Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Snowtime Funtime

I am more than ready for winter to just be over. I'm sick of being cold, and sick of really shitty driving conditions. For reals. But with that being said I'm REALLY trying to stay positive these days and not let the winter doldrums get me down. So when we got hit yet again with a bunch of snow last night I decided to try and make the best of it.

So what do you do when you are snowed into your driveway and have to wait to go to work in the morning? Go outside and play in the snow with your puppy (who absolutely adores the snow) that's what. Here's a look at Lola and my snowy good time.


Thats all I have for now, til next week!

~Jessica










Friday, February 22, 2013

Embroidery for Beginners

Check out this pillow I made.



I used the book Sublime Stitching Embroidered Effects Projects and Patterns to Inspire Your Stitching by Jenny Hart. That 's a lot of title right there. Her tutorials are amazingly super easy. I had never stitched before this. The book comes with iron-on transfers.







Peacock Pillow!

http://joyreactor.com/tag/embroidery


Love,
Kelly

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Nail Prints

I know it's an old trend, but I hadn't tried it yet, so I thought I would. Newsprint nails, that is. I think they look really cute, and loving typography the way I do, why not put it on my nails?

So here's what ya do:


1. Using a light nail polish, paint your nails as usual. Most people use a white, off-white or light grey type color, but I like to be different so I went with a light green. Sally Hansen's Mint Sorbet to be exact.


You will want to make sure your base coat has dried completely before you do the news print part. And if you need to do more than one coat of base coat, make sure each coat is completely dry before applying the next. Otherwise you will smudge the polish when you apply the newsprint. A great way to test if your polish is totally dry is to tap them together. If there is a slight pull when you do this, they have not dried all the way.



2. Cut out small squares of newspaper. Use areas they have a lot of text and try to avoid any breaks in the paragraphs.

One at a time, dip your nails in rubbing alcohol. Then place the newspaper on top. Dip a cotton ball in the rubbing alcohol and press on top of the newspaper and hold for roughly 20-25 seconds. This process reminded me of applying a temporary tattoo, and is definitely similar in the fact that you do not want to remove the newspaper too soon. After about 20 seconds simply peel back the newspaper.

3. Apply a clear topcoat. And that's it!


Mine didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, but I think I was getting impatient and not holding the newspaper on long enough. But overall cute, and more interesting than just a plan color.

~Jessica

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Closet Cleanout

It's time for some good ole fashioned spring cleaning! Granted it's not spring, but a girl can dream, right? Basically I have as of late become really annoyed with my closet...it's too jammed packed and I don't even wear half of what is in it.

Case in point:

Therefore this weekend I decided everything must go! And by everything I mean the things I do not wear anymore. So I thought I would share this adventure with you. This is not so much a "how-to" (I'm not going to tell you how to run your life) as a "this is what I did this weekend." And by this weekend I mean for like an hour after I got sick of waiting for the power to come back on at the stadium during the Superbowl...ain't nobody got time for that!

Aaaanyway, upon starting this endeavor I decided that I would stop being so damn sentimental and get rid of these things I've been hanging on to for years. For instance, do I really need three, yes THREE pairs of floral patterned flats? One of which never really fit to begin with and I would only wear when I could handle the pain of the skin on my ankle being slowly torn off. No, clearly not necessary.

I'm sure I also do not need 15 pairs of jeans, when I only wear about 5 of them.

But cleaning out the closet also allowed me to rediscover clothes I had forgotten about. One big tip I would give about this sort of thing is to try everything on! You may be surprised by some of the gems you had forgotten were in the back of your closet.

My technique overall became to make three piles. 

1. Donations
2. Items to upcycle into either new clothes or some other craft project
3. Items to just throw away

I like to donate as much as I can, but sometimes old clothes can be reused to make something totally cool and awesome. I usually keep clothes that have a pattern I really like and I will figure out something I can make with them. Like this dress that I bought a couple years ago, that I'm pretty sure I only wore once because it never really fit right. But I kept it because it was super cute. I have finally come to the realization that it just will never fit correctly, but the pattern is adorbs, so I will find something to turn it into.

Now I know I mention throwing things away, which sounds awful. But there are certain things you really should not donate, like undergarments. Don't do it. It's gross. No one wants used undergarments. I mean it. Throw that shit out. Okay, end of rant.

Overall I ended up with a good sized bag of clothes to donate and a couple of items to hang onto for crafts. I feel mildly better about my closet situation. I'd show an after picture, but to be honest it doesn't really look that much better. So just imagine a really organized, pretty closet and pretend it's mine. Maybe that will be a project for another time, but that's a BIG endeavor.

~Jessica






Sunday, February 3, 2013

The Breakfast Shot

Last weekend I visited my mom in Erie, PA. They are known for a few things. Their beautiful Presque Isle peninsula that contains 21 miles of recreational trails and 13 beaches, a high Italian-American population, which results in delicious restaurants and chocolatiers, like Serafini's and Stefanelli's, and no tax on clothing, so obviously great for shopping. I didn't grow up there, but spent so much time there visiting family as a child, I often felt like I did.

This most recent trip though, I discovered something miraculous at Eduardo's Tavern. It is called a "breakfast shot." Wow. It literally tastes like pancakes with a side of OJ.

The Breakfast Shot


Ingredients
1.5 oz Jameson Irish Whiskey
.5 oz Butterscotch Schnapps
2 oz OJ

Pour the Jameson and Butterscotch Schnapps in a shot glass. Drink the shot. Sip the OJ as a chaser.

Om nom nom durnk.

Love,
Kelly