Happy New Year 2012: Upcoming Projects

Wow, am I behind!  Lots of fun things have been happening.  Most notably, we bought our first house!  So, yes --- I finally got to PAINT something!  Granted, the only painting we've done is the front door (purple, yo), but it is OURS.

 

Another big deal is getting my first "grown-up" phone...on Wednesday.  LOL  Yes, it took me that long to get a touch screen, internet, and Words with Friends on my phone. 

 

The last big piece of news is that I've professionally partnered with Refuge for Women, a non-profit that ministers to adult entertainment workers and victims of human trafficking.  They are the only "safe house" in the country that doesn't require the women to pay or to detox before coming --- if women are ready to escape, they have a place to go!  Anyway, they are currently full to capacity and have to turn away any new applicants.  A bunch of us local Mary Kay beauty consultants have partnered with them to raise $30,000 for a downpayment on a second house...and we need your help!  There are two ways to help.  First, I need sponsors -- .50 per face, $1 per face, $2, $5, even $10 per face, to sponsor my 30 faces during the fundraiser.  Second, I need faces.  :)  Every woman who gets pampered this month (for FREE), whether it's a facial, a makeover, or a pedicure, earns the sponsors' donations to the Refuge!  So get your winter skin care update, learn a 3-minute makeup routine, and get your foundation perfectly-matched...and give back at the same time!  When was the last time you could recharge your emotional batteries, look and feel better/younger/healthier, have some girl time (time to yourself or time with friends) for free AND support such an impactful ministry at the same time...?  So get your girlfriends all excited and contact me, if you are a current client of mine OR if you are currently without the services of a professional beauty consultant!  (P.S.  Anyone in the U.S., Puerto Rico, or Guam can get pampered or sponsor!)

Here are some of the projects I've been working on.  When I get a chance, I'll post tutorials.  Click to see larger pictures:

My 6 year-old vinyl planner cover was cracking and falling apart, so I designed a new one!  Leopard print, of course.  I <3 felt!

Made one for a sister beauty consultant, too.



Started a new Christmas tradition this year, too.

...and who learned to read?

Each Christmas Eve, we give the boys new pajamas.  This year, I found some "Agent P" thermal PJs for our 5½ year-old, but they didn't come any smaller for my 2¾ year-old.  I bought a pair of coordinating plain blue thermals and then just free-handed a felt applique of Perry to sew on the front.

Last year's Christmas jammies get worn ALL.THE.TIME.  Like, 24 actual hours a day, several days in a row.  Even out of the house. (Hey, they're covered, they're warm, we aren't late because of getting dressed, and I don't have to fight with them to wear socks.  Parenting WIN)  However, as a result, there are several holes in the feet.  That meant I had to learn how to darn!  Who knew it was so simple?

My boys' play store has some plastic food, but they keep asking for the kinds of food we eat -- like whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes.  Enter felt!  These pancakes were my first foray into self-designed play food: chocolate chip on one side, plain on the other.  Just for kicks, I made two with felt "chips" and two with French knot "chips".  That was fun!  Got in a bunch of American Pickers on Netflix while I made those bad boys.

Guess what kind of felt play food I'm working on here?  My own design -- I'm so proud!

We LOVE Family Fun Magazine and always turn down the corners on several projects.  Then never make them.  Finally, I decided to go through the magazine with the boys and ask them which projects interested them.  Then I'd have accountability!  LOL   Here's the first one we worked on: posable felt animals.  They aren't finished yet.

That's all for now, but if one project gets a bunch more comments than another, I'll put up that tutorial first!

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'Poo-Free for Life!

Yeah, it's not what you think.  See the apostrophe?  (Anybody else always want to pronounce "apostrophe" with a French accent?  No?  Just me?  Okay...)

Six years ago, I saw a book displayed in my local library.  From the looks of it, it was probably produced by some teeny-bopper magazine and talked about hairspray and flat irons.  What caught my eye, however, was the redhead on the front.  The redhead with long, beautiful curls.

In my flat-on-top, frizzy/wavy-on-bottom world, this was über hair.  I pulled down the book, intrigued...then I read the title: Curly Girl: The Handbook (A Celebration of Curls: How to cut them, care for them, love them, and set them free).

Wait, not produced by Tiger Beat?  This was a serious book for grown-ups?

Turns out it was one of those moments in time where your life is changed forever.  I'm not putting it on par with Salvation or anything, but as far as hair care goes, this was IT.  After perusing it in the library, I checked it out.  Then renewed it.  Four times.  Then bought it.

The whole book focuses on celebrating ― instead of resenting ― your natural curls.  The beginning explains the science of curly hair.  Basically, it's drier than straight hair, which is why it curls up and frizzes.  And why using shampoo all the time (which strips oil) is not a good thing for Curly Girls.  Yes, my "'poo-free" status refers to shampoo.  As in, I don't use it.  Ever.  Ew...

Well, that's what you're thinking, right?  "Ew"?  That's what I thought the first time I tried it, too.  Turns out, all some of us need to cleanse our scalps is friction and a medium with which to carry away dirt and excess oil.  I still go through the motions of shampooing (massage product into scalp with fingertips, rinse away), but I use conditioner instead.  I also mix a little brown sugar in mine to exfoliate dry patches (it dissolves).  Guess what?  I don't get dandruff and severe itch all the time like I used to ― because I'm not drying out my scalp with shampoo anymore.  After the "cleansing" step, I follow the conditioning steps for my hair type.  Once out of the shower, I scrunch my hair dry (NO rubbing) and scrunch on an anti-frizz curl treatment.

The book divides Culry Girls into three types: wavy, Botticelli, and corkscrew.  Thought I was wavy, but after doing the Curly Girl process one time, I discovered I'm actually Botticelli!

Here are my before-Curly Girl and after-Curly Girl pictures:

One of my biggest frustrations had always been how the top of my hair was flat, instead of wavy or curly like the rest of my hair.  I figured it was because the weight of my long, wet hair was pulling it flat as it dried.  For years, I only ever took showers at night, so my hair could dry splayed out upon my pillow, but it still never quite curled from root to tip.  Enter Curly Girl!  Part of the Curly Girl drying process involves lifting your hair from the root so air can circulate and dry it, while also lifting the rest of your hair to prevent weighing-down.  I modified the method from the book so I could leave the house with my wet hair still lifted and not look like a crazy person while my hair dried properly.  Here's what it looks like:

Incognito!  You'd never guess there was 3 feet of hair tucked up in there.  I get a lot of compliments on this style, and people are always afraid I cut my hair!  LOL  It's so simple to do, too.  Basically, I get tiny claw clips, pouf forward a section of wet hair along my hairline, and clip it in place.  Repeat from ear to ear.  Then do a second row behind that one, off-setting the clips so they pick up hair from two of the clips in the front row.  The long hair hanging down in back gets divided into four quadrants, and each quadrant gets folded over and scrunched up against my head, then held in place by a medium-sized claw clip.  Voila!  Instant "short" hair.  The next day, I take out all the clips and my hair is curly root-to-tip.

My boys are both curly redheads, and we follow Curly Girl with them too.  No hassle, no tears.

My husband calls this their "ninja picture".  (We were couch jumping.)

I highly encourage you to check out this book, if you or someone you love has natural waves, curls, or frizz.  Two thumbs waaaaaay up!

Sushi for Scaredy-Cats, part 2

We've made sushi several times since my Sushi for Scaredy Cats post but forgotten to photograph the process.  We had friends over tonight as a last big hoo-hah before their 3rd son was born.  What better time to document our dinner?  (For the record, she ended up going into labor the next day, which makes it 2-0 for pregnant friends delivering the day after having dinner with us.)  Maybe we should offer a labor kickstart service...?

We never got around to buying a sushi-rolling mat, since our Japanese grocery is waaaay across town.  While we were at IKEA, however, we bought a $1.99 Toga placemat to use instead.  Whichever you have, be sure to wrap it tightly and completely in plastic wrap.

We started with the fixins for four adults, two 4 year-olds, and two 2 year-olds. We ran out of nori before we were all full, but it was fun experimenting with rice-only rolls! LOL They were a little squishy (and not at all proper, I'm sure), but it got the job done.  In fact, we loved them -- you could really taste the avocado without the nori there to compete.

Check out the Sushi for Scaredy Cats post for more details on the "how to" before you begin!

This time, we used julienned carrots and cucumber, cream cheese strips, avocado strips, krab, and smoked salmon --- all pretty cheap, depending on the time of year.  For the carrots, we found that using a vegetable peeler on baby carrots, then matchsticking them, worked really well.  The cucumber should be peeled and seeded before matchsticking.  If we'd had green onion, it would've been a perfect spread.  Well, and bbq eel.  Yes, seriously.  If you ate it without knowing what it was, you would want it too.  So there.

You can buy "sushi rice" and rice vinegar at WalMart now, but I can't vouch for the quality.  Here's what we did to the rice:

1. Make the sushi rice according to the package directions.  We used 3c uncooked for this dinner, and it was exactly/barely enough for our group.  Let the rice cool.
2. Heat 6T rice vinegar, 4T sugar, and 2tsp salt until it mixes together, then let it cool.  Again, this is the amount for 3c uncooked rice.  If you find this ratio too sweet/salty/vinegary, adjust it for your tastes.
3. Fold the cooled mixture into the cooled rice in a large bowl.
4. Mix a little water and a little rice vinegar into a little bowl for fingertips and knives.

Leslie was a natural sushi-roller.

See? I promised I'd get an in-progress rolling pic!  I drew a little arrow so you could see how the mat moves as you roll.  First, roll up the end of the mat that has the fillings on it, just until the end of the nori touches the rice bed beyond the fillings.  IMPORTANT: lift the mat up and away instead of letting it tuck under and touch the rice bed, or it could get rolled up into your sushi!  As you continue, you'll need to lift up that end of the mat when you roll (like Leslie's doing with her left hand, above).  Shape the sushi roll into a cylinder by tucking the mat around to the base of the roll (the little bobble in the arrow) and squeezing gently and evenly through the mat along the length of the roll. 

FACT: food tastes better when you work for it.  Click the pic above to see the Awabdys close-up.  They're darling.

Mark tries his hand at an inside-out roll.

Wetting the knife with vinegar water to prevent sticking.

We didn't have any, but you can sprinkle the rice with sesame seeds before flipping it if you want them on the outside of your inside-out roll.

The shark smells sushi...here comes Caspian...

Two year-olds look hilarious trying to wolf down a sushi roll, but it's probably safer to let them take bites.  Nori-less rolls are a little less messy, too.

Woe betide her who tries to tell Caspian he can't take every.single.piece off the group plate.  Following with "until you finish what you already took" quickly resets the sushi-lover's tantrum clock.  (Speaking of clocks, check the microwave to see how long that turnaround took).

Even if your kids won't/can't eat the rolls, they'll probably eat the fillings and the rice.

The ends of the roll will always look funny (top, left), especially if you squeezed too hard when you rolled.

But at our house, there's always someone willing to eat them...for the sake of the photo, of course.

the aftermath

Rescuing Blemished Clothes

Ack, that sounds so serious!

This post has nothing to do with cleaning, let me tell you.  It has to do with having/finding a piece of clothing that is only one small stain (or ugly design) away from usability.  I should call it "Save That Shirt"!  LOL  This will open your eyes to keeping those cherished onesies, shirts, and pants that fell prey to spills.  Or, in my case, taking advantage of a super-affordable item that has a less-than-ideal picture on it.  Now I'm lamenting all the cute clothes I tossed that had stains or sports on them...and now I'm also spending more at Goodwill!  (Like that needed to happen...)

Figure out what design or picture you want on your item and sketch it out to get a feel for the size.  Caspian chose Plex, and fortunately settled for just his head.  He'd outgrown all of his light outerwear, and I found a great hoodie at our Habitat for Humanity ReStore for 50¢.  Well, it was great except for the yucky football screenprint on the chest.

Take some felt (on sale 8-for-$1) and some embroidery thread (which you probably already have) and, in my case, a button from my late grandmother-in-law's sewing stash.

Then make-over your hoodie!  Granted, I wouldn't have chosen a grey design for a grey hoodie, but I didn't have silver felt and Caspian wanted Plex, end of story.  :)   I positioned all my pieces, then Fabri-tac-ed the layers together and stitched each piece down before Fabri-tac-ing them down to the next piece.  I hand-sewed the button on (it's Caspian's favorite part).  At the end, I fray-checked all the threads and knots on the backside.  Can you find the feature I forgot to topstitch...?

Think of all the possibilities!  Coordinate a plain shirt to match a patterned skirt, personalize with monograms, the mind reels!  Felt is so inexpensive and user-friendly.  I was totally inspired and empowered by my IRL friend Andrea, who is a felt appliqué goddess.  Just look at this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and THIS, and oh my gosh THIS (I know, it's not felt, but wow).  You can do this with fleece too, which you also don't have to finish, or you can use regular fabric, which will fray.  For now, I'm sticking with felt.

Got plenty more in-progress pics to come!

Rescuing Blemished Clothes

Ack, that sounds so serious!

This post has nothing to do with cleaning, let me tell you.  It has to do with having/finding a piece of clothing that is only one small stain (or ugly design) away from usability.  This will open your eyes to keeping those cherished onesies, shirts, and pants that fell prey to spills.  Or, in my case, taking advantage of a super-affordable item that has a less-than-ideal picture on it.

Figure out what design or picture you want on your item.  Caspian chose Plex, and fortunately settled for just his head.  He needed some light outerwear that fit, and I found a great hoodie at our Habitat for Humanity ReStore for 50¢.  Well, it was great, except for the yucky football screenprint on the chest.

Take some felt and some embroidery thread (which you probably already have) and, in my case, a button from my grandmother-in-law's sewing stash.

Then make-over your hoodie!  Granted, I wouldn't have chosen a grey design for a grey hoodie, but I didn't have silver felt and Caspian wanted Plex, end of story.  :)

Got plenty more in-progress pics to come!