Very Appropriate

Lol cats always make me lol, but this one made me rotfl.

Happy crafting everyone!

Secret Santa

So kids, I've started this post about 6 times already. Each time, I start adding pictures, making it pretty, and I realize that I've just made public someone's Christmas gift, be it my co-workers, friends, family. You name it. Well, that won't work.

Pretty much all I've been doing lately is making presents. Constantly. Mostly at work. Sometimes, I find myself making something, and I realize I haven't even picked a person to give it to yet!! Not that that's a bad thing. The more the merrier! What I'm really excited about it that, this year, I've pledged to give only things that are handmade.

That's right.  Now you can't say you don't like my gift, because you'll crush my inner child. And you don't want that on your conscience. It's been really fun, and challenging, to try and think of appropriate gifts for everyone. Some of them have been shockingly inexpensive ( the least expensive were about 8 cents each, because I am a hoarder and only had to spend $1 in materials for 12 gifts) which means I can splurge in some other places (I tremble in fear of the mailing costs for sending my niece's gift...) 

But let me share with you my deepest, darkest holiday secret...

I am terrible at keeping secrets. 

Really, truly terrible. I mean, it's taken me how many times to not blow my own cover, ON MY BLOG, let alone just letting it slip in conversation.

So, dear readers, I can safely say that, until the holiday season is over, my crafting posts will most likely me kept to a minimum.

Instead, I plan to thrill you with pictures of breathtaking scenery, musings on the transitory nature of the seasons, delectable culinary creations, and, of course, ridiculous animal pictures. Ok, mostly ridiculous animal pictures.

To start off, let's see what happens when Sarah hits the sale racks at PetsMart.

This is the face of unmitigated hatred. And resignation.

Sebastian is a normally easy-going cat, who loves to be rough handled. Apparently, he does not enjoy being dressed up like a court jester. Intriguing.

Secondly, we've come again to the time of year where Boo Boo the Angora Bunny needs a trim. Like whoa. Boo pretty much ran wild in the basement, and unfortunately the basement had a lot of room in which to run. He's not really hot on sitting around for long periods to be brushed (petted, yes) and he especially hates having his hind quarters touched in any way. So he was unbelievably matted, and I've been meaning to trim him forever. But sometimes, I end up with a bunny looking like this. 

For the love of God.

Like I said, he doesn't like his rear to be touched. Halfway through his trim, he took off like, well, a rabbit. Eventually, I caught him and got most of it done, but let this be a lesson to you. I'm not exactly sure what lesson that is, but learn it well!

Have a good start to your week guys!

~Sarah 

What's this? ITS HALLOWEEN! (Almost)

If you all hadn't read before, let me take a moment to say I work for a university (in the library.) If there's one thing that universities (and university towns) take seriously, it's Halloween. And that fits me just fine. Halloween/ Day of the Dead are absolutely my favorite holidays, hands down. This year, because of moving, I have seriously slacked on the fall decorating. Most of my decorations went to my office, to be oo'ed and awe'd over by the students (everyone loves my huge glitter skulls. Who wouldn't!?) However, moving did not cure my costume fever, past or present.

The other night, some of the girls and I had a "drag out all of Sarah's costume crap and play dress-up" night. What fun! Two big rubbermaid tubs and a basket of stuff, and that still wasn't all of it! We took some silly videos, but here were a few of the highlights:

 The Jane Austen dresses never fail to please. They are also pretty much the most comfortable things ever.

Hilarity ensued when we found my "historically accurate socks" and single mock-up of a shoe, made out of none other than a vinyl tablecloth. I kid you not. We rolled.

Here is my niece in her costume, which is only a little bit long in the shoulders! Her cape magically matches, even though neither her mom or I had seen what the other was doing! Brilliant!

And now the big reveal! Since I work in the library, I needed a work-appropriate costume. First I had planned on being Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus, but I couldn't find the right dress. Instead, I decided on Mary Poppins (I am practically perfect in EVERY way, after all!) I already had a skirt that would work, but needed a frilly white shirt, squashy hat, some old-lady heel, and a carpet bag. My friend and I went on the thrifting trip of a lifetime and scored big! She found everything she needed for her Carmen San Diego costume, and I found everything I needed, all in 2 stops! It was magical. The stars aligned.
 Unfortunately, I didn't get pics of the whole thing finished, but here's a taste!

The skirt, I already owned. The frilly shirt, shoes, and hat were Goodwill finds, and the jacket and bag were Salvation Army finds. I added trim to the jacket this week. The bowtie is just some ribbon hot glued to a safety pin.
 The hat what just a straw hat, spray painted black. I gussied it up with some berries and cheap flowers.

This is also the first Halloween costume that I've finished a WEEK before!
So what did all this cost me?

• Skirt: Free
• Shirt: $2.50
• Jacket: $2
• Trim: $1
• Bag: $1.99
• Shoes: $3
• Hat: $1.50
• Fake flowers: $2
• Bowtie: Free
• Tights (which I will wear): Free

Total:  $13.99

That makes me one

happy Mary Poppins :-)

In other news, I made a fabulous cauliflower crust pizza. Nom nom nom.

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Anyone remember that game? All I remember about it was that the point was to put on all the jewelry, right?

Anyway! For Halloween this year, I've been working on a princess dress for my niece, who is 5. There is nothing more fun than ruffles, and ribbon, and poof, and glitter. I guess except when it's all over the floor (sorry roomie!)

I finally finished everything today and, if the shoes get done tonight and are dry, it'll go in the mail tomorrow! I'm excited, and I really hope she likes it. And it fits. That would be tragic. I did make it a little big so that she could grow in to it, so I guess that is a concern.

Without further ado, I give you... THE PRINCESS DRESS.

The Whole Shebang. It's hot pink, not red, I swear.

Bodice detail. I love the ruffled velvet ribbon.

The whole top. I love the sweetheart neckline.

Lots. Of. Ruffles. 

Hem detail. Finally using some of my fancy schmancy stitches!

The back. Sad they didn't have the right colored zipper. Tiny little train. 

I also made matching shoes, because a girl can never have too many! And WHAT IF THEY DIDN'T MATCH!? My first attempt was with scrapbooking microfine glitter. It was neat stuff, but the wrong color (too purple.) So, this morning, an emergency Hobby Lobby trip was in order! You can see the second attempt is much better, and much SHINIER!

We like shiny.

I bought some foofy silver trim to put around the black edges, but they were freshly glittered in this picture. The whole process went as follows: mod podge, glitter, repeat, clear coat with spray paint. I might repeat it when I get home. That's it, and you have some FABULOUS shoes ;-)

**Update! Almost forgot, I made a matching necklace and bracelet set that's just like my mom's that I've loved forever!

I also made some of those fabulous pens that Patricia recently posted about! I grabbed some pens and flowers from the dollar store and used some floral tape I had sitting around. For my "fall" pens, I stuck them in a mason jar full of kidney beans. Total cost for all the supplies: $4.



"Fall"



"Winter". I'll put these in epsoms salts when they go out on the desk :-)

 In non-frilly news, here's a picture of the new tank without the blue lights on, so you can see a little bit more what's going on!

And all four fish!

Hope you all have a good weekend, and stay warm! It's frigid here!
~Sarah

Saucy Lady

So, about a week ago, I bout a $5 basket of roma tomatoes from a Mennonite farm in Scottsville.



I was pretty darn excited since my roma plant (which took forever to find, because they all looked terrible) was the first to get eaten by something. So, I finally got around to doing something with them today. Sort of following this recipe, I tried first to put them through the food mill. No dice. So, I blanched, cooled, peeled, and de-seeded an entire basket of tomatoes. Because I am a crazy person. I made a hot mess of the kitchen (spilled tomato juice everywhere, seeds and juice splattered far and wide), but in the end, I wound up with a huge bowl of skins and seeds for the chickens (happy girls!), a good amount of tomato juice, and a huge bowl of tomato meat.

Not bad, before work!

Tonight when I get home, I'll cook them down, and see what I come up with. Tomato sauce is pretty much impossible to mess up. Anything that's mushed up tomatoes is good with me.


In other garden news, look what I found!!

It's MAGICAL.

My first pumpkin to grow successfully, to full term. I had one that I accidentally knocked off the vine too soon (it was adorable too...), and one that had gotten nibbled from the underside which went to the chickens. But this one is perfect. The vine had dried up, but it made it through. I'm so proud. Now I need to decide what to do with it. I don't think it will last long enough to carve, so I'll probably eat it.


In crafty news, I finished the entire tea set that goes with the cup I made the other day!! The tea cup pattern can be found here, and the tea pot and saucers come from this site. I just used white tissue paper to paper mache it, since I actually really liked the look of the box art. Are you ready for this? Cause really... it's amazing...

Oh yeah. I'm that good.

I'm keeping this one for me (Oh, the Boysenberry tea pot!!), but I've already cut out another to make for some very special little ladies in my life... Hopefully they enjoy it as much as I do!!

What day is it anyway?

Hey, y'all!

It's been a busy week here in the Bluegrass! I've switched schedules to third shift because work is just insane, and now I'm off Fridays and Saturdays (although I'm working and it's Saturday... what gives!) All this craziness means I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT DAY IT IS EVER. So please excuse my 12 hour tardy posting. I'll try to get better.

So this week has been pretty tame, as far as the night shift goes. I've gotten a lot of time to just sit around and craft and talk to people, pretty much my favorite things. Some things I've worked on:





I've made a lot of wash cloths. I actually made two of these, and finished another one I had started a while ago in an organic cotton, which is deeelish. These are a cotton/acrylic Cascade, and I really like it. They wash well too.





I made a rag ball with some of the scraps from my men's shirt dishtowel project. I'll add more too it, and hopefully make a rug. I know I cut out more napkins and dish towels (I have one set out of 4 completed), but I honestly can't find them right now... Time to clean I guess.





This morning, I took my frustrations out on making paper mache teacups. At least the bones are put together. I'll paper mache it when I get home. It's been de-sensitized, for your safety, according to the picture ;-)

In un-crafty but still home-y news, a co-worker and I are thinking about moving in together next month. I've been going through home buying classes and applying for a mortgage, but it's a tough time to have almost no credit lines open :-/ Just in case I get rejected *again*, Codename L and I went and looked at two apartments in Lexington last night, and fell in love with this kitchen





It's a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath in a great location, and he was only a little shocked by the number of cats (we told him we each had two pets to make it seem a little less like I'm a crazy cat lady.) It's definitely at the top of our budget, but it's lovely.




Crown moulding, FTW. It also has a garage!? The landlord said he would hold it for us if we put the deposit down, and he wouldn't list it until he hear yay or nay from us, which should be as soon as I hear back from the bank reviewing my loan! Unfortunately, I couldn't bring the chickens with me, but I think I might have a place to keep them at a friend's house in exchange for oodles of eggs :-) FINGERS CROSSED ON EVERYTHING, either house or apartment!!

New Knitting Goods

Well, it's been a busy weekend, folks! I spent 3 days in Bowling Green, in western Kentucky, finally selling my roosters! Hurray! I love roosters, but I sure won't miss being woken up at 5 am.

While I was there, my friend, Jordan, gifted me a set of Denise interchangeable needles, which had previously been given to her. She didn't like working with them, but I am *thrilled*.

My excitement knows no bounds.

I did decide that its 1980's cover needed some updating.

Mmm, taupe marble!

So, if I lived in a country where it was legal to marry and inanimate object, I would certainly marry Mod-Podge. It has never let me down. I had a cool vintage-y looking piece of fabric laying around that actually matched the inside of the case (which is kind of beige), so I went to town!

Getting glued!

I put down a pretty good layer of Mod-Podge on the surface, smoothed the fabric over it, and then did a coat on the outside. I trimmed the fabric to fit, and did one last coat on the edges to keep it from fraying.

And here it is all dry! And I've already got a project cast on!



And here you can see that it doesn't entirely clash! YAAAY!!

Really not bad for 30 minutes of effort.

But of course, I couldn't stop there! I had a little tin that I had gotten from work (it used to hold staples) that I wanted to use as a new notions case. Soo...

I made it match too.

It has magnetic tape in the lid to hold all of my yarn needles. All of my fancy stitch markers are hooked on to my cable needle, so I can stop losing them. Even my x-acto fits when I take the blade off, so not razor vs finger accidents!

Hopefully I'll be able to stop myself from Mod-Podging EVERYTHING THAT MOVES.

Watch out ;-)

Book Fair

I believe I've mentioned before that I work in an academic library. It's not only tons of fun, but it also provides me, oddly enough, with oodles of supplies for various craft projects. We've been going through an enormous collection review, weeding out old, out-of-date books. Some are donated to different charities, but some are just beyond redemption and are recycled. A co-worker of mine, knowing my penchant for strange items that can be reused, pulled a book out of the recycling the other day, and of course that means PROJECT TIME.

You might remember my first Kindle cover that I made from a composition notebook.

Yes, I am brilliant.

That one cost me somewhere around 50 cents. Outrageous. I decided to use the book pilfered from the trash as Kindle cover v2.0. I really liked my composition book one, but it's just *slightly* too shallow. The velcro gives it enough space to cover the Kindle, but I'm terrified I'll crack the screen or something. The book that was found for me was definitely thick enough to be a little more protective.

Definitely.

And so...

I took this.

Yeah, not even I want to read this.

And so I got to cutting. And cutting. And cutting.

I cut the front part of the book to fit the Kindle, rounded edges and all. I'll probably sink some velcro down there too so that it closes flush (more on that in a later post.)

The front. Much neater this time.

There was a lot of book left over once I had cut deep enough to fit the kindle, and I wanted to get rid of some of the weight, so I left about fifty pages and then started cutting again.

Not as neat this time though.

That left the edge to keep it from getting crushed, but cut the weight by a ton. Maybe not literally. But still. All that's left to do now is glue all the edges together and affix the velcro! Hopefully I'll get it done tonight.

And so I leave you with this image:

What happens to patrons who don't return books.

I'm joking.

Or am I?

Weekend Roundup!

Hello everyone!

It was a busy weekend! Two of my friends celebrated their 22nd birthday Saturday (they're twins!) That called for CUPCAKES! I used this recipe for chocolate cake and fresh strawberry frosting. I have to say, I really enjoyed this recipe! The frosting tasted just like strawberries, and was delightfully pink (I added more puree than the recipe called for, but didn't have any problems with it being too runny.) The cake was nice and soft, although I think next time I'll used dark cocoa, since I like it super chocolatey. And they're lovely.



Mmmmm.

I've been dorking around with making a "princess" dress for my niece. It's been fun so far using the inspiration and patterns in this book. There's a lot of trim involved, because I can't help myself!



It's going to be a fun one. Tracing and drafting out seam allowances, not so much. I really do like the book, but I wish they weren't "European" patterns. It's nice that you can do with them what you wish, but it would be nice to have at least the standard seam allowances worked in.

Since I'm on a normal schedule for the next two weeks, I got to play with the chickens in the yard yesterday afternoon. We don't usually let them roam free anymore, after we had an unfortunate encounter with a fox carrying off one of our Buff Orpingtons. We still have three of our originals, including these girls:



Meet Thelma (the Dominique) and Louise (the Buff Orpington.) They're quite the pair. They do everything together. Our other original hen, Glorious Raptor (a mixed breed) seems to like hanging with the younger ladies, who are a bit wilder. In the background, you can see this lovely lad:



His name was Zha-Zha (he was quite the fancy chick!) However, given that he has DEFINITELY started crowing, he needs a new name. I'm thinking Ghengis Khan. Something fancy and exotic still, but a little more fitting of his masculine nature. In the background of this picture, you can see Bambi and Poofy Cheeks, our two Americauna hens who are starting to REALLY look like chickens now! They should be laying here shortly too! I'm guessing they were born at the end of April, so they should be around 5 months old. I'm really looking forward to some neat-colored eggs! A gentleman stopped by Sunday while I wasn't home and was really interested in the chickens, so hopefully I'll be able to trade off my extra roosters (Khan, and a black one I've now named Michael Jackson) for some new hens! Not pictured is the rooster I actually intend to keep (at least for now), a lovely black-bodied Maran cross like Michael, but with lots of red feathers. He's also very shy, which I like in a rooster (no more spurs please!)

Well, that's all I have for today, folks. Look forward to Patricia's post tomorrow!

Books and Stuff

Hello everyone! Look at me, all posting on time. Today, I thought I would concentrate on more crafty-type things, since Patricia has the garden covered pretty well.

One thing to know about me is that I work in an academic library, which means several things:

1. I use interlibrary loan like it's my job. Mostly for craft and agriculture books. Pretty sure they're sick of seeing requests from me.

2. I spend a lot of my time at the front desk, waiting for people to need me, which means I have a bit of down time. Luckily for my ADD, they let me craft while I sit (usually, it takes less of my attention than reading or facebook.) I knit a lot, but any of my projects have to be small enough to tote around, and can't have a lot of "stuff" that they need.

Which led me to this book:


Not only is the cover rather lovely, but it's filled with fun projects that only require needle and thread, and a bit of patience. The project I chose is making dinner napkins from old men's shirts. A trip to the Goodwill fulfilled all of my fabric needs, and last night I measured and ripped everything out. Best part? Checks make for easy hemming! I also decided that rather than making a bunch of napkins from each shirt, I would make 2 from the sleeves and also a kitchen towel from the back (although this had to be fudged a bit when I realized that I bought ONE short-sleeved shirt! GAH!) Today, our software at work is being updated (all week actually) so I've been happily sewing away!

And so, I give you "The Men's Shirt Linens"

The button hole placket is seriously handy.



It makes its own napkin ring.



Also, a hook for hanging! (Yes, ,my calendar is still on July. That's pretty good for me. Also, I just love lemurs!)



Look a all that mad-crazy hand stitching!

Best of all?



It holds my toaster strudel perfectly :-)

In non-crafty news, I made a lasagna last night with my own tomatoes, zucchini, and garlic, and it was MAGNIFICO. Really tasty. I was quite proud, especially since I didn't really look up a recipe, just winged it!

I also put in a soaker hose this morning, since we've been getting almost no rain and 95 degree weather. Hopefully that will help out. I have bunches of tomatoes and beans ready now, cucumbers are still going, some baby peppers, and hopefully the pumpkins will make it through! I broke my cute little round one off on accident while trying to turn it, but I still have 2 big oblong ones, and I'm sure a bunch of others that I just can't see! Exciting stuff!