january flicks

so we've reached the end of the first month, and survived the changes. well, at least i survived them. i don't know about how you readers (hello? are you out there?) are getting by. anyways, i took the liberty of creating a "goal" for movie watching with my netflix account. "goal" seems a little more realistic to keep at than a "resolution" so what i did was made a goal for every monday and thursday that i was home at night to be my designated movie night. this allowed the dvds to not just sit idle for weeks on end pinned to my bulletin board waiting to be viewed. here is the "watched movies" list of the month.
tap (1989)
cowboys & aliens (2011)*
dead poet's society (1989)
crazy, stupid, love (2011)
larry crowne (2011)
beauty & the beast 3D (1991)*
the muppets (2011)*
tangled (2010)*
when harry met sally (1989)
sleepless in seattle (1993)
the notebook (2004)*
boogie woogie (2009)
raising helen (2004)
just married (2003)
*notes movies that were not netflix rentals. just because i can

january reads

i have been desiring to read quite a bit since the month kicked off, and since i had a hard time deciding what to get with my hard of barnes & noble gift cards, i decided to take a trip to the library and pick up a thing or two. here is the list of books read start to finish this month (plus the first one being from december, but it was good enough to document on here).
my sister's keeper - jodi picoult
waiting for you - susane colasanti
exposed - jasmine star
the tenth circle - jodi picoult
ninteen minutes - jodi picoult

buzz cat diy screen print

this idea was so out of my element, i put it off forever. which led to parts of the same project theme not getting done. oh well. now that i know what i'm doing, it will get done. i'd seen people screen print on their own (yes. again with the shout out for pinterest) and wanted to try it. originally, i was going to do neck ties. but i didn't have everything to make the screens small enough. well, now i do. just minus the glue.a year or two ago, my brother made my dad a print of his cat being "zen"... something his cat really is not. i wanted to made him something themed to his cat, and after a few photoshop tweeks, i had the perfect outline made.i made the screen following the steps in the pamplet (very helpful) the transparency was made at kinkos for less than a dollar, and then i finally braved exposing it. everything was so much easier than i thought it would be. the printing was easy, ran one test print and was good to go. the rinsing was easy... yeah, i feel like i stressed out over nothing! finished everything up, wrapped it up and ready to go just days before christmas.blog post used for tips & tricks: lil blue boo
blog post used for making your own screens: lil blue boo
screen print kit purchased: speedball super value screen print kit
my brother's original drawing: boogatech.com

wordless wednesday

love at first bite cross stitch sampler

i wanted to do a good star wars quote, but nothing i found online was anywhere near jenny's favorite quotes... so i thought i would be out of luck. but then on pinterest, i clicked on the "geek"tab, and the idea of pac man jumped out and got me! although every sampler i looked at had NO patterns to share... so what did i have to do?
4 sheets of graph paper and a bunch of scribbles later, i had my own pattern laid out. a few things were off here and there, so i had to make adjustments that i thought would be suitable... and they were. framed that little sucker up, and it was ready to go! and well appreciated at that :)
original i rendered my pattern from: road to the heart
other pac man pattern that i WISH i had time and patience to do: sprite stitch

reuseable coffee sleeves

ariana is all about thrifty & crafty. she tag-teamed with me one weekend for thrift store overhaul (the one where we found aileen's homecoming dress) and had a fantastic time. i knew she would appreciate something made vs. purchased, and from all the years we worked together and she ordered her almond roca mocha chocha latta ya-ya from the cafe downstairs, i knew she was a not trying to recover coffee addict.
pinterest struck again. following people is amazing thing. it's great to see what people pin and what things you could totally make. case and point... these reuseable coffee sleeves. when searching for fabric, the first two came easy peasy. she loves her silly dog and the color green. she's on an owl kick lately, but all owl fabric was WAY creepy or juvenile prints. but once i came up with the other half of her project, the owl coffee sleeve was no longer missed.
tutorial used from: the cottage home
one change i made was instead of using wonder under, i used fusible interfacing. and a tip i learned and want to pass to you! when sewing on the button, sew it to the non-interfaced side (interfacing side in towards the cup) so that when you loop it around the cup, the fabric won't bunch up :)

wordless wednesday

starship sweet starship cross stitch sampler

somehow, my sister became a trekkie... don't know how. don't exactly remember when... but it happened. i decided to compete for the coolest sister awards with this year's christmas gifts for her by busting out my cross stitching skills. mind you, i haven't finished a cross stitch in years, so things were a little sketchy if i would break the trend or not.well, the trend was broken, and i busted out this thing in two sittings. i probably could have done it in one, but my fingers decided they needed a break instead. so two sittings at my computer... because that is the ultimate place to stitch? i don't know... and that sucker was done! i changed the colors around from the original sampler that i saw online to make it a little more star trek colored with the red/yellow of the show's uniforms.i have recently picked up a liking for hello kitty, and since she isn't as in to the "normal" hello kitty as i am, i stumbled across this shirt online and had to get it for her. it was a little bit trekkie, and a little bit kitty, paying homage to her past as a cat obsessed child. two birds, one stone. bam!
and here are the fun links as to where i found these items for inspiration and/or purchase:
starship sweet starship: on etsy
next generation kitty: on redbubble

jacob's t-shirt quilt

well now that things are redone here, christmas has come and gone, and the new year is here... i can now begin the parade of christmas gift posts. i'll kick it off with the first one that was on the "to do" list for the longest time. jacob's t-shirt quilt.
the last few shirt quilts i have done were just solid blocks, so i decided to shake things up a bit. the width of all the blocks were the same size, but the height was changed depending on the size of the shirt graphic. of course, that made for some tricky math, and needed some filler space here and there.
my mom cleared out some of her old boxes, and found some scraps of fabric from clothes and such that she had made for jacob years ago, so i incorporated some of thse in to the quilt to make it a little different than the others. it ended up being much wider than it was tall... so i guess he can either use it sideways, or wrap it around himself a time or two.

wordless wednesday

ch-ch-ch-changes

a few "changes" so to speak.
new look. simple, clean, and better. allows for bigger pictures, easier viewing, and blah blah blah.
new name. toothpaste & orange cat
why: i wanted to change things around to a more "random" slice of life kind of feeling. and when i think of a whole bunch of things that really do not go together, i think of the paring of toothpaste and orange juice. but instead of juice, we have a whole lot of orange cat in this house. thus, the name pairing.
i wanted somewhere i could talk random. maybe have followers, maybe not. i have a netflix account i would like to use and abuse, so i want to talk movies. and lately, i've been yearning to read quite a bit... and i have two library cards i would also like to use and abuse. and some barnes & noble gift cards... well. lots of gift cards, but that's not the point. the point of the blog is to be more "candid" and fun
banner is temporary. i'm hoping my drawing inclined brother will follow my requests and doodle me up a banner that will fit the excellence i hope this blog to be.
yes, the crafty will be sticking around. but i needed to allow for something to fill in the gaps between the crafts. with the onset of erika's wedding, the large crafting for that gift plus the task of being a bridesmaid (and addicted to creating pinterest wedding of my own) i'm sure there will be lots of something to talk about.
so hang tight, and we'll see how well the ball gets roll.