Quiltypost #3- Peacetime

Huzzah! The grandmother's sewing machine is in fact of a much better quality than my mom's! I have gotten more done in the past couple of days than I have in the past three weeks! This is a great feeling. It's so much easier to sew things when the sewing machine works. Whee! I have the backing sewn onto all of my squares, I have numbered them in order of the colour pattern that I want, and I have sewn the first row together! Yayyyyy!! If Ashley doesn't call me soon so we can go get drunk, I might just sew into the wee hours of the morning.

Oohhh I was so tempted to take pictures of my squares all laid out and show it on here, but I decided against it. From here on in, I'm going to keep you in suspense.

Got in contact with Ashley. Further sewage (hahahaha words) will have to wait for tomorrow!

♥♥♥

Update from the battlefield

I don't know if I have lost the war because I am giving up on my sewing machine, or if I've won it because I'm taking the high road and walking away. I guess it doesn't really matter, because my sewing machine is an inanimate object and therefore does not have feelings. I do, however. I was at my wits end tonight trying to sew more squares. I bought this big spool of heavy-duty thread only to find out that it was too big to fit onto the top of my sewing machine! It wasn't rotating properly, which was causing the thread to snap. I almost snapped.

So my mom, hearing my cries of frustration and rage, called my grandmother and she's going to pick up HER sewing machine tomorrow. I'm going to go ahead and assume that it is a slightly better quality, or at least not worse. If it's the same quality with the same problems, I'll just have to deal with it I guess. If it's better quality though, that would be ideal. Cause you know, I'd like to finish this thing before I move out of the province...

In midst of duking it out with my dollar-store sewing machine, I had a bit of a breakdown and convinced myself that if I couldn't make a sewing machine work, I couldn't do ANYTHING. The wonderful boyfriend cheered me up later,though, explaining to me that I am in fact good at many things including baking and conversation. He can always cheer me up. ♥

So yes, the blanket is still a work in progress but at least I haven't set it on fire. Yet.

♥♥♥

Monica

Quiltypost #2- This means WAR

I have declared war against my sewing machine and thread. Honestly, it shouldn't be this difficult. I'm not a totally incompetent person. Sure, I often look at crafts other people make and think "Wow, I could do that!" and then they fail miserably, but this is just ridiculous. It doesn't help that my thread came from the dollar store (and it feels like the friggin' sewing machine did too), it breaks every few inches and for some reason the machine is staining my thread SOMEWHERE, so it is coming out grey. I have a total of six squares sewn, and I've been at it all afternoon. And they're a mess. I'd take a sewing course at the local college but I'm pretty sure they'd kick me out on grounds of utter failure at life.

It doesn't help that I've been feeling pretty stupid in general lately. Nothing seems to be going my way. Looks like I'm destined for flipping burgers. But I haven't tried that yet, and I'd most likely suck at it anyway.

Ugh. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some GOOD thread that costs maybe more than 69 cents, maybe this one wont break every few inches. Of course if its the sewing machine that's the problem, then good thread wont matter anyway, the project's in the shitter.

Might as well go do some homework before I fail out of PR too.

UGH.

Monica

Yay for progress!

I'm finally ready to start sewing my squares together! Things are finally starting to come together and I'm really excited about this. Hopefully I'll have my squares nice and sewn by next week!! If I didn't have work, school and homework, this would be done a lot sooner.

Side note, I'm drinking champagne in class. Who cares if it's non-alcoholic? Celebrate today!

♥♥♥

Monica

Hello Hello Hello!

So I FINALLY got around to doing some work on my blankie today! I'm still just in the process of sewing the little cotton backings onto my squares to keep them from stretching and moving around too much when I sew the actual squares together. Hopefully that process will be done in the next day or two and the mommy can finally teach me how to use the sewing machine. Silly things like school and visiting my friends got in the way of me getting much more progress done but I'm confident that things will really get rolling once I learn how to use that darn machine.

Another silly thing getting in the way would be my job search. I'll be graduating from my PR program in something like 6 weeks (eek!) so I've been applying to jobs like crazy! No word back from them yet though, which is a bit disappointing but I know how long it takes to get a job anywhere nowadays. I have a couple of good ones that I'm going to apply to tomorrow so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get out of this dusty old town upon graduation. Whee!

Just so you have a little bit more than a mundane update on my life, here is a list of animals that I have every intention of having as pets someday:

10 Weird Miniature Versions of Normal Animals

And as a preview:



Lofty dreams have I.

♥♥♥
Monica

Bah!

Slowdowns! Alas I was unable to receive sewing machine lessons from the mommy before she and the daddy went away to Mexico (lucky ducks). So I'm either going to have to teach myself, or I'll have to wait until they get back for me to start sewing my squares together. I can do a few hand-sewing things done in the meantime. But still, I was hoping to have a bit more done by the end of Reading Week. Again, Bah!

Not a Quiltypost

So I haven't actually sat down to work on my blankie yet today (it's only 9 PM, the day is young!), but I did manage to take a walk over to Fabricland. It was gorgeous out today so I put my huge down-filled winter coat in the closet and pulled out my lighter pea coat for the stroll. After removing all the blasted cat fur from my coat, I wrapped my purple pashmina that I got from my cousin when I was her bridesmaid (it's actually from India!) and stepped out into the glorious sun. I think I've become vitamin-D deficient, because actually having the sun shine on my face for the first time in weeks did WONDERS for my mood. It was still a bit chilly out but I didn't even care. It was a lovely, albeit brief, walk to Fabricland.

I was thinking of something a little bit thicker than regular cotton for the back of my blankie but so far all my favourite patterns are in thin cotton or rayon. No matter, I'm sure I'll find something spectacular. My absolute favourite pattern so far includes a white background, hot pink stripes in various widths, and SPARKLES. Thats right, kidlets, I will bring bling to my blankie if its the last thing I do. Maybe I'll double up the material if I can afford it. Maybe I'll just have to settle for a thinner material. Either way, this blankie is going to be so fly when I'm done with it.

So since I don't have much else to update in terms of the blankie, I'll just share with you a few of my favourite things!

As I was reading through the new posts on my Google Reader, I came across two new interior design blogs! Both are full of fantastic ideas that REALLY make me wish that I lived in my own apartment instead of a shoebox in my parents house. The first one is Design Evolution, which is a blog that is organized So well. Up at the top there are tabs that categorize all of the posts into "decore", "crafts + diy", "recipes + entertaining" and more. My favourite categories so far might be the decor section (dug) and the recipes + entertaining section. There are so many cute ideas in there that I could encorporate into my future parties that will showcase my talent as a culinary goddess and reverence-worthy hostess.

Next up is Estilo Home. I like this blog because it's really picture heavy and I can kind of relate to the blogger. She's just kind of getting started with the whole interior design thing. Although she's loved it since she was a child, she is REALLY getting into it now and I'm quite inspired with a lot of the things that she is putting up there. What I also love about this blog is that through it I have found the blogger's tumblr, which is basically page after page of the blogger's favourite rooms. I really like most of them and I think they all have really inspiring elements.

One thing I can't figure out is why all these interior designers love WHITE so much. I'm all for light and neutral palettes, but bright white walls in every room of the house just sounds kind of blinding to me. I gotta have me some colour. So maybe I'll start posting some pictures that I like on here once in a while.

And lastly but not leasty:



Come ON, how cool was THAT? Was that shot all in one take? I can't even wrap my mind around how someone could come up with things like these. I love Ok Go videos.

I've been thinking of moving my blog to another provider that offers more customization options. It seems like with blogger, if I don't have serious HTML skills, I'm doomed to squeezing my blog content into one out of a very small selection of pre-made templates. This means that if my pictures don't fit in a template that I really like I have to either deal with half-visible pictures, or I have to change to a template that I like less. Which was the case yesterday. So now my blog is ugly, in my opinion, and I think I'm just ready to move up to something a little less basic. Any suggestions for hosts?

Alright I think I'm going to go cut out a few more cotton squares for my blankie now. Maybe there'll be a Quiltypost for REAL tomorrow, if I don't have a lazyday again. Goodnight kidlets!

♥♥♥
Monica

Excitement abound! New reading week project!!

I'm generally not a crafty person. Sometimes I'll make something and it'll actually look good, and then it will fall apart a few days later. Usually when I try to cook a new and exciting recipe, I burn it. But I still dream about being able to create something beautiful, and those dreams are inspired by all the interior design and home improvement blogs I have been following lately. I think I'm ready for another attempt at craftiness this coming week. The following is a much better-looking version of what my Reading Week 2010 project will be:



And this is where I got the idea from. Manhattan Craft Room is a recent addition to my home improvement blog collection, and with this quilt tutorial, I think I am finally ready to attempt my long-awaited

Alpha Phi T-shirt Quilt!

Here's the background story: Throughout my four years at Wilfrid Laurier University, I was a member of a wonderful and prestigious sorority called Alpha Phi. I could go on forever about how the sorority came to be and what its all about, but I'll just tell you that it's probably the most fantastic thing I've ever been a part of. First of all, I met my wonderful boyfriend through one of my sisters. That in itself is pretty darn awesome. Secondly, I am using the skills and confidence that I cultivated by being part of Alpha Phi over the years to succeed in the field of Public Relations and Communications. Heck, if I wasn't in Alpha Phi, I don't even know if I would have paid attention to PR as a possible career path at all. To put it simply, Alpha Phi got me through university and made me the person I am today, and I'm excited for this project because it will be somewhat immortalizing the love that I have for this organization.

Since joining Alpha Phi in 2005, I have collected upwards of 20 t-shirts with my Greek letters on the front: ΑΦ. Now that I have graduated from WLU, I now have a ton of t-shirts that do not really have that much of a purpose anymore. I have a couple of shirts with just my letters on the front, but the rest are themed with whatever event they were made for, and so I cannot really see myself wearing them again unless they are underneath another shirt, which defeats the purpose altogether. So I am taking inspiration from a few of my other sisters who have done this, and I am going to make a quilt using the fronts and backs of all these shirts, so I can display them with pride and make use of them forever.

Now I bet you're wondering, have I ever made a blanket before in my life? An even better question I bet you're asking is whether or not I've ever used a sewing machine. Well, my answer to both those questions is "no", but there's no time like the present to learn. I won't be doing anything fancy like someone who has experience with quilting. This will be a super basic blankie but I'm going to use some fun materials, including my old hot-pink toga.

Oh man, SUPER excited for this. I'll be blogging as I go, just because I want to and I'm sure you're all just itching for me to get started on this so you can follow me on my journey.

Tonight: Wash and dry all my shirts, plan what materials I would need, decide what size squares I want to make out of my shirts. Talk to the mommy, who knows how to use the sewing machine and can therefore show me how to use it without sewing my fingers to my blankie.

Tomorrow: Visit a fabric store to find something awesome for the back of my blankie.

If you have experience making quilts or blankets, and have any advice at all as to how I could go about working with the t-shirt material or whatever, please shoot me a comment. I would appreciate the help!

Happy Thursday, everyone!

♥♥♥
Monica

An Exercise in Assessing the Self

This is the blog post where I tell you my life story. Maybe it’s because this blog is all about me, maybe it’s for a school assignment (hint: it’s the latter). But anyway, here is the “about the author” page of this great and epic internetual novel.

I was born on a rainy Monday in 1986. It was a good year, or so I am told, but I unfortunately was far too young to enjoy the neon-spandexed glory of the 80’s. So I had to settle for building most of my childhood memories in the 90’s, living in the same house from the day I was born until the day I moved out to start university. I grew up playing soccer and violin, eventually adding in flute and a couple of other musical instruments. Some of my other delightful childhood experiences included the following:





I was a true keener in my early years of my schooling, which is another way of saying that I was totally uncool. I wore pink from head to toe, socks over my tights, and my hair in a mushroom cut. I craved attention and obtained it by doing extremely weird things. You could say I was a bit hyperactive but I balanced it out by kicking butt in my classes. Back in those days, I wanted to be a member of several professions including medicine, teaching, and stay-at-home motherhood. Oh the ambitious days of my youth.

By the time I started university in 2005, I had cut medicine and stay-at-home motherhood from my list of career paths. I was really leaning towards teaching because, well, that was the only legit career path I ever thought I really had. I helped teach music in middle school, so naturally I wanted to be a teacher, right? And I was taking English and History in university so of course I wanted to be a teacher, right? Well, it certainly helps if you’re 100% sure and I actually wasn’t, and so towards the end of 3rd year I knew that I wanted something different out of life. I mean if you’re in a career watching over kids five days a week, you better darn well be positive that you are where you want to be, or you are going to be one awful teacher. Like my first-grade teacher who I’m pretty sure took her misery out on me. It could have also been because I preferred to finish my work early and do somersaults on the carpet while the other kids were still scribbling away. Elementary school was a cakewalk.

The decision to abandon teaching left me scared and confused because I literally had no path to walk on after graduation. Real life was approaching quickly and I was so not ready for it. What the heck else was I good at? I started to make a list. Hmmmm well I like to talk. Great. That’s a starting point. I talk a lot. I ramble, even. Assuming you’ve read my other posts, you know that I enjoy a good ramble. This post in itself is another case in point.

Next, I looked back at the things I enjoyed doing when I was a kid. Creative things. Reading, writing, making things up for the whole world to see. I had such a crazy and imaginative mind when I was younger, what happened to all that? I came to the realization that academia more or less stifled my creative spirit. Everything always had to be so formal, so strict, so structured. That’s completely fine if you can thrive in that environment and if you see a worthwhile future in it, but what I really needed was to be able to start doing those creative things again in order to feel fulfilled in my career. That’s how I came to discover Public Relations.

So here I am now at Mohawk College, studying PR and actually enjoying what I am learning for the first time in years. I love coming up with innovative ways to communicate. I love that I can finally bring a little bit of my personality to the table. I’ve learned skills that are actually applicable to a real career path, which is completely different for me. Towards the end of university I felt like I didn't know what I was there for anymore. But now, for the first time I feel like I’m heading in a good direction because I WANT to be going there, not because I don’t know what else to do.

In one year I want to be working as a public relations professional, preferably doing something that involves a lot of writing. Maybe internal/employee communications? PR is such a broad career field, which is kind of daunting at times but usually very exciting since I know I will be able to find a job that suits my skills and interests perfectly.

In three years I hope to be in some sort of leadership role, perhaps running a team or department that deals with communications for a company or government body. It sounds super ambitious for someone who doesn’t have a whole lot of experience eh? Well where I’m hoping to go (Fort McMurray, Alberta, where the wonderful boyfriend lives) I know that there will be a ridiculous amount of opportunity for me to advance in my career quickly.

In five years I would like to be living back in Ontario, or at least thinking of moving back there soon. I’m sure living in northern Alberta will be sweet and all, but I definitely don’t want to be away from my family for my whole life. But by the time I get back to Ontario, I will have a wealth of knowledge to bring with me to my next job.

Finally, in 10 years I want to be a millionaire with a rollercoaster in my backyard and my own personal McDonalds. Lindsay Lohan will be BEGGING me for PR advice on how to break back into movies when you’re 33 but looking like 50. I will be sipping my first martini at 11 am and I will have a bodyguard who follows me everywhere carrying my cat.

Just kidding. In all honesty, all I want is a job that challenges me and sends me different things every day, yet is still stable enough for me to settle down and have a family. As crazy as the PR biz seems to be, I don’t think that is too much to hope for. Full-time motherhood might make an appearance somewhere in there too.

The End.

No one can ever call me lazy again!

Happy Monday, everyone!

This has been my most productive Monday EVER! And that's even with the fact that I woke up at 11 AM. Why? Because I took it upon myself to clean my ENTIRE kitchen! It took me over 6 hours of solid back-breaking and foot-aching labour to clean that darn thing and I'll be so cross if it gets messy again tomorrow. So here's how it went down.

I fell in love with the Design Sponge blog, which has a lot of really awesome DIY projects, crafts and general cool stuff you can do for your house and I got THIS idea for organizing all my takeout menus:



Cute eh? So my first step was to pull all of the menus out of one of the kitchen drawers. That drawer has generally been a complete mess since forever so naturally the menus were all over the place. But as I kept digging deeper, I began to find some really appalling things and that's where it snowballed. I ended up taking EVERYTHING out of the drawer, washed all of the utensils (it was more or less being used for the barbeque accessories), washed the drawer itself, and then put everything back in, but in a nice order. And I threw about half of the stuff out in the process. I also found about $66 worth of Canadian Tire money. Yay me!

But then I realized that it could not stop there. If THAT drawer was in that disgusting state, that means the OTHER drawers must need some loving too. And so for the next several hours I went drawer by drawer, taking everything out, washing everything, then putting it back in a more coherent order. And now everything in my kitchen has a designated spot, I can see the back of the counter again in one spot, and I found about 30 pens that I never knew I had.

After all that was finished, I was finally able to make my takeout menu binder, which my brother promptly used to order Chinese food. Yummmmmmm. And I'm thinking of taking the Canadian Tire money as a commission.

So that was my productive day. I realize now that I probably should have channeled my productivity towards my homework or better yet, my pigsty of a room, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

♥♥♥

Monica


p.s. Taylor Swift beat out Beyonce and Lady GaGa for Album of the Year at last night's Grammy's. Suck on THAT, Kanye.