Year of pink.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

June. 

July. 





August.




October.


I never thought I'd be brave enough to take the plunge of bleaching my suuuper dark hair and dyeing it pink. I'm so happy I did. It was the big saving grace of an otherwise somewhat difficult year!

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Ripple Throw Progress Report: 2014 ripple dunzo!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014


Big ol' swathes of creamsicle, goldfish, rose pink, peach, lullaby pink, goldfish again, and creamsicle again! I'm honestly not too jazzed about this one, although it does go nicely with my bedsheets. I'm not sure why it doesn't turn my crank much. But I wanted it to look really different from my first, which I think was a goal definitely accomplished!

I definitely think I'll make another in 2015!
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just a little hat post

Sunday, December 28, 2014


Post-Christmas downtime, am I right?

This weekend -- besides watching about seven hours of Adventure Time and likely as many hours of British true crime shows -- I made this hat by request! I haven't done a really simple hat in a long time and I enjoyed it. Note to self: get more pastel pink embroidery floss!

Oh, also this weekend, it snowed for the first time this winter! It's lovely to be indoors under blankets, surrounded by Christmas loot, during weather like this.


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Merry Christmas Eve! (Also, a video!)

Wednesday, December 24, 2014


First, here's a shot of Lamb under our tree!

Okay, so you guys would simply not believe the amount of Christmas cookies made in our house the past couple of weeks. I didn't get pictures of them all, but this is only about a third. I helped pipe on these as well as the chocolate horses/teddy bears below, but mostly, these were made by my sisters for parties and friends and such.




(Oh, my little sister made these candy sleighs for her boyfriend's family's kids!)






And one last shot of Fidelia with Jack Skellington. I'm listening to The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack right now!



Finally, a video... a vlog, I guess. This was a request. Took forever and ever, as usual. I keep thinking I've got this whole process mastered, but nope. :)
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Over the river and through the woods...

Tuesday, December 16, 2014


Today we decorated at my grandma's. I'm so thankful to have so much family in town. Here are those Noel letters with their elves I referred to back in my post about making our own Noel letters.




So cute! Here are some little bits from my grandma's tree, as well. I was getting some practice in with my 50mm lens (which I still suck at using).




This little red bird ornament was made by my younger sister and given to my grandma, who loves to bird-watch.


Here's my other younger sister, clutching a mug of hot apple cider. Dat bokeh though.


I always decorate the staircase with these cute stuffed things my grandma made at least thirty years ago. They have ribbons on them and we just tie them on, and they form a line marching up the stairs. They're so kitschy, and that's why I love 'em! I also haven't seen any similar decor anywhere else in my entire life! Garlands go on all the railings.


These may be boring to others, but to me, they are the height of nostalgia and instantly bring me back to lots of Christmas afternoons where I'd be camped out on the landing just behind these guys, all my loot all around me, happy as a clam...
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Santa baby, slip Oofuri under the tree for me.

Monday, December 15, 2014


Whenever I make a Christmas list (at my mom and sisters' behest) I always think of that "My Grown-Up Christmas List" song. My list -- this year, taking the form of an Amazon wish list -- always makes me look like an 11-year-old. As I grow older, the harder I find it to figure out what to ask for around my birthday and Christmas, especially since I don't really enjoy receiving clothes or jewelry as gifts unless I've already picked them out myself.

On it this year: 1) Ookiku Furikabutte!, 2) Tamagotchi P's in pink, 3) various Tamagotchi P deco pierces, 4) Madeline Hatter Ever After High doll (shush, y'all, she's so cute), 5) this super cute Danelectro Honeytone N-10 Guitar Mini Amp in Aqua, 6) Leopard Sass! Like I need another Blythe.

(Nah, I would never ask anyone for a Blythe, but it's certainly something I might buy myself, if given Christmas money... also, I sincerely doubt anyone would get me an EAH doll, either!)
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Christmas trees / room tour...

Thursday, December 11, 2014


Remember my pink mini tree? It's back! I acquired another mini tree this year, this one even more mini! It's white and it was, like, $5, so. It's joined my pink tree on my sewing table.


Hey, some people on YouTube requested a room tour, so... I filmed that this week. I remember a commenter here asking me if I'd do a room tour once, too. Here it is, if you're interested.


As always, mixed feelings about this kind of thing... I don't feel happy with it (skipped over some stuff, didn't have enough lighting, hate the sound of my own voice, et cetera), but I guess I just did the best I could with what equipment I've got and I'm glad I edited the footage down from an hour to 34 minutes.


Anyway, something that wasn't in my video is that my pink tree has a string of LED lights with snowflakes on them, and they give off a blue-toned white glow. I prefer warm-toned lights so it kind of clashes with my room, but it makes this picture of my Simply Bubble Boom, named Fidelia, and my Jack Skellington Funko Pop figurine look like a scene from the iconic "What's This?" scene! 

What's this? What's this? These trees are awfully small! What's this? There's green on every wall! What's this? The teeth are smiling, what's with that, how creepy! Endless felt and rows of dolls! What's this??
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The first N-O-E-L.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014


My grandma has these really cute retro ceramic letters with elves on them that spell NOEL... I love seeing them every year! We've never had any at our house, though. On one of our eight thousand recent trips to the craft store (seriously) I saw one of those rows of variously-sized letters made of wood and cardboard and other mysterious materials and decided to get us some "Noel" letters!

I painted them gold, mixing two different gold acrylic paints, one called "Bright Gold" and one called "Champagne Pearl." I also got glitter paint in Champagne! So after giving them like, seven coats at least, I encrusted them with glitter paint as well, which dried clear except for the flecks of glitter. They can really catch the light and shine!


Here they are on our, um, "mantel," which is not really a mantel, but which is old and brass and has been in our house since long before we lived here. Who knows how many Christmases this thing has seen??


This may be simplistic in terms of craftiness, just hanging out painting some pre-cut letters, but I like it!
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["Britney Spears - Oops!... I Did It Again" plays in the background]

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Happy December! This is the last post I have about my little Ever After/Monster High painting adventures!


Here's the regal Apple White; it's an official picture, not mine, so she looks pretty well-coiffed. I included it so you could see the plain crown in comparison with the repaint.


First I gave her crown some depth by painting bronze on the inside portions. Then my friend washed some very very light pearly white over the pearly bits -- anyway, I assume those bits are supposed to be pearls, but it's not like I'm intimately familiar with crowns. I didn't want to paint them straight-up pearly, so my friend just did a really thinned-down little coat to make them catch the light a little more and help exaggerate the difference between the golds.

I painted her little apple darker red, thinking ideally it would look like a ruby or something, then glazed over it with a shimmery red. It makes it stand out from the bright reds on the rest of her outfit, but it doesn't clash too badly. (Also, to give you an idea of the depth of cool and expertise of my friend's MLP-customizing girlfriend, she suggested sawing off the apple entirely and literally replacing it with a red jewel...!)


I did some painting on Apple's shoes as well. All you need to know is that they were solid red, aside from the gold straps with their gold bows. I added some gold paint to the leaf shape on the outside of the shoes, as well as the outside of the stems. (I didn't to the inside of the stems.) There are also beads, or studs more likely, along the sides of the straps, so they got dotted with gold paint, too, and now they stand out! Her heels have this interesting spiral shape happening... maybe it's a vine or something? I really don't know. But it was originally red and I painted it gold as well.

The bows on the straps, while already gold, got a couple of coats of the gold paint I was working with, and now they're more glimmery and light-catching. I don't think you would even notice this particular detail unless you had an unpainted Apple shoe literally right next to one of these. Then your eye would see that the bows are just a little brighter. It's really subtle but I can see the glint of gold from feet away as she stands on my shelf!

Thus ends my little series. I had so much fun repainting and fussing with tiny details with my doll friends! Seriously, it was one of the more enjoyable things I've done this entire year.
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