I can post these now that (almost) everyone has received theirs. Originally, I was only going to make a few and send store-bought ones... but ended up making all of them. And some envelopes too, since I ran out. I can't measure or glue properly, but I can cut straight! Hopefully not many of them got smushed or fell apart too badly.





[x] 006. handmade cards

007/101 completed

Also, thanks deadmantalks, maidenus, and ferrell for your cards!

Have I mentioned I don't know how to sew? Because I don't. In 5th grade (13 years ago), we had to make a drawstring bag out of a pre-cut piece of fabric and some string. That's the extent of my sewing experience. My mom fixes my buttons and torn seams.

So I'm pretty proud of how this turned out, considering I did it by hand with pretty much no idea what I was doing. I used this pattern from dA to start, and then kind of made up the rest (the zipper, lining, hook). It's supposed to be this crooked *shifty eyes*. Good thing the whole DIY look works with my costume. I also need to safety pin a felt heart and pocket watch onto his body.

Fun Fact #1: I didn't want to buy stuffing, so I cut open a stuffed Easter bunny I have. It was re-gifted to me for my birthday. My birthday is nowhere near Easter.
Fun Fact #2: I pulled the zipper from a skirt I got for one cent. It was a cute skirt, but two sizes too big for me.

[x] 009. sew something

002/101 completed

Post-its come in 3-inch squares. Except the yellow ones, which are apparently 1/8 of an inch shorter. The hardest part was finding both that were the same size. When I did find 3-inch yellow post-its, it was a part of a pack of 5 (at the smallest). Now I have hot pink and purple post-its I'm never going to use. And a whole bunch in colors that I do like, but it'll take years to use them up.

It was also harder than I thought it would be to line each one up next to each other. I started redoing a large section because I wanted it perfect, but I'm not *that* OCD and ended up just leaving it.

The idea was to make a smaller bouquet than the last one (note the star-shaped pineapple; the flower cookie cutter was too large), but there still ended up being a lot of fruit in it. I had green grapes this time, and honeydew instead of cantaloupe. The color combination didn't work as well, but it tasted better. I also used rice instead of lettuce as the base in this (because I forgot to pick up lettuce). It worked really well packed tight, and also served as a weight to keep the container from falling over. The hardest part was still slicing cutting through the skin of the pineapple.

I think my first arrangement was better, but I still paused traffic while walking with it. Drivers slowed to look as they passed by. More importantly, my mother liked it.

We were looking at Edible Arrangements the other day, which led to my brilliant idea of making my own fruit bouquet as my Christmas contribution (since I didn't have any presents). It looked easy enough; I could de-construct how it was done from looking at the catalog pictures. I also have experience with floral arrangements, and I'm naturally creative – so how hard can it be? My first one will come out awesome.

( gather supplies ) ( cut to shape ) ( assemble onto skewers ) ( insert into 'vase', and... )


Start to finish was about 3 hours, and most of that was the cantaloupe. I am quite happy with the results. ( and so was everyone else :D ) Another merry Christmas this year.

We've been here for 8 months, but haven't finished moving in yet, and haven't really decorated much. We have lots of frames, and we have photos and photo paper to print even more photos on, and we have my drawings. But we haven't framed any of it - our walls and shelf-tops are still bare.

I wanted to give him something that he would be proud to display. Every present I've given him before had been handmade (by me), and this time wasn't any different, just more meaningful/metaphorical. And what more metaphorical than balloons? Relationships are fragile like balloons; they can pop and burst, and they can deflate until there's nothing left. Or they can grow and go higher and higher, and hey, our song is Such Great Heights.

So this is what I ended up with:



While putting this together, I realized that we have lots of photos of us together in 2003 (when we first got together), and 2005 (when I got my new camera), but not that many from the other years. Lots of photos, yes, just not too many of us together.

I originally designed it for 8x10, but the largest frame I had here was 5x7 (the rest of them are still under my bed at my mom's). It didn't resize proportionally; I had to move things around a little, but it's basically the same. I wanted the balloons to get bigger with each year, but perspectively, it should have been the other way around. So I just left them all the same size. I also wanted them to have the shine and shadows for weight and volume, but that didn't work out either so they're just outlined. I couldn't fuss with it too much more, because I wanted to get it to him on time.

I handed it to him when I got home on Wednesday. I don't think he was expecting anything, but he loves it, and has been showing it off to everybody since :D

Yes, I hate Valentine's Day, but only the commercialized version of it. I like the Valentine's Day that's still meaningful, that's thoughtful gifts and a nice dinner together. I hope yours was the latter.

I forgot how fun this is, I forgot the concept even existed. Childhood feels like such a long time ago now, a lot longer than it should feel for someone whose largest slice in the lifetime pie chart is still childhood (when measured in years/total years lived).

I used to cut so many of these and tape them up, because where I live(d), there was no chance of seeing real snowflakes out my window. Maybe I'll cut some real ones later, but for now, here's the digital one I made, thanks to Popular Front: SnowDays.

They're increasing the amount they're donating to the Salvation Army based on the number of snowflakes created, so go make one or a few. It's for a good cause, and it's fun! The site is awesome too. You can "catch" the falling ones with your mouse and see what other people have created, and leave replies to their messages.

I'm going to make more tonight, delicate and pretty cut-out snowflakes. But for now, I have work I need to get back to and finish.

First one I did, with the drawing tip. It's sloppy because I couldn't get my hand to stop shaking. ( photo behind cut )

I used a different tip for the second one, and when I got to the O, I remembered what ribboning (or whatever the real term is) was. It worked nicely for the lettering (except for the whole falling-over part of the V), but not so much for the curvy shape. (The spot with the missing frosting is not my fault. It got dropped or bumped against something before I even got to it.) ( photo behind cut )

close-up of detail:


veroz did the icing on the blue cake: ( photo behind cut )

And yes, winniewong, we remembered the TM.

After we got home Saturday and unloaded the leather couch, chair, and ottoman, we had to carry them up two flights of narrow stairs. I thought my legs were going to buckle under me (like they almost did tonight with the speakers), but we got it inside and set up, chipping only a small corner of the closet door.

After resting up, we went to Walmart – just before they closed – and we got a floor lamp, shower curtain, and some kitchen and cleaning essentials. Then we went to Ikea this morning.

Assembling my new nightstand/bedside table. I like putting together my own stuff. It makes it so much more mine.

This is his completed, and our new TV stand which turned out to be so much more of a perfect fit than we expected. We also got a set of really pretty plates and bowls, see-through blue glass that matches with our silverware. All we need now is a kitchen table and chairs, and then we can have people over for dinner. The place is really coming together and we couldn't be any happier with it, or with each other, or we'd explode from too much happiness and die.