Thursday, January 3, 2013

Behind already!

So on the 1st I said that I wanted to write on my blog everyday.  Well, I completely forgot about it yesterday until I was all snuggled into bed, desperately hoping that at some point my ice cubes would turn back into toes.  Good news!  By morning I had toes again- probably had something to do with the five blankets and a cat curled up on my feet.  So this is my "make-up" post for yesterday.  I've decided that my punishment when I don't write for a day is going to be to write an extra post the next day.  It's not really punishment if it's fun though, right?

I've got a project in the works for my store that I personally think is AWESOME and AMAZING.  Yes, so great that it requires capital letters.  I found some bottle cap pendant blanks on my travels through Frederick, MD on the way home from that little holiday trip I took.  I've always wanted to make bottle cap necklaces but I've never been able to make them the way that I wanted.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to make them so that I could put the fabric on the outer part of the cap since I would have had to attach a pendant blank/bail to the cap.  I tried to punch a small hole thorough the lip of the cap but always bent the cap.  So there I am in Jo-Ann's (yes, I do work at Jo-Ann's but this store was much larger then my store) and a bag of bottle caps catches my eye.  I lean down and low and behold, they have the bail already attached!  I snatched them up and knew that they were going to be my first official project of the new year.  I had to work the next morning at 6am so I didn't so anything that day or the next.  I was off the 30th, but decided that I needed to catch up on some well needed sleep.  So they sat there on my desk, in their bag, teasing me for a couple of days.  On the first I had some fun with fabric, the pendant blanks and a ton of Mod Podge.  The pendants are finally finished and I just need to make up the cords to go with them.  I can't wait to take photos and post them for sale in my shop!  Here's a little sneak peek of the pendants I took while the first layer of Mod Podge was drying.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A new year, a new resolution.

Well readers, welcome to 2013.  I'm particularly excited about the new year because I just love the number 13.  I know, I'm a bit weird but it's all okay. :)  So everybody always says that they have a "New Year's Resolution."  But really how many people actually keep their resolutions?  Last year my goal was to ready 50 new books and watch 50 new movies by the end of the year.  I had no problem with the books, I was reading so much that I lost track of all of the books that I went through!  50 movies on the other hand, that didn't happen.  I have a tendency to watch the same movies over and over again (just ask my husband!), so I might have watched 20 new movies the entire year.  One part of me feels a little bit sad that I didn't watch enough new movies but another part of me is just fine with it.  Like I said, I tend to read more than watch movies.  I also have several television shows that I like to keep up with and that's when I do my crafting!

So that brings me to this year.  It's January 1st and time for some new resolutions.  I'm hoping that I've come up with a couple that I can actually keep up with, but we'll all just have to wait and see.  The first of them is to continue my weight loss journey.  I have a final goal in mind- to get down to about 115lbs.  I started out my journey right after my 29th birthday in Sept. 2011.  My original goal was to make my goal weight by my 30th birthday.  It didn't happen and I know now that was probably unrealistic.  I've had good and bad moments with my weight loss and am currently down 29lbs. from my original weight.  I don't think that's too bad and I'm proud that I've been able to maintain that loss for the most part.  There were moments where I gained weight but I went back down again and that's important.  I love Zumba but haven't been able to go to classes much in the past few months because of my work schedule.  I'm hoping that changes soon.  So I've got roughly 70lbs. to go in my journey.  I also went meat-free back in the middle of November about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.  I've never been a huge meat-eater but I've always loved bacon and steak.  So giving up meat really wasn't a huge sacrifice for me.  The first few weeks were tough- like waking up and smelling that turkey roasting in the oven.  But I've stayed on track and feel better overall.  So resolution number one is to work on losing weight and maintaining the loss.

My second resolution is to write on this blog once a day.  I've said in a few past posts that I need to write more but I haven't been able to keep up with it.  Something always comes up or I just don't feel like writing.  So the new goal is to write something, anything at all, once a day.  Maybe I'll post about a recipe or a project or maybe if I don't feel like writing, I'll just share a favorite quote or song lyric.  Maybe I'll just share a picture because there is that saying "that a picture is worth a thousand words".  

Last year was an interesting year.  I got the chance to work in a few other stores, which may help propel me further with my job.  I had the awesome, amazing, fantastic opportunity to meet some of my all-time favorite musicians back in October.  (I still can't believe it actually happened!)  My husband started school back in Sept. which will lead to opportunities for him in the future. Even though I haven't sold much of anything yet, I did get a number of items posted in my online store.  I spent a week in June on vacation down in Myrtle Beach, SC- my first real vacation.  I closed out the year with a trip to Delaware to visit my family for Christmas.  Jim and I stopped in D.C. on the way home and went to the National Gallery of Art.  I've missed going there on a regular basis so the trip was great!  And I was able to see a retrospective of Roy Lichtenstein's work- one of my favorite artists.  

So having said all of that, let's all see was 2013 has in store for us!

 

Saturday, October 13, 2012

One of these days I'm actually going to be keeping up with this blog.  My life has pretty much been on the road since August- work has sent me to Steubenville, Ohio, Pittsburgh, PA and most recently (and for next week) Sterling, VA.  However on the 21st I'll be back home and back to crafting!  I'm really looking forward to it as it's been hard to work in hotel rooms.  

A little side note:  I entered my "Mason Jar Tag" in a contest on Ranger Ink yesterday morning.  My entry was picked at random as a winner!  There were four winners and 160 submissions.  I'm thrilled as this is the first time I've won anything in the crafting world.  Apparently I'll be sent some of the seasonal distress ink colors (which have now been added to the regular lineup of inks).  :)  

Now its time for me to go off and work on a chainmaille jewelery set and a fabric belt for the concert that I'm going to on Monday.  Barring anything going wrong, I'll be doing a meet and greet with Rob Zombie (and hopefully John 5, Piggy D., and Ginger Fish) before the show and an after-show party with Marilyn Manson.  So excited! 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Cute projects but a bit of a let down

Back at the end of June, I applied for the DCWV design team.  I found out yesterday that, unfortunately, I wasn't picked to be on the team.  However there were 150 applicants and they only picked 12 for the team.  This being the first time that I've ever applied to be on a DT, I'm not too surprised that I wasn't chosen.  

However, since I wasn't chosen, I can now show you the projects that I submitted!  Now I have no idea if I could have done this sooner, but I didn't want to take the chance that I would be breaking some kind of rule.  After all, when you submit to a magazine, 99% of the time you can't have published your project online anywhere. 

I had to submit four projects- a card, a scrapbook page, and two 'off-the-page' projects.  I'm just going to post the pics here now and if I can remember to do it, I'll post some info on how to do them later on.

Mother's Day card

scrapbook page

paper flower topiary

Adorable birdhouse!

I hope you like what I came up with and please let me know what you think!

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Been a little while...

Sorry I haven't posted on here recently but that's about to change.  Things have been super crazy for me lately but it's starting to calm down a bit.  Let's see, first off I reached another WW goal!  Yippee!  I've been trying out a ton of new recipes- some have been fantastic, some have been not so good and some have been yummy but not so good for me.  

I've been working my butt off trying to get crafts made up for my online shop.  And speaking of that- my shop is now open for business!  You can go visit it at http://cdchurcheydesigns.artfire.com.  I'll be posting more soon.  I've got a million and one ideas floating around in my head of things that I want to make to sell.  You can also head on over to Facebook and like me there at C.D. Churchey Designs.  Once I reach 100 likes on FB, I'll be doing a giveaway there and once I reach 50 followers on here I'll be doing another one!  I'm not telling you what the prizes are yet- mostly because I haven't decided!

We took a little family vacation back on the 9th of June.  Jim and I spent a week down in Myrtle Beach, SC with his parents, sister, her husband, and our 8 month old niece.  I'm still editing photos from the trip but will be sure to share a few soon.  It was so nice to just get away from everything and not worry about a thing for an entire week.  Our condo was right on the beach so we could just pop out on the balcony and look at the ocean.  My first night there I spent reading a book on the balcony, drinking a mojito and listening to Jane's Addiction with the ocean in the background.  So relaxing!  

I've got a project to finish up early in the morning so it's off to bed for me!  

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Hello there!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted on here.  (I'm so sorry!)  I have a million and one projects going on right now and am so excited about them.  I've been trying new recipes- Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, pork and potato meatloaf, sauteed spicy celery, and good old chicken noodle soup among others.  Can you say yummy?  I know, I know, the cupcakes weren't exactly WW friendly but sometimes you just have to treat yourself.  

The soup was so delicious and so incredibly simple.  Here you go (a little mini post within this post).  Saute up your choice of veggies.  I love, love, love veggies in my soup.  As far as I'm concerned, the more there are, the better the soup is going to be.  I made up a huge pot (and I've been eating it for the last couple of days) so here's my list of veggies:  several stalks of celery, three small to medium yellow onions, one bag of mixed veggies (I used Birdseye Steamfresh mix with corn, peas, carrots, and green beans) and one and a half small heads of cabbage.  Now I know that seems like a lot of cabbage but there's a reason.  See this is the second time I made the soup this week.  The first time was oh so good and somehow I managed to drop the tupperware on the way to the fridge.  Chicken soup everywhere!  I was so mad about it.  I only used half a head of cabbage in the first batch and liked it so much that I decided to use a whole head in the second batch.  As I was making it, I decided that I couldn't just let the first half go to waste so into the soup it went!  So pick your veggies and saute them however long you like.  I just did a few minutes for everything because I like my veggies on the crisp tender side.  Meanwhile, boil two pots of water.  In one pot, you're going to boil your pasta.  In the other, you'll be making your broth for your soup.  I did it this way to avoid overcooking the pasta.  As you finish sauteing each batch of veggies, go ahead and throw them into the broth.  Congrats!  You've started your soup.  Toss in a can or two of chicken.  I used white meat Tyson and I shredded it up a little bit.  As for the pasta I used alphabet (because it's just fun) and ditalini (the little tube shaped noodles).  Boil the pasta for a minute or two less than the package says.  Add salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic powder to your soup.  Finally drain your pasta and stir it in.  When I put the leftovers in the fridge, I separated most of the broth from the veggies/pasta.  That way the pasta doesn't absorb all of the broth.  You can just add broth each time you heat up some to eat.  Ok, I guess that wasn't really a min post!

On the sewing front, I'm working on several table runners, a few wall hangings, and wallets.  Of course I also have a ton of other sewing projects that I want to get to yesterday.  I'm also working on a few jewelry ideas using knit fabrics.  I'm also trying to find my jewelry wire to work on another idea.  I've got a few ideas for fabric flowers that I've been tossing around in my head that are about to become reality.  I just got in an order from Unity stamps and I couldn't be more excited to use my new stamps!  The most important one of the bunch isn't for the front of my cards- it's for the back.  I picked up the Unity copyright stamp so now I can actually sell my cards that I've made with my Unity stamps!  

Have you ever played with Pinterest?  It's the greatest thing since sliced bread!  (I couldn't help but through that cliche in there!)  If you have, then you know just how wonderful it is (and how addicting).  If you haven't, then you need to be- it's a visual bookmarking system and it's so full of inspiration!  

I guess that's it for now.  I'll be back later to share some projects with you.  

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Crazy Eights

First off- confession- I stole this off of a friend's blog because I just thought it was a pretty neat thing.  So thanks Amy!

8 things I did yesterday:
  1. worked out a new pattern for a tea wallet
  2. Finished rereading A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison
  3. cleaned off my desk
  4. watched a new episode of Criminal Minds
  5. took a nap (it was a lazy kind of Sat. and I wasn't feeling well)
  6. folded laundry 
  7. played with my new stamps 
  8. basted a wall hanging  
8 things I look forward to:
  1. Zumba!
  2. reading a new book by one of my favorite authors
  3. starting a new project
  4. finishing an old project
  5. the Marilyn Manson concert May 5th (and related the new album whenever it comes out)
  6. every five pounds that I lose
  7.  one day owning a house
  8. possibly crafting my own batik fabric in the summer
8 things I wish I could do:
  1. own my own store- half of it would be papercrafting supplies and the other half fabric
  2. make enough of a profit from my crafts so that I wouldn't have to work unless I wanted to
  3. go back to Berlin for a few weeks and while I was at it, hit up Italy, France and Ireland
  4.  meet a few famous people- in particular Marilyn Manson, Tim Holtz (he's famous in the craft world) and Gloria Steinem.  
  5. buy a long arm quilting machine and an embroidery machine
  6. while I'm dreaming about my own business- I'd love to start designing my own line of rubber stamps
  7. come up with enough money to pay off all of my student loans
  8. grow about four more inches (yes I know that this one is impossible)
8 show I watch:
  1. Criminal Minds
  2. Bones
  3. House
  4. C.S.I. (Las Vegas, N.Y. and Miami)
  5. Grimm
  6. Once Upon a Time
  7. NCIS
  8. Family Guy
  9. Law & Order: SVU
  10. The Daily Show