Memories + Tape

I had to take a moment to think about this but I don't think I have done any scrapbooking for probably ten years. The last scrapbook I did I ended up ripping and burning so, yeah, there's that. But after finding some pretty rad vintage books especially the never before used green scrapbook (see more of it here) I had to take another swing at it. I promised myself I wouldn't get too crazy with it and I WOULD NOT LET MYSELF GET ANAL about having every page perfect. I may or may not have gotten carried away a time or two in the past. I also promised myself I wouldn't let this become a regular thing. I'm just not into scrapbooking anymore but I think most of that has to do with a lot social media things and especially this blog. I forgot how long it takes to do too. I thought because I was keeping this simple that I would be able to get it done in a few hours; wrong!!

Started with some cool vintage books.

Some bitchin' tapes, yes I just said bitchin'. It's pertinent to this project that you choose bitchin' tapes.

I had a box of memories that I was collecting and I have a ton of wedding pictures that I haven't done anything yet with.

A few of the completed pages. (it was hard not to take pics of all of the pages)

Tyrone asked me, "you're taking photos of photos?" Yes, jerk, I am sure as hell am.

The pink book is awesome I love it but it only holds 3x5 pictures and none of the pictures I have would fit. They're all 4x6. But they were perfect for other miscellaneous items like garbage pale kids and concert tickets. PLUS!!!!! It came with a bonus photo. I LOVE finding leftover pics from the other families that had the books before. It makes my world complete and I'm leaving these lovely ladies right where I found them. Check out that picture handing on the wall above them; classic.

my secret santa gift is finished!

I hope they like it. I decided to go back to my roots with this one. They're a bit older than me so I hope it's not lost on them. Maybe I should give them a return envelope in case they hate it because I love it.

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How dare I? Luv Bunting

I will admit that ever since being with Tyrone I have become what some singles (my former and current self included) would say is disgusting. I love him I really do. Now that you have thrown up all over your keyboard and/or iPhone, I'll refrain from getting too mushy on this post and just leave a picture of this bunting I made to hang in our bedroom. It has a bit of Valentine's Day flavor and circus fun. This will be the only positive Valentines Day post you will see on here. Although I am in a fabulous relationship I completely loathe the holiday.

I pulled this idea out of my ever expanding behind the other night for this Luv bunting because I needed something colorful on the wall above my dresser in our bedroom. I can't wait to do one in a kids room some day.

Necklace Re-vamp!

I took a plain black beaded necklace and turned it into two necklaces that fit better with my taste. If you want to try this, all you need is one regular beaded necklace and some ribbon. Take a part the old necklace and re-string them on to nice ribbon of your choice. That's pretty much the gist of it. You do need beads that have good size openings to be able to string them on to ribbon. You can also add any other decorative beads that you like. Tie the ribbon in the back and you're good-to-go. What I did to keep the beads from sliding around was I tied the ribbon in knots on each side of the beads.

Before: (if you can't tell this isn't the actual necklace I used but pretty darn close)

A few after pics:

Now I can wear them separate or together to work or just rock'em with a plain tee and jeans. The one with the rosette is my own version of the statement necklaces I am seeing every where.

{Someday I will learn how to take better pictures.}

This necklace I just wanted to show off. I got the red glass snake on discount at Michaels then hung it on some faux gold chain. It was super cheap and easy-smeezy.

The 15 Year Long Quilt

This story isn’t going to be as long as I said it would be. The deal is I started this quilt for my dad in junior high. You know in the 90’s when forest green and plaid and/or flannel was in? Most of the denim I used is from Onso’s (my pa) old greasy Wranglers. My dad wears Wranglers EVERY. DAMN. DAY. No if’s, and’s or butts…oops, I mean but’s about it. Ha!

I never thought I would finish it because my sewing machine broke after I had finished sewing all of the squares together. The other thing that kept me from finishing it was thinking that I had to have a sewing machine in order to finish it along with one of those wooden quilting tables (I have no idea what they are called). Alas! 15 years later my MIL gives me a bright idea to finish it by hand using a simple stitch and rolling up the edges. Genius! The not-so-genius thing was starting it the Monday before Christmas. This process took me a long time but now that it is finished I am glad it’s done. I quilted it by hand as well with out one of those stand thingymajigs. I’m pretty sure I won’t be making another quilt any time soon. I like to craft and make things but I like making EASY things. That’s just how I roll. What matters is that Onslo loves it.

Funny thing is now that the blanket is done I have a sewing machine. I am pretty excited about it. I tend to like crafts that don’t require one but now I have one I can’t wait to get started on some new and different things. Now I just need a place to put it.

Christmas, simply

I’m fighting the urge to walk right out of the office, drive home, crawl into bed and dead bolt my bedroom door leaving Fred and Ty (who can now be referred to as Frohawk) to fend for themselves.

I want to go back to Christmas day. I can’t believe I am saying this but I do, desperately. I’m sure I’ve never said that before in my life. I want to go back to the calmness that was Friday. Even as I am writing this at this very moment I am fighting the urge to bitch-and-moan. So I am writing off today as your typical slit-your-wrists type of a Monday. I don’t want to take away from the great day we had as a family. It really was a wonderful time that started with Christmas Eve and carried on until yesterday.

Christmas Eve was spent with Frohawk’s family eating Buffalo wings and sugar cookies. The best Buffalo wings I’ve ever had I might add. Frohawk’s sister has a killer recipe. We sat around and just enjoyed each other’s company. It was so nice. I have to mention that Frohawk’s mom made him THE SOFTEST crotched blanket EVER. She made one for him and his sister. I think she made it with chenille yarn. Also, it was stark-ass-white so I didn’t even want him to use it because I am so worried about it getting Frederick fur and God-only-knows-what else on it.

Christmas Day started off with German pancakes followed by pigs in a blanket (a phenomenal hit), turkey, scalloped potatoes and cheesecake. Frohawk and Onslo (my dad) both managed to fit in a bowl full of pistachios each. Yes I said EACH. I think it’s safe to guess how they both felt the next day after devouring that many pistachios. If you’ve never eaten more than your share of pistachios it’s like eating a bowl full of fresh cherry’s or [insert anything that makes you run to the bathroom faster than a lightening bolt]. You can picture both me and my mom shaking our heads at them.

As for gifts go I am just going to go over what I made for people since that is partly what I try to focus on here. You can see that I opted for the homemade gifts regardless of the preferred purchased gifts. I didn’t care what people thought because they were lucky enough to even get anything from us and yes I just said LUCKY ENOUGH. I made some embroidered flour sack towels to hand out with homemade chocolate chip-almond-flax seed cookies. (So I bought some flax seed awhile back and in order to get rid of it I now put it in every thing I cook whether it goes together or not.) I also included some bottle-cap magnets that I put together in little sacks that made for the illusion of being store bought. I keep almost EVERY bottle cap I can get my hands on. I make Frohawk save me all of his. For The Moms I made them each a Breakfast at Tiffany’s inspired eye-mask. This was a lot of fun and doesn’t take too long even with out a sewing machine. Frohawk helped me cut out all of the pieces so I could hurry and put them all together. Let’s just say that I procrastinated a little too much. I started this blanket for my dad on Monday (dumb idea) and still haven’t finished it after working on it all week and almost all day on Christmas. I will post about it more when I finish it. Frohawk got a one-of-a-kind brandy-son Zen master flash tee shirt (ha-ha). I saw this saying from a beer add on The Dieline and decided to put it on a shirt for him. I’m not sure I like the way the embroidered drum set turned out but over all it’s not too bad I suppose.

Simply put, Christmas was good and now we are looking forward to 2010.

{best breakfast food ever}

{the picture of this shirt totally sucks}

{stay tuned later this week to see the coolest gift we got last week}

Luv, Luv, Luv I Want Your Love

“I want your leather studded kiss in the sand…” (Bad Romance, Lady Ga Ga)

I can’t get enough of that song and I have no other reason why I started this post off with that line other than my adoration for that damn song right now. I’m sure in a month I will be sick of it but that is ok with me. I love good music but I also love some of the trendy dance stuff too just for the fun of it. DO. NOT. Get me started on people who are so “anti-trendy” they are in return the most “trendy” mother-effers around.

And that is that.

{sad little stack of burnt ones}

Last night I baked sugar cookies and refrained from shoving every single one of them down my throat. Instead I opted to share them with my co-workers and gave some for Ty to give to one of our family friends. Others may be able to partake in the sugary goodness too but only if they are super lucky. (Did I just use the word partake?)

I am pretty confident today. Can you tell?

In the last few weeks of mailing out Christmas cards I came across some Christmas cards that I didn’t send out LAST YEAR (triple exclamation point). I just had to laugh at myself. So I included them in this year’s envelope. My findings didn’t stop there I also found Thank You’s from our wedding that I didn’t send out. So some folks are getting last year’s Christmas card, this years Christmas card and a 5 month old Thank You card. Ha Ha!

Besides the show on Friday we had a fantastic weekend. Saturday evening we saw Avatar in 3D and IMAX and laid around on Sunday (favorite thing ever). I have to say that I am not a sci-fi fan at all but they did a fantastic job submerging the audience into this spectacular world. I kept forgetting that I was watching it on a screen. You literally felt like you were in the movie riding around on a little golf cart as if you were taking a tour of the set. I did not however think anything of the plot; it was like Dancing with Wolves on steroids. A lot of freaking steroids. Ty said it reminded him of The Last Samurai.

Finally I wanted to share with you the shirts I made for Small Town Trap’s first show. I am not so much pleased with the longevity of the iron-ons I made. By the end of the night they were starting to peel up. The shirts that my friend Jenni (the bass players wife) made are totally awesome though. I should have followed her lead but was avoiding it because I was being cheap. Next time I won’t be so frugal, hopefully (wink).

{front}

{back}

Hers are much better than mine.

I wanted to include this as well to show the awesome wristband’s the lead singer had made to hand out to their loving fans. How awesome are they? They say Small Town Trap, naturally.

Apparently I am not finished yet because I just wanted to say that for those of you in Utah keep your ears open for Small Town Trap's upcoming shows. Tonight we heard X96 say their name on the radio. It was another big night for us - and more still to come.

Merry Holiday Joy or whatever!

Here is our Holiday Card

It was between that one or this one

The top one won

My mom was such a good sport in helping us take this picture. You can't tell but it was freaking freezing outside this day. Poor Frederick was shaking the whole time which is why Tyrone is holding him in. Well that and the fact he wanted to chase birds and would not sit still like a good model-puppy should. Tyra would be so disappointed in him.

I want to celebrate Black Christmas this year. It’s pretty much my made up holiday that I am sure Scrooge would be proud of. And no I am not talking about Kwanzaa. I have definitely become more Emo this past year. I think the next step is to start cutting myself but I am not ready to commit to that yet. It may be because my butt tingles when I think about putting a razor blade next to my skin and actually having to cut into my skin with it. Yuck! Back to the subject at hand, Black Christmas means that I would rather be in my dark place than rejoice during the season. I am also not really decorating for Christmas this year mostly because I don’t have any room to put up our tree and because I am too lazy to pull my Christmas decoration boxes out of my parent’s basement. I will say that even though Christmas is my least favorite holiday I do love to decorate for it – and I am not apposed to rejoicing over the real meaning of the season. I also love giving gifts when I can afford to buy them or even make them; there is just too much pressure this time of year. I buckle like a wet dog under pressure and there a people in my life that don’t care for handmade gifts. I’ve come up with a fool proof plan for our family members though, cheap and semi-store-bought. Another reason why I call it Black Christmas is because when my little brother was a small boy he would call himself ‘Black Dillen”. It was like going to his dark place. When he was ‘Black Dillen’ we all knew to stay away especially if there was a knife in his chubby little grasp. You think I’m kidding? Over-exaggerating? Nope! I wish I was. We make fun of it now as a family but it was quite the scene growing up. Now days if I see him approaching that stage I know to turn and run the other way – or antagonize him which is what I prefer to do. (Love you Pickle – I miss you so much!)

So…

This is my version of Black Christmas décor with out going completely over to the dark side. A mix of holiday cheer and Nightmare Before Christmas. Although not so much Nightmare Before Christmas because I haven't hung the black and white stripped stockings up yet---probably because I haven't made them yet and probably won't. The bunting that I made says NAUGHTY and the framed text says OR NICE.

Happy Holidays! Or not

Concert Tee Re-Vamp

It's no secret I love Steven Tyler. (Don't get me started on the rumors that they are breaking up.) I've had this Aerosmith tee shirt for a very long time and it was starting to look a little too warn out. I didn't want to retire it to a pajama shirt - I would have felt so guilty. Ha! See the nice hole at the bottom from an accidental bleach spot? Oopsie! The hole has gradually gotten bigger over the years. I have to say that the pic of it above actually doesn't show just how worn out it really is. It was also a men's size large so it didn't fit well either. I can't take full credit for this idea it was actually Daisy's (and she says not crafty). This idea is going to come in pretty handy with some other tee shirts I have hanging up in my closet that I have not been able to bring myself to throw out. Some of them are either too small (ok most of them are too small) or just old and dingy. If you have a concert tee or graphic tee that you love but don't want to get rid of because it doesn't fit right try this idea. It's easy smeezy!

Here is a rough tutorial.

Take an old concert tee or shirt that you like and cut out the logo. (This was a little hard to do because of how attached to this shirt I was)

{bye bye beautiful shirt}

I used HeatnBond Ultrahold No-Sew transfer paper to attach the logo to the new shirt. Take a large portion of the HeatnBond out of the package and lay it down with the sticky side up.

Place the logo face up on top of the HeatnBond and trace the entire logo and cut it out.

Place the logo face down on your ironing board, place the HeatnBond sticky side down on top of the logo and iron away directly on top of the paper side. You don't have to leave the iron on for very long just a few seconds. As you can see I didn't cut the transfer paper out to exactly the shape of the logo - you don't have to worry about it being perfect.

Peel the paper back once it has cooled.

Take the new shirt that fits you oh-so-perfectly and place the logo sticky side down at the desired place on your shirt. I bought my shirt at Target on sale (no Talladega Nights movie pun intended). Pretty much everything I buy is on sale or thrifted. That may change one day when I become a millionaire. Ha!

Depending on what kind of logo you're working with you may want to use a thin towel to iron on the logo to your shirt in order not to ruin the graphic/logo. If you do need to use a towel you have to press a bit longer with the iron in order to get it to adhere well. I also sprayed mine with a water bottle and it seemed to help out much more.

Now you can stop here if you want if you prefer a rough edge. If you cut out your logo better than I did it will look great at this point.

I decided to do an easy embroidery boarder around the edge in bright red. I like the way it gave it a more finished look. I wish I had a better picture of the finished product. I really love the way it turned out. I did one other shirt but I need to take a good pic of it before I post it. I have a few other shirts I want to this with as well. I love the iron on transfer paper. I have so many ideas now of what I want to do with it.

{hello new sexy tee i.love.u}