The Long Shrug

So I've decided that 2013 will be the year that I seriously start sewing.  I've been sewing for a long time, and even attempted to sew my own wedding dress (not possible when you start less than a month before the wedding), but pretty much the only pattern I have down pat is a tote bag.  And honestly, how hard is it to sew together a couple of squares?  My christmas present this past year was a serger, which somehow husband has learned how to use and I haven't yet (oops), but it's complicated.

I have actually managed to complete a few projects this year so far though, using my regular machine and a fair amount of good old-fashioned hand-sewing (who knew I actually had patience for that sort of thing?).  I had bought this really cool sheer, but with fluffy yarn woven through fabric, and immediately knew I wanted to make something like this:

This issue I had with that is that every single pattern I could find for a shrug was about half the length, which looks terrible on me and makes me look like an extremely short fat person, which I'm not.  So I busted out my handy dandy dress form (not sure if I ever did a post on that, but it has quite the story behind it as well), and draped away until I came up with a super easy pattern that seemed to work.  I ended up binding the edges, which was the whole hand-sewing bit, which took a couple of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to complete.  I also recently discovered bias-tape makers, which are amazing and I now use all the time.  I am not a fan of the feel of pre-made bias tape, and it's awesome to just whip some up out of whatever fabric I want.  Anyway, without further ado, I present the Long Shrug:

 

 

About a week after I completed it though, I somehow managed to find instructions on making a long shrug without even trying, so if anyone else wants to try it out, check it out here.

Random Question...

Husband is usually the recipient of all my strange thoughts/questions, and he thinks I'm crazy, so I thought I would spread my craziness around, and ask you all my random questions. :)

Today's question - what does the inside of a rubber band ball look like?  Are the rubber bands just really tiny in the center, or is it a tangled mess?  My vote is tangled mess, but I would like it better if they were just tinier and tinier rubber bands.  Anyone else have a thought?

Breaking out the sewing machine...

So after my insane attempt to sew a wedding dress last year (which has been sitting crumpled up in a box since I got back from the honeymoon a year ago), I've finally gotten motivated to start sewing clothes again.  I've made a bazillion tote bags since then, but wanted a bit of variety.  The trouble with me is, I can't do anything simply, like use a pattern for instance.  So my first attempt to get back into sewing was to try and duplicate this drapy knit top:

Let's just say it didn't end up well, and is now currently crumpled up in the closet next to the wedding dress.  Luckily it was fabric from the bargain bin, so not too terrible of a loss.

I had also gotten some sheer beige pleated fabric that I wanted to use to create an overlay on very thin knit dress that I had.  Unfortunately I did not buy enough, so I decided to make a skirt instead.  There were some bumps along the way, which involved me cutting out the lining, so it's a bit on the sheer side now, but overall it came out decently, and I've gotten a complement on it already. :)

I have quite the line-up of things to work on, but the two currently in progress are a teal stretch wool pencil skirt (also patternless, but super simple), and a matching ruched top and skirt, which I actually am using a pattern for, but happens to be an advanced pattern, so we'll see how that goes:

Phyllis Diller is cooking dinner tonight

So this is pretty random, but something I just had to share.  I was reading a post on Burda Style about celebrity designers, and came across the fact that Phyllis Diller has her own brand of chili.  How bizarre is that?  I mean, I'm not really a chili eater to begin with, but what exactly is the thought process that one goes through to determine that is what to focus branding energies on?

Photo: Burda Style

Looking Up

I've always liked interesting ceilings.  In high school, my bedroom walls were lemonade yellow and my ceiling was a gorgeous dark prussian blue, and it was awesome.  The moon and stars wallpaper border wasn't quite so awesome, but still, the colors were great.  So when I ran across the photo below on Apartment Therapy today, it immediately went into the inspiration file for when I have a house of my own and can do crazy things like paint a circus tent ceiling:

Seeing as how I'm not really planning on bringing children into the world, I've been racking my brain to figure out a way that I can actually accomplish this without looking like a crazy person, and I think it would work really well in a bathroom.  What do you think?

In other news, I've recently joined the world of Pinterest, so you can see what I'm up to there.

Photo:  Apartment Therapy

All Blinged Out

I've never been much of a bracelet person.  My mom has about a bazillion bracelets, but apparently she didn't pass on the fondness for them to me.  I'm generally pretty picky about accessorizing, usually just with one big piece of jewelry, like one necklace, or just a pair of earrings, or one big ring, mostly because I'm a bit obsessive about matching, but it's gotten even worse now that I wear my wedding ring all the time, i.e., I don't wear much other jewelry at all.  I've been slowly been trying to break myself out of my habits, and I'm thinking lots and lots of bracelets is the way to go next, like on the Atlantic-Pacific blog which I just discovered today:

I'm a big fan already of her ability to pile on the jewelry and look really put together, while I'm afraid if I do I will end up looking like an old lady who went crazy at a flea market.  We'll see if I'm able to pull it off...

On a side note, red, yellow, and gold are the colors I'm really liking this moment, and she pulls them all together really well in this outfit:

Photos from Atlantic-Pacific

Cutest thing in the world...

So ever since I went to Africa, I've had a bit of a thing for baby elephants.  They are just so adorable and would totally fit in my pocket.  Check out this little guy and tell me you're not melting:

Our guide said that he was at most like 3 days old, and ever since I've been trying to convince hubby we need an elephant, but he's stubborn and won't let me have one.  Anyway, that was all a digression to fill you in on how much I enjoyed looking at this baby elephant on a beach.

The Grand Exit

So you may recall that how we left the church after the wedding was an important decision for me.  Unfortunately, the Vespa idea didn't work out, and now that I actually own a scooter myself (!!), although not a Vespa, I am very glad my first ride did not involve a wedding dress.  Despite its being important, figuring it out got pushed back until we were actually in Michigan a few days before the wedding.  One of the groomsmen just so happened to receive a red Mustang as his rental car, so problem solved. :)

Photos taken by our photographer, Cara Spinniken

Saying I Do - The Ceremony in Photos

  

We adapted the children's book I Like You Because to read to each other, because we are both silly.

Instead of a unity candle, we did a cord of three strands ceremony

  

  

Vote for Me! (Pretty please...)

So it turns out that all I had to do was write a blog post, and immediately after, our apartment goes up on Apartment Therapy!  You can vote for me here.

In case you missed them the first time around, here are the first two apartments I entered in Small Cool (I move a lot):

2011:  http://community.apartmenttherapy.com/contests/smallcool/2011/entries/996
2009:  http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/small-cool-2009-16-81767

Come On In!

So you may be wondering why there are no pictures anywhere of our house.  Well, let's just say it's a been quite a process to merge two households and design styles, but I think we're just about there.  After a garage sale and weekly trips to goodwill for a good while, we're finally able to feel comfortable and the house is just about there.  A couple of weekends ago I took some photos for the Apartment Therapy Small Cool contest, but they're being slow in posting our house, so I'll give you a preview here:

Our living room.  The vast majority of my furniture either got sold or moved to the cabin when I moved in, so most of this was already there.  Hubby's couch was an old over-stuffed leather couch which had seen better days, so when I saw the full-sized couch version of my old beloved loveseat on craigslist, I jumped on it.  The shoe cabinet by the front door is a life-saver, and the product of one of the most frustrating Ikea trips ever.

The dining room/other side of the living room.  I wasn't a fan of the chairs that went with Hubby's dining table, so we sold them at the garage sale.  We then went for a good 4 months or so without any dining chairs, so these were a welcome craigslist purchase as well.  The shelves were also a product of the Ikea trip, and replaced the bookshelves from my old living room, which just didn't work well in this house.  These were one of our many projects, as they required a sanding, two coats of stain (which involved multiple trips to Home Depot to get the right color), and two coats of polyurethane. 

The kitchen.  It's still a bit of a work-in-progress, which is why the other side is not shown. :)

Moving upstairs, to the bedroom.  We've tried, and been mostly successful, at keeping non-sleeping and clothing related things out of the bedroom, which has been really nice.  I wasn't a fan of Hubby's bed, which originally had a footboard, and really took over the space.  Hubby had the idea of cutting off the footboard, and it made a huge difference.  The shelves by the window are the shorter matching version of the ones by the dining table.

The office / frog room.  Prior to us getting married, Hubby made custom shelves that go around 3 walls of the frog room.  It's typically quite a mess, as this is where all the random project stuff ends up, so there isn't a picture of that just yet. :)  This is the fourth wall, which is my crafting corner.

So there you have it, our first home together.  What do you think?  Any suggestions?

Cadbury Toad?

Shirley the toad got a special Easter surprise this year - unfortunately Cadbury eggs don't come in bug-flavor, so she just had fun checking it out and didn't get to taste it.

Getting Ready For the Big Day

Ok kids, I'm back by popular demand!  I just wanted to see how much you all missed me. :)  So I'm a little behind on the whole getting wedding photos up (just passed the six month mark!), but here goes:

I know I still owe you all a final post about the dress, but here is what is technically dress #2, if I remember correctly.  Dress #1 got vetoed as being too simple, and got returned to Bloomingdales.  I wanted to return dress #2 as well (see all the beads and lace?  not what I was thinking I would end up with.), but real wedding dresses are harder to return.  Dress #3 is coming up, and dress #4 is currently still in a box on my craft shelves, about 3/4 of the way done. :)

I made the flower and veil two days before the wedding.  Nothing like leaving all the details until the very end. :)

5 minutes to go time - gotta make sure the lipstick is good!  

All of the photos were taken by our wonderful photographer, Cara Spinniken.

The wedding photos have arrived!

Yesterday's mail brought me a much-anticipated present - our wedding photos!  I have only looked through them once, but expect to see some soon!  Our photographer has posted some of our engagement photos on her blog, if you just can't wait. :)