Tea cozy! (And pedicures)

Mum knew I got a new (to me) sewing machine recently and was saying how it was sad because she'd never taught me how to sew from a pattern. We decided to do a small, easy project together while I was in Hawaii and went with a tea cozy, since it's fairly simple and definitely something I needed. We based the shape on the cozies she'd made for her own pots a while ago, but we made mine a tiny bit more rounded on top and slightly flared at the bottom.

First we cut out a pattern from her old cozy. We double checked that it would fit around the girth of my tea pot (she had the exact same one so we used it to measure). Then I had to pick out some fabric from the various fabrics she had in her scrap boxes. After much indecision (at one point we were thinking about using quilt squares that never made it into a quilt) we settled on a green tropical pattern and a light blue corduroy. I wanted use two cute fabrics, rather than just white muslin inside, so that it would be reversible. I foolishly didn't take any pictures while we were making it, but here is the finished product.

Cute tropical outside (modeled on Mum's tea pot)

Corduroy inside, with the tropical edging

We also went and got a pedicure. Mum got a super fancy pattern with lots of rhinestones. I got something simpler and not as bumpy.

Mum's toes- green torqouise color with black

My toes- coral with a black and white design

The sad thing was, we weren't even home and the big toe on my left foot got super smudged. I had to sort of repair it, and it doesn't look perfect, but it's a lot less obvious. They're still super cute though.

Winged Liner in Print

My recent interest in winged liner seems to be very on trend. In the May issue of Glamour, there were three different places I found winged liner featured. The first was an ad for Urban Decay's 24/7 pencil.

Drama, drama, drama

I love this image because not only do they use a full black wing, but also a teal wing on top for added drama. And I have to say, it's an excellent advertisement because it does make me want to try out the liner.

The next was a full page beauty shot about retro liner.

Simple and chic

The winged liner in this photo is very long, but not crazy thick, similar to how I did it the other day. I also love how simple they kept everything else in this shoot. The eye shadow is light and understated, as are her lips and cheeks.

Finally, they also had a Do's and Don'ts page about winged liner.

Hard to see so small, but there were two things I liked about a lot of these liner looks- First, there is a lot of indigo. Using color can be really fun and the dark blue keeps it classy and simple. Second, a lot of the wings are soft and wispy. While the retro look is fun and dramatic, making the wing a bit softer makes it much more wearable for daytime in my opinion.

Now I only wish I'd brought some liner with me so I could try some of these out!

Clothespin Bag

I hadn't mentioned this yet since it was a present, but I decided to make Mum something for Mother's Day. I know that she loves getting handmade gifts and with my re-discovery of knitting, it seemed only fitting to knit her something. And since I was coming to visit, I waited to give them to her until now. In the end, I actually ended up knitting her two things, one as sort of a joke and the other for real.

The joke thing was a wine bottle topper (being modeled here on our spiced rum). It was actually quite a hit as far as joke gifts go.

Her real gift was a Clothespin Bag. I found a really fun pattern on Ravelry for one that would help teach me cables. Also, I knew it was something Mum could use since she has a clothesline inside and outside, and was continually having to cart the clothespins back and forth. I had a few flubs but, overall, I'm pretty happy about how it turned out.

Laying on the carpet- just finished!

Testing it out on my clothesline.

It really is amazing what motivation and a deadline will do for you. I was fairly behind on it for a while, but then my ticket got booked and I only have a few days left. I took it to work and knit a little bit backstage (much to the amusement of all the actors). I finally finished it less than 12 hours before we had to leave to get me on my flight, but I did! And now it's hanging on the clothesline outside. I walk by it everyday on my way to the outside shower.

Getting ready for Maui!

I leave for Maui in just a few short hours. I decided to get my fingers and toes ready for the occasion.

My fingers are my new Honeydew by Fresh Paint. Toes are Dreamy Poppy by Wet n Wild.

Make-up Storage

I have seen countless nifty storage ideas on Pinterest and elsewhere for the gobs of make-up that we seem to invariably collect. I'd love to use lots of those ideas someday, but all too often they involve space and/or wall mounting that I just don't have the option for right now. And so, my current solution is to have it out on my dresser in as nice a fashion as I could come up with. Why my dresser? Because there is zero space in the bathroom for it, and it's one of the only large flat surfaces in the apartment not being utilized in some other way.

As you can see, a few other things have wiggled their way on there, namely jewelry and the alarm clock. The alarm clock lives there and not by the bed so that if I use it, I have to physically get out of bed in order to turn it off.

And now for a closer look, going from left to right:

These three things are actually new additions to the dresser. In the back is a little bucket with all of my combs and hair brush. It used to have cotton balls in it, but I found something better for those. In front of it are two pieces of a box that I'm using to hold all my lipsticks and chapsticks. I may re-do the outside so it goes better with everything else or eventually replace it with a different container. However, it's a big improvement over the bag they used to be in. It's much easier to look, see all my options, and then grab the one I want.

Next is all my tin can and glass votive storage. My e.l.f. brushes are in a tin can and my other random brushes/beauty tools are in a glass jar that used to have a candle in it. Eye liner and mascara each get their own can. I modified the tin cans by glueing clips from magazines/advertisements on them to make them fun and colorful. In the front are two cleaned out Bath and Body Works candles, one of which has bobby pins in it and the other which has yet to be repurposed. You can see I still have a card of pins chilling off to the side. Eventually those will all end up in the jar too.

These are some storage containers I got from the dollar store a long time ago. In the first big one is all my Clinique eye shadow, my e.l.f. cream shadows, and a couple random square shadows. In the back small container is all the rest of my eye shadows, mostly single color shadows from various brands. The front small container has all my blush and my body shimmer (goodness knows the last time I used that). In the other long container is all my foundation, loose powder, bronzer, and concealer. (My favorite blush from Physician's Formula somehow jumped over there apparently; I'll have to put him back later.)

This is the random not-really-make-up section. Mostly it's jewelry, the rest of which lives in the top drawer of the dresser with my underwear and bras. But there is also my owl box with all my fragrance in it. In the front are the two I wear most (Midnight Pomegranate and Dark Kiss from Bath and Body Works). I'm actually starting to get low on both. In the back is Calyx that I got from ELLE and Forever Red from Bath and Body Works. The Calyx I'll randomly wear, but it's not my favorite as it doesn't stick around all day. The Forever Red is the first real perfume I've actually enjoyed.

Finally, I have three old candle jars full of cotton goodness. In the back, two Yankee Candle jars filled with q-tips and cotton rounds and, in the front, an off brand jar full of cotton balls. Like I mentioned, the cotton balls used to be in the blue bucket, but we recently polished off another candle, so the cotton balls get to be in a nice glass container now too.













And that is the exciting, exciting world of the top of my dresser! Now I'm off to finish folding the four loads of laundry I did today- not so exciting.

The Return of the Winged Eyeliner

Last week I needed a pick-me-up and so I decided to go out on a limb and try to do a heavy winged liner. It came out much better than I had hoped, though it was still a little on the wobbly/unmatched side. Once again, I used my e.l.f. liquid liner. I went with a nice, light pink pretty much everywhere else on my face so as to let the liner stand out and not overpower my face with make-up, since it was just a work day after all. I got a ton of compliments on it.

Eyes open

Eyes closed (the wobble is more noticeable here)

Beginning of the day

Near the end of the day, at work

When you have one sad banana- Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies

Frequently we buy a couple of bananas to put in smoothies. Unfortunately frequently, we also only get around to using one of them until it starts to get brown. If we notice quickly, we can just throw it in a smoothie anyways. Another time, it was both of them that went brown, and so I made muffins or bread (don't remember which, but both use two bananas). However, last week, we had just one banana hang around and get very, very overripe. Which left me with a conundrum. All the recipes I usually use bananas in need TWO bananas. After a bit of internet searching, I stumbled on a cookie recipe from Martha Stewart that only needed ONE banana. Hallelujah! I modified it slightly as I don't use whole wheat flour or keep semi-sweet chocolate bars in the house.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup banana (about one banana)
1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts

1) Mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a mixer (or by hand if you're foolish like me) cream butter and sugars. Add beaten egg and vanilla to sugar-butter mix. Add banana. Stir in the flour mix to the butter-banana mix until completely combined. Stir in the oats. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

2) Drop approximately 1 1/2" balls of dough onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Cook for 12-13 minutes at 375 degrees until golden brown and set. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

They're super easy and fairly quick. Best of all, they're delicious! Mike still hasn't tried them, as he's not  a huge fan of banana, so I ended up throwing most of them in the freezer. They're delicious re-heated, or re-heated under a pile of vanilla ice cream. I also feel slightly better about eating too many of them since they have a few good-for-you things in them.