I have not reneged on my promise to show you how I made my birthday skirt. I made this today:

I shall be spending the next couple of days squeezing in drawing the pattern and writing the steps for the tutorial. Squeeze in, you wonder? Am I really that swamped?

Well… Sort of.

You see, my friends and I started a new blog. It has been keeping me busier than usual and this might continue to be the case until I get a better grasp at managing my time. The new blog is an online magazine of our beloved city, Cebu. The blog is HANGING RICE.

There are three of us who write for the blog. We’ve known each other for ten years. We met when we were hired for our first writing jobs. Cue “Holy guacamole! We’re old!” wails. Ley handles the travel posts. Line writes about food and restaurants. I do the posts on shopping and local handmade goodies. If you’re from this city or you plan to visit, please drop by Hanging Rice! We’re nice.

15 FABULOUS DIY SHOE MAKEOVERS

I mentioned a few weeks back on Pinterest that the next tutorial to be posted here on my blog will be on a beautiful tabbed skirt similar to those from Burberry Prorsum SS2012. Here is the skirt (in fab colors, yes?) from the collection:

And here is the one I made:

I am really proud of this skirt. I am aware that I should have used heavier fabric but I could not say no to this sea foam goodness. I also could not say to to the fact that this fabric cost me only a little less than $2. You will notice that I didn’t do pleats. In order to make my skirt not very uniform-like, I went with shirring. At this point, I should mention that I live in a Catholic country and almost every school (from elementary to college) require their students to wear uniforms. Most of these uniforms have pleated skirts.

And so I shirred. The back of the waistband is also elasticized. Because the thought of sewing a zipper is enough to shut my brain down.

Why is this a birthday skirt? Because I made it on the eve of my birthday and wore it to birthday dinner. And because I wasn’t planning on sewing the skirt that night, I wasn’t able to take photos for the tutorial. Let’s blame excitement.

No worries, though, I will push through with the tutorial. I am still trying to decide what bed sheet to murder so that I can make another skirt. This is no sacrifice, by the way; we have unused bed sheets because we bought a bigger bed.

For “gardening” instructions, please refer to my ROSETTE CHRISTMAS TREE TUTE.

NOTES:

1. The canvas I used is small. I feel that this poppy piece will create more impact if you choose a bigger base.

2. Instead of threading a bead to the center of your rosette, you can use pins pinned directly to your canvas. I think gold thumbtacks will look great with the white fabric.

3. Yes, I am aware that these poppies look like crazy eyes.

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LINKY LOVE: Homemaker on a Dime, Craftomaniac

• I’m on Instagram. Follow a catlady? @boredandcrafty

• Perhaps one of the worst things about living with me is my need to organize. It  is always on overdrive. I just don’t know where and when to stop. I want to say I blame Pinterest but that’s also where I found this fantastic photo display idea for a finicky girl like me.Wire hangers? Uh, yeah. Today they display my collection of pretty Japanese sewing magazines. When I get tired of these covers, I’ll clip photos. And when I get tired of those, I’ll clip drawings.

fantastic home decor ideas using maps

This is my current favorite from my DIY posts over at All Women Stalk. I simply had to share it.

and hail Sagan:

The boyfriend loved the “Get Shit Done” poster I painted so he decided to make his own. Well, the original plan was to paint the same words but he ended up with a well-deserved shout-out to Carl Sagan. I think it turned out beautiful; it looks fantastic in person.

While he finds painting letters exhausting and monotonous, the piece is serving as his inspiration and starting point for an upcoming exhibit. Life is funny that way.

It’s summertime. I will be 29 in seventeen days. I am in that age where I need to count the days of the calendar to know how many days I have left before turning a year older. Simple arithmetic exercises are no longer  a part of my life. Simple arithmetic exercises that, I reckon, are constants to the lives of the kids outside.

The kids outside are in that age where yelling is the best way to get your point across. They have just discovered that, contrary to what their parents said, a deity will not smite you if you curse. They are sure, however, that they’d get a mighty smack to the head if they curse in their parents’ presence. So they pepper their playtime war cries with curses. To the kids outside, time stands still as well. It’s summertime; the first day of school is far from their minds. It’summertime — the world stays the same and is very far away when they’re playing. Unfortunately, not far enough from their almost-29 neighbor.

I don’t like noisy kids and the heat. I am 28 but it is highly likely that I am turning 82 in seventeen days. We’ll see.

i make photo sets when it's too hot to work

You will need: paper doilies, round mirror, string, hot glue

Ta-da!

Notes:

1. I glued a doily donut on top of my mirror because it had an ugly plastic frame. You can choose to skip this step.

2. The mirror I used had a hook and I used it to hang the finished item. If yours doesn’t have a hook, you can glue a piece of round wood or even heavy board under your sunburst creation. Hang hook from this wooden base.

3. You can add as many layers of doily rays as you want. The length of one ray should be longer than the diameter of your mirror. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a flower mirror.

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LINKY LOVE: Fireflies and Jellybeans, Homemaker on a Dime, Craftomaniac, Skip to My Lou, Today’s Creative Blog,  Someday Crafts, Creation Corner

WARNING: COLORFUL LANGUAGE.

Aaand here are photos of the process:

Egg: Careful now.

I painted. The boyfriend sanded.

distressed details

Aaand here is where it hangs in my studio:

It’s officially summer here in the Philippines. I don’t like it. If you could send over some cold days, I’d appreciate it. I’ll trade some of our warmer days, no problem. I’ll even add some tropical vacation sounds to the mix.