Keeping myself entertained! (Easy blanket how-to)

So, as I mentioned before, I am working from my apartment in Bakersfield, so I basically just chill at home by myself all day! It can be rather boring, but I have found a few ways to keep myself entertained. The first one of course is to watch HGTV for hours on end.. I LOVE IT! lol I would probably even go as far as saying I'm obsessed. I can't wait until Jason and I buy our own house and can mess around with paint colors and crown molding and chair rails and ALL of that good stuff!

As a second form of entertainment, I have read a couple Mary Higgins Clarks books while I've been out here, which are always great. She writes such intense books, its amazing! The only bad thing about this is that, again, I am at home... alone...all day... and all evening! I tend to spook myself out and I always begin to think that a murderer will be walking through my door at any moment. Not the best feeling!

And of course, recently (this past week) I decided to start sewing again! My best friend Kenzi will be leaving on her mission soon and I promised her that I would make a blanket for her! In Young Women's I made a tied quilt and when Kenzi and I lived together in St. George she stole it from me! Well, she loved it. And slept with it on her bed every night! And still does. The only problem is that it is too big! So I made her her very own blanket now.

I made this one a little differently than normal quilts are made. I actually got this idea from my Aunt Kristie.. well second cousin.. or something. Anywho, rather than actually quilting the top like a regular quilt, I just bought a twin sized flat sheet. That way, I don't have to worry about measurements and everything-it is already the right size! It is also cheaper & easier than buying tons fabric and piecing it all together and all of that. So for the bottom of the blanket I just bought 6 yards of quilting flannel and cut it into two 3-yard pieces. I put them next to each other long ways and sewed a side together. This made the flannel wide enough for the blanket. Then I put the good side of the flannel down, put down the batting, and then laid the flat sheet on top, good side out. I trimmed the flannel down so it was about 4 inches longer than the sheet on all 4 sides. I folded the edge of the flannel in 2 inches, and then over the sheet so this gave it kind of a border. I pinned it all up and then sewed the 3 pieces together. Then I laid the blanket on the ground(I wish I had a quilting frame!!), got a yard stick and an air soluable fabric marker, and marked out where I was going to tie it. I got some yarn and a darning needle (they had the biggest "eyes") and threaded the yarn in and out of the blanket where it was marked. I cut all of the yarn in between the markings and then tied the yarn in a double knot. Then I trimmed all of the ties so they weren't too long. All in all, it took me about 4 or 5 hours to do the whole thing, start to finish. And I think it turned out nicely! I think it does look a little too much like a little kid's blanket because of the pattern and the very BRIGHT colors, but I hope Kenzi likes it! Love ya darlin!! Oh.. the other fun thing, is that I actually got a sheet set, so she gets a matching fitted sheet and pillow case as well!! Here are some pics of the finished product... sorry, I didn't think to take pictures of each step!

The blue and white striped thing in the pics is actually a "Grip Bag" for my little sister Miranda. For those of you who don't know, Grips are the things gymnasts put on their hands when they are on the bars so they don't tear their hands apart! Anyways, I guess Miranda needed one, so I made this little drawstring bag with a little button pocket on the front! It was also really simple to make, it only took me like an hour to do! If anyone wants to know how to do it just let me know and I can post some instructions.

Well that is all... I will be posting again soon.. My next projects are fleece pajama pants for Jason and a skirt for Miranda made out of old jeans! Man.. I am on a roll! :)

Bakersfield, CA For the Summer...

We have been out in Bakersfield, CA for a few weeks now working for APX Alarm, so now that I am pretty settled and whatnot I figured I would post! We love it out here! It is nice and warm here, but sometimes unbearably hot!! Its perfect for cruising around on our motorcycles! (By motorcycles, I mean my scooter and Jason's bullet bike!!) We have had a lot of fun already even though we haven't been here very long. Of course, the majority of our time is spent working. And by majority, I mean 95%. Seriously! Its kind of hard, but worth it! Jason is the Operations Manager again this summer, aka Lead Tech. So he is VERY busy managing all of the technicians and the operations side of the office, as well as installing with the techs. I am the "Office Assistant" so I just sit at home all day pretty much!! Well, I schedule all of the installs, collect all of the paperwork and send it to corporate, and do other "office stuff". I also sit on the couch and watch tv alot :) It has been nice being home all day though, I have plenty of time to play with Susie, sew and scrapbook and such. And recently I have decided that I LOVE digital scrapbooking! Its so neat!! Anyways.. Other than working, we had a BBQ the first sunday we were here with a bunch of the people we work with. It was nice! Our apartment complex has a sweet clubhouse with a nice BBQ area and pool. By the way, the apartments are AMAZING. I wish I could live in them for free forever!! I'll have to put pics up later.

There is this fabulous restaurant called BJ's Restaurant and Brewery here. It is the best pizza in the entire world! They also have this thing called a "Pizookie" which is basically a giant cookie in a pizza pan topped with ice cream. It practically melts in your mouth. WOW, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! A whole group of us went one saturday and our table devoured TWO giant party platter pizookies. YIKES.

Jason's hair was getting pretty long, and for a week he always talked about going to get it cut, but he never went!! Finally, we decided that it would be much easier for me to just shave his head. So I did! Of course, along the way I decided to give him an awesome mohawk/mullet. It was sexy. So ya, I now have a practically bald husband! I personally think he looks a lot more hardcore with his hair cut like this! So HOT :)

This past Sunday, Jason, Jeremy, Justin, Chandler, and I decided that it would be really fun to go to Six Flags in Valencia. It is only about 45 minutes from Bakersfield so it wasn't a bad drive. On the way, we decided to stop in and say hello to some family friends, Brian & Natasha and their girls, Ally & Emily. They are so cute, I love them!! Emily was being funny and decided to wear a Dr Pepper box for shoes! What a cutie! Six Flags was a blast! The rides there are so intense and it was blistering hot! After a while, the combination of extreme heat and extreme rollercoasters made me a little sick, so I held off on going on the rides about halfway through the day. It was still super fun though! The sad thing though, is when I got there, I turned my camera on, and the batteries were dead! So I managed to get a couple of terrible pics with my phone..There was this one ride called X 2 that the guys went on at the very end of the day. I'm pretty sure it is the most intense roller coaster in the entire world! Seriously, I didn't go on it, but it made me sick just watching other people ride it! LOL The picture of Chandler and Jason on the rollercoaster is from X2, and that is the look of genuine terror on their faces!! Seriously, they weren't even trying to make faces for the picture, thats just how it turned out! Way funny.

Lastly, I am really really excited to be flying up to Utah this weekend. My little brother Jakey is going to be leaving for his mission this next Wednesday and his farewell is this Sunday! It's so crazy that he is leaving so soon. He will be serving in the Mexico City North Mission. I'm so excited for him! My best friend Kenzi's farewell is actually a week after his, and sadly I won't be making up for that one, but I do get to see her this weekend for the last time before she leaves for a year and a half! It's nuts!! She is leaving June 10th for Buenos Aires, Argentina. I LOVE them both and they are both going to make fantastic missionaries!

Anyways, that is definitely a lot for one post, so I will stop there. But I'm sure I will have more to post about later, especially after I get back from Utah! PEACE! :)