chimesblog

Okay. I don’t often use my blog as a soapbox for political issues. But this has to do with something I cannot tolerate: HATE.

It makes me sick to think in a state / city in which gay marriage is legal that a sign like this would exist:

Now think about this: How is that sign any different from this sign that was recently in the news?

Feel free to discuss. The backstory is that this sign (the top one) was put up, then the pastor received threats to himself and family so he replaced with “Adultery is not okay.” And according to a source who is friends with the pastor, the church’s Facebook page (which no longer exists) was hacked and extremely hateful messages were sent out to people.

I’m not sure what to believe, but my main concern here is the sign situation. How were EITHER of these signs deemed acceptable by anybody in our society today? Haven’t we moved past this? Or do we consistently have to have a group to hate and scapegoat? Or is it just human nature to dislike things that are “different”?

What do you think?

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Guys … guess what? My stuff is in the ArtVend machine at Wheatsfield.

See that? Super cool! 40% of the proceeds go to support  local art.

[ you should go buy one of my zippy bags ]

[ here are some of my other zippy bags that aren't in the vending machine ... in case you're curious ... they are on my etsy shop ]

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I mentioned before that one of my best friends is having a baby in February. So her sister and I put together a baby shower for her at the beginning of the month. We used a lot of stuff from the Martha Stewart Book Baby Shower for inspiration and for artwork for invites and such. I edited the colors to match our scheme a bit better and a laid out the invites a lot nicer. Here is the invite:

And Adria had somebody in her boyfriend’s family make a delicious cake. She matched the decoration to the invite! How cute.

Audry, Adria’s sister went a little overboard with the whole thing, but it turned out absolutely beautiful and everybody had a good time. Here’s the table decorations. FLOWERS. Yes. Flowers. Not stupid rattle confetti. Lovely!

And of course, Adria got a lot of loot. She likes loot.

One of my other besties from back home, Stephanie, brought her little girl with. I haven’t seen her daughter, Bella, since she was brand spankin’ new. She was a lot of fun and super friendly. She helped me take pictures!

Here’s Stephanie, Bella, Adria and me at the party. I don’t remember the last time we were all together … oh wait. It was January 2010 and Stephanie was pregnant!

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The Craft Saturday Holiday 2011 show is THIS SATURDAY from noon-6 at the Fourth Street Theatre in Des Moines.

I will be there. And so will my new wallets. And all my old stuff will be on SALE. Major sale. Clearance. I want to get rid of it to make way for new stuff. So that means awesomely cheap holiday gifts for you!

[new wallets for $30 each — $35 on etsy]

Besides that, there are going to be a TON of awesome vendors there. Check out the vendor preview page. I know I am planning on getting some things from these fabulous vendors. Bean and the Sprout will be there, so will JuneCraft and Florence Oliver.

I hope to see you there!

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A while back I talked a bit ’bout making new wallets. The first one was cute, but not what I wanted.

Well, I sketched and sketched and put together another few before I finally got these down. And I had two days this week between jobs (I’m unemployed for 2 whole days! whoopeee!) so I got to sewing.

Introducing my new and improved wallets!

PS the one in the middle is MINE. 

How are they improved from the old version of my wallets? Well, for starters, they are sewn better — all thanks to my NEW sewing machine that I got on Wednesday. This Janome DC1050 solved all my problems of skipped stitches and weird tension happening with my old machine. AND there is a stop/start button, so I can use that instead of the foot pedal. This feature comes in handy when sewing a lot of the same thing in a row. Hit start, feed everything through the machine, then hit stop.

Also, there is one additional feature that my old wallets didn’t have — a divider with card organizing slots. And the closure? It’s not a button anymore. It’s a magnetic purse snap. It’s like my wallets went and got all grownup on me!

[one of my old wallets for reference]

I’m thrilled to have all these wallets ready for Craft Saturday next weekend. I also made a bunch of revamped teeny-tiny wallets. They’re a bit bigger to accommodate cards (which was the ORIGINAL idea … but my math skills got in the way) and they’re more nicely put together. Again, thanks to Ms. Janome. All of my old inventory will be on MAJOR SALE next weekend to make way for the new stuff.

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So I promised big news last week and I was so busy I never delivered.

The big news is that I got a new job! I’m leaving Drake and heading to Iowa State University.

[goodbye spike, hello cy*]

Besides the obvious commute change (as in NO MORE COMMUTING) there’s another major change: I will probably not be designing so much.

My new job is Communications Specialist II for Student Recruiting in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. I’ll be doing social media, a bit of writing, a bit of design, student recruitment (so some travel) but mostly I’ll be in charge of the first-year student experience. So I’ll be planning events programming for first-year students to keep them engaged with not only ISU but specifically the college.

So are you freaking out? I’m kind of freaking out. I just realized last week I don’t get to pick paper anymore. Or print vendors.

Calm down. I’m planning to enroll in the College of Design MFA in Graphic Design program while I’m there. It’s not my TOP pick for MFA programs *cough cough* MCAD *cough cough* Yale *cough cough* … but it will be free. And really, I want to teach college students. So what matters is that I HAVE the degree. Not where it’s from. It’s not a BAD program either.  So I’ll be getting my design in as well as honing some other important skills.

*I realize that this is the OLD Cy ISU athletics logo … but I reallllly hate all the new athletics logos. Which is funny because I always bitch about Drake constituents that feel the same way about old marching spike that I do about old cy.

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Looking for something to do with small scraps of fabric? Check out this awesome tutorial by Oh Fransson! for map of the states quilt blocks.

For the life of me I cannot find the blog post that I talked about my progress on this project. Which sucks because I cannot remember what size block I was doing (would have been smart to make a template …). I know what size the finished blocks are, but I know there was some trimming involved.

Anywho, I took this project on for all the scraps of my favorite fabrics that I can’t bear to part with. I like things wonky, so I kicked it up a notch.  I also love white space (imagine that) so I added some relief to the craziness with some white strips of fabric.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to just be done with this project and finish it up with white on the top and bottom of the quilt, or if I’m going to keep going.  I think I’d like to keep going for 2 more rows, but I need to remember what size I was doing first. And I need to get my craft room organized.

Also, did I mention I started this project in March 2010?  And I haven’t touched it since … yeah …

WHICH REMINDS ME.  I need to start going to the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild meetings.  That *might* actually get me to finish all these poor WIP quilts I have. I seriously have 3 finished quilt tops that I’m too poor to get quilted and 4-6 in-progress quilts.

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Hey, Des Moines! Come downtown today (from 9–2) for Market Day’s special September Suitcase Showdown. Be sure to hit up the Farmers Market while you’re at it … we’re right next door. Thirty vendors with everything they can fit into suitcases or whatever they can find. Don’t miss it! See you there.

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Want something to do this Saturday? Even better — want to learn something new this Saturday?

Sign up for my class at Reiman Gardens in Ames.  I’m going to be teaching how to create fun and pretty mugs from old unloved ceramics.  Added bonus: I’m curating a playlist for this specific event.  Not only will you learn something new, you’ll get to listen to some new and (hopefully) exciting artists while you do it.

What do you get out of the class besides a new skill?  You get the tools to continue painting up your own ceramics, ideas for how to implement this skill beyond just mugs, and a creative spin to your Saturday morning. Mugs will also be provided.

Not an artist?  No drawing skills?  No problem!  Doodles and text are great accents to unloved dishes.  And I will also be teaching a transfer technique for those of us who are really uncomfortable with drawing anything freehand — even a doodle.

Today is the LAST day to sign up for the class.  Click here to sign up.  There is a discount for Iowa State Students.  If you and a friend sign up, tweet @chimes about it and receive an awesome prize from my Etsy shop.

Here are a few examples of mugs you’ll be able to create after taking this class.

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We’ve been in our new place for an entire month, so I guess it’s time to blog about the fantastic experience we had.

So since we’ve been planning on moving for a while, Mark reserved a Uhaul several months in advance. We reserved a Uhaul at Graham Tire Company in Ankeny.

Well, as it turns out, we didn’t need a reservation because to Graham Tire in Ankeny, reservations don’t mean anything.  We called them the day of our move and they told us we needed to DRIVE TO MISSOURI to pick up our truck.  MISSOURI.  Yes.  Missouri.

This was completely unacceptable.  And every truck in the state of Iowa, and everything in a 2-hour driving radius was already reserved. You know, because it was July 31st, college town moving day everywhere.

So I get on the phone and call this place to see what they could do.  They didn’t offer any service.  They gave us the 1-800 number and Mark called that while I was on the phone with these people.  I asked if they could do anything else — if there were any numbers THEY could call.  They refused to do anything additional to help us get a truck since the truck we reserved with them wasn’t there.  The guy explained to me that they were a hub and they couldn’t ever guarantee a truck.  So I asked why they let us reserve one and why this wasn’t explained to us in the first place.  He apologized, and I did not accept the apology.  I called the manager’s cell phone and explained the situation but the manager has yet to call back on this customer service issue.

Mark is still on the phone.

So I call the Uhaul in Albert Lea (closest place we could think of that’s not a college town).  She said she has a few 14-foot trucks (we needed a 17-foot at least).  So she called a few numbers (like I’d asked the person at the Ankeny store to do), and got a hold of a few trucks that might be able to be reserved for us.

In the meantime, Mark is still on the phone.  He finally gets through to the people who tell us that there is a 26-foot truck in Coralville (yes, a 2-hour drive) that would be available at 3 PM.  They would give it to us for free, except for mileage.  So final review on Uhaul?  Don’t reserve with a hub (ask if they’re a hub up front!). Customer service is good on the traffic line (the 800 number) but don’t expect the same from business to business.  Graham Tire in Ankeny is getting a few honest reviews on yelp, google, and other sites.

Okay, so we have a truck now.  But the bigger problem is that we have to have all our stuff out by 2 PM (before the truck is ready) so the carpet can be cleaned. Or else it would have ended up costing Mark $500 between cleaning fees and money taken off their deposit.

So enter our roommate and our apparently extremely loyal friend, Ben.  While Mark and I drove to Coralville to pick up the truck (aka mini-semi), they moved all our belongings to the small patch of linoleum in the kitchen and to Mark’s parking spot in the lot (thank goodness it wasn’t raining!)

Side note — the trip to Coralville for the truck wasn’t a complete waste.  I remembered there was a Whitey’s Ice Cream in the mall.  And we had stopped there for lunch.  I picked up a delicious gyro salad from an authentic local Greek food stand and Mark had some Arby’s.  I definitely got some Whitey’s — black cherry frozen yogurt.

[Mark looks super enthused — he's about to drive the mini-semi across the state]

[gyro salad, but not as good as Gazali's in Des Moines]

[omg yum]

So we get home … and the carpet has just been cleaned.  We can’t go in the apartment for the next 4 hours.  We moved everything from the parking lot to the truck and waited.  At 9 PM we started moving stuff and weren’t done until 3 AM.  124 steps per trip up and down the stairs.  For 6 hours.

And then the next day we turned around and did it again.  Only backwards.  And into a new place.  Thus, drinks were had.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that besides the amazingly awesome customer service that we had at Graham’s Tire (amazingly BAD service that is), I ended up being locked out of my storage unit, where almost all my belongings had been for the past 4 months.  Apparently not only does a reservation mean nothing to Graham’s Tire in Ankeny, but if you sign up for automatic deductions from your bank account at Alexander Storage in Ames, they lose the paperwork and lock you out of your storage unit the weekend you’re moving.  Of course, they are only open 8-5 Monday–Friday — you know, the same hours I work.

Fortunately we ended up getting the Uhaul for an extra day, but had to return it by noon on Monday.  At 8 AM on Monday, I marched over to Alexander Storage in Ames and paid the bill that I already thought I had been paying for the past several months.  Oh, side note, I never received a notice that I was going to be locked out of my storage unit.  My overall review — terrible customer service but great storage units at good prices.  And not in a flood plain either.

Okay, so finally everything was moved into the apartment …

[living room]

[kitchen]

[laundry]

[hallway]

[barney's room/craft room]

[our bathroom]

SOooo glad that’s over with. Seriously, not moving.  Again.  for a long time.

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