Stitch Fix - My Newest Addiction!

There is nothing better than getting mail.  Especially when it is a box of 5 cute items, picked especially for you, for you to try on and decide what to keep.  What is this service?  Stitch Fix!



If you haven't heard of it before, Stitch Fix is basically a styling service that sends a box, or fix, of things picked out for you based on a styling profile you fill out online.  It's only $20 for them to pull the items and it goes toward whatever you want to keep.  You can keep all or none!  I just got my first box last Monday and you can schedule your box to arrive as often (or not) as you'd like. 

All in all, it was really fun to try the things on at home so you see how to pair it with things you already have.  How many times have you tried things on at the store and wondered, "Do I have anything to go with this"?  I also tend to find myself buying the same styles and colors, so I'm hoping this will get me to branch out a bit and prevent a style rut. 

If you think this is something you'd like to try out as well, follow this link!  It's a referral code, so if you sign up with it, I get $25 towards my next fix!

Here's what was inside my first fix:

41Hawthorn Stacey Lightweight Leopard Print Infinity Scarf - $32

This was the first thing I saw in the box.  How cute is that print!  I usually don't wear animal print, but I have to admit that I really like it.  Being that it's starting to get warm out, I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it.  Also, I don't know how many things I have to wear it with.  However, I couldn't stop picking it up and didn't know if I could forgive myself if I let it go.  Result - KEEP

41Hawthorn Cassandra Tailored Button-Up Shirt - $28

My initial thought was, "ugh, black."  I have three white furry animals, so I tend to shy away from black and other dark colors.  Let's be honest, I'm not fond of black.  I LOVE color.  That said, the fit and cut were nice.  Aside from it being too tight in the shoulders, it fit perfectly.  It's not often a button up shirt doesn't gap at the chest.  Result - RETURN

Tart Burrowes Solid & Striped Short Sleeve Shirt - $54



Stripes!  Love them.  This shirt is super soft and comfy.  With spring coming, I could really use a short sleeved shirt to wear.  Bonus - machine wash.  I always check these things nowadays.  While it's a little more than I would usually spend on a shirt, it was too comfortable to pass up.  Result - KEEP

Sanctuary Rizzo Skinny Ponte Pants - $88



Skinny pants.  I have a love/hate relationship with them.  Also, black.  Again.  These run more like jeggings so they have stitched on "pockets" and are actually quite thick.  Fake pockets!  Argh, so frustrating.  BUT -- they were actually really comfortable and they looked great on me.  I just can't justify spending that much money on fancy leggings.  Result - RETURN

41Hawthorn Wrenn V-Neck Jersey Top - $48



I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this top.  I LOVE the color.  I need some more tops like this to go with skirts.  And it was sooo soft.  But the neck.  Is it a v-neck?  Cowl neck?  How do you have both?  If it doesn't lay right or it looks funny, I don't even bother.  Result - RETURN

Overall, I was satisfied for my first fix.  I'd like to see more color, patterns or even a skirt or dress in my next box.  That's the nice thing about Stitch Fix.  When you check out, there is ample space for leaving them feedback on the items and box that they sent.  My next fix has already been scheduled, just in time for my 4th Anniversary and 31st Birthday!  Can't wait to see what they send next!

Be Crafty,

Kris

"Older and Far Away" - My 30th Super Mario Bash!

It's been a while!  And I got older!

2013 was the year of my 30th birthday and I wanted to go big. I was pretty excited to turn 30 and I figured it would be fun to have a Super Mario Bro. themed party. Not just any party, but a costume party!  I love dressing up! We asked people to come as their favorite game character, Mario or any other game.  And of course, I wanted to be Princess Peach. Instead of getting an actual costume, I was all for dressing similarly so I could wear a dress for than once. Add some Star earrings, a turquoise necklace, and a crown and I was all set!  I have to admit, the crown didn't last long. Find the crown on etsy here: Princess Peach Crown  We had board game characters, Link from Zelda, a gangster from Grand Theft Auto, Codex from The Guild, another Princess, Luigi and others!

Unfortunately I lost the photos of creating the decorations, but I do have a few of the finished projects. I will reference all the sights I used for the ideas that I found. Thank you Pinterest!

My Pinterest Super Mario birthday board

First things, first: The invitation:

 

If you've seen my Pinterest board or researched a Mario party, you have probably noticed how many different invitations you can do!  I wanted something really specific, not too childish, and a little retro and finally found this etsy seller for my invitation.  I love it!!

 

 

Secondly: The decorations!

The best thing I made was a Piranha Plant coming out of the tube. I looked at a few sights for inspiration and made this. The tube is just a cement tube you can get from Lowes or Home Depot. I cut it to the size I wanted and covered it with green duct tape. I think it turned out nicely! The stalk is a wrapping paper tube covered with the duct tape again and I also added duct tape leaves. For the Piranha Plant, instead of paper mâché or other ways I saw to make it, I actually found a plastic planter pot shaped closely enough and painted it!  Fill with atomic fireballs and done! 

This was the inspiration for craft idea, done much differently but great!

The other item was a pixellated mushroom to hang on the wall. Obviously, the size depends on how big you cut the square pieces. I just googled mushroom, found the one I wanted, and counted the number of squares for each color. I'm sure there could have been a better/easier way to do it, but I taped all the pieces together and then hung it with the tape on the back. 

I also found a gold star piñata at Party City and filled with gold coins, rolos, and Reece's mini peanut butter cups. Sadly, we never got to breaking the piñata, so I just had to eat all that candy myself!  :) It took me a while. 

Not pictured - a few balloon ghosts and a chain chomp ball that I painted. Found the ball and chain at Dollar Tree!  I made the fire flower shown here, but the page is no longer there.  Just found a silk Gerber daisy at Michael's and glued a white circle with the colored eyes on top.  Simple! 

 

Lastly: (And most importantly!) The Food and Drink:

This is where I had a lot of fun with Pinterest and being creative. I really wanted a punch to serve, along with some soft drinks. Other than that, it was BYOB. So I made a Princess Peach punch.  I looked up a lot of recipes, but I didn't like having to do too much to it, but I ended up with this: 2 liter Sierra Mist, 2 bottles Simply Orange with Mango, and a little can of peach nectar.  I mixed it to taste, not using all of the two bottles of orange juice.  It tasted good, but it was very sweet.

One of the things I found on Pinterest and really wanted to do was the Fire Flower veggie tray. The original veggie tray is here.  I don't like tomatoes or radishes, but I LOVE bell peppers.  Red, orange and yellow placed around the ranch.  Also, I like the dip ability of strips instead of chunks.   We had hummus on the side because bell peppers and hummus is delicious!

Also, these Piranha plant fruit skewers!  Quite fun and tasty!  I have the pin on my board, but there is no page reference.  I may have pinned it from a google search... They were easy to make, albeit messy and sticky.  But definitely a fan favorite.

I also made some easy Toad pops with marshmallows dipped in red melting chocolate. I saw more finished ideas on a few sites, but I went for simple and delicious. This is the site for those.  They are super cute but I ran out of time.  Definitely take a look at their toad pops for decoration style. 

We had quite a bit of candy and I tried to match it all to something within the world of Mario. So we had Caramels stacked to look like blocks, "Princess" peach rings, Milk duds acting as Goombas, Whoppers standing in for B-Bombs, and hard fish candies for Cheep Cheeps. 

While shopping for food for the party, we also came across some Super Mario gummy fruit snacks!  I couldn't help myself. 

Not shown: Goldfish (Cheep Cheeps, again), cheese blocks, and a tray of nuggets (because we needed some protein!).  

Bear (my husband) did a wonderful job on getting the cake from a local bakery. It was delicious. 

 

We had two Wii systems set up for games with Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Super Mario Bros. Wii.  We love board games, too, so we had a few fun group games to play.  All in all, it was a great 30th birthday with awesome friends! 

Apples to Apples!

Candyland Characters playing Mario Kart!

Thanks to everyone who came, my friends the Lester's for hosting, and all the Pinterest pages for inspiration. 

Be Crafty, 

Kris

My favorite Buffy quote from this episode:

Spike: "So, you ever think about *not* celebrating a birthday? Just to try it, I mean."

Two Princess Peaches!

 

Bear being silly

 

 

Katherine as Codex - best Cosplay ever!

 

"The Harvest" - TV Dinner Cupcakes

When I first started getting into making cupcakes, I was at the bookstore and saw the book, "Hello, Cupcake".  I immediately needed to have it and my husband was nice enough to buy it for me.  These are the first cupcakes I made from the book and they are probably still my favorites.  I just love them!

Buy this book!

Since I didn't do anything different from the book, I will just tell you to go get it!  You should have it in your kitchen, anyway! 

I have to tell you, these are SO EASY to make.  And super fun. 

Words of wisdom:  If you can, get chewable runts for the peas.  That was a suggestion given to me by the person that chose to eat the peas and carrots cupcake.  :)

Be Crafty,

Kris

Favorite quote from this Buffy Episode:
Giles: For as long as there have been vampires, there has been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One...
Buffy: He loves doing this part.
Giles: Alright. The Slayer hunts vampires, Buffy is a Slayer, don't tell anyone. Well, I think that's all the vampire information you need.

"No Place Like Home" - Wizard of Oz cake

Hey strangers! 
Sorry it's been so long since a new post.  Christmas and things since have been quite busy.  Also, my laptop seems to be on the fritz so it's difficult to write.  Okay, enough excuses.  On to the cake!

This was actually my first cake that I made with creative decorating.  It was a going away cake for my friend that was moving away from Kansas.

Ingredients:
9x13 cake pan
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can Frosting - dyed green
1 tube yellow icing
1 tube red icing
1 tube green icing
Yellow sugar
Dorothy figurine


Make cake as directed.  Frost cake with green tinted frosting all over.  Using yellow icing and a round tip, draw out the yellow brick road across the cake.  I even did the bricks.  I also used this to write on the cake.  Then fill in the road with the yellow sugar.  Using the green icing and a grass tip to make grass along the edge of the cake and the edge of the brick road.  Using the red icing and the star tip to make the red poppies.  Lastly, place the Dorothy figure on the road.


Trial and error:  Since this was my first attempt to tint frosting, I couldn't get it any greener than that.  I thought for the most part, everything turned out pretty well for my first time!

Be Crafty,

Kris

Favorite quote from this Buffy episode:
Buffy: What are you doing here?
Spike: Look... Buffy: Five words or less. Spike: [counts on his fingers] Out for a walk. [pauses] Spike: Bitch.

"The Killer in Me"

Willow: "She says she wants you to meditate extra hard for her and bring her back some s'mores."

Giles: "Ah, yes, s'mores. I'm going to end up singing campfire songs, aren't I?"

S'more's Cupcakes!!!

Who doesn't love s'mores?  Well, maybe my husband who is allergic to chocolate, but not many others.  These tasty treats are delicious, especially just out of the oven.

Ingredients:

24 cupcake liners

24 Yellow cake cupcakes

Graham crackers, broken in to pieces

Chocolate baking chunks

24 Large Marshmallows

24 Honey Teddy Grahams

24 Hershey's bar pieces

Marshmallow creme

I looked at a couple of different recipes before I decided what to do here.  First, I wanted a graham cracker base, but not like a crust.  I broke up the crackers into chunks and placed them into the cupcake liners.  Next I made a layer using the chocolate baking chunks, and lastly place the marshmallow on top.  I really wanted to make it similarly constructed like a S'more. 

In the batter, I put more chocolate chunks and poured it around the marshmallow.  Bake as directed.  *Trial and Error* I knew the marshmallow would rise a bit, but I didn't expect it to completely collapse and leave a giant hole in my cupcake.  Luckily, I had planned to make a marshmallow creme frosting and instead, I just filled the hole with marshmallow creme.  Now, no frosting necessary.  Finish off with a Hershey's chocolate square and teddy graham.  Serve warm for chewy goodness.  Or cooled.  Either way, it's AMAZING. 

Be crafty,

Kris



"Intervention"

Buffybot (going out to patrol): "Time to slay. Vampires of the world beware!"

My best friend, Katherine, and I

Austin Comic Con!!


My costume of choice was Buffybot.  I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even though she makes a brief appearance in the series, I love the Buffybot.  She really cracks me up.  Plus, this costume doesn't require any sewing.  Which, is good, considering I only recently acquired a sewing machine.

BuffyBot outfit w/first jacket

What I needed for a Buffybot:
Black "Leather" Jacket - preferably motorcycle style w/o too many pockets
Bright Pink Shirt - boatneck, very simple
Light Pink Skirt - knee length, accordion pleats
Black shoes - 90's style, low heel, heeled loafer
Pink heart pin - bejeweled
Bow bracelet - gold
Stake


I started my search in the summer when I zeroed in on a costume.  Finding a "leather" jacket in the summer in Texas is nearly impossible.  Thankfully, Burlington Coat Factory had a few.  I didn't want to drop a ton of $$ for the coat and the only one they had for less than $20 was a size too small.  Afraid that I wouldn't be able to find another that price, I bought it.  It zipped up, but the chest was SUPER tight and there was a strap across the neck that I wanted to remove.  When I put together the almost complete costume to show my husband, the jacket was SO HOT.  I didn't know how I would make it during the convention.  Luckily, I just happened to be perusing Burlington Coat Factory again in August and they had a much larger collection of "leather" jackets.  AND, I found one that was perfect!  It was even only $14, my size, no neck strap to remove, and a nice cool liner inside.  PERFECT.


The shirt turned out to be pretty easy to find.  I just googled 'pink boatneck shirt' and one popped up at Macy's (on sale) for less than $15.  It's a little more purple pink than I wanted but it still looks good.  It's also a little long, which is great for everyday wear, but I just folded it up a bit for a shorter look for the con.


The skirt.  Oh, the skirt.  Accordion skirts are not in style.  I only found ONE online, in the color I wanted, from a Korean company.  Sure, the skirt was only $15, but you had to pay $30 in shipping.  It was also ONESIZE, so no way to know for sure if it would fit me.  I'm a 14, by the way, so online shopping makes me nervous.  After a few more weeks of looking, I still couldn't find anything else, so I ordered it.  Three weeks later, I open the package and it's BLUE.  I argued with the company for a while, but they wouldn't exchange it or refund me.  Shoulda read that fine print a little closer.  One plus is that it did fit.  I'm just not sure when I'm going to wear it...  :(  So, then my mom and I started considering making the skirt ourselves.  She swears that skirts are EASY.  So we look at fabric, find a few possibilities, and then check out the patterns.  What did I say about accordion skirts?  Not. In. Style.  No patterns.  I couldn't even find any online.  And as 'easy' as a skirt is, my mom doesn't make her own pattern.  So I continued the search online.  AGAIN.  My mom sent me two links to skirts she happened to find, and one of them was perfect!  I don't know what we were googling differently (maybe I was being too specific "accordion pleated skirt"), but she found it!  She thought it might be too pricey, but it was $30.  After the difficulty in finding this skirt, I'll take it!


The shoes turned out to be easy.  I knew I could probably find them at DSW, though I was suddenly wishing I hadn't gotten rid of my chunky loafers from my days of high school.  My mom, however, just happened to have a pair that worked for me.  They had a silver buckle, but that's okay.  I'll take free.  *Note - Post con, the shoes were SO uncomfortable.  I got blisters.  Remind me to not borrow shoes unless they fit AND can last 8+ hours on a convention floor.


The heart pin I made myself.  If you notice during the part where Buffybot is "hunting" Spike in his crypt, there is a sparkly heart pin on the bottom left side of the shirt.  I found a heart shaped metal pendant at Michael's.  I covered one side with pink jewels and hot glued a pin backing to the other side.  DONE.


The bracelet also makes an appearance during the same scene as above.  It is a short glimpse of what looks like a bow bracelet on Buffybot's left arm as she tries to "stake" Spike.  The only one that looks even remotely similar is a Marc Jacob's bracelet.  No thank you.  I didn't think I could make it, so it did not make the costume.

The stake was easy peasy.  I had remembered seeing a seller on ebay for stakes so I looked it up.  They were only sellling one stake at the time (apparently from a different season than 5), but I went ahead and bought it.  Now, I haven't purchased off ebay since high school (10 years ago) so I couldn't remember anything about a login name or password and my email has changed since then.  So I created a new one.  The seller said they wouldn't sell to anyone with less than 10 positive review.  Instead of bidding and not getting it, I clicked 'buy it now' and payed a little more, but as least it was guaranteed.  This was the most expensive item at $50. 

The convention was so much fun!  Several people stopped me to say they loved my costume, even though the contest person had no idea who I was.  I even got a photo with James Marsters while wearing the outfit.  I was super nervous but the picture looks great!!

Be Crafty (and Nerdy),

Kris






"Real Me"

Harmony: Okay, hi. First of all, I wanna thank everybody for a really successful raid on the magic shop last night. [she applauds] Good job, minions! Yes, you deserve it. Secondly, somebody remembered to pick me up the sweetest little unicorn!

So yes, I did indeed paint a ceramic unicorn at my favorite DIY place just so a celebrity could sign it.  It was a lot of fun to make and Mercedes McNab was super nice.  She was a good sport about signing it, which is funny since she was asked during the panel if she collected anything like the vampire she played in Buffy, Harmony, did, to which she replied, "Shoes."  She went on to say that she actually smashed all the unicorns she could at the end.  :(  So I cautiously approached her and handed over my unicorn and asked politely to not break it.  She laughed.

 



This is just the beginning of my Austin Comic Con post(s).  Even though this was the only crafty thing I made for the event, the con includes aspects pretty important to the blog (the titles and all) and I LOVE Buffy and geeky stuff, so I just want to blog, at length, about it. 





Mercedes McNab (above) signing autographs.  Charisma Carpenter, M. McNab, and James Leary at the Buffy panel.

Be Crafty (and nerdy),

Kris