i'm baaaaaaack!

ok, it's been almost a year since i've posted last time. i'm changing that game. i will be posting much more often again. sorry that i haven't been posting. sometimes life gets in the way of things and then it's been so long you don't know how to go back. but now i'm back. back from outer space. hehe.

so today's post, i thought i'd just share a board i have on pinterest. so when i find a project on pinterest, whether it be cross stitching, cooking or some kind of DIY project, i will post it in one of my many boards in my pinterest profile. but then once i've actually completed the project, i will move it out of the original board and put it in a whole new board. i call the new board: Things I've Actually Done That Are On Pinterest.  a friend from work gave me the idea of the board, and i thought it was a great idea. i have a bunch of cross stitch patterns in there, but there is other stuff i've done. food i've made, mod podge projects, just tons of stuff. i have 81 pins in the board. some of them where fun to make, some where a pain in the ass! but over all i like the projects that are listed in that board.

ok that's all from me today. i will be back with more to come!!!! have a good friday!

travel cross stitching

so i do a bunch of traveling. whether it's going to my dad and family in wisconsin, going to my moms every weekend for sunday dinner or visiting my siblings out west - i travel a bunch. and when i travel i at least take one cross stitch project with me. and i just thought i'd share the different things i use to take my projects with me everywhere.

the first thing is the bag i use to carry everything. the bag is actually a baby diaper bag. and i just love it. it has a million little pockets besides the big main pocket. and it just works perfectly for cross stitching. i can put my scissors in it's own pocket without worrying that i will poke myself when i dig for them (which happened a bunch before. hehe). my pencil sharpener gets it's own little spot. i just love the bag! with no issues i can pack some of my cross stitching books plus kits, hard box string containers and hoops of all sizes. and the best part about this bag is that since it is a baby diaper bag it is easy to carry around. needless to say i love it and think it's well worth getting a baby diaper bag to hold all your stuffs for cross stitching. it's perfect to take everywhere and can hold a bunch of stuff. here's a picture of my bag.

the other thing i wanted to mention is my string holder. when i've already started a project kit that gives me all the string, i never know what to do with the string when i'm done using it. for example i'll be doing a leaf and i only need one color for 10 stitches. what do i do with the left over string?! well i've figured out what to do is use baseball card holders to hold my string. no joke. i went to a local office store and bought baseball card page protectors to hold my string. so when i'm doing a kit and i know i'm going to use a certain color again, but i've already cut it off the original holder from the kit, i just write on a piece of paper the number of the color of the string and then stuff the string in the little pocket. i think it's a great way to hold all the string after i've cut if off of the holder from the kit. i use this mainly just for my kits. for all my other projects, i use my regular bulky box plastic string holder. here's a picture of what i'm talking about.

Dragoncon 2012 scrapbook

So I finally finished the scrapbook I was making for dragoncon 2012. I'm very pleased with the finished product. I like that its not perfect. I'm happy with how it turned out. For the cover and pages I used an old book. I just cut the covering off of the book and ripped the pages out of the book. I then punched holes into everything and bound it all together with two binder rings. Here are some pictures of the final product.

My new desk

so i've seen on etsy and pinterest people make things covered in comics. they will cover, for example, high heels and coffee tables with the comics and then use mod podge to glue it all done. well i thought i would take a hand at this. i glued down comics on my new desk. and i think it turned out pretty cool! here are some pictures of my new desk. with some of the close up photos, i pointed out the picture i was taking a photo of and really like. there are other characters showing in some of the photos.

here's a view of mostly the whole desk. you will see a bunch of different comic characters in there. its mostly marvel but i do have some from the dr who comic and some power girl (which is a dc comic). 

 here's a close up of captain america, cyclops and wolverine.

   

  here's a close up of spider-man. i like this one for i like the addition of the web he was slinging.

 

here's a close up of power girl. i really like this picture of her.

here's a close up of tony stark (iron man). i really like how tony stark is holding the iron man mask. 

here's a close up of night crawler, spider-man (again i like how the web is in the picture), deadpool and power girl. i like the night crawler and how it's showing that he just 'poofed' himself there.

 

here's dr who, storm and captain america. 

here's the scarlet witch.

 

here's captain america.  

 

here's dr who inside the tardis.  

Preview

Here's a little preview of a project I'm working on. When I'm done you'll have a full picture and description.

Steampunk harness

Happy holidays to everyone! So I'm in Arizona visiting my brother and family, so this post is from my phone. So i'll clean it up when I get home. Also if you want to see pictures from the trip, I'll post them on flickr.

My sister finished the steampunk harness. It looks so cool. I just had to share it with everyone! So big props to my sister! I'm very happy with the finished product. I can't wait to wear it. If you would like to see more stuff my sister has done, go to her website marianneegan(dot)com.

Steampunk costume

So my sister is an awesome seamstress. She is a teacher at Oregon state university for it. So because of my sisters mad sewing skills I've never really had to buy a dress (thank you sis!). So for dragoncon I've never really dressed in any sort of costume. Well my sister is making me a part of my Steampunk costume. I thought I would share the pictures of it so far. I'm so excited to wear it!

Cooking adventures

so this weekend i made beef stew. it was tasty! i had never made beef stew before and i had never used a slow cooker before. i had the stew in the slow cooker for at least 10 hours. it made the whole apartment smell great. here are some pictures. the first picture is all the ingredients together, right before i cooked it for the day. the second picture is me with the piece of meat i used for the stew. that was the smallest piece of meat that dominicks had. it was still huge! hehe. if anyone wants the recipe just ask. i think its nice and tasty. i made enough for me to eat it for lunch for the week.

whale skirt

so i bought a cute little jean skirt at target and then stitched on a whale to the skirt. i think it turned out cute. i'm going to mail it my brother and sister-in-law to give to my niece. i bought the skirt bigger then her size now, so she should be able to wear it for a while. here are the final results.

cross stitch frenzy

so last weekend i bought a beginners cross stitching kit. it was all halloween images, but small easy ones. i had a couple of false starts but with the help of my stepmother i figured out how to cross stitch. hehe. since then, i have made 3 of the images and i'm working on another one. i've also bought a cross stitching magazine and it has tons of DIY projects to make out of your cross stitch creations. like making a card, bag or a pillow with your cross stitch. my mom gave me her cross stitching stuff and i now have tons(!) of color string, a new hoop to hold the projects, and a new pattern. i've started to make the pattern - it's a pattern for a new born baby. it's got a picture of a giraffe, a bear holding a ball and a duck. at the bottom of the pattern it has space where you would add the new borns name, date of birth, weight, height. i don't have a new born baby to give this to, so i'm just going to make it and wait for a new born. when there is one, i'll add the name and things to it. maybe that is cheating a little bit, but it's not like i didn't put the work and effort, it will just be way ahead of time before the kid. hehe. so here are some images of what i'm talking about.

 here are the 3 halloween cross stitch i've made (sorry it's on the side, i couldn't figure out how to change it).

 here is the package of color strings that my mom gave me. 

here's the baby cross stitch i'm working on.

letter of pictures

so i tend to stay home a lot and putz around. i try to fill my time with more then just watching netflix. i love netflix, but i need to do more then stare at my computer all day. so i follow a bunch of different blogs and look on pinterest to get inspired. well i found this project and decided to make it for my mom for mothers day. it's a wood letter that i pasted pictures of the family on. the letter i chose was F for my moms last name starts with that. i then pasted different pictures of me, my siblings, grand kids and pictures of my mom and my step dad. for the first time doing this project i thought it turned out pretty well. here are some pictures of the finished product.

 the finished product.

the top edge - my sisters eyes. i love how this turned out.

a close up view of the finished product.

the side edge - my sister in law. i love how this looks.