Pinterest Strikes Back

Long time, no see! I definitely fell off of the blogging wagon about the time that I started getting ready to move. Now I am settled into my apartment in Charlottesville and getting ready for classes--it's amazing how time flies.

Part of moving always involves projects, right? Three projects in particular consumed a good portion of my time but in the end were totally worth it: a mail rack, a necklace organizer, and two picture frames.

The mail rack took up the largest amount of blood, sweat and tears. I found an old wooden floor vent at an indoor flea market in Jackson and it was in rough shape.

I mean, rough.

I sanded and sanded, and sanded some more, attempted to strip the paint off ("attempted" being the key word), and then sanded even more. I contemplating giving up on it, but decided that I had put too much time into it and that I should at least paint it and see how it looked. So I bought a sample size of "Safflower" and put two coats on this baby.

It's as bright as you would imagine. 

And that did it! I got some brass hooks and screwed them into some pre-existing holes that had probably been used to secure it to the floor, and I was finished!

Finished...

...and hung up in the foyer!

It's not ~perfectly smooth~ or anything, but I like it and it's definitely already had it's fair share of use as you can see. It's great for racking up my bills and Netflix and outgoing mail. Success!

The next project was my necklace organizer. Leigh had made her own with a few glass knobs and I'd always been a bit envious of her crafting skillz. I had been on the lookout for a piece of wood that could function as the backing, and, luckily for me, replacing a backyard fence yields a good amount of spare, hefty wood. I found a 2x4 that had an odd channel cut out of the back and picked the side that I wanted to use.

There is also some interesting bark detail along the top...I don't think this wood was suited for the fence, but it certainly makes the 2x4 interesting for an accent piece.

Next, I sanded it and used a richer, more intense stain because I knew that it was going to be hanging on a white wall. The bark area was delicate, so I just dabbed around it as carefully as I could and didn't wipe away the stain like I did everywhere else.

The darker the better, imho.

I got my knobs at anthropologie, but obviously any type of vintage, retro, modern, etc, knobs would work just fine. I also chose knobs that had a bit of a "neck" on them so that the necklaces would have a cradle to lie in.

random owl is random.

I worked with my mom, since the power tools are hers, and we spaced the knobs out across the wood, measuring from the outer edges of the shape of each knob, since they're all different sizes and five "even" spaces wouldn't exactly be even.

Finally, we used a dremel to cut off the backs of the long screws. This is where it came in handy that the wood I picked had that funky channel in the back. because of that, the piece can sit pretty much flush up against the wall.

Like so!

It's nice to be able to clear up some space inside my jewelry box, which had been overflowing up to this point. Success!

Finally, I repainted a set of frames that I picked up on an outing with Leigh and her mom. The pictures inside of George and Martha Washington are what I really wanted, so I decided to tape off the glass and give the frames some love.

The biggest mistake I made was trying to paint them outside on a muggy Mississippi afternoon. I also used a paintbrush at first, and even after two coats, the paint coagulated in streaks. Finally I got a roller and carefully rolled on a third coat, and that seemed to do the trick. Some paint got on the glass but I figure that I'll get them reframed at some point so I'm not too worried about it.  I used some mineral spirits to clean the worst of it up and packed them up into a box!

Final resting place.

I had thought to hang them in my office, over my desk or something, but I ended up hanging two pretty large prints up that my dad gave me, and my window-less galley kitchen needed some brightening up. Now Martha watches over my stove and George over my coffee. Success!

On a side note, HRH Skittles, Queen of the Mississippi and Marquess of Charlottesville, is settling in just beautifully:

Surveying her kingdom

If I have a green thumb, it's kelly green.

Hey, all! I'm sitting out on my patio, trying to get a bit of a tan in the afternoon sun. It's finally getting Mississippi-warm! I was running around today in nike shorts, sandals, and a swing tank and I had one of those "oh, wow, it's SUMMER" feelings. Aren't they the best?

I've been a busy little bee these days! Going to Virginia and visiting the University of Virginia Law campus has certainly given me the kick in the butt that I've needed. As I mentioned, my mom and I found an apartment and now I have a MASSIVE to-do list to complete before my move in August--mostly crafty things, of course!

Another reason I'm tanning is because I got a bee-ay-youtiful farmer's tan while doing gardening this past week that has to be evened out before I shrug on my strapless bridesmaid dress in May. Mom, Sid, and I have undertaken a sizable container garden in the back and it's coming along nicely:

BEHOLD.

In each of the window boxes, we have two strawberry plants and spinach seeds. The strawberries are coming along nicely, but the spinach will probably still be in hiding for another week or so. Herb-wise, we have sweet basil, rosemary, fernleaf dill (for my salmon, yummmmmmmmmmmm), and sweet mint--perfect for a tall glass of sweet tea. We also have a variety of tomato and pepper plants, some of which have carrot and mustard green seeds around them. The carrots are still hiding, too, but the mustard greens have put off their baby leaves already!

I can't wait to eeeeeaaaat youuuuuuu, you delicious bearers of vitamins and minerals!
I've had to give away some of this basil because it was getting a bit outta control.
I will not, however, give any of this red gold away. Nope, into my belly you all will go.
#naptime
Baby jalepeño peppers. They're Sid's babies and way too hot for me, but I have no problem fostering them for the time being.

Right now, I'm most excited about the mint and the strawberries, mostly because they're the ones producing. Even though I've planted the mustard greens, I don't know what they're actually going to taste like-same with the spinach, since it's not a "baby spinach" variety, which is what I'm used to eating. Still, I chose two leafy greens because I know that they are the type of food that I most need to incorporate into my diet. Apparently they're supposed to be more of a cold-weather plant, but....whatever. My mindset at this point is that I paid less than $3.00 for the spinach, carrot, and mustard greens seeds, so even if we only get a few meals out of them, we've still saved money. (Have you seen what fresh produce runs these days???? $4.00 for a pack of baby spinach!) I haven't even planted half of the packs, so I can take the seeds with me to Charlottesville and plant them on my balcony in the autumn. Win win situation, I'd say!

This is as refreshing as it looks.

I will be starting some crafty projects next, so those posts will be pic heavy, too! I hope you all have a great week!!!!

HRH Skittles thanks you for your time!

Ye Olde Cavalier Tyme

Warning: I may inadvertently come off as a total hipster during this post. Let me explain...while packing for my Admitted Students Day during the mother of all migraines, I forgot to pack my camera. I was planning on just using my iPhone, but Faison told me to try Instagram. So, I kind of just fiddled around as I took pictures...I like some a lot (like the cheese tray) and some are just kinda...eh.

Anywho.

The Fountain of Knowledge.

My mom flew into the Charlottesville Airport and I picked her up on the way to town on Thursday afternoon. We settled into our room at the Inn at Darden, which is an interesting little hotel right in between the Darden Business School and the Law Center. Both schools have long lawns that lead up to the respective main buildings, which I'm guessing mimic the famous Rotunda and Lawn on the Central Grounds that were designed by Thomas Jefferson. That night, we went out to the Local, which was phenomenal. Our server was really helpful with picking out what to eat, starting with Virginian red wine and a cheese tray of locally-produced and imported cheeses. Of course, I loved the gorgonzola (I like stinky cheeses, whatcanIsay?).

What about this looks like a bad idea?
(None of it.)

Friday was the actual Admitted Students' Day and it was ex.haust.ing. We were going from 7:45 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening and covered everything from student life to mock classes to alumni connections. It only confirmed that UVA has been the right choice and that I am super, super excited about starting there in the fall. Other than being amazingly helpful and open, they are equal parts bougie and funny:

"Here at Mr. Jefferson's university..."
"It's no secret that you all are extremely smart. You're intelligent, motivated, driven--we're all little snowflakes here."
"I mean, the General Counsel of Harvard is a UVA Law grad."
"It's nice to meet you--oh, I like your necklace!" (about my PBK key.)
"We all want to have sex, right?" (My professor in my mock law class, talking about why Lawrence v. TX is a great case to teach and study)
"Speak up. You might be right, you might be wrong, but at least be loud while talking."
"UVA has sent four counselors of International law to the US Department of State, including myself."
"The first thing you'll do at the Career Services Center is shake our hands. If you botch it, we'll make you do it again. Don't even try to offer your fingertips to me."

I left at 5:00, although there was one more event that I deemed optional, and met my mother, who is a saint and had done apartment searches for me while I was busy. On Saturday, we went to tour some apartments and settled on one!! I'm very excited about it and can't wait to move in. The vast majority of apartments had already filled up for the fall, so I was starting to panic. The community, University Heights, is about 1 mile from the Law School and will let me have Skittles AND Aryx when I decide to bring him up. The floor plan that I chose has an extra 'den' that is 7'x14' with a nice-sized window, so I'm going to turn that into my office area.

After the lease was signed and the security deposit paid, my mom and I had lunch at a burger joint on the Corner and then walked over to the Rotunda to take some pictures. The Rotunda and Ranges were the original "Academical Village" that Jefferson designed and where the first classes took place back in the early 19th Century. Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to enter applications to get one of fifty-four rooms on the Lawn, but obviously it's very competitive and more of a status symbol than a comfort issue (my mother and I were trying to figure out where the bathrooms are....). We also stumbled upon the serpentine walls, which are always very cool to look at. I had forgotten exactly where they were; they act as barriers for driveways that lead up to the backside of the Lawn Rooms.





So, as you'd expect, we were both very exhausted by this point in the trip. My mom's flight was scheduled to leave at 5:15 this morning (Sunday) so we knew that we'd have to be up at 3:00 AM. I was all set to make it a super early night, but NCIS was on and that sucked us in for a good hour or two.

Long story short: I had a phenomenal time in Charlottesville and feel like I'm going back home! Everybody was extremely active around campus and the city: running, biking, walking dogs, and playing pickup games of softball and lacrosse. I know it's turning out to the best decision I could have made!

Sometimes...

I haven't been posting lately basically because I feel like I don't have anything to blog about. I'm kind of in a low point right now, and it hasn't been pretty.

Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing with my life. Sometimes I wonder why I decided to live at home. It's not because of my mom or anything like that--I'm just feeling lonely these days. I miss my friends a lot and I wish that I had stayed in Oxford for the year instead of moving back to Jackson. All I do these days it seems is go to work and come home...work out at boot camp if it's a "work out" day.

And work hasn't been great. On the one hand, it's teaching me a lot about "The Real World" (the actual one, not the MTV show, haha). In The Real World, you get told off in front of everyone for something that you didn't really do, or didn't mean to do. In The Real World, you do a lot of work and have a lot of responsibility and don't get paid nearly enough for it. In The Real World, people are generally idiots, but you have to keep a smile on your face anyway. In The Real World, there is no such thing as "speaking freely," because I'm pretty sure I'd've lost my job this afternoon if I'd done so. On the other hand, I'm counting down the weeks (and paychecks) until I'm outta there. I'm ready to be back in school and back in my comfort zone.

So, yes, sometimes, I turn my headphones on at full volume, blasting "Turn Me On" and "Stronger" and "Get Outta My Way" and dancing around like it's my job. Sometimes, I fantasize about what I'll buy and where I'll vacation when I graduate from UVA Law and start making some real money. Sometimes, I come home from work and take a hot shower, crawl into bed, and open a sleeve of Thin Mints. It doesn't make anything much better, but at least it's comfy and tasty.

I'm ready for my two-week break. The day trips to Oxford have NOT been cutting it, and having everything out of sight and out of mind will be absolutely blissful. I'll get to visit UVA and get a glimpse of what Life After Newk's looks like, and I'll get to spend time with my family, and I'll get to sleep a LOT and work out at home while every one is at school/work. It's gonna be awesome. (#plzbbjesusmakethishappen)

Law School Updates

This happened last night:


Believe me, it wasn't completely staged; they were snuggling, and then when I went to go mess with Aryx's feet, he swung his leg over Skittles. Instant Kodak moment.

Skit is currently curled up between my knees in bed, recuperating from her annual and dental visit today. She was put under general anesthesia to have her teeth cleaned and scaled and then they gave her a pain injection afterwards, so she's been uncoordinated and stumbling around since I brought her home. Her eyes are all wonky, too: her third eyelids keep rolling over her eyes and her pupils are super dilated.

Needless to say, she is already plotting her revenge as she grooms herself.

I recently found out from the Senior Assistant Dean of Admissions at UVA Law that my seat deposit is the equivalent of saying "See you in August" for UVA, so it's official! I'm a Cavalier!!

[source]

I'm so excited and still completely freaked out at some points when I think about it too much. And when I start to ponder the types of jobs and the salary ranges that come with those jobs, I REALLY start to freak out. One of the harder things that I've been struggling with is the tuition and the living expenses. Law school is expensive, and so far I haven't gotten any scholarship offers from UVA, and I'm fine with that. It's a phenomenal school and I'll be able to pay off the loans over time. But at 23, thinking about $100K in loans is enough to cause heart palpitations, especially when I make only about $400 every two weeks at Newk's.

I'm starting to hear back from some of the other schools:

Accepted: College of William and Mary, Emory University, and the University of Minnesota. I've received significant scholarship offers from the latter two, but I'm still going with Virginia.

Denied: University of Texas at Austin, and that's STILL a sore spot. I mean, it was my dream school (UVA was my reach school and never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would get in), and I was so enthusiastic about the opportunities there AND my GPA/LSAT/experience were all in the school's ranges. I even explicitly stated in my personal statement that it was my number one choice for reasons X, Y, and Z, and they didn't even hold my application for the general application cycle. Ugh. UGH. UGH. /bitterforever.

Waitlisted: University of Notre Dame, Boston University. I've asked to be taked off the wait list for obvious reasons, but after being admitted to UVA, they surprise me. Maybe UVA was a fluke, and these wait lists and denials are the rule. Hmm. Can't dwell on that too much.

Still waiting (because I just wanna know. :D): University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Indiana University.

I guess the moral of this story, for anyone who wants to know, is to apply to a range of schools. UVA is ranked #9, and Emory U is ranked at #30; the others fall at varying intervals in between. I didn't allow myself to get too invested in a school, except Texas, because I know myself well enough to know that I would have gotten way too attached. If you need evidence of this, go back to the "Denied" section of this post, also known as the "Porter's beating that dead horse again" section. I basically did enough research to be able to explain in my personal statements why I chose to apply to each school without it sounding like I didn't just copy/paste the schools' names in. I think that looking too deeply into a school's website is a waste of time for back up schools and too much of a dream-creator for reach schools. I would look into clinics and concentrations that you're interested in, but not worry too much about specific courses.

So, now I'm preparing to move to Charlottesville. I cannot wait. I really wanted to go to UVA for undergrad and I can remember how beautiful the campus was. I've been trying to find an apartment that will allow me to have Aryx, but it's been really difficult. I love him so much, but...he's 75 pounds, and most places only allow cats and dogs UNDER 25 pounds. I've actually come to the conclusion that it would be best for both me and him if he stays in Jackson for my 1L. My dad has actually said that he's "worried" about me trying to schedule classes and study time around Aryx, and I know that it's not fair to him if he's going to be locked in a box for hours on end. I am determined to do well in school, now, and make sure I find an Aryx-friendly apartment there so that I can have him for my 2L and 3L.

Y'all, I don't know what I'm going to do without this handsome man in my life:






And yes, he does sleep like that sometimes. But, there is a silver lining in this dreary cloud:



That's right, HRH Skittles, Queen of the Mississippi, will for sure be joining me in next year and will add Marquess of Charlottesville to her peerage. In a way, I dread getting into JAG, because I'm sure we'll have to go to Norfolk for a few years and we'll have to figure out a title for her new range of territory. And if we go abroad? She'll be an Empress, then! Anyway, lest you be worried that I will no longer have ANY distractions from my work, Skit has that one covered:

Oh, I'm sorry, you were working on something??
(And yes, this was during #thesishell)
By the way, Skittles had her official portrait done last year when she arrived in Oxford. She wants me to share it with you, as she feels as though the light from behind gives her that ~ethereal glow~ required of all absolute monarchs:



She also decided on her official coat of arms the other night. She feels the lazers add a certain amount of gravitas.

As I get closer and closer to July/August, I get more and more excited! I'm so happy that Leigh is going to be in Nashville, and NOT still in Mississippi, so the distance won't be so bad. I'm anticipating Faison's visit when *fingers crossed* Peter is at OCS! And even though apartment hunting makes me question my life choices, I know that it will all work out in the end and I'll nab a phenomenal apartment ripe for decorating!

That's enough for tonight, it's time to watch some netflix and get ready for bed!

This post has been cosigned by,

This is a beast.

So...who was FLOORED by Adele's Grammy performance? Because I certainly was. I may have re-watched it today while no one was home. I may have jumped to my feet and begun clapping and singing along. But since no one was home, there will be no independent confirmation that such a thing occurred. (It totally did.)

And before I go any further, I just want to say that I ran across Ludovico Einaudi's music on Pandora and have officially become obsessed. He's a modern, minimalist pianist and his music is PERFECT for background and homework music (I'm listening to him right now). To illustrate, here is "Primavera," from his Divenire album, that you can conveniently play whilst reading this blog post! It's one of my favorites of his--slow and steady, but artfully building up to a resounding string solo. Ugh! Leaves me breathless! To up the bougieness factor, you may also brew a mug of tea and drink it with your pinky out!



I hope that you had a great Valentine's Day! I'm pretty ambivalent about this "holiday" in general, but I had a GREAT gift waiting for me that morning!

[source]
I had forgotten that I wanted the Lady and the Tramp for my birthday, since it had conveniently become available on February 7 (the auspicious date of my birth). I mentioned it offhand at dinner one night and ~*VOILA*~ it appeared on Valentine's day, courtesy of my one true Valentine, my mom! (Lolz.) I seriously love this movie, y'all. I'm all for the Lion King and the Fox and the Hound, but I need friends to watch those with and cry with. The stampede?? The BEAR? uh uh, no way. I'm not doing that on my lonesome. But Lady and the Tramp is perfect for solo viewing on a lazy afternoon!

Also, this is flaw-free scene; Peg is such a diva and I love her for it:



I also got a beautiful bouquet of tulips from my dad via ProFlowers. They came in a box and I followed the instructions to the T. Thank goodness I read them, too, otherwise I would have completely removed the plastic sleeve. But apparently tulips need that support to stay vertical while they drink up the water. A little box of chocolates also came with the flowers and I wanted to take a picture, but half of the chocolates in the box suspiciously disappeared.............into my belly.


Sometimes....I can't stand how amazing my dog is. I was trying to get him to pose cute with the flowers, but then he SNIFFED them and all I could do was contain my squeals until after I finished clicking the shutter a few times. Then he got a huge hug and a "what a GOOD boy you are!"

Look at him. He's so confused. It's like he's picking his girlfriend up for the homecoming dance and doesn't know what to say.
"Hi. I got these flowers. I think they're pretty. Like your dress. You look pretty. Like these flowers."


Totally squeal-worthy, right?

So yeah, Valentine's Day was pretty much a non-event, other than the fact that at 23 years old, my parents are the ones sending gifts to me. At least I was working on VDay; I've started training on the sandwich line, and I finished training on the salad line last week. I like salads a lot more than sandwiches right now--maybe by tomorrow night it'll even out for me. I just feel so slow, still! But at least my trainer told the manager that I'm "better than the managers-in-training that I have to train." So that makes me feel better! Next week, I train on the pizza line, and after that, expo, which is basically the person that pulls the orders together and gets them ready to send out. It's a step up from just being a counter server, and there'd better be a raise in the deal!

Backtracking a bit, my birthday in Oxford was a BLAST! Thanks so much to Faison for letting me stay at her house and getting this AWESOME cake for me from Emileigh's!


A bunch of people came out to dinner at Snackbar, Leigh included, and I had so much fun seeing everybody, even if I was ready for bed at 11:30 PM! (This whole working and being an adult thing is tiring!) In all seriousness, I have been truly blessed with phenomenal friends that I love spending time with. Without getting too deep for a blog post, every now and then I think back to high school and the first few years of college and realize how unhappy I was, and I recognize how that manifested itself in my friendships. Now that I've embraced what an utter nerd/fool/diva/HBIC/weirdo I am, I'm much more happy, and my friendships are a lot more genuine (and filled with cat macros). So, if you're reading this, thanks for being a friend! I really appreciate your presence in my life and I hope that I add some positivity/sassiness to your own!

Okay, serious part of the post is over! Now onto some fitness stuff! I've been doing the bootcamp with Mr. Andy for about three weeks now and I am loving it. It takes place at a field and so everything is body-weight based. Lots of push ups, lots of squats, lots of fire hydrants. My arms have already become more toned, and since squats barely even faze me now, I would say that my legs and butt have gotten stronger, too. Today we started at one end, did 20 push ups, ran to the middle, did 10 squats, ran to the other end and did 20 sit ups...then ran back to the middle, did 10 more squats, ran back to the beginning and did 19 push ups...10 squats, 19 sit ups, 10 squats, 18 push ups, 10 squats, 18 sit ups, and so on. I got all the way down to 12 before we stopped! That means that today, I did:

144 push ups
170 squats
144 sit ups
Wowza. I love it though. I love the smirky feeling that I get deep inside when the men at work rush to help me pick something up, and I've already gotten it off the shelf and started carrying it away before they've taken five steps. I love being the one that gets called to cut a cake because I actually do enough resistance training to cut through a frozen three-layer cake on the first try. I love being able to carry trays and not feel like I'm going to drop food all over the floor. I love the soreness in my muscles because it means that I'm just making them stronger. I've started counting grams of protein before I even look at the calories!

I still do some NTC work outs though, because body weight exercises without dumbbells is limited. I did the Arm Sculptor work out yesterday with 8lb dumbbells and was dripping sweat 5 minutes in. But I just think about how awesome I'm going to look in my bridesmaid dress for Faison's wedding and how I'm going to be so fit for Charlottesville and that's all the motivation that I need. I encourage everyone to get moving and be healthy! You're only one workout away from a good mood! After all, exercise gives you endorphins; endorphins make you happy! And happy people just don't shoot their husbands.

Elle Woods thanks you for your time!
[source]

A Crafty Christmas!

I've been meaning to write this post since Christmas, but the fact that I haven't quite finished and delivered Faison's gift yet had slowed it down. I finally decided to just write it and save Faison's gift for another post. Problem solved!

Everybody knows that I peruse two pages on Pinterest more frequently than my own email account: Fitness (for motivation) and DIY & Crafts (also for motivation, albeit of a different type). I decided around Thanksgiving last year that I wanted to be super crafty this year and MAKE gifts for some people. And I did! And I loved it. I am consistently blown away by the creativity of some people on Pinterest--or at least the people whose work gets pinned on Pinterest. I haven't quite reached that plane of thinking, but I'm not ashamed to say that I ride on their coattails with moderate style.

Leigh is obsessed with owls. Don't let the AOPI letters fool you--she's an owl girl through and through. So I had been thinking that I would make her an owl ornament or something like that, but then I saw the most amazing gift idea ever:

[source]

I had no choice. The internet had spoken. I got all the at Hobby Lobby and set to work. Overall, it was a very easy pattern. Only the zigzag stitches around the eyes gave me a problem, and that had more to do with the fact that I was trying to stitch around very tiny pieces of fabric than anything else. Here is my own process:

All pinned up...

Halfway point...

Finished!

I gave it to Leigh a bit before Christmas and she loved it! (or so she told me....it could be stuffed in her closet for all I know, only to emerge when I come to visit.) I actually really recommend this project to anyone who is interested in it. I know that it's ~for the children~ but it's the perfect size and design for a travel pillow. I will say that I used a relatively higher-end fill called Cluster Stuff and I believe that it made all the difference in the world in the "pillow quality," if you will. I've used cheap poly fill in other projects and I can honestly say that I'm glad I didn't in this project. I really want to make my own soon!

What I have learned from this project:
+Sewing for other people is scientifically associated with stress and an elevated heart rate.
+Chenille is so frakking hard to work with and it sheds like none other.
+Zig zag stitch + rounded edges = cussing. Lots of it.
+When in doubt, keep stuffing in that fill. There's always more space.

My other big project was a laptop sleeve for my stepsister, Audrey. I used the Cottage Mama's beautiful tutorial for my pattern:

[Source]

The theory is simple, and so is the practice. Here's the problem: I have the same laptop size and protective case as Audrey, and when I tested the fit of the finished product on my own laptop..............it didn't fit. I think the fleece didn't want to slide against that textured plastic like it was supposed to. When I popped the case off, it fit like a dream + a bit of breathing room, and I will go to my grave swearing that I measured correctly. On the upside, my mom has a smaller netbook, and the sleeve fit hers perfectly. I recut the pattern and did it over again, and the second case worked and ended up under the tree for Audrey! I wish that I had been better about taking pictures for that one, but the stress overcame me so I only have this picture from my iPhone:



Even though the Cottage Mama's pattern calls for a cotton exterior, the cotton fabric selection at Hobby Lobby felt flimsy between my fingers. So, for the durability factor, I used a printed duck and stayed with the fleece on the inside. Instead of fabric covered buttons like the Cottage Mama used on her own, I used some plain wooden ones, which actually ended up looking really nice against the light greens in the fabric. I want to make one for my own laptop, but I'm going to be vigilant about the sizing this time. This tutorial is actually wonderful in that it's based off of measurements instead of a shape, so the pattern can be adapted for a larger or smaller laptop, a kindle/nook, an iPad, etc.

What I've learned from this project:
+Fleece and sewing machines don't get along.
+Top stitching is not my strong point.
+Neither is sewing in a straight line, apparently.
+For the above reasons, have a seam ripper and reading glasses handy.
+I really do love sewing. You can make some cute stuff! Just don't look too closely at the seams, y'all.

Faison's present is so close to completion and I am swearing on a stack of bibles that it will be hand delivered to her this weekend. I also have a few other projects on the back burner and I'll just have to remember to take pictures so that I can have detailed posts! I love doing these crafty things, especially when it involves paint or stains and hardware of some kind. My grandfather built houses for a living, so I think that it's in my genetic makeup to want to, you know, make things.

I hope that y'all's weeks are looking like they're going to wind down on a positive note...happy Wednesday!