Upcycled dress from an old skirt.

My very first upcycled dress! Keep in mind I've never EVER tried to make clothes like this before!

Came out way better than I thought it would!

So here's how I did it. I'm not sure if I did it the "proper" way, but so what?!

This is the skirt I started out with.

Buki wanted to help. What a good kitty!

I ended up only having one sleeve because it looked silly with the two. But those cuts were intended to be sleeves.

Finished product!

Only two seams.

Our little family

A little over two and a half years ago I adopted a kitten that had been rescued. The woman that found him and his siblings thought someone was dumping garbage in the woods across from her house. When she went out a few hours later to investigate and pick it all up, she heard kittens crying. Looking around she found a black plastic bag shredded and kittens rushing towards her. She gathered them all up and took them inside. The next day, her and her friend (who happened to work for an animal protection agency) went out to see if they could find anything that would indicate who did it. They heard another kitten and looked up to find one stuck high in a tree. They got a cherry picker and got the poor little guy down. This would be the one I ended up adopting.

When I got him home, I found out that he was, and still is, terrified of plastic bags. I named him Kabuki and he has been my baby ever since. He's 22 lbs and huge! Yes, he's a little fat, but he's long and tall.

He's just so pretty!

Kabuki and Panther

Panther was adopted from a local animal shelter in May 2010. He was a birthday present for my amazing boyfriend. Panther, while super snugly and lovable, is a demon. Kabuki may be huge and look like he could hurt you, but Panther actually will!

He went from this...

To this...

To this.

A few months ago, we introduced a new pet to our little family. His name is JackJack.

Don't worry, he has a kitty proof home.

Note the innocent hungry kitties.

Around his cage you can see a reflection. That would be the fiberglass that makes it impossible for the kitties to sink in a claw. Cody (the boyfriend) is so crafty.

And here we are on the ice.

That's our little family, all five of us. And yes, it's staying that way for a long time!

Nail Attempt

I've been absolutely in love with Pintrest for a while now, but never actually tried out any of the wonderful things I saw pinned. As I was procrastinating, I came across this pin about water marbled nails.

I figured, "I can do that!" So I tried it out. This ended in many swear words and about half a bottle of nail polish remover. Not at all as easy as I thought. That or I'm just not skilled with this sort of thing.

But I figured, hey, I don't like color on my nails anyways. So I tried something else from pintrest.

Caption read: "Want white nails? 1 Tbs peroxide 2.5 Tbs baking soda. Let this paste sit on your nail for 5 minutes and voila!"

This actually worked! But like most things we all find on the internet, it doesn't work like the pictures makes you believe.

I cleared off a space on my sewing table and got all my supplies.

This is Panther, our multiple personality cat (one demon and the other an angel).

The "goop"

Before applying the mixture.

Living in Western Washington means only two seasons...

This is the rainy one that lasts about 9 months.

I decided I wasn't going to check the mail since the sidewalk turned into a lake.

Panther really doesn't like waiting for me.

Neither does Kabuki, our other baby (well 22 lb baby that's about the size of a smaller dog).

The "after." Not exactly the results I was hoping for.

If I actually used color nail polish all the time and had that yellow tinge, this would have removed it.

I followed the process with Sally Hanson Triple Strong clear nail gel.

The final product.

I think it looks better, but not as good as a manicure.

Overall, not amazing, but it was worth a try. It's not like I had anything better to do, like study.

I created this blog a long time ago and am finally making my very first post. That being said, here it is!

Sometime earlier this year, I was out with my wonderful friend Tina (my boyfriend's mom) having a girl day. We were in town and she had to go to the quilt shop for some fabric. While in there, the shop owner was sewing fabric onto paper! She explained how to do English Paper Piecing in about 10 minutes. I had no idea how easy it was! Tina, seeing how interested I was in it, got me started. She got me the fabric, needles, thread, and the hexagon paper pieces. Since then, I've been addicted!

I don't have a ton of pictures of my progress yet, but they will come soon.

My very first hexagon.

First attempt at putting them together.

One of our kitties, Panther, thought he was helping.

Attempting to make a pattern.

Our friends were about to have a baby, so I put mine on hold to make her a baby quilt.