Thursday, August 26, 2010

We gon' find you

All I have to say is, of course the summer I decide to stop making rape and racist jokes, this video would come out:



Followed by this one:






Maybe next summer.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

I Am Grateful For My Hands

Why? Because they allow me to make all sorts of awesome crafts!

Yes, I know this is a domain already very thoroughly explored by someone else we know, and to be honest, I'm pretty late getting onto the scene. But, after happening upon some craft blogs a few weeks back, I decided to try my hand at some of the twee little projects I found. Actually, to be more accurate, I got overtaken by the twee little projects I found, and was slave to them 24/7 until they were finished - there really wasn't a lot of free will involved.

I totally understand now why quelquejour exists. These things really do take over your life. One day you're fine, just livin' your life, and then by some freak accident you come across a tutorial online for a ruffly, DIY whathaveyou, and suddenly you cannot think about anything else; you spend all your free time contemplating fabric glue and stop-fray; you can't pay attention in class because you're too busy trying to figure out when you can get yourself up to Joann next. Basically your life is robbed from you until you find a way to make whatever adorable thing it is you found online. It doesn't help that there are SO MANY of them, so that there's this constant to-do list in your mind of all the crafts you need to make before you can rest again. It all makes sense now.

Thankfully, I think my episode is coming to a close. I still have a few lingering items on my list, but the major projects are finished and I hope to be allowed a hiatus, because honestly, that was getting a little ridiculous. And after a while it's not even fun anymore, you just want to get it done. And in the end your project never looks as good as the one on the tutorial.

But anyhow, here are the finished products!


Embellished tee. Unfortunately my camera sucks so it's hard to see, but the gist is that I cut out a bunch of fabric hearts of the same color and sewed them all over the neckline.


Voila, dressed-up tee.


Here I did the same thing, except with flowers instead of hearts. Again, sorry it looks like vomit. I promise it's actually pretty.




Rosette shirt! This one is my fave, and was actually very easy to make, if rather time-consuming.


This one used to be my 'I only like NY as a friend' shirt, but I've never liked how it was so obviously ironed-on, so I decided to put a geisha silk screen on top of it instead. Geishas: Unfortunate historical symbols, great fashion!

Ok, I know ribbon/flower headbands are soOoOoOo trendy these days, and trust me, that did discourage me somewhat. But I had to try them. This blurry one is a white bow.

And despite what the camera would have you believe, these flowers are pink.


And here are all the others.

This one is an exact replica of a project I saw on Dear Lizzy. It's a little funky-er, but I like it. Plus, it was super easy.



Ok. Now for a change in pace.
A few months back I saw this beautiful cake in O magazine. I believe my exact thoughts went something like, "That cake is sooo pretty, and I bet it's super easy to make, too!"


Here's how my confidence translated. (Granted, I had pretty much given up by the time the fondant flowers were supposed to go on, which is why you can see they didn't even make it to flower form).



Crestfallen, I swore I would never make a cake again. Until this week, when I decided to give it another go, what the heck.


Slightly more respectable, and now I can rest in peace. I'm pretty sure I will never attempt anything like this again, though. As it turns out, cake-decorating is actually really really really difficult. But it's also really trendy, so maybe I'll save my pride and opt out for that reason instead. :)

I guess I'm also supposed to share the names of the sites I stole my projects from. I got most of my ideas from Dear Lizzy, the fabric heart refashion from Made by Lex, and I made my flower headbands using this tutorial. I'm hesitant to share those, cause we all know that the easiest way to quit is never to start in the first place, and I'd hate to be responsible for something like that. Just be careful, ladies.

Well, that about wraps it up for now. Peace in this nation, have a lovely week.