Thursday, June 13, 2013

New Blog Address!

I am VERY excited to share the link to my NEW blog! The name took forever to come up with, but I love it and it definitely fits me better than the previous names I had. There are no posts on it yet, but I am writing one that will be ready Friday afternoon! So about the time you would see a new post here, that's when it will be up on the other blog. I may schedule it in case I forget...not sure yet. But, here it is!

Sew Short & Crafty Blog -
http://sewshortandcrafty.wordpress.com/


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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Doing Some Brainstorming...

I'm reconsidering my abrupt switch from Wordpress back to Blogger that I did before my laptop died. I did it out of anger, and I shouldn't have. For all I know, my crappy computer could have caused the problem. I don't know. I'm trying to come up with a new blog name so I can start somewhat fresh on the new blog with new colors, and fresh posts - I am not importing the posts from this blog. I will link to them from the new blog, but I will not update this one once the other one is up and running. I will not have a tutorial this Thursday or a recipe on Friday; just letting you guys know.

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I am on a Mission! {Fashion & Beauty}


After learning a lot more about it and researching alternatives, I am actively working towards switching to all vegan/cruelty free beauty products. I recently ordered some products from one of my favorite Etsy shops, Madison Street Beauty! I ordered an eyeshadow, a nail polish, and a lip balm. I then ended up winning a pack of 4 nail polishes! I have so far used the Gold Rush (toes) and Pacific Cobalt (hands) and they are so beautiful! The gold only takes one coat for great coverage! The cobalt took 2 coats. I have GOT to learn to use a clear topcoat (I have some somewhere) so I can stop chipping my nail polish off, though.

Some other items I will be trying from them are their foundation, lip sheer, and blush! I have no doubt I'll love these products as well and will be making the switch to them. Some other products I need to find good replacements for are:

  • my favorite Degree deodorant (Shower Clean - I think...). There's only certain deoderants I can use, and this is one of them.
  • my MK moisturizer - I sometimes have dry skin issues, and the Mary Kay Timewise for Normal-Dry skin is the only thing tat works for me right now. If I can't find a good alternative, then I may just stop using it completely.
  • my Bodycology lotion - The back of the bottle says the "finished product" is not tested on animals. But that really doesn't tell me much...It just gives me an excuse to go to Bath and Body Works, which is on the Does Not Test list on PETA's website!
I will finish up some of the products I have since I hate wasting and they're already here, but those companies that do test on animals will not see another dime or dollar from me. I feel careless for not paying attention to these things before, and I am changing that for myself now.



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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

{DIY} Artsy Journal

 
 
 I made a pretty new journal the other day that I have begun taking to class with me. It's just so cute and since it fits in my purse (and coordinates!), I figured why not? I haven't written in it yet, though.
 

 
I grabbed some wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, double sided tape, and scissors, as well as the notebook. The actual composition book, not the movie.
 
 
 
I wrapped the book very simply with the wrapping paper, securing it with the tape along the inside edges. I added a random magazine cutout...not sure where I got the magazine. I cut two strips and a butterfly from the scrapbook paper, and added letter stickers for my initials.

 
I then added a length of ribbon, also attached with tape (yeah, it's not getting roughly handled and I had already burned myself with my hot glue gun that day, so...).

 
Tie it up and you're done! Write in it, or just let it hang out on your desk!

 
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Friday, June 7, 2013

{Foodie Friday} Easy Beef & Bean Tacos

TGIF! Today, I have a wonderful recipe I randomly decided to make a few days ago. I took a few recipes from Pinterest, Google, and Pioneer Woman and combined bits and pieces to make up my own recipe! I don't claim this to be some brand new, never-made recipe, it's just something I thought up in my head on a whim and it turned out delicious! 
 
Easy Beef & Bean Tacos w. Roasted Corn Salsa
 
*FYI: I totally blanked and forgot to take any pictures of the finished tacos and rice. But trust me, it looked beautiful and tasted great!
 
 
First, drizzle some olive oil into a pan and dump in some corn kernels. Roast them for about 15 minutes at 450 F. I then broiled them for another 5 minutes.

 
Meanwhile, chop half of a medium onion and a whole Roma tomato and dump into a bowl. Add crushed red pepper, parsley, and salt. I then added a teaspoon of jarred salsa. This is totally optional, but it helped add a little liquid and the flavors of whatever ingredients I was missing.
 
 
Brown a pound of ground beef and drain it. Feel free to grab a few pieces without burning your fingers...turn it down on low for now.

 
Add the roasted corn to the salsa, stir, and cover until ready to use. I refrigerated mine so it would be nice and old by the time everything got done.

 
Add a can of pinto beans to the ground beef pan (DO NOT DRAIN!!). Turn the heat back up to about medium while you do the next few steps.

 
Chop up some jarred jalapeno slices - I think I had 8 or 10.

 
Mix together flour, parsley, paprika, oregano, chili powder, crushed red pepper, coriander, and sugar. I used about 2 tbsp. flour, a tiny pinch of sugar, a pinch of the coriander, a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes, and then about a teaspoon of everything else. I dumped all of it into my mini food chopper so I could crush the coriander seeds a bit, but I was impatient and didn't do it very finely. However, the beans and beef simmered for about 25-30 minutes total, so the pieces weren't noticeable at all.
 
 
Dump in the taco seasoning a spoonful at a time. Mix it in and add additional water as needed.

 
Let it bubble and simmer for as long as you have. Prepare some Mexican rice -- we used Taco Bell rice that cooks up in just a few minutes! I had rice as part of this recipe, but I got distracted while talking on the phone, and I ruined it completely.
Serve the beef and bean mixture in taco shells and/or warmed tortillas with the corn salsa, shredded lettuce, and sour cream. Serve rice on the side and enjoy!
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Thursday, June 6, 2013

DIY Target Chair Makeover

 
Hello, everyone! I have for you today my recent chair makeover. I got this chair on clearance at Target for $10 (I think it was originally $20, so a pretty good deal) and I've had it for awhile, but now that my room is coming together and the accent colors have pretty much picked themselves (these were not my original accent colors, not even close!), I had to do something with the stark red color.
 
 
The red Target office chair. It sticks out like a sore thumb right now. That's going to change........now.

 
I started by tracing a rough template on paper with a pencil. These were not by any means totally accurate, I just needed something to help me cut out the basic pieces for the covers.
 
 
I cut the back piece on the fold and the seat piece on two folds, so now I have these. Man, are they wrinkled. A quick iron will fix that!

 
I decided to add stripes to the covers, so I snagged two curtain tiebacks (please don't tell my mom) and stitched them in place with white thread.

 
I pinned the whole back piece in place and made adjustments and cuts to fit it in place all the way around. I had to do the top first and then the center bottom, the sides, and then the rest of the bottom.

 
If you are noncommittal like me, you may not want to permanently attach this just yet. I stapled mine in place.

 
The whole cushion stapled in place. I went to bed so I could get a fresh look at it the next day.

 
And if you still like it the next day (I did), remove the staples and pin the cover back in place. Be sure to smooth it out, unlike me.

 
Stitch the cover in place with matching or contrasting thread. I used dark red, so it shows in some spots, but is totally hidden around the stripe.  

 
And once you secure your threads and snip the excess, you now have a chair to be happy to see! Or at least, I am...I have issues.
 
Have a wonderful Thursday!

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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Shoe Wishlist *Drool List*

Oh man, I saw so many shoes I wanted on Forever 21's website, but I am choosing to feature a few that really caught my eye that I would realistically buy - as in, it's not a random color that wouldn't match anything else.





Polka Dot Wedge Sandals

Striped Boat Shoes

Striped Cap Toe Ballet Flats
 
 
I hope you love these as much as I did! And hopefully you can go buy out and buy them - I'm just window shopping right now and I feel tortured with all of the options at other stores as well!
 
Happy Wardrobe Wednesday!
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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

{DIY} Accent Pieces


 

Hello, everyone! Today, I am sharing with you a couple of accent pieces I worked on recently. I covered up a box and made it into a tray for my sewing table, and I recovered a brick so it would fit in better on my bookcase!


Here is the "tray" before. Just a boring little ipad mini box. For this mini project (no pun intended), I used scrapbook paper, hot glue, scissors, and some tiny clock embellishments. I cut strips of the scrapbook paper and glued the long sides in place. Then I glued on the short end pieces. Any excess paper is folded to the bottom. Then I hot glued on the little clocks -- I though they added a nice touch -- and placed everything back into the new tray!
 
Isn't this better than seeing ugly words on a stark white box?
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Next, I dealt with the brick. This is a very old brick. I used it for a science project back in maybe 3rd or 4th grade. And I'm starting my second year of college in the fall.  So to make it over from the ugly old fabric stuck on it, I grabbed some leftover pillow sham fabric, hot glue, and scissors for the job. I wrapped the brick like a present and instead of taping, I placed beads of hot glue to secure all of it.
When I first pulled the old sunflower fabric off of this brick, I was in shock but not much. The fabric had been on there so long, that the green and yellow from the flowers was dyed into the brick! I couldn't believe it! But I also could. Either way, I'm glad the new fabric is plenty thick enough to hide it easily.
And here is the recovered brick in its new spot. Full disclosure: I took these photos before the walls were painted and the books, brick, and kindle were all moved to the bottom shelf yesterday.  
 
Happy Tuesday!
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Monday, June 3, 2013

{Room Makeover DIY} Memory Board Makeover

I am sharing this post at:
   
 
Hello, All! Today, I wanted to share with you my memory board makeover. It began as a plain ivory ribbon board I picked up at a junk sale a few years ago. I got a rabbit some months after that (who I no longer have, sadly), and she chewed it and possibly urinated on it. So even though I cleaned it the best I could, it’s still horribly stained. So my solution was to cover it with my old Happy Bunny flat sheet and use the parts to my homecoming mum to decorate it. Those of you who have made your own mum know how expensive they are to make -- it's hard to just toss that stuff out! Later on down the road, it began to hold jewelry. Which brings us up to speed to this:

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To makeover my board, I used 3 different types of 3/8 inch ribbon, a stapler, a pillow sham that matches my comforter, pins, scissors, and I had my little box handy to hold my jewelry and such while I worked. You can use hot glue for the assembly if you like, but I was running low on glue sticks and the stapler is faster and more satisfying to use – excellent stress relief!


I started by removing all of the jewelry and hair accessories and placing them off to the side in the little box.

Then, I ripped of the fabric. I was going to remove each piece of ribbon, but I realized I didn’t have to, as it all came away in one piece. Do you see what I mean about the late Daphne now? Plus, the missing ribbon…which I believe she chewed off…it’s funny how this board was used to block her from scratching/chewing my wall, and yet she managed to totally destroy this board AND my carpet!

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I separated the front and back pieces of the sham *carefully* and the whole thing came apart pretty quickly once I started snipping away. I now have some gold piping for whatever and the backing is on its way to the scrap bin! I laid out the large piece and smoothed it out before setting the board on top.

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Now staple, staple, staple! And maybe stop part way down one of the sides to refill your stapler because you forgot to check it before you started….or is that just me?

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To do the corners, I just grabbed the fabric up and put 4 staples over the edges to keep it in place. Then, I took a hammer and tapped over all of the staples to be sure they would stay.

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Trim away the excess fabric…

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Isn’t it pretty?

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Planning out where to place the hanging jewelry.

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I used gold and mint ribbon to tie into my room’s color scheme. It really looks lovely. I stapled it with about three staples on each end and tapped them down with the hammer as well. I also tapped the staples on the hanging ribbon as I chose to leave it on.

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And here is the little beauty along with some elementary school clay work (wow those are both almost ten years old now…) and a street sign I got from a friend – her grandparents had them in their garage and no longer wanted them. But it looks so cool on my wall!

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But then, I still have my flower I used…I can’t bear to throw it away.

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So I didn’t. I separated it from the other two layers….

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And hot glued it to my lamp! I also added some mint ribbon to it. I got this lamp from Target on clearance for around $6.

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As always, thank you SO MUCH for reading and have a wonderful day! And by the way, I now have NO IDEA what to do with that little window box, but I still want to paint it and use it! Hopefully an idea pops into my brain soon!!

-Natasha.