DIY Lazy Susan with Woodburned Fish Design for Father's Day

For Father's Day, I made my daddy a custom "lazy suzan" turntable thingy!

I picked up a really old and faded Ikea-brand lazy susan at the thrift store, drew a fishy design on it (my daddy is quite the fisherman) and set to it with my trusty woodburning tool.

*segue* Have I told you about my trusty woodburning tool? It looks like this and not only does it let me burn designs into wood, but I can solder things and melt plastic and.... MWUAHAHAHAA. I love it and have to sit on my hands to avoid the urge to burn holes in things with it.

Anyway, after carving my fishy design into it:



*Cute dead fishies!*

Pllaannttttss!!!!! And Mini Tutorial.

Wheehoowwheehooowheeehooooo.

(That there was the sound of me hyperventilating)

Macaron Madness

Light Me Up, Up, and Away.

Yesterday I posted about Lucia Holm's photography and made the remark that I wanted an illuminated umbrella like the one in this picture.

Try as I might to restrain the yearning, I am intrigued by the idea.
But Sam, I tell myself, not only does San Diego get less than 12 inches of rain a year, but we are in a DROUGHT! You couldn't even justify getting yourself some wellies during the week that it DID rain!
Well self, just shuddup.

Sockmaster from Instructables has a great tutorial for an LED umbrella.

Teddy Girl Takeover

When you have as short an attention span as I do, and as great an affinity for random knowledge, you spend a lot of time on Wikipedia. You know, you go looking for one thing, then you see an interesting link to another article, and again... and before you know it you've gone from space shuttles to prickly pear cactus. Btw... if you've never played the Wikipedia game, now is the time to start.

Anyway, I was on a tangent and somehow ended up reading a list of subcultures. One of which I was not familiar was the Teddy Girls.

These girls were the bad-a**es of 1950's london. Mostly from working-class families, they put a feisty androgynous spin on Edwardian fashion.

Obsessed.

I resisted the Lady Gaga phenomenon so well.
I really did.
I considered her just a kooky pop singer with a few interesting costuming tricks up her sleeve. I contently went about my way, minding my own business, while friends and family rabidly chanted her lyrics while fashioning their hair into intricate bow shapes.
I was Gaga indifferent, I suppose you might say. I was neither a lover nor a hater, a rarity in the world of Gaga, because her lovers REALLY love her, and her haters REALLY hate her.

That was then.

I had the incredible misfortune to be shown the video for "Telephone" at work last week, and it has changed my life.

Okay, maybe I can be a bit overdramatic at times.
But if you haven't already, go take a look at the plethora of great (and often crazy) outfits, awesome makeup, all with a delicious neo-retro feel. (Warning: Video contains lots of semi-nudity, chick-fights, sandwich-making, breakfast poisonings and unbleeped words, if that is not your kind of thing. It is also dang catchy, and I am not responsible for any earworms you may catch.)

There is just so much great material to talk about, I can't do it all.
Here's one of my favorite Lady Gaga looks:



But aside from her (approximately) 10 different outfits I could describe, the one that really changed my life... *dramatic swoon*
was on Beyonce:

SWEET FREEDOM!

I had my last final today...

SPRING BREAK!

woohoo!

Thiiis time around I am going to make the best of it.
LOTTSA crafting.
aaand..
I'm going to LA for the first time ever!
Can you believe that I live in San Diego and have never been to L.A.?
I really, really don't get out much.
I'm going on Monday with one of my oldest and most fabulous friend.
Our destination is the garment district and all the goodies it will behold.
I am going to try to load up on some fabric so I can get my sewin' on!

BY THE WAY...

I had entered a contest on Instructables.com a while back with my ruffle scarf tutorial (which is the first post I ever did on this blog). Grand prize is this great serger/embroidering/everything machine and 1st prize is a dress form.

Well... I am a finalist! Go read my instructable here.



The contest is in the judging stage now, and the results will be in Monday.
Now, take a moment to imagine me standing in the middle of the L.A. garment district, and finding out that I won a serger or dress form.
What fate!
What providence!
What a great excuse to spend monies on fabric!

Regardless, I am happy just to be a finalist, and either way I am really starting to up my sewing anty.  If I don't have the good luck of winning a serger, I am going to start trying to save up money to get one myself.
I just have this huge itch to sew knit fabrics.
My own hoodies and rib-knit tank tops (my favvvvorite) and and and....
**droooool**

Anyway, I feel like I am going to be on a posting roll for at least the next week. I'm going to hammer out pictures of all those projects I've done but haven't mentioned (you mean you didn't know?) and all those tutorials I have backed up, as well as some great pictures from L.A. on Monday coming up!
Yay!