Halloween Sneak Peek

My mother is a magnificent seamstress. As a result, I had some pretty spectacular Halloween costumes as a kid. As I got older, though, I could never decide what I wanted to be, and so the creativity of my costumes totally tanked.

Seriously. I was a shooting star one year. I just tied blue and silver ribbons to my elbows and knees. It was sad.

But this year, I had somebody suggest a costume for me. Admittedly, it was like May, but I latched onto it and have been completely convinced that it is the best idea.

I'm going to be a black-and-white movie star!!!

Originally, I was going to make my own dress from an authentic 30s pattern, but then I was thrift shopping and found this beauty:

Don't mind the mess in the hallway...

Sure, it's a little 80s, but just LOOK at the trim:

And the knot at the waist!

And it was like $22! That's cheaper than the pattern I was going to buy! The PATTERN.

So I'm thinking: ditch the shoulder pads, trim one of the layers of trim, and possibly take it in a bit on the sides.

Pair it with black shoes, black gloves, grey tights, and grey face/body paint, and I'll be good to go.

Stay tuned for more updates on how the costume turns out!!

Bombomb Plushies!

This project is one of the reasons I started this blog. This is a project that has been languishing for two years now and really isn't that difficult - I just couldn't get the motivation to get over the hump and FINISH. What's worse is that I also made a Christmas present for the recipient last year. The present was done well before Christmas, but these suckers weren't and I, for some reason, couldn't send one without the other.

But lo and behold, I have finally finished them - two Bomb-ombs!

I'm totally in love with them.

Look at their cute little wind-up keys!

I can't believe they took me two years to wrap up.

This is another project where I used a pattern by Wolfdreamer Off The Hook. She is an incredible artist with yarn and I don't know what I would do if she wasn't so generous with her patterns.

Anyway, I'll add pictures of these guys if the recipient sends me evidence of their new home!

Routine Issues

One of the biggest reasons I started this blog was that I had a whole bunch of lingering craft projects that I just needed to FINISH AND BE DONE WITH THEM, GOSH DARN IT!

Well, I've finished a couple of them, but I'm still procrastinating. The past couple of weeks are a good example of my justifications.

My sister and her husband didn't get a chance to take their honeymoon right after their wedding last September, so they decided to do a one-year honeymoon/anniversary trip. They were gone for two weeks and I volunteered to housesit for them. In my mind, this would be a good chance to get outside of my home and finally finish a couple of projects. And by a couple, I mean four that have been hanging over my head for anywhere between four months and a full year. 

It seemed like a good plan - the only thing on my plate was to go home after work and let the dog out. Because of the dog, I couldn't really go anywhere in the evening - she needs to be taken out every 4-6 hours. That time restraint made it easy to just be at home instead of going out and socializing.

But the best-laid plans...

See, my sister has a dog and a cat. The dog gets severe separation anxiety and will eat anything that you leave out when you leave. Simple solution: close everything in the bedrooms. But the cat knows how to open doors, so the cat will open a bedroom door and the dog will eat things.

That's how this happened:

I came home after work to find my yarn EVERYWHERE. I wasn't overly concerned because there didn't appear to be much damage done to the actual yarn - the cat just really liked pulling it around. But then I went upstairs. And I found this:

THAT is the remains of the stuffing of a project that I've been working on for over a year now. Something that's just been hanging onto the end of my list of things to do. The rest of it ended up in the dog's stomach. And now I feel like I'm back to square one with the project.

Motivation is really hard for me right now. I'm not sure if it's because I'm trying to do to many things or if I'm just not excited about the things I'm doing, but if anybody has any tips or tricks for finishing a languishing project (besides "just do it" - it might work for Nike, but it hasn't been working for me!), I would love to hear them!

Furniture Post - Dresser

One of the biggest pains of living in the dorms, then moving cross-country and starting real life is that I started with almost no furniture. Luckily, my parents are going through their post-children reimagining of their home, so they were happy to give me few pieces of furniture. But one thing I was left without is a dresser.

So after 7 1/2 months of keeping my clothes in wire baskets on the floor (thanks to my sister for lending me the baskets!), I finally buckled down and bought myself a dresser! Well, parts of a dresser. 

I bought this one from Ikea:

Hemnes, in blue

Here is the space I had for it:

I wish I had taken a picture of my haphazard organizational system that this dresser is replacing, but here's an idea of how much stuff was hanging around:

A work in progress...

Aaand voila!

Finally, I feel like I live in my bedroom! I took the opportunity to finally unpack a couple of lingering boxes, and it's amazing how therapeutic it can be to just move things around. It's like I had a little bit of spring cleaning in preparation for the fall. Have you done any fall cleaning? 

Baby Blankets!

A few years ago, one of my close high school friends had her first baby. I was kind of at a loss as to what to get her. I was 18 for pity's sake - I knew nothing of the intricate world of baby paraphernalia! Luckily, my mom stepped in and taught me how to make the simplest, most gift-able baby blankets EVER.

Since then, I've had three more opportunities to make these blankets - twice since I started working at my company! Now, I'm very hesitant to share the secret because I've been enjoying the raving gratefulness I've received from new parents about these blankets, but I suppose I should share. Generosity and stuff, right?

To make one blanket, you'll need a yard each of flannel in coordinating colors - I like a pattern for the front and a solid for the back (for these, I got a sports theme and an animal theme for the front and a stripe for the back). I tend to make these blankets in pairs, just so that the gift feels more substantial, so I get two patterns and two solids.

First, wash and dry the fabric. Because it's for a baby, you should use detergent with no dyes or scents. Then, trim any loose threads. Take a blurry picture, if possible.

I'm a terrible person and take shortcuts, so at this point, I place the two pieces right side together and sew all the way around, leaving a 4-5 inch opening in the middle of one side. If you want to be more precise, I would suggest trimming the pieces to be the same size before sewing.

Here's where I trim the sides to make them the same size. If you're more meticulous, you've already done this.

Then, turn right side out, poke out the corners (I use closed scissors), and stitch the opening closed.

Finally, topstitch about an inch away from the edge with a zigzag or other decorative stitch. This ensures the blankets keep their shape.

And there you have it! Throw them in a gift bag, grab a cute card, and you're all ready to make a newborn all kinds of cozy!

Oops.... July Goals

Well, I certainly failed at August! After being relatively dedicated to blogging twice per week throughout July, I just kind of dropped off the face of the planet. I don't really have an excuse - I just.... stopped. But no more! Back to twice per week for me!

Let's do a quick review of July's goals. I decided that I would score myself out of 12 (1 point per goal per week) with a total possible score of 15 (with my bonus items). Here's how I did:

• Get in the groove of posting on your blog
• Four weeks in a month, three weeks worth of posts, so I'll give myself 3 points here. Oh, and I definitely accomplished the bonus (travel posts for Boston and California), so I get a total of 4 here.
• Get back on board with Couch-to-5k
• I wanted to get to week 5, but I only got halfway through week 4. And then stopped entirely. I'll give myself 3 points here, and I didn't register for a formal event, so no bonus.
• Budget budget budget!
• Ha. Hahahahaha. This really failed. I feel like budgeting is the real-life version of college studying. Each person has to figure out their individual techniques, and there's no way to figure it out than trial and error. July was an error, BUT I think I discovered a method to gradually reduce my dependence on my credit card. So I get a measly 1 point here, with some major hope for the future.
• Summary
• All told: 8/12. 67%. Technically a failing grade, but I'm going to look at it as getting 2/3 of my goals accomplished, which isn't too bad. Hopefully September goes better!

September goals:

(After struggling to recreate my July image, I've given up. Maybe perseverance should be a September goal?)

• Crafts
• The whole purpose of this blog was to burn through my halfway done crafts. Let's get three of those lingering crafts out of the way. That means I get one freebie week to make something new and fun!
• Success looks like finishing the big three lingerers (I know what they are, but no spoilers for yo : D ). Failure looks like having two or more left to do at the end of the month.
• BONUS: Finish the fourth lingerer.
• Games
• I'm starting a new project that involves playing A LOT of video games. This may seem like a bit of a waste of time to a lot of people, but it's a personal goal I would like to accomplish. Anyway, I'd like to get going on these.
• Success looks like playing through three games over the course of the month. Failure looks like not finishing at least two.
• BONUS: Get some pre/post filming done.
• Friends
• I moved to Seattle almost 8 months ago, and I haven't been good about making new friends or even keeping up with the friends I already have here. I'd like to work on that this month.
• Success looks like hanging out at least twice with new friends and at least once per week with existing friends. Failure looks like not connecting with new friends and not making an effort to see existing friends.
• BONUS: Get them all together. Cocktail party, maybe?

So, those are my goals. Do you have any goals for this month?

Golden Birthday - Golden Shirt!

Last week was my golden birthday. It was also a time when I learned how few people know what a golden birthday actually is - which surprises me, because I have been really excited about them since I was really little. But that might just be me.

Anyway, a golden birthday is when you're turning the age of the number of your birthday. So if you're born on the 14th of a month, your 14th birthday will be golden. Get it?

Now, the story of this project starts several months ago. Modcloth was having one of their grab-bag sales, where you pay a flat price and they send you an article of clothing in your size. One of my coworkers and I thought it would be fun to get something random from them. She got a lime green dress that she would never wear and I got... well, this:

At first, I was all excited because, you know, sequins. But then I realized just how many sequins there were. It's a little overwhelming. So I decided I would just be excited because I had some sequin fabric.

Then, when I realized that my golden birthday was coming up, I decided to use that golden sequin fabric to make myself a golden sequin birthday shirt. Drawing inspiration from this tutorial from Merrick's Art, I set off to make myself a contrast tee.

First, I bought a plain white tee.

Then, I cut out the back panel.

I then removed the skirt from the bodice of the dress and used the cut-out portion of the tee as a pattern to cut out a new panel. Knowing that sequins can be itchy, I also cut out a piece of the skirt lining. 

Then, it took little time to stitch the new back panel into the shirt.

I also wanted to embellish the front some, so I cut a small pocket out of the lining and added some sequin fabric to the edge. BAM pocket!

And THAT, my friends, is the short and sweet story of a golden shirt for a golden birthday!