royal wedding teaser!

Ok, guys. Who stayed up supersuperlate to watch the royal wedding?
Not me, I can tell ya. As the church bells were ringing I was in the depths of slumber resting up for another school day (although my homeroom teacher said that she'd totally understand if we skipped to watch the wedding, other teachers weren't so forgiving). I woke up and ran downstairs to watch the Internet-rehashing begin. And her dress is SO PRETTY! I can't stop obsessing over it. I'm sorry. I know what you're thinking. "If I hear another word about William and Kate I will forcefully tattoo pictures of their faces to your teeth!" (seriously, somebody did that. Sounds hardcore.)

Please don't tattoo peoples' faces to your teeth, guys. No matter how much you love them.

And I was thinking that too. Until I saw her dress and immediately thought "I want this for my wedding!" Even though I'm not going to get married for at least 10 years.

Gorgeous! And do you see all those cute little bridesmaids peeking out from behind the massive train?

So anyway. I wrote this rather short post to tell you that you will soon (ahem, someday) see a project inspired by this dress!
I'm off to enjoy the celebrations. just remember: no teeth-tattoos.

going grassroots: a project from right here in the neighborhood

Happy Earth Day, everyone! (oh yeah, and Good Friday too. Why they call the day Jesus died 'good' is beyond me, but anyway....onward....) Sorry for the period of no posts. My thought process was: "post the new project. ehh that means I have to take a pic of me wearing it. Too lazy. Back to homework aka procrastinating."
And then I realized that I did wear it to my art class's student art show! *cue the hallelujah trumpets*
So you're probably wondering what this project is. I had a booger-colored Astrocamp shirt that had been sitting in my drawer, unworn, for about 4 years. I was starting to feel a need for new shirts so of course I flew straight to my Generation T book!

The shirt in all its boogerish glory. It was yellower in person. And the year after my class went, the t-shirts were purple. So unfair!

I knew I wanted to keep the spaceship logo on the back because it was cool so I searched through the book for a project that would preserve that!
And voila. Simple, easy, and wearable!

Please ignore the "Mommmm stop taking pictures....." face :P

A cute halter top to beat the heat!

PS....I painted the lighthouse watercolor.

happy earth day!

adventures in frisco

So....firstly I apologize for the recent small blogging hiatus. I went to Avila Beach and then up to SF with my friend AM, my mom and grandma and it was awesome! Here are some pics:

The hotel in Avila we stayed at had a labyrinth--and not the Pan's Labyrinth type.

 The next day we went on an....interesting....hike that included getting lost, rollie-pollie takeovers, and a trio of concerned mothers. And we saw a lizard!

AM stole my camera and took a billion shots of this guy. She's an amazing photographer--he zipped back into his hidey-hole if we got too close.

 After that we found a great bookstore at San Luis Obispo called the Phoenix Bookstore--all used books (its the type of place where the unshelved clutter is where you will find your new favorite book). We came out of there with stacks and stacks. Then we visited a pretty mission:

BELLS!

 And on our way up to SF we went to an amazing farm. It had:

hungry goats,

sheep practicing for Noah's Ark,

innocent donkeys,

villainous emus (he kept moving his head out of the way!),

surprised cows,

territorial turkeys,

beautiful peacocks,

 and the best jam you will ever taste--made from a hybrid berry called an olallieberry. Then we headed up north for more adventures.

We got to SF in time to watch the sun set behind the Golden Gate Bridge which is not actually gold but still pretty.

The infamous mustaches-explanation below*

The Devil's Cannery-where he makes his own canned foods.

Beauty shots of the bridge

More beauty shots of the bridge. This is the most photographed bridge in the world. It is the supermodel of bridges.

Muir Woods--a beautiful national park filled with tall redwoods

and CHINATOWN! I'm not kidding-it's the best Chinatown ever.

*The first night we got there, AM and I decided that first impressions were important--so we put on fake mustaches and strolled around the city acting completely normal! It was the most hilarious thing ever. Clerks stared, boys in an obnoxious and rather stinky convertible wolf-whistled, and one man took our picture. The San Franciscans were very kind to us as nobody shipped us off to an insane asylum (yet).

oh, crazy adventure.

<3 m

knitting kick!

Hello. I'm the DIYgirl and this is my first knitting-holics anonymous meeting. Lately I've been on a knitting kick. I sit down to craft something and reach for the knitting needles (this is not helped by the fact that yesterday I went to JoAnn fabrics and got different sizes of needles). So, because I seem to be creating an excess of knitted goods (and also spent all my spare cash on vacation) I've decided to maybe open an Etsy shop! More details coming soon. I must warn you though, with me:
I've decided to open an Etsy shop=six months later, I remember the great idea I had about opening a shop, knit feverishly, decide everything's too cute to part with, squirrel it away, and ignore my knitted goods' impeding sale by looking up how to actually use Etsy.

If you are confused by that paragraph, just ignore it. I'm confused by that paragraph and I wrote it. Can you tell I found a great place where taffy is $1 over vacation?
Ok. Knitting. On track.
These are some things I hope to make in the future (knitted and otherwise):

this looks so cozy and warm!

These are so awesome! Time to dig up my old stamps....

This is a very useful thing.

<3

spring has sprung!

It's official: spring is finally here! Where I live it's been raining like crazy these past few days and now it's spring break! Sorry for the lack of posts now and the lack of posts to come--I probably won't be able to write so often. Anyway. I am knitting yet another useful item (not a hat!) that I'll show you guys when I come back. For now enjoy these pretty spring pictures!

This would be the perfect Easter card if you celebrate. If not send it as an April Fools card.

 Speaking of April Fool's day, to my friends who watch this blog: Be Prepared. Last year AM and I sent the Smiley Cat song to peoples' voicemails, so be warned.
You haven't heard the smiley cat song?! Surely you josh. It's ok though, you can watch it right here. Anyway. Onward.

I read a hilarious article that said fruit was very 'in' for spring and decided that this stylish $100 piece (called on Modcloth the 'Blushing Banana' dress) would 'go perfectly with anything.' The day has finally come when you can wear banana dresses in public without being ridiculed (by the STYLISH among us, anyhow). I want one of these now. They also offered banana necklaces as an accessory.

 To finish off this stylish slip you of course need makeup:

I've always wanted my lips to look like a bee. I think these were made by Michelle Phan's less mainstream twin.

 And don't forget shoes!

happy spring everyone!
<3

project: sweet treats!

Hallelujah!!!!! You know those times when you're craving sweets but too full to eat another bite? Now you can feast your eyes on a scrumptious hat of your own making. Yes, that's right friends: I finished the cupcake hat.
It looks complicated, but it's really easy to make. I knitted a ribbed* rectangle (the purple stuff), cast off, and knitted a seperate mini-hat using the same pattern for a full beanie hat, just shortened (the white stuff). You can find many patterns for this on the internet, but I used one from a book that used just straight (regular) needles. Then I sewed the two together using my genius finger method as demonstrated in the sweater rescue tutorial. Using a swell pom-pom maker, I created the cherry on top. Then using the finger method I sewed rainbow sprinkles to the 'frosting'!
This hat was a cheerful addition to yesterday's rainy afternoon (although I did get a menacing glare from a random fashionista on the street.....)
now here are some pics (taken a la photobooth, I was lazy)

 

Then of course I played around with the settings to make the cupcake glow with holy gloryness (is that a word? Now it is.)

I thought the picture above looked a little like I had angel wings, so I went all the way and made myself an angel/chicken hybrid

if you by any chance knit this hat, please send me a picture. We can be cupcake twins of awesomeness!
<3


*for those of you just beginning to knit, ribbing can be created with the pattern knit/purl/knit/knit/purl/knit....

project: (Irish) Tee Time!

It's tea time, everyone! Ring the bells, get out the scones and butter and don't forget your Irish teabags! Today we're dealing with a whole nother class of tee--THE BLAH KIND (oh no!)
I had this shirt sitting around from a couple St. Patrick's Day's ago....it had a funny saying on it (you'll see in a mo) but other than that it was nothing....remarkable. And I like my wardrobe to be remarkable. Stupid me forgot to take a before shot (I was caught up in the moment!) but it looked something like this:

A lime green shirt with a better phrase than this one. Also, I'm not blond and thirtyish (at least I wasn't the last time I checked)

So I got my hands on this great book that I can't stop reading--seriously, this woman is amazing!

This is my new favorite book <3

I used project something-or-other, called Ties to Die For. And the outcome was....

Irish girls have more fun--yes they do!

 My kitty cat snuck into the shot :) she's such a glamorous model! She wasn't even supposed to be outside because yesterday she 'lost' her collar--for the 3rd time!

Close up on the clever catchphrase--and the delicious shamrock cookie I'm enjoying. I love those Pilsbury ready-to-bake cookies! "Wow, how did you get the picture on the cookie? Did you make these yourself?" "Why yes, I baked them myself...."

Now it's more like a 2-leaf clover!

If you don't have a St. Patrick's day tee you can still make this project and applique a shamrock onto it, a la the first t-shirt project I posted on here.
Happy St Patrick's day and don't forget to wear green tomorrow!
<3 kai