I've been sewing!

I did a lot of sewing last week and was too lazy to break out the camera until tonight :)


So here's what I've been up to...














Has a white lining

Has the same red gingham lining as the next bag






























I also finished my corset tonight that I'm going to wear to the medieval faire when it comes to town


I think my next project will be a motorjacket! I've wanted to make one for quite a while and have been talking to a friend lately who wants to make one and it motivated me to actually get around to it...Here's where we got our inspiration from. Now I just have to find a ReaLLY long zipper for the jacket. Hmm...I wonder if Wal-Mart has that, if not then I have to wait until I go home next because I live in a stupid town that has NO fabric stores...but TWO scrapbooking stores. Where are these peoples' priorities?!? All I have is the fabric department at Wal-Mart and there's rumors of it disappearing :(

I'm back to coloring...

...in a slightly more advanced way.

I broke out my clip art disk this evening and found this cute old comic style picture. I took it into an editing program and filled in some color. Now I need suggestions on what I should write in the talk bubbles. I want it to be something funny, maybe a play on words or kind of picking fun at old shows like Donna Reed and things like that.

Before

After

Flashback Friday...9

I recently watched Forrest Gump for like the 25th time (every time it comes on TV). While trying to come up with today's Flashback Friday topic I ran across some pictures of when I was in our nation's capitol, where Forrest visited on multiple occasions. (My mom loves how Forrest was always ending up in historical situations, but she doesn't really like the movie. Every time it comes on she says we're not going to watch it, but we always do. Then she says, "aww man..." if we missed parts of it :) Oh well...)

My family went to Virginia over Spring Break '04 to visit my dad's college roommate and his family. Since we were already in the area we went to D.C. We thought it would be great weather and everything, but no. It started out nice but the temperature began to drop and it started raining, sleeting, snowing, and hailing. So that was a bit of a bummer, but it was still a pretty cool trip.




















I knew he was tall, but that's just crazy :)














The back side of the white house














The security guard who was standing next to me when I took the picture of the white house














Jennnyyyy!!!! I was sad that there was no water in the pool for someone *couMEgh* to run out in...

And that's all I have to say about thaat.

Woot! Woot!

I am finished with the radio program I was producing! It is being translated and sent to our partner University at this very moment...so I don't have to worry about it any more!

I actually jumped up and down when I finished it. I think this is the first of eight shows that has been finished on the day it was due, let all also being sent on that day...so I'm pretty proud about it. Now on to my package for the next show. I have to do a six minute package for the other five shows that I'm not producing.






























*and apparently I'm not recognizable in a baseball cap....??

I'm such a...

Pageant Mom.

No, I'm not really a mom, but I feel like one. Tonight was mine and Kevin's band concert. Since we are conveniently in separate bands (there are two concert bands at our university) I get to take as many pictures of him as I want. So within a few minutes of his band starting I'm taking pictures and video footage...which makes me feel like a pageant mom. But I can't help it, I just love him and I love taking pictures :)

Doesn't he look handsome in his tux?!?

Text under photo tutorial

As promised here is the tutorial about placing text under certain areas of a photo. Here is an zoomed in example from last week.




















I chose a photo that has been beaten to death by my editing endeavors...but it is the only photo I have so far on my new lappy. (You'll want to click the photos to enlarge then bacause they came out pretty small.)

First thing to do is open a photo in your photo editing program. I used PAINT.net, but any photoshop like program.














Second, select the edge finder tool (the button that is chosen in the photo.)














Begin to select the edges of the area you want to place text behind. Always select an area larger then you think you will need...I actually didn't get a large enough area for this project so I just worked with what I had selected instead of starting over :) You may want to zoom in to help your project look its best.













After you've outlined the object connect the end and make sure it looks like this...














Make sure the black arrow is clicked then while the area is still outlined, type ctrl C, then ctrl V (on a mac it's the apple key instead of ctrl). This makes a copy of the selected area and duplicates it.















Then insert the text you want and choose the font and color you want.














Place the text and right click the double layered part of the picture click the option saying bring forward, placing it over the text. Then play around some more with the positioning of the text.

Then go to effects, transparency, and then even and figure out how transparent you want the text to be.














Then make sure to flatten your photo and save it and you have a neat looking picture!





These techniques can be used to place clipart and other things in photos as well. I hope this made sense, I feel like a second grader could do this now...of course there are probably a lot of second graders out there who know more about computers then I do. if you don't understand some of this or have other questions just let me know and I'll try to help ya' :)

Cool video...

I've never really been a huge fan of Christina Aguilera...it's not like I disliked her though. Her Candyman music video was really cute. Anyway, a few weekends ago I was flipping through the channels and landed on VH1, a station I've never watched before and I started listening to a song that I thought was pretty cool. Come to find out it was Christina Aguilera's concert. Two hours and a frozen pizza later I was back in my room flipping through the channels and landed on the same station, same concert, same song and I watched it again. I really enjoy the song and have even put it on my myspace. So without further ado...here it is Makes Me Wanna Pray.

Look at this...

I got my new "baby" in the mail today!

Woot! Woot! Now I'm off to play with it some more and try to figure out what I'm doing.

Guess what the first type of program I installed on my new lappy was...

Flashback Friday...8

Here's what happens when you're raised in Oklahoma...and are a camera nerd/book nerd by the age of 10.

I made my dad dress up in a straw hat and hold a water gun while I wore a "headdress" I had made from elastic and a feather and held a "slingshot" which was a loop of elastic, and made my mom take a picture with the infamous Barbie camera. (I was known for many years in Branson as "the girl with the Barbie camera”…long story…) I'm pretty sure the desire to have a picture of dad and I playing Cowboys and Indians was because I had just finished reading the Indian in the Cupboard for like the millionth time.

"It's not about religion...

...it's about relationship."

A friend of mine said this at church on Wednesday night. I was praying just now and remembered this and it really got me to thinking.

He, my friend Mark, said that our walk with God isn't about rules and religion like a lot of people make it out to be. Someone can be the most religious person in the world and follow all the rules out there and still not know Christ. Mark also said that God loves us the same no matter what we do. Once we are saved and have Christ as the savior of our life if we do something wrong or bad he still loves us the same. We tend to feel like we have to do something to earn back God's love but it's a free gift of love so we can't do anything to "earn" it. According to him this means that once God is in our life we are always saved.*

I am all for this relationship thing. I was raised in church from the time that I was 9 months old. I have the religion part down...but I'm not so sure about the relationship part. That's actually what I was working on tonight, just talking to God. Not trying to repent or ask for something, I was just talking to Him about what is going on in my life right now and what I'm thinking about. It felt really nice and kind of makes me want to do better at living my best life to show my love for God and His love to others. I know that when I mess up God still loves me the same, He may not like what I did, but He still loves me. I'm reminded of the puppy example...you get a puppy, you love the puppy, puppy pees on carpet, you still love puppy but don't like that it peed on your stinkin' carpet :)




*I'm not yet sure how I feel about the once saved, always saved thing... I was raised in a hardcore Pentecostal church which is now an independent church (long story, details some other time). I attend a couple of Baptist churches when I'm at school for various reasons. My Pentecostal background leads me to believe that if I mess up then I have to repent and turn away from that mistake before I was back on the Heaven list, so to speak. My take on the Baptist thing is if I mess up it's ok as long as love God, etc. I've always wondered, well what if someone lives for God then goes crazy and kills someone... do they still get the once saved, always saved thing because that's kinda scary. Then tonight I had this thought- A sin is a sin. We are not to judge and if I sin and the murderer obviously sinned then in God's eyes we're on the same level... I think I'll stop pondering on this now and ask my pastor about it sometime.















Wow...that was a lot of church-y talk. It's just what I'm thinking about. I promise my next post won't be so deep and won't include the words pee and murder or my Penti-Baptist ways of thinking :)

Edited Photos

I got a little bored on Saturday...I ended up trying out some new techniques in Paint.net. Its some things I learned in Editing and Design last year on Quark and come to find out it can be done in my free photo editing program :)

The thing I wanted to do was put text behind a part of the photo. I'm pleased with how it came out since I was learning as I worked. I can do a tutorial on this if anyone wants me to. The methods I used are generally the same with all editing programs.

The first picture is kind of a play on words ;)




















Then I did just some other editing stuff. I don't usually edit text into photos so it was good practice.

Crafting Extravaganza

Yeah...I totally spelled that right without spell check :)

So as I mentioned in my last post I've been doing a lot of crafting and sewing lately. So I figured I would show off a little of what I've done.

First off is book binding. I found some sites awhile back about how to do your own book binding and I thought I sounded pretty cool. I have a kids book that I bought last semester to use the pages for scrap booking, and that left me with the book cover. I went to work with it and cut out pages from an old atlas, Branson brochures, and some of the actual pages out of the book along with plain paper. I sewed them together with dental floss (which is actually recommended for at home book binding) and glued them and put it all together into the book. It was fun and now I have a really neat notebook.

















My other projects have been sewing. I finally made this bag that I've been planning on making for a long time. I made it much larger then the pouches I usually make and plan on using it to store all my thread in. Since it is larger then the usual bags I make, and longer then my 7 inch zippers, I had to use a technique I saw for lengthening a zipper. I'm pretty proud at the results since it was my first try.











Then I made this bag with two different fabrics on the front. I have seen a lot of bags lately that use multiple fabrics for the outside and wanted to give it a try and I love the results :)















There's an ongoing project that I'm working on...I think I've mentioned it before. It's a quilt using 4" X 4" squares from the fabric that I make bags out of. So if I've made a bag from it then it can be seen in the quilt. It's fun to look at and see all the fabrics right there in one spot. I'm not sure how long I'll work on it because I want to continue to make bags, so where do I draw the line and start quilting that one and start making a new one?? Here's what I've got so far...
















Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm off to do more sewing :)

Update on What's Happening...

It feels like forever since I've put anything of essence on here and I thought I would put a little update on what's happening with me.

My lappy (lap top) has just about bit the dust. Both hinges are broken and I'm having to prop it up against the wall to keep the screen from flopping backwards. Also, I was down to 1% memory left so I've spent all evening burning photo cds to free up space...so now I'm out of cds...it's a good thing they're on sale at Staples- 100 cds for $15!

This week and next I'll be producing a 3o min NPR radio program about Unknown/Forgotten Oklahoma. I'm really nervous about getting it down, but at the same time I'm really excited about it because it's something that I'm really interested in...which is the reason why I chose it for my show topic.

I want so bad to have an etsy shop! I went so far as to sign up for a PayPal account today in anticipation. Once I have a shop I won't feel like I'm sewing and making things for nothing.

My mom did my taxes the other day and I get a refund this year!! I didn't last year because I didn't work enough, so I'm totally jazzed about getting some money back. When it comes in I'm going to buy myself something just for fun. You see I am a ReaLLY frugal person and tend not to buy myself things just because I want to, so I'm going to splurge and buy something like cute fabric off the internet *gasp* or a jar of buttons *woah*. I know those don't sound like much but it's like heaven in a box for me :)




I love buttons!








Lets see, what else is happening...I have a band concert next Tuesday, the same night the Benjamin Franklin impersonator is coming to campus. I really want to see him but I can't :(

I think I'm basically addicted to everything involving crafts! Whenever I "discover" some new crafty thing all I can think about is trying to make one too. I even did some book binding last weekend. The latest thing I want to try is beading, like this...



I can't find a very good picture of a beading pattern.







So anyway, I've been doing some sewing and stuff lately, so I'll try to post some pics soon.

And yes mom, I know I should be working on my resume'...at least I thought about doing it today :)


Current read: Walt Disney- the Triumph of the American Imagination

Tag...I'm It

I was tagged by Mary Catherine over at Peaches and Posh for a little literary game. Here's the rules...

1. The book must be over 123 pages.
2. Find page 123 in the book.
3. Read the first 5 sentences.
4. Post the next 3.
5. Tag 3 other people

I picked Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for my book.

"Krista was doing a lot of erasing. She kept blowing red eraser bits over her scarred paper. She was like a third grader."

Wow, that was about the lamest 3 sentences of the book. I'm going to include the next one because it's at least a little bit more interesting.

"Carmen felt a pang of sympathy for her and then beat it back."

So yeah, that's it for me...I'm tagging my sis, Mary Ann, and the park wife.

Flashback Friday...7

So I'm running a little last on this week's Flashback Friday, but here it is...

I thought since it is turning cold again this weekend and we're expecting a snow storm this weekend I would go with a snowy theme. I'm not sure when this photo was taken, probably about the time I was 7 or 8. It was one of the odd times our Oklahoma weather allowed enough snow for a snowman. So I made this lovely snowman using...a five gallon bucket! I was so proud of him and even gave him a hat. The best part is I bet once I got in the house mom made snow ice cream for me :) I love snow ice cream and want some sooo bad...I haven't had a chance to have any in years :( Anyway, without further ado here is the photo...

Valentine's Day Memories...

Since it's my second Valentine's Day with Kevin I started thinking about our last Valentine's Day. So here's how it went...

Kevin's brother was getting married on Valentine's Day last year and I assumed that Kevin was just going to go out of town for the wedding and be back in the afternoon. However two days before Valentine's Day Kevin mentioned that he was going home Tuesday night (the day before Valentine's Day) and was coming back to school Thursday morning. I said, "what about Wednesday, that's Valentine's Day." Kevin got that "oh crap" look and I knew he had forgotten. Kevin tried to cover for it saying that he thought we would go out on the day after Valentine's Day.

So Valentine's Day rolled around and I was by myself :( I went to my classes and to work. I was scheduled to get off work at 8 pm. My sis called me at around 7:45 and told me that my RA had called her and told her that my bathroom was flooding. So she was in my room looking for some towels to sop up the water. I started freaking out and the second I got off work I ran over to my dorm...and I'm not a runner so that about killed me. When I go there my sis told me that the flooding wasn't as bad as first thought. She said I could look in the bathroom to see the water damage. I moved to towels and opened the door and...

...Kevin was standing in my bathroom holding the biggest teddy bear I've ever seen and a dozen roses! He had come back early to surprise me and to take me out to dinner. I was totally surprised that he came back early and that he and my sis went to such great lengths to keep it a secret. I couldn't stop smiling the entire rest of the night. :)

After some of the shock wore off Kevin, Teddy, and I took a group picture...it took like 12 tries to get even this much of Teddy in the picture...















So needless to say February 14, 2007, was the best Valentine's Day ever! But who knows...today could be even better :)


I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

Valentines Day is on its way

Since Valentine's Day is coming up the latest video on threadbanger tells how to make a simple corset. So using this video I made one for myself. So I made a few mistakes...like my waist measurement :/ But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Yes I know it's supposed to be laced all the way up, but the bottom is too small and my ribbon isn't long enough :)


So I'm going to let everyone in on my Valentine Day gift for Kevin *shhh* It's ok though because I know he doesn't read this. We are kind of going with a new thing this year... Last year we did the whole extravagant gift giving thing and decided that we are each to hard to shop for so we agreed to spend like five bucks on each other. And here is how I spent mine... I got the idea from this blog. It's an adorable little book made from a deck of cards. After you look at my version you should check out the link above to see where I got my inspiration. Here's how mine turned out...


















Sorry the pics are a little out of focus, it's getting late and I have studying to do. I'll try to get some better ones later. If you can't figure out what they say just let me know and I'll write it out.


Oh and I want to say Congrats to my best friend Danielle who just got engaged! I'm so excited for you! And I'm totally one of the maids of honor (she couldn't decide between me and Steph). I love you Danielle!

Do the Mardi Gras Mambo...

...down in Oklahoma?!? Does really flow like the real thing does it??


Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball was the theme for the fundraising event I helped at all day today (Saturday). I was helping out because I'm in an on campus organization and we have a banquet at the end of the semester and the theme this year is Black and White Mardi Gras Night. One of our sponsors saw the fundrasing event in the paper and contacted them about loaning us their decorations and they said we could use them if we helped decorate. Well...everyone else flaked out and I was the only one except for Whitney H for like two hours who helped. I was having a lot of fun so I helped for 9 to 3:30 and 6 to midnight.

So here is what happens when all the rich townsfolk turn out for a hospital fundraising event, where there is an Amish auctioneer (for real)! He was the coolest guy ever, but I didn't get a picture of him :(




I totally decorated that myself!













Mr. annddd Mrs. Elvis?!? Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf?!?













The coolest family there!










(BTW it's weird seeing a former teacher boogie on the dance floor. Also weird was a husband and wife placeing bets to see if my friend and I are over 18 or not...kinda strange.)

Flashback Friday...6

Well...it's Friday again. This week was kind of crazy because both Wednesday and Thursday felt like Friday to me *shrug*

Anyway, this week's theme Flashback Friday is a tree...

When I was in kindergarten I ate some fruit and set the seeds out to dry. I swore it was apple seeds. I planted them in a little pot and put it outside to grow. Well, the only place outside where our cat wouldn't mess with it was on top of the grill. Then one day the wind came sweeping down the plain as it tends to do in Oklahoma and knocked the pot off the grill, smashing it to pieces. I was so sad because that week some little green sprouts had begun to grow which mom and dad said were only grass. I was almost in tears while I picked up some of the larger chunks of dirt, hoping I was getting the ones with the seeds. I put them in another pot and eventually the green sprouts began to grow again...and turned into a plant. Here is a photo of my two trees 4 years, and one more transplant, after they were planted...
















The odd thing about my tree is how shiny the leaves are and that it has GIANT thorns. Because of it being so shiny we have pretty much determined that it is a citrus tree...not apple. I can still remember saving apple seed though...but who knows, I probably saved lots of seeds back then. So because of it being citrus we put my tree outside in the summer and bring it back in when it gets cold. It's getting really difficult to do that though since it is in a ReaLLy large pot now and is tall enough to touch the ceiling, and when taken outside for the summer it will grow about two feet, then we have to cut it off to bring it back in. Wow...this story is getting longer then intended, so I'll cut to the chase. My trees (there is in fact two growing very close together) reside in my parents' bedroom now that I'm at school. They water it most of the time and it has yet to bear any fruit :( But here's what it looks like these days...

In Motion...

Do you know what happens when I'm bored while watching Kevin and some friends play ping pong?!? I take photos and do some experimenting with motion :)

My first attempts were taken with the camera flash still on. With the use of the flash everything is frozen in the picture except what is moving ReaLLY fast (the ball). Here is what I got...

Then I turned the flash off and took more pictures. With the flash off anything and everything that moves during the ~3 seconds the picture is being taken is blurred. There really can be motion lines in real life! (Earlier today some of my friends and I were saying it would be cool to have motion lines like in the cartoons.) Here is the second set of photos... BTW the ball is yellow, so look for the faint yellow streaks.

Then I just felt like messing around with this picture, boosting the contrast all the way up...

This one is just because he's cute :)

I might do some photo editing tutorials with these pics sometime soon...

Life Update...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.


You can't say it much better then that...and now I have to memorize it! I'm taking media ethics and law this semester and we're required to memorize the first amendment for the first test.

I'm really nervous right now (hence the ramblings of this post) for two reasons. The first being that Kevin is doing is senior recital preview RIGHT NOW!!

In order for a music major to graduate they must perform a senior recital and to do that they must do a senior recital preview for the music faculty. I'm nervous for him. I know that he's really good and I'm so proud of him yet things like this still make my worry a lot.












The second reason why I'm nervous is because I have a rather large assignment due tomorrow at noon. It is a 6 minute radio feature that will actually be aired on the NPR station that covers about a third of the state and streams live on the internet! That is enough to scare the crap out of you, let alone the fact that I only have access to the lab for an hour and a half :/

So anyway...enough of me unloading my stress. I'm headed back to work in the scene shop...


*Edit* I got a message from Kevin a little bit ago that said "I passed" I'm so excited!

And the winner is...

ahiltz! She is the lucky winner of my first giveaway with this comment...

"What a cute little purse! I think I would use that to put my change and house key in when me and my kids walk up to the corner store for a little treat during the summer time! That would be perfect instead of carrying a big purse! Thanks so much for doing this!"

Congrats and thanks to everyone who entered!

Well, We're a Movin' On Up...

We really our movin' up...my family is building a bigger home and one that is on a high elevation :) I'm going to try to keep everyone updated on the progress. Earlier last week my mom sent me an email telling about some of the work being done (mom please don't kill me for posting this)

"...yesterday morning they came out and started bulldozing. They cleared trees, made us a parking place by the garden and put gravel down. Then last night [my sis] called on cell phone cause home phone just rang and rang. They had cut phone line. :( Dad found both cut ends sticking out of dirt this morning, but he may wait til weekend to fix. So no phone, no internet. :'( ..."

Yesterday she sent me these pictures of bulldozing.





























That's our old house that we're going to rent...it's actually farther away then it looks like.

I actually haven't been back home since MLK Day when we found the crazy door to nowhere, so I'm relying on mom's emails for updates...

(And don't worry they got the phone line fixed in just a couple of days.)

So, umm...yeah

I've gotten a little behind with things this weekend...I participated with connection weekend at church and ended going out of town to some friends' dorm for a super bowl thing. Afterward we played rock band! *


Anyway, my point is that I haven't had a chance to choose a winner for the giveaway yet...but I promise I will do it after classes today, so get ready.







*Once again fulfilling the urge to include a picture in every post :)

Flashback Friday...5

Today's Flashback Friday contains a life lesson.

Remember when going down a giant slide in a dress either keep your legs together or wear matching panties...or just don't wear a dress :)


(I can't believe I just showed my panties for the world to see...at least the picture is from over 15 years ago)

Perfect!

About five minutes ago (literally) I was taking some popcorn out of the microwave and while I was doing that I began to think about some things that happened yesterday and today. I began to pray a prayer that I pray quite often...that God will make me slower to anger and quicker to forgive. Then my human nature wanted to kick in and I started thinking, "well sometimes there are times that it might be ok to kind of stay mad at someone longer to make a point or something." I then reached over to change my quote of the day calendar and today's is..."Don't hold grudges. It's pointless." All I could think was wow. That was totally meant for me, to knock some since in me to remember that no matter what the reason is that I get upset with someone I need to forgive them and not hold it against them; I have no right to hold grudges.

Anyway, a new Flashback Friday will be up shortly! And there are only two more days to enter in the giveaway posted below!

Now I'm off to eat my popcorn and watch Little Women!



Argg...I hate making posts with no pictures.






Heh, so after I wrote Argg I got the idea of putting a pirate picture of Kevin *giggles*