Making order

I feel like I have a million piles like that to go through right now. Random stuff, notebooks, papers, magazines. I'm just taking one at a time. Simplify, simplify, simplify. That's my motto.

Sunshine I <3 you

The sunshine came out today and somehow that always gives me energy and optimism. I completely cleaned my room...even that annoying stack of random papers on my desk now has a home and is neatly tucked away.
My ipod Hollander shed his winter coat and decided to brighten my day further with his blue-ness and lovely tunes. (yes I'm still listening to Owl City)
My favorite Bible and Donald Miller's latest book...love reading. :)

And...I rescued this awesome magazine rack from outside. It was filthy and horrid so I gave it a cold soapy bath with the hose and now it holds my catalogues which were otherwise falling all over the place. This makes me happy. :)

I also finished knitting one Alice Cullen fingerless glove. Yes...this is me knitting on 3 needles. Tricky, but I did it. :)

I didn't get a picture of the glove finished but I will soon.

But for now I must go to bed.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lazy Busy Bee

I finally took the scary plunge and cut into my vintage replica fabrics to start my flower garden quilt. This is my...third? Flower Garden Quilt. :) I'm still working on another one but I couldn't wait any longer to start this pretty one. I'm doing the pattern a bit differently so it's going to be fun!
Last week I took action and bought a planner so now my life is organized and it feels so good. :)

So why can't I be motivated today? There's a pile of sewing to be finished, my sewing room to tidy, and yet I just want to sit bundled in a blanket and read. I blame the fake snow. It's spitting snow and hale and rain and can't make up it's mind...I think that's making it hard for me to make up my mind. Yes...that's it. ;)

I hope you all are having a good Tuesday. Blazer season starts tonight so I'm of to my big brother's in a few hours to watch the game and eat pizza. :)

~Anna Kristine

hair cut and a bad day

Alright...FINALLY here is a pic of my hair cut which I had done weeks ago.

This was my hair before....NASTY. :P
After:

Yay. I love it. <3

Yesterday I had a really bad day. One of those days where you think your in a different year than you are, you hide your cell phone so well you can't find it...and spend every hour at work on the phone trying to fix problems on computers you know nothing about.

Let's just say...I was happy to get home. But I did stop by the Goodwill on the way home and picked up these lovelies:

I also got some really neat glass jars and an old vintage thread sorter to furthur help my Sewing Room organization. Which...believe it or not...IS coming along! I'm almost ready to show pictures. I'm debating eather or not to show the before pictures. I'm not sure I'm that vulnerable. It was pretty unbelievably bad.

When I finally made it home yesterday, I found two brand new TOAST catologues waiting for me to pour thorugh.

I spent the rest of the evening swooning over these, which are truly works of art. My goodness I want a better camera. Oh, and maybe be able to fly to england and do some photo shoots?

Then tucked into bed and read some beatiful poetry by John Keats. I wanted to be able to say I've read his work before going to see the movie, Bright Star, which is about him. I'm going to see it today. I'm so excited! He is amazing. I can't believe I hadn't read his work before now. New favorite. :)

My "New" Room

My sister moved and so we inherited some of her furniture and such so I snatched this table that my dad made and it now serves as a desk in my room. I now have a place to write and study. :) But in order to fit it into my room I had to do some rearranging.

My room is basically set up the same as before except I slid my bed to the opposite wall:
And now my overcrowded bookcase is beside my bed instead of at the foot. I think I need to put a shelf up in my room...my books are so crammed and my sister just gave me a ton more.

My night stand is now a plant stand at the foot of my bed.

And I finally found my little knight in shining armor...he now guards and protects my room from the top of my dresser. :)

I like my room set up this way. It's quite snug. :)

Sometimes I like to ramble...

So...I've totally gotten sucked into reading the Twilight series. (thanks to Tessa and Ella for sending the first two on the bus home with me last week, you girls are mean but I love you ;) This distraction has made me a pitiful blogger. I've reached the point today...after 1, 300 pages in 8 days...of wishing it were over. Not because I want it to end or I'm not enjoying it. but because I can't seem to get much else done. It's wretched. Yet wonderful. But I only have a few hundred more pages and I'll be done. Then I can be a really good blogger. Then I can have a real life again. Then I can not blog about how obsessive I am. That will be good.

*Deep Breath*....moving on...

So....about a month ago I said I was starting to organize my sewing room...and I still am. (How slow am I!?) But I'm really going to try to kick in gear now and get it presentable so I can show you pictures. That's my motivation because the idea of a clean sewing space doesn't seem to be helping me get it done. But it definitely does need to be done. Then I am going to make some clothes for me. :) Hopefully... ;) Not to mention my room could use a good De-clutter.

Anyway...it's probably far to late for me to be aimlessly writing all this. But sometimes I just like to ramble on about things that probably no one else cares about. So there it is. :)

Now I'm off to read a chapter...or two...or five...;) and then sleep.

Sew Organized?

I wish I could say my sewing space was as neat and inspiring as this:
But alas...it's a monstrous mess at the moment that's enough to quench my mood for sewing any day. An intervention is in process. :) I'm going to tackle a corner of it tonight and maybe a little more next week until it's finished. I'm taking before pictures but you'll have to wait to see them until I have the after pics ready. They're too shocking with out the refreshing clean picture afterwards.
Wish me luck! I hope I make it out alive! ;)

These Days

I'm all about books on tape. They are so much nicer than movies while your sewing because you don't have to watch! :) My favorite of late has been James and the Giant Peach. My favorite is the Centipede! :D

I'm also all about designing my own wardrobe. I think it's the downside of being a seamstress, you start to be more picky about clothes because you would like this sleeve with that cuff and those buttons...So, I'm going to TRY and make myself make me some clothes, and not sell them. haha I have a bad habit of selling everything. But that's good too, right?

And...I'm all about washing with baking soda...

I put about a 1/4 cup in every load of laundry along with the soap and everything comes out so fresh and clean! I'm a bit obsessed with it. :)

So anyways...I've been sewing, cleaning, and today I even made gingerbread! It almost feels like Spring today as the sunshine has come out and there's some tulips or something popping up in the garden. Yay. :)

Don't you love orderly thread?

I've been slowly working away at my sewing room getting it into some kind of order. It's not as easy as it sounds. I figure out a good place for something and then end up needing that place for something else and move it out, but eventually it will all come together. I'm just not as good at thinking orderly these days. Not sure why!

I also started a doily yesterday at Belle's house. Belle is a really amazing elderly lady who taught me to crochet. She has so many interesting stories to tell! When she was 6 she traveled in a covered wagon and she's lived through the depression and 2 World Wars. She's a pretty amazing person. And I'm rather loving my doily. I'm calling it my "Faraway Downs" doily because it reminds me of all the plants and cut outs in the Faraway Downs homestead in the film 'Australia'. You'll see what I mean when it's finished! ;) Or maybe it's just all in my head? Just like Australia is all that's in my head lately...costumes, sets, cinematography, it's all so amazing. :)

Chico (my sisters dog we're watching for awhile) is always cuddling up next to me while I'm doing hand work. But yesterday there was sunshine coming through the window and he had to go lay on the back of the chair. He refused to smile for this picture, as I disturbed his nap. (cheeky fellow!) Well, there is a hint of a fake smile there I guess....

He actually has quite large ears but whenever I take a picture of him he hides them, maybe he's self conscious? ;)

Alright...I'm off to finish up some sewing. Just thought I'd give you a few peeks into my days. :)

Quilt Squares and Jane Austen

After ironing 25 yards of muslin today I decided to do something a bit more fun. I was inspired by Pleasant View Schoolhouse's post this weekend on starting a scrap quilt so today I decided to take the plunge and the result is the neat little pile above. So blissful compared to the brambles they were before. :) But indeed, this is just the beginning. I've hardly touched my scraps. Though I did make a dent. :) It feels so much nicer to have them in even pieces. Once I get a good collection I'll start sewing them together. Mmmm....I do love order. :)

While cutting out my quilt squares we watched Emma, this was the first Jane Austen film I fell in love with when I was around eleven. I still adore it to this day. :)

Don't you love that tea cup?

Now that I've finished reading North and South....maybe I ought to read through Emma while I'm waiting for my next book club book to arrive? ;)

I think it's a good plan. :)

A Fresh Start

I've been busy all day moving all my sewing into my sister's old room (she just moved out this week). It's amazing how fresh one's room feels when it's free of anything having to do with work.
It's so free of clutter, I felt like I could finally pull out the crazy quilt "grandma" Laura made for me:

I always felt like it was too much in my busy room. But now I think it looks alright. I even have a corner free for my costume trunk:

Probably the busiest thing in my room is my wardrobe, I started covering it with pictures. But I like it that way. :) I need to go develop some more pictures so I can cover the rest of the doors and the side.
I need to make a curtain for my closet and organize my bookshelf, otherwise my room is quite tidy! It feels so nice. :)
Mum just made me a lovely cup of Prince of Wales tea (which is delicious by the way) and a home made truffle:

I'm off to a friends in a minute, but tomorrow I shall attack my new sewing room and put it all in order! I'll share pictures when that's done. :)

Flurries and Gift Giving

It's been snowing like mad the past few days. I'll confess...it's pretty. But it's sooo cold! I've been staying inside, which you'd think would give me more time to finish Christmas presents. but alas...I'm so behind.
However...here is one I finished and already gave away. YES! I'm almost on top of it! :D
I made a journal "junk book" for a friend who loves 'The Office' and tropical places.
Hee hee....scary, I know:

Then this is the back:
I scribbled/doodled all over it which was fun. haha

Now I must be off to work on the rest of the presents and clean my room.

I can't believe what a slob I've become lately. No order whatsoever...*sigh*. It drives me crazy. Normally I'm such a neat freak. Oh well, it was good to have a slob faze...but now it must end.

Don't forget to sign up for the Givaway if you haven't already!

Happy Christmas!

Organizing my Blogs

I've finally made a decision about my blogs, they've been a bit unorganized and confusing so I've decided to keep you from guessing where to go for what, I'm not going to post about sewing on this blog anymore. I'm going to keep all my sewing and anything I make to wear will belong on The Art of Clothes. Pemberley Couture will only be finished historic costumes or replicas from movie costumes, and this blog will be for all my random thoughts and a collection of photos I take through out my adventures. This blog shall be more like a journal.
So, that's my thoughts for the moment on my new blogging plan. Hope it makes things easier for you. I've just added links to my other blogs now as well so they will be easier to visit. I'm slowly getting things together!

Where I'm at Now...

Now that I'm finally caught up on sharing pictures from my England trip in October I am excited to share progress of our moving!

We're moving to England to help out with Oasis church as soon as we get everything together and sell our house! Lately mum and I have been sorting through stuff, selling some thing and giving some stuff to friends. I think the hardest is going through our fabric stash. But in a way it's nice to get off to a fresh start. I'm keeping a box full of my favorites though to see if I can get it sewn up before we leave. :)

First thing I'm working on is a wool coat. I had a wool coat on my shopping list to buy before we move and one day I found a wool blanket I used to use for Civil War reenacting, I was about to toss it in the "give away" pile when I suddenly thought..."Wool coat"!

I bought this pattern awhile back, so I am trying it out:

Here is the gray plaid wool blanket which I matched with some heavy gray fabric for the lining leftover from my Jane Bennet Housecoat : Here is another plaid wool blanket I used for reenacting I'm going to make into a coat. I matched it with some dark blue fabric left over from dad's pirate coat. I hope there's enough! This one I want to use the wool for the lining and the blue fabric for the outside. Progress so far on my gray coat:
I've also sorted through a ton of my costumes! I put a few in my etsy shop. So, you can take a look at those if your interested in any. :)

Well, that's pretty much it for now! I'll try to keep updated as we progress. :)