Wow... who knew Saturdays could be so terrible

1) Friday night while baking cookies our oven decided to spontaneously combust, leaving us with only one working element and a hell of a light show. It was like somebody was welding inside my oven. We called the rental agency and as of today... almost 2 days later, nobody has returned our calls yet.

2) Saturday I had a group meeting at 9am... I set my alarm and hit snooze... only I missed and turned it off. So I was about 10 mins late leaving!!!! To make matters worse, I forgot my lunch on the way and didn't have time to go back.

3) While in the right hand turning lane with my indicator on a car in the straight lane decided to turn right as well. He cleaned out the side of SO's car, while trying to merge. Apparently I wasn't big enough to see in SO's G5! Thank heavens I was already breaking for the turn! The speed limit is 70 km/hr there and I was already down to ~50 km/hr when he hit me. Luckily nobody was hurt, just shook up... now the insurance companies are involved. What really 'gets my goat' is that I noticed he was behind me for a couple of blocks... which means when the turning lane came up he had to notice that I changed lanes and he was now alone in his lane. Where did he think I went? the only turn I could make was the one I was about to!!! He had to accelerate to pass me so he could get into the turning lane. He wasn't from town so I'm going to assume he didn't realize he needed to make that turn until after he was past me in the straight lane and then decided to whip over into it anyway. This is a lesson in checking over your shoulder as well as your mirrors when driving!

4) My group meeting still went a head as planned and we spent 9.5 hours developing a mock alternate course for a fake child with an oral language disability for a presentation we have tomorrow. I hope this one goes well! It took a lot of effort to make it there in one piece!

5) When I finally got home for SO to check out his car we went Christmas shopping... CostCo was closed so we went to Futureshop where I picked up a gift for my sister that I now have to return because my Mom forgot to tell me she already has it! Then we went to Wal*Mart and we ate at good ol' Micky D's because of our lack of oven!


On a bright note, we did listen to Christmas music in the car and I did wrap the gifts we already had picked-up. We've started to gather belongings in the kitchen that need to come home with us for our 5 month vacation/move home! I need to work on a couple of school assignments and do some sewing and then I'll be all ready for Christmas vacation too!

Hopefully today is much better than yesterday :)

PIF: What Goes Around, Comes Around

Yesterday, I contacted a fellow blogger about a BOM. I had missed a few months and although the site sold them, I was wondering if I could have the previous months to catch up.

That blogger then emailed me the FULL PATTERN!

I won't mention who or what pattern because I don't have permission, but I'd just like to say thanks! If you're reading this know that your kindness really touched my heart!

I haven't mentioned it much on this blog because I don't like to think about it a lot... One of the reasons that I'm staying home after Christmas (essentially moving home) is because of $$$. I am a teacher but I've only gotten 4.5 subbing days so far this year! I'm hoping that moving home will help with the $$$.

The reason I have no $$$ is because I'm still a full-time university student working on a Special Education Degree. Once I have this completed, I really hope that I can find a great job and quickly lol! My student loan is maxed out after 6 years of university so now I'm working and going to school to keep it all going.

Anyway, the whole reason behind this post is to start a Pay-It Forward.

What I'd like to do is for the first two people who respond, I'd like to send them a little gift in the next year. It'll be something homemade/handmade and it'll be completely from things already in my house. (The only exception is up to $5 to include something new if you'd like).

The catch here is that you need to re-post this on your blog too... and promise to do the same thing for 2 people. (I know that typically it's 3 people but for me, 2 seems to be a more manageable commitment!)

I promise to send you something by Christmas of 2010! And, it'll be meaningful but not necessarily expensive... it'll be handmade and created with much love!

So go and spread the good-will after all this is the season of thanksgiving and gift-giving!!

Flea Market Fancy Giveaway

I don't know all of the details as I'm trying to work them out myself!!! but click on the photo and follow the yellow brick road... or directions... what ever it gives you!!!

Followers!

Hey bloggity world!

I'm just wondering about the followers widget... I have one friend and 20+ followers

How do I get more friends? lol! I really mean how do I turn more of those followers into friends... do I have to follow their blogs too? Is that how it works?

P.S. I'd love to know that more of you are reading!! SO BECOME A FOLLOWER OR LEAVE ME A COMMENT! I'd love to visit your blog too or even if you want to drop me an anon comment, you can just email me :) at thatssewmandy@hotmail.com

I'm thinking about having a give away soon too for Christmas! I'm trying to think of something nice to offer up! I also hope I have better luck with getting it to the recipient!

I re-sent the last giveaway I had the other day! It got returned from customs... the post office here never had me fill out the right papers or something because it wasn't all paper... I included fabric scraps... not even many... just a few. I had to repack all of it in a new envelope! I hope it reaches Fiesta soon!

Other Crafts I've enjoy

The last post is mostly about things I've done in the past but this one is about things I still enjoy... along with sewing and quilting!!!!

I dabble in photography... and I even had a blog about my photography for a while. I got a really nice semi-pro camera from my parents last year for Christmas and I like taking artsy photos with it... I'm no pro but you might like some of my photos like...




Of course, because I like photography so much, it's probably no surprise that I liked scrapbooking a little too.

I actually had a lot of scrapbooking stuff but I never got heavy into it, so I sold a lot of it on kijiji this summer...

What other crafts do you/ did you enjoy???

CGQC Tag for November "I am Greatful For"

Kelly wrote

Thanksgiving is coming soon, I thought it would be great for us to be able to share a few things for which we're grateful.

I'm sure quilting and sewing will be on many of your lists -- but, I'd also like you to share another craft that you have done/enjoyed besides sewing.

Well Canadian Thanksgiving was last month... but my parents were visiting and I didn't write a post about it... so I'll share a few things I'm thankful for...

1. a beautiful boyfriend who loves me and I love him too

2. a beautiful family who supports me and believes in me

3. my apple computer... it's never crashed and it has really allowed me to improve the quality of my school work... kinda petty in comparison to the other two but I am seriously thankful for my Macbook <3!!!

Now onto other crafting things I use to do...

It will be hard for me to supply pics of these because I'm away at univesity and they are home... over 25ooKm's away! So I'll grab a couple of look alikes from the google search and insert them here... and they'll be like mine but not actually mine... Ok?!

I use to make jewlery out of plastic lacing or lanyard....

Some people called it gimp and it looks like this

My favourites were the cobra and double zippers... that's when I was about 12-14... so that was 8-10 years ago lol.

Then I moved into hemp jewelry with beads as embellishments... I made necklaces, bracelets, and anklets... they looked similar to this...

I had many different colours of hemp and I used mostly glass beads...

I eventually moved into making beaded sun-catchers from wire and glass beads. I never really got into wire jewelry though... although if I hadden't gone to university I may have. Some of the stuff I made was similar to this...

Butterflies, flowers and turtles were the 3 main patterns I used. I didn't make the strings from wire though, I use to use ribbon or metallic string for that instead.

Then a couple of years ago, I got into making beaded Christmas ornaments... mostly angels but they were usually all clear beads.

Then just this past spring, I got the crafty urge back and then I decided it was time to learn to quilt... so that's what I did!!!

Maybe when I move back home, I may start beading ornaments and suncatchers again, I really liked it and it was great fun!

Figuring out THE CGQC!

So I'm a little late for starting this month but I only found out about this today :) ...

My plan by the end of the month is to have....

1. The Fall Mini Swap top completed (which it is... but I'm not sure if it'll count for this month but it was a thing I had to do!)

2. the last border sewn on my 'Walter's Flower Garden' quilt to finish that top (You can see I have the bottom border on so I need to do 3 other pieces and the corner squares... I may have to fix the yellow column though because it's not sewn on fair!)


3. To Finish the Placemats, Table Mats/runners, and coasters for family and friends for Christmas... I can't post a pic of those yet because I don't know if they read here or not... so just in case, you'll have to take my word on it!

But there's a set (mats, runner & coasters) for my Mom, Nan, Sister, Friend, and me... Plus coasters for 5 other people!!! So that's a lot!! Luckily they are just pillow turned but still there's a lot of them!

I suspect that I may not finish #3 but that's ok... b/c I'll make it my thing for December along with quilting and binding #1 :)

To see what other people are doing for the November CGQC, check out the CGQC November Post at Charming Chatter

P.S. the whole site is really great!

Barb from Bejewled is at it again!

That Barb I tell you is going to be the end of my education! Every time I go to study, she posts something fantastical on her blog then I drool. When I snap out of it, I finally get the sense to blog about it and after an hour this is what we end up with.

Barb is giving away a tea towel... and it's too darn cute! It has my favourite berry on it... the blueberry and I really would love to own it. I may have to make one at some point. There is also a fantastic recipe for muffins there... I would make them but since I'm moving in December as I run out of things they're not being replaced including flour and sugar!

Since I just found out I was accepted/entered into the CGQC! (WAHOOOOOO!!!! big cheers at this hour in the morning) I may make it a January mission lol... I already have my work for December!

EDIT: I forgot to add the second part to this post!!!! SO came home mid-type and I made dinner for you folk who live outside of Newfoundland and Labrador that's lunch... and we call your dinner, supper. WEIRD I know ... but for me, your the ones who are truly weird! I mean who eats dinner at 6pm???

Anyway, Barb's niece, Jeanette, has another giveaway on her blog too... at the Inch Worm Fabric's Blog. She has a separate recipe for muffins that sound divine and another idea for the muffin pattern... plus she has the muffin applique pattern available for free download!

So when you get a chance go visit and let them know I sent you. I don't get any extra chances in a draw or anything and even though I could win stuff here for blogging about this, this really isn't my intention... I just hope she creates a really successful business!

Charming Girls Quilt Club

I just recently found out about the Charming Girls Quilt Club from Kelly at Charming Chatter.

I wanted to join but today she announced they were closing registration... so maybe I'll play along on my own lol... perhaps I'll just post the pic of what I want to do on the 1st of the month and report on how I did during the last of the month...

I guess I just missed the boat on this one :(

Before I start my Homework...

I decided to do a little sewing. This is what I came-up with for the fall mini-swap. I hope my partner will like it.

What do you think about the crayon panel? I just printed a colouring sheet from the internet and kinda made it my own for this project. I think it came out alright.

For the actual pattern, I just took random strips from my scraps I got from my grandma and sewed them in no order. If it looked ok, then I just made it work. I only ripped one seam out! I think that's a success. It's about 17 X 18 right now, but I need to square it up so it may be less than that.

Now I need to decide how I'm going to quilt this little beauty. I think I may choose a decorative stitch and sew around the borders? What do you think, simple but elegant.

This is the backing fabric. I got it from a LQS... it was a FQ on for $2!!!

It's a lot brighter than the front but I think it's kinda cool in a warm fall kinda way lol! I think I'm going to do a pieced binding. I can't wait for this to be done... I just may want to keep it for myself lol!!!