sleep forever

After a visit to Pugly Pixel it's fair to say I suck at layout type stuff! Big giant photobucket-fail yesterday. It took three tries to fit Alabama's mug into the confines of my blog. All is well though, she's snuggling up next to me right now and I'm pretty content with being a Plain-Jane for the time being. Besides, looks aren't everything --- it's the content that counts!

Anyway, I was at a loss eating up every Sublime Stitching pattern I found appealing until I discovered Urban Threads. They feature some seriously cool patterns I plan on purchasing once I'm a) not broke as a joke and b) without an impending trip to California on the horizon. The thing is though, I feel like given my slight artistic talent I can manage some of those line drawings on my own and save the dollar. We shall see, it depends on how motivated I am.

Breaching White Shark, so elegant!

In bigger, better news. Discovery Channel's Shark Week kicks of tonight, WAHOO! I'm DVR-ing the opener on Great Whites. For a time during my freshman year of college I thought I might travel to a coastal town and do my graduate work in marine sciences but oh how things change! I know I'm not the only person having a blog-gasm over Shark-Week-hoo-haha.

Lastly, if you like dreamy rock songs like me, check out Portugal. The Man's Sleep Forever off their new album In the Mountain in the Cloud. Perfect for kicking back watching a summertime sunset.

fruit of the moon

fig newton commercial, one. more. time. I'm gonna scream!

pretty floss!

and this face!

summer smoke

I have no idea why banana cupcakes sound so delicious --- that's why a batch is currently baking on this hot, hot Thursday. At 400-some calories a pop, all I can say is YUM!!

I decided to make my own Elie Tahari inspired necklace featured on P.S. - I made this.... I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt! I'm gonna try and make it more drape-y the next time around, I even picked up some silver and gold pony beads because, big surprise to me, I don't have any. My bead collection is extensive too!

Thigh-crossin' flattering iPhone pose, yup.

I know my review of Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Snow Blast was much to be desired but I'm absolutely thrilled to say I love the lacquer in Antiqued Gold. It looks like I dipped my fingers into gold dust and every time I look at my fingers I get warm fuzzies, no exaggeration! Some of the polish breached onto my fingertips and I don't care. Cuz who else seen the leprechaun say yeeeeahhh! Yeaaaah! Most certainly found my pot of gold with this nail polish.

^^I wrote this before I wrote basically the same thing in a comment below. I don't want to edit it out because I like what I wrote, hah! Cupcakes are almost done, see ya!

embroidery lover

No bones aboout it, I love any and all embroidery. Tesoro Viejo sells vintage patches from the 1970s and I really dig this funky rainbow.

But Baxter takes the cake when it comes to my next little project.

Seriously, how awesome is he!?! I need to get started on an Alabama version stat! Along with my epic kitten painting, a hand embroidered piece of wonderment dedicated to my sweet, little rat-annihilator (YES, she killed a rat this weekend, but that's a story for another day) is most certainly adorning my future bathroom.

Stand by and enjoy this Steely Dan classic while I put together a post detailng my recent adventures in Craftland.

Sally Hansen Crack-attack

These pictures don't do the polish justice but I'll give my review anyway. I need a little something more than a point-n-shoot to get the job done or I really suck at setting my camera's functions. If you can spot my problem by all means let me know what the deal is. First things first, I bought the polish at Target for 6-something dollars after scouring many-a-CVS, Walgreens, Bed Bath & Beyond, you catch my drift. I had tiny hopes BB&B would carry the cheap Mia Crackle polish but sadly, it's an exclusive internet thing in my neck o' the woods.

I filed my nails into a square-ish shape and painted them into a rainbow of sorts --- almost a tropical Skittles thing going on.

From thumb to pinky the polishes are:

• Revlon Top Speed in Cupid
• Sinful Colors in Paradise
• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac
• Sinful Colors in Unicorn (not the first name I would've suggested)
• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Green With Envy

So after lacquering them babies up, I proceeded to apply Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in Snow Blast. BE FOREWARNED! You only need a thin coat otherwise it'll look like you dipped your fingers into white out and picked at it until your little heart's content. Hence the name overcoat.

Either way, the nail polish has a chipped white-out effect and the wear-ability is meh in my opinion. You can tell from my lineup of drugstore purchases I'm not a nail polish snob. Butter? What's that? I was under the false assumption it is something only spread upon toast. Better yet, I still dream about getting my grabby hands on a nifty bottle of that Chanel with a matte black finish. I once again digress. The results are as follows.

I didn't choose base colors with a ton of contrast because much to the chagrin of my boyfriend, I like to look corny. The texture reminded me of split jelly beans that crack as you pull them apart. Here is another photo for good measure.

I think this about sums up my review of Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat. It's funny how fads die out and re-emerge. I remember a brief period during the late 1990s/early 2000s when crackle nails were the It-thing of my sixth grade class --- a medley of Destiny's Child and TLC bumped from my portable headset while I polished my nails in pre-pubescent bliss. Girl. Power.

a much needed post

I've gone a little DIY crazy the past few days --- scouring blogs like they're my own personal candy shop (they kind of are, right?). Two things are happening in the near future 1) a picture post of my recent creations and 2) a list of my daily reads. Until then, here are some photos I've taken inspiration from lately!

Water Serpents II c. 1907

Gustav Klimt --- 'nuff said. I sense an almost quilt-like quality to some of his pieces.

Rhinoceros Beetle c. 2011

The artwork of Rebecca Ladds. She's gotten a lot of tumblr hype lately and I understand why. Check out her art blog here (also noted on the piece above) --- you will not be disappointed!

I don't know where this image is from but I love anything and everything anatomical. I have a miniature skull collection and I'd like to eventually make some tiny polymer clay skull beads. For now, I'm relying on some of the plastic variety.

A color collage from P.S. I made this... It's from last April but I still find relevance in it. The website has some cool tutorials too!

New Cannonball Blues by TV on the Radio is the perfect song jam to while working. The video to go along with the song is pretty cool as well. Such a bummer I missed them when they rolled through Detroit. I got mad love for Tunde!!

And lastly, the best company any girl could ask for! Hah! What'd you expect, my dog is my baby!

dancin' in the moonlight

I was blogger bitch slapped last night! Upon editing my last post ("frazzled") and experiencing a chrome freeze, none of my hard work was saved! Malfunctions are extremely frustrating. A couple hundred words, POOF! Kaput. No where to be found. Sigh, I digress.

I dyed the tips of my luscious locks royal blue and wore a pretty kickin' 1980s ensemble for the fourth, complete with my high wasted jean shorts, big earring, big hair and a rompter-cum-ruffled-tube top. On a side note, I didn't want to embarrass myself using the something-cum-something preposition wrong, thanks dictionary.com. And now that I'm re-reading this, my aside sounds wildly inappropriate. Ha!

Anyway, here are the locks!

...and the outfit!

I'm pretty sure you can tell how proud I am of myself! That's about it for tonight, until I embark on re-writing my lost nail polish review from yesterday!

frazzled

The list of things I'd like to do is constantly growing. It now includes:

• Gathering unwanted things for a garage sale
• Organizing my massive sticker collection
• Create a "my recipes" binder/notebook (I have a really cute idea for page dividers)
• Jot down (digitally) all of my favorite blogs

Sheesh, the pile keeps growing. Deep breaths are important because most times I feel like I'll never accomplish everything I would like to.

hunger buzz

I have an insatiable appetite with unlimited food porn (see Serious Eats, CHOW, Epicurious, etc.) at my disposal. It's funny how my brain switched from a "meh" attitude towards cooking into a full-blown foodie (to be frank I hate the word 'foodie' and all its connotations --- but alliteration for the win!).

I'm undertaking a couple summer projects including (but not limited to):

• re-paining our garden gnome --- if he turns out cute I'm stealing him for my future place of residence
• embroidering some realistic-looking butterflies into patches of some sort
• crocheting an afghan similar to this one (see above picture) from anthropologie
• organizing my thread collection (it's huge but I cannot resist a good floss bargain)
• creating some handmade cards to send to my boyfriend, best friend, and grandmamas
• putting together some inspiration journals with magazine clippings, etc.
• establishing an etsy store of sorts
• and lastly, working on this blog to make it great!

If I had some more cash I'd probably try my hand at some furniture restoration. Sigh, summer isn't everlasting.