Classy Fried Cheese

The words "fried," "cheese," and "classy" typically do not go well together, or at all. But change that to "panko, white pepper, and thyme fried," "goat chèvre cheese," and "classy with a top hat," and you've got yourself another whole situation my friend.

Such a good use of a bored afternoon at home. Fried goat cheese is definitely a keeper. Just don't look up the caloric content.

DIY: Shoulder Cut-out Dress

Cut-out dresses and shirts have been popping up everywhere since this summer.

Love the color and shape of this top

Pretty typical dress with cutout sides - still gorgeous!

Long sleeved shirts with the backs slashed, shoulders peeping through button down tops, dresses with waists peeking through... And then I saw this beauty in an ad on the side of a page actually.

I absolutely adore the gold rimmed shoulders! It kind of looks like metal, but I think that'd make moving your arms a little difficult...

I didn't even look at the price tag, because I knew that it would be so easy to do it myself (I guess advertising does work, though the outcome was probably not what they hoped for)! So I tucked it away in my ever-growing "Make this!" folder on my desktop. I thought no more of it until I was rummaging through my donate bin and found this ill-fitting, oversized black Old Navy shift I wore once for a play (in which I played a dowdy 30-year-old woman).

Again, sorry it's such a crappy photo... Old camera still... Dress awkwardly displayed on top of another one of my recent DIY projects, my rug!

I immediately ran to Joann's to get gold trim, cut the shoulders off the dress (eyeballed it, no science here!), took up the hem, and baste-stitched the trim on! Et voila!

I actually got a round of applause when wearing this dress. Yay!

First two photos via asos.com

New Year's Eve (in my dreams)

So I'm spending New Year's Eve in my pajamas with my parents and a glass of sparkling grape juice (maybe with a sparkler or two), so here's glimpse into my night, were I actually going out:

Wearing a dress like this! The one night a year that this outfit is completely acceptable. Four year old me would be in heaven!

Matching sparkly (but not overwhelmingly so) nails! Darkness to balance out the disco up above, and shoes that maybe match this color?

With my hair like this! Gotta keep it up so I don't get too sweaty dancing! Plus all the better to show off that amazing dress

Eating THESE beauties: champagne jello shots! You guessed it, with more sprinkles. How wonderfully classy!

Okay fine, and maybe a couple sparklers still :)

Sighhh. Maybe next year when I'm out on my own? Hope your New Year is much more exciting than mine!

All images via pinterest

aaaaaand we're back!

As we head into 2012 (dun dun dun!) I've been bitten by the ol' creative bug again, and with my brand new point and shoot camera in tow, figured I should start this deal back up! In 5 days I'm road-tripping back up to school, where I'll have three weeks to do nothing but make things! Oh and do my thesis. So here's a quick sneak-peek at things I've got planned (unfortunately I was dumb and didn't include where I found these pictures...):

How perfect is this dress? The color, the fishtail hem... I love it!

I'm finally jumping on board the mustard train. I adore this whole outfit.

And yes, also the maxi skirt train! Perfect for when it's -10f degrees outside and I'm in the mood for something girly (and they even can hide boring old leggings underneath for double warmth!)

So hopefully this blog will resume its original use (and hopefully with better pictures...). Using my own hands to create things makes me a happier person. Hope you all had wonderful holidays and happy New Years!

new things!

So this weekend, I originally intended to copy this $200 bag that I've been drooling over:

However, I quickly realized how F#%*&@)ing hard it is to work with leather. Especially since I don't have the proper foot presser so it kept sticking and warping the leather :/ whoops. So this project quickly devolved into this:

Again, sorry for the crappy camera, I'll fix that eventually... I absolutely adore this leather though, it's super soft and this amazing warm ivory color (very much unlike the weird yellow color in the picture...). Maybe I'll work my way up to that beautiful inspiration piece, but for now it's just nice to have a small clutch to throw all my stuff in :) p.s. that red lining is the bombdiggity.

In other news, I'm back to being a brunette again!! Not sure I'm loving the color, but it was time for a change. haha I wonder if I'll keep doing this dark brunette/blonde alternating hair dye for the rest of my life... Maaaaaybe! Pictures later if I can summon the courage to take them!

DIY heaven

Recently I've found that more and more, what I'm waste time doing on the internet is looking up how to make things, inspiration to make things, and what things other people have made. Here's a sample from this past week or so. Unfortunately, I didn't save where I got the images, so only some are credited :( Note to self.

White button down plus neon fabric = designer dress that probably costs more than I make in a month (or two). (via ???)

Bolt bracelets from my favorite DIY/fashion blogger EVER, A Pair and a Spare.

Super duper easy front pleat skirt that I'm drooling over, again from A Pair and a Spare

One of the many leather projects I have coming up - leather feather keychain! tee hee (via ...love Maegan, I think)

This technically was a tutorial for this awesome hairstyle, but I'm in LOVE with that necklace and want to try and recreate it! (via ...love Maegan)

and in the beginning

...there was a sewing machine!

Okay, so this post technically isn't about my sewing machine, but since I finally got it up here in Boston now, I've been just bursting at the seams (pun intended) with arts and craftsy ideas so I figured I might as well document my mad sewing/artsing/craftsing bursts somehow. As my first submission to the internets audience, I present my hand-crocheted (as opposed to hook-crocheted) doily rug! It's made out of some kind of cotton rope that I got on a HUGE discount at my fabric store.

The inspiration rug:

SOOOO adorable, I'm crazy in love with lace and doilys and the flower design! My dorm room next year is linoleum (yuck), so I've been looking for creative ways to make it nicer. I wanted this the second I found it. However. This rug is going for $600 bucks, plus shipping on Etsy (here). Eek.

My version:

Sorry for the crappy picture, it kind of looks yellow/shiny in this picture, but I promise it's a nice cotton-y white in real life! I'll get around to taking a better picture eventually... Slightly thinner rope, and it's a tad smaller, but hey! For 15 bucks, I'll take it! Took me about a weekend to make. Don't know why, but I've always found crocheting oddly relaxing, so it was a good weekend, with a pretty cool outcome!

I've got a couple projects in the works this week... And there's leather involved!! ;) Stay tuned.