this and that

Well, August kicked my butt and I can't say I'm sorry to see September come along. A ginormous class size has taken some getting used to, but we're getting into the Kindergarten groove and I'm hoping things will settle down into routine pretty quickly.

In the meantime, lots has been going on at home, too! We hosted my brother in law and a friend of his for a few days a couple weeks ago, and will host my sister and her boyfriend this coming weekend.

I finally got my sewing machine back (YAY!!) but have had no time to finish the several projects on my list (BOO!!). Actually, I have time now, but I decided to update the long-neglected blog and read. Priorities, people. :)

What am I reading, you ask? Excellent question! I just got this book...

...which I had been lusting after for a while, and I'm getting excited about pulling the sewing machine off of the kitchen chair where it's hiding and going through the projects, lesson by lesson.

Stitch by Stitch is really a beautiful book. The photos are gorgeous and I love the spiral binding.

You can read bloggy reviews of this book here, here, and here.

Oh! I almost forgot my most recent piece of news! I signed up for a quilter's workshop/retreat in November in the next town over. It'll be my first one and I'm super excited!

first day of school

Ah, a new school year. New students, new supplies, new principal... lots of new things this year! I'm exhausted.

birthday and thank you cards

I wanted to keep a small supply of thank you and birthday cards on hand so that I don't have to scramble to make them every time I need one.

This one is my favorite thank you card.

This is my favorite birthday card.

I like the concept of this one but the stamping is a little wonky.

I have a scrapbooking magazine and I modeled this card after one I saw in there.

I used my new edge cutter on this one.

Yay for a stash of cards and crossing off another project from my list!

getting ready for school

I've spent the last day and a half in my classroom, getting ready for the new school year. My first official day to report is Monday, but I like to go in the week before to give myself some extra time... unfortunately, a lot was going on in our building this summer and my classroom wasn't clean until Friday. This is what it looked like when I first got in.

Our custodians do a great job cleaning... they wipe down walls, cabinets, furniture, and steam clean the carpets.

This is where my desk goes. I carve out a corner by putting my desk at an angle. It's pretty cozy. :)

This is all my classroom furniture jammed onto the small rectangle of tile. The custodians do this to clean the carpets, and they didn't have a chance to put it back before I was all over them to get into my room.

This is what the room looked like at the end of Friday. I used my superhuman strength (and a dolly) to move all the furniture off the tile. Some of those pieces are really heavy.

Here you can see the unholy mess I've made. This is typical of me when I'm getting ready. I drop ten million things in ten million places.

And a view of my desk.

I put this little desk together Saturday... got it on sale at Wal Mart for $25. I need to set up a secondary work station for myself next to my Promethean Board. I didn't like the setup I had last year... too easy for the kids to trip on wires and stuff.

I threw this sheet over my guided reading table to use as a table cloth... I'll hem it when I get my sewing machine back. I wanted to hide the stuff I'm storing under the table. Plus I think it makes the area look more homey and cheerful.

I'll be back in my room on Sunday to do some more unpacking and arranging. Thanks for sticking with me through this long, rambling post about stuff you probably don't give a hoot about. :) I like seeing other teachers' rooms, though, so I thought I'd post mine.

bad news

My sewing machine is in the repair shop! I'm really bummed. Every time I think "oh, I want to make that!", it's sewing related and I can't. Plus, I'm behind on quilting two projects and sewing two more. Plus, it'll probably be a week before I get it back. That machine is as ornery as a red headed stepchild. I should name it something to that effect... something other than Piece of &*(^. :)

I've been debating getting a new machine... the Singer Curvy is on sale at my JoAnn until mid-August. A very nice lady demonstrated it for me and it looks awesome!

blue striped starling

I finally finished my Starling Handbag! I really love how it turned out.

I took my friends' advice to heart and went with different buttons on the tops of the tree branches.

I unpicked the stupid embroidered bird and went with a sweet little fabric one.

After a snag, I sewed the lining for the bag and then sewed it into the bag.

Sewing the lining into the bag went really smoothly. Sewing the lining itself was problematic... see the seam at the very bottom of the bag? Instead of using one long piece for the lining, I had to cobble pieces together after I realized the measuring tape I used to measure the bag was off, and therefore the pieces I'd already cut were too small for the bag. The measuring part didn't start at the very end of the tape. Weird.

I'm so glad I realized this *before* I sewed the whole lining... I would have been mad. Really. Mad. :)

Of course, there's a pocket, a snap, and my tag. The pocket happens to be a perfect size for my cell... I was pretty stoked when I slid the phone it and the stars aligned and karma was on my side... I guess I could have measured and gotten the same result, but I really wanted to use up a scrap of the fabric, so I just went for it.

I have that weird feeling that you get after finishing a long and involved project... that sort of now what? feeling? Luckily, there's plenty on the project list to keep me occupied!

striped scarf

I've had "crochet a green and blue striped scarf" on my project list forever. It turned out to be a super quick project where I practiced my mad foundation single crochet skillz. :)

I really like how my stripes are not uniform. I used double crochet, half double, and single crochet stitches to do it.

I also ventured into fringe for the first time. Super exciting stuff! I can't contain myself.

Sarcasm aside, it's lovely to mark another project on the list as DONE!

starling embellishment

I finally finished my Starling Handbag! Now I'm working on embellishment and I need your help. I decided to embroider a tree and bird on the front of the bag, because all the shades of blue reminded me of how the sky can be different colors. This first picture really shows how the shades of blue look (not the purply ones you see later. That's just bad lighting. :)

So here are my questions to you:

I love how the tree turned out. I'm debating putting buttons on the top of the branches like this...

but I'm not sure. What do you think?

Also, I'm debating between the embroidered bird or a little fabric bird, pulled from the same blue of the fabric I'm using for the lining. So, you tell me: embroidered bird floating in the sky or fabric bird sitting on the ground?

I'm so glad the crocheting part is done! This bag has been a year in the making and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I'm glad too that I took the time to fix the wonkiness.

One more photo to show the fabric for the lining: