Pickles and look who was on my camera!

Today I was doing some yard work and found all these little green tomatoes growing on a volunteer tomato plant in my mint! So instead of letting the chipmunks feast I picked them and found a pickled green tomato recipe in that old Ball Canning recipe book I have. Who knows what they will taste like but its worth a try. Seemed like alot of work for 1 quart but we will see. I must say they look pretty. I like canning. Then when I went to upload the pickles look who I found hiding in my camera? I forgot I even took pictures that day. Rach an Jeff look good and happy, we were having lunch at Fatheads on the southside, that was a fun day.

First maternity dress

I bought this fabric and was going to make a princess cut sheath dress for work before I found out I was pregnant. I rearranged the pattern a little, making the waist a little higher than my natural waist and made the skirt pleated.

 I made the belt from some left over fabric. Since my bump is sitting quite low, I think I will be able to wear this for awhile! The collar went a little crazy. I tried to make the neckline a little lower and used non-bias tape to round the edge, probably a mistake. Looks kind of fun and ruffly though.

Baby on the way!

Expected due date: Jan. 29, 2012

Can you believe it? I'm 15 weeks pregnant! Here's the bump as of last week. The first time I wore a fitted shirt and felt like I actually looked pregnant and not just chubby! Please ignore my hair, I don't know what's going on with it lately.

We are very excited and just can't wait until next year!

the weekend of unfinished projects

This weekend I didn't have any plans so I decided it was time to finish some projects I have been working on for a while.

Here is the finished scratch pad I made for Gourd from moving boxes. I cut the boxes into strips and glued them together in a circle. Then I covered the bottom with a scrap of fabric so that I can put cat nip on the scratch pad and not get it all over the floor. Gourd seems to like his new toy so far.

My next project was my shark fin. I finally got all the pictures I wanted cut out and ready to glue. Here is it before:

And After: you'll have to come visit to see the pictures closer but I did you a little bit of a pattern to the pictures. The top and bottom corners are sunsets, the first diagonal row are moons, next row down are trees, then paths, when water. Its easier to see when you're here but I love the way it turned out.

My next project was to make my craft room look more like a craft room instead of just somewhere I threw everything I didn't know what to do with. I cut out pictures that I liked from some magazines and made them into stars to hang in the room (below).

Here is the room before I did anything this weekend:

Here is the room now:

These are the stars hanging from the ceiling. I'm really happy with them too.

One side of the room with the flag and cork board.

Other side of the room with two collages

The view when you walking in with two more posters I made.

Here is the close up of one of the posters. It says "Get lost in the beauty of everything you see" with pictures from some national geographic magazines. I love them but don't want to be one of those people that save them all so I'm trying to think of other ways to use them.

Finally here is the sweater the I knitted!! I had to knit each piece separately and make sure they were all the same length and everything.

Then I had to sew them all together at the shoulders first:

AND HERE IT IS!!! (sorry I forgot to turn the picture and I don't know why its so blurry)

Here is the back:

You can see the pattern on in these ones better, the front:

and the back:

I'm actually very happy with how it turned out and can't wait till the weather is actually cold enough that I can wear it!!

Happy Birthday USA!

Happy 4th of July!

I know, a little late. I was changing my toe nail polish and thought I'd take a picture. I painted my toe nails red white and blue with toothpicks. Not too hard, just takes awhile.

For the weekend, Kellen and I and the dogs went back to visit Kellen's parents house and their farm. It was fair week so we got to see the derby on Saturday!

 We had box seats!

 Only a few fires. The poor firemen had to stand in their gear the entire time of each derby, bla. It was hot!

For the first time, they had a lawnmower derby. It started the derby, we missed it, were eating too many pork burgers. Hope everyone had a fun 4th of July!

hiking in roanoke

Yesterday I went on my first hike with an outdoors club that I joined in Roanoke. I was a little nervous about not knowing anyone but everyone was very nice. We hiked about 6.5 miles total. It took about an hour and a half to hike up the trail to McAfee's Knob. It was very nice the first 2 miles but the last 1.5 was pretty much straight up. I was quite winded when we made it to the top but it was a wonderful view so it was worth it. On the one side we could see the sunset and the full moon on the other and a million miles in between. Here are some of the pictures I took and some of me!

This was on the way up:

Here is me at the top:

A view of the mountains:

The sunset:

Me and the moon:

I'm very glad that I joined the club and can't wait to do some more activities outdoors here! Maybe I'll even hike the whole Appalachia Trail someday!

Needle Turning!!!!

I did it! Can you tell I've missed quilting? The needle turn technique wasn't to bad. I think now I'm going to add a small sashing with posts maybe flags then a wider piano key border. A throw not a bed quilt is what I'm going for. Hopefully I can get it done before my guild meeting next Monday night.

Quilting with Kathy

This morning Kathy and I got together to sew. Look what we created! We used civil war reproduction fabric that she bought both of us for christmas. This pattern went together really easy, the hard part will be hand needle turning the diamonds in the center of the squares into cathedral windows. I'm going to start turning tonight. I'll take another picture when I get done. Then of course I have to figure out some exciting border, but I thought you both would like to see some creativity on my part not a crown smoking jacket!

Happy Retirement!

Over Memorial Day weekend my Dad retired from the air force! I found some pictures on my camera, so I thought I would share!

Happy couple all cute and matching before we went to the ceremony.

Close up!

Can you be too happy to retire?

Part of the ceremony

Mom getting an award.

Dad giving Mom an award.

Congratulations Dad!

New purse and Easter dress

I made this dress for Easter and have forgotten to post it. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. It was my first Vogue pattern I've tried and the sleeves were super complicated. I ended up sewing the entire dress and then gathering the sleeves late Saturday night before Easter at Kellen's parent's house, crazy. It's a really cute dress though! I wore this to a wedding last night. I did wear shoes, but forgot to take pictures until I already had them off!

Kellen and I had a wedding to go to yesterday and I realized I don't have any summer clutches! I found a free pattern online and decided to make one! I had a bunch of left over fabric from my Princess Peach halloween costume so made it pink satin lined in bright pink. I added the flower to the front. It has credit card holders as well as a pocket to fit other stuff in. It turned out pretty cute. I think the next one I will make the top a little longer so it completely covers the bottom portion when it's folded together.