Jeff* at Postinos

 

Hello Blogging world! I feel I have much to share in the arena of dating. By no means am I an expert, but I've done enough of it to share a good story or two. These are my stories :)

Lets start out with Jeff*. Jeff and I met on a popular dating site where I first messaged him based on the fact that he was tall. I'm 5'11'' and do love a tall drink of water. Jeff is 6'3'', employed and easy on the eyes. Great reason to message someone right?? I thought so. We exchanged a few emails back and fourth before we exchanged phone numbers. It should be noted that I do not routinely give out my number to strangers on the internet for reasons that will soon be shared. However, with Jeff his emails seemed sincere and I was interested in meeting him. He shared that he was embarking on a 3 week trip to Turkey at the end of the week so I suggested a meet up before he left. We decided Wednesday that Postinos would do the trick.

All week leading up to Wednesday I received very nice text messages from Jeff about how excited he was to meet up, asking how my day was, etc. It all seemed nice and was well received. Jeff and I had arranged to meet up at Postinos at 8pm when I got off of work. I arrived at the restaurant and quickly spotted him. He looked exactly how I expected! Woohoo! We were quickly seated and conversation was pretty easy.

Jeff shared so many interesting things about himself: he's traveled all over the world, he has 60 watches, yes, 6-0, and that he "makes a good living." Honestly, I am not one of those girls who is looking for a man to take care of them. Jeff seemed to be a little braggy but maybe he was just proud of his accomplishments? Either way it was nice conversation and that was a big step up from previous dates.

When dinner was over the check came and Jeff quickly went for it. I did my normal routine where I asked if he wanted to split it and he did the typical male thing of saying, "I got this." I said thanks and that I appreciated it. We walked out and both said we had a nice time. No mention of meeting up again.

I should note that I find online dating has a different set of rules. You really don't know who you are talking to until you actually meet them. Meaning, you may think you've met your soul mate based on what they've messaged you but then you meet and your realize you've been talking to skeletor the entire time. With Jeff I was pleasantly surprised at how normal he seemed and how pretty true to his profile he was. My typical protocol with the follow-up is waiting for the man to call, text, message something along the lines of "Had a nice time. Lets do it again." I heard nothing from Jeff in the coming days.

Here's where it gets interesting. Fast forward to Friday. Im sitting on my couch enjoying my day off when I get a message on the dating site saying, "So I guess you're not interested. I never heard anything from you." I quickly responded in a calm matter that I had not heard anything from him and that the phone worked both ways. I thought I was embarking on clever and witty banter that would lead to a follow-up date that started with a little miscommunication. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. Jeff proceeded to give me the email equivalent of a sound lashing regarding the rules of dating. These are the rules of his game:
1. The girl is suppose to initiate conversation after the date

 

2. The man is suppose to sit there and take credit for the date

3. The girl is suppose to suppose to continually show interest and "spark" the man's interest after the date

 

 

4. He's the greatest thing in the world and I should be so lucky :( sarcasm

 

 

So there we are. The exact reason you do NOT give your number out to strangers over the internet and the current specimen of man that is available in this town :/.

 

 I think the lesson we've learned from Jeff is that I should be more attentive in my follow-up, should show interest and enthusiasm in hopes of attracting a man and that I will be perpetually single if this is all that's out there :/

 

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for the next date.

 

xo

Anna

 

It should be noted that I did not contact him again, at his request, and that he is currently traveling around Turkey "having a blast."

 

*Name changed for his privacy

 

 

The one with an apron

Let me start by saying I love aprons! I think they are cute, adorable, feminine and above all practical! Everyone should have one. These past few years I've started making aprons as gifts and recently as a little extra income. They are great for birthdays, wedding showers, mother's day...you name it! Fast forward to me thinking I can do a tutorial. Wish me luck! Here goes...

I start all my aprons by walking up and down the fabric aisle at least 10 times to ensure I have seen every single kind of fabric the store has to offer. At this point I usually have about 5-6 reems in my cart that I need to narrow down to two. Much harder than it seems! My motto as of late is to pick a loud, bigger fabric for the body of the apron and then to accent it with a smaller print, softer if you will, ruffle. For this tutorial I went with an abstract black and white floral and then a yellow polka dot for the ruffle.

Hopefully at this point you also have a pattern in mind. I've been using the same pattern for quite a few years now and I love it! Through trial and error I've made modifications to it to tailor the apron to my tastes. I feel comfortable that the end result is the best of the pattern and my creativity combined. The pattern is one I picked up at my local craft store.

The directions are pretty straitght forward. Lay out your material, line up seams and cut on the dotted line. The one major modification I made is widening the waist band (more retro looking in my opinion) and adding a trim to the pocket. The following picture illustrates the size the band should be and the size that I actually cute it.

This modification only came about after making the apron true to pattern and finding that I wanted a more substantial band. Of course you may like a thinner one and in that case make no modifications. Once all the pieces are cut it's time to sew! I follow the patter directions with say to start with the pocket. I find it easiest to cute your contrasting piece double the thickness as you want the trim to be. From there fold it in half with the right side out. Line up the rough edge with the top of the pocket and sew along the top.

From there you need to do a baste stitch along the rounded edge of the pocket to encourage to seem edge to fold in. To do a baste stitch you need to adjust the length of your stitch, I go from a 2 to a 4.

Once you've finished with the larger stitch you need to gently pull the top string until the edge curls under like so. At that point pin the seem as you like it.

You are now ready to sew the pocket on to the body of the apron!! Once you've mastered the pocket you've mastered the whole thing! Just make sure to center it and put it as low or as high as you like it.

The ruffle, neck band and waist band are pretty straight forward on the directions. Once you are ready to sew your gathered ruffle on the apron it is important to keep it as even as you can. I usually line up the edges and center and then loosen the ruffle until the edge lines up with the edge of the apron. Then sew them together!

Now it's time for the waist band! This is another modification I made. The full apron instructs you to just do tie ends. I did not care for that, therefore I took the wider waiste band from the half apron and positioned it on the body of the apron where I thought it fit best.

Once in position just sew straight across. And now you're done! Woo hoo! My model graciously wearing my fresh out of the shop creation:

You'll notice the wider waistband, nicely gathered ruffle around the entire edge and extra long ties to make a big bow. Hope this was helpful and informative or at the very least entertaining!

Until next time,
Anna

The one with pigs

Hello crafters! I'm finally starting my blog! And because it's the first post I thought I would start out with an easy craft of re-purposing a few knick knacks I had laying around the house with a little spray paint. My inspiration for this craft came from Sherri and John over at www.younghouselove.com I love what they do with spray paint and tiny items so I decided to try it myself. And it didn't turn out too bad!

While roaming my local thrift store I spotted a tiny little piggy bank that was just screaming to go home with me. And while it's not a looker, I immediately had grander plans for it! Key lime spray paint was in it's future!

(Before the spraying commenced)

(During the beautification process)

(New home amongst his people)

 After my trip to the thrift store, I raced home to see what else I would paint and I found this. This little guy has been sitting on my shelf for over 2 years holding a candle that was never lit.

He's just a plain glass candle holder I found in another thrift store during my travels. He looks okay but he is definitely missing something.  Perhaps a little paint? Yes!

(Doing his new job: q-tip holder)

This little guy now sits in my powder room serving the very important job of holding q-tips. And the pop of color makes him so much nicer looking.

Awhile back I told my dad, from here on out he shall be known as Papa Marx, that I was looking for some brass candle sticks. Not only did he find me brass candle sticks galore I got a tiny brass vase. It was a fine looking vase but I didn't really know what to do with it. Sadly it's been sitting in a closet since I received it. Continuing with my green kick I decided to spruce it up a bit.

(Pre- makeover)

(Post- makeover in it's new home)

The brass took the paint very nicely and now it is very nicely holding a plum flower amongst my crystal.

Lastly, I found this faux starfish amonst the treasures at the thrift store. By nature I am drawn to anything ocean related. I immediately went in for a closer look. 

It looked fine all on it's own but since I was on the painting kick I thought I would give it a healthy coat of white just to spruce it up. I am happy to announce it worked just how i had hoped. It looks brighter and whiter than I could have hoped.

She now rests amongst my books as an accent piece. I feel like it could transition to many spaces through out my home so who knows where it will end up.

Overall it was a very nice first experience with spray painting. I can definitely see myself spray painting a lot more in the future.

Until then,

Anna