Eowyn's Neverland Birthday

Here are some photos from E's 1st birthday party!  Descriptions to come one day!

The pirate and fairy dressing station: The costume chest!

 For the "pirate kids" I made pirate hats, eye patches, binoculars, moving telescopes, and pirate sashes! For the "fairy kids" I made personalized fairy tutus, and wands.  I also gave the boys some dollar store compasses and the girls some face pixie dust.

Pirate fonts were projected, traced and sharpied.

Handmade fairy tutus, pirate hats, eye patches, binoculars, telescopes, sashes and wands with store-bought compasses and fairy face glitter.

A close-up of the pirate hat on my Basset Hound 

Painting those binoculars

In the tree I hung dozens of jute/feather ornaments I made.

Hanging out in Tiger Lily's teepee

You can kind of see the feather ornaments in the tree here. 

Walking the plank.. fun for a girl just learning to walk!

London cityscape silhouette in the window behind the treasure.

Fabric silhouettes I cut out and fray-checked

Opening presents in front of the "Second Star to the right" table.

I made a puzzle game where the kids had to complete each station (like walking the plank, "flying" in the bounce house, etc) in order to get their puzzle piece which in the end would construct a treasure map of the party.

Puzzle hunting sign.

Completed puzzle

Bonus cool map I made with "reveal by fire" lettering!

The Best Apps to Earn You Some Starbucks (or whatever!) Money

Hello, all! You know I like coffee. A lot. Unfortunately, coffee costs money... of which I do not have! Therefore I've become an expert on finding various ways to earn some extra cash to feed my Starbucks addiction, and I wanted to grace you all with my newfound knowledge!

1) Receipt Hog (The app that gives you money just for spending money… whoa!)

The first great app is Receipt Hog. This is is a fun and rewarding way to turn receipts from everyday grocery shopping into cash - no matter where you shop or what you buy! You just scan your receipts from Vons, Winco, Walmart, Walgreens… basically anywhere that sells groceries or pet store items into the app. Then they award you giftcard points for the dollar amount you spend (not what you buy!). It's the only time you actually smile after spending money you hate to spend!

They also have a fun slot machine that wins you extra points to help you earn gift cards faster. I hate referral links unless they actually benefit YOU, so here's one that will give YOU 5 FREE SPINS if you use it: http://app.receipthog.com/share/f6hjs3dh

2) Ibotta (The app that gives you money for buying specific products)

This apps blows my mind. It's well-designed, it's fun, AND it gives you money for buying things you were going to buy anyways, like milk… and eggs. And not a specific brand of milk or eggs. ANY brand of milk or eggs. WHY?!? I don't understand it, but only my very first shopping trip they already paid me cash. Nice. Again, if it can make me smile after spending money I hate being forced to spend (stupid hunger pains!), I'm all for it.

Again, here's a mutually beneficial referral link: You get 2 DOLLARS in CASH when you scan your first receipt if you use my referral link: http://ibotta.com/r/LQ76w Whoohoo!

3) Mobee (The secret shopping app!)

Okay, so this doesn't help us Fresno peeps…. YET, but, as I love Starbucks and have fantasies about one day doing some mystery shopping there, I am going to hold on to this app until some missions show up here. You basically go to a certain store and answer questions about what you see there (the employees, the cleanliness, etc.)

Sadly, there aren't any jobs in Fresno. BUT Bakersfield, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Modesto, and anywhere else in America (not just California), you should get started now! You folks are missing out on some fun secret shopping!


Annnnd, here's another awesome referral link: We BOTH get $3 when you start using my short and sweet referral code: WQQF

4) BzzAgent (not actually an app, but a website that gives you free products to try out!)

And just in case you were wondering how I get to do all my free product testing, BzzAgent is pretty darn awesome. You try free stuff, and then you fill out short product reviews on them!

So far, I've gotten free $25 Fekkai Shampoo and Conditioner to try, Dr. Scholl's shoe inserts, a large bag of Hill Science Dog Food, A big bag of Kashi Chips, a Full Size Neutrogena foundation, two boxes of Fiber One bars, and more! It's crazy.

No referral link here. Just sign up at https://www.bzzagent.com. It's crazy.

5) TeachersPayTeachers (where other teachers PAY YOU for your lesson plans)

And for my teacher friends, this website has paid for entire vacations of ours! You upload lessons you've created and... People. Buy. Them. I guess SOME people have more money than time. I am not one of those people, but, believe me, there are PLENTY of those people out there because I sell products every week. (Sometimes multiple products a day!) Insane-to-the-membrane!

Again, no referral link, just go there and upload your stuff! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com

Okay, have fun trying out all these apps! You can thank me by using my referral links! :-)

Time Travel Tea 2013

This dress for the Time Travel Tea was my chance to final make a Steampunk-esque dress and break the rules of historical costuming. The rules were to dress from “any tea-drinking era” and our local steampunk group was partnering with our costuming society, so I felt free to try something new!

I found a synthetic (polyester... gasp!) pleated bedskirt and knew I had to use it for a skirt. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite understand that it’s impossible to dye polyester without harsh chemicals and so my vision of an ombre skirt didn’t come to fruition but rather dyed only the parts with lower synthetic fiber content. Oh well.

Other pieces:

• I didn’t have time to make a proper Victorian cage crinoline but instead just used a pillow bustle (from my Dickens fair dress) to give my tush some oomph.
• Ruffled bodice using my Dickens Fair bodice pattern.
• Ruffled wristlets and ruffled spats from a knitted scarf I found at a thrift store. Embellished with ruffled scraps of fabric.
• A mini-top hat made from a Starbucks cup covered with fabric from my bodice.

More fun pics from the event:

Lord of the Rings-Inspired Nursery

 

Well, there isn't a lot of sewing going on in my baby's room, but there is SOME, so I figured I would post the progress anyways.

We are days away from going to the hospital to deliver our very first child! My husband and I are both High School teachers, and reading is something we value almost above all other things.  Therefore, we both agreed our daughter should have a literary name, and a strong female name at that.

Since we fell in love through a series of Lord of the Rings-related events... we decided that her name will be Eowyn, named after the character who chops off the witch king's head in the Return of the King (so romantic, I know!). :-)

In case you're still confused, she looks like this in the movies.    ---------------->





Surprisingly, in the midst of many Star Wars themed nurseries, LotR themed baby items are actually very hard to find.

<------- These Elvish alphabet prints were the only things I found.
 
Since Eowyn is a human, not an elf, obviously the elvish ABC prints wouldn't quite work. If you disagree, you're obviously not a nerd and this post no longer pertains to you. ;-)

So, in keeping with the Rohan theme (where Eowyn lives) we decided to go with a nature-green color on the walls.  I couldn't stand any of the nursery bedding sets out there, so we basically constructed the room and textiles from scratch. Manuel painted the walls a pale green while I avoided the paint fumes.

The one thing I knew I absolutely HAD to have in the nursery was a storybook-themed signpost. I have looked forward to reading aloud to my future children ever since my junior high school days of babysitting and I can just imagine the fun Eowyn and I will have pointing out which direction these amazing lands are located in!

I showed the Pinterest inspiration image to my dad, and so he brought in a tall pole with one flat side and helped us mount it to the ceiling with an L-shaped bracket. He had found various boards of different shapes to carve and burn into arrows, zigzags, and fun hands!

I told him to leave the lettering to me as I had very specific fonts I planned on using. I was inspired by the pinterest image, but wanted to include so many more fairytale locations! Thankfully, dad gave me 18 boards to work with. I chose the more worn-down signs for the scary locations like the Forbidden Forest and Sleepy Hollow and the more cutesy signs for places like Oz and Toad Hall.

Then I set up a projector and traced away. I really wish I had a picture of my 8-month pregnant belly on the floor trying to trace out the fonts! Man, it was hard to avoid casting a shadow or laying too much on the baby belly!

After tracing, I used the finest brush I could to mark out the details and serifs of the fonts on there and fill in with more acrylic Apple Barrel paint.

In keeping with the Lord of the Rings theme, I made sure I included Rohan in the list of places, as well as Hobbiton. I also originally had Gondor on the list, but it got cut when I panicked and realized I had neglected to include Camelot! Since that's the only name I could think of that includes a fairytale castle, its importance is evident!

Then, Manuel patiently let me direct him to position and reposition each sign on the post until each was in the perfect spot! My favorite nuance is that Badger's house is on the bottom run, pointing towards the ground.  Here are the signposts in order from top to bottom:

 

What's missing now?  BOOKS of course! So, inspired by all those gutter shelves on Pinterest, Manuel then nailed baseboards to 6-foot long 1x3 inch boards to create forward-facing bookshelves.  We filled them with books we saved from our our childhoods as well as all the amazing books gifted to Eowyn at her baby shower! We have so many that I had to remove some of the more-advanced books to save for later.

Inside the books are handwritten messages to Eowyn either written on the inside cover or onto a bookplate. If two people gifted the same book, I was able to return the duplicates, but still glue both gift bookplates to the inside covers. This way, Eowyn will always know who gave her which books! You can download your own bookplates from Martha Stewart's website.

Manuel then got inspired to create a little artwork. In the past I had made a canvas by using actual pages from Pride and Prejudice. This time, I happened to have an extra copy of the Return of the King lying around so I helped Manuel by pulling out every page that mentioned Eowyn. He coated a lilac canvas and then made a posterboard collage of those pages. He then projected the horse crest of Rohan onto them. He traced and then cut out the pieces and then used matte Modpodge to secure them to the canvas.

Ta-da! Manuel is considering getting this as a tattoo as well in order to honor little Eowyn.

 

Can you see Eowyn's name on the horse head?

This is a photo of the in-process garland in my livingroom.

Back during Winter Break, I had made a garland for Eowyn's baby shower based on Martha Stewart's book shower garland. I had some cat/heart fabric lying around that I snatched up for $1 a yard a year ago. I just cut it up into roughly 2-inch wide strips and tied them together.









I photocopied all the pages containing Eowyn's name throughout all three LotR books. I then mounted a single sheet onto red printer paper. I also glued a few pages back-to-back and put the double sided pages on top, making sure to create a centimeter-wide spine to really make it look like a book (and give the glue something to stick to).

I also had saved a bunch of greeting cards my coworkers gave me at the work-shower they threw for me, and so I used bits of them in the spaces between the books.

There were some cute knitted booties on one, and some laundry clothes with actual mini-clothespins on another! Perfect!

Her closet and signposts

After the shower, I strung the garland completely around the nursery, overlapping slightly at the edges.


Eowyn has no excuse not to LOVE books, she is absolutely surrounded by them!

MORE GRATUITOUS NURSERY PHOTOS: 

Above the crib (that we bought off Craigslist), there is a beautiful textile gifted to me by a friend at the shower. There's also Eowyn's name spelled with a pack of cards I bought from Michael's years ago.

Here's some photos of what you see when you first walk in the nursery door:

At eye-level there's a print of a dog that looks suspiciously like our Basset, Layla.  The giant "E" below the art print was made by my cousin Britt for the baby shower. 

The headbands next to it were made by the guests at the baby shower. I hand-knitted a ton of little bows (see below!) that people could glue onto headbands along with add buttons, old jewelery and other embellishments.

Along with some knitting, I did do SOME sewing.  First of all, I added nearly 20 hand-sewn hearts onto the book garland using some really pretty eyelet fabric:

I also made Eowyn her very first toy, a giraffe rattle with a bell inside.  :-)

I'm bringing it to the hospital for photos, just in case!












Well, the hospital bags are packed, and all we need is our little one. Hopefully she'll come this week! I'm so excited!

1940s half-moon nails

Putting on my 1940s historically accurate dress is such an important piece of getting into character for me. However, it's quite a long process that involves much more than the dress.

It includes, nails, hair, garters, seamed stockings, a 1930s bra, glamourous makeup, and then, oh yeah, the shirt dress!

Perhaps the most time-intensive component is painting my nails into 1940s half-moon shapes.  So, I thought I'd share my process for that:

First I pull out my mailing envelope sealers from my wedding 5 years ago. Good thing I don't throw anything away because they came in handy! I cut them in half so they don't peel up around my skin so much. If they are full-size they have so much trouble trying to conform to the curve of my finger that they don't even bother trying to stick to my nail.


Then I use the blunt end of a cuticle remover stick (see below) to press down the sticker onto the nails. Then, I paint away, trying not to coat all the edges of my nails; that's impossible for a klutz like me. Man is it a pain to clean up the nails later though, so the more precise you are, the better.

I wish blogger would let me rotate images. Here's my cuticle stick and my polish.

This time I waited only 15 minutes between the first and second coat of red.  Hopefully I waited long enough... I'm just tired of these nails taking up my entire day.

So, second coat goes on and let it dry even longer.

Then, peel off the stickers. I've read that you should pull them away from the nail so it doesn't peel off any of the polish.  Sure, works for me.

Lastly you've got to clean up the mess-ups. Of course, there is always some paint-bleed under the stickers.  And then there are the messy cuticles.  If I had a tiny craft brush I would use that to get rid of the mess-ups, but I have to use my medium one instead... Kind of a pain, actually.  Works a bit, though. So, after it dries for HOURS (which is what needs to happen with me since I have a tendency to bang up my nails on every ledge in existence) then you COULD put a topcoat on, but I don't for a few reasons:

First, that would require me to not hit my nails for even MORE time out of my day.  Geesh.

Second, red nail polish already takes forever to get off of my skin and nails. I don't need another layer sealing all that crap in.  Maybe I'll do a topcoat tomorrow, but this is already too much work for a Thursday.

Anyways, then they are done and gorgeous.  I'm actually surprised that my nails didn't really chip very much this past week. I thought I would have to remove the polish on Sunday on the grounds that it would start looking like crap. However, I only just removed it last night. Hmm... and this was without a topcoat. Go figure.