Post Halloween and some Holiday Rumbles

Adult holidays aren't nearly as fun as I remember my childhood holidays. My mom did an amazing job of getting the house overwhelmingly decorated with Halloween items. Back in the day McDonald's used to place the items of a Happy Meal in these little plastic buckets that were witches or pumpkins, and my personal favorite, the glow-in-the-dark ghostie! Mom worked hard and made holidays memorable. However, as a single and often overworked chicka, decorating is not on the top of my priority list. One night on my own I did make the effort to get my small collection of cute out and around my apartment. But honestly as time comes to put it away, I am sincerely saddened by the lack of time and attention available in mine and other's personal lives. Decorating shouldn't be a chore. Nesting and creating an atmosphere of celebration for the holiday, any holiday, needs to be more of a priority. It forces us to clean and organize our regular space. And the nostalgia of pulling the same items out for the next few years makes me excited for the future.

After another misguided attempt to maintain an online presence, this poor blog got left in the dust. At first I wasn't sure if it was all my fault. The pressure to maintain a blog, as a woman particularly, is to cook, craft, be a total tool master, all while wearing a polka-dot apron that YES! I made myself. There was a fizzle of enthusiasm as I realized that my first and only previous to this post on the blog was indeed a crafting/sewing type post. Had I damned my one and only online profile to be a DIY blog?! Apparently there was shame associated with that as I haven't crafted like that or written here since. It's time to break open the can of worms and bring all hurt parties back to the starting ground and move upward.
It's fall after all, so may as well start... Baking. I KID!
Actually I have been uncomfortably busy for my liking and haven't had guilt free time recently to enjoy or divulge into the crafting world. But that's not to say I haven't been allowing my creative juices to go without airing. Recently Utah opened its first ever Lego store and not more than a few miles from my house. Hew was sweet enough to go with me and even had the wherewithal to let go of me when I started to skip into the store. We bought a Hero Factory creature named Dragon Bolt. That night we made a blanket fort on the floor, listened to music, and played Lego. Not too shabby for a Wednesday.

Shell Planteroo!

What I wonderful holiday week! Hope you all got some BBQ, beer, 

sunshine, and celebrating done! 

Collections of thunderstorms and exams kept my schedule pretty 

during the last few days. Happy to report I got a little yoga time!

But down to business... Another lifetime ago this sweatshirt once

belonged to a husband of mine. Now that I am single, fabulous, 

and broke (they all correlate :) ) this is being rehabilitated from 

a Men's XL lounging sweatshirt to a tailored, striped Cate affair. 

We'll see how this turns out... there is a lot to cut down. 

 Seems there is a smaller individual in this house that

doesn't really  manage thunderstorms well. Memo 

got his kitten nerves all set on edge more than once

during the storm and decided to take it out on an

unsuspecting jade plant. Thankfully I was able to get

a couple of the ravaged stems back into some dirt in

a clever mini shell planter. 

Cat + Lightning = death to plants = succulent + shell = 

NEW PLANTER!

I had to fill the back of the shell with loose dirt, so I decided to use cactus potting soil. Then I added just enough filler dirt for the stems of the rescued succulents into the wedge. It took a little trial and error to figure out the best way to situate the new little environment.Once I was able to anchor one of the spines on the shell into a wooden pencil holder (which, yes I made) I was able to happily put the new planter with his new friends. I added a couple crystal gems for good measure. 

Working away on many, many projects. Adopted a table, started creating a miniature gemstone collection, and made a whole new collection of iced teas. Ri (Romantic Interest) is starting in a adult competitive baseball league which means I will have quite a bit bleacher time coming up. Research, reading, and working away on projects while I can... 

Love from Me and Memo 

XOXO

Where it all started from...

In this world full of blogs, Pinterest, and the fan favorite, Google, I was flabbergasted this afternoon to find that no where could I find a DIY for revamping a sweatshirt. At least not in the way I wanted. After going through some clothing yesterday I dug out and old jacket and it occurred to me that it SHOULD not see another season in its current state. Thus the search for ideas or at least pictures of other beloved sweatshirts getting new life. I saw lots of jean jackets, plenty of men's sweatshirts getting sized down (my next project), and even turning sweatshirts into skirts, but nothing along the lines of what I was wanting.
Luckily, I work with a pretty awesome seamstress who was more than happy to bounce some ideas off. With the tips from her, a little inspiration, and two quarts of iced tea - I set off.
It's not as though I hate sewing, but it has never been a strong suit of mine. I was a little intimidated but because I was determined to make this work, I took my time. Which apparently is the key.

This is the poor sweatshirt prior to deconstruction. Notice the buttons worn through the fabric and below, the sleeves having been loved clear to their bones. 

I started by taking the sleeves off. Pretty straight forward and luckily by the nature of the jacket, the seams remained intact even after having the sleeves taken off. Whew! Saves me a step...

Little vest had to go into the bleach bath. Took a little time to figure out how I wanted to do it, but after about an hour and a fair amount of babysitting it turned out. I loved the color immediately! I had wanted to do a burnt orange or spicy pumpkin color and was thrilled to see the color come out uniform (one baby bleach spot aside).

And for the first time in years: Buttons! I kept the original buttons that were on the jacket when I bought it back in 2008 and kept them all this time. Totally worth carrying around that box of mismatched buttons! I also really liked the contrasting detail on the seams and hems. I half expected the bleach to get them as well, but I like this more. The "Element" symbol looked good as well and helped tie the bright buttons into the theme. 

I was torn between utter madness and shear genius when I was digging through my scraps and found an Old Navy skirt in a rather ugly brown plaid and thought.... "I wonder if I could cover those unsightly buttons with a panel of this..." Sure as the snow flies in our mountains, it works! Still have a little more to go, but this is a decent start for a girl who hasn't sewn in a long, long time. Yeh!!