I’m Alive!!

by ilene on May 15, 2012 · 4 comments

in Uncategorized

Hi!! I’m back! Sorry for the abrupt break from blogging, I didn’t intend to take a month-long hiatus from this blog, it just happened! Thanks to everyone who inquired what was going on and wondering where I’ve been. I’m alive and well! Life is pretty crazy and full these days. I had no idea I was gone for so long! I really enjoy blogging, but keeping up this blog takes me 20 hrs a week and, frankly, with work and traveling and a pretty huge project that I’ve been working on, it was nice to take a little breather! What’s the new huge project, you ask? I can’t reveal it just yet, it’s a secret for now! But its keeping me plenty busy, keeps me up late into the nights and saps me of most my energy. It’s the biggest project I’ve ever worked on and I’m super excited about it! Can’t wait to share it with you all!

Even though I took a break from blogging, my love for bicycles hasn’t waned. I was shopping at Target last week and stumbled on this beautiful bicycle pillow!

Lord knows I do not need anymore pillows, I have way too many and most of them are in storage now because there just isn’t enough space on the couch or our bed.  Plus, I usually choose to save money and sew my own custom pillows (like these, these, these, and these), but I’m a sucker for anything with a bicycle on it so it had to come home with me! The gray matches our gray couch perfectly!!  I also walked out of Target with a bunch of other things I didn’t need like two picture frames, cute gift wrap and a box of gold fish crackers. Sigh, Target is my weakness!

This past Mother’s Day, I’ve had a new appreciation for all the love and sacrifice moms everywhere make for their children.  I don’t know how mothers do it, they are my heroes!   I’ve been really blessed with an awesome mother who has always made sure that my siblings and I had the best of everything.  She always put our needs above her own and our childhood was happy and carefree because of it.  I hope one day to be as good of a mom as she is!  Anyways, I was looking for a card to send her last Sunday and found this cute bicycle card!

It was perfect for her! Thanks, mom, for everything you do!

Anyways, I hope to be back blogging more regularly now!   Posts may not be as frequent but I’ll try not to drop off the face of the earth again! Thanks for bearing with me and for reading along!!

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tagged as: bicycle

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Feeling the Bike Love

by ilene on April 6, 2012 · 5 comments

in Uncategorized

My love for bicycles must be legendary because I got a couple bicycle things for my birthday this past week!  I think all my friends know how much I love anything with bicycles on it!  I love bicycles because they are  fun, whimsical, summery, happy and remind me of the care-free afternoons spent riding amongst the orange groves as a child.  Bicycling is also one of the few hobbies that Jeff and I enjoy doing together, thats why we had a bicycle-themed wedding and rode into our reception on a tandem bike!!

You know what’s sad though? Jeff’s locked bike was stolen out of the garage last month!  Darn San Francisco thugs!  I shake my fist at you!  Luckily, the thief didn’t steal my bike, which was locked to his. I guess the thief figured he would’ve looked pretty silly riding down the mean streets of San Fran on a pink beach cruiser with a whicker basket, bell and rearview mirror (yup, my bike is all decked out!). Jeff’s blue Trek was a better choice.  I know we can always get Jeff a new bike but the theft made me sad though because we bought our bikes together  in New Hampshire when were dating and have so many happy memories riding together around the Charles River.  I drew our bikes on our wedding invitations and they were the inspiration for our entire wedding.

Anyways, look at these cute bicycle glasses my old roommate S sent me in the mail!!! Aren’t they adorable?! I squealed when I opened up the package:

I love them!!  The package also came with a bag of my favorite cookies. Thank you, S!

I also got these super cute bicycle birthday cards from my friends J and M:

Also yesterday, my friend sent me this email from Paper Source:

(image from Paper Source)

They have a whole line of bicycle stuff at Paper Source now!! And its all so CUTE!!  Who knew bicycles were so trendy now? Click on the image above to see all the bicycle-inspired stuff that they are selling!  I want the apron!! And the streamers to add to my already over-accessorized beach cruiser!!!

Several people have also pointed out to me this adorable Bike Lane dress from Anthropologie:

(image from Anthropologie)

If it weren’t so pricey, I would totally get it!! Buy it here.

I love seeing bike stuff everywhere!!  Whenever I spot anything with a bicycle on it, I shriek, jump up and down and have to point it out to people around me, even if its random strangers!

Anyways, sorry I haven’t been posting a lot of crafty things or tutorials lately.  I started a new job last month which I am grateful for but I commute almost 3 hours a day, which is totally kicking my tush.  Everyday when I sit wasting time away on the train, I lament “I can be spending all this time sewing!!” Hopefully I can get some time this weekend to use my new sewing machine, I have a few projects up my sleeve that I want to finish and show you guys.  Have a Happy Easter, everyone!!! Thanks for reading!

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tagged as: bicycle, bike, birthday

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My Birthday Present: A New Sewing Machine!

by ilene on April 4, 2012 · 8 comments

in sewing

Look what I got for my birthday! A new sewing machine!  My awesome sister and my friend N pitched in to get this for me!  I’ve been sewing with a simple Singer Prelude which had all the basic sewing functions and met all my sewing needs for the past 6 years.   Every where I moved (I lived in 5 apartments over the past 6 years!) I brought my trusty little sewing machine with me and I made many many big projects with it.  It wasn’t until I used my sister’s brand new fancy sewing machine that I realized what I was missing out on!   Her machine didn’t shake and rattle the table and groan like mine did!!  I found out how much more enjoyable and quick it was to sew when I wasn’t constantly untangling the bobbin and re-threading the needle.  I didn’t realize how much time I wasted de-tangling threads, cursing and ripping out uneven seams!!   So, I decided it was time for an upgrade.

I decided to get the Singer Quantum Stylist 9960, isn’t she a beauty?

I settled on this particular  model because I didn’t need a fancy professional industrial machine, I wanted something more middle of the road. I like Singers and this one got great reviews on Amazon and had all the functions that I was looking for.  It had 13 automatic button hole makers, an automatic needle threader, a thread cutter and over 600 built in stitch patterns- none of which my old machine had.  The best part was when I was looking over all the embroidery options, I spotted #20- a bicycle!! It’s like this machine was meant for me!!

My friend N came over this past weekend to help me figure out how to use it. If it was just me by myself, I probably wouldn’t have taken it out of its box for weeks. With her reading the manuals and me fiddling with all the options, we had the machine threaded and running in no time.  We had a lot of fun discovering all the functions and playing around with all the electronic programmable features. I was amazed by all the options for embroidering letters and numbers. I tried embroidering my name a few times, it was surprisingly easy!

With my new sewing machine, I churned out 6 pairs of pajama pants for my friends on Saturday!  I would never have been able to do that so quickly with my old machine!  It was so smooth and quiet, too, I was amazed!!!!

Here is a side by side picture of both my sewing machines:

You can see how much more advanced my new sewing machine is!  I promised Jeff that I would sell my old sewing machine, so if anyone wants it, let me know!!!

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