change is good

i changed my blog header 3 or 4 times today. i discovered some editing tools through flikr that are exciting because they do a lot more than anything i have and it's free. i also discovered that the MB limit for photos on flikr is per month (for free), not forever, so i will start using it more. sweet!

baby quilt (summer project #1)

my friend from high school, melissa, has a blog where she showcases her amazing talents in knitting and sewing. though i have yet to be inspired to knit (i've crocheted, and i suck!) i was inspired to quilt! my mom taught me how to sew in high school. i don't sew very much (read: at all), but i do have my mom's hand-me-down sewing machine, which is in great shape. i asked for quilting how-to books and a couple of pattern books for my birthday. with my track record of unfulfilled aspirations ("i'll do that project this summer, when i'm off work" are my famous last words), some were dubious that a quilt would actually be produced! i decided to start small, which coincided nicely with the facts that baby quilts are so cute and i have babies a-plenty in my life. jo-ann's fabric selection (or lack thereof) limited my options to a girl quilt. it took about 5 days, all told, but they were looong days...it was complete at the time i wanted to give it to my cousin amy, who was visiting from washington state for my grandma's birthday. i threw it in the wash, but for some reason, it was sopping wet, even after multiple spin cycles, and it was still wet when it was time to visit the relatives. so i didn't give it to her before she left for washington, and i decided to add the personalized embroidered patch. i mailed it off yesterday, so baby bella should get her quilt on monday!!

i am pretty proud of myself, though i can see multiple mistakes! it's funny now they just keep piling up until some of the last tasks are almost impossible! and i didn't have all of the proper equipment (mat,rotary cutter, etc.), making myself resist those pricey temptations until i proved to myself that i would actually use them!

what i learned:

• don't try to alter the pattern when you don't know what you're doing! (i added the chenille fabric, which was not only hard to sew, but led to the mistakes in the pattern layout)
• don't try to combine techniques from two different books!
• take a bath with epsom salts after being hunched over the sewing machine for hours.
• intrusive kitties respond to the dog whisperer's "shhhht" sound when "shoo, kitty" doesn't work.

prized possession

have you seen this commercial? i heard jake giggling while watching tv yesterday, so i asked what was so funny and he re-enacted the commercial for me (which was funny in itself). then we remembered we have a dvr, so we rewound it and i laughed out loud...especially the dream sequence. i think whoever wrote this commercial deserves a raise! too cute!

jake and i have found that movies, stories, books, etc. with dogs are more funny/moving/meaningful now that we have brophy. i had forgotten that dogs bury their bones, or maybe i thought it was just something that dogs in cartoons did (lady and the tramp, right?) until brophy got a rawhide bone for a present, and spent the weekend burying and reburying it in my in-laws' yard. he cracks us up!

check it out

i made this photo of brophy look like an antique at this website . nifty, huh?

ok. here i go.

so, now www.jellyandkake.com works. sweet. you probably get that jellyandkake is just our names with the first letters switched (if you didn't get it, don't feel bad. i could share many instances of me not getting stuff to make you feel really smart.) our "celebrity nickname" if you will, though i couldn't decide whether jelly or kake was more fun. turns out, they're the most fun together. so jelly and kake it is (it beat out jellyandcake by a margin of 3 to 1.)

so, i have tons of projects i'm working on around here, and more on deck. it'll be a while before i get them up here, but not 6 months, like the time i waited between posts recently. hey, blogs are WORK, and i tend to prefer NOT working.

back to my project (#3 of the summer). when it's complete, i promise to post pictures, in all its glory.

i have identity crises on a regular basis

i made a permanent home at www.jellyandkake.com

but don't try it yet, because it suddenly stopped working!

promises to update more frequently!