Vintage love!

The other day, the hubby and I were watching Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder", to get into the Halloween spirit. Like many are I'm sure.. I was amazed by Grace Kelly!

And it just so happened that I had been toying with idea of adding costumes to the Halloween party mix. I thought it might be fun to dress up as an "old Hollywood" movie star. But since I am on a somewhat strict budget.. I figured doing my hair in a vintage style would be a better way to go than one of those crazy costume wigs and then all I'd have to do is find a dress that could pass for that time period and some fake pearls! So then came the research on the vintage hairstyles and wow! I was very inspired! But apparently women from that time had lots and lots of time to fiddle with their hair. lol. So I figured I needed some practice. Pin curls seemed like the best option and yesterday night, I bought some more bobby pins and got to work! lol. It took all 2 hours of The Roast of Charlie Sheen.. but I eventually got my pin curls in and I looked crazy! Please excuse me and my blurry photos.

So yeah... I covered that mess up and hit the sack! In the morning, I brushed them out.

I added my little black flower and viola! A nice vintage wednesday! And lots of possibilities!!

Fall is coming!

As you may know, the first day of autumn is this Friday! I have been so excited this go-round. I usually wait until October 1st to get my fall and Halloween decorations out of storage but I just couldn't wait.. so Sunday was spent sorting through decorations rescued from my mom's abandoned attic, finding my own from last year, and a general lot of moving and lifting heavy boxes(straining my back in a major way)! But by the end of the day, I had my fall decor out and my more specifically Halloween-ish stuff at least where I could reach it in a couple of weeks. In doing so, I stumbled upon a quick little Sunday project for some attic rescues that would otherwise would be bound for the trash:

So.. What we have here is:

1. A wreath that my grandparents had undoubtedly made out of real straw and twine. There had originally been real dried fall leaves and "Happy Halloween ribbon wrapped around it that had taken a bad beating throughout the years! With a little doing.. those came off somewhat quickly.

2. Some fall garland that had also seen better days before storage.

3. Some fake daisies in fall colors I thought might could pass for cone flowers or another fall bloomer. 

Please forgive the crappy cell phone pictures, btw! So after experimenting with simply wrapping the garland around the wreath several different ways(I never meant for this to be too involved), I decided that was no good because there were just too many deformed places in the garland to hide and it was slightly too large to lay correctly on the small wreath. So I broke out the hot glue gun and some floral wire and began cutting individual leaves and berry sprigs away from the plastic garland. I placed the two biggest sets of leaves at the top and bottom securing them and the berry sprigs with the wire, and proceeded to hot glue the fall leaves in alternating directions on either side. After that, I deconstructed the daisies as best I could to get them to lay flat and glued them surrounding the larger leaves at the top and bottom. Then after stepping away, I realized that the flowers just didn't work! :( Even with their colors, they looked more spring time-ish and again.. slightly too big for the small form. Sometimes plans just have to change, right? So I had to pry the flowers up and patch up a few places with more leaves and settled with an orange satin ribbon to go on top and I ended up with something along these lines....

In addition to finally having my very own wreath for my very own door, I now have extra silk leaves for other decor ideas and I'm sure I'll find something to attach some daisies to eventually!! ;) Sweet and simple project kept me busy in the infamously boring Sunday afternoon hours. 

Other things that have kept me busy in the past few weeks have been putting together a baby shower gift basket for my bff Heather. I could have absolutely kicked myself for not at least getting cell phone pictures of the handmade gifts that went inside!!!!!! But on the bright side, they do feature in a photo collage  along with some other exciting handmade goodies from other crafty friends! My contributions were a crochet pillow with a felt octopus applique, a plate of "baby sushi", which was cloth diapers, wash cloths, socks, and a fishie soap dish for the sashimi effect ;) all rolled to look like sushi and wrapped with black ribbon to emulate nori. The idea came from here and I just thought it would be perfect for the cloth diapers!

And I've now heard that my other pregger friend, who is moving to Montana before her new baby girl gets here :(, is going to be able to have a baby shower here! :) So I've already got some ideas lined up for her!

Then, of course, comes Halloween!!!! And more especially... pumpkin carving party! I actually wish I hadn't had one last year because we really weren't prepared and were living in a half-empty house after the roomies moved out! But I was dead set on it and it didn't turn out terrible.. I just didn't couldn't do the planning and didn't have the best resources. But this year ought to change that if anyone is around and willing to come hang out with us! I have already started compiling a menu for the night, which will include chili (always a favorite) with cornbread ghosties, tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole (another hit), along with various spooky themed sweet treats. For the drinkings.. I would like to try a recipe I found for "sneak-up-on-you-faster-than-a-ghost" punch for the braver(and legal) guests, and perhaps even some pumpkin bubble tea along with the usual crowd pleaser sodas and what have you. 

So that's a snippet of what's rattling around the ole noggin! I'll leave you with that! ;)

~Destiny

Ode to fails and unfinished projects!

So, I'm currently working on 2 blankets, 2 books, 1 rice heat-pack, and getting my new camera fixed.(uber fail) I so wish I could do it all! I see other friends who can get several projects done while taking care of multiple children! lol. I did finish a crochet "garden party" hat. It's basically a floppy summer hat. And I have been working on my continuing education credits I need for my license! I still feel like a big fail. Perhaps I take on too much at one time, maybe I just expect instant gratification where I shouldn't. But it used to be one of my strengths... patience, ability to prioritize and balance. I haven't felt much balance in years though. When exactly did that happen? Gradually, then suddenly, I suppose.
ANYWAY.. this is craft blog.. not a diary. lol. I'm still here. I'm still hookin' just slow, obviously. Hopefully I'll have some pictures coming soon. If ever I get the paperwork together to send in my camera for repairs! yay.. yet another project that needs my attention. Well if I get going now.. maybe I can finish sewing up my heat-pack and at least have something done!

To my love and best friend of 10 years!

Ten years ago today, I was beginning my very first day of high school with a bad stomach ache from nerves and a grim attitude. Middle school hadn’t turned out so great and I feared high school could be worse! Luckily, I knew I’d have a bright spot in my day because I had Ms. Brinkley’s English class and first lunch with you. And sure enough, you were there for me all day long; calming my nerves before school, sitting there beside me when you could, and staying with me when my dumb self got bus-left! That night at around 7:30, you called me, as you had done every day for some time now. I poured my heart out to you about how frightened I was and how I didn’t know how I would make it through the next four years. Then you began to tell me how you would be there for me whenever I needed you just like you had today, because you cared about me a lot. Only caring wasn’t quite the right word… Then three words changed everything, though everything remained the same. Our hearts had always belonged to one another, but we were too young to realize it. My life has been made so much sweeter and I have been made more alive, because you loved me. I want to thank you for the ten years I’ve had of laughing and crying, growing up, and growing together with my best friend. I love you too!

It's been a minute...

So, I have been slacking lately! *shame, shame* I haven't been crafting as much, there's always been something else to do! lol. But I have been getting some ideas from blogs about baby crafts for my ever-growing list of expecting friends, as well as other things for around the house. I'm definitely going to start making my own laundry soap! Considering the cost and how easy it is, it sounds silly not to! But anyway..
**NOTE** I've crossed something of my to-do list!
I've got myself a sah-weet new camera that I'm sUper excited about as an early birthday(which is Friday btw) present!

This would be a coolpix s9100

Its not as high tech as the DSLR's with the detachable lenses and all, but its got a ton of cool features that I believe will get lots of use. So that's one crafty thing I've been doing! ;)

I've also been putting together some new furniture we've been getting here at the house:

See! I have made some things!! haha!

Ok.. excuses, excuses! I guess for now, I need to be practical and get some CE credits done because my pharm. tech. license is due for re certification in a few months. Then I can get to the fun part!

Happy Creating!  

Good things CAN come from facebook!

I have always been quite annoyed when facebook wants you to tell it "what you're interested in." Doing so allows it to attach 1903247890375840 matching pages to your news feed! But to my pleasant surprise,  the Adobe Photoshop page had a post about creating a lomo-photography effect that I really had fun with!! I had already just taken a few pictures of my new hair color and they needed some sprucing-up!
So.. here's the link: Ultimate Lomo Photography

And here's my homework!

I likes! I used to browse photoshop tutorials a lot when I was in school! Then I decided I would cut back on the Adobe creative suite until I had an apple computer that could really handle it.... and that never happened. lol.
So anyway..  I'm currently collecting small glass jars; I've got about ten of them so far. And I have no clue what I want to do with them! So that will be the next project! There are many possibilities! candle holders.. painted, or hanging , or both, or maybe even just re purposing them to hold craft supplies. We shall see! For now, it's getting about time to hit the hay!

G'night!

Well hello there, Bloggers!

Well, I welcome you to my first post! I must admit, I'm alittle slow when it comes to trends in technology in comparison to others my age. However, I have been dedicating myself to a search for inspiration lately and as part of that I am starting this blog and will be using resources like pintrest and flikr like the rest of the world! I'm already appreciative of the brush-up I've gotten tonight on creating headers in photoshop as well as downloading and extracting brush files for such!! By the way, if anyone should be looking for a FREE file extraction/archive software; I'd like to recommend Hamster free ZIP. Very easy to use!

So now.. first order of business: What are we into these days?

Music

Rihanna makes you like singing about s&m while shaking your tail like you mean it! Plus, her music helps me work out! :) Iron and Wine is quite different. Listening to one of his albums can be quite inspiring because you never know what you're gonna get next as far as the lyrics as well as the tunes that go with them! And I've also noticed that you get different things out of his songs each time you listen to them. And Brand New well... lets just say.. old emo habits die hard. lol.

Things that Inspire

Feathers!!!!! Especially in terms of hair accessories and earrings! Feathers are also so intricate yet fragile and such an intriguing concept to me!

So anywho! Thats enough with the pictures for now! So my current crafting goals and intrests are as follows:

1. Getting a new camera! I'm hoping to get for my birthday a cannon powershot sx130 not quite as high powered as the SLR I had, but better than my sony cybershot, which is now dead. Plus a friend of mine has the same model and was very please with it and seems to be the best bang for the buck!

2. Paint something. I wonder if its normal to get the urge to paint or create something so strongly that it causes insomnia! Doesn't happen very often... but it's its a very strange off-kilter experience.

3. Baby Blankie time!! I currently have 2 good friends who are expecting this fall! One of which is my best friend Heather who will need no help in crafting blankets and other things for her little bundle because she is quite the crafter herself! But I am none the less happy to help with said crafting as well as create some things for Sandra, my other good friend and former roomie.

4. Plan for fall crafts! Summer just got started good, but already I'm looking forward to fall colored yarns and most of all Halloween crafting!!! I got behind on it last year because I didn't really budget for it and things didn't all turn out how I wanted and I'd like to start early on it this time around!

Not a bad list, if I may say so! And I WILL hold myself accountable and record my progress here along with other things!! That is my pledge! For now, I'm going to try to sleep or maybe find something to paint or make so that I can! lol.

G'night!!