Ants in my pants!

Hey everyone! Yay for Thursday posting, which I can actually remember!

Today, I have a pretty girly post! You know what I hate, as a girl? Jeans that NEVER fit right. If they fit through the hips and thighs, they're huge in the waist, and vice-versa. I also have a ridiculously large difference between my hips and waist, which makes it even harder! I don't know why they seem to build jeans only for straight up and down people, but they do!

Anyway, the other day on Pinterest*, I saw a post about tailoring the back of your jeans with... get this... elastic. No joke, elasticizing your jeans. Like a 4 year old. I have a particularly notorious pair of jeans, in which I always feel like I'm flashing people my buttocks, or like I could store snacks in the extra space... so I decided to try it.

Yes. I put elastic in my jeans.

And you know what? I LOVE IT. No joke, best thing ever. Here are some butt pictures to prove it. Really. I put pictures of my butt on the internet. Anything in the name of crafts.



Lays flat!



Look, mom, no gap!

So how did I do it? HOW DID I CREATE SUCH MAGICAL TROUSERS, YOU ASK?

Easy.



All it is is a piece of elastic in the waistband. You cut two slits (I lined mine up with the outside edge of the pockets, but I might go all the way to the sides next time), insert the elastic, and sew the elastic down on each side!



TADA! I used crazy thread, just in case it sucked and I had to rip it out.

I did have to take the Levi's label off mine, since it was sewn through the waistband, but I'm fine with that. I don't want your stinkin labels on me anyway!



They look a little bit like kid's pants when they're laying flat, but they look just fine when they're on, and I never wear anything short enough to show the top of my pants anyway! BRILLIANT.

*Pinterest.com is an awesome website. It's basically a way to bookmark websites and pictures and share them with other people. There are always great recipes, decorating tips, craft ideas, you name it! You can find both Patricia and I wasting a lot of time on there ;-)

In less-exciting news, my vanilla is coming along nicely!



Hurray!

I also set up a little craft corner in my new room today, so I can keep on craftin while I keep on movin!



That's all, kiddos! See you on Monday!

~Sarah

No rest on Labor Day!

Hey y'all!

Sorry for the late post! Promise we're going to get back on schedule.

So yesterday was Labor Day, and for like the FIRST TIME ever, I was actually off work. How weird. What did I do???

I LABORED! All weekend. Well, part of the weekend. Some of the weekend. A little bit of the weekend...

Yesterday I mostly ran around outside in the rain, excited that it was under 80 degrees outside! I've been painting furniture, Day of the Dead skeletons, you name it!

Some things I've made:



Buttermilk pumpkin donuts. Oh my God they were good.

While making these I got this:



My first double-yolk egg!! I'm pretty sure that means that my girls are getting fat, but it's so neat I don't care. You go girls!

One of my little Americauna/Maran girls laid her first egg.



It's in the middle. It's a pretty goose-turd green in real life.

Two words:



Homemade vanilla.

Oh yeah baby. I used a Kentucky distilled vodka, called Pure Blue, I think, the first distiller to come back to the distillery district in Lexington. It actually doesn't taste like rubbing alcohol. Not bad!

In non-culinary goings-on, I made a curtain for two of my friends' office.



Love the hounds tooth!

I also finally made rag balls out of this huge roll of fabric I got at a thrift store for $2. I think I'm going to make a braided rug.




I didn't make these last things, but I'm such a proud momma about this! I have a 30 gallon saltwater tank, and even though I ignore it most of the time like a terrible person, I do get super-excited about it. A couple of months ago, I bought a type of coral called a rhodactis mushroom (fancy name) that was a lovely aqua color. Love it. Paid $10 for one piece I loved it so much. Yesterday, I noticed this:



My little baby coral split in to THREE!! Hurray! I love corals. So neat.

Here's a pretty dirty shot of the whole thing from a few weeks ago.



I've got some cleaning to do!

Hope you all had a good holiday!

-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!!