A few weeks ago, I’m honestly not sure when it was, I started a project with my photo box. My idea was to make one of those decorated ones that are in stores, albeit with a twist. The twist was that instead of a pattern, I was using pictures from vacations and clip-outs of maps. The idea was to make it kind of a a themed photo box, never mind the fact that I don’t really have enough vacation photos to fill the box. I can add more as I go, of course.
Anyway, I cut up some things and have arranged them, and I left them for a while to see how I felt about the look before pasting it down. I am still not convinced, but I don’t know what else to do.
Kind of busy, no? Not sure this is what I’m going for.
Here are my options: Leave it as-is, which isn’t bad, but I’m not super excited about it. Start over from scratch. Forget about it and just move on to something else.
I am kind of tired after work today, and I have to get up pretty early for work tomorrow, so I honestly cannot make up my mind about it, so I am asking for your help. What do you think? Should I keep working with what I have, start with a fresh theme, or drop the whole thing (at least for now!)?
Vote! Let me know, and then I’ll let you know. I will keep this active for a week.
Holy melting ice cream, Batman, it is 99 degrees today! With the humidity, it feels like 108, and we are under an “Extreme Heat Advisory”. How did I learn this? Oh, well, Eric and I decided to make the 2 mile round-trip walk to the Dollar General for some super useful things like deodorant, and while sipping on the swiftly warming Gatorade on the way back, I commented that it felt eerily like Mississippi. We stopped by the fountain at our neighbor’s (it’s a church), and when we got home, I hopped online to see just how hot it was. Thus the beginning of this post is explained.
In light of this extreme heat, and with pleasant memories of a much more temperate day in early June, I am dubbing today a “Wedding Wednesday”. Also because I already said that I would post about it.And because lately I’ve been feeling a little bit like I’m talking to myself, I am writing this post in an interview style.
What is this post about? Today I am writing and showcasing the wedding favors that I made for our families that shared our self-written ceremony on the beach.
What were the favors? Great logical sequence here. Thank you. We had two favors, really. One of them was part of the ceremony – bubbles in plastic champagne flutes. Our guests blew bubbles at us after the ceremony was, admittedly, ended abruptly because we didn’t know how to end the ceremony. The second was a little more, ah, favor-ish – they were simple wedding bell decorations that we made from painted clay pots.
Those sounds cute! They totally were.
Let’s talk about those bubbles. Do you have any pictures? Ha! Do I have pictures? I always have pictures. I have pictures of the pictures. That seems excessive. It’s an expression.
“Blow me” seemed an inappropriate card to include…
Anyway, these were easy to do. I was at Michael’s during my mad rush to find a bouquet, and these were on sale! $1.50 marked down from $5 per pack of 6. I had to refill some of them, which was fine – that’s why the bubbles are blue. With the mini flutes filled, I printed part of our ceremony (that’s for another post!) on card stock, cut the strips, punched some holes, and tied them on. It kept the paper from blowing away in the wind, and they looked cute when we handed them out.
Did anyone use the bubbles? Ah, yes. Much to our, um, amusement.
The bubbles were a hit. In the face.
That looks like a jolly time was had by all. Oh boy wasn’t it…
How about these wedding bell favors? They were a little bit more time consuming, and they involved a lot more trial and error. I found these super mini clay pots, like for plants, at Michael’s (you see a trend here? You see why I had to get a job there?). I had seen them used for wind chimes before, and since I’ve made some awesome wind chimes before, I bought them with that in mind.
So you made wind chimes for favors? Heavens, no. That would have taken a lot of time. No, no; I had these clay pots on hand already, and Eric had commented that they almost looked like wedding bells, if, you know, they were painted and turned upside down. So that’s what I did; I painted them white, and I used black paint to put our initials on them.
You said there was trial and error involved; what kind? Well, I also was going to use this kind of fancy stencil for the letters, and then I was going to stencil heart, too. What I didn’t think about, though, was that the pots were small and round. The stencils were too big, so the letters and the heart came out kind of like blobs. Luckily, I had enough that I made one a practice pot.
So what did you do? I just didn’t use the stencil, and instead of a heart, I painted the date of our ceremony on them.
What do the “S” and “E” stand for???
Those are cute! Did you mention that they were ornaments? Oh, yeah, they were. In order to make them into ornaments, I made these pairs, and then I tied them with some ribbon. My in-laws have them in their kitchen now.
Wedding bells will ring…these will not
Those are nice. How much did all of this cost? With the bubbles on sale, these already on hand, and the paint, I think the total cost was about $6. Of course, we only had 5 to make (one per separate household). We also had some cute Thank You postcards printed at Zazzle, and we wrote each family a thank you note. They were a hit.
Any plans for something similar in the future? I think these are a great idea. I am considering making a few extras and offering them up on Etsy. These were extra, for instance, so it’s a thought. Ours I also dry brushed with silver, so they came out a little sparkly. But they were good favors, and you could make them bigger, and actually make them wind chimes for a cute anniversary gift or something along those lines.
Sounds great. Thanks for joining us. Oh, yeah, anytime. I’m here all day.
And thank you, readers, for bearing with me while I went on this little tangent. I get bored with the straight narrative at times, if you couldn’t tell.
In all seriousness, the favors were fun to make, and they were fast. I think all told, I spent an hour on these, so if you’re getting married and want that DIY style, you should consider something like this. If you want fancy letters, either use small stencils, bigger pots, or a flat surface. Otherwise, keep it crafty, and Happy Fourth of July!
You are looking for something to make for lunch. You are at home with time, but you are going away for the weekend, so you don’t want to make anything big, and you don’t want to leave any leftovers in the fridge to start decomposing over the next two days. What do you do?
If you’re Italian, or just a person with good taste (ah ha ha!), then you probably have some sort of pasta in your fridge from earlier in the week. And if you like fresh produce, then you might have some seasonal veggie, say, zucchini?
By now, you have probably guessed that this is clearly rhetorical, and I’m going to tell you what I did with these very ingredients. You are correct. I made Indian food tonight, but I forgot to take pictures, so I’m reheating the yummy lunch I made last week for my second post today.
Also, I apologize, and I will not use any more puns in this post. I think. So!
On Sunday, I think, I made chicken parmigiana with rotini. The chicken and fried tomatoes had been consumed earlier in the week, but I made a whole pound of pasta in my mania, so I still had a good serving and a half left, along with the remaining sauce. Since we were leaving for the weekend, I didn’t want to have to come home only to throw away pasta.
I had a zucchini, too, and for some reason, I’ve had terrible luck keeping those suckers around lately. I definitely did not want to have to throw out a delicious vegetable, so I saw a great solution: pasta + zucchini = delicious!
Rather than just slice up some zucchini and throw it on the pasta, though, I thought it would be fun to play with a few extra flavors, so I warmed up some oil and vinegar, threw in a little garlic and various and sundry Italian spices to cook the slices in.
Don’t worry; the burner’s not on!
This is one of my favorite way to cook zucchini or squash. Depending on what kind of vinegar you use (red wine vs balsamic), you can have a tangy topping or something sweet. I went with balsamic to balance the sweet tomato sauce. It is simple, and it takes about 5 minutes.
Once the zucchini was all cooked up, I nuked the pasta and topped it.
Exhibit B. Delicious.
I had a little bit of zucchini left over that I just munched on through the afternoon while I packed and cleaned a little bit. It was a great break in the day, and it tasted good. I guess it has some of that nutritional value, too.
Tomorrow, by the by, I will showcase the wedding favors that I made for a “Wedding Wednesday”. I thought about something 4th of July related, but that would have required some more forethought on my part, so wedding stuff it is.
I also might post a poll – I am having some trouble with a project I’m working on, and I always welcome advice. Look forward to that!
As (I hope) I mentioned, this weekend I came home with a nice new array of fabrics, as well as an old Scrabble board that I will find a use for. I am not entirely sure which game board craft to do with the board, but I thought it could be useful, regardless.
Christmas in July!
As for the fabric, I have a little bit for practice, a little bit for clothes/clothing embellishments, and a whole lot for decorative projects. Remember my mess of a craft room? I didn’t clean it that day, like I said I would, but with the new fabric, I did spend the morning (before it got hot upstairs) organizing and straightening, so it was a good motivator.
Clothing fabrics? Embellishments?
It occurred to me that it is 4th of July week, so I decided not to venture out to Field’s this week. I can drop off my machine next week, and in the meantime, I can work on planning/cutting/etc. Once my machine is sufficiently cleaned and primped, I will go about sewing all of the seams together and maybe even, eventually, fixing the hem on that skirt.
As far as my first day yesterday, it was about what one might expect on a first day. I filled out a lot of paperwork; I watched videos about customer service and safety (the safety videos made me a little sad; I miss being the safety guru). I also made a fabulous first impression by “losing” my keys at the end of the day. Read: I just switched to a new purse, and I put my keys in a pocket that I forgot was there, thus spent a goof fifteen minutes scouring my car and the store for them. The manager just laughed it off, so I hope I didn’t set myself up as that person.
I work again on Thursday, and I will start doing my actual job training then, I think. I’m working “replenishment”, which means I’m basically a stock gal, but I’ll also be doing Planograms, a la my time at Target in Seattle. I enjoyed Presentation, so this should be a breeze.
The Merc with a Mouth!
The final goody for me today was this:
Say what?! Yes, that is Deadpool in the 90’s run of X-Men! Well, not really. It’s Morph taking the shape of Deadpool, but as I was bored, flipping through an old journal and watching X-Men, there he was. I squealed, had to rewind the scene, and take a picture.
Surprise for father-in-law was definitely a surprise. Beer was flowing, food was consumed, and it was an all-around good time. Eric was victorious in all games played, too, which did not surprise me; he is ruthless on the gaming field. I even returned home with a paper bag full of fabrics, which I will show/regale for one of my posts tomorrow.
For now, it is 07:30, and I start my new job today. I am quite excited about it, but seeing as I will spend the morning getting ready and probably crafting/cleaning, I didn’t feel like taking pictures and uploading and all that nonsense today. So instead, I am copping out and showcasing a crafty project I took on about a month ago.
The Story
Eric’s youngest sister graduated from high school this year (hooray!). Also, just as a major kudos, she graduated with so many honors and is just a super great kid; she got a full ride scholarship and everything, which goes to prove that she is way smarter than me because she took the time to apply for scholarships and all of that really smart stuff. I am very happy that she will be one of the people leading the country in whatever field she goes into one day
So anyway, she graduated. One of the perks of living much closer now is that we can attend such momentous events, which of course we did. That was another fun weekend, actually.
When I graduated from high school, I already had a year of college under my belt, and it wasn’t such a big deal for me. But when I graduated from college, we had a pretty big to-do; granted, that was partially because, in addition to graduating from college, I had ended a bad relationship and turned 21. We had a lot to celebrate that Spring.
I digress.
The gifts that stayed with me and meant the most were the personal ones. That’s always been true for me – I have more hand-made trinkets than beach souvenirs. I like it that way. So when Eric was wondering what to get an 18-year-old starting out in life, I suggested he think of memories that they share and give her something that would help her remember her roots. While he struggled with that, I went about making something in my craft room that I hoped would be helpful.
My freshman year, one of my friends on the hall went about making some of us door signs with our names. And yes, I still have it. It was on my door each year I was in the dorms, so I decided that something along those lines would be best.
I coaxed some information from Eric, as well as his folks, and used my own conversations with her to put together a list of some of her interests. I bought some magazines and used my ever-expanding supply of paper goods and cut out some words and pictures. (By now, you can guess I did what I’m best at.)
I also stopped by Michael’s (see? This is why I am excited to work there. I spend a LOT of time there. Might as well get paid for it.) and picked up some wooden letters and a plaque. Please keep in mind that, like so many of my bright ideas, I was doing this pretty much last minute. As in the daybefore we left to go up north.
I painted the letters with her school colors, both high school and college, and I traced them on the background, so I would have a better idea where to paste words and what not. That proved to be invaluable; I’m glad I did that rather than put the letters on first.
I had fun with the project, for sure, and it was a success. Eric, by the way, made a mix CD with some great songs that I understand she listens to on the way to work some days. Good thing he listened to me…a-hem.
I want to do this again, perhaps as a sign to put on the porch, like our house number or something to that effect. We’ll see. I’ll just put that on the list with everything else.
In light of my craftilicious job news yesterday, I rewarded myself with new walking/running shoes and a new crafty book: Improv Sewing. As a new stichin’ bitch, I actually kind of suck at using patterns and seeking perfection, so this book seemed like a great way to maneuver around all of that. I’ve already bookmarked all of the projects I’m ready to tackle next week(ish) between my shifts.
Look at all those post-its!
Projects Include:
1. “Meandering Cardigan”, which uses a t-shirt, so hooray for upcycling!
2. Personalized Project Folder
3. Fabric Photo Frame
4. Wall art
5. Sketched window sheers
6. Memo board
7. Produce bags – instead of using those plastic ones all the time! These are made with muslin, so they are reusable. Green = great.
8. Reversible graphic belt
9. Dress shirt wrap – I cannot tell you how many men’s dress shirts we have in this house, many of them unworn. So…I’ll be remedying that. Hooray for upcycling (again)!
While perusing all of these fabulous sewing projects, a few snags came to mind. One, I was being harassed by my sweet kitty.
It is difficult to sew or craft when there is a cute cat in your lap/arms.
Two, my craft room is a wreck. Seriously, it looks like a tornado came through here, followed by an epic battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, which, actually, would also explain the tornado (thanks, Storm).
You can kind of see my sewing machine there, under the various scraps and items to be re-hemmed because they were made cheaply and are unraveling.
Three, I haven’t had my machine serviced since, um, ever. Surely by now I have done about 8 hours worth of sewing, so I need to probably take that sucker in for a good oiling and basic maintenance before I take on a book of sewing projects.
Luckily, I live a hop, skip, and a jump away from Field’s Fabrics, so it looks like I’ll be making a visit there on Tuesday or Monday, before taking on my joyful projects. Besides, I need a whole lot of cotton jersey fabric to tackle these projects anyway.
Today, then, my creativity will go into making this room more organized. Or at least give the appearance of that. Because, um, yeah. You saw the picture.
Heading out of town for the weekend, so I will leave you with one of the demotivational posters I made for my father-in-law last night for his bday. Have a great weekend yourself! And keep crafting because it’s super fun. Even when it’s not.
This is a joke because he had this game for two years and only recently stickered them. Because we helped him.
Updates have been slowing down in that I didn’t post yesterday. Oops! In my defense, it has been absurdly warm here lately. Don’t get me wrong, growing up in Georgia, I can handle heat, but it’s Michigan. How is it in the 90’s for two weeks straight? I think we’ll go to the beach for date night if certain people come home from work soon.
But the main reason I’ve been neglecting my online duties is that I had a job interview on Tuesday and spent the better part of yesterday biting my nails and rocking back and forth, waiting to hear back. I am not good at not having anything to do. And please don’t point out that there is plenty to do at home; I am well aware that I could be filling my time with cleaning, cooking, crafting, and other activities that begin with the letter ‘c’. But I get restless, and I can’t just go out and about because I know myself, and I will spend money. Not a good idea when you don’t have a job.
So yesterday I was just a nervous wreck.
Today I went to officially change my name. As far as Social Security and the State of Michigan (so far) are concerned, I am now a Safin. Woo hoo.
I returned less than an hour ago, ate a peach, talked to my godmother, and pulled up WordPress, all ready to BS my way through a post without a craft project done in the past day or so, and the phone rang. I am not too proud to admit that I recognized the number when it showed up on the Caller ID, so I got excited.
And then they offered me a job. (I accepted, by the way). I start on Monday.
I had to do a happy dance, and then I called the people who would want to know. And now I’m posting about it online.
What is it? Fair question.
After teaching in Arkansas for about a year, when we moved here, I struggled with what I wanted to do. Office work seemed like a viable option, but the unemployment rate here is so high that I knew people more qualified than I were applying to jobs of that nature. I applied for some, even did a few interviews, but for the most part, the tune was the same: “we’ve chosen a candidate that better suits our needs at this time/fits our qualifications/etc”. Never mind the fact that using “that” implies the candidate is an object, so perhaps it’s best I didn’t get those.
In addition to office work, I thought that retail would be a great option. The last thing I want right now is a whole ton of responsibility for other people’s futures, and a lot of my previous work experience has that little caveat. So I started applying to stores that cater to my kind of people.
Then on one trip to Michael’s to prepare for our elopement, I saw a small sign advertising open positions there, including the 25% employee discount. I applied that night online. Elopement and wedding happened, family visited, and then I was back to my normal routine. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to work for Michael’s. So I called them, went in to drop off a more detailed resume and cover letter, called some more, and the manager was impressed enough to call me in for an interview.
To be completely honest, I struggled with this decision for a bit. As a college graduate with some varied experience, much of it professional, would others look down on me for choosing to work in retail? Am I not living up to my potential?
Fuck that, was my decision.
I have more than a few friends that are wildly successful in retail; as managers, they make more than I did as a “professional”. And since I have management experience, it’s not crazy to think that I will be moving up the ranks in short notice.
And more than that, I love crafts. This job comes with a discount and reasonable hours, so that I can come home and craft. If I’m scheduled 30 hours one week, I can consider that extra ten craft time. And then I can sell what I make locally or on Etsy.
I’ve put a lot of thought into this, including worrying what others might think. I’d be lying if I said I don’t still think about it a little bit, but for the most part, my answer is this: if I’m happy, what does it matter?
So it’s date night! Think I’ll go celebrate with my husband. More crafting tomorrow, though, and an update!
If you read my wildly successful Guide to Failure, then you already know that my level of geekiness extends to painting miniatures. This is a source of entertainment and heartbreak.
After my descent into madness and decision to start all over, I put away Adelaide (the miniature) for a while. But today I was ready to pick up the brush again and give it another go. I would call this a success.
Because I like my “miniature magic” to be told in magical pictures, here you go:
I mentioned a project that had hit a snag on Friday, and I am happy to say that I rethought it, and it is finished complete.
Back story: I had had this idea to make a “Poem Frame”, which is pretty much what it sounds like. I cut up a poem and decoupaged it onto a frame in a fun and fanciful way (because what good is it if it’s not fun and fanciful?). Alas, as I was putting a picture inside the frame to see how it would look, I dropped the glass, and it broke. Now with a glassless frame, and one that actually did not hold a 5X7 picture very well, I had to think of something else. This brought me to an idea that I spied on sweetandsavoryfood.com for a frame with a letter hanging inside of it. I didn’t have any extra wooden letters (and, yes, I usually do), plus I could not think of what letter to put in it, so I put the whole thing aside for a bit.
Fast forward!
Today has been pretty amazing so far. I had a job interview (woo hoo!), and I realizedexactly what I wanted to do.
When I was frantically trying to decide on a bouquet alternative for my elopement, I had purchased a blackboard heart on a stick with plans to make it into a funky bouquet. Of course, I went with the lantern, but I still had this little knickknack, so I had painted “Eric & Sam” in white paint to make it look like chalk, and it has just been lying around.
So here’s what I did:
1. Painted, rather sloppily, the wooden frame with some silver paint. Because of the varnish on the wood of the frame, it came out looking more distressed than silver, but I liked it, so I kept it.
2. Cut out the lines of “Litany” by Billy Collins, which read at our wedding ceremony with family.
3. Cleverly pasted said lines on the frame in such a way as to make it look like I had a plan all along.
4. Cut out four images to include for a “pop”. Pasted those on more randomly.
5. Broke the glass and rethought the whole thing.
6. Cut the loooong stick off of the blackboard heart.
7. Took out the back of the frame and took off the back holders (I have no idea what the technical term is. Just look at the picture)
8. Painted the heart with red paint. One coat did the trick.
9. Dry-brushed with silver.
10. Tied the heart to a screw I left in the frame, so it hangs down.
All told, I think the project took maybe an hour, hour and a half? It was easy, and it looks pretty dang cool. I am happy with the end result, and I think it will be a very cute reminder of our early days of matrimony.
Argh. Right now my mind probably looks something akin to an urban war zone. For TFA folk, it’s Institute season, and it shows all over my Facebook feed. During the last few days of school, I deactivated my account temporarily to avoid the sense of soul-crushing defeat, watching all of these (not much) younger people accomplishing something great. I see this as improvement: rather than being stubborn, I just avoid what I know will be a reason to belittle myself.
The point here is that, while trying to swallow this bitter pill of failing at the TFA model and teaching in general, I am happy to say that crafting will make a suitable distraction, and a productive one at that. This week on the docket: finish my frame project, repaint the miniature mentioned in my previous post, read a freakin’ book, and start working on Eric’s birthday gift, since he is in Chicago for a few days.
That being said, today, for some reason, I am feeling particularly wounded about teaching. Maybe it’s because I spoke to a former student this weekend? Either way, my mind keeps wandering to Patton Oswalt (we want a failure pile in a sadness bowl!).
Short post today, admittedly, but tomorrow is Twofer Tuesday, so I have to get to work to ensure I have something to showcase.
So…last night, I made chicken parmigiana. Funny thing is, I didn’t have any mozzarella. No worries! I had string cheese, so I shredded that a bit and used it instead. It was kind of authentic Italian meets hillbilly Flatlander. It came out tasting just fine, and I’m telling myself and you, dear reader, that it was perfect healthy.
You say Polymath like it's a bad thing... 