I'm a Vegetarian

I don't think that's what he saw

What do you see in the Mirror of Erised?

Lovebirds pillow

On this blurred tornado Sunday, I found an overstuffed pillow that was typing at the seams and decided to repurpose the stuffing.  The outside of the pillow will be used soon...

Also made with beige fabric I received from a craft supply swap that I hoarded since 2008 and gold paint, which, according to Pottery Barn and West Elm, goes incredibly well with beige. It may be the holiday season.

Bring me luck and bring me love!

This website knows me well

Or rather, I know myself well.

http://what-would-i-say.com/

Bike Drawing

I’m living at my parents’ house for the month of May, and I decided to redecorate my childhood bedroom a bit. I mean, this beach scene has been hanging up in here since 1995 and I can’t figure out why I’ve chosen it to watch me while I sleep.

I took the painting out and discovered it was attached to a piece of foam core.

I started gluing my mainstay craft supply onto it: encyclopedia pages from the A-B volume. There were some pages on arachnids, but luckily I saw the scary pictures before I glued them to the foam core. I used glue stick so that the pages wouldn’t be ruffly from a water-based glue.

On the other side, I glued the pages down with water-based glue whose brand that you can probably guess.

I found this drawing of a bicycle on the INTERNETS and decided to free-hand something similar by using my favorite language: MATH.

I traced a circle using a plate I found in the kitchen. The math comes in here: I measured the diameter of the drawing, then compared it to the measurement of my plate. My plate was approximately 3.5 times larger in diameter so I drew the centers of the circle 3.5 times of the distance between the circles of the drawing. Freehand, you know?

Once my drawing was finished, I re-framed it.

Here it is, hanging up above my bed. I left my bicycle in Cleveland so I’ve been riding my brother’s bike. It’s just not the same.

I am currently on the lookout for a cheap single-speed bike. Did you know that only single people ride single-speed bikes? TMYK. CMYK.

Harlequin Novel

My friend’s bachelorette party is this weekend, and I have been racking my brain for a present to make her since I think forcing your lingerie choices on someone is kind of a dumb present and also I’m poor. I had the brilliant idea of getting her some Harlequin novels, since bachelorette party gifts are usually silly, but then I had the inspired idea to make her a harlequin novel with a picture of her and her fiancé as the cover!

I started by using a Harlequin cover I found on the internet and basically copying it and adding my friends’ names and love story.

In its printed glory! This picture, if you can believe it or not, is one of their engagement photos. It looks so … Harlequinny! (The title comes from the fact that they are two med students about to start residency in New York City!)

I folded the sides of the paper over onto the front cover of a 8x5.5” notebook that I had lying around my apartment. (I don’t know how I end up acquiring so many notebooks. My guess is that all the engineering recruiters give them to us at career fairs, judging from the engineering firm names splayed on the covers.

I attached the covers to the notebook, which I had re-strung with embroidery floss, and glued it together.

It basically looks like a real Harlequin novel. Gosh, I hope the bride doesn’t hate me for not getting her lingerie as a present.

Giant Paper Flowers

With all the wedding planning going on (I’m in 3 weddings this year!), my bridal friends have been turning to a lot of DIY wedding ideas. My friend sent me a link to this, to which I immediately thought, that looks like a comically giant version of something I made.

I cut out a bunch of petals (too many, from the looks of the remainders) into a vague heart shape (not unlike most of the boys I date).

I curled the edges of the petals using scissors using the same method as ribbon curling.

I then put glue on the outer curved side, maybe 2 inches up from the bottom of the petal.

Then, I attached it to my stem, wrapping it with the petal curving outward. The stem is a basically a stick I found outside my apartment. Well, not basically a stick. It is a stick. What’s brown and sticky? Not this stick. It’s white and sticky. This joke is about to go horribly wrong.

I continued haphazardly attaching the petals to the stick until I reached maximum fullness for the flower. Maximum fullness is a size that I made up.

Then, I let it dry and then I took some flattering pictures of it.

This is the flower compared to the size of my head.

Eye Mask

You know that feeling you get when  you don’t get enough sleep? I like sleeping in the complete darkness, usually all the way under the covers. Unfortunately, my apartment has been far too warm for me to do this, so I’ve decided to resort to an eye mask.

I used the same way of making it as I made this one last year. I quilted an old saree I used for crafting onto the mattress pad. Quilting always seems like it’s going to take soo much time but, in reality, it takes maybe 10 minutes.

I cut it in a vague eye mask shape (this took several iterations as I held it up to my face and cut it some more, and it’s still square-ish on one side). I tore some more strips of that same saree (from the purple side) and then I pinned and double parallel stitched it to the quilted portion.

Then, I cut two more strips for ties to secure the eye mask around my head. Let’s hope I sleep well tonight. I’m going to save the pictures of me wearing them for myself. (I deleted them.)

DIY Bachelorette Sash

My friend’s bachelorette party is coming up (in New York City, no less)(the city that never sleeps)(is that Las Vegas? I keep forgetting)(anyway, I’ll need to sleep because otherwise I get pretty cranky), and I thought to make her a sash to wear around the city to let everyone know that she’s about to live her last few days as a single lady. (Put your hands up!)

I cut two long pieces of fabric (about 3.5’x4”) and then sewed them together on one of the shorter edges.

Then, I turned it right side out and traced “Bride To Be” from my computer using a pencil. The statement starts approximately 6” from the sewn edge.

See my very faint pencil markings? No? Look harder. You’re so lazy.

I painted over the pencil with hot pink paint. I didn’t have hot pink paint, so I frantically asked my designer friend how to make it out of the paint colors I did have. She didn’t answer (probably at work or something silly) and so I had to web-search it!! It is made of Red, White, and a dash of Blue. Who knew hot pink was so patriotic! I also used a flat brush for this so that the letter thicknesses would be mostly even.

Then, after the Patriotic Pink had dried (I renamed the color), I went over with with silver glitter glue to make it a little gaudier. (Did you ever notice that Gaudí’s architectural style could, by some people, be described as gaudy? I bring this up because Gaudí looks like gaudy, not because my sash is a forerunner in architectural expression. Words.)

There needs to be a glitter invented that actually photographs well.

Here is a picture of a random single girl I found to try this on. Put it across your shoulder and then pin it at the bottom (and trim any excess fabric in case you cut it too long).

 

Peacock Notebook

I recently deleted my Twitter because I have a lot more thoughts I want to keep to myself. So instead of posting all my thoughts on the internet, I decided to write everything down in notebooks. (PS, here is an article about writing vs. typing.)

I have had this green notebook forever, as you might be able to tell from the spiral, which has warped. I think I got it in 9th grade, when I was obsessed with lime green. Now I’m just obsessed with limes.

I wire-cut the spiral off and just twirled it out. Fun fact: when I was younger, I would stretch out the spiral and then make it into a tiara.

I covered the front and back with encyclopedia pages. For the front, I used “Cartesian” and for the back, I used “Cartel” – these pages were right next to each other in my encyclopedia from 1954.

Then, I used a needle and embroidery floss to re-bind the book.

I used some markers to draw a peacock feather on the front cover. This is now the notebook I keep in my bedroom for all the thoughts I have before I go to bed. It’s way better than Twitter.