This Is Me #11

Today I am going to try something a little different with This Is Me.  I'm going to use outfit photos with my five tid-bits about me.  

1.  Stitching together eloquent words that form a cohesive sentence, that fill you with emotional wonder, is not my forté.  

shirt -- H&M + DIY

tank top -- Target

shorts -- Target

shoes -- DSW Dirty Laundry + DIY

bracelet --  DIY

2.  I almost failed spelling in fourth grade.  I had a special teacher that I sat with in an empty room who helped me during spelling tests.

3.  I'm good at remembering names and faces.  If I forget someone's name I really give myself a ration of poo for letting it go.

    

4.  My most popular date spot with Aaron is Ikea.  We usually leave with a stuffed animal in hand, and our bellies full of swedish meatballs. 

5.   We used to have two pet rats. Rink-rat and Shanks.  Now we have two stuffed rats to commemorate them.  Of course not real rats.  We aren't in to taxidermy.  

Hope ya'll enjoyed, and happy DIYing, chris!

Fun Friday Fascinations #18

#1. Love this dress from ModCloth.  I have a couple weddings to attend this fall, and this would be perfect.  

#2. This jacket from ModCloth is also completely awesome.  I need a more colorful fall/spring jacket.  This so colorful and elegant.  

#3.  Totally digging Debra Broz artwork.  This bunny is amazing.

#4.  Love this color for hair.  I've been thinking dying my hair would be fun.  It's been ages since I've experimented with color, and this orangey-red is right up my alley.  Perfect fall color.

#5.  Fantastic curtain from Urban Outfitters.  I love how colorful it is!  This print has my name all over it.

Hope ya'll have a lovely friday, and happy DIYing, chris!

Kiwi and Cherries Cocktail

Happy Thirsty Thursday!  For this weeks edition I made a Kiwi and Cherries Cocktail.

Ingredients:

- A shot of white rum

- 1 kiwi

- Cherry 7up

- 2 maraschino cherries

Directions:

Pour a shot of white rum in a glass.  Cut up the kiwi into bite sized pieces, and dump into the glass. Smoosh the kiwi slices into the bottom of the glass. Fill the glass with ice, and pour the cherry 7up over the ice.  Top with two maraschino cherries.  Stir and serve.  

I used an older kiwi, and it has a strong flavor of kiwis.  Sweet and tropical. 

Things have been stressful with the house, and I'm ready to move past this phase.  I want to be moved in there, and thinking about furnishing not construction.  I know eventually things will come together, but on some days it's hard to remember that.  I'm so busy with the house and work and the blog all the time, I have this ever growing list of things I'd like to read, and it's just growing larger and larger.  Well maybe I'll go read a little, and enjoy my drink.  Have a lovely evening, and happy DIYing, chris!

Tri-colored Braided T-shirt Bracelet

Another DIY I left until the end of the day, but I'm really happy with the results of this crafty project I threw together.  I made a tri-color braided bracelet.  

I used three different t-shirts in yellow, orange, and blue.  I love these colors together, they complement each other so well, and they're unisex!  I used scissors to cut three strips of each color.  The strips each measured a half inch wide, and eight to ten inches long.  I used the needle and thread to sew the strips together at the beginning and end.  

I also sewed all three colors together, and then I braided them together.  At the end I sewed the two ends together.  I left the different length ends, because they add a fun flare.  Like a mini pom-pom.  When sewing the ends make sure to go through all the strips of fabric, that way it's nice and secure and wont come unraveled.  

A simple craft, with great results.  Anyone could do this with some extra fabric, and twenty minutes to spare.  I'm fairly certain of seen similar bracelets at Forever21 sold for around five bucks.  This only cost me time. 

I'm thinking up an outfit to wear this with, and when I'll have my next chance to show off my latest creation!  I wear my DIYs proudly, and it makes my day when someone complements them.  I work with children, and it's the highest complement when one of them tells me my bracelet is cool.  

What's your latest creation?  Do you love to show it off?  Have a lovely day, and happy DIYing, chris!  

Button Earrings

O. M. G.  This morning I left for work at 8:30AM, and I only got home for the day at 9:45PM!  I left work at one, but I had to go to my house, and hang out while some contractors did some work.  Such a long day, and I only ate a small lunch this afternoon.  I didn't realize they would work for so long, and didn't plan to do my DIY until I got home.  Obviously when I got home I needed to eat, and by then it was ten thirty.  So needless to say today's DIY is beyond simple. 

I used these super tiny buttons to make post earrings.  

I simply hot glued them to the head of an earring post.  You can buy earring posts for jewelry making at Michael's.  Or at least that's my go-to-craft-supply store.  I love mixing and matching the different colors. 

See how tiny they are, aren't they cute?  I actually made this pair a long time ago, and they've held up pretty well.  I want to make more, but I might use an epoxy instead of hot glue to attach them to the earring posts.  I think epoxy will hold up longer, and will be easier to get a nice clean finished look.  

Hope ya'll are having a great tuesday, and happy DIYing, chris.  

Peanut Butter Pie

Happy Nom Nom Monday! I wanted a dessert, and it being summer I didn't want to bake. Dessert for me usually involves either chocolate or peanut butter.  This delectable treat has both! AND, it's extra easy to make!  I love a good Peanut Butter Pie, and Baked Bree's recipe is fantastic.  Eat-the-whole-pie-at-once kind of yumminess.  

Ingredients:

crust--

- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

- 1/3 cup sugar

- 6 tablespoons of melted butter

filling--

- 2 cups heavy cream

- 1 cup peanut butter

- 4 ounces of cream cheese

- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat the oven to 375ºF.  I know I said no baking, but sticking a pie crust in the oven for a few minutes doesn't count, does it?  Melt your butter, and mix it with the sugar and graham cracker crumbs.  Press into a pie pan.  Stick in the oven for 7 minutes, and let cool before pouring in the filling.  

Whip the heavy cream, and set in the 'fridge.  Don't worry about cleaning out the mixer, and dump the peanut butter, cream cheese, and sugar in mixing throughly.  Once doughy add the vanilla.  Then slowly add in the heaving whipping cream that we set aside in the refrigerator.  It will become similar to thick pudding when completely mixed together.  Finally hand stir in the chocolate chips, and pour mixture into the cooled pie crust.  

Sprinkle a few chocolate chips over the top, or if you have extra heavy cream, you could mix up some whipped cream.  No extra heavy cream here, so no whipped cream.  Let pie setup in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but best overnight.  

Scoop out and enjoy!  We were overly excited and tried to serve ourselves too early.  The pie didn't appear to be jiggly, but as soon as we tried to pull a piece out it started to run down the spatula.  We gently placed it back into the pie, and impatiently stuck it back in the ice box.  Then I watched the clock waiting for my slice.  

Taa-dah!  It was well worth the wait!  Hope you're having a fantastic Monday, and happy DIYing, chris!

Sun Kissed Nails

Aaron and I worked at the house from nine to three.  Then we came home and watched The Guard together.  Amazing movie, my type of film.  Extra dry and absolutely gorgeous cinematography.  While we were lounging around I painted my nails.  Then Aaron left for work around six thirty, and I didn't realize I had left my camera in our car.  So I decided to try to use my cell phone to take some photos of my nail-do.  

I painted my nails with the teal color first.  Then I tore off nail sized pieces of blue tape for each finger, and cut an upside down 'v' shape out of the middle of each piece.  I carefully placed a triangle on the bottom of each nail, and placed the other half on the top half of my nail.  Leaving an upside down 'v' exposed.  I painted that part of my nail orange.  Let the paint dry, and then removed the tape. 

On my ring finger I painted some glitter nail polish, then painted a clear top coat on everything.  I used Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear line of nail polishes, The Real Teal, Sun Kissed, Disco Ball, and Invisible.  I want to buy some of those nail sticker stencils.  They would work a ton better then the crap ones I make with blue tape.  I get so impatient waiting for my nails to dry, and I usually end up damaging the paint trying to tear off the tape.  

Hope ya'll had a great weekend, and happy DIYing, chris!