Ok, back to the point. I had decided that I wasn’t going to worry about anymore projects. Then yesterday, I was leisurely sitting on my back porch, sipping my coffee, reading The Elfstones of Shannara, breathing in the scent of my jasmine in full bloom, listening to my fountain, when I wandered into the house for some random purpose (I forget), which brought me into my sewing room. With a burst of inspiration and determination, I set to work on a random project I’ve been wanting to do. I think it was because I saw my earrings that I had dumped out of their jewelry box reminding me of what I wanted to do. This is by no means original, but it goes along with my hippy-I-use-coffee-sacks-for-everything craftiness.

It was super quick. I grabbed an unused frame from the closet (This is one we brought back from our honeymoon in Hawaii. It was way too expensive, and we were dirt poor. We bought it anyway as our one souvenir. I have kept it all these years for sentimental reasons.) I cut some burlap, glued the edges on the back, and voila! The fun part was arranging all the earrings. Some of you may recognize ones you have given me over the years as bday gifts :) I have so many, I know. I have been neglecting them for the past few years because I forget about them tucked into a box. And then when I did want a pair, I had to dig around until I found them. Annoying. Now they are out in front of my face everyday so I will be reminded to wear them more often.

The end.

The example/inspiration

I had a pair of brown, strappy heels that I thought would work. Here they are:

I decided to go with the pink and yellow, since I liked it. But then changed my mind. The heels/platform had a textured surface like a basket weave. I thought it would look like an easter basket. So I decided electric blue. I still left a pop of hot pink in there though.

Ooh la la!

The details: The texture made painting difficult. The electric blue polish was older and did not go on as smooth. The new yellow polish was awesome, even with the texture. Also, I had to do quite a few more coats to get all the little nooks and crannies, which made the surface much gunkier. However, it was a fun project, and I love the colors! But when I look up close and see all the flaws I’m not terribly happy with the results. I was going to just get rid of them because they are not very comfy anyway. But then I was getting ready for dinner at Zemam’s and feeling a little sassy. So I grabbed them out of the give-away pile and tried one on:

(disclaimer: It’s a crappy pic and my room is messy)

fyi taking a good pic of yourself in a mirror with an iPhone is really hard

They actually weren’t as uncomfortable when I’m sitting for long periods of time, so they are keepers for now :)

Regardless of my excuses, I did manage one simple project this week. So last year for my birthday, I co-hosted with Neal and we threw a Nerdy Geeky Birthday Party. It was awesome. We went costume hunting at the thrift store and came up with these outfits:

I know, right?

You can’t tell from this picture and my slouched posture but the blouse I’m wearing was actually pretty cute. I mean, who doesn’t love polka dots? The only thing was the length of the sleeves. They created too much poofiness. So after the party was over, I set it aside in my never-ending-pile-of-future-alterations. Finally, Friday I was in the midst of cleaning my dressing room/craft room. I remembered that I needed to do a project of the week and in a flurry of spontaneity I somehow pulled this blouse out and set to work.

I snipped those annoying sleeves:

See how long those suckers are?

Then I added mustard yellow bias tape around the edges. Bias tape has become my new bestie. If you have not discovered the wonders of it, you are missing out.

Tada!

Looks like a totally different shirt, right? I’m still contemplating putting some bias around the collar too. I didn’t personally model this shirt for you because:

a) I’m still in my pj’s and am not motivated to get dressed. Good thing I have a job where I have to get dressed some days of the week, huh?

b) It’s a bit snug around my love handles. Drat my chunks of love. They will forever be my nemesis. I’m working on this though. I’m trying to made cardio my new bestie. And salads. Sorry, bias tape.

c) I swear I have the shortest torso in the world, but apparently not. It’s a bit short to wear with low slung  jeans. Easily fixed with the right tank underneath. I just need to figure out which color, which requires me getting out of my pj’s. Also, a high-waisted skirt would do the trick. Again, I’d have to get out of my slobovia clothes, as Phil calls them.

But still, it’s super cute and I’m happy with the results. The whole thing took probably about 15 minutes. An easy fix. Now, if only I could tackle more from my to-be-altered pile …

Happy Easter!

p.s. Last week’s garden post was technically my project of the week, since I did have to plant many new seeds. I should’ve specified that :)

My garden is beautiful. Thanks to my awesome friends at my “Help Jenny With Her Garden” party, my garden is simply flourishing out in the front yard. I had a beautiful, bountiful harvest all during fall and winter, and I’m sad I didn’t document it very well. Here are the few shots I did happen to get on my iPhone:

Beautiful tomatoes all winter long

Baby carrots

Peas in a pod

Zucchini in December

Luffa gourds to luffa sponges

Now it’s spring and I’m waiting to harvest the last round of winter planting:

Oregon Sugar Pod Peas

Little broccoli offshoots

Red Creole Onions

Chard

More carrots :)

Cherry Tomatoes

New spring arrivals:

Tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings

Rattlesnake bean blossoms

Sweet peas

Green-striped Cushaw squash seeds

New friends (due to an aphid problem):

How many ladybugs can you spot? (pun intended)

And lastly, flowers from the back porch that were just too beautiful to ignore:

Nasturtiums

Midnight-Velvet petunias

Sunflowers amidst weeds in my old garden area

I love my garden.

Tada! In case you’re wondering what it is, it’s a combo trellis for my garden (cucumbers and squash, specifically) and shade for our front door/window, which get quite toasty in the summer. I got the idea from here. Phil’s sister sent me that link last year and I found it tucked away in my “Projects” folder in Evernote. See, you just never know when you’re going to come back to something.

I started building the frame last Monday when Phil was out of town. Now while I enjoyed the freedom to do it completely MY way and not his super logical way, I did have to go back and undo things quite a few times. My biggest mistake, probably, was building half the frame indoors. Maybe.

At the time it made total sense to me. It kept me in the nice cool house. It was a bit warm outside, and I was being sun-cancer conscious and staying out of the harmful UV rays. But then I need to move it outside. All by myself. A big 7 foot by 8 foot frame. And no, I did not break anything. That was Phil’s first question when I told him my process.

Then I had to add on the other half. Many other “Oh crap, I should’ve done it that way” moments came to me during the rest of this. But I will save those for a conversation over wine.

Next step was painting a color that matched the house. It didn’t really turn out looking any different than the original wood color, but it does give a little bit more finished look to it. Then the rain/snow came last weekend and halted my progress. But Friday was beautiful outside so both Phil and I went to staple down the metal fencing wire mesh stuff. This was the whole point of this entire project – a trellis for my garden. The cucumbers and squash I plant are vining varieties and so will eventually climb and provide shade. Phil had the great idea of adding the shade cloth though. So back to Home Depot I went to get shade cloth. Then back another time to get those special fasteners for shade cloth that I thought I should get but decided I didn’t need them because we had a staple gun. (I was wrong, btw). And then back a 3rd time to get another pack because, again, I ignored that little voice of logic in my head that said, “Hmmm, maybe you should get two just in case”. Damn logic gets me every time.

Side note: We both, even in all Phil’s logical glory and super translucent skin, forgot to put on sunscreen. We totally fried. Now you see how genius it was of me to build the thing indoors.

Anyway, many more hours ensued between putting the entire thing into the ground, attaching the cloth, deciding to attach it up to the roof, perfecting it, etcetera, etcetera. Phil is still not done perfecting it, but I’m happy. I’m loving the shaded front porch and added privacy!

And here is a teaser for a very overdue garden post:

Red Creole Onions

So my project of the week is actually three different projects. Three very simple ones that were on my list. I also think that doing three in a week is building up my karma for a future week where I’m too busy or uninspired.

Simple project #1:

I saw these cute ballet flats on Free People and thought, “Easy DIY!”. Mine turned out close, but not exact. I need to tweek the ribbons a bit still, but they are still cute!

It was a simple as buying black and nude ribbon (the nude looks a little golden in this pic, but it’s really not) and gluing them on my black ballet flats. I also took the little black bows off the front of the shoes after this pic. I wore them to dinner that night at Zemam’s with Mike and Bri. We have made this delicious Ethiopian and BYOW restaurant a monthly event.

Simple Project #2:

Obviously, I have tons of burlap laying around from my purses. It’s so trendy right now to do all kinds of things with it. My favorites I’ve seen though are these planters, tulip root balls, and cute curtain-ring redo. Another idea I came across was an earring holder. So I decided to do that but when I finished it was too pretty to cover with earrings. Mostly because of the awesome frame (which I already had laying around, neglected). So I brought it into Phil’s simple, modernistic office (imo it’s BARE and needs color!!!), and he agreed it would look nice above the keyboard (the musical kind). He rarely agrees to let me put something in there. So there is hangs. I still want to make one for my earrings, though.

Simple Project #3:

A pretty, matching trash bag for my car. Ok, I know this may not be a simple project for everyone. But since I have a sewing room all set up with all kinds of fabric, thread, bias tape, etc it was simple for me. This fabric is one of my faves that I brought back from Hawaii last year. I followed instructions from this awesome book I found called One Yard Wonders.

Ok that wraps up last week. I’m still working on my big, secret project. I just don’t want to show it off until it all complete and installed. Hint: it has something to do with my garden :) Stay tuned for Monday’s post.

Moving on. Last Sunday I posted about my goal of doing a weekly project. I’m happy to report that I’ve completed that goal! And, my other goal of blogging about it, obviously. My sweet friend, Keeley, told me she was excited to see what I chose. So here we go! In my ridiculously overstuffed evernote folder of project ideas, I have this tutorial for adding side panels to too-small or armpits-are-yucky shirts. I had a bunch of cheap t-shirts from Forever 21, in various colors. I loved the bright colors, but in their cheapness, they had shrunk. This was all due to the fact that they were $4 each and nothing whatsoever to do with me gaining weight ;) Here they are, all in their wrinkly glory:

(The red one I had already re-fashioned for last year’s Jimmy Eat World Concert. I cut the logo from a too-big shirt that was a too-small shirt for Phil and sewed it onto the currently-fitted-me red shirt.)

Next step, choosing which fabric to use for the side panels. That was a hard decision. I was starting with the bright blue shirt and chose a fabric.

Warning: Kitties like fabric. And cameras.

Then I realized I didn’t want any white fabric bc then that would eventually lead to yucky armpits. So I changed my mind, and I’m glad I did!

.

This is a knit fabric that I rescued from my mom’s fabric supply. This is legit knit from the 80′s! Love the retro-ness of it! It turned out so cute!

It was perfect for wearing to the farmer’s market last Sunday when the weather, obvious by my shorts, was beautiful! I also kept going and did the teal shirt, and also the black one.

These ones had both shrunk up lengthwise. I didn’t realize that until I had finished the teal one, so I added length to the black one. I might go back one day and do the same for the teal.

So this kept me busy this week whenever I felt like doing something productive. It also gives me a nice addition to my wardrobe for free!

On to this week’s project! Actually, I’ve already completed it, but it was so easy that I don’t think it counts. So I might have two projects to blog about next week. We’ll see …

I’m very good with actually following through on the recipes I clip. That makes sense. I love to cook, and well, we need to eat dinner, so that’s easy motivation. My projects, however, … yeah. I’m clipping way more than I’m actually doing. I’m not overwhelmed, just a little disappointed in myself for not taking the initiative to do them. I need that creative outlet. I have plenty of time (Sorry, not trying to rub it in for full-time working and/or mommy peeps!). Sooooooo, what’s the excuse? GOOGLE READER! I think I’m enjoying spending more time reading it and clipping ideas. Then I move on to something else, like cleaning, or errands, or laziness.

So, new goal. I will do something from my “projects” folder once a week. And then blog about it (Say what? Consistent blogging from Jenny?).

And I’m off! Right after I pick something first.

Ok, that took 15 minutes. But I have something! Stay tuned.

We finally have a rough draft of our tour schedule for China. (If you click on the map, it will take you the google maps) I’m so excited! We leave from Tucson on May 16th and fly to LAX and Gaungzhou (roughly pronounced “gwang jo”). It’s Southeast by Hong Kong.

Then we take a 2.5 hour bus ride to Huizhou (roughly pronounced “whee jo”) and stay there for two days – one day of rest and one show.

Next up is a 1.5 hour bus ride to Dongguan (roughly pronounced “dune kwang”), where we do two consecutive days of shows. And by we, I mean Phil and the rest of the people. I’m free to roam about as I please.

After the two shows we pack up and board a plane to fly two hours to Chongqing (roughly pronounced “chong ching”). We get two days of rest before doing two days of shows and moving on to…

Hefei (roughly pronounced “who fay” or “ha fay”). We take a 2 hour plane ride to get there, and then get two days of rest. This brings us to May 27-28, where we do two shows.

After, we board a plane and take only a one hour trip to Wenzhou (roughly pronounced “when jo” or “when shoo”), where we rest for the day. Then two more shows it is!

On June 1st, we get on a train (I’ve never been on an actual train, so I’m super excited about this part!) and travel four hours to Changzhou (roughly pronounced “chang jo”). We rest, and then two shows. I’m noticing a pattern here …

Zhangjiagang (roughly pronounced “jon jee eng”) is our next stop, arriving there after only a one hour bus ride. Again, we rest for a day and then perform two shows.

The ride to Qingdao (roughly pronounced “ching dow”) is again by train, this time for 6 hours. So far this is our longest travel time yet. If you look at the map, you’ll see we are traveling from about mideast (near Shanghai) to the most north we’ll have been on the tour so far. We rest that day, then complete two shows.

Next, we travel by bus for 3.5 hours and arrive in Yantai (roughly pronounced “yon tie”). We have just one show that same day.

On June 11th, we board a plane for Huhehaote (roughly pronounced “who he how too”). The travel time is not specified on our schedule yet. We rest and then two shows it is.

This next part is “to be confirmed”, but I think they are trying try squeeze in a day in Beijing. Oh pretty please, pretty please!! We can’t go to China and not see Beijing!

Our last stop is Shanghai. Two shows are still waiting to be confirmed, then we rest and fly home. Unless at some point during the tour I happened to make a call to the travel agent and extended our trip. But I’m not planning on that right now because we might be completely ready to go home. It’s a lot of traveling in 32 days!

Again, this is a rough draft schedule. But it doesn’t matter to me! This opportunity literally came out of nowhere. Phil was referred by Petie Ronstadt and Sam Egan, which I think is a huge compliment to Phil’s mad skillz. He was hesitant to accept at first, but after thinking it over he agreed with me that it is an opportunity of a lifetime! All his expenses are being paid for, plus he’s a contracted employee so he gets a paycheck, and he has enough vacation time saved up. We are paying for me to go along (travel, meals and visa), but the balance after his paycheck is not very much. We are going to China for 32 days almost for free! Well, that is if I don’t shop too much ;) If you know me, you know I LOVE to shop!

I’m so, so, SO excited for this trip!