Ruffled suspenders oh my!

I'll update this tonight with a picture of me wearing them, but I've had this entry as a draft for way too long, and I'm way overdue for a new blog entry so here it goes. 
Thanks iheartjennysart for the inspiration. I love this! 


Like many fellow crafters, I (too) have a long “TO DO” list. It seems like for every one project I get done, 10 more are added on a continuous basis.  I can blame my pinterest addiction a little bit for that too. But it is nice to have a reason to get some of those things crossed off the list.

One of my to-dos was this awesome ruffled suspender project from http://iheartjennysart.com/2010/12/ruffle-suspenders/. It was featured on craft.com a while back, and I thought it was so cute, that I had to add this to my list.

Well, just last month, at work, we had a grand opening of our new building. This was the one where we had to look presentable to the other parts of the community, board members, etc., etc… There was a dress code: black pants with a nice white shirt, and well, the suspenders instantly came to mind.

So here are some pictures... 

 I have to admit I was pretty intimidated at first. I have never made ruffles before. I have a “ruffle foot” for my sewing machine, and I play with it every now & then when I’m feel adventurous, but I’ve never made ruffles with elastic before. It turned out pretty well.

So basically you do small sections at a time. Stretch out the elastic until it stops stretching, then sew the ribbon over it. When you’re done with that “stretched out” section, you can let go, and move on to the next section. Pretty simple.. But pretty intimidating. If you haven’t done it before. You should practice on  something you don’t mind ruining. Satin ribbon, in my own opinion, is very unforgiving, and even after you take your mistakes out and try again, you may see the “track” of the previous mistake.. Something, my OCDness cannot handle. 

Here is the finish project.  

I kept my ipad close by, because I had to keep referring back to the tutorial.  One of the reasons I wanted the ipad in the first place, for ease of watching videos for cooking & crafting.  

So I wore this to our Grand Opening, and got lots of compliments. I’d love another excuse to wear them again. I haven’t found on yet.

Thanks for looking! Let me know if you need any help with this or if you'd like to commission me for your own pair! 

girlyspazms@gmail.com


shen

Kimchi Salad Recipe

 Did you know that there are health benefits to kimchi? Well there are! A little bit of a microbiology lesson today? Kimchi has probiotics that help your own body’s  little microorganisms to digest. Don’t believe me, then go google it for more info.  Kimchi! It's good stuff! 

Aside from crafting up a storm, I also love to cook... Call me crazy but when I cook, I like to pretend I have my very own cooking show, and I narrate what I am doing in my head. I should take that back... I do have my own cooking show, with an audience of one. 

So I know a few of you have asked for my kimchi salad recipe back in December, and I’ve finally put it together.

I’m sorry it took so long. It’s pretty simple, so I hope that you try it. Let me know how yours turns out & if you’ve tweaked your salad to your taste, share what you’ve done.

I have no specific measurements, because I don’t stand there and measure the portions. Like most of my cooking endeavors, I kind of eye-ball it to see how much I will need depending on how many people are eating & season to taste.

So you can use this combo to make a one person salad or a 20 person salad if you so choose.

What you’ll need:

CHICKEN!

You can get fancy with your chicken, or you can even switch it to pork if you’d like. I don’t really recommend beef unless maybe it was medium rare. Teriyaki chicken is my favorite.  I prefer my chicken in my salad cold, but you can do what ever you like.

This is completely to your taste and liking. If you like more of something, by all means, put more of it.If you’re lazy, you can even get a ready-to-go rotisserie chicken from the market.

Shred the chicken

Then shred some cabbage & make a bed of it on your serving plate.

Then place the following ingredients on top.

CHOPPED GREEN ONIONS

KIMCHI (Your brand)

PICKLED BAMBOO SHOOTS (your brand)  (drained unless you like all that oil in there. I’m not judging)

Then as dressing a big dollop of KEWPIE MAYO (Japanese mayonnaise)

SRIRACHA to taste.

Tadah!

Now present your salad when it’s in a cute organized plate, and when everyone has sat down you mix, toss & serve.

That’s it! See I told you it was pretty simple. ;D 

shen

Crazy Thrift Shopping...

I am fortunate enough to have children who like thrift store shopping with me. You never know what cheap treasures you'll find...A perfect relaxing day off for me is taking my time shuffling through the knickknack shelves. More recently though, I'm in search for fun colorful bed sheets (Project coming soon) & old cable knit sweaters (revamping into throw pillows)....
The kiddos and I had a crazy day of thrift store shopping just recently. This was prompted by Sam's spirit day at school "Crazy/ Ugly Holiday Sweater Day".
Although we didn't find anything aside from a $20 cardigan at a nearby Goodwill, we did find a couple laughs along the way.

Evil Demon Squirrel needlework

Is it a bear? Is it a moose? you tell me.

Sammie ended up buying a crazed snowflake turtle neck that she's wearing with a crazy green Christmas tie.
(pic coming soon)

We're gonna make her a sweater when the Christmas crazy dies down & the tacky appliques are on clearance.
I'll let you know how that goes..

shen

garland fetish?!?!

Ever since my hubs FINALLY put up my huge mirror in the dining room, I've been obsessed with decorating it with whatever holiday season it happens to be.

Although I have plans for a few more garlands to hang about this holiday season, here is one I finished...

The garland of snowy evergreens & pine cones I bought at Michael's on sale for $6.99 (Regular price $12.99). I bought two so that it would be long enough to go across the mirror...

Then I bought a couple cheapy sprigs of berries (also on sale for 69¢).

With Anthony's help we dismantled them on a cold evening...

When I asked him to help me do this, there was no hesitation.

When pulling the berries apart, I had to be gentle & make sure we didn't rip the wire out from the berry. We only had one casualty which could easily be fixed with a lil bit of glue & popped back on, but Anthony wanted to play with it...so he kept it.

We then grouped them in couples & threesomes, and kept some singles & placed them randomly throughout the garland.

Yes, yes... I realize pine cones and berries don't grow together in nature, but you know what, they do in my fantasy world!

And here we go!

I used white on white wire LED lights in the back for that nice glow at night.

Happy Holiday Decorating!

Christmas is gonna barf all over the house this up coming week!

shen