Shared: Cat Love Cross Stitch

One of my oldest co-workers, Susan, is like me in that she likes to keep her hands busy when she is watching TV.  So she crochets scarves and blankets, mostly.  I needed stocking stuffers this year so I bartered with her for a cross stitch in exchange for a bunch of her scarves.

Since she is a cat lady, this is what I made for her:

Sorry for the crappy phone pic :P

It's not my design but I did come up with the pattern from this original:

You can buy the original pattern on Etsy

I think I came pretty close just going by the picture. :)  The best part, though, is Susan loved it!  She has it hanging in her cubicle!

Andy photobombing Susan and I at the wedding :)

Wore: What's Black and White with a Red Bottom?

The Answer:  ME!

And not in the naughty way, cheeky monkey.  I'm talking about my outfit and shoes. ;-)

It's actually been chilly here in Atlanta the past week or so, so I've been wearing one of my favorite scarves quite a bit.  Actually, strike that.  It's been cold.  It was 18°F / -8°C when we left for work this morning.  I am so glad I got a new winter coat!

I am so glad the hustle and bustle of the last 2 months is behind me.  I am still so tired, though!  It never occurred to me how much work it would be to put together a wedding, family reunion weekend and Christmas/Yule celebration all at the same time.  But we got it done and I was even able to still make a few of my holiday gifts this year.  The theme/project for this year was cross stitch.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures before I gave them away so all I have is the one I made for Andy.

It's his favorite quote from "The Departed" :)

I also made my Mom one that says "F*ck the dumb shit" but I'm not 100% convinced she liked it.

I am not one to make New year's resolutions but I've decided that instead of playing random games on my phone or tablet while we unwind in front of Netflix at night, I'm going to design and make some cross stitch pieces.  That way I'm at least being kind of productive when I should be doing chores. :D

Also in the works for this year: opening an Etsy shop to sell my Bearly Dreadfuls.  I don't have any left since they were all used as centerpieces for the wedding so I'll be working up a small inventory first.

Question for you: if you saw the Bearly Dreadfuls  online, what price would you think is reasonable?  I don't want to overprice them but I don't want to undersell, either.  Each one takes about 2-3 hours to complete.


Hope you have a fabulous 2018!  I know I plan to. :)

After they've been up for months, Sidia finally discovered the shelves I put up in the bathroom.
She spent a long time trying to figure out the screws that hold this into the wall.
Thank goodness she does not have opposable thumbs.  Or a screwdriver. 

Shared: I got married, y'all!

Sorry for the sudden disappearance!  Things got so hectic before the wedding, especially since I was also putting together a family reunion and holiday celebration for that same weekend. 

But everything went off without any major glitches, a fun weekend was had by all (well, most LOL), and the end result was a marriage.  I call it successful. :)

I have more of a post planned but it will likely be after the first of the year.

In the meantime, here a few sneak peek snapshots others took the day of the wedding.  We should get our professional pics sometime next month.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and have a fabulous New Year!

My sister and nephew helping set up - she did an AWESOME job!

My mom snapped this while the photographer was working her magic

I never know what to do with my face in pictures

Seriously, I always look surprised (my co-worker/friend was copying me) LOL

End of the night.  My flask is filled with Nerds candies and that's a Pepsi Max in the can.
I was exhausted yet hyper all day.  :)

Shared: A New Way to Walk (Walk, Walk)

Now that my knee is (mostly) feeling better, I'm working on increasing my activity.  I was told to go slow and work up.  Because I lead a very sedentary life, I figured the best and easiest ways for me to just walk around more at work.

So I got a pedometer!

This one is amazing because you can out it anywhere on your body and it accurately counts your steps.  Since I don't have pockets and am too "curvy" to comfortably wear one clipped to my waist band, I actually just stick this in my bra. :)

I originally got the clippy strap to keep it from falling out but that has ended up not being an issue at all.

The clip was actually really annoying so now I just put the pedometer down the front of my bra. :)

I tracked how many steps I took on an average day for a week.  Then I figured out the average per day and strive to take a minimum of 200 steps a day more than the average.  No, it's not a lot but I really feel it in my knees when I take more than that right now.  I have a goal of 5,000 total additional steps above my base point and then I'm going to get myself a treat.  I just haven't decided for sure what that's going to be yet.  I'm really eyeing these leggings, though.

I have discovered that if I dance a lot, it can increase my steps so I have to be careful of that.  Yeah, the movement is good overall but the point is to increase the endurance of my knees. :)

I've thought about joining the gym here at work (just $6 per paycheck!) but being sweaty in front of other people is absolutely mortifying to me.  And I sweat easily.  I don't glisten like some women, either.  Nope.  I turn bright red and wet. :P  And when I get hot, I get super nauseous.

So walking is the first step.  Walk, walk!

Random necklace pic:

Pendant: Fire Mountain Gems

Bought: Secret Agent Sarrah

Well, after years of hoodies and sweaters, I finally bought a real life coat for the cooler Autumn and Winter months ahead.  :)

Winter coat: Torrid

This picture does not do it any sort of justice, though.  It's more of a dark charcoal and has a nice texture to it.

I like that it is warm without being TOO warm since winters in Atlanta, GA are fairly mild (compared to northern MN where I grew up).  It also has nice deeeeep pockets.  So far, I've gotten to wear it once this season.  :P

It also finally gave me a place to wear some of the pins I've gotten recently.

Lapel pins: Creepy Company

I've had these for a while but just couldn't figure out a good way to style them with the way I normally dress.  I even tried some of Mutant Stomp Friends awesome suggestions but I don't dress the same way. :)  I'm a lot less creative with my fashion sense. LOL

The hearse has a hidden details that makes me giggle, though.

What creative things do you do with pins/buttons/badges?  I need ideas! :)

Shared: Wedding - Comic Book Table Runners

44 days to the wedding!  I can't believe it is almost here.  Fortunately, now that I have the table runners done, there's not too much left to do before hand except put together the loot bags (in lieu of favors) and get Andy's suit fitted when it comes in.  He got a custom made suit in dark charcoal grey.  It's really nice!

There's a ton to do for the wedding weekend with our families but that's mostly food related and can't be done until right before we check into the rental house.

I am really happy with the way our runners turned out!  Because our apartment is tiny and we don't have a lot of floor or table space, I came into work last Saturday and used one of the conference rooms to make these.

First, I cut some cheap contact paper to size.  The design was not important because this is going to be on the back so I just got the cheapest I could find on Amazon.  The paper is 18" wide so I cut in half then cut it into 35" lengths.  I need each runner to be a bit over 36" to allow for overlap on the tables.  (Some of the tables are 6' long but 3' runners are easier to manage!)

Once those were cut, I removed the backing from each strip, laid it sticky side up, then arranged the comic book pages in a planned-random pattern.  I wanted it to look random but I also needed them to be within the right width and I kept on eye on color placement, which way the text was pointing, and splitting up like characters.  I know those are details that only I would notice but since I would notice it, I wanted to prevent it. :)

After the contact paper was covered, I used double-sided tape to add a few pages to the top as well as stick down any loose corners.

Once I had one done to my liking, I used it as a sort of template to keep the dimensions close on the rest of them that I made.  For the comic book pages, I used The Flash and Flashpoint (his favorites) plus Invader Zim and I Hate Fairyland (my favorites).  It was really sad cutting apart those books!

Because I had already cut up the books during a previous weekend, it took me less than 4 hours to make all 13 runners.  I still need to figure out how to safely transport these from the apartment to the rental house to the wedding venue without folding them.  Right now, they are stacked on top of one another and draped over the backs of a couple chairs that are also holding other wedding items.

I have a few ideas but would love suggestions! :)

Wore: My Diet Finally Paid Off

Happy Halloween
and
Blessed Samhain!

Bow: Hot Topic
Necklace: Wish
Dress: Torrid
Shrug: Jessica London
Arm warmers: Wish
Leggings: Hot Topic online
Shoes: Hot Chocolate Designs

I went with an easy option for Halloween at work this year.  Everything is from my wardrobe, just some things don't get worn as often as others. :)  It was kind of funny when I realized I have a skeleton costume built right into my wardrobe.  LOL

We don't have any real plans for tonight except dinner, movies and hopefully a couple of trick-or-treaters.

What are/were your Halloween plans?

Wore: Flowers in Her Hair...er, on Her Legs

I did it!  I did it!  I got another pair of printed leggings.  Yep, I'm going wild with this new found freedom.  LOL

Dress: Torrid
Leggings: Hot Topic
Shoes: Hot Chocolate Designs

I know... a whole three pairs now.  I'm livin' on the edge, wild child that I am. ;)

I will admit that these are not my favorites of the 3 but they are nice for a change from safe basic black.

Also with these, the bagginess around my ankles is a lot more noticeable.  I could down a size for them to fit my lower legs and my waist better but I'm scared that my hips and thighs won't fit if I do that.

You can't see the tops of the leggings.  They look like a wide screen version of the bottoms.  :)

I also dug out one of my favorite necklaces that doesn't get as much air time as the rest because it's dangerous.  LOL

 And it's reversible!

I can't remember where I got this because it was such a long time ago.  There are a lot of other versions of it online, though.

It's very light weight but the corners and edges are SHARP!  I even filed them down a bit when I first got it.

How does the saying go?  Beauty is pain?  Good thing I have masochistic tendencies.  Drinking super fizzy soda after eating Captain Crunch or really cold ice cream is my favorite. :D

I found out the hard way that wearing this for a night out with friends at a bar, either way, brings a lot of creepy unwanted attention.  My response is usually a blush-filled "I have to go over there now."  Sadly, I'm usually not the quickest when it comes to picking up double-entendres and innuendos except for the ones that a 12-year-old would giggle at.

Do you have any favorite accessories that you don't wear as often as you'd like?  What's your reason?

Shared: What's this? What's this?!

Hey!  What's that glowing by my door?

There's something orange and eerie up there.  Can you see it?  No?  Then let's move closer....

Can you see it up there now?  Like any good horror film, we should definitely move in for a closer look!

Oh!  It's just our orange pumpkin head hanging over the light outside our door.  Silly pumpkin!  You gave me such a scare!  Hahahaha!  I think I will go inside now.

Or maybe not.  ;)

We don't do a lot of decorating outside our apartment, especially since the little boy who lives in unit 12 gets creeped out pretty easily.  He's a cool kid and has an awesome cat named Loki who I feel is one of my own.  I don't think his family celebrates Halloweeen nor do I think his parents speak any English but they always smile big and say "Hi" when I walk pass.

We don't do a lot of decorating inside either because I pretty much decorate for Halloween all year long.  I should take some pics of my favorite decor items some time.

In the mean time, here's Rustle, just chilling on the couch.  He laid like this for a good 20 minutes without being petted  or anything before I decided to record him for about 30 seconds.  His purrs make me happy. :)

Craft Along with GIY: Black & White (Black Lace Skull shirt)

I love Bane's Craft Alongs!  It's even more fun to participate. :)  This month, her theme was Black & White so I took the opportunity to do an easy refashion.

I did not take a before picture but I had this black and white striped tee with a black lace collar that I got during the "Before Time" when I was trying to go unnoticed.  I rarely wore it, though, because it was too flashy for me back then.  LOL

Shirt: Woman Within many years ago
Black lace skull: Etsy

Even after I started to dress more like me, it rarely got worn because I'm not a fan of boxy t-shirts in general.  I bought some lace skull appliques off Etsy a while back and decided that the black one would work well on this shirt since it had the crocheted lace collar on it already.

It was a super simple but time intensive process to hand sew it on so I just parked myself in front of some scary movies for a Sunday and was able to get it done.  Now it's a shirt that I will at least wear more often.  :)

This wasn't part of the Craft Along but it's something else that I made:

I ordered the pendant from Firemountain Gems and used a couple of broken necklaces to get the parts to string it.