Crafty

Sorry about being gone for so long again. I always want to wait til I have something interesting to report, but then I get busy and come home tired and just want to relax. So I'm finally making myself write this post. A lot has been going on lately: I started a knitting club, I'm learning to sew, I've been upping my jewelry-making and I'm just loving my volunteer work with the animal shelter.

The knitting club is great! We only have a handful of members, but we meet once a week at St. Peter's Church in Del Mar, at 6 pm on Wednesdays. All levels are welcome; I've even taught someone to knit! Yay! It gives me a nice uninterrupted hour in which I work on my knitting, and will force me to finish projects. It also allows me to ask for help for things I don't understand, which means I can move beyond rectangles and squares. How exciting! Once a month we'll watch a movie while we knit. If you're in the area and interested in joining, just shoot me an email or stop by on Wednesdays.

My new dress, which I wore to work yesterday!

Cute shirt, if I say so myself.

Fabric yoyos + buttons = cute & fun

Learning to sew is not easy. First my sewing machine didn't work, so I got it fixed at a local shop. Then it unthreaded itself and I ran out before I could check on how to thread it, so it wouldn't work again. So I brought three projects up to my mom's place for a 36 hour trip and she helped me finish two of them! I made a denim tote (to which I am adding handles soon) and a mail sorter out of placemats from Ikea. It looks pretty neat I must say. And adding in a bar from a hangar was an absolutely inspired idea from my mom. Then we got to work on my sorority tshirt blanket. It's not going to be a quilt, but mom has all the fabric and helped me figure out exactly how it was going to work. We got through the hardest part (so she said) and when I visit again, we'll work on the next part of it. I'm so excited! I've also been making some fabric yoyos (which I've used on a shirt and to make some pins) and I found some great pre-smocked fabric at JoAnn's and made a dress out of it, easy peasy.

Ribbon pearl necklace

Wrap bracelet, pre-lace

Rosette necklace

My jewelry making has also been going well. I received my first order last Sunday, to make a necklace like my pearl and ribbon necklace for a parishioner's daughter-in-law. I also used the glass pearls to make a neat wrap bracelet, and even thought it's not pictured, I used some flexi lace hem tape to wrap around to make it all lace-y. It's a nice dusty purple colour now. And of course, they rosette necklaces are still available. There is an orange, pink and yellow on for sale in the shop, as well as one that is a bit like a bib and would look super cute with the right neckline. I'm making one that's black and white with a red center bead for a friend, and I'm using smaller rick rack, so we'll see how that goes. But making jewelry is definitely something fun for me to do when I get home and on the weekends.

Now for one cooking item: The best enchilada recipe I have been able to find is from Campbell's Kitchen for their verde enchiladas using their cream of chicken soup. I highly recommend this recipe for a quick, easy, scrumptious dinner! Check out the picture and just try to tell me it wouldn't be delicious (yes, I know, you can't, can you?) :) Check out this link for the recipe!

Happy cooking, crafting and reading! I'll be back soon with some book reviews!