Book club

I have a lot of friends who like to read, in fact, most of my friends are avid readers sometimes consuming books like someone would consume a chocolate bar. After some conversations with a few of these friends, we decided starting a book club would be a great way to meet new people and also have a little social time with a nice group of ladies. In February we started a little book club. This included 4 of us- 2 geologists, one geographer, and one educator. It was a little meeting at my house, but we quickly realized it was a nice event. The first book we read was 'City of Refuge' by Tom Piazza. This was a great first book because we all had some interesting insight to bring to the discussion.
We all have pretty busy schedules so it took us until April to get to the next meeting. For the next one we read, 'Let the Great World Spin' by Colum McCann. We also added 2 new readers to the group! It is growing and getting more organized. This month we have read 'Oh Pioneers!' by Willa Cather. Our meeting is this Sunday and I think it will be great to see what a group of strong, highly independent women thought of Alexandra, the main character. It seems so rare to see a strong woman being highlighted in an early American novel. I think at this meeting we will try to get a little better organized, by making a list of books we want to read and setting a monthly rotating date. I think with 5-6 people we can do this and not be too worried when someone misses a meeting.

So in the midst of getting things organized (and me trying to practice sewing), I decided to make everyone a clutch. The cool thing I discovered is that a book fits perfectly within the clutch. So I decided to make everyone one, put inside it a bookmark and a pencil, and say 'happy reading'.
Since I am new to this sewing things, I should say, this is an easy first project and quite a lot of fun. I just wanted to share the steps and hop that others like me can learn to that sewing is not so scary afterall!

Materials:
1/2 yard fabric
1/2 yard fusible interfacing (heavy duty- like Pellon)

1. Cut 2 rectangles (any size, I used ~12 by 20.5 inches) and place them right sides together. Iron straight. Then pin down all four sides, keeping a small hope on one of the short sides to enable to stuffing of the interfaceing. Cut the interfacing ~3/4 inch shorter.

2. Sew 5/8 seam on all sides,remember to leave that 3-4 inch opening.



3. Using the opened hole, turn the project right side out and iron flat. Roll the interfacing and insert it into the project. Flatten it out and iron.

4. Now take the project over and stitch a straight seam across the short side with the hole (~3/8 seam allowance)

5. Then fold the short edge up to create the pocket and stich down the left and right sides.

6. Finally, take to ironing board and iron the flap down, and the back. Over time the clutch will flatten out.

In the end you have a colorful array of bookclub clutches.

Fabric is good, but I am still learning

I convinced my friend, Heather, to join me for a craft night at Sew Crafty last night. We decided to make the frame corkboard. Hmmm...not sure how mine worked out. I am not too handy with a staple gun.


Anyway, here are some pics of us in action and the finished product for Heather.


I am going to have to tweak mine a bit before I release the finished product.

Crafts I am learning

Well about a year and a half ago my mother got me a sewing machine. She has sewn most of her life and I remember her making my sister and I matching dresses for easter, dresses for my aunt's wedding, and little odds and ends. More recently she has taken up quilting. She started taking quilting classes in Russellville, Arkansas in order to meet some people and try a new hobby. Her quilts are pretty cool and I became enthralled by the history of quilt making and the process. This inspired me to learn how to sew myself. What is weird is that as a child I showed no interest in sewing so my mom never showed me how. So even though she ha this great skill I never learned it. Which brings me to the sewing machine. I expressed interest in learning how to sew and having a machine so as a graduation gift my mom got me one. Needless to say it sat in a box for about a year. Honestly I was scared of it. Knitting with needles was one thing, but a large mechanized needle seemed like another.
So I signed up for a "getting to Know your Sewing Machine" class at this cool local sewing business called Sew Crafty. They offer classes and have materials for knitting, sewing, felting, etc. It is a great neighborhood business. The class was great. I learned not to fear the machine by learning how to thread it, wind the bobbin, choose feet, change them, and practiced different stitches. After I completed this class I decided to try one of their make something sewing class. This class was a 2 hour class to make a clutch. So I signed up and Tuesday night in 2 hours managed to make my first thing on a sewing machine! It is isn't perfect, but it was fun to do and made me realize that sewing is not as scary as I thought. The next class they offer is a class to sew a market bag. I hope to sign up for that and have just as fun.

Trefiw woolen mills

I spent 3 weeks in Great Britain for palynological training for BP. I got to spend about one week of that time working with a great consulting company, Petrostat, in Conwy. Conwy is located in North Wales and is a lovely walled city. In addition to working with some great palynologists I got to spend some time exploring the welsh countryside. One thing i knew before I traveled there was that Wales is full of rolling hills and those rolling hills are full of sheep!



Having known that beforehand I decided to see if I could find any local yarn shops before I went there. Instead of a yarn shop I found something even better- a woolen mill. The Trefiw woolen mill is located about 9 miles away from Conwy down this windy country road. It is a mill that runs on the mountain stream that flows right through the little village. Unfortunately the mill was not running just yet. It was closed for the winter season and I was about 2 weeks too early.




I did get to visit it and walk around. It had a great little dying garden with plants used to dye the yarn, a nice area to show you how the yarn is processed, and a great little store full of hand woven goodies and nice yarn.


I had a great time and even got a few souvenirs!

My first sad attempt at yarn bombing

My friend, Heather, and I decided to do a yarn bomb for Valentines day. We were both supposed to knit/crochet some hearts and then put them somewhere. Well, I did one part- I helped her put the heart garland up, but I actually did not knit a stitch. I have been kinda on this knitting hiatus. I did aid and act as partner in crime in hanging the graffiti.

In celebration of Valentines day and heart Awareness month we wrapped a couple of information poles at the Texas heart Institute and also wrapped the granite heart sculpture. We snagged a couple of pics, but I am not sure how long they stayed up. I am hoping to do some more in the future.



I am almost finished with the shrug, the lace is pretty, but I am not quite in love with how it falls on me when I wear it. I need to finish the finishing and then I will post a picture I have 3 projects I want to start soon- Bella's mittens., a lace scarf, and a wrap called 'stolen moments wrap'. I have been kinda waiting to start them on my plane trip to London. Yep-- I will be in London and North Wales for three weeks for work. I am looking forward to it. I will hopefully be posting pics and posts as I go.

Winter projects

Nothing like cold weather to really get you into knitting. So I started little projects only to have the weather turn warmer and my motivation slow down. I have managed to almost finish my shrug (need to add sleeves) and a cowl. If only the weather would turn cold again. I wanna make these mittens from ravelry- bella's mittens and wear them with my cowl. The only hope i have is that it will be slightly cold in London in march. That means the 9 hour plane ride and 3 weeks in hotel room at night will get me through a few more projects.


Casting on bella's mittens!!!

Playa del Carmen

This year I decided to do something a little different for Christmas. I decided to take a short visit to visit my family followed by a quick trip to Mexico, Playa del Carmen to be exact, with Matt. This required a little bit more traveling than normal and was completely last minute so the travel plans were less solidified. I ended up finding a nice local, Heights pet sitter to watch the kitties, and got some quick tips from friends who had been to Playa before. Our friend, Rich, told us about this cute little hotel about 100 feet from the beach called Hotel Illusions. It was quaint and within our price range for the spur of the moment holiday traveling.

We were in Playa for 5 days and 4 nights. We flew into the Cancun airport and paid for a van to take us to Playa del Carmen (45 minutes south). The van wait seemed a little to long so we ended up simply paying for a taxi to take us to the hotel. Next time we will take the bus, which is substantially cheaper and quite reliable (~$10 per person). After arriving at our hotel, we walked around Avenue 5, the 'bourbon street' of Playa.
It is filled with shops, restaurants, bars, tourist info spots, etc. It was fun, but a little touristy. Matt and I did find some great little gems there where we could people watch and enjoy the hustle.


I enjoyed a lot of the food, from cilantro ceviche to the spicy mayan chocolate drink! Here are a few pics of my favorite eats. We did splurge for one pretty nice meal at La Casa del Aqua. The food was great! We got a tuna and sea scallop ceviche, I got griled grouper with goat cheese, and Matt got blue fin tuna. Yum, yum. Plus it had a great view of the streets below.




The other days we spent either on the beaches or in the little town of Tulum (which I loved!). Tulum was a great place to eat at little shops on the main street, see ruins, and take short trip to the cenotes of the coast. Cenotes are limestone caves that have been formed from underground fresh water 'streams and rivers'. They are lovely places to snorkel and are popular for scuba divers.




All and all the trip was nice. Playa was a little touristy and I think I would enjoy visiting the areas that were not so touristy and renting a car to explore the other beaches and forested areas. This was a reconnaissance trip to get a feel of the area. I now know the average cost of things and the opportunities that are there. Look forward to visiting Mexico again. Perhaps Merida!