cold weather activities

According to the Chicago Tribune website, the temperature in Chicago has now been under 0 for 22 hours and 23 minutes. For some of you, your first thought was, does the website really keep track of that? Yes, it does in fact. It also tells me that there are four days, twelve hours and 36 minutes until the inauguration, that's just how we roll in Chicago. For the rest of you, you probably started commiserating about your similar cold weather traumas. Oh my, it was quite cold waiting for the train this morning (and this afternoon). Ever since I started college I pretty much have cast aside what is "normal" for whatever it takes to stay warm. Here is what I wore to work today: one under shirt, one sweater, one sweatshirt (yes mom, one of each), one pair of long underwear, one pair of jeans, one coat, a hat with my hood up, shoes and socks, and two scarves. With all of those head coverings my head and neck were basically the same width as my torso. I may have looked silly but i stayed warm!

Now, what to do on a ridiculously cold evening at home? Try out the new sewing machine of course! For Christmas I got a lovely new sewing machine and tonight after assembling it, i completed my first project: a luggage tag! Okay, not the most exciting project (Abby giggled at me when i told her) but i had the fabric and pattern from a craft fair i attended over the summer. Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I learned how to sew from my Grandma and have some experience though it has been awhile so i had to do my best to be patient. It definitely went alright: I got to use my iron for the second time since moving to Chicago, interpret as you will, and ended up with a neat little luggage tag. I was a little wary when the instructions told me to sew through plastic on my brand new machine but all worked out in the end. Check it out! Basically you tie the long end to your bags and the blue end holds your contact info.

A note on the camera: I bought it for ten dollars at Walgreen's to capture Aaron's first ice skating adventures a while back. So yeah, these are ten dollar quality pictures...I like to think of them as artsy!