Well, It's My Birthday

Today I say farewell to 26 and hello to 27.  I'm hoping 27 is a hell of a lot better than 26. I deserve an upswing! When the folks at my job found out it was my birthday they gave me the day off. How nice is that?

I'm really excited to share with y'all my birthday gift from Nathan. It is the most wonderfully whimsical thing I've ever had. I'm in love with it. It brings alive that magical way that kids see the world, where anything is possible and that magic is real. Ah, all I could say was wow.

The part that makes it special is in the video, so do watch!!!

Watch how it works!!!

He also got me this amazing John Masters Organic gift set. I never buy stuff like this for myself, but I just love all of his products. Especially the Blood Orange and Vanilla Body Milk. It smells so so good and leaves your skin feeling ultra soft.

My husband never goes this crazy for my birthday, so it was a wonderful surprise. Normally my birthday sucks, but this year it's been fantastic!

27 Before 28

Tomorrow I turn 27. It seems weird that I'm only going to be 3 years away from 30. I used to really look forward to turning 30, but I thought I'd be in a different place back then, before everything went awry. Anyway, I really like the whole concept of making a list of things to accomplish by my next birthday, so I've compiled a list of 27 little goals for myself.

1. Learn to sew from a pattern.
2. Get a teaching position
3. Make it back to London
4. Create and finish one craft/art project per week
5. Cook more
6. Cut my damn hair
7. Find a sewing desk
8. Spend more time with my Grandmother
9. Go to estate sales
10. Take small road trips around Texas
11. Take more photos
12. More Etsy sales
13. Possibly create a new Etsy page for my felt toys
14. Skype my British friends more
15. Spend more time playing with Penny
16. Go to the cinema
17. Spend more time listening to records
18. Buy the 2nd book in Sartre's Road to Freedom (I only have #1 (which I've read) and #3)
19. Go out with my friends more and be less of a homebody
20. Spend time on myself
21. Learn to cook new dishes
22. Take my mom out more
23. Finish writing the first quarter of my book
24. Get my family history down on paper
25. Get Netflix back
26. Buy new sheets
27. Keep up with my blog

Nothing too terribly exciting, but little things that I feel like I should do soonish.

Felt Toys

I keep making these felt plush toys at work and I just can't stop. So far, today's animal has been my favorite. As many of you know, beavers are my favorite animals and I collect illustrations and cute beaver stuff. Today, I thought I'd try to make one of my own and I love how it turned out! I'm definitely going to be making a lot more animals.

Shadow Puppet Theater

For the majority of last week I worked on building a Shadow Puppet Theater for a week long art project. Today, I finally got to bust it out and show the kids how it worked. They love it and have had a blast making their shadow puppets and putting on small plays. I'm super proud of the actual theater itself seeing that I just constructed it out of an old cardboard box, felt scraps, bottle caps, and an old sheet. I took a little video to share with y'all to show you how it works. If any of you are looking for an easy craft to do with kids, I can guarantee that this is a winner.

Check out the video below.

My favorite part is the sound of the overhead projector. It sounds just like an old film projector and really adds to the magic of it all.

So Sad...

I have a lot of wonderful memories tied to her music. She'll be missed.

Color of Earth

Wow, 4 blog posts in one week? I'm quite proud of myself for being able to find the time to do this.

I'm starting to get sad about camp coming to an end. I've really enjoyed all of the folks that I work with and the chance to be in such a creative environment. I haven't had that type of interaction since college and I really miss being around like minded creative people. I moved around a lot as a kid and as an adult and because of this I've developed this weird way of pulling myself out of a situation or place and am able to see it as it's happening. It's very hard to describe, but it's like everything slows down and the details become far more defined, or like being able to take a very detailed photo of an entire place or very small, what some would consider insignificant, detail. Well, I had one of those moments during our end of day Song Session today. Everything just slowed down and became hyper detailed and I instantly became nostalgic for something that has yet to end.

All of that probably sounded really odd, so I'm going to get on with my outfit.

My mom bought me this dress last weekend as an early birthday present. I have never owned a jersey dress before, as I generally prefer my fabric a bit stiffer, but oh my goodness is it soft. The color is great, it's light weight and I like the way it drapes. My only issue is that it has a tendency to be a little clingy, but I think this can be remedied by different leggings or undergarments. I think the dress will transition nicely into the autumn months as well, which is really important as I generally wear all of my clothes year round.

OOTD Details:

Dress: Old Navy
Belt: Old Navy
Cardigan: Old Navy
Necklace: Pretty Penny Mae Jewelry

I didn't realize when I got dressed that I was in head to toe Old Navy. For those of you interested in it, I couldn't find it on the Old Navy website (it's in the straight size range), but we found it in the store on the sales rack, so that might be an option for some of you.

Frankenhead

I feel like I'm on a bit of a role this week with this being the 3rd post of the week and all. I'm hoping to get back to regular steady blogging, but for the time being I think it's going to be super random. Oh well, life gets busy some times. Anyhoo, nothing too special to report today. I did make something kind of fun today at work. I enjoyed making my plush carrot so much yesterday that I thought I'd try my hand at something a little larger and totally out of left field. I decided on a monster head. Seems logical right? It took me the majority of the day to finish it, but I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. I ended up going a little crazy on the stuffing, so some of the threads are pulling a bit, but I think it's going to be just fine. Penny's kept her eye on it since I brought it home. I think she thinks it a chew toy for her. I really loved making it and seeing the kids' reactions to it, so I think I'm going to keep making them. Maybe even give them as gifts. I don't know, I'll see how it goes.

Oh, and here's a OOTD.

OOTD Details:

Top: Torrid (last year)
Cardigan: Target
Skirt: Torrid
Leggings: LB
Earrings: By Me

Oops, I almost forgot! Here's what I've been calling the Frankenhead...

Mini Mouse...sort of

Hello folks! Yesterday I mentioned that we were going to have a themed day at camp. Well, today was Cartoon Day. I came dressed as Mini Mouse. She's not my favorite cartoon character by a long shot, but she was the simplest one to pull off in a short amount of time. I whipped a pair of ears together using cardboard, felt and embroidering thread. For the "dress", (which I know should have been red), I used a trusty old skirt and sewed on some white felt dots that I had cut out. I think the whole thing went together fairly well. The only hiccup was that to keep the ears from flopping down, I had to sew them together, making for a rather tall Mini Mouse at 6'6. The kids got really into the whole theme and looked adorable. I wish I could share the photos with you, but for privacy sake, I cannot. I will tell you that one in particular is heart melting.

Here's a photo and a run down of my festive ensemble...

Modified Skirt as Dress: Target
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Torrid
Skirt: Torrid
Ears: By Me

Here's a little close up of the ears that I made. Bad lighting + shiny kitchen table makes for a terrible photo.

My favorite thing that I made today was a large, plush carrot that I will be using as a pin cushion. You can't tell how big it is from the photos, but from the tip of the carrot to the end of the leaves is about 2 feet. It's super cute and I love it. Plus it's the first plushy-type thing I've ever made.

I Passed!!! I Passed!!! I Passed!!!

Ah, I can breathe a sigh of relief because I passed the test to get my probationary teaching certificate. I'm about 99% sure worrying about this test is what made me sick this past weekend, but now I feel so much better. I'm going to start applying for elementary school teaching positions as soon as I can in hopes that I'll be able to find something in time for the start of the upcoming school year. So, fingers crossed for that!

Work has been going well, but is sadly coming to an end. Only 2 more weeks of summer camp and I'll be out of a job. I've had so much fun and am beginning to think that I may see if they'll have me back again next summer. Tomorrow is Cartoon Day so I spent today making Mini Mouse Ears and decorating a skirt to wear as a dress. I love theme days so it should be pretty fun. Plus, the ears turned out pretty well for making them from scratch.

I enjoyed what I wore today, so I thought I'd do a little OOTD

The lighting outside was really strange after our little afternoon shower, so apologies for the strange lighting and blurry photo.

OOTD Details:
Top: Old Navy (Years Ago)
Cardigan: Old Navy
Skirt: Torrid
Leggings: LB

Feeling Yucky.

Hello my lovelies. Just as I was trying to get back in the swing of things with my blog, I've been struck down by yuckiness. I think it is most likely environmental, however, working with elementary kids all day at camp probably isn't helping the situation. I assure you I will be back on my feet in no time. I'll just be spending the next few days trying to relax and catching up on everyone's blogs.

♡♡♡

Na Na Na Na Na

Friday night I had a fun get together with some of my lady friends. Last time we got together we had a My So Called Life marathon, which went really well and was a lot of fun. This time we chose to watch Daria. Oh Daria. I loved her so much and thought she was so cool when I was younger and little has changed. It's always so much fun to get old friends together and watch shows that were so influential when we were younger. I was originally supposed to have about 10 people over, but ended up with just 4 total, which worked out really well. It gave me a chance to properly catch up with folks, as I tend to be a bit of a self imposed recluse.

Before I get to the photos, I have to mention that my new Asos dress came in the mail on Friday. It was really surprising as I had just ordered it on Tuesday evening. It was also surprising that the mail guy just threw it over our balcony. I'm glad I didn't have to sign for it, but I just wish he would have left a note. If I hadn't gone out there that evening, it could have set outside for days. You may recognize the dress from Bonjour Gazel. I had my eye on this dress for a while and had been waiting for it to go on sale. When Gazel did her post on the dress it cemented my love for it. I have to say I am super pleased with it. I like the fabric, I like how the dress moves on my body, and for the most part, I like how it fits. My only gripe is that the top of the dress kind of smashes down my bust. I don't have giant boobs or anything, but having them pushed down isn't the most comfortable thing. I've had this problem with dresses cut like this before, so I'm kind of used to it. That's my only issue and really it's not so much of problem that it causes me to dislike the dress. In fact I love this dress and y'all are probably going to get really tired of seeing it

OOTD Details:

Dress: Asos
Cardigan: Target
Belt: Torrid
Ira Glass Button: Etsy

I changed up the outfit a bit before everyone came over, but I think I like it with no leggings and the thinner belt better.

Can't Keep Up!

Apologies for my lack of blogging as of late. I've been so busy with work and haven't exactly been wearing the most blog worthy outfits lately. This post was originally supposed to be for the Fourth of July last week, but time slipped away from me. I promise to get back in the swing of things, because frankly, I miss blogging!

In the past few weeks I did spend some time with my grandparents and was given some beautiful photos of my grandmother. She was just gorgeous when she was young and of course she is still beautiful. I love her so much and these photos mean the world to me. Apart from the photos, my mom also gave me all of her old 45s, which has been a lot of fun to go through. My little record player has been getting quite the work out!

My Grandparents Cutting Their Wedding Cake

My big old box of 45s

Little Outfit Detail from the Top Photo:

Dress: Asos
Cardigan: Old Navy
Belt: Target
Leggings: LB