the goose loves tuesday's ten

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Tuesday's Ten! I know there is no shortage of clever daily alliteration style posts, but I also know that this blog isn't the most original in the world (are any blogs ever original?), so I'm happy to join the trend.

Besides trying to make it with the "in" crowd, starting a post of this style is an ambitious step toward getting more thoughts out of my head and onto the figurative paper. It will also encourage me to go with a more personal and conversational style, rather than just blogging projects and recipes. Those will come too, though, never you worry.

So here goes 10 thoughts for Tuesday night. In no particular order. With plenty of puppy.

1. On any given hour of most given nights, you'll find Bentley like this. Except maybe with a blanket sometimes. And every half hour or so, he gets up, walks over to the wall, and slumps down against it to cool off.

2. If I ever have energy after work again or can find enough time on the weekends, I'll actually make good progress with the project for which I'm using all these beautiful fabrics.

3. Our Valentine's weekend (two weeks ago) was spent on a much needed bedroom makeover. And our outside patio looked like this for much of Saturday and Sunday. If only I can get the finishing touches done, I can show you all the new beauty.

4. Right this instant, as we (at least until Billy fell asleep) watch a marathon of "Party Down" episodes before they are no longer on Netflix, Bentley is sleeping between Billy's legs, with his head resting on Billy's cushy rear end. A cozy spot? I wouldn't know.

5. In less than two weeks, I'll escape from work to enjoy a beautifully long weekend with Billy and the girls in Hood River, OR. Even though it won't be quite this sunny, it'll be wonderful to enjoy my first vacation days this year. And when your work weeks are 90+ hours, vacation sounds completely luxurious and cannot come soon enough.

6. After tomorrow, it'll be March. And 17 days after that, it'll be St. Patrick's day! Which means two things, really - I should get out my Irish/Scottish decor (and print off the free printable below) and I should start running, since I'm signed up for the 8K at the Shamrock Run on March 18. Ready, go.

7. My dog is obsessed with food. And maybe we aren't super good puppy-parents about disciplining him. But look at those eyes! This was yesterday night, when I was eating a bowl of cereal. He decided that sitting next to me on the couch was not quite close enough to the Cheerios, so he wrapped himself around my neck, scarf style. But that's okay - he's the cutest and warmest scarf I own.

8. Last December, I attempted making a dress like the one below. It was going great until I realized that the bodice should be more 3D instead of 2D, if you get what I mean. (My dad reads this, you know.) But I have the material for Round 2, and I'm ready to tackle this once and for all. After I get to those other things, like sleeping and eating and playing with Bentley.

 9. Once I make the lace dress above, I'll need some hot shoes like these to go with it. And then I just need somewhere fancy to go...

via

10. Well Christmas and New Years quickly passed before I got a chance to send out some holiday cards. Luckily, I generally got them together in time for Valentine's Day, which was a perfect excuse to remind our friends and family that we love them. I'll get those up here eventually, but for now, I'll leave you with one of the "outtakes" from our little photo shoot, done with world-renowned photographer Carolyn.

Congrats for getting through my first Tuesday's Ten! Come back next Tuesday for even more fun, maybe with less words next time.

the goose loves l-o-v-e pillows

Boo! I'm back!

You thought I was gone for good, huh. But not so. I was just on an extended hiatus. Pesky things like work and cooking and cleaning and walking the dog have gotten in the way of posting fun projects and tasty recipes and poorly-taken photos.

But even if I've been slacking in the posting department, I certainly haven't been slacking in the making department. I've been sewing things, building things, baking things, cooking things, and beautify-ing things. And slowly checking items off my 25 for 25 list. Emphasis on slowly.

But here's one for the sewing and "make from pinterest" categories. A few weeks ago, I saw this adorable pillow on the crafty blog UCreate - full tutorial here.



via

That weekend, I was in sewing mode but not ready to take on the full bedroom makeover project, so I decided to whip up a pillow that could live in my soon-to-be-beautiful bedroom.

The best part of this project (and what makes many projects just terrific) is that I had all the supplies on hand. Old ugly pillow that came from the couch and made with both leather and suede? Check. Cheerful green home dec fabric in enough yardage? Check. (It's Amsterdam in Chartreuse) Enough felt in a coordiating color? Check. About two dog-free hours? Well no, but it worked out anyway.

The project was super easy - just a basic envelope style pillow cover, cut out letters (I just drew letters on paper, cut them out, pinned them to felt, and cut.) I almost didn't have enough fabric, so my pillow sticks out a little in back. But who looks at the backs of pillows anyway?

In the tutorial, the letters were sewn on with embroidery thread in big stiches, which looked super cute. But I do my best to avoid threading needles and sewing in the old fashioned way, especially when it means that it'll take me another 30 minutes to finish. So I just ran the pinned-down letters through the machine, sewing along all sides in white. For the heart "O" I used a decorative stitch, which looks sweet.

It was an enjoyable afternoon and it felt good to just get a project done. Now if only I could finish the room makeover that quickly...