Pretty in Pink Wisdom: on kissing

Iona: Does he have strong lips?

Andy: How do you tell?

Iona: Did you feel it in your knees?

Andy: I felt it everywhere.

Iona: Strong lips.

Happy New Year, all! Hope you get your kiss! ;)

Pop!

I've been learning more about photos and photoshop lately.  Today was finally sunny, so I re-took pictures for most of my headbands.  Then I decided to mess with the colors...

Interestingly, I have a few color ideas as a result.  So there's a fun tip: change the colors on your photos to get an idea of what colors will work for your piece!

Treasury Fun, part three

I got a treasury today - this one is based on the most stylish of shows, Gossip Girl:

xoxo, M

Button, button

My mom's grandma was a tailor for many years, on top of being an award-winning quilter, excellent cook, and general industrious maker of many things. She taught my mom to sew and my mom taught me. When great-grandma passed away several years ago, Mom inherited all of her sewing supplies, including grandma's button collection:

I'm totally in love with every single button: I love the square coat buttons, the clear sparkly buttons, the minty pearl buttons, the black faceted buttons, the brown flower buttons, the thick blue buttons...

It's such a diverse collection that I hardly know where to start! I've got a few ideas, no worries, I just hope my designs do justice to the awesome lady who provided the materials.

Flashback: Disneyland 1997

Flashback is a feature in which I dig through my memory box and re-discover my make-and-do past.  The flux capacitator is fluxing and we're going back to 1997...

In seventh grade, a pop-top necklace was a badge of honor: one saved the tops off their soda cans, strung them on a string, and proudly displayed the amount of Mountain Dew one had consumed.  This trend extended to both sexes, although it was slightly more popular among the boys.  

I think it started when the school removed the Surge vending machine after installing it the day before (please remember, I've lived in Utah my whole life).  After losing the status-symbol Surge can, the cool kids needed a way to showcase their rebellious consumption of caffeinated beverages and the pop-top necklace found its way to Cedar Ridge Middle School.

As ever, I wanted to participate in the trend, but in my own way.  Uninterested in bragging about my soda-drinking ways, I wanted to put a creative, feminine spin on the popular pop-top necklace.  So I got out my sparkly nail polish and got a-painting.  I added a few white beads and I had the necklace I wore nearly every day in seventh grade:

If you're wondering why Mickey found his way into these pictures, seventh grade was the year I finally got to go to Disneyland.  Being twelve, I knew that it was important to look my best while I wandered the streets of Tomorrowland, so I made sure to bring my necklace with me.  

Saturday designs...

I had a Top Chef marathon to clear off the DVR, so it was a good day to make a few new things. I bought a "variety pack" of Scunci headbands awhile ago and fell in love with the stretchy lace band - it's really simple and girly. I decided to continue the simple/girly theme with an ivory rosette:

Like most people, I love black and white, so I continued the theme with a black rosette and ivory tulle. I want the flower to be larger, so I'll probably re-do this before I sell it. Plus, it's hard to get a good pic of all black:

That was my Saturday: black and white felt, served up with a side of Season 4 Top Chef!

Qwirkle!

Every Christmas, my family gets a new game. Last year, we got Carcassonne, which is a great game that causes loads of contention in our house (my sister, especially, gets very competitive when we play it). This year, I was hoping we'd get Ticket to Ride, a game we played with my aunts and uncles at Thanksgiving this year.

We didn't. Instead we got Qwirkle! Qwirkle! One more time, Qwirkle!

What a great name. It's really easy to learn - you match up colors and shapes and get points. It's easy enough for a young child to play, but it can be complicated enough for the Mensa Society. Plus, the colorful tiles are really fun! Here's some pictures of the game I won:

Maren: 154

Dad: 121

Amy: 98

Marley & Me

My family and I went to the matinee of Marley & Me on Christmas Day.  My dad and I have both read the book it's based on, so we thought we were prepared for the sadsadsad final scene.  

We weren't.  My entire family (Dad included) was sobbing when dear old Marley had to be put down.  We weren't alone, though: nearly ever person in the audience was crying, no exaggeration.  I've never heard that much sniffling in a theatre.  

The movie is exactly what the book was: a tribute to a beloved misbehaved dog.  If you're a dog person, make sure you bring tissues when you see it.

**This is my dear, dear childhood dog Toffee.  She had to go to the duck pond in the sky last summer and we all miss her very much.  She was the most special dog in all the world.

Stuff I Like: Christmas Movie Edition

1. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas: Nothing beats this movie - it's got humor and heart and Whos, as well as "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (if you ever need a creative insult, google the lyrics to this song). It never fails to warm my heart when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes and he gains the strength of ten grinches, plus two!

2. White Christmas: Bing Crosby + Rosemary Clooney + "Let's put on a show!" = GOLD

3. The Muppet Christmas Carol: I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I adore the muppets. Anything they've ever done, I love. There's just such a sweet, optimistic sense of humor about the muppets that completely melts my heart. Also, this version of Tiny Tim is the sweetest take on the character ever - the mini-Kermit Tim will totally break your heart.

4. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: I saw this on UEN's Sci-Fi Friday a couple years ago and it's my new favorite thing. It's exactly what you'd expect of a movie with such a title: Martian children are sad, so their Martian parents invade the North Pole and kidnap Santa, so he will cheer up the depressed kids. Eventually, Santa teaches the Martians the true meaning of Christmas, a goofy Martian volunteers to be the Martian Santa, and the real Santa Claus returns to Earth. There's an MST3K version of this movie that's hilarious, of course, but the movie is great with or without Tom Servo.

5. A Christmas Story: There's a reason TNT plays this movie for 24 hours straight.

Honorary Mentions: Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter - not necessarily Christmas movies, but they were released at Christmastime and are replayed in December.

**This is a post from my personal blog, I Like Stuff/Stuff I Like - check it out!

It's a major award!

I logged in to Etsy today, not expecting many more views or hearts since it's Christmas Eve, and discovered that my neon Wallflower headband had over double the views it had yesterday. Qua? Scanned through the treasuries . . . not featured. Checked the gift guide and nothing. Maybe people are feeling charitable towards my little newly shop?

I credited good Christmas luck and decided to check the new featured seller on the front page. As I scrolled down the page, a flash of neon caught my eye - a Storque article by Featured Buyer ayatk, with her favorite neon-colored Etsy picks AND my little Wallflower headband was right on the side!

ayatk, alias Aya T. Kanai, is the senior fashion editor at Teen Vogue so I am hugely humbled by her comments: "Also would love to use this for a shoot. Such a great piece!"

You could probably knock me over with a neon-colored feather right now! I'm pretty happy - it's a huge compliment to be featured, especially as a new shop. Thank you thank you thank you to ayatk!

You can view my now-hearted shop at ionascloset.etsy.com and see a few of my non-neon items, including the natural version of the Wallflower headband.