Huge Thanks!

I have to say a huge (seriously HUGE) thanks to Katie, Sherry, Cassie and Erin who put together the Pinterest Challenge.

Special thanks to Sherry who hosted the big link-up on her blog. My stats were exponentially higher than usual and way better than I had imagined. Hopefully the traffic generated by my participation will result in some new regular readers! =) Thanks also to everyone who was interested in my project enough to come check it out! I am rather proud of both the finished product and also my ability to just go for it and put it all together completely from scratch. I would LOVE to hear from anyone else who gives that project a try and see how yours turns out! I am already looking forward to finding another great DIY endeavor to create and share :) Off hand I'm thinking it might be some art for my newly naked kitchen wall... You'll have to stay tuned to find out though!

Thanks again, Pinterest Challenge girls and lovely readers!!!

Pinterest Challenge

Today I am so excited to be participating in my first ever Pinterest Challenge! Not sure what a Pinterest Challenge is? Well it's simple really- you just choose something that you've pinned on Pinterest and actually make it! It's not an official "thing" created by Pinterest, instead it's an idea started by two other bloggers (Katie Bower and Sherry Petersik) that I first read about here.

The project I chose to do is one that has been on my project list for about six months. It has just taken a back seat because it is much more of a just-for-fun project than a necessity, and as you know I've been working long and hard on getting our kitchen in shape. So not much time or money has been going into things that don't have to be done. Anyway, I decided to just go for it so the supplies weren't sitting around my house staring at me anymore!

So without further chatter, I give you...

DIY Camera Bag

My inspiration for the DIY Camera Bag came from this blog post, but I decided to make a few tweaks to my project to hopefully avoid a few of the issues she experienced. My plan and vision was to create a protective & organizational insert that I could drop down into a store-bought purse to make it into a cute yet functional camera bag without permanently altering the purse itself (just in case!). 

Mission: accomplished! Here's how...

First things first- supplies needed are:

   1) A bag or purse you want to transform into a camera bag. One that is pretty roomy and has a flat    

       bottom works best.

   2) Scissors and tape measure/ruler

   3) Fabric of your choice

   4) Some type of foam or padding to protect your equipment

   5) Cardboard to make templates

   6) A sewing machine and thread

I'm going to do my best to explain how I did this step-by-step and will keep captions/descriptions above the photos I'm referring to.

STEP ONE - Choose a bag and fabric

I bought the adorable Nine West purse from Amazon for $30.  Not really a steal, but it's super cute and a quality bag that isn't going to fall apart on me. Then I chose a fun fabric to create my organizational/protective insert.

STEP TWO- Create pattern and templates

I pulled the lining of the purse inside out so it was sticking out the top of the purse. Then I used a simple tape measure to measure the seams 1) down the sides, 2) length-wise across the bottom, and 3) width-wise across the bottom. With those measurements I could create a pattern for my fabric and make templates for the protective foam padding.

I used the cardboard templates to trace onto a piece of foam and cut out the right shapes and sizes I'd need to cushion the bottom and sides of the bag, as well as make some protective dividers to place between different accessories in the bag. You don't want your lenses banging around in there!

The foam I used was just one big square of foam that would be used to make a seat cushion or something similar. I used utility scissors from my tool kit to cut the shapes out. They were somewhat imperfect but would definitely do the trick for this project.

STEP THREE- Draw, trace, and cut out your pattern

I used the measurements I took of the seams in the purse to create a pattern on regular paper. Then I pinned the pattern to my fabric and cut it out. My fabric was folded in half, so I only had to trace and cut twice to get four identical layers of fabric. Two would make the outside layer and two would make the inner layer... I promise that will make more sense later :)

This cut-out piece of fabric doesn't exactly match the pattern above. I had to make an adjustment because my measurement was off. I needed those little notches at the bottom corners to be the same length. To add that length (on the horizontal line) without taking away from the overall length across the bottom of the bag, I simply cut on an angle as you can see below.

STEP FOUR- Start sewing!

Once the fabric was cut out, I first sewed the bottom corners (basically closing that triangular gap), then both sides. This made sort of a bucket, which would become the outside layer of my organizational/protective insert.

For the fabric that would be the inner layer, I did the same exact thing, except I left one of the sides open. That's important later so you can stuff the foam pieces inside and still have nice finished seams :)

This left me with two identical bucket-shaped pieces of fabric. One with the printed side out (outer layer) and one with the printed side in (inner layer).

Now that I had my two pieces, it was time to attach them to each other around the top edges making essentially one big piece (that kind of looked like conjoined twins... just sayin). It's kind of hard to see, but notice on the twin that's on the right side, you can see that open side seam at the top. It's about to come in handy! Also notice the way these two twins are put together. Both have their printed side out so that when I nest one inside the other (there's that outer layer-inner layer thing I've been talking about!) the printed side will be visible all around.

STEP FIVE- Insert foam padding

I very carefully stuffed the foam pieces (I had one for the bottom and one for each of the long sides of the bag) into the open side seam. I line them up and placed them as carefully as possible using the seams because once I closed up that open side seam it would be much more difficult to shift the foam into place. I decided to put the bottom piece in first, followed by each of the sides. Once that's done you should have something that looks like this! Now you can easily see the whole inner/outer layer thing :)

**Side note:  it would also be possible to make individual covers/sleeves for each of the foam pieces and then just place them down into the bag or use their seams to attach them together rather than making one big insert piece like I've done here.

STEP SIX- Close it up!

It's time to close the side seam that I left open back in step four. It's not super easy to do, but it can be done. Basically you have to fold down a tiny edge of the fabric, pin it together and sew a seam. 

Once the seam was closed up, I stuffed the insert down into the purse to get an idea of the fit. I had some extra fabric on the inner layer (it should have been cut slightly smaller to account for the foam) but tucked it down between the bottom and side pieces and it looks fine. I could also pull it tighter around the bottom of the insert and pin it or sew a tack to keep it snug.

STEP SEVEN- Protective accessory dividers

These were as simple as cutting out squares of fabric (two layers at a time) and sewing around them. Again I left one side open to stuff the foam in, and then folded it down to create a seam. 

Once they're done you can simply place them down in the bag between your accessories! In this picture (top to bottom) I have my external flash, an extra lens, and my DSLR camera itself. The foam dividers do not attach to anything (it's an option, but I couldn't come up with a good way to do it, and I'm a commitment-phobe who likes to have options), but they sit nicely between my accessories to prevent them from bumping into each other. They're also great because they're soft enough to mold to the shapes of the items I place in there. You can also tell there's some spare room in there. I could probably fit another lens in there, and easily a few smaller items like an extra battery or remote.

And with that, I have a camera bag that looks like this!

I am so excited to use it on my next photo shoot and hope that I've "Pinspired" someone else to give this a try! :)

Also-- don't forget to check out the projects made by Sherry, Katie, Cassie, and Erin - the girls of the official Pinterest Challenge Team! Thanks to them for giving me the friendly shove needed to stop pinning and start doing! (Not that I'll ever stop pinning... ;)

Beautiful Weather

Beautiful babies!

We had a fun play date with my best friend, Mary Beth and her son Nick at our favorite playground this morning! The playground was much more crowded today on our first SUPER nice weather day of the year. The kids pretty much ran in two different directions all morning, but we did finally get them to sit down for a quick photo. We're so glad we got to spend this gorgeous morning outside in the sunshine and fresh air with our friends! :)

Fiddlesticks!

Haven't heard that one for a while, have you? ;)

Well I have bad news. Our appliance delivery has been pushed back once again to the 22nd! Good thing they called my crafty husband who sweet-talked them into giving us some kind of refund as consolation for making us wait so long for the delivery. People are never accommodating to me. Have I ever told you the story of our honeymoon airline tickets?  The short version is that I bought tickets, the flight then got changed two times and left us with something like a 9-hour layover in Puerto Rico on our return trip on December 23rd. When I called to explain that this was unacceptable I was told that I could continue to monitor flights online myself to look for something better, but there would be a fee assessed for changing flights when/if I did find a new one. My husband called and was given new non-stop tickets on an entirely different airline and they were some $300 cheaper so we got a refund. Seriously?!

Anyway, here we sit, still cooking on the coil stove. Siiiiiigh.

Tonight is "girls' night" in our house - that means me and C-baby doing what we do.... cranking up the Laurie Berkner and dancing like fools. We may even get a little crazy and break out some play dough. I'm not sure yet. Daddy will be at a friend's 30th birthday celebration at Max's Taphouse in Baltimore. I'd love to join the celebration, but alas, someone has to mind the baby and we have a bunch of occasions coming up for which we have to leave her with a sitter, so I chose to stay home with her tonight. It's for the best anyway since she has finally come down with a bug she has been fighting since around Tuesday. It's a barking cough, runny nose, and a weepy eye. For a kid who is rarely sick (she's had the sniffles maybe 5 times in her life) she's rather pitiful. When I went in to get her from her crib this morning her hair was stuck to her face with tears from the weepy eye and snot :(  Her weepy eye is just the tiniest bit puffy and red (around the eye, not the eyeball itself) so between that and the runny nose you can tell she's sick just by looking at her. I feel just terrible for her, but she's not running a fever as of yet -knock on keyboard- so hopefully it won't require a trip to the doctor. I always feel like it's such a risk going into the "SICK" side of the waiting room. We've only had to go there once or twice, most recently for a patch of eczema, and I was downright terrified. She's got a pretty solid immune system though. I built up a hard-core resistance from working at a daycare for 5 years. Hopefully she's feeling better tomorrow. It's her cousin's 7th birthday party and since she has recently realized what "birthdays" are (cake, singing, presents), I know she will enjoy the party.

Gosh, so we've covered appliances, our honeymoon flight, what we're doing with our Friday night, and C's recent illness.... might as well just complete the gamut with a music video, right?

This is Michael Kiwanuka. He kind of has a Ben Harper~Jack Johnson thing going on. This is the extent of his work that I've heard so I can't speak for the rest of it, but I really liked this song.

Happy Weekend :D

Drywall Repaired!

I finally finished repairing the three corners of our drywall that had weird cracking issues going on. If you've ever had to repair drywall corners, you know it's not a simple or enjoyable process. It actually sounded initially like the type of project I would love but it got old quickly. There's something I find satisfying about spackling (I can't even explain it, it's just who I am), so I figured this would be like a gigantic spackling project and I would just love making it all smooth and perfect. If only it were that easy. Drywall compound is a lot thinner than spackle because it's meant to be applied it several thin layers. Then there's like a 24-hour drying time between layers, and I just didn't have the patience for that. I was working at 10:00 pm after C was in bed for the night and I mostly just cared about covering up the stupid mesh drywall tape (it is now on my list of enemies). Not only is drywall compound difficult to work with but you also can't just sand it with some sandpaper like you do with spackle. It gets sanded with a wet sponge - as made clear on the container. Actually, the container was pretty scary and recommended a mask and avoiding creating any dust from it (hence the wet sponge). So if there are imperfections in your application, the wet sponge is not sanding them away. The results are less than perfect, but good enough for me for this house. Is that terrible? I took some pictures on my phone but they're not much to share - it's just the corner of a wall. You can't even tell what you're looking at. The significance of it however, is that I can now start arranging things the way I want them to ultimately be. The table can now go against that wall freeing up lots of space in the middle of the room, and the dog crate can be officially retired. It has been in the middle of the floor as well, so it seems like a good time to just move it out of the kitchen instead of nestling it back in it's little corner. So, while corner repairs themselves aren't super exciting, having them done means another step in the process of getting this kitchen completed!

So... what's next? Our stove and dishwasher are being delivered next Wednesday - woot! We'll finally have all 4 appliances the same color. Before then, I just need to finish painting one wall in the kitchen and get behind the stove and refrigerator. We still don't have an official install date for our tile :( But the weather is getting really nice, and I'm hoping to get started on painting our cabinets once we make the transition to consistently warmer temperatures. I'll need to use our deck outside so it has to be warm enough for me to do that.

In other news, our baby is cuter by the day. I need to do a big update post on her before she officially turns 2. I can't believe that milestone is upon us already! She and I spent the morning outside. We had to meet up with someone who bought our double stroller (I had bought it on craigslist when I was babysitting and decided not to hang on to it). Our meeting place was so close to this little park near the airport that we decided to go watch some "hairplanes" as C calls them.

There were daffodils in full bloom :D

"Bye bye hairplane! Bye bye!"

Mommy & C

We had a great time watching the "hairplanes" and running around. There is a playground there and a bike/walking path but C mostly just wanted to run around. She found some pine cones which I'm fairly certain she's never seen before. She spoke to an elderly gentleman who was taking a break from bike riding and he thought she was pretty funny. And finally after about an hour and a half we left, mostly because I needed to pee. We came home to some beans & rice for lunch (I made my version of a burrito bowl with some romaine, salsa, cheese, and avocado) and she has been snoozing soundly for over 3 hours. I am so in love with today's weather and I can not wait until we can consistently have outside time every single day! You might recall we were a bit house-bound this time last year since I was babysitting my nephew. I had the above-mentioned double stroller, but taking a walk is only so exciting day after day. I'm so anxious to be able to go out and do fun summer outdoor things whenever we want this year, even if it's just splashing in the wading pool at Nana's! 

Stay tuned for a dedicated update post on C as we approach her 2nd birthday, and of course more on the kitchen as it comes together. What have you been doing with the spring weather? Outdoor fun? Home improvement projects? 

Sew What

Taking a quick break from drywall repair to make a cute new wet bag for my SIL and nephew!

Hello, March!

Climbing...

Climbing...

Sliding...

Playing....

Collecting rocks that we pretended were cookies...

And a little more climbing...

Thanks to temps in the mid-60s and pretty much nothing else on our schedule today, this is how we got to spend our morning!