Sunday, October 27, 2013

Wedding Spot: Favorite Picture


I love me some him ^.^

This is one of the pictures from our engagement photo shoot at JCP.  I've started making our Save the Dates ^.^ I'll write more about them later on.  I just wanted to share this picture because it makes me smile whenever I look at it. :)

Hope you had a great Sunday!

Friday, October 25, 2013

Finally I'm Finished #2: Fraggle Rockin!

I've got a silent movie for you today :)  Lately, I've been wanting to make little videos and actually share them.  Last weekend, I made a simple square shaped hat with pompoms on the tips.  The yarn I used was thrifted from Goodwill.  It makes me feel really accomplished to totally create something from thrifted components.  I also made a pink/white hat in the same style using pink thrifted yarn and white yarn from my stash.  Enjoy my silly little video ^.^


Here is a picture of the pink/white version. I think I'm going to tweak the length of the hat because as it is now, the brim is super long.  After I take off like 3 inches, it should be perfect. 

I also bought one of those pom-pom makers from the craft store and made the ones on the pink hat.  The poms on the blue/green hat were made by wrapping yarn around my cell phone.  I like the finished look of the perfectly round poms, but I also like the quirkiness that the looser poms have.

 Which pom-pom do you prefer?

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Recently Thrifted: Pretty Awesome Haul

Hey y'all :)

Remember, way back in the day, when I use to do "recently thrifted" posts???  Well, no one probably remembers that because I don't think I had any readers back then *shrug*.

Yesterday, I got a surprise day off.  Meaning I was at work and due to a bunch of cancellations I got sent home after an hour and a half.  I took the time to have an introverted (not talking to anyone I don't want to, listening to music, thrift store hopping, dog park sitting, evening napping) day.  It was GREATLY needed.

So now I want to show you what I thrifted in my adventures yesterday.  There were a couple pieces that I'm stupid excited about.  Aaaand... let's get going ^.^

I went to four thrift stores: Goodwill, The Christian Sharing Center, Super Dollar Thrift, & St. Vincent De Paul.

Goodwill: Cookbook $2.99 & Hardback $1.99
Goodwill: Paperbacks $0.99
Goodwill: Square photo frame $0.99
I'm glad I found a new cookbook because evidently there was some sort of house elf that stole the ones I had.  -_-  So now I'm looking for cookbooks with lots of dessert recipes since that's what I'm into cooking-wise.  The grey Bartlett's book is a collection of readings for weddings.  I'm hoping to find a few things to incorporate into our wedding.  The frame was a great find for me since one of the enhancements I make at JCP is a 10x10 collage and those frames are super hard to find.  Well unless you pay $18 for them in the studio... So $0.99 was pretty awesome ^.^

Christian Sharing Center: 18" Ruler $0.79  Circular Knitting Needles $0.99
These are the only things I picked up at the Christian Sharing Center. I resisted the urge to buy the few balls of yarn they had. :)  Whenever I see cheap craft supplies, like that ruler, I always pick them up because they are always handy.

Super Dollar Thrift: Merona Suede Loafers $2.99
I also bought a room lamp for $6 at Super Dollar.  I'm always excited to find shoes in my size (size 10 shoe problems) and these loafers are so cute and in great condition.

St. Vincent De Paul: Scarves $0.99 each
St. Vincent De Paul: Ann Taylor Blue Suede Loafers $3.99
The last stop was St. Vincent De Paul where I found these amazing pieces ^.^ I'm imagining these scarves with a huge twistout. I can't wait!

So yeah. These are the things I picked up yesterday during my surprise day off thriftaventure.  The cookbook will surely get some play this weekend as Lamar has planned a potluck for the young people at church.  Time for me to become the dessert girl again ^.^

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Galavanting Files: Calamari Date Night

Saturday night, Lamar and I were suppose to go to a church social, but it was canceled at the last minute.  So with a night to ourselves, we decided to have a date night ^.^

First, we were going to get a bite to eat at burger king, but as we drove up we passed a little Italian restaurant.  Of course being the foodie explorers we are, we decided to eat there instead.  It turned out to be pretty good, except there were WAY too many options on the menu.  So we ended up getting a large cheese pizza and garlic rolls.  The pizza was on the salty side, but the garlic rolls were delicious!  We chatted about wedding type things as we ate.  It was a good meal. :)

After eating, we went to Congo River Golf for putt-putt and arcade games.  I love that Lamar and I can compete in things and the activity still stays fun.  I'm also glad that he doesn't make fun of me when I win something and swear to never do it again... I'm all about going out on top ^.^  Anyway, we made a video.  Enjoy!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

WIP Wednesday: Look Ma, No Hook!

So a few days ago, I watched a video on youtube about arm knitting.  It was pretty cool, but of course as the non-knitter I am- I wanted to arm-crochet.  I've been brainstorming for a couple days to figure out how I would go about arm-crocheting, and I'm pleased to day I figured out a way!

I gave up trying to crochet the standard way and decided that working stitches in tunisian crochet would work.   I started off with 3 strands of worsted weight yarn and tried to crochet a foundation chain.




After struggling with the worsted weight yarn, I decided to raid my stash for some bulkier yarn to work with.


Success!  Basically I used my arm like a tunisian crochet hook and worked 5 tunisian simple stitches for this first crack at arm-crochet.  Since I'm new at tunisian crochet anyway, I'm pretty sure I messed up the stitches along the way, but it's not half bad for a first try.

I kept crocheting rows until what became a scarf was roughly 5 feet long.  The next time I try this again, I'll probably use something like t-shirt yarn or 6 strands of super bulky yarn together just to make a more solid piece.


It's light enough to be worn when ever fall gets around to making it's way down to Florida, and I really like the colors I was able to use.  It kinda reminds me of those skinny fashion scarves that were "in" a while ago... y'know??

Anywho,  here are some detail shots after I finished it off.



I suppose it has a lace-like quality to it since the spaces are so big... and I'm thinking about putting a fringe on it.  Haven't settled on that decision yet tho.

I'm so glad this idea didn't flop.  Maybe after more brainstorming, I can figure a way to arm-crochet in a way that isn't so messy looking.

Goodnight!




Tuesday, October 15, 2013

This is a What?: Jabba...

Hi :)

The subject of today's This is a What? post has been rolling around my head since I started the theme. (did that make sense??)  Anywho, I'm excited to show you the shots ^.^

Let's get crackin!

Please ignore the dot... It's a little piece of dust on my camera sensor that I'm happy to say is finally gone! Thanks, Google!

At first, I took a bunch of close angles, using focus to highlight different areas of the face.  But when I unfocused the whole image, it became a cool collection of tones.

This makes me want to get my sketchbook out and draw these... and just look at how the light interacts with the surface.

This is the shot that gave me the post title: Jabba.  It reminds me of the masks that the Jabbawockeez wear. (If you haven't seen them dance... youtube them. Now. Go ahead ^.^ I'll wait.)


And here is the actual subject.  It's the styrofoam head I put crochet hats and whatnot on.  As you can see she suffered a bit of trauma during the move to Florida, but no biggie. :)

This week's TIAW was fun to shoot.  I liked using completely blurred photos.  Maybe I'll carry that on next week and possibly find something more colorful to study.  I hope you had a good Tuesday.

Peace & goodnight!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Wedding Spot: Bridal Show

Hey there!

A few Sundays ago, Sheree and I went to one of the Central Florida wedding shows. It was a good size show and there were a lot of vendors I hadn't met previously. Needless to say, we had a ball!


Sheree is so very much extroverted and participated in nearly every game during the fashion show! AND.......... she won a dance contest (which I recorded, but she told me I am NOT allowed to post -_-) and got a free stay at the hotel as her winnings! Pretty cool. She also caught a bouquet and a garter towards the end of the show, which was cool too.






After the fashion show, we walked around to check out the rest of the vendors, tasted some YUMMY cake from a few different bakeries, and chatted with the DJ. The last booth we went to was a photographer and she was having a raffle. While I was filling out the information sheet, the lady asked me if I won anything. I told her I hadn't and Sheree had all the winner's luck :) Then the most awesome thing happened! She pulls out a folder and said the person who was suppose to win a prize from her booth never came. So she gave it to me!! It was a voucher for a free outdoor photo session and an 8x10 print. How cool is that!? I was mostly excited because Lamar really wants to do an outdoor shoot. So I suppose we'll find out how much more prints would be. (Hopefully not an arm and a leg.)

 Goodnight :)

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Wedding Spot: Bridesmaid Dresses

Wedding stuff!!! Huzzah! lol ^.^

Last Sunday, I went to David's Bridal with my Maid of Honor and one of my Bridesmaids to have a look at a couple dress options for them.  Originally, I had two satin dresses picked out, but decided that I didn't like how they looked next to my dress.  So back to the drawing board I went.  The next option was to check out the chiffon ones.  Let me say, I really liked the feeling I got from them as opposed to the structured satin.  I think the chiffon was more of my personality... if that makes any sense at all. *shrug*

Anywho, we took to the racks at DB and found the dress choice for my Matron and Maid of honor pretty easily, but the bridesmaid dress took a bit more time.  Once we found the style number, I pulled it off the bar only to discover it had some sorta frilly... ruffled... jellyfish-esque detail down the back. Umm... what?!? To be honest, it looked pretty trash on the hanger, but we saw it on a mannequin and it looked ok so we kept it to try on.  Since the maids' dress was iffy, we took some time to find another option.  Then it was on to the dressing rooms!

The light blue dress is the Matron/Maid of Honor dress and the darker dress is option 1 for the bridesmaids.  See the jellyfishy ruffle?!?  Imagine my surprise when we pulled that off the rail...

Here is the MOH dress with the option 2 dress.  This was the dress we found in the store that day.  I'm pretty sure that these are the dresses we'll be going with. ^.^

After fiddling around with the pictures on pixlr.com, I changed the hue on them so I could see the dresses in what would be the wedding color.  Don't mind the purple skin ^.^
They look nice in the green :)  I really like that I feel good when I look at the dresses. Like I'm getting stuff done and making decisions. ::fist pump::

Wish me luck and focus as I continue this wedding planning adventure. Thanks!