Guess what?! I got a sewing machine!
Whoop whoop! And guess what else?! I attempted my first sewing project! In the wonderful world of pinterest, I came across
this tutorial. Pretty sweet messenger bag I would say. However, I'm not a huge fan of the leather belt strap, so I made my own strap from the material I used.
Disclaimer! This is my
fiiiiirrrsssstttt official project so don't hate on my not so straight lines! K thanks. :)
Let's start off with the material!
All nice and cut and ready to go! The stripes are going to be the outside and the chevron is the liner.
(BTW, this isn't a tutorial. You can check out the blog I got this from for specific directions.)
This bag has a magnetic clasp. However, she doesn't really go into any detail how she does the clasp. She does give a link to a good tutorial, but you will have to probably figure out where the magnetic clasp is going to go before you put the whole bag together, since you will have to reinforce where you put it for stability.
Anywho! So this is my first zipper! Not to shabby for the first one I'd say. And it's going to be on the inside of the bag.
And my first zipper pocket! Its a wee bit difficult to make the zipper stay in place…You could probably pin or use some scotch tape.
And then I made my other zipper! After this, the majority of the more difficult parts are done. Except the magnetic clasp can be a little annoying but no sewing is involved.
Bam! Now that one looks much better! And I did opposite fabric because I think it looked a little better.
NOTE: In the tutorial, the lady had her pocket width at 9", however I made mine 10" so it would more so cover up the 9" zipper. You can also make the pockets a little deeper if you wish.
After this I added my magnetic clasp! I probably should have added the other half as well, but it's a little difficult to make sure its going to line up PERFECT. The next bag I make, I may just oust it since the flap is already pretty long. It's still debatable.
And theeeeeeen I added my flap!
It's looking so swell! However I added my flap incorrectly ha. Shh! I was supposed to attach it at the smaller end. I fixed it enough to were I didn't have to redo it later. Which is good since I didn't want to basically start from the VERY beginning.
And then I inserted the lining!
And then I made my own strap! I made it extra long so I could make sure I made it at the length I wanted. You can always cut the fabric, but it's harder to make it longer. This was a bit of a pain though because I sewed it first inside out and then I had to flip it right side out and the, iron it and sew it one more time.
Last but not least….The final product!
Doesn't it just look so pretty?! I'm going to make another one, except all of it correctly, ha, except a little bit bigger so I can use it as my new church bag! Yay! Anyway, its not too bad for my first attempt at this messenger bag. Anyone can sew. You probably won't be perfect at first, but that is the beauty of practicing and working at it until you are super good and making everything! :)
Peace & Love
But we love her! Scott tries to win her affection with food. I still
think she’s upset for ditching her for 3 weeks during the wedding fiasco. (I
ditched her with a friend but she would have froze in Utah!) She doesn’t meet me at the front door when I come
home from work as often. Sad day…
Monday night after we got the supplies, I found my crayons and took the paper off every shade of green I had in my box. Only 5 colors though. I couldn't find my little tee light candles so I just found a normal one. Bad idea. Tee lights work the best because you don't want to dip the crayon directly into the flame or else it will blacken the crayon and you won't get the pretty vibrant color! I was getting frustrated with the black crayon spots, so I put up my protects until I could find my other candles. Last night after my pottery class I was still feeling pretty crafty, so I whipped out my project! And my hubby found my tee light candles! 
My final product! I didn't feel like covering the entire thing with crayon (though it would have been pretty sweet) but that takes a lot of effort..and if you do what I did, you may want to consider painting a base coat before you start melting so the spots that are wood would be a matching color to the crayons. It's up to you really. I think it looks pretty cool! And Scott wants it for his office! Funny thing though.. He's color blind to the color green. So he doesn't really know how awesome it looks! But oh well. I love it! 
First of all, who doesn't like salsa, am I right? I mean like come on. There are a bazillion different kinds of combinations you could throw together to make a scrumptious salsa exactly to your liking! Sounds great, right?
Here is what you will need:
(Remove seeds and membrane of the jalapeño for a milder salsa. You may also substitute fresh mint for fresh cilantro.)
I'm just going to take a
minute to express how completely adorable my little nephew is!
His name is Eli and he just turned one last month. I kind of stole his thunder
and decided to get married on his birthday. (my
sister wasn't too happy about that one) I also missed his birth because
I decided to go to Portugal with some friends. Oops! But that was then
and this is now! And I get to love the heck out of him! 
So this past weekend, the hubby and I went down to Tucson to see the fam and
because Scott was going to help my dad and Adam (brother-in-law) put some solar
panels on the roof! While this was happening, I took a nap. Then played with
Eli! My dad pulled this wagon out of nowhere and we all at some point pulled
Eli around the house. At one point, I hopped in the wagon with Eli and Scott
pulled us all around! We also went and explored the backyard. I was on baby
protector duty. We have 2 dogs at my parent’s house. Both are pretty big. I
would say somewhere around 70 lbs? One of them likes to lick anything and
everything. This also means the baby. And you could probably imagine how scary
that might be for a mini person, sitting in a wagon, at eye level to the dogs
face! So I had to keep the pups away; mostly their tongues and noses.
Entertaining nonetheless! 
I also stole Eli for a little bit and took him on a wagon ride! At first,
for some reason, I decided to take him out on the street without any shoes. Not
the best idea. My feet are definitely not used to little rocks and pokey’s like
they used to be when I was a kid. Eventually we came back and had a water break
and I put my shoes on. We went up the hill at the end of the street, over some
speed bumps, around the cul de sac, and around the corner to another street,
stopping at a stop sign (Eli loves, I mean LOVES signs;
especially the light up exit signs and stop lights. He will instantly love you
if you pick him up so he can touch the sign.) So naturally I picked him up and
let him bang on the sign before I put him back in the wagon and turned around
to start back home. 
Funniest thing! ha! (sorry sister!) So when I was pulling Eli down the street, naturally people have pets. Dogs are most common to be outside, obviously. So anyway, we were just strolling on the sidewalk when, BAM! 2 medium side dogs run to the little front yard gate fence thing. At first were quite and then waBAM, started barking. And boooooyyyy did that scare Eli! Don't worry, he only cried for a little bit. But it was still a little funny and cute all at the same time.