Shabby Apple Design Contest

I am so excited about this: I am going to enter the Shabby Apple Dare to Design contest!

Of course, lots of people will enter, but hey--it's worth a try. You should too! It'll be good to have a challenge.

I'm currently working on a dress that I thought was a disaster, but managed to save (thanks to much encouragement from my husband) and I'm going to enter it as soon as I have finished (which should be pretty soon... finally!). So tune in soon to see the dress :)

Hey there

You have no idea how many post drafts I start punching out angrily. And then after a while of furiously attacking the keyboard, I start re-reading myself and I make no sense.

I read a great interview today of the author of SSB. (Ok, it's not Nobel-prize stuff, but it was fun to read) It made me think about my own blogging. I tend to not write about the really negative stuff, because there are some angry, bitter emotions down there that I don't think it would do any good to publish. Those things that hit too close to home. Ballroom is one. Some of the others will most likely never see the light of day because as therapeutic as it may be to talk about them, it's not up to me to put it out there. (How's that for a cryptic sentence that tells you nothing?)

So that's the reason I try to blog about positive things. I think a lot of people only show the positive not nearly as much to convince others they're happy but more to convince themselves. If they write it down, it puts it in black and white, it's official. You can go back and look at your posts or journal entries or photo albums and say "hey, look how happy we were!" It's terrifying to say something is wrong! That makes it all too real.

And I'm not saying my life is awful. Far from there. I really do have a great husband. I love my major. I even have a calling that I enjoy. But that doesn't mean life doesn't go on and it's all bliss all the time either. It's not fun to have to work at a job that has nothing to do with the career field you want and keep turning down internship opportunities because, well, internship pays $0, job pays lot$. Hm, to pay bills or not to pay? But again, who am I to complain? I have a job. It's a really good job. Shoot, I even get benefits! (Well, some, I'm not full-time either) But when you have the choice between sitting at a desk looking at patents and computer manuals or going up to Salt Lake City working for a TV program with local celebrities and building up your portfolio...

Which brings me to another point: I think it's time to let go of the illusion that I'll ever make tour. I love dance. I love to dance. I love to watch dance. I love to perform. I LOVE concert. But it may just be time to make the grown-up decision now, and let it go. See, just writing about it now makes me want to cry. Maybe it's so frustrating because ballroom is really the first thing to stand up to me and say "No. You don't get in." It's entirely a question of pride: I keep hitting the wall and all I get is bloodied fists.

And speaking of cutting out depressing things from my life... I find myself enjoying "happy" (some would say sappy) songs more and more. I can appreciate the beauty of a sorrowful, powerful piece. One of my all-time favorite poems is Sylvia Plath's Daddy. And I assure you, this does not in any way reflect my own feelings towards my father or husband. I feel very keenly the hurt in writing like this, I get very worked up about injustice and pain, but sometimes I get so sucked in that it begins to affect me personally. So my favorite song of the moment is "Beautiful Life" by Fisher (look it up, it's a good song). And it may not be terribly creative musically, the lyrics aren't terribly original, but wow. It makes me smile. Sometimes that's just what you need.

That's a load isn't it?

Burn

Hmm... Burning Qurans on 9/11.

Remind you of anything?

I don't know maybe... this?

Oh wait, silly me. Those are bad guys.

Maybe this?

Yikes, Nazis. Nope, those are really bad guys.

Hmm...

Very Christian indeed.

Tongue-twisted

I've been going crazy on the sewing lately, with school starting up, I feel like I will soon have no time left. Although not having a slave-driver partner anymore helps. (And no, I'm not secretly bashing Jared, I called him that to his face. :) It was actually good for me in many ways, we made so much progress during that year and a half) Regardless, I have more time on my hands. Andrew and I are sort of dancing together, but we haven't practiced in... oh, three weeks? I'm just having fun with team for now, not sure yet if I really want to make the big push for tour again.
Oh, and I'm still sick. Yes, it's been a week now, but at least I'm getting better.
Oh, and I cut my hair! I love it.

So here's the deal: guess what's going on in France now... more strikes! Surprised? Me neither. You know how I know that? Andrew has started playing the French evening news, and I can't believe we didn't do this earlier. I love it, but it also makes me very nostalgic. (I miss France! Although our fridge currently has good bread, brie and goat cheese, so I can't complain too much)
And I'm motivated too; in my next reporting class I will definitely write and record my stories in English and French, so that maybe just maybe, someday I'll get hired as a US correspondent for a french station. Ha. That'll be the day. Right now the idea is terrifying... my vocabulary is becoming atrocious! I've begun to speak English in French, meaning that I say things the way I would in English but with French words, and this has got to stop. So I think watching the French news will help.

Halloween table-runner

If you (the two people that ever read here haha) are sick of halloween stuff, I apologize, cause I'm just getting started :)

I made yet another themed table-runner. They're just too much fun to make! That and the fact that they are relatively simple and don't require too much time make it perfect for my short attention span. So here we go:

All I used was left-over scraps from the Halloween door hanging that I made. Cut into a few different sizes (I ended up doing two wide strips and one thinner one).

I call these "monster colors": orange and black with purple and green. Perfect for Halloween :)
Sew together your strips:

Now comes the fun part! Armed with my newly-acquired skills in quilting (beginner's skills, but still... I think I'm hooked), add on batting and the back fabric

(black is probably best, but I used an off-white...  I think it's called muslin? Incidentally, in French off-white is literally called "broken white." haha) and pin together the layers. And now....

Freehand sew a spiderweb all over it! (With a freehand foot... check out this post for a brief explanation)

It would probably be cool too if the spiderweb started in a corner and spread from there, I just went with a central one to hold all the layers together. See, double function, how easy :)
Now bind the edges and you're done.

This will go quite nicely in the living room :)

I'm linking over here: