Nail-tastic

So some of you may follow me on Facebook and Instagram, and you may have seen my latest obsession. I’ve recently discovered Nail Art. As it is, I’ve always loved painting my nails. It’s a fun way to express yourself and doesn’t take much commitment, and you can change it as much as you want. I’ve been trying out all these new techniques I’ve been seeing, and I’m going to share them with you all. I’ll link to YouTube videos and tutorials, if possible. Be aware…this is a PIC HEAVY POST.
This is called the IKAT print, and I used this tutorial.
 
This one I didn’t use a tutorial but I did have an inspiration photo I saw on Pinterest. Sadly it’s a dead link, so I can’t link it to the original.
  
The Braided or Weaved nails. I really enjoyed this look and it was super easy to do. I followed this easy tutorial. 

Interlocking dots, was also a fun and easy look! In fact, I enjoyed the dots so much, that two days later I went back and did all my fingers. This is an easy to follow video showing you how.

I didn’t use a tutorial for this one. Here I used my stamping plates. Google Konad Stamping plates and you will see. It’s glorious. So easy and so fun!

Another stamping manicure. No tutorial here.

Again, with the stamping. The range of possibilities is almost limitless with these manicures. This was my Wintertime mani!

Here I was craving something girly and ended up a little Barbie-tastic. I tried to tone it down with a reverse glitter gradient, and ended up regretting that move.

More braided nails for Christmas. This time just as accents.

I wanted to match my New Years Eve dress, so I set out to do that. I used a stamp with a reverse glitter gradient over the top. Loved it.

Surprisingly though, this one was my favorite. I never thought Leopard print would be something I would wear, but man was it fun to have on my fingers! Here is a great pic tutorial on how to make the leopard spots. So easy to do but so fun to wear.

I’ve always been a little eclectic on the blog, but I think this would be fun to explore more in depth. If this is something you’d like to see more of, please let me know.

It’s the Holiday Season

It’s that time of year again….everybody’s favorite gift giving Holiday. You know the one…

I set up my Christmas Tree the other day. Every year I pick a different theme and run with it. This year it was Nature Chic. You have to say that all fancy like, you know, with a subtle French accent. At least, that’s how it sounds in my head. I’ve never hid the fact that I’m weird people, you just have to deal with it.

So I dug out all my super awesome Christmas Tree paraphernalia.

Seriously, that’s all I have. 2 measly tubs. You’d think with having a different theme every year, I’d have more tubs. Alas, I work with what I have. So I pulled it all out and began setting up my tree. I garnered some immediate interest from a certain curious animal. You know how those cats are. Check him out in all his instagram-y coolness. That is one cool-cat. I couldn’t resist people.

It continued, with me torturing the dogs. Eisenhower was a typical male and wanted nothing to do with decorating the tree or himself. He retreated to the bedroom immediately after this picture.

As you can see, he was already in the midst of running away. Hemingway however was her usual sweet, compliant self and let me pose her to my hearts content. Check this sweet, heart melting picture out. It’s the eyes that get you. Gahhh, I just want to snuggle her!

After torturing the animals (not literally people, come on!), I finished assembling the tree and then I added lights.

That’s right! I put the tree on the Milk Crate so it stands taller. It’s like stilts for a tree. Then came time for some baubly goodness. Some of my favorite people came over and we had a sweet craft/laugh-it-up/drink-delicious-sangria/eat fest. You know the ones! So we got down to business…to defeat the huns…..no wait, sorry that’s a Disney Song. We did get down to business though. And it involved some MAJOR glittering. A week later, I’m still finding it and trying to clean it up.

Look at all that glitter. Then there was some stick snapping on the back porch, and more glitter was involved. And then there was twine too. And maybe feathers. Things got out of hand. Anyways….here is the final product and some close-ups. I’ll be back later with the nitty-gritty details on how certain things happened.

Meet Monty the Moose and Ivan the Reindeer. They are the primary suspects in the Glitter-fied house. Doesn’t matter. I love them.

 

I also Mop’n’Glo’ed (it’s a verb now people) some glass ornaments and wrapped twine around others. To top it all off, I added some gilded feathers in there. And viola it is done. And I am both fancy and festive. Deal with it.

And there it is. Nature Chic. (Did you say it in the voice again? I did)

Earrings on the Cheap

Currently I have two pairs of Stella and Dot earrings that I am obsessed with. I wear them at every possible moment. If you are interested in these earrings you can order them from here and here.

 

So when I was in Target (those of you who know me, know Target is my favorite all time store) the other day , and I found these charms on sale. Originally they were supposed to be Bracelet Charms, which struck me as odd, because they are HUGE for a bracelet charm.

 

I also found them in Silver and Navy, which you’ll see. But I thought to myself, these would make perfect additions to my favorite earrings collection. So with a few jump rings and earring backs, which I already had on hand, plus less than 10 minutes, I had two new pairs of earrings.

First, pry open the jump ring at the top which holds the clasp to the charm. 

Second, replace jump ring with smaller jump ring and earring back. Squeeze jump ring, shut, and VIOLA! Seriously, it’s that easy. I’m not kidding.

Here are the completed pairs. One in Orange/Gold, one in Silver/Navy.

 

And here I am modeling. Please excuse the cheesy self-portraits. They are weird. Also, why does my hand look like it belongs to a 70 year old woman in the photo above?

 

Giraffing me crazy!

Really, sorry about that horrible pun. I should also apologize for my extremely long absence. Life happens. I got busy, no excuse.

On to the main event. Recently my co-worker, Brandon and his wife, welcomed their 3rd baby girl into the world. And Brandon gave up all hope ever on having a boy. They didn't find out the sex this time around so I was stuck trying to make a gender-neutral baby blanket. Valerie was kind enough to go fabric shopping with me and helped me pick out this wonderful giraffe print cotton fabric.

Now, let's all keep in mind that giraffes are my favorite animal so I may have squealed very loudly when I found it. We picked out coordinating thread, binding, and 3 cotton-flannels for the back.

I’m not going to bore you with a poorly explained how-to. Go visit here and here for wonderful pictures and clearly explained directions. So after getting home and pinning together my fabrics, I got busy!

I sewed, and sewed, and sewed, and sewed. And then I was tired. So I stopped for the night. Then I sewed, and sewed some more, and finally, I was finished sewing. 8 bobbins and 2 spools of thread later. Good thing I bought extras. Then it was the hard part. Nobody warned me. I had to cut all those channels on the back, and I thought my hand was going to fall off. The next day my arm and shoulder were sore. So much cutting.

  Finally I was all done cutting, so I sewed that binding one. I absolutely loved all the contrasting colors I got to use on this blanket. I did two rows of stitching on the binding, just to be extra fancy. Because that’s how I roll.

Then came the super exciting part, that was also the easiest one. Wash that blanket, dry it, then marvel in the fluffy gloriousness that happens. I was tempted to keep it for myself after seeing the fluffiness. Loved every bit of it.

So there it is. All the fluffiness. Look how fun. I did give the blanket to the intended owner. It was a big hit with the parents and the big sisters. Enjoy Baby O! Enjoy.

The Sh*T Balls Blanket

So do you all remember when I told you my Sassy friend Valerie was pregnant. Guess what, she had the kid!! WOO! A beautiful baby boy. I finally got to meet and snuggle him last night, and I had a blast. However, I’m an awesome (that’s sarcastic font) friend because I also wasn’t able to get her my baby gift until last night too. Valerie knew it was coming though and was kind enough to be patient and wait for it. However, I did have it done before the kid actually arrived though, in my defense.

Valerie pinned this blanket pattern on Pinterest along time ago, when she was looking for things for the nursery. I saw it and thought, hey I can do that. So I set out to make it happen. I started the blanket in August, following the pattern, thinking this will take me a few months, tops. NOPE!!! I literally finished the blanket about 2 days before the kid arrived in December. The picture with the pattern is deceptive, because it makes the blanket look baby size, but let me tell you, it’s actually big person size. 

Now I realize that the contrast is way off on that picture, mostly because the blanket was hard to photograph. So I’ve upped it so you can see the bobbles and the ruffles on the blanket better. The color is more of a cerulean blue as you can see in the following picture.

So the moral of the story is (is there really a moral happening here?) I finally got the beautiful blanket to the beautiful baby boy, and all seemed happy. YAY!

If you want one for yourself, don’t ask me, because I don’t know if I can handle making another sh*tball blanket anytime in the future. If you’re wondering where the name “sh*tball blanket” comes from, you have to count to make sure your bobbles or sh*tballs are in the correct place. Well I would get on a roll, realize I missed a bobble, exclaim “SH*TBalls” and then have to unravel the blanket. It gets a little frustrating. :-)

\

Ps. Sorry for the delayed break in blogging, my camera broke over the Christmas break, so I’m a little behind on getting things photographed and posted.

Technorati Tags: baby,blanket,crochet,bobbles,sh*tballs,pinterest