Did I Do That?!

I guess the coming Boy Meets World spinoff brought me back to my Steve Urkel days.  Am I the only one who faithfully sat through Family Matters, Full House, and Step By Step without a potty break?  Probably.  Those were the days!

Anyway, my most recent project seriously has me asking, "Did I do that?!"  If you asked me two months ago if I would ever sew a garment for Madison, I'm pretty sure I would have laughed at you.  Now I've made TWO!  There was, of course, her Pebbles costume, but that didn't really count in my mind because it was made to be "rustic".  I just popped a couple hand stitched seams down the sides, attacked it with scissors, and called it a day.  This time, I used an actual sewing machine (gasp) and made a non-costume garment for her.  Meaning it wasn't supposed to look homemade.

It all started when I saw this on Pinterest:

 Long story short: you cut the bottom off of a ladies' small or medium shirt, double fold and sew most of the waistline, pull elastic through the track, sew the elastic together, finish the seam, and you're DONE!  Meaning the skirt is 3/4 finished before you even start.

So I went to our local thrift store, bought myself a $3 shirt, and brought it home to try out the tutorial.

 And then, like the A-1 blogger I am, I forgot to take any progress pictures.  So here's the finished product (the headband was Madi's choice, not mine):

 

Cost:
Shirt (thrifted): $3
Elastic (4 yds, only used 18 in): $2
Total: $5

It took about forty minutes to sew, including ironing (yuck).  Not a bad return for my first "real" sewing project!  The best part?  The next one (and there will be more for sure) will only be $3 (since the elastic's paid for).  Less if I drag myself to the cheap thrift store fifteen minutes down the road!

What's your favorite beginner sewing project?  I've got SO much to learn!

Happy Friday (again)
-Kelli

Source: thelifeofjenniferdawn.blogspot.com via Kelli on Pinterest

As You Wish

 What a lot of people don't know about Patrick and me is that we had a wedding date before he ever proposed.  We had been talking about marriage for, well forever, and had already decided on the early summer of 2005.  We even reserved the church before the proposal!  Maybe that initiated the pregnancy rumors...or it could have been the two month engagement, the fact that I was 17, or the freshman 15 8 around my middle.

In any case, Pat knew he would have to be creative if he wanted me to be at all surprised by his official proposal.  Enter Jeff, our youth minister/matchmaker/friend.  Mutt Pat and Jeff brainstormed together and came up with the idea of using one of Pat's and my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, for the proposal.  They made a copy of a Blockbuster rental (which is probably completely illegal, so don't tell anyone), then stopped the tape(DVD, actually) at the point where the bratty kid interrupts the story to ask his grandfather if it's a kissing book.  That's where they cut in a video of Patrick telling me he had something to ask me.

After work one Saturday, Pat asked me if I would like to hang out and watch a movie.  Of course I did!  He cooked (out of a box, anyway) beef stroganoff,  which was totally normal for us at that point.  What wasn't normal was that he insisted on eating before we started the movie.  I resisted, because I always prefer to read a book or watch TV while I eat.  He won (for once), and we ate in the dining room, Pat trying to slow me down as I scarfed down my meal.  I impatiently waited for him to finish so we could start the movie, having no idea why he was even slower than usual!

Eventually, Pat finished his stroganoff and agreed to start the movie.  Poor guy, he must have been so nervous knowing that once we popped the movie in, the timer started counting down.  No backing out now!  Needless to say, I was confused, then surprised, then excited when our movie stopped about five minutes in.

And that is why The Princess Bride is such a special movie to us.  I knew I wanted to reference it in some way on the frame wall, so when I saw this on Pinterest, I just had to make it my own.

Source: etsy.com via Kelli on Pinterest

 

For anyone who isn't familiar with the movie, my deepest apologies.  Netflix it tonight, unless you cancelled your subscription like we did.  : /  In the meantime, you should know that "As you wish" is a famous line from the movie that the hero uses in lieu of "I love you".  It's very romantic cheesy.

I didn't want to just print it off; I wanted it to feel very homemade and special.  Then I remembered a small project I saw over on YHL a few weeks ago:

Source: younghouselove.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Sherry just used a marker to draw "x"s in the shape she wanted, so it would somewhat resemble a cross-stitched piece.  I decided that this just might be perfect!  Wanting to keep it simple, I just grabbed a sheet of paper off our printer and started drawing some "x"s with a black ballpoint pen, to get the layout the way I wanted it.  I ended up liking the look of double rows.  You may or may not be able to tell from this picture, but I also toyed with the idea of using "k"s and "p"s, then decided to stick with my "x"s.  I outlined the basic shapes with a bright Sharpie so I could use this as a template, then put a new sheet of paper over the top and got to drawing.

I did one layer with ballpoint pen, then went over that with a red-orange sharpie for "AS YOU" and a blue-green one for "WISH".  Somehow, these pictures read more red and blue on my monitor, but I promise it looks much less patriotic in person.  Not that patriotism is a bad thing, it's just not what I was going for here.

As much as I liked the "finished" product, I knew it wouldn't look very nice without a pretty substantial mat.  I didn't have any spare mats, so I made one using cardboard and some fabric left over from my large frame project.  I used the book I was reading at the time (is it bad that I can't remember what it was, even though it was less than a week ago and I have a picture of the back?) to mark a rectangle on the cardboard, then cut it out with a box cutter.  Patrick, for some reason, doesn't like for me to "play" with those things.  Maybe it's because when I first started to cut the cardboard, I was using my lap as the solid surface, and I didn't see anything wrong with that until I felt the pressure of the blade?  I wonder if they offer workman's comp for bloggers. 

After cutting the rectangle out, I glued the fabric onto my cardboard.  I made sure to make it pretty tight to avoid wrinkles on the front.

Next, I cut an "x" across the opening and glued each flap onto the back of the mat, again making sure to pull it nice and tight.

After all that tugging, I expected a smooth finish on the front.  Instead, I saw this big fat wrinkle.  I started to work on pulling it tighter, but then Madison woke up, so I decided it wasn't that bad after all.

I taped my "art" onto the back of the mat:

Yes, I realize it's upside down.  No, I'm not willing to flip it and then upload it again.  Sorry!

Here it is all finished.  I think this is my new favorite, and it took me all of twenty minutes, glue drying time included!

I would love to hear your engagement story.  Or, if you're not married, what would be your dream proposal?

-Kelli

And the Frames Keep Coming.

 I'm having more fun than I expected with the frame wall project.  I've been digging through our "sentimental" box (mostly filled with stuff that should have been thrown away, but wasn't, thank goodness), and it's been a fun walk down memory lane. 




Sorry, I had to go rinse the taste of bile from my mouth.  Being so cliche made me a little sick.

I think this project came at a good time; it's really easy, with a new baby, to lose focus on our relationship.  Looking through all the mementos of our very early days has reminded me of how we felt about each other back before we were "Mommy" and "Daddy".  And, minus the obsessive co-dependency, I'd like to get back to being this way.

First, I found two very important ticket stubs.  After seeing The Crocodile Hunter, Patrick told me for the first time that he loved me.  It must have been a very romantic movie!  And our first kiss was after watching Star Wars for probably the sixth time in theaters.  It took him more than three full cycles of POD's "Satellite" album to work up the nerve.  Yeah, we were that cool.  Who doesn't want their first kiss to happen while listening to "The Messenjah"?

And yes, I did put them in the wrong order.  My lazier side is telling me to just say I sorted them alphabetically, but I'll probably end up flipping them.  One day.  It'll probably be the same day that I iron the creases out of Madison's curtains, clean out my email's spam folder, and organize the junk drawer.

 Probably my favorite find so far was this calendar page.  It's written in gel pen on black paper, because that's what all the cool fourteen-year-old's were doing.  Just kidding; I've never been cool.  Anyway, the reason I was so excited to find this is that June 2002 is the month we started dating.  I was so enthralled with Pat at this point that I used a code to mark the days when I saw him; any date that has a smiley face was a Patrick day.  June was a pretty significant month for me.  Aside from starting to date my future husband and baby-daddy, we went to Super Summer, Jeff and Michelle (our youth minister and matchmaker) got hitched, and my granny passed away.

Do you like my camera technique?  I call it "The Cobra"!

 I also decided to frame my favorite of Madison's newborn pictures, by the talented Cristina Murphy.

 The next is just a snapshot from a disposable camera, but I L-O-V-E this picture.  It completely captures everything we love about snowboarding.  New goal: we will go snowboarding next winter (2012-2013).

 And finally, a totally meaningless "filler" frame.  Something about it kind of reminds me of an old tube television.

What have you been working on lately?  Did watching The Crocodile Hunter or Star Wars lead to any major milestones in your life?  Have you ever memorized not only the words but also the drum solo to "Youth of the Nation"?  What's your favorite vacation activity?

-Kelli