!  My main objection, paying to list items, would no longer be a problem, at least for a little while.  I could try selling some things, and if it didn't work out, I could shut down the shop before I had to start paying for listings.  So before I could talk myself out of it, I went ahead and opened a shop.  !!!!!!!  Commence nervous butterflies in the stomach.  I put up a few items, made a banner for the store, and posted the link so my friends could see it.  That was yesterday.  Last night, I received my first order!  I just about jumped out of my skin.  I'm still really excited about it!!! All of the pieces for sale at the moment are made to order, so this morning I got to sit down and create a piece for someone.  I can't wait for them to get it, and I hope it brings them as much joy as it did me in creating it.

Letters are something we take for granted.  We don't think about them all that much, unless of course you're a graphic designer or an artist, but the impact a carefully created piece has can be incredible.  It gives me great joy to create things, especially if that thing might bring a smile to someone else's face.  Even if no one else saw my lettering, I would still love doing it.  The process from basic sketch to a finished inked piece is so much fun to see.  I love that moment at the end, just after I finish erasing the last of the pencil lines, and finally get to see the completed work, something that - not long ago - had been just a figment of my imagination.  My hope is that people can look at my work and smile.

So, without further ado, here is my Etsy shop!

The Yoga Skirt

A couple Sundays ago, I was up really early before church and couldn't decide what to wear.  I remembered that I had just recently acquired some blue and white striped knit fabric, and thought it would make a nice skirt.  So I jumped online, found a blog post about easy knit skirts I had pinned a while back on Pinterest, and got to work.  The blogger called it a yoga skirt - after similar skirts that were being sold at Old Navy.  The knit makes it stretchy and comfortable.  The waistband is what makes it neat - it doesn't need elastic or a zipper, since the knit is stretchy, but still snug.

First, I took some quick measurements to figure out how wide I wanted the waistband and the length of the skirt.  Then I grabbed some tissue paper and drew myself a pattern.

Next, I had to line up all the stripes on the fabric so the edges would match up.

Then I cut out the three pieces (front of the skirt, back of the skirt, waistband), sewed the waistband together, then the two sides together.   I attached the waistband, stretching the top of the skirt as I went to match up with the waistband.  I had to use a zig zag stitch for most of it to make sure the fabric would still be able to stretch without popping a stitch.  Finally, I hemmed the bottom of the skirt.

The whole process, pattern to wearing it, took me two hours.  It's the fastest I've ever completed a sewing project!  I wore the skirt to church that morning :)  I really like this skirt - it's lightweight, and comfortable, and really easy to make.  I had never sewn with a knit before, so I was kind of nervous, but it wasn't too difficult.  I'll definitely be on the look-out for more knit fabrics so I can make more of these in the future.

Building a Coffee Table

Almost a year ago, I was browsing the craft section of Pinterest and came across this really cool looking coffee table.  The couple had found this old door, cleaned it up a bit, attached some legs and voila! A really cool vintage coffee table.  I immediately fell in love with it, and decided to do it myself.  So I spent the next month or so scouring thrift shops and Habitat for Humanity's Restore in order to find the perfect door.  I finally found it one day in the back of Restore, and promptly bought it for $21.  It was old, and made out of solid wood.  This project would be done almost entirely at my parents' house, since they have the space and all the fun power tools a girl could ever want.

I started off by stripping most of the paint off of the top of the door.  Sections of it were peeling and cracking off, and I didn't want to worry about possible lead paint chips coming off later down the line.  I decided to leave some of the old paint (that didn't come off with the first two rounds of paint stripping) around the edges so when I distressed the new paint, the old paint (which is a different color) would show through and give it some depth.

Then we loaded the door into my dad's car and drove it to a friend's to use their table saw to cut the door down to a better size.

After cutting it down, we had to secure the top piece of wood to make sure the rest of the door, which was fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, wouldn't fall apart.  We did this using an awesome tool called a Kreg jig.  It lets you drill a hole at a specific angle to secure two pieces of wood together - it's a really strong joint, and the holes are easily hidden.

testing out the new Kreg jig

preparing to drill the hole for the screw

power tools are lots of fun :)

After the pieces were secure, I got some crackle medium to put on the panels.  I wanted the new paint to crack, so it would look older and show the old paint or wood underneath.  Crackle medium is the easiest way to do it.  Once it dried, I re-painted the door.

After the paint dried, I began to distress it.  This part was a lot of fun - I dropped a hammer on the door, hit it was a crowbar, scratched it up, and basically just enjoyed beating the wood up to give it more texture.  Then I used a little wood stain to darken some of the edges and fill some of the new dents in the door.  After that, I sealed it with 3 coats of polyurethane.

all ready for polyurethane!

All of this had been done over about 4 months of various weekends at my parents'.  After I finished the top coat of polyurethane, the door sat in my parents garage until this summer.  I had sidetracked by other things in life, and I was stuck on what to do for table legs.  I had found some affordable options online, but nothing I saw really struck me as being right.  On spare days this summer, I went back to me parents to finish up with the polyurethane - I had to do several coats on the back of the door to make sure the old paint on that side wouldn't chip off.  Then the past couple weeks, I finally made a decision on the frame and got to work.  My dad and I bought some lumber from Lowe's - the wood was the same size as some of the more expensive table legs, but unfinished (meaning not sanded or stained), and about twice as long.  We bought two of these and cut them in half, which only cost us $10.

Building the frame was so much fun!  My mom wisely suggested that we miter the corners of the frame, to give it a finished edge.

lining up the frame

securing the legs

We used the Kreg jig for the frame.  The outer frame is there to provide stability for the legs.  We quickly discovered some warp in the wood, which meant we had to get a little creative with attaching the legs.  We used shims (slim, angled slices of wood) in between some of the legs and the frame to make sure that all the legs were straight and level when attached.

Once the frame was built, I did 3 coats of wood stain, followed by 2 coats of polyurethane to seal the stain.  The polyurethane took a long time to dry since it's so humid here.  After it was dry, we brought it back inside, placed it on top of the door, marked the frame's position, then drilled holes in the frame where it would be screwed to the door.  We were lucky - the frame sat level on the door, so we didn't have use any more shims.  We clamped the frame onto the door and screwed it in.  For a final touch, we put felt pads on to the bottoms of the legs.

And here's the final result: the coffee table in its new home :)

Valentine's Day

This year was our first Valentine's day as a married couple :)  Since we're not big on buying each other gifts, it wasn't the stereotypical chocolate and flowers kind of holiday for us.  Also, I was leaving that afternoon to drive to Kentucky, so no date night either...

Instead, we celebrated on the 13th!  Jeff had been in New Orleans the week before, so he surprised me by bringing back some coffee and chicory from Cafe du Monde.  Clearly he knows me and my coffee-loving ways too well :)  I haven't tried it yet, since I still haven't finished my other open bag of coffee, but I'm really looking forward to it!

And my gift in return was this tiny little painted canvas.  I saw this Etsy seller on Pinterest who sold these as bigger wall hangings, and thought they were so cute!  I was also looking for an idea of something small I could make for Jeff for his office to brighten it up a bit, which is when I came up with this idea.  All it took was a mini canvas, some yellow paint, a pencil, and a sharpie!

(small enough to fit in my hand...)

It was a pretty simple project, took about an hour overall to sketch the letters, paint around the letters, and then outline them.  Overall, a sweet Valentine's day for us!

The Circle Skirt

Ever since I decided that sewing was fun again, I've been on a skirt kick.  I've found a ton of different ideas for making skirts on Pinterest, and slowly I've begun to start making them.  The circle skirt was one of the first ones I pinned, and it looked pretty simple.  No seams - just cut it out, sew in elastic, and hem it.  So I took my measurements, drew a pattern, and then cut it out.

The fabric was actually a fitted sheet that was given to me by my pastor's wife after they moved into a new house.  I bought some elastic from Wal-Mart, sewed a casing around it, and then did my first-ever rolled hem!  At first I thought I'd sew a regular hem, but when I pinned it, it made the skirt look stiff, so I decided to go with a rolled hem, even though I didn't have the special hemming foot for my machine.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty great!

Pinterest Projects

Just about every girl I know spends time on Pinterest these days.  It's a pretty neat site - I found lots of fun ideas for the wedding there!  Nowadays, I like looking through the DIY category for fun, new ideas for making clothing, decorating/organizing the house, and especially for food recipes.  I had some down time yesterday (my last day of summer vacation...), so I thought I'd do a Pinterest project!  It was a simple one - using a coffee can as a way to store all those plastic grocery bags.  It took less than an hour.  Here's how it went down:

I started with a big ol' coffee can from Walmart and stripped the label off. 

Grabbed some white acrylic paint and a paintbrush

2 coats of paint...

The Pinterest post used sticker letters, but I like painting... so teal paint for the lettering!

cut a hole in the lid

ta-da!  finished project!

The Coffee Date Dress

The last week has been pretty unusual in our house...  Jeff started a new job (A/V director!), so he's been at work a lot.  I was getting pretty bored at home by myself.  Then last Monday, I had a thought - my birthday was coming up on Friday, and I wanted to go out for a nice dinner, but what would I wear?  I found myself on Pinterest, and next thing I knew, I had found a somewhat easy-looking dress pattern.  So off I went, found some fabric in my craft box, printed out the pattern, and decided that I would make this dress and be wearing on my birthday.

24 pages of pattern to sort through...

The pattern taped together

After I printed out the pattern, I saw that I would have to cut the borders off every sheet, match the edges, tape it all together, and then cut out the pieces.  I also read the directions all the way through at this point, and realized that I'd have to do an invisible zipper and this thing called all-in-one facing.  I may have panicked a bit at that point... I do not like zippers.  I've had bad experiences with them.  Well, with sewing projects in general.  I was always too hasty and ended up messing stuff up and had to unpick it and redo it and then I'd get frustrated and give up on it.  But I was determined not to let that happen this time.

The pattern pieces

So I got all the pieces cut out, the fabric marked and cut, and was ready to start sewing.  The bodice and ruffle came first, which wasn't too bad.  Attaching the ruffle to the bodice was kind of frustrating though.

ruffle: completed.

Then came the first true test of my patience: the all-in-one facing.  Now, according to blogs, and google, and my mother (a seamstress extraordinaire), this was a pretty awesome way to get neat and finished edges for the armholes and neckline - especially when the dress doesn't have a lining.  I spent a good hour looking up tutorials and pictures and videos of the process, but it was still pretty nerve-wracking.  My younger sister showed up soon after I finished sewing the facing, at which point I was jumping around the room, so excited that it actually worked. Then came the skirt, which I attached to the bodice.

attaching the facing

facing is done and skirt attached

Next: the bane of my existence.  I was sweating bullets by the time I started working on the invisible zipper.  I was so scared of ruining the dress at this point.  So I went SUPER slowly.  And by some miracle, it worked.  I had a zipper, and the sides were lined up and it was even - what?!  So excited.  I quickly finished off the top edges and attached the hook and eye.

the finished zipper!

After that, I sewed a blind hem (by hand), tacked down the ruffles so they wouldn't stick up in weird ways, and made a couple adjustments to the side darts to make the dress fit better.  Mission accomplished!!!!  Friday came, the dress was completed, and I wore it out for dinner.  I'm still beyond excited that this project worked out so well... I think I could get used to this.

the finished product!

Thanks to Elaine May for the pattern, which can be found here: http://selfishseamstress.wordpress.com/downloads/