happy birthday, jane austen

a peek at things to come

we all know i usually start planning in july, but things got a little off course this year. so here's what i've got so far...

back to work

okay, so it's been 6+ years of not working outside the home. what with the kids and all... so when the boy started kindergarten 2 weeks ago...

i decided to go back to work. just during school hours. and i got a job! at DSW shoes! yea, shooz! yea, employee discount! so i did a little work-clothes shopping at ross...

yes, i don't know what happened - lots of black and grey, but then i can wear colorful jewelry. and what's up with the scarf? i have plans...
so whilst shopping, i couldn't help getting a little helen of troy action...

blurry phone pic

it was only $20, but i couldn't justify it. and i'm not gonna wear it while scrubbing toilets.
my orientation was yesterday, and i put together my outfit.

belted grey long shirt, dark wash capris, fun cuff bracelet, dangly earrings, smoky navy necklace, navy strappy sandals. i felt good. i have fun plans for wednesday, my first official day o' work.

now the other day...

i showed a book that i made instead of doing housework. just to clarify, i have cleaned the house.
and no, i won't post 'before' pics.

the trunk in the living room, my mom gave me when i was 20. i worked really hard redoing the interior. but i've never touched the exterior. so i finally redid it as an end table...

before: kitty-boy loves to get right in the middle of the action

i found some faux leather contact paper at the hardware store on clearance for $5!

close up of 'leather' grain

found some great drawer pulls at said store for less than $2 a piece!

it took a lot of grunting and sweat, but i managed to get the hardware off the front and
i will replace the latch. it made it much easier to cover.

hubby was nice enough to get a piece of glass cut at work to fit on the top for my lamp and phone and coasters. thanks to janabanana for the awesome leather coasters!

my homage to newdressaday

here's my $1 dress:

before

this little number caught me with the vibrant flowers and it's shapelessness. hahaha! but i thought, 'i can do something with this.'
so i cut off the top and made it strapless. added elastic to the top. ripped the seams on the sides for side slits. hemmed it. added a halter. sewed a snap whose other half was attached to a ribbon with a fab silk flower. a little empire waist, yo!

after

fun top! the ribbon is removable for laundering.

a quick project

i made this for dot instead of doing housework. :{

my inspiration: a "plush book". the monster book of monsters

i used a journal that i had meticulously copied harry potter class info into years ago (before dot could even read) and made it into this:

i simply cut out cardboard the size of the front and back covers. cut out 1 piece of plush that would cover the entire book. cut out felt teeth and pink plush gums. and just started hot gluing everything in place.
plush to cardboard, teeth to book, gums to teeth, cardboard to front cover, plush to cardboard, cardboard to back cover.

alex likes it

today...

i saw a man in town. people were throwing daisies at him and giving him goodies.

"Where are your robes?" "They were... stinky. These are my recreation clothes."

gettin' lucky

how many of you joined the lucky magazine online buying club thingy just to get the cute red handbag?
come one... you know you did. then you got this medium-sized smashed nylon thing in the mail 4-6 weeks later.

i haven't used it yet because i wanted to snazz, yes, snazz it up a bit. what to do, what to do. i decided on some black ribbon action, since i still had some from my alice dress. but first, i wanted to put some feet on it. i took some navy (close enough to black, and i would never use them for anything else) buttons and clipped the loop off the backs and hot glued them in place.

then, i started on the ribbons. the first one, i tacky glued. messy, yucky. so i got out the hot glue.

i snipped the backs off of the featured buttons and ran my middle line of ribbon.

then, what was i to do with the back? i didn't have enough buttons to do the same. since the front looks kind of like a blouse (remember that time, the people were chanting my name? and i used my strength to rip my blouse? i remember you getting knocked unconscious!) i decided to do the back like a criss-cross lace-up.

i added tiny bows for accents.

last thing (more is more!) was to do something with the handles... more ribbon, a little thicker.

and i had 4 buttons left, so...

so my completed product is like, such as...

front

<---

                                 back

                                  --->

and for you, mom, i put my charm on my bracelet. hope you like it...

just some little hot glue hairs. i got them off post-picture taking.

yet another blog in the woiks

i have started a new blog to address just my cancer experience. please do enjoy:

www.mycancerblessing.blogspot.com

in love with a blog

okay, so yahoo! homepage tipped me off to this, but unlike most drivel, this was totally worth it!

http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/

the blog is about transforming $1 thrift store finds into fun new outfits. please check it out!

i had to repost this recipe from her blog, though. as she said, totally dangerous!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE


4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract


1 large coffee mug (Microwave Safe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly before pouring in the milk and oil in. Keep mixing. Add the optional chocolate chips next (who makes that an option!) and vanilla extract, and mix again…

Put your mug in the micro wave and cook for three minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow it to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.


FUN!!! i mean, YUM!!!

after much prompting and pressuring, i'm continuing on

how long have i been gone? they've gone and messed with the setup options for this blog and it's not easier.

last month, seven of us went on a big-passenger-van-family-vacation through tennessee and missouri, with drives through arkansas and kentucky.

we stayed in memphis. i did not see jason lee, because they shoot 'memphis beat' in new orleans!

The front door of Graceland

yes, we visited elvis' house, graceland.

we had a great time together. we drove from memphis to branson, mo.

this is on the showboat branson belle, a cruising musical dinner theatre. i'm not sure what's going on with the boy making gang symbols. we did tons of stuff in branson - none of which you were allowed to photograph.

so we move on to springfield. 

here are mom and dad in front of their married dorm at bbc. i actually lived here when i was a toddler.

midge and i posed in front of someone's backyard rubbish at a gas station in arkansas.

in nashville, we stopped at the jars of clay recording studio. nobody home. :(

regaining my brain for a project

with the boy starting school next year and me looking at re-joining the workforce once that happens, i decided to be prepared to organize my life by buying a planner. it runs concurrent with the school year so it was july '10 - june '11. i thought, 'how can i best sort out whose project is due when? what is my work schedule? who has a sockhop or other after-school event?'

so i bought a pack of 4 assorted color pens. each color represents a different family member.

now, how will i keep these pens with this planner so this whole brilliant plan doesn't go south if the pens inevitably get lost? keep in mind, this is not the planner she lost on 27 dresses. this is a vinyl-cover spiral number from day runner with no pockets or such.

so here's what i came up with:

my starting materials: fabric, planner, pens

i used a rotary blade and a straight edge to make it nice and straight since my raw edges will be exposed. 

i measure my strip of fabric using my planner as a guide and trim.

using the planner, i overlap the fabric with the right sides out.

hold snugly in place and pin.

sew along each edge with a zigzag stitch and contrast thread.

sew along the edge where the fabric meets underneath, not at the top.

i don't know why this is underlined... or blue

starting at the middle of the now built-in pocket, sew 3 lines to bottom of the 'pocket' to make 4 pen slots.

tada!! a tubular sleeve that fits nicely on my planner cover and holds all my color-coded pens.

'it's a good thing'