What Ana Does

Here's the best way to spend a weekend morning:  Fill a table with cookbooks, back-issues of magazines you haven't read yet, your grocery list, your weekly menu planner, to-do notebook, plenty of tech so you can check in with social media and listen to music, and a hot cup of coffee (with lots of milk). Don't forget to throw in a soft blanket and send the kids away on a sleepover.  Then, simply bask in the glory of Me time.  

There's about 3,000 different ways to hang a gallery wall on Pinterest. The tips include using laser-levels and cutting cardboard/craft paper -- hanging those first to figure out positioning. Awk. Well, I am not in it for the precision. I like the casual feel of hand-arranged frames on a wall. If I attempted to measure and make it uniform (like I did on the record album wall), any irregularity would drive me nuts-o. Before: A Newly-White Wall So here's what I do: start on one side of the wall and hang the big frames first. I attempted to make them about the same distance apart, but I just eyeball it. I do use a level to make the frames straight -- I'm not that sloppy. Then I fill in with the smaller frames. The key is to use the same black frame/white matte combo. Then they look cohesive no matter how they are hung. After: A Wall of Growing Girls, With Room For More I ordered a bunch of newer photos to add to the wall in an 8x10 size. So I'll be f...

I finished Leo's comic quilt in record time this week ... could it be because of my new sewing machine??? What I learned on this quilting project: - Cut straighter and sew a little further from the edge and you won't have to fix up any holes between squares later on. Duh, right? - I rocked the mitered corners ... well, all except one. - I machine-stitched in-the-ditch instead of hand-quilting. It felt like cheating but I really like the result.  So nice to feel I'm improving, even if just a little. Off to the next project ....  Related posts: Other quilting projects

Me and My Honey 2003 First, let's flashback to the Christmas of 2003. I was dating THIS guy and out of now where he buys me a Singer sewing machine as a gift. I don't recall ever hinting about wanting one or pointing it out at Target. I really don't. So I was pretty darn surprised when I opened it up. I mean, what BOY buys a GIRL a sewing machine? So, obviously, I married him. Meanwhile, I learned all that I know on my new machine, creating a ton of projects from kid's clothes to curtains. It was dependable, light and very simple to use. And one of my favorite all-time Christmas gifts. Thank you, honey! Opening My Singer So, flash forward to this weekend and my Singer of 12 years throws in the towel, just as I was about to start the quilt for baby Leo. Jammed gears and no ability to reverse join the tension control that gave up months ago. I consult my Mom and she concurs, it's time for a new machine. Oh joy! A few years ago in New Jersey I took a ...

Here are a few things that are making me happy today ... - I'm eating up all this news about Fifty Shades of Grey . The good and bad reviews are fun to read. I say YAY to big Romance movies, I'm tried of bloody violent superheroes. (Though, no, I haven't seen it yet.) - The Oscars are this weekend. I love the glamour and ditz of the red carpet and a live awards show where movie stars mingle. (Though, I love the Golden Globes a lot more.) - In social media news, I started following hotdudesreading on instagram and @RealCarrotFacts on twitter and they make my day with every update. - Also on Social Media, my favorite characters from the Raven Cycle series have twitter accounts and I'm following them and-they-are-following-me-and-that-all-kind-of hurts my brain a little. Are they REAL? (heh) - The highlight of my weekend might be replacing my sewing box and reorganizing all the tools therein. Craft boxes are on sale at Michael's right now.

I can't seem to stop buying HATS this winter. This new one fits little Alice's head ... and her personality. It's all about the hats this season, folks.  Bus Stop Gal and Her New Cap Related posts: More shopping stories

Well, the two quilt projects I've been working on all month are done and ready to get to their respective baby boys. Though they are both far from perfect, they're as good as they're going to get. In this quilting thing, I like how the work is segmented: First, is the creative part where you organize and plan the quilt. I like putting the pieces together and attempt to make them "make sense." It's satisfying to pick a theme and see it go from yards of fabric to a cohesive (mostly) unit. This part taxes my brain a little, as there's no clue that I'm done, it's just when I feel satisfied with what I have laid out in front of me. The second part is construction; sewing those pieces together. Something always goes amiss at this step and I'm usually reworking some part of the quilt. For example, I don't sew the rows perfectly straight, or I've cut crooked or I'm not sewing tight enough and holes emerge between the squares. Sigh. ...