Quit Slackin' and Make Shit Happen

Last week I packed up my ish, woke up at 11:30pm California time and headed out for an early flight back home. It was weird going back home because I am so used to North Carolina, that I forgot what it was like to live in California. I haven't been home for 8 months, which I cannot believe. My husband would literally go years without seeing his family, and I always thought that if I ever had the chance to hoof it cross country, I'd probably come home every 3-4 months at least. Well, now that I have a job, and I'm in school full time, and I have two pupperonis that need loving, I realize how hard that realistically is. Not to mention the $650 price tag that comes with flying from our teeny New Bern airport into Los Angeles.

Anyways, I had a grand old time. I miss my family, I miss my nephews, I miss the weather. Running every morning and not being covered in a fine layer of sweat was bizarre. I was actually cold a few mornings, and I haven't felt that for months.

My sister has had a chalkboard on her wall for a while, and she was patiently waiting for me to return home so I could decorate it for her. I've never decorated a chalkboard before ever, and I was surprised how easy it was.

I have to say, the hardest part about creating this chalkboard was finding the perfect quote. We googled and were on Pinterest for some time. We didn't want a seasonal one (which is what the majority of them were) because I don't know when I'll be going back, so I finally found a tutorial, and a free printable, and we were set! Here is the website I used to get the printable, and here is the website that I used the tutorial from.

If I had to do this all over again, I'd...

1. Do no use the chalkboard markers to create your grid. Trust me on this. Or you'll spend hours erasing the little tiny lines with a magic eraser. Use a piece of chalk to create the grid.

2. Screw the math that girl tries to explain. Take the width of your chalkboard, say it's 48", and divide is by 8 - the answer isssss SIX! So your boxes across should be 6 inches apart in the width. Then take the length, say 96" divide by 8 and you have 12. So each box should be 12 inches apart lengthwise. This makes WAY more sense to me than the math equation in that tutorial.

3. Stick to the grids! I went a little cray cray and did some free handing, and I think that the spacing is off.

And that's it! I currently have 8 windows in my garage that are screaming for me to paint them and write seasonal things on them. So I must be off. : ) 

Full Time Life

Well. I am writing this blog post as I sit in my backyard in a mismatch bikini (aztec print brazilian bottoms with a peacock halter top...) with chipped nail polish and my hair looking like a rats nest (it has not seen a brush in many many days.) Do you have that visual? Good. I'm a hot tranny mess. Actually, I'm more than a hot tranny mess because at least they put some effort into their looks.

I thought I would give you these visuals so you can see where I've been the past few months. My life consists of waking up at 5AMish and running 5 miles, working all day, then coming home and doing my homework all afternoon. These are not exaggerations, I was stretched to the max these past few weeks so much that I spent one lovely evening crying over independent and dependent variables. I'm currently taking classes to become an elementary school teacher and everyone assured me they'd be the easiest classes ever. They are pretty easy, but so time consuming. What also doesn't help is that I'm a perfectionist. To the extreme. I currently have a 99% in my science teaching class, and I was stressing over the final... I'm trying to learn how to balance things but its been so long since I've been in school full time and had to work. I love being busy, I love being stressed out (you heard me.) This stress helps me get shit done on point! So this is my first and last post bitching. You heard it! Last time! I just wanted to let you all know where I've been these past few months.

Anyways! On to some crafting! One of my girlfriends is having a bambino, and of course I had to make a baby blanket! That's my MO when it comes to babies, they all need blankets. Shit, I'm 26 and I still have one! ;)

This little bambinos madre loves Russian stacking dolls! Thank god she was so helpful picking out fabric because I have such weird taste in fabrics I'm always worried someone will hate something I make for them. So Megan! I appreciate the help! You have no idea! I bought the fabric off Etsy, it was special and made out of organic cotton so it's very soft! The backing is actually minky! It doesn't look that way because it doesn't have the raised dots, but it's minky! I mostly love the ruffles I added on! Those ruffles you can buy premade at Hobby Lobby, they come on a huge spool and are sold by the yard. I originally bought it for a skirt I've yet to make so I felt like I didn't want my money to go to waste, and used them up! 

This blanket is a little different than the ones I've made in the past for a variety of reasons...

1. No binding around the outside. My nephews had a blanket with binding and it ripped off and of course my nephew was wrapping the excess around his neck like a crazy child!

2. No inside layers! Baby blankets are meant to be thrashed. They'll be washed, spit up on, poo'd on. Everything. If you add a lining it will eventually break away and crumple up in the corners ruining your blankie.

3. Hand drew the letters. I usually print out letters, copy them, trace them, blah blah blah. I like to think I have decent handwriting so I hand drew those letters and they're perfect!

3. Ruffles! So. This blanket is made very basically in the style of sewing the right sides together and turning everything inside out and sewing it closed on one side. The first step I did was sew the ruffles in. I wish I took a picture, but I was so in the zone I couldn't stop! So how I sewed in the ruffles was by placing the side of the ruffles I wanted to show on the inside of the two right sides of fabric facing in. Does that make sense? So I placed the two right sides of fabric together, and then placed the ruffles sandwiched in the middle... I had the edge that is not ruffled sticking out the edges of the fabric. Then I sewed a straight line connecting all the fabric. Turn inside out and BAM! Beautiful! Hope this helped! :)

In other happy news! I've been hanging out with friends a lot. There were some free days where I threw my homework out the window and went straight for the beach!

We went down to Pine Knoll Shores and it's beautiful! Parking is horrible, of course, so Dustin dropped us off to go find parking. Of course I wanted maximum sun exposure so while I was waiting for him to get the car, I was sunbathing on the street! :)

This is my best friend here, who happens to have the same name as my husband. Dustin. We call him D1 because he's older, and prettier. His words! He is such a character and I swear my time in the Carolina's would be miserable without him!

Oh! And my man friend Dustin? He gone! He's in 29 Palms flying around and being masculine. He's become a crew chief, what does that mean? Yeah, I had to ask too. The helicopters don't have rear view mirrors, HA, so he sits in the back of them and let's them know if its clear to turn. I told him he's a real life wingman... He also shoots some rather large gun out the side. Sounds safe right? Ughhhh.

I've also been practicing twerking. I have video of myself but I'm much too embarrassed to show it. At work I've created a twerk team and we twerk at random times. They told me I could make a video. I'm just waiting on some ideas...

Here's me getting my twerk on in my friends gear!

I have three glorious weeks off, one of which will be in my home state of California! I'm so excited to see everyone, but most of all my nephew. Those kids are my babies! I miss them so much. Hopefully I'lll be around a bit, if not, leave me hateful comments so I come back to respond to them! :)

-Gidgie