Megrnc

Dave and I have been planning our garden for this year. We are scaling down from my sorry attempts last year, and turning most of what the past owners had as a garden into just landscaping and lawn. It is just too shady to grow any veggies. Instead we are building a new tomato garden in a very sunny spot in the upper corner of the yard and planting a few very small beds of things around our asparagus bed. Which is now coming up!! Check out this very hardy stalk

I got a bunch of gift certificates for my birthday for a local quilt store and bought fabric to sew for products and also for a new quilt for the living room since the old one is looking very very tired. Here is the quilt top, trying to get a sense of how it will look in the living room:

Sam likes it! It has a lot of pink in it, hope that is okay with the hubs. But I like it, it's nice and airy. Eventually we will paint the LR a light blue so the quilt will pick up the living room color nicely.

On May 3rd, I'll be participating in the Handmade Market. I'm not doing any craft shows this year except this one. I am THRILLED to have been accepted into this event and can't wait. You can be sure that ALL of my free time between now and then will be spent sewing.

Hello! So I'm paying ten bucks a month for this blog I might as well post right? Speaking of which, does anyone know how to switch from typepad to blogger? and not lose all of your posts?

I've been sewing up a storm lately and have been loving it.

First, fabric belts and wristlets for some stores. Here they are hanging from my new shelf in my sewing room.

Here are some close ups

And I've been playing around with some new quilt designs. This has four columns of different colors with alternating bright green: pink and green, yellow and green, blue and green and brown and green. Flanked by white fabric (Kona cotton). Love it. Might go on Etsy.

 

These blocks are called snowballs.

I made four of them, and placed more solid white cotton around them, for a wall quilt:

I like using solid white as it really highlights the other colors. However, I may use other solid colors for these sets of snowballs:

Sock Monkeys.

And brown, orange and green snowballs with that Alexander Henry bird fabric in the center:

and my favorite, blue and green snowballs with an Amy Butler Midwest Modern print in the center (speaking of Amy Butler, stay tuned for an announcement of a certain sewing being in an Amy Butler publication!)

One of my "resolutions" (in quotes because I don't really do resolutions) last year was to have the stuff that I sew in 4 stores by the end of the year. Happily, I was in 6 by the end of the year, and am now in 8. It's getting a bit tricky to manage, as only 2 are wholesale and the rest are on consignment, but lots of fun. I love working with the store owners and get a kick out of seeing what people buy. And it has led to two new products- the ipod cases and these:

Aren't they pretty? Wristlets, keychains, keyfobs, whichever your fancy.

These are the stores that carry MegRNC

OAK Newberry St, Boston MA

Circa Gallery, Ashboro, NC

Twig, Chapel Hill, NC

NC Crafts Gallery Carrboro, NC

Portobello Road, Brightleaf Square, Durham, NC

Vaguely Reminiscent, 9th St, Durham, NC

When Pigz Fly, Raleigh, NC

Funky Utopia, Bradenton, FL

I have to blog about the phenomenal dinner Dave and I had last night. Last night we celebrated "our Christmas" together and since we had a good coupon, went to Anotherthyme, here in Durham. We walked in, about 7:45 and it was mildly bustling, although quite a few empty tables. We waited to see the host. And waited and waited. We must have waited 5 minutes. Finally a waiter, who had seen us from the beginning and went around to collect a tip or two from an empty table before greeting us, came over. Upon our disgruntled looks, he did apologize for the wait and explained that they were short on staff (read: one waiter, one bartender and a guy in a sweatshirt), there had been a death in the staff and that no one wanted to work. Lucky us. I asked if service was going to be slow and he said no. We thought for a quick minute about going somewhere else, but decided to get seated. While we waited for our waiter to come back, Dave called three other local restaurants to see if they were open. Next to us, a man and his son had asked the bartender for some bread. After waiting a few minutes, they called our waiter over and said they were still waiting. Neither he nor the bartender came back with their bread. In the meantime, upon finding out that the other restaurants were closed, ordered cocktails. The man next to us went over to the bar to talk to the staff about his lack of service and still came back with no bread. We tried our drinks: they were horrible. At that point, in figuring we were going to be spending quite a bit of money and wanted to get a nice dinner for our money, just left.

We went around the corner to Pop's, which had four times the amount of staff working and was warm and light and bustling. We got a high top table next to the bar, and the bartender, who only had two other guests was our own personal waiter.

We started off with coctails which were way better than our first round (really delicious in fact) and an appetizer of baked stuffed mushrooms with NC lump crabmeat, spinach, roasted garlic ricotta cheese, reggiano and truffle cream. They were DIVINE. Every bit as good as they sound.

For dinner I had angel hair pasta with smoked chicken, green onions, banana peppers and a bacon cream sauce. Everything was cooked perfectly and was absolutley delicious. Dave had grilled pork scallopini over blue cheese polenta and asparagus. He had three large portions of pork which were all grilled in their wood fire oven and were great. He loved the polenta.

For dessert, we shared two cannoli with a cranberry pistachio sauce. It wasn't my favorite as I prefer chocolate in pretty much any dessert, but Dave loved it. Dave also finished with his favorite, a glass of sambucca.

We were stuffed, but tremendously happy with our decision to leave Anotherthyme, and go to Pop's. We have never been disappointed with Pop's and it will continue to be one of our favorite restaurants to go to!

Oh, it has been such a long time! I don't think I've gone more than a month without blogging in the three years that I have been blogging.

Dave and I have new kitties, Molly and Emma:
here they are, about 11 weeks old

and 7 weeks old, this is Emma

Emma on the left, Molly on the right. Not the greatest picture but Emma's expression cracks me up.

Moll moll

And floppy girl Emma

So the other day dave and I were talking about how we shouldn't get a full sized christmas tree this year because the girls would just go nuts, so instead we got a table top one. It's about 3 feet tall. We got it up and realized it would be soon that the cats would figure out how to get on top of the entertainment center to get the tree, but at least this year we ought to be safe.

We were wrong.

Abby

Not doing a whole lot of holiday eating or baking due to WW, but I did manage to make a batch of peppermint marshmallows. They were totally fun and very easy to make and I definitley will be making these again

Puffy pink peppermint marshmallows. Best in a steaming hot cup of Green and Black's hot cocoa.

Yep, blogging has fallen to the wayside over here. I blame it on work and Facebook.

But I do have news to share- Dave and I have a new addition to the family. Actually 2. We are adopting identical twin girl cats, Molly and Emma. They are seven weeks old and we are getting them in a day or two. That will make six total in our house. Slightly nuts, no? Pictures to come soon!!

Oh and today I found a new thrift store. Well not new to the world, it's actually 3 years old, but since I rarely am on that side of town, new to me. It's the Durham Rescue Mission's store and it's pretty great. They want to open a North Durham one too, so yay!

And here's a new quilt. I know it's very Springy but I was very inspired by the fabrics.

Huh. Well fancy that. Looks like I forgot two white squares. That explains why they were left over. Looks like I won't be selling this one on Etsy.

Come check out your favorite Durham artists at this year's Watts-Hillandale Artwalk.

Walk the historic Watts Hospital-Hillandale neighborhood in Durham. Start at 2423 W. Club Blvd or 1301 Alabama Ave to get a map. Look for the signs marking each artist location. 50+ Artists! Pottery . Glass . Paintings . Books .Quilts . Jewelry . Metalwork . and much more!

The nice thing about this particular art walk is that it's truly "neighborly". This event is organized by artists living and working in our neighborhood. Your probably know many of them. You can stroll along the streets, enjoying the autumn day with friends and family , stopping here and there so see beautiful art and have delicious snacks. Look for the signs, and balloons , or pick up a map at any of the various locations to find this or that artist. Or stop at the house of some artist you don't know. You never know what you might find! Many of our neighbors do their holiday shopping during this fun, fall Sunday event.

Click http://www.whhna.org/artwalk.php to download the map of artists.

Another reason Why I Love Durham

End-to-the-election celebration, in four blocked off blocks of downtown Durham. Music, drum lines, marching bands and watching the live returns on a giant two-story tall projection screen. And, visit different downtown restaurants and bars, each hosting their own election return parties.

Durham freakin' rocks.

So about a year ago, I signed up for a personal invite to design some fabric and have it printed through Spoonflower. Since then I've been throwing ideas around in my head, and have put together a few designs but haven't uploaded them to the site.

Now Spoonflower is open to everyone and I just found out that they are located in Mebane, right up the road from us! Not that it really matters, but it's a fun fact! Oh, and you can get a tour! Check out their flickr page to see designs from folks.

Here they are, ipod classic and touch, ipod nano and shuffle cases

and quilted eyeglass/sunglass cases

Available on my etsy store, at Vaguely Reminiscent on 9th street and Portobello Road in Brightleaf!

Lots going on here but one of my highlights from the weekend was going to the bi-annual Durham/Orange Quilt Guild Quilt Show at the ATC.  I really felt like crying when I got there- just so wonderful to be surrounded by all that amazing work. I sooo love quilts. And really really need to be quilting more. Here are some of my favs

I'm generally not a fan of batiks, but they really do make beautiful quilts

And here's some of the stitching of this one up close

Homage to The ATC

This quilter's favorite song is that Under the Sea/Octopus song by the Beatles

And, oh, my my

I have been approached by a local store to make ipod/mp3 cases. Which is kind of nice because I've been meaning to make myself one for awhile.

I have three templates and am having a hard time figuring out what features to keep and what not to keep.

So my first question: Do I make something that is just a case to store the player when not in use, or do I make something that stores it and so it can be used at the same time?

This is the first one. It measures about 3"x2 1/2" when closed. It has a ribbon across the front so you can tuck the flap in, and a key ringy thing on the back so you can attach it to a key chain, belt loop or whatever else.

There is also a small hole for an earplug cord, so that it can be used while in the case.

Questions: Do you like the ribbon? Is it too much to worry about (it takes a minute to get it tucked in, is this too much work?) Is the key chain thingy needed?

Option 2: This one is tall...it's about 3 inches tall and 2.5"wide. It has velcro to close, does not have the key thingy and does have a small hole in a corner for the cord (not pictured).

  

Option 3: Same shape as the one above, but a zipper to close instead of velcro.
 

Other considerations: All three are made with padding, which will stay as a feature. The second two were also made with interfacing, to give the outside a little stiffness and overall a bit more weight to the case. I think I will also keep this as an option because it makes it overall look more professional. (So the first one would be a bit more sturdy).

Of course, I could make them with a variety of options too and could vary the options. And of course they'll need to be in different sizes for the various sizes of mp3s and ipods.

Okay, so opinions???
Thanks!

Thrift Stores on the Move

So we've been very fortunate to live near not one, but two thrift stores, a GCF and Salvation Army. There are many days when I just stop in to see if I can find anything interesting. Sadly though, the Salvation army has packed up and moved to a new location on Hillsborough Street. Although this is obviously farther to drive, the new location is 10times better than the old one. The old one was a huge space and was very dark and side and a bit grungy. The new one is night and light and airy. I wonder what they'll do with the old building?

So the other day I went to the new one and got a 1,000 piece puzzle (still in a puzzle frenzy after the beach trip puzzle) and a set of new placemats from World Market. They are very similar to these, only in blue and red instead. Yesterday I stopped into the GCF that is still here near our house and found a brand new, still in the box, unopened white bookcase from target. It sells for $90 at Target and I got it for $30. It is very much needed in my sewing room. (They had about five or six other brand new shelves there as well).

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Tomorrow I'll be at Festifall in Chapel Hill. 1-6 pm. Stop by and say hi!

I just made a really, really bad decision.

I got a sandwhich at Carolina Cafe before looking at the nutrition information. A some what seemingly harmless sandwich. Chipotle Chicken Panini. OMG. 16 freaking WW points. Who are they kidding? That is ridiculous. With that and my 5 point breakfast, I have a measly 4 points left for the day. Unreal.

In other news, today I drove to Chapel Hill. Later on I have more driving to do, around CH and then home. I decided to count the amount of Obama bumper stickers and McCain stickers I see today. The count so far? 4-0. Go Obama!

UPDATE: End of the day- obama 9, mccain 0. Where are all of Mccain's hockey mom's and joe sixpacks? ;)

Hmmmmmmm....

•  So today at the grocery, I brought a plastic bag in which to put my vegetables. The cashier had no problem with this, until she put the whole bag (which happened to be from their own store a few months ago) in another plastic bag. I told her I didn't want another one, that's why I brought my own. She got very upset because she thought I didn't want what was in the bag, which would have caused a hassle to take it off. I explained to her that I didn't want the bag. Apparently, it was still a hassle. But I took my first bag out anyway.
• I'm doing Weight Watchers. There, I said it. A few months ago, I was going to bring back a new pair of shorts because they didn't fit. After a month of WW, I put them on  and they were too big. That was a big day. The other day I was cleaning out my car and found a bag with a pair of jeans that I tried bringing back to the store a few months ago because, lo and behold, they didn't fit. I actually made it to the store with them but b/c I didn't have the receipt, they wouldn't take them (do not get me started on returning items at Target). So today, being that I still had said jeans, I decided to try them on just to see how much weight I'd have to lose to fit into them. Got em up past my thighs and was very surprised. Kept going. Got em over my junk in the trunk and around my waist. Holy moly! Then got them even zipped and buttoned! Woo Hoo! and I could still breathe and sit and move all around. Man, that's a good feeling.
• Why do people still have Suburbans and Explorers?
• I wonder what Detective Gorrin is doing right now.
• I hate cooking dinner. No, that's not accurate. I loathe cooking dinner. I always get to four or five pm, realized I have no idea what to make and then have to come up with something from the frig or pantry or go to the store. I hate hate hate this process. There are a million things I'd rather be doing. However lately I've been inspired by the cooler weather and fall cooking and am proud to say that I have a whole week's worth of meals planned out and just got back from the store with all of the ingredients!
• I have two craft fairs this month and am very much looking forward to them. I really really really hope I do well. I'm also looking forward to the shopping season on Etsy.

Dave and I got back from our annual beach trip to Emerald Isle, the most perfect beach, IMHO in the state.

 

Last night Dave and I celebrated our first anniversary by recreating one of our first dates. I think it was during this date that I knew. Dave actually brought me flowers last night (he had forgotten that he got them for me that first time). We made pizza and dove into our cake from the wedding. We weren't sure how it would hold up, but it was fantastic. It was even better than we had remembered it a year ago.

The man's a sweetie. Glad I grabbed on to him.