Hope, Change, & A HOLIDAY SALE!

I'm back! Phew! It's been such a busy week! It feels like it's been a month with all the things I've been doing. My husband and I drove out to Texas last Wednesday to visit my brother and his family. Actually, our main goal was to look at prospective houses, go to job interviews (for me), and my husband had to go to the MLG Dallas gaming convention. 

We arrived on Halloween night which meant trick or treating with my nieces! I managed to finish my Kiki (from Kiki's Delivery Service) costume and tagged along. 

My other niece is not pictured. 

 The dress is actually my grandmother's dress that I resized to fit me.

Shiba Inu! Ozymandias! Batdog! Oh my!

It's art time! These were drawn to be shipped out with the Drift0r Ying-Yang Necklaces I made a couple weeks back. The two things my husband's fans love about him is his video game commentary and my dog, Ozymandias. Yes, he has his own Youtube channel and voice actor. 

So, with every necklace that's sold, I put a "signed" piece of art from my dog, Ozy, himself. The originals are still with me. I just scanned them in the computer and print one off whenever I need it. 2 out of 3 are inked and finished. The 3rd one may be inked. I haven't made up my mind about it yet. 

My favorite is the Batdog one. :)

Here are the comparison photos I based 2 of the 3 sketches from!

Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball YUM!

I LOVE cheese. In any shape, form, or fashion. Yes, I even like the string cheese from a can. One of my favorite forms of cheese is in the form of a cheese ball. No, not those cheese ball puffs that resemble Cheetos. The good ole Southern cream cheese cheese balls. 

I've had this recipe pinned on my Pinterest for awhile and made it a couple of weeks back. I've finally gotten around to blogging about it!

It was midnight when I made this and I was hungry. I ate about half of it before I realized that the recipe was blog-worthy and took a photo of it half eaten. (I admit... I ate about 90% of that half....)

Here's the link to the recipe!

Plus Sized Skirt to Cute Paper Bag Skirt

Things suddenly became a little busier in our house. With the last semester of school coming to an end for my husband, we are suddenly faced with decisions regarding our future. Some of you may know that my husband is a Machinima Youtube commentator. This means that he makes money from sponsors and video views on his video game commentary videos. 

Recently, we sat down and had a long chat. He revealed that he wanted to continue his Youtube career instead of pursuing a job in mechanical engineering. It may seem like a waste of a bachelor's and master's in business degrees, but the income he currently brings in is no small amount of pocket change. Since I've technically been unemployed, we've been living off his income alone for the past 5 months. I'm happy for him too! I'm glad that he's found something that he truly enjoys doing and while making some hard earned money.

Before Brad told me that he was taking on an internet career, I had hoped that we would move wherever he got an engineering job. Now that he'll be working from home, I actually get to choose where we move. 

So, I chose the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area in Texas. My big brother's family lives there and the state is faring quite well in this down economy. Jobs are aplenty and the healthcare industry is bustling in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This means I can expand my horizons in my nursing career. Along with applying for jobs and searching for houses, I've been cleaning and preparing for a visit from my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew this weekend. I'm so excited!

Since I've been too busy to craft new things I decided to post about something I made awhile back... a chambray skirt!

Acorns or Turdcorns?

The weather in Mississippi isn't getting cooler as fast as I'd like it to. This is very disappointing to me. Some of the inhabitants of the South are already wearing jackets and leggings. I don't believe it's jacket or jean weather until it's below 60°F. Ugh. Come on, +70°F weather! Go away! I want to wear my boots!

So, I'm still stuck indoors with the A/C trying to envision a cozy, warm house on a cool autumn day. To help achieve this, I decided my house needed some cute acorn decor. Since my kitchen is apple themed, the dividing wall  between the kitchen and dining area holds two glass apples (one green and one red). I made two giant acorns to replace them so it'd add more of an autumn feel.

The results weren't as great as I'd hope.... so are they acorns or turdcorns?

Here's a mini-tutorial on how I made them!

New Jewelry!

I have been slacking at posting..... very badly. I apologize. I would say that I've been busy, but that hasn't really been the case. Fiberluxe and I have signed up to share a booth to be vendors at the Starkville Holiday Bazaar in November so I've been making lots of jewelry. If you saw one of my older posts, you'll probably remember I was working on some swag for my husband's fans.

But I finally finished them! 

The Color Run, Pumpkin Carving, and New Running Shoes!

I've had such an exciting weekend! If you read my "Double Runbows" post, you'll know that my husband and I signed up to run in The Color Run in Tuscaloosa yesterday (Saturday)! We started the day at 5:45 am (we haven't woken up that early in over a year) and somehow managed to run/walk a very colorful 5K! I kinda of over-exerted myself the day before the run and messed up my left hip so I mostly walked it, but it's the first 5K I've ever walked/ran in so it was a pretty big deal for me!

Here's Team Double Runbows before we were colored!

And here's how we looked after the race!

I Am Sherlocked

If you follow my Twitter or Facebook page, you'll probably already know that I FREAKING LOVE the BBC series Sherlock. It's probably an unhealthy obsession that stemmed from the fact that I think my husband looks very similar (I think it's the dark fluffy/curly hair) to Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor that plays Sherlock. Both of which are very sexy. :D

Anywho, one of the indie nail polish shops I follow on Etsy, Metametics, had made her own line of Sherlock themed nail polish! AHHH! I immediately bought a mini bottle each of "High-functioning Sociopath" and "Honey, you should see me in a crown." I just got them in yesterday and I LOVE THEM. 

Behold.

Aren't they gorgeous? I'm going to do a short review on each!

Woaaaah...... Double Runboooowww

I'm so excited, you guys! My husband, a bunch of friends, and I are going to be participating in The Color Run in Tuscaloosa, Alabama this Saturday, October 6th! Proceeds from the race will go to funding school libraries affected by the last year's tornadoes which is run by Read Bama Read.

The fun thing is that you get to form teams in The Color Run. Our team is called "The Double Runbows" which is a spin-off of The Double Rainbow video that I hope everyone has seen. If you haven't, go watch it now or I will criticize you for living under a rock. Here, I'll even embed the video into my blog so you can watch it.

Current Works In Progress

I apologize for the lack of posts over the past several days. I was sick for a few days and it's been raining so I holed myself up in my craft room and crafted away.

One of the reasons for the sudden influx of crafting is that Ashlei of Fiberluxe and I are going to be selling at our local Holiday Bazaar (this is last year's article) at the end of November! We'll be sharing a booth and selling our jewelry! I can't wait! :D

Here are a few photos of my in-progress works and how my desk looks when I go into crafting mode.

Crazy, isn't it? That's only a portion of my desk too. The other half is always messy so it doesn't count as crafting.

Short post for today! Busy busy! Gotta go back to crafting! Before I go, here was the outfit I wore today! Isn't it so fall appropriate? I made the hi-low skirt myself! :)

Converse white button-up - thrifted
Tan leather braided belt - Dirt Cheap
Floral print hi-low skirt - handsewn
Brown espadrille wedges - Dirt Cheap
Copper Native American cuff bracelet - vintage

Thanks for reading! Have a great night!

DIY Translucent Faux Pumpkin [Part 2]

I have managed to fix this pumpkin! Hooray!!! You may need to read Part 1 of my adventure so you can understand what's going on. After much contemplating and scouring my house for supplies, I managed to come up with a solution to fix my almost craft fail.

I've photographed the rest of my project so you guys can see what I did. I suppose it's like a ghetto tutorial. 

Anywho, here's the result!

DIY Translucent Faux Pumpkin [Part 1]

The autumn themed crafts continue! This is supposed to be the last project to be posted, but it's taken me forever to get done and I found another project to make after this one! It's been quite a hassle to work with and I ran (and currently still running) into a lot of pitfalls. As with most of my craft projects, I usually fly by the seat of my pants and hope for the best. In the process of imminent fails and shaky recoveries, I learned a lot!

This post will be in two parts since I technically haven't finished it. It's not really a tutorial per-say.... more of a step-by-step photo documentary of the process and its trial and errors.

I was originally inspired by Martha Stewart's translucent pumpkins tutorial that I pinned on my Pinterest board. Martha used real pumpkins, of course. I have only carved one real pumpkin ever in my life and it was a mess and a half. I decided to try a faux pumpkin instead. (No seeds!) I bought mine at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon which came out to be about $25. It's the Funkins brand, which is pricier, but higher quality and more realistic looking than other faux pumpkins. I figured it would be a long term investment.

Birthday Boy! (with pizza dough recipe!)

A small interlude between the autumn themed crafts! It was my husband's 25th birthday yesterday! Quite an eventful day it was, indeed! We started off the day early (11am is early for us, okay?) and got ready to go survey people tailgating at the MSU vs South Alabama game for his Master's of Business capstone project. We managed to survey 50 people in a little over 2 hours. It was a little warm and sunny out, but a nice breeze kept us from  dripping with sweat. 

Surveying the event staff...

DIY Dryer Hose Pumpkins

The autumn themed crafts continue! I did not make my own tutorial for this post, but I will provide links to the two blogs where I found the tutorials. The good thing is that these are pretty cheap and quick to make! I made 2 pumpkins from 5 feet (4 inch diameter) of dryer hose and it cost about $7 total for the hose and spray paint.

Aren't they cute? I'm currently obsessed with white pumpkins. I really don't like the color orange in general, so I chose ivory! Plus, ivory pumpkins are really unique! I know they exist, but I've never seen one in real life. The stick for the "stem" was found in my backyard and I had some leftover gold organza ribbon from an old project that I tied around the stems.

Here's how they look before painting and after hot gluing together.

Autumn Wall Decor

More autumn themed crafts! Yay! This time I made something to go with my front door wreath! I was originally inspired by this pin from Pinterest (of course) and wanted to do a slightly different take. As usual, I made it more difficult than it had to be and took photos of my progress.

Here is the final product.

Faux autumn leaf wreath I made last year... from a pool noodle!

And here's how I made it.

Autumn Leaf Bouquets

I can't believe it! The weather here is finally under 90 degrees! It is simply amazing! I can go outdoors and breathe normally without feeling like I'm breathing through a warm, wet sponge. (Ugh.)

I love fall. :)

Since the weather has been nice, I've gone into craft overload. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a Fun-kin faux pumpkin to carve! I haven't started on that yet, that will be another post soon. I've also started working on my Christmas wreath (crazy, I know.) and I've actually run out of thumbtacks, so that's on hiatus for now. That is also another post for another day.

I saw this amazing post on Pinterest about making pumpkins from dryer hose so I went out and bought ivory spray paint and dryer hose and I'll have another post on those soon! (AHH so many blog posts!) For today's post, I decided to make some indoor autumn decor since I put up my autumn wreath on my front door. I made the wreath last year from left over faux maple leaves I had bought for my wedding decorations. The wreath base is a pool noodle!

Here's one of my bouquets!

I also made a short tutorial on how to make them!

DIY Regular Scarf to Circle Scarf

Instant gratification crafts. We all like those. You make them quick and wear/use them quick. I remember seeing a tutorial on transforming a regular pashmina scarf into a circle scarf, but I can't seem to find the link. I was rummaging through my scarves and found one that I did not wear much because I hated the dangl-y ends getting in my way. 

So, I turned it into a circle scarf! In 5 minutes!

Chinese Sticky Rice

I love Chinese food. Well durr, I'm Chinese! One of my favorite dishes (besides Hainanese steamed chicken and chicken rice) is sticky rice with Chinese sausage, Shiitake mushrooms, and chicken. My mom used to cook this entire meal in just the rice cooker. My rice cooker is tiny so I have to cook most of it in my wok then mix it together when it's done.

Alot of these ingredients may not be found at your local grocery store even if it has an Asian section. I actually buy my Chinese sausage (DO NOT use regular sausage. It is NOT the same!) in bulk when I go visit my sister in Alabama 3 hours away. There is a local Asian market in my town, but it is owned by Taiwanese and Chinese sausage is not part of their cuisine so they don't sell it.

Let me tell you though, this is REAL Chinese food. You probably won't find this at your local Chinese buffet. As I begin my pretentious rant, American Chinese buffet food is NOT real Chinese food. Sure, it's cooked by Chinese people (sometimes) but the food served at buffets are not eaten normally by Chinese people. Plus, China is a HUGE country. There are a lot of different ethnic groups and a lot of different types of cuisine. For example, clam chowder is a dish founded in New England. Fried pickles and everything else fried was founded in the South. Get it?

The food you see in Chinese buffets originated from cuisine in southern China. Northern Chinese food is completely different and I must say that I don't think I've tried any myself. Enough information, onto the recipe!

That's not Corona Extra. It's just sweet tea. 

Deep Dish COOKIES

Split second decisions. We've all made them at some point in our lives. You've probably made a few that you regret and you've probably made a few that you're thankful for. Some were big. Some were small.

Some were delicious.

Well, the decision I made happened to be. While bored and stumbling on Stumbleupon, I stumbled on this recipe by Healthy Food For Living. In the few seconds it took to skim over the ingredients needed, I had already made up my mind. I WOULD make these. And so I did.

Left: Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip - Right: Reese's Peanut Butter

While they're not that healthy, the single serving size they came in was definitely better than a dozen of cookies. Plus, they were pretty quick and easy. The longest part was setting out the butter so it could reach room temperature, which took about 30 minutes.

Here's the recipe!

DIY Mousepad

So, I am cheap. And lazy. I would say I'm very lazy but my husband says I'm "not that lazy." I guess so since some things get done around the house lol.

I've noticed that the area on my desk where my mouse resides was slowly being worn away. For the better part of this weekend and week, I've been using the back side of a memo pad as my mouse pad. I like to make lists so it was a hassle to flip the memo pad over and over every time I needed to write something or use it as a pad for my mouse.

Since I am too lazy to leave the house to buy a mouse pad, I googled tutorials for DIY mouse pads and most of the results I found involved cork. I have cork but it was only a 4 inch wide strip. Not close to enough for my needs. Then, I stumbled on Sara vs. Sarah's tutorial which used 2 layers of craft foam. Bingo! I had a roll of hideous orange foam I had never used and tons of scrap fabric.

Thus, this was born.

Winter Shorts (And How To Wear Them)

Ahh... the approach of fall... one of my favorite seasons of the year! Except, it's not coming fast enough. In the South, fall and spring only exist about 3 weeks out of the year. Right now, it's 98°F with a heat index of 105°F with no drop of temperature in sight. Oh don't worry, this isn't a heat wave. This is normal. It's just Mississippi. :P

Most of you probably think it's ridiculous to wear shorts in the winter. Since it rarely drops below 40°F during the winter in the South, I think shorts (with tights or leggings) is a fabulous idea although the trend hasn't really sparked down here. Then again, Mississippi doesn't catch onto trends as quickly as the rest of the nation. :/

Although I get strange looks from strangers wearing shorts in the dead of winter, I don't really care. For one, I don't get cold very easily. Ever since my wool pants to shorts tutorial, I have been looking for wool pants of every color to convert into shorts. This week, I've made a pair of brown, navy, and black leather shorts!

Feast your eyes!

I can't wait to wear these! I was sweating just trying on these outfits! Let me break down on how to wear these babies.

What NOT to Wear: Giant T-Shirts and Short Shorts

First of all, I don't consider myself the best dresser, but I consider myself  to be a fashionable lady. I really like the vintage look. Yes. I admit, I do dress like a hipster. My husband has noted that my fashion can range from hipster, old-lady-ish, and punk. When I don't know how to wear something, I look to my favorite fashion websites Lookbook.nu and Chictopia for inspiration.

As most of you know, I live in a small town in Mississippi. In this particular small college town, there is a strange fashion trend going on. I noticed it started last summer and its followers have increased significantly in number this year. This trend does not occur anywhere else except in this town. I've driven to my old alma mater 30 minutes down the road and the girls there do NOT dress like this. Also, when I went to visit my sister in Alabama, 3 hours away, I did not see anyone sporting this trend. I told my sister and she gave me a baffled look.

I don't want to sound stereotypical or ignorant, but it seems like the only women that tend to wear this style are sorority girls. [sarcasm] I don't know if it's part of their dress code or something they use to distinguish their other sisters apart from non-sorority women, but it is certainly baffling. [/sarcasm] I feel like I am making a documentary for the Discovery channel.

I did not think it would be appropriate to stalk random girls, take pictures of them and then post those pictures on the internet. So, I took a photo of myself wearing this style.

Behold.

Ozymandias BACON Dog

A bit of background information:

My husband's job is making Youtube videos about video game gun stats, game strategy, video game logic, and other random topics. One of those "random topics" include a video series of game commentary featuring him and my Shiba Inu, Ozymandias. Yes, my dog has a voice actor and "talks" about how MLG (major league gamer) and awesome he is at video games while my husband is the n00b. 

Yesterday, it was Ozy's birthday. Not my dog's actual birthday. (His is May 25th) It was his voice actor's 18th (human years) birthday. I was watching my husband edit a video and one segment has Ozy commenting how he's flying through the air in his helicopter like Nyan Cat except he'd sing baconbaconbaconbaconbacon instead of nyanyanyanyanyanyan. I was quite amused by this and I was inspired to create this piece as "birthday" present.

Delicious Pimento Cheese

I LOVE CHEESE. Of any shape or form. Yes. My name is Jessica and I am addicted to cheese.

I've grown up in the South and still live here so most of the food (besides Chinese food) I love is Southern staples like Memphis-style barbecue, fried chicken, sweet tea, and of course pimento cheese. To tell you the truth, I didn't start eating pimento cheese until this year. Yes. You read that correctly. I used to be terrified of its neon orange appearance and tangy-sharp smell. My mom used to buy small tubs of the stuff from the store and just spread it on bread and eat it like that. It horrified me.

Since the amazing invention of Pinterest, I've noticed a few pimento cheese recipes floating about and decided to try a couple. The first recipe I tried was by Positively Splendid. It was pretty delicious and I made it twice, but the problem I had with it was the large number of ingredients and prep work required. While browsing Craftster one day, I saw MissingWillow's recipe and was amazed at how simple it was. I've made her's twice too and loved it.

I've decided that I like some aspects of both recipes and came to the conclusion to combine the two. And here it is!

Yuuuuum!

[TUTORIAL] Sculpt A Crescent Moon

I apologize for not posting in over a week! Also, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! This post was supposed to be posted before I left on my mini vacation to visit my sister and nephew last weekend, BUT my husband decided to crush all my hopes and dreams the Tardises I had spent the last 5 days crafting right before we left on our trip. When we got back on Monday, I was so demotivated and depressed that I put off a few days on repairing the Tardises and moped about the house. But! Life must go on and so will the crafting! Everything written past this first paragraph was before the tragic crushing of the Tardises. They have since been repaired and now are for sale here.

It's a Tardis army!!!

The last few days of my life have been filled with lots of crafting. Ever since my first pair of Dr. Who Tardis earrings sold out in under 30 minutes after posting to my Etsy shop, I've been working on a 6 pairs (yes! 12 Tardises! AHH) of Tardis earrings. That one pair took me forever to make and these 12 have taken even longer.

My husband and I took a day trip to JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby two weeks ago and I bought new paint and new detail brushes specifically for the Tardis project. The paint I used for my first pair of Tardis was old and had become a bit clumpy. I bought some DecoArt Americana acrylic paint and it paints surprisingly smooth for $0.97/bottle, although a bit thin. I had to paint 5 coats of paint to get to the right shade of royal blue. My old detail brushes were becoming a bit shaggy and thin so I bought a pack of new teeny tiny brushes and they painted the tiny window details like a dream.

Just as I thought I was finally finished with the Tardises.... I realized that I was out of clear spray enamel and Lowe's was closed and Wal-Mart did not carry the Rustoleum brand I preferred. Ugh. Another day behind. :( I've had a problem with Krylon varnish turning yellow over time and getting tacky/sticky after prolonged exposure to high humidity. Living in the highly humid South, that is a very very bad thing to have happen when you're outside sporting off your fancy earrings and then realize they're literally melting. :(

While, I was waiting for the Tardises to dry between coats, I finished up my "Shoot For The Stars" earrings! Check them out!

I even made a beginner's mini tutorial on how to make the crescent moon!

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Since becoming unemployed, I have been trying my hardest to cook more homemade, healthier meals. Let's say it's been like a roller coaster of fickleness. Sometimes, I really don't feel like cooking which results in us going out to eat or grabbing some greasy fast food.

It can be a little demotivating at times to cook for two. I grew up with 3 other siblings so our family dinners were always HUGE. I basically learned how to cook for a small army with leftovers. I've been striving to exercise more so I've been doing Couch to 5K, but I've been stuck on week 3 for like a month. And I've been striving to cooking healthier, fresher dishes. Here is where community markets come into consideration.

I love community markets. My town has a great one every Saturday during the late spring and summer months. Tons of fresh produce and baked goods handmade by locals for super cheap. Plus, I'm supporting local business so I feel even better for buying. Unfortunately, it runs from 7:30am to 10am which are my prime sleeping hours and I am NOT a morning person. You could say I am an afternoon wildebeest.

Anywho, last weekend my husband and I stayed up all night and went to the community market. We actually arrived a bit too early so we went to get breakfast and came back 30 minutes later. I bought 2 eggplants, handmade wheat pasta, strawberry bread, cheesy za'atar flat bread, and baklava.

My original intentions were to grill the eggplant, but then I remembered that eggplant parmesan is even tastier! I even baked it to make it healthier!

I've been a busy bee...

Crafting! Phew. If you follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or even Etsy, you've probably been flooded by my posts of new items I've stocked in my store today. It started with a commission from a friend of mine who wanted a Dr. Who Tardis pendant.

Bacon Wrapped Egg [Mc]Muffins

My husband, Drift0r, and I LOVE breakfast food. This is great and all, but not so great for our waistlines. Of course, we're also bacon lovers so our hearts currently hate us.

We're also still on the night schedule. We've been going to bed around 5 am every morning/night so sometimes we like to have a very early breakfast-snack, er, meal.

The other night, there was a dilemma on what we had to eat in the house. Sure, we have lots of food, but most of it needs to be cooked. First world problems, no? Well, Google to the rescue! I searched for a recipe generator and used Supercook to help find a recipe for spinach quiche. Well, apparently I didn't have all the necessary ingredients for quiche, but I spotted this recipe in my search results and BINGO!

BACON WRAPPED EGG McMUFFINS!

OMNOMNOMNOM

Cuttin Up... T-Shirts!

I love weekends. Besides the laziness and no work aspect, mostly everyone is off work and they have time to hang out and do things. Since I'm currently unemployed, I occasionally feel disconnected from the rest of society since most of my friends work or go to school during the week and I don't see them as often.

This past Saturday, Ashlei of Fiberluxe and I got together to make cutout t-shirts! Ashlei wanted a hardcore skull cutout tee like this one at Hurley. If you follow me on Pinterest (or known me for a few years) you'd know that I love anything with wings. I found this shirt at Bershka and decided to copy it.

[TUTORIAL] Wool Pants To Shorts (and how to add belt loops to pants)

I finally got my schedule for my new job today. The good thing is that I get to pick what days I want to work, but the bad thing is that the days available are first come, first serve.

So far, I am only working one day and that was the only one they had available for me closest to where I live. :(

Today's post was inspired by Freshly Given's wool pants to shorts tutorial that I had pinned on Pinterest long long ago. In my recent thrift shopping extravaganza, I picked up a pair of wool, grey-ish XOXO dress pants. They were very cute, but unfortunately had some awful stains all over it. Luckily, they now have a new life as wool shorts!

I used Freshly Given's tutorial as a vague guideline to make mine. I'll be going a little more in-depth on how to measure for the cuffs and even show you how to make belt loops!

Let's begin!

Manicure Time!

I haven't posted in 2 days because I couldn't think of anything to blog about. I painted my nails last night with some new polish I hadn't used yet so I figured I would blog/review about those polishes.

Unlike my good friend, Fiberluxe, who reviews some awesome polishes, I am lazy and cheap so I choose to review cheap $1-2 polishes. I figured, "Hey. Someone's gotta review the cheap polishes too, eh?" Don't get me wrong, I do have some more pricey polishes in my collection like Essie and some new Zoya polishes (Wednesday and Myrta from the Beach and Surf Summer 2012 Collection) I bought on the Zoya site the other day that I CANNOT wait to try!

[TUTORIAL] Removable Shoe Wings

Some of you may know the Greek messenger god, Hermes. He's best known for his winged sandals that allowed him to move quickly and even fly. I am a fan of anything with wings. Birds, angels, bats, you name it. (Well, maybe not bugs.) I've always been fascinated with how birds and bats fly and been trying to draw them for years.

I saw these shoes on eBay last night and I remember pinning The Dainty Squid's removable shoe fringe tutorial and an amazing idea formed in my jumbled mind...

REMOVABLE SHOE WINGS!

GENIUS! I haven't had an original idea in awhile (crafting wise) so I immediately dropped everything I was doing (aka making more cigarette ankle pants) and dug through my fabric stash for some faux leather and grabbed my black oxford ankle booties from the closet. And thus, these were born:

I love them so much. I might even make bat wing ones for Halloween.

Here's the tutorial (and pattern) for it!

[TUTORIAL] Hooked on Fishtail Skirts

I'm at it again! Ever since I made that fishtail skirt the other day, I've wanted a lighter, flow-y one that would flutter behind me as I walked.

Outfits I devised to go with my new fishtail skirt. I like the far left and far right best.

So, I decided to use some vintage floral lightweight fabric I found in my stash that I inherited from my grandmother. I have devised a mini-tutorial of sorts on how I made it.

There was a lot of flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants in this post. I made up stuff on the fly and nearly literally set my skirt on fire. We'll get to that part in the tutorial....

Comforting Tuna Casserole

As a Southern girl, I love comfort food. My husband and I have lived most of our lives in the South so we grew up with awesome dishes like casseroles, real barbecue, fried chicken, fried catfish, grits, and corn bread. In reality, I never took a liking to either grits or cornbread, but my husband loves all of the above.

Today's post is about a casserole. No, not green bean casserole, mind you. I won't post that recipe until closer to the holidays along with my infamous sausage balls recipe. I present to you...... tuna casserole!

As usual, I've made variations of this tuna casserole through the years so there is no definite recipe. The one I made last night was as close to the original as I hoped to get.

Hmmm.... Doughnuts!

You guys! My air conditioning is working again! Hooray!!!

So, my nonexistent sweet tooth got the better of me. You can ask my husband because I rarely crave anything sweet. He, on the other hand, LOVES sweets. His ideal desserts would be cakes, pie, cookies, ice cream, and candy. My mom usually gave me fresh fruit for dessert as I was growing up. We rarely got ice cream or cake for dessert and that was only a few times a year.

I saw this amazing pin on Pinterest a few days ago and I had to make it. I used this recipe by Christy Jordan from Southern Plate. It is AMAZING!

Fishy Fishtail Skirts

You guys. It's freaking HOT! So my air conditioning has been broken for over 24 hours now and our landlord won't send anyone to fix it till Monday morning! UGGGH... I know I grew up without A/C, but I'm now spoiled by it's goodness. I would like it back, plz. :(

My craft room is sweltering but I shall keep on crafting!!!! I have managed to make one using Morning by Morning's maxi skirt tutorial.

I didn't want one maxi length so I made a shorter version above the knee length that tapered to right above my calves in the back

JWo's Super Awesome Spaghetti Sauce

Hello everyone! Let me start today's post with a moment of silence for the victims and families affected by the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting.



Today's post is going to be a recipe of my infamous spaghetti sauce. I've made this sauce for about 6 years now for many friends and family and they LOVE it. I've had people request it even though I haven't seen them in years.

The problem with me and recipe blog posts is that I am a cook. Not a baker. For those of you that are confused, cooks don't measure ingredients, but bakers do. I NEVER measure anything. I just throw in about how much I think it needs and hope to God that it tastes good. So far, I haven't messed up......... much.

Also, another problem is that about every time I make this spaghetti sauce it tastes different because I add different spices every time. I actually don't remember what the real recipe is so..... yeah. So, today I am going to make the basic sauce! Let's begin!

[TUTORIAL] Dress Pants to Skinny Ankle (Cigarette) Pants

Woah! I've been up FOREVER! Well, since 1pm yesterday, took a small nap, but I've been up since! I even ran this morning at 6am!

So, this post is about what I've done all night. I'm a little slow on fashion trends, but I LOVE those ankle length skinny pants, otherwise known as "cigarette" pants. While I was studying abroad in London in June 2007, these were already in style and I saw them EVERYWHERE in Camden Town. The one thing that's different with these new pants are that they're more sleek and office-approved than the skin tight cigarettes of the UK.

MONTHS ago, I bought 3 pairs of dress slacks at the thrift store: navy, black, and grey. I had the intention of making these into cigarette pants, but I FINALLY got around to trying one this morning. I found Miss Allie Jane's tutorial and was inspired! Don't get me wrong, I love her tutorial, but it didn't seem to go into deep detail so I decided to make my own tutorial covering all the little things.

Nail Fail: Scalloped French Manicures

I'm sorry everyone. I didn't post yesterday and this post will explain why. Today's post is not what you expect. Well, I would hope by now you could guess by the title.

So, I tried to do a nail polish manicure tutorial with something I had not really seen done. I was attempting a scalloped-edge French manicure. It took me 4 TRIES and I finally gave up. First time, I didn't wait long enough for the base color to try before putting on the scotch tape and it pulled up ALL of the base polish. :(

Second try, I let the base polish dry for 1 1/2 hours! And it STILL pulled up the polish when I pulled the tape off!!!!!!!! ARRRGHHHHH. The other 2 tries? Me just smearing the crap out of the polish and having to redo them. So, I just gave up and painted my nails neon yellow.

Tattoo Your Heart On My Shoulder

Today's post is a little different from most that I do. This one is a little more on the personal side of things. I saw a post on Twitter from a friend of mine asking for opinions on a tattoo she wanted to get. So I tweeted back with a few suggestions. She popped up online and we ran through a few things and I took out a 3x5 index card and started sketching away...

Sweltering Summer Days: Lemon (or Lime!) Mint Tea Recipe

I don't know about you guys, but it's HOT here in Mississippi. Who am I kidding? It's ALWAYS hot (and FREAKING HUMID) every summer in the South. Ugh.

In order to stay cool on these horrendously hot days, I make iced tea! Being the southerner that I am, it's gotta be sweetened, of course! To tell you the truth, I got out of drinking sweet tea for over a year since I moved out of my old place. My old roommates used to drink (VERY) sweet tea like water! I would watch my roommate brew sweet tea and pour an ENTIRE highball glass (12 ounces!!!!) of sugar in the pitcher.

I've been experimenting with different tea concoctions the last few weeks and my favorite is to brew green (or black) tea with peppermint tea since it adds a nice hint of minty-ness and refreshing taste. My husband HATES tea (he only drinks milk and water and very rarely some juices) so I get the entire pitcher to myself!

Alright! Let's get started!

DIY Sweetheart Bandeau Top [with link to tutorial]

Strapless tops were never one of my favorite pieces of apparel. I was a bit self conscious about my shoulders and since most of them were tight fitting, it made me dread my lower stomach pooch.

This summer, I've been looking for new pieces to wear and I found this tutorial by fake-leather via Pinterest. It looked pretty simple and I tried it out on a spaghetti strap tank I already owned but never wore.

The verdict?

I LOVE it! I've made 5 of them in different colors! The tops look especially cute with skirts and a big belt so it hides my stomach pooch quite well.

There are a few steps not covered in the tutorial that I'm going to run through.

I started with this coral colored tank:

In fake-leather's tutorial, it doesn't seem like her top had a built-in shelf bra. I really hate shelf bras with a passion and despite looking high and low for a tank that DID NOT have one, all I found were ones WITH shelf bras.

So, I'm going to show you how to cut out that shelf bra and take off the straps! All you need is a pair of sharp scissors, a steady hand, and patience. 

First, find the side seams and pick which ever side to start cutting.

Next, start cutting from the bottom where the elastic is. Cut along the seam and then veer off either left or right. Your preference.

From here, just cut carefully around the upper part near the top elastic all the way around. Be careful and try not to cut the fabric on the back side or you'll have holes show up when you wear it. A good way to prevent is to take it slow and keep your hand under the bra to make sure the scissors are between the shelf bra and tank fabric. 

After you've finished that, you can cut straight across on the front of the tank (see fake-leather's tutorial) but don't cut the back straps yet! I've found if you just cut it off, it's left with these irritating "nubs" that will dig into your backside when you wear it and makes it 100x hard to sew through on your machine or by hand.

So, take your seam ripper or your scissors and carefully find the threads that hold down your straps and snip them ONE AT A TIME. 

Do this for both straps and now you're just left with the strapless tank body to finish! Follow the rest of fake-leather's [tutorial] and you're on your way to a cute sweetheart bandeau top for summer!!!

Here's how mine turned out! (Disregard the dusty mirror and stomach pooch.)

Thrift Shopping 101

Hey guys! Today's post is about thrift shopping! It's one of my favorite things to do besides napping and crafting. I was going through my closet the other day to look for things to donate and I realized that about 70% of my clothes and over half of my shoes were from some form of thrift store. 

I'm not a professional at thrifting, but I believe I've gotten pretty good at it. I wasn't always such a big fan of thrift stores, believe it or not. Don't get me wrong, I've always been cheap and I try to buy everything on sale. Before my mom passed away in 2004, she taught me that thrift stores were places where only poor people shopped and even said, "Why would you want to buy that stuff? Someone's died in it." So, before ever setting foot into a thrift store, that was my general belief of them. It's not like she taught us to blow money or spend extravagantly. My mother taught my siblings and I to be frugal and buy EVERYTHING on sale (or try very hard to). After my mom passed, my family and I went through and donated a lot of her clothes to the local Salvation Army. That was the first time I had actually ever set foot into a thrift store and took interest in buying anything. I was enthralled at the mix of interesting and weird things. While some stuff was icky and old, some was pretty fashionable.

My thrifting habits didn't really kick in until I got into college in 2006 when my friends and I got into a reconing clothes phase. Since then, I rather shop at thrift stores than retail! My husband is still iffy about thrift clothing but he enjoys looking for interesting thrift furniture and books. On our honeymoon to Flagstaff, AZ (big hipster city), instead of going shopping at the retail stores, we went thrift store shopping!

Some of my thrifted goodies! Many name brands like Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Anne Taylor Loft, J. Jill, Patagonia, Fossil, Coach, Ellemeno, Anne Klein, H&;M... to name a few. Even the frame for that dry erase calendar was thrifted!

Okay, enough about me! I'm going to give you a rundown on the general beliefs, pros/cons, and then end with thrifting tips with links to sources and good blogs on thrifting! If you're a veteran at thrifting, you may already know most of these tips. These are mainly for those starting up in thrifting and beginners. Get ready to READ!

[TUTORIAL] How to Add a Sash/Bow Tie to a Button-up

Hey guys! You may have seen my other tutorial on how to enlarge a button-up and make it into a removable bow tie shirt. In this short tutorial, I will show you guys how to add a bow tie/sash to the collar of a shirt.

A few considerations before you begin:

-The collar on my button-up is a mandarin-style collar so this tutorial only explains how to add a sash to that type of collar.
-If you have a shirt with an actual fold over, pointed collar (like any normal button up), I would recommend just using my tutorial linked above to make a removeable sash.
-Here is a no-sew tutorial on how to make your collared shirt into a mandarin collar shirt. Attaching a sash will be a bit different than my method since this isn't a true mandarin collar.

Let's begin!

[TUTORIAL] Removable Bowtie Shirt & How to Enlarge A Shirt

Hey guys! It's Tutorial-Tuesday! (Not really. I am not motivated enough to post a self-made tutorial every week.) Today, I'm going to show you guys how to ENLARGE a shirt that's too small and how to alter a long-sleeved button-up into a sleeveless bow-tie button-up.

I was inspired by Extra Petite's tutorial on how to transform a button-up to sleeveless bow-tie top except the shirt I had was TOO SMALL for my busty Asian self. I may be petite, but I was unfortunately (hehe not) blessed with my grandmother's Amazonian Asian genes of bustiness.

So, I shall show you the ways of enlarging a shirt!

***UPDATE*** Nude but not naked! Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Café Au Lait Polish Review!

In order to keep my blog updated more than once every 2 years, I have decided to write posts on subjects other than crafts and my Etsy store. This one is a nail polish review!

To tell you the truth, I am terrible at painting my nails and other people's nails. I'm that girl at the slumber party that can't paint your nails and makes the other girls do it for her. I get polish EVERYWHERE. Cuticles, hands, carpet, you name it. Before 2012, I believe that that last time my nails were painted (other than the french manicure Ashlei did for my wedding) was my sophomore year of college for "Emo Day" when my friends Ashlei and Lauren and I decided to dress emo and stroll about campus trolling folks.

This year, Ashlei got into a big nail polish kick and I joined in. Being a nurse, it's nearly impossible to have nice nails, but I tried it out anyway. Since I'm currently a housewife, I can have the nicest nails ever! (jk NOT) I wanted nude colored nails and Ashlei and I had the discussion of how cool it would be to have a nude polish that would match your skin tone.

So, today I went to CVS on a hunt for Burt's Bees Blemish Stick and somehow ended up in the nail polish aisle and found Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in "Café Au Lait." 

Since I'm Asian and have yellowish undertones, I figured this color would look close to my skin tone.

Long time no see!

Well, hello world! Long time no see! Did I ever tell you guys that I was TERRIBLE at keeping up with blogs? No? Well, I am.

LOTS of things have happened since I last posted. Well, I GOT MARRIED on October 15, 2011 to my amazing husband. He's currently finishing his masters and will be graduating by December. So hopefully we'll be able to move somewhere nice. I don't work at the hospital anymore. I quit in May and was just burnt out on the excessive overtime and long hours and night shift schedule. At the moment, I do not have a real job and I've been bumming around the house and managing my.....

ETSY SHOP!!!

Awesome, right???? I FINALLY got off my lazy butt and opened it! AND EVEN HAD MY FIRST SALE! (Yay!!!) You'll probably notice that there are no products that look familiar to any of my old pictures I've posted in the past (i.e. Sculpey clay earrings and such) because most of the products in my shop are ready-made and ready to ship. I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to making Sculpey jewelry soon.

Oh! I actually sold at my FIRST craft fair this year as well! My best friend, Ashlei, who runs FiberLuxe on Etsy, and I teamed up at the Starkville Cotton District Arts Festival in March and did quite well! Ashlei won Best in Category -Jewelry! Awesome, right??? She does amazing embroidered necklaces and earrings so you should go check her shop out right now!

As you may notice, I've FINALLY changed the look of the blog. I really need to get around to personalizing it and making my own header and such, but eh. I'm so lazy. So this will have to do for awhile.

I will TRY to keep this blog updated as much as possible. I may even start a JWo Designs Twitter feed to keep customers updated on new products or possible products for sale. Who knows. I'm trying to work out all these kinks at the moment. Thanks for reading my long winded post. Have an awesome day!