I love Tuesdays!

For those of you on Facebook, you may have seen my statuses of Massage Tuesdays at work. Every Tuesday, two massage therapists come in and all employees get a 20 minute massage. I find this benefit to be one of my favorites. I work part time and appreciate them allowing me to participate in Massage Day. I feel more companies should provide massages to their employees. It's amazing how relaxing and uplifting it is. I come back to my office feeling quite refreshed. I also found out today that I receive some paid time off! Being part time, I figure I wouldn't receive any benefits - so I'm pleasantly surprised by my PTO.

Work is going well. This week I worked on a Cultural Diversity presentation for one of our clients. I also worked on Medicare D notifications and an FMLA/ADA issue. I'm learning so much at this company. I'm a true HR geek and am so grateful for the opportunity to learn the different facets of HR.

This weekend, my friend Christine and I went to a chili cookoff. I'm not a huge meat eater, but did partake in the judging of the chili dishes. My favorite was a pork chili. After the cookoff, we went to JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby. I attempted to sign up for another sewing class, but as I looked into the class further, I decided not to go forward with it as I feel I need to practice some more before moving on. This class was making a fleece robe and pajama bottoms. Sounds like an awesome class, but I don't think my skills are quite that advanced yet. Once a month, JoAnn Fabric holds a '1/2 off classes' day. The next one is December 5th and I will sign up another beginning sewing class. The next beginner class makes a reusable gift bag. This could be handy!


me, Michelle and Christine at the chili cookoff

Jack of all trades, Master of none

For those of you who know me well, you know I like to dabble in many things. I do a little knitting, crocheting, stamping, cross stitching and now sewing. I'm looking around for some very easy sewing projects. I think I'd like to try to make Lily a few summer dresses next year once my skills are a bit stronger. I did fix my pillowcase by the way! I bought a seam ripper and fixed my middle seam issue and now my seam is on the side. I am currently using the pillowcase too!

I'm working really hard on David's sweater so he can use it this winter. I'm about half way done with the 2nd sleeve. I will need some help putting the sweater together. I will most likely hit my favorite knitting store as they are quite friendly and helpful.

I also have two months worth of cards to make from Kimberly's Stamps in the Mail projects. I generally only like to work on cards when I'm hanging out with some friends. So, card making friends - let's get together soon and I can get those projects under my belt! :)

I'm a class taker. I love love love to take classes! Some classes I'm interested in taking in the near future would be: more sewing classes, a calligraphy class and perhaps an HR Law update class!

New Look

I like to change things up from time to time. For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile, you may have noticed I change templates semi-often. Well, as I was playing with a new template, I accidentally deleted my complete template from before. (always backup before changing!). Oh well - thought this may give me a chance to do something new with the blog. I have a basic template right now and will be adding items as time allows.

Strange Woman in a Strange World

So last Monday, I took my first ever sewing class. I signed up for the class about 6 weeks ago. All I remember was that I was to bring my own machine or one will be provided for me. I have my Mom's old machine, so I happily brought that to class with me. I was even 10 minutes early! I was ready to go! Or so I thought. As I saw the other students coming in, I noticed they were taking out scissors, pins, and fabric. I was supposed to buy fabric? I asked one of the students how much fabric I was supposed to get and hurried out to buy some. I was so embarrassed. I pride myself on being a prepared person and I completely didn't read the class instructions before coming.
Once I had all my material, the instructor showed us some of the basics to sewing. I really enjoyed the class. However, I made a huge mistake on my project. We made pillowcases and somehow I ended up with the seam in the middle instead of on the side. Oh well - lessons learned.
I'm now looking for some simple and easy sewing projects. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. I may try the pillowcase again to make a correct one!




The sewing machine I have is old enough to say "Dear Homemaker".
This is the pillow case I made. If you look closely, my seam is in the middle instead of on the side.

My first week

I just finished my first week of my new job. Lots of training and getting acquainted with my coworkers and what I will be doing, etc. This job will allow me to learn about benefits, COBRA, and unemployment. These are the areas in HR where I'm not as familiar and am very excited to be gaining this knowledge. I'm also seeing opportunity where my strengths in HR will help the company (such as report writing). I'll be working 12 hours a week, which is just perfect for our family. It allows me to use my "work brain" for awhile which I had been missing. It gives me some me time and adult time which I feel all parents need for themselves. David and I are working through the quirks of scheduling. I'm still breastfeeding Jack and I am working on my pumping schedule to make sure we have enough milk for when I'm gone. Once Jack is a year, we'll switch him to whole milk while I'm gone. That is only two months away (Jack is 10 months today!), so the pumping schedule will only be for a short time.

This last weekend I went to a Canvas class with my stamper teacher friend Kimberly. This canvas is for Jack's room. I kept it fairly simple as Jack's room is quite simple. I felt a bit rushed in finding a picture to work with. I may make another canvas on my own and have David pick a cute Jack picture. He's the family photographer :)


I'm still working on David's knitted sweater. I'm on the last sleeve. Then the task of putting all the pieces together comes next. I've never knitted a sweater before, so I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities for learning. I tend to knit at night when the kids are both asleep. I am just not in a good place to knit while they are awake. I'm still managing Jack and his whereabouts. He is quite mischievous that little guy!

This coming Monday I'm taking a sewing class at JoAnn Fabrics. I can't wait!!