radio silence

i apologize for the radio silence going on here. 

i used to think that when people said they were busy it meant that they were just doing something a little bit more important than talking/hanging out with me. and this has been my mindset since, oh, october.

i go to a UC, so we run on quarters which means ten week classes. 

i am in week ten. 

week ten is crazy. 

then next week is finals week. and i have my last graduate school test. 

so basically up until next wednesday, i will be crying in my mind while biking all over campus and coming home when its dark.

alas.

i will try my very hardest to post something up here soon. but in the meantime, you should...

1- decorate for the holidays. no matter what the holiday, it's nice to feel some extra cheer

2- smile at people

3- be kind to yourself. you're really very important.

and most importantly, have a great day :)

and don't forget

my thanksgiving is too busy

because i know this computer will shut all of tomorrow, i wanted to let all of you what i am thankful for.

so here is my short and sweet list

1. eyelashes

think about it. they make us look awesome. 

2. my house

( i don't live on a bench, but this is my backyard)

yes, it looks like it burned down. yes, it has salmon countertops straight out of the 1950s. but i love it. all 400 square feet of it. and i don't mind living less than half a mile from that coastline :)

3. food

here's a secret: i actually don't like eating. i don't like food either. most of the time it makes me feel sick, so i am glad we can afford to buy food that is healthy and nicole-friendly so i don't lose so much weight that i have to go to the hospital or anything.

4. my family

everyone is weird. this is true. but my family holds a special awkward weird that is all their own and i love it! whenever i think back to childhoods memories or memories growing, it was always with my family. always. we were (and still are! kinda!) inseparable. if i told them today that i wanted to go to clown school t become a carpenter they would say, "right on, go ahead." yea, they are that cool.

5. my Jason 

nothing else on this list is in order, but this is definitely the most important one. I could be homeless, hungry, have no eyelashes, with my family gone and still be so, so grateful for my husband. he is my best friend ever. i couldn't go a day without him, and luckily i haven't had to in two years :)

side note: would you like hear an embarrassing/awesome thanksgiving story about teenager nicole?

yes, yes you would.

ok!

as a teenager, i was deeply offended that we had killed all the Indians after they had helped so much (I still am). But immature nicole was all like, i am going to go to my boyfriend's thanksgiving dressed kind of like an Indian and only bring up things about how we killed them.

and i did.

i wore my moccasins made out of elk that my dad handcrafted for me, and i wore the headband my sister had crochet for me. and i rocked it. 

i am pretty sure my old boyfriend's family was like who the heck is this girl and why is she so...dark?

but hey, we all have our moments right.....

so there is a thanksgiving story and my little list. very little. but hey, i wanted to leave space for all of you!

what are you most thankful for this thanksgiving season?

fitted to a tee

i got this

and sewed it down to this

which is a weird kind of baggy around my ribs

so i decided to make it fitted with a tie

let's do it to it.

1. take in the sides. i always sew a straight line  up and down, hence the little bit extra on the side

2. with the extra side fabric, cut two long strips

3. pin the sides of the strips. make sure to leave one end open to turn them right side out 

4.turn your strips inside and you now have tubes! yay!

5.put your shirt on right side out and place a pin where you would like the fit to be tighter/taken in

6. take the shirt off, and place your tube against the pinned part of the shirt. make sure their widths match. then, unpick the seam between the two pins 

*also make sure that the pins on each side of your shirt are equal to each other*

 7. take your strip and place it inside your shirt. pull the un-sewn end of the tube through the new hole. adjust your pins of you need to

8. pull your tube out to line up with your shirts seam allowance and place a pin on the original seam and sew it up!

9. turn the shirt inside out and BAM!

wonderful!

now your shirt fits you to a tee :)

you could easily do this on a shirt that is much too big, or on a shirt that is only a little too big

i like it because i can tighten it to make it realllly fit, or loosen it when i don't want it to be so tight

i also think it adds a little character to the shirt

now get some loose shirts and fit 'em up! let's all show off our curves! or in my case, a lack thereof...

have a great monday!

righty tighty, lefty loosey

i was sewing (or really re-sewing) these pants the other night. i no longer liked the flared bottoms, so i wanted a straight fit pant. but more on that later...

in typical nicole-is-sewing fashion, i was sewing at around 11:00 o'clock at night, then seam ripping at 11:10, and so it continued until 11:30 when i was sewing up a storm and somehow didn't realize that my needle was bent

well, it was brought to my attention moments later when i heard crunching metal and a sudden halt in the sewing flow

i had bent my needle in half.

it was tragic.

of course, i abandoned my projects in frustration and went to bed. i woke up the next morning, went to school, came home, and pulled out the mini screwdriver that came with my sewing machine.

this must work! right?! 

i sat there for maybe ten minutes trying to loosen the screw that held my needle in. then i left my machine in hopes that doing my homework would increase my luck in fixing it

WRONG

i came back a few hours later and tried again. i failed. again. i started complaining loudly and almost slammed my head straight on to the sewing machine just because.

then, the heavens opened and my dear husband came over, kissed my forehead, took the screwdriver and screwed the screw out in a matter of milliseconds. and then he went back to work

of course i claimed that i had loosened it for him, but i found out that i had done just the opposite. i had actually made it harder for him (and WAY harder for myself) because

i was turning the screw righty tighty

not left loosey

and so the universe mocks me....one of these days i really need to learn my left and right. hahaha

anyone else out there having problems with the whole left and right thing still? 

the invisa-snap! in action

so remember the tutorial on the invisa-snap on friday? well in case you missed it, here is a refresher. 

i wanted to show you guys what it looks like in action

oh and i did it to another shirt...it's just so easy!

i work in a classroom, and the last thing i need is to keep fiddling with the neckline of my shirt so that nothing shows

which would be dastardly

speaking of dastardly....remember the CSET tests i have been taking? my last one is this saturday! woohoo!

and while it is supposed to be on the seemingly easiest subject (performing arts, physical education, and something else....) i am still starting to crave my common enemy. hahaha oh and just to let you know, according to California State Standards,

"Handicrafts are intended to be used as a regular part of life, and are not generally considered to be arts and crafts, which is viewed more as a hobby."

(from barron's CSET test prep book)

um.....guess what barron's and California Teaching Standards?

my arts and crafts are a way of LIFE

pshhh

haters gonna hate

the invisa-snap!

(this is my version of an infomercial. it's a tutorial, like i promised!)

ever have a shirt that just gaps too low?

ever bend over and your top just opens up too much?

ever just keep a safety pin on the shirt because every time you wear you have to safety pin it close?

well now there is an invisa-snap to solve all of your problems!

so, get out your button up shirts that are cut too low and let's get invisa-snap all over them!

you will need: scissors, a snap, a needle, and thread

 1. place a pin a few inches above the top button making sure that the two placket pieces line up

 2. right above the pin, place a small snap and sew it on by hand

next, place the other side of the snap in the center of the placket but make sure the stitches don't go through the entire placket, only one layer of fabric. this way, the snap is invisible on the outside of the shirt. now, you will have something that looks like this

 and the outside should look something like this

yay! look at that covered up chest! woo!

now, you have about three or four inches extra inches covered on your chest, and you don't have to worry about anything popping out or showing....

which is always comforting :)

now, go have a great weekend! 

and don't forget to think of and thank the many veteran soldiers out there who have fought for our many, many freedoms!

i promise....

my dear followers,

i promise you a tutorial this friday. 

i promise that i did actually sew today, but it was all mending. blah. a button here, a snap there, sew up a hole over there (four shirts and a cardigan. go me!)

i promise that if you mend your one shirt with a hole that no one can really see but you know is there, you will feel much better :)

i promise that i will no longer use more than one safety pin per garment of clothing (story to follow)

i promise that you are amazing!

i also promised my husband i would go to the gym with him tonight....hmm...don't know if i'm going to keep that promise...hahaha

oh and

here is that story to follow:

one of the shirts i mended was missing a button and gaps at the chest. i wore it last week and i just put a safety pin over where the button would go (ghetto fabulous, people) and over the chest gap area. the missing button was the one on my stomach. 

so later that day, while eating lunch and sitting sidewise in a chair so my feet were hanging over the side, i got a huge jab in the stomach. and in my chest.

i was like....AHHHH! WHAT IS THAT!!!

...it was the safety pins!

 they had both come undone from my squirming around.

it was even more awkward to try and unstab myself and put the safety pins back to normal while in class.

oh don't mind me, i'm just sticking both of my hands inside of my shirt....

so i kind of HAD to mend my things. despite its slight dullness.

now, go have a wonderful evening, and don't stab yourself :)

to do, to do, to do

i find that my to do list is growing exponentially lately.

after 'to do-ing' all of my classes, i still have graduate school to do's, wife to-do's, holiday to-do's, family to-do's, church to-do's.....man people weren't joking when they said don't grow up too fast :) hahaha

alas, there is a special to do list of crafting that at least looks the prettiest. and since i am a lover of pinterest (follow me!) i wanted to share some of my OH-MY-GOSH-I-TOTALLY-NEED-TO-DO-THIS crafts on my to do list. some of them are easier than others....hahaha

and off we go!

for me, of course. i totally fit into children's sizes. i kid, i kid!

never been a fan of neon (unless it is in spandex form), but i want a lace faux collar in white. it just seems like such a good idea. and easy. once i get around to it...

uh ya...i want to make a huge bean bag for my living room. talk about adult. hahaha

it has bows. it's my weakness.

could i pull this off? i will find out after i make it. 

ya i know....i said some are easier than others, this is obviously the hardest. hahaha but i will get it done eventually.

and these are my craft highlights for my to do list! you can find all of the links here (along with other crafts), and you can follow me.dooo it. then i will follow you. then we will create a loop of creativity and awesomeness!

have any of you found crafts on pinterest that you can't wait to do? share the link, i want to see! i always feel like i am missing some of the good ones posted in the middle of the day...

share share share!

please :)

and have a magnificent monday!

L to S

hey, guess what? i was featured over at Sew Mama Sew yesterday! go check it out!




have you ever gone into a huge sale, found something you loved, only to find that it is like two sizes too big?

that happens to me all the time. and the argument in my head goes like this:

well, it is not my size. put it back.

but it's so cheap!

ya but it will never fit. do you plan on growing curves over night?

no! but i can make it work somehow.....it is SO cheap!

at about this point this the cheapness factor overrides all common sense.

so, at the recent modcloth last hurrah sale, i saw a tulle top that was sooo cute. and classy. it reminded me of greece.

but

it only came in a large

and this picture looks awkward because it looked so weird that i felt weird

i'll just skip to the moral of this story:

size doesn't matter!

if you are a size small, medium, large, extra-large, whatever, go ahead and find that sale top in a size or two too big. do it. it seems like a bad idea, but i'm about to make it into a good idea.

so here was my top

ill-fitting, i know. the elastic waist is too big, and the shoulders are erring on too big. these are like....ten minute fixes. and i will take a ten minute fix any day over a full priced item


and it is so worth it! see?

so let's get to it!

1. take in your sides as much as you need to. it's already looking better!

2. (optional) unpick your sleeves from the main garment. turn the shirt inside out and pin the sleeve where you want it to hit on your shoulder ( i don't have a picture because i decided against doing it because the top is silk. and sewing silk = scary)


3. (optional) make small darts in the neckline, in a place that isn't s conspicuous, to tighten the neckline a bit

4. you just cheated the system my friend. you got a top at sale price AND it fits your perfectly. i am so glad i figured this out...

voila!

yes i twirl my hair. that's normal, right?

so watch out sale racks! here i come! oh, and you! you are coming too!


now, go have a wonderful weekend folks :)

step away from the clothes...

...and let's take a look outside of crafting for a bit.

my aunt recently started a blog about her adventures with her adult autistic son austin on her blog My Flappy Life

in a word, it is amazing 

(all biases aside)

leanne's son, austin

i am a mental health advocate (or just have really strong opinions and a big mouth) and i recommend you take a second to check it out, i'm sure you will be surprised and amazed

many of you may have an autistic family member, relative, or friend and i feel like leanne offers an honest and refreshing opinion about autism and living with it

so, let's step back from our refashioning and projects to take some time to understand others in their differences to learn more about the world around us

because it's all about loving each other right?

right :)

so go and check her out, it's amazing!