Pinterest V.6

My boss' daughter saw a photo I posted a while back of some pillows I had made for our couch and asked if I wouldn't mind sewing some for her son's play area. I was more than happy to help. So on Friday, we loaded all the materials into my car. I knew I wanted to finish them by the end of the weekend because that's just me. I am a selective procrastinator. I didn't want them to wait any longer since they have had the pillows and fabric for a year!

My boss mentioned that they wanted envelope pillows because it would be much easier to clean. I had never sewn envelope pillows before but I was up for the challenge. My first thought was to go to Pinterest (which is where the whole envelope pillow idea originated). I could not find any kind of post or tutorial that didn't confuse the hell out of me. Pinterest, you failed me! So, I went to YouTube and found this video which was tremendously helpful. Once I got it down, it was a very simple process. I only messed up once. I showed Dustin the finished product of the globe pillow cover when he says "Why is one side so much lighter?". It was at that moment I realized I had sewn the wrong side. I had to unstitch the ENTIRE thing by hand. I wanted to cry. Such a stupid, careless thing to do on my part. But I fixed it! And I had one battle wound when the needle went through the tip of my thumb. It has throbbed all day long. I cringe at the sight of soap and/or sanitizer. I learned a very good lesson in thimble wearing. Safety first, kids!

day 274

1 Dustin.

2 days.

5 envelope pillows.

I'll write more about this process later.

day 273

sew sesh.

day 272

is this real life?

day 271

erin recently got a dog. she named him charlie.

dustin and i invited her (& charlie) over for a little dinner party tonight.

erin walks through our door and says "yeah, he's potty trained".

literally seconds later he's in the middle of shitting on our floor. 

so erin grabbed him and took him outside. i couldn't help but laugh.
charlie is pretty cute. he's got a yoda, gremlin, old man thing going on that just kind of works.

throwback thursday

i was looking for something about a month ago when i came across this photo of dustin.

it's been on my nightstand ever since and has quickly become one of my fave photos of him ever.

what a dreamboat.

Pinterest V.5

-CRAFTY-

photo

I posted this fabric banner on my 'crafty' board. I thought it was a nice little tutorial on how to make them but it turns out that the link just went to a shop where you could buy it. This sucker was originally priced at $40 then marked down to $18 (because there is no way it is worth $40!). Just by looking at the photo I knew I could make my own with all of my leftover scrap pieces of fabric. So I went to town cutting old fabric and even old t-shirts that I knew Dustin and I would never wear again but I wasn't exactly ready to get rid of them either. This is a great way to not only recycle but to get double use out of something you love. I hate holding on to things unless I'm putting them to use so this was the perfect excuse. Halfway in the middle of cutting all of this old fabric a lightbulb went off. I remembered that I had a some leftover holiday fabric from making my co-workers stockings last Christmas. So I decided to hold off on the regular random fabric banner and started on the Christmas banner. 

I cut a 'V' into each piece. I had no template nor did I want one. I didn't want them to look perfect so I just eyeballed them all to look similar. I like the look of different lengths, widths and even a little fraying where they have been cut into. After I had all of my pieces I organized them on the floor. Again, I wasn't looking for a matchy matchy look. The only thing I care about is that all the fabric was Christmas themed (some had reindeers on them, others had snowflakes or the Grinch and even some with the word 'PEACE'). I arranged them how I wanted them and pinned the top over a piece of yarn. This was helpful in knowing which one I was going to sew next because they were already in order.
I sewed them at the top and around the yarn so that I am still able to move them . This is cool because now I have options to put them really close together or spread them apart depending where they get hung over the years. This year, I plan on hanging this over our living room window where we put our Christmas tree. Right now it's stored in my 'Christmas' bin with all of our other ornaments and random decorations but pretty soon it'll be getting plenty of use. I am really excited how it turned out. Total success!

Oh, and it didn't cost ANYTHING. I already had the fabric. Already owned a sewing machine and all the thread. Already had the yarn from knitting scarves. Recycle. Reuse. Repurpose.

-NAILS-

I have seen a lot of people use regular old Scotch tape to create different designs on their nails on Pinterest - here and here. I have tried it as an accent nail before and it's always worked well but this was my first time trying it on all my nails. The reason I even thought of it was because my regular nail polish was chipping at the ends of my nails but I wasn't ready to take the polish off, so I figured I would just add another layer of color over the chipping. It really worked perfectly. Another success!

All I did was lay little pieces of tape across my nail. Painted. Waited until they dried until removing the tape and voila! A old new manicure. I like it because not only does it give new life to your week old manicure but it's again free. Everyone has different color nail polish and everyone has tape. So easy!

day 270

this is our only 'fall decor'.

Videos

Here are a bunch of videos from this past summer that I never posted on here because I either forgot or just got around to editing them a few weeks ago.



My 27th at the Springs


This is probably top 5 fave videos I've ever done.


Pat's 27th at the Science Center.


Food! and Fun! and Food!

day 269

in bed, writing a letter to a friend(s).

i don't know anyone who doesn't love getting letters in the mail but hardly anyone takes the time to sit down and write something out. email is easier. text is faster. i'll see them in a couple days anyway.

(EXCUSES, EXCUSES.)

doesn't matter, letters are fun and nice and awesome. do it.

day 268

while at target this past weekend, dustin and i were rummaging in the $1 section of the store.

dustin came across this lion and threw it in our cart.

so for the past 48 hours it's been sitting in a pitcher of water while we 'watch it grow'.

although, it hasn't grown all that much. 

we're supposed to give it 92 hours. 

it better be life size by then.

emmys fashion

I don't know anything about fashion. I don't care what's considered in or out. Blah blah blah.
All I know is whether or not I like something. So this is all the stuff I really liked.

Kelly Osbourne

My favorite color is purple. Enough said. 

Ok, one more thing, she looks great.

photo

Julianne Moore

There was a lot of bright yellow on the red carpet but this has to be my fave and I'm not usually a fan of long sleeves on any dress, but it 's stunning. And her red hair compliments it so well.

photo

Emily VanCamp

I love the color. I love the style. I love it all. It reminds me of Emma Watson at the DHP2 premiere.

photo

Kat Dennings

Va va voom! This dress screams sexy and classy all in the same breath. Thankfully, this dress makes such a statement no one will notice her ugly jewelry (except me). 

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Ginnifer Goodwin

I love the whole vintage thing going on. And the orange is so pretty against her skin tone. Such a great fall dress. Oh, and the shoes. I love her shoes.

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Zooey Deschanel

The neckline is by far my favorite thing about this dress. I'm not so sure about the color. But Zooey still looks amazing. When does she not?

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Jane Levy

I'll admit I had to IMDB her because I didn't know who she was. 

I can't even pick a favorite part of this. I think everything is just perfect. 

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Productive Patty

I was a productive Patty this weekend. I'm not trying to toot my own horn but I really got a lot of shit accomplished. I was so busy, I didn't even get to take ONE nap. Worth it.

-Cleaned the house Danny Tanner style and went grocery shopping with Dustin.
-Not only did I edit some videos but I put every video that was on my iMac onto a DVD. Now I can delete all the videos off my computer (& Dustin's).

-Fixed the strap on my bag. It was literally hanging by a thread and I had been putting it off for weeks. Sewing leather is much harder than fabric but I got the job done.

-Added a bunch of album artwork to most of the songs missing it on my iTunes. I hate seeing a black screen with a little music note when a song comes up on my iPhone.

-Worked on another craft project that I'll post at a later date.

-Changed the water in Bane's tank. It went swimmingly. He's even got a new bubble nest going to show us his approval. 

-I decided rather than have my old iPhone 4 case just collect dust in a drawer somewhere, I would give it away for free. So I packaged it up nice and delicately so I can ship it out today to it's new owner. Also, Dustin helped me pack up our old iPhone 4's into a box so I could ship those suckers out today too.
-Made the best brownies in the history of brownies. Secret ingredient - peanut butter chips.

   

Found

Where are they now? The kids of The Sandlot.

Emma Watson (fast forward to third segment) loves Pittsburgh and teaches Jimmy Fallon how to dance. And she's on American Talk again. She is just a delight! I can't get over how wonderful she is. In my head we're BFFs.

Kitty cat yoga.

Bad Children's Books.

How did I not know Ben is pregnant? Well, he and his wife are expecting their first child this fall! Exciting. Congrats!

50 Best SNL Gifs.

50 Beautiful Photos.

I Will Always Love You.

8 Strangers rescue a dog from a mountain. 

I said I love you. You break up. You lockout. I hate you.
Called your season off last night. Are you ever ever getting back together?

Creative Street Art. So much awesome art. I especially love the glasses.

Glow in the Dark Books.

Gangnam Style Mom.

Cleaning Tricks for the OCD.

day 267

candy corn fangs.

Pinterest V.4

-HAIR BOARD-

via

As you can tell, the link above doesn't have any kind of instructions to help create the really pretty double braid, bun look. So I just had to go for it and improvise. There were two attempts.

#1 - This was my own take on it. Basically the photo above was the inspiration for this. It's similar but not really the same thing. One bun, 2 small braids (left), and one bigger braid (right). It was fairly simple. All I did was leave some hair down on the left - braided two braids and finished with an elastic. French braided the left side. Grabbed all of my hair (except the top braid on the left) and swirled them around in a circle - placed an elastic around the whole thing. Then I swooped the top braid around the back of my hair and secured with a bobby pin. It kind of reminds me of my wedding hair which of course makes me super happy. I went to work like this AND to the gym. It stayed perfect the entire day. Success.

#2 - For this one I tried to do exactly what is in the photo above. I separated my hair into three sections. I did the top bun first so it was out of the way. I can french braid like a mother fucker anywhere in the front of my head but I suck doing it on the sides/back. So I just tried to do regular braids and pull them back with the rest of my hair. Didn't really come together. I think one of the problems is my hair is actually TOO LONG for this exact hairstyle. Her buns are super small and cute and mine are huge! My braids didn't go as planned either. This one is a total FAIL.

I will definitely re-try whenever I decide to cut my hair. But I think I prefer my own ninja mohawk creation seen here.

OUTTAKES aka Dustin wouldn't stop taking photos of me.

  -CRAFTY BOARD-

via

I also tried making this super cute I <3 U card. There weren't any instructions or helpful hints for this one either. How convenient! So I was on my own again. I mean it's pretty self explanatory but still, this thing was way harder than it looks. Since I don't have any ink in my printer I couldn't print this out SO I freehanded it on some scrapbook paper. I first tried to use scissors but that was a disaster. Don't even bother with them. You really need a good craft knife. I have one but it was still kind of difficult.

My version, although not terrible, is not as crisp. The edges of the letters and heart are kind of rough but other than that - not too shabby. But don't think I'm making a bunch of these for Valentine's Day. Nope, never making this card again. This whole project was more of a hassle than anything.

day 266

pumpkin ice latte.

einstein's.

do it.

iPhone 5

We finally got our iPhone 5's after waiting a whole week! But seriously, the UPS guy didn't even deliver them until 6PM on Friday. We were probably the last stop on his route. Oh well, they are here and that's all that matters.

Dustin set his up right away. I was at the gym so I set mine up once I got home. My set up, however, was not as smooth as his. You have to call AT&T to activate it. Yeah, well I tried calling AT&T with the 5 instead of my 4. I had a long day, geez. I backed up my phone on my lunch break earlier in the day OR SO I THOUGHT. Well, my contacts, photos, and music were all there but none of my apps synced. Dustin noticed that the 'Sync App' button wasn't checked on my iTunes. I freaked. So I went and laid on our bed and downloaded every app - one by one. Luckily, the 5 is so fast, it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it was going to be. Still a bonehead move on my part. Check that box people!

Things I'm Really REALLY Loving:
-The minute I held it in my hand for the first time I immediately noticed how light it is. A feather!
-The quickness. Holy hell it's so much faster. This LTE shit is no joke.
-The screen is obviously bigger. I love it because I can fit a whole other row of apps now.
-I haven't really played around with Panorama yet (but you can bet your britches I will at the Steeler game and when we ride up the incline! Those are going to be some killer shots.) but Dustin has. He took a picture of our kitchen and living room in one shot. Pretty neat.
-The extra emoticons that were added with iOS 6 are awesome. They have little glasses now! Eeee! Also a shrimp which could come in handy. iOS 6 is just cool period (for more reasons than awesome emoticons.) I know everyone downloaded it a few days ago but it comes standard on the 5's so Dustin and I figured we would just wait.
-The new maps is really cool. The 3D is especially cool.
-The two tone is pretty bad ass looking. At least the black one is. And since it is two tone there is more of a grip. I really hated the iPhone 4 glass back. It was so slippery! It obviously didn't matter with a case on but still.

Other Thoughts:
-Passbook is going to be so convenient once more companies get on board. But I haven't been able to do much with it yet.
-I haven't played with Siri once. She doesn't interest me. Dustin's all over her though. HA.
-I understand why Apple had to change the cable to a smaller version but now I have to change everything. So for the time being I can't charge my phone in my car. Grr.
-I hate not having a case. Like a lot. My case has been pre-ordered even before these suckers were officially announced but probably won't ship until the beginning of October. Until then, I'll keep treating my phone like it's a newborn baby. When Erin asked to look at it I was like sure and then said "Two hands now! Hold his head. BE CAREFUL!". I've turned into a crazy person. Or my crazy has just gone up a notch. Whatever.
-The new headphones are a little too big for my tiny ears. They are kind of uncomfortable but maybe I'll get used to them. I think I'll give them a proper test run at the gym tomorrow.

As I was looking for my iPhone 4 box (so I could send it in for $$), I came across my iPhone 3G. So I decided to do a little photo shoot with all 3. Four years of iPhone.

day 265

when you can't decide on a pumpkin or apple donut, do yourself a favor and just get both.

day 264

shiiiiiiiit!

Throwback Thursday

I think I was about 8 in this picture so that would mean this was taken in 1993ish. I had quite a few roller-skates/rollerblades in my time but these were by far my favorite. This photo kind of makes me want to pull out my blades and go to town. 

day 263

vampire bite.

i'll just say it was eric northman.