Lining

Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.

I bought a skirt a while ago that was dramatically on sale (that means nobody else wanted it). I like it a lot, and I want to wear it more, however it's made from a lightweight corduroy that catches on cotton leggings. This means I'm constantly readjusting and checking my skirt.

Rinda encouraged me to line it myself. So I did.

While I didn't do a great job (and I learned a few lessons along the way), my $3 skirt is now lined.

Finished!

Run: 2.4 mi/24:00

I got to wake up to this sight, out my bedroom window.

And this morning I set out to finish the dog bed I had started the other day(s).
I had already finished putting in the zipper.

I only tacked together the batting, as I knew that my sewing machine wouldn't be able to handle it.

I had intended to do doublel seams, but on my second seam my machine decided to go wacky, so instead of waiting until I felt like I wanted to wrestle it again, or waiting even longer until it gets fixed, I instead just ironed the seams down, put in the batting, tacked the zipper, and voila! Dog bed. I laid it in the middle of the floor and Lucy wasn't quite sure about it.

But as soon as I placed it in her special corner, she was convinced. Happy dog.

Yes, that is her happy face.

Bedding

Run: 2.4mi/25:50
(Finally got out to run. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be.)

My mom bought fabric long ago so that I could make a dog bed for Lucy. Many months have passed since then, anad it's about time I got started on it. I'm wingin' it. I've always tried to do things my own way, especially when it comes to crafts or sewing. I think my grandma has always gotten frustrated with me because of this, but when I picture something in my mind, I want to make it that way, not the way someone tells me to.

I had a ton of leftover batting, so I measured Lucy and then cut an appropriate size of batting.

(Yes, the best place to cut large swatches of fabric/batting is on my classroom rug)

I had already doubled the first piece. I stacked those two pieces on top of another doubled piece to make 4 layers of batting.

I cut it out, then stacked it on top of another doubled piece of batting for a grand total of six layers of batting.

I would have gone for more, actually (this is pretty thin batting), but I didn't have enough left.

I decided to cut out my fabric. The batting had been 37"x25" (who needs conventional lengths and widths?), so I cut my fabric at 38"x26", to make sure I had enough for a seam allowance. I'll also be sewing a double seam for durability. 

Pretty cool fabric, right? It's a really lightweight canvas, it's perfect.

As you can see, Lucy's really excited about her dog bed:

Over the next few days I'll be putting in a zipper and sewing up the seams, which will make this dog bed completed!

V-Day

Run: 5.3mi/53:00

Lots of love around here yesterday, so let's start with those kids. I attempted to teach them to say "I love you!", which went over differently in all 5 classes. Isaac, one of our 2-year-olds, and I had a yelling competition over it. Some of the kids were a little too shy to say "I love you" their friend sitting next to them. But, I could tell that most of them understood it when I said "I love you"' to each of them, because they smiled. Awww, isn't that sweet.

We colored hearts.

Somehow my last class of the day turned into a dance party. I take no responsibility.

In the evening the girlfriends came over. It was so nice to spend time together. We all brought our items and prepared and cooked it together. I made my own croutons for the salad!

And we exchanged valentines, which was lovely. Mine looked like this at one point:

But I personalized them all.

And that is enough photos for one day!

Crafty McCraftypants

Have I mentioned how crafty my friends are? I mean, I have talked about my own craftiness (which sounds like I'm scheming up something evil), but my friends are pretty good at it, too. The best part about this is exchanging gifts.

I made brown sugar body scrub and lip gloss for my friends this year. Their usefulness and practicality are a little questionable, and I had to tell everyone that. But I tried. 

My friends, however, knocked it out of the ballpark. Stephanie made personalized t-shirts for us. Okay, she personalized t-shirts for us, she didn't actually make the t-shirts. But how cute is this?

(That M stands for Meghan, guys. Get it?)

And then Amanda did a bang up job personalizing tote bags for all of us. Mine is two-sided and she said I can wear it according to how I feel. This bag will probably be my market bag. I'm sure of it.

 Absolutely, positively perfect. (Do my friends know me, or what?)

 The bag that Amanda made for Stephanie was "I *heart* sweatpants", which is a completely true statement about Stephanie. Natalie's bag has her new nickname on it, but for some reason I don't feel a public place such as this is ready to hear that nickname. This is a family friendly blog.

Second quilt

Finally! Finalmente!

I'm done. I finished! I made my second quilt. Here are some process pictures.

I made my mistakes and learned from them, so now I know better! Maribel's baby, Ismael, was born on Monday, and he and Maribel went home from the hospital today. I think we're visiting tomorrow, so I got this thing done just in time. It's how I work best.

Speaking of crafty - I just found this seller on etsy, and I just love love love her hats:

 Check out her stuff here. 

I'm off to make Christmas gifts!

Slow and Steady?

Run: 3mi/29:49

I did this easy run today because I accidentally skipped a run on Monday, and I moved Monday's easy run to Tuesday and I moved Tuesday's easy run to today (Friday). Are you still with me? This week is a cut back week, which I guess, from all the reading I've done (on uneducated running forums) is typical in training. Tomorrow's "long" run is 5 miles, which isn't long, but then next week I'm back with a bang and a 10 mile long run. So I figured it was okay to run an easy 3 before only doing 5 easy miles tomorrow. And what in the world? I totally went out today thinking "I will run slow today, I will run slow today" and I felt slow and I felt like a turtle, and I did it in under 10min/miles. Oops. "Slow and easy" on my training plan is now supposed to be at 10:24.

This probably means I'm going to win my half-marathon. I'm sure of it. Actually, our cook told me the other day that I was going to win the half-marathon, because I practice so much. I smiled and nodded :)

I've been working on a baby quilt now longer than I've been training for this stinkin' half-marathon, because I'm slow and lazy and I made the stupid decision of "I think I'll hand stitch every one of these squares because that will be sooooooo cute". Yeah. That took too long. And now I've come to find out that my sewing machine is being a jerk to me. I tried all the things I could think of yesterday to get it to sew correctly - no good. That means I get to put the binding on by hand. I will!! I will do it!! Because baby Ismael has had the good grace to wait long past his due date - he must know I'm stressing out over this blanket. I gotta get on it!

I also finished a scarf last night for a friend. I will just show you a picture of it, and then explain later, after I give it to her. I highly doubt she reads this blog, but .... just in case.. I'm surprising her and I don't want to ruin it.

Isn't white a classy scarf color? Same pattern as the last scarf I made.

 

Yeah. That's my classy pose. 

After all is said I done, I will make a scarf for myself. My neck is cold.

It's Raining Crafts!

Run: 3.6 miles/36:00

Mile repeats today, so I jogged 1 mile, and then was on target to run 1 mile in 8:54 (faster than I have ever run), and I did it in 8:45, which was nice. Jogged for half a mile, then did another 8:54 mile, except that by then I was tired and I did it in 9:05. Oops. I should have jogged another mile to cool down, but I was tired, and walked home.

Gosh darnit, I don't like it when the doctors are right. I went to bed early last night, but by the end of that second mile repeat I was spent. Done. Finished. Terminada. Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure.

Edited to add: I just looked at my training paper, and I guess I can't read, because I was supposed to do 8:25 minute mile repeats. That means I can't read numbers. I don't know if I could book it that fast. This is like... serious training. 

In other crafty crafterson news, since I don't have anything newsworthy to put up today, I'll post some pictures of a "quilt" I did in September. I write "quilt" in quotation marks because I basically did whatever I wanted on it. I didn't hand quilt it, and it didn't turn out especially great, but that's okay because it was my first attempt. A friend of mine recently had a baby, and I gave this to her.

It looks good from far away, doesn't it? Just don't look too close! I learned a lot while doing this. I'm in the process of making another one (yes, for another friend, having another baby), and so hopefully it will be even better. That's usually how it happens - they get better with each one.

Fall = Scarves

I had a request to post these pictures. I made a scarf for a friend. She picked out the color, I picked out the stitch. It actually turned out really well. And since my camera is so awesome, I took great pictures!

If you crochet, then I can tell you it's really easy. You chain an odd number across, according to the width you want. I did 21. I did 1 whole row of double crochets. Then, on each row, you start the row with a single crochet and a double crochet in the same stitch. Skip a stitch and put a single crochet and half double crochet in the next stitch, all the way across. You should end up doing the two stitches in the last stitch in the row. Chain 1, flip it around, do it over. Voila! This stitch gives it a nice texture and weight.

I had a really bad night of sleep. Well, it was a bad night of little sleep. That's more accurate. I will spare you the details, because I told the details to Stevie this morning and she was none too thrilled. Put simply, I am and was all plugged up, coughing, and generally uncomfortable. I went to the doctor this morning. He looked at me and said "Meghan, you just have a cold. You're being a wimp."

Okay, he didn't say that, but I could see it in his eyes. Apparently it is just a cold. I guess I never get colds like this (the pressure in the head, the completely plugged up sinuses, the sore tired, being tired, the nasty cough). This stinks! I took the day off. I have Sunday Schools lessons to type up, I'm in no mood or condition to sing "Five Little Monkeys" four times today, but most of all, I don't want to pass this along to unsuspecting children. So there.

The doctor gave me some drugs. He told me to drink lots of fluids and rest. When he said rest, he also said no exercise. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. If I go to bed extra early tonight, I'm sure I can still do my run tomorrow. I've got some mile repeats to slaughter.