new do... [UPDATED]

I was recently informed that I would miss out on having a January post if I did not post something TODAY. Thanks for the LAST MINUTE warning.

Anyhoo, I figured this would be a good way to show everyone my new do. That way, the people I don't see me everyday/very often will see the drastic change... so, when I see them (you people who read my blog) in a few weeks or longer and am already tired of the "OH MY GAAWWWD!!!" reaction that I have been getting lately, they (you) won't get the eye-roll. Anysecondhoo, here it is:

12 inches, baby. I consider donating hair to be one of the most selfless acts that I've ever done and here's why:

a. taking care of 12+ inches of hair is seriously time consuming.

2. taking care of 12+ inches of hair costs a lot of money in shampoo/conditioner/hot water usage.

and d. I became somewhat fond of my long hair so, giving it up was a bit sad.

HOWEVER, it was NOT totally selfless. It feels good to give to a good cause. It always does. No matter what Pheobe says.

So, there ya go.

*UPDATE: A big shout-out to my good friend over at unspeakablevisions.com for making my January post possible. Thanks for interrupting the evening to take pictures, upload pictures, edit pictures, and let me blog. I'm always meeting deadlines at the last minute....

Green Holidays (that don't include the Grinch)

I am feeling much more anxious and excited for the holidays this year. A few days ago I was not as anxious and much more stressed. But today, I started up my "Mariah Carey (Holiday)" station on my Pandora account and rocked out to some bitchin holiday-classic-remakes, all the while being blinded by the sun reflecting off the ice-covered trees and whatnot. Much like this:

Photo from msnbc.msn.com

I am done thinking of holiday shopping, decorating, gifting, etc. as chores. I'm grateful to be spending the holidays with the people I love and that is all that matters. (I mean, I also look forward to the inevitable xmas socks, expecially since almost every single sock I own has a hole or holes in it...) This year, the Grinch in me is gone.

Loving family and friends + new socks = Happy holidays.

I have come across many sites and blogs (and even email newsletters) advising me on how to keep my holidays green ;)

This one was my favorite:


For those of us who just don't drink enough canned beverages, try making your holiday giving season a little greener by supporting local artists and small business. It is a small thing you can do to give back to our environment. Why not make one less trip to the mall and instead, check out the giveHANDMADE! CRAFTSTRAVAGANZA? And while you're there, check out this chick. She's got something for every hard-to-buy-for giftees on your list.

What's that? You want to make your entire holiday (and life) green? Awesome, I bet Google can help you with that. Let's be friends.

winding down...

Have you ever felt like something is so close yet so far away?  The deadline for my paper is only 3 days away... yet the amount of work that needs to be done is going to make those 3 days feel like 3 months.  I don't know why I chose "months" but that seems like a long time.  Words cannot express how anxious I am for this course to be done and over with.  I am looking forward to Wednesday night when I will walk to my favorite building with the most luxurious high rise condos albany has to offer and... well... that's the best part about handing in this paper.  It will be like handing over responsibility....  I will not make any plans for Wednesday night and there is no need.  I will just BE there.  My life will be much less cluttered with books (thank goodness for book-buy-backs), papers, and thoughts.  Oh, how my mind is begging to have a focus.  Not just on one thing... maybe 3 or 4 things... but DEFINITELY not on the number of things that are crowding my brain right now.  I can't even count them.  I have always been a worrywart so I don't suspect that all of the stress will subside until I receive my grade.  I will definitely not be getting any A's... and that doesn't bother me.  But passing is a big worry this semester.  Like never before.  There is more silver lining to the end of this course than one can even imagine.  

Old Capris --> New Skirt

I have been holding out on posting this project because... OK, I forgot I had done this project until I was procrastinating last night by looking through some fotos of my trip to Argentina (aka the homeland for this one). Lucky me, I have a whole new procrastination activity... blogging about the lame-o striped capris that I ACTUALLY used to wear to my job! At a mortgage bank! I can't believe they kept letting me back into the office.

The pants were made of a stretchy denim material that pretty much molds to every curve. Did I mention I got these pants in high-school? Most people who read this blog already know this about me but, did I mention that I'm not in high-school now? Let's just say, a few years later, the stretchy denim isn't so flattering.

Nonetheless, I really liked the stripes and the colors and it was really only the fact that they were TIGHT capris that bothered me. So now it doesn't bother me because the pants are a skirt and I can wear my fancy stripy mini to exotic far away places where I am not as self-conscious about stretchy fabric on my lower half.

The stretchiness is still an issue but believe me, it is way less of an issue.

Wish I could show you how I lined up the extra fabric to fill in the gaps between the leg part. It was tricky making sure the stripes remained vertical but worth the extra effort. And, NO, no one dared me to START with stripes as I began my sewing adventures... but I can see where one would say, "why the eff would you torture yourself like that and possibly ruin your desire to continue learning to sew?" I don't have an answer for that. However, I did not lose my desire, so just CALM DOWN. (Sorry, that was more for me....)

Oh, and the skirt made another appearance in St. Maarten. Not as far away but WAY more exotic :)

Adirondack Roundtable Conference

This was our "conference room":

This is what was outside:

This was the outside of the "conference room":

The beauty of it certainly outweighed the fact that it was a never-ending meeting. With breaks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Free food, and beautiful scenery. I'll take it.

Vote...

As most of the people who read this blog already know.... today, I will vote for the SECOND time ever. I mean, I've voted for the executive committee at CCHS, a resolution to screw over the state and the environment by allowing Pepsi, Co. and Coke to keep billions of dollars that are not rightfully theirs each year, and for Margaritas for election day.... BUT, because I was a silly science geek in RI for a short time in my life, I did not register to vote in NY until this year. When the candidates for freakin President were finally revealed, I figured it was about that time. Plus the constant annoying ringing in my ear that wouldn't go away.

The first time I voted, I had a small anxiety attack. I needed my mom to show me what to do and then I hesitated pulling the lever.... you know, like at the end of a test when you almost get up out of your seat but quickly turn back to your test and scantron to make sure the answer to the question you skipped was properly recorded on the scantron because if not, ALL of your answers get messed up.... Luckily, all was well and I was able to pull the lever with confidence. And when I did, that little "ding" sound sorta made me giddy. Who knew voting would have such an effect on me? Not me, that's fer sher. If you are a skeptic like me, I say to you (in true Mom fashion), "Try it, you might like it!"

I don't know if I will get that same rush this time around because I'll probably be cranky from waiting in line but I guess there is only one way to find out.

Go on... what else do you have to do today? I'll be sacrificing:

a. treasured time spent with my baby

2. gas + the environment (yes, I am registered in NY however I am not registered in my new place of residence.... albany... oops.)

d. time spent on getting these past 2 and 1/2 years into my past already!

What is your poll tax?

ps- are cupcakes synonymous with election day or something?? On way more than 1 blog, I have been dared to devour election day cupcakes.... You?

experimenting with pillow patterns + new digs :)

What a boring pillow, no?

Yeah, I thought so too...

Back when I was a beginner seamstress... (ha! barely...) I would raid the clearance bin at JoAnn's. One day I found some shiny-purple-stripy-polyester nonsense for $2.50/yd. I bought 4 freakin' yards. Walking out of the store I thought to myself, "Who the hell do you think you are?" At least I had tons of room for making mistakes. Oddly enough, I haven't wasted hardly any of it. Just trimmings. The silvery fabric is also a poly blend that I found in the oops-already-cut-it-and-nobody-wants-it bin. These pillows were my first attempt at some serious sewing projects and so cheap to do... I never thought I would like them as much as I do.

This serious of pix are showing the process for just one of my couch pillows. It's a good thing that trigonometry was one of my best subjects in Math 3R.

Cutting these triangles was ridiculous. I had to make sure the angles were just right and that the stripes would line up once I was ready to sew them together... I wouldn't recommend working with stripes when you are still getting comfortable with your machine.

Actually, it wasn't so horrible... Now, getting myself to make sure the RIGHT SIDES of the fabric actually end up on the outside of the pillow cover, THAT'S my real problem.

This point was hard because it's hard to tell from the wrong sides if the stripes line up on the right sides.... because the right sides are facing each other during pinning.

FINALLY. I was pretty pleased with how well the stripes lined up. And I only needed to use my stitch ripper twice!

Below was the first pillow cover I made. No pattern, just started sewing pieces together and ended up with this:
Don't even ask to see the other end! I gave up and hand sewed the pillow form inside the "cylinder" cover. I decided I def need more practice at sewing curves and circles and whatnot. It is plenty obvious in person that this was created by an amateur but DON'T even dare look for the evidence in this picture! It took more time to place the pillow just so and take its picture so as not to reveal how poorly made it is than it did to actually make the effing pillow.

The next two pictures are the "front" and "back" of one pillow (I use quotes because I don't know which is the front and back). Both of these pillows were made from scraps leftover from making the above pillows.

The first one was a bit more on the planned-out side.

You can really tell in the bottom picture... Just started sewing pieces together!!

HONESTLY, I didn't know that the silver fabric would be an EXACT match to my new couch.In fact, I made these pillows well before I even considered buying a couch. Seriously. The couch looked so much more white in the picture online but that's what I get for not bringing my swatches with me to the store.

No, I did not pick out the color for the walls but I enjoyed its crazy uniqueness so much I decided to keep it. I can't even describe how much I love the contrast with the purple too! If you look really closely at any of the pillow pictures, you'll see the green thread making up some of the stripes... wtf, right?

Best part, my sister, mom, and I had so many ugly pillows lying around that I didn't have to buy any pillow forms!! Shwing!

Interested in where I'm living? Check it out for yourself!