Boring Sweater Made Better!

Sometimes it scares me when I realize how crafty I am!  I haven't been able to do some good crafting since the summer and let me just say, it's good to be back.

I've become hooked to the blog Grosgrain recently and have tons of new ideas because of it.  Today I woke up early and decided to get my craft on.  I raided the DI bin to see if there was anything that I could re-purpose... there was!

My favorite salvage was this lack luster sweater of my moms.

It's kind of boxy and really didn't have any redeeming qualities besides the fact that it was grey and had stripes.

After thirty minutes this is what I came up with. 

I removed the waistband sort of thing and turned it into the ruffle that goes down the front and around the bottom.  I tapered the sides to give it a more feminine shape and brought the neckline down just a little bit. 

I just love the ruffled edge!  I got a cute new cardigan for free ninety nine.  Score!

We Pretend We're in Italy

I recently watched the movie Eat, Pray, Love starting Julia Roberts

and hated the movie!  The only thing I enjoyed was the philosophy she had while in Italy.  The main character feels that because she is in Italy that she's going to have fun and eat, eat, eat.  To her calories don't matter and that if she gets a muffin top it only means that it's time to purchase some new pants. 

On Saturday the best friend and I went down to The Gateway in Salt Lake City to do some Christmas shopping.  We're horrible friends and bought each others presents while the other was there.  I've been away at school for too long for her to have picked up on the things that I like and want.

She got me these Snap Photo Frames from Urban Outfitters

I'm totally diggin' on Polaroid snapshots these days. 

After we were all shopped out we went to Decades, my favorite vintage store... or at lease it was my favorite vintage store.  It was a total bust!  We're now looking for new places to shop.

After that disaster we went to Tony Caputo's, my all time favorite place to eat in SLC.

Jesika and I wandered around the market (picture shown above) tasted olive oil and balsamic vinegar, browsed through the cheeses, looked at homemade pasta and then realized we were starving.

We both ordered the Tony Caputo sandwich which they describe as being a taste of Cosenza Italy.  It has prosciutto, mortadella, salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It's sooooo good!  Everyone drive to Salt Lake and go get one NOW!  We were sufficiently stuffed after eating our sandwiches but Jesika had never tried a cannoli and had never been to Carlucci's bakery (which is next to Caputo's).  I decided that no matter how full we were that dessert was mandatory because today we were pretending to be in Italy. 


The two of us ordered a cannoli,

a Nutella brownie, and one raspberry butter cream brownie. 

 We shared everything.


The canoli was by far the best!
I wouldn't recommended getting the Nutella brownie, it was a disgrace to Nutella. 


If you ever stop by Carlucci's bakery I would also recommend:
The black and white cookie (my brother's favorite)
or
The pumpkin whoopee pie (only available in the fall) 

How Dare They?!

The people at the New York times on August 4, 2009 crossed the line!  I didn't find out about it until just now, but you can sure bet that I'm not thrilled about it.  They did a whole blog post about my favorite vintage store, my favorite store in the world, the best store in the world.  

Now that I know that everyone knows about it, I suddenly feel like it's lost it's magic appeal.  You know the feeling you get when you think of the first time you went to Disneyland?  You know, the warm fuzzy feeling?  That's the feeling I get when I think about Decades, it's heaven on earth!

Okay, the magical feeling is back.  All is well. 

Now that I know the secret is out of the bag I must advise everyone to stop by when you are in the Salt Lake area.  I know you will not be disappointed. 

 

Decades

627 South State Street

Salt Lake City, Utah 84111

(801) 537-1357

I promise to go make a visit during my winter break and take more pictures!

Do you know of any good vintage or antique stores in your area?

sweet 16 and drives a jellybean

The baby is finally turning sixteen years old!  

I really never though I would see they day when my baby brother started driving, in my mind he's still the chunky little boy who would eat chocolate chips for breakfast.  I forget that others age at the exact same rate I do. 

Well, here's to you Stinky!

Sixteen reasons why I think you're pretty cool:

1. At the family parties you enjoy hiding out in the laundry room with me. 

2. You think I'm the bee's knees, the cats pajamas, the best sister in the world. 

3. You willingly take showers and make it a point to smell good.

4. You can reach the top shelf in the kitchen.

5. You make me laugh... hard. 

6. Even though you once told me I looked fat and ugly in my prom dress I still know you love me. 

7. You secretly want to be just like me. 

8. You constantly stop to look at yourself in the mirror and it makes me smile. 

9. You come to ask me for advice.

10. You were brave enough to ask Ashlyn to Cotillion in person with a single red rose. 

11. You get the funniest look on your face when I jump out from behind corners. 

12. You're better than a box of puppies.  

13. You can't spell, but you sure write good stories.

14. You're super talented! (play the guitar more often)

15. You want a banjo for Christmas... and I think that's AWESOME!

16. You've stopped pooping in my hats.  I sure hope you remember the time you did that because I sure do!

Here's your awesome gift!

The Tortoise

The Jellybean

and MY personal favorite

The Bean

I hope you have a fantastic Birthday! 

El Fin

I finished my last final at noon today!  Yay!  It's now time to put on my pajamas, plop myself on the couch and watch me some Gilmore Girls.  The roommates and I just finished season 2 last night.  We've already seen all the seasons but it never hurts to watch them again... and again. 

A couple nights ago we watched the episode where Rory and Jess kiss for the first time.  I was freaking out just a little, I'm totally a fan of Jess. 

Here are the reasons why the girls of apartment 305 are in love with Jess:
Sara: He looks hot when he wears his tan coat (not shown in the clip)
Lauren: He's a bad boy
Kelsey (Me): He reads good books
and then cute little Angel says: He has money!


Can you guess which one of us is the gold digger?


On a side note, you can now post comments on my blog!  I don't know how that function got disabled, but I was beginning to miss all of you.

Stiletto Portfolio

This semester I've considered myself to be pretty lucky, I only had two final exams.  With only having two actual exams that does mean that I had a lot of final projects that were due last week. In my fashion class I did my final on stilettos!  I had a blast and a half searching the web for hours looking at picture after picture.  

My favorite article came from National Geographic.  A professor of fashion places a high heel on the floor and steps into the shoe and then out.  She says "The breasts go out; the derrière juts back; the leg elongates... Men find that very attractive."  The only thing I could think of after reading that was this clip from She's the Man... one of my all time favorite movies. 

The conclusion for my portfolio: Stilettos are impractical shoes designed by men to enhance a womens sex appeal.


But...
I still love them, and these ones especially!

If loving these is wrong, would I ever want to be right?

Scarf Disaster

Just before Thanksgiving I had a craving to get my knit on; I love knitting!  In the beginning I thought I was going to be diligent and knit scarves for all of my roommates... all five of them.  Ha, I was ambitious! 


   I kitted for hours on end and once the scarf was a foot long I looked at it closely and realized it was all skiwampus and would win and ugly 1 foot scarf competition.  Epic fail!  *face palm*  I decided that it would be best to bag the whole scarf idea, unravel it and start again.  Sadly the motivation was gone so I took on the challenge of making head sweaters (I think that's what they're called).  So much easier!

I'm going to be honest, I've gotten so sick of flowers on headbands that I decided to embrace my inner four year old and put a bow on it.  I love it!

This is my strategic picture that doesn't show my hair, room or outfit.  It's finals week and everything in my life is a disaster at the moment... actually I think i'm just choosing to be lazy.  Yay for stress up the wazoo! 

That Time I Made Hot Cocoa

It could never truly be the holiday's without hot cocoa.  Sadly, i'm a cocoa snob so not just any cocoa will do.  Last year I discovered the beauty of French Silk Hot Cocoa and I don't know if I will be able to drink the powdered stuff ever again... except for the Stephens brand, that's heaven in a cup.

My lone cup of milk... so sad.

The delicious dollop!

After the sir but right before the point where I curl up and enjoy it. 

French Silk Hot Cocoa

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water 

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 tsp sugar

Bring water, sugar and salt to a boil.  Let boil for 3-5 minutes until all the sugar crystals have dissolved.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave or on a double boiler.  It just needs to be melted.

While the mixture is boiling add in the chocolate and stir until everything mixes together completely.

Pour the mixture into a cookie sheet to cool.

While the chocolate cools, combine the cream, sugar and vanilla, beat until fluffy (whipped cream). 

Once the chocolate has cooled, pour the mixture into a bowl and beat it until it becomes fluffy and full of air- this step is slightly a lie... it doesn't really get that full of air but do it anyway!

Gently fold the cream into the chocolate mixture until it is incorporated.

Refrigerate.

When you do want a cup of cocoa pour yourself a hot mug of milk and then dollop a heaping spoonful of the cocoa mix on top.  Stir, sit by the fire, read a book and enjoy.

The cocoa last about a week or two, but it probably won't last that long.  

The Day I Decided to Get Dressed

Despite the fact that I was up till all hours of the morning I decided to look cute today.  

See!

I was all dressed up and had nowhere to go.  Well, actually I went to go see A Midsummer Nights Dream with my roommates.  It was fantastic, but I didn't need to be dressed up in the least bit. 

I'm toats in love with my cowgirl boots!  I plan on wearing them to church tomorrow just because I can. 

Dead Week Attire

It's dead week on campus, everyone is ornery, hungry, sick of school and even more sick of studying all their time away.  This is also the week where people where some of their best outfits!  Do ya wanna see what mine looks like?

 Angel and I went to the DI and bought some of the ugliest sweaters we could find!  I am in love with my bunny sweater!

I didn't realize just how dirty the mirror was.  I'll get around to cleaning it one of these days.

The whole outfit in all it's glory!  Ugly sweat shirt, navy blue leggings and children's UGG type boots.  I'm one of those super cool people that have baby feet and am able to wear both children's and womens shoes.  These cute boots were originally $50 and I got them for $13.  I just couldn't pass up that deal!

An up close picture of the beauty that is the bunny sweater. 

The boots and my slightly clean/ slightly dirty bathroom floor and rug. 

The whole shabang and the dirty mirror. Can I just say that I love dead week?  Well... sort of. 

"It's Time for a Change"

"Like Barack Obama said, It's time for a change"

I have bloggers ADD, yet again I am changing the title of my blog. It is now again going to be A "True Aggie" Story! Yeah for my original ideas.  I have the batteries in my camera charged and ready to go so hopefully this time it doesn't suck as badly as it did the first time.

It's going to be great! 

That Time I was Told to Write a Book.

It's Thursday and dead week, but that's a story for a different time.  Like I said, it's Thursday and once upon a time I made up cute sayings for each day of the week that I never really followed, but never mind that, today is Thoughtful Thursday.  When I woke up I didn't have any intention of putting my thoughts on my blog but I recently bumped into one of my good friends and we had quite the long conversation were she reminded me that I have some very good insight on life and all things related to life.

She's the sweetest person in the world and I think I learn more about myself each time I am able to share my thoughts and feelings with her.  Today she needed some dating and roommate advice.  I'm a dating novice (thank you Miss Barlow for teaching me that word in 10th grade honors English!) so I have no clue why people would even ask me my opinion on the matter, but they do.  As I shared with her my beliefs on what a good relationship consists of she turned to me a told me that I need to write all my advice down and create a book.

I believe I laughed out loud at that moment.  I don't write!  You can tell, this blog is a disaster.  But, writing down my ideas might one day be beneficial... to someone. 

Titles for my notes/ "book"

The dateless leading the dateless

Relationship advice from a relationship retard 

Yeah, that's all I've got at this moment. 

My first section: Me vs. We

I've got some pretty strong feelings on this matter!

Only at BYU

I don't go to BYU, nor do I like BYU, but I do like making fun of them!  Well, at the Y they have a comedy group called... Divine Comedy... they would. 

Well, I am pretty much in love with their new music video Provo Girls, it cracks me up!  I think I watch it about twice a day.  Basically it's hilarious if your LDS, go to BYU, or hate BYU. 

Hahaha!  "We'd marry a tree as long as it served a mission", "eighteen, clueless and baby hungry".  Cracks me up!

Schooly, Schooly, School

I've been swamped with school work since I got back from Thanksgiving break so there has been a severe lack of postage on this blog, sorry!  

This weekend was CR-AAA-ZY! I was up till 3 watching (also known as taking a nap) the new Twilight movie.  Saturday I was up till three again, this time I was playing games and breakin' hearts (not really, but I felt it needed to be added).  Sunday I woke up at 7:30 to be to church by 8:30.  After church I ran over to my friends house to work on our Media Smarts project.  I was there for three hours.  At six there was the First Presidency devotional, at 8:15 was ward prayer, also known as ward stare.  After ward prayer we had a Relief Society Meeting.  Finally I was able to return to my apartment where I worked on my lab report that was due on Monday morning. 

Monday morning at 6:30 I get up to finish said lab report, I work on it until 9:15 when I run to the library to print it off and turn it in by 9:45.  From 10:00 to around 5:00 that night I worked on my portfolio for Dress and Humanities.  6:00 FHE, 9:00 Relief Society weekly meeting, 9:45-11:15 finish up the portfolio and press the submit button.  Shower and all that jazz and go to bed at 12:15.

Tuesday morning 8:20 roommate wakes up, so do I but I fall back asleep.  11:15 I wake up and realize that I turned my alarm off, went back to sleep and missed my first class.  Get up scramble to get ready, run (literally) out the door to the library where I print off the bibliography for my group project that is due at noon.  I press print and speed walk to the printer where I then realize that only one sheet printed but there isn't anything I can do, I don't have the time! I grab the one sheet, pay and then speed walk (i'm a pretty fast speed walker) to class, where I turn in the final project and take a deep breath. 

All my projects have been turned in, and I can finally take a second to breath!

I'm going to the local cheese factory tonight with my friend to celebrate... he doesn't know i'm celebrating, but after this weekend I definitely need it and what better to celebrate with then cheese?

Answer: NOTHING!  

More Cute Craft Ideas

I hate the ribbon that they used!  I've worked with that exact ribbon and it's really itchy on your neck. 











I'm going to be in St. George for Thanksgiving and I'm going to the annual craft fair... I'm stoked!  It's a family tradition, I don't remember a year where we haven't gone.  I will take mucho amounts of pictures if I can get my hands on the camera. 

Christmas Break

This Christmas break I am going to be back home with my family, more like i'll be working my butt off but oh well. 

Anyway...

This Christmas break, and hopefully Thanksgiving break is being devoted to me being crafty!  I have a lot of ideas and I'm going to need to unwind after the semester that I've had.  I don't recommend Psychological Statistics... it's the worst class I have ever taken.

I think i'm going to do a count down to Christmas of sorts.  Here are a few of the projects that I plan on doing. 

Beautiful Necklace from Anthropology





The headband, not the baby. 





Mine will look more like this one. 



Just for fun!

My Gift to Myself

Today my roommates and I stopped by Down East while at the mall.  I like to pop my head in every now and then just to see what they have on clearance.  Today I ended up perchasing my Christmas dress!  I plan on wearing it with a black cardigan of sorts and pearls. 

This dress was originally $49.99 and I got it for $10.00!  Deal of a lifetime, I couldn't pass it up. 

I need to take up the hemline, because i'm super el shorto but hey for ten buck I really don't care.  

Hey Santa, Hey!

Here are some more things that I don't really need but might like to receive for Christmas. 

Sephora Fragrance Sampler (for her)

$50 on Sephora.com and comes with free shipping. 

I don't need this at all but I thought it was fun.  Only get this for me if you have extra money to spend and you've already gotten me the things I really want. 

I need a new digital camera!  Bad!  Mine is horrible and I hate it.  The picture quality sucks.  

Fujifilm Finepix S2550HD

I don't really care what kind of camera I end up getting, I would just like it to have a fast shutter speed and has the ability to take multiple frames with only one push of the button.

I don't really want something that can fit in my pocket, that isn't of any importance to me.  I just want something that takes a really nice action shot and still frame. I'd also like one with a pop up flash. 

I would rather get a camera than rock climbing gear.  I can always wait to get that for my birthday if I still want it. 

I've recently had the desire to teach myself how to play the acoustic guitar, I have a lack of music in my life and I think it would be something fun to do.  Mom, I know you've been wanting Stinky to pick up the guitar again.  Maybe this could be a family gift?

My Christmas Wish List

I'm getting my wish list up now because I won't have much time to decide what I want for Christmas once I get home form school.  These are just some of my ideas at the moment.

Emma Hooded Toggle Coat w/Thinsulate from dELiAs 

Yellow or Cranberry, I love both!

$109.50

I only want it if you can get it on sale.

Sale price $89.50

I wear a size small.

I know I have quite a few coats, but the one pea coat that I do have doesn't have a hood and all my coats are dark colors.  I need something to keep me from getting depress during the cold winter months in Logan. 

Multi Dotted Rain Boot from Charlotte Ruse

Buy one, get one for $15

I wear a size 6

I just want rain boots!  They don't necessarily have to be these ones. 

Women's Rock Climbing Harness (Maybe)

The brands Black Diamond and Petzl are great brands!

I kind of want this Petzl package deal.  Comes with a chalk bag, belay device, screw lock carabiner and chalk.