Empire State of Mind

I'm going to NYC for my Birthday!!!!!!!! I was going to go alone, but two of my best friends have decided to join me. Yay!

The lyrics to Jay-Z's song Empire State of Mind keep streaming through my head. "Now your in New York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do. These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you."

I'm going to Mood Fabrics. Yeah the fabric store in Project Runway. I'm going there! I'm also going to Topshop (UK Company) and Williamsburg, Brooklyn...which I hear has awesome shops/craft faire/flea market. Whoo hoo!

Needless to say I am very excited. I will have lots to report on. Most importantly what am I going to wear??

Sick Bored Sewn

My life has been non-stop for some time now. I have been keeping busy for many reasons. It has been fun, but it caught up to me this week when I caught what was going around the office. It has had me laid me up for the past few days. The first few days all I could do was sleep because I was in so much pain. But today I decided to catch up on Project Runway Allstars. I think I watched like 5 episodes. Fashion does make me a very happy girl. Even when I'm not creating and I'm super busy it is always on my mind.

Needless to say Project Runway inspired me to work on some projects today:

I hemed these shorts...

I have had this shirt forever, that I got from a thrift store many years ago. I have loved the print, but never wore it. It had long sleeves. So I took the sleeves off and now I think it will make a cute top.

Kelly gave me this romper over a year ago. It was too big so I opened the top, cut out some of the elastic and now it fits great. It looks great on. Hello summertime! 

Lastly and my favorite project is Western/Mexican embrodiered shirt that I have had probally since high school that I got from a thrift store. The sleeves always bothered me. So I decided to just roll them up. I cut the openning in front deeper, to make it sexier. I then cut the ruffles (I love ruffles!) from this really tacky red shirt and sewed them on the neckline of the western shirt.

I love this new shirt now! It's got a little red flare, ruffles, embroidery! Can I say more. I am seeing me wear it with shorts and red boots. Can't wait :)

Off to bed...

Orange & Turquoise, I love you around my neck!

I love the color combo of orange and turquoise. It's like candy to my eyes. At our holiday Crafternoon Alex showed us how to make these t-shirt scarfs. I made this black/grey/purple one for my Mom for the holidays.

I have been wanting to make my own. You always have extra t-shirts laying around. I have a ton of old work out shirts and pj tops. Being the "hoarder" that I am I also have t-shirts from different times in my life that I keep for nostalgia reasons. Mostly of bands I have liked or places I have visited and I have to admit I still have some of the animal rights shirts that I made in screen printing in high school. :)

I got the soft turquoise shirt at the last clothing swap and I have been using it to sleep in, but I love the color so it''s a shame to only wear it to bed. I also had this bright orange t-shirt that I love. I have never worn it because it is a really hard t-shirt fabric and the fit is weird, but I have kept it since I was in high school. I went to Costa Rica with my Mom and we visited the Caribbean Conservation Corporation. North of Tortuguero village, the CCC operates a research station for turtles that has a small visitor center and museum. This is where I bought the shirt. The coolest part of Tortuguero is that there are no roads. It's all on water and we had to take a boat to get there. Anyway that's why I have never parted with the shirt even after 15 years. Yep. So what a good chance to use it and continue the memory.

This is the easiest project ever. It takes about 15 minutes at most. You just need scissors.
http://margoiscrafty.blogspot.com/2011/01/t-shirt-scarf-tutorial.html

I added some of my own special touches...I cut a strip of orange to tie it in back with a bow. I braided some other strips and tied it to the front.

Two is Better than One

Last year I received some hand me downs from Jon's friend. I receive most of my clothing from hand me downs, clothing swaps, and thrift stores.

The piece that stood out was a floral dress that she never wore because the fit was a little off. I liked the fabric so I decided to take it and work with it. The top was too big for my boobs, but I decided to make it into a cute little top and a skirt. The skirt I decided would be easier.

I loved the ruffles and didn't want to get rid of them, so I cut the dress in half. I now kinda had a skirt but it was too big and I needed to make it so it would stay on. I took a thick piece of elastic I already had and cut it to the length I needed to fit around the skirt. I folded down the skirt the width of the elastic and made a loop around. I then inserted the elastic in and sewed that. It was really easy. I think I did it in an hour and wore it that night. I really like how it turned out. It's a cute frilly casual skirt.

Now the top was a lot harder. I wanted it to fit my boobs, but also be a cute little top to wear under shirts. I decided to add the white eyelet trim I had to the bottom so the seam wouldn't show and to make it cuter. Not thinking, doing this made it so the elastic at the bottom wouldn't work and so with out a zipper or button I couldn't put it on. I had to cut the seam on the side and I thought to put a zipper in. Putting a zipper in was a night mare. I cut it too short and the zipper wasn't long enough. Even after taking more in to make it fit my boobs it didn't work. As of now I am going to buy another zipper to sew in that is long enough. Then to make it fit better I am going to attach a strap to the top to keep it up. It's a top in progress. I will have eventually made two pieces of clothing out of one! Yay recycling!

From Salton Sea to the New Year

The day after Christmas my two co-workers flew down and spent a day or so in San Diego and then we made our way back up to San Francisco.

 
In San Diego we rode bikes at the beach and ate Mexican food. My favorite! There was also an octopus sighting and Derek held hands with in for a bit. Then the shorts saga started. We went to about 4 different Old Navy's. I don't like Old Navy. I think it is pretty cheap and boring. Also, it's not a very environmentally responsible company. Anyway my coworker needed to exchange a sweatshirt he got for Christmas so we ended up going. While there I found this $11 pair of short metallic jacquard shorts. I went to buy them and the line was too long and the sun was too nice outside to waist any more time. So I didn't buy them and off to the beach we went. I started to obsess about them (as any clothing lover would) and before we left San Diego we went to 3 other Old Navy's. No luck. I ended up buying them on-line for $11. I haven't worn them yet, but I can't wait. I love wearing shorts. Shorts post to come. I also bought a giraffe and koala mask while in San Diego at this amazing craft store. http://sandiego.artistcraftsman.com/I wish I knew about it when I lived there.

Then we drove through the countryside (Emmu egg stand), through Julian, the Anza Borego Desert and to my highlight The Salton Sea. We only stayed there for an hour or so, but I loved every second. (Post to follow on Salton Sea). The Salton Sea was killing Derek's spirit. It was all the death and he was not having fun.

We then moved on to Palm Springs and stayed there for two nights. We ran in the desert, layed by the pool, drank margaritas, relaxed in the hot tub, went dancing, went to a fun party store where I got a few things and just soaked up any sun we could.

We returned back to the city the night before New Years. NYE I joined my man and his friends for a roving rug dance party with boom box, large carpet, disco ball all in tow for a fun filled night.

Where to begin...

Where do I begin? My last post was about my Halloween costume, well I have been creating, I just haven't had time to blog about. While the rest of SF watches the 49ers game I have decide to catch you up on my most interesting projects and life since The Lorax.

November
Nistertion appetizer

This is one of the things I made and brought to my man's parents thanksgiving dinner. Nistertions were blooming and have a very spicy favor. You can eat the flowers too. So one day after work I went foraging in Land's End Park where I have found some in previous years. I had not luck, I looked in many places and it was starting to get dark. I was determined to not give up so I stopped in Sutro Heights Park and whala there were tons. Many people were walking there dogs, so I tried to pick and forage all the big leaves and pretty flowers as discretely as I could. I'm not good at that. I must have looked so suspicious, but I got what I needed. I washed them very well. I made quinoa and added some blue cheese dip to it. I put that mixture inside the leaf and rilled it up. There you have it a hippy foraged vegetarian appetizer and it looks pretty with the edible flowers on top.  People actually liked it!

Santa's vs. Other Holidays Dance Party
I love to dance and I love costumes so here you have a Sugar Plum Fairy, ?, and I'm a pink Cowgirl.



















December
Alexandria's Holiday Crafternoon

Alex had a ladies crafternoon. It was pretty fun. We all made random things will stuff we all brought. I made some funky ornaments. The things that I did like that I made were a:

T-shirt Scarf
I gave it to my Mom as a present. I took two old t-shits and cut them like so. See directions below to make yourself one.
http://entirelysmitten.typepad.com/entirelysmitten/2011/08/no-sew-t-shirt-scarf-make-it.html



Holiday Hair Bling
I also made some Holiday Hair clip accessories. I wore them to a Secret Santa party, Holiday Party and my Holiday Gift exchange. They are really wacky and fun.

Sally's Gift Exchange



This year I decided to make everyone infused oil and vinegars for the Holidays.

I went to different Re-Use shops around the Bay Area and scavenged for empty bottles to fill with oil and vinegar. I made labels and stickers. I used my oil and I really like it. I am glad to say that no one has got sick from it.

Olive Oil: rosemary, garlic, basil

Peanut Oil: lemongrass, garlic, lime leaves, ginger

Red wine Vinegar: cloves, orange peel, thyme

Red wine Vinegar: rosemary, lemon peel

I had the gift exchange at my house...I wore my X-mas sweater I made a few years ago. People made some awesome stuff. I got these cute cookies from Kelly (wearing a romper), homemade Terrarium and vintage pea pod ornament from Alex, handmade friendship bracelet and amazing earring from Svet and a fire starter kit and Anthro mug from Jenn. It was a good time! Thanks all for coming.

For the holidays I drove down to San Diego. I visited with my folks for a few days. We had a good time. Made really yummy Butternut Squash soup, went to Urban Coccina, went to see a really bad musical, ate lots of Mexican food, layed out, got a haircut, washed my car......I got some really great gifts: Pens to write checks with that people can't wash (Thanks Dad! Kinda obsolete) and a Earthquake survival kit. Awesome! I got some other great things too don't worry.

Wow I am almost caught up! This is where I will leave you for now. I will go back to writing shorter posts. I have made some clothes. Stay tuned, but I AM BACK!!!!