Merry Christmas!

someone was a good girl
Originally uploaded by hastingsgraham

Merry Christmas everyone!

Have a safe and happy holiday.

Hot Drinks Mix Round Up

So this year is pretty tight on the old budget belt (tell me something we dont know right?) but I am determined to make the best of it. All gifts will be small but thoughtful and to sweeten the deal I am planning on making a whole bunch of holiday drink mixes to warm up the holiday season. (Just so you know I AM writing this post during 'the' blizzard in MN).


From Bake it Pretty we have a lovely recipe for Russian Friendship Tea:

http://www.bakeitpretty.com/blog/?p=492

my mom used to make this and it is SOOOOO yummy.





AmberLee from the Giver's Log has a fun idea for hot chocolate on a stick.



http://giverslog.com/?p=3290



actually she has LOTS of really cool things there that you should check out.


Amy at the The Mother Load has a Hot Chocolate Recipe as well as a Vanilla Chai Tea. Both sound scrumptious!

Now I just need to whip these up along with a batch of homemade marshmallows and I should be good to go.

Still trying to decide how I want to package all this Drink Mix goodness but if I find anything good I will maybe post some pictures.

You better watch out

Vera-Ellen, the Santa Claus pinup, c1955
Originally uploaded by carbonated

Christmas time is here! We 'decorated' our apartment this weekend and it looks like a bunch of drunken elves had a decorating party. It looks a lot like one of those Christmas stores that looks like it should be a log cabin. All sorts of teddy bears and stuff. Not really my style at all- but my roommate brought all of his decorations for Christmas since I went a little overboard with Halloween. So now I am knee deep in quilted teddy bear-with-santa-hat place mats. Sigh. At least it is Christmas.

Back to Halloween for a moment-Ursula Costume 09

My bad. I should have posted this way sooner but such is life! So for Halloween this year my friends and I decided to have a Disney Halloween. Actually I said I wanted to be Ursula from 'The Little Mermaid' then someone else was like "Oh! I want to be Belle!" and it just sort of snowballed from there. So I was going to split this up into a whole bunch of small posts as I gradually made my costume but I just banged it out in one week and had no time for posting!

I started with the the tutorial from Threadbanger on making a tutu.

Next I made a simple black dress from a vintage '80s pattern I found in my mom's sewing stash.
I made it about knee length instead of ankle length though.

At first I was just going to wear the tutu underneath the dress but I decided I should sew it in because I knew I was going to sew the tentacles in as well. See how nicely the purple sticks out at the bottom? Also the tutu would help the overall shape of the skirt from looking too lumpy.

The tentacles were made out of the same black fabric as the dress and then purple costume satin.

I only made 6 tentacles because my original plan was to make tights that also looked like the tentacles but alas I ran out of time. Each leg took almost an entire bag of polyfil to stuff at this point I was a little worried it was going to be too heavy for the dress.

Notice the Suction cups- different sizes hand sewn to each tentacle.

Got the suction cups from the dollar store I just had to take the little metal hook things off of them.

AND THE GRAND FINALE:

Pretty adorable if I do say so myself. I sewed all of the legs to the waistline of the dress then curled them over to the top part of the skirt and sewed them in place. The necklace is just a large seashell I already had. I used white hair spray paint and some sweet '80s shadow to complete the look.

Now what for next Halloween? Hmm.

See?

Kind of cool huh? This photo is from cbs.com.
I can honestly say I never thought I would be posting a Victoria's Secret Angel on my blog. Weird how things work out like that.

Steampunk Secret?

So I know it is sick and wrong but I was totally captivated tonight by the Victoria Secret 'fashion' show. I know, I know, I am a feminist, I should hate it and everything associated with it...and I do...up to a point. For as much as I can't agree with the insanely narrow range of 'beauty' portrayed by this company I was kind of jealous. Jealous of the people who got to MAKE some of those super awesome outfits. No not the underwear, I am talking about the angel wings made out of balloons, or the corset dress made out of balloons, and the diamond encrusted everythings. ( I really had a strong urge to bejewel something.) But the section I was most surprised by was the 'enchanted forest' which to me looked more like a steampunk extravaganza. Now I am no expert in the style but when you incorporate some nice tweeds with your lingerie, add a bustle, and throw on some gear filled angel wings I am pretty sure you are nearing what it generally considered steampunk and I thought it was pretty cool. I would love to see an independent group of female designers throw a lingerie fashion show- just scoot on over to etsy to see how many talented designers are out there!