The Job Hunt is over

Here's my new baby. ( photo by blogger, gsdgsd13, who took a series of nice shots of the house) You can also see more info on the house here. I'll be heading up the wood conservation, its so nice to be back in the field that I love. I've very excited and I can't wait to watch her evolve like a phoenix from the ashes (the last major damage was fire after all).

Mail issues..

Melody,
Thats super awsome of you to offer to send me a new bookmark, I feel awfull that somebody stole the other one. I don't have your e-mail address to send you my home address but if you go to the EtsyAtlanta Blog link on the side of my blog here, and leave a comment in any of the posts with your e-mail address I'm the admin so I have to approve them before they go live, I can get it that way, and keep the world from seeing it.
I think that we're going to get a mail box with a lock on it. I hate worrying about my mail all the time espeicaly since here in Georgia were the identity theft capitol of the US.

anyway Thanks again Melody, your awsome.

-Jenn

done so far...

0 peanut the elephants (two are almost done)
1 handbag (technically two but I boxed the corners on the wrong sides on the first one)
1 grocery bag keeper
0 cloth grocery bags
1 set of cloth napkins
1 set coasters

Mail issues

So apparently some one has been stealing all the mail in the neighborhood. I have currently not received two of my swaps and I'm so angry that some stranger may have snatched them out of my box. With all the love and care that someone put into making something special, to have it stolen. And I'm sure that since there was no money in it that they just tossed it too. Anyway If you sent me a swap, with the exception of Nijaprincess, I have not received it. Please let me know if you have not yet mailed it, or if you mailed it recently.
Nijaprincess's beautiful Cardinal ornament made it just fine, and its now hanging proudly as the only Christmas ornament I own. I know that sounds sad, but we didn't have a tree before, lack of room and what not. I was going to get one this year but after looking at the prices I think I will wait till after season sales to pick one up. In the mean time my cardinal ornament holds a treeless place of honor. I'll post a picture of it as soon as I get off my lazy butt and take one :)

(note: lazy butt has made five handmade Christmas presents today, so I suppose I have an excuse ;)

PS note, I just realized that one of the swaps isn't due to ship until Dec. 1st so I'm hoping that my partner hasn't shipped yet, so some nasty person hasn't stolen it. I'll hold off on panicking.

Progress Pictures

Ok first here we have some Peanuts from the pattern in Last Minute Patchwork Gifts.
Then we have my in progress valance for the kitchen window. Its hanging up now, but I think I want to take it down and make a couple changes.
And Last but not least my finished couch pillows. The Brown one is made from burnout velvet that I found in the "cheep" upholstery/home dec. section at JoAnn's a couple years ago. Alas there was barely a yard of it so its been lovingly rationed to make the best use of it. The back side is a non directional velvet I found at a specialty store that lucky me just happened to match the other velvet perfectly.

Vocabulary Fun

I found this linked from How about Orange which if you havn't seen you should jump on over and read. Anyway, I love vocabulary building games, I'm up to 450 grains of rice. Not much in the scheame of feeding someone, but I suppose every bit helps. (and as selfish as it may be I'm here for the vocabulary, especialy since I"m not sure that any food donated will ever actualy make it to people, I'm always hearing about shipments being confiscated by warlords and terrorists and stuff) ANYWAY you should check it out its fun....

Making progress, and Peanuts

I actualy got alot done this weekend. I mailed all my swap items to all my swap partners. I went to the fabric store on Friday, I realy shoudn't do this but I like the fabric store. At Gail K Fabrics I found the perfect backing fabric for my decorative pillows, a couple one yard peices of wool suiting, and a neon green peice of linen. Then I went to the quilting store, Intown Quilters, and purused the sale room in the basement for like an hour. You know its bad when the sales people keep asking if your ok. I got ten 1/4 yard peices and a 5 $ stuff bag of scraps. (if you can call these scraps, they're pretty big peices) I went home and made the pillows, made some coasters for friends for the holidays, washed the green linen which is for a coworkers cloth lunch napkins. And made a Peanut out of Last Minute Patchwork Gifts. Which if you don't own you should run out and buy right this minute. Now!! go! I'll still be here when you get back. Ok anyway, the coasters and the stuffed elephant are from the book. I'm making a stuffed elephant for the children of every friend we have. (with kids under five) so I should make five more of them, I already made one for me. I realy like this book. I'm a real stickler for paying money for, well anything. I've got this price range that I see acceptable. For example I don't like to pay more than 20 for a hardback book. This one was more than that at the book store, but I couldn't help it. I bought it anyway and I'm definatly getting full usage out of it. Oh and if you want to make a peanut of your own, it only takes a quarter yard, not the half yard she says in the book. So far thats the only flaw I've found. So here's whats left...

5 peanut the elephants
1 handbag
1 grocery bag keeper
2 cloth grocery bags
1 set of cloth napkins
and two more sets of as yet unidentified gifts

Thats not to bad right? :) I'll take pictures and post as I go.

A little less stress

I have an interview for an archivst position with the city of Decatur the first week of December, and although its a temp job only 6 months, it helps releive my job hunting stress for the moment. I also talked to my dad last night, and managed to convince him not to be mad that Jem and I are running away to a foreign island to get married, by telling him that the island marrage isn't legal in the US and that we'd have a court house ceremony that he could come to when we got back. Technicly this isn't exactly correct, as the Island marrage is legal in the US you just have to go to the courthouse and have them certify it when you get home. But I don't want to argue with him anymore about my own wedding that he's not paying for. So stress relieved there too. On top of this I made curtains for the sidelights on our front door, finished all my swap items, just need to mail them, and the main pillows are done for the living room. So that just leaves the decorative pillows, and throw blanket, the hamper liners, everything on my hope chest list, and oh yeah... My wedding dress to sew and Next week is thanksgiving at our house, but thats easy.
Yeah I know. I'm crazy.

Wedding dress update.

I can't get pictures from her site so please jump over for a look. I'm looking at making something similar to the Josephine, or the Lucile which you will find under tea length dresses and then on page three. Basicly I'm thinking slightly puffy tea length dress with speghetti straps as the under dress, and then an over dress made in lace. I might make the lace part a wrap dress so its easier to get in and out of. kinda like a lace coat. Here's another example. It's not quite what I'm going for but you'll get the idea.

More on that hope chest thing

So I'm looking over the list, and if you add it out it dosn't quite work. For example she says she's got four bedrooms, and a sleeping porch, but she's only got three sets of pillows. Someones gona have a kink in their neck. And dose anyone know what a japanese luncheon cloth is? Oh never mind just looked it up. In case you were curious it apears to be a small table cloth.
Ok so when our house is finished, right now the upstairs and basement are unfinished, it will be a 5/3 but one of those bedrooms will be an office so lets say 4/3. So here's what I've come up with for the list... 10 sheet sets with pillows (how funny they will all be diferent sizes. we have one of each) sham's seem a little outdated (in case your wondering thats the thing your grandma used to put over the guest bed sheets to keep the bed from getting dusty when no one was sleeping in it) so we'll skip that. 2 comforters, and four quilts. I would like have four table cloths, 2 white, and two in holiday colors with matching napkins. and three runners (one for fall, christmas, and one for the rest of the year) with matching placemats, and napkins. One centerpeice for each season, so four total. I dont have a buffet but we use our breakfast table for such things so I suppose I need insilated table cloths for that too. Lets say one for everday and then fall and Christmas so three.We are going to need a heck of alot more than five cushions but I'll skip this since I already made the ones for the living room. Thats one of them under my ring a few posts down. I think a dozen kitchen towels is sufficiant. Not gonna worry about towels, since thats some thing I already have. Six pot holders. Three laundry bags (I don't like to sort at the machine) + one for drycleaning and some aprons, because well you can never have to many even if you never wear them so why put a number on it? And then some extras.

Ok so all told it looks like this:

2 king sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 1 comforter, and quilt
2 Queen sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 1 comforter and quilt
2 Full sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 1 quilt
4 Twin sized sheet sets, two pillows, two pillow covers, and two mattress protectors + 2 quilts
2 white table cloths for 10 seat table + matching napkins1 red table cloth for 10 seat table + matching napkins1 green table cloth for 10 seat table + matching napkins
3 table runners for 10 seat table + matching place mats and napkins, One every day, one fall themed, and one winter holiday themed.
4 seasonal centerpeices
3 table cloths for breakfast table pluss two insilated pads
12 kitchen towels, 12 dish cloths
6 pot holders
4 laundry bags (one with drawstring for dry cleaning)
12 curtains

that looks like a lot of work huh. Guess I'll be busy for a while although everything for the bed except the quilts will likely be bought.

Hope chest

I have always hoped that when I got married that my dad (who is a furniture maker) would make me a hope chest. Now that being said he made me a peir table when I was eight and he still owes me a coffie table and two end tables. So I'm not holding my breath. Anyway I like the idea of a hope chest, and filling it with the apropreate linens, and while puruseing blog land this morning I came across Primrose Designs post on the subject. She found a list of what was excpected to be in a hope chest, and while I'm not sure if this was a standard or just one woman's requirments I found it interesting. Here's the list which I copy pasted from Primrose, I hope she dosn't mind..

"I found the following hope chest list very satisfactory for my own little home: Eight sheets, eight pairs of pillowcases, four sheet-shams, four comforts, two pairs of double blankets, three pairs of pillows, two white tablecloths, two dozen white napkins, two Japanese luncheon-cloths, two dozen napkins to match, one between-meal centerpiece, four miscellaneous centerpieces, two buffet-scarfs or sets, four dresser-scarfs or sets, two machine-scarfs, two library-scarfs, one centerpiece and piano scarf, five cushions, three dozen dish towels, eighteen each of hand-towels and washcloths, one dozen bath towels, six holders for kitchen use, laundry—bag, combing—jacket and kimono, one each, three envelope-chemises, four camisoles, six petticoats, silk and washable, five each of nightgowns, house-dresses and bungalow aprons, and six slip-on aprons. This list was intended for four rooms and sleeping-porch, and is ample. It may, of course, be taken from or added to as required, but in a general way is very good."—Mrs. M. L. K., California

guessing by the list that must have been and enormous chest, and it seems to have EVERYTHING she owned in it. I think I'll rework the list a bit for modern times and mull over the idea of actualy makeing it all. I probably wont get to far untill after the wedding since I'm still on this crazy I'm gonna make my dress kick.

Speaking of which if you know of any good sites to check to get ideas for my dress or patterns please leave a comment, I'm looking for a thin shoulder strap dress with a lower, perhaps cleavagey neckline, in something that hits mid calf or just below the knee. We're thinking of tying the knot on the beach and I don't want the dress to drag in the sand.

Thanks!

Swaperu!!

I was so excited to find my mailman had hidden a package for me today! (He, thoughtfully, always hides my packages somewhere on my porch once he hid a flat mailer under my doormat, took a couple days to figure out where it was...) Check out the beautiful package I received from my swap partner Neila. Sorry the picture is a little small. It's also on my flicker page. Lets see clockwise from the bottom left... A set of paper napkins that will come in quite handy at Thanksgiving dinner, A pumpkin, which will join the pumpkin I inherited from my grandmother, they seem to be put together in the same way and even the stem is the same, although the older pumpkin is just orange Jem, (my fiancee's online name not real name, did I tell you all that already? Its from to kill a mocking bird) anyway, Jem says I need three to call it a pumpkin patch, but I'll call it one anyway. They make a great little center piece. Then I have a Pumpkin mug which will be filled with Hot chocolate here soon, some pumpkin hand soap (already in the guest bathroom) a pumpkin car freshener, A cross stitch fall themed kitchen towel (already in the kitchen) which looks realy good from the back side too. I'm not that good with the back sides of things, major kudos to Neila. Its my favorite thing, well it and the pumpkin. Some fall themed ribbon, I wish I had more fall gifts to give... a box of Chocolates which I gave to Jem becuase he loves chocolate and he kept eyeing it anyway, if I'm lucky he might share a piece. Some pumpkin bubble bath and some apple lip gloss, and four fat quarters which I think will become cloth napkins but I'm not sure yet. The yellow one is my favorite fabric it has a lovely vintage feel. Thanks so much Neila its wonderfull!

Plans

So I'm a bit overwhelmed right now. I already had a lot to do, and now all I realy want to do is submerge myself in planning the wedding. However I'm finding its one thing to have spent however many previous years thinking about what I would want in a wedding, and an entirely diferent thing to start commiting to actual decisions.... So far the only thing I'm sure on is that I want to make my dress. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.

I have an announcement...