I signed up... Now comes the real challenge.

I did it! I bit the bullet and got out my credit card. Now I'm going to ride my bike back to work and start getting used to being "in the saddle". It's 80% sold out, so if you're going to join me, sign up now! For more info on the STP, go here.

I've missed you...

I've been remiss in this, my seemingly easiest of New Feb's Rezzies. So, as a peace offering:




P.S. You may have to go to youtube to watch it in all it's glory, and I do recommend it.

Weekly Post

I saw lots of really cool things today. Alas, I did not get pictures of any of them. But! Have no fear, I will recreate them here:

I saw baby ducks and a grown up duck. Aha! Upon google image searching, I do believe I saw goslings and a goose because the babies were quite yellow and the adult was really big in comparison to the babies. This is a close approximation:

I also saw a train-full of tractors. There were at least 30 identical tractors. There could have been 50. I was getting on the ferry in Edmonds, but had to wait for the train to go by and they were on some of the middle cars, all perfectly aligned with each other.

I also saw (fine, I broke one of my new feb's rezzies and bought) some really cute fabric! It's called Hideaway by Lauren & Jessie Jung for Moda. I got a half yard of the chalet fabric on bottom, a quarter of the teeny-tiny deers in the middle, and a quarter of the dot fabric on the right (but with a white background). I love it.

Also, while I was at the quilt shop, the ladies working there LOVED my kindle cover and said I should write patterns. I thought - "hey! that's a great idea!" So, there we go. Another back up career if this whole engineering thing ends up being too much of a drag for me.

The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day!

P.S. I haven't forgotten about NYC. Someday - maybe even soon - I will post more.

New Feb's Rezzies

Well, New Year's passed me by without much fanfare, so I've decided to make New February Resolutions. I'll follow them (or at least try) for the next year - so here goes!

1. Read at least one non-fiction book for every fiction book read.
2. No purchasing new fabric, paper, stamps, ribbon, stickers, etc. (Exception: Items needed to finish projects that I own the majority of the supplies.)
3. Go on one date per month - at least.
4. Blog weekly or more.
5. Ride the Seattle to Portland - sign ups are today!

Other things I'm thinking about - Cleaning? Eating better? Being on time? Did any of you make new's years resolutions? How are they going?

An expensive tomato and a kindle sleeve.

The other day I bought a tomato at the co-op because it was a pretty yellowish-orange color. When I got home I realized that I had spent $1.25 for a tomato the size of a ping-pong ball. So, the eating of this tomato became important and memorable:

I paired it with whole wheat flat bread - which I forgot to take a picture of, but you can imagine it, I'm sure. I also made a dipping sauce with olive oil, white balsamic, fresh garlic, and finely chopped basil.

There was also avocado. It was wonderful.

Yesterday I decided that since I had today off, I should make myself a kindle sleeve. So, I started playing around with the fabric that I had chosen. The two bluer fabrics are by sweetwater for moda, and I'm not sure about the tan. Of course, since I'm never content to do things the easy way, I decided to make an argyle pattern with the fabric!

Let me tell you - I did nearly every step on this thing twice. I was messing up right and left. But, I kept laughing and kept going. The back is just a solid piece of the blue fabric with ampersands and it's lined with the argyle fabric. I quilted it with the argyle lines, too.

Here I'm showing you the closure. I haven't sewn the button on yet - but it's made so the flap "blends" with the argyle pattern. Nifty, eh? My finger is holding it down. Otherwise the button goes flinging across the room.

Please, if you like it, tell me. I'm not super happy with it but if enough people tell me it's cool I'm hoping I'll stop looking at it critically and just be like "yeah - it'll do."

Things I read about...

...And wanted to share with you!

First up? Tula Pink has been sewing, and she made a couple bags from Amy Butler's new book, Style Stitches. Which I happen to have purchased. I'm thinking I ought to make one of these bags, too!

Next - some pretty clothes. If the stars ever aligned for me to wear designer clothes (there would have to be major weight loss, major income, and some sort of a reason/occasion), I'd totally wear any of these:



They're from Erdem's Pre-Fall 2011 collection (don't ask me what that really means), and I'd even wear the ones I'm not showing you.

You're probably wondering...

What does merryheathre do with all her time? Because she sure doesn't spend it blogging! Or replying to emails! Or tweeting...

Well, here's what I spent a couple New Year's Eve hours doing - sewing!

I started out with raw materials from alert readers (thank you, Dave Barry), ref250 and ~K, as they like to be known. The main material is a pair of boxer shorts that have been re-purposed into a ditty bag. That's the ref250 part. The lining is laminated nicey jane that ~K picked up for me because I forgot to buy it way back at the shop hop!

The green bits and thread are from my stash with a Coats & Clark zipper to finish it off. Now I've gotta make a case for my kindle...