4&1/2 Sewing Project #1

{click for a larger image}

{for a seamstress wannabe my terminology sucks, so thank goodness for pictures, 'cause i'd be at a loss to explain myself.}

1. What it was:
A silver-blue scoop-necked knee-length semi-gathered/wrap-around dress that looked pretty but, in my opinion, rather boring. Plus it looked better on the hanger than it did on me.


2. What it took:
A yard of cream-colored satiny stuff. Another dress from which cream-colored satiny flowers were removed. A yard of blue netting that gets sparkles everywhere. A whole lot of hand-sewing effort thanks to delicate materials.


3. What it is:
A silver-blue scoop-necked knee-length wrap-around with cream-and-midnight-blue accents that's a bit flashier and fancier and cheaper than any dress I could find.


4. What it cost:
Original dress - $10. Total cost - $27.


1/2. Where it goes:
Prom/graduation banquet. Then my closet.


~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

2012 Resolutions Resolved - Part 2

11.  Become a more avid blogger.

—This depends on your definition of ‘avid’. While I don’t believe I’m an avid blogger, the key word in that phrase (at least, I’m taking it that way) is more. My posts (though not many) are more consistent and the Faithful Few has gained a few members.

12.  Memorize a Bible passage at least once a month.

—I didn't do one a month, but I did compete in the local Bible Bee, so I ended up memorizing more than I would have. Good/bad...?

13.  Read a book at least once a week.

—*cough*. Well, junior year was a bit harder than expected. Senior year... well, now I'm just lazy.

14.  Perfect an Irish accent.

—Though not perfected, it’s much closer.

15.  Write/video at least four skits for Purple Ninjas.

—Ha. Haha. Yeah…

16.  Talk to people that I don’t normally.

—I’m not really sure. I think I’ve gone through a bit of a personality change, so I’m not sure who counts as people-I-didn't-talk-to-in-2011.

17.  Write a song that isn’t stupid.

—Well, I did write a song (or at least part of one), but I’m not sure if it’s stupid or not.

18.  Spend more time studying – and  do well without guessing  in school.

—(Senior year, because I can’t remember back to junior). Economics was easy to study because I enjoyed it. Latin is proving more difficult. English lit is… meh. But I’ve got to convince myself that I don’t have to enjoy it to do well.

19.  Keep my areas of the house clean… and maybe areas that aren’t technically ‘mine’.

—Many people would disagree, because they only remember the messy days, but I believe that for the majority of the time I have become a neater person.

20.  And…  maybewearskirtsmoreoften.

—I can’t even count how many times I wore a skirt this year. That’s a pretty big deal for me. And the scary part is… sometimes I did it without anyone telling me to.

How did your resolutions go?

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

2012 Resolutions Resolved - Part 1

1.  Schedule things out with the knowledge that they probably won’t happen – just to test flexibility. ;)

—Totally happened. Keep reading and you’ll see.

2.  Try out a new recipe at least once a month (just twelve; can’t be that bad, right?).

—Turns out, it was that bad. I think I learned… what, two?

3.  Completely restore the backyard to its former glory (assuming it had some).

—Nope.

4.  Get a job. (Joanne Fabrics, a barn… Joanne Fabrics…)

—Also nope. I did, however, discover that it's spelled J-O-A-N-N (no E).

5.  Finish writing a book.

—I wish. I’m getting closer, though. It’ll happen. Someday.

6.  Sew a medieval dress.

—Finally! A success!

7.  Improve guitar skills.

—I believe I did. I’m picking up strumming patterns much more quickly than I did at the start of the year, learned a whole slough of chords, wrote my ow- wait, that’s for part two.

8.  Make impossible goals and be insanely surprised that they happen.

—So far, not so surprised.

9.  Train the dog to do something other than ‘sit’.

—Failed.

10.  Sing in public without passing out or having a zombie-moment.

—This one I did do - multiple times, actually. And I have awesome friends that encouraged me/put up with me, making the whole thing a lot easier.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

4:12 Camp Out

Whoa. It's been a year already. And only 35 posts between. Boy, am I a horrid blogger...

Ahem. Well, I beg your pardon. Please do forgive me. I have pictures!

The first thing you need to know (or, at least, the first thing I'm going to tell you) is that during this three-day camping trip with my youth group I was on a team called the Turples. It's a silly name that I will not mention who came up with. Second is the competition between us and three other teams in which we involved ourselves in many (unfortunately for my poor aching muscles) physical activities. One of which was taking pictures.

Don't laugh. Just look. It was very, very physically involved. And mainly the reason I'm now sitting in a chair, unable to lift my legs up to cross them.

Anyway. The pictures. We had to meet certain requirements under a certain time. They're in the order they were shot, not the order on the list (which I forgot to get before we came home).

Team member in a tree

Entire team's bare feet

A peacock

Going down a slide all at the same time (from the top down: Kylie, Breanna, Rebekah, Danielle, Mira, Garett, Marcus - and me, behind the camera)

Using a vending machine

Giving a stranger a high five with the other team members giving thumbs-ups in the background

Having a wild west shoot out with another team - thank you, Elephants (see, we're not the only silly ones)

Doing handstands (Kylie, being the only one who could do a real one, took it upon herself to teach the others)

Jumping off a swing (bonus points for jumping the highest - yay, Marcus!)

Building a human pyramid (which those on the bottom layer did not appreciate)

{trying to} Make it look like the team is swimming in the lake

Two Coaches' eyes: one blue...

...and one brown (sorry for the non-flattering pictures)

Acting out a scene from a Coach's favorite movie (first to guess the movie in a comment wins - Breanna and Danielle are exempt from this competition)

The clavicle of David (our pastor, who wouldn't let us take the picture until we could tell him without a doubt what a 'clavicle' was)

Acting out a basketball play (bonus points for being the coolest - not sure how :P)

Spelling out 4:12 using team members' bodies

Five leaves from different trees

Having a stranger hold up a sign that says '4:12' (which doesn't show up on camera)

The inside of David's tent (which turned out to be a crazy hammock thing)

Fitting ten marshmallows in a team member's mouth

BONUS PICS:

Scariest picture (lost, but we were close)

"I can't believe we all fit!" (it's a firepit - can't remember if we won or not)

Most Creative picture (won - I'll leave you to figure out the creativity in it)

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

I Have Kidnapped My Cousin.

Okay, two statements to make - 1) I have the coolest friends ever, and 2) I am officially a geek.

From left to right: "Adorable Medieval Gal" - Lilly, "Katniss Everdeen" - Breanna, "Merida" - me, "Pocahontas" - Danielle, "Zelda" - Katie, "Susan Pevensie" - Alyx, and "No-one-cool-to-dress-up-as-'sides-it's-too-late-anyway" - Ashley

Saturday afternoon, we went and saw Brave. Awesome movie. Not the best on a Pixar-standard, but still awesome. But, since I refuse to do anything like a normal person, I suggested we dress up. It's kinda freaky that they all listened.

From left to right: "Hawkeye" - Noah, "Robin Hood" - Josh, "Legolas" - Ben

Oh, and another thing - Bethanie says hi. :D

She also says (after giving me a weird look and an "I don't know" and a rather painful headbonk with a book and a "NOO!!!" and another weird look and a bunch of pokes and being temporarily distracted by Alyx's poofy hair), "I loved being Charlenie's surprise! I miss my family, but I like being with the Swansons in Florida. And meeting their hyper and... 'interesting' friends."

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

Ramblings - Feel Free to Ignore

This week was/is my mom's spring break. We explored Downtown Disney on Monday, but other than that, we haven't really celebrated her week-of-no-school. Why not? Because, crazy lady that she is, she's spending it studying. No homework, no tests. Just studying.

I admire my mother so much. If I were her, what precious little amount of brains I have would have leaked out my ears by now.

Anyway, I'm sure this comes across as a shock... *cough*intensesarcasm*cough*... but I just can't commit to a book. As soon as the thought, "Y'know, I think I'll try to get 12:10 done this year," crosses my mind, I get a flood of ideas for Riding Orion and its fellow series...es (eek! what a word! how do you say that?!). So how does one react to that? By working on them both, of course. Skatterbrained-ness has to come in handy for something.

But I thought you all might be interested (or not, but please pretend) in 12:10, because... *brrrrrrrrrrbumbadum*

It's a comic book!!

Yeah, we'll see how that turns out. I've only really glanced over comic books (though I'm a huge fan of superheroes) and I have no idea how to write one (well, how could I, when I don't even read them?). But I think that's what makes it so much fun. Not to mention it's about 11/12-year-olds, so I get to mess around with the humor a lot more. And my dad (amazing person that he is) not only loves comic books but used to work for Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. My parents are my heroes.

That said, let's talk about sewing. Or rather, I'll talk about sewing and let you close your browser whenever you get bored (which, if you're smart, was about four paragraphs ago). My medieval dress has gone nowhere. The forlorn pieces are lying in a crate in my desk (that's right, not under - in), waiting hopelessly for me to put them together. But I just... have no excuse. I'm a lazy bum.

But I am going to sew a gauntlet. Not two, just one. For the left arm. Why? 'Cause Ben has a bunch of archery stuff and, while having fun and shooting people (with carefully foam-wrapped arrows), I obliviously scraped the bowstring against my forearm whenever I fired. It left a really big bruise.

Well. I'm exhausted. If you read this far, comment and tell me -- I will stick by you for the rest of my life. Well, until you admit I'm incredibly annoying, at least.

So what do you think? Any comic-book-writing advice? Or suggestions for the gauntlet? Or a way to overcome my laziness and sew that dress?

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

20 things to do in 2012

1. Schedule things out with the knowledge that they probably won’t happen – just to test flexibility. ;)

2. Try out a new recipe at least once a month (just twelve; can’t be that bad, right?).

3. Completely restore the backyard to its former glory (assuming it had some).

4. Get a job. (Joanne Fabrics, a barn… Joanne Fabrics…)

5. Finish writing a book.

6. Sew a medieval dress.

7. Improve guitar skills.

8. Make impossible goals and be insanely surprised that they happen.

9. Train the dog to do something other than ‘sit’.

10. Sing in public without passing out or having a zombie-moment.

11. Become a more avid blogger.

12. Memorize a Bible passage at least once a month.

13. Read a book at least once a week.

14. Perfect an Irish accent.

15. Write/video at least four skits for Purple Ninjas.

16. Talk to people that I don’t normally.

17. Write a song that isn’t stupid.

18. Spend more time studying – and do well without guessing in school.

19. Keep my areas of the house clean… and maybe areas that aren’t technically ‘mine’.

20. And… maybewearskirtsmoreoften.

~Charli Rae |Job 39:19-25|

New Year's... Not!

Ug! I'm always so behind! I'll have to do my New Year's post tomorrow (which means I won't get to it until Wednesday, at least), and then it'll be on to 11th grade and who knows how often I'll manage to remember this blog?!

Sorry. I'll calm down now. I have someone I want you to meet.

Isn't she beautiful? She doesn't have the smooth lines of my mom's, or the fancy stitches that my gramma's has, but she's the first one I can call all my own. And she's fast. Really fast. 

Not to mention I won't have to worry about running out of bobbin thread in the middle of a project.

And, speaking of projects...

With my new sewing machine (who currently does not have a name) I am embarking on Project Bucket List 12: Sew a Medieval-Style Dress.

Prepared with yards and yards of gorgeous velvety-green fabric, intricate ribbon, and a pattern I have no clue how to read...

...I might finally be able to check something off my bucket list besides going places.

~Charli Rae 

|Job 39:19-25|

It's a Jean Thing!

I go through sewing phases. When I first learned how to sew, it was pillows. I gave them to my friends for birthdays and Christmas, I started a pillow collection, I made them in hearts, circles, boring ol' squares, I even did letters for a few people. Then I went through the bag phase. I mainly did a front pocket cut around to include the back pocket and sewed part of the leg to the back, with a belt for the strap. And that started my obsession with Jeans.

The little bag above is one of my newer creations - front pocket on the front and back pocket on the back. I'm also newly obsessed with embroidery, so here's what the back looks like. =D



Here's a medicine case, made from the cuff and zipper of a pair of jeans and leftover embroidery floss from bracelet making.

This is my wallet. It's weird 'cause the top just automatically folds like that - no planning on my part. I'm considering sewing some clear plastic to the inside-back-thing right there --->

What do you guys like to do?