Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: belly dance, belly dancing, Bellydancing, clothes, shopping
Little blog, I haven’t forgotten you. Sometimes I just don’t know what to say to you….
In the past week I’ve started to realize a project on bat education, gone to belly dance class, tried out for a student belly dance troupe and gone shopping with my sister.
Try outs…went so well Joharah told us to come back in a week. /sigh So not well. I practice some more…still not good, but I’m hoping not bad.
Shopping was awesome. I went out with my sister and I managed to buy two pairs of pants and two tanks for dance classes. I also bought two shirts for everyday! Success!
I did enter a story into the WoW contest. Since I didn’t get my “YOU ARE AWESOME AND YOU WON” email I’m guessing I didn’t win. Actual winners were notified 2 weeks prior to the contest closing…if I read correctly. So I didn’t even warrant a batch of signed books. Oh well, it’s not going to stop me from trying…CBC contest is the next victim!
I cannot promise that I won’t neglect you dear blog…nobody reads anyway. But I’ll do my best!
And how funny is it that when I did my spell check…blog is NOT A WORD! LOL
Filed under: Random Thoughts
Stumbled on this on my evening internet meanderings at Tacky Weddings. They have actual wedding stuff there, but this was just too good to pass up!
Filed under: Random Thoughts
I feel like I’m stuck in neutral…very blah. I can hear the snowplow removing snow from another snow fall grinding along the street. sigh
I haven’t felt like practicing belly dance, haven’t felt like much of doing anything. I hate winter time, particularly this time when everything is just blah.
I’m watching a cooking show during nap time…Michael Smith is having a soup day. French onion soup, a veggie soup. He’s making me hungry, which makes me think about all the fabulous things I could make for dinner but don’t feel like. Like I said blah.
There’s got to be a way to crawl out of the monotony. I hope.
I slipped in the snow last weekend, felt fine so I went ahead and did recital practice at the studio. No problems during class, nada. Until after class when I sat down and my knee started aching, it felt like I slammed into something. So no practice during the week, only practiced in my head…which apparently still counts as practice. And now both knees are feeling stiff and I feel like I have shin splints.
What have I changed recently while belly dancing? Shoes. My ballet slippers were becoming a bit of a hazzard, they were worn out and were causing me to slip all over the place. So I abandoned them and starting dancing barefoot. I’m hoping once I replace my foot wear that the achy breaky legs will go away.
I am positively drooling over these dance shoes. Aren’t they pretty! But they are expensive…ah well, I can dream. Look at the COLOURS!!!!!! /faint Yum, yum, yum
And then I could match it to pretty costume from here. Maybe this one in orange?
Soon, I’ll be getting together with a couple of friends from class to sew and “easy” *cough cough* chiffon skirt. Can’t wait to do that! I’ll be heading to the fabric store for 11 yards of chiffon…wowza!
Well, I know what I like to make and I can combine with what I like to do. So step one is complete, I’ve decided on a product…or product line I should say! My new venture will be fabric gift bags and fabric gift card holders to start with. Honestly this was the easy part.
Now what do I do? I’ve been looking at Etsy, there are a lot of very talented people there. There is a little nagging voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me I can’t do this, so I keep shushing her but it’s still bouncing around in my head. I’m also freaking out about the whole transaction, billing, shipping, and taxes…obviously I’m getting way ahead of myself. To remedy that I’m going to take step two.
Make some product and give it to some family and friends. In order to do that I need fabric. My local fabric store is okay, not great and I find it really disheartening to see a fabric I love only to discover the price is near $20 per meter. Scary stuff. I have had a fabric store or two bookmarked for awhile and I’m thinking my best bet for getting some fabric at reasonable prices would be from those shops. Ordering from the US is not an option as paying duty is usually a very, very painful experience.
Have a look at these two Canadian on-line fabric retailers. Wazoodle has some awesome, awesome prices. They look like they have a particular interest in cloth diapering, so I automatically love them. I haven’t ordered from them yet, but I will be soon.
Next is a place I love, Tonic Living. Their retro fabrics are to die for, I love going to the site to just drool over them. I have ordered from them and they were really quick to get my order in the mail. Loved that they packed both of my fabrics in separate plastic bags. Great value too.
Filed under: Organizing
Remember all of that decluttering I did awhile back? I was following along with Maria the Organizing Queen and she has an awesome offer on her site!
She says she can get your entire house organized in twelve weeks…TWELVE WEEKS. That’s not it, she is giving away an e-course to do just that!
Besides the home organizing she does a lot of other things, which you can find here. While the home organizing one is the one I would like the most, she also offers organizing services for those with businesses to keep track of. As well as some help trying to reach your own personal goals, be that weight, launching a business or any new venture you have in your pretty little head.
Head on over to the Organizing Queen and get your comment in for this opportunity!
I want to start my own little crafty business. Sewing, I’m thinking right now of things like bags, totes, and gift card pockets. The idea is planted and now I’m trying to figure out how to make it happen. Obviously it’s just a loose plan now, and I’m not really sure what direction I should be heading in first. I’ll be heading to the fabric store soon and I think my first step will be to make some bags, see how much fabric it requires and send them off to people to get some feedback from.
Why do I want to do this? A little extra money would be nice, I know it won’t be much but at least it would be something.
The other thing we’ve been doing is looking at houses, perhaps the reason that I want to make some extra cash. We are cramped in our little townhouse and we need more space. Of course attempting to sell a house and find a new one creates as many problems as it would solve. The animals in the house would be an issue….it would cost a small fortune to kennel the cats and dogs and isn’t really a great solution. The house would need to be spruced up and some small DIY jobs need to be done. Then we need to decide if we want to buy new or resale…new home would mean no fence for the dogs…resale means we have a lot less time to sell our house. And then financing…blah.
I’ve also signed up for the student recital at bellydancing. We have rehearsal every Saturday until March, that’s in addition to our once per week class. It’s been pretty good so far, but my knee is sore after slipping in the snow on Saturday so I’ll be skipping class tonight.
Okay…that’s where I’m at. Hopefully I can figure some of this out. And of course update more frequently…I’ve got to get back in the daily blogging habit.
Filed under: Crafty | Tags: Candy Cane, Christmas Craft, Christmas Place Cards, Place Card Tutorial, Place Cards
I was going to buy some place card holders but because I like to change my Christmas table yearly so I thought it would be better to make some. It’s really simple, cheap and it looks cute. The entire job took me half an hour tops. I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this, but let me just have it for today mmkay?
Here’s what you need:
- Stuff You’ll Need to Make the Job Easier
- Cutting Mat
- Straight Edge
- Rotary Cutter
- Glue Stick
- Candy Canes (One per person)
You can use scissor, I just find the rotary cutter makes things move along quicker. I got my candy canes from my local dollar store.
Step 1: Print out your sheet of names, I used publisher to add a ribbon detail under the name. If you have nice penmanship then you can just write it out. I used a 1cm margin in portrait and lined up the edges of my text boxes to that margin. I forgot to take a picture before I cut them all out, but you’ll see what they look like. I fit 9 text boxes on a letter size sheet. You will need to double the names so that when it’s folded there will be a name on either side…not sure if that makes sense now but keep looking and it will make sense, I swear!
Step 2: Measure the height that you want your name strips to be.
Measure the Width
Step 3: Cut along your straight edge. See the double names there? That’s what I meant in Step 1.
Cut It Out
Step 4: Glue stick time. Glue from one end to over half way so that there well be some glue to stick to the candy cane.
Stick It To Me
Step 4: Grab your festive candy cane and your sticky strip of paper. Fold the paper around the candy cane and line up your edges. Make sure the name is right side up, glue stick doesn’t dry too quick so if you have to you can peel it apart and restick…the edges do curl if you do that though…ask me how I know.
Wrap It Up, Sticky Style
Step 5: So where the heck do you put these things?
Ta Daaaaaaa
Cute eh! Yes, I’m Canadian…sorry to make it so obvious today. I made a whole bunch in half an hour!
All Lined Up
Filed under: Random Thoughts, sewing | Tags: apron, christmas, christmas tree, presents, tutu
Okay, so we have one adorable tutu! It’s a mix of pink and purple, perfectly girly. I hope the little ballerina likes it!
Princess Tutu
For my mom…a chef’s apron. Ridiculously easy to make, even without a pattern. I “made” a pattern from one of my own aprons, added 1/4″ for seam allowance and voila! I like this fabric too, my mom’s request was for a red apron…I hope this is red enough for her. It is a reversible apron but the other side is a tone on tone pattern that didn’t feel like photographing well.
Mom's Apron
And we did go and get our tree last night and I put the lights on it and decorated it today!
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
Do you notice a distinct lack of ornamentation around the bottom of the tree? I’m sure MC would be fine because I don’t actually own any breakable ornaments but just because they’re not glass doesn’t mean they can’t be chewed by dogs. So the tree is a little unbalanced. I swear I put lights on it, and that they were on!
Geek Family Tree
And what geek family tree would be complete without some Star Wars ornaments!
What’s on your geek tree?
Filed under: Random Thoughts, sewing | Tags: christmas planning, countdown to christmas, tutu
I’m not…not yet. No decorations up, no tree, no wrapped presents!
However, we are getting our tree tonight! I’ve finished my mom’s full apron and my friend Christine’s daughter’s tutu. There’s a lot of easy no sew tutu tutorials out there! I used this one though. Of course my camera batteries died so you won’t be able to see the cute fluffiness of all that tulle until tomorrow, and my mom’s apron…she doesn’t look here so I’m safe.
Kate’s gift is *this close* to being done.
Which leaves me with my aunt’s gift and some wine bags…and DONE.
I went with Kate on Friday to Moonlight Madness and bought MC’s “big” gift, a Disney Cars tool bench…very cute. We were searching for a heart pendant for Kate’s grandma…no luck. Really it isn’t a rare thing…heart with red or blue stones…and not on some funky angle….plain heart. Ah well, we’re heading out again tomorrow…finger’s crossed we can find it.
