a new dress...

i decided to save money and make a dress to wear to caleb's graduation ceremony in december and then of course my own the next weekend. i found this pattern last night and it only cost me $1!! thank you hancock fabrics for your wonderful sales!

here is a picture of the front of the pattern:
it is simplicity pattern #3529. i am making the dress on the right. the one in blue and brown. the fabric i chose was black and white for the main part of the dress with a white patterned fabric for the ruffles on the sleeves and front. i also picked up some black buttons. i will put up some pics of the fabric soon. i am going to make the dress after i take my next section of the cpa exam on nov 22nd. it will be a lot of fun after all of that studying!!

image courtesy of simplicity.com

i finally finished a project!!

even though the koolhaas hat was only started recently for my brother, at least i finally finished something!! i feel like i have been starting lots of projects but not finishing anything...(i am holding on for that wave of completed projects, but i have yet to see it come)

here are some pics of the newly completed hat on my lovely model. caleb was so kind to pose for me! hopefully, it will be mailed to the intended recipient soon!

love you all! enjoy the photos!

the back and top...


side view...


front...


he is so camera shy...


laying flat...


pattern: koolhaas by jared flood
yarn: berroco jasper, colorway: marron brown, 2 skeins
needles: us 6 circular, us 8 circular, us 8 double pointed needles
Raveled

the hat came out great. the pattern does not show up very well in the pictures because of the varigrated yarn. it looks much more fabulous in person!

p.s. - i really need a better camera!

summertime summary...

i started this post two months ago but never finished it. i finally wrapped it up and added some pictures so that you could have an idea of what our summer was like!! enjoy!

caleb was in houston for almost two months this summer working on an internship at conroe regional hospital!! he worked in the cardiac rehab facility working with patients who had just had a heart attack, a pace maker put in, or a bypass, etc. home missed him very much while he was gone.

i was very bored and lonely while he was away but surprisingly had plenty to keep me busy. here is a list of things i accomplished while he was away.

1. i managed to mow the front lawn once. it looked fantastic and so clean. too bad it still doesn't look like that. the recent rains have turned it into a jungle again.

2. i finished the blanket for my sister-in-law. this was a housewarming / merry christmas 2007 gift. it's a little late but well worth it. here are some pictures of the finished product and of our little one, puma helping me during the process.

3. i spring cleaned the house. it looks great. in fact, i don't think that it has looked this good in all the time that we have lived here. i guess we have finally moved in! :) (there would have been a slide show, but i forgot to take pictures before it got messy again!)

4. i did a little painting. i have the ideas of how i want to finish them; i just have not had the time. someday soon.

5. i finally made these great pillows for our bed. i have this fabric since we bought our bed ages ago. none of them are the same size, but hey i made them! (and the stripes line up, so that is good enough for me! soon i will invest in a rotary cutter and that should help with the size. next time i will also cut out a pattern and will not cut pillows again without one!!)

6. i took the audit portion of the cpa exam. i failed with a 67...you need a 75 to pass. like i said before in an earlier post, i am not too disappointed because of the circumstances while trying to study for the test.

7. i took the bec portion of the cpa exam. i failed that portion with a 67...i think i have the curse of the 67...nah, i just need to study more!! i won't fail again. i have a lot more time to study for the exam now that grad school is over!!!

8. i completed grad school and now have my masters in accounting!!!! YAY for no more school!!

i hope that you enjoyed this brief look into our summer...hopefully i will do a better job of updating this thing from here on out...no promises though!!

summer reading at last...

ok, so this is really a review of what i read this summer, since my summer only has a couple more days!!

over her dead body by kate white
this was a fun little read. i bought it for around $2 online at barnes and noble. i saw the price and thought "why not?" it had some fun characters and a lot of suspense. i stayed up late many nights to try and see "who done it." i would recommend this book if you are looking for something to simply entertain and not to challenge...that is if you do not feel like sitting in front of the tv.


prince caspian: the return to narnia by c.s. lewis
i wanted to re-read this childhood book before i went to see the movie, which i still have not done...maybe when it comes to netflix? in general this book is an amazing children's story. it made me want to go back and re-read the whole series!! there was so much that i had forgotten. the narnia series are by far my favorite lewis books...i am not much of a fan of his others, except for maybe mere christianity.


currently reading: the next thing on my list by jill smolinski
this is a book that i am reading with my mom. it is a fun little story about a woman who is completing the "20 things to do before i turn 25" list of a young woman whom she killed in a car accident. it has been a good story so far, and i will let you know what i think of it when we are finished.

i know that i pretty much read a lot of nothing this summer...at least nothing that changed my life...maybe this fall. i will need some good books to keep me sane while i study for the cpa exam!!

here is my possible list for the fall...

the thorn birds by colleen mccullough


a farewell to arms by ernest hemingway


all the king's men by robert penn warren


babbitt by sinclair lewis


the ground beneath her feet by salman rushdie


all images courtesy of amazon.com

newly completed project...

i decided that i needed some rest and relaxation from all of the tax returns, school and such this weekend. i finished this cute little penguin for my friend lori's daughter. i hope that he makes a good friend!

if you like to crochet as well, you can find the pattern here.

gardening adventures...

well, i did some gardening this weekend. i couldn't believe how beautiful it was outside!! i even got a little sunburned on one arm as the picture shows. i planted all of my seeds in jiffy starters until they sprout and are ready to take outside after the last freeze (whenever that might be...such crazy weather this year!). i planted three types of flowers (red nasturtium, orange cosmos, and chinese forget-me-not) which will go into pots on the front porch when they are ready. i planted bluebonnets in a hanging basket...i will miss the spring wildflowers in east texas this year. and last but not least, i planted my vegetable (tomato, jalapeno, squash, zucchini, and bell pepper) and herb (thyme, mint, parsley, cilantro, dill, rosemary, sage, and basil) seeds in jiffy mini-greenhouses until they are ready to be transplanted to pots.

i am having to put everything into pots for now until we can get settled somewhere permanent, and then i will have a full vegetable patch and flower garden. i can't wait! i will post more pictures when my flowers start to bloom. i can't wait!! i hope that i don't kill them!!!

Night by Elie Wiesel

Now that it is February, I thought it was about time to discuss the book that I read in January...I guess that is just how it goes sometimes.

I read Night by Elie Wiesel for my first book of 2008. Note to my readers: DO NOT try and read this book while you are in public places or you will look really ridiculous while trying not to cry. I don't know what I was thinking, but I read this book in the airport on my way back from Tulsa.

I know that this is not exactly a new book and that it has been on a lot of highly recommended lists for quite a while now, but sometimes I am slow to these books, especially when Oprah chooses them for her book club.

This is a "memoir" of one man's experience in concentration camps during World War II. This is not the first time that I have read something regarding this topic, but it is most definitely the most life changing.

I believe as we grow and gain more life experience, there are certain things like hate, freedom, and human life that take on a greater value to us, or at least I would like to believe this. When I was younger, the holocaust was a historical event. They were not "real" people, and it did not other effect me other than having to know facts for a test. Now freedom is so precious and so expensive to me. Hate is ugly and something terrible beyond words.

I will not talk about the plot of this book. It is a short read, so you should all go and read a copy.

There are several themes from the novel that I desperately want to touch on, but I am not ready just yet. They are too personal, and I am not quite sure how to express myself. Maybe soon. I promise that one day I will be ready. Maybe I need to re-read, digest some more, and them attempt again.

I will leave you with this quote from the introduction.

"For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."

Until next time...

image courtesy of amazon.com

the funniest video i have ever seen...

i was bored tonight and reading people's blog who i don't know...yes, i am one of those people.

anyway, this has got to be one of the funniest things i have ever seen. it is this french singer, who seems very weird al yankovic-ish. the song is called "Parle a Ma Main," which from the blog means something like "Talk to the Hand."

this vidoe is one of the many reasons why i LOVE the french!!



video courtesy of youtube