31 Days: Challenge accepted

So over at the Nesting Place, there's this 31 Days thing. Where one has is encouraged to write about one topic, every day, for 31 (THIRTY-ONE) days. That's major. But I'm feeling crazy, so I'm jumping in headfirst. Here's what I'm shooting for:

I'm not only going to try to write everyday, I'm going to try to make something every day. I know, I'm insane. And while I hope that most of my projects will inspire surprise, I'm not promising it will always be a pleasant surprise. Some days you might find yourself shocked by the catastrophic failure I have created. But I promise to not hold back; if I fail, I fail, and I have no problem with showing how and why.(Which means that this can go one of two ways: You made that?! or You made that?! depending on how the project turns out...)

Anyway, I know my icon isn't super flashy, and my blog isn't the most popular, but I just want to have fun and give myself a reason to do something every single day. Since it's October, there's probably going to be a lot of Halloween themed stuff, but I also have a few clothing projects lined up, as well as some meals. (I had already planned on making home-made gluten-free pizza this week!) Plus, I've got to hit up a hardware store for this month's Random Acts of Craftiness Challenge...one item can count for both challenges, right? I certainly hope so, it's going to be a busy month!

So check back tomorrow, and see what I come up with on such short notice! :)

31 Days archive: 

Day 1: Sugar skull shirt (made from fabric scraps!)
Day 2: Asymmetrical skirt
Day 3: Leather & rhinestone bracelet
Day 4: Simple leather bat necklace
Day 24: Skull vase
Day 25: Sweater hats
Day 26: Halloween costumes
Day 28: Chili, of the hottest kind.
Day 29: Angora sweater accessories.
Day 30: Another hat, constructed from sleeves.

Almost crafting.

This is what my desk looks like right now:

See that stack of paper? Here, let me get a bit closer:

That is approximately ½ of a stack of pages that were ripped out of some of my Lucky magazines.

Over there, in the corner:

That's the rest of the magazines that I haven't even gotten to.

For years I've been wanting to make a series of collages using pictures of clothing/accessory pieces I liked that I had cut out of the magazines. I started once, ripped pages out from the magazines from 2004 to 2006, and then got distracted. But it was kind of okay, I stopped getting the magazine for a few years and so while the pile was sitting there, it wasn't really growing...and then this year Josh used a bunch of his airline miles to get magazine subscriptions...and the pile started to grow. And I realized I better GET ON THIS before magazines take over my life. Honestly, though, they kind of already have. I can get rid of lots of things, but I cannot, for the life of me, seem to get be able to let go of magazines. And I have a lot of them.

Anyway, that's what I'm working on at the moment...I keep finding things that I loved four or five years ago, and still love now, and wanting to make them, but I think I need to focus on finishing one thing before starting another, and this is something that really needs to get done. The fabric will still be there, the inspirational picture will still be there, and my sewing machine will have more room to work when I'm done.

I'm also realizing that while the majority of my taste has stayed the same, I have lost my taste for paisley, (thank high heaven, what did I ever see in it?!!) and have finally realized that no matter how much I love them, certain things will never flatter my busty frame. The stack is shrinking, slowly but surely, and hopefully by the time October rolls around I'll have a nice fall inspiration board to share, and a list of projects to work on throughout the month...not to mention getting started on all my Halloween stuff! I am so excited! Too excited, almost, as I can't even figure out where to start!

Weekend update

I think the fact that I didn't have the energy to even sit and write an entire blog post until now says a lot about how crazy, awesome, and exhausting the weekend was.

I couldn't write about it here, but I had actually invited two of Joshs friends from out of town, and they both got here Thursday night...right about the time Josh had headed into the bathroom. Here's the video of that fiasco...


I felt kind of bad about that, we had planned to surprise him at Chili's but their drive ended up being longer than expected so they just came straight to our house when they got in. They actually parked down the street and freaked out our neighbors!

It was such a jam-packed weekend, so many people in and out, adventures galore, more booze than I could even keep up with, cars everywhere. I think at most, on Saturday afternoon we had a group of 13 people. That didn't last the whole time, but we were averaging about 8 most of the weekend. We had a nice little caravan going anytime we went anywhere.

Here are a few pictures:

Midnight shots!

Me, Adrian (friend from Austin), Aaron (my brother-in-law), Josh, Danica, and Riquo (friends from Phoenix)

Ping pong at 2AM

Lunch on Friday, birthday MonkeyRita's!

Walking around downtown

Testing the hot spring water

and then we built a bonfire...out of a pallet.

AND THEN THERE WERE SHOTS

...things got blurry

...that was only through Friday night but I think you get the gist of it. Fun times, basically a three day party. So glad it worked out. And so glad I did finally get my butt in gear and get the house cleaned! ;)

Finally done!

...with the nightstands, at least. House is still a work-in-progress. I work best under pressure, and honestly, the pressure hasn't hit quite yet. I'll probably work like crazy for about 5 or 6 hours tomorrow and get it all done. And then be insanely tired and pass out early...which is sort of good, though, because then I can get up early on Friday and make the cupcakes before anyone else gets up. And by anyone else I mean Josh. :P

Alright, well, let me talk about the nightstands, since I've been working on them for two whole months now! (Seriously! I had to go back to July to find the 'before' pictures.)

Here are the before pictures. (sorry, I was like absolutely horrible about documenting this process, so all the pictures are in different places and positions, there's no exact side-by-side comparisons or anything.)

See how they had two little knobs? And that big dent separating them?

Well, I didn't like that. I wanted one flat drawer, and one knob. So I filled it in with wood filler (it took a whole tube of filler, and I three or four layers. I'd fill it in, smush as much as I could in, let it dry, fill in cracks, and then build another layer...) and then sanded it down. I also filled in the old knob holes. (Wood filler sands down really nicely, just make sure it's totally dry or it'll clump up on your sander.)

And then, as you probably know, they sat out in the storage room for two months, exactly. Rain, a fire, and general procrastination led me to not paint them until yesterday, when the threat of people seeing my bedroom suddenly became VERY REAL.

And so, yesterday morning, with the weather as perfect as could be, I finally just went out there and did it. I primed them, then painted them, and then brought them in and made my bedroom pretty.

Again, sorry, but I didn't take pictures of most of this part. Josh got a couple of me painting, and then I took some after I had already brought them in and set them up.

Hooray! I'm so glad that I finally finished, not only because it was bugging me having a half-finished project out there, but also because they came out looking so great, and our bedroom finally looks like a real bedroom, and not just a room with a bed in it.

Ok, well, my brother-in-law will be here in a couple of hours so I need to go at least make sure that the craft room (it's also the guest room) is 100% done and set up the air mattress for him.

Linking to:

Fall dye time

Let me just preface this by saying that I have a lot of clothes. Not like shop-a-holic level of a lot, just...above average. Probably. I don't really go around measuring other peoples wardrobes for comparison or anything. But, because of that, I have a lot of clothes that last from year to year; favorites that I'm careful with, or just pieces that sometimes get forgotten or not worn as much because I have so many choices. (And because I spend most of my days at home in pajamas so my 'nice' clothes get a lot less wear & tear than my 'home' clothes.)

Sometimes, though, even though they're still in good condition, things fade. And no one wants to wear faded clothes! So twice a year, right around the time that I switch my spring/summer and fall/winter wardrobes around, I dye things. Usually it's just the blacks, because those are the most prone to fading, and the most obvious (and because I wear a lot of black) but I have been known to do grey or blue as well. It's a simple way to keep clothes from last year (or the year before, even) looking sharp, and a lot cheaper than replacing staples (like leggings, turtlenecks, tanks to wear other stuff, etc.) that don't really change styles from year to year. I mean, I don't know about you, but I prefer to spend my money buying new boots rather than replacing the leggings I'm going to wear them over!

So today I dyed three pieces:

A turtleneck that I've actually had for...3 years this winter, a tee that I got in February of this year, and one pair of leggings. (The other pair has a hole, so they are getting replaced.)

Here's a close-up so you can see the difference in the amounts of fade:

See how even though the turtleneck is the oldest it's also the blackest? And I think, honestly, this will be the first time I've dyed that! It's one of those things that I take really good care of because I really love it. It's got just the slightest bit of ruching down the neck, sides, on the wrists, and around the arms, making it almost puffy sleeves. The tee is just a cheap one from Sears, but it's thin enough that it's great for layering, and other than a bit of fading, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. And since it's less than a year old, I'm giving it a face-lift to get it through at least one more season before I let it go.

Another tip for keeping blacks black (and any clothes from fading, really) is to hang them to dry instead of tossing them in the dryer (I actually plaster mine all over the bedroom and leave the fan on high while they're drying) or, if you must put them in the dryer, use a lower setting. (Delicate, low heat, whatever it may be on your dryer.)

Anyway. Just thought I'd share this, in case anyone needed some ideas on how to breathe new life into a favorite outfit that has begun to lose it's luster! Other than this, I'm still working on getting the house in tip-top shape. I've gotten both bathrooms sparkling clean, and organized the craft room, for the most part. Just need to go over it once more with the vacuum and clear off my desk. I'm waiting to do the kitchen last because it's the easiest to dirty up again. We have a huge counter that easily becomes a catch-all for pretty much everything. Ok. Time to get back to it! Hope everyone has a great week!

I seem to have lost a whole week...

Does it seem to anyone else like September suddenly got a lot shorter? I could swear it was just yesterday that I was calmly planning far enough ahead that everything would be ready in time for Joshs birthday party, and I would have plenty of time to get the house in order like I wanted without rushing or stressing, and suddenly here we are and the party is one week away (ONE.WEEK.) and somehow my house is messier than it was when I started! Ugh. I need better planning skills. And a few extra hours in my days.

Today, though, I wanted to relax and not think about everything I wasn't doing, and go to the fair. So we did. Only I hadn't anticipated getting on rides that I hate (which is, essentially, all rides, ever) and now I feel like my brain got shook out of place and my legs are sore because I was pressing my feet into the floorboard really hard to try and maintain some semblance of stability. Other than that, though, it was a great time! I got lots of cool pictures (they're all on my Tumblr, as usual), had sausage-on-a-stick, won a goldfish, looked at prize chickens and bunnies, and ate home made donuts. We brought home a bag full of free swag and Orion promptly destroyed the frisbee.

Oh, in the midst of my half-hearted attempts to clean yesterday I did manage to make this office sign out of two keyboards, some burlap, and an old picture frame:

Other than that, though, most of my effort is focused on getting things presentable (I have very high standards) and trying to get the bag of stuff to give away to Re-store. I've actually managed to get it into the back of the car, so we're halfway there! I'm thinking about going out there tomorrow, while Josh is working, but I don't know. I'll probably use the clothes as an excuse to go, and come home with more than I left with!

Oh, I haven't mentioned, I found the perfect overalls to put on the Micheal Myers I'm going to build! It's going to be great! My brother actually gave me an old pair of his combat boots to use, too, so once the party is over next week I'm going to start working on Halloween stuff! AHHH I'M SO EXCITED!

I'm not really here right now.

Well I am, physically, and I'm typing this, so obviously I still have some fine motor skills, but I feel like my brain has already checked out for the weekend (not that weekends are all that different from weekdays in my world.) I didn't get but about 5 hours of sleep last night, and of course somehow managed to forget (even after talking to my brother earlier in the week, and reminding Josh on Monday) that we are going to Magnolia this weekend, and so laundry is only half done, nothing is packed, the house is a mess, and I smell like...well, lets not go there. I spent most of the morning outside cleaning out the car, though, and it's quite hot & humid today, so I'll let you make your own assumptions.

Anyway, I just wanted to leave you with a little bit of suspense! Actually I wanted to show you the Halloween stuff I've been working on this week (mostly aging paper and covering an old nursing book I got to re-purpose into a spell book!) but seeing as how I'm running short on time (I still need to get outside and finish vacuuming the backseat of the car, then shower, pack for all of us, including Orion, make sure Belle has everything she needs for a day or two alone, and not forget the stuff I'm supposed to be taking down there) I'll just say this: Things are coming along! Although it might be a good idea to hit the pause button on Halloween stuff and finish up with house cleaning and organizing and planning for Joshs party (which is in two weeks! AHHH!!)

OK. I'm stressing myself out just thinking about it! I'm going to finish my today list, then go and try to have a fun relaxing weekend before coming back home and going full steam ahead into PREPARE THE HOUSE FOR A PARTY mode!