100th Post!

My dashboard thingy on this blogosphere says that this is my 100th blog post.  That's pretty exciting!  I don't really have anything meaty or witty or crafty to post today, but I do have a question.

What does it say about my life if this is the background picture on my phone?

No, I did not just set this as my phone background now that fall tax season overtime is upon me.  It has been there for a while. It is very fitting that roomie Steph sent me this picture, because one of her life tasks is to remind me to a) eat and b) breathe.  I tended to forget to do both of those on occasion during college...oops.  So I guess her task is, for the time being, perpetually fulfilled, considering I now see this note many, many times a day since I am, like any typical American these days, glued to my phone pretty often.  Just ask my husband.  But anyway...

What does it say about your life, routines and schedule if you need a constant reminder to...just breathe?

Tiny Quilt Squares!

You may remember the other week when Kim tore up her craft room to pass on some PIF items to me and I ended up with a bunch of fabric, ribbon and other random craft supplies for cheapo.  Well part of that was a bundle of tons of tiny quilt squares that I have been super excited about playing with and making a small quilt out of.  It also included a few yards of maroon corduroy fabric which I plan to use as backing or extra solid squares. So I have spent some time in my craft room over the past few days arranging and rearranging these little squares several different ways on the corduroy.  Here are some patterns I have come up with so far. Anywhere the maroon shows through would be a patch of corduroy.  

#1
pretty basic

#2
Currently my fave and uses up all but about three squares

#3
scaled down version of #2

#4
kinda strange...

#5
this looks cool but would be murder to actually attempt...way too many seams and corners to worry about

#6
kinda cool but I think I'd rather make square-ish patches instead of rows/rings

#7
variation of #6

Which one is your favorite?  Cast your vote. One, two, three, go.

Here is my kitty's favorite:

P.S. Just how tiny are these tiny quilt squares?

They are just 2.5 inches. That can allow a healthy quarter inch seam allowance on each side which will knock the finished size down to just 2 inches.  Yipes.  I have some precise and small scale work to do.  And I can't wait!

Confession: I Am A Real Estate Stalker

It's true.  I'm a stalker...of real estate.  It seems to run in the family a little bit...

My dad stalks rural acreage for sale, preferably with some kind of river or pretty creek on it and a nice spot for an imaginary house for him to plan in his head. No, he's very rarely in the market to buy, and some of his stalking is "research" since he is an attorney who does a lot of real estate deals. But really I just have lots of childhood memories of "Dad, this isn't the right way home"..."I know, there's a piece of real estate I want to drive by and take a look at."

My older half sister, Courtney, goes to open houses just for fun and...not so open houses.  She has walked up to houses with a for sale sign in the yard and a yard worker or maintenance man on the property, pretended to be interested and asked the worker to let them in to look around.  Or she peeks around in houses under construction before they have locks on the doors.

Me?  My concentration is stalking residential real estate via MLS listings online.

If I drive or jog by a house with a for sale sign in the yard and the house looks interesting to me, there's a good chance I'll look it up on the internet later to see what the asking price is and look at pictures of the inside of it.  I have found that kellyrealtors.com has pretty much any property listed, even if they are not the realtor representing the property.  I can search just by street name lickety split and not have to remember the exact house number.  They have good pictures too, usually more than some other sites I have tried out. Works out pretty great. 

Does anyone think I'm a dork yet?  Well, I was already a dork for several reasons long before I picked up this hobby.  Sorry.

So what houses have I been stalking lately?  An old favorite is the "Waco White House" on the end of Valley Mills Dr where it turns into Lakeshore:

It has apparently been reduced from $700,000 (yikes) to $675,000 (still yikes), if anyone is interested in it.  

Our backdoor neighbors are moving so I promptly checked out the inside of their cute yellow house when the for sale sign went up in their yard:

Anybody want to be our new neighbors?

And we passed a neat looking house on Rambler today coming back from our Back to School Bash with the youth group:

Really pretty inside and set on the edge of a ravine or draw of some sort with trees everywhere.  

No I don't want to buy any of these houses.  Any time I do, Trent always says "We already have a house..." and I assure him I just like looking at the pictures and putting imaginary furniture, decor and paint colors in that particular house.  Kinda like my dad looking for acreage next to a creek or river to build his imaginary house...  

You can imagine how totally stoked I was to actually be on a house hunt ourselves before we bought ours and I actually got to go IN some houses.  But until the future, when and if we are in the market again for another house, I'll just be plenty content with my online real estate stalking hobby.

My Sister Sarah's Snazzy San Antonio Studio Apartment

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to San Antonio this past weekend for Sauer Sisters' Reunion 2011.  This sort of unofficially replaced the beach weekend we have done the past two years, for which none of us had enough time or money this year.  So we all met up in SA, where Katy and Sarah live now.  Mom and Dad brought Abby for dinner and left her with us for a few days.  We had a grand time, and I was very impressed by Sarah's adorable, artsy, very uniquely decorated studio apartment, so much so, that I asked permission to take pictures of some details for my blog.  She then said "You think I'm the artsy one, but I don't have a blog.  Go for it."  So I got out my little point and shoot pocket camera and pretended to know what I was doing as I popped around the one room loft and snapped pictures of things that I thought were cute, cool, fantastic and so very Sarah. 

Without further ado, welcome to Sarah's apartment:

Pretty dried flowers on the freezer door

Original art at the end of the hallway

Close up of wood press relief (not sure if that's correct term) and fun insta-camera photos

Ladder to the attic/loft area

Antique fan sitting on what used to be an old refrigerator, with a cool old camera next to it

ABC of Men's Fashion and yet another cool old camera

Thread!  And a huge work lamp she's had forever.

Work desk.

Dress form for the snazzy clothes she designs, makes and alters

Typewriter on the coffee table.  Pretty sure it works.

She's the crazy plant lady in her courtyard area.  Plant shelves made with boards and old milk crates.

Patio table and chairs

When I asked her what the E is for, she said she's pretty sure it was used in science experiments.  ??

Everyone has a loom leaning on the back of the sofa, right?

Nifty industrial lights of some kind slung over the AC pipe

Abby up in the loft!  We told Sarah she should sleep up there.  She promptly reminded us that she sleepwalks...

Her very own throwing room in an extra closet for pottery making

Old radio

Close up of thread

It's a table.  And it's a radio?  Also her neat bags and boots.

Comfy bed with homemade duvet cover

Which looks straight into the kitchen!  The joys of a studio apartment.

There you have it.   Thanks for crashing Sawi's apartment with me.  Toodaloo.

CPA Pearls

When Trent and I went to Fredericksburg at the end of June to see my little sister's play, it was a week after my CPA Swearing In Ceremony in Austin.  My mom surprised me with a small gift, in a pretty white box with a sweet note.  

I opened it and found a beautiful pearl drop necklace: 

Then this past weekend when I was in San Antonio visiting my sisters, two of whom live there now, Mom and Dad brought Abby to SA and we all had dinner together at Sarah's apartment.  Mom was in Pennsylvania recently visiting Grandma and passed on a little gift bag to me from Grandma.

Pearl stud earrings to match!

So these are my CPA Pearls.  I rarely wear random jewelry.  All my jewelry, unless purchased to go with a specific random outfit, has a special meaning or was a gift.  This set of pearls is now a special addition to my jewelry collection and I love wearing them.  Thanks mom and Grandma!

Slacker

Evidence that I have been a blog slacker. An email convo with Angela:

Angela:   I need more blogs.

Anna: Yes ma'am. I have a bunch in my head, just haven't had time to post them!  It seems when your husband works for a church, so do you...

Angela: I don't want excuses!  I want to be entertained!!

Anna:  Ah!  Ok. I'll do better I promise.  Stay tuned for CPA Pearls, Tiny Quilt Squares!, My Sister Sarah's Snazzy San Antonio Studio Apartment, Carlie and The Purple Sheep Bunny...  That's all I've got lined up at the moment.

Angela: Nice. Very intriguing!

Anna: Happy to oblige my adoring fan(s?). 


Stay tuned...

iPod Pouch and PIF Items

Once upon a time, aka this past April, I knitted a camera case for my coworker, Angela, with the promise of a matching iPod shuffle case, both of which were requested last October. Epic special order fail. But finally, here is the accompanying iPod shuffle case to match:

Yay!

In other crafty news, in an effort to clean up her craft room of some now unwanted supplies and fabric, my friend Kim gave me the following PIF (Pay It Forward) items tonight, all for just $10. Whoo!

I casually mentioned that I knew she had gotten a bunch of scrap fabric in batches as PIF items from Etsy and, if there was any that came in those batches that she didn't care for, I'd take it off her hands for similar PIF prices. Well, I kind of unleashed a monster because soon she was tearing through her entire craft room, making a big mess, looking for other things I might want. When all the while, truth is, we could probably just rummage in each other's craft rooms whenever we wanted to see if there was anything we could use. Oh well. She had a grand time sorting through stuff and I sat and yessed or no-ed (noed?) things as they came flying at me.

If you are looking for fabric scraps, search PIF Fabric on Etsy. Lots of shops list PIF items that they are just trying to get rid of/pass along for just the price of the listing fee and shipping.

The little square bundle in the picture above is a stack of tiny fabric squares, already cut perfectly to size. I'm either going to have tons of fun with those or get totally frustrated trying to patchwork them because they are so small.

We shall see!