Betsey, oh Betsey. Then Ross, because I felt poor.

So.  I went to Seattle for a very stressful meeting.  How to cure angst?  Shopping.

Aaand, here we have the Betsey Johnson Twinkerbell dress.  Regular $470.00, and as you know, from reading this blog, I paid nowhere near that.

Then, I needed a sweater for this dinner event so I wasn't hanging all out in the strapless.

Add the cute Honey Comb Cardigan, so the bow on the Tinkerbell dress will hang out.  All set.  I have fond memories of Betsey Johnson, in that my grandma and I went in there once, and she loved the clothes, and she really wanted to buy me some, but they were too expensive.  After that, I used to buy Betsey Johnson dresses in college from the 5th Ave store in Seattle.  So to go back, and remember all that (although I was a size S then) was really meaningful.

Then, because I was indecisive, I needed the Sequin Tank for clubbing.  Also regular $238... but cmon now.

It actually looked better on me, because I'm short, and would wear with no tights and black shoes. Anyway. Finally, I digress. This is a shoe blog.  So, I got home, and feeling very poverty stricken, bf and I stopped by Ross (actually, he was trying to go to Rite Aid, but I saw Ross was still open) so he could buy a Dopp kit.  While he was searching for his deal, I perused the shoe aisle and found some $20 Nine West gems.  Yes.  (ok, one was $16.99).  One for going out, one for work.  How practical.

It's a hard life.  Volunteering for a non-profit = decreased work productivity, but increased wardrobe activity.  Yesss.

It's a new year, I got a new change of gear - Wyclef

Sorry I've been gone.  I guess I've been in town, but holiday partying more than shopping... so...
1st trip of the year to Seattle.  Happened to pop in to AllSaints Spitalfields.  But first, this is a shoe blog.  So... dude picked out some hot shoes for me.  Elizabeth and James at Nordy's Rack, reg $350, $105 for me.  I realize this is more than I like to pay for shoes, but with my "dry spell" from shopping over the holidays, it seemed reasonable at the time.  So, Merry Christmas to me.

This pic just doesn't do it justice.  It's the "Lyla".  Hot shoes.  So here's a pic in color so you can see how cute they are.

Then, the AllSaints episode.  Yeah.  Fell in love with a goth-ish parka.  Didn't realize it would come in handy...  Again, can't see the detail, but cool zipper details and such.  The "Siv Parka"Reg $450, got for $140.  Not really a steal either, but come on, since I'd been out of the shopping loop so long, I figured I deserved it.

Ok.  So then, I needed a shirt, and Phinius Top.  (on sale of course, reg $135, got for $55?)

 So, after all that, I had an awesome date at the Pink Door, (black spaghetti special, used to be on the menu but happened to be a special, then dessert at Sip.  Indulgence.  Orange Habanero Chocolate ice cream.  Best I've ever had.

Was a beautiful day.

Which, was a good thing, since the next day looked like this:

Finished off the trip by crossing the street back to Vintage Park (across this street, in fact), to Tulio to get my favorite gnocchi in the entire world.  Awesome weekend.

Holiday cookies.

Well, leave it to me to overdo things.  See last year's Darth Vader, Yoda, and Stormtrooper cookies.  This time, more detailed R2D2 cookies for booooys.  Yeah.  I am OCD.  Not gonna lie.  They were a hit!

Used Williams Sonoma cookie cutters, White Decorating Pen.  Silver, Blue and Black were just powdered sugar frosting with Williams Sonoma food coloring dyes, and painted on with a small paintbrush.  Silver frosting was really gray (white with dab of black) and shimmer dust bought at a specialty cooking store.  Like pearl-ex, but for food.  Can get at Jo-Ann's too.  Paint on dry after frosting dry.  And... don't forget the red dot.  R2 would be mad if you forgot.

And yes, I bought the apron too.

Candy crafting.

So, as you can imagine, my treats are also OCD. (See prior post on Star Wars cookies last year).  So true.  Anyone know how to hand-dip pretzels without getting a flat side?  

Here's the finished product.  Not without time and trouble, though!  First, I used those plastic Wilton Candy Melts.  Painted on dots with a very fine paintbrush, chilled, then spooned candy into the melts for the base color.

Finally, how to hand-dip pretzels without getting a flat side?  Shot glasses.  See, I knew those had more uses than vodka.

Genius.  Now on to the next project.

Home on a Saturday for once?

Getting ahead on my thank you cards.  You know, for all my gifts?  Silver cards from Impress in Seattle.  Purple/silver background made with Ranger Alcohol Inks put on with applicator on glossy.
Snowman made with Cricut Winter Wonderland.  Snow is just some flakes I picked up somewhere, just some glittery swag.  Awesome.

Perfected card.

Let's pretend I sent you a Christmas Card... it would look like this. Too bad if I didn't. So, tried a few things. Used watercolor paper as background.
BACKGROUNDS:
1) Tried Ranger Adirondack sprays, diluted. Used some Tsukineko Potion #9 as well to spread around color. I think the Ranger inks are discontinued, but they are water based. So, you could make your own spray with water based refills. Then spritzed Tsukineko shimmer spray as well on paper.
2) Tried to paint blueish background with Twinkling H2O's. Made paper warpy. Hard to glue down.
3) Tried some darker backgrounds than this as well. Looked pretty cool, but then bird and leaves didn't stand out.
GLUE:
Gluing on watercolor paper is tougher than it looks.
1) Tombow glue in dispenser. Didn't stick well after a week it came up.
2) Glue stick. Worked ok, but comes out hard.
3) I have not perfected this. On the edges that came up, needed to use Stampin up glue pen to glue edges back down.
BIRD:
1) Twinkling H2O's. Had to get pretty thick on brush. Had some screwups with too much water on brush, bleeding. Make sure paper is really dry.
LEAVES AND HOLLY BERRIES:
1) Twinkling H2O's. Thick. Looked really nice.
2) Then I got smart/lazy. Used Copic Atyou Spica glitter pens. Looked pretty much the same, but didn't bleed.
STAMP:
Got at Impress in U Village Seattle. Also totally plagarized card from there, but it was easy and fun.
That's all for now. I need to wrap gifts, and get inspiration for thank you cards.

Christmas Cards

Totally copied a card I saw at Impress in Seattle, but hey. It was hard work. Water colored Memory Box stampwith Twinking H2o's, sprayed background with diluted Ranger Adirondack spray ink, spritzed with Tsukineko shimmer spray.

Trial and error.