bellevett

Welcome Home 2010!

 
 

We have BIG plans for you!

wardrobe refashion and other resolutions

i took a pledge.

this pledge.

i am now signed up to not buy a single item of "new" manufactured items of clothing for the time period of 6 months. that is right folks. 6 whole months.

and while i was taking this pledge, (shown at the bottom of this post), Cody mentioned to me that he thought this would be easy for me.

in his exact words, he said, "you make a lot of your clothes already and the main place that you spend money is at the thrift store. wait a second...is this real or are you just making this up for yourself so that you can win?  you never buy new clothes."

the thing is......... sometimes i might go to target for say....... toilet paper, or lets say contact solution..... and i might, just might, pick up a few items from the clothing department.  and lets just say that its possible that the receipt just gets marked as a household expenditure.  i mean, lets just say that might happen.  

so, i am just saying, this will be a slight challenge.

so, starting the first week of 2010, i will begin posting, as per my pledge, to the wardrobe refashion blog. and you will be able to see my lovely refashioned outfits.  hmmmmm.  this should be very interesting.

what better time than the present to get this party started........

my first refashion outfit

self drafted top and a-line skirt. 

courderoy fabric for skirt: estate sale. .50 cents for 12 yards.

polkadot silk fabric for shirt: estate sale. .50 cents for 3 yards.

magically it fits!

so, whew.  first post. over.  

oh yeah, and here is the pledge.

I __________________ pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 / 4 / 6 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed__________________.

 

A List for the Listful......

A List of things to do when you dont want to do the things on your real list:

take a bath: tell yourself that you are going to get in the bath and ponder over the many mysteries of life and then you are going to tackle your list. or better yet, bring your list into the bathroom and add to it during your bath.

eat something. you know that you didnt really get a chance to eat that much lunch today and you really need to keep your energy up to tackle that list. ohhh, and you can find new combinations of food too- like cherries and mini lemon cupcake or strawberry cupcake with cherries (obviously not from mag pies no way that would be crazy!)

pet your dogs or any animal that you have in your house. your dogs can always deserve a little more attention. give them some kisses. snuggle down for a quick minute. you have to let your food digest anyways.

quickly glance at a magazine: i mean you did just get the new bon appetit in the mail today and well, you do have to think about dinner for later.

have a thinking session: there is no way to really get down to the nitty gritty and be productive like coming up with newer, faster, more effective ways to do tasks such as laundry, clutter clearing, and weeding the garden. sit down for a bit and think reeeaaallly hard about how you can more effectively tackle that gigantic mountain of laundry that is consuming your life while you wear clothes from high school that were stuck in the back dark dusty corner of the closet, but smell and look relatively presentable and clean.

plan a new diet: nothing says productivity like planning a new diet while sitting on your couch.

call someone: calling your husband will make you feel productive. especially when you feel like you are talking about something that sounds like you are checking something off the list. goes something like this: "hey.... what are you doing? " cody: "just working, what about you?" a: "oh you know, getting ready to tackle my list of stuff to do. i was just going to tell you that we really need to buy our plane tickets to oregon"

observe every room: this is a true favorite of mine. i like to go into every room and look around. just, you know, to make sure things are in place. then begin thinking of ways to remodel the room.

online research obviously to find remodeling ideas. but before you do that, you can check your mail, all blogs, news- celebrity and otherwise (these days you never know, especially with a week like last week- first jon and kate, dont even get me started on that disaster, then ed, then farrah, then michael, then the cleaning guy. and now, my sweet brittney murphy)

google i did just feel like i might have swine flu.... hmmm. look up symptoms. okay, maybe brain tumor... hmmmm. okay, oh yes, i do have some poison ivy, could be shingles..... hmmmm.

look at old pictures i mean since you are on your computer. go to your picture file and just click on random numbers. this is the first one that i found. ahhhhhhh. now i sit and wish i was in vegas again.... gettin married again. to the codester, my lloyd. the one and only lloydey.

 

the only man that can dance like this:

 

and like this:

  

the old picture thing can really keep you going for a while!

ps. this is a post revisited from my old blog it is especially accurate for today...  yeah. i am into recycling.  even if it is blog content. 

chocolate covered candied tangelos

oh. my. 

so. delicious.

adapted from this garden mama.

   

pure sweet goodness.

when i read this recipe on garden mama,  i remembered those chocolate oranges that i used to get in my stocking that are wrapped in foil and you have to crack them open. oh. my. 

these are worth every second you spend making them.

i adapted this recipe. i had to make some adjustments to the recipe that i found here.

candied chocolate covered tangelos

8 tangelos

3 oz. dark chocolate

3 oz. semi sweet chocolate

water

1 1/2 c. sugar or 1 cup agave nectar

------------

cut peel from tangelo keeping just a bit of the flesh still intact

cut into strips

put into a saucepan adding enough water to cover peels. bring to a boil.

drain boiling water off and add more water, enough to cover peels. bring to a boil.

do this 2 more times.

add 1 1/2 c. sugar and 1 1/2 c. water.

boil until all sugar is caramelized and the water has evaporated. 

turn down temp. and keep stirring until you are absolutely positive that all the water is gone.(here was my problem the first time.)

lay out onto cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and let the oranges dry. (i let mine dry overnight)

if they dont appear to be dry enough (they will still be kind of moist) put into 175 degree oven and let bake for about 30 minutes or so. 

let them cool completely.

melt chocolate in double boiler. 

dip each piece in the chocolate and let harden. 

keep in a mason jar in a very cool space. 

dont even think that these are even the tiniest bit bitter. they are so. sweet. so. delicious.

cabled scarf (and free pattern)

what do you knit for your dad? 

 

i was at a dead standstill with the projects for the men in my life.  and since i had pledged to do 75% handmade this year, i was in a real pickle.

"so she thought and she thought, all owls think a lot" 

(if you didnt get that reference, you have obviously not read this book  .2 thousand times,its a fav. at the school)

and i came up with this scarf pattern:

The Big Braid scarf

ravel it here!

size 11 needles

co 32 stitches.

i used a chunky yarn.

abbreviations:

k=knit

c6f=slip 6 stitches onto cable needle and hold in front of work

c6b= slip 6 stitches onto cable needle and hold in back of work

k6fcn=knit the 6 stitches from the cable needle

row 1: knit

row 2: purl

row 3: k1, (*c6f, k6, k6fcn) repeat from * 2 times, knit to the end.

row 4: purl

row 5: knit

row 6: purl

row 7: knit

row 8: purl

row 9: k1, k6, (*c6b, k6, k6fcn) repeat from * 2 times, k1

row 10: purl

row 11: knit

row 12: purl

repeat these 12 rows until it is your desired length! 

at this point you can do a garter stitch border (knit every row for the next 6 rows) and then pick up at the other end and do the garter stitch border.  you cant begin with the garter stitch border because the cable pattern is so tight that it prevents it from laying flat.

if you make this scarf, ravel it! 

 

enjoy!

oh the holidays

 i am obsessed with creating  the perfect holiday season.

every year when thanksgiving comes around i start listening to the oldest version of "its the most wonderful time of the year" on repeat.

i love the idea of taking time to make each gift and each decoration.  

i love the idea of the little women christmas.  where they are so happy to have the clementines and the butter. (my personal holiday favorites)

i love making chocolate covered candied orange peels and new traditions.....

and now i can post all of this awesomeness since all of the presents have been given and nothing is locked up in the top secret vault.

if you followed me from here, you will remember these ornaments from last year.......

 

 

   
and since you asked, i was never stressed, i never sat and watched a marathon of national lampoons christmas vacation, i never ate a bunch of random baked goods (as a matter of fact, i lost weight this holiday season), i also never watched the family stone 6 more times like i did last year and of course i didnt cry each of the 6 times or cringe at sarah jessica parker when she consistently looks like a fool.

oh, and of course we didn't try to finish our entire kitchen remodel over the holidays. ha. that would be oh. so. stressful.  

nope not me.  

so if you see me out running, it isn't because i need to lose the 4 pounds of cookies i consumed, it is because i just. like. running.

 (stay tuned for more happy holiday craft clips.)