Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Blogiversary! Pouches! {Giveaway}!

Holy geez! Today marks my one year Blogiversary. I've been blogging for a whole year! It's gone by much too fast.

I started this blog just after my daughter was born hoping it would keep me sane. I didn't know what I wanted to write about. I knew nothing about taking pictures. Nothing about editing. I'd never heard of a QAL or bee and I certainly didn't know much about modern quilting, which has become a HUGE part of my life. I've met so many wonderful, charitable people through this blog and for that I am extremely blessed.

Enough of the mushy stuff? Ok, fine.

On to pouches: As many of you know, Brent and I started watching the Financial Peace University series by Dave Ramsey in April. We have made excellent progress since then and are now rabid loyal Dave Ramsey fans. As such, we implemented the "Envelope System" early on in this journey. The "Envelope System" was designed to help people manage their cash but, since I didn't like the crap stain color of the little envelope binder they sent along with the videos, I chose to make my own. In the meantime I would use regular envelopes.

What I was using

They didn't last long.

Pouches

After much thought and planning (and using up every other zipper pouch I'd made), we decided I would need to create three new pouches. One for our cleaning and toiletries, one for our clothing, and one for our blow money.

Pouches

I made them using some of the charms from my Aqua, Orange and Grey Mystery Charm swap a while back and I lined them with some very lovely turquoise Jewels by Lizzy House. I swear, it is one of my favorites! I use it in everything.

Perfect size!

It fit our money perfectly.

Perfect size!

As I was embroidering the pouch names, though, I felt really odd about one of the pouches. "Blow" is not a word I would have ever thought I would be embroidering... ever. To try to ease my uncomfortableness, I used some Salt Air Whale Flukes thinking, "See Danny? 'Blow.' Whales have blow holes. This fits and makes it seem much less awkward."

I was lying to myself. But I bought it.

Flash forward to three finished pouches and our next family budget planning meeting. As I sat there, doling out our funds to their appropriate pouches, my brilliant and perfectly tactful husband says this:

Why did you put "blow" on that pouch? You realize if you get pulled over for speeding, and the cop sees that lying in your purse, you're going to get a full cavity search while the cop looks for the "blow" you must have stashed.

Silence

Blow.

Blow money.

Money with which to buy blow.

Not blow money to blow on fabric. Blow money to snort.

Great. Just great.

Why did I not see this during the zipper pouch planning stages?!

Pouch for my blow

Which brings me to my next list item, the {GIVEAWAY}!

Because I screwed up royally and don't want to look at my mistake anymore I love my readers SO much for making this year amazing, I am offering up this very special pouch to any of my followers who wants it!

But wait... there's more!

I'll also fill it to the brim (and maybe some more) with fabric! Scraps. Chunks. Charms. Strips. Quarters. I don't know just yet, but it will be good.

And if that wasn't enough, if you comment now, I'll also throw in a generous, handwritten note you can stare at then throw away!

HOW DO YOU SIGN UP?!?!?!

You may have ONE (1) entry. That's it. Just the one. And you have to do two (2) things to qualify:

-Be a new or old follower of my awesome blog
AND
-Tell me about something stupid you've done in the comment. It can be sewing related, but doesn't have to be.

I'll close this on Sunday, midnight MST.

And that's it. May the odds be ever in your favor!

Danny

38 comments:

  1. hahahaha love this - how weird, I started "officially blogging" a week from today! small world, im so glad to have "met" you and cant wait to actually meet you soon! Congrats on a year, you've come a long way and i'm happy to have been able to be a part of it and follow along!

    Hm, one stupid thing, just one?? yesterday I was interpreting to my student, who is deaf and though wears hearing aids really doesnt get any gain from them -- but we were in her science class and the teacher was explaining perspective, etc etc. Now, background for you - when interpreting in sign language, it gets kind of mundane so I usually tune out and just sign verbatim or sign concepts and tune out to the actual processing of what they're saying.. well, the teacher says "ok now close your eyes" which, I sign.. then realize.. wait.. cant close your eyes - I start to turn to the teacher to try and see where she's going with this and she YELLS in the middle of a 7th grade science class "HA, GOTCHA" and points to me.. needless to say, she was aware I was zoning and wanted to see if i'd catch it.. i didnt. oh well we all had a good laugh :)

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  2. Oh that's so cool! You, me, Lucy and Jen all with blogiversaries within a few weeks!

    I'm quite good at making a fool of myself on a daily basis. Thankfully my kids don't care :o)
    Recent stupid thing? Sewing, ripping and resewing and then realising it was right to start with - the frequency with which I do this is sheer stupidity ;o)

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  3. I giggled with may the odds be ever in your favor. Good movie.

    I am totally a follower!

    And I just recently sewed something wrong - like, I was in a groove and sewing and sewing and then BOOM disaster, and I had to rip out a lot of seams to get to where I messed up and assembled it wrong. Luckily, my hubby helps me rip seams when it's too much and would make me cry.

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  4. I am so glad to be a follower.

    I do a lot of ridiculous stuff because I'm usually in a state of frazzle because I am in grad school. In my research I use this conductive glass and in one weekend (trying to be an overachiever and get some extra work done) broke all of it that I had except one piece. I gave up and went home and sewed.

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  5. I totally love the 'blow' pouch. I never would have thought of the cop thing!

    I'm absolutely a follower.

    I once got searched at security because I had Kentucky bluegrass seeds in a film canister in my purse coming home from a trip. When the guard asked what was in it I said "Oh..that's some grass."
    They thought it was the kind I'd be smoking. Ha.

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  6. Very funny! I am a follower.

    When I learned to sew, I sewed for basically 6 months never putting the foot down. I am not joking. It was not a computerized machine so it still worked and I had a really hard time sewing anything. Then I took a sewing class and voila! it was so easy! No wonder I find squiggling so easy. I basically fmqed everything before I learned how to sew the right way.

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  7. I'm an "old" follower.
    I do stupid things all of the time so it is hard to narrow it down. Most recently I went to work in a rush and was in a sleepy haze when I got ready. I managed to leave the house with two different shoes on my feet. They were completely different shapes and colors and it wasn't until I was sitting in traffic that I realized the horror! I was mad at myself for about 10 seconds before I started laughing at how ridiculous I looked. Thankfully I had an extra pair of shoes at work so not too many people noticed before I could change. Silly me.

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  8. I've been a follower.
    My most notable stupid thing was when I was making place mats for our new table. I was trying to make each one have a different design, but all using strips. On one, I sewed the strips vertically on each block. Then I alternated the blocks when I sewed them together. I didn't notice it until I had finished it, but I made a Swastika. My hubs gives me grief all the time and says that my German heritage is coming out.

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  9. This spring I also took a financial class (by Rick Warren). It did open up my eyes to what's really necessary and what's not quite so necessary. You are so lucky to be doing this when you're young. Rick Warren (who wrote The Purpose Driven Life) said he knew God could have allowed anyone to write that book and he wondered for years why God allowed him to do it. He later decided that because he had been faithful (to tithe) when he had "little", God trusted him to handle the bounty he received from The Purpose Driven Life. Congrats on your anniversary -- and just practice your "whatever do you mean, officer?" look for the future regarding the "blow" pouch!

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  10. I am a follower, The stupid thing I have done......MMmmm how do you narrow this down.. I used Basting spray, instead of basting or pinning the baby quilt, I didnt listen to myself instead I let the media tell me.. Oh. this is great stuff.

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  11. I'm a happy follower!
    Stupid thing? where do I start??
    Last year we came back from holiday to find I had left a fruit crumble in the AGA merrliy cooking for 2 weeks!

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  12. I'm a follower. I wore a long skirt with an elastic waistband, sat at my office chair, rolled over the bottom of the skirt will the wheels. When I stood up, the skirt didn't. Thankfully, no kids were in the room at the time and my co-worker just laughed at me.

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  13. I am a follower.
    The latest stupid thing I have done was I was collecting eggs from my show Silkie chickens and happened to put one in the front pocket of my jeans because I didn't have enough room to carry them all in one hand. I forgot about it, leaned against the coop where I have my chicks, and squish! Egg went running down the inside of my jeans and down my leg.
    And knowing me, I'll do it again.

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  14. I am a new follower...found you from the Totally Groovy QAL. OMG the most stupidest thing was giving myself a brazillian!

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  15. I am a follower. Here is my odd event and hey, it's actually somewhat appropriate for this pouch....
    I went to a black-tie dinner & casino night at the Shedd Aquarium (in Chicago). Being December, it was cold and the million+ stairs leading out were icy. I started to fall backwards, but luckily my date was right behind me (on our FIRST date) and I was able to grab onto him with my left hand behind me, halfway down to falling on my ass. As I turned back, I saw the look of pain on his face and then realized that I had latched onto his BALLS to catch myself. Needless to say, I let go, fell on my ass, and did not get lucky that night.
    hope you got a laugh out of that one!

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  16. I am a follower. I do stupid things all the time. The other night I was too tired and sewed my binding together wrong. Four times. That's when I realized I should go to bed.

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  17. I absolutely love that pouch, and the silly story that goes with it, and I have a friend who'd love it even more than I do, so I'd probably gift the pouch to her (though I'd keep the fabric goodies for myself!)

    Anyway, stupid thing I've done... probably the worst was the stupid car accident I got into in my old car. I was parked under one of those metal awning things, and there was no one parked on either side of me, so I totally space cadet-ed things and turned way too fast...smacking my car into one of the awning's support poles. Poor car needed a new driver's side view mirror, new door hinges, a bunch of body work... boo. Not stupid like "blow on a pouch" stupid, but it made me feel pretty dumb nonetheless!

    Thanks for the chance and happy blogiversary!

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  18. Yay for your first year! So pleased we 'met' and that we are in the bee together.

    I am a font of stupidity. Probably leaving 100 passengers behind in Tunisia and sailing away, when I worked on the ships, was up there on the scale of stupid. We did go back and get them though! Let's just say we got a better way of making sure all the tour buses were back after that rather than just relying on a tour operators broken English.

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  19. I'm a follower. As soon as I saw the "blow" pouch I thought "drugs." But I'm a pharmacist so I always think about drugs. :)

    I do so many stupid little things because I am so absent-minded. Last night I made coffee at 11pm instead of setting the coffee pot to "auto." Nothing like fresh-brewed coffee right before bed!

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  20. I'm a follower. Your story on the pouch is too funny! I could just imagine that happening. Mind you would the officer even be able to read the writing from his angle?

    The stupid thing I've done sewing related is. I was making up some make up pouches using a pattern adapted from a bag. I thought I had just sewn ONE of the pieces wrong so I re done it. Then realised I'd sewn it wrong again! I thought OK let me check the other pieces. Stupidly enough I had sewn them all wrong! I don't even know how, but not one piece was correct..I was not amused ! =D

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  21. I'm a follower. Happy blogiversary!!
    The stupidest thing I have done is calling my aunt "mum".

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  22. I am a long-time follower and I just love your story!

    I have many stupid incidents, but one I just confessed to my family was this one: At the end of a school year, a wonderful family gave me half of a pound cake, nicely wrapped up in aluminum foil. I had gotten some other end-of the year gifts, so I piled them, the cake, and other papers, magazines, etc... into a grocery bag to take home, along with tons of other stuff. The next day, I couldn't find the cake anywhere and thought I must have left it at school and I was furious - because I had eaten their cakes before and they were beyond butterlicious! But I accepted my stupidity and moved on with my summer, including a trip to see my parents. When I returned from that trip, I picked up my laptop from this pile of stuff in my bedroom and placed in on my bed. Thousands of ants began running out of my LAPTOP!!!! I went back to the pile of "stuff" and there was the cake... HALF GONE, with mnay holes eaten right through the aluminum foil. There were probably a million ants in that bag and they had created a sixteen-lane superhighway through my closet to that cake. Totally disgusting!!!!

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  23. Hmm.. Stupidest thing I've ever done... It would have to be The one time I didn't check if I had all the ingredients I wanted to make a candy I had read about. So when I got to the instructions that said add sugar, I added splenda and other things instead of following the recipe. Lets just say that not only did I throw out the concoction of ick, I also threw out the pan I used and had to buy a new one.

    I follow through email.

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  24. I am a follower. Had a good laugh at this post. My stupid thing was just yesterday. Had to drive 10 miles back to work to fix a cashier's mistake on a received on account. She put into the computer $10,000.00 instead of $100.00. I thought I'd be smart & just correct the amount overpaid on the back office computer. So I corrected it by $9000.00. Needless to say I had to go back and do another correction for $900.00. And both of these corrections will show on the customer statement at the end of the month.

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  26. Happy Blogiversary! Love the little pouches and the story too. Something dumb...not all that long ago after a bit of wine, I went to a party and sat on a comfy couch. When I went to get up from said couch I realized I had really sunk in and that, combined with the wine, meant I needed to really work to get up (without making it seem like it) as I did so I you could hear what sounded like a really loud fart but was my pants splitting up the seam. Everyone heard and Lord knows what they thought. I just pretended it didn't happen. It was NOT funny at the time, but I am roflmfao now telling you about it! And I follow now!

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  27. Congratulations on the Blogiversay and being a Dave Ramsey fan. We have been trying to follow his plan for a few years now. We have reduced our debt but the budget is still something I struggle with. I have done so many dumb things that I am not sure which one to tell you. I was cutting out material for a craft class one night. The phone rang and I raised my head to listen if my husband would answer or if I needed to get it. I didn't stop slicing with my rotary cutter, of course. Next thing I know, half of my left thumb is laying on my ruler and blood is running every where. Well, I first had to grab a towel and then clean the blood up so it didn't get on the fabric. Then told my husband that he should look at it and see if we needed to go to the hospital. He took one look at it and said, "And you are thinking you don't need to go?" So off we went. They could not put the side that I cut off back on but it isn't very noticable. So the morale of the story is don't take your eyes off that rotary cutter.

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  28. Congrats on your Blogiversary! And your story made me spit all over my computer because I was dying of laughter and trying not to laugh out loud since both my kids were sleeping peacefully.

    I do a lot of stupid things. Mostly bang myself up, spill hot oil on myself while cooking, grab a hot waffle iron on the metal part, etc. My most recent stupid thing? Well, we were at a store this weekend, and I went up to a worker who was stocking a display and asked her if I could steal a couple of the containers she was stacking. Then I turned bright red because I'd just asked to "steal" something--because people ask before stealing all of the time, right?--and tried to backtrack and explain that I really just meant to snag them to immediately take them to the registers and purchase them. I maybe, just maybe, went into this long speak about how I used to be really passionate about loss prevention when I worked in retail and would never ever steal something because it was wrong. Of course, she just laughed at me and told me she knew what I meant the first time. Of course. Then I felt like an idiot and retreated to my husband who was laughing his head off at our exchange. Classy, Hubs. Classy.

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  29. Woo hoo for a year. I have loved following your blog in this time and seeing your little one grow and hearing you grow as a mum and a quilter..

    I do many many stupid things, but the most annoying stupid thing was when making a batch of zippy pouches I sewed them all up without leaving the zips open so I couldn't turn them inside out - uuurrrgh.

    If I won this pouch I would put it to good use and stash my drugs money in it x

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  30. i do dumb stuff all the time. remember the video i made when i didn't shower and only had 4 hours of sleep and thought that was a good idea? yeeeep! so me!

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  31. Love your pouch! (And thank you for your personal note re-TRAC!) I'm your latest follower! And I have been known to FMQ about one quarter of a lap sized quilt with the backing folded over on itself! Not sure how it happened but boy! was I cross with myself! Took ages to unpick too! Ugh!

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  32. ROFLMAO, well that'll teach you to carry random pouches of money to buy your blow instead of your regular purse... ;o)

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  33. Just started following your blog :) Dumb stuff well that would be burning myself all the time when getting things out of the oven, my hubby says he thinks I like to "feel the burn" LOL

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  34. Congrats my dear! The charms worked perfectly for these! Too bad about the "blow" bag though. ;) To be quite honest, I saw where this was going even before you started your story (apparently cuz my mind works like that!). I'm sure there are many things to keep in a "blow" bag other than illicite drugs or money for such (balloons perhaps?).

    Ok so my dumb thing that I did lately... throughout the whole state of Oregon, every gas station is always full service because of their state regulations. One time on my way back from visiting my sister, I stopped to fill-up in Portland. I forgot completely that I was still in Oregon and pulled up to the pump fully expecting to get out and help myself. Suddenly this guy came up to the car. I was sitting there for a good few seconds completely confused and wondering what the heck he wanted (not opening the door or windows obviously!). Finally after letting it dawn on me that he was there to pump my gas, I fumbled around with the window buttons for a few seconds, got the window down, and handed him my card. I was so discombobulated that I didn't say anything, so he finally asked me "fill it up?" (thinking all the while that I probably had my own "blow" bag!). Now I always wait to stop for gas until I cross the state line (or make the husband do it!) lol!

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  35. Today i pored soda water into my noodles instead of my glass... Enough said...

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  36. What a freaking amazing idea! I love this as an envelope system. I'm so going to use this idea!

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