Autumn all over again

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 6:00 pm | In crafts+inspiration | Leave a Comment

Some may not believe this, but I am extremely happy I’m leaving Brazil just after the beginning of spring. Seriously, we had a bit of heat yesterday and my pressure went all the way down, making me feel terrible half the day. So, I’m really looking forward to facing low temperatures once again this year. Actually, I cannot really say that because our winter is pretty hot, too.

Anyway, with autumn in my head, I decided to make a cowl out of some great yarn I had stashed some time ago. The FO:

Yes, this is the best photo of it. The thing is, it is going to be secured by a navy blue velvet tape that I did not have and could not find anywhere. I mean, I found packages with 5 and 10 yards, but I only need less than one yard. The cowl is, therefore, just a knitted rectangle. But it is cute, indeed, and I really loved the bumpy texture. A close up photo:

Cute and fluffy! Very cozy!

Reformed Converse shoes

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 12:44 am | In crafts+inspiration | Leave a Comment

So it took ages, but the visa arrived and I am finally ending the process of getting everything ready.  And as this is what has been occupying my mind day and night for the last month or so, I kind of put all projects on hold. I would try and make something here or there, but I just couldn’t concentrate on more demanding things.

While getting ready last week, I spotted a few items of clothing I wanted to take with me but needed tiny adjustments. So I worked on them to make everything as perfect as possible. The project I am more proud of is the one pictured below:

I bought these grey Converse shoes a couple years ago and never used them much because of how tall the tops were (like these). So I cut ‘em off and replaced ‘em with some gray fabric. My sewing machine wouldn’t be able to sew it properly, so I handstitched it with a pink embroidery floss in the same tone as the other sewing lines. Check out a close up image:

I know, my handstitching sucks. But the overall look quite pleased me. And they are totally wearable again! Hooray!

Wedding ideas: guestbook alternatives

Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 12:17 pm | In crafts+inspiration | 1 Comment
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I love wedding blogs and sites and even get inspired by them (see here) for everyday projects, but what I really like is to discover fund and unique alternatives to some of the traditional parts of a wedding. The guestbook, for example. Instead of doing a sophisticated but plain book, some brides do try to make something innovative.

The images below show a good way to display your guests messages to you. In the first, they tie their wishes in a little tree and, in the second, all pieces of paper hang from a kind of clothes-line.


(photos from style me pretty)

Other nice ideas include making a guestbook full of colourful little envelopes where friends and family will place their cards and, also, having your guests write on pieces of fabric that will be sewn together later.


(photos from martha stewart weddings)

My favourite ones, though are the two below. Using a cute typewriter in a beautiful table with some pretty paper makes a lot of sense to me, since I’m a journalist. And if the common book is the choice, why not spice it up with polaroids from each of the guests? I bet this would be wonderful to look at 5 or 10 years later!


(photos from martha stewart weddings)

The Mad Hatter experience

Friday, August 28, 2009 at 7:13 pm | In crafts+inspiration, random rants | Leave a Comment

madhatterThe costume party I talked about a few posts back was last Friday, but I only downloaded the pictures today. L-a-z-y, I know, specially if I tell you I only took about ten or twelve shots for a number of reasons that include me not being totally sober and the existence of tons of other people photographing every single detail of the whole affair. Anyway, I really went as female and more modern version of the Mad Hatter. I just loved my costume, but what really pissed me off was that most people did not know who this character is. I mean, please, you do not need to be well-read to know Alice’s Adventures  in Wonderland an even Through the Looking-Glass. And I don’t even mean looking at me and recognizing it right away, no! I mean, if I tell you I’m dressed as the Mad Hatter, you kind of need to know what I’m talking about. So, this was a bit disappointing.

Now, the costume… I realize now I did not take a picture of the vest I made, but I have a couple things to show. Below, the top hat. It has a blueish fabric wrapped all around it, paying homage to Tim Burton’s idea. It does have the 10/6 little plaque, as well as a pepper embellishment. This one was entirely because of the sixth chapter in the first Alice book, Pig and Pepper.

Next, we have two necklaces I used. The first one was made with a teapot illustration that came in dress my father gave me. It was pretty stiff cardboard, so it worked just fine. The other one was a surprise for me. I looked for a vintage looking pocket watch, but could not find any. Luckily, my stepmom found one and bought it for me! It does not look vintage, but it is soooo wonderful! And it is new, so it works. She gave it to me a couple hours before the party so I had to improvise a crochet chain and it really did the trick.

Below, you can see a tiny little bit of the vest and also my eye makeup. I did two of my friends’ makeup, so I had no time to take a picture of the complete outfit, but I intend to dress up again some time this week and take a few shots. But for now, I leave you with this!

Orange, dark pink and black shadows combined to create a fun look!

Just a bad seamstress

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 3:19 pm | In crafts+inspiration | 1 Comment
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The costume party I talked about the other day is this Friday and as I am such a procrastinator, I only started doing mys vest today.

I finished the construction part and noticed a bit of excess fabric below my armpits. When I went to show it to my mother, she almost fell off the chair with laughter. Apparently, I changed the front right and the front left by mistake, and ended up sewing the part that’s supposed to have buttons and buttonholes to the back part of the thing. =p

There are also other things to show how bad a seamstress I am. I just cannot make the pattern match when I put all parts of the piece together and the insides look terrible because I had a problem with the lining. Anyways, now that I corrected the biggest mistake, it looks quite cute. I’ll show it ready as soon as I hem the whole thing.

Cute Tuesday Finds: chicadecanela

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 6:35 pm | In cool items, crafts+inspiration | Leave a Comment
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I’ve been wanting to come up with specific sections for this blog for some time. I mean, there’s always one day when you are not inspired (in my case, when I’m as lazy as possible) and having some kind of category specifically for that day of the week helps a lot getting the job of coming up with a nice post done. So we’ll start today with Cute Tuesday Finds, where you’ll be able to find cuteness overload, hence the name.

This store is a perfect example of ‘cute’. Chicadecanela (cinnamon girl) features items in neutral colours, lots of bows, lace and little bears… all essentials for girls in need of an extra dose of cuteness. Spanish, the store does sell online. You can visit their website for even more eye-candy. I’ll leave you with a few of my favourite items. Check ‘ em out!

via Tokyo Bunnie.

FOs: crocheted and knit berets

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 3:01 pm | In crafts+inspiration | Leave a Comment
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As I have already stated, I love berets. But I also love procrastinating and being just a lazy bum. That’s why it took me ages to post about these two I made. The one you see below, in the left, is crocheted with two different yarns. I had this pattern that required thicker yarn, which I hadn’t. I wanted to make a neutral, oatmeal colored beret, but for some reason I paired this colour with pink. It doesn’t look too bad when you see it, but I’m not a fan of the colour, so I’ll be giving it to a friend that LOVES pink. Oh, and the pattern was from some blog but I lost it after getting strated, so I had to improvise the most part of it.

The one in the right was made with a pattern creadted by Natalie Larson from Strands of Me. Please, disregard my pouting face. I do look like that when I don’t smile, ugh. Anyway, I loved the beret and the pattern, but mine did not ended up as slouchy as hers. So I ‘m making another one, this time in brown, to see if changing the yarn will make it better.

Click here to check out my Ravelry notebook and see pictures of these and other projects of mine. You can also check my queue, which is huge!

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edit: I forgot to post a close up that shows the pattern a little bit better. the colouring is completely off, i know. look how beautiful this beret is:

If you seek attention…

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 1:00 pm | In beauty+fashion, crafts+inspiration | Leave a Comment

dillianflowerpumps-britney… these shoes are probably the ones for you. They are Christian Louboutin’s Dillian Flower Pumps and were used by Britney Spears on her “If You Seek Amy” video. Ever since then, I fell in love with ‘em. Of course, I’m not willing to pay over $1,500 on a pair of shoes, no matter how wonderful they are. So, what I was thinking was: is there a way to make a cheaper version of this flower? The answer is yes, of course, but I’m definitely not one for making such trials.

spearsifyouseekamy02

I looked around a little bit to find some tutorials for flowers that could work and came up with nothing really. Blair, from Wise Craft, shared THIS. If we modify it a little bit, I guess it could work. The material being leather, I imagine it would be way easier to make it look that big. Should anyone try it, please-please-please, send over a picture, will ya? Should I put my laziness aside and give it a go, I’ll post about it.

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