A fresh start

For both this blog and my sewing room. I revamped the way this blog looks so it's not so...dreary. And you should be able to use RSS feeds to follow me now. If it doesn't work, let me know!

At my parents' house I was stuck sewing wherever there was space...so either my bedroom, the living room, or the sunroom. Here in GA, I have an entire room for sewing, thanks to my hubby! :)

Since the rotary cutter accident a little while ago, I've taken a break from cutting and piecing new projects to focus on some other stuff. Namely, rearranging the room so that I can navigate it easier, and cleaning up my fabric stash so it's not so wrinkly (amazing how stuff gets smooshed when you move!) and is easier to peruse. I think my next project will be making a cushion for my chair, it's hurting my butt! haha.

I took some pictures with my phone along the way. May as well upload them! We rent our house currently, so there's not much I can do with the boring walls or gross carpeting (I HATE carpeting). I still have some pictures I want to hang...I just need to find cheapish frames to fit them. :p

This is a shot of my finger now that the cut has mostly healed. I have to wear a bandaid when we go out, or else it looks silly that I have every nail except that one painted. Plus it snags on stuff sometimes. Owies. :( ROTARY CUTTERS ARE SHARP YOU GUYS. No joke.

When I'm in here during the day, Simon enjoys sitting at the window and watching the world go by. He cries when the kids next door are out playing basketball. Today he's enjoying the nice breeze by sticking his nose against the screen and sniffing away. :)

Here's my very first sewing machine, thanks to Ax! It was a christmas present, along with the table it sits on. I had to make a point of mentioning that I would need a table to put the sewing machine on, or sewing on it would be very difficult. Anyway, it's a Brother CS-6000i. So far so good! It's a happy little machine. I should name it. Hmm.

This is a different angle of the table--if you came into the room this is how you'd see it. That's a giant pile of scrap fabric I ironed last night. Now it's in a shoebox! Anyway, that's the chair that is hurting my toosh. And next to it is a 3-drawer cart. The top drawer is "in progress" stuff--I actually have some squares cut from when I was in college that I think I'm going to do something with...sometime. Yeah. Sometime. Second drawer is the "fat quarter" drawer. Some of the medium scraps are also folded and put in there. The bottom drawer has my scrap shoebox, paper for doodles or notes, and a roll of tape. Strangely, I've used scotch tape before during quilting. ha!

My meager fabric stash...although it's much neater now than it was! The mess in that corner is gone; I shoved our file cabinet over there and another 3-drawer cart filled with other craft supplies. There's two more shelves to the wooden structure as well, but they're mostly knickknacks and the like. 

This was Simon last night during my ironing, chewing on his bone. He does that once in a while...he'll go from hanging on the couch with Ax to coming in here and chewing on one of his toys. Then he'll wander back to Ax, and back to me, etc. It's kinda cute, like he's trying to split his time with us. haha.

Some of the "not quite fat quarter" pieces I was talking about. And three real-rabbit-fur pelts that Matt had, which I have NO idea what to do with. The small box on the table holds all my Christmas fabric. Which is a surprising amount, since I don't even like the holiday that much. 

And the scrap pile after ironing. Ah. So much nice pressed fabric. The bottom-most layers were still warm this morning when I went to put them away. Probably because they were sitting on the rabbit fur. Mmm, warm fabric. :D

Well, I think that's it for now. I have some trash to take out, a dishwasher to unload, a bed to strip of its sheets to be washed, and a dog to take for a walk. 

Deployments and owies.

I think this upcoming deployment is starting to get me anxious. I lack motivation, just want to sleep, my heart acts up (I have a heart condition), etc. I'm not so much stressed about Ax actually being gone. More stressed about thinking about everything that could go wrong while he's gone. Which is strange because I have POA and can get stuff done on his behalf. So idk.

It doesn't help that I seriously sliced my finger on a rotary cutter over the weekend. No stitches, thankfully. I was cutting some backing fabric for a stupid little project (ugliest doll quilt I could come up with...LOL) when the cutter jumped and sliced my middle finger. I felt the cut and calmly walked to the bathroom with my palm cupping underneath my middle finger. All I said was "well, that's not good" and Ax was up and running to me with the first aid kit. Strangely, the sight of my own blood made me puke. Blood and gore -- mine or anyone else's -- generally doesn't bother me. We just assume that I scared myself sick. Ax was understandably concerned about how I would have handled that if I was home alone. I probably could have taken care of it without much difficulty. And if I couldn't have gotten the bleeding to stop, I would have gone next door and asked for a ride to an urgent care or ER. The neighbors kinda look out for us since we're new here; I'm sure they would have given me a ride no questions asked. Just the way I sliced my finger would have made driving myself dangerous and really difficult.

I sliced not only the "meat" of my finger, but into the nail as well. I'm hoping it heals enough by our anniversary that I can paint it along with the rest of my nails. If not...well, then I'll use a bandaid so it doesn't look so damned silly.

My finger is extremely sore (I can't type with it, too much pressure on the owie), still a bit weepy when the scabs come off from hand washing or showers, but it doesn't look infected which is good. After my showers I've been taking a qtip doused in peroxide and gently swabbing it to keep it clean. It's kind of funny to look at; compared to my other middle finger there is a giant flat spot on the injured one.


This is not the first time I've seriously cut myself; back in high school I wrecked my left index finger on a mandolin slicer. It took almost four years for the fingerprint to grow back. And if you poke at it some days, I have no feeling in the fingertip. hahaha.

I am extremely lucky I didn't do more damage with the rotary cutter. There was a post on reddit.com a while back of a woman who lost about half her finger (vertically speaking) from one. These things are INCREDIBLY sharp. Be careful out there, crafters!