Happy Birthday to Bilbo Baggins!

I seriously think that sharing a birthday with Bilbo Baggins has determined my geekhood for life. Seriously, I now have a life-goal of living to one hundred and eleventy, among other things.
Oh by the way, I had a birthday. NBD. I'm just an adult who can buy dry ice now and go to big-person jail. Seriously, guys, no biggie. Not freaking out over that or anything.
But, I can say that I honestly have the best friends in the world! Seriously, I felt pretty lucky this birthday. My friends made a cake, and decorated my room, and I got to spend time with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world! And quite honestly (since my birthday wish obviously came true), I think this was the best birthday yet. Thanks a million to everyone!

Here is my beautiful TARDIS cake. Very soon, I will let you know the complete glory of my Doctor Who obsession, but not now-it would take quite some time.

My fabulous birthday present from one of my friends- no, I'm not in any way shape or form a Twitard, but there's a history to the picture.

Lastly, my beautiful gift from my amazing sister/best friend. I'm serioulsy in love with the card, for the images (because I kind of have a thing for cupcakes too), and because she's so sweet. Plus, my entire room has been heart-attacked. That's a part of just one wall. My entire ROOM looks like that. And it still makes me happy to see it.

Thoughts To Occupy

Well, sorry guys, I had a plan for a really cute post this past weekend, but that kind of fell through. And I need to take photos before I can brag about yet another of my projects. So, today, you just get me babbling!
It's been exciting so far, I'm finally a Senior, and for once, it's not my homework that seems to have me buried! I know, I know, it's a shock, but honestly, my homework everyday is pretty minimal. I have AP English this year, and my Stats homework is mostly busywork.
I'm way more busy with music and being involved at school. All right, I'm involved with music more than anything. It's true, I'm an officer in a few groups at school, and I'm in a few more (or as is the case with band, I'm the "honorary" member they can't ever seem to get rid of), but it's music that seems to keep my occupied.
Honestly, I had 4 1/2 quality hours with my instruments yesterday, and that's the average somedays, sometimes, it's only an hour or two, but lately, music is an everyday, all the time kind of thing for me. I'm really starting to love my practice. If I skip a day, I miss it. I seriously am starting to get withdrawals from my violin on the days I don't practice! And I have to say, it's nice. I'm starting to really make progress, which is fantastic, because if I even think of doing college auditions in the next few months, I am going to need all of that progress.
And ya, that's kind of been my life this past week. Toodles!

DIY Pencil Case

Hey guys, back again. Told you I would have more DIY. I'm actually really excited by this one. For the past probably six years off and on, I've always used the same pencil bag. It was black, and shiny, and kind of boring. And since I"m me, I decided to reward myself for finishing Frankenstein with this fun thing!

What You Need:

Three colors of yarn

Crochet Hook

Scissors

Fabric for lining

Interfacing

A zipper

Needle and three

To start with, I did four granny squares with a flower center. I found the pattern here, then added an extra layer of the dc around the outside to make the squares bigger, and did a sc border in gold.

Then, I got super sneaky guys. Using the gold again, I sl st the four pieces together in a straight line. Seriously sneaky, right?

Then, you sl st the ends together, and continue working down the long edge. You now have the outer casing!
Next, you're going to want to get a small zipper, about 7", a fabric to make your lining, and interfacing.
Measure out your lining fabric- it should be about 1/8" shorter than your casing from side to side, and about an inch taller than your casing when it's folded in half. Cut out interfacing to cover the entire back and iron it on. It's rough I know, but everything stretches in the casing, so you don't need to be precise.
Fold your fabric so right sides are facing. Fold down that extra inch so the right side is facing you, and pin the zipper down over the lip. Sew down the edge of the zipper as closely as you can, about 1/8" seam. Repeat with the other side.

The zipper should be on top, with the right sides inside. This way, when you put your hand in, you see the lining and not the interfacing. This is also the perfect time to make sure it fits in the casing and trim off any excess. Sew 1/4" seam down both of the edges. You should now have a pouch with the interfacing facing out.

Put the lining inside the casing. It really doesn't matter if the lining sticks out a bit; once it's been sewn in, it fits perfectly. With the needle and thread, sew the zipper edge to the casing, making sure to keep your stitches small, and to not just loop up between stitches, but actually sew over the yarn.

Tie off the thread and weave in any loose ends, and it's all done, ready for school or wherever else! Tada!

Life in the Dog House

All right guys, I am so sorry. I got back from DC and realized that I still had a ton of stuff to get done before school started. Seriously, I'm still working on Summer English, which by the way, is due in five days (I know, I'm a terrible procrastinator, shame on me.).
 I also had my biggest concert of the year this past Monday. I got to solo with an Orchestra on one of the solos from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons". So, since I missed two weeks of practice for DC, I managed to get about 40 hours of practicing done in that time. Yikes.
But never fear, as soon as all this is done with, I'll be back to my usual DIY and cooking projects.
For the mean time, I do have some exciting news. Right when we got back from DC, we had a crazy moment. Like seriously, we never get THIS crazy at my house.

This is my adorable new puppy, Gus! See, I've not only been working my butt off, I also really have been living in a dog house. He is an interesting little guy, absolutely adorable, but he definetly keeps us on our toes.
And there's that. I promise to be back with more soon (like before the end of an unintentional three week break soon!). Toodles!

Back From DC

I know, I know, two posts in a row about one vacation seems excessive, but honestly, it's worth posting about. DC was so much fun and I'm so glad I got to go with my amazing family. We managed to cram so much in five days, and I'll be honest, I'm in no rush to do that much walking again, but it was totally worth it!

I'll even admit that it wasn't so bad acting as my family's encyclopedia for the trip. Sometimes we'd come to a monument or painting that they'd want to know more about and thanks to my amazing AP American teacher and my hard studying, I was usually able to tell them some small tidbit.

I'd also like to announce that you should all start putting aside air fare now, because I'm pretty sure that sometime in the next ten years when i get married, you'll all be flying to DC.

I was blessed in that while in DC I got to go to the DC Temple and do baptisms, and while there, I absolutely fell in love with this beautiful beautiful place. It was truly seperate from the world. There was an enormous drive to get up to it, and although the freeway is only a few hundred yards away, you couldn't hear a thing. Seriously, I probably took more pictures here at the temple than any other place on our trip. I kind of fell in love with it.

And there's all I'll say on my trip. I've already got a few projects planned for future posts, so it won't be terribly long until I'm back. Until then!

I'm Off!

This week has been extremely busy as I've been packing my bags. I'm off to Washington DC for the next few weeks! I don' t know that I"ll have access to a computer for more than a few minutes while I'm there, so it could be a while before I get to post again, but I promise to take pictures of all the adventures I'm bound to have in our nation's capital! Until then!

DIY Wallet

Hey guys! So, exciting news, I'M DONE WITH CHEMISTRY. Finally. Serioulsy, I've done nothing but celebrate for three days straight now. And as part of my celebration, I decided to get all crafty for the first time this summer and make a wallet out of some scraps we've had lying around for years now.
The idea for this project was a compilation of several wallets that I found on pinterest, but most of it, I just made up as I went along, which made the process much longer than if I'd been following someone else's instructions. All told, this project probably takes about 3 or 4 hours if you know what you're doing.

For this you need:

A cutting mat

A clear sewing ruler that's at least five inches across

A rotary cutter

A small zipper, about 5 or 6 in.

1/2 yd of your outer fabric

1 yd of your inner fabric (this is not only your lining, but your card holder and coin pouch as well)

For the edging, you could really just use one of the sample squares they sell at most fabric stores, but all told, if you bought a foot of fabric you'd have more than enough.

About 1 yard of interfacing

*I used scraps for the most part, so these are rough guesstimates of how much I had and how much I used*

2 snaps-you can use magnetic, but I used small metal snaps.

Coin Pouch:

Begin by cutting out 2 5"x8" rectangles from your edging fabric, your inner fabric, and your interfacing (6 rectangles)

Iron your interfacing to the wrong side of your edging fabric. Do this to both of your edging pieces.

There really is no way to take a picture of the next step, so I'll do my best on explaining. Lay your zipper down with the zipper pull facing you. Take your inner lining fabric and with the right side facing the zipper, pin it to the edge of the zipper so the zipper is covered (if you flip back the fabric after it's pinned,the pins will be hidden but your pattern will show.). Flip your zipper and fabric over and lay your edging fabric right side down across the backside of the zipper. The edges of your fabric should now meet with the zipper sitting between them. Sew 1/4" seam along the zippers edge, watching to make sure you don't cross the zipper. Sew until you get to the zipper pull, and when you reach it, pull it down to where you've already sewed so you don't get a funky bump from your zipper.

Repeat with the other side. When you lay it flat, you should now have to layers to either side of the zipper with right sides facing out.

With the zipper still upside down, fold the fabric in half so the zipper runs along the upper edge. Sew 1/2" seam down both sides, back stitching at either end. If you have a ton of excess fabric and the zipper allows, you can trim down the sides now to cut down on excess bulk.

Flip your pouch inside out so that the zipper pull is now on the outer edge. This will be your coin pocket, and you can set it aside for later.
Body:

To make the panels of your wallet, cut out three rectangles (one of your inning lining, one of your outer fabric, and one of your interfacing) that 5 1/2"x 9". Repeat, but make your rectangles 8 1/2"x 9" instead this time. With just your interfacing, cut out one rectangle that is 4 1/2" x 8" and another that is 7 1/2" x 8". Iron the full size interfacing to your inner lining, and the smaller interfacing to your outer fabric, keeping the interfacing 1/2" from the edge. Make sure that when you attatch your interfacing, you attatch the dotted side to the wrong side of the fabric!
You can now set these pieces aside until later when you are assembling the entire wallet.

Card Slots:
I have to be honest, I never figured out a precise formula for card slots. I know how I like mine to sit, and I know that I need a lot of card slots because I keep everything in my wallet.  But here's still the way that I used overall.

Cut a 9" strip from your fabric, cutting the entire length. I know this seems like a ton, but in reality, most of this gets folded up into your card holders, with just a few inches left over. Fold about 5" of the fabric over and iron it flat.

Now remember that edging fabric I told you you would need so much of? Here's where it's going to be used up! Cut one inch strips of your fabric. I made four card slots per side, and if I'd been smart, would have realized that I would need five. You'll need to double this, so that makes 10 1"x 9" strips of your edging. Take them all to the ironing board and fold them in half lengthwise with wrong sides facing, and iron them. Then open up your strip and fold eachside into the center so that you now have a 1/4" strip. I would highly recommend doing this one step at a time (fold one in half and iron, then cycle through them all, then repeat as you iron in the edges) because my poor fingers nearly got singed a few times just from touching them.

Now take the long strip you just ironed over and one of your 1/4" edging pieces. Push the edging down along the edge of your inner lining so that the lining rests in the groove of your 1/4", pining it down so that it doesn't shift on you. Then run it through the machine at a 1/8" seam, making sure to secure the ends well.

This is probably the trickiest part of the whole project- figuring out how big to make your card slots. If you need a precise measurement, then about 2 1/2" down from your fold, fold the long strip back up towards the top and iron it down. Then measure about 1 3/4" inches from that fold and fold it back down, making sure to iron that down as well. Pin the bottom fold together, because that won't be secured until the very end.
That's the technical version. What I really did was find an old ID card and put it on the fabric almost touched my edging, then folded it back up so that I had a 1/2" between the visible folds, making sure it stayed 1/2" the entire way across. Then I pressed it and put a pin in the bottom fold. Once you've done that, repeat what you did above, pushing the edging down on your inner lining and stitching down at 1/4", but with the now ironed and pinned section hanging out to the side so your upper slots will still be usable.

Repeat this three more times so you have a total of four card slots. If you're smart like me and miscounted and ran out of fabric (oops) or if you'd rather not do edging, you can also use a decorative seam to hold down the edges of your card slots. Once you have all of your slots, measure 4 1/2" over from either edges and mark down the center of your card slots. This will be your stitch guide. Remove your pins from the underside, and making sure everything lays flat, sew down the center, securing your fabric every time you pass over a fold.
And the best part? You get to do it all over again so that you can have a card slot for both sides of your wallet. Spiffy, right?

Trim both pieces down to 4 1/2". You have now finished the hardest (and longest) part of the wallet.

Putting it all together:

Pin your card slots down to your inner lining that you made earlier. Side to side, they should be a perfect fit. The bottom most edges should also match, leaving you with excess to the top. Stitch the sides and bottom down with 1/2" seam, making sure to backstitch at card slots and corners.

Remember your coin pouch? Place it on top of your larger panel of your inner lining, centering it, and making sure that the bottom edge matches with the bottom edge of your lining. Take the smaller panel and layer it on top so the bottom is lined up with the other two pieces. All of the card slots should be facing up, and the right sides should be facing. Sew 1/2" seam down the bottom edge, making sure to back stitch. I actually went over this twice to make sure it would be stable. You know have your inner panel!
For your outer panel, you will match up the two outer pieces with right sides facing and sew 1/2" seam down the bottom edge, making sure to back-stitch.
Almost there!

Point the coin purse so that there is still excess flap obove it. Then take your outer piece and lay it over your inner lining with right sides together. It could be helpful as well to pin back the card slots on the lower piece of your inner lining.

Sew a 1/2" seam the whole way around, leaving about a 4" hold for when you flip it out. Make sure to back stitch at corners. Trim the corners so that they'll be less bulky when you turn it. To turn it right side out, grab the farthest corner and slowly work it out. I promise it comes through! Push your corners out to get them as square as possible.

Once it's been flipped out, sew on your snaps 1 1/2" in from the edge, and 3/4" down. Do this for each corner, then using a hidden stitch, sew up your hole you used to flip the wallet through.

Sew 1/8" seam around the entire wallet, being carefully not to accidentally sew down your card slots.Again, back stitch. Trim any loose ends, and you're done!