getting our groove on

Matt has school extra late one night a week.

usually i'm bored out of my mind during that night but tonight is different.

tonight, Padme and i are getting out groove on...emperor style!

that's right!

we plopped ourselves down to watch one of the greatest Disney movies of all time.

The Emperor's New Groove.

big shout out to the genius, David Spade, for making me crack up every time he speaks.

"i snatched you right out of the air! oh i'm a crumbly canyon wall and i'm taking you with me. well not today pal um hum um hum um hum um hum!"

and also a big shout out to Patrick Warburton or Kronk.

you're pretty awesome too!

especially during the part where you're singing a theme song for yourself while getting rid of Kuzco.

love it!

so i made up a batch of popcorn because seriously there's nothing my puppy loves more than popcorn.

look at it it's so preeeeeeeetty!

can you please stop taking pictures of me so we can eat it already??

and in addition to popcorn, i got something very special tonight.

Matt got me the best cookies in the world.

cookies from Subway!

yeah it sounds weird but they are the BEST!

and they are forbidden because of the whole lactose intolerant nonsense which makes them even more delicious to the max!

oh my gosh i love those cookies!

i want to marry them.

kilns be gone

this past Saturday we finally found a new home for the two kilns that i slaved over almost every single day for two years.

when we closed our store we hadn't sold them yet so they've been sitting on our back porch and all of the pieces in our garage because we hadn't found anyone who wanted them.

we were finally able to contact someone at the Mesa Arts Center and we donated both kilns with all shelves, furniture, stilts, glaze and everything else that went with them.

(you can see how they took up the whole porch)

all equipment.

furniture, stilts, glaze, cones, etc.

shelves

luckily my dad and his truck were available to help us move them because these things are way too heavy for my tiny muscles.

we got to the Mesa Arts Center and Dad got to drive through to the ceramics area which a security guard didn't like.

we pulled right up to the studio and unloaded.

i still can't believe they're gone.

i look out my back window and now all i see is our barbeque looking all lonely and sad without his kiln friends.

and now we get to rearrange our garage since we have more space without kiln equipment hanging around everywhere.

hooray!

birdy coat hanger

when we were closing up our pottery studio there was so much junk we had to sort through and decide if we were gonna sell it, give it away or throw it away.

one of the things we had that i just couldn't make myself get rid of was this old, dirty, yellowing, paint chipped coat hanger that we had all of our aprons hanging on.

it was so ugly but i always thought if we gave it a little TLC it might look pretty awesome.

it looked like this to start with.

not very attractive.

so i busted out my acrylic paints and went to work.

i wanted to hang this guy in our bedroom and the colors in there are blue and dark brown.

it took me a couple coats to cover up all the chipped areas and when it was done i gave it a quick coat of clear gloss spray paint and it was done.

so easy and it looks so much better now!

and i love having our sweaters on a coat hanger instead of all over the dresser/floor/bed/etc.

zombieland

this week i have been getting no sleep.

i don't know what's wrong with my brain but i can never make it stop thinking at night.

usually i can take some sleeping meds and that will help but not lately.

apparently i have some kind of super human power that can keep me awake even with sleeping meds in my system.

what a terrible super power to have.

i'd rather be able to fly.

so today i'm a zombie.

the only good part of my day was when i found this by my computer.

probably one of my favorite sketches Matt has done of us.

Hobbes

while i'm on a roll with this Christmas gift thing i've got one more.

my husband's favorite comic of all time is Calvin and Hobbes.

he was Calvin for Halloween a few years ago, i bought him the complete comic book collection a couple years back and he says we have to name our first son Calvin.

he loves it THAT much.

so this year for Christmas i wanted to give him a Hobbes stuffed animal and since they don't make them for people to buy (which is totally lame) i had to make it myself.

it took me for-e-ver since there's not really a pattern out there to make a Hobbes stuffed animal but i did it and i'm pretty happy with how he turned out.

here's the video of Matt opening his present.

when i told him i was making him something for Christmas he thought it would be something Star Warsy so he was surprised to find Hobbes waiting for him in that box.

for about two weeks straight i would wake up super early every morning and try to get all my work done by noon so i could work on Hobbes until Matt got home around 4:00.

i was ridiculously tired those two weeks but it was worth it.

he's made with fleece for extra softness and the stripes are felt.

he's super snuggly!

and Padme loves him too!

i did take pictures to make a tutorial but those pictures are on our old computer so i'll have to wait for the hubsy to put them on the new one.

but some day i'll do it.

baby clothes blanket

another Christmas gift!

this year for Christmas i made my older sister a blanket out of all her kids' baby clothes.

she asked me to help her make it months ago and i stopped being lazy just in time for Christmas.

she helped me cut out all the different pieces.

we had three different sizes so we could be sure to fit all the cutesy designs on the clothes.

then we laid everything out exactly how she liked it.

i took all those pieces home and spent the next couple days sewing everything together.

and then sewing more of them together when my sister told me she found more outfits she wanted to include in it.

after getting the clothes all sewn my sister and i went to Joann to pick out the fabric she wanted on the back but after picking it out and getting home i decided the fabric we chose would distract too much from all the cute baby clothes and that just can't happen!

i decided it would be better to go with a solid color so i picked navy blue, one of my sister's favorite colors.

it looked much better with the baby clothes!

i cut four squares of the navy blue fabric and sewed them together to give them the quilted look like the front and then laid that fabric, the padding and the baby clothes on top of each other so i could start tying the blanket together.

this was definitely the worst/hardest/most painful part.

i doubled up on the padding to make it extra comfy but that also made it extra hard to tie.

i threaded a needle with some navy blue yarn and then pushed that needle down through the top and back up through the bottom to meet up together and be tied.

it sounds so simple but when the blanket is so thick and the needle is killing your fingers and you have to do that 25 times it really becomes a pain in the butt!

i did finish that part though and the last thing i had to do was pin up the sides and sew them together.

and it was done!

it turned out better than i expected and my sister absolutely loved it!

she told me she snuggles with it and it's super warm and comfy!

and she even considers it one of her most treasured items!

before i made this i had no idea i had the ability to make a whole blanket and have it actually come out looking nice!

i mean, i made a blanket for my hubsy our first Christmas together but i made a thousand mistakes on that blanket that i didn't make on this one.

i'm very proud of myself!

and now my hubsy wants me to make him a blanket out of all his high school t-shirts he can't bear to throw away.

i have a feeling i'll be making lots of blankets for people from now on.

pencil case

i never posted on here the gifts i made for this past Christmas.

the nieces and nephews all got pencil cases made by yours truly filled with markers and a couple coloring books.

the nieces got fabric that was brown with blue polka dots but i only took pictures of the nephew's star fabric.

i followed this simple tutorial but made mine a little bigger.

i took a piece of my fabric and measured 10" by 12".

and folded it in half.

i cut squares at the bottom on both ends 1.25" by 1.25".

i marked 1" in at the top on both sides and diagonally cut from that point to the bottom.

it looked like this when opened up.

then i started adding the zipper.

i folded down about a quarter of an inch of fabric along the top and ironed it so it wouldn't move while i was sewing.

then i pinned the zipper to one side and sewed.

and pinned the other side and sewed.

next i added my own little piece of flare, the first initial of the niece or nephew.

i pinned that on the front in the middle and sewed it on.

after sewing the letter on i finished with the zipper by sewing up the ends.

next i flipped the bag inside out and sewed straight down the side.

and pinched the bottom to sew it together.

i flipped it right side out and i was done!

i repeated this same process with all 8 cases.

it was a super easy gift and all the nieces and nephews loved them!