what to do on a snowy Saturday

....make zippered bags. That's what I did, anyway!

This bag was made out of a cute little t-shirt of mine that, while I still loved, I just hadn't worn in a year or two. It was time to give it a new life as a cute little lined bag!

You might recognize this fabric from my earlier apron.

This one, too, started life as a t-shirt.

All of these bad boys are on sale in my Etsy shop!

fashion documentation, 1/28/2010

Here I present to you the silly, fancy outfit I wore...to go to the dentist. Which I knew was a little bit of a risk in and of itself, as I've already been teased by said dentist for getting "all dressed up" just to have my teeth cleaned. I tried to explain that it was an every day thing, not just an oral hygiene appointment thing, but there were all sorts of terror-inducing metal instruments in my mouth, so I don't think that worked out very well.

It's awfully hard to see here, but this loop-scarf-hood-thing is printed all over with antique gun images.

Dirty, I know. But it was one of those awkward, warm winter days when the ground turns to a giant mud puddle.

I just love this dress. The cut and weird filmy top-thing were so unusual for me, and I'm not usually very good when it comes to leaving my fashion comfort zone.

The low-down!

dress—Urban Outfitters London. (BOOH-YAH!)

gun-print scarf—Spittalfields market

key necklace—key from my grandparents' house on some leather string

plain tights and belt—Primark*

ankle boots—some strange warehouse-like shoe store in a mall. Ummm...yeah.

*This place is so unbelievable. Example: this belt, which involves real leather and everything, was a mere £2, and a number of dresses and things that I guiltily purchased hovered around the £8 range. I don't know how they can do that, and I may not want to know...

GIGANTIC WINTER CUPCAKE!

This cupcake mold has been sitting tragically idle since I got it as a present for my birthday in May, but the recent snowstorm we had seemed like the perfect setting for the most wintery of gigantic cupcakes to be made. Hence, we had giant slices of chocolate pound cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting-sprinkled-with-crushed-mints for dessert, breakfast, and afternoon snack for about a week.

The top after baking, but prior to icing. Looks like a poo.

Note the elephant in the background.

The recipe called for chocolate chips, which we didn't have and were unable to run out and get, thanks to the weather. Instead, I chopped up mini Hershey bars that were left over from our annual gingerbread houses. I think this might be something I do with every chocolate recipe from now on.

snow days

A snow day has always been one of the most magical things—even when, like this year, it doesn't actually result in getting out of school/work/trips to Mars (I had just gotten home for winter break when the flurries started). A winter storm was really the best thing that could have happened, as it come on the heels of what was easily the most stressful few months I've ever endured. I even got to get some pleasure reading in, which is unbelievably and tragically rare.

Before venturing out into the cold, gingerbread pancakes seemed in order...

And, behold: SNOW!

The crows descended en masse for some reason, scaring away the little songbirds, but creating quite a scene, no?

I particularly enjoyed taking photos like these, since I went on a mega-photo spree this past spring. It's fascinating to see the difference the seasons make.

So deep!

Dog.

Heading home...

And I think there was one more thing...what was it? Oh, yes. Merry Christmas!

elephants in the snow

It's been snowing an awful lot here. So here's a sock elephant for you to look at.

prodded and pierced

What could it be that lures me out of my semi-self-imposed radio silence? The fulfillment of a years-long dream, of course!

Thanks in part to having really supportive friends and insane stress levels that compelled us to drive around in the year's first snowfall, I finally had my septum pierced!

...and it almost didn't happen! The first piercer we had in mind also works as a snowplow driver, meaning that on the snowy morning of our scheduled piercings, he called out, leaving us to frantically call body-modified friends for parlor recommendations. Several hours and a fender-bender later (not our fault!), we found our way to Inkers where a lovely lady named Lisa took care of us. Three out of four of us walked out of the parlor with new, shiny pieces of metal in our faces. Could there be a more exciting day? I think not. As an added bonus, one of my companions even got to take our piercers' Badtz-Maru home with her to make up for the, er...slight discomfort she endured during her procedure.

Yes, yes. Classy. We spent a good amount of time trying to remember the name for this particular location. I think the consensus was "frenulum."

Every time I pass a mirror I can't help but admire this new ring. I'm not even sick of the bull/steer references yet.

Halloween Retrospective—spooky soda

It's been so long since I've organized my photos that I'm almost too intimidated to go back and look at them, but I just can't get into Christmas unless I exorcize Halloween. Or something. I don't know, I think it's some sort of psychological hang-up. Or...something.

So take yourself back to about a month ago so you can properly enjoy my favorite Halloween find of 2009: Jones Halloween soda.

Target carried a few different varieties, but this pomegranate soda-in-a-vampire was both the most blatantly Halloween-y and the tastiest.