on my bookshelf

I love me a good book. Here's what's on my bookshelf presently and from the recent past: the good, the really bad, and the boring.

1. Into the Wild (John Krakauer). For some reason I'm totally drawn toward adventure stories, especially if they take place on some remote, cold mountain (see last selection). In a sick, train-wreck kind of way. I read this one in November, mostly while soaking in my hot bathtub. No freezing in the wilderness for me!

2. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay). This is one of Jamie's favorite books. I started reading it during Christmas break - it is NOT a quick read. However, he promises me that it's totally sweet, so I'm going to pick it up again during mid-winter break when I can sit and read and not fall asleep within two paragraphs. can't wait!

3. Life Cycle of the Career Teacher. For my grad class. Ri-ve-ting.

4. Remember Me? (Sophie Kinsella). I'm a little ... not I ashamed of reading this book, but this is a genre to which I thought I'd never return. Ridiculous plot line, painfully predictable, but boy is it an easy read. So when I have a maximum of 5 minutes of reading time before I fall into a dead sleep, I can still get through 10 pages. guilty pleasure!

5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (JK Rowling). I read this a while ago to get ready for the movie to come out...for the 2nd time. Love me some HP!

6. Miracle in the Andes (Nando Parrado). Remember my sick obsession with wilderness adventures? Well, this is not a wilderness adventure, it's a wilderness nightmare...the story of the plane crash in the Andes (remember Alive?). Crazy and terrible but really makes you appreciate that safe cozy bed/bath/couch where you're reading.

7. The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo (Steig Larsson). This book isn't pictured because I'm a total nerd who listens to audio books. Don't judge me, I commute! Ok, and I listen while I sew. and maybe at the gym too. Just shows you how gripping this book was! if you love a good mystery, pick this one up.

off to download the sequel right now...

amigurumi guru

Amigurumi Guru? WWWelll, l that would NOT be my title. But I did score a sweet amigurumi book, plus a ton of yarn, fun fabric, buttons, etc. for my birthday thanks to my sissies and friends who know me so well (see this post!).
I crocheted a bunny for my niece, Pearl, for Christmas. My sister-in-law reported that she knew what it was ("bu") right away. whew!
...so who IS the Amigurumi Guru, you ask? That would be my sister Shannon! I had not been keeping up on her blog, and when I finally checked it, holy crochet wonderful! Here's just a peek at one of her creations:
Go see more of her creatures here!

back to the crochet love.

One day I was learning to crochet. The next thing I knew, I needed an organizer for my crochet hooks! What's a hobby without a cute way to store the supplies? I made the crochet hook case above for myself. Then I made a bunch for my shop!

Owl Party

Tossed Flowers

Brown Kashmir

Organization Love!

it was one of THOSE projects

you know what I'm talking about. The project you THINK you're going to get to by Christmas. You have TONS of time. Then Dec. 22 rolls around. yep, one of THOSE projects.

I cut myself some slack, because burnout is not pretty. Here's the cute Christmas-y fabric though - stay tuned for next year. It can't be THAT project for two years in a row. right?fabric love!

i'm obsessed

How did I go through 28 years of life without knowing how much fun crocheting is?? This epiphany sent me straight to Amazon . . . because if there's one thing I like more than crafting, it's buying books about crafting.
I stocked up on some fun crochet books. Crochet Inspiration, by Sasha Kagan, is full of great patterns - fabrics, edgings, and fun flowers like the ones on the cover. I got right to work on some of those:

More to come from this other find: 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet, by Leslie Stanfield !

crochet, continued

The honeymoon was the perfect time for some much-needed crochet practice. The complexity of the shrug pattern got the better of me in the midst of wedding pressure, but now that the wedding was over, I was determined to conquer single, half-double, and triple crochets!

What else is honeymoon for? ha ha. Hey, Jamie knew what he was getting into when he married me (he's the one doing "rock on" in the pic)

This is what I did on the car ride home...take that, granny square!

new hobby

In the midst of all the busy-ness of the summer/fall, why wouldn't I start learning a new craft?

Well, I wanted to make myself a little shrug to wear with my wedding dress (I had delusional dreams of knitting similar shrugs for all my bridesmaids. That was way back in June. I realized quickly that wasn't going to happen. sorry girls).

I found this SUPER cute pattern from crocheteria on Etsy:

gaaa! I was in love! Of course, it was not to be made in lime green. Did the crochet-edging scare me? No way! I would learn to crochet, no problem.

Well, fast-forward to late September, I had yet to tackle the crocheted edging. My family started laughing at me when, on the wedding weekend agenda I wrote "finish making shrug" on the Thursday and Friday mornings of the wedding. No problem!

Time-management master (and early riser) that I am, I did indeed finish the shrug at the finish line, the morning of the day before the wedding. I'm not REALLY proud of myself, because the fancy crocheted edging turned into a simple crocheted scalloped edge. And I didn't block it. yyyyeah. Still, it turned out cute enough. . . and did I mention that the day of the wedding WAS FREEZING, so a shrug was certainly needed. cheers!

honeymoon!

After all the work of the previous 4 months, you can imagine that having a week off for our honeymoon felt like H E A V E N. It was the most relaxing time ever. A huge thank you to my principal for giving me the week off! We went back to the place where it all began (sort of) - Neskowin! It was a week of sleeping, eating, and enjoying nature walks. wholesome!
and we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. mmmm, cheese.
mmm, ocean.

my wedding was awesome.

I'm not one to obsess over a wedding. I pretty much wanted to get it over with as soon as possible to get on with the Wedded Bliss. :) That said, I had one SUPER AWESOME wedding! I think I get extra-double-bonus points because there are so many crafty creative and talented family members and friends that made it so. I can barely take any credit. Here's who can.

#1 Emily.
Emily made my invitations, rsvp cards, thank-you notes, address labels, etc. OMG they were so cute!

#2 Shannon (and Jeff! and mom!)
Shannon and Jeff renovated this incredibly cute trailer with the wedding in mind. oh. my. gosh. Not only was the inside totally dirty and sad, the outside needed some serious elbow grease.

Before:
After (the Shot Trailer):

Shannon also made these FUN chalkboard speech bubbles and scored a bunch of sweet vintage hats and props for a photo booth:

3. Alli
Alli was the best maid of honor in the world. We made about a million paper flowers for the table centerpieces. Alli was queen of all the odds'n'ends ... and she gives one heck of a toast!

4. Sara
Sara did my amazing flowers (dahlias! love!) as seen in the above picture, and our bouquets. I love, love, loved what she did. The charm with my dad's pic on this one was made by Shannon.

4. Jamie's Family
Jamie's family really showed their crafty sides as well! They fashioned these life-size cutouts of young Jamie and Molly for the rehearsal dinner...and they somehow made it to the reception. Don't you love my teddy bear sweatshirt? And oh! They (especially Jamie's sister Sarah and their dad) took tons of video footage and then had the loveliest video made. I wish I could show the whole thing here. Special thanks to Sarah and Shannon for the wedding vid!

I could go on and on and on because it really was the best day ever. This snapshot sums up just about everything else I can say about our party:
wigs, blow-up guitar, mustaches, tambourines, feather boas...and my super fun family!

OK, and Jamie was a pretty good part of the day too. Love you.

home

Even though it was just ANOTHER task, house hunting really was so much fun.

a) I was so over living in a 600 sq ft apartment.
b) It's awesome to see different houses, even though most we saw in our price range were...at best, interesting and at worst, horrifying.
c) My sissy Shannon was our real estate agent and was tons of help.

Shannon and her friend Kevin started a real estate business creatively named findwell. findwell not only gives amazing service and great advice to their clients, they also refund half of their commission! Shannon helped us find the. perfect. house. Here's our baby!
There I am on the deck in the back:
The day we found out we were getting the house was July 19. The following month was spent identifying which feature of the house was our current favorite feature...Feature of the Day. Several Features of the Day included:
-glass-front cabinets
-real fireplace
-surround-sound wiring
-the fact that you can only see trees from our deck
-low maintenance yard
-recessed lighting
-move-in ready
-creek in the backyard

and...drum roll please...

...

...

Space for a CRAFT ROOM! Proof that Jamie really does love me.

We were really lucky to find our house. We still love it as much as when we first moved in. Often still heard about every other day: "I love our house..."

crazy summer

It was a crazy, crazy summer.

I started grad school. Turns out taking 4 classes is a full time job!

Jamie and I decided to get married in October. 4 months is long enough to plan a wedding, right? no problem!

We started house-hunting, especially because of the first-time home buyer's credit that, at that time, was going to expire in November.

So, got that? Grad school + House hunting + Wedding planning = I am crazy.

I was busy LITERALLY every second with either:

reading for class
writing for class
going to class
looking at houses online
looking at houses in person
wedding planning, which entailed being out of town every weekend.

Happy Highlights:We decided to get married at Red Barn Farms. Perfect and obvious choice! July at Red Barn Farms...gorgeous. October at Red Barn Farms...we were crossing our fingers for semi-decent weather.

Hiking at Engaged Encounter...NATURE!

Bro Adam and Pearl Girl in the wheat fields

4th of July Tribute to Michael Jackson...complete with handcrafted sparkle gloves and outfits (see Alli's and my matching Dazzle Shirts, far right)

Oh yeah, and it was my BUSIEST MONTH EVER on Etsy. Do you ever look back on times in your life and wonder how you did it? I can't say that it was the most graceful period in my life, but it all got done. This summer is going to seem like a breeze!

oh, and this one was pretty good too.

Happy Event #2.

In order of occurance, not importance, OK???

Jamie and I went to Neskowin, OR for Memorial Day weekend. Have I told you about Neskowin? It's a lovely little beach town just north of Lincoln City. Jamie's parents have an awesome cabin there called The Green Dragon, so we go down to visit as often as we can.

Just look at this beach!Anyway, early one morning we went for a walk on the beach to see the super-low tide. Imagine my surprise when Jamie got down on one knee! How perfect, in the shadow of "Proposal Rock."
Jamie seemed to think there was a chance that the diamond ring he designed wouldn't be good enough for me, so he presented me with this wax model so I could give it the final OK.
Um, hello? Why would I not love this? He designed it with family friend and jewelry designer Dyke Vandenburgh. Of course I loved it and of course I said yes. :) The rest of the weekend was spent with the the rest of Jamie's family. So fun!

So yeah, I guess you could say that was a happy event of '09.

sweet opal

OK, on to describing the Happy Events of 2009. On the very same day my dad died, my amazing sissy brought her baby girl into the world: sweet, sweet Opal! What an amazing turn of events, huh? Opal really is the sweetest little thing. I am a proud auntie AND her godmother!

My sister-in-law Sarah knit the cute little hat she is wearing here. I love this picture of you, Em!

I knit this sweater a while back, and Emily always had her eye on it. So it became Opal's! I can't believe she has already outgrown it. Stop growing so fast, baby girl!

back in blogland

Um... hi! Seriously ridiculous that my last post was LAST APRIL! omg! 2009 was . . . a bit crazy. It had its ups and downs. Mostly ups, but a big downer was that my dad passed away in late April. This may have triggered my blog's temporary demise. I have my dad's side of the family to thank for my creative impulses. My dad was super creative. Do you know anyone else who makes furniture and buildings out of tools? Here's to you, dad.