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Friday, April 30, 2010

Greyhounds

I wanted to do a post about the Greyhound rescue dogs, because I really like that they save these dogs that would otherwise just be put down. I think Nick and I plan on adopting one some day; My Aunt used to have one, and he was pretty awesome :)

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Up Your ear

I've seen these earrings a lot, and I think they're super pretty, so I thought I'd share. The only bad thing about earrings is that they react pretty badly with my skin, so I can't really wear them. What's nice about this company is that they sell several kinds of earrings that don't require piercings. Pretty cool, huh?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Rewind

So today, how about some cool jewelry? His website is pretty sparse, but it's well worth spending a few minutes on. We saw his work at Big Hat Days and I just thought it was fantastic.

Friday, April 23, 2010

New Post

New post. Debating moving one of these blogs so that they're both on the same site. Thoughts?

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Scentsy

So there was lots of cool things at Big Hat Days in Clovis when we went, and this is one of the things that I thought was pretty interesting. These little clay pots are warmed by a light bulb, which melts the scented wax-- but the wax never gets hot or anything. Pretty cool, huh?

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Cool Push Pins

 
Aren't the pins I bought for my hand-made wine cork boards pretty? Well guess what-- they're not really meant for cork boards. They're upholstery nails! We were at OSH picking up hinges for the tortilla maker, and my brother noticed these hanging with the boring ones. Lucky, lucky me :)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Doors

 
I absolutely love doors. I think they can be so extraordinarily pretty, and not just to close off the front of your house! I have two major ideas that I would like to use doors for some time in the future; I want to use one as a dining room table, and make it smooth buy pouring resin over it; I would also like to use three doors with heavy duty hinges to make a sort of folding screen. I think this would be especially cool with screen doors to use in a garden (like for vines) but also with shutters for indoors (to soften a corner or separate a space) or with regular wooden doors for outdoors to separate a space. 

All of these doors are from Harmony.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Harmony

I think Harmony is such a sweet place. It's super quiet, it has a couple great shops (glass blowing and ceramics) and the patio area is very beautiful. If I ever remember, I'm going to come here for a picnic some time!!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

New Buttons

 

I love having pretty jackets that I can wear when it's cold, but for some reason my jackets are always losing their buttons. I have suspicions that this is due to 1) Factory-sewn buttons not being very durable and 2) Me buttoning my jackets all the time because I am so dang cold. I replace the buttons on these two jackets, and instead of just saving the old buttons to sew back on (mostly because I lost them) I found new ones. The brown jacket's new buttons have pretty pearly shells in the middle, and I thought red was a much more suitable color than blue buttons for the longer jacket.

And I think this is also useful if there's jackets you have that you don't like the buttons, or if you're bored with the piece. New buttons sure can change the look of a jacket!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Morro Bay Yard Sales

So you know how much I love yard sales and street fairs! I wanted to introduce you to a great event that I attended a couple weekends back with my Mom, Step Dad, Step Brother, and Brother; the Morrow Bay Yard Sale Weekend. There were over a hundred listed sales, plus bunches that were unlisted. We all got some great stuff-- I bought (pictured) around 1000 yards of acryllic yarn, several pair of knitting needles, some yarn sewing needles, and a wireless router, all for less than 15 $! The event is annual, so check the calendar for updates!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Tortillas

So my brother was just in Mexico and while he was there he say these tortilla makers for sale. But instead of buying one, he decided he would rather make one.
So once we came up with the finished press, we then had to find out how to make tortillas! We used an online recipe, and were generally happy with the results we got.However, we were a little disappointed by the fact that our tortillas shriveled up as soon as we pulled them out of the press. After all the work building the thing, it turned out it was a lot easier to make the tortillas using a rolling pin. However, I found online that you may be able to get around the shriveling by using unbleached flour, so maybe try that!And it's fairly good to note, that it took a LOT of practice to get pretty tortillas!! So don't give up after the first one :)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Flowers

 

So these are some things my Mom got from Micheal's to use in my party! They're just wooden flowers on sticks, and they're meant for kids to color and then hit each other with (probably) but we thought they would be really pretty painted and stuck in flower pots!!


So what do you think? Were we right?

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Easter Eggs

I love holidays. I love-love-love holidays that let me do crafty things! So here you go, Easter Eggs.

 

Easter Eggs are super simple, because most of how awesome they turn out depends on what kind of kit you buy (my Mom researched natural dyes and methods-- now I have something to try for next year!). Boiling the eggs before you start is the only thing that was harder than I thought it would be.

Here's one method, with others available online.

Put eggs in a single layer in a pot.
Bring to a boil, and immediately shut off water.
Let sit for 17-20 minutes (depending on the size of the egg)
Set in cold water/ice for 10 minutes.

Dry and dye! Ta da!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Purse Handle 2

I just wanted to show you how it all came together:
Honestly, it was pathetically easy. I removed the clasp of the necklace using needle nose pliers, and then I hand-sewed the necklace to the inside of the bag. All done! Easy as pie.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Scrapbook

 
So we already know that I love to scrapbook, but I thought I'd show you the first pages for my boyfriend and my newest book. We completely filled the first one, and now we're on to the second! While the first book was just big enough for one picture per page, this one has space for quite a bit more. I like being able to make pages that are a bit more involved, and I like working on books that mean something. These pages are for Valentine's Day, my Spring Break, and Nick's Spring Break. The next few pages will be for Easter, the Senior Ball, and my Graduation. I like sticking to one page per 'event', but when we're living together that might have to change. I just can't see putting together one page per weekend! Maybe one page per month? One page per season? Not sure how to handle that one yet...

Monday, April 5, 2010

Purse Handle

 
So this is the purse that I plan on carrying for the Senior Ball. Originally, it had a beaded handle that was very pretty, but it busted awhile back. At the Melrose Trading Post, I found a really pretty stranded necklace that I thought would work perfect for a handle. It's in the bronzy-golds, and it matches the bag. Now I just have to figure out how to attach the thing!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Jellies

Still another find from the Melrose Trading Post (I went a little wild at that fair). I used to have a pair of these in clear, and I loved them, but I wore them so often the plastic broke apart. So when I was at the fair and I saw a pair of pink ones, I couldn't help myself. I love to have a variety of flats to wear in the spring and summer, especially because I can't wear heels. Finding cute flats that make dresses and skirts look great is a lot of fun, and I think fairs are some of the best places to look. Low prices, lots of selection, plus a lot of pretty things that you can't find at stores anymore. Perfect!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Stamp holder

 
This is another item that I found at the Melrose Trading Post, and this one is for my boyfriend's Mom's birthday. She loves butterflies, and my boyfriend says she uses stamps a lot for her job, so hopefully she'll like it. I just thought it was pretty, while serving a purpose. I have such an aversion for pointless nick-knacks, so if I'm going to buy something cutesy for a gift, it has to be something they can use, not something that sits gathering dust.

A quick google search found me some other pieces by the same artist, which you can see here. Some mighty cute things going on there :)

Friday, April 2, 2010

Colored Owl

JoAnn's has these cute little shapes and animals to color in, and I found this guy in their dollar spot (which is totally addictive, and stratigically placed next to the registers). Even thought he turned out a little wonky (I accidently touched him with my marker-y fingers) I think I'll use him in some future page of one of my scrapbooks. I like incorporating funny and unusual things in scrapbooks, because I feel that it's important that the books don't look like I picked them out entirely finished from the store. If I can't put my own touches on them, what's the point of making them at all?

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Match Box

This is another find from the Melrose Trading Post, and it's a gift for my brother who burns incense and goes camping often. I see him with those tiny matchbooks, and I thought maybe it would be useful for him to have a nice-looking box to keep all his matches in. I think it's nice to give people things even if there's not necessarily an event for it, and giving gifts is one of my favorite things ever. The good thing about shopping at street fairs is that things are at very low prices, so I can buy things for people without making them feel weird!