Where'd She Get That Phone?!?

I am super excited! My iPhone finally has a snazzy home.  I have seen these cases around, here and here, and loved them.  I finally ordered one (I have no idea what took me so long!) and spent the past few days laying out my design.  

I had a lot of fun with my colored pencils and graph paper.  

I am really in to argyle and geometrics at the moment and I’m loving all things nautical so I really wanted to work those two together.  What I ended up with is the notion that I need waaay more than just one of these cases. The design I decided to stitch was my 11th idea. Yikes!

As usual, when I went diving through my floss to pick my colors I got overwhelmed so I turned to my go to color guide Design Seeds.  Have you guys come across this yet? 

OMG I love it! The photographs are beautiful and the color palettes are stunning.  I have a pinterest board specifically set up just for this website.  I love it! No surprise here, but I found the perfect color combination for my project!

I drew up some chevrons, stripes, diamonds and argyles and ultimately decided on my diamonds.  It reminded me of a true basic cross stitch and I liked it most because I could use all the colors that I wanted to! I purposely moved the repeat of the design off the center just to make the edges a little more interesting. My first design included ecru borders but you really couldn't see it against the white case and I had also drawn the orange diamonds to be tight x's like the blues but when stitched it just looked too dense. I went back to the drawing board, added some white negative space and opened up the orange to be every other stitch and got what I was looking for.  It took a lot longer to stitch up than I had anticipated but I am really happy with the result!

I can't wait to be that person when I whip out my phone and show off! ;)

As always thanks for stopping by!

Aaaand have a safe and happy Easter!

~Leah 

A Great Way to Greet the Day

I live in a space with lots of funny angles and slopped ceilings which means that I don't have a ton of tall wall space.  It makes decorating a little difficult since in some places standard frames don't fit so well or the shadows/light is really bad so what I want to put up doesn't get the view it deserves.  One of these such spaces is where I hung my latest finish.

I have always been a fan of Dame Edna and when I saw this pattern by Serious Floss I just had to have it! Sometimes buying my patterns online makes me nervous (I've gotten a few duds) but I was willing to risk it on this one.  I modified the colors just a little bit to match my existing paint job and used some seed beads that I had on hand instead of the metallic thread and I just love it!

See what I mean about an odd little spot! Its actually right in my sight line when I wake up in the morning so it is almost always the very first thing see so it makes for a great start to the day.

Here she is up close and personal, I used some silver gray ribbon to dress up my hoop.

There are so many great patterns out there now that are fun, modern and very wallet friendly and I have found some new designers (well new to me) lately and am very excited for my next couple of projects.  

I'm on a little bit of a roll at the moment so I hope to have more to show you soon.  

Until then, thanks for stopping by and happy stitching!

~Leah

I'm Calling it a Come Back!

One of the goals I have listed on my 101 in 1001 is to start running once a week to try and love it again.  There was a point a little over a year ago where I just completely lost my love of putting my feet to the pavement and at the time I was at a loss as to why.  Prior to that I have always looked forward to the end of my work day knowing that my next half hour would be spent in the comfort of my own headspace where I could retreat and think of nothing but my breathing and the sound of my own heartbeat. I would occasionally sprinkle in a road race or two just for fun and to interact with other runners but I never took my running as anything but a fun hobby.  It was never a question of having to log miles or run faster it was simply what I did to unwind and de-clutter my brain.  For obvious reasons my consistent exercise had a positive impact on my body and my energy level and people noticed and asked.  I never had any problem talking about what I was doing and when asked I didn’t mind helping others get started. 

It’s only now in looking back that I realized what the something was that changed; it was like by sharing what I was doing I left my inner sanctum unprotected and all this negativity came rushing in.  All of a sudden there was this pressure and these expectations and I let what other people thought of my hobby take the joy out of it.  I started getting questioned on why my times weren’t better and why did I only run 5 and 10k’s – where were my half marathons and marathons, and how could I possible be satisfied finishing in the lower to middle part of the pack – didn’t I want to be better?  These are questions I had never thought of; to me the satisfaction of running came simply through the act running. I had never thought to grade the quality or quantity of my runs but for some reason everyone else did and made sure that I was aware of just how disappointing my running was to them. 

I let them get under my skin. 

I stopped running. 

In late February I got an email from the directors of a race I have run several times in the past.  It had previously been my season opener and it was always dicey.  Running in mid-March in New England is always a crap shoot.  I signed up.  The last time I ran any kind of distance was April 16, 2012 and it was a 5-miler.  I can’t believe I signed up.  I pulled my running shoes out of my closet the Thursday before the race and went running.  It was an ugly run but I’m glad I did it. 

The race was the Sunday before St Patrick's day and I’m glad I signed up for it.
I hit the two mile mark and remembered why I started running in the first place. 

I think I can fall in love again and I now know that I will not let anyone else’s ideas or opinions take love out of my life again.

Here's to all the comebacks in your life!

~Leah

My Newest Project.

I had heard about this program a ways back and always found it a little fascinating.  I have spent more hours than I can count trolling the Day Zero Project website and have watched it grow and evolve. I like the idea of a bucket list but I don't like the idea of waiting for it too be to late to do any of it. I had actually tried to put a list together a few other times and came face to face with how hard it is not only to come up with 101 things that you want to do but also make sure those things will still be important and relevant in 1001 days. 

The first list I came up with was really silly, it had all kinds of crazy things on it like visit all 7 continents, drive K.I.T., jump out of a plane and use dynamite once in my life.  Pretty sure on the day I wrote that list I had just finished watching a James Bond marathon or something!  I decided to take a slightly more practical approach to this one this time around.  I did my best to pick 10 areas where I wanted to see change, I ended up with 11 but it works for me.

I pretty much focused on taking care of myself, bettering myself, taking care of my money, getting myself out of my comfort zone a little (jumping out of a plane stayed on the list), focusing on my health both mentally and physically, traveling plans, growing my creative side, having fun, education goals and a few other odds and ends. Some of my groupings overlap but only because some of my goals impact more than one aspect of my life. 

I won’t officially be starting this quest until April 1 (which is coincidentally my 1 year blogaversary!) but I have started to think about my approach to some of these most specifically the journal I would like to keep.  I am thinking it will be more like a scrapbook than a journal because some of my goals will definitely need souvenirs and pictures!

I didn't want to have to constantly post my updates so I started a whole new spot just for my list (you will be able to see it on April 1st), I also do not have it listed on the Day Zero website as I am trying to keep it simple. I made sure to list a few goals on there that I know I will not complete, not because I want to fail but because I want to have something I know I can start my next 1001 days with.

I'm wondering what your bucket list looks like and what you think about starting it sooner rather than later...

Thanks for stopping in!

~Leah 



Happy March!

Well, hello there March! So glad you are finally here! February was a rough month for me so I decided to start March off with something new.

I saw this as I was perusing through the blogs that I read on a regular basis and since I have way too many random fat quarters filling up my fabric drawers I decided I would give it a go.  I'm normally an embroidery-cross-stitch kind of girl but it was about time I pulled out my trusty old sewing machine.

I have had this fabric for I don't even know how long and I like it but I never really loved it so I figured it would be perfect for the little clutch that was part of See Kate Sew's Envelope Clutch-Along.

I hit a few snags, mostly because my interfacing was too heavy but overall I am happy with the way my clutch turned out.  It is bigger than I expected it to be but it fits my wallet so I am super happy about the size.  

Its a little hard to see but I ended up making a fabric covered button out of spare lining fabric because out of all of the buttons in my stash I couldn't fine one I loved.  The button stands out enough but blends at the same time!

Here is where I ask you to ignore my wonky corners and stitches!

I'd call this a great start to March!

Hope all is well on your end!

~Leah