My First Etsy

Yay! I just posted my first Etsy item! What's Etsy? It's an online marketplace for hand-made goods. Check it out here.

I made a scarflette:



To see this item's Etsy listing, click here. Hey, it would make an excellent birthday or Christmas gift to someone who lives where it is cold in the winter, hehe!

Amanda

My Meetup Group

If you're reading this, you probably know how much I love books. For the last couple of months I've been trying to get involved with a book club in Orlando that I found through Meetup.com (check it out if you're unfamiliar). Unfortunately this group's Meetups were either too far away or already booked up. Slightly frustrated, but no less discouraged to be in a book club, I decided to found my own! So far there are 14 "book worms" in the group! I can't wait to meet these people! The first book we're reading is "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury.



Amanda

Southern Foods Champs!

For the last couple months I had the pleasure of playing catcher on the Lockheed Martin Southern Foods softball team. It was a fantastic season! It took some time to get my swing back, literally, but I hit a beautiful line-drive in the last inning of the championship game. Not only that, but I caught 3 foul balls and had the winning play!

The team had the best season record, only having lost one game (and that was before I joined the team, so what does that tell ya? = P Hehe!). The semi-finals game was exciting, and we sort of slaughtered the other team in the championship game. Needless to say, I landed myself on a pretty darn good team! Doug is a great coach, and I have grown fond of my teammates (who now refer to me as Wendy, haha).

A victory drink was in order after taking the championship of a great season, so some of us met up at the Ale House. I am proud to say that it was during this evening that I finished my first beer. Completely and on my own entirely (not sure how this didn't occur many moons ago, back in my Purdue days... oh, well). The beer was a Corona with lime, and, while I couldn't do the "plug the neck and tip it upside down to get the lime flavor fused in well" trick, it honestly wasn't too bad! At some points I enjoyed the taste of the beer, actually. Towards the end of the drink it was a little rough... it got into the sock-taste phase with warming up and losing the carbonation, haha. Anyway, here's some photographic proof for you suckers who don't believe me:


drinking my first beer



myself, Ryan B., Tim



Ryan J., Mike, Amanda



[most of] the softball champions


I'm quite excited for next season! Who knew I'd find a renewed passion for softball (and baseball)?!


-Amanda

Chess Buddy

For a few weeks now I've been meeting a new friend, Dante, at The Drunken Monkey to play Chess. We met one Friday night, Board Game Night, as I was just finishing pinning my quilt and was considering leaving - when he asked if my board was for Chess or Checkers. I answered that it was a Chess board, and we decided to play a game.

I warned him that he ought to go easy on me since the only person I've ever managed to win against was my younger brother, not to mention the fact that I had only just taught him how the game was played. Anyway, playing with Dante has been wonderful. In the beginning he was helpful and gave pointers. He taught me about En Passant and that it is not a myth at all for a pawn to be replaced by another piece of choice if that pawn reaches the opposite end of the board unscathed, haha. But much of his going easy on me ended last week when I miraculously took his Queen and eventually conquered his King! He was a great sport, and agreed to take a photo with me and our Chess board battlefield to mark my first great battle won.


Dante and I after my first victory in Chess


-Amanda

My First OCC Submission

Tonight my first Orlando Camera Club photo contest submission was critiqued. I submitted to Class B, monochromatic. I scored 85/100. The photo I submitted was taken while on an OCC downtown Orlando architecture tour. In particular, the photo is of a seating area around a statue, just NE of Lake Eola.


"around the bench"

I really love everything (with one exception) about this photo, and, happily enough, the judge seemed to love it, too. The curvature of the bricks is my favorite part, along with "standing guard" air of the benches while they surrounding the brick circle. The one thing that bothered both of us (and others, I'm sure) was that of the silly leafs sitting dead center on the bricks. I wish I'd thought to remove them prior to taking the photo; they're quite distracting.

The black and white turned out to be really nice. The judge commented that it had black blacks and white whites, which is good, because then it's not just a bunch of grays, but actually blacks and whites (more so, anyway).

I'm very satisfied with my first score being an 85. The next contest is an open theme. I'm debating on a few photos from Australia to submit. We shall see.

-Amanda

My First Quilt

I am very proud of myself. I made my first quilt, and I am very pleased with the end product. It isn't a typical quilt with tiny triangles pieced together to make stars or squares. Rather, it's an eclectic mix of hand-cut squares of all sorts of different patterned fabrics. Here is a photo of the finished quilt, and a close-up so you can see the stitching.



my first quilt




my first quilt, a close-up to better see the stitching


I snapped photos of the quilt from its beginning to its end. If you're wondering how a quilt like this comes to be, scroll through these photos:



the fabric I chose




close-up




close up, again




washed and dried




ironed




cut squares and ironed edges




square placement




squares safety pinned




zig-zag stitched




zig-zag stitched close-up




blanket layers




right side out




my first quilt




my first quilt, a close-up to better see the stitching


And that, my friend, is how my quilt was created. It took me about 3 months to make (I procrastinated a little bit in the first 2 months, but kicked it in gear in the last few weeks). If you want details so you can make your own, just let me know; I'd be happy to send you the specifics of the quilt pattern.

What I can't wait to use this quilt for: as a blanket to take downtown to Lake Eola to lay on during a lovely Sunday afternoon so I can listen to the birds chirp, watch the clouds through the trees, drink Arizona tea, have a yummy snack and read a good book. It's perfect for a picnic, party of one. = ) Well, one for now...

Amanda

PS - I followed instructions for a quilt pattern entitled "Flicka" from a book I came across at the library. I don't recall the name of the specific book I got the pattern from, but I wanted to give credit to the originator of this quilt: Hillary Lang.