The weeks are flying. February is almost all gone and I'm finally finding my own groove of things here in Washington. Here's my quick addition to Sunday Lately and below is some pictures and experiences from the Sewing and Stitchery Expo here in Washington.

Planning 

On signing up for yoga classes in March! I'm excited by all the opportunity around me here in Olympia. It's just a city buzzing with community and events and activities. 

Loving Experiencing

Alone time. I am one of a family with six children. "Alone time" is a strange concept to me. I'm a social creature, even if that means we both sit in silence in the same room doing our own thing. Nick is working a lot and we have different schedules - so that means "me" time. So instead of my natural instinct of staying inside, I've been adventuring out to take pictures, explore the area, and most recently, go to Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA. (Pew-Wall-Up.)

Local flowers blooming.

Reading

Lots and lots of blogs! Mainly Lladybird (my personal style hero and a girl from my home state.), Madalynne, Closet Case Files (mainly her Sunday roundup posts which introduce me to new sewing blogs), Sally Oh, and Sew Busy Lizzy.

Wishing 

To meet my new nephew Vincent. My brother and his wife had their beautiful baby 10 days ago and I know he'll probably be a year old before I get to hold him. I love seeing all the pictures but my heart feels sad that I can't actually be there to meet him.

Feeling

Thankful. Thankful for my family who sends me pictures of the babies that I've left behind. (nieces and nephews.) Thankful for my job and coworkers who make spending 10 hours a day selling furniture not so terrible. Thankful for the sunny days that Washington offers and the gorgeous views of Mount Rainier. Thankful for living IN town and having everything so close to me. 

Thankful to be healthy (after I kick this cold!) and thankful for the friends I do have that I get to keep in touch with. :)

Come join us next week for Sunday lately. The prompts are Doing, Appreciating, Designing, Humming, Expecting.

It's SUNDAY again, that means time for only an 8 hour shift rather than a 10.5 hour shiiiiift! You know you work in retail when you're excited about an 8 hour shift. :P (I'm sure same can be said for military, medical, firefighters, policemen... ok. I've invalidated my own complaint. What I meant to start with was the ironically annoying "#blessed." 

Completing
Goals! Yes, not what I would have thought of as goals a month ago. But I've been setting sales goals, meeting, and exceeding them. Which is new and exciting for me. It's panning out to be a much better and more enjoyable job than expected. :)

Visiting
Some co-workers turned friends took me out this week and it was really great to find some people to be friendly with. I feel like I say this a lot, but it's all just a part of finding your place in your new home and with time comes connections. Patience is not my virtue. 

Repeating
"Attitude of gratitude." It's SO easy to fall into feeling sorry for myself over god knows what, making up excuses, finding flaws rather than finding happiness. I have SO many great people, things, and circumstances in my life that I really don't *need* anything more. 


Did I mention that my man cooked me a Valentine's dinner that was DELICIOUS!

Writing
The weekly Raglan Pattern Reviews! Some coupons are still active and we still have about four more weeks to go, so make sure to check in every Thursday. If you missed any from my posts, check out the previous weeks here.

Scheduling
I'm still working out my crazy work schedule, my home schedule, and trying to schedule in some sewing time! Once I tackle my work schedule, I think every thing will fall into place. There are also some local yoga studios that I want to join / check out, but all in good time!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey - this isn't related AT ALL. But I died laughing for like 5 minutes. So, maybe you'll enjoy it. 

Next week's prompts are Planning, Loving, Reading, Wishing, Feeling. You can join us by clicking the button below! <3

I hope everyone had a fantastic Galentines day! For those who aren't Parks and Rec / Amy Poehler fans, what is wrong with you? Galentines day (February 13th) is about celebrating all the love you have for the Gals in your life! I was lucky to have my favorite girl born 12 years before me to the same parents. Sister shout out! I know you don't read this crap, but I love you anyway. ;) My bestie was born the same year and only a stones throw from my bedroom, and I've met a small handful other great girls along the way - to each one I am so thankful for the light, love, honesty, generosity, support, and friendship you bring into my life. I want to write you each a love letter everyday (though it's impractical) I truly hope each one of you knows that you are in my heart and you all make me feel so very lucky to know you.

Our more awkward years. Two of my very best friends!

Kat - the girl who sought out my friendship and danced away with it.

Me looking dorky af and my sister looking poised as always.

Any my mom. Wow. This woman is a wonder. She makes every aspect of life better. I hope for everyone that they are able to share the love and respect for their mom's as I have for mine. Bahhhhhhh! I miss you, madre!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I went off on a Galentine's Love letter, but here's the (vegan) meat of the post... This weeks prompts are ...

Updating
Can I be updating my priorities? I just started this new job recently which has a stressful time demand. I need to update my priorities to pack a healthy lunch, find some time to exercise, go to bed on time (which I'm avoiding at THIS moment while I write this post.), and fit in some yoga. Oh, did I mention keep the house clean? I'm stressing myself already. I think it's a common thing, honestly. I recognize that I'm one of those people that run very high strung and stressed. When I have "free and unstructured time" I just waste it, so I keep stressed because it's my oddly uncomfortable "comfort zone." 

Remembering
I've been remembering "The Office." I live and breathe the Office. Jim and Pam are the loves of my life. If you ever want to make me a shirt, can it please say "Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica." or "Fact: Bears Eat Beets." I constantly stream shows from Netflix while I sew. The Office, Scrubs, Parks and Rec, Arrested Development... I'm a creature of habit.
  

Needing
I need to take a breath. 

Then I need to stop over committing to things. Sewing projects, having the house completely clean all the time, (The people who know me are probably laughing cause they know me as a messy person, but I've reformed. My house has been awesomely clean for a long time now!) Sometimes it's okay to just breathe. And maybe to talk with my mom. She's busy with work right now, but I could totally use some family time.

Wearing
Lots of professional clothes for work! Slacks, slacks, slacks. However, I've also been wearing my Copellia cardigan (to work), Greenstyle Centerfield Raglan on my weekends. They're both comfy and stylish. :) 

Being
Grateful to experience a new part of the country with the man I love. We may be working a ton, but at least we're working towards something. 
Thankful for the time I was able to spend with my mom, dad, and sister in Guatemala and the time I was able to visit my brothers before moving here. Living away from family is hard but it's nice to have those memories.
Appreciative for the pictures I am sent from my family of my nieces and nephew. I love the little ones so much!
Attitude of Gratitude. (Cheesy but true) :)


I hope everyone has a fantastic Valentines Day with your loves!

Capital Lake 2 minutes from home

Capital building

Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup presented by the Blogger Tribe

Next week's prompts are Completing, Visiting, Repeating, Writing, Scheduling. You can join us by clicking the button below! <3

*This posts contains affiliate links to help me buy a sewing-time card for my local sewing studio, and also the fresh drip of the gods ... coffee*

  Hey friends. So I'm starting to participate in something called "Sunday Lately." Mostly because it keeps me blogging and writing. I find that I actually like to write, whether I've sewn a project or not! There is an awesome group of girls who call themselves the "Blogger Tribe." They are fun, friendly, and creatively inspiring - plus, I'm still searching for my community, maybe I'll find it online before I forge it in person. :) 

(Just to throw this out there - I don't actually expect anyone to read this, you're off the hook. No quizzes on these types of posts. ;) )

Anywho. It works like this. There are five prompts each week and we just talk about them according to our lives, or we skip them. Easy as that! The five prompts this week are Creating, Finding, Switching, Forgetting, and Craving.  

Creating

 This one is always fun. It's a blog about creating art, after all. Currently. Like, ten minutes ago currently, I am sewing a Coppelia cardigan (previously sewn here) for my sister from some Sincerely Rylee sweater knit. I know she'll love it because she picked the fabric out of my stash herself! It's going to be adorable red and white stripes. I'm also working on a donation for the "Give Hope" project run buy the talented ladies of Violette Field Threads. It's a campaign to give clothing to an orphanage in Guatemala (which I just spent a month there!) They are still accepting donations, so feel free to grab your free patterns and sew up a gift that a little girl with cherish.

Finding

So I'm about 26 days in at my new home in Washington and I got a job (yay!) but I'm just starting to explore. I found this adorable sewing studio literally one mile from my home. It's attached to a coffee shop. Do I even need to say more? Probably not, but it's great! They offer open sewing time, mentored sewing time, classes, fitting help, professional tools open for use with a sewing pass,  and they offer more than anything - a community. Being 2,476 miles from my family (but who's counting?) can be very isolating. I've never lived this far from home on a "I have no idea when I'm coming home" basis. So I *need* to find my "tribe" I suppose. 

Local park next to my apartment

Switching

I'm switching from pins to *WONDER CLIPS!* they are so fucking wonderful! If you haven't used them, go buy them! We recently ordered a package from amazon and Nick asked if I needed anything for around $7 so we could get free shipping and I said YAAAS! So my wonder clips journey was born. Turns out my very next project was this loose sweater knit and they've been so helpful already.

Forgetting

The absolute bonus of our new apartment is I have my *own* sewing room! Shhh. Don't tell Nick. It's supposed to be our joint computer / sewing room, however, he has claimed the living room TV as his monitor so I have claimed the spare room my "fabric room." I feel like a spoiled princess, though I love it! It's a nice retreat and great that I don't have to worry about keeping it neat all the time. (I'm sure anyone who is reading this can relate to not loving packing everything up after a sewing session.)

(I also forgot to include what I'm forgetting.... ironic. However, I'm forgetting to organize and decorate my sewing room! It's going to be even more fantastic when it's all prettied out.)

Craving 

Friendships with humans. Preferably around my age with similar interests. It can be hard! I am personable but I don't just go out and sit at a bar, bookstore, etc. So I am very excited to join some yoga classes, the sewing studio, maybe some arial classes in hopes of finding some awesome people to pass the time with. That is when I start getting a pay check again. You know how that can go - when you first start a job you have to wait a few extra weeks to get on payroll. 

Make sure you're also following along with Tibeca and I's series of Raglan Reviews! My previous post can be viewed here, and this Thursday I'll be reviewing the Lane Raglan from Hey June.
Don't forget the Greenstyle sale is still raging on! You can get 25% off your whole purchase through February with code Feb25. If you need some inspiration, check out my previous Greenstyle sews here!

Thanks, lovelies!

Sunday Lately is a weekly linkup presented by the Blogger Tribe

Next week's prompts are Updating, Remembering, Needing, Wearing, Being.