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

Salty Seas

Perhaps this is not so hippie, but I can't contain my excitement. I've had a saltwater tank, in various incarnations, for almost a year now. Recently, I moved the tank into my new apartment, and made some upgrades and changes! Although I personally love my tank because I love marine environments and love watching everything grow, they are also relaxing and therapeutic, and great for kids to watch! They do tend to be pricier than regular fish tanks, but usually because you just want bigger and better stuff! If you're interested in starting your own, I would look around your area and see if there is a local reef society to join. Other peoples' experiences are invaluable!

Anyway. Like I said, my favorite part of keeping corals is that it's just like an underwater garden: I like watching things grow! So, in honor of almost a year, let's take a trip down memory lane, and look at some before and afters!

This is my first tank. It was a 10 gallon rimless. Lovely, simple, and totally empty right here!

And here it is, right before I upgraded to a bigger tank.

 

Amazing, huh!

Then I moved it to a 29 gallon aquarium, and, unfortunately, it was near a window and grew a TON of algae. Lesson learned. Here's what that looks like:

Bigger, but definitely dirtier! This one also had a new metal halide light, that sucked up a lot of energy and produced a lot of heat. Bad hippie!

And finally, some friends and I moved it this weekend to a 15 gallon, with a brand new LED light, that is amazing, but doesn't photograph well! I swear it isn't that blue in real life.

This one is a bit more manageable, time and money-wise, and wastes less water space. The LED fixture also puts off practically NO heat, and takes a fraction of the energy. Sarah is an excited Sarah.

Now comes the fun part! Here are some comparison shots of things when I first got them, and now! You can see how much growth happens!

This was one of my first corals. It's called a trumpet (or a candy cane, depending on which you prefer. It's kind of like plant names.) It had two "mouths" when I got it, and was just a cute little thing.

This is what that same coral looks like today:

Wow! Now it has 7 mouths, 2 of which it's added in the past few days! Amazing!

Here is my Kenya tree, which hitchhiked on the rock that I got from a friend.

And here it is a few days ago (you can also see the trumpets here!)

Pretty good for a free coral!

And finally, here is one that is called a favia. I got it for $5, and wasn't sure if it would do anything or not. It was just kind of a boring red with a little bit of dark green in the middle.

And here it is today:

You can also see how different the same corals can look under different lights! It has also grown out over the rock a lot.

I hope you all found this interesting and informative. Growing corals can be just as satisfying as growing any plants (and it's a good thing to do when the weather drives you inside!)  Do any of you have saltwater tanks?

~Sarah

Hello Everyone! I'm not trying to step on Patricia's toes, but I'm late from Friday! I have a pretty good excuse though, I'm MOVING! Agh! One of my co-workers and I are going to live together as a trial run. She has a big 2 bedroom town house, so I'm moving in to her spare room. If I get my house, she might move in with me, or if we decide we like living together but need more space, we'll look for a bigger place. Exciting stuff. I moved my bed and animals this afternoon, minus one cat, who is hiding SOMEWHERE. No idea where.

My room looks so clean though. It will not look like this for very long...



Last night, instead of actually packing, I worked on my trash find bunny hutch. I pulled this dresser off of the side of the road (actually right in front of my new apartment) and I've been planning on making it into a 2 story bunny condo for Boo Boo. I gutted it, but hadn't done anything to it... I went crazy though, and now it's almost done!



Sorry for the night phone pictures, but, well, it was night. And I was on my phone.

So, the top floor is going to be for food and water, then there's the ramp down. On the bottom floor, I'm going to hide his litter box behind the ramp. I think I've decided to make the bottom totally enclosed with an access door to clean litter and let him out. The top has a flip up screen door for filling up food and water. The back is all chicken wire so he gets plenty of circulation. Everything is cut for the bottom enclosure, but I charged my drill all night without actually having it plugged in :-/ Oops.

In crafty news, I made a CUTE baby set for my friend's adorable baby. I used this
tutorial, which was super-easy.



Next time I think I'll try to make the lining separate so that there are no interior seams, but we'll see. With the leftovers (all of this was from 2 fat quarters), I made ruffles for the neckline of a onesie too.



Oh baby stuff. Love it.

I also made a ruffled shirt for myself, out of two $3 shirts from Meijer. It was just a practice, but next time I'll measure the layers better. I still like it though!

In fun news, I got a hilarious picture of my porcelain crab riding a conch. He's a trooper. Yeee Haw!!



Hope you guys had a good weekend!

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