Happy New Year // 2020

Happy New Year! I cannot believe it is the start of a new decade! I am so excited for the year to come! If anyone is still reading my blog, I am happy you are still here. I took a long and much needed break from blogging (but not from sewing). I decided I would come back and write a post highlighting some things from the last ten years.

2010 

I was at the end of my high school career. I became a big sister to my youngest brother. I started running due to sibling competition when my "little" brother challenged me to run our town's summer fun run. I liked it so much I joined the local high school cross country team my Senior year.

2011 

This was a great year! I graduated high school and started my Freshman year of college as a nursing major.

2012 

Sophomore year of college. Traveled to New York City for a mission trip over spring break. My youngest (and second) sister was born! I sewed my very first dress!

2013 

Officially started the nursing program! Spent the summer working at a German immersion camp in the health center. Kept sewing in my free time!

2014 

Second summer working as a health assistant at the same German immersion camp. More nursing school. Lots of caffeine. More sewing.

2015 

Senior year of college!!! Ran my first half marathon with a wonderful group of college friends! Lived with the best girls! Graduation!! Passed my RN license test! Started working as a nurse! Lots of family time! This was an amazing year!

2016 

Met my penpal of 15 years for the first time in real life! Started a new job at the hospital working 12 hour night shifts. Moved into my own apartment.

2017 

Took a road trip with my brother to St. Joseph, MO to see the eclipse! Road trip with my sister to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead in De Smet, SD. Trained for and finished my first full marathon!

2018 

Road trip and five day camping trip in Nebraska with my sister. Road trip with my friend from Minnesota to Texas! Ran a trail half marathon. Met my boyfriend at a barn dance.

2019 

Traveled by plane for the first time. Signed up for a trip to Italy and traveled there over my 26th birthday! Took many road trips to Kansas to visit my boyfriend. Got engaged to him on December 21st!!!

I had so much fun looking back over the last decade. I hope you enjoyed reading too! Even through the ups and downs these have been some pretty amazing years of my life. I have to say that 2019 was the best one so far and I'm excited to see what 2020 brings. Happy New Year!!

 ~Elizabeth

Happy September!

It is September and that means National Sewing Month! I have not been blogging, but I thought today would be a great day to come back. I don't have any recent sewing projects to share right now, but I will give you an update on my life since I last blogged in May. I can't believe it has been 3 months since I have blogged, but I have been busy with working and some sewing.

Here are some highlights from the past few months:

In May, I bought my first car! Car shopping was a very stressful experience, but with the help of my dad, I finally found one I liked and that seemed reliable. So far, so good! This trusty 2002 Saturn takes me to and from work and wherever else I need to go. I still need a name for it, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!

We also celebrated my "little" brother's high school graduation. This week, he started classes at a community college.

Sewing wise, I started going through my T-shirts and cut out squares for a T-shirt quilt. It's something I've been wanting to do for awhile now. Since I cut out the squares, they have been sitting in a bag in my room. Hopefully I can start sewing them together soon!

In June, two of my siblings and I ran a local community color run. It was so much fun! We were definitely full of color by the end of the race.

In July, I took the most amazing road trip to Kansas and met my penpal of 15 years. Highlights of the trip were meeting my penpal and her family, visiting things around Kansas including an underground salt mine.

I celebrated my 23rd birthday at the end of July, Jane Austen style. I had a few friends over and we played some Austen inspired games, had a tea party with cake and watched 'Persuasion'. It was a great birthday.

In August, I had fun watching the Olympics after work and cheering on some of my favorite athletes from gymnastics and swimming.

We celebrated Miss V's 4th birthday with an 'Elephant and Piggy' party a few weeks ago. I can't believe she is already four years old already!

In August, I entered eight projects in our county fair and won ribbons on each one. The two red/pink shirts in the top left photo earned blue ribbons - they are a Bimaa Sweater for Miss V and a Daytripper top for Miss K. In the top right is a Daytripper top for myself made out of sweatshirt fabric and that earned a blue ribbon. In the bottom right, Miss V's dress earned a red ribbon and my Birkin Flares earned Grand Champion. In the bottom left, my Marigold dress earned a blue ribbon, and my Diamond dress earned blue and Reserve Champion. 

A few days ago, my brother and I went to the MN state fair together. It was packed with hundreds of people, but we had fun! I tried alligator on a stick. We walked until our feet hurt, but it was worth it! It's always fun at the great MN get together!

So, that is my summer in a nutshell! I hope to be back with a sewing project soon!

~Elizabeth

Exciting News

Hello! I hope July is treating you well. Graduation has come and gone (2 months ago already!) and I spent most of June studying for my licensure exam to become a nurse. Talk about stressful! It still felt like I was in school as I was studying almost everyday. I spent those lovely days of June at the library or the local coffee shop surrounded by nursing books and answering practice question after practice question.

Every End is a New Beginning

I am a college graduate!!!!!!!!!!

Last week, I graduated college with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I'm now a college grad!! It's still hard to believe and almost doesn't seem real. I'm so excited for whatever life brings me next. I have lots of plans for sewing this summer as well as studying for and passing my state board exam. 

I will be back with my latest sewing projects soon! 

~Elizabeth

Wednesday Thoughts

Happy Wednesday! I am very tired tonight and decided to procrastinate take a break from school work and post some pictures of my sister wearing her new dress. :)

She loves her new dress and I think she looks so cute wearing it! The arms are a little tight because the pineapple fabric isn't very stretchy, but it fits and she doesn't seem to mind. I'm using the pineapple fabric for my 12 year old sister as well and I think I will cut the larger size for the sleeves so she has enough room.

Life

I am so happy that this semester is finally over!!

Hello friends! It is the most wonderful time of the year!!! I am finally finished with my seventh semester of college and will be heading home soon for a whole month of rest and relaxation! Today I thought I would do a different kind of post. Olivia, from Fresh Modesty did a similar post and I thought it was such a cool idea and gives you a little peak into my live right now. Hope you enjoy!

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Right now I am...

21 before 22

Hello!! At the end of July I had my 21st birthday! I had a wonderful day spent with my family and my parents took me out for lunch. It was very relaxing. This is also the year I started my senior year of college. Yikes! School just started a couple weeks ago, but I am already realizing the reality of my senior status. This is my fourth year of being in college now. Four years! It is all very exciting and scary at the same time. I am looking forward to what the year will bring. 

Updates and a Question

Hello, dear neglected blog!! I have missed you! Between working at summer camp, going on vacation to SD, and visiting family and friends, my summer has been really busy! I'm home now until school starts, so I have been doing a lot of sewing. Hopefully I will be able to share some of my projects with you soon!

Updates

The semester is over!!! I am done with school for the year!! I am so happy to have finished another semester of nursing school. There is light at the end of the tunnel! To celebrate I made some snow angels. The snow is so pretty here and I love going for walks and hearing it crunch beneath my boots.

 

Soon I will be spending my month long winter break at home with my family. It will be great to be home! I can't wait to bake Christmas cookies and help decorate the Christmas tree. I also have a long list of sewing projects that need to be done before Christmas.

 

 

My sisters are the cutest! Here they are wearing matching skirts that I surprised them with a few weeks ago. I found the knit fabric for $2 at the thrift store. This was the best picture I took of the two of them - my baby sister doesn't like standing still for long!

 

I am making my sisters and I Christmas dresses. They are the same fabric, but different patterns. Other gifts I'm making are the Go-To Cape for my mom, some bimaa sweaters for my baby sister, the Ethan shirt for my brother, and maybe a purse.

 

A couple weeks ago, I went Black Friday shopping at Joann Fabrics with my mom. I bought some black panne velvet and made myself another Lady Skater dress. I have yet to take pictures and blog about it.

I'm in orchestra and we have to wear all black for concerts, so it is the perfect concert dress! Here's a sneak peek - the lighting wasn't the best in the hallway where this was taken.

 

 

With finals week over, it has been so nice to relax. Tomorrow I will think about packing and then home I go! Hope you're all having a lovely December!

 

~Elizabeth

Why I Sew

Once upon a time I discovered the world of sewing. I wrote a little bit about how I learned to sew in this post, but I wanted to share a little more about why I sew. So many times I hear people say to me, "You made that? Wow, I could never sew" or "I wish I could do that." These conversations make me realize how lucky I am to have the ability to sew. Although interest is coming back sewing is a lost art in a way.

 

 

One of my first projects was the snowman quilt pictured above. Looking back, I have no idea how I got through it. Two-inch squares and triangles made for a lot of tears and seam-ripping for 11 year old me. I still have the quilt, although it's hidden in the back of my closet where I never have to look at it. The squares don't match up, the rows are definitely not straight, and I had no idea what I was doing with the binding.


It got the job done.  :-D

But even with all the imperfections I kept going. Looking back, that quilt makes me smile and brings back so many memories of learning to sew.

Sewing is a creative outlet for me. I love being creative and being able to take a piece of fabric and turn it into something useful, pretty, wearable, or comfortable. That bolt of blue denim from Jo-Ann's? It has become a skirt worn all the time. Those scraps leftover from other projects? They are now potholders used to prettify (is that even a word?) the kitchen.



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Sewing takes my mind off other things. I'm in nursing school and it can be IS very stressful. My favorite kind of study breaks include sewing.

Sewing allows me to express myself. I enjoy sewing my own clothes and that allows me to have a very unique wardrobe. I can wear something I made rather than the "normal" everyday college uniform of pajamas or sweat pants.

For me, the process of creating clothing is so much more satisfying than the process of shopping.

Finally, sewing reminds me that I'm not perfect. My little snowman quilt is far from perfect, BUT I have made progress. If someone had told 11 year old me that I would be sewing clothes and blogging, I would've looked at my quilt and laughed. My sewing now is far from perfect. My sewing will never be perfect, but I don't want perfection. I just want to make progress.
 

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Thanks for reading my ramblings! I had a bit of a rough day yesterday and I realized there's a reason for everything and God has a plan for each of us. It may not always be easy and we'll never reach perfection, but we can make progress.

 

Why do you sew? What was your first project?

 

~Elizabeth

Snow and Sewing

 

The weather in Minnesota has been interesting. It was starting to feel like spring - the sun was shining, the snow was melting and it was so warm outside! Then on Sunday night it started snowing and it kept snowing through Monday. I was so happy because all but one of my classes were cancelled, including my 8am class and my midterm was postponed!

 

I thought the snow looked so pretty on the trees and in the bluffs, so I took some pictures on my way to school.

 

 

Because of my "snow day" I took some time to start on my Covert Robin project. It's a secret, so I can't tell you what I'm making yet, but I took pictures so you can guess all you want. :-)

 

 

It was so nice to sew again! I haven't touched my sewing machine since before the semester started! There are only two days standing between me and spring break, and I plan to do as much sewing as possible!

 

Since I haven't had much time to sew, I went fabric shopping instead. :) I bought some knit from the Fabric Fairy because they were having a sale and I have been eyeing some of the fabric for a long time. I'll show you what I bought and what I plan to make with it soon!

 

What have you been sewing lately?

~Elizabeth