I'm back from Vegas and I have a billion photos of the trip. Here is the basic rundown of the festivities.

1. Too much Guitar Hero
2. I had dinner with a Charlie Daniels impersonator and 4 LDS missionaries.
3. Charlie Daniels' wife made the most delicious corned beef and cabbage - SERIOUSLY!!!
4. Stopped the 3 year-olds from breaking their necks from performing daredevil stunts
5. Painted Jenny's craft room a very bright yellow
6. Went shopping
7. Went to "Las Vegas" which to Cohen means a casino filled with lights and really random attractions
8. Drank too much Diet Coke thanks to the unlimited supply in Jenny's garage fridge.
9. Laughed
10. Enjoyed the sunshine

Are you on Goodreads.com yet? I am loving it. If you are, add me as a buddy. I'd love to see what you recommend. It is helping me keep track of my reading list and my feelings regarding the books. I am now reading book #17 for the year. The goal is 50 books by the end of the year. I can totally do it if I continue to ignore my domestic duties!

EVERYBODY IS IRISH ON MARCH 17

We are on our way to Las Vegas to visit my sister and celebrate St. Patty's Day. Actually our celebrations will be rather pathetic for several reasons:

1. I don't drink beer
2. I won't eat corned beef
3. Cabbage makes the house stink, therefor I will not cook it

A friend of mine was talking about why we even celebrate the holiday and all I could think about was that we just love the Irish. For whatever reason they have portrayed a jolly bunch that just has a lot of fun in a beautiful country. I just read on Wikipedia why we really celebrate it.

BUT... I am very excited because we are going to see Flogging Molly at House of Blues tomorrow night. WAHOO! I've seen them several times before and they never cease to entertain. It will be a great show, even though we had to pay outlandish Ticketmaster fees that equaled the cost of our tickets. Lame. But their new album is great and I've been listening to it like crazy. I hope the weather cooperates. It is a little blustery out right now. I figure if we get about 150 miles south it will be okay. There temperatures are a little warmer in the south. I'll be back next Thursday. I may check in from LV, but I also may not. Happy Irishing!

ATTENTION SALT LAKE CITY YARNIES!!!

Hello friends, knitters and crocheters and non-yarnies alike. A fabulous new yarn store called Unwind has opened in the Salt Lake Valley on 8600 South and Highland Drive. This place is totally cute and offers something for everyone. The store is SO cozy and has so much room to lounge and enjoy the atmosphere. Unwind offers a huge supply of yarns from cottons to alpacha to wool and everything in between. What is so cool about unwind is that it is not just a yarn store. It is a creative center. There are several pieces of art and refurbished furniture for sale, too.

This coming Saturday (March 15th), Unwind is sponsoring the "Knit from the Heart" event. This will last all day. Bring your needles and hooks and help knit blankets, hats, and other stuff for the downtown homeless shelter. This will also be a great opportunity to network with other yarnies in the area. For those of you who think you can't come because you have the kids, BRING THEM! Unwind has an awesome kid area with a TV, games and art supplies. They even get to enter through their own little door. Come on... a child friendly yarn store, you say! It totally is.


Also, there are knitting and crocheting class schedules available. There is a large variety of classes offered depending on your knitting skills. Sue can help you find the one that is right for you.

I'll be working at Unwind as their fill-in gal every so often. I am so excited to work in such a chill atmosphere. I used to work with Sue, one of the owners, at my last job. It is so nice to hang out with Sue in a non-stressful environment. Anyway, I'm really excited. Please check out the shop. It is just plain AWESOME!

My new "new" project...



I am now learning to do paper piecing and this is my first project. It is not really my style, but I do think it is really cute and I am having so much fun making it. My friend Lindsey's MIL (that taught me how to appliqué the Christmas house) is teaching us this one.
This is where I am at so far. I started with the easy pieces. I love that I don't have to be exact. That is totally my style of quilting (read: I'm lazy and measuring isn't my favorite part of sewing). I'll keep you updated as I work on this.

Why have just one?

I am currently in a swap on Craftster.org called the Pincushion Swap. I do love my pincushions. These two put the total count to 11. Yahoo! I have them scattered around the house and pins move from place to place. I have a few on my shelf that are too precious to poke. One on the kitchen table, a few on the right had of my sewing machine, and currently there are two on top of the toaster oven. (When I use the ironing board, I have to share the plug that is behind the toaster oven. So my ironing board gets put out in front of the kitchen sink...remember, I live in close quarters. Anyway, there is a pincushion (well...two right now) there to house the pins for ironing. It all makes sense to me.

The pincushion above it made of a soft denim and 'puckered' with a brown wool yarn. The pin is a shrink plastic image of the little vinyl owl I bought a few weeks ago. This is what my partner named the functional pincushion. I know I'll use it. I always do.

But look at this baby! What a sweet felt guitar, complete with frets and tuning keys and strings. I love it. It is also complete with at shrink plastic pick pin. The craftmanship is unbelievable and I hesitated to even use this. But, last night as I was sewing, it was the closest soft thing to stick a pin in and I welcomed it to the family.

A post a day...

When I was a missionary for my church, my the president of my mission once said, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions..." I had heard it before but when he said it, the words seemed to stick. You see, I intended to post a craft every day in March in honor of National Craft Month. So - I'm on my way to Hell I guess. But, I have crafted every day in March and that has to count for something.
I made these bags and I am so glad they are done and in the mail. Oh my!! What a project. The gal I made them for had specifics in mind but no pattern. So, with her instruction and measurements and my smarts (or something), the collaboration began.

Because of the busyness of the pattern on the lining fabric, it is hard to see what is going on in here, but let me try to explain. On the inside I created pleated pockets all of the way around the outside. There is a center divide. I don't know if I did it correctly, but it worked. Then I added patch pockets to the outside and a flap. Once they were all put together it didn't seem like a big deal, but it was hard to start. Both bags are practically identical. Needless to say, I am glad it is over. I cannot wait to see what she thinks of them. They are on their way to PA as we speak.

Where I Create...

In honor of March, National Craft Month, I decided to show you all where I "make it". I live in an apartment that is just under 1000 square feet. With Mike and I both having a lot of arts and crafts supplies, we have to be creative with our space. So, I am taking you on a short tour of our corners and closets.

First up we have the corner of our bedroom. (Wow... I'm so embarrassed to show you this.) Here I keep my sewing machine set up all of the time. I also house all of my small bits of fabric (under 2 yards) and fat quarters. The drawers contain yarn, scraps, felt, thread and notions. On the shelves I have embroidery floss, buttons, trims, patterns, yarn dying supplies, and a serger that barely works.

Another image of the beast that is the corner of my room. Under the table is all of interfacing, pelon, stuffing and pillow forms.

This bench sits at the end of our bed. Underneath is my smaller pieces of Christmas fabric and the overflow that won't fit on my fabric shelf.

This is one side of Cohen's closet. This is where I keep any fabric yardage or bulkier fleeces and flannels. The drawers contain wood, stationary, packaging and wrapping supplies. The hat box contains photos of Mike's youth that need to be scrapbooked and the gray bin is the photography stuff. This closet is a black hole and contains a lot of bits and bobs.

This is the closet above our washer and dryer. I keep all of my scrabooking and paper crafting supplies up here. We also keep paints and paintbrushes, and Cohen's chalk, crayons, and Play-doh (I really hate Play-doh). The shelf isn't really bowed... I hope. I'll have to go check it out. There is also a little corner for laundry soap. bleach, and dryer sheets. Oh, my guitar is peeking out there, too.

And lastly, my kitchen table looks like this about 4 days out of the week. It really doubles as a great cutting table. I used to use Mike's drafting table but I found it to be another surface to pile stuff on, so I got rid folded it up and put it under Cohen's bed. I figure I have to clear the table to eat dinner so I'd be less likely to create a fabric version of Mt. Fuji each week that would have to be hidden whenever someone came over.

So, there you have it. That is my "studio" that is my home. If any of you have any clever storage solutions for all this stuff, let me know. I've taken over every closet in our home and left poor Mike one shelf in the linen closet for his modeling (no - he is not trying to get on the cover of GQ - he paints miniatures). I cannot wait to have one room to devote to our supplies. Ahh - it will be a glorious day when we all have our own closets and corners back. Cross your fingers that 2008 brings home ownership, or at least a bigger rental.