Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Wedding Wednesday: Where I've been

Last week kind of got away from me. I had an over night baby sitting job up at the mountains and afterward spent the night at my future mother-in-law's. Since I got back things have been complete chaos. Working a ton and having interviews! Yesterday I had an extremely successful interview at a company I am excited about and eager to work for. They aren't filling positions until October, but I can survive until then.

Wedding planning sort of came to a halt when I was told I wasn't needed anymore at my job. All of our current funds are being used for bills so it's a little difficult to plan with no money!

I have another interview this Tuesday so things are really looking up!


This Friday I will finally have a finish for my Finish/FMQ Friday post! Woot!

Now I have to hop over to bloglovin', I've got a lot of reading to do!


Quilt on,
Hoppi

Monday, August 12, 2013

The New Look

OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!!!!!!!!

I have been waiting for this moment for quite some time now. The grand reveal of my BRAND! Don't you just LOVE my logo? I know I do!

When I decided to start a business of quilting I knew I needed a logo, and it just so happened that a friend of mine, Lisa, had just graduated graphic design school. I knew I needed to team up with her to do something awesome, and that is exactly what happened.


It is exactly what I envisioned it would be. When I think of Hoppipolla Quilts I think of fun, vibrant colors, doodles, henna. The things I get inspiration from. That embodies Hoppipolla Quilts. 

Working with Lisa was such an incredible process. Though we've been friends for quite some time (about 10 years), we've never really talked about our futures or professions. Going into it, Lisa really had no idea what to expect, she didn't know what I was looking for, and honestly I don't think I did either! Once we started, the ideas came rolling. Lisa sent me a list of questions that really helped me open my eyes to my own company, my own brand. Once we emailed back and forth a few times Lisa really got me, she completely understood what I wanted just by a handful  of emails. 
If you ever need graphic design work, ever, I highly suggest you work with Lisa! She is professional, understanding, and so incredibly talented at what she does! 

What I got is exactly what I envisioned, and I am so happy and so proud to display my logo to you!

I hope that you enjoy my new logo as much as I do. A new logo to me means new hope for the Hoppi Quilt Shop, for my brand!



Quilt on,
Hoppi

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Sunday Runday: Part 1

On November 10th I will be running a 10 mile race up hill, every Sunday I will document my training here for you all to follow!

 Monday I ran 2.64 miles at a 13:09 pace. I had a fairly steep incline.

 Tuesday I ran 2.96 miles at a 12:05 pace, same incline as Monday! I shaved over a minute off my time!




Wednesday I ran exactly 3 miles at a 13:22 pace. Same incline as Monday and Tuesday, but it was very humid that day!


Thursday was my long run day. I ran 6 miles at a 12:47 pace. I am still so incredibly proud of myself for this! At the 5 mile point I threw my arms in the air and began running faster, I was so excited. A girl walking in the opposite direction of me laughed at me so I yelled "I JUST RAN 5 MILES WITH OUT STOPPING!" and kept running. I'm sure she thought I was crazy and I don't care!

Friday was a day off. I was exhausted from the 6 mile run! I took a pretty long nap on Friday!



Saturday I ran 3.1 at a 12:24 pace. I ran my normal route backwards so there was a steeper incline, it felt great. I'm really starting to enjoy running up hill.

Sunday I'm cross training by doing some yoga. I'm going to start doing yoga more often to help cross train.

Eventually I'll up my speed, but for now I'm happy running slow. It's a nice pace for me and I feel really good about it. Why fix it if it's not broken, right? Next Sunday I have a 5k at the Lehigh Valley Zoo. The 5k benefits the river otters which is so perfect since we're getting married in the river otter exhibit next year!


I'm really proud of myself for keeping up with this training!

Run on,
Hoppi

Friday, August 9, 2013

Finish/FMQ Friday: I would walk 500 miles

Today's Finish Friday is going to be a wee bit different than normal. I haven't really finished any quilting.

I'm totally stuck on my Pinwheels and Elephants table runner.

I'm not sure how to border it. I've been thinking of doing it in white, but will that be to plain? I know I want to FMQ in white, but maybe I can work on my feathers around the border. Hmph. Any ideas?



What I did finish this week, and I'm incredibly proud of was a 6 mile run.

A few of you know, but many of you don't, about 9 years ago I was in a wheel chair. I could barely walk 10 feet. The reason as to why is a very painful story to share, and isn't really important for you all to know. Just know that it took months of extremely difficult physical therapy for me to get out of that wheel chair. Here I am now, running 6 miles. Something I never imagined myself doing 9 years ago.
This year I turn 25, to me, that's a pretty big birthday! So I want to celebrate big. I'm doing the Lehigh Valley Road Runner's South Mountain 10 miler on November 10. If you live in the area, you know that South Mountain is an incredibly steep incline, which I will be running 10 miles of! This is the biggest and best birthday gift I've ever gotten myself. It's also possibly the cheapest ;). I am hoping to have a huge support group there of friends and family cheering me on and helping me celebrate my birthday in my own way!

I will be updating my blog with my progress, I'll most likely be doing this every Sunday.
If you're interested in following my miles daily, follow me on instagram @hoppiquilts with the hash tag #10miletraining.

For now, it's back to quilting. I really need to figure out what I'm doing with that table runner! Today I'm linking up with FMQ Friday (for ideas on my table runner) as well as Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, please visit their blogs that I have listed in my side bar!
Quilt on,
Hoppi

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Wedding Wednesday: Registry

Today, Derrick and I completed our wedding registries. Oh my god was it fun.

We went to Willams Sanoma and pretended we had a grill for about 5 minutes, then went on our way and began registering for our real kitchen. It was fun playing with the little scanning gun, but the best part was when this woman dropped a $65 wine bottle opener into a shelf of wine glasses. LOL. Derrick and I were right next to her and we both froze... luckily the glasses were so sturdy they didn't break. We then proceeded to add those glasses to our registry.  ;)


After spending about 20 minutes at Willams Sanoma we headed over to Target. Talk about fun. Not only did we add half the store to our register, we also had an epic sword fight and sat on display chairs. I was extremely tempted to add a grill to the registry, but we don't really have the room for one. I don't believe the fire department condones using a grill indoors anyway.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to see what we get. Honestly, I don't remember half of what we put on there already. It'll be a great surprise!

Tomorrow I'll get back to quilting so I can actually have a finish Friday post!

Quilt on,
Hoppi

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Tutorial Tuesday Sans Tutorial

Well it's tutorial Tuesday and I haven't made a tutorial for you all, sorry! As I said, I'm hoping to do tutorials once or twice a month. I also missed "finished Friday" because I haven't finished anything. I also missed posting on Sunday! I don't know about you, but I had a crazy weekend. On Friday I went out to karaoke for my friend Shelby's birthday. Saturday I took a bit of a recovery day, it's not often that I go out and a few drinks hit me pretty hard! Sunday seemed crazy. I had to walk a dog, I applied for 8 big girl jobs (my non big girl job just isn't cutting it in the bank anymore), and headed up to Musikfest, a free music festival, with Derrick to dance the night away. We saw the Philadelphia Funk Authority. They were down right amazing.

I did finish piecing my Pinwheels and Elephants table runner, however. It does still need a border, something that I will be working on today!





Check out what I got in the mail yesterday...

BATTING! 20 yards of it! It's so thin though (probably why it was so cheap), I'm going to have to double it up just for a medium loft. I'm still super excited about it!


What did you do this weekend?


Quilt on,
Hoppi