Crafty Gifts
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately crafting for friends and family, like the cake topper and wedding favors for my sister, Beans. This post is going to show some of those gifts, and serve as an excuse for not doing many crafting posts.
For Jessica, I made a tiny gnome head magnet (which is part of an on-going weird joke between us), and a box of Cadbury creme eggs, of which I did not steal ONE.
This is a necklace for my sis, Beans, inspired by a recycle poster, which is why the tree is made of arrows.
UPDATE: I found the inspiration pic for this:
This is a monster baby. I made it out of some fabric by running it around the sewing machine with no real plan in mind.
He’s wearing a cape with SB on it, which stands for Super Baby. He’s playing super heroes, with his pet cow.
I named the cow Moothusela. This monster baby was made for Kathy Phan-tastic for her birthday.
Nuclear explosion? No problem! Super Baby to the rescue! (The background is part of a painting by my super-talented Hubby). So it just goes to show, being friends with me has its benefits. I love giving handmade gifts whenever I can.
Craft Fair Tomorrow!
Don’t forget to come see your favorite Clever Chick tomorrow at the Rockin’ Mama’s Day Celebration to benefit SafePlace! I don’t want to drop names or anything, but my dear friend KathyPhantastic will be there, too!
It’s gonna be sweet!
Swap is my new favorite word
Thank God for Facebook, because my friends hear about the coolest things. Kathy Phan of kathyphantastic posted a link for a style bloggers conference. Believe me, I am aware I don’t fit into that category. But, they were having a clothing swap as part of their event, and I definitely fit into the “Cheap as all get out” category.
My friend Jessica and I showed up at the place, somewhere down on 2nd. Jessica was driving, and I was looking for parking spots, so I didn’t pay much attention to where we were. It was one of those gorgeous, Austin-y nights that we cherish around here. You stand outside, feel the clean, fresh air on your skin, and everyone in the city seems to be in a good mood (but don’t move here, it’s terrible).
We dropped off our clothes to be sorted, and paid our $5 cover charge. That may seem odd, but there were actual employees, or volunteers of some kind organizing everything, and the amount of loot I got far outweighed the $5, which is what I was counting on with a bunch of fashion people donating clothes. Here’s what I made off with:
Super comfy, casual, and very flattering on me:
Jessica initially grabbed this, and apparently I made too many “jokes” about stealing it, so she generously gave it to me!
This is a close up on the pattern:
This one is super hot on me! And it’s a nice long shirt, but it doesn’t look like maternity wear! Double win!
Yes, this one is electric orange. If anything, the camera dulled the color. But it was free and fits me really well. We’ll see how often I wear it, but I figured, no harm in going outside my usual color pallette.
I know those of you who know me are saying, “What? A dress? Surely, you can’t be serious!” I am serious, and it looks cute on me! And it’s comfortable! And don’t call me Shirley! (Hey-yo!)
I’m not completely sure about this one, but something about it just said “awesome”.
This one is backless, and the brand is “Rocker Stalker”. That cracked me up, plus it’s super soft. I definitely gravitated toward cotton that has been washed a lot.
It’s hard to tell on the hanger, but this is a super cute 1950′s style halter top! SCORE!!
This one, I’m not going to lie, is a mumu. I liked the fabric, and in the frenzy I just grabbed it. Jessica has tried to convince me that by wearing it with a belt, it will look fine, but I’m still not sure. This may reappear in another post, such as “How to turn a mumu into something a real person would wear”.
This dress, even though it says size 6, fits me PERFECTLY! It’s very 1950′s, which is my favorite era for clothing. Double SCORE!
This is one of those ambiguous “is it a shirt, is it a dress” type things. This is the back. It fits me really well down to my hips, then everything gets horrific. I’m planning on this becoming just a long T-shirt, so hopefully that will be a future post as well.
You didn’t think I forgot accessories, did you? Cute quilty hippy purse made me think a small project like this would be a great way to learn how to quilt. Hmmm… third post?
Look at the cute!!
This was my favorite find of the day, and all by itself was totally worth the $5 admission. An orange pea coat!!! And it fits me like a glove. I know it may not be everyone’s taste, but when I saw this across the room, I would have punched people to get it. Fontunately, there were no cat fights.
So I got rid of clothes I didn’t want, got a bunch of new to me clothes, and the leftovers were given to charity. Plus all the t-shirts have already been washed to super-softness. Win, win, win, win!! It’s gotten me thinking about having my own swap at the house, instead of a garage sale. Or maybe a virtual swap, where I take pictures and post everything on Facebook for my buddies to check out. Anyone interested?
Pixel Pop Fest
Back in July, my dear friend and fellow blogger Kathyphantastic told me about this event at Mohawk called the Pixel Pop Party. I had no idea what was going to happen, but Kathy always finds cool stuff, so I was totally on board.
This was totally my kind of event! They had arts and crafts for sale, and make your own buttons, and t-shirts! I made an Indiana Jones button, and my awesome wrist band is recycled t-shirt, and iron-on fabric. Not to brag, but I cut that all out by hand.
They also had awesome photo booths set up for FREE. You know free is my best friend, so we jumped right in. The whole night was Super Hero themed, hence my “POW” bracelet above, and the gloves and capes below:
Epic
That’s me and Hubby looking totally wicked on the right. Thanks to Trevor Ray for making me look so badass. Annie Ray, the other photographer did an amazing job as well. Both of these people had booths set up in crowded areas, but Annie’s was right by the bar, and look at the results:
Super hot, right?? I mean damn! I want to hire her to follow me around all the time! That looks so good I forgot what else I was going to blog about. Oh right, FOOD.
After the party, Hubby and I followed Kathyphantastic and her man, Fire Hair several blocks to eat out of a trailer. In case you hadn’t heard, trailer food is all the rage here. Austin freakin’ loves a taco truck. This one was totally worth the hike.
You read that right: Korean Mexican fusion. Oh yes. I had the tofu taco. It was stunning. I didn’t take a picture because I INHALED it. It was a bit spicy, but it burns so good…
We also saw random creepy guys in body suits while driving around. Austin has its share of weirdos (“You’re kidding!” “Nope, totally serious”). And here are two of them:
You can barely see him, but there’s a guy in an orange body suit next to the green guy. The evening wouldn’t be complete without some freaks. Someday, when I think you’re ready, I’ll show you Leslie. He’s a local treasure! And yes, he has his own wikipedia page. This place is wild!
Blogs I Love: Kathyphantastic
Kathy Phantastic is one of my best friends on the planet, and I have never met anyone so creative and skilled. Her blog is full of the randomness that is Kathy’s brain, and I love it. She has been doing this much longer than I have, and my attempt is a pale shadow of what she manages to achieve. You can also follow her on twitter, and again, she totally kicks my ass in this arena, but I think we are too different brands of weird entertainment.
http://www.kathyphantastic.com/
Kathy, Hubby and I recently went out to dinner for her birthday, although I forgot to bring her birthday gift, which is the only reason I have not blogged it yet. We went to Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant, which was awesome, of course. I always try to have my Vietnamese friends tell me which places are good for Vietnamese food, so I can learn what it should really taste like, being an ignorant white person and all.
This place is off 183, near Mister Tramps (which I may blog about later). They don’t seem to have their own web page so I linked to yelp:http://www.yelp.com/biz/sunflower-restaurant-austin
At Kathy’s suggestion we got an appetizer, which was a giant vegetarian omelette. It was so freaking delicious! I’m mad now because I can’t remember the real name, but I highly recommend this to anyone who goes there. The way you eat it is tricky so let me spell it out: You cut a small piece off the omelette, and lay it on a lettuce leaf. Add a bit of the shredded, pickled carrot and radish on top, add a spring of mint (so that there is mint in every bite), then spoon some of the dipping sauce over the top. Roll it up and go to town. It is crunchy, fried, hot and cold, sweet and salty all in one. If we go back this will be all I order, and I am not sharing.
I got the tofu and vegetables, which was good. Kathy got the shaken tofu, which is basically breaded, fried tofu, that comes with a sweet chili sauce to dip it in. It was fantastic. Hubby got the clay pot seafood rice, which was also really good. The place is also surrounded by intriguing looking Chinese and I think other Vietnamese restaurants that I hope to explore further.
I haven’t been able to read through all of Kathy’s blog yet, but everything I read is fantastic. She has always had random things happen to her throughout our lives, and I am so happy that through the magic of the interwebs she can share her interesting and bizarre occurrences with the globe. Read hers on the days I’m too lazy to post.
