Runway

I stole these pictures off Instagram

Tonight I helped with--and walked in!--my first fashion show! I've mentioned before that my beautiful sister-in-love is the designer behind Bunny & Pear, and tonight she showed her line at the 2012 Hood River Gala Fashion Show.

Ten of us (including Becca's little cousin Bella) modeled, and it was a blast. I ended up doing everyone's makeup except Becca's (who was my template!), while she made everyone's hair huge and curly (except mine, which does that on its own). Her models were all gorgeous, though, and I had a ton of fun working in a medium I hadn't played with in years. By the time I got to my own face, at the end, I was thoroughly exhausted--too tired to worry too much about walking down the runway.

I can't really tell you how that part went, because I have no idea. I hope I kept my chin up and my face neutral and that my mid-runway poses didn't look too uncoordinated, but I really don't know. Mostly I hope I walked slowly enough so that people could get a good look at Becca's beautiful clothes (soon to be available here). I look forward to seeing more pictures and video, though--especially since we got to see so little of the show ourselves!

Golden

August 31st was my golden birthday, so I threw myself a party. I'd been wanting to have a party on the lawn of this house pretty much since we moved in; I may actually have been scheming about it even before the snow melted.

When August finally rolled around, I sent out invitations on sparkly gold paper left over from our moving announcements. I discovered cake pops and was inspired to make other foods on sticks: caprese salad skewers with garden cherry tomatoes, garden basil, and fresh mozzarella pearls; Greek salad skewers with garden cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, and feta; and fruit skewers with pineapple, grapes, and strawberries. In the non-stick category, we had Martha's carrot-ginger mini-cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting; hummus with pita and crudités; and sparkling cocktails.

I set everything up on cream and gold tablecloths I'd found at the thrift store, with little gold napkins. We had golden balloons, candles in ornamented jars and lots of hanging lights--strands of regular mini white lights, some tiny Japanese paper lanterns, and even a random strand of spiky Ikea lights.

But! They don't call my Kitchen a Disaster for nothing. I spent all morning and afternoon cooking, baking, and running last minute errands, and David and our downstairs neighbor did yeomen's duty getting lights strung, and still things were crazy until right up to party time. Our other neighbor came up to lend me a hand with frosting cupcakes, and then they both did skewer duty. At one point, all four of us were in the kitchen when we heard a crash; investigation revealed that Brrrrrruno had managed to knock over a tray of cupcakes and consume at least one, liner and all, before we were able to separate them!**

At 15 minutes before the time listed on the invitations, I left my tireless helpers in the kitchen to throw on some make up and my party dress. I was still making little labels for the food and drinks tables when the first guests showed up! So. I don't have many pictures at all, which makes me very sad, because it was such a beautiful party.

It really was. The little lights made everything feel remarkably festive. It was a lovely evening, and the rather brisk breeze was countered by a roaring fire in the fire pit. There were girls in party dresses*** and tasty treats and lovely music, thanks to an iPod Hi-Fi boombox we found at the thrift store for $19 (2006 retail price $349. Oh yeah!).

Anyway, here are the pictures I do have. Try to imagine everything golden and sparkly, the way it is in my memory!































*Which I had to make twice, because the first batch tasted and looked pretty bad
**For weeks afterward when he would come up to our apartment, he would lick the floor and rug at the site of the crash.
***I wore my dress from a few Halloweens ago; how many chances does a girl have to wear a dress like that, anyway?

We've Moved!

This is the moving announcement card I sent out several weeks ago (photo kindly supplied by Ellen, who snapped it post-postal service journey).

I don't have a picture of the back, but it involved a line drawing of a dirigible... oh! And there was sort of a little seal or stamp:


Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, the old place flooded one too many times for me. (There are those who would argue that even once was one too many, but the rent and location were both excellent, and I do hate moving.)

What we found is the top floor of a duplex owned by a terribly charming young couple who just bought the place in October. It was remodeled before they bought it, so our kitchen and bathroom are brand new, as is the carpet in the bedroom and tiny office. (Ordinarily I try to avoid carpet, but I'm actually quite liking it here.) The kitchen is big enough to fit multiple cooks(!), there's a private garage, and there's free laundry in the basement. It's all very exciting.

Here are a few pictures:



I'm still in the process of decorating (and, admittedly, unpacking!), but things are coming together. I re-covered a bunch of pillows last week, so I'll try to post some pictures of those.

Oh! A bonus picture:
This is the St. Vincent de Paul dining set that I'd been "monitoring" in my last post and finally bought last weekend (set for brunch with the downstairs neighbors + friend). I haven't done anything to it yet, including reupholstering the chairs (aside from cleaning/disinfecting it and some Old English Scratch Cover). It's a fairly nice wood, but the tabletop is quite scarred, so I'm debating various options for improving it (including the trusty black spray paint method, which, as I believe Adrianna has addressed, can be quite addictive.) The great thing about the table is that it has two drop-down leaves, so it can be tucked away under the window when we're not entertaining, and can expand to fit six or more. Good times.

Chair

Things about which I should have blogged by now:

• Wedding On A Boat
• The Move
• Moving in
  
• Housewarming party

That should about cover the flybys, right?

For now, here's a chair, to match my new writing desk. I found it at Saver's with a $7.99 price tag, but it rang up at $4.31. Score! The cashier told me it would be .99 if I waited until the next day, but I figured the extra $3 was worth it to have it in my possession immediately.

I took off the seat, lightly sanded it, spray-painted with two light coats of semi-gloss black spray paint (enough so that the brown of the wood barely shows through), recovered the seat with upholstery fabric I found yesterday at my favorite fabric warehouse, and put it back together. David helped.

I got enough fabric to reupholster the seats of the dining set that we don't yet have, but which I am hoping to find--one cheap, but with potential! I saw a contender at the St. Vincent De Paul this weekend, and am sort of monitoring the situation.

Anyway, the chair is not a super-dramatic update, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'd been looking for a bolder, more geometric upholstery pattern, but fell in love with the tiny bubbles on this one. When I got it home, I realized it might be simultaneously too posh and too boring... but for the present I think it works fine.

String Lamp 2.0

This weekend, David helped me make another string lamp, this one for the living room. Here, in what is becoming classic Disaster Kitchen style, is a sped-up video of its creation:

Woo-hoo!

The awesome apron was a gift from Ellen. That shiny thing in the background is David's new TV/HTPC.

Spring

Ohhhh, I am tired. Like, random moaning tired.

Tonight, I signed up for my free trial week at Core Power Yoga and went to two classes with my friend the black belt: a C1 and Yoga Sculpt. The C1 was a nice warm up. The Sculpt kicked my butt and--in 95° plus humidity--made me sweat more than I have ever sweat in my life. Like, sweat puddling above my clavicles and rolling down my shins. I spent part of the class just sitting, or lying on my back, while the rest of the class continued their squats with weights and insane crunches, but the rest of the time I tried to keep up. It was an amazing workout. Tomorrow, we do Hot Power Fusion. Woo!

Yesterday, David and I machine-washed, line-dried, ironed, and reinstalled the couch cushion covers. I feel like I have a new couch! I also scrubbed the tub so that I could hand-wash my electric blanket and then dry it on the line with the cushion covers.

And there are leaves--tiny leaves!--on the trees. We didn't have any snow in March, generally one of our snowier months, for the first time since records have been kept. I'm not ruling out the possibility of an April snowstorm, but I think that spring may actually be here.

Winter Adventuring

Today ended up being kind of fabulous. It was sunny and hit 36°!

Here are a few snaps of the highlights: Belgian waffles; hanging my new coatrack shelf;* frozen, slippery Minnehaha Falls (including crazy kids); sunset city skyline; and Washburn water tower and the Tanglewood neighborhood.

And two more, shots taken earlier of Christmas gifts: the scarf my sister gave me, and the balaclava my mom gave me (just before a Winter Ninja Run).

*Which required buying a bit to drill the missing pilot holes, two drywall anchors and long screws to mount it to the wall (since the two tiny included hooks weren't going to cut it), and insane amounts of patience. But not all that much money! David reminds me that you get what you pay for--and for $10.99 plus shipping, it's not terrible (and, incidentally, not as red as it looks in the picture).

Wrapping Up

It's the last day of NaBloPoMo! I didn't do so well this year, but I did try. It looks like I'm coming in with 29 posts for the month of November.

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to the past few days, including the ornaments I promised last time. Becca and I created a tree worthy of Martha Stewart, complete with painted and glittered acorns, gilded oak leaves, and tiny string balls (far easier to make than the big lamp one!).

We also got to see the Swinjarnyars, and the ever-delightful Peanut, yesterday in Walla Walla. Good times!

Check out the album here:

Crafty

Tonight, I made hats! I haven't taken pictures of them, yet, but I think they're pretty cool. One I had already started, and the second went really fast because I was using four-ply yarn and my new giant (size Q) crochet hook.

I also made bang-up pad thai, which is quite a lot easier than you might expect. I did take some pictures of that (though I haven't uploaded them), so you may be treated to a step-by-step later.

Last week I finally (after three years of thinking about it) spray-painted the feet of my clawfoot tub silver. I do have a picture of that, so here it is:

In the process I managed to point the can the wrong direction and spray my finger, of which I also, naturally, have a picture:

The silver spray paint was from another DIY project I never posted, a jewelry holder I made several weeks ago and which is currently hanging in my bathroom. It occurs to me that I should probably post about that.

David also used the silver spray paint to modify his Halloween pitchfork, which started out red and was thus even more ridiculous than it is in the picture. He was disappointed that I didn't post his carefully cropped version of our American Gothic picture, so here it is:

Tomorrow I'm going to a slumber party at a friend's house! I'm really excited about that. I hosted a slumber party at my parents' house a couple of summers ago (did I really not post about that--?), but I haven't been to one at someone else's place in ages. Drew Barrymore, apparently, said, "The older you get, the fewer slumber parties there are, and I hate that. I liked slumber parties. What happened to them?" Well, we're bringing them back.

DIY String Lamp

This lamp at Design Within Reach is beautiful. It is made from fiberglass, and it is $980.

I made mine, albeit somewhat smaller, and of humbler materials, for about a hundredth of that. Here's how, with nods to these helpful tutorials.




Supplies:
1 17" balloon, inflated at store
1 150 yard skein of hemp yarn
1 bottle Elmer's glue
1 cord set (mine was Hemma, from Ikea)
1 metal hanger
White paint (optional)

Step 1:
Prepare working surface. I cut open a plastic bag for a drop cloth, and wore grubby clothes. This gets really messy! Draw a circle around the tied end of the balloon; I used a Sharpie and a margarine lid for mine.

Step 2:
Pour the glue into a small container and water it down a bit, maybe to the consistency of thickish syrup. You want to be able to coat the string easily, but ideally not have it dripping everywhere. David, my amazing assistant, helped untangle and feed me the string.


Step 3:
Apply glue to the string and begin wrapping the balloon. What worked best for me was to get my hand gluey and then pull the string through it as I applied it to the balloon. I think a handful of glue would last me maybe three feet, but this would depend on the consistency of your glue, thickness of your string, and, presumably, the size of your hands. Apply string around the borders of the circle you've drawn, but not through it, and aim for a nice, random, all-over application of the string. After the first 10 or 12 loops, I felt like my string was sliding around, so I let everything dry before continuing. It seemed to make applying the next layers easier, as everything felt more stable.







Step 4:
When you've applied the desired amount of string and let everything dry, deflate the balloon, ideally as slowly as possible. I sort of pulled the neck tight and made a small incision that I could control. In some places the string stuck to the balloon, and I poked it free without trauma. Pull the deflated (and possibly awesome-looking) balloon free and admire your incredible handiwork!




Step 5:
Attach the cord set (which I painted white, for looks) and light bulb (I used the biggest frosted globe I could find) to the shade. I cut a piece of wire hanger to slightly longer than the width of the opening, inserted it into holes formed by the string, bent up the ends for stability, then used a wire twist-tie to secure the cord to the center of the hanger crossbar. Oh! To straighten the kinks out of the cord, I dipped each section briefly in boiling water and then used a towel to very gently pull it straight.

Ta-da! The DWR lamp doesn't include a light bulb, so even though I bought rather expensive hemp yarn, I figure I still saved at least $960. I found some great string at Savers, probably enough to make three or four lamps, for only $3, so I think I'll try another lamp for the living room!

UPDATE: Check out the much smaller versions we made for Christmas ornaments!