strike a robot pose.

When you unexpectedly happen upon a photo booth, it's important you do it. Immediately. Sometimes it gets a bit silly. Especially with four people. Four people don't fit very well in the standard photo booth. Let's see. I believe there was a:

Monkey, scared, angry, excited, mean mug, dinosaur, surprise we weren't ready for the photo, and robot.

Can you guess which pose is which?    

the year of finished projects.

I have decided that, as part of my yearly resolutions, 2012 will be the year of finishing the unfinished.  I have quite the list going of projects/books/adventures that I have started or planned, and that have gone uncompleted.  I figure this year is as good as any to play catchup!  Here's my list so far. I'm sure I'll be adding to this list throughout the year...

Projects to finish!

- Pillowcase embroidery project (Finished! See below!)

- Knitted scarflette (my first knitting project!)

- Kitchen hand towels, the first of which was showcased here.  Three to go.

- Photo collage (Finished! See below)

Projects planned, but that I have yet to start! 

(As you will see, many of these projects/ideas come from Pinterest. No, I can't help myself.)

- Anna Maria all purpose bag (the plan was for two of these, one for me and one for my mom.  Mom's was finished, but never photographed... as is usually the case! Mine hasn't made it to the sewing table yet.)

- Reusable sandwich bags (still working this project out in my head)

- Felt circle pillow, as seen here, to go with my growing and eclectic collection of homemade pillows

- Wine cork trivets, seen here, because we have no shortage of wine corks! 

- DIY hair comb (I think they're making a comeback...)

- DIY wrap bracelets, seen here.  Plans are in the works to a group craft night (Crafty Beaver's Night), but Snowmageddon might get in the way of that.

- Handmade notebooks using fabric and paper scraps for the covers. 

Anyway, on to what I've done so far.  Here's a project that I've been working on for at least a year and a half. No joke. Well, ok, I worked consistently on it for a few months, and then put it down until last week. Boom. Done. This looks great as a decorative pillow on my bed. Part of my effort to bring some color into my life. I especially love those little bluebirds! 

At the beginning of the year, my roommate (housemate, whatever you call it) Emily and I thought it would be a good idea to rearrange out living room. To bring some good change to the flow of our apartment. We love the new set up, but the wall our TV sits on is a big, ugly, white wall.  We needed something and figured a photo collage wall would be great here.  I gathered some old heavy brown wood frames from thrift stores in the area, and spray painted them black or white.  Despite the wall still being big and ugly white, I was happy with how the collage wall turned out.

Up next... finishing this scarflette before winter turns to spring.  Which, here in Seattle, could be any day now or many months away.  In any case, I need to get to work! (and thanks to Jill for this great bag from her last giveaway!)

-shauna

christmastime crafts.

Although this wasn't a big crafting season, I was able to finish a few projects.  For my work holiday party, my good friends Reetu and Laura helped me put together these centerpieces.  Thanks to Pinterest for the idea!  I took wine and beer bottles (labels on or off, it doesn't really matter), spray painted them with white primer, and let them dry for several hours.  Then applied Modge Podge to the bottles and rolled them in Epsom salt mixed with silver and gold glitter.  Platters and ornaments are from the dollar store.  Quick and easy, and looked great on red table cloths! 

You'll see a theme in my craft endeavors this year, most came from Pinteresting.  For a few friends, I decided to make lightweight infinity scarves, something that would work both in our cold Pacific Northwest winters and cool summer nights.  I used a brown linnen fabric, and a border of blue or white poms.  There were some tricks and turns to be overcome during this project, but in the end I was happy with how they turned out!

I've been wanting to make body scrub for a while now.  It's always shocking to me that a tub of this stuff runs $10 - $15 at body shops.  That's a lot for body scrub! So I used a few different recipes, added and took away, and came up with a Lemon-Brown Sugar Body Scrub.  Ingredients are as follows: Lemon peal, lemon juice, brown sugar, regular sugar, and safflower oil.  I just mixed all ingredients, adding a little here and a little there, until i seemed to have the right consistency.  I suppose you could use any oil you want, I chose safflower for a less potent smell than, say, olive or vegetable.  Of course, I had to sample the product before I gifted the jars.  Although you have to give it a quick mix before each use (easily done by hand in the shower), in my opinion, this stuff works great! Try it out!

I did make my momma something for Christmas too, but as usual, I gifted it before I got photos of it!  I'll have to get ahold of it again and snap some photos, so be on the look out for those!

-shauna

snowmageddon.

As many of you know, and are experiencing as I type, Seattle is in the midst of a "Snowmageddon".  Also known as the "Winter Extreme" or "Icepocalypse" or even "Snow-M-G" for short.  It is cold.  Like really cold.  Yesterday, my office closed. Which is a BIG DEAL.  Seattle University was also closed so I had a bona fide adult snow day on my hands.  How often does that happen?!  Later in the afternoon I decided to brave the elements and take a walk down the hill to the grocery store (I was out of cream for my coffee in the morning, which gave me a good excuse to get out of the house).  On my snow walk to Whole Foods down the hill, I regretted not bringing my ski goggles and the icy snow whopped me in the face.  But I was thankful for my big purple Danner boots (thanks Dad!).  Along the way I was able to capture some photos of the day that shut down the city...

And some more...

Today, I decided to brave it into work.  This was just as the ice storm began.  I made it to work with only a couple of "oh shit" moments, only to find out an email was sent out five minutes earlier telling everyone to stay home.  I, along with the seven or so other coworkers who made it in, hung around for a bit, watching the rain turn to snow, and back to freezing rain and decided we should get out while we still could.  So I made the trek back to Queen Anne, which was an ice rink by that point.  But the Jetta prevailed! And I made it home safely. 

All these snow days have given me time to upload some photos, and get into blog mode. Expect more to come soon!

-shauna