Bad Blogger

Hey guys! Long time no blog. My bad, but I honestly haven't been on a computer since Tuesday last week, and I have to say it felt really good!

Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving holiday! I went and visited my friends Jordan and Jackson out in Bowling Green for a few days and ate dinner with their family. I brought along my mother's famous chocolate pudding pie, which came out absolutely dreamy with all the milk and cream from Miriam :-)

 It was the best lard crust I ever made, even though I ended up having to use a wine bottle as a rolling pin! I think I left mine at my previous house. Need to get that.

For black friday, we went thrift shopping at a (not-so) little place called Grandma's Attic, right down the street from their house. I'm mildly obsessed with that place, and usually end up spending way more than I intend to! This time I made it out at about $20, which is awesome for me, and I'm sure I will thrill you with all of my finds in my next post ;-) We also hit Lowe's, and I scored a Dremel (which I've been drooling over) and a HUGE kit of drill bits and screwdriver bits. That's what kind of girl I am. We spent the rest of the day re-painting their living room from a pumpkin orange to a limestone grey. It was a good day. All of the days included snuggles with this lovely lady:

Miss Kenton. She's a doll. Couldn't get enough of her. Forgot how funny kittens are to watch.

Other than that, the end of the week passed with a lot of coffee, conversation, and knitting with friends.

It was a good one.

Now that I'm back home, the holiday decorating has started in earnest! I decorated my window upstairs with some crocheted snowflakes.

I also have a christmas cactus there on the left, which I'm pretty excited about. You can see what I've finally come up for as far as window treatments go. I hate having my blinds down all the time (I like the light, and the cats and dog just trash them trying to look out the window.) I've been trying to come up with something that wouldn't have to be pulled shut every day, but would block the view from the rest of the neighbors (my window looks right over the front of our building.) What I came up with is to literally contact paper the bottom half with "clear" contact paper, which isn't clear at all but gives the window a frosted look. I'm quite pleased with it, and now I can wander around in a towel all I want! Hurray!

Last of all, I finally have a craft project I can share, since it isn't a present! Using the idea from this blog I made these adorable milk jug snowmen for the circulation counter!

Their faces are just construction paper. The ear muffs are yarn pom poms I made and a zip tie that's just stuck in to two slots I cut in the jug. The hat is part of a knee sock. I just cut the toe off (good use for all those single socks languishing in the closet) and tied a the top with a ribbon. The scarf is just a braided bit of yarn. Of course, they wouldn't be any fun unless...

THEY LIT UP!

Isn't that adorable? I just cut out little square flaps in the backs (just cut three sides so you can close it back up), shoved some lights inside, and viola! A festive holiday scene for the circulation desk, complete with some withdrawn books and poinsettias ;-)

Hope you all have a happy Monday!
~Sarah

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