Playing Dress Up

I just love Halloween!
Dressing up is one of my favorite things
so when I get a chance it's hard for me not to go all out.

Last weekend I was invited to a Halloween Dinner Party.
I was the only one who was remotely dressed up,
and this was toning it down for me!
Hello people, it's a HALLOWEEN dinner party!
You would think costumes or at the least all black is appropriate!

Here's what I wore:
A little witchy-fun!
I didn't get a picture of my nails but they were halloween inspired too,
with little spiders on an orange french manicure.
{Please ignore my messy room in the background... I've been sewing so much I haven't had time to tidy up!}


And since we're on the subject of costumes
here's a look at the undies I finished for under my
Marie Antoinette costume!


I have on the chemise, stays (aka corset), pocket hoops and petticoat I made over the 3 day holiday weekend. That was only 50% of the entire costume!
I'm almost done with the costume, and I'll be sure to post
TONS
of pictures of it and of the party.
I'm excited with how it's turning out!

The one thing I haven't tackled yet is the wig...
I think it should really *make* the costume.


Oh and here's a little piece of costuming cuteness I just can't resist sharing:
My niece in her cupcake costume!
She really is cute as a cupcake!
Can you believe how talented my sister is?
She made that without a pattern, using a lampshade as the bottom!


I love Halloween!!
What are the rest of you going to be...
if you're dressing up?

Getting in the Halloween Spirit

My parents came for their visit!
We had a great time except that Dad got sick,
then I got sick.
Mom has an iron constitution and has thus far avoided it.

We went to NYC which was awesome!

Check out just one wall of ribbons at the amazing trim store
M&J Trimming.
Mom and I went a little crazy in here...

We had fun in Boston too.
on Thursday, their last day in town,
we went up to Salem and had fun exploring
Witch City.

One of the shops all decked out for the season.

Man Salem is crazy around Halloween.
I mean, it's crazy any time of the year but I had never been in October before.
They go all out here!

It really got me in the Halloween spirit,
so I was able to devote this entire 3 day weekend after M&D left
to working on my Halloween costume!
Here's a little peek at what I did this weekend.

For the rest you'll have to wait!

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to visit,
I had such a fun time!
If anyone else wants to come, please do.
There's so much to see and do here, we only scratched the surface!

Sewing projects going on my "List"

I've come across some really fun sewing projects in the last little while.  They are now on my "To Do" list and there are a couple that I *need* to do ASAP!

Like this Buttercup Bag Tutorial.  Have you seen a cuter bag?  And can you believe it only takes 2 fat quarters to make?  I'll finally be able to use the magnetic closures I bought forever ago as well!  I'm tempted to go out tonight and buy some fun fabric... although I have a lot in my stash that I'm sure would work... maybe I'll make a couple!

{photo by Rae}

Also, this headband!  Gah!  And it's reversible!

{photo from thelongthread.com}

I about died when I first saw it... I've been looking for the perfect headband, but I get frustrated with plastic ones cause they kill my head when I wear them for a whole day.  These are the perfect solution and I can make one to match every outfit!  Just kidding... I wouldn't go that far.  Well.  Maybe.

Here are some more tutorials you really should check out:

Pretty Birds by spoolsewing.com

Lots of pretty free patterns from Amy Butler

Pintuck Pillows by thelongthread.com

This amazing Button Pillow (although I don't think I'd attempt it) on Craft Stylish

Woven Button Coasters again on Craft Stylish to continue the button theme

And there are even more projects here that can all be made from fat quarters of fabric!  Perfect for stash busting!

Also, I think I'm going to spruce up some of the pillows on my bed by tufting them with buttons (like this one).  And I've also been meaning to make a bolster for forever.  Anyone know of a good tutorial?  Maybe I'll make one and share it if mine turns out!

Oh, and I'll try to post an update of my weekend soon... nothing too exciting but Edwin did take some pictures of the "Music Session" I attended on Friday night.  Pretty fun!

{ Sewing Adventures }

A Weekend Downtown

I feel like I spent most of the weekend downtown, which is never a bad thing!  It's been a beautiful weekend, Friday was warm and Saturday was almost hot!  It got up to around 60 during the day, which makes me think Spring just might be on the way (despite the fact that it snowed today)!

On Friday after work, I met up with my roommate, Lisa, and her friend, Beth, to eat some yummy food and skate at the Frog Pond in the Boston Commons.

We ended up eating at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Pho Pasture, that I love, and I was adventurous and tried something new from the menu!  After our delicious meal, we went ice skating at the Frog Pond, which is almost as iconic as skating at Rockefeller Plaza in NY!  Luckily my hip held up.  It was a beautiful night and I did get some pictures, though they're not the best since they were taken by Edwin (once again, he's so handy).

In the heart of Downtown Boston

Lisa and I

Lisa and Beth

You can see the gold dome of the State House a bit in the background

Then on Saturday night, I found myself back at the Boston Commons to see Coraline in 3D at the movie theater there.  I loved the movie, and was just blow away by the fact that it was stop-animation.  Tim Burton is very talented!

Also this weekend, I've been working on getting my quilts going again.  I finished this quilt top over 3 years ago and I still haven't actually quilted it!  So I was finally all raring to go to just do it this weekend.  I'd bought some solid brown cotton for the backing, some batting and even some pre-made bias tape to bind it with, but I guess my measurements were off because I don't seem to have enough material for the backing!  

So even though I told myself I couldn't start piecing the new quilt (with beautiful Amy Butler fabrics from her Midwest Modern prints) until I finished the old one, I just had to do some sewing, so I went ahead with it anyway.  I figure some quilting is better than none, right?  I'm still not 100% sure exactly how I'm going to do this one, but I guess I'm kinda winging it.

Aren't they just beautiful colors?

Since I have to get more fabric before I can finish the Charm quilt (which is also Amy Butler fabrics) and since I've been doing some research about the actual quilting part, I found out it's better to use a patterned fabric for the back so it hides any mistakes.  So now I'm thinking I'm going to get some different fabric to use, but we'll see.  It's hard to get to fabric stores without a car around here... so who knows when they'll get done.  Hopefully it won't take another 3 years!

Hope you all had a good weekend too!

{ Crafting More Adventures }

Whoa... sorry there.

I'm finally back!... from being a slacker! Man, I'm so bad. It's really been a while, huh? I think I've started a couple posts, but I think I just haven't had much interesting to share or say. Which is totally not true as evidenced by my sisters blog, I went to visit her and her cute little family just a few short weeks ago. You can see some of those pictures here.

Nope, I think it's probably all to blame on my laziness! I keep wanting to be better, but a combination of a super slow computer, a broken camera and freezing temperatures that just make me want to sleep all the time, like a hibernating bear, really get the better of those noble aspirations! It's cold, I'm boring, there you go!

Well, so what is there really to tell? Not much, except we finally took down all the Christmas decorations, and I'm wishing I had some fun Valentine's decorations to put up. I did do something fun last week and finally went to the "Open Press Night" at the letterpress studio that Harvard has. I wasn't expecting to be able to print anything, maybe just set some type, but I was able to complete a whole project in just one night! It was so fun, I might even be going back tomorrow night, the creative juices are starting to flow again (despite the temperatures, or maybe because of, since I'm starting to go stir-crazy). I have lots of ideas about other projects I want to do.

Anyway, here's a not very good picture taken by Edwin (my iPhone) which of course is the only camera of the three I own that works right now... he's such a good BF like that (in the working department, not the picture quality department, unfortunately).

(those are drawings of molecules, I know it's kinda hard to tell...)

I thought it was pretty clever, and so far so do most people. Also, pretty appropriate since I just finished my Chemistry class at Harvard! Now if only I had someone to give it to. Of course I'll probably end up giving them to all my roommates, friends and coworkers anyway, even though they might start to get the wrong idea about me... but what can I say? I love Valentines Day!

Oh and P.S. Guess what's coming up at the end of this month? Only the most Awesome Event Ever! We're having a 1920's Theme party to celebrate the end of my "Roaring '20s"! I'm super excited and am busily planning away with my roommies. It's been a long time since I've had an actual birthday party. Should be fun!

Oh and just to close it out with a fun picture... here's one from I think my 7th Birthday Party when we lived in Bakersfield California. Pretty hot huh? I think the ring, the tiara and glasses just give the outfit a little something... extra, don't you?



My Dad gave me one of the coolest Christmas Presents ever, an external hard drive filled with pictures, movies and audio books. It's been fun going through all the pictures. So much fun that I might just have to start "Flashback Fridays" or something cheesy like that.

Handmade Recycled Christmas!

Since Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year and I usually go all out, I kinda run out of steam by the time it gets to Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I'm not usually at my house for the holiday and so I don't decorate very much for it. I love the buying presents part, but I kinda of slack on the rest of it (compared with the Halloween celebrations, anyway).

But not this year! There have been so many good ideas for cute holiday decorations that this year, I'm going all out on a Handmade Recycled Christmas! I've been even more inspired to use things I have around the house, rather than going and out and buying new ornaments. We're having a special Holiday Party that I'll be posting about soon, so I'm trying to get the house festive in time. Here's a few of the things I've started making and plan to finish asap:

Paper Bag Ornaments:

So easy and fun to make! I'm going to hang them over the table in our bay window. I made a few different sizes and may also make smaller ones to hang from the wreath on our front door to tie everything together. I used Trader Joe's paper bags like she used as well and I love the way they look, although I might make some smaller ones out of festive scrapbooking paper I have lying around.

Circular Ornaments:

I plan on making these a little more simple by just using my craft punch and then instead of alternating gluing sides, I'm just going to use a scrapbooking adhesive square to attach each one. Kind of like the ones here, only with more circles!

More fun handmade ornament ideas to try:
String Snowballs
Lots of ornaments to make


Shimmering Stacked Trees:

These are made from newspaper, but I'm also recycling my old magazines that I'm going to throw away.

Paper Evergreens:

I'm also making paper trees like these out of the same Trader Joe paper bags to match the ornaments!

Plastic Bag Pom-Poms:

I think these would be fun attached together to make a garland, I guess I'd just need a *lot* of plastic bags... Target here I come!

Cardboard wreath:

Now I wish I hadn't thrown out my Piperlime box! And here's another fun idea if I only had some fun bottle caps in festive colors.

Other great ideas:
Card Display
Advent Calendar
Fabric Garland


So, I'll be sure to post pics after our party and when everything's all done! Happy Holidays!

Spring is in the air!

At least at my apartment! I am sooo sick of the cold and can't wait for it to be summer, let alone spring (which really goes too fast here in Boston). So lucky for me, this week was the New England Spring Flower Show at the Bayside Expo Center! Hooray for flowers and plants and making me feel like I was in a warm climate for a few hours! I took lots of pictures, but for some reason my camera didn't like the lighting so not many turned out, but you get the idea...

They had some arrangement competitions that were pretty interesting to see...

My favorite of the "Baroque" Arrangements

A small flowering bonsai! I'm loving Japanese inspired things right now.

I brought home these beautiful tulips, and some pussy willow branches, to brighten our house.

Also, earlier in the day I made these tissue pom-poms that I'd seen a while ago on Martha Stewart, to add even more spring to our house! Here's the link for the how-to. I hung one in the corner of my room, and the rest of them in our hallway which has a big bare wall now, so it kind of helps make it a little less blank. Perfect for Spring!

Pink in my room

I couldn't get a very good shot of our hallway, but you get the idea. The ceilings are really high, so this fills the area in nicely.

Also, in preparation for Easter I made a batch of the tomb buns my sister told me about from Michelle's blog. They are delicious! This will definitely be a new tradition for me. But I think I might be making them more than just once a year!!

Wonderful Weekend

What a great weekend! I really love my friends out here, they are so much fun. Last night I went to dinner with 10 of my friends. This has become kind of a tradition. I remember doing the same thing in college, but last year, we went to Chili's which is one of my favorite places to eat, for their Chicken Enchilada Soup and their Molten Chocolate Cake! So that was the plan, but apprently they were getting ready for me to come and I guess there were just too many candles on the cake, because they had a fire and were closed for the night! Boo. Change of plans, and we were at Macaroni Grill down the street instead, which is another great restaurant, so all in all, I wasn't too bummed. Plus, they let you draw on the table cloth! So here are some pics from that:

Leah & Blair

Lora, me and Leah

Brittney & Ben

Nicole & Abby, who was on her phone

David & Emily

And lovely Amber

My Super Eggplant!

After dinner, we hit the Target (always a good thing in my book) and then watched the Mormon "Pride & Prejudice" since we couldn't find "Return to Me". Jared came over later and he and Ben serenaded us all for a bit. It was really a great Birthday celebration! Thanks guys for coming!

Earlier in the day I rented a Zip Car to run some errands, which of course involved a trip to the fabric and craft store. While I was updating my computer so that I could sync Edwin with the rest of my life, I made this little butterfly collage. I was inspired by this one and thought it was so cute I had to re-create it! Firstly, I love specimen boxes with butterflies AND I love paper! So I thought it was the perfect combination! I got this shadow box on clearance in the Martha Stewart Scrapbooking section, which works perfectly. I love how it turned out!

I also started making an afghan which I'm really excited about. My roommate has a great knit blanket that her sister made her and it's one of the best things to snuggle up with on the couch, but I decided I wanted to crochet one, like my Grandma Weggeland used to make for us! I'm using this pattern from Vannah White's new line of books and yarns. It's for a baby blanket, but I really liked the pattern, and I can just keep going around to make it as big as I want. I got three "One Pound" skeins of yarn in turquoise, pink and tan. I think it's going to be cute!


Last week I went grocery shopping and got ambitious. I got the new Martha Stewart Everyday Food in the mail and there were lots of good recipes so I've been making yummy food all week. So tonight, for my dinner I made one of my favorite meals from Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals cook book, Maple-Mustard Pork Chops & Grilled Apples. It is so delicious and tonight everything came out perfect! Plus I have more for tomorrow... mmmm. I also steamed some asparagus to perfection. Such a good dinner! Also, all these pictures were taken by Edwin. He's so handy that way.

Yummy!

Perfection!

I made these little arrangements yesterday with some silk carnations I bought at the Dollar Store actually. I like carnations when they are clumped together like this, and these match our dinning room perfectly.

So it was a great weekend! Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and gifts! I have the best friends and family!