Some Squirrels For Your Sunday

Fuzzy squirrel... had to use the zoom to capture him.




I haven't been able to get a picture of anything other than their tails as of late.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

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I Made This! Bag From Pants

You did indeed hear me correctly - I made myself a bag out of a pair of Shawn's old pants. I got the idea from this bag that I pinned months ago. This is actually my second attempt; my first one yielded not-so-delightful results using some cargo shorts. At least the first bag was a good practice round.

I used fabric from a pair of khaki pants for the outside and fabric from a green polo shirt for the inside. (I wouldn't recommend using polo material though... it gave me a really hard time with the sewing machine; the fabric stretches and bunches and kept getting caught in the machine.) The khakis were the perfect material for the outside though - sturdy and thick.




Since I didn't actually like the look of the cargo pocket on the outside, I decided to use one of the pants' back pockets and put it under the flap instead of using it as the flap. I'm really happy with the result - a hidden but useful pocket!




There wasn't enough fabric for me to do one long strap, and since I wanted a bag I could wear messenger-style I made two separate ones instead. Now I can tie the straps to whatever length I want! It adds an element of cuteness, too, since bows are always cute :)




I didn't take a lot of in-progress pictures, since I wasn't sure how well it was going to turn out. This is the only 'before' picture I snapped - all the fabric pieces after cutting them to size but before sewing them together. I sewed the lining (green fabric) pieces together, then sewed the exterior (khaki fabric) pieces together. I didn't actually sew the straps until afterwards, so the pieces for those aren't pictured. For those, I just cut up one leg of the pants and cut two wide strips that I sewed up into tubes with one end closed off, then turned them right side out.




Here's a shot of my wonderful handiwork. Seriously, not to brag or anything, but I'm really proud of this one. I actually finished a sewing project that I set out to do! Alright, the sewing machine did most of the work, but that doesn't mean it's any less of a job well done. I did hit some snafus (mostly with the pesky liner) but the whole project turned out much better than I expected. It also took way longer than I expected... I ended up spending most of my Wednesday off putting this bag together. Next time though, it should be a breeze!




One last photo of the finished product, just to end this post on good note. I will definitely be making more bags this year (...if I say it, I'm more likely to do it! :P) and I'd love to play around with different fabrics, and maybe put a pocket or two on the inside of the next one. Stay tuned!

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Fun Finds Friday #3

Check out this awesome book clutch; I'd really like to make this!
(via)




This duvet cover was hand-drawn using homemade stencils and fabric pens on a solid white cover. I would love to make a duvet that features our various little drawings.
(via)




Mini purses made from coffee bags. If I had access to an iron, I would make these right now.
(via)




This is a cute little dog named Hani. See lots more cleverly captioned photos of Hani over at Busy Busy Hani.




This year I'm pushing myself to do more creative things, outside of baking. This poster is a nice reminder.
(via)

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In case you were wondering....

....this is why you don't see many photos of us on the blog.





Those aren't even the outtakes, those are the real thing.
Our best one is our sidebar photo, where Shawn is about to pretend-stab me with a pen.
I rest my case.

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Saturdays Are Sweet

Over the last few weeks Shawn and I have both had Saturdays off together. The rest of the week usually consists of me working mornings and him working afternoons, then we see each other for just a few hours each night before it repeats again the next day. So having a whole day off together is like a really mini vacation for us. We try to relax, while still getting things done that we weren't able to get to during the rest of the week.

Two Saturdays ago we woke up to beautiful skies and 50 degree weather (Um, it is January still, right?) so we went for a nice long walk - 4.5 miles - around the neighborhood and through one of the many large cemeteries nearby. This Saturday we didn't get quite as lucky, temperatures were back down to the low 30s and we bundled up and walked against the wind just to get some butter for some good ole cookie-making.

There's nothing better than a big plate of comforting breakfast foods to start off a chilly Saturday morning, right? We usually make home fries and bacon with scrambled eggs, but we had some Texas Toast on hand so I swapped out the eggs for some custardy french toast topped with maple syrup.




Our walk to the store was not for-naught! I needed butter to make some chocolate chip cookies, our most favorite of indulgences. This specific batch also contained bursts of mini peanut butter chips and mini peanut butter M&Ms.

...I think we need to make breakfast, (long walks!) and cookies a Saturday tradition. Hopefully Shawn agrees.

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