I'm Back in the Game!

I decided not to wallow in self-pity about the untimely death of my sewing machine and I promptly went out in search of another.  After much searching of shelves, reading of reviews, and pounding of pavement, I settled on the Singer Brilliance 6180:

Isn't she beautiful?!?! My first electronic sewing machine. I'm so excited, I could pee. You can also see the piles of awesome fabric I have piled up on the bed, so this really was a necessary purchase. I keep telling myself this to fight off the inevitable guilt I feel when I buy something. Anyway, this puppy has 80, that's right, 80 built-in stitches. It's fantabulous. I've only used it for about 30 minutes, so I can't give any definitive reviews yet, but I'm very optimistic.

I managed to whip up a couple of things after Cora went to bed. These are little snack pouches:

It's just cheap fabric for the outer portion and some rip-stop nylon for the interior. I wanted some sort of coated nylon, to keep the food contents fresher, but the fabric store I shop at didn't have it. Here they are opened up (ignore the messy velcro...it's the no-sew kind and it's not the best thing for this project):

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I can't wait to pack my lunch today!
 
If you're wondering where I got the idea and want to make some for yourself, this tutorial and a ton of other adorable, useful, and easy projects are over at http://www.prudentbaby.com/.  That site is amazing!!

Busted Tuesday

Yesterday started out scary, was really mellow and calm in the middle, and then ended with a lot of pain, a little blood, and a few curse words.  Darn you Tuesday!

The beginning - Cora ran up to our room at 6 a.m. (she slept in!!!), crying that her "white shelf" had fallen on her.  I grab her (she happened to be naked...there are days when I find her naked multiple times, should I be worried?), run downstairs to her room and her chest of drawers had tipped over!  Blessedly, her bed broke its fall or, wow, I don't even want to think about what could have happened.  It seems she wanted to show me what a big girl she is and was picking out her clothes for the day.  Thus the nakedness.  Anyway, super scary.  We decided that we'd move that hunk of junk out of her room after work.

Got an easy 4 mile run in at the gym.  Work was good.  Normal stuff.  Stopped for some fabric and such on the way home with Cora, she impressed the ladies at the store with her vast knowledge of current events (she knows the president, his wife, and the bad man in Libya...we'll have to tackle the Royal wedding soon), all was well.  Until...

Until we moved that God-forsaken piece of furniture to the garage.  Admittedly, I share some of the blame because I chose to move the thing in my bare feet.  But, dang, I was wearing cute pink snake-skin high heels all day, my dogs needed to be free!  I ended up with a huge, very painful, surprisingly deep gash on the top of my right foot.  Lots of blood involved.  Amazingly, no cursing by me!  I think I should get a gold star for that.

I cleaned myself up and went into my new craft room (it's just an extra bedroom with a chair, a side table, and my sewing machine...but it's all mine!) to start up a project - some cute cushions for Cora's room.  I was feeling all crafty and thrifty (re-purpose old curtains?! that's soooo green!) and then it happened.  I broke the friggin' needle.  Never fear, I replaced it.  But then the tension was all screwy.  So I tried every combination of tension I could figure and it's still completely fubar.  I don't think the tension dial is doing anything.  Here I am, with my new craft room, yards of adorable fabric, and projects that will blow your mind, and my sewing machine is busted.  Google even failed me.  I am so depressed.

But, today is Wednesday.  I'm hoping all appendages and appliances survive unscathed.