Sewing is Like Riding a Bike

The other day I fixed my favourite pair of jeans. They had a couple of holes where the fabric wore away due to my thunder thighs and had become inappropriate to wear in public. I kept telling myself I’d do it, but frankly, I was in no mood to sit in the cluttered and unbearably messy spare room where my sewing machine lives. But then in a huff of productivity, I cleaned the room. I even threw stuff out! It’s still a bit more crowded than I’d like, but the floor is clear of junk and the closet can be opened and closed with nothing to stop it.

When I first sat down to figure out how I was going to fix my jeans…I was a little lost. I’d gone so long without sewing anything that I was unsure what it was I was supposed to do. Luckily, it is just like riding a bicycle. Unfortunately I had no spare stretch denim, so I used one of my prettier fabrics. I did an outside patch…because inside patches leave the ugly frayed original fabric still visible. Brandon thinks it looks silly, but luckily I’m a lady and don’t sit around all spread eagle, so no one really sees the patches. But I know they are there, and I think it looks neat!

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Things at the golf course are starting to slow down. With daylight hours shrinking by the day, all our hours are getting cut back. Even though it seems like summer had just started, already it’s getting a lot more chilly in the mornings and things just aren’t as busy as they used to be.

I’m pretty happy with this. With the autumn comes more cozy nights, comfy sweaters, and hot chocolate! Also, it means I have more time to actually cook! I’ve been doing so many closing shifts that Brandon and I have had some pretty lame meals.

Other things I’m looking forward to:

- More time to hike! We’ve done barely any this year because Brandon only has weekends off, and I’ve been working during a lot of them.

- Snowshoeing. Sure…still got quite some time before it’s actually winter, but I’m still pretty excited about starting this activity. We don’t snowboard much these past few years(the nearest mountain is a good 2-3 hour drive away), and we really want to have some kind of activity to do in the winter.

- Dungeons and Dragons!! My gaming friends have decided that we’ll be picking our older story back up ^_^

- Holiday crafting. After making nearly all our christmas gifts last year, I’m going to try to keep the momentum going. The plans are a bit more ambitious than last year, but the end results will be great!

 

 

-Roxy

Boo, Not Sleeping! Hooray, Cupcakes!!

I’ve been a little frustrated at work lately. Nothing unmanageable, but enough that my insomnia is back in full swing. To remedy this, I’ve been trying to spend a bit more time doing things that make me happy.

Last night I didn’t fall asleep until well after midnight. I’m trying not to use sleep aids unless I’m completely desperate, which last night I was. Brandon is great because he woke up without waking me so that I could get an extra hour of sleep. When I did wake, I made myself a latte, did my morning internet routine, and then made cupcakes. Somehow, I’m more productive and happier when I bake in the morning.  I just wish I had more butter so that I could make a double batch..

2 Years

That’s how long Brandon and I have now been married. Somehow, it seems as though it should be longer. Which is true I suppose, since technically we’ve been together for going on 5 years.

 

A lot of people still seem shocked when they find out that we’re married. Apparently we’re so young to be married. I find this silly since many friends of ours, if not already married, are in the process of planning it.

While the official anniversary was yesterday, we spent the weekend in Grande Prairie as a way to celebrate. Celebrations included; staying in a jacuzzi suite at the Holiday Inn, dinner at the Keg(hello lobster fest!), a tiny bit of geocaching, a walk in a park, oogling fish at the pet stores, and buying a new couch(which we won’t have for another month or so..). Brandon even had flowers waiting for me in our room for when we arrived(orchids!).

I keep hearing how the first few years of marriage can be pretty rough, but so far it’s been the complete opposite for us. Between our many overlapping hobbies and still having things we do without the other, we’ve managed to find the balance that keeps us as happy as we are.

 

^_^

Steampunk

It’s a subculture I am absolutely smitten with. Steampunk is a combination of victorian and technology. Think bustles and waistcoats meets flying citadels and automatons. The idea of living back in the 1800s has always seemed very romantic to me, except of the fact that in reality it’s no where near as glamorous as I’d like to imagine. Add to that the fantastic edgy-ness of steam power and mechanical minions, and my imagination begins to run wild.

It has now become a goal of mine to attend San Diego Comic Con. Steampunk isn’t a large focus of the convention, but some of the panels and parties that focus around it would be fantastic to visit. Even just to see some of the outfits attendees where. The fashion of Steampunk alone is amazing.

Looking around on the internet you can find tonnes of amazing creations. Just do a google search! Or check out some of these links!

 

Steampunk Iron Man

Steamed Blog

Pocket Watch on Etsy

Victorian Gown on Etsy

Steampunk Minions

Picture Heavy Adventure (with caves!)

Brandon, Michelle, and I went to the Stone Corral on Sunday. The Stone Corral is one of the very many hiking trails in the area that we hadn’t yet gone to. The nifty thing about it is that there are a couple of caves right on the trails, as well as some other nifty things.

You start off by passing through some trail that runs near a pair of small lakes/ponds. The first has a beaver lodge…though we didn’t take a picture of it.

There is a lot of devils club right along the trail and it’s nearly overgrown the trail. Nothing too spiky, but will likely cause problems if it’s not cut back soon. No one likes to have their legs filled with thorns.

A definite perk to all of the ponds and creeks is that Alita (Michelle’s dog) was able to keep pretty well hydrated. The down side was us getting mud and water all over us because dogs always shake off within close proximity to people.

The first cave! It’s called Corral cave and while not very long, is very cool. Pictures really don’t do it any justice. It was also a very great place to cool off. While there we saw another couple who apparently do quite a bit of caving.

Further along the trail was pretty easy going. It went upwards above the cave kept going until we were atop a very sheer cliff. But before then something very shocking happened.

Alita, hearing the sounds of the couple who were still below at the cave, decided she really wanted to visit with them, but going around via the trail would take far too much time. So she found a sort of crevasse and proceed to jump down about 50 feet (give or take). Of course we didn’t actually see this happen as Alita tends to scurry on ahead of us. All we heard were the gasps of shock as large dog falls from above and lands on some shrubs. The kicker in all this, Alita was perfectly fine. No bumps or scraps, and she kept right now going.

Something to note about the cliff: It is fenced off. No one fell off a mountain that day!

We stopped up top for lunch while we looked on at Castle Mountain(pictured above on the right) and were in a state of awe at how beautiful the area is.

Onward we came upon Porcupine Cave, named so because of the evidence that porcupines once lived here. Maybe they still do, luckily there were none to be seen while we were there. This cave, I did not go into, but Brandon, Michelle, and Alita did. Call me a wuss, but if I can’t just walk in, I get a little anxious.

On our way down we came to the bottom of another sheer cliff, though much shorter than the last.

The trail then started to really head down. It doesn’t look so bad in the pictures, but I was very thankful for the rope. Short legs and steepness are not a good combination.

We then completed the loop and joined back with the main part of the trail.

And then there was a very confused bumblebee who couldn’t fly, so he just walked around atop this stump.