I should have thought of that!

The other day I was talking with my mom about how there should be a quilting app. A quick little calculator for all those little measurements I can't seem to figure out. One simple search later, I found one!

I really love the Kona Cotton Solids by Robert Kaufman. There is every color under the sun. Well, Robert Kaufman teamed up with Quilter's Paradise to make this free(!) app for iPhones. 

This is the first page of the app. I don't know if I'll use all the different calculators, but I have used the backing & binding calculator a couple of times now.

The quilt I'm working on is going to be a 68 inch square quilt. So here is how I used the app to figure out my backing. I put in a 12 inch overage for if I want to get it machine quilted (something I'm still not sure about).

How cool is that? I'll need 7 and 3/4 yardage for my backing. 

Binding! This seems like the most confusing thing to calculate. I used the same width and length as above.

Oh, I'm so happy that I found this app before I needed to calculate my binding! I seriously recommend this app to anyone that has an iPhone, iPod Touch, or an iPad and quilts or knows a quilter. You can find out more info here. 

I go to Mardi Gras for the parades

I don't think most people know this, but the Mardi Gras in Galveston is the second largest celebration in the US (behind New Orleans). This year I really couldn't handle too much of the celebration. It's two weekends and Fat Tuesday! But I did take some pictures of the parades. It's my favorite part.

Every May there is an Art Car parade in Houston. Artist do just about anything to their cars from creating giant metal chickens (like the one above) to just hot gluing tchotchkes on the hood of a car. There's also a museum dedicated to it (http://www.artcarmuseum.com/). The first Saturday night, the art cars drove down The Strand (in downtown Galveston), and I was lucky enough to have a balcony view.

   

Here are more pictures of the parade.

This art car/float would shoot flames from the back.

SOCK MONKEY VAN!

This dance bus is a staple for any Galveston parade.

One day I'm gonna take a ride on that dance bus!

The second Friday I celebrated on this balcony.

I heart him!

POLICE HORSES!

The Fat Tuesday parade was the best! There were like 8 marching bands from all around Houston. 

Yep, they put the Alamo on that float!

You probably can't read the sign. It says Royal Pirate Society. Yes, we have pirates in Galveston. I love Mardi Gras, but I'm glad it's over. 

In our little work shop

Monday was spent in our garage working on special projects with our special helper. First our special helper:

Apparently, while I'm at work, Gigi is down in the garage helping Scott build beautiful furniture. She even picks out the wood!

She turned into CRAZY GIGI! I can stop buying her bones now that I've witnessed how much she'd rather chew on scraps of wood. It's a good thing that is acrylic paint on that piece. 

She does take a break every once in a while to rest her chin. 

I made this little house. It's a form for a project I'm working on. Basically, I just used a lot of scrap pieces Gigi wasn't eating, so she probably hates me right now. Oh, and I almost shot myself in the hand, like, 5 times with the pin gun (I think that's what it's called). 

I really don't know how she can take a nap in such a loud place, but when I try to take her picture she automatically wakes up. Sometimes she falls asleep standing up. 

Scott made hair-pin legs for our new coffee table! He made the top of the table out of reclaimed wood from an old Galveston biscuit factory. This is a picture of him braking his drill bits in the metal plate of the legs. 

It's nice and narrow, exactly what we needed for our small space. Scott rarely has time to make furniture for our house, so it was really great to have this finished in a day and a half. The cost was about 15 bucks because of the metal. Did you read that? Awesome mid-century modern coffee table for under $20, I bet you can't beat that! 

A Beautiful Weekend

We had a three day weekend this week. It was really nice since Friday night we went to a Mardi Gras party. Oh, Mardi Gras, I always need multiple days to get over you.

We went into to Houston and finally stopped at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore! I've been wanting to go there for a while, but I always forget where the exit is. This time I was on the ball.

These are metal oven hoods (range hood? I don't know the proper name). I really like the avocado green ones. 

There is a ton of tile and flooring at ReStore. I want to build a house only using materials found at ReStore. They even have paint. There was a lot of weekend DIYers shopping for supplies. Oh, I almost forgot, the reason why this place is so great, everything in ReStore is 50%-75% off the price you'd find at places like Home Depot. 

We went to the Galleria in Houston and this was the view from our parking spot. I usually don't take pictures in parking garages, but it was so pretty with the waterfalls! 

This is sleeping Gigi. Sunday morning I woke her up for a long walk (by long I mean for her, it was a 5 block walk). 

Hurricane Ike hit in 2008. Last summer a lot of people had their Iked trees (Galveston vernacular for the oak trees that were killed from all the salt water from Ike) into sculpture trees. This beautiful one of dolphins and a mermaid is around the corner from me. 

This is one of many abandoned houses on the island. I love the gingerbread on this old Queen Anne style home.

Another pink house on the same block as the house above. A perfect example of a Galveston cottage. 

Scott and I rode our bikes up to the beach. It's been so beautiful here that I just had to brag.