Oh the Cuteness!

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted here, but I have a very good excuse this time that I think you will all be very excited about. Big changes are happening and big plans are being made! First of all, I'm no longer living in Campbell (And yes, this means I had to disassemble and box up  the amazing craft room ... Le sigh.). At the moment I've got everything I own except for the essentials put in a storage pod, and I've spent the holidays with my mom and dad, and the new year with my sister, and now I'm planning on returning to my beautiful city of Oakland to finally start working on my big dream... I'm very proud to introduce to you The Black Squirrel , a brick-and-mortar and online fabric, yarn, and craft supply boutique! It's been my lifelong dream to own a little craft shop and I've decided it's time to go for it! The shop will stock a variety of beautiful trendy yarns and fabrics, with a focus on s...

I know there's a lot of people out there that don't really like Valentine's Day for one reason or another. I, however, am not one of those people. I'll take any excuse to do something special, especially if it's for someone I love. When I was a kid I tended to make valentines for my classmates instead of buying the fold-and-tear variety, and it's a tradition that's carried over to my adult life: I'm knitting a little something special for Johnny this year. (Don't worry, he knows!) He found this fantastic cowl, made buy Susk and Banoo , on my Pinterest and asked me if I would make it for him. The moment I said yes he emailed me the link and bought the same yarn that was used for the one above! (Which, by the way, is Rowan Cocoon in Mountain . She used only 2 skeins and it looks like I'm going to need 3 to finish to the proper dimensions.)  I can't help but swoon for a man that buys yarn and looks up his own patterns! Susk and Banoo...

Hey everyone! I just got my 200th follower on Facebook and my 900th follower on Pinterest and I thought I'd celebrate by giving away a printed copy of my Owl Sewing Plushie Pattern!  You get the whole pattern and photo tutorial printed on quality cardstock, as well as pre-cut body and belly pieces mailed to you for the making! To enter the giveaway you must do one of the following, and if you do more than one you'll get an extra entry for each thing. And be sure you leave me a way to contact you in case you win! Here's what you do: 1. Go ahead and leave me a comment on this post for an entry. 2. If you can, follow me on here via Google Friend Connect in my sidebar for an entry! 3. If you haven't yet, go like my Facebook page for an entry! 4. Share this post on Facebook for an entry! 5. Follow me on Pinterest if you haven't yet for an entry! 6. Pin this post and tag it #giveaway for an entry! 7. Follow me on Twitter for one entry! 8. Foll...

Happy Fancy Friday! This week I was inspired by this cute look and wanted to try the whole belt-over-cardigan look: We were going to a local production of "Reefer Madness" that night, so I thought a fun splash of purple would be nice.  I got the minidress and belt at a local thrift store for $4 a piece! I added my purple amethyst slab ring and some cloisonne and rope bracelets that also had touches of purple, and a mood ring on the other hand. The cardi is from Target.  Since we were going out in the evening, I did my eye shadow a bit darker that I usually do with shades of green and black, and I added some watermelon pink wet-look gloss to my lips. The necklace was a birthday gift from a friend. The purple tights are from Target - they always seem to have a great selection of fun colors. And the shoes were found at a discount shoe outlet for a song! (Haha that's my anklet I can't get off under the tights.) For my hair I did a simple mess...

Happy Fancy Friday everyone!  For my first post I decided to do what I know, something super simple so as not to psyche myself out of this idea. I really like wearing outfits like this, and I've done something similar before  here . I was inspired by some things I found on Pinterest like  this , and there's tons of other similar things on both my  Beautiful Fashion  and  Hipstery Goodness  boards. Skirt and shirt from Target, the tights are from H&M and have a fishbone weave you can't really see in the photo, but you can see them better in  this post.  Belt and shoes both from Urban Outfitters, and on clearance no less! I think the belt cost me all of $4.00. The necklace was made by a jewelry designer I know from the craft fair circuit, Jeannine of  Tangleweeds.  The bracelet is a vintage find. I'm a dunce when it comes to styling my hair. After bleaching it up so light for the  pink hair  and d...

I just wanted to take a minute to mention the new social media buttons in my sidebar, under my little profile blurb. I am extremely proud of myself, because I learned how to write the html code for those all by myself! Granted, this might not seem like much of a task to some people, but I'm not super html or graphic design savvy so this is a big step for me! I got this great set of social media icons from Carrie Loves Design . You can download all of them in 30 different colors, so there's bound to be one to match your blog's color scheme. She links to this site for instructions on how to build the code for the buttons, but it took a bit of trial and error for me because the instructions are not specific to Blogger and Photobucket has undergone a revamp, and I almost missed the bit about how to adjust the size. So I'll break down the process as best I can right now, in case anyone out there is like me and a little intimidated by html: 1. Download the file...

Dennis was joking with me the other day about the way I don't like to play video games much anymore because I feel like I could be doing something more productive, yet I'll sit on Pinterest forever getting "inspiration" and not doing much of anything with it. Well, he has a point I must say, so I've decided that I'm going to try to use the tutorials and such I find via my new favorite website as much as possible. The painting above that I made this past week for my bedroom may look familiar to some of you. I found the tutorial via Pinterest , and also discovered a fantastic blog that I'm not sure how I missed called A Beautiful Mess. The basic idea is you find an old painting at a yard sale or thrift store to use as the base for your new text-based art. I found this lovely lady for two dollars at the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse  while hanging out with Dennis and my friend Carolyn . The Depot is just like a thrift store but they sell things...

I try to be "fashionable" as much as I can, but most days I only have the energy to throw on jeans and a tee, haphazardly blow-dry my hair, and maybe put some jewelry on. But that darned  Pinterest  site is so full of lovely fashion inspiration, and it's making me want to put together "outfits" and try doing my hair and makeup here and there. I suppose it doesn't take  that  much extra time... So, is this any good? Or do I look like a dork? Well, I like it, and I that's all that really matters, right? Shirt is very old, from Target, belt is from Urban Outfitters, my sister made me the skirt, the tights were from a swap party, and the shoes are Urban, as well as the glasses. Mom got me the yellow leather wallet and the pearl bracelet, and Dennis gave me the necklace and antique silver bangle. I managed to pull my hair out of my face and my bangs are getting so long that I have to pull them to the side now! I feel pretty! ^_^

Some of you were wondering what the patchy background behind the dressmaker's dummy was, and I can't believe I forgot to post this! In my tutorial section there's a how-to for the wall of inspiration that graced the wall of my old bedroom. Ever since I've been in this new apartment I've been longing to have another inspiration board, despite the wonderful addition of Pinterest to my life, but we have very limited wallspace. So When a friend of mine gave me a pack of dark cork tiles I made the decision to completely ruin a closet door (which I will be replacing for about $100 bucks when we move, which won't be for a very very long time). I got the rest of the tiles on Amazon for about $20. I only put the tiles on the outer closet door because the closet's usually open so I can get at my supplies (aka that big semi-organized pile-o-stuff), and I was afraid the pins would get knocked off the back one as the doors slid past one another. They're...