And One For All You Mack Brown Fans

Hey, a gal can have more than one loyalty. At least my loyalties are split between a pro baseball team and a college football team. Right? So the two teams are based quite far apart. I think the premise of the movie “Road Trip” was about some duffuses who confuse “Boston” with “Austin” and drive across the state of Kentucky (as well as many other, less entertaining states) for no reason at all. Why am I explaining my different tastes in sports teams to you anyway? I’m pretty sure you don’t care. Of course I have to have some content here.

And hey, look at those Longhorns and their precious Colt McCoy winningist quarterback ever! And champs of the Big 12 and headed to Pasadena for a little Rosebowl championship ! Having never attended the University of Texas, I feel a little like a poser saying things like “Hook ’em!” … but I will always find the voice to sing,

The eyes of Texas are upon you,

All the live long day.

The eyes of Texas are upon you,

You cannot get away.

Do not think you can escape them,

Rise so early in the morn.

The eyes of Texas are upon you,

Til Gabriel blows his horn…

Texas Fight! Texas Fight!

And it’s goodbye to A&M!

Texas Fight, Texas Fight!

And we’ll pull over one more win!

Texas Fight, Texas Fight,

For it’s Texas that we love best!

Give ’em hell! Give ’em hell! Go horns go!

And it’s goodbye to all the rest.

Yay orange! Yay white! Yay Longhorns!

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Well, there’s more of that one, but I’m kinda tired of typing. Now if I could just divide the Camp Mystic dining hall into two parts, one side yells, “Texas” and the other “Fight” and we’re going all afternoon.

What Could Be More Hilary?

Seriously? What could be more Hilary? There’s glitter! There’s Christmas! There’s baseball! It’s made of cheap, biodegradable materials! It’s just the best craft ever. And if you play your cards right (aka, you ask me for one), I’ll make one for you. And, because I’m the always benevolent crafter, I’ll even make an ornament for a team you support, assuming it’s made of colors I own and isn’t brain surgery difficult to render (Good example: the Ole Miss Rebel, he’s too detailed for me to make a glitter ornament of, but the big Ole Miss “M” I can handle. And cringe-worthy second example, I can’t do the patriotic hat on a baseball bat Yanks logo, but if you begged me and I was feeling particularly nice, I could make you that evil NY symbol).

But to get away as soon as possible from all things New York Yankees, let’s focus on my little lovely pair of, what Sox ownership calls “dangling Sox.” I’m so proud! I reinterpreted a Martha Stewart craft suggestion (she had me making birds before I thought of something I’d like better) and came up with my own template to cut the Red Sox logo out of the cinnamon/apple sauce/white glue dough, I baked it, let it dry out completely and then decorated it with the glitter. Let me tell you, that’s a thin line of white glitter there my friends…

All things considered, I’m in love with my little Sox logo Christmas ornament. Wistfully, I sign off on my first Christmas post of the year… it seems like just yesterday I was working on Christmas 2008 (probably because I drag these things out; I recall writing about Christmas at least through February). Below check out the red lights on my very first ever living tree.

Wild, Succulent Woman

No, this post isn’t about the weirdest art lady on Earth, Sark (but call her phone number seriously if you want an inspirational message 415.546.3742), this post is about my amazing ability to keep a succulent alive. I know, I know, that’s like beating a five year old in a “basic arithmetic” test. I’m good at keeping alive something that is advertised as being hard to kill. Congrats to me. The reason I’m posting this is that, for one, I have a long history of killing succulents and all plants for that matter. And yet, with my new dirt recipe (throwing in sand helped), I’ve managed to not only keep these guys alive, but they are thriving. Some have grown by leaps and bounds. They are almost too comfortable in my home.

Screen Saver

Lately I’ve been finding more and more reasons to exercise the old sewing machine. I’m not going to lie, back in September when my coworker when my coworker said my hems looked like they’d been done by Helen Keller, I was inspired to get better at sewing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this little flat screen monitor that serves as my substitute TV. It’s the bestest way to watch movies and baseball games and the occasional TV show from hulu.com (Why is Parks and Recreation so amazingly hilarious? The whole cast is awesome.) However, I didn’t like the way the screen looked, so sleek and gadgety just sitting out on my tabletop.

And when I saw this fabric at the fabric warehouse on Harry Hines for, like, fifty cents a yard, I couldn’t pass it up. It’s perfect. Trust me, if you are a regular blog follower, you’ll see this fabric being used in all kinds of ways (at $0.50 a yard, I bought enough to do many many crafts!). This project must be the easiest ever though. I measured the size of the screen, cut the fabric, hemmed the bottom edge (no Helen Keller here thanks) and sewed the two sides together. Easy breezy beautiful cover girl.

Gobble Gobble Jewlery

My coworker Mattdawg (that’s what I call her, her real name is Mattie) has the most amazing collection of holiday themed earrings. She has a dozen Halloween ones and enough Christmas earrings to last from Thanksgiving to New Year’s without repeating a pair.

Last year it bothered me that she had no Thanksgiving gems. So I promised her a pair. Perhaps some cornucopias or a pilgrim and Indian combo. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find anything Thanksgiving last year. This year, however, I found these turkey buttons. I chopped off the button part and drilled holes and attached earring hooks.

And bless her heart, Mattdawg wore them all November long! Gobble Gobble Gobble! (and if you click on that link, sorry for the bad language and then the German version, I really just love when she’s on the phone with her sister.)

Where Have I Been All Your Life?

Since October 12, I’ve been away from ye olde crafting blog. Not because I don’t love yous guys, but more like a little well-deserved break from the crazy craft blitz I was on in August and September (I’m the boss around here, so I determine when breaks are well-deserved). So I paused, reflected, cleaned up, put my thinking cap on, schemed some new plans, and renewed my little creative spirit. I think there’s good things on the horizon.

And while I rested from my crafting labors, I had some time to enjoy the best season in Texas — autumn. It’s cool and crisp, the humidity takes a much needed rest, every day is a good hair day, the sun feels great shining down on your back. And of course, autumn in Dallas means the State Fair comes to town, and that’s the greatest place on Earth. I don’t usually go all Chamber of Commerce re: Dallas, but I wanted to share with you three of my favorite pictures from this year’s State Fair. Above are the awards handed out to the vendors who win for the best fried food of the year. I love it! I had to jostle some truly impatient fried goober gobblers out of the way to take this picture. For those who don’t know, that head is the head of Big Tex, the official mascot of the State Fair. I tried a fried snickers bar this year. It was good. Better than last year’s fried cookie dough. Or at least that’s what I think I tried. Whatever it was, it had been battered and deep fried and was still hot and greasy when I ate it. I pause to wonder whether I should really say, “yum.”

And I love the signs at the State Fair. The fonts, the scroll, it’s just a great piece of work. The vintage look and feel of all the stands, and they aren’t vintage because they are going for a currently popular trend of interest in all things old. No way Jose. These signs look vintage because they are old. Why tinker with perfection? Oh and, I’m obsessed with Tiny Tim. Really, the obsession began years ago when it was a different smallest horse on Earth named Tiny Tina (it’s amazing how many smallest horse on Earth’s there are since that phrase is supposedly reserved for just one miniature animal, right?). I don’t know why I love this exhibit so much — it’s a total rip off because it’s clearly a dog with a horse tail glued on. It’s so sad! But somehow listening to the tape they play on a 30-second repeat “This is the smallest horse in the world! He eats just one cup of oats a day!” just reminds me of what a silly experience the whole fair can be. But it is the kind of experience that everyone should just submit to, because life is silly.

This year they had swan boats on the pond by the science center. I thought they were pretty beautiful. It’s not Boston or anything, and the pond is really quite a small area, but all in all, I felt good knowing I was getting a bit of a workout in my paddling, especially on a day that’s so stuffed with fried fry.

Well, now you’ve seen my highlights from the State Fair. Get ready to see some crafts! Yay!

Out of Town Crafting

Do you remember me writing about how busy I was because I had this fair, and all these things to do to get ready for the fair and that a trip to Chicago was thrown in for good measure? Well, perhaps you don’t remember me being stressed out about lots and lots of to-do’s on the to-do list or the fact that I made a trip to the Windy City, but I did. And, being of the craft minded, I couldn’t resist volunteering (perhaps commandeering is a better verb choice for the situation) to do a craft for a friend, the lovely Jo, for a VIP event. And yes, I call the sweatpants and fanny pack pub crawl a VIP event. After all, it takes a lot of class to look as good as we did for hours upon hours of ridiculousness. I believe I’m digressing here, but I wanted to set the scene well. Jo wanted to go “Jon of Jon and Kate Plus Eight” level of classy by wearing an Ed Hardy shirt and Juicy Couture sweatpants. Of course, why buy when you can make?

Luckily, Emily, Joanna and Steph (my adorable hosts for the weekend) live just down the street from a hardware store (the kind of mom and pop place that advertises mace in a comic sans sign out front). So in Jo and I went to buy some electrical tape for this improvised project. One rerun episode of Sex & the City and it was done. Just one roll of electrical tape and a pair of scissors… voila!

I decided not to show you the Juicy Couture pants because, well, I got the sizing off a bit. Actually, a lot off. From the back, it just said UIC, which, by the by, is a university in chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago. There are actually people out there with UIC on their butts on purpose. Jo is not one of them. It was supposed to say JUICY, but the J and Y were on her hips.

Not to brag on myself, but I was a little sad that not everyone could tell that it was homemade. Some people thought it was a legit shirt. You kinda had to look up close to see that it was in fact electrical tape. My favorite letter was the “E” of Ed. The “a” and “r” proved really tricky for no reason that I can determine.

Sale = Good Times

Here are three pictures of my oddly shaped booth at the craft fair on Saturday (yep, I had some hallway space that was 18 feet by 3′, nice and awkward). Oh and thank you so much to friends and family who came out to support this crafter. And thanks also for buying my goodies. I’m pretty excited about how things went and, most importantly, I had lots of fun.

It’s neat to look at this picture and see some necklaces that are no longer in my care! I sold plenty of them and I’m scheming some new ways to keep up the dream.

Here’s one of my three bulletin boards of necklaces.

Table One, complete with succulent glass bottle planters and some Arkansas felt creatures (that sold out!!).

And table two is weird lighting picture — sorry about that. I was so excited about the fair that I didn’t take many pictures.

Thanks again for all the love!

Take A Walk On The Wild Side

Three buttons merged into one necklace. Tiger print. What more could you want to know about this? The fact that you could own it, because you can.

On Target

Same theme, different arrangement. After getting the hang of making trios of buttons, I thought I’d try my hand at strings of buttons. And here’s one I came up with. The white ones remind me of a St. John’s suit, minus the thousand-dollar price tag. I’m not saying this necklace is worthy of wear beside a St. John’s suit. I’m just sayin’. And you know, everyone’s just sayin’ something.