new dress!

I started this dress many months ago and just finished it last week! This is Butterick 4319 and I used vintage fabric I found at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

So much has happened in the last month or two! I will have to make time to do another blog post in the next day or so!

Scrap Your Crap – #56

This month’s challenge at Scrap Your Crap is to use your tape

I really lucked out with this one. I started to make something and realized I had packed all my photos, paper, embellishments etc. But I had one photo laying around and one mini I had made quite a while ago. It’s just premade pages, so I added my first pic. A pic of my inlaws. And I was able to dig out my heidi swap tape. It was super old. I could barely get the paper backing off!

All in all, very fun. Using tape makes for such an easy embellishment!

change is good, oui?

I had to visit the new home today to await the stove delivery (which did not come. Thank you Sears.) And I had some time to compare the new place to the old

• The new place is much smaller, but that’s ok because I have been wanting to downsize for months. It’s totally….fine….really
• The new place has hard wood floors and picture rails. The old has blue carpet, but way more windows
• In terms of charm, they are about the same. Each has crown moldings, built ins, little details
• The new place is in a waaaaaaaaaay better part of Los Angeles. Actually, it’s not even Los Angeles at all, which makes it even better.
• The new place has this huge backyard where we can have parties and layout in the sun and read all day long.
• The new place seems to have a nosy neighbor type. Well, I can’t really place my finger on it. He’s the caretaker of the building. But he’s older than us and it seemed (from my one conversation) that he’s a know it all (which I hate)

Enough with the parenthesis. I guess the fact that we’re moving really hit me today. I mean, we have lived here for 8 years. All of our time in LA has been in this apartment. This was the first place James and I picked out together. We have put so much sweat and tears into this place. How can you just say, “ok, thanks apartment. it was fun but we’re moving on.”

I could live here for the rest of my life, never changing, always on the same path. But I’ve been feeling for a while that I needed a change. And here it is. It’s the impetus I was looking for. With this new move comes a new job (fingers crossed), new experiences, new memories.

It’s all right to be nervous. Change is good. Right?

5 thoughts

• Moving day is set!!! James and I are making design plans. Paint colors, furniture. We’re about 85% in agreement.
• We are purging and cleaning out all our stuff. You can see my adventures here.
• I won’t say too much about how sick and tired I am of K-town, just that Pasadena is a dream come true.
• Scrap Your Crap had a DT swap with Gutter Girlz. This is my take. It’s all about LA traffic and how I hate the jerks on the road.

• Apollo is certainly glad that I’ve packed up all my stuff. More room for him to lay and soak up the sun!

why can’t my bal-la-loon stay up

My birthday is coming up. I tend to get pretty selfish around my birthday, I’ll admit it.

I think I want balloons. They are so festive. I’ll wear my pretty dress and take pictures of my pretty balloons.

1. Girl with balloons 9/52 wks, 2. holga.004, 3. Balloon shooting on the beach!, 4. Dreamy Pink Balloons, 5. contruction balloons, 6. The Balloon People (Part One), 7. The World You See, Through A Balloon

braids

I’m in a mood for braids….

1. braid wednesday., 2. 17 – {i wear my heart (near) my sleeve}, 3. Untitled, 4. 172/365 June 21, 2009, 5. Untitled, 6. shecouldn’tbeartofaceit, 7. Untitled, 8. Blinded by braid, 9. braid wednesday

top ten

I’ve been watching old episodes of favorite shows lately and thought this would be a fun list.

The Top Ten TV show theme songs (in no particular order)

1. Angel  – oh! that lone cello intro is so fantastic
2. Mash – this song really hits at the heart of this show.
3. SpongeBob Square Pants – hehe
4. Battlestar Galactica – so beautiful. If you haven’t heard it, listen now
5. The X Files – they managed to create an air of mystery as great as the show
6. Twilight Zone – unforgettable
7. 30 Rock – scatting? Yes please
8. Dallas – because I had to go old school here. It’s actually got an awesome funk beat to it.
9. The Simpsons –  two words. Danny. Elfman
10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – this theme rocks, as does the show

Pretty partial, and I know there are a lot of cool theme songs out there of shows that I have never seen, like TruBlood and Dexter and The Sopranos (no cable)

Thoughts?

Challenge 54 – Scrap Your Crap

I had a great time with this challenge.

Oil pastels are like coloring with chalk, except they don’t leave all the dust! And they make this beautiful smear effect. I tried to collage a lot of texture for this layout.

I’ve been trying to figure some stuff out – what sets other people’s layouts above and beyond the rest of us. I’m still trying to find my way, trying to figure out what it is that makes their layouts so remarkable.

But while I’m trying to figure out the meaning of life,  I will leave you with a cute cat photo of the day!

Apollo, obviously, has no troubles to content with!

10 things about me

Haven’t done this in a while:

1. I enjoy cleaning dirty leeks.
2. I have never dyed my hair. But that’s about to change this month.
3. I don’t really want a dog at this point in my life, but I would like to be a doggy Aunt. Just babysit someone’s doggy every once in a while. Then leave.
4. I’ have a slight fear of Swiss army knives and staplers.
5. I love crappy beer.
6. I have a lucky knack for beating the rush. I always manage to get someplace right before 50 other people get there.
7. I know for a fact that I could sleep through any serious situation – like a small stove fire and alarms going off for about an hour. Scary, but true.
8. Ashamed of my predilection for teen & romance novels, I’ve decided to (slowly) make my way through this list.
9. I dream of taking mandolin lessons and learning how to play bluegrass music.
10. On average, I get about 1 parking ticket a month. One time I got 3 in 2 days.  Can you imagine how much I’ve paid to the city in the last 8 years? Oh Los Angeles, how I love you

around the house

In my efforts to get rid of everything I own, I thought it would be nice if I took shots of the little things that I enjoy here in my humble abode.

the newel post James gave me, which I turned into some kind of clock tower, and the vase my college roommate made for me

the quilt my 90 year old Grandmother hand sewed for me as a birthday gift. *love*

the plant I have grown from it’s infancy almost 10 years ago.

the Tibetan prayer flag I got in Ft. Collins, CO, of all places

and last, but not least, the jade amulets that my Aunt in Denmark sent me. Although neither James nor myself are year of the rabbit or horse.