lovey dovey

I just love this song, especially Live. Such powerful words.

Happy Thursday!

Birthday Celebrations!

I celebrated my quarter of a century birthday on Valentines day and it was a great one! We did a couple of things...

We went to skiing with friends and family to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia (where I got sick with a fever...but still managed to enjoy myself!):

(Sorry all these pics were taken from my phone)

We celebrated Valentines day and the kids brought me some delicious goodies and flowers for my b-day!

Carlos' family gave me a very thoughtful surprise party full of hearts and teddy bears and candy- they even made everything gluten free and gave me a basket full of yummy gluten free items!

And last but definitely not least, I received a gorgeous handmade card from my great friend who moved to France over a year ago. She's such a beautiful writer and I miss her so much. Her card made me cry tears of joy! Thank you Magali! 

a little sewing update

I have a lot to catch up on, but first....

I took the sewing lesson with Marie Cordella and it was so inspiring! When I arrived, she was working on a dress for the Charleston Fashion Show, where she is 1 of 16 finalists! I was able to see the dresses and they were gorgeous! I really hope she wins!! She was also so happy and spunky and I love being around people like that partly because I'm usually the happy and spunky one. I received a lot of information from her, to me, her advice was just one of a kind and valuable because she is a professional, she is knowledgeable, and is so great at what she does. Anyway, she showed me how to make a shirt I was a little scared of stabbing myself so I was extremely careful and slow, I'll have to learn how to speed it up. My homework was to finish it, I'll show the finished product as soon as I finish.

I also found this GORGEOUS Vintage 1964 Singer Sewing Machine and Sewing table & Chair. I made a little corner in my house to put it in and plan to paint the table and re-upholster the chair. The Singer works great and I think I actually like sewing with it better. 

I was originally thinking of painting the table torquoise but since the sewing machine is blue I didn't want it to clash...any color ideas? 

Sew Happy!

I was looking for private sewing lessons and turned to craigslist. It turns out there were only two listings for my search and one of them was from Marie Cordella. I have been a fan of Marie Cordella for a while now and I have even seen her designs in two fashion shows here in Raleigh and in Artspace. I was so excited to see that she was interested in giving lessons so I immediately emailed her in hopes she could could teach me everything!

I love her funky style and amazing dresses!

I start lessons with her next week and I'm so excited!!

Here are some of her designs:

These are MY personal pictures from one of the fashions shows

if you want to see more click Marie Cordella

<3

A Pamela's kind of day

I love my job and place of work but I had a little bit more than the usual physical and emotional demanding day at work. Instead of going into detail and boring you all,  I decided to tell you about the upside of my day. I made some delicious gluten free brownies by Pamela's, my fav!

This has nothing to do with the frustrating part of my day but I wanted to see if you had any input on the following:
We have been given the option to work during the summer. I just have to come up with a theme/topic for my "summer camp" for children ages 4 & 5. My camp is only going to be for one to two weeks only. I would really like to do a kind of eco friendly-handmade-craft-camp. I want the kids to able to make more than the "usual" craft stuff (i.e. using popsicles to make a frame or house) I want it to be a little more elaborate than that! There's a great store called "The Scrap Exchange" that I feel I could get a lot of great things to use in the camp, everything in the store has been recycled and is reusable. I've got a few ideas of my own about how to get the children involved with recycling and some craft ideas. I'm actually really excited about this idea!! I would love your suggestions with:

-A catchy name for the camp
-Any ideas/crafts you think the children would benefit from

Thanks!!