Sunday, March 27, 2011

sweet kitty

I found this little girl on Friday and she was so sweet that I couldn't turn her away. I was doing my grocery shopping and went out to the garden section to look for some fertilizer for my roses and she crawled out from under a shelf and came right up to me. I can't keep her, but thankfully I have someone coming over today who will hopefully take her. In the meantime, I took her to the vet to talk about getting her set up with her vaccines and getting spayed. There's a fantastic organization in Austin called EmanciPET that offers low-cost spay and neutering, as well as vaccines and tests. She's either going to go to her new home tonight, or stay with me for a week to get spayed and vaccinated and then I will drive her down to San Antonio to her new family. She's a tiny little thing, about 5 pounds, and has some patches of fur missing around her neck, and her ears are completely bald. She just breaks my heart. She's very friendly and affectionate (and uses the litter box!) and doesn't deserve to be stuck outside. I brought her out onto my patio while I was repotting some plants and she DID NOT like being out there, so she definitely needs a good home.
Money around here is tight, and I am paying for all of the extra kitty stuff out of my own pocket to avoid having to bring her to a shelter. All the money I make from my Etsy shop goes right to getting her vet care, and if you are able, I would really encourage you to think about making a donation to EmanciPET, because they are really truly fantastic people over there.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

New earrings available!

Panda earrings and bird earrings
I'm really excited about these new earrings. I may not make another set because a lot of fabric hacking has to go on in order to get the right piece of fabric for these, so when they're gone they might be gone forever.

available here
I've also updated the shop with a pouch made from the animal nesting doll fabric I mentioned in my post yesterday. I ended up selling two of the three pouches I listed yesterday, so I'll have to get working on making some more. Both of the giveaways are now finished and I am mailing out the prizes today. If you're a new follower as a result of a giveaway, then welcome! I'm real glad you're here. I have a few other offers for more giveaways, and  the last ones were so successful that I will definitely be doing more.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

New pouches in the store

Hedgehog love, French poodles, and spring time pouch

Just a few new items added to my Etsy shop. I'll work tomorrow to update with some new bobby pins with deers, poodles, and hedgehogs, and maybe make some mini-wallets. Mini-wallets are great to keep business cards in, and I like to use mine to store gift cards so they won't crowd my wallet but I'll always have them in my purse. There's nothing worse than getting up to the register and realizing you left your gift card at home. I still have this amazing Japanese import animal Russian nesting doll fabric that I haven't made anything for the shop with. I made a large zipper pouch that I intended to sell, but I liked it so much that I ended up keeping it for myself and it's now my makeup pouch. It's as cute as it sounds.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Giveaway reminder

Just a quick reminder that there's still time to enter Puppy Love Preschool's Girly Girl Giveaway!

But hurry, the giveaway ends 3/22!

Also, a big congrats to Maggie for winning the animal friends pouch giveaway! I will have your package out in the mail shortly :) Thanks to everyone who entered.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Spring time!

I have to admit, living in Texas, it doesn't really seem like the warm weather ever really left for very long, but I'm excited about not having to worry about overnight frosts killing my plants anymore. I had bought a mini rose bush for $2.50 and transplanted it to a larger pot outside, fully expecting never to get any buds on it. I came home after spending a week in Houston to see this little surprise!  I managed to completely kill a full size rose bush in less than a month, so I thought this little guy was going to be toast. I guess I'm not doing so bad after all. I'm excited to see what else will flourish for me this year. Has anyone else started their gardens? What are you most excited about?

Friday, March 18, 2011

Labor of love

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of this, but most items in my Etsy shop ship for only $1.50. I hate having to pay for shipping when I order things online, so I try to keep my prices low. Out of the $1.50 shipping cost, about $1.20 goes to actual shipping, the leftover $0.30 is what I charge for me to lovingly wrap each item (the picture above is the wrapping for a pair of my grey matryoshka earrings that I am shipping out today) and walk a mile to the post office to mail it out. Sure, I don't have to wrap the items up like this, and sure, I could charge more for shipping, but this is what I love to do. My Etsy shop is truly a labor of love. It makes me happy thinking about someone opening up their package and finding something like this waiting for them, to show them how much I care and appreciate their business.

matryoshka bobby pins
In addition to wrapping, I also create my own packaging, for no extra cost to the buyer. I cut each piece myself out of card stock and assemble them by hand. It's additional work for me, but it creates a great looking result, and I think the extra step really shows how much I care, and that's what I want. I want someone to get their package and be able to see and feel all of the love that went into it, and I want it to make them happy. That makes everything worth it for me.

p.s. Today is the last day to enter the animal friends pouch giveaway at Jaebumfangirl. All you need to do is comment to enter!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

What I wore today (3/16/11)

Dress: Forever 21-$23
Belt: Forever 21-$5
Tights: Target-$1.50 (clearance!)

There's nothing I love more than cute, CHEAP, things. I have a love/hate relationship with Forever 21, because while I find their prices reasonable, they make their dresses so short! Luckily I found tights on clearance at Target so I can wear the dresses I bought, but sheesh. I also took the plunge and got Bettie bangs! I've wanted bangs for at least two years, but every time I went to the salon the hairdresser would scare me out of them. I was really nervous about not liking them, but I think they turned out cute! I brushed them over to one side today, but I can wear them straight across (like this), as well.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the vet now thinks Ripley is a Great Dane instead of a Labrador? She's only 4 months old and clocked in at a whopping 56 pounds last night, which should be about her adult weight if she was a black lab. Pretty crazy, but I wanted her to get huge, so I guess I'm going to get what I had hoped for! She's going to end up being a 100 pound lap dog, and I can't wait!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Giveaway!

All you have to do is go right here and enter to win by leaving a comment!

That's right, another giveaway! This time it's hosted on Puppy Love Preschool. I'm proud to be sponsoring it with this mushroom and rickrack zippered coin pouch and a pair of my popular Russian nesting doll earrings.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Spring Break! -Giveaway!!

Today is my first day of spring break! To celebrate, there's a giveaway going on over at Jaebumfangirl!
I'm very excited about this. To enter, all you have to do is go to the site and  leave a comment.

But wait, there's more! I have another giveaway coming up in a few days. I know, I'm crazy! This way all of you can celebrate my Spring Break with me.
Want this stuff? Stay tuned, another giveaway coming this week!

Friday, March 11, 2011

I'm back!

Finally did some sewing for the first time in over a month! Remember my last post where I said my anatomy exam was "not bad at all"? Well when I went to check my grade online, it said that I had failed it! I was pretty devastated for the past two days, waiting for my professor's sheduled office hours to roll around so I could go talk to her about it. It turns out someone had inputted the wrong grade, and I actually got a B, NOT an F. (thank god!) I was so relieved. Part of me knew there had to be a mistake, and the other part felt like I was totally delusional thinking that test went fine and am actually a giant idiot. Well, I'm glad I'm not an idiot. I'm also glad that I got a little motivation to sew some stuff, because check out how cute this is.
More pictures here
I've had this fabric sitting around for a year. I bought it to go with a quilt I wanted to make for my bed. Obviously that never fully came together, because I have the attention span of a pea, but I think it makes an adorable coin pouch!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Is it "grey" or "gray"?

I always spell it grey, but spell check keeps telling me that's wrong. I refuse to believe it! Anyway, I now have my popular Russian nesting doll earrings available in GREY! (or gray, whatever) As well as the larger sized earrings with two dolls on them.
Available here
Available here. Also available as bobby pins.
I also have a giveaway coming up in a few days! I don't have the audience to host a giveaway on this site, so it will be on a separate blog. Stay tuned and I'll post a link. ;-)

Monday, March 7, 2011

banana bread!

I like to make something once a week that will serve as my breakfast for the next few days. Normally I'll make pancakes and freeze them, but today I made some banana bread! It freezes really well and I like to eat a slice with a cup of tea in the morning. This dress is another one of my Goodwill finds, and the apron (right here) is vintage, from my mom. Today was my anatomy lecture exam, so I fully expected to look like a hobo this afternoon from being so stressed about the exam and spending my morning studying and not making myself look presentable, but I forgot to put my jeans in the dryer last night, so I was forced to wear a dress and make myself look decent. I think it worked out for the best, because it was really fun to be baking in a dress and apron, and that test was way easier than I was expecting.
Banana Bread recipe
adapted from  allrecipes.com
  • 1/2 cup margarine 
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (I used 1 cup banana and 1/2 cup strawberry applesauce because I was short on bananas)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
 topping
  • 1 tbs flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tbs margarine
  • 1/4 cup oats
  1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x5 inch pan. 
  2. Cream margarine and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, then bananas (and applesauce) and vanilla. Add flour and soda, stirring just until combined. 
  3. Combine topping ingredients and mix until it comes together.
  4. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle topping on. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 1 hour (or till toothpick comes out clean). Remove from pan and let cool, store in refrigerator or freeze.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Thift store score!


I swear I have no plans on turning this into a fashion blog anytime soon! I had a job interview at a chiropractic clinic today for a rehab technician and was really excited about it because I'm pre-physical therapy and this would be an awesome opportunity for me. HOWEVER, they said my school schedule just would not work for them, so I couldn't do it. :-( Very sad, I really wanted that job.
The good news, though, is that I found this awesome dress for $9 at the Goodwill yesterday. Initially I was going to put it back because it's a small and I didn't think I'd fit into it. But I do!




LIKE.A.GLOVE!

So I'm very pleased with that, at least. I wish I had a good full length mirror or someone else to take my picture because it's really hard to show off the whole dress on my own. It's a nice modest but still flirty length (hits just at my knees) and comes with a matching belt, which I think makes it. It's also well constructed out of nice thick material, and the top has boning in it. Such a good piece for nine bucks! Now I have another dress that my cat creepers would match and can go out in public and openly display to everyone how much of a cat lady I am! This will get me tons of dates, for sure.
 p.s. Don't worry, I didn't dress like this for my interview. I had a nice blouse and dress pants and wore my hair down to cover up the blonde, so I looked very professional.