I'm an engineer with an irresistable drive to be crafty... knitting, sewing, papercraft, photography, jewelry-making, you name it, I've probably tried it! - Email Me -
Next up: Why I'm right to be so reluctant to cut into my nice fabric...
52 Nights Update - Night 26 - This is really just to help me remember what week I'm on - Monday was a cheater day since we were hanging out with friends all day in Chicago!
So, funny story... We have been planning for weeks to head to Chicago this evening. My cousin was going to get us at the airport, and asked to confirm our flight details. I went in to copy/paste from my reservation, and our flight is tomorrow! I booked the flight on the wrong day!
There are so many ways this mistake could have been worse - we could have found out about it later, the flight could have been a day earlier and we'd missed it, etc. But I still feel pretty dumb, and sad to miss out on a day up north!
I'm already getting over it, and am excited to head out *tomorrow*, on our real flight. And browsing flickr for cool pictures of Chicago just makes me more excited! It will be quiet around here for a few days, but I'll be back with lots of pictures and some projects to share next week!
We're back from our trip south! We had a fantastic trip, it was amazing and beautiful, and to top it all off we got upgraded to 1st class on the way home!
Is anyone else having trouble seeing photos on flickr? Only about half of mine are showing up, and I can't see everyone else's either...
I actually got home almost a week ago but arrived home to broken internet, so posting may be sporadic for a little while... They're supposed to fix it tomorrow, but they've said that before! I have a ton to share (not just vacation photos!) so I'll be back as soon as I can!
Thank you so much for all the blankie love!! I really am so happy with it. Luckily I don't have to wait too long to find out if my new niece/nephew loves it too.
Sorry for the slight absence! Much shorter than you've put up with in the past, of course. I went down to the Los Angeles area for a few days for my cousin's wedding. It was gorgeous - overlooking the ocean at sunset, perfect weather... They couldn't have asked for a better setting!
The bridesmaids all loved their necklaces. For once it occurred to me to take a picture of the gift recipients!
Otherwise I didn't take very many pictures - I think I photo'd myself out in England!
I'm sure you're all sick of seeing pictures from my work travels. But I found this really cool flickr gadget and didn't want to lose it, so here are all the "flickr worthy" pictures I took - keep in mind this is only 44 of the 400 pictures I printed for my photo album at home... Yes, I'm crazy. Enjoy!
I did finish necklace #2, and as soon as I'm home early enough for good light I'll take some pictures! It's quite different from #1...
Though the silence around here might indicate otherwise, I am still around... And even crafting! Or thinking about it, anyway... I'm almost done with the Scottie bookmark, I have some fabric that might be right for a very special baby quilt, and I've been spending a lot of time with family.
I've also been sitting at this computer a lot, sorting through all my pictures from England!!
A lot of them are ending up on flickr. I just can't believe some of the beautiful places I got to visit.
So I'm sorry if I'm quiet these days! I'll be around, I promise...
I'm back home, and so glad to be here! It's taking me longer to adjust to certain things - the time zone, driving on the right side of the road - than last time. A side effect of so much time away, I suppose!
My last day as a tourist in the UK I headed up to Warwick Castle. It was fantastic!
The castle is huge, and has quite a few interesting exhibits and demonstrations. The grounds are gorgeous, too, with a rose garden, river, and peacock garden.
You can climb to the top of one of the castle towers, and the view from that high is amazing!
I definitely enjoyed myself, but I could tell I was losing my enthusiasm for being a tourist... It was so nice to finally get home!
Saturday I got up bright and early to start a 200 mile tour of four castles southeast of London. It turned out to be one of my favorite days so far!
First I headed to Scotney Castle, only recently opened to the public. It would be easy to never realize a little gem like this sits hidden in the English countryside.
My next stop was Bodiam Castle, straight out of a fairytale with its moat and perfect castle towers.
Hever Castle came next, and the grounds around this castle were some of the best I've seen. Many people seemed to pay the low garden access fee in order to bring picnics and sit in the gorgeous parks and let their kids play in the fun garden mazes.
Finally I stopped at Hampton Court Palace. If I hadn't already been to Hever Castle these would have been my favorite gardens, but something about Hever just seemed more intimate, Hampton was so formal. Still beautiful, of course!
There will be larger versions of these pictures and many more showing up on flickr when I'm home again with my beloved Photoshop, and I have more pictures from Sunday I hope to get up this week! I even have a work in progress to share - you didn't think I could make it five weeks without any crafting, did you??
Wow. Hi there! It's been a little while. I'm surprised I remembered my blogger log in! How are you?
I'm still over in the UK, working long days but enjoying my weekends. My first weekend over here I stayed near my hotel, relaxing and reading my book in the sun in a park by the river. It was fantastic! The next weekend I visited some friends in Newmarket, near Cambridge. We went to the horse races and walked through Cambridge - unfortunately the sun had abandoned us and we had to carry umbrellas the whole time, so my pictures are few.
Last weekend might be my favorite so far. We took a quick hop up to Edinburgh and spent two days exploring the castle and surroundings. Of course my camera got the most use in the botanic gardens; I've found I have a definite draw to nature pictures!
Last night we had a celebration dinner since we successfully prepared for our first review, at a wonderful restaurant in the Oakley Court hotel. The meal was good but the setting was even better! We ate our dessert on the terrace by the river and everyone had a wonderful time.
This weekend I'm going to explore a few more places in England, then after one more week (making a total of five this trip) I'll finally get to come home. For three weeks. Before heading back for one last business trip...
On my Friday trip into London, I got off the Underground at Oxford Circus specifically to stop at Liberty of London. And I am so glad I did! First, I just loved the whole store, and if I ever win the lottery I'm skipping Harrod's and buying my new wardrobe at Liberty.
Then I made it to the fabric level!
Everything was displayed so well, and there wasn't a single print I didn't like.
Isn't this a wonderful way to organize small items? Beautiful glass containers with a simple binder clip holding on the label... I may have to adapt this in my craft room! And I loved the button display:
I didn't actually buy anything this time - I suffered a little bit of sticker shock, and couldn't bring myself to shell out that kind of money when my treasured fabric usually just sits on the shelf looking pretty. Maybe next time I won't be able to resist!
I have been exploring England for three days now, and I have had gorgeous, cool, sunny weather. Isn't it supposed to rain in England?
Friday I went back into London, and walked around all day. I went to Kensington Gardens, Harrods, Buckingham Palace, Liberty of London (a post of its own!), St. Paul's, and the Tower of London. I broke down and used the underground towards the end of the day because my feet couldn't take anymore!
Yesterday I took the train to Oxford. It really made me wish I'd looked into the study abroad programs available at my university... It would have been so much fun to be a student there. Everything is in bloom, and I seem to be getting into the habit of taking pictures of flowers in front of things!
Today I braved the roads and drove about 200 total miles to see Wells, Bath, and Stonehenge. I did well on the roads if I do say so myself, only hitting the curb once. I did walk up to the wrong side of the car every single time, though, how embarassing!
(See, more flowers in front of things! I can't help myself!!)
One more day to explore, and again the weather is supposed to be amazing... I feel so lucky!
Thursday my boss came into my office, asked me what I was doing this week. Umm, nothing. Do I want to go to the UK for a week? Of course! Then Friday, he asked what I was doing the week after that, if I could stay an extra week. Okay...
Trafalgar Square
So here I am, about 40 minutes outside of London. I got in yesterday morning and immediately turned around to take the train into the city.
Big Ben
The weather has been perfect, sunny and cool. I get two holidays while I'm here that I wouldn't get at home, and I plan to put them to good use exploring London and maybe some of the surrounding towns.
View from the Eye
Jetlag is catching up with me, and I'm racing my dying laptop battery, so I'm off to bed!
Wow, it feels like it's been a long time since I've made one of my totes! I had finally gotten my tote just the way I like it when I stopped making them for a long time. Well, my first "customer" Jane has used hers so much she wants another one, so who was I to pass that up?
Her only request was that I use blues, and I had a lot of fun finding fabrics in my stash that worked together!
The striped fabric on the outside and the pockets is Amy Butler, and I loved how the floral looked with it.
I sent Jane the "proof" photos, half hoping she wouldn't like it so I could keep it for myself! That seems to be a theme around here lately... Luckily she gave it a thumbs up.
It's going to be pretty quiet around here for a little while, but don't worry. I found out yesterday I'm heading out on a business trip for two weeks, leaving tomorrow! Nothing like short notice!! I'm taking my camera and USB cable, so hopefully I'll be able to pop in with some pictures, but I won't be back for good until mid-April... Don't forget about me while I'm gone!
We spent the weekend in one of my favorite places, a little town called Bodega Bay on the coast of California north of San Francisco.
My parents rented a beach house so family and friends could come see my dad - everyone has been wanting to visit since he found out about the cancer, so this seemed like a great way to do it.
We were able to stay for three days, and during that time saw my grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and many close family friends. We also got to explore along the coast, often going from fog to sun and back again.
It was a wonderful weekend, but we took the red-eye to get home and neither one of us slept much. So despite the clock saying 9pm, I'm going to go get ready for bed!
Despite what my family seemed to think from my emails home, there were things to do in Singapore besides shopping. But there was a lot of shopping! I made it to Arab Street in Little India for some fabric shopping...
Despite being a little overwhelmed at a whole street (plus more, I think) of fabric shops, I was able to control myself and left with only five patterns.
We also went the last night to a 24-hour shopping center the likes of which I've never seen. It's hard to describe. Five floors, huge, you can find anything. Everything I bought was from one small section in the stationery part of the store:
Click to enlarge.
All in all, I got some things I really love without too much damage to my wallet. I consider that a success!
Traveling to Singapore was a wonderful experience. I've never been to Asia, and I'm told Singapore is a good place to start because everything is in English. The subway and streets are so clean, and it was actually dry the first few days we were there (though we did still manage to have fun in the rain the last few days). I don't have a whole lot of spare brain cells for words, so hopefully some pictures will make up for it!
View from the Marriott
Night on Orchard Road
Fabric Shopping on Arab Street
Central Business District
Clarke Quay
Clarke Quay at Night
Riverwalk at Night
All these were just with my point-and-shoot, and I can't take credit for the last one. Maybe next time I'll have a camera bag so I can take my new toy!
Hi everyone. I'm back in the US! Woo! I had a wonderful trip to Singapore, and I got a few really neat pictures. I would have taken more if it weren't for the torrential rain the last two days of the trip.
I have several things waiting to post, but I'm dealing with some nasty jet lag, sore legs from the half marathon I ran 18 hours after returning to the country, and some awful family news. Please bear with me if I'm MIA a few more days!
Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I leave for Singapore.
I'll be back next Saturday, meaning I'll have just enough time to get used to being 13 hours ahead when I yank my body back into the central time zone. I am very excited about this trip. Yay for business travel!
Hi there! I'm back!! Yeah, so I didn't tell you I was going to be gone... Sorry about that. I had already missed a couple weekend posts so NaBloPoMo was screwed up anyway, and then I was SO sick before my vacation that I couldn't even say goodbye... Sorry!!
Can I make it up to you by showing you a few pictures from my vacation? It was so beautiful in Belize...
There were waterfalls:
And we learned how coffee grows:
We went to Tikal, in Guatamala, absolutely amazing Mayan ruins:
And, maybe my favorite part of the whole trip, we got to swim with sharks and stingrays!!
Thanks to Peter for modeling.
We got back Sunday afternoon, and Monday and Tuesday we had company staying at our house! I think that's the fastest I've unpacked and done laundry. Monday night our visiting friends asked us to have a get-together for our mutual local friends so they could catch up. It was a ton of fun, and I didn't even stress about it at all, despite having no time to get ready. And the amazing thing is, after that, plus three days back at work with a big deadline, I am still quite relaxed and happy. That is the sign of a great vacation!!
No craftiness for a few days - I'm off to the beach! Some friends of ours have access to a beach house down in Rockport, so we're going down there for the weekend. It's supposed to be a gorgeous weekend, and luckily Tropical Storm Arlene is headed away from us, so the water should be great, too. Hopefully I'll come back relaxed and just a tad sun-kissed!!
And I do have two posts waiting, they just involve things being sent to people and I don't want to spoil the surprise!!
