The Sunday Five

What is making me happy this Sunday?

1. The rain appears to be over. After a long weekend of cabin fever, the sun is out and the extended forecast seems to be dry. Finally! I know that I am from Seattle, but at home the rain doesn't keep you inside. Here is San Diego it is dangerous to drive in the rain, people here don't know how and drainage is very bad so standing water is a big problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
2. Curling- Could be my favorite sport of these winter Olympics. I lot of people think it is a lame sport, but once you understand the rules, it is SO intense. As an extra bonus, my second favorite country won a gold in curling, SWEDEN!! Sweden also medaled in at least one XC skiing event. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
3. Olympics being over- this may seem to conflict with my joy over the Olympics, but I am ready for them to be over. I probably wouldn't feel this way if NBC did a better job covering the games. Instead I end up staying up till midnight every night, when the coverage could be hours shorter if the announcers didn't like hearing the sound of their own voices so much. Also everything is delayed even though the actual events are in my own time zone, and the coverage is so sparse on non-USA dominated events. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the games. I love the Winter Olympics, but I could have written a book with just the ridiculous phrases the announcers came up with. "Get the monkey off her back" WHAT??? So I am happy to get back to my regular sleep schedule, and not be glued to the TV all night, watching the same commercials over and over, Milkaholic, thanks moms, go world, swagger wagon, the marriage ref... Wait this is supposed to be a post about happiness? Right, I am happy they are over tonight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
4. Alice in wonderland- I am SOOOOOO excited to see this movie which comes out on Friday. While this movie totally scared the crap out of me as a child, I am super excited to see a new version as a grown up. I never wanted to see the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but this one looks so much fun. I have always been very intrigued by the other, not so innocent, themes in Alice and Wonderland, and this new version will highlight those more I imagine. In this same vein, Disney at Ruffles and Stuff, just posted some great photos of necklaces she just made. I can imagine Alice wearing a lot of them. I am thinking this movie is going to be a great source of inspiration. Click here to check out the necklaces over on Ruffles and Stuff! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
5. The exhibition figure skating and ice dancing performances last night. Last night during the Olympic coverage of the final runs of four man bobsled, the winners of ice dancing and figure skating were able to perform one more time, for fun. Not only were these performances beautiful, but it was obvious that without the pressure of competition, these amazing skaters few higher and had amazing smiles on their faces. I especially enjoyed the Canadian ice dancing couple with the combination of a song from the Nutcracker and some other disco song, maybe, that I cannot remember the name of right now. Maybe I am in shock becasue I just watched the end of the USA Canada hockey game. Just saying.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   

Well in my quest to keep this post happy, I should really end before I hear the start of Oh Canada. I start taking cheap shots when my team, or country loses.

Happy Sunday!

Food Friday

Welcome to my first Food Friday

This week's subject is bacon, surprised? But I promise I won't pick bacon themed Food Friday every week, just this week. I can even tell you next week is a desert/snack recipe.

Do you remember this post I did a little bit ago? Well after I wrote it I hit the contact us part of the J&D's site just to let them know I had written about their new product. Later than night when I checked my e-mail I had a reply saying they were going to send me some samples!! Boy was I excited. I called my mom, and sent texts to like ten people. I was on cloud nine! A short three days later I came home to a package sitting, waiting to be opened.

When I ripped the box open the first thing I spotted was the bacon popcorn. Popcorn is also one of my top foods so I am extremely excited to pop some up!!

They also included some bacon salt which I first discovered at Luna Park Cafe in West Seattle. I already have some at home in Seattle and now I have some here too. The bacon salt sticker is awaiting the perfect place of prominence. But I haven't found that perfect place yet. The most interesting thing included?

The bacon lip balm. I was actually scared to try this stuff out. I am not generally afraid of anything bacon related...

As you can tell from the picture, the seal has been broken. I did try it, but only once so far. I tried it out after I had eaten too much food and already felt kind of sick. Consequently it didn't sit to well with me. But I will try it again. It defiantly tastes like bacon.

So foodies, go out and cook up some bacon. Or sprinkle some bacon salt on some fries. Happy eating!

The Mobile- All Grown Up

I love mobiles! When I was in The Land Of Nod a month ago all the mobiles in the mock up kids rooms just make me melt. They are a fun and a simple way to add to a kid's room. But what am I supposed to do as a grown up who wants one for herself?

Here is what I came up with...

Want to know how I made this? Well your in luck!

Supplies (for one tissue paper ball)

• About 2 sheets tissue paper, I used solid pink and three colors of green on the other
• 3 inch Styrofoam ball
• Craft glue
• Ribbon and 5 straight pins - to connect them into a mobile

First cut you tissue paper into squares. They don't have to be perfect mine were around 3X3. Try and keep them about the same size. I cut my tissue into strips and then cut the squares all at once to keep them uniform.

Take the square and fold it in half diagonally.
Now take the two outer corners and create a cone, around your finger, by bringing them up and to the opposite sides.

Now cover the end with your craft glue. Take your finger and press the cone to the Styrofoam ball. Press the glue on then kind of bend the cone up with your finger so it sticks up straight. If you press real hard and kind of squish the ball down the paper stick even better. Continue going around the ball until its all covered and you cannot see any white. This is what they look like when they are done!

To create the mobile take some ribbon and put a straight pin through it. Dip the pin in your craft glue and stick it in the ball. Now take the other end of the ribbon and put a pin through it and dip it in the glue and stick it into the other ball. Take another piece of ribbon and double it to make a loop. Stick another straight pin in the ribbon, dip it in glue and stick it in the opposite end of the ball you want at the top. Let the glue dry for a few hours first so the weight doesn't pull the pins out. Find a sunny spot and hang you new spring mobile.

As you can see I also added my sequin St. Patrick's Day ball to the very end, to add some holiday flair to our dorm room. To see how I made that click here.

I also think these would be pretty against an empty wall. To get them to stick out from the wall far enough you would probably have to hang them from the ceiling. I would use fishing line instead of ribbon in that case.

Dear Readers

My Dearest Readers,

I am lame. I have not posted anything in quite a while. Please be patient with me. My roommate is sick, I have midterms this week, and I am busy making new accessories for the Etsy shop. But I have so much to show you in the near near near future. Like tomorrow, and Friday, and this weekend. I will post Food Friday for the first time, well...this Friday. I hope that you all check back soon, and don't hold a grudge against me for not posting any fun craft projects.

See you'll soon!

Put A Pin On It - Take 2

As promised, here is the St. Patty's Day version of the flowers I made earlier this week. When I made the first one, I envisioned it as part of a pair, around braided pigtails. After bribing my roommate to be my model, my version has become reality! Super!!

Here they are in all their glory!

Don't you love them? I do soooo much. They look amazing on my roommate, who plays the part of Irish quite well. She is actually from Paraguay.

What did I do differently for this guys as apposed to the red tutorial I posted a few days ago? First I used three circles, one white and two green. I controlled the folds and ruffles much more than last time. First I folded the circle taco style and sewed along the fold. Then I folded the circle where I wanted a ruffle to be and sewed up the crease on the bottom until I got the look I wanted. The felt is kind of flimsy so you have to sew it a lot to get it to stay put. Just keep folding and sewing until you like it and then sew the three layers together. I made the green ones really big and after I sewing them together I trimmed them to be smaller. Then I did the whip stitch around the edge like last time and glued on the pearl. Perfection! If you wanted to check out the original post with the step by step tutorial click here!

No April showers needed for these spring flowers!

My Irish Eyes Are Smiling

I have 8 Styrofoam balls left over from Christmas. Yes I over bought, and now I am scratching my head trying to figure out what to do with all of them. Today I decided to use up some of the sequins I have, also left over from Christmas. Ready to make a cute green and gold decoration to celebrate the Irish in you?

Supplies

• Styrofoam ball
• Straight pins
• Green and Gold sequins
• Clip art print out
• Optional- Beads and Glue
  

Here I started with a sequin then a bead then the pin. But I ended up taking out the beads, since I think they distract from the image. So the pictures will show both ways.

Stay on the edges and then fill in the design. You can pin right over the design. Remember to take out the pins you used to put on the clip art as you get around to them.

Once you finish the shamrock your decoration it will look like this...

Once you go around the outside of the shamrock, continue covering the rest of the ball with the gold sequins. I only did the design on one side, but you could do two designs, or even a few smaller shapes on yours!

Here is the finish product! Not quite sure what I am going to do with this guy. I think I will attach a ribbon to the top and hang it somewhere, but it might end up as part of a larger St. Patrick's Day display!

Here is another picture with another Styrofoam ball project that is headed you way later this week. I found a neat way to cover the ball with felt. No glue, and the pins are not holding it on either.... A Mystery!

*One quick tip, if you add ribbon dip the pin in a little glue then push it through the ribbon and into the Styrofoam. This will prevent the weight of the ball from pulling the ribbon out when hanging.

** This is a great project you can zone out and do while watching the Olympics! That's what I did, just watch those pins!

Put A Pin On It

Want to make this pretty flower? It can be a pin of even go in your hair on a pin or ponytail holder.

Here we go.

1. Gather your supplies

• Felt- you can use whatever colors you have around
• A needle and thread- you can see I used a contrasting thread for the edges
• A pearl or button- you can use anything here for the center of the flower
• hot glue- for putting on the center, you could also sew on the middle if its a button or something else with a hole.

2. Cut two circles out of the felt, one slightly larger than the other. The smaller one is the center of your flower
3.

Don't be afraid to add a lot of stitches here. This is the center of your flower and the stitches won't show. Get it to look good.

I trimmed the white circle so it was kind of wavy. Here you do the same thing as above. Pinch the white and sew through the folds to get the look you want.

Next thread up your needle with a contrasting thread and do a whip stitch around the edges of the outer flower. There is lots of variations you could do here. Add another layer of felt, do different colors, do two layers of the same colors, or do the contrasting stitch on the center layer or both layers. The possibilities are as endless as your craft supply stash!

Finally pick out your center and hot glue it in. I added a safety pin to the back and wore it around on my shirt all day
I am going to make one so I don't get pinched on St. Patrick's day. I will post it soon!