I've Recovered My Account!

Today, a little more than 3 years since I've posted last, I have finally recovered my account and plan to update again. Here's a quick recap on what's been going on in the last 3 years that has kept me away:

1. Got a new job
2. Moved
3. Got another new (better) job
4. Moved.
5. My boyfriend moved in with me.
6. We got two kittens
7. He got a new job.
8. We moved.
9. We got married.

So, three moves, two cats, and a new last name later, I am ready to beguile you with various and random posts to entertain, amuse, and... umm. Mostly entertain and amuse you.

BUT, with 3 more years of wisdom (and with Pinterst being a thing now) I know I really have to step my game up. So, the blog will meander from before-and-afters to recipes to reviews to DIY crafts and whatever else I can think up.

I can't wait to get started and hope you're excited, too!

T-Shirt Upgrade (x2!)

I have a pile of old t-shirts in the deepest, darkest corner of my closet, all awaiting a brilliant flash of inspiration and a few hours of attention. Over the weekend, I had both, and came out of it with two new t-shirts that I'm so in love with that I'm sure the other t-shirts still left in that corner will make an appearance soon!
Here is the before:

Just a regular grey t-shirt purchased from Old Navy years & years ago.
It now sports two small holes in the front (perhaps snags from cat claws) that had
rendered the shirt unwearable... until now!

Here are my materials:

1. An old grey t-shirt that I'd never ever wear (you get them free at the bar if the Bud Light Girls are there and you tell them you're drinking Bud Light!) and have used a bit of for some other project.
2. A bit of black fabric that I purchased a couple years ago to make a pirate's vest and boots for a pirates vs. ninjas birthday party.
3. A bit of white fabric... origin unknown, but I've used it for a bunch of things.
4. Pink Lace
5.White Lace ( I later wished I had black lace, so I used a fabric marker and colored some white lace black)
6. Pink fabric I purchased to make a cat bed for Hugo & had extra of
7. Some other little bits of pink & white fabric that I ended up not using at all.
8. I also used white thread, and note cards for templates. These, in fact:

First, I used note cards to cut out three templates which I roughly followed. I didn't want them to be perfectly round or all identical, so I mostly used them to keep the sizes mostly uniform when I cut the fabric to make my decorations.

I think I had 12 big grey pieces, 5 big black pieces and 5 big white pieces, which I put into a sort of design. The rest were mostly random, but I made sure two decorations next to each other weren't too similar.
Anyway, I stacked big on bottom, littlest on top until I had them all ready.

Then I took out a ruler to make sure I had the design centered....

then pinned 'em down!

I used white thread throughout and stitched each decoration in an X pattern. (This took a very long time, as I don't have a sewing machine) I actually watched The Long Kiss Goodnight during this portion of the activity.

It's hard to see on the white-on-white decoration I poorly choose for the close-up, but you get the idea. 

I wasn't too worried about neatness: I wanted it to look a little shabby chic, a little haphazard, etc.

And here's the After!

Yaaay! 

Now for the bonus (and promised) x2, here is the second shirt up for refashion:

It's hard to see in this photo, but there are a couple of light coffee stains right on the front of it.

I don't know where I obtained all these different laces, but boy am I glad I have them. I pinned this one into place and then stitched it on, but realized it didn't quite cover the coffee stain...

So I grabbed some different lace, and made some ruffles.  I just stitched small stitches in the bottom, and then pulled it tight, scruching the lace.

Pinned them into place...

And voila!

It looks really cute under a cardigan, too.

So there you have it. Two old t-shirts that were unwearable turned into two of my new favorite tops. 

We're going to call this a $0 project, too, since everything was old, given to me, or recycled from other projects.

Cheating... a little...

I was begged to do an update, but I haven't turned anything ugly into anything pretty lately. But I'm working on it, so that will have to wait. Instead, you get to see some cards that I've been making. I take orders (I mean, I haven't yet, but I could!)

This is my "brand." It gets stamped on the back of every card... like all card brands.

It's a pun... get it?

The first one I made was for a wedding I'm going to this weekend... if the bride &/or groom are in the audience of this blog, they've just ruined their own surprise!

Obviously the front.

Detail of the Cake

The inside is blank, for
now... until I figure out
what it should say, haha









This one I made for a friend's mom who let us stay at the Family's vacation cottage and then took us out to a lovely meal...

I love this butterfly stamp. 

The next three I made for Erin... I guess I do take orders!... for her friends that took her out in Chicago. She requested two fancy ones for two girls, and an awesome one for a guy. I'll let you decide which are which.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but the pink
bead is heart-shaped.

An artsy close up of the cute bird

This one just makes me laugh.
Everytime.

It took forever to cut all those little guys out.

Warning! Stamp repeat... if you ever want to buy me
awesome stamps, you're more than welcome :)

This could be my favorite paper.

This one is for my Mom's co-worker who hurt her foot... she has to wear a boot and can't wear heels...

On the inside it says, "Hope you're back in your
dancing shoes soon!" 

 And of course, the artsy close up:

This is a baby card... the inside simply says, "Welcome Little One"

So these are the cards I've made since... Sunday. It's pretty much all I've been doing, besides, you know, class, and work, and homework and things that I need to do... but I love making them... and hopefully someday I'll be able to make a buck doing it!

177.

That, my friends, is the [approximate] square footage of my new apartment. 

One Hundred.

                               Seventy.

                                                  Seven.

Now, I can't tell you the exact location of my new place, since you know, this blog is public & I'm not interested in inviting strangers/creepers/weirdies/crazies to check it out in person, but I'll tell you that it's in the downtown area. It's a lovely place. 

I have been living there since Tuesday, but actually haven't spent much time there at all, between work and cleaning the old house, and so things may change as I figure out more what does and doesn't work, and when I get things or get rid of things, etc. etc. etc. But, I promised my mom she could see better pictures than my phone can send, so this is it.

First, I'll start with the porch.

it's huge. I haven't measured it, but it's probably about the size of the apartment.

It doesn't really have a plan, yet, since it's quite light on furniture, but it will shape up :)

I painted that little corner table, by the way!

So, now that you've seen the outside, here is the inside view of the front door. I haven't had time to hang pictures, so just imagine it like it's been hung.

And, in the spirit of bargain-hunting, the bed came from a garage sale at my brother's neighbors in Romeo. It's an antique frame. The bedside table came from a garage sale, and I painted it. The lamp, from Goodwill, the picture is a copy of a print Grandma O & I found at a garage sale. She has the original. The rugs... I think Goodwill, too, my mom's a Goodwill Girl!

This is the South Wall... The Dresser came from a garage sale, I painted it. The bookcase was left behind from a roommate last year, and the shoe hanger thingy was a Goodwill thing, too. 

The closet is actually pretty big, it's about 5'x3', and I don't have any pictures of it yet, but I'll update later with some. I hung the Safarigami painting I did! That chair is the one I covered in the last post, the TV cupboard is a shabby chic thing that came from, you guessed it, Goodwill!

The last little bit: 

The "Office" area. 

The table was from a garage sale, the chairs from a used furniture store. The lamp and picture... goodwill! 

Now... if that much stuff in that tiny space isn't enough to blow your mind, let me throw another number at you.

 169.

That's how much we outfitted my apartment for. 

Bed, nightstand, dresser, bookshelf, 3 chairs, TV cabinet, table, 3 lamps, 2 rugs, a bathroom cabinet, 2 pictures, and a freaking partridge in a pear tree. 

Kidding on that last one.

I don't have any photos of the kitchen, bathroom, or closet yet, because those areas haven't been completely moved into yet. But when I do, you can bet you'll be seeing those photos, too!

(PS. My bathroom? I hate it. It's the only part I don't like. You'll see why.)

....suspense....

It's All About Covering Things...

This is a theme post. More specifically, this is the first theme post. It's about covering something (a hint you may have gotten from the title) and there will be a few more posts in the not-too distant future about covering other things. That's what makes it a theme.

Today it's a chair. Now, I've never "reupholstered" or covered a chair before. I didn't really know how to do it. But when has that ever stopped me?

Never.

 So I just jumped first

                                                            & looked later.

So even though this is a cover story (no pun intended), it also involves a Before & After. So, here's the before: 

It used to be quite cute: I got it last summer at a garage sale in Romeo. I think I paid $5 for it. It lasted me a year, and then the fabric got worn and started tearing. But why throw it out when you can just make things up as you go along? So I took it all apart. That blue on the bottom was covering an ugly blue silky fabric... and that was covering....

this:

Can I get a collective "ick"?

So my plan of action was to remove the old stuff, put on the new stuff... sounds simple, right? . I pulled out a gazillion staples. That awesome (ugly) table-cloth like cover was regrettably nailed on, so I just left it. The back of the top cushion was nailed on, too, so I left that. 

I used the old fabric pieces as stencils to cut out a bottom layer of plain white. 

Luckily, I didn't have to worry about being neat, since it all gets hidden later

So then I used the white liner pieces to cut out the top pieces (which come from some fabric I had left over from making a bed for Hugo [cat] awhile ago), and stapled the crap out of it. I stretch canvas for my paintings, so I used the same theory...staples go about a thumb's width apart. (Also, if you're thinking of doing it, I stapled at opposite sides of the circle, top to bottom, right to left, top-right to bottom-left, etc. etc.)

It seemed to work... 

The black marks are to mark where the screws fit.... an important step I'm impressed I remembered the first time.

Covering up the 70's inspired mistake.

And, 

after reattaching the new cushions to the frame... 

here's the after!

And, for a bonus... as we all know how I'm unable to resist lovely details...

Yup. I monogrammed my chair. 

SO. "new" desk chair.... $5 last year.

Oh, yeah.

In addition to more  covering posts, I'm also moving

into a new apartment, TOMORROW!

You'll get to see me try to fit   a house-worth of stuff 

into a bedroom-sized apartment. 

Hilarity ensues. 

A Great Weekend Deserves a Great Thank-You Card

First, let's make fun of men.

I was invited to a fancy dinner called Winter Fest because my friend's girlfriend was unable to go. 

I inquired as to what kind of dress I should get because "fancy" can mean so many things.

Me: So what kind of fancy, like prom-dress fancy?

C: Yeeeeaaaah... sorta

Me: like an evening gown?

C: You mean like lingerie? No, put the girls away.

Me: that's not what an evening gown is. Is it Black Tie?

C: No, you can wear any color you want.

Me: You're so not helping.

Second, let me tell you about the dinner.

It was one of the best times I've ever had. I met this awesome older lady, Sabine, and she was hilarious and wonderful. She & her husband are originally from France. I complimented her on her ring, and she says, "That's 3.5 karats of pure diamond right there! You know in France, it is customary for the in-laws to buy the ring." I told her that was a really neat tradition, and she replies with, "Yeah, AND you get a bigger ring that way!!"

A woman after my own heart ♥

The dinner was AMAZING [prime rib!] and drinking happens, and the waitress (who was otherwise excellent) seriously slacks in removing my empties. Seriously. At one point in the night, I had 6 glasses in front of me, and only one was water. And of course, Mrs. M noticed & made fun. I explained my predicament, everyone had just as many drinks as I had, but it was the waitress's fault! They continued to make fun.

(Sabine only drinks wine, and prefers red to white. She has two glasses of red wine every day, one with lunch and one with dinner.)

We were also treated to a glorious sunset:

Third, let me [finally] tell you about the card.

So, again, if you're my Facebook friend, you've probably already seen the cheeseburger card I sent the M family after treating me so well during Caseville's Cheeseburger fest. If you haven't, here it is:

So I had big shoes to fill

It took me awhile to think of a card that could be just as good, if not better. I realized I couldn't make one funnier. So here's what I did:

These are the 6 things the 4 of us drank in an accordion-fold card.

Last, I'll compare my roommate, Fancy, to a toddler.

Me: Look at this Thank-you I made for the M family

Fancy: I WANT ONE!!!!

So, by request:

Thanks for reading :)