Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Plushies Galore!

I've gotten interested in plushie making recently, and it ALL started with the picture you find below. Aiwa is the talented crafter of these lovely plushies, and you should really visit her site if you would like to see some REALLY good plushies.


Now, other pictures that are currently inspiring my plushie making ventures.


^^Another one by Aiwa^^
I believe this ^^^^ is my next project....we will see. I did buy those eyes the other day though... :)
Look at this stitching on this ^^^^ OMG!!! I can only dream about stitching that neat......for now :)
^^ These are just too cute. I wonder how you would end up getting the edges browned like that......maybe you can lightly burn it? Any ideas on that???
This toast was made by someone I know personally who said that I inspired them to make these! Aren't they cute?!?! She used her own little spin on them and I think they are adorable! Sew Amore is the name of her blog, which you should really check out. She's got a really neat etsy shop of the same name, Sew Amore, where she sells beautiful, handcrafted jewelry!

Those are just some of the things that are currently inspiring me. I thought someone else out there might get inspired....or just love all the cuteness!! I'm always searching for pictures as inspiration so I may be posting more, this is a great way to save lots of ideas :)

♥kayla

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Columbia Wine and Food Festival Sip and Shop Event

Columbia Missouri holds a Wine and Food Festival every summer, and it involves all kinds of fun activities. I have never gone before since you have to pay to participate in any event, and I don't feel that is good use of my money, paying to shop... Anyway, our local Toyota dealership - the dealership I work at! - always sponsors it every year and they always end up decorating cars with Columbia Wine and Food Festival window decals and such. This year they decided to give some tickets for the Sip and Shop event downtown to a few lucky employees and I just so happened to get 2.....for free!! It would have been $25 a ticket, so thank goodness for Toyota :) With that free ticket we also got a ticket for free lunch at The Upper Crust! I had never been there before, but it is a pretty nice restaurant!

The Sip and Shop event is 6 hours of....well....sipping and shopping. Stores will offer discounts from 25% to 50% off items and certain shops gave away free items and had wine tasting. Twana and I started our day out perfectly!! We parked at Shakespeare's, then walked to The Upper Crust and ate, and began to make a big circle from there. We walked up Broadway and hit up every single shop that was involved in this event. We got some really cool free things, glasses of wine, and discounts on everything we bought! Then we hit ninth street walking past quaint little shops with musicians playing guitars, violins and even accordions! It was there where I think I have made my BEST PURCHASE EVER and found a new favorite! Makes Scents is an AMAZING store where you can make your own perfume, which I have been looking into for a while. I ended up making Juicy Couture perfume and Cupcake!!!!! Then we walked to Starbucks (I got a free coffee coupon for my birthday), got coffee, sat down to chat for a bit, then walked back to Shakespeare's and went home. It was an eventuful afternoon.

Everything I got today. The Wine Charms and the soap, in the 3 boxes in front the the gift bag, were all free.
 
These are adorable! I LOVE the grapes and the wine bottles! Best of all, they were FREE :) :)
Neither were free, but they are made of 95% recycled material! I got My 2 cents for my mother :) and the coffee one for me.....that may be my coffee fund purse (cause if it's Starbucks you're drinkin' it ain't cheap)!
One of the cutest purchases I made, cookie covers for your keys! They are SO cute! This marks the start of my fake food or 'Kawaii' accessories collection....yay! Perfect for my NEW house key!
This is my purchase from Makes Scents. Juicy Couture and Cupcake scents, normally $18.00, I paid $14.00.....sweet :) ......smelling!!! lol. I HAD to get the Juicy Couture though, it smells just like fresh Plumeria! Now THAT reminds me of Hawaii.....walking around downtown Waikiki heading to either shopping, food, or the beach......oh how scents take me back!!! It's amazing!

I was planning on taking my mother, but she couldn't get off work, and then I asked my sister and she ended up sleeping in lol, so I just went by myself and met my friend/coworker who also got free tickets, Twana. We had a blast! We got out there around 11:30 and I got home around 2:00, and I live 5 minutes from downtown :) The weather turned out really nice, with 70-80 degree weather the whole time!!! Lovely! Now it's starting to feel like summer!

I just HAD to post about this day because it has been awesome so far! Now, to go make a cake for a LOST party tomorrow (pictures to follow) and then go visit some friends. Busy, busy! Have a great weekend loves!

♥kayla

A Little Bit Of White To Go With My Wheat

                                                       
 As soon as I made my first toast and looked at Aiwa's picture of the toast that she made, I immediately realized that I had made Wheat Toast. I had decided then and there that I would soon create White bread to match up with the Wheat. This is what I ended up with. I sewed on the 'cheeks' but it just doesn't seem quite right to me. I'm pretty sure that I saw in the comments below the picture of her breakfast buddies that she used blush for their cheeks.....I think I may need to invest in blush.


I thought it wise to include a side by side picture of them since the first picture is more artistic than practical for viewing. I made the one on the right a keychain and the other is going to be a magnet, once I buy magnets.....and maybe a hot glue gun. he he. (Thank you Elizabeth from Sew Amore for the magnet idea!)

Goodnight loves

♥kayla

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Baby Shower Cake

I think I have found a go-to cake for events and parties.

In the very last cake decorating class that I had in Course 1 this is the cake that we made. Well, not THIS one, but the same design. I ended up going with this design because it was something that I was familiar with and didn't think I would stress myself out so much about it. I think it ended up rather well for doing it completely on my own.

Before I even started my cake decorating classes my mom asked me if I could help her with the cake for the baby shower she was throwing and I, or course, said no problem. After I had taken my first two courses I had somewhat of an idea as to what I wanted to do but nothing set in stone. After my last class I realized that the last cake was the one that I needed to make. 1 - The baby was going to be a girl and 2 - I knew it was something I could do. This eased a lot of stress on my part and made the decorating process even more fun since it was more like practice!


I know that this picture isn't the greatest, but I wanted to show off the roses I made beforehand. I was being very time-concious when making this cake. I made icing while the cake was baking, while it was cooling I made roses, once it was cool I torted and assembled and then decorated. All in all, it took me five hours to do all of that. Now that's dedication.

The cake was Double Chocolate Fudge, the filling was chocolate pudding, and the frosting was cream cheese frosting. Yummmm.

Hope this doesn't make you too hungry :)

♥kayla

Monday, May 17, 2010

Tested and Approved.

The Wilton Cake Lifter. I knew it would be an amazing purchase from the time I first laid eyes on it.

I really haven't had much of a problem lifting cake layer until lately. The cakes that I normally bake are all round cakes, and I've grown rather used to the shape, size, strength, and durability of the cake so I have no issues with that. My hand can - almost - cover the whole top of the cake, thus making it easier to lift and flip...or whatever. But in my last two cake decorating classes I had to bake 9 x 13 inch cakes, which required a little finesse on my part. In our first class we learned to torte (cutting a cake in half horizontally to make 2 layers) and ever since then all my cakes are like that. Well the 9 x 13 was no exception, but it was so much longer and not quite as durable and sturdy as the round cakes so it was a little more difficult. Here comes the finesse.....The first one I made I ended up having my fiancee help me out with the lifting, using 4 spatulas....and it worked, but I knew there had to be a better way. Then I remembered the cake lifter.


It was much easier to use than I would have imagined.
If the above picture doesn't convince you I took a picture of me lifting it higher above the carrying case.
I want to point out that I do end up leveling my cake....well, as much as I can with the way they bake in my janky oven. lol. 

So I ended up putting this thing to the ultimate test with one cake. I ended up moving the cake three times and it did not tear once from the lifter. It went in and came out from under the cake effortlessly and the rubber grip for the handle made it so much easier! I HIGHLY recommend this product to anyone who is a cake decorator or who is thinking about becoming one. I would also recommend the cake leveler, which you can see in the above pictures to the left of the cake. It makes the whole process of layering cakes as easy as brushing your teeth.....but without all that effort. :)

As mentioned in the title, the Wilton Cake Lifter has been......tested and approved. :D

♥kayla

Saturday, May 15, 2010

I ♥ Thrifting

Lately, I have been reading a lot of blogs that belong to some really crafty women. A lot of these crafty women seem to go thrifting fairly often. I don't know why, but I had not thought abought thrifting since moving to Columbia nine years ago. When I was younger my mom used to take my sister and I into our towns antique stores quite often and we spent plenty of time just browsing the aisles seeing what they had in store for us that time. We always took our time browsing both sides of every aisle from the bottom to as close up to the top as we could get. It is something that I remember fondly from my childhood, and it always reminds my of my mother and my sister since it's a pasttime we all enjoyed together.

So, since I have been reading all these crafty blogs and seen all the goodies they seem to get out of their thrifting trips I decided to go on an outing myself. I didn't want to go by myself and I thought that this would be a good chance to spend some quality time with my sister (and get her out of the house since her cars currently inoperable). I picked Megan up and we went thrifting.....although we only managed to shop at 2 places we got quite the load of goodies! The first store we visited was Salvation Army, which is where I got all the great stuff you see below....

I bought three of the fondue sets, they were supposed to be $5 a piece but I got them for $10. The books were .10 a piece, and I got these four plus The Divine Secrets of The Ya Ya Sisterhood, and another one which name escapes me now.....my sister has them. (My mother, sister, and I all like to buy and trade books.) I got the treats jar for $2 and the Mad Libs books for free. Good find!
We are going to be moving in two weeks and I'm going to be placing this "Treats" jar by our backdoor for our dogs. When they are good outside or are good and calm when I have to clean their paws they will get a treat. Plus, it's such a cute jar it will look cute almost anywhere as well as help train! lol.

After we were finished shopping around at the Salvation Army I decided that we should go check out The Marketplace. It was a good idea, but this place is huge and it's more of an antique shop than thrift store in my eyes. I did manage to find the movie Harley Davidson and The Marlboro Man - which my fiancee LOVES - and it was only $3 so I bought it. That was my only find from there. Oh well. That was the last of our shopping adventures as Megan (my sister) had to go home, but I'm sure there will be more thrifting with her from now on!

We also went shopping that Saturday (since it was the day before Mothers Day) so we could get moms present together. I already knew that I wanted to buy this frame for mom so I went to Michaels before I went to pick Megan up since Michaels (and my work) are all on the West side of town and Megan was on the East side. I ended up getting a bargain there as well!!

This frame was originally $14.99 and I got it for 40% off. The book boxes were originally $6.99 and I got those for 40% off as well. I brought in a 50% coupon in hopes of using it on the frame but I couldn't since it was already 40% off....so I searched for something to buy for 50% off. I've been eyeing the diamond paperweight for a while......originally it cost $9.99. I got it for $4.99. Sweet!


I was just SO excited about my finds that I had to share. I was hoping to go thrifting this weekend, but my checkbook defies me. I wanted to browse as well, but that might not have turned out well for me since I haven't made my debit card to where I can't overdraw......lol. So, I'm staying home and doing a little blogging....and since the weather is so crappy I have a feeling I will get quite a bit done. Now, I would like to work on creating a banner for myself....but what picture to choose? I'm thinking a mix-up of some of the cakes I've made and some the the plushies I've made.....we will see eventually. Maybe this amazing Windows 7 can help me out since it can help me with blog posts! hehe. Anyway, have a wonderful Saturday internetland.

♥kayla

Oh yes, I forgot to say what we got for mother. We ended up giving her the picture frame, setting a date to take pictures for the frame, the peace book box, and a fondue set. I like to think it was a good Mother's Day for her. I love making that woman happy!!! loves!


Thursday, May 6, 2010

More Plushies!

I have continued my venture into plushie making with the breakfast buddies. My toast seemed to be a hit with the people at work - I even got one of our service advisors to laugh out loud at it because he thought it was so cute! The next day I went ahead and started making the egg since I thought that might be the easiest, and this is what I got! I think that it turned out rather well, other than the one eye that's smaller than the other....he he. I'm still perfecting my sewing if you couldn't tell. It's a work in progress....

When I was making my toast Eli was, in the least, amused. I don't know if he thought I was strange for making them or if he just liked them, but when I was finished he would always look at them and laugh and say "How cute....". When I finished my second piece of toast for the night he told me I should make one for our friend Cody, who he works with. He told me that I should make a plushie of Cody's head, and he is a white boy with an afro......so here are the end results.

Cody thought it was funny. lol.

I went to Michael's to get some felt and I was hoping that they had a peach color, but they had every other color besides peach! :) I ended up buying Ivory and Pink. I figured I could use one or the other or both of them together, but the pink was too much and layering the two would be too thick. I decided to go with the Ivory, which you could see through slightly, and it turned out pretty well I say. This plushie, when looking at it from the side, is about a half inch thick. - I'm trying JoAnne's for felt next time thanks to the advice of Elizabeth from Sew Amore! -

I need to look up how to create a better looking stitch on my plushies, this just doesn't seem right. It seems like it could be straight up and down seams rather than slanted. I saw a link to a site called Sublime Stitching on A Beautiful Mess and this place has it all for needlepoint stitching! I have never really done it, and as of right now I don't intend on picking it up (although I did see a cool design for a zippered pouch with a pen and pencil stitching) it does offer a How-To section. Awesome!

I'm trying to draw out some good pictures of the coffee breakfast buddy so I can make one that somewhat compares to Aiwa's. I have some friends that said they would like some so I will try my hardest to get that done ASAP. Until then, happy wandering.

♥kayla

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Lenka

This video features an absolutely adorable singer from Australia, Lenka. I love this song! I had it stuck in my head for a couple of days, so I thought I would share and maybe get it stuck in some of your heads!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Yeah Toast!



I have created something truly delicious. Toast. he he. They're SO cute! I'm not going to lie, I got the idea from someone else. Aiwa, a wonderfully talented plushie maker, is the one who inspired me. I saw a link through How About Orange's blog. Here's the link to her tutorial to make a Plush Toast Keychain.

They were just too cute to pass up! I've never done a felt plushie - or any plushie for that matter - but this seemed simple enough, and adorable! If you looked at the link you will notice that her plushie is lighter than mine. Well, I didn't compare her pictures to my felt and just used what I thought would work. I think that it works great, but it looks like I have created wheat toast. lol. I do have white though, so I will have to use that and the lighter brown to make white bread.

I bought more colors because I saw another picture of some Breakfast Plushies she has made. I would really like to try them out. I got enough colors to make the toast, egg, coffee, and pancake. I can possibly make the milk, although I don't have any blue felt. We will see what I can accomplish. I showed these plushie pictures to some friends and they've all seemed to really like the coffee cup. I was rather fond of it myself.

Another cute plushie idea would be this cute Cubed Series of animals. I saw the link to the Cubed Bunny Tutorial at How About Orange (in the same post as the toast plushie, see link above). I think that I will try to finish what breakfast plushies I would like to make and then we will see if I will attempt to make any more.

I bought this really cute little case as my beginner sewing kit, since I'm not sure how big I will be into it. It was just $3.99 at Michaels, not too bad.

This kit has served me well for my first project anyway. I may need to buy a few more colors of thread, like bright yellow for the egg and pancake (butter). I do have light yellow but we will see how that works out. I'm sure I'll be posting more pictures soon since this seems to be addicting!

All credit needs to be given to Aiwa for the idea. I did make the plushies but she was the genius behind it. Please visit her website by clicking on her name above ^^.