.first day.

Today was the first day of school for the 10th-12th graders…the 9th graders started yesterday, technically, but today was the first day with a real schedule.

Life in the counselor’s office was pretty good…I spent hours and hours over the weekend checking every student’s schedule on my caseload – about 280 students. It was long and boring while I was doing it, but it made today SOOO much calmer for me. Totally worth it. It was fun seeing students today – their energy and excitement for school was catching. The day flew by and all of a sudden, day #2 is upon us!

We had a welcome assembly during STAT. The ASB officers did a fantastic job putting it together. They are full of energy – I hope it continues throughout the school year!!

Here they are with a guest they brought to school today. I missed her name, but I heard she’s a friend they met at ASB camp.

Stefan, Mack, Sommer, Carly, Grayson, MarciAnne, & friend. :)

The ASB officers with Mr. Peterson

The cheerleaders performed some of the material they learned at camp. The football squad has been working on it for the past two weeks, but the other girls just came yesterday for a half hour to refresh their memory on the cheer. They all did great! There were a few first day glitches, but they stayed poised and were flexible to fix things along the way. It can only get better from here!

 

 

Yeah! Check that out!

The football squad… <3 these girls!

Sommer, Madi, Kayla, Kirston, Carly, Katlyn, Emily, Selena

 

.a little sewing kit.

I saw a cute little travel sewing kit in a picture on Camille’s Instagram last week…and although I have absolutely no need for it (I use a cute Vera Bradley zippered pouch), I have been waiting all week for a few spare hours to whip one up. I finally got some time this morning to play!

I used this tutorial from Lots of Pink Here:  http://lotsofpinkhere.blogspot.com/2011/09/travel-sewing-kit-tutorial.html. It’s a really well-written tutorial. It took me about 4 hours, start to finish, but I could make it faster now that I know what to watch for.

I dug through my bag of Bliss, Ruby, & Vintage Modern scraps to come up with the pieces for this. I have an abundance, so the hardest part was narrowing it down!!

I used my new Bernina Stitch Regulator for the first time to free-motion quilt some pebbles on the front. I have a lot of practice to do before I would do it on a quilt, but not bad for the first time! :)

It folds into thirds and ties in the front.

There is a pocket and a spool holder…

  

A spot for scissors (mine are too big – guess I’ll have to get a new pair!) and a needle holder.

I think this spool holder is pretty cool!

 

This was a fun little Sunday morning project! I love that kind!

.a few days in Puyallup.

Mom and I went to Puyallup for the weekend to help Melissa set up her clasroom and to go wedding dress shopping.

We went shopping at Wal Mart for stuff for Melissa’s classroom (actually we went to TWO Wal Marts throughout the weekend)…and look what we found!

The Holiday Barbie!

There was a time when I would’ve gone NUTS for that!

On Sunday, we met up with Angie in Bellevue and went shopping for Melissa’s wedding dress. She & Melissa had gone earlier and had a few picked out. Melissa picked one out, along with a veil, bracelet, and headband.

 

One more thing checked off for the wedding!

.still a Barbie fan.

When I was younger, I loved going to my Grandma Marcial’s and playing with my Mom’s Barbies. She had this awesome case that doubled as a wardrobe and the Barbie Dream House, circa 1961.

My Mom had this Barbie but with brown hair. The closet was filled with Jackie O inspired Barbie clothes. It was so fun to dress her up in the pretty clothes.

 

Fast forward 20+ years. I became the proud owner of a Bernina.

 

Other Berninas come with this super fun accessory case that many people refer to as their Bernina Barbie case. My model didn’t come with a Barbie case, which I was a little disappointed about. It’s so cute and fun! I thought I’d try to live with the other accessory case, at least until my birthday or Christmas. Well, I’ve had my Bernina just over a week and found myself in the store this afternoon buying the Barbie case. I just couldn’t live without it!

 

Look how cute everything is all lined up!

 

I would love to add another row of bobbins…I think you have to buy more hangers separately.

My little tools fit in the smaller drawer: seam ripper, cleaner, oil, screwdriver, & allen wrench.

 

The larger items fit in the larger drawer just perfectly.

 

And now, I am a more than satisfied Bernina owner. I love it…so so much!

.friends.

 

I got to catch up with a great friend this week – Anna was in town! She lives in Florida now and it had been about 8 years since we had seen each other. She had one precious little babe then….now she has 4 darling daughters!

Anna and I met in 2nd grade when she moved to Connell from Cheney with her family. I spent lots of time at her house and loved being amongst the bustling and rustling of 7 siblings. I am so glad we have stayed friends for so many years despite our distance. It was so good to get to see her and catch up a little bit. It was fun to visit with Anna and her sister, Melissa, and our friends Sora & Kelli. 

Who knows when we will get to see each other next…I hope it’s not 8 more years! We were already complaining about the gifts 30-years-old brings (gray hair, sun spots beginning to show)…just wait until we’re pushing 40! :)

Love you Annaklee! :)

.bom.

I’m participating in the Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Block of the Month…I’d never done a BOM before and since it was using Vintage Modern, I was in!

July

August

 

(This was my first block made with my new Bernina!)

Three out of 12 done!

.vintage modern.

Vintage Modern by Bonnie & Camille was definitely my fabric line of the summer! I made 2 quilts and 2 table runners with it!

These are two table toppers I made for wedding gifts.

I love this pattern. It’s the 2nd time I’ve made it and this time around was much more successful!

This was made at Priest Lake for Kaitlan Eppich and David Walker. I missed their reception, but got to give it to them while they were spending time at the Eppich cabin at Priest Lake!

This was made using the Dainty pattern by Thimble Blossoms and Vintage Modern fabric by Bonnie & Camille.

 

It’s hard to see in this picture, but I quilted diagonal lines through these small squares in the middle. I’m still a newbie at diagonal lines, but I like the texture it gave.

 

This one is for Briar Carlisle and Brianna Casper. It’s also made with Vintage Modern and the pattern is from Camille’s book, Simplify.

 

This one was also made at Priest Lake!

 

I love that the two table toppers I made at Priest Lake are for friends that love Priest Lake as much as I do. I think that’s extra awesome!

    

I think I need to make one of each of these for myself! :)

.designer, de better.

I found a nail polish that I absolutely cannot live without. I have been wearing it on my nails since December when I first discovered it! Whenever I go to the nail salon and pull my bottle of nail polish out of my purse (which is ALWAYS in there), the technicians are like, “AGAIN? Same color?!” Ummm…YES!

When I was there last week, Lam told me that my bottle was almost empty. Say what? Impossible! It’s part of a special OPI collection, not in their regular collection, so it’s not available in stores anymore. Luckily, I found it on amazon.com for a steal, so I bought five bottles.

Yes, five bottles! I don’t know what I’ll do when it runs out!

  

The name of it is “Designer, de Better” and it was part of the 2011 Muppets collection. Miss Piggy has got it goin’ on!

.proud new owner.

While we were at Priest Lake, my sewing machine died. Well, it didn’t completely stop working, but I was using my muscles to PUSH the fabric through…it just wouldn’t feed, it was very squeaky, and the stitch length wouldn’t go up or down no matter what I did. When we got back last week, I took it into the repair shop and they said it would cost $119 just to clean it and take a look at it. The machine only cost $175, so I did not want to spend that much on it. The lady also said it was probably the circuit board, which would bump up the cost to repair it by A LOT!

So…a new machine was in my future…and I knew just what I wanted! I had gone to Janean’s Bernina in Pasco last spring to look at machines for “someday.” I wanted to start saving my money, but Bernina doesn’t put their prices online since every independent dealer can be flexible on what they charge, so I didn’t even know what my goal should be.

The guy at Janean’s had me try the 550 QE…and the stitch regulator. I was IN LOVE. It was so smooth and perfect! Since that day, I’ve done a lot of research online and read reviews of the machine. On Friday, when I decided it was time to get a new machine, I knew right where to go. My Mom and I went to Janean’s, I test drove the machine again, they had one in stock, and before I knew it, I was the proud new owner of a Bernina 550 QE. WOW!

I love love love it! I’ve made a quilt block-of-the-month  with it, a bag, and pieced some blocks so far and it’s beyond awesome!

 

I got to play most of the day on Saturday, trying different stitches and stuff. I can do the basics, but there is so much more it’s capable of. Three classes came with the machine, so I definitely want to take advantage of those.

The only disappointment is that it didn’t come with a “Barbie box” to contain all the accessories. This one just isn’t as fun! My Mom wants me to wait until my birthday to get it, but I’m not a very patient person when it comes to stuff like that!

 

And this was how excited Samson was about my new toy! He slept like this in the craft room the whole time I was in there! Glad we’re both doing something we enjoy!

 

.for christine.

I am so embarrassed…my friend Christine gave me the fabric to make this bag back in March, about a week before our flood in the craft room. Luckily, the fabric wasn’t damaged and so it was put in a safe spot until everything was put back together. I finally got it back out last week and started putting it together. I finished it last night and am so pleased with how it turned out! Christine knows how to pick fabric!!

This was made using the Birdie Sling pattern by Amy Butler.

 

The fabric is from Riley Blake and Sweetwater.

 

I added an extra pocket…Christine is a busy Mom and the more pockets, the better!

I feel terrible that it took so long to for me to make it…I might have to make some extra accessories to make it up to her!

…off the grid…

I saw this title on another blog’s post and thought it was perfect for me. I felt “off the grid” this summer and it was a good break for me! I spent all but about 12 days of my summer at Priest Lake, where we had limited cell service and internet access. Some days it was so darn frustrating (trying to look at Facebook or look up a recipe on Pinterest) but other days it was so liberating to be disconnected.  Just look at this view…makes it all worth it!

My blog is severely behind, so I’ll be working to catch it up over the next few days. I have a lot of great pictures, stories from the summer, and some projects too!

.cheer camp 2012.

We finished up cheer camp today. It was a great two days…the girls learned a ton of material, we had great instructors, and survived the 100 degree heat with no AC.

Here’s the whole group – 17 girls! SO MANY!

 

The football squad:

Back row: Katlyn, Kayla, Madi, Kirston
Front row: Emily, Carly, Sommer, Selena

The basketball squad:

Back row: Madison, Chelsea, Emma
Middle row: Carly, Haleigh, Kira
Front row: Emily

The wrestling squad:

L-R: Jenni, Shanda, Megan, Summer

Random crazy pictures from camp:

     

Laying in front of the fans was a popular activity during breaks!

 

Look at that stunting!

  

Our instructors, Courtney & Bailey. We LOVED them!

 

 

These girls tried out for the All-American squad and made it! I am so proud of them!!!

Selena, Sommer, Kayla, and Kirston

 

The spirit stick!

 

The whole group with Courtney & Bailey!

 

I’m so proud of these girls! Love them!