Saturday, November 30, 2013

2013 Buffyfest Whedonverse Ornament Swap!

It's that time again!  The 6th annual Buffyfest Whedonverse Ornament Swap!

Click the Buffyfest Ornament Swap link on the right side bar or in the tags below this post to see some of the cool ornaments I have received and created to give in the 5 years I have taken part in the swap.

This year, as usual, I did the "What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" dance of panic.  I searched on the internet for crafts made with paper because I had a few duplicate copies of Buffy season 8 comics and I wanted to incorporate the pages into my ornaments.  I came across this very simple tutorial.  Simple, but a bit time-consuming, so I did them while watching "Castle."














These ornaments were sent off to California, Illinois, and even Canada.  Six of us in the group, so I had to create five ornaments for the other participants.  Can't wait to see what I get!

Friday, November 29, 2013

Gobble Gobble

I hope you all had a great Thankgiving! We certainly did.

Wednesday night, Brenda drove up after work. We hung out with two dozen Dunkin Donuts she brought up.  She started marinating and prepping the pork loin for the following day's feast.  She had also brought with her an early Christmas present for our daughter. She, my dad, my mom and my grandpa all pitched in to get Isabel a GINORMOUS dollhouse. Jake and she snuck it into the house and upstairs while she was sleeping that night. Then Brenda and I finally got around to putting it together....at four in the morning.  We never slept.  We were done with it around...7:30 a.m. and then we went downstairs to start the prep work for the day's feast.

When dad arrived, they presented Isabel with the house.

I ran upstairs to get a hair rubber band. When I came back down to prep the turkey, this is what I found.


We hadn't slept.  This is what Brenda does when she's loopy.

Dad arrived, soon followed by little sis Vicky, her husband Damian and their daughter Ava.






We ate and ate and ate, so then we decided to go for a walk. Dad left for home.

My dad and my kids

Dad, big sis Brenda, niece Ava and her mommy, my little sister Vicky.


The Walking Gluttons

Jake took some videos for Vine.  This first one is because we keep saying "Ew" like Jimmy Fallon's "ew!" skits.

It's muted, so you'll need to unmute.  You can also click on it to stop it.






When we came back, we hung out. David and Damian watched "Man of Steel" while Jacob, Brenda, Vicky and I played "Apples to Apples."  While this was going on, this happened.

Unmute it.  Click to stop.



They left Saturday morning.  It was a good time.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Wacky Izzy, Clever Izzy

It was Wacky Hair Day at school.  

She just woke up.


(I see me)




So proud of my little girl. She struggles with math but still managed to make honor roll. 

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Peter Pan, Matte Mani, and Mickey



 I truly just adore this Peter Pan design.  Michael, John, and Wendy Darling following Peter to Nevernever land.  It is not my own, and the person who I copied from is WAY better at it than me, but I still adore them.



Here, I wanted to try my Orly Matte Top Coat, so I painted my nails a midnight blue, topped them with the matte coat and then painted on a french tip.  Not bad, but I found the matte coat wore off as the day progressed and the "shiny" came back.  Oddly enough, I tried a cheap matte coat I bought at Wal-mart on the other hand, and it lasted longer than the expensive Orly.





These Mickey nails were cute, from this YouTube video.  I had a nail glue incident right before this, which is funny NOW, but a little panic-inducing when it happened. (stuck two fingers together. That stuff is NO JOKE.) Weirdly enough, I like my right hand better, and I drew that with my left hand (not left handed.)

Monday, November 4, 2013

The Ten Year Blanket

Once upon a time, David and I got pregnant. We decided that as a couple, we would cross-stitch an amazing afghan for our daughter. Yes, my husband cross stitches too. We're meant to be.



We decided on a Precious Moments book with lots of patterns and chose one with a baby, an angel and animals in the middle, and the entire alphabet around the afghan.  Our deal was, I did the middle, he did the name and date in the middle and then we would split the alphabet going around.

Thinking that there was NO WAY this girl was going to be anything but dark like Jacob was, I did this:




I made her dark.  We continued doing the work, little by little. I finished all my letters and my middle section.  David was still working away on his section.

Then, she was born.




I proceeded to remove the dark hair and make her a blonde, while I waited for David to finish his letters.

We moved. The blanket was packed away. We forgot about it until this 2009 or so, when I grabbed the bag it was in and asked David if he was going to finish it. Fast forward four more years.  Still not done.

 She will be TEN in March of 2014!  So this year, I finished all of the letters he did not do.


*feet sold separately


Ta Daaaaa! Isabel's baby blanket.
Ten Years in the Making!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Halloween Redux

Isabel was on EPBOT!  If you're unfamiliar with it, Epbot's this girly, nerdy, fan-girl, D.I.Y. Crafty blog run by Jen of Cake Wrecks.  If you don't know what Cake Wrecks is, stop being a hermit.

In their Halloween post, they included Isabel's Halloween Applejack costume made by her aunt Jennifer.  My sister Brenda made this .jpg of the post below, cutting everything out but Isabel.


YAY!