13.5 before 28.

so i've noticed a lot of people posting lists of things they want to do before their next birthday. so, even though i know my birthday is only 4 months away, i thought i could post my [easy and abbreviated] list of things to do before i turn 28. i can post a more extensive one for when i turn 29. *shudder* but until then, here's my [easy] 13.5 before 28:

1. start a blog. and actually use it. {done!}

2. finish my tattoo on my back. it's a girl holding a stack of books, with glasses and a quirky little grin. in other words, its me. i have the outline finished, i just need to have her colored in.

3. start a new tattoo. i've been wanting somthing crafty-themed to go with my buttons and thread on my right forearm. i also want a tula pink tattoo of this lovely lady:



4. learn to sew. scratch that. become most excellent at sewing.

5. make a dress. hopefully i'll be starting on that one this weekend with this pattern and some fabric i picked up while at work yesterday:



6. open up an etsy shop. this is well in the works already actually. my cousin, cynthia (who is a graphic design major) is designing me some stuff for the blog AND my etsy shop!! excited!! you can see her blog here: www.cynthithelamb.blogspot.com


7. make a bunting for my birthday. a nice one. maybe more than one.













8. i really hate losing weight goals, but i'm already started on this one. 30+ pounds and counting. i hope to lose about 20-30 more by my birthday.

9. see at least 2 more live shows. in the past six months i've seen:

Needtobreathe

The Civil Wars

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights

i would like to see:

Matthew Mayfield

Brooke Fraser

Kindlewood

Adele

Needtobreathe again (after their new album comes out)

Feist (but i don't believe she's touring. sad.)

10. obtain as much of this tula pink full moon forest fabric that i possibly can: (which is tricky, b/c it's been out of print for 4 years.)



11. let my hair grow long[er]. it's been short for way too long. i would eventually like it to look like this:




12. in related news, finish watching all the seasons of Pushing Daisies.

13. invest in a decent record player. and some amazingggg records.

13.5. maybe buy a kindle. or an ipod.

ahhhh. [long] weekend in review.

last week my mom and i both took a couple of days off work just to kinda relax and get ready for first friday, so our weekend really started on wednesday.

on wednesday i baked my fake-a-roons, which i previously posted about. The Whimsical World of C.e.: baking experiment: fake-a-roons. http://t.co/5AfBLqL

on thursday i took the tote bag class at Thread, taught by my darling [new!] friend Shelly!! it was a ton of fun and now i'm addicted to making tote bags. i really enjoyed the class because i'm just learning to sew, so it really helped me become more familiar with the ins and outs of a sewing machine. i'm a lot better now at winding a bobbin and threading a machine :) aaaaaand here's the bag i made!!




after the class, i stayed at Thread to hold down the fort so Alyson could go run errands and my friend Cheryl stopped by to visit. it was her birthday! so she hung around til i closed down the shop and we went for manicures and italian food. after i got home, i made her a tote bag and some earrings for her bday gift to give to her friday night at her alabama family dinner. (Cheryl hails from the great state of texas so we've become her alabama family!)

friday we had first friday in downtown florence, which is where vendor set up booths and sell handmade goodies. my mom and i have a booth where we sell our cute little wares. she makes aprons, cute little towels for your kitchen, wallets, checkbooks, pincushions and bookmarks!! i usually have a random assortment, this time i had lots of earrings and hairbows. the pincushions and earrings seemed to be the hot ticket items this month. you never can tell what people will want to buy!! here's a pic of a pincushion and a pair of my earrings.





my cousin cynthia and her fiance matt came up this weekend so they came to first friday along with her parents. we all went to rosie's mexican cantina after for Cheryl's bday dinner.

saturday i worked at thread and it was busy and wonderful. after work came the best part of my weekend: my grandmother's 80th birthday party. everyone came down to our house. around 5 pm we had a surprise visitor arrive!! my cousin wyman from Birmingham. excitement was abound!! :) then we had dinner and cupcakes from a cupcake cake that cynthia made. and then about 7 pm ANOTHER surprise....my cousin Phillip and his wife and baby pull in the driveway...all the way from HOUSTON, TEXAS!!!! everyone nearly passed out. tear and grins and laughter were in full force. it was such a wonderful day and my grandmother was loved on and enjoyed by everyone. she told me yesterday that it was her best birthday ever.

my grandparents with all us cousins (minus kaci, wyman's wife who had to stay at home):



i love these people to pieces. we all grew up loving each other like brothers and sisters and the spouses everyone have chosen have been the perfect additions to our ever-growing family.

here's a pic of my sis, cynthia and me. we're so excited for her wedding in june and can't wait to serve as her double maids of honor!!!



sunday was gorgeous as well and a fabulous day at church. my sister subbed in my sunday school class for my normal teaching partner and we had a dance party with my preschoolers :) after i got home from church, i began working on yet another tote bag!! it's almost finished and i'll post pics later!

i hope everyone had a weekend that was as half as happy as mine!! :)
and enjoy the rest of your monday!

baking experiment: fake-a-roons.

i often see things (food-wise) that i would like to recreate, but i'm a lazy baker/cook so i tend to try to fake it, by cheating. kinda like a young, tattooed Sandra Lee (who, in my opinion is a genius). i always want to duplicate stuff mainly because i like the way it looks.

i've been seeing lots of pics lately of macaroons. which i have never even tasted. but i LOVE how bright and colorful they are.












however, after browsing and perusing recipes, i've decided that it sounds like a ridiculously long and involved process. so i've decided to fake it.

i mainly want to get the look of the macaroons this time around. so i've decided to do it as basically as i possibly can. i'll be using sugar cookie mix, which i'll then divide my dough up to dye it different colors. i'm thinking about adding a tad bit of almond extract to my batter since this seems to be a recurring theme in the macaroon recipes. hopefully this won't mess with the integrity of my dough and give me some kind of weird consistency. then i'll be using just plain ol' dyed white icing for the filling, which i'll dye to match the cookies. basically i'll just be making a cookie sandwich. the only challenge i see thus far is how i am going to get the tops of my cookies smooth like the tops of the macaroons...we'll see!! so here goes nothing!

first i mixed up my dough, and then divided it into 4ths. i didn't add almond extract because i wasn't feeling it today. dying the dough was tricky. it was very dry and crumbly and this stuff was NOT just going to stir in like it would in cupcake batter. so i had to get my hands in it and knead it in by hand, which wound up working really well.



then i rolled it out and used a biscuit cutter to cut out my shapes. something i would do different: not roll it out quite as thin because the cookies got a tad too crisp. taste good, just too crunchy.





i baked them in batches by color just because i'm OCD like that.



then for the "filling" i just used regular 'ol canned fluffy white icing. and just like with the dough, i divided it up and dyed it to coordinate with the cookies.



and ta-daa! the finished product!!





ultimately, they turned out just how i wanted them, looks-wise. and they taste pretty delish too (afterall, it is just a sugar cookie with icing). the main thing i would do differently is use a stiffer filling (it oozes out the sides when you bite into it) and make the cookies softer (which i think would also help out with the oozing issue) by rolling out the dough thicker. any suggestions??

Thread. part dos.

this week's favorite fabric designer post features probably my VERY favorite designer: Tula Pink!!!! i tried to hold off and save the best for later, but i really couldn't wait. just everything about her designs and colorways appeal to me like crazy. i would be way more excited to meet her than somebody like, Julia Roberts. she has a new line coming out and i am simply beside myself waiting for it to debut. i have used Tula's fabric for a lot of stuff, and have plans for even more stuff!! (like a quilt that my sis is going to make me!) she recently made the move from moda (which i regrettably don't have any of her fabrics from then) to freespirit, which we carry at Thread. her latest collection is called Parisville and i can.NOT. get enough!! on to the fabrics!

fans in pomegranate and mist:






some things i've made with the fans fabric:






topiary in mist and sky: (i'll be using some of both of these in my quilt)







sea of tears in mist and pomegranate:






my skirt made out of sea of tears:




and here i did save the best for last. this design is bananas. i am OBSESSED with cameo (especially in sky) so much so, that i'm really thinking about getting the one with the ship hair tattooed on my inner left arm! (with tula's permission, of course!) i used the cameo in mist in the chinese lanterns pictured above! i also plan to make a dress out of cameo in sky with anna maria horner's socialite dress pattern. cameo in mist and sky:





you can read Tula's blog here: www.tulapink.com (i check it every day for SOME kind of sneak-peek of her new collection!) and become her facebook fan here: www.facebook.com/tulapink (which i also stalk on a daily basis).

sew lovely lovelies.

opened up my new sew lovely patterns while stitching up a sew lovely pinup...and they sent me a little prezzie too!!

i may or may not have become addicted to sewing.

SO a couple of weekends ago, i finally was able to finish my skirt that i started a while back. very excited indeed to have completed my very first sewing project on my own! (with a little advice along the way from my beloved mama, of course.) i used some Michael Miller fabric that i ordered a couple of years ago and never got around to using. i used simplicity pattern #2258. its a great pattern for a super-cute casual skirt. plus it has pockets and i adore skirts or dresses with pockets!! and here's some pictures of the finished product!!

the whole skirt:



pocket close-up:



hem close-up (which i hand stitched!)




Thursday i'll be taking a tote bag class at Thread where we'll be whipping up a handy little tote bag for you know, toting things. I'm super excited, mainly because i chose these fabrics for my bag:

Etsuko Furuya eyeglasses in green for the outside:



and Tula Pink fans in mist for the inside:




this weekend i'm going to attempt to whip up a hairbow for myself, using this bowtie pattern from Jennifer Paganelli and Carla Hegeman Crim. Jennifer Paganelli just came out with a new line of fabrics called Honey Child that is just gorgeous, which i talked about in one of my last posts. anyways, here's the link!!

http://www.sisboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/SisBoomBoscoBowtie-1.pdf

hopefull i'll post pics in the next post or two!!

stitch.

how much do i love embroidery? i can't even begin to count the ways. i've kinda been neglecting it lately so here's some of my favorite pieces i've done to inspire myself to get motivated...so many wip's waiting for me!

the very first thing i ever did stitch:



and now here's it's big sister version, after a little more experience:



both of those stitch samplers are from Sublime Stitching books by Jenny Hart a.k.a. embroidery goddess extraordinaire.

this is probably on of my most favorite things i've every done, Picasso's drawing War and Peace that i am still in love with.



closeup:



i did some kitchen towels as a wedding gift for a couple of friends who got married a couple of summers ago...i couldn't pick a fav so here's all of them! these patterns are from the original Sublime Stitching book, which is what i used to teach myself to stitch!! Jenny always has the BEST instructions and if you're looking to learn, she's your girl!



this one has their wedding date on it! sweet!






and one of the more recent things i've stitched, also from a Sublime Stitching book! this was an apron, stitched as a wedding gift for my best friend when she got hitched last summer!!



and the lovely bride models her apron:



i've done more recent stuff than this, but these pics have served their purpose in getting me sufficiently movtivated to stitch something new!! in fact, i started a new project last night! and i have a shirt for my sis to work on next. it's safe to say, i'd rather be stitching right this very minute!!