end of February in photos

 

Helloooo. Is February over yet? I wish. Instead we're getting handed another blizzard tonight, yay.

I'm definitely sick of ugly winter, so I bought myself a bouquet of cheap pink garden roses from Trader Joe's. Best idea ever! $4.99 of joy and pretty. I should probably do this on a regular basis.

 

 

 

I'm also really proud of myself for starting a book club! We had our first meeting last Friday. Our first book was Jenny Lawson's Let's Pretend This Never Happened, which as a quirky and expletive filled comedic memoir doesn't really purport itself for deep challenging discussion, so we just ate pizza, drank wine, and read the craziest chapters out loud to each other.

The next day I baked the leftover pizza dough into rolls and made prosciutto mozzarella paninis mmmm.

We never order pizza because it's cheaper and almost just as easy to make it yourself. The trick to yeast bread is letting it rise in a warm oven (turn it on for a few minutes, turn it OFF, put covered dough in for an hour).

 

And since I'm not working this week my mom asked me to come visit for a couple days, using the excuse that I should teach my little sister how to play the trumpet so she can be in jazz band (apparently they don't allow clarinets into upper jazz bands, which seems kind of discriminatory). I played the trumpet for 12 years, and I do sound like a professional compared to Nicole (although she is definitely doing a great job so far and has learned five notes in one day, not too shabby for having woodwind chops). Our cat will be forever traumatized.

 

 

Oh, and since I'm sure you've always wondered what the landscape between Chicago and central Illinois looks like in winter, here it is. MIND NUMBING. Or starkly beautiful? Nope, mind numbing.

 

 

And there in the distance is my home town, population 6,000. My family lives on the outskirts now, behind a few fields of corn/pumpkins/soybeans. You can vaguely make out both of our watertowers in this shot, which incapsulates the entire city. And yeah, it's technically called a city.

 

And finally, here's the line-up of what I've made recently!

 

pretty watercolor thank you cards

fun chunky spring infinity scarves

happy and bright birthday cards 

 

More colors of these cute boho lace knit headbands

And I figured I'd capitalize on having a mini-me around and whipped up a kid and tween size chunky cowl.

 

See the struggling grass in that last picture? Apparently it's about to be buried in up to 8 inches of snow. Le sigh.

paper snowflakes

Ben and I are still debating whether or not to go through the effort of getting a tree, but I figured I should at least put up a little seasonal decor. Despite the ridiculously high temperatures here in Chicago (70* today, what??) I decided to re-connect with my childhood and cut out some paper snowflakes. They turned out really cute!

I followed these instructions to make 6-point stars, and used plain computer printer paper. Tracing paper would work great because it's thinner and so it would be easier to cut more delicate designs.

 (fold a square of paper diagonally twice)

 (the tricky part...fold the small triangle in thirds)

(snip the top points off) 

The trick to avoid ending up with 3rd grade-style snowflakes is to make sure you cut at least half the paper out, leaving the pattern as thin as possible. Here's what I ended up with--the folded snowflake is pictured above the unfolded version.

I'm sure you could Google some really cool designs too. 

I taped the snowflakes to some dental floss (fishing line would be even better) and hung them in our window where I already had twinkle lights that we used for our wedding.

Cozy finished product!

melted crayon art

I’m sure most of you have noticed the melted crayon art fad sweeping Pinterest, and for my bridal shower my best friend Ashley actually gave me the supplies to make because she knows I like fun crafts. Dare I say best bridal shower gift ever??

My goal was to create something that actually looks artsy, not grade-school, and luckily I found this post by Jenna Brown that shows it’s possible!

Here’s my “studio.” Just lay out a lot of newspaper on the floor and blast those crayons onto a canvas with a blow dryer set to “hot.” I found that if you move the crayon back and forth (like you’re coloring) while blasting it at close range on “low” it will release the most wax. When I had a blob of wax, I set the crayon aside and blasted the blob on “high” to spread it around and let it seep into the other colors.

No fancy supplies needed—a box of 64 crayons is about $2.84 at Target right now. Thanks, back to school sales! I had a fork handy to spear the crayon per Jenna’s advice in case my hand started burning but it really wasn’t necessary. A little bit of wax goes a long way and I didn’t wear any crayons down far enough to burn my fingers. Some colors definitely melt better than others, and silver was my favorite!

I highly recommend this project. It’s fun, super easy, and VERY relaxing to watch crayons melt into rainbow swirls. And the result makes a fun Rorschach-style conversation piece. Personally I see a snail-dragon on the bottom of mine. 

 

Or if I rotate it this way maybe a hot air balloon?

 

I think I’m going to hang it above the kitchen sink.

Seriously, have a glass of wine tonight and try this, and send me the link or picture if you do!
And check out my etsy shop to see more of my art :)

gettin crafty

For the past several years, I've put myself on a ridiculous craft moratorium with the lame excuse of "I'm too busy with school to have extra hobbies" (besides the ones essential to life: cooking, baking, running).

Well, I have decided that is a bullshit idea and have set my creative instincts free, because (unfortunately) life is not going to be less crazy once I'm done with school. 

So-- I am obsessed with scarves, and decided to start making my own since I am, after all, still a poor grad student and would rather not shell out $15 a pop to expand my accessory collection.  

It turns out that one yard of fabric from the fabric store is WAY more than an actual square yard, and provides you with plenty of material to chop and hem into a scarf.

It also turns out that JoAnn Fabrics has fabulous sales on material ALL THE TIME and basically rocks. This magical place also sucks away my money into spur of the inspirational moment impulse buys- yikes!

I picked out a few silky prints that were around $5/yard.

This one is my favorite. I kind of want to go back and buy the whole bolt, and make a dress out of it. Or...futon cover??

Let's not get overambitious too soon, Anna.

I dragged my fun little sewing machine out of its hiding place where it has been hanging out ever since I moved into this apartment and started playing.  

The first attempt:

 

I accidentally cut it a little too small (oops!) but I was so impressed with what I could do with the different kinds of stitches on my sewing machine that I don't really care. 

[Please note that I feel SUPER AWKWARD and dorky taking pictures of myself to post on my blog. I don't know how everybody does it!!!]

 Attempt numero dos. For this one I didn't even try to cut the fabric, I just hemmed two of the long edges and left the finished edges as is.

Yes, you have to wear cupcake boxers to complete the look.

Aaaand I am really pushing myself to finish the last scarf, since I have a horrible habit of letting little projects drag on. and on. (What's this under my bed, an unfinished cross stitch from 2000?? A box of scrapbook guts from my trip to Germany sophomore year of high school?)

Well, my inner Project Runway self is officially unleashed. I am kind of scared to see where it goes from here (!) but also feel like I have returned a part of me to myself-- I definitely need to have creative outlet to feel complete. 

p.s. completely unrelated but...since when is Hilary Duff married ?!?!?!???!!