It was snowing. I did sewing!

(And there was much rejoicing!)

So, as I'm sure all of you who live in the United States know, the East Coast got slammed with a blizzard over the weekend. Which resulted in 17" of snow where I live, which easily ranks it as one of the biggest snowfalls in my lifetime. (Big snows are kind of unusual here--usually the big ones we get are the kind that happen from freak March snowstorms that melt away quickly. Needless to say, my state's been kind of shut down over the last 3 days.)

This was the view from my new bedroom's window this morning, after a day to melt away. What I did yesterday was to stay indoors in my pjs all day, I drank lots of tea, watched Julie & Julia with my mom, and SEW!!
This was the result--I got a large portion of the top of my bedspread quilt sewn together--basically spent the whole day cutting and sewing in those light tan strips, with my mom kindly talking me through the best way to do it. I still have quite a bit of work to do on it--I need to sew the tan strips down the side, and then add borders to make it bigger. (Actually, I need to add 2 borders, because after laying it out on my bed last night to test the size, I realized I'm going to have to add another 5" all around to get it to cover all the way to the floor like I'd wanted. But I talked to my mom about it, and she thinks I can squeeze a second border out of the fabric I have if I add a strip of the "sashing" fabric in between the two borders. Hopefully that'll leave me enough to do the binding.) And then I need to put the batting and backing with it, and then quilt it, and then sew the binding on! But I think this is going to be a good project to get my sewing mojo back, since it involves lots of straight lines and no fitting (and by the time I'm finished it, I'm sure I'll be itching to sew something I can wear again!)

It's also high time I actually posted my other two somewhat recent sewing-ish projects.

#1, remember this computer chair that I got at Goodwill for $10? (Second picture down.) One reupholstery job, a fresh coat of paint, and -4 wheels later (with the wheels, the chair wouldn't fit under the desk, unfortunately), this is what it looks like.

I think it's an improvement! And so does my backside, since the new foam is 1" thicker and much more dense than the original cushion. (I do have to keep a pillow on there to lean my back against, which completely clashes, but it's out of Yellow Submarine fabric which is way too cool to cover up, so I've decided I don't care if it doesn't match in this case!)

#2, which may be one of the geekiest things I've ever stuck up here. A couple of months ago, some friends of mine invited me to do a D&D-style game with them, based off of Star Wars. Which meant that I needed to get myself a set of those funky multiple-sided gaming dice, and something to keep it in. And of course I'm not going to buy a dice bag when I could easily sew one within 2 hours!
Which I did. It would have taken less, except I decided to get all fancy and make it fully self-lined with no exposed seams. But at least I finally found something to do with this nice fat quarter of Celtic knot-printed fabric! Part of it, anyway. (Incidentally, we were supposed to play our third round on Saturday, but decided to postpone it due to the bad weather. Yes, go ahead and say it... I'm a geek. I'm ok with that.)

the art of procrastination

So as of today, there are only nine days left until my brother's wedding. And I've been on limited crafting time this week, between work and social stuff that's popped up (my best friend from high school is in town with her husband and two kids, so I went over to her parents' house last night to catch up with her, and then my best friend now stopped by tonight). No, I don't have a picture of the dress yet. So really, other than a little bit of time spent on it tonight, the only day I had this week that I could have worked on finishing the wrap was Monday, since it took me a good bit of time on Sunday to get the buttonhole figured out (for one half. I still have one half to go as of tonight. Including basting the interfacing onto the velvet.)

So do you think I sewed on the wrap on Monday? Nooo... I did this.
This pile of wood is my computer desk, completely disassembled. I hope I can get it back together all right... I don't have a picture of what it looked like all together originally, but I did take pictures of the different pieces and components before disassembling them the rest of the way/removing the hardware that was left. (My dad had already taken it apart a bit.) So it took me several hours, but I got the whole thing sanded. And pretty much by myself--I did have to get my dad to help me with one particualarly difficult screw (which was not my fault, whoever originally put it together did a crappy job that resulted in chunks being taken out of the particle board, which is the main reason I absolutely have to paint it. Because we had to fill those in with some kind of construction goop.)

So now I can say the room is officially started, even though my brother won't be moving the rest of his stuff out until after his honeymoon. I even bought my paint yesterday, and made a date with two of my friends who volunteered to come over and help me paint. (Without my even asking them to. I have good friends.)

Also, though I'm procrastinating on getting a picture of the dress (due to bad lighting and a horribly messy current bedroom), I did finally get a picture of my hutch thingy. (The top is a little messed up-- the finish was chipped pretty badly, so that got some preliminary sanding.)
And then this is a closeup of the doors. I know it's a little bit country looking, but I do like the hinges and hardware a lot on this! It's kind of earthy, which fits in my rather nature-inspired room very well. (I just have to figure out what color I'm going to have to repaint them... I don't think they're going to work with it as is after I paint it white. I'd debated leaving it the natural color, but since the main flat surface was messed up anyway...)

On a somewhat related note, I found this quiz courtesy of Salinda. According to it, my decor style is "global casual".

Your home is warm and inviting, and expresses your curiosity and zest for life. You have wide-ranging interests, and an appreciation for many different cultures and ways of life. You bring a sense of the far-flung world into your home through its décor through unique or artisan-made treasures. Objects in your home tend to reflect your personality, your passions, your values, and your eclectic interests. This gives your home a sense of intrigue and comfort.

You value creativity. You are stylish and fun loving, and can be an inspiration to others. You have a natural sense of drama, and you know you have to be willing to take risks—whether with colors, finishes, furniture choices, or ideas—for your home to stand out. Your home can be happy and lively and the place all of your friends want to be.

I thought it was pretty accurate, actually! And a nice way to not go with the cop-out of "eclectic".