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a portapotty post.

26 Jul
It’s an I’m-just-not-sure-what-to-do-with-myself kind of day.  
I went to target to purchase note cards to mail off, but moped around the store for easily 45 minutes before actually checking out.  Then stopped at a quilt shop to see if I could find a quilt cleanser for these babies.  [I stopped at this quilt store a few weeks ago, looking for fabric for my red stole.  The woman who I spoke with today remembered me and asked me how my ordination was.  For nice!]  
A two-coffees kind of day.  A little obsessive over facebook day.
A spray painting wooden roosters day.  [Speaking of roosters, I died laughing at this blog post.]
I went to the jewelry center at the mall.  Gal pal, Kim, and her husband, together with her parents, bought me a Pandora bracelet for my ordination.  I found out there is a gnome charm.  Done.  [The woman who helped me asked if I collected gnomes.  Um … I guess so!]

And then I came home to find this in our yard.  Classy.  [We’re hosting an auction this weekend.  I promise a portapotty in the yard is not normal.]

I’m baking a cake in an attempt to make these tonight, as per request of a friend throwing a baby shower.  Wish me luck.  Mine likely will look nothing like the picture.  [But mine also won’t cost $48/dozen!]

But first, I think I might take a nap.  Sleep has not been my friend these last couple nights.  [After I put a second coat of paint on the roosters, of course.]

Lindsay + July = Completed Quilt

4 Jul
I will finish a quilt.  I will finish a quilt.  I will finish a quilt.

And these will be the fabrics in said quilt. [The chicken/rooster fabric is my favorite and how I figure the other fabrics mix in.]  The quilt has been a work in progress for the past month with 36 12×12 squares currently completed.  Now it’s to the nit-picky time-consuming cutting and assembling many pieces to make a single square.  It’s all backed by gray, my favorite color of late.  
I will finish a quilt.  I will finish a quilt.  I will finish a quilt.

latest pinterest favs.

4 Jul

I think I’m going to spray paint nearly everything in my new home.  Do we think folding chairs would chip easily?  Would a spray paint primer work best first?  [I think I’m going to learn so much about spray painting nearly everything in my new home.]  These colors actually match my plates and the bowls that I drool over and will eventually buy …

This just makes me smile.  Look at her cubby knees!

Source: etsy.com via Lindsay on Pinterest

Oh, C.S. Lewis …

Maybe this can be a project for the week.  I need some organization of my thread and bobbins.

photos from home.

14 Jun
This pile of gravel?  I moved it.  [It doesn’t look that big from this angle but it really was.  Or I’m just really good at complaining.]

Were there foods you ate together as a kid or foods you eat together now that are a bit … strange?  One night, while at Joel and Melissa’s hanging out, I was reminded of how I used to love Cheetos in applesauce.  A moving home gift from J&M?  Cheetos and applesauce.  It’s still just as good as I remember.

Look at this cute kid!  This be Gavin, the son of my high school friend, Krissy.  Just climbing on the table.

It’s the Peppermint forest, a la Candy Land on this kitchen table.  It’s cakepop construction for the graduation party.  Edgerton’s colors are red and white and this straws I found at the Bibelot in St.Paul make perfect sticks.  Two hundred down today and four cakes left to do tomorrow.  

More red and white on my sewing table.  Garland central.  [And a few epic dance party glasses for smiles.]

favorite things.

5 Jun
Today I did a lot of my favorite things.  [incredibly narcissistic post follows this point.  you’re warned.]
I finished this cake by mixing the frosting and assembling the cake rounds I baked last night.  It was the post-cousin-and-sister-graduation cake.  Enjoyed by all.
I watched my baby sister and cousin graduate and receive their high school diplomas.  [Not that watching people graduate is a favorite thing.  It probably doesn’t happen enough to be a favorite thing but it certainly was a highlight once we moved past the cliches in the commencement addresses.]

I laid in the hammock and read.  Current read: The Help.  I’m intrigued and will continue reading at a reasonable speed.
I made cakepop bites with Molly.  She’s currently the vice-president of her fifth grade class and wanted to treat her classmates.
I began a new quilt.  Complete design and approach to be yet determined.  Circles – a new quilting adventure for me – formed with freezer paper are stacked on the ironing board.  
Good day and good night.  [Only to wake tomorrow to my mom’s list of putting down landscaping fabric, laying rock and mulch, scraping paint, and cleaning the kitchen.  Game on.]

a quilting mystery.

4 Jun
Our house is a busy place.  I moved in a few days ago, my sister graduates tomorrow, and a graduation party is slated for two weeks from today.  Just for kicks and because my mom isn’t busy enough already, let’s throw hosting an auction on the calendar.  My mom is looking to downsize a lot of antique furniture, collectables, and the family is throwing in some other odds and ends.  [You know, tractors, an old car, and guns.  Yes.  Guns.]  The auctioneers visited this morning to makes lists, take photos, and get things in order for the end of July.  That meant that last night I was helping Mom carry, organize, and find treasures in the basement.  
There has been a lot of “Lindsay, do you want this or should I sell this?” going on in the process.  I’ve inherited a bed set that once was my Grandpa’s when he was a kid, living room furniture, and a rocking chair that was given to my mom by her grandma [or something like that].  And then last night, we uncovered a quilt mystery.  
My mom and dad used to go to lots of auctions themselves and, in addition to buying furniture, my mom would buy antique quilts.  Sometimes, there would be unfinished quilts or quilt squares.  Old, antiquey quilt squares. We came across some quilt pieces last night.  “Lindsay, do you want these or should I sell them?”  Heck yes!

These quilt pieces are awesome – yellow and orange – and far more intricate than I would ever make squares.  I think they are super cool and old looking, and I would love to make them into a quilt.  [Especially since the hard, delicate work is already done!]  There was also an envelope with the quilt pattern … or such.  The pattern doesn’t have all pieces accounted for so I guess I design the quilt how I want.  But, as I ironed them last night, stains began to show, especially on the orange.  And then I began to wonder how I would ever sew them together without the points of the triangles [particularly in the long rectangular pieces] being lost in the seam.  Is it worth it to try and sew it together, now with the stains that appeared? [Please tell me yes!]  And if so, how?  Help, quilters, help!
[I’m actually quite uncertain that anyone who reads this quilts.  But humor me just this once?]

mosaicing.

18 May
Way back yonder in October, I bought a groupon to attend a mosaic class at Mercury Mosaics in Minneapolis.  I bought two actually – one for me and one for Sara.  Cassie bought one as well and later I discover that Erin [a college friend of one of my high school friends/blogger at growing up gaffney] also had a date with ceramic tiles and grout coming up.  And so the fellowship of the mosaic class was formed.
We started with dinner on the patio at Psycho Suzi’s [ahh, patios.] and then made our way to class where we dug through bins of tiles on the ’tile buffet,’ organized, reworked, and finally used an adhesive with texture like cream cheese to make our work permanent, all while navigating interactions with the incredibly awkward instructor and incredibly rude fellow classmates.  Grouting was sent home with us, the final step to be done after the adhesive cures for at least a full day.  Here are our [nearly] final [still grout-less] products:

lindsay day.

30 Apr
I love days like this.  It’s been awhile since I’ve had one and it will probably be awhile until I have one again.  A Lindsay day.
I learned to appreciate Saturdays like this while on internship.  Days where I’m expected to be no where or do anything.  [I was to spend time with M. tonight, babysitting, but unfortunately there is sickness in their house so playdate will have to be postponed.  Playing with M. would have been a great capstone to a Lindsay day.]  Days where I can play catch-up on enjoyable things.  Now that the thesis is done, I am fully taking advantage of such a day.  [Is there more homework I should be doing?  Oh my goodness, yes … but it can wait.]
I went to bed late last night [actually fell asleep while watching Modern Family right around 2am.  woke up at 3am to turn off Modern Family.] and slept in late this morning [late for lindsay = 9am], an easy task considering the rain and gloom outside.  [which, sidenote, I really enjoy.  I turned on my bedside lamp to write a few thank you notes but otherwise, no lights on in this apartment.  I like the dark.]  I caught up on my tv viewing, watching more Modern Family and last week’s Glee.  Old fashioned oatmeal and coffee.  
I’m cleaning the coffee maker using Martha’s technique and giving the kitchen a thorough cleaning.  Spending time in my crafting corner and blasting the ipod.  I’ll go to the gym and read my kindle.  Seriously considered an outing to the Minnesota History Center for the George Washington exhibit, but I think I’ll wait for a Tuesday night when admission is free.  I’ll probably tidy up my bedroom, craft some more, and watch a movie.  It’s a deep breath before the storm that will be the month of May.  
Good day, Lindsay.  Good day.

easter crafting.

26 Apr
Easter is my favorite holiday and has been since I was younger.  As a middle schooler, I threw Easter parties.  [I looked for many excuses to throw parties.  Halloween parties, camp-outs, Easter parties – all with designated projects, crafts, and invitations.  Looking back, that explains a lot about where I’m at now in regards to my party-throwing beliefs.]  We pinned the tail on the Easter bunny, went on egg hunts, and had themed food and prizes.  [I was a weird kid.  Weird.]
I’m all about egg-shaped fun.  This year, I tackled homemade kinder eggs with two different groups of friends.  Kinder eggs, you wonder?  You can purchase kinder eggs in Europe.  I first was introduced to them as a sophomore in high school when I journeyed to Spain for two weeks.  Hollow chocolate eggs – a layer of milk chocolate and one of white chocolate – wrapped in foil with a toy inside.  We were obsessed with these in Spain – OBSESSED.  When I found a website with directions to make your own kinder eggs inside of a real egg shell, I was totally on board.
 

It was really fun to do and to watch others make these.  You scoop melted chocolate into the hollowed and sterilized egg shell and then shake the shell, move it around, and peer inside to see that the chocolate coats around the entire shell.  We were all so quiet as we did it as we concentrated so hard!  I traveled home for break and repeated the chocolate craft with friends from high school, including this little guy, Ryan.  He liked to stuff the chocolate eggs with two m&ms and then eat one.  Two m&ms and then eat one.  Two m&ms and then eat five.  He was sent home quite full of sugar!
There were also cakepops to be made while I was home.  My cousins always wonder when we’ll make them and they want to do it every time I’m home.  Sam [seventh grader?  eighth grader?  I can’t keep track.] and I had this text exchange in regards to cakepop making –
“O my gosh lindsay.”  I love it.  We tackled chicks, easter eggs, and did a test run of the graduation cap cakepops.  It was a busy, messy, and fun night with nearly everyone pitching to help, or at least pitching in to eat a few.
Molly made an easter bunny and crazy alien with a mohawk dude.

Logan’s double fisting it with funfetti chicks.

good. but creepy.

17 Apr
With friends Sara and Melissa by my side, I ventured to the world’s largest textile garage sale on Saturday.  Was it everything I hope for and more?  Eh.  It was good but I will admit between the photos of the event leading me to think it would be larger and the fact that I scored no buttons-to-cover, I was the slightest bit disappointed.  That, however, does not mean that I nor Sara nor Melissa left empty handed.  I paid $8 for this pile of fabric, nearly all indicative of my current love of gingham and plaid –

There are easily three yards of the yellow/orange/green plaid home decor weight – fabric that would cost about $9/yard at full cost and the type of fabric that is ideal for making grocery totes.  The gray gingham is also home decor weight, and as I unwrapped the taped bundle, I discovered that half of the bundle appears to be a finished table runner.  So now I guess I own a gray checked table runner?  And a shirt sleeve.  Do you see the yellow striped shirt sleeve?  It was inside of another bundle of fabric.  A tad creepy?  I think so.  [At least it was just the shirt sleeve and not, like, the arm that was in the sleeve.  Dan Brown, get out of my head!]
As we left the fabric sale and as we drove off, we saw orange estate sale signs.  “Do you want to go?” I asked.  Sure.  Sara and Melissa were ready and willing for further adventure.  [The best kinds of friends are the ones always up for an impromptu adventure!]  I’d never been to an estate sale but have heard many times it’s the place to score mighty cool things.  We walked up the stairs to an old home and were greeted with a horrid musty smell the moment we stepped inside the front door.  The place was dingy and dark and smelly.  In one word – creepy.  Live there I would not.  We scouted the goods for sale from room to room with both exclamations of excitement and general confusion.  Examples of the creepiness?

Not the best photography job on my part, but it appears to be a nice painting of a
country home with crazy art on top of it.  It’s a monster?  Duck?  I’m just not sure.  $85.

Fur hat anyone?  Where was it displayed?  The kitchen, of course.

This is how Sara and Melissa feel about our current creepy situation.

Elephant salt and pepper shakers.  Ink cartridges.  A pumpkin.
A naked baby statue.  Who were these people?

We try our hand at vintage Trivial Pursuit.  

Pretty plates.  Silver serving spoons.  And baby shoes?  Who organizes this way?!
Further creepiness?  As we neared the room to check out with our purchases [I bought my Banana Christmas gift for this year from amidst the creepiness.  muahaha.], an older woman in a fur coat approached us.  She was not one of the employees administering the sale, as they wore aprons, but yet didn’t appear to be a shopper either.  “Would you like to see a secret drawer?” she asked as she pointed to a dresser in the corner of the room.  “Sure?” we responded.  Certain enough, there was a secret drawer in this dresser, as she found the latch to press and pulled it open.  “For your jewelry,” she told us.  “You don’t have much now, but you will later.”  Was this woman the owner of the home?  Was she present as all of her things – from a clown mask to old handwritten letters to gorgeous blue plates – walked out the door in the hands of other people?  Extremely strange.  And, as Sara pointed out later, she kinda looked like the woman Harry and Hermione encounter in Godric’s Hollow.  You know, the one that turned into the giant snake.  I’m glad we left when we did.  
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