ABCs

Remember those plastic alphabet letters you had as a child?

I decided to make a soft version out of felt for my youngest niece, who's turning one this month. This was a really fun project! I chose felt in teal, purple, and pink, and sewed a magnet inside each letter.

I started by printing out each letter of the alphabet, using Arial Black font, size 220. Then I cut out each letter and traced it on to my felt, using a fabric marking pen or chalk. I then cut out a square of felt around the letter and sewed around my outline, slipping the magnet inside before sewing the letter closed. If you're using a metal bobbin, you want to be very careful that the magnet does not pull your bobbin out of place while sewing and tangle your thread. Try to keep the magnet as far away from the bobbin as possible while sewing. I found it helpful to pin it in to a corner so it wouldn't move around.

After that, I carefully cut around the edges of the letter, again minding the magnet so it didn't stick to my scissors and cause a crooked cut.

I also made a drawstring bag to hold all the letters.

Monster

I had a request for a black and red monster...

Can you guess which sports team the buyer roots for?

Baby Gifts

While many of my friends are busy making babies, I've been busy making baby gifts.

I made this reversible blanket for my sweet friend Abby, who's expecting a little boy any day now.

And this bib and blanket set are for a friend's little girl. I love the leaf print...so much so that I stocked up and bought it in three different colors. Luckily, all were on clearance for $1.99 a yard! I think it's a pattern that works well for adult or baby. I actually snagged the pink out of another customer's shopping cart (with her permission, of course). She had plans to make scrubs with it.

Digging Yourself a Hole

When I was in elementary school I tried to dig a hole to China under the jungle gym on the playground. The only part of this story that Zach seems to think is funny is that I tried to do it by myself. I don't know why he's surprised by that....

Here's a little preview of our current home improvement project:

Did we spring another leak? Has Zach gone Caddyshack on an annoying gopher? You'll have to wait and see....

Humphrey the monster

Meet Humphrey, the newest addition to my Etsy shop...

Humphrey's a little disagreeable. I think he's just insecure about his uni-brow.

Hot Water Heater

Our house turned 26 years old this year, along with the hot water heater. Although still heating pretty well, it was far from efficient. Our high gas bill was proof of this. So when we heard about the Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate Program this past spring, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to replace our hot water heater.

Our water heater is in an interesting location. It has it's own little closet on the exterior of our house, about 4 feet up from the ground.

Before

Zach removed the old water heater and prepped the space. First, he insulated the interior of the closet and sealed everything off with silicon caulk. The kitchen pantry shares a wall with the hot water heater closet, and this has helped quite a bit to keep the heat out and the pantry cool. 

The old water heater didn't have a pan, and the plywood platform it was sitting on had rotted over the years from small drips here and there. Zach ripped out the plywood and reframed the base before adding a new platform.
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We upgraded from a 40 gallon to a 50 gallon size and our friend Shiva (Z: the manliest man this side of the millenium) came over to help Zach lift the water heater up in to the closet. They got creative and built a platform to make the job easier. I stood by ready to call 911 in case anything went awry.

After

On the surface, it's not the most drastic transformation, but we've really noticed a difference in both our gas bill and the extra hot water the new heater provides.

Free Four Star Dinner and Other Anniversary Surprises

Z: I've been working on a few time intensive carpentry projects such as a custom craft table and wall shelves. Essentially these were Sarah's anniversary gifts, but I still wanted to give her something with that romantic lovey-dovey quality attached. I used a short birch log that we already had, cut one end square so it could stand, and then carved our names with a heart around them. You would think that means that we love each other, and you would be correct. Since this is a common symbol, and I think I'm too good for common, I had to make it a bit more unique by adding our anniversary date and three hashmarks to count off our third anniversary. The "Special Edition Commemorative Anniversary Branch" as I'm calling it will serve to record our time together as we add a hashmark to it every year. Cue the marital bliss.

S: Wednesday night for dinner we went to Jeffrey's in downtown Austin. We started our meal off with an appetizer of crispy oysters and complimentary gruyere cheese bread. The manager stopped by our table to greet us and our waiter was friendly and attentive, making sure we had whatever we needed. For the main course, Zach ordered quail and I ordered BBQ shrimp. Just as I was about the start eating, I spied  something long, black, and curly in my dish. Yep, it was a hair. Our waiter was very apologetic and offered us a complimentary dessert. Then about half way through our entree the waiter came back and let us know that my entree would be taken care of as well. For dessert we ordered ice cream sandwiches made with homemade banana ice cream and vanilla wafers. By this point I was stuffed but I managed to eat two ice cream sandwiches. Pleased with the service, and satisfied with our meal, the waiter brought us our check, which came to a grand total of.....$0.00!