Finished!

The long Thanksgiving weekend was much needed and much appreciated in my house. We spent time with family, cleaned A LOT, and finished a few old projects. You can categorize the white afghan from the "Work in Progress" to the "finished" section from now on!

Happy Monday! It's chilly here. Glad I have a warm blanket to snuggle under:)

Rachel May

Payday!

It's Friday already? No complaints, but this week just flew by! Today is also payday for me and let me tell ya, life just seems to get easier on payday. Not a care in the world, money in the bank and a smile on my face!

Until tomorrow, when I start paying all my bills....eep! Then it's like magic. POOF! It's gone. I'll enjoy it while it lasts:)

Have a Happy weekend! I will be catching up on blog reading, doing some projects around the house and buying furniture off craigslist. Fun!

Rachel May

5 Years

Yesterday, Boyfriend and I celebrated 5 years together. It's such a feat for us, and I'm excited for everything still ahead.

I remember when we had almost made it to our 3 year anniversary, and I was so scared. Scared because I've never been in a relationship longer than 2 years, and I didn't know how it was when you were with someone that long. One of my friends, who's been married since she was 18(to her highschool sweetheart no less), told me "the best part about being with someone for the long term is that you always love them, but your love grows deeper for them. You appreciate different things."

I'll always remember that, and I feel it too. It's nice to have our routines (and we both admit to liking that), and it's fun to know so much about someone that you *think* you know how they would like this or that, or how they would respond, but the best part, to me, is having that person that makes you feel safe and loved, no matter what. And I'm so grateful for that.

Rachel May

Tuesday Quilting Progress!

Like I said before, Tuesdays are for quilting. I feel so productive! I made progress on the Picnic Time Quilt that I started SO long ago, and finished the top to my new quilt-the Sherbert Quilt is what I'm calling it.

If I can finish it in time, the Picnic Time Quilt will be a Christmas gift. It's one of my goals, but it's a big undertaking, so we'll have to see what happens.

Once the last few rows are sewed on to the Picnic Time Quilt, I need to make a quilt sandwich and start quilting everything together. I think I'm going to go the easy route and sew strands of embroidery floss in the corners and tie it together. We will see though.

Have you been doing any sewing lately?

Rachel May

Happy Monday!

I was prepared to write you a post today about lists, getting things accomplished, etc etc...but alas, I woke up late and I have no pictures to share, so it will have to wait.

My weekend was filled with sewing, home projects, friends and good times. It's hard to start the week when you've had such a great weekend that you don't want it to end.

I'll share more about the projects I'm working on later, but the friends part-oh, was it fun! I had purchased groupons for Boyfriend for his birthday so he and five friends could go paintballing for free. It was a great deal when I bought it, and I thought he'd have fun with his friends.

He decided to go yesterday, but one of his friends couldn't make it, so I was the alternate. I'm not going to lie, I was scared out of my mind and kind of excited-I went back and forth. But it was a BLAST! Most of the times I got shot, it didn't hurt (thank you, puffy vest!), but I did get shot on my knuckle and my thigh, and I have some pretty gruesome welts to go with it.

It was totally worth it.

I think Boyfriend and I should plan more group outings like that. It's so hard to connect with your friends after college, it's nice to have an excuse to get together. We were thinking maybe some mini golf, camping, snowboarding....we shall see, though. Right now, all he can think about is buying another paintball gun:)

Happy Monday to you! How was your weekend?

Rachel May

Weekend Sewing on a weekday

I was in sewing mode last night. Have you ever checked out Weekend Sewing? If not, check it out here.
Last night, I made the Sunday-Dinner Hostess Apron. It was pretty quick and simple to complete. At first, my living room looked like a pattern storm went through it, but once the pattern was traced and the fabric was cut, the sewing part was pretty quick.

I used a "vintage" (aka: from Goodwill) pillowcase for the body of the apron and some scrap fabric for the waistband.

I would have had a live model for these photos, but they were taken at 11 at night and orange isn't Boyfriend's color.

Along with the thought to Pledge Handmade, I was thinking this might be Christmas Gift #1. I have some fabric napkins that go with it well. A nice pairing as-is, but we also have some raspberry jam in the pantry that I made this year, so that will probably go with it also.

They look so happy together. And I'm happy to get some progress done on handmade gifts! If I keep this up, handmade Christmas gifts are going to be aplenty this year!

Rachel May

TOMS

A little while ago, I gave in and purchased a pair of TOMS for myself. I have wanted them for so long, but couldn't bear to spend the money.

But then I thought, "aww, heck with it" and bought them. And I couldn't be happier with them.

If you aren't familiar with TOMS or the TOMS story, you should checkout their website here. Basically, it's a One for One system. For every pair of shoes you buy, they donate a pair to a child in need. It's a great feeling to know that you get something with your purchase, and you help someone as well.

I may or may not have said to my boyfriend "These aren't for ME, they're for the children!"

Rachel May

Tuesdays are for Quilting

On Tuesdays, my friend Jody and I quilt, eat dinner, gossip and drink beer. It makes for a nice pause in a busy week for me, with staff meetings being on Tuesday mornings and them being the longest of my day of each week.

Jody is learning how to sew, so our ongoing joke is that we make drink more than quilt, but we've actually gotten quite a bit done since we started. We're using 8 inch squares and just doing a normal patchwork square quilt-easy peasy to start.

I've finished my quilt top last night (or rather, I've run out of fabric AGAIN), but It's really long and narrow, so I think I'm going to add a long row to the side to make it wider (so not quite done, I suppose).

Work has been stressful this week as we look for a new assistant, but I've been looking forward to Tuesday nights and our quilting.

Rachel May

Are you pledging handmade?

I have to write this super fast or I'll be late for work, but I wanted to ask:
Have you ever heard of Pledge Handmade? Here's an article about it. I'm thinking about pledging handmade this year.

The only problem? Well, there's two: Time, or lack thereof (isn't this always a problem?) and what to make? I have some things figured out, so once I complete them I'll share them with you.

What are you giving for gifts this year?

Off to work!

Rachel May

Start Something That Matters.

Source: amazon.com via Rachel May on Pinterest

I've been reading this book and it's excellent. I'm a huge fan of TOMS shoes and everything the company stands for. Such a great mission and business ideal. I think this was the push I needed for motivating me to develop businesses that matter not just to me, but to others. It's an eye-opening read.

Rachel May

Remember this when you're having a bad day:

Source: traceysthoughts.tumblr.com via Rachel May on Pinterest

Impressive Girls

For the past two week and a half, I was hanging out with this girl. Now that she's gone back home, I'm trying to get back into my routines here.

I find it's always nice to talk with friends about everything-with life and work. I get so much motivation, inspiration and feedback when I do. While SkyleRae was in town, we had a few business meetings to discuss where we want to take our businesses and what we need to do to get there. I also have fun talking with this girl about those things too.

I don't know if it's November or the changing weather or the talks lately, but I feel very thankful for the friends that I have. I don't know what I would do without you all, but I'm grateful to have you in my life.

Through a friend, I joined the Denver Handmade Alliance, and at one of our events, I met this girl. I find her totally inspiring, and I feel exactly how she does in this post right now. I really need to find focus, delegate, and create systems. But most importantly, I really need to DO SOMETHING. So I'm blogging:)

On the business note, I watched a really great video regarding business planning today here. I like her approach: How much money do I want my business to make? How can I get there? Short and sweet. As much as you don't want a business that's all about the money, you can't have much of a business without it. It seems to be the subject no one wants to talk about. So I thought this was interesting. And you can enter to win a calendar too, so double points.

Rachel May