Home is not where you live but where they understand you. -Christian Morgenstern

Hmmm, looks like I took a bit of an unintentional bloggy break there for a bit (especially if you consider the fact that the last post was basically only a picture) - sorry about that guys!

A week ago last Sunday Alex headed to the cottage in Quebec with his Dad and I stayed home for the week by myself; I had grand plans to get a lot of sewing done, and I did get some, but on Sunday after Alex left (the day where we got up at 4:45 am by the way) I ended up vegging on the couch all day doing pretty much nothing. Monday I woke up and realized we were out of toilet paper and had to find somewhere that was open on Labour Day (thank goodness for Shoppers Drug Mart), then I came home only to fall prey to a migraine for a few hours; even after it subsided I was pretty much wiped for the day (although I did get a little sewing done around midnight). One of my projects involved quite a bit of handwork (hexagons and embroidery) and so I worked on that for a big chunk of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after work; Friday I worked in the afternoon which means I didn't get much done, Saturday I did some shopping and got some knitting done, and on Sunday (after cleaning up all my fabric *ahem*) Alex came home! I missed him a lot and am so happy to have him back!

I think another reason why I haven't blogged recently is that I can't share anything with you! I'm working on three projects right now - two patterns and one for a friend (who reads my blog) so even though there has been creative stuff going on, I can't show it! And, really, nobody needed to hear me crab about my migraine, so it worked out for you too ;)

I do have a few pictures to show though!

On Sunday while I was waiting for Alex to come home I finally got around to putting up some art that we had hanging around. The letters are from Anthropologie and although they don't sell these exact ones anymore they now have slightly smaller ones that are lower case and have some stitching on them (just saw them today...yes, I went to Anthropologie this morning looking for the cute pie bird they have on the website - didn't have it in the store unfortunately).

The large print in the centre is from Hidden Eloise on Etsy, as is the small print (actually a postcard) above the K, and the one below the A is a postcard I received in an order from The Black Apple.

On Friday after work I decided to go and get my hair cut. I had been thinking about it for a bit but I am leery of hairstylists and usually just cut it myself. Here's a before:

You can kind of see how long my hair was - it was down to my waist. Here's the after:

She cut off wayyyy more than I wanted her to (again, this is why I'm afraid to let other people cut my hair), but it's starting to "grow" on my...hahaha...I know. It's also much more voluminous and wavy without the heavy length weighing it down; I'm okay with it, really. Oh, and I bought that yellow cardigan I'm wearing when I went shopping on Saturday.

This morning I left the house to pick up something specific but took a little detour on the way and wound up at the thrift store.

I found these lovely wooden knitting needles (as well as the attached stitch counter) for .49, the knitting booklet was .99 (I bought it because I like the patterns for pillow covers it has), and I also picked up some more embroidery hoops for .99 each. The yarn in the background was not from the thrift store but it did arrive in the mail today. I bought it for the little, personal knit-along Amanda and I are having - we're going to knit Jane Richmond's Oatmeal Pullover (and yes, I am totally making it in the exact same yarn and colour as she did); I just need one more set of needles and then I'll be ready to go (at some point).

I specifically went out today to pick up the latest issue of Stitch magazine (I should really just get a subscription already). Stitch is definitely my most favourite magazine in the whole world!

I also went to the library and picked up a copy of Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights that I had on hold. After flipping through this gorgeous book I definitely want to buy myself a copy! Everything looks so yummy; the book is divided by season and I just love the stories she tells at the beginning of each (Sophie Dahl is actually Roald Dahl's grand-daughter).

I began school again on Monday and I could not possibly be less excited about it. It's so weird - I have never been this unenthusiastic about going back to school before in my life, but hopefully I'll get into it soon. This is the last year of my Masters, and will hopefully be my last year of school ever.

Okay, I'm off! Alex and I are going to watch an episode of The Tudors before going to sleep.

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

Alice Kate loves Heather Ross...a lot! And she is very excited that Heather's newest collection, Macaroni Love Story, was released today exclusively through Spoonflower!

P.S. Happy Rosh Hashanah everyone!

A Little Vintage vs Modern...

I completely forgot to show this in yesterday's post even though I meant to...

Here's a little vintage vs. modern for you! As many of you know many of our fabrics today are copied from or inspired by vintage textiles including feedsacks and sheets - there's even a Flickr group dedicated to showing off modern fabric beside it's vintage counterpart!

On the left in the photo above is a vintage napkin that my Grandmother gave me about two years ago and on the right is a print from the upcoming Dream On collection by Urban Chiks for Moda. I have seen the vintage version in sheet form also, so it's quite possible that this napkin started out it's life as a sheet (my Grandmother would definitely not let fabric go to waste!) or maybe this print was featured on a variety of textiles.

There is a wisdom of the head, and... a wisdom of the heart. -Charles Dickens

Hey guys! How's everyone's week been going? I have been super-crazy busy with work and quilting, but the crazy work schedule ends at the end of this week and then (I think) I have a week off before school -yay! I say "I think" because inevitably my boss will ask me to come into work and of course I will say yes...but I can dream right?

My Mum wishes to thank everyone who sent her birthday wishes and even told me that I'm allowed to reveal her age...she turned 45...and I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20 (haha!)...you do the math. Yup, she's a young'un and she looks it too! After I mentioned here on the blog that the pillow I made her would be living on her bed, she sent some pictures to share with you!

Here's the back of the pillow which I didn't originally take a picture of. Sorry I can't tell you what the fabric is on the back - it was a home decorator weight scrap without selvages that I picked up at my LFS. But look, you can see the handmade buttons that I mentioned before!

And here is the pillow on my Mum's bed! The coverlet is coming out a bit more purple than it is in real life but it matches pretty well! It also matches the quilt that I made her for Christmas (please ignore the horrifically bad pictures...and the ugly quilting).

I received a couple of awesome packages this week! Mel sent me some awesome scraps and I got five sets of knitting needles that I needed. I actually bought the needles on eBay and they were wayyyyy cheaper than buying them in the store (yay me)!

Amanda sent me this super-awesome package this week too! She knew that I was missing the Flea Market Fancy print in the middle and offered to send me this fat quarter she had found - woohoo! She also sent along some more fabric and these cute, little zippy-pouches she made. See? Isn't she talented? If you've never visited Amanda's blog, you seriously need to!

As many of you know my siggy swap blocks for round 2 were lost on their way to Julie's house. When I mentioned in the forum that I would not be participating in round 3 because of my bad luck (my blocks for round 1 have not made it to my house yet either even though the deadline was 6 months ago), a bunch of lovely ladies (as well as one boat and a teddy bear, haha!) offered to send me a block from each of them. Those are the blocks in the bottom two rows (and there's still some on the way I think).

When Julie gave me the last update telling me that she still hadn't seen my blocks I told her that I would feel glad if she would use the blocks that I would have received back in one of the charity quilts she was making; however Julie very graciously offered to send me some of the extras anyway and 52 blocks landed on my doorstep from her this week too! Thanks so much to Julie and to all the other ladies who sent blocks my way - you guys are all great and super-awesome!

I've still been quilting and knitting away this week and if all goes well I'll get a lot accomplished next week! Oh, in case anyone is interested I have some fabrics that I'm looking to swap - you can see the fabrics I have here and you can see my ISO list (as well as a longer list of what I have to swap) here! Hope you've had a lovely few days everyone; I'll talk to y'all soon!